How Cameco slashed work order scheduling time

Challenge

Cameco Corporation’s Cigar Lake Mine initially aimed to implement a simple solution for printing multiple maintenance documents with SAP work orders. However, after adopting Prometheus Planning & Scheduling for SAP in 2012, they uncovered additional benefits, including enhanced material management and compliance reporting. Their key challenges included: 

• Document collection inefficiencies – Needed a streamlined way to generate and print maintenance documents.
• Limited visibility into job interdependencies: Required better insight into task relationships.
• Complex workflows: Needed user-friendly tools to simplify processes.
• Maintenance forecasting limitations: Lacked tools to predict and plan maintenance activities.
• Strict safety, environmental, and quality standards: Required solutions that maintained regulatory compliance. 

Solutions

Since 2012, Cigar Lake has leveraged Prometheus Planning & Scheduling to enhance SAP Work Management. Key implementations include: 

• Configurable Dashboard: Became essential for maintenance teams and operations, especially in terms of work approvals and backlog reviews, as well as for regulatory reporting.
• Material Shopping Cart: Enabled supervisors to quickly locate and add materials to work orders in real time, while also enabling them to Improve material tracking and availability.
• Extended Functionalities (XF) for shutdowns and turnarounds: Improved tacking of critical path tasks, in addition to the Identification of potential scheduling conflicts.

Results

The adoption of Prometheus solutions has significantly optimized planning and scheduling, leading to: 

• Massive time savings: Scheduling 200 work orders now takes under 30 seconds instead of 20 minutes.
• Reduced manual and repetitive tasks: Freed up time for higher-value work.
• Improved scheduling visibility: Allowed supervisors to proactively resolve conflicts.
• Enhanced workflow efficiency: Drag-and-drop functionality streamlined work assignments.
• Ongoing optimization: Cigar Lake continues to explore new Prometheus capabilities with strong customer support.