From Data to Action: Real-time asset information benefits everyone
Written by Justin Johnsen
Optimizing a mining process requires an initial understanding of all
parties involved. It is important to know what is at stake from one
process to the next and, just as important, to know the stakeholders.
Whenever the implementation of a real-time maintenance management system
is discussed, the most commonly identified groups are operations and
maintenance departments.
However, limiting the stakeholders to these departments alone misses the
bigger picture — ignoring several groups within mining organizations
and the industry at large that benefit from the information gathered.
Implementing a real-time maintenance system directly impacts several
groups whose active involvement in the implementation process allows
faster recognition of the inherent benefits.
Who holds a stake?
It is well established that maintenance managers rely heavily on
information to develop long-term strategies. To ensure current equipment
can meet future demands, managers require information on fleet
reliability, cost and operating characteristics. Superintendents and
supervisors implement maintenance plans based on priority, manpower and
cost of repairs. Planners and schedulers work to predict preventive
maintenance schedules, component replacement intervals and warrantee
work based on the information provided them. Maintenance engineering
groups desire the necessary data to understand and research
opportunities for continuous improvement. Finally, mechanics desire to
work efficiently, without constantly changing priorities.
Operations departments gain from maintenance planning, scheduling,
diagnostics and predictive process optimizations. Operational managers
and superintendents examine specific details of the mine plan, seeking
ways equipment configurations can meet or surpass material movement
goals. Field supervisors and fleet dispatchers require maintenance
schedules for equipment rotation and daily plans to maximize their
production goals. Lastly, operators depend on maintenance to provide
equipment that operates safely and reliably.
Supporting departments play a huge role in the day-to-day and long-term
plans of successful organizations. Tire shops, lube and fuel services,
and reliability-centred maintenance (RCM) technicians all rely on
operations and maintenance to work cohesively for operational and
mechanical excellence. Tire life, rotations and budgeting are determined
by reviewing available information. Inconsistent or non-existent data
regarding tire life can cause large discrepancies in the operational
budget. Lube and fueling operations provide the lifeblood of the
equipment. Without information on fluid levels, production is
compromised. RCM technicians ensure oil, vibration, ultrasound and
thermal imaging, providing information back to the organization
facilitating value-added decisions on machinery health. Without
predictable schedules from maintenance, repairing or replacing onboard
technology, or performing RCM tasks, adds to unscheduled downtime.
In modern mines, there are onsite groups ensuring the regulatory
agencies expectations are exceeded. These reporting parties help
maintenance and operations provide environmentally sound processes and
employee safety. Safety departments audit and report on the
organization’s ability to provide the safest equipment and working
conditions for the employees. Environmental services must be able to
view and report on carbon emissions and the success of the fluids
management.
OEMs continuously strive to produce better components and outperform
their competition. There are also opportunities for contract
maintenance, which requires cost control and KPI tracking to maintain
customer satisfaction. Providing real-time data to the experts leads to
long-term maintenance success and, at times, information to help OEMs
produce better products.
A real-time maintenance system with remote monitoring and data capturing
abilities assists all of these stakeholders in achieving capacity
assurance. The keys to its effectiveness — to a significant ROI — are
the proper implementation and organizational participation. Once groups
recognize they hold a stake, they must play their part and work
together. Overall, maintenance management software is a steppingstone
towards the integration of proactive maintenance into daily routines and
continuous improvement.
What are the benefits?
Moving forward with an insertion of technology and data into the
maintenance realm has numerous benefits, which allow an organization to
move beyond the reactive practices of post-failure download diagnostic
or having operators report abnormal conditions occurring onboard. The
new proactive process is relatively easy to implement, providing
immediate returns to the entire organization.
Furthermore, the remote data collection aspect of a maintenance system
allows for an organization to institute reliability engineering or RCM
practices in addition to the real-time maintenance. RCM implements
engineering analysis of the operating characteristics of components and
ensures resistance to failure, typically measured by mean time between
failures (MTBF). Also, RCM implements the engineering analysis into a
predictive model to identify the probability a failure is likely to
occur. The focus on acting early will result in less repair time and
lower repair costs, which translates to predictive maintenance.
Real-Time Benefits
In a fleet management system, all equipment has operational data
captured regardless of type or model. Having all of these data gathered
and displayed in one single software package optimizes the
troubleshooting, actions and reporting, eliminating the need for
separate software packages for each OEM. Real-time maintenance systems
show active alarm conditions for all equipment regardless of
manufacturer, immediate diagnostics for an active fault code through
snapshots and the association of the troubleshooting or repair guides
for alarms.
Viewing real-time raw sensor data can indicate the root cause of faults
as well as parts necessary to fix, perform preventive maintenance (PM)
inspections, or provide the details necessary to identify a larger issue
— whose immediate correction could avoid a catastrophic failure. The
application also reduces the time to dispatch a mechanic to an equipment
unit or simply eliminates unnecessary trips. However, to limit the
benefits to a single group or department will hinder acceptance;
delaying deployment and ROI. Identifying and maximizing the benefits for
each stakeholder will amplify the acceptance and shorten the timetable
for successful implementation.
Remote Data Collection Features
Historical information and data collection for analysis can move an
organization from reacting to alarm conditions in order to prevent an
impending failure to a more proactive approach involving statistical
analysis, component-level root-cause analysis and failure mode effects
analysis. This is what is expected through historical analysis and
research. The benefits typically are listed only to assist those
directly assigned to ensure reliability. To ensure successful
implementation, a stakeholder must again be aware of the entire
organization and recognize all potential benefits of remote data
collection.
Abnormal conditions can lead to larger failures or reduce the overall
ability of equipment to perform at the desired level. Behind these
alarms are the individual sensors with raw values triggering
notifications. The context surrounding these signals provides the
details necessary to prevent continual accumulation of abnormal
conditions. While sensor information is critical, detailed logs for
unscheduled downtime events are also necessary to better understand
opportunities for improvement. Time tracking allows detailed information
that can be related back to the abnormal or alarm conditions being
captured in the system.
Temperatures, pressures, speed and operating conditions, among other
factors, are critical to understanding the history behind the capacity
of a particular component, and whether it is achieving the desired
productivity and/or life cycle. When looking to implement technology to
improve performance or reduce costs, looking beyond just maintenance
benefits will ensure success.
Real-time maintenance systems are designed to allow users to take raw
data and convert that into information — and to then take action. This
concept is used frequently, and it should be a focus for an organization
considering maintenance management technologies. All this should come
back to benefits. A system’s ability to turn data into information and
information into action should benefit as many groups inside the
organization as possible. Implementation without organizational buy-in
is possible, but with microscopic tracking of return on investments, it
is not probable. Once groups recognize they are stakeholders in the
implementation, that there are qualitative and quantitative benefits to
all parties, organizational buy-in and acceptance is achievable. The
entire organization participating and benefiting from the decision to
implement technology into their maintenance program will ultimately
provide a sustainable and repeatable predictive/preventive maintenance
ratio. When the ratio is sustainable and repeatable, the entire
organization is successful.
Justin Johnsen is the maintenance product manager at Modular Mining Systems Inc. For more information, visit www.mmsi.com.
It’s a whole new world for maintenance and engineering technicians. The use of mobile computing devices is on the rise, replacing the traditional pen and clipboard. Is it right for your facility?
