GAME ON – MRL Vs HGL

A WZLoad Story from Quarrying & Mining Magazine

Mary Bell, writer and editor interviews Mike McPherson, Director and Joe Burns, operator from McPhersons Resources with Mark Ballie, COO and Peter Magan, operator from HG Leach on their experience with WrightZone and their WZWeigh, WZLoad Quarry Management Software.

WZWeigh is the back-office enterprise application, built upon a multi-master database. WZLoad a small stand-alone SQL database installed on a tablet that connects to physical loader scales and WZWeigh, over a wide area network.

We had to find a better way of doing it. With the manual process, the dockets were messy – pieces of paper floating about and the system at the mercy of the operators’ handwriting.

Mike McPherson

Director, McPherson Resources Limited

If the client is not in the database, the operator can write anything for the customer code. Worse, the operator might forget their book but thinks he can remember the job information and write up the docket later. He then either forgets the details or the whole thing altogether

Mark Ballie

Chief Operating Officer, HG Leach Ltd

MRL & HGL Innovations in Process:

In a very few tablet touches key weights and measure data is captured, alongside the vehicle registration; the customer, the material and job with from location, and to destination detail; ready to be invoiced without any further human intervention.

Paper, data manipulation and formatting, export or import activities between systems are all completely removed summarising business advantage and innovation in delivering bi-directional communication between supplier devices, machinery, business processes and people in real-time; regardless of the terrain or working environment.

MRL Innovation Outcomes:

Each tablet and its WZLoad database are independent of each other. WZWeigh with its multi-master database creates the all-important and synchronized join enabling tablet to tablet, to tablet, communications.

On click of the Sync button, an order created by operator A now exists in loaders B and C for processing and/or the last transaction created in loader A, can now be recalled inside loaders B and C.

Streamlined automation.

Instead of paper dockets in triplicate we have tablets and mobile printers in operator loader cabs. The simplicity of WZLoad (our loader scales software) means vehicle, customer, job and material data are populated on-screen, by the operator with a few tablet touches. Benefits include reduced load-out times especially when vehicles are on-run as all the operator has to do is select the vehicles’ number plate and save. From there bucket data capture and digital docket print are automated from use of the loader scale with commands of ‘add’ (and subtract) bucket weights, with ‘clear’ total functions.

This payload data exists in WZWeigh instantaneously where it can be checked, scheduled either overnight or synced on click; existing as draft invoices in Xero awaiting final approval prior to distribution. Even after export transactions can be edited in WZWeigh and resynced. Using WZCompare we check balances between systems ensuring they match, then lock these transactions making them uneditable under WZWeigh. Concluding the entire load-out process through to invoice production with a formal end of day, week and month accounting procedure.

Mike McPherson

Director, McPherson Resources Ltd

HGL Innovation Outcomes:

Manual paper dockets are the thing of the past for both HG Leaches’ Tirohia and Tahuna sites as are delivering docket copies and operators reporting on daily or weekly material volumes.

We’ll no longer be considering a weighbridge at the Tahuna site which has saved the company $80,000 in capital expenditure. We’ve saved a minimum 8 hrs a week in administration overhead in no longer needing to enter manual dockets with time also saved in less credit notes and re-invoicing tasks.

We have increased vehicle serviceability times with operators no longer writing manual dockets as they are now printed digitally including cash sale customers. Loader metrics are now being captured and monitored, these statistics work in making informed decisions.

WZWeigh with WZLoad’s intercompany transactions capability (when one quarry buys rock and sells it to another) is also very good. Managing the positive and negative adjustments on both sides of the ledger is an advantage. Its capability to measure and monitor production just as it does sales, currently offering us stock on hand management, means when we fully utilize this feature we’ll take production to daily reporting as opposed to the existing, monthly update.

Although cost savings are expected in adding or replacing new systems seldom are they as easily identifiable as is the case of WrightZone’s software and solutions. And more than software, tablets and technology the true challenge from us, for WrightZone was usability and user buy-in. To everyone’s benefit the uptake of the system has been and remains remarkably fast and easy which is immeasurable.

Mark Ballie

Chief Operating Officer, HG Leach Ltd