By Neville Judd
At a busy surface mine, small inefficiencies can become expensive ones. A truck sent to the wrong destination, unnecessary travel, excessive idling, or queues at loading and dumping points can each affect productivity. Multiplied across a fleet and across every shift, their impact grows quickly.
At the Tujuh Bukit Gold Mine in Banyuwangi, East Java, PT Bumi Suksesindo (BSI), a subsidiary of PT Merdeka Copper Gold Tbk, wanted greater consistency in fleet productivity from one shift to the next.
The operation is one of Indonesia’s largest gold mines and Merdeka’s flagship asset. Since beginning operations in 2016, Tujuh Bukit has continued to pursue operational optimisation, infrastructure development, and other improvements designed to increase efficiency and productivity.
Working with Hexagon, BSI has combined real-time fleet management technology with ongoing operational expertise to turn that ambition into measurable results.
Seeing inefficiencies when they happen
For BSI, the challenge was not simply collecting more information. It was being able to use information soon enough to influence what was happening in the mine.
“Before implementing Hexagon, one of our biggest challenges was achieving consistent fleet productivity across shifts,” says Erik Wibisana Barnas, Technical Services Senior Manager at BSI.
Reducing queuing and unnecessary travel between trucks has been key to BSI’s productivity gains.
Previously, dispatch decisions depended heavily on manual coordination and operator experience. That meant problems such as ore misrouting, fuel waste, and truck queuing could remain hidden until the shift was over and reports were reviewed.
Hexagon OP Pro helps change that dynamic.
The fleet management system (FMS) provides real-time visibility into fleet activity, production, and equipment utilisation, giving mines the information needed to optimise haulage and improve efficiency.
Instead of discovering an inefficiency retrospectively, teams can see what is happening across the operation and make better-informed decisions while there is still time to affect the outcome.
For an operation seeking consistent performance across shifts, that distinction matters. Fleet optimisation becomes less about explaining yesterday’s performance and more about improving what happens next.
Combining technology with operational knowledge
Technology alone, however, was only part of BSI’s approach.
Hexagon worked with the operation to understand its site-specific challenges, identify opportunities for improvement, and tailor the implementation to the way the mine actually operates.
Operational expertise on the ground complements the real-time visibility provided by Hexagon OP Pro.
Through OP Pro and Hexagon Smart Centre consulting, the emphasis extended beyond implementing an FMS to developing the people and processes around it.
“Through OP Pro and Smart Centre consulting, the focus was not only on the system implementation, but also on transferring knowledge and embedding best practices within the organization,” says Barnas.
This combination of technology, data, and human expertise is central to the Smart Centre approach. Hexagon specialists use operational data and mining knowledge to identify trends and improvement opportunities, while working with mine teams to understand the real-world context behind the data.
At BSI, that has included continuously fine-tuning the OP Pro Optimiser so that its recommendations continue to reflect the reality of the operation.
It is an important distinction. Optimisation is not a one-time exercise. Mines change: haul routes evolve, operating conditions vary, equipment performance changes, and production priorities move. Maintaining performance means ensuring the technology evolves with them.
Turning optimisation into measurable results
The results reported by BSI demonstrate how seemingly routine fleet decisions can translate into significant operational and environmental gains.
According to Runaldy Sahputra, FMS Senior Supervisor at BSI, continued optimisation has helped minimise ore loss by around 600 ounces. The operation has also achieved a 9.5% reduction in fuel ratio, while reduced idling and unnecessary travel have contributed to an annual reduction of more than 3,400 tonnes of CO₂ emissions.
These outcomes are interconnected.
Getting material to the correct destination protects ore value. Reducing unnecessary travel and queues helps equipment spend more time productively. Lower idling reduces fuel consumption and emissions. Better visibility gives dispatchers and operational teams the information they need to identify where further improvements can be made.
In other words, fleet management becomes about more than moving trucks. It is about moving the right material to the right place, at the right time, with less waste along the way.
Making improvement sustainable
Perhaps the most important outcome at BSI is not a single metric, but the operational discipline supporting those metrics.
Real-time visibility can reveal an opportunity. Optimisation can recommend a better decision. But sustaining the improvement requires people who understand the technology, trust the information, and consistently apply what they learn.
For BSI, that means standardised processes, clear performance metrics, and knowledge embedded within the organisation. The result is an approach designed to make improvements practical and sustainable rather than dependent on individual shifts or operators.
That experience offers a useful lesson for mines looking to extract more value from their existing fleets. Digital transformation does not have to begin with wholesale operational change. It can begin by making everyday decisions more visible, measurable, and consistent.
At Tujuh Bukit, combining OP Pro with Smart Centre expertise is helping BSI do exactly that — turning fleet data into better decisions across shifts, reducing waste, and building a more consistent approach to productivity.