Eliminating inefficiencies

Bis Industries (Underground Division) is a leading provider of underground equipment services, supplying critical mining equipment to the resources industry. As part of the company’s equipment hire service, each piece of equipment must go through a pre- and post-hire inspection. The results are then used to create a scope of work for any necessary repairs and on-charging to the customer if required.

In the past, Bis Industries personnel had to manually input inspection results into a spreadsheet, upload photos taken during the assessment and then email this information to an external workshop. The workshop then analysed the information, priced the job accordingly and waited for approval from Bis Industries before commencing any required repair works on the asset.

Gathering information using these paper-based manual processes took time and significantly slowed the repair and accounting processes, in some cases meaning that damage charges were not invoiced for up to three months.

Without a central database detailing asset maintenance history and other information, Bis personnel, their workshops and their customers had limited visibility into the current condition of assets, as well as information on the scope of work for repairs. It also delayed the resolution process and, in some cases, meant that customers had refused to pay for repairs to fix damages incurred while the equipment was on their site.

Bis Industries recognised these inefficiencies and decided to digitise its paper-based field service operations using DSI Global’s Digital Supply Chain Platform (DSCP).

DSCP allows users to quickly design mobile apps via a rapid application development platform, featuring a drag-and-drop interface with re-usable components.

Bis Industries built a mobile app to integrate with the back-end system, Oracle JD Edwards, that facilitated creation of a scope of work, which could be used to garner customer sign-off on required repairs at the time of inspection.

Deployed on ruggedised tablets, the app allows inspectors to apply Take-5 safety assessments, manage checklists, add photos and transmit in real time to the back-end system. Crucially in the case of Bis Industries, the app works 100% in offline mode for underground inspections and syncs seamlessly once above ground in connected mode.

During the post-hire inspection, the user can see all pre-hire condition details and images within the app. This allows the user to easily ascertain if the equipment has been damaged since it went to the customer site.

If the post-hire inspection is completed on-site, any incurred damage can be quickly identified and the customer can sign off immediately, minimising repair claim resolution issues.

The DSI mobile app has delivered many benefits to Bis Industries. Since deployment, manual processing and double-handling has been eliminated and the time to prepare a scope of work has been drastically reduced. Claim resolution and invoicing turnaround has been improved, ensuring that repairs are charged out as required and avoiding costly accounting disputes. Asset management and utilisation has been streamlined through the reduction of lead times to move equipment through workshops and back out to hire.

The information from the DSI app is shared with Bis Industries mechanics, as well as suppliers and customers. Through the automation of previously manual processes, personnel are now able to concentrate on resolving mechanical issues, rather than sitting in front of a computer, delivering efficiencies and cost savings across the board.