Optimization of Performance Monitoring of Equipment to Increase the Productivity from Large Opencast Mine

Abstract

Over the last century, open cast mines have constantly increased their production rate by making use of larger machines which needs large capital investment. Lower commodity prices have forced companies to reduce their unit cost by improving productivity. One way of improving the productivity is to utilize the equipment as efficiently as possible. Hence, the precise evaluation of equipment is important in order to increase the productivity. Every industry wants to get maximum profit. This is possible if the equipment is running in good condition with no breakdown of equipment, no accident occurring, and no wastage. Loss of time in operation in not affordable to mine industry due to idleness of equipment and breakdown of machine. For estimating the equipment effectiveness in manufacturing industry, overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is a well-known measurement technique which is the combination of availability, performance.
The application of OEE in mining industry is somewhat limited. Most of the mining machines engaged mainly for production are either cutting/excavating or loading/transporting. For calculating OEE, here quality rate is replaced with utilization rate. Further, OEE for shovel, dozer, dumper, and grader calculated.