In the fast-paced realm of mining, where demand, supply, and pricing often lie beyond a company's control, effective planning becomes paramount. The ability to anticipate market shifts, optimize resource allocation, and streamline operations can make all the difference in maintaining a competitive edge.
Enter Anaplan, a comprehensive planning platform transforming the way mining companies approach their planning processes. We offer a centralized solution where all relevant planning data is modeled, providing a single source of truth for decision-making. Let's delve into how Anaplan addresses key challenges across various facets of mining operations.
Customer demand-supply planning
Challenge: Manual calculation of production capacity based on yearly orders. As revenue is heavily reliant on production capacity, failing to change this process may result in loss of revenue, as you will be unable to adjust production capacity as needed.
Solution: Anaplan provides a collaborative platform for planning demand versus available supply, facilitating better alignment between customer needs and production capabilities.
Fleet capacity planning
Challenge: Managing fleet capacity while considering equipment availability and downtime. This could result in a missed opportunity to maximize production based on the most optimum combination of fleets, resulting in unnecessary spend on maintenance, new CapEx investments, and more.
Solution: Anaplan enables granular planning at the equipment level, automating decisions regarding equipment replacement or repair and optimising fleet utilization.
Maintenance planning
Challenge: Manual tracking of maintenance activities and dependency on spare parts availability. The risks of continuing to plan this way is that you are unable to maximize the use of asset life; slow to non-moving inventory of spare parts piling up due to delay in arrival; and, missed opportunities to collaborate with supply chain management, procurement, and productions team to maximize production output.
Solution: Anaplan offers visibility into supplier capacities, facilitates predictive maintenance scheduling, and helps in cost calculation, leading to reduced downtime and extended asset lifespans.
Production planning
Challenge: Manual production scheduling and lack of scenario planning capabilities. This represents a missed opportunity to maximize the fleet pairing capacity, resulting in overspending on spare parts, CapEx investment, and delays in equipment or spare part arrivals — leaving revenue on the table.
Solution: Anaplan allows for scenario planning on a single platform, automating allocation priorities and providing detailed insights to support production performance analysis.
CapEx and OpEx planning
Challenge: Manual CapEx approvals without key justifications and siloed OpEx planning. This results in missed opportunities to align procurement, maintenance, HR, and production teams, which in turn results in potential CapEx de-prioritization, production loss, delays in equipment and spare part arrival, and under- or over-supply of human resources needed for equipment operations.
Solution: Anaplan automates business case creation, connects OpEx with headcount plans, and improves cross-functional alignment, enabling better-informed decision-making and operational efficiency.
Workforce planning
Challenge: A limited pool of available skilled mining resources and graduates requires a delicate balance between when and how many to hire, train, certify, and retain within each site throughout the year to meet a fluctuating demand. Failing to do so results in either shortage of available skilled resources or additional costs for overtime and outsourcing to external contractors.
Solution: Each part of the business is interconnected in nature, requiring a consistent flow of data to optimize the operation plan. Knowing when to increase production capacity, the operational equipment needed to support that, and the maintenance activities to be carried out to enable that has a direct impact toward the related workforce plan. Every organization should have the simulation capabilities to understand the impact of different scenarios toward the overall business and how to mitigate risks. A connected approach to planning enables you to evaluate and assess impacts on CapEx (housing needed, heavy equipment operational, etc.) and OpEx (site travel, uniforms, safety equipment, daily meals, etc.) needed for these resources.
Anaplan emerges as a game-changer for the mining industry, offering synchronized planning across the entire value chain. From exploration to decommissioning, Anaplan provides real-time visibility, protects against disruptions, and offers insights for continuous improvement.
By embracing Anaplan, mining companies can unlock their full potential, driving efficiency, resilience, and profitability in an ever-evolving market landscape. Take the first step toward transformative planning by scheduling a demo with Anaplan today.
