precision on shovels/loading units, as
well as on production blast drills, dozers
and track dozers.
Accordig to Shane Boak, former FMS
administrator at Barrick Gold, “one of the
biggest benefits of the Jmineops system is
the amount of data it captures. [There is
data for] everything that’s happening in
the pit and mining environment. There is
time-related information, as well as data
on where material is being picked up,
where it gets dumped, who’s operating
the equipment, how fast it’s going, or
what’s happening with the engine”.
Get with the data
Complementary software modules and
hardware components provide precise
measurement and enhanced operations
logic. They also provide a wide variety of
uses of equipment in ROMprocesses.
The universal hardware platform (UHP)
also allows a number of OEM
independent interfacing options, while
also increasing the potential of integrating
further equipment diagnostics,
maintenance and lifecycle management
within the same system.
“We’re using these tools to pull all this
information together so we can make
more informed decisions. We’re keeping
trucks running longer and faster,
optimising production and better
managing risks,” continued Boak.
Leica’s business intelligence (BI) suite
for reporting and analytics, Jigsaw Jview,
is then used to expand data collection
and information management into
knowledge. This promotes process
improvement, production efficiency and
more adept management decisions for
long-term improvements. In turn, this
helps operators stay on budget and
achieve or exceed goals.
“It’s all recorded and the BI can be
used to analyse all of this information
and use it to make more informed
decisions,” explained Boek. “We can then
improve our use of the FMS and our
processes, based on past performance
and benchmarking results with goals.”
Data must be sourced from outside
the FMS in order to evaluate the
performance of mining operations. Each
mining operation has multiple levels of
data consumers and information users.
There are many BI solutions in every
industry, ranging from banking to
manufacturing. Additionally, there are
productised solutions, which range from
basic reporting to data warehousing
within multiple operations, and carry on
up to enterprise resource planning.
Jview takes frameworks and portions of
these components, scales the data and
focuses the content. Information
delivery is tailored to many levels of
user and data consumer, frommine fleet
dispatchers to management and
analysts. The standard report suite is a
combination of:
n
n
Dashboards for near real-time
information.
n
n
Static reports for common daily and
operational reports.
n
n
Dynamic reports for common longer
term analysis.
n
n
OLAP database cubes for ad-hoc
reporting and in depth analysis.
Standard functionality is available out
of the box. The platform can be extended
and content expanded and modified so
users can own and interact with
their data.
Reports to management
Amine administrator must be able to
provide specific reports to a manager
upon request. These managers or
supervisors often do not know exactly
what they want to see, so the
administrator must explain what type of
data is captured in the system, as well as
the information it could provide. Using
content like OLAP databases, ad-hoc
reporting can be expanded and data
explored. Users can be shown how to
slice and dice the data to investigate what
they are searching for by leveraging the
data model and tools with no specific
coding or query skills necessary. Often
the most difficult part of understanding
what data represents is learning what
business rules and requirements are
needed to solve problems. The time it
takes to access and analyse data is also a
challenge that needs to be addressed.
“Jviewmakes it easy to draft a report,
show the manager, get feedback and then
redesign the report to attain the
customised information requested. We
use these systems in a lot of areas. One
recent project looked at visualising the
information. Atable of data is one thing
and we needed different perspectives. By
putting it into a visual context and then,
by manipulating the scenario, we can see
how the data relates,” Boak said.
Data diagnostics
Applying diagnostics information,
together with production events, gives
valuable insight into situations. Detailed
historical information from the FMS on
operators working hours, cycle times and
travelling speeds can be explored and
examined. With high sample rate GPS
data, it is possible to determine actual
speeds and equipment orientation before
and after an incident. When played back,
the equipment path and activity can be
reviewed.
“Accidents on the minesite are the last
thing anyone wants, but when they do
happen, it is important to analyse what
was happening in the lead up to the
event. Jmineops, combined with Jhealth
Leica Jigsaw Jview data.
18
|
World Coal
|
September 2014
