With a corporate focus on facilitating predictive maintenance through the flow of real-time data on its equipment, Sandvik Mining & Rock Solutions offers various parts supply and management options to suit customers’ needs.
Among the options, according to Amith Ganasram, business line manager – parts commercial at Sandvik Mining & Rock Solutions, is Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI).
“To streamline the availability of spare parts, our people can be on site with an inventory of stock that we manage,” says Ganasram. “The main advantage here is that this makes parts available to the customer at reduced lead times.”
He notes that his team works with the customer’s operational staff on site, as well as with the service teams from Sandvik Mining & Rock Solutions. This means that uptime can be optimised, as the right parts are readily available when they are required.
Alternatively, customers may prefer to opt for a stock model that is based on consignment. Under this arrangement, the customer manages a parts holding on their own site, but they only pay for what they consume.
“We can conduct a regular audit every couple of weeks, for example, to check that the stock level is well balanced with the parts that are actually used,” he says.
Every effort is made to allow customers to leverage the value of OEM components, as their inherent quality safeguards the lifecycle of machines, minimising any unplanned downtime which could lead to lost production and revenue.
“We make it easy for customers to standardise on OEM parts, by creating bundled offerings when they purchase equipment,” he says. “This allows the customer access to high quality parts at a discount, when they take advantage of a total offering with new equipment.”
Through its advances in fleet data monitoring (FDM) solutions, Sandvik Mining & Rock Solutions offers customers digital tools to track the performance and condition of their equipment. This includes prediction of key indicators like Mean-Time-Between-Failure (MTBF), so that servicing and parts supply can be better planned. All these factors contribute to safer and smoother operations, with the lowest total cost of ownership for operating equipment.
