Otraco’s engineering consultants provide direct access to international best practice in earthmover tire management.

While we provide consultancy for all aspects of tire management, our most commonly used consultancy service is a Site Audit.

1. SITE AUDIT
A Site Audit will identify the current level of tire management and safety and the potential for improvement. Otraco engineers spend up to two weeks on your minesite auditing all aspects of the site tire operation including:

• Purchasing and warranty systems for tires and rims
• Information, analysis and reporting systems for tires and rims
• Tire and rim usage and cost budgets
• Optimizing tire selection
• Safety management
• Maintenance systems for tires and rims
• Mine haulroad design and maintenance
• Mine operator tire awareness and practices
• Mine equipment downtime
• Repairing, retreading and disposal of tires.

We identify areas of potential savings, quantify these savings and recommend how these savings can best be achieved. A presentation of findings is made to site management prior to Otraco leaving site, and a full report is provided shortly after the site visit.

A Site Audit is usually undertaken prior to Otraco commencing its Onsite Management service as it determines the current level of tire management and the potential for improvement.

2. TIRE SUPPLY AGREEMENT CONSULTANCY
Some large mining corporations have moved to global tire purchasing agreements during the past few years, effecting substantial reductions in tire pricing. Many of the principles used for these global arrangements can be adopted for tire supply agreements generally. Otraco has extensive experience in:

• Drafting invitations to tender for tire supply and warranty agreements
• Analysing supplier responses
• Recommending supply allocation by tire manufacturer.

Critical elements are the determination of an effective warranty system and allocating supply by tire manufacturer. Tire warranty is a headache for many mining companies; the best warranty system is one that does its job before the tires arrive on site. Tire supply by manufacturer is usually best allocated according to tire size as brand relative performance can vary widely on this basis.

3. OTHER CONSULTING SERVICES
Otraco can provide consultancy for any aspect of tire management. However our Clients have usually found one of the above services, depending on their particular needs at the time, to have given the most cost effective consultancy solution.