OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
The mining industry is realising the benefi ts of technology partners for monitoring and maintenance planning
NEXT-GEN ASSET PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
Digitalisation allows mines to generate more value from existing assets without incurring more labour costs
A
fter a long-standing trend of declining productivity, the mining sector is gradually reversing the course – according to the new analysis by
McKinsey. T is is because mine operators are increasingly focusing on extending asset lifecycles, re-examining and remodelling their processes with a strong focus on digital. Yet, despite recent improvements, productivity is still some 25% lower than the baseline and even more so compared with other global industries.
A combination of market volatility, radically diff erent input economics and limitations of existing measurement approaches have been hindering the industry’s ability to address the challenge. For example, an overall equipment eff ectiveness (OEE) metric provides important insights about availability, utilisation and performance of a cone crusher or a processing plant, but doesn’t off er guidance on the whole operations progress and total productivity performance.
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www.engineerlive.com Technological complexity is increasingly
beyond the human fi eld of vision. Systems are not only working at speed but are also built on top of and within each other, often interacting in unexpected ways. Operators fi nd it diffi cult to consistently predict what is coming next, even with condition monitoring solutions in their toolbox. “Many mines have adopted a mixture of technologies – including sensors, industrial internet of things (IIoT) devices, hardware and software – facilitating reach to diffi cult asset locations and stretching monitoring distances,” says Ben Berwick, who is responsible for asset performance management (APM) at ABB. “But, because these solutions typically operate in silos, there is still too much manual eff ort involved, with subject-matter experts (SMEs) running in and out of multiple systems, relying on visual interpretation, assembling insights, etc., before they can recommend actions. T eir time could be better used.”
150 140 130 120 110 100 90 80 70 60 50
2000 2005 Mining 2010 2015 Other industries How mining productivity compares with other sectors 2020 T ese problems have been compounded
by the fact that the people with mechanical and electrical asset expertise are in high demand and in short supply around the world. When capable technicians and reliability engineers leave or retire, the knowledge of assets they worked on often leaves the mine with them.
OBTAINING HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY T is means that mining still has some latent capacity to go for. T e stage is set for a more mature approach that would free up people, resources and maximise return on all assets. Momentum is gathering around the next
— Productivity trend of mining industry vs. all other global industries
Productivity index
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