System’s rollout produces positive results at Red Dog Operations and creates aligned approach to fleet management.
One Teck is about working together and aligning processes, standards and systems across all operations, with the goal of becoming as effective and efficient as possible. The successful expansion of the Wenco Fleet Management system is a great example of the results that this approach can bring.
Wenco first came into use at Elkview Operations in 2008 and expanded to other sites thereafter. The real-time monitoring system allows operators to see where equipment is at any given time, and to determine what material they may be loading and hauling and the tonnes associated with each load. In the offices of geologists, engineers, mine shifters and foremen, the system provides onscreen maps and diagrams, displaying real-time locations of equipment, dig locations and drill patterns. It also gives operations the ability to accurately monitor production fleet downtime, as well as track maintenance types and hours spent inoperable, enabling operations to better address fleet reliability needs.
Wenco’s MineVison program provides a virtual map of mine and equipment locations, and the fleet control dispatch program manages.
The rollout of the system in 2015 at Red Dog, Teck’s last operation to adopt Wenco, took just over six months. It was a collaborative effort that impacted many functions and departments, including mine technical, mine operations, communications, internal systems and the heavy equipment shop. In order to make the system fully operational, it required operator training, software Installation, technical staff training, equipment hardware installation and configuration, and the acquisition of a new Wi-Fi system.
Once fully installed, Red Dog began to see immediate benefits, including improved maintenance tracking, haul truck tonnage accuracy, loading location accuracy, loader efficiency, stockpile tonnes and grade prediction, and optimized equipment use and crew efficiency. Since the system has been up and running, Red Dog has realized nearly $2 million in savings as a result of payload improvements alone.
Congratulations to all those involved in implementing Wenco at Red Dog, and on helping bring a One Teck approach to a critical area of our operations.
