Tag Archives: Asset Performance Management

Leveraging the intelligent mine concept for improved profitability, sustainability

Automation, Equipment maintenance, IoT, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining services, , , , , , , ,

The case for digitalisation is clear, according to AspenTech’s Jeannette McGill*, with digitalisation being critical for the metals and mining industry to achieve sustainability and operational excellence in the years ahead.

This is why the more forward-looking decision makers in the mining industry are embedding digital capabilities in their operations so they remain agile, competitive and profitable over the long term, while realising immediate and measurable benefits, she says. Technology providers have responded to the industry’s needs with solutions designed for the mining sector that directly address the dual imperatives of greater business efficiency and enhanced sustainability.

The intelligent mine

In their digitalisation initiatives, today’s operators also know that managing data more efficiently and effectively will be crucial in helping them to meet the challenges they face. Multiple difficulties remain in the way that organisations across the sector manage their data.

Senior mining company executives frequently make tough decisions but, in doing so, they must aggregate isolated pockets of data to generate insights that are relevant and actionable. For data to be available is no longer sufficient. The top priority for effective decision making is for appropriate management of diverse and disparate data sets in a range of locations.

The key is to integrate data and conduct high-level analysis with an understanding of the domain work requirements. Mining companies achieving this will establish what has become known as the intelligent mine. This is a concept that focuses on centralising information from multiple locations and business processes to reveal useful insights. It supports senior level decision making with designed-for-purpose analytical platforms.

Data held in 50 separate systems will not in itself drive operational efficiencies or support sustainable operations. By addressing several issues simultaneously, an organisation is more likely to move towards the intelligent mine.

First, though, businesses must implement automated data gathering systems to capture relevant data from various parts of the mining process and facilities. Second, organisations must have tools that detect bad data because only good data enables good decisions. They must ensure all changes are consistent, correct and improve data processing. Third, the business should assist the mine personnel by providing the capability to integrate data with built-in relevant analytics, so they process and act on insights in a meaningful time frame.

The predictive dimension

To create an intelligent mine, good data is important but only one part of the equation. Organisations must also analyse data in different ways within a context of the problem to be solved with appropriate predictive outcomes.

Companies need to predict the degradation of equipment that, if unattended, will lead to equipment breakdowns and unplanned maintenance, thereby adversely affecting both operational efficiency, reliability, sustainability and safety. Mining is equipment- and infrastructure-intensive with expensive machinery. It demands operational continuity for profitability and sustainability.

Bringing in prescriptive maintenance

Traditional preventive maintenance methods generally fail on the benchmark of equipment availability and performance. Earlier preventive maintenance efforts were unable to deliver sufficient time-to-failure warnings to deliver a significant impact on profitability.

That is where modern prescriptive maintenance plays a vital role. The technology monitors data from sensors on and around the machine to develop intense multi-dimensional and temporal patterns of normal operation, abnormal operation and explicit degradation patterns that precede breakdown. This provides early warnings, using artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning digital technology to spot patterns that humans will never pick up.

Also surpassing human capability, the technology can assess the health of numerous machines every few minutes. It also delivers early warnings to maintenance teams, often with prescriptive advice on resolution. Facing tough challenges and spread thinly over large sites, workers benefit from warnings. Much of the intense repetitive analytics and engineering help them prioritise what matters most. Maintenance teams with such prescriptive maintenance tools ensure an intelligent mine makes significant progress in eliminating unplanned breakdowns.

Finding a solution

An asset performance management (APM) approach – with integrated prescriptive maintenance capability – ensures mines improve reliability, availability and uptime, simultaneously reducing the considerable cost of redundant equipment.

Operations teams often work on the assumption of lower availability by, for example, installing three machines when they only need two, or purchasing 10 trucks to ensure they always have eight up and running. These practices are now deemed too wasteful and have become unsustainable.

By embracing the most effective technology, mines can achieve benchmark reliability without the need for more people, equipment, or expenditure. Companies can operate at the required production levels and either mothball or switch off redundant equipment. Being able to do this with full confidence it will actually enhance overall outcomes, makes a significant contribution to the bottom line. It reduces emissions and increases sustainability.

Yet to develop an efficient digitalisation strategy, certain components must be in place. All too often, mines try to invest minimally in digital solutions to save money. Without domain-centric AI/machine learning analytics, this limits the reach and value technology can deliver. Successful digital strategies deploy solutions that draw on data from sensors and other sources. Enterprise resource planning systems, manufacturing execution systems, laboratory information management systems and advanced process control systems are all part of the mix, as well as general mine planning and design systems. Machine learning and other data science techniques require timely delivery of available data, so historian technology plays a vital role.

