Exact Contracting and Plant Assessor case study

Exact Contracting Group is a privately owned mining & civil services business based in Adelaide with active operations at 12 locations across South Australia, Northern Territory, Victoria and New South Wales and a client list that boasts many of the key mining operators in Australia including BHPB, WPG Resources, CU River Mining and Iluka Resources.

Trading since 1987 and with a staff of over 560, Exact Contracting Group is highly regarded for its work in open pit mining, quarry management, drill and blast, crushing and screening, bulk earthworks, ore handling, road construction, concrete, shotcrete, tailings dam construction and maintenance, minerals haulage, overburden removal, civil works, irrigation and site rehabilitation.

Challenge

The business owns and operates a considerable fleet that includes almost 600 items of heavy plant which is a diverse mix of typical construction vehicles such as excavators, graders, dump trucks, scrapers, agitator trucks, loaders, pneumatic tankers, side tippers and telehandlers.

All vehicles and equipment are serviced by a highly trained and skilled maintenance team, incorporating a preventative program, which results in minimal downtime and maximum production.

Managing operator and site based safety across any eet has its challenges, especially one that includes such a wide range of plant & equipment located on multiple sites and sometimes hired out to other contractors under both wet and dry hire conditions.

“We were very keen to adopt a consistent approach to plant risk assessments,” explains National Safety, Training & Quality Manager for the Exact Contracting Group, Jeff Rotman.

“We had a process of undertaking manual assessments on a standard risk assessment template that was time consuming and cumbersome. There was some copy and paste happening and the forms were difficult to manage.”

“We wanted to bring a little more discipline into the process and make users more accountable for their assessments. This meant looking for a product that was detailed yet simple enough for anyone to access and use on a day-to-day basis.”

Solution

“A new project came online in 2012 that allowed us to conduct a trial of Plant Assessor. We trained some of our team and monitored the activity for six months to determine its value to our business,” explains Jeff Rotman.

“We were suitably pleased with the usability, accessibility, convenience and accuracy and Exact Contracting Group started using the Plant Assessor platform across the business in May 2013.”

The ability to customise assessments and reports, easily add machines, access historical information and view reports in real time impressed Jeff and his team.

“We were able to incorporate our existing core questions to form a baseline assessment then ask the assessor for additional information once they complete a more in-depth review of each item,” explains Jeff.

“It’s this level of detail without compromising the ease-of-use that makes Plant Assessor a great solution.”

Results

Exact Contracting Group has been very pleased with the adoption and Jeff Rotman explains that there are many positives to come from the arrangement with Plant Assessor.

“The consistent approach to everything gives us confidence that we are always covered. The database is updated frequently to ensure it’s always accurate and aligned with current Australian Standards and Legislation,” he says.

“As a sub-contractor on many of our sites, we need to provide this information to our clients and they are very impressed with our approach to plant risk assessments and the systems we use.

“But the main benefits are around efficiency.”

“The old generic templated system took a safety coordinator up to half a day to complete one assessment but now, on average we can complete one in under two hours. We can also complete the assessment in the field on a tablet where it’s stored in the cloud and accessible 24/7. It saves a lot of time and provides us with a real-time record of each machine.

“Added to that, it’s a nice bonus that the platform is environmentally friendly and has resulted in a big reduction in printing and paper costs.

“The people at Plant Assessor are always available and visit us frequently to ensure we are happy with the system. I’d recommend Plant Assessor to any one managing plant safety no matter the size of their fleet or the sector they work in.”

To learn more about Plant Assessor, please contact us.