Mining & Minerals Processing: Extract Maximum Value from Your Supply Chain

Identify the most profitable route from the mine to the customer by optimizing the entire value chain without giving up on sustainability.

What our customers say about us

“The collaboration has empowered us to streamline planning processes and make fast, data-driven decisions.”

— Jonathan Haynes

Asset Manager, Glencore

READ THE GLENCORE STORY

Redefine your operational resilience

You’re on the precipice of a radical shift in how you operate. Forces beyond your control could have a damaging impact on your supply chain unless you take action. It’s time to redefine your operational resilience.

The challenge

Metals and minerals organizations are grappling with unprecedented pressure, from market volatility and rising energy costs, to the need to minimize environmental impact.

Success hinges on making the best decisions across your value chain to drive efficient, future-ready operations. It’s more than just balancing operational and financial goals; environmental objectives are equally important. Sustainable optimization is the solution to successfully juggling this new trinity at all levels – planning, organization, and ecosystem.

Your planning teams can dynamically manage unpredictable blips in their plans when external or internal disruptions occur. With real-time data and the ability to model alternate scenarios, they are empowered to consistently deliver the most optimal plans.

Let’s explore some of your planning challenges.

  • Situation
    Planning teams at different mining/blending/processing sites operate independently to manage the complexity, each creating their own plans.
  • Complication
    The use of spreadsheets means each team is working on different, often outdated information. Changes in every plan compound inefficiencies, especially during times of disruption.
  • Question
    How can you integrate planning to ensure all teams collaborate towards the same goals?
  • Answer
    A solution that unifies data and provides a single source of truth for all stakeholders – planning, execution, procurement, and ESG. Now, everyone works towards the same goals and can see the impact of any changes across the entire value chain.
  • Situation
    Extracted raw materials are not homogenous or predictable. The quality and grade directly impact what you can produce and whether you can meet demand.
  • Complication
    Stocking points have products that do not yet have a buyer, resulting in higher inventory costs and lower profits. To meet existing demand, you may need to blend or transport products.
  • Question
    How do you effectively balance demand-pull and supply-push to smoothe capacity, minimize costs, and maximize profit?
  • Answer
    With complete visibility of the entire value chain from the mine to the customer, you can compare multiple scenarios to find the optimal plan to meet demand, considering inventory, ports, blending facilities, processing plants, and transportation.
  • Situation
    Your planners have many constraints to consider to find a feasible plan – mineral/metal properties, blending and refining processes, storage, and logistics.
  • Complication
    Disruptions, increasing legislation, and additional constraints are being added to the mix. With so much on their plate, planners settle on a ‘workable’ plan instead of an optimal one due to their current toolset.
  • Question
    How can you capture and evaluate all supply, production, storage, and logistics constraints to make the optimal plan?
  • Answer
    An integrated planning solution automatically considers your business-specific rules and constraints, empowering your planners to find the optimal plan, not just a feasible one.
  • Situation
    Depending upon the mineral/metal, you might have to mix products in blending facilities, combine them in transportation, or place them in smelters. The final product may also involve some form of processing or refining.
  • Complication
    Due to limited supply chain visibility, it can be difficult to calculate how long blendable stock can support production, how to consume products, or how to refine products, leading to suboptimal plans and reduced profitability.
  • Question
    How can you ensure high-quality product standards by optimizing blending and refining processes?
  • Answer
    Having a solution that manages your constraints and has an optimizer algorithm within it helps you make better decisions. It tells you how to optimize blends in facilities or transit and/or combine different materials in production/processing.
  • Situation
    Increasing disruption, global conflicts, and lower-grade raw materials are some of the challenges that prevent your planning and executing teams from delivering on their ideal plans.
  • Complication
    Balancing all the constraints with a higher frequency of disruptions while still planning locally for a global supply chain makes your planner’s job incredibly complex.
  • Question
    How can you make the best plan in limited time despite facing increasing disruptions and constraints?
  • Answer
    Give your planners end-to-end visibility and the ability to compare multiple scenarios. This empowers them to see how their decisions impact organizational-level KPIs, enabling them to always deliver the best plan – no matter the disruption.
  • Situation
    Organizations are increasingly under pressure to run their operations sustainably. This means improved end-to-end efficiency, reduced waste, and optimal utilization of byproducts.
  • Complication
    Your current tools cannot accommodate sustainability parameters (or have limited functionality). As a result, your planners cannot see the real impact of their choices on overall company SDGs.
  • Question
    How can you find the most optimal path to profitability while adhering to sustainability requirements?
  • Answer
    The planning team needs a virtual twin of your value chain. This ensures that every decision you make is the optimal one, balancing all of your organizational goals – operational, financial, and environmental.
Siloed Planning
  • Situation
    Planning teams at different mining/blending/processing sites operate independently to manage the complexity, each creating their own plans.
  • Complication
    The use of spreadsheets means each team is working on different, often outdated information. Changes in every plan compound inefficiencies, especially during times of disruption.
  • Question
    How can you integrate planning to ensure all teams collaborate towards the same goals?
  • Answer
    A solution that unifies data and provides a single source of truth for all stakeholders – planning, execution, procurement, and ESG. Now, everyone works towards the same goals and can see the impact of any changes across the entire value chain.
  • Situation
    Extracted raw materials are not homogenous or predictable. The quality and grade directly impact what you can produce and whether you can meet demand.
  • Complication
    Stocking points have products that do not yet have a buyer, resulting in higher inventory costs and lower profits. To meet existing demand, you may need to blend or transport products.
  • Question
    How do you effectively balance demand-pull and supply-push to smoothe capacity, minimize costs, and maximize profit?
  • Answer
    With complete visibility of the entire value chain from the mine to the customer, you can compare multiple scenarios to find the optimal plan to meet demand, considering inventory, ports, blending facilities, processing plants, and transportation.
  • Situation
    Your planners have many constraints to consider to find a feasible plan – mineral/metal properties, blending and refining processes, storage, and logistics.
  • Complication
    Disruptions, increasing legislation, and additional constraints are being added to the mix. With so much on their plate, planners settle on a ‘workable’ plan instead of an optimal one due to their current toolset.
  • Question
    How can you capture and evaluate all supply, production, storage, and logistics constraints to make the optimal plan?
  • Answer
    An integrated planning solution automatically considers your business-specific rules and constraints, empowering your planners to find the optimal plan, not just a feasible one.
  • Situation
    Depending upon the mineral/metal, you might have to mix products in blending facilities, combine them in transportation, or place them in smelters. The final product may also involve some form of processing or refining.
  • Complication
    Due to limited supply chain visibility, it can be difficult to calculate how long blendable stock can support production, how to consume products, or how to refine products, leading to suboptimal plans and reduced profitability.
  • Question
    How can you ensure high-quality product standards by optimizing blending and refining processes?
  • Answer
    Having a solution that manages your constraints and has an optimizer algorithm within it helps you make better decisions. It tells you how to optimize blends in facilities or transit and/or combine different materials in production/processing.
  • Situation
    Increasing disruption, global conflicts, and lower-grade raw materials are some of the challenges that prevent your planning and executing teams from delivering on their ideal plans.
  • Complication
    Balancing all the constraints with a higher frequency of disruptions while still planning locally for a global supply chain makes your planner’s job incredibly complex.
  • Question
    How can you make the best plan in limited time despite facing increasing disruptions and constraints?
  • Answer
    Give your planners end-to-end visibility and the ability to compare multiple scenarios. This empowers them to see how their decisions impact organizational-level KPIs, enabling them to always deliver the best plan – no matter the disruption.
  • Situation
    Organizations are increasingly under pressure to run their operations sustainably. This means improved end-to-end efficiency, reduced waste, and optimal utilization of byproducts.
  • Complication
    Your current tools cannot accommodate sustainability parameters (or have limited functionality). As a result, your planners cannot see the real impact of their choices on overall company SDGs.
  • Question
    How can you find the most optimal path to profitability while adhering to sustainability requirements?
  • Answer
    The planning team needs a virtual twin of your value chain. This ensures that every decision you make is the optimal one, balancing all of your organizational goals – operational, financial, and environmental.

