IMMS is an ERP-based integrated mine management system. It was first developed by CMC as an OLTP application covering all the functions of a large opencast mine at Gevra Project, South Eastern Coalfields Ltd. in eastern India in the early 1990s. CMC used this knowledge base to customise the RAMCO e.Application covering Finance, Materials & Maintenance modules and developed & integrated The Sales/Dispatch, Production & Corporate MIS as a complete IMMS solution for Northern Coalfields Ltd. (NCL) at Singrauli, in north-central India. IMMS is fully operational at NCL covering 9 mining areas, 1 central workshop, Headquarters and 1 Nehru Shatabdi Hospital. The total project value was around $2.3 million .

The number of concurrent users are about 200 at present which may go up to 400 in near future. CMC is now implementing this solution at South Eastern Coalfields Limited with corporate office at Bilaspur in East Central part of India, on Solaris / RISC servers running Oracle. The product is web-enabled. The total project value is approximately $ 600,000.

Functions of IMMS
The application covers almost all functions and operations, and enables mine managements to exercise better control over resources. Information is generated, shared and exchanged through the different modules of the system:

	Shift-wise recording of attendance for direct employees
	Shift-wise man-machine allocation
	Shift-wise and daily production absorption
	Integration with finance, maintenance and despatch module
	Operator and equipment-wise performance analysis
	Monthly survey and production adjustment

	Inventory management
	Procurement
	Integration with finance: Control of vendor bills payments, based on pr-goods receipt notes Automatic updates in accounts payables Budget certification and financial concurrence Adjustment of advance payments to suppliers Bills and letters of credit facilities available
	Integration with maintenance module in order to forecast the availability of consumables, ensuring smooth hourly preventive maintenance
	Reservation of consumables can be done by users

	Decision support
	Comprehensive definition of equipment
	Online work-order-based monitoring
	Online heavy earthmoving machinery (HEMM) log details facility
	Online integration with materials and production
	Online tracking of equipment performance
	Effective work-order management
	Failure analysis
	Breakdown analysis
	Equipment status and performance summary
	Preventive maintenance
	Maintenance viability analysis
	Maintenance shutdown planning

	General ledgers
	Accounting
	Accounts receivables
	Accounts payables
	Cash flows
	Financial administration and controls
	Fixed assets
	Budgeting
	Three-dimensional analysis of expenditure

	Monthly salary calculation and pay-slip generation
	Periodical processing of bonus, ex-gratia, etc.
	Maintains detailed employee database
	Reports on overtime analysis, PF statements, etc.

	Core sector: Customer-project-item linkages
	Non-core sector: Customer-project-item-delivery orders
	Despatch modes: Rail, merry-go-round trains, road, ropeway, etc.
	Customer-item-bill component link
	Billing
	Transport bill
	Joint analysis report
	Credit note
	Supplementary bill

	ERP-based Web based 3 tier architecture / client-server application
	Database: Oracle on Unix / MS-SQL server on Windows server
	Operating system: Unix / Windows server
	Windows-based clients
	Servers: SUN / P-III XEON dual CPU central server with RAID 5 and RISC servers
	SUN / P-III-based servers for each cost centre
	Web-enabled applications

	Online monitoring of field activities
	Cost control
	Work in process control
	Effective resource planning and utilisation (material, manpower and financial)
	Better availability and utilisation of machines
	Online availability of all vital information with data security, data redundancy and transparency
	Drill-down facilities for efficient analysis
	Seamless integration of all relevant information

Experience
CMC's expertise in IT-related services and technology, combined with its domain expertise in mining applications, enables it to offer comprehensive solutions to the mining industry.

	Procurement cycle time reduced
	Real-time availability of stock position and LPP across all areas
	Faster sales billing cycle
	Online dispatch monitoring
	Working capital reduction
	Accounts receivable
	Inventory
	Accounts payable
	Improved cash control
	Ready availability of information, allowing faster and better decision-making.
	Reduced maintenance costs through better periodic preventive maintenance
	Increased availability of HEMMs
	Reduced transaction-processing costs
	Cutting down on low / non-value-added work
	Online availability of MIS reports
	Online financial statements: balance sheet, profit & loss account, cash flow and various schedules
	Online integration of inventory, sales, purchase and production stock with finance
	Online integration of maintenance with production, material and purchase
	Online budgetary control: Cost centre-wise, GL-wise, authorised for expenditure (AFE)-wise
	Online fixed assets monitoring and control: Unique fixed asset ID, fixed asset register, fixed asset location, depreciation calculation and various fixed asset-related reports

	South -Eastern Coalfields Ltd
	Northern Coalfields Limited

Case study
Northern Coalfields Limited, Singrauli, India

Contact
Head - Mining
CMC Limited
28, Camac Street
Kolkata – 700 016
Tel: 91-33-22874845
Fax: 91-33-22878058
Email: mining@cmcltd.com