Indo Muro Kencana Archives - International Mining

Since implementing Volvo Construction Equipment’s ActiveCare, Indonesian gold miner Indo Muro Kencana (IMK) has experienced productivity improvements that could easily be replicated across the industry, according to Hendro Sugito, Aftermarket Director at Indotruck Utama, authorised dealer for Volvo Construction Equipment in Indonesia

Gold exploration and mining company IMK, based in Central Kalimantan, connected the country’s largest ever fleet of machines to ActiveCare, the remote monitoring and proactive maintenance service, in November 2021.

IMK’s 52 articulated haulers and seven crawler excavators are fitted with sensors that convey real-time information relating to their production, fuel consumption, health and even operator skill to a portal in the cloud.

Some data points, such as location, speed and load are also communicated from machine to machine to help the operators complete work safely and efficiently.

The dashboards and reports then enable the plant and site manager to identify areas for productivity and efficiency improvements, implement adjustments and set new targets for further progress, according to Volvo CE. This could involve tweaking the number and capacity of machines on site to reduce idling time, finding more direct driving routes, or introducing training for certain operators.

Nine months on, the data has helped IMK increase productivity across its three sites by approximately a third, while reducing fuel consumption for the benefit of the environment and the company’s bottom line, Volvo CE says.

Another major benefit of connecting the fleet has been the positive impact on the convenience, effectiveness and cost of managing machine servicing and repairs, according to the OEM.

With ActiveCare, an artificial intelligence tool monitors all error codes and alarms transmitted from the machines to the cloud. The algorithm sorts through the data, prioritising the alerts according to urgency and severity and attributing probable causes.

This saves a huge amount of time and effort for the plant manager and helps them to determine whether immediate intervention is required for an issue or if the service technicians can wait until the next scheduled downtime. The engineers can also remedy small issues before they have the chance to develop into more serious and expensive problems, and always be ready with the right tools and parts.

Overall, the system has given IMK unprecedented insight into equipment availability, Volvo CE says. This information is key to productivity and profitability in a mining environment where machines are expected to operate almost 24 h/d and any time lost is a loss in earning potential. With ActiveCare, IMK can now optimise its machine availability and ultimately boost overall profitability of its facility, the company concluded.

Through proactive monitoring and preventative maintenance, Volvo ACTIVE CARE is supporting Indonesian gold miner, Indo Muro Kencana (IMK), in achieving greater uptime and, therefore, greater productivity and profitability from its fleet of haulers and excavators.

IMK now has Indonesia’s largest fleet of machines connected to Volvo ACTIVE CARE, including 52 A40G articulated haulers and seven crawler excavators (five EC480DL and two EC750DL models).

The company, based in Central Kalimantan, recently took the decision to connect its machines to the new proactive monitoring service in a bid to boost machine availability and production.

Although still early days, IMK anticipates Volvo ACTIVE CARE will increase machine availability to 92% and productivity by 32% as a result.

“Our machines work long hours to meet production targets and we cannot afford to lose production due to unscheduled downtime. Volvo ACTIVE CARE will take us from reactive maintenance and repair behaviours to being proactive about the uptime of our fleet,” Mr Julianto, Maintenance Superintendent at IMK, said.

Maintenance Manager, Mr Karsono, added: “We are also excited to see how we can use the ACTIVE CARE reports to improve operator behaviour, reduce fuel consumption and improve productivity. For example, we can improve productivity and lower costs just by knowing the idling status of the fleet and setting targets to reduce it.”

Using Volvo CareTrack telematics data, staff at the Volvo Uptime Center in Singapore will remotely monitor the performance of IMK’s machines as well as any error codes or alarms that appear. If there is a severe error that might lead to breakdown, the Uptime Center will create a case and contact the local dealer, Indotruck Utama, to suggest an action to IMK.

This takes the hassle out of fleet management and IMK can rest assured any potential problems will be noticed and addressed before they lead to costly unplanned downtime.