Why Asset Management is Gateway to Optimizing Operational Costs in the Mining Industry

These challenges make it difficult to add an additional layer of technology, which would require strategic oversight and long-term vision. Asset management plays an especially huge role in this sector considering the sophistication of assets (fixed and mobile) used, as well as the need for consistent replacement of spare parts. However, there are foreseeable challenges that need to be addressed before setting up asset management systems.

Let us now look at the use case specific to the mining industry, where operators heavily rely on the usage of Fixed Plant assets and different types of Heavy Mobile Equipment (HME) and Light Mobile Equipment (LME). There are over 100 different HME and LME, each of which serve a unique purpose and deliver a specific set of functionalities with different assemblies. While the engineering design of the asset may remain the same and the surface level functions might look similar too, when it comes to spares which are assigned maintenance tasks for reliable functions of asset, each machine comes with its own set of requirements. This is also coupled with concerns about the increasing costs of maintenance, especially due to obsolete maintenance strategies for assets. Let us take a closer look at some of the requirements that mandate better asset management systems.

Requirement #1: Mobile assets need the right set of spare parts at the right time. Not being able to procure the right part could lead to heavy production losses or in certain cases even fatalities.

Requirement #2: Spares not being readily available at OEMs or warehouses often cause operational disruptions that lead to loss of revenue or overhead costs. Non-availability of spares during maintenance activities contribute to 30% of downtime.

Requirement #3: Owing to the variation in products being mined, the ability to understand which spare part is right for which vehicle quickly and procure the part necessary is of utmost importance to keep operations running smoothly and efficiently.

While centralized enterprise level asset management systems play a critical role in ensuring the upkeep and functioning of all equipment as well as assets through global international standards, its true potential is unlocked when maintenance management and supply chain are integrated. This leads to the innovative concept of integrating Spare Parts Interpretation (SPI) & Maintenance Tasks (MT) through CMMS systems, ERP and Reliability Improvement systems, which can be executed through work management systems. This integration often results in immediate, visible and tangible ROI.

Successful asset management requires a proven approach to provide end-to-end solution for maintenance strategy development. An exhaustive digital library of tasks that required to be performed during maintenance of mobile assets creates a more streamlined centralized system of managing correctness, completeness and consistency data on assets. The solution should be able to deliver a taskbased analysis that provides a comprehensive review approach by using current maintenance plans / tasks, along with the digital task library, OEM recommendations and inputs from asset reliability experts to identify duplicate and missing tasks with recommendation of Spares requirement.

For mining organizations that are looking to navigate this journey, partners such as Cyient provide aholistic, end to end asset management solution and approach that brings together decades of experience and expertise across the industry. Their team of qualified and experienced domain engineers can help deliver end to end integration to enhance the visibility of supply chain, asset reliability, maintenance strategy and integrated digital road map.

As the complexities of the mining industry continue to rise, the demand for heavy machinery will continue to steadily grow as well. Asset management will play a significant role in ensuring correct spares are assigned to tasks and maintenance are made readily available, especially in the onset of the proliferation of intelligent devices. Mining organizations who treat this as an investment, are the most likely to witness return in the long run. The question is not why they need to invest in asset management, it is how quickly.