MinLog™ MineSuite™ plays a crucial role in turning information into knowledge that can be applied to decisions which improve operational productivity and efficiency.
The roles and information depicted in this scenario reflect the day-to-day benefits of the MineSuite deployment at the Khumani Iron Ore Mine in South Africa.
Before start of business each morning, the Plant Manager studies the MineSuite Plant Production Report to verify the previous day’s production against target, and to identify exceptions that may require attention.
On this day, the feed to the plant ROM has fallen behind target, and the ROM stock balance is too low. Should the trend continue, this will have a negative impact on the production tempos required to achieve the monthly target.
At the daily 07:00 Production Meeting the Plant Manager raises the issue with stakeholders – plant superintendents, planners and engineering heads. Various delays reported by MineSuite are reviewed along with the plant report; the discussion focuses on the plant ROM and the reason for the tonnage decline.
It immediately becomes evident that a tear in a section of the overland conveyor belt was the primary cause.
The Plant Superintendent had been made aware of the conveyor tear the night before, so runs the MineSuite Plant Report to understand the impact of the breakdown on the ROM actuals. Running MineSuite Engineering Reports verifies maintenance progress on repairing the belt tear.
Knowing that questions will be raised during the daily production meeting, the Plant Superintendent contacts the engineering head responsible for conveyors to discuss the cause of the breakdown and the tactical and strategic measures taken to alleviate the loss and to prevent future occurrences.
Given the availability of MineSuite reporting tools, like the Pareto Dashboards, Top 10 Delay Report, Time Usage Report and Delay Detail Report, the Engineering Manager is well aware of the event and its impact before the Plant Superintendent brings it to attention.
It is clear that the failure had a significant impact on the overall availability of the overland conveying process. The Engineering Manager tasks the foreman on duty to conduct a root cause analysis to determine whether this breakdown could have been avoided and to assess remedial and preventative action.
At the weekly Management Meeting the Plant Manager presents the week’s MineSuite Plant Report to the General Manager and Department Heads.
They are informed that the overland conveying issue has been attended to, and of what preventative and remedial action has been taken. The new forecast is advised using MineSuite reported trends.
This scenario would have been very different before the implementation of MineSuite. Daily production meetings often focused on whose information was correct, rather than how best to manage the issues.
MineSuite provides a single version of the truth across disciplines and processes, allowing managers to focus on exceptions.
MineSuite provides easy to interpret operational information representing complex processes in an intuitive manner for use by management.
Thanks to
Khumani Iron Ore Mine