Cape Town-based plant and heavy vehicle monitoring specialist Kinetic Electronic Designs (KED) will be exhibiting its updated locally developed Yellow Activity Monitoring System (YAMS) at this year’s Electra Mining Africa exhibition.

KED’s Wendy Spencer says the YAMS is a cost-effective, efficient and easy-to-operate means of monitoring the work activities of earthworks plant and heavy vehicles.

She says easy-to-use software allows companies to record and analyse data, such as key performance indicators, work usage, stop and start times, idling, unauthorised work, shift work, overtime work and predictive maintenance.

The information is stored, processed and presented in a variety of formats, including charts, graphs and reports.

Automatic data transferring permits seamless centralised monitoring of distributed fleets. Data can be exported to enterprise resource planning systems.

The software also allows the recording of additional, manually entered information, such as fuel use and servicing. This information can be presented in reports that, combined with vehicle activity, provide better overall management of plant assets.

Besides the 24-month standard battery replacements in the activity recorders, there are no running costs associated with the system. There are no monthly subscriptions and installation may be carried out by the customer. KED also provides regular software updates free of charge.

Spencer says the activity recorder is a rugged, tamperproof standalone unit (120 mm  80 mm  55 mm) that is usually fitted in the cab of the vehicle to be monitored. A provided hour meter cable can be connected to the engine for more detailed monitoring.

Information is downloaded from the recorders and transferred to a personal computer (PC) by means of a data gatherer. This is a hand-held, pocket-sized device that a manager or foreman will connect to the recorders while on site. Each download takes only a few seconds and many vehicles’ data can be stored on a single data gatherer.

Back at the office, the data is transferred to a PC in an equally quick operation. The system software interprets the vibrations as work and generates a range of reports, exportable data, printouts and graphs. Visual indications of the efficiency of the plant can be examined in close detail or in collated, summary form.

There are several activity recorder options available. These include a standard unit, a 12-setting work code dial and internal/external push buttons to record regular events (for example, load tipping). Different activity recorder types may be used within the same fleet, depending on plant types and use.

The YAMS is a South African-designed system ideally suited for a role in the development of Africa. The YAMS has been tried and tested in the fields of mining, quarrying, forestry, agriculture and infrastructure development.

Hall 7 Stand F31