The VisionLink Productivity platform from Caterpillar aims to ramp up quarry production by eliminating inefficiencies.
As a quarry manager or owner, it may seem overwhelming to oversee everything that happens on the site.
They prioritise increasing material output and monitoring machinery to improve productivity and prevent downtime. However, the limited workforce means the challenges lie in managing these tasks effectively throughout the workday.
Caterpillar has created a solution to address these concerns and give quarry workers an accurate picture of what happens across their site.
VisionLink Productivity is a cloud-based platform that enables workers to see critical business insights, spot inefficiencies, and turn accurate information into ways to improve production and safety.
While workers can gather a wealth of data on the machine’s health, production levels, fuel burn, and idle time, VisionLink Productivity consolidates it all. It can be scaled across multiple quarry sites.
For businesses with multiple quarry sites, which run bigger operations with multiple fleets and job sites, seeing how an individual machine performs against the rest of the organisation is imperative to making informed decisions.
Using the VisionLink Productivity platform, managers can drill down into the data while getting a high-level overview of the operation.
“It allows your people to get a high-level overview of your operation and drill down to find the detailed information that you need to make the right business decisions,” a Caterpillar spokesperson said.
“VisionLink Productivity gives the decision maker an accurate picture of their operation and providing them with opportunities to implement change and make improvements to machine utilisation and operational efficiency.”
Quarry operations involve a lot of work, including extraction, processing, and transporting the material. Managers need to understand how long specific functions take, including empty and load times, site travel times, and dig and wait times, which are fundamental to getting the most production out of the quarry.
Caterpillar’s cloud-based platform tracks all of these measures and enables managers to spot inefficiencies, failures and bottlenecks on site from which they can produce better processes.
In one example, if a manager could track machine movement and see how long each machine spent in each part of the cycle, they could slow down machines in the return phase. This would reduce excessive wait times and needless fuel consumption.
“Being able to include your operators in this review, with powerful visuals including maps and graphs, allows you to work together to identify inefficiencies and find solutions,” a Caterpillar spokesperson said.
“Discussions like these – based on hard data – strengthen partnerships with operators. It facilitates objective, informed conversations that promote solid operator buy-in.”
The benefits of a productivity system like Caterpillar’s VisionLink Productivity System extend beyond the immediate worksite and into administration.
By using VisionLink, managers can use real-time and accurate data to build better, more competitive bids. By using previous projects and machine data, managers can put together their bids with confidence rather than guesswork.
Managers can use Caterpillar’s system to build cost dashboards that show vital cost impacts and the actual cost of moving material in real time. The managers can see at a glance what the operational cost-per-hour and payload are and use this information to inform their bids and decisions.
Project managers can also use VisionLink Productivity to monitor and assess projects in real-time to ensure they are on track compared to their deadlines.
“Implementing a production management system like VisionLink Productivity can open up new opportunities to get more from your operation every day,” Caterpillar said.
“VisionLink Productivity for quarries brings essential facts and figures to your fingertips. Even the slightest adjustments in machine positioning can add up to big savings in operating costs and cycle time.”
Caterpillar will be at the IQA 2024 National Conference in Adelaide from October 15–17 where its team can talk about its VisionLink Productivity services. •
For more information, visit cat.com