Coates justifies the need for their white paper manual to improve business resources

The heightened demand for heavy industry products has instigated Coates Industrial Solutions from Australia to release a white paper on how companies might address the resource question, keeping safety and performance in mind during planned shutdowns and maintenance events.

During the above mentioned period, businesses certainly go through a few open challenges but first, there is the need to improve operational efficiencies and site safety with fewer resources and a broader skills gap. 

The Covid pandemic adds to the situation making it one of the toughest times in the history of mankind. 

After examining these pain points, the white paper titled, ‘Mining for efficiency in the heavy industry’ serves businesses with data on how to address them. The prime advocacy consists of:

· Experienced end-to-end partner must be affianced for a better purview in planning maintenance events

· Asset management technology must be in grasp to better organise tools, equipment and consumables

· Data from smart technologies must be utilised to improve functional discourse and worker efficiency 

· Drone technology must be accepted for faster, secure and cost-effective asset inspections and maintenance planning

"Periodic maintenance shutdowns are risky and expensive undertakings at the best of times, let alone with the added challenges brought by the pandemic."

Jeff Allen, the National Manager of Coates Industrial Solutions commented, "By releasing this white paper, we want to support companies with practical solutions to the challenges they face and share our learnings from more than 135 years of experience in the heavy industry space.” 

The heavy industry belt in Australia accounts for 9% of its economy. The sector earns an additional 21% of GDP by processing minerals to produce materials like aluminium, iron, and cement which are very essential for the country’s growth and infrastructure. 

With record commodity prices in 2020-2021 and a healthy chain of foundational projects, heavy industries are required to achieve productivity targets vigorously. They would not be spared both during usual operations and when the assets are offline for scheduled upkeep.

Jeff remarks that this resource challenge is not unique or new rather it adapts to the prevailing circumstances which are now of course war and pandemic. 

“When COVID restrictions ease, the constraints on personnel will be even higher because maintenance that has been postponed during the pandemic will need to be performed."

“Heavy industry businesses have an opportunity to improve planning and execution by mining the efficiencies that result from digital connectivity and reporting, such as more effective use of equipment and tooling," he added.

Most importantly, while dealing with resource shortages, industrial business needs to make sure all the safety standards and regulations are being strictly followed. 

“The question is, how do you ensure you are achieving safety compliance while trying to save on costs and inefficiencies elsewhere if you have a deficiency on the resource front?” Jeff demands to know.

Companies usually tend to depend on multiple maintenance and equipment service providers to help bridge the resources gap. "However, the contractor model has its limitations, and ironically, can create even more inefficiencies when several vendors are contracted to a site," said Jeff.

Heavy industries are always under the pressure of completing jobs with hired resources and the fear of disorganisation, like losing tools and finding damaged equipment during production. To prevent everything, businesses must commit to eradicating poor inventory management and equipment wastage. 

Evaluations performed by the white paper helped shutdown Newcrest Mining's Lihir gold mine in Papua New Guinea and Energy, Australia's Mount Piper power station in New South Wales. 

Newcrest achieved less than 1 per cent tool loss by using Coates' proprietary asset management solution for hired and customer-owned tools, equipment and consumables. On the other hand, Energy Australia bragged an 80% refinement in tool time efficiency.

 “As a single-source provider, Coates goes beyond the supply of equipment, tooling and consumables. We're specialists in the industrial solutions space, so we apply our experience and capabilities to the scope and plan out a customised solution for each customer based on data, insights and the lessons we’ve learned from a multitude of clients across the industry” Jeff ended his interview.