5 Reasons You Should be Using Drones & AI for Stockpile Management

5 Reasons You Should be Using Drones and AI for Stockpile Management

Accurately measuring and tracking inventory is crucial for the success of any mining, aggregate, or quarry company. In the past stockpile management was often a "best guess" that resulted in overproduction and missed sales opportunities. The data was inaccurate, time consuming and sometimes dangerous to collect, leading to infrequent measurements and assumption-based management.

Low confidence in inventory records made it hard for companies to

• plan operations for future supply needs
• accurately represent what was available or could be available to buyers
• handle unexpected market fluctuations

Now, however, emerging technologies have eliminated all of these issues and are presenting companies with a huge opportunity to derive real value by using AI to better understand the content and quantity of their stock piles.

Here are 5 reasons you should be using drones and AI for your stockpile management.

1. Save Time
   • Conducting stockpile measurements by drone saves a significant number of work hours compared with traditional methods. Entire yards can be surveyed and uploaded by a single person in under an hour.
   • No need to unify different data formats- drone data and Strayos' single data repository means it can all be done with 1 software
   • The AI automatically detects stockpiles reducing time required for annotations
   • Label stockpiles and add product characteristics like material type and pricing and the software will do all the data entry, calculations, and record keeping for you
   • Copy stockpiles from one survey to another and the AI will compare, track, and record changes
   • The software and AI will automatically analyze stockpile data and present it in clear easy to use to use charts and graphs for maximum ease in trend identification
   • Workflow automation means stakeholders can be updated immediately when data is ready for review
   • Cloud based access means team members can access standardized data, detailed 3D models, and reports from anywhere any time
   • Exporting inventory data can be done easily in a variety of file formats

Complete inventory measurements up to 6x faster, automate data entry, calculations, analysis and reporting, and streamline operations

2. Reduce Costs
   • Overproduction can be eliminated by knowing exactly how much product is required to meet demand
   • Double handling of material can be prevented through better forecasting and sales yard operations planning
   • Process efficiency gains can reduce administrative overhead
   • More accurate and timely data collection and analysis means better decision making in operational planning
   • Simplify accounting and reporting processes

Increase operational efficiency and avoid expensive production errors, material degradation, compliance and litigation expenses

3. Increase Revenue
   • Eliminate missed business opportunities by giving all team members immediate access to the information they need
   • Sharing better quality data with stakeholders including customers, business partners, management, and investors improves sales relationships
   • Eliminate mismanagement of extracted materials and production based on real data and historical business trends
   • Better stockpile data means better inventory management resulting in a reduction of write downs

Avoid missed revenue opportunities, make better strategic business decisions, and reduce errors with accurate measurements and a single data platform with advanced AI analytics

4. Increase Data Accuracy
   • Fast and Easy stockpile measurement and management means companies can increase the frequency with which they conduct measurements for confident continuous auditing
   • Increase confidence in the numbers for your inventory and in your company's financial statements.
   • Reduce human error in measurements, data entry, data migration, and calculations
   • Reduce errors and inconsistencies from processing multiple sources of data or multiple formats of data collection and recoding
   • Eliminate guessing or estimating
   • Ensure standardized data collection and reporting from every worker at every site anywhere in the world every time

A single centralized data management program means everybody in the team and everybody in the organization is operating on the same page

5. Increase Compliance and Safety
   • Using drones to collect stockpile measurements keeps workers away from heavy equipment
   • No need to climb stockpiles for taking measurements
   • No need to get close to stockpiles or conveyor belts
   • Reduce the number of people and vehicles on site unneccesarily
   • Improve compliance and reduce potential litigation expenses

Drones have made safe and accurate measurements easier than ever. What used to take hours now takes minutes and can be done without having workers near the piles, on the piles, or near heavy machinery.

AI is massively simplifying the analysis and management of the data. Automating days of paperwork and reporting to instantaneous visualization. Displaying insights and identifying trends in seconds.

New technology is eliminating inefficiencies, errors, and risks all while empowering smarter business decisions and letting workers focus their energies on the the work that really matters- making money.

New technologies are rapidly changing the drilling, blasting, mining, and aggregates industries, empowering them in ways never before possible. Make sure you are taking advantage of the best tools available.

Check out our 2 Free E-books on AI applications for the drilling, blasting, and mining industries to see all the amazing advances that are available.
AI Guide for Drilling and Blasting
AI Guide for Mining

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