Optimize your operations to boost efficiency, profitability, and sustainability

By adopting KPI-based planning, you empower your planners now and for the future.

Integrated decision making

Break down information silos that hinder visibility to achieve transparency on consumption, shipments, and inventory positions. Make business decisions confidently by locking your corporate KPIs into every planning decision.

Profit maximization

Identify opportunities to create value in your supply chain by calculating non-linear recoveries and valorizations, resulting in optimized planning in feed mix production, blending, and transportation. With optimal plans, you maximize your chances of boosting efficiency and profits.

End-to-end scenario optimization

Always be prepared by considering factors such as input costs/prices, transportation costs, market demands, and changes in production conditions. Assess the impact of ideas, investments, and decisions in the full end-to-end business context.

Optimized blending

With an optimizer, make SMART decisions on how to mix products in blending facilities, combine them in transportation, or place them in a smelter. Always know how long current blendable stock can support production, the risks, and the optimal way to move/consume products.

Complex constraint control

Optimize your business according to your KPIs while adhering to complex supply, production, and storage constraints. Instead of being reactive, your planners decide confidently when something fails or when constraints change – change in legislation, for example.

Sustainable optimization

Sustainable optimization will help you achieve your targets – operational, financial, and environmental. This is possible because all your KPIs, including sustainability targets, are embedded in the planning solution. So, all decisions are made with the impact on the organization and the environment in mind.

Article

Beyond Extraction: Mining and the Road to Net Zero

The energy transition hinges on the mining industry’s success. But how can producers effectively balance financial goals with environmental responsibility? Discover key trends and challenges reshaping the industry and learn how integrated supply chain planning is crucial for navigating the path to Net Zero.

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