Knowledge is power: mining big data
Posted by Mining Global on February 9, 2018:
Big data has become big business. Information gathering techniques allow us to inform and drive commercial change and nowhere is this more true than in the mining industry, which relies on accurate decision-making to seek out new deposits of minerals in order to process them with maximum efficiency.
Where the rubber hits the road – Jamie Milne (World Wide Technology)
One of the companies delivering an impact to key stock processes in the mining industry is World Wide Technology. Its engagement manager, Jamie Milne is working with a mining truck client with a view to improving maintenance downtime and productivity. He gave us a unique insight into a specific case where big data had been used to make a difference, focusing on the following details:
"The company we worked with was facing many typical challenges with its truck fleet, including costly maintenance and operations of trucks, road quality and driver behaviour. In order to enact change within the maintenance regime we set out to gather a cache of data which could then be projected into the future. For example, we used recent information collected from the quotidian activity of mine trucks to forecast potential points of failure in the near-future.
"We implemented our models in a number of ways, though reports, alerts, alarms, and mobile and web-based applications. Oil changes, part changes and other maintenance actions can now be carried out before a costly breakdown takes place. Broader insights, from the efficiency of specific truck models to how changes in operations affect model performance, are available through deeper analysis of this data. We aim to provide the experts with the right amount of relevant information to help inform them and facilitate faster and better decision making. Getting the right data points and the right amount of data to provide relevant business insights is often the biggest challenge."