A renowned African Gold Mine uncovers potential savings of $1M with Zoho Creator

The company

This case study is about a large-scale gold mining organization in Africa with operations spanning for more than 30 years. The mine encompasses an established underground mine, an open pit, underground reserves, and several smaller satellite pits.

The process

The gold mining process at the respected company follows a multistage approach, similar to most mining operations. The process begins with the extraction of valuable ore from the pit using controlled blasting techniques. Specialized vehicles then transport the ore to the processing plant, where it undergoes a series of transformations to extract the gold.

Throughout these stages, continuous maintenance and a reliable supply chain for spare parts are crucial to ensure smooth operations and prevent costly production stoppages.

This is where the ANSI (Authorization for Stocking Inventory) request process plays a vital role. These requests initiate the procurement of essential spare parts and equipment needed for ongoing operations.

Here's a breakdown of the process:

• Initiating request: Maintenance teams identify a needed spare part (for example, a bolt or nut) and initiate a request for purchase through a paper form.
• Request details: The form requires detailed information about the item, including description, part number, manufacturer, supplier, quantity required, estimated price, and the like.
• Cataloging and approval: The completed form is submitted to a cataloger who assigns a unique stock code to the item. Buyers then create a formal purchase request (PR) based on the approved form. This PR undergoes an approval process before conversion into a purchase order (PO).
• Purchase and delivery: The approved PO is sent to the chosen supplier for shipment of the parts.
• Receiving and availability: Upon receiving the parts in the warehouse, a receiving process verifies and documents the delivery. The parts are then added to the inventory system and become available for maintenance use.

The challenge

ANSI requests at the company were rather cumbersome given they were done manually. Information was recorded on paper forms or in Excel or Word documents, leading to several issues.

Duplicate inventory: The manual process was prone to errors, leading to duplicate requests for the same item. For example, years back, a $275,000 crusher was ordered twice due to duplicate entries. Implementing a digital system could have prevented such costly duplication, potentially saving the company millions of dollars.

Delayed approvals: Manual processing meant physically moving paper forms from desk to desk for approvals. Up to six levels of management, from superintendents to the managing director, had to physically sign off on each paper request. This created lengthy delays in getting parts, potentially impacting production schedules.

Missing requests: The paper-based system presented a significant risk of critical requests becoming misplaced during the lengthy approval process. This led to production stoppages due to missing parts, costing the company significant sums. The cost per hour of production stoppage was estimated at $50,000.

The solution

To address these issues, the company started to look for a digital solution. Prebuilt solutions rarely addressed the specific needs of the mining industry. However, developing custom mining software was equally challenging due to the industry's niche nature. The company even attempted using an SQL Server with an HTML interface, but it lacked the capability to generate graphical reports for KPIs.

This is where Zoho Creator came into place. Creator stood out, particularly due to its easy-to-use interface, personalized dashboards, workflow capabilities, and price point.

Zoho Creator revolutionizes the ANSI process. It streamlines both initiating part requests and cataloging new warehouse items. It also automates workflows, eliminating the need for physical meetings during approvals. This not only reduces approval times but also ensures requests aren't misplaced in the process.

Benefits and ROI

The company shows the potential for software like Zoho Creator to improve efficiency in hardware-focused industries. While specific areas like geological modeling rely on technology, software adoption is still lagging, and can significantly benefit the mining industry.

Looking forward

The company plans on extending Zoho Creator to build apps for HR and other departments to eliminate paperwork for approvals and communication. Currently, they have a paper-based system with manual calculations using spreadsheets, which isn't the most efficient one. Digitizing leave management for over 3,000 employees would streamline this process.

It also plans on adding more functionalities to the ANSI database in a two-phase development. One is to develop advanced reporting capabilities using KPIs. Another is to implement an intelligent inventory system; a feature that calculates a recommended inventory level based on a percentage of the equipment's capital cost. For example, a $10,000 pump might have a suggested inventory holding of 10% ($1,000). Creator would trigger alerts when requests exceed this limit, preventing excessive spare part stockpiling.

The company has seen positive results with Zoho Creator, and they're excited to continue leveraging its capabilities to optimize their operations.