Job card software for a mine workshop: what each job card has to carry

A job card on a mine is worth what it tells the site about the hours a machine stood and the loads that went with them. To do that it names the machine, when it stopped and when it went back to work, the cause, the parts and the mechanics. It is closed on the day the machine goes back.

Most of the job card software that comes up in a search is built for garages, repair shops and field service businesses. There the card books a technician and ends in an invoice. A mine workshop sends no invoice. Its job cards answer to the pit, where a truck or loader that stands is production the site does not get back.

Two clocks on every job card

One clock runs while a mechanic works on the machine. The other runs from the moment the machine stopped working until it is back on the line-up.

A typical job card template keeps only the first: a start time, a finish time and the labour hours, which is what a repair shop bills. The hours the pit lost sit on the second.

Illustrative example. A haul truck breaks down early in the day shift. It waits for a mechanic until late morning, then waits for a hydraulic hose until the next afternoon, and the repair itself takes a couple of hours. The card shows a couple of hours of labour. The truck stood for more than a day, and the loader it was working with ran short of trucks for all of it.

What a mine job card has to carry

Each line below answers a question the site asks about a machine that stood.

• The machine, by the fleet number painted on it, and its engine hours when it stopped.
• The time it stopped working, and who or what reported it: a person, or the pre-start that found the defect. A defect found at the line-up should open its card there, as the piece on mine pre-starts describes.
• The cause, picked from a short list the workshop agrees, with the mechanic's own words beside it. A list lets the site add up which causes cost the most hours. Those words tell the next mechanic what was found.
• The waits, each with its own hours: waiting for a mechanic, and waiting for parts. They point at a different fix from the repair itself, in the workshop's staffing or in the stores.
• The parts fitted, by part number and quantity, so the card shows what went on the machine.
• Who did the work: every mechanic on the job, and who signed it off.
• The time the machine went back to work and its engine hours then, which is when the card closes.

With those on every card, the site can see how long any machine stood and what it took to get it back.

When the card has to be closed

On the day, the mechanic knows what was found, which parts went on and when the machine was handed back. So the card is written as the work happens, and closed the day the machine goes back to work.

A card closed later is filled in from memory, or from a pile of paper cards typed up in the office. Its times drift to whatever fits the form, and the hours the machine stood drift with them. That is why closing job cards on the day is one of the fixes that shortens month-end.

A truck can be back at work with its card still open. The site's numbers then show it standing, and its availability for the month reads lower than it was.

What to ask of job card software on a mine

A mine workshop works out of signal and across shifts, and the software has to fit that.

Signal comes first. The card should open at the machine and in the workshop without it, and send when the phone is back in range. A mechanic at a broken-down truck on the haul road should not have to walk back to the office to open one.

Good software keeps the machine's clock and the mechanic's clock apart, with the waits in between. The hours a machine stood can then be read straight off the card.

A card should open wherever the fault is found: a breakdown the foreman calls in, a pre-start defect, or a service due on the engine hours.

The site manager should see which machines are standing now and why, and which cards are still open on machines already back at work.

It is also worth asking who closes the cards: the mechanics on the day, or someone in the office later.

In Diggy, the foreman or a mechanic reports a breakdown on the mobile app, which works without signal. The report carries the machine, the breakdown type from a list, what is wrong, the engine hours and photos.

The mechanic starts and completes the card on the phone. It records the work done, the engine hours at the finish and the parts fitted from the stock kept in Diggy.

Each Diggy job card keeps the time the breakdown was reported, the time the work started and the time it was completed as separate times. The labour hours sit in a field of their own.

A card held up for parts is marked on the site's machine list. A defect found at the pre-start opens a breakdown or a maintenance job card, by how serious it is. That runs once the site has set up its defect classes.

Diggy is one system for the whole field operation: production, machines, fuel, maintenance, parts and people. You get the answer straight away, with its source, so you can act before the money is spent.

Diggy was built around AI from the start, by Cambridge engineers. It works across everything that is connected, which is why the answer comes straight away.