Improved Efficiency in Loading, Hauling & Dumping with Industry 4.0

#FleetManagement #Mining #Data #SAP

Abhinav Sengupta

Throwing light on the conventional practices and how Industry 4.0 can lead to enhanced deployment of equipment ensuring better productivity and growth;integration of Industry 4.0 into Mining activities can result in higher utilization and efficient control over production variability.

With time, mines extract mineral deposits at a greater depth, and it has become important to stress on efficient mining processes. Most underground mines use both-vertical and horizontal systems; and material handling is executed by drilling, blasting, loading, hauling and dumping the material. One of the most conventional processes includes the Load-Haul-Dump (LHD) machines which are required for transportation of material over short distances. Most of the LHDs operate on diesel emitting a significant amount of CO2 and releasing harmful chemicals and gasses in the air. Also a lot of dumpers are queued at loading & dumping point which affects the overall efficiency. It requires manual fleet assignment and greater manpower is positioned for supervision. The sub-optimal shovel-dumper fleet assignment leads to higher consumption of fuel; and the dumper movement on haul road lacks visibility and there is non-availability of accurate monitor operations.

As the depth of mining is increasing day by day, the distances, energy consumption, ventilation requirements, travelling distances; is increased. More attention needs to be paid to: automation, flexibility and transition from diesel to electric equipment. Recent studies reflect that integrating Industry 4.0 into Loading, Hauling & Dumping will help obtain accuracy and real-time data which will maximize efficiency in the industry.

Solutions

Fleet Management- Fleet Management Systems (FMS) will help in fleet optimization and the risks will be potentially reduced as it works on linear programming and the haulage is optimized ensuring high quality, with efficient planning of resource allocation as per its dynamic scheduling. The increased service leads to fleet's operational efficiency while minimizing costs.

SAP Integration for Real Time Data - SAP will aid in capturing real-time data and integrate it with ERP solutions. The IoT sensors are generally used to capture the data and results in measurable KPIs like equipment availability, utilization, hours run, kilometers run, fuel consumed, volume handled, breakdown time, idle time, tyre replacement.

On Board Diagnostics - Real time assessment on equipment’s operating parameters like pressure, temperature, air flow rate, and others is available with board diagnostics. The OBD is linked to the memory or data processing power and it helps in enhanced fleet and driver’s safety, also reduces the probability of equipment breakdown and triggers preventive maintenance.

Use of Advanced AnalyticsThe IoT sensors generate data; analytics and monitoring tools that help clean and analyze that data. With advanced analytics along with interactive dashboards all the measurable KPIs are efficiently tracked on a real time basis and its forecasting is done for activity like predictive maintenance.

Abhinav Sengupta, a MBA in Energy & Infrastructure with B.Tech in Mining has over a decade of rich experience in Mining, Energy & Infrastructure sector and has acquired strong industry exposure in areas of Transaction Advisory (Strategic/ Risk/ PPP), Business Valuation, Digitization/IT Integration, Techno-Economic Studies, and Strategic procurement. He is currently working with one of the Big 4 consulting firms.

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