One of the largest opencast mines in South Africa has rolled-out Passport 360 at four of its sites to manage compliance and streamline health and safety requirements. With over 8 332 employees and a yearly output of 1.5 million tons, Kumba Iron Ore also deals with about 600 sub-contractors. Passport 360 was called upon to roll-out a cloud-based system to manage compliance at all operations in real-time, says director and Co-Founder Siobhan Whitehead.
Such is the extent of Kumba Iron Ore’s operations that it requires proactive monitoring in terms of compliance, combined with readily-accessible information in the event of any incident or Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) investigations. “Standing time equates to a loss of both production and revenue, and therefore compliance management has to be proactive,” Whitehead stresses.
This was achieved by introducing Passport 360’s prequalification system, which now allows small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs) to be onboarded efficiently. Prior to the cloud-based system, Kumba Iron Ore relied on a paper-based system. This resulted in lengthy delays, as well as decreased compliance visibility.
“The solution from Passport 360 has now allowed Kumba Iron Ore to streamline its contractor onboarding times, as well as cut costs,” says Whitehead. Passport 360 allows project owners to set compliance requirements and standards against multiple projects. This avoids the issue of inconsistency across sites, which often results in confusion, unnecessary travel time, duplications, cost inflation and added risk.
“Our focus on seamless integration means that Passport 360 can give contractors the ability to access back-end information with negligible security risk to the corporate client’s ERP system. Contractors can access restricted information via Passport 360 without accessing the client’s servers, or adding to the number of users allowed on software with user restrictions,” Whitehead reveals.
Passport 360 is a cloud-based platform which enables safety process automation, and enhances performance in procurement and onboarding times. It allows for improved visibility with regard to compliance, safety, and risk management, thereby increasing productivity. This results in a safer and more productive workplace. In addition, simplified and accessible systems allow for greater participation from all stakeholders.