Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr
Issue link: https://emj.epubxp.com/i/131325
MINING SOF TWARE ing, at Mining Indaba in South Africa earlier this year. RPMÕs Regional General ManagerÐEMEA, Mike Evans, explained that many of the companyÕs clients are dependent on ÒnicheÓ technical skills. ÒWith a skills shortage continuing to affect the industry, weÕve addressed these concerns by opening up mine planning to a wider audience,Ó Evans said. RPMÕs coal software, Evans said, reduces the need to learn scripting, allowing for more high-speed planning. ÒBy implementing Underground Coal, we remove the risk of loss of human capital from our clientsÕ business,Ó he said. The RPM product enters the market against GEOVIA/GemcomÕs coal solution, which to date has been the only integrated, end-to-end geology and mine planning solution designed specifically for coal, according to Robert Selzler, GemcomÕs vice president of marketing. Gemcom released the latest version of Minex (6.1.1) in late 2011, which built on existing underground capabilities to offer a complete underground coal scheduling and design solution. It has since been renamed Underground Engineering. Further strengthening MICROMINEÕs exploration offerings is Coal Measure, a software solution specific to the coal sector that enables modeling of coal projects to be executed quickly due to seamless processes, from stratigraphic hierarchy compilation through to gridding and seam block model generation. Advances in Asset Management Mining companies interested in reducing maintenance costs and improving plant reliability may accomplish those goals through a solution released in January from enterprise resource planning (ERP) software provider Syspro and enterprise asset management (EAM) software provider Mainpac. The combined offering is claimed to be unique in the industry, enabling mine operators to take immediate advantage of the latest EAM and ERP technology, according to Mainpac Executive Chairman James Kirk. ÒMining is an asset-intensive business and maintenance can account for anywhere between 30% and 50% of a mine siteÕs overall costs. This makes it a key area in which companies can gain efficiencies and a competitive advantage,Ó Kirk said. ÒAs well as being asset intensive, mining is also a heavily regulated industry. Equipment is frequently audited to make 62 E&MJ; • APRIL 2013 sure the correct parts are in place and the equipment is well maintained. Maintenance managers must be able to provide accurate records for compliance and auditing purposes. This process becomes much faster and less labor intensive with the use of an effectiveÉEAM system.Ó According to Mainpac, a recent Aberdeen Group report suggests that a mineÕs performance is directly affected by the management of its assets. The report said performance can be characterized by overall equipment effectiveness, unscheduled asset downtime, maintenance costs and return on assets. ÒMany ERP providers offer a solution that includes asset management capabilities, but the asset management component is usually an afterthought and is often inadequate to meet the requirements of asset intensive businesses. The initial outlay and ongoing costs of these Ôall-in-oneÕ solutions can be very high, especially when the purchased solution is inadequate, and the company must return to market to find an asset management solution that meets their needs,Ó Kirk said. ÒBy partnering with Syspro, weÕve created a Ôbest of both worldsÕ solution. With a comprehensive ERP system and a specialized EAM system working together in a preintegrated solution, mining companies will start seeing benefits almost immediately.Ó The implementation process is easier and faster, according to the developersÑ and is also scalable, so users can start small and expand their use of the system across multiple sites or divisions as needed. According to Mainpac, substantial savings and operational efficiencies are achieved via the capability of the integrated solution to track and manage asset availability and performance and apply maintenance strategies according to an assetÕs criticality to the business, according to Kirk. ÒThe integrated system lets you see everything down to the finest detail so you can make smarter decisions about maintenance, faster,Ó he said. ÒYou can balance maintenance costs against replacement costs, for example. With a best of breed asset management system in place you can identify warranty opportunities, reduce unplanned downtime and reduce the number of spare parts and consumables held across multiple sites.Ó MainpacÕs software, Mainpac 2011, was developed in consultation with research partners such as the Cooperative Research Center for Infrastructure and Engineering Asset Management (CIEAM). It enables customers to take incremental steps toward best practices, making it ideal for organizations that are still exploring the concept of predictive maintenance. ÒReliability tools within Mainpac 2011, like its Criticality Matrix and Maintenance Strategy Decision Tree, enable customers to quickly identify key assets and develop a maintenance strategy based on practical considerations. ItÕs easy to use with minimal keystrokes, so it wonÕt take long for users to be up and running with the solution,Ó Kirk said. ÒAs well as integrating easily with SysproÕs ERP system, Mainpac 2011 also readily integrates with operational and SCADA systems for greater visibility and automation across the business.Ó Shaun Butler, SysproÕs general managerÐAsia Pacific, said the joint offering will give customers control over key assets and enterprise wide business processes in one fast implementation. ÒBoth Mainpac and Syspro have had a single solution focus for more than 30 years and both have invested heavily in ongoing development and continuous improvement. This partnership now enables Syspro ERP users to gain interactive dashboards; workflow capability across an entire enterprise; accessibility from anywhere and anyhow; flexibility in deployment; total scalability; and a complete out of the box solution that works seamlessly across all areas of the business without the need for any customized integration,Ó Butler said. In a slightly different vein, Dingo Software, developers of the popular Trakka software tool for in asset-intensive industries, announced that it planned to release a new Condition Intelligence Module in April 2013. The new module, said Dingo, enables streamlined and automatic diagnostics of asset condition through the use of rules-based analysis. The goal of Condition Intelligence is to proactively identify issues with components and assets and then provide the client with recommendations and action plans to correct the problems in an appropriate time frame. At the core of the Condition Intelligence module is a forward-chaining rules engine which processes and reacts to incoming data and event patterns. When triggered, these rules initiate workflow recommendations, or series of maintenance tasks designed to address an abnormal equipment condition. These rules integrate with the workflow www.e-mj.com