Mining company Demir Export improves the agility of underground operations using Power Apps

Based on its respect to the environment and people and its 65+ years of experience in the Turkish mining industry, Demir Export takes mining to the international level, deriving strength from its human capital.  The company operates 5 different types of mines across 6 facilities in the fields of mineral exploration and business management. 

Demir Export, one of the largest companies in Türkiye for domestic mineral exploration, is the country’s biggest coal producer thanks to its robust infrastructure and use of big data while accounting for 25% of Turkish iron exports. 

Standing firm on its continuous improvement and innovation principles that guide all operations, Demir Export ensured a scalable, accessible, and effective digitalization through an application introduced to move forward its management capabilities, going beyond the challenging conditions at the field. Discover the details of the project and explore how it makes the processes under and above ground much more consistent and trackable.

Everything required for a more practical and professionally managed field operation

Mining teams working underground have only the mere luxury of a phone line for all communication needs. Business process management relies on handwritten forms and notes handed over at shift ends. This workflow is prone to problems as transfer of information is not entirely fail-safe. Additionally, field teams, at times, find it tricky to put notes down to writing due to the humid and dusty underground environment which may lead to problems with legibility. Sensing the need for a fundamental change in its data flow system and in an effort to overcome such challenges and ensure communication among shifts, Demir Export took a digital leap forward through a Power Apps powered application. This meant, among others, a major change in the way departments carry on their activities and ensured continuity of control mechanisms.

The project allows instant viewing of the shift-end notes form as soon as it is logged, establishing a new line of communication between teams under and above ground, and ensuring a continuous flow of information.  This then allows all information to be used across different areas such as automation systems, which supports the smooth functioning of the organization. The application developed for underground mining is planned to be expanded to other facilities in the near future. 

Opting for Microsoft Power Apps’ compact and secure system, project teams highlight the advantages brought about by its easy integration with Microsoft Teams, Outlook and SharePoint. It took only two months for the form application to be turned into a product through Power Apps, which provides an easy-to-develop environment for a low code application like this. Project teams underline that anyone with even limited or no prior experience with Power Apps platform can easily turn an application into a product in as little as two months, whereas it would take up to a year using another software language.  

Using explosion-proof ATEX-certified tablets, underground field teams fill out forms, sign them with a stylus and upload them to be viewed by relevant staff like supervisors overground. This way, necessary tests are performed and many critical business processes such as material requests and maintenance planning are carried out effectively. It is possible to add images to forms where needed. These changes speed up shift changes with information exchange running in a much smoother and efficient way. 

The digitalization project that started off to cover 15 forms is now expanded to support more than 60 as per positive user feedback. Users contribute to the process by adding items to their wish list. Having an operationally dynamic system, teams want the new structure to be more widespread so that the business can enjoy its benefits better. This application, which was introduced rapidly using only the company's own resources, provides inspiration for other processes within the business. Many new types of forms that are planned to be developed using Power Apps in the future are already on the agenda. The Power BI project for system reporting has also been phased to be launched soon.

Demir Export manages permit processes much more effectively using Power Automate

Demir Export continues to benefit from Power Apps’ low code capability to add new projects to its agenda. One such item is the permit application. Previously using a third-party supported application and faced with some challenges, the company opted for Power Automate to overcome these problems. Due to the high number of field staff, Demir Export uses mobile applications extensively, and the vast majority of staff access applications using their own mobile devices and forward their requests. The previous permit software was cumbersome as it contained different application versions to support various devices which became increasingly difficult to manage. That is how it was felt that an overhaul was necessary resulting in the search for an error-free solution across all versions. It had to be easy to follow, develop and aim to eliminate user dissatisfaction. Wanting to improve the process in-house with a single-platform application, Demir Export decided to go with Power Apps and Power Automate. 

Underlining that they wanted to move forward with the confidence exuded by Microsoft without facing technological infrastructure problems, project teams now have an application where they can intervene instantly where and as needed. Noting the positive user feedback over the two-month use of the permit application, teams added that average daily use stands at 500 employees.  It runs on a dynamic flow chain and uses Power BI for reporting. Despite the fact that permit systems are much more complex than other industries due to a wide variety of forms used and specific approval/management processes in place for each permit, the project team is content with the end result app’s ease of use and compact structure and rates it as a success that overcame all difficulties.

Stating that they opted for Power Apps as a basis for infrastructure, Demir Export project teams plan to continue and develop forms and similar applications to manage the applications that everyone can easily use on this very solution.