From flaky spreadsheets to faster forecasting

A global mining and metals company takes a new approach to operational planning and forecasting for its complex mining to refining operation.

Accurate planning and forecasting are critical to mining and refining operations. So why do so many rely on flaky spreadsheet models?

Everyone knows that big spreadsheets quickly get cumbersome and are prone to manual error. Critical inputs get overwritten, data gets corrupted, mistakes are made … and remain undiscovered, hidden in a hell of interlinked spreadsheets and opaque formulas. There’s no audit trail, there’s no version or change control.

The million-dollar risk of relying on poor planning and forecasting tools

A global mining and metals company had exactly this situation. Compromised modelling data had led to significant financial losses. The spreadsheets were impossible to share and stakeholders couldn’t access the information they needed. For fear of breaking it, direct access to the complex and fragile model was limited to just three users who had become information gatekeepers. Even then, sometimes the model completely failed to run. Decision-making, as a result, was slow and often reactive.

The spreadsheet model had become a major risk to the operation’s ability to plan accurately.

Co-creating a powerful, fit-for-future planning and modelling solution

To regain control, the company turned to idoba’s experienced team of data gurus and mining experts. The challenge was to design a stable, scalable and secure tool for modelling, planning and forecasting across the client’s mining and refining site.

Starting with a discovery phase, the joint idoba-client team unearthed all the areas of uncertainty, the critical paths and hands-on workflows of stakeholders, and requirements for a new solution.

Discovery and the co-creation process led to an early breakthrough. The client operations and maintenance teams quickly recognised that the solution’s secure user access and virtual workspaces could dramatically improve their roles. Using these, engineers and managers could ask more data-driven questions and run what-if scenarios. These workflows were captured in the user-centric design, adding new features to delight the users.

Built with idoba’s Dynamic Driver Modelling, the solution draws on data feeds from 3,000 calculation nodes and provides secure and stable web access for more than 50 users. It has defined workflows for key stakeholder groups and enables users to model different scenarios, changing input criteria until a final plan is agreed and locked down.

With defined user roles, change control and a full audit trail, there is no fear of inadvertently breaking the model.

idoba delivers lower risk and higher productivity

The new tool produces inputs for a fully costed plan for next month’s refinery operation and a rolling forecast that enables sales and marketing to make forward sales of the plant’s production. It integrates with Microsoft Excel and Power BI which the client uses for reporting.

Leveraging idoba’s enterprise-grade security and scalable, collaborative SaaS platform, the tool is a major step-change in the client’s mining and refinery planning.

The business has now abandoned its old spreadsheet model and wholly adopted its new idoba planning and forecasting tool. As a result, it has accelerated its decision making and mitigated losses caused by incorrect data.

Goodbye flaky spreadsheets, hello slick and secure planning and forecasting.

Are you ready for robust, fit-for-future forecasting and planning? Chat with us to see how we can help.