Quarry, mining and mineral processing plants rely on the efficiency of processes to maintain productivity and stay under budget. While there is a great deal project managers can do to lower time and resource wastefulness, such as by implementing smarter procedures and only employing highly trained professionals, one of the primary factors that will impact a quarry or mine’s ability to deliver on time and on budget is the design of its material handling systems.
When flexibility is priority
A custom-designed plant, material handling system, or custom conveyor system are essential if you find your objectives to be unique in some way that a traditional setup can’t accommodate.
Some plants handle more than one type of material or aggregate, or their projects cover a wider range than normal, so plant flow and site layout are going to require special attention. Moreover, you’ll probably need to make modifications to some of the material handling equipment you use to meet your project’s needs. Even a simple project might require something custom to ensure you can meet your deadlines on time.
Modular equipment and customized machinery are the staples of a flexible operation. When you need something done to certain specifications or run-of-the-mill equipment just isn’t cutting it, you can expect a vast improvement in operational efficiency by adopting something that was built to spec just for you.
When the equipment and site flow are aligned
A good project manager knows how important proper site or plant flow is to daily efficiency and meeting goals, so having the right equipment to support their specific processes and flow design is crucial to the operation’s overall success. When you can customize material handling equipment to address your quarry or mine’s unique demands, you’re actively enhancing the site flow.
Perhaps your operation requires something portable. That’s something you’ll have to take into account when selecting your equipment, or else you’ll wind up with an inefficient setup that ignores the essentials of workflow, costing you time, money, and project efficiency. After all, there’s little point in wracking your brain over plant flow when you don’t ensure the equipment matches up with your needs and goals.
When you’re striving for an integrated system
Integrated material handling systems can deliver a smoother operation all around. When you have a mix of manual, semi-automated, and fully automated systems, it’s important to make sure that those processes and pieces of equipment run complementary to one another and are in sync. A truly integrated system will strive for coordination, cohesion, and connectivity—and these are all benefits you can achieve through a custom design or build for your plant or project.
Supporting every part of the production cycle can be intensive, but it’s achievable when you take the time to design something tailor-made to the job at hand.
How a custom design benefits you overall
By now, you should at least have an idea of why custom plant and project builds are worthwhile. To understand how a customized plant system or site build benefits you, realize that through customization, you’re improving almost every aspect of the production cycle. This means, in the long run…
- You’ll be improving the customer service aspect of your business
- You’ll be cutting down on waste
- The overall handling costs (transportation, manufacturing, refining, etc.) will be lower
- Your process will be more streamlined
- You’ll be able to facilitate product control with the help of management and monitoring systems
Any supervisor or site operator can purchase equipment and set it up. Without cohesion between site flow and your equipment, coordination between segments of the production cycle, and connectivity (real-time monitoring, inventory management, etc.), you won’t be running as efficiently as you could be.
Investing in the development of a custom build or design for your quarry, mine or mineral processing plant can be the difference between running on time and on budget or not. Of course, this may vary depending on the nature and size of your project and any budgetary constraints. But if you want to see results and improvements to how efficiently your operation can run, then consider a build that’s been engineered to meet the demands of your job so you have something to make your business stand apart from the competition.