Across the industry, a growing numbers of mines are pursuing an APM approach. Australia-based gold miner, Evolution Mining, for example, has deployed Aspen Mtell software at the company’s Mungari Gold Operations, in Western Australia, to help reduce unplanned downtime and provide information to support productivity improvements.

Greg Walker, previously Evolution Mining Mungari General Manager, said: “Evolution’s Data Enabled Business Improvement program has achieved excellent results in recent years. With this new technology, Mungari Gold Operations can achieve further productivity improvements via increased asset availability.”

Looking to the future

Today’s mining industry is now sufficiently mature that it should fully embrace digital optimisation technologies. Operators that fail to adapt and build a strategy to utilise such technology are destined to struggle against competitors that do. Prescriptive maintenance delivers quick results by improving the use of existing capital assets and eliminating the surprise of unplanned downtime, which directly affects productivity, safety and sustainability.

The industry should understand how scalable prescriptive maintenance solutions add value to assets. This works as well with a single asset, conveyer system, a processing plant, a large mill, as it does with equipment across a worldwide enterprise. The truly intelligent mine empowers mining companies across a vast array of contemporary challenges. From reducing unplanned downtime and decreasing safety risks, to greater operational efficiency, sustainability and increased profitability, this approach will be essential for mining companies to surmount all their challenges in short and longer terms.

*Jeannette McGill is VP and GM of Metals & Mining at AspenTech

Hastings Deering starts APM equipment journey with load and haul

Equipment maintenance, IoT, Mining equipment, Mining services, , , , , , ,

Hastings Deering, a distributor of new, used and rental Caterpillar machinery and services, has launched an Asset Performance Management (APM) solution that, it says, bolsters the company’s strategy of helping customers use Cat equipment more productively.

Hastings Deering Asset Support Supervisor, Kurt Pidgeon, says the new APM solution complements the company’s traditional value proposition.

“Hastings Deering has always been very effective with analysing the reliability and availability of equipment,” he says. “However, customers buy machines for productivity, so we decided to start providing productivity solutions to complement existing traditional reliability analysis that we perform.”

Starting with load and haul machinery and expanding into other operational areas, the APM solution delivers a wide range of reports and recommendations to improve productivity, according to the company.

APM is concerned with how the entire mining circuit is performing as a system, rather than a single facet of an operation, or individual machine, the company says.

“There are many information systems that aim to bolster productivity, but APM is unique in providing insights into how the whole circuit is performing as a system and specific recommendations on how to improve,” Pidgeon explains. “We help customers achieve their maximum sustainable production rate circuit-by-circuit as the mine plan evolves, as opposed to looking at one machine at a time.”

He added: “Analysing machine productivity has been done well for many years. Key performance indicators like truck payload have been a strong area of focus, for example. What if trucks are not the constraining factor on site and it is the load tool instead?

“Using APM, we focus on the broader mining operation so that we can better understand exactly where the improvement opportunities are.”

APM analyses the data from an entire mining operation to provide in-depth insights that lead to productivity and efficiency boosts, according to the company.

For Pidgeon, this means finding areas of improvement that may otherwise go unnoticed.

“Mining clients receive insights from the APM software via a team of specialists here,” he explains. “That leads to productivity improvements and efficiencies gained.”

Hastings Deering will soon expand the APM platform to other disciplines, such as drill and blast, with the aim of supporting the entire value chain of an operation.

“We’re about to start a module for the analysis for drill and blast processes,” Pidgeon says. “Further to this, we are developing analytical tools for each of the processes in mining.

“This will also include wash plant and material handling aspects to properly understand how one part of the value chain affects the performance of another. You need the complete picture to find the weakest link in that whole value chain.”

Remote operations have become critical to sustain mine operations this year in response to the restrictions enforced by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Hastings Deering has developed the APM solution to enable miners to analyse performance remotely when required.

“Remote management of mining is well accepted now,” Pidgeon says. “Working remotely in all facets of productivity monitoring is no different.

“It certainly enables clients to review site operations without having to be there. Mining is an industry where people work and live in different locations. Minimising travel if we can do so is an important thing to do at this time.”

