Midsouth Aggregates, part of North American aggregate material producer CRH, is using Kespry’s drone-based aerial intelligence platform for inventory management and mine planning.
Jerry Adkins, senior production manager at Midsouth Aggregates, says: “Kespry’s drones and software really sped up inventory management. Kespry gave us a consistent measuring tool, whereas in the past we’d use other vendors who would do LIDAR and ground surveys. They would come on site, do the flights and it would usually take a couple of weeks to get the data. Then we’d have a different vendor come in later in the year using a different method for measuring. With Kespry, we brought it all in house and inventory management became something we could do monthly with more consistency and control. Now, we get real-time status of our sales yards and pits. We can calculate forecasted blast tonnages in Kespry and verify this with a flight of the muck pile once the shot is on the ground. This gives us an accurate read on our daily production.”
“Kespry gives us the ability to look at our pits in 2D and 3D,” Adkins continues. “The volumetric tools allow us to do short-term and long-term mine planning. As a mining engineer, I found that very useful. Kespry is very user-friendly so we’ve been able to train our plant managers to do the same type of planning. In the past, we’d have a mine planner doing that for us. So, that’s improved the overall outlook of how they manage their pits.”
Kespry says its Kespry Cloud has also helped create internal visibility and transparency at Midsouth Aggregates. The solution is expected to enable companies to access inventory management and mine planning data 24x7 on any device.
Adkins explains that Kespry Cloud is being used in meetings to show mine plans and real-time photos to upstream management, contractors and employees.
Midsouth Aggregates produces a variety of aggregate products destined for the concrete, asphalt, block, and precast industries, as well as base course material, fill products and general construction aggregates. The company also supplies concrete and asphalt sand, general construction sand and gravel.
