Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
BRISBANE, Australia (September 5, 2013) – RungePincockMinarco (RPM) has officially launched XACT for Enterprise, a fully integrated Operational Productivity Management (OPM) enterprise software solution. XACT for Enterprise augments enterprise resource planning systems, such as SAP, with production plans, maintenance schedules and actual operational data. The ability to compare actual against planned movements creates a truly unique, integrated planning and execution environment.
At the launch, RPM CEO Richard Mathews said, “Productivity is now the paramount focus of the industry – as mines become deeper, grades lower and operations become more complex.”
“Our clients tell us that this focus on day-to-day productivity requires not just robust planning, but a solution that helps them rapidly reflect operational changes in the daily or weekly plan. This enables production targets to be met with less overall production variability.
“More importantly, our clients want to collaboratively plan the mine, and mine the plan. To do this you need an integrated planning and execution environment which to date hasn’t existed for them.
“In response, we built XACT for Enterprise which is designed to give mines a new level of agility in their short-term mine planning. The industry now has the ability to respond.”
Mr. Mathews went on to explain that enterprise-wide visibility of production goals has been difficult to achieve in the past.
“Disparate planning systems have encouraged an independent approach and created operational silos. XACT for Enterprise ensures a standardised data flow throughout the organisation, breaking down these silos and encouraging a collaborative planning approach.”
“The integration of targets, actuals, maintenance events and production schedules with SAP enables planners from each department to better align their activities and ensure they collaboratively reach their operational goals. Conflicts can now be found and resolved when the plan is being created, not when it’s being executed. “
Mr. Mathews continued saying, “Another benefit is that XACT for Enterprise utilises standard SAP production management to connect the mine plan with production execution solutions such as fleet management systems.”
“Mines will now be able to directly instruct production and retrieve actual mining progress data. This enables plan versus actuals comparison at a machine level, at any planning horizon – shift-by-shift, day-by-day.”
“For mines with SAP, XACT for Enterprise represents a logical productivity extension into operations.”
“XACT for Enterprise delivers true integrated planning and execution, closing the gap between planning, production and maintenance.”
XACT for Enterprise is RPM’s second enterprise software solution, following on from the launch of XERAS for Enterprise in May.