Uptake, Symboticware to provide miners with predictive maintenance solution

Communications in mining, Equipment maintenance, IoT, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining services, , , , , , ,

Uptake says it has partnered with Symboticware to provide mining companies with an end-to-end, integrated artificial intelligence (AI) and data science solution to increase the productivity of mobile mining equipment.

The joint solution combines Symboticware’s SymBot® device, which provides data capture from mining fleets, and Uptake’s Asset Performance Management (APM) software, Asset IO, which applies AI to surface predictive insights from the data.

The combination of the two, according to Uptake, arms users with:

  • Data-driven cost reductions: For an average medium-sized mining site, Asset IO can save as much as $2.5 million/y in haul truck maintenance, fuel and tyre costs alone. Additionally, operator and fleet productivity is optimised with the help of benchmarking and informed decision-making;
  • Actionable insights for continuous improvement: Asset IO quickly turns data into actionable, AI-driven insights. The software deploys AI models that are pre-trained to drive greater performance, reliability and availability of the mobile mining fleet; and
  • Greater visibility into assets: collect data from sensors, store time-stamped values in an internal database and seamlessly transmit data for AI analysis.

Ash Agarwal, Director of Mining at Uptake, said: “Optimal machine health and performance is critical to getting the most out of investments in equipment, and to achieving a high return on capital employed. Performing regular maintenance on haul trucks can be labour- and time-intensive, with the added cost of unplanned downtime having a significant impact on throughput and operating expenses.

“This integrated solution provides the best of industrial IoT and AI to reduce downtime, minimise operating expenses and aid in the development of a comprehensive maintenance program.”

Kirk Petroski, President and CEO of Symboticware, said industrial data is only as good as the insights that can be gleaned from it. “This solution delivers predictive insights that are both accurate and actionable, providing users with sufficient lead time into maintenance issues so they can be ahead of the curve. That ability to proactively mitigate maintenance problems yields a proven, measurable increase in productivity,” he said.

GE Digital to unlock and leverage machine data with new IIoT division

Automation, Communications in mining, IoT, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , , , , , , , ,

GE has announced plans to establish a new, independent company focused on building a comprehensive Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) software portfolio.

The company, GE Digital, has a head start with $1.2 billion in annual software revenue already locked in, plus an existing global industrial customer base.

GE Digital is intended to be a GE wholly-owned, independently run business with a new brand and identity, its own equity structure, and its own Board of Directors, the company said. It plans to unlock machine data to turn valuable insights into powerful business outcomes, according to the company.

“The proposed new organisation aims to bring together GE Digital’s industry-leading IIoT solutions including the Predix platform, Asset Performance Management, Historian, Automation (HMI/SCADA), Manufacturing Execution Systems, Operations Performance Management, and the GE Power Digital and Grid Software Solutions businesses,” GE said.

In addition to this spinoff, GE announced an agreement to sell a majority stake in ServiceMax, a provider of field service management software, to Silver Lake, a private equity firm focused on technology investments.

“With these actions, GE will sharpen the focus of its IIoT portfolio to position the new business for future growth,” GE said, adding the transaction was expected to close in the March quarter, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

GE Chairman and CEO Lawrence Culp Jr, said: “As an early leader in IIoT, GE has built a strong business with its industrial customers thanks to deep domain knowledge and software expertise.”

The IIoT is a nascent market but is expected to have significant growth, GE said.

“GE’s independent software business moves into the market with a strong position, building on the company’s experience and success developing solutions to drive the outcomes that matter most for asset-intensive industries,” it added.

GE’s new IIoT business would provide software for these asset intensive industries with a focus on the power, renewables, aviation, oil and gas, food and beverage, chemicals, consumer packaged goods and mining industries.

“These industries build on GE’s foundation and expertise as a leading MES provider for nearly 20 years. With an already thriving business in these areas, the new digital organisation is positioned to accelerate GE’s ability to deliver IIoT solutions that meet the needs of these industrial customers, addressing the most impactful aspects of the asset lifecycle,” the company said.

With GE Digital CEO, Bill Ruh, deciding to depart GE to pursue other opportunities, the company plans to conduct an internal and external search to identify the CEO for this new independent company.

GE Digital’s Predix portfolio – including the leading Asset Performance Management and Field Service Management applications, as well as Predix Private Cloud – helps customers manage the entire asset lifecycle.

Underpinned by Predix, the application development platform for the Industrial Internet, GE Digital enables industrial businesses to operate faster, smarter and more efficiently, wherever their operations require, the company said.