Modular Mining and RPM say they are seeking to bridge the gap between planning and execution. This, they say is to generate “elevated precision and optimised efficiencies to enhance mine productivity. The alliance builds on RPM’s expertise in planning and scheduling and Modular’s expertise in systems integration and mine management solutions.”
The integration of the systems will support bi-directional communication between the companies’ market leading products – RPM’s XECUTE® ultra-short term planning and HAULSIM® haulage simulation software, with Modular’s DISPATCH® Fleet Management and ProVision® High-Precision Machine Guidance solutions. Shift plans and production targets will be dynamically used as control parameters for execution by the DISPATCH and ProVision solutions. The real-time execution progress will automatically feed back into the planning to refine the next short interval schedule, fostering collaboration among all stakeholders from planning, production, maintenance and operations.
“Modular has always recognised the benefits of building relationships with organisations whose innovative technologies and unique perspectives expand upon our own,” said Luiz Steinberg, President and CEO at Modular. “We are committed to improving efficiency across the mining value chain, and this relationship with RPM will bring to market a greatly enhanced, streamlined mine management solution that delivers greater gains to our customers by closing the gap between planning and execution.”
The integrated solutions should allow mines to monitor progress to plan and proactively respond to operational challenges that are inevitable in a mining operation. Compliance to plan will improve, allowing the operation to deliver the correct material to the correct location at the correct time, resulting in a continuous workflow with production optimised to meet planned delivery capacity.
The technology foundation of this cooperation is built upon industry standards, which are important in the achievement of openness, transparency and collaboration among systems, processes, and people. By combining their unique areas of expertise and experience, Modular Mining and RPM are creating a mining framework based on the ISA‑95 Business to Manufacturing Markup Language (B2MML) which facilitates the sharing of data among systems. As early adopters of the ISA-95 standard, Modular Mining and RPM say they “are excited about the release of the ISA-95 mining messaging profile and view it as a major step forward for the mining industry.”
“The strategic collaboration with Modular is a critical part of our strategy,” said Richard Mathews, CEO of RPM. “When we set out three years ago to deliver Enterprise solutions ‘below the line’ with mining companies our vision was clear. RPM is changing the goalposts around how mining companies extract value from their mining value chain. We are not a technology company working on products delivering more desktop, siloed solutions. We are delivering to mining companies enterprise-wide, collaborative solutions that enable a step-change in mining operations and this collaboration is a leading example.”