Debdeep Banerjee, Senior Presales Manager, DELMIA Quintiq, Dassault Systèmes
In today’s complex and competitive mining landscape, global supply chains are under strain, margins are tight, and sustainability deadlines are fast approaching. Optimizing pit-to-port operations is no longer optional — it’s essential for staying competitive. The Dassault Systèmes DELMIA Quintiq platform helps mining companies plan, execute, and analyze their operations through digital transformation that delivers real-time visibility, predictive planning, and cross-functional collaboration.
In the era of digital transformation, the Dassault Systèmes DELMIA Quintiq platform empowers mining companies with an integrated, data-driven approach to operational excellence. The platform enables real-time visibility into operations, predictive insights for optimized decision-making, and enhanced cross-functional collaboration by seamlessly connecting planning, execution, and analysis within a unified digital ecosystem. Mining enterprises can streamline workflows, mitigate risks, and drive efficiency — ensuring agile responses to dynamic market conditions while maximizing resource utilization and revenue, through advanced analytics in supply chain and automation.
Manage volatility in demand with an integrated digital solution
A key challenge facing the mining sector is volatility in demand, supply, and production (geological uncertainty) as well as execution. Some of this uncertainty is driven not only by shifting consumer behavior, but also by geopolitical uncertainty and ongoing sustainability mandates. At the same time, companies must lower their carbon footprint while meeting production targets to remain competitive. These pressures are compounded by the need to attract a new generation of talent that expects digital solutions and intelligent systems as part of the workplace. Such solutions are also increasingly necessary to adapt to the volatile work environment.
Autonomous vehicles, smart sensors, and continuous data-collection devices are now standard across mining sites making a continuous loop of data between virtual and real key to pit to port optimization. In this volatile and digital environment, agility is critical. Responding to change quickly and intelligently requires more than spreadsheets; it calls for an integrated decision-support system that’s dynamic, flexible, and designed to manage complexity.
The Dassault Systèmes’ solution is built around five pillars: model and simulate, plan and optimize, perform and analyze, collaborate, and innovate. This structure enables planning to be both resilient and responsive. Companies gain a deeper understanding of their operations, while advanced planning and scheduling (APS) software use virtual twins to simulate real-world conditions and balance demand and supply within known constraints. Dassault Systèmes’ helps mining companies achieve agility by integrating these five “pillars” into one digital platform – a true value proposition compared to other solutions in the market.
Scenario planning is a core strength of Dassault Systèmes’ pit-to-port strategy. In mining, no decision exists in isolation. Whether choosing a material blend at the processing plant or scheduling equipment maintenance management, every action affects downstream and upstream operations.
Dassault Systèmes builds scenario modeling into every planning layer — strategic, tactical, and operational. This helps planners to test assumptions, adjust constraints, simulate alternative actions, and collaborate across teams before executing a strategy.
After execution, actual performance is compared to forecasts, generating insights that feed back into future plans. Collaborative tools ensure that all teams work from the same data source, enabling smoother coordination. Meanwhile, the innovation pillar helps companies continuously improve by learning from past performance. Analysis of resources gathering and tracking data using autonomous vehicles, as well as integration with execution data, is crucial to pit-to-port optimisation. The solution helps maintain a continuous loop of data from the real to virtual world while helping companies analyze the real-world data in the context of the operational twin. This way, the solution becomes a key part of the pursuit of continuous improvement in business processes and overall business excellence.
DELMIA Quintiq spans the entire mining value chain
Dassault Systèmes’ DELMIA Quintiq solution covers the entire mining value chain. For in-pit operations, it supports tactical and short-term planning for excavation, blending, and haulage. As material moves toward the port, real-time logistics planning software and constraint validation help keep operations on track. At the port, the platform manages inbound stockpiles, manufacturing quality control, blending to meet shipment specs, and outbound logistics.
At the marine and market level, the software supports demand forecasting, contract fulfilment, and vessel scheduling. These capabilities are structured across multiple planning horizons — from long-term strategic plans and mid-range tactical decisions to weekly schedules and daily task execution, maintaining end-to-end visibility throughout the supply chain.
A short interval control (SIC) is part of the solution. This helps mining companies to schedule and monitor tasks like drilling, blasting, excavation, and stockpile management at a highly granular level.
To enable pit to port optimization all components of the solution are vertically – strategic, tactical and operational – and horizontally – sales and operations planning (S&OP), SIC and execution –integrated within one planning platform which is a key value proposition compared to in-house built or piece-meal off the shelf solutions.
Each decision is validated against operational constraints in real time, enabling immediate course corrections.
The system continuously tracks equipment availability and performance, recalculating impact from breakdowns, demand shifts, or haulage changes. It also simulates blended grades at hourly or even 15-minute intervals, ensuring consistent material quality. This level of responsiveness helps mining teams act on disruptions in the moment, not after the fact through static reports or delayed data. Overall, the solution delivers better control over resources and revenue from the pit to the port in global mining operations with a 360-degree view of the entire mining value chain and one version of the truth throughout all data and information interfaces, as well as global processes and operations.
Optimize blending strategies to maximize revenue
Blending decisions directly impact product quality and revenue. The Dassault Systèmes DELMIA Quintiq solution helps mining companies optimize blending strategies by integrating quality data from excavation, haulage, processing, and stockpile stages. Materials can be blended on trains, at ports, or even during ship loading, ensuring close adherence to customer specifications, thereby maximizing revenue and enhancing customer satisfaction.
Planners can track material quality throughout its journey, verifying that each step aligns with target outcomes. When a specification is breached, instant alerts allow teams to make real-time adjustments, helping protect customer trust and satisfaction and avoid financial penalties, while increasing revenue.
Adding to this granular control is the platform’s manufacturing Control Tower software functionality, which provides a 360-degree view of operations. Users can recreate historical plans, compare them to actual outcomes, and perform root cause analysis when deviations occur.
By integrating IoT sensor data and GPS tracking, teams can visualize mining activities within a 3D virtual twin of the site — overlaying plans, resources, and real-time data on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
This contextual view improves collaboration and accountability, enabling cross-functional teams to investigate variances and resolve issues without data silos or communication gaps.
Manage pit-to-port operations proactively, not reactively
Dassault Systèmes delivers more than a technology solution; it enables a new operating model for mining. In this model, planning and execution are tightly connected. Every decision is evaluated for its financial, operational, and environmental impact, and collaboration replaces fragmented processes.
By delivering digital continuity across departments and planning horizons, Dassault Systèmes helps mining companies shift from reactive firefighting to proactive pit-to-port optimization. The DELMIA Quintiq platform supports the modern mining strategy where visibility, agility, and innovation are essential for sustainable growth.
Leverage essential environmental reporting tools
As sustainability takes center stage in mining, the platform’s environmental reporting capabilities are crucial. Companies can track and report greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by linking planned and executed activities to emission sources. The platform supports standard reporting frameworks and generates automated, auditable reports that meet international regulations. It not only streamlines compliance but also embeds sustainability into core decision-making by integrating environmental tracking into the planning-execution loop.
All-in-one platform maximizes revenue, delivers real value
Dassault Systèmes’ pit-to-port platform delivers measurable value. In real-world deployments, mining companies achieve faster planning cycles, improved contract performance, and higher asset utilization. Some of them reduce demurrage costs by aligning operations with vessel schedules, while others have unlocked new revenue streams by optimizing production for spot market opportunities. The ability to run multiple “what-if” scenarios enables fast, informed responses to market shifts, equipment failures, or regulatory changes — helping companies stay resilient under pressure.