Kangra embraces smart systems

Procurement manager Ajith Singh and the mine’s financial manager, Gawie Wolfaardt

Tedious paperwork has been replaced with a more efficient electronic Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system at Kangra. The mine introduced Microsoft Dynamics 365, an intelligent application allowing a business to run its various administrative processes on a single integrated platform. Kangra currently uses the system primarily for procurement, inventory management and finance. The system will be expanded in the near future to include asset maintenance and planning as well.

The mine’s Financial Manager, Gawie Wolfaardt, says this is far more effective than what was done previously, which involved mountains of paperwork and data capturing on Excel spreadsheets. “It has improved a lot of the inefficiencies from the old system. There is no more running with papers everywhere. MS Dynamics allows online tracking of transactions, and we can even develop our own system reports,” says Gawie.

With the ERP in place, the team has real-time access to updated data, making tracking workflows and documents like invoices easy. If anything needs to be signed or approved, it is available electronically, eliminating the time and effort of sending emails or sharing hard copies with colleagues.

For procurement handling things like purchase orders, RFQs or RTOS used to be a hassle. “With Dynamics, you do everything online. There is no scanning of documents so that you can email them. Everything is done from the system itself, so that, in a way, it is adding to efficiency,” says Kangra Procurement Manager Ajith Singh. Staff members from different departments were trained to use the system, and continuous support ensures everyone knows how to use it optimally.