A Canadian Solution for Reducing Mining Production Costs

Toronto, Canada, May 6, 2013 – COGEP Inc. has announced the release of Guide Ti Mobile during the Canadian Institute of Mining Convention held in Toronto. The company is encouraging mining companies to rethink their operations and opt for Canadian Ti solutions to offset the impact of declining mineral ore value and worldwide demand. COGEP is a Canadian-based company specializing in software solutions for the maintenance of strategic assets and procurement, with forty or so mining companies among its clientele.

 

Guide Ti Mobile is the first mobile application for Surface RT tablets and Windows 8 enabling mining industry users to access information stored in their databases from anywhere on mining sites, even underground and on sites without Internet access. Through data synchronization, Guide Ti Mobile can receive and transmit new work orders and collected data in real time. “Mobility enables maintenance staff to react rapidly in emergencies,” said President of COGEP Michel Fournier. Using a tablet can significantly speed up communications between employees and shorten response time. “For instance, when an emergency requires immediate response and the staff team has already been dispatched on another service call, there is no cause for alarm; new work orders can be sent to maintenance workers without having them return to the office through synchronization between the maintenance manager’s workstation and the tablet.”

 

The Perfect Solution in Times of Crisis

“The mining industry must reinvent itself”, stated Michel Fournier. With drops in value on the main mineral ore markets, mining companies worldwide are postponing development projects and focussing on major cost reduction schemes. This is a hard blow for most suppliers involved in the boom that prevailed in recent years. “A giant like Caterpillar, whose truck and equipment fleet is being used on mining sites all over the world, has just seen its sales drop by 50% compared with the same time last year,” highlighted COGEP’s President. But for companies like COGEP, the impact could be otherwise significantly positive

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COGEP designed Guide Ti as a maintenance software solution to help address the reduction of cost per tonne of mineral ore by increasing available time per equipment, reducing sudden machine downtime and extending machine service life. Guide Ti also allows reducing shipping costs for parts and avoiding extended machine down time for repair by cutting down on delivery lead time. “In addition, the Guide Ti solution is less expensive and takes less time to implement, compared with most ERP maintenance modules and other CMMS solutions available to the mining industry,” stated Michel Fournier. “Actually, the software program is user-friendly and employees learn how to use it quite fast.” he added.

 

Beyond Production Cost Concerns: Labour Issues

Replacing retiring employees is also a challenge for managers faced with knowledge and experience transfer issues. As labour is becoming increasingly hard to find, management has to get used to doing more with fewer resources. Guide Ti is the ideal software solution to help managers achieve this objective. The database of Guide Ti is structured so as to store the history of each piece of equipment and compile every employee’s maintenance operation on each piece of equipment.

 

About Cogep

COGEP is a privately held company that has been headquartered in Quebec City, Canada, since 1989. In November 2006, COGEP won the prestigious Canadian Microsoft Impact Award. COGEP has been a Microsoft GOLD certified Partner since 2007 and has been using .NET technology since 2002. The company offers innovative computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) solutions to private and public organizations. COGEP’s Guide TiTM is a world-class solution supporting organizations in planning and organizing corporate operations, controlling inventories and procurement, and managing strategic assets (Mill, mobile, stationary). For more information, visit the COGEP web site at www.cogep.com.