(Potashworks 2023)
Innovative, Responsive Approaches to Supply
Mine Supply Company has become well known for its commitment to quality, on-time service – a core value that sees the Saskatoon-borne supplier prioritize innovative solutions to meet clients’ needs in an industry in constant flux.
“We take an end-to-end view of the supply chain,” says Marc Collette, Vice President & General Manager. “This influences our approach to things like procurement and vendor management, inventory, and logistics.”
Around the world, mining operators are struggling to manage supply chain disruptions caused by higher demand for metals and minerals, labour shortages, and events like the pandemic, natural disasters, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. These disruptions mean longer delivery times at all links of the chain and significant increases related to freight and storage costs. Supply chain resilience has become a top priority for operators and suppliers alike, resulting in a shift away from just-in-time approaches to those that help mitigate major disruptions in the chain.
“At Mine Supply, this means working with our clients to determine critical inventory and adjusting our approach to procurement and warehousing to keep those in stock,” says Collette. “It also means communicating any anticipated risks in the supply chain that might impact a client’s critical inventory. That’s been a real value-add for our clients, especially considering supply chain fluctuations in recent years.”
One of Mine Supply’s advantages is that most of its products are made by premium, North American-based manufacturers, or international producers with accessible inventory on the continent. The Mine Supply line card includes a range of premium product offerings covering multiple categories, including crushing and conveyor systems, industrial doors, lubricants, mobile equipment, MRO, mine ventilation (Saskatoon-based ABC), rock tools, safety products, and tech and instrumentation tools. The company is also expanding its custom and in-house manufacturing and assembly capacity.
“We’re adjusting operations to control more links in the supply chain, which ultimately minimizes cost and enables us to be more accurate when predicting lead times for the client,” says Collette. “It’s not just stocking higher levels of those critical path products; it’s also shifting our model to include replacement parts for critical equipment at far higher volumes and adjusting our processes to enhance the capacity for in-house assembly whenever possible.”
With experience on all sides of the life cycle from planning to procurement, warehousing, material management, operations, maintenance, and replacement, Mine Supply’s team takes pride in its ability to provide solutions for client challenges, and to influence product design and production to best serve the operations of each unique operating environment.
To find out more about Mine Supply and its premium product lines and service options, visitwww.minesupplyco.com, email sales@minesupplyco.com, or call 306-653-1056.
As published in PotashWorks 2023
