An Inside Look: Helping an Arizona Copper Mine Reduce their Maintenance Workload

Getting Close to Our Customers

It goes without saying that understanding your customers’ unique needs is key to providing outstanding customer service.  But how do you build relationships with your clients when they’re spread across six continents at remote mine sites?

We stay close to our clients through regular mine visits from our Support team.  Our expert engineers work hard to ensure that customers get the most out of our products, and that requires an understanding of how they interact with our systems day-to-day.  In this article, Motion Metrics Support and Data Analyst Paz shares her first experience visiting a mine.  Formerly employed as a process reliability engineer in heavy industry, Paz earned her Chemical Engineering degree in Chile before moving to Canada to work for Motion Metrics.  This trip showed Paz how our products fit into the mine’s daily workflow and helped her tailor a Support contract to their unique needs.

The Trip

On this trip, Paz visited a large copper mine in Arizona.  “This mine has installed ShovelMetrics™ on five of their shovels, all of them using our Missing Tooth Detection module and Proximity Detection,” she explains.

Paz views field work as a unique opportunity to better understand the clients she assists remotely.  “I believe working in the field is an important part of understanding the problems our customers deal with,” she explains.  “It was gratifying for me to train the team here and answer their questions regarding our products and services.”

New Insights

Once on site, Paz was immediately impressed by the mine’s commitment to managing the risk of operating heavy machinery in an industrial environment.  She saw firsthand just how important our products were to mine safety protocol – before each shift, shovel operators are required to thoroughly inspect the ShovelMetrics™ system; on the off-chance that the system is not operational, maintenance is dispatched for immediate repair before work can commence.

Because the mine promotes safety via our solutions, they prioritize maintenance activities – both through checking and calibrating the systems, as well as training operators and other mine personnel on how to inspect and troubleshoot our systems.  This was a powerful reminder of how crucial our systems are to keep mine personnel safe during day-to-day operations.

A Better Solution

This visit also provided new insight into how much time the mine allocated to getting the most out of our products.  Prior to the trip, this client did not have a Support contract with Motion Metrics; but once Paz realized the mine was training all personnel to check and calibrate the system, she knew it would be far more efficient for them to offload these tasks to our expert Support team.

Upon her return, she will set up remote access to the mine site to transfer daily system checks and calibrations to the Motion Metrics Support team, thereby freeing up time for the shovel operators.  To help mine personnel better understand how our systems work, she has provided additional training materials and support documentation.

Ultimately, Paz says this trip was a reminder of how important a role our systems play in keeping mine safe and how regular communication with our clients can help us support them better.  “Overall, this trip was a great experience for me,” she says.  “It gave me a better point of view about our customer’s expectations, necessities, and concerns they have in the field and how our systems help them achieve their goals.”