GroundHog Install at Underground Gold Mine in Ontario, Canada

Deployment Model for Site: Underground FMS

Site Information

GroundHog Deployed the OpsCenter for Shift Planning and End of Shift Reporting and the Fleet Management System Operator and Supervisor app at a Gold Mine in Ontario, Canada. 

Pre-GroundHog Set-Up

The site distributed shift cards with tasks on them to operators at the beginning of the shift. Operators recorded data on paper, and supervisors maintained shift logs in Excel.

Operators tracked the information below:

• Trip Counts (source –> destination)
• Trip start time, Trip end time
• Pre and Post – Engine Hours (SMU Hours)
• Shovel logs
• Drill logs
• Pre-start inspections

Implementation

PILOT: The site initially started with a FMS app on a few tablets in scoops and the Ops Center. 

Data collected for the initial setup included:

1. List of Names and Roles
2. List of Locations
3. List of Equipment IDs
4. The sequence of activities in the shift

The aim was to enable the data to be transmitted directly from the tablets to the Ops Center with minimal involvement from dispatchers. 

With GroundHog, the process changed as below:

1. Engineers and supervisors plan shifts in the Ops Center with manual drag and drop on the Gantt Chart.
2. Supervisors allocate tasks and run lineouts in the Ops Center or Supervisor App.
3. Operators get notifications of tasks on their tablets/phones.
4. Operators capture data on phones/tablets
5. Supervisors and Dispatchers clean data and run shift reports.

Production Go-Live:

After the pilot phase, the GroundHog team helped with the phased rollout to Production. 

FMS Operator App rolled out in stages – 

Phase 1: Android Tablets with the FMS app installed in trucks and scoops. 

Phase 2: Android Tablets with FMS app installed in long hole drills

Phase 3: Android phones with the FMS app and supervisor implemented for other operators and supervisors.

Subsequent enhancements and rollouts.

• Customized End of Shift Reports (EOSR) and End of Day Reports (EODR). 
• Enabled the ability to add pre-shift safety notes by supervisors
• Enabled drill workflow tracking, i.e., importing drill plan with the below data:
  • Ring and Hole data
  • Dip Angle
  • Length of hole
  • of rods
  • Breakthrough
  • Design length
  • Hole Diameter
  • Hole Type
  • Actual Length
  • Hole Status (Started, Not Started, Done) with sheets
  • Images

Support

The GroundHog team started with weekly calls with sales and support teams during initial production rollouts and ultimately transitioned to a bi-weekly customer success call.