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Reliability Strategy

Assess equipment availability and reliability accurately for a higher return on capital

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Overview

Equipment availability is a crucial, primary metric in mining operations, and is an indicator that trucks, trams, excavators, drills, pumps, curtains, lighting, conveyors, crushers, mills, are in working order and may be deployed.

However, the questions of whether equipment can be deployed or whether it should be deployed are very different. Often, a desire to increase return on capital, by deploying all available equipment, creates a blockage in the mining cycle.

This traffic can result in long queue times at mine excavators, waste dumps, hoists, crushers, and stockpiles. The inefficient use of labor and fuel also increases unit costs, and this unproductive time can affect maintenance events that are triggered by hours in service. Furthermore, traffic increases fleet cycle times since these are handicapped by the slowest unit in the rotation.

Key Client Challenges

How do we efficiently maintain and service equipment while minimizing unnecessary downtime and maintain availability?

How do we create accessible systems that leverage real-time data and historical performance metrics to assess and improve reliability?

How do we effectively increase mean time between failures (MBTF) through predictive maintenance technologies?

How YCP Unison Can Help

Poor pace may be a symptom of ageing equipment, operator skills, or mining conditions, specifically, the condition of roads and ramps. Equipment reliability suffers when these are too narrow, steep, have inadequate drainage or debris.

Equipment reliability estimations are based on the probability that available equipment will operate over a scheduled period, at a required rate, under assumed conditions. Managing availability and reliability correctly will unlock significant gains in both throughput and mining costs. However, this can only be optimized when Mine Planning, Maintenance, Operations and Dispatch work together seamlessly.

At YCP Unison, our reliability strategy consulting services focus on implementing the systems and processes needed through clearly defined KPIs, role planning, and incentives to ensure your departments work together effectively. We help your teams foster an environment of continuous improvement to ensure new ways of working are reinforced long after a project closeout.