De Beers Botswana - exploring and benefitting with Zero Harm and managerial effectiveness

Established in 1888, De Beers is the world’s leading rough diamond company with unrivalled expertise in the exploration, mining and marketing of diamonds. The De Beers Exploration Head Office is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. De Beers Exploration Botswana is based in Gaborone and the Botswana exploration field operations are mainly managed from this office. The company has committed itself to Zero Harm to its employees, the community and the environment. Various controls have been implemented in order to achieve this objective and, as the exploration vehicles form an important part of the operation; their managerial control is of utmost importance. Frotcom was installed in early 2014 in all Botswana based vehicles, including the exploration drilling vehicle allocated to the remote field operations. All vehicles are used for long distance travelling.  Implementation integrated the Garmin device for the purpose of safe in-cab communication including the provision of instructions. A  Personal Location Beacon (PLB) system was also adopted, enabling the location, identification of both mobile asset and workforce regardless their geographical location 100’s km’s away in the remotest of areas. The system enables 24/7 surveillance in terms of the whereabouts of the vehicles, workforce activity and compliance to company policy and procedure, as well drivers behaviour. Managerial control included managing cost, vehicle condition and maintenance, vehicle and workforce productivity and detailed activity monitoring as well as safe in-cab communication. All of the fore-mentioned is supported by a powerful real-time monitoring, management and reporting function, providing hands-on control through real-time alarms and alerts via SMS and email – manage-by-exception – to the correct manager in De Beers. According to Mr. Gerhard van der Wall, Health and Safety Manager at De Beers Exploration, “Comparing a range of solutions, the Frotcom solution is better fulfilling our current and future needs. Frotcom also outshines in terms of reputation, affordability and support with well tested technology and a quality solution; allowing good customization options and excellent support”. Frotcom has enabled De Beers Exploration to achieve "Top Surface Vehicle Safety Compliance" in terms of the De Beers Corporate Policy. Frotcom’s success in Botswana resulted in De Beers Exploration South Africa now also finalising an implementation.