The Global Mining Guidelines Group (GMG) has published “A Standardized Time Classification Framework for Mobile Equipment in Surface Mining: Operational Definitions, Time Usage Model, and Key Performance Indicators,” released on Aug. 31.
The publication is to serve as a guideline of recommendations for surface mines to have consistent classification of operational activities, statuses and events and place them into standard time categories.
It provides