Safer, faster and more accurate inventory management maximizes revenue and improves data integrity, so if you’re not already using drone technology on your sites, we’re about to show you 3 ways drone data improves your business and helps you make better decisions.
Aggregates and mining sites are complex structures composed of many moving parts. If any one part of a system were to be knocked out of alignment, it could ripple across the entire business and result in significant financial loss. To avoid this, business leaders need to seek out new technologies to help them identify flawed processes or potential problems before they occur.
Drone technology, which is well suited to dynamically changing and dangerous environments, is proving to be the most valuable tool available today.
#1 Strengthen Inventory Data Accuracy & Reliability
The quality and accuracy of inventory data can make or break a P&L. When it comes to assessing credible and accurate volume calculations, the type of equipment and method of data processing will have significant impact. Yet, most aggregates and mining companies rely on traditional surveying methods like walking around a site to take manual measurements. These methods have been proven to deliver limited accuracy, accounting for only 75-85% of the true pile volume. This gap in true inventory knowledge opens companies up to financial risk.
Traditional methods just aren’t keeping up with today’s business. The Kespry solution uses the highest grade industrial sensors and proprietary, purpose-driven algorithms to measure piles within 97-99% accuracy of the true volume.
#2 Increase Frequency & Consumption
To make intelligent business decisions, aggregates and mining companies need more than just accurate data – they need access to timely, consistent data in order to identify trends and observe larger patterns. Limited datasets provide a limited view, making operational and financial decisions a challenge. Cumbersome survey systems that need specialized training or a lot of time to use only contribute to the problem by encouraging fewer inventory cycles. This in turn provides management with only small snapshots in time, leaving businesses without the insights they need most.
By comparison, the Kespry system can be deployed on-demand, up to six times faster than traditional survey methods. Quick and easy to use, it encourages more frequent and regular data capture, at a more granular level. It allows you to eliminate missed revenue opportunities, improve customer relationships through properly filled orders and improve dataset consistency for better identification of inventory issues.
#3 Improve Worker Safety
Employees are the most valuable and important asset of any company, but the reality of the aggregates and mining industry is that it can be dangerous. It requires operating heavy equipment at high speeds to stockpile or move overburden and source materials. Manual surveys done on or near active traffic areas and hazards such as high walls can also pose great physical risk to the workers taking the measurements.
Kespry allows businesses to better protect their workers by using a completely autonomous system to collect high-resolution imagery from safely above active operation sites. With drone technology you can:
- Decrease insurance premiums by reducing on-site foot traffic
- Improve traffic routes, optimize haul roads and stockpile locations and efficiently plan emergency egress routes
- Reduce liabilities by identifying hazardous areas before they become a problem
“I think that’s the nature of our business – always trying to find the cutting-edge, to lower our cost at all times, and we want to do it in a safe manner. Kespry gives us an advantage so we can keep a control of our inventories.“
— Murray Kline, VP of Operations at APAC Centra, Oldcastle
Inventory management in the aggregates and mining sector is a complex process impacted by multiple factors, and businesses face ongoing challenges to accurately assess production levels against forecast models. Traditional annual or quarterly surveys use unsafe manual data collection and result in inaccurate, limited results that can skew analysis of how a company is actually performing.
Kespry’s innovative end-to-end drone solution allows mining and aggregates companies to collect accurate inventory data much more frequently and to do so safely, without putting workers at risk. The technology is backed by personalized support from industry experts. Businesses have realized game-changing results: they are maximizing profits while minimizing loss and risk, and ultimately are able to make more strategic business decisions.
This report was generated based on the positive experience of over 250 customers who map 1500+ acres each day using Kespry’s solutions.
If you’d like to download this guide, you can find it here! We’d also suggest checking out this webinar on increasing productivity and profitability for mine operations.
