Samordning av interna materialtransporter : En fallstudie vid LKAB

In today’s global market, companies around the world compete for the same customers. This increases the importance of efficient logistics and companies are continuously working toward streamlined logistics to stay competitive. For companies within the extractive industries, especially the mining industry, it is even more important to have efficient logistics. Companies within the mining industry are unable to impact the prices of their product to any significant extent. A vital part of logistics for mining companies is their internal transportation of material since late deliveries can cause very costly production shutdowns.This master thesis investigated a mining company’s coordination of internal transportations. The aim of the study was to find how the coordination of internal transportation could be improved. To begin with, the present state was mapped to find out how transportation and coordination works today. This was made through interviews and observations of the daily activities. The present state was then analyzed and resulted in identification of both problems and possibilities. Based on this, several recommendations of how the internal transportations of material could be made more efficient have been proposed. The study shows that internal transportation of material within a mining company has multiple characteristics. The transportation network is adapted to the company’s specific needs, this makes the transportation flexible but also complex. There exists a big amount of delivery- and pick-up locations, but most of the deliveries are only to a few of them. There is a need for transportations around the clock because a mining company has a continuous operation. Trucks that are doing the deliveries often need help with both loading and unloading by tractor. A tractor is flexible in narrow places that an underground mine are. Finally, internal transportation of materials in a mining company is characterized by narrow places which demands skilled drivers and customized trucks. Coordination of the operations is done on a tactical level but not on an operational level. The most significant problem that was identified is lack of data. Data concerning what is being transported, the size of the transported material, and between which locations the transportations occur. To solve this problem a recommendation to the company is to implement better data collection and start monitoring the transportations. This creates possibilities to optimize different routes which can decrease the total costs. A development of the current business software or another IT-solution could be used to collect data. To improve the coordination of transportation, the company is recommended to coordinate on both a tactical and operational level. Today coordination is only done on a tactical level where resources are allocated. On the operational level resources can be used more efficient in terms of coordination of different transportations and optimizing different routes.Validerat; 20150616 (global_studentproject_submitter