Collaborative Mine Planning and Scheduling
Your Situation
Mine planning and scheduling tools and practices have improved considerably in the past 15 years. However you may recognize two problem areas that consistently top Minemax's surveys of mining companies:
- The loss of value in refining a strategic plan into an operational plan; and
- Inability to react effectively and quickly to schedule deviations.
The following sections explain the current practices that lead to these issues.
Non-integrated planning processes
In most mining companies, different people schedule long, medium, and short term, and there is insufficient interaction between them. There is a lack of procedures and systems supporting the guidance of a short-term plan by a longer-term plan. This is because long-term and short-term scheduling practices have evolved separately in the past 15 years. The insufficient integration and collaboration across the planning hierarchy results in loss of value.
Lack of connectivity between scheduling tools and other systems
The scheduling process depends on inventory management, maintenance scheduling, dispatch, production monitoring, financial management, and existing planning software. However there is non-existent or insufficient connectivity between the scheduling tools and these systems.
Our Solution
In many mid-to-large-size mines, significant deviation from the long-term plan can lead to reduced mine life, inability to meet future production demands, heightened operational risks, and staggering economic loss.
You want a solution that enables collaborative mine planning and connectivity with other important applications, enabling you to achieve the following:
- Translate a long-term plan into a compliant shorter-term plan that preserves strategic value;
- Easily measure and optimize for mine plan compliance and alignment; and
- React quickly to schedule deviation while preserving value in the longer-term plan.
Minemax Tempo is a new generation mine planning and scheduling solution, designed from the ground up to enable your organization to create practical and optimal mine plans in a collaborative environment.
Tempo has a unique set of features that enable your organization to handle complex planning more easily and effectively:
- Collaborative environment: enables planners, managers, and executives to easily interact, share schedules, and make coordinated responses to schedule changes.
- Connectivity with other applications: Tempo can integrate easily with other applications, enabling you to use accurate data in your planning and to perform rapid analysis of planned vs. actual production.
- Measure and optimize for mine plan compliance and inter-plan alignment: Tempo can automatically produce a number of measurements of mine plan compliance and inter-plan alignment. They range from the basic grade-tonnage measure and spatial planned vs. actual to spatial compliance between plans (e.g. the 3-month plan and the 2-year plan).
Minemax has produced a White Paper on Collaborative Mine Planning and Scheduling that discusses this section’s topics in more detail. Read this White Paper to learn more about the following:
- The top agenda items at the corporate level in mine planning and scheduling;
- Best practices for collaborative mine planning and scheduling;
- How to practically implement mine plan compliance as a KPI; and
- How Minemax Tempo can enable your organization to handle complex planning more easily and effectively.
Next Steps
To find out more about Minemax Tempo, choose one of these options: