Background:

Most commercial blasting companies end up manufacturing key materials such as emulsions, watergels, or packaged explosives to extract more value from an integrated supply chain. These processes appear quite simple from the outside, but successful execution is highly dependent on managing process risks as well as ensuring that the product is manufactured within very tight specifications.

Challenge:

Manufacturing ammonium nitrate emulsions, watergels, or packaged explosives can be tricky. The process can vary from a fully manual batch-based production up to fully automated. This can be challenging to replicate with traditional ERP systems. Manufacturing processing often results in a significant reconciliation workload at the end of a week or month, as the actual consumption of raw materials almost never matches the manufacturing bill of materials in the ERP. Arrowtail had to design a highly flexible solution that can be applied to any manufacturing process and yet is simple for operators to use.

Solution:

The Arrowtail team conducted a series of on-site visits to manufacturing plants to understand variations between different technologies and products better. An innovative solution was developed that uses a combination of recipe templates and the ability to adjust materials to stay within product specifications. Users are also given immediate feedback if they are outside of specified process limits. All materials are reconciled in the process, including the final quantity of the manufactured product.

Benefit:

Arrowtail developed a digital solution that eliminates double handling data and guides users through the whole manufacturing process. The app captures data in real-time and allows integration with process control data, thus further enriching the entire manufacturing process.