Evaluating FIFO Roster Software for Mine Sites

Remote mines do not run on headcount. They run on who is legal to work tonight, who is on the evening flight, and who has a bed that is not already sold twice.

Workforce software that only draws a pretty swing chart is a calendar. FIFO roster software has to move the person, the transport, the room, and the fatigue clock as one change. Searchers already look for mining workforce and roster tools. The workforce and roster category is the directory list. This is the evaluation frame.

Name the objects: person, competency, swing, shift, flight or DIDO run, camp bed, gate access, fatigue state, contractor company.

A change at 16:00, someone sick, has to hit all of them before the bus leaves. If the roster updates and the travel desk still has the old manifest, you will put a person on a plane who has no room, or a room that belongs to someone already on site.

Camp is not a hotel extra. Ghost beds are cash. Double-booked beds are fights. The system that cannot show beds and swings together will be bypassed by a night clerk with a whiteboard.

Contractors are not optional. They often outnumber employees on a shutdown. If they are "out of scope," your fatigue rule is a story you tell the inspector.

They show a green swing and hide the flight. They show a flight and hide the bed. They show a bed and hide the hours already worked at the last site.

They treat fatigue as a colour. Western Australia, Queensland, and site-specific rules are not a traffic light. They are hours, consecutive nights, commute, and time since last rest. If you cannot see the rule that fired, you cannot defend it.

They assume always-on network. A camp office that drops wifi still has to check in a bus. Offline that fails will put the night back on paper.

They assume one employer. Seconded staff, labour hire, and visitors break the model. If the person object cannot carry a company, a contract end date, and an induction, the gate will run a side list.

1. One change, four updates. Cancel a swing in the demo. Watch flight, bed, gate, and fatigue move. Time it.

2. Fatigue as a rule you can read. Ask to see the exact rule for a 2-and-1 versus a 14-and-7, including commute. If the vendor cannot show the calculation, you cannot show the inspector.

3. Charter and commercial. Does a cancelled person free the seat and the bed, and does the next person on the waitlist get both.

4. Contractors. Same fatigue and access objects, or a bolted-on sheet.

5. HR and payroll. Integration, not replacement. Who owns the person record. What happens when payroll has a termination and the roster still has a flight.

6. Competencies. Can you see that the only boilermaker is on R and R before you approve the shutdown swing.

7. Offline camp. Check-in, bed board, and bus list without the tower.

8. Who runs it at 02:00. Name the camp supervisor and the backup. If the answer is "the vendor in Perth," you do not have a site system.

Fatigue software that only warns is a suggestion box. You need a hard stop you can override with a named person and a reason, and a log that survives a incident investigation.

Different sites, different rules. A tool that ships one national template and cannot take your site procedure is not configured. It is a brochure.

This is also a privacy problem. Hours, medical flags, and travel are personal. Ask who can see what, and where it is hosted. Do not dump that into a shared drive "integration."

FIFO and DIDO are not the same roster. A drive-in commute still burns hours. If the fatigue rule ignores the gate-to-gate time because "they are not on a plane," you will put a tired person on a night shift and call it green. Ask to see commute as an input, not a footnote.

Shutdowns are the exam. Headcount doubles, contractors arrive, rooms vanish, and someone still has to be legal to work. If the tool only looks good on a steady 2-and-1, run a shutdown week in the demo. Waitlists, overflow camp, and a person who fails induction at the gate should all be first-class events.

Charter logistics will try to live in a travel agency tool. That is fine if the roster is still the system of record. If the travel desk can issue a ticket the roster does not know about, you will have a person in the air with no bed and a bed with no person. Pick one owner.

The last lie is "we will add camp later." Camp is the constraint. Build the bed into the first go-live, or admit you are running a swing chart and a clipboard.

Weather and delayed charters are the other exam. A fogged strip at 05:00 should cascade: people stay, beds stay, next day's inbound gets pushed, fatigue clocks do not pretend they had a rest they did not get. If the vendor says "travel will handle that," you will have two systems telling two stories at the gate.

Village rules matter. Mixed gender rooms, contractor wings, quiet rooms, isolation. If the bed object is just a number, the night clerk will keep a paper map. Paper will win, and the roster will be a lie by Wednesday.

Do not confuse a time and attendance clock with a FIFO roster. Hours at the gate are an input. The roster still has to decide who was supposed to be there, who is legal, and who is travelling. If you only buy a clock, you will still run swings in Excel.

Run one ugly week in the demo before you sign. A sick swing, a delayed charter, a contractor who fails induction, and a bed that was sold twice. If the vendor skips that week, they are selling a calendar. Calendars do not get people home.

Ask who sits in the camp office at 02:00 and whether they can do that week without calling Perth. If the answer is a helpdesk ticket, the whiteboard stays. The whiteboard will be right, and the software will be a report you print after the fact. Buy the tool the night clerk can actually use, or do not buy it.

Start at workforce and roster. Take this checklist into the demo. The category page is the list of tools. This article is what to ask so the list is not just a wall of logos. Bring last month's cancelled swing and last month's over-hours. If the demo cannot replay those two, you are watching a calendar.

A roster that cannot update the flight and the bed in the same minute is still Excel. Excel does not care about your fatigue procedure. The inspector will. Neither will the person who missed the plane. That is the job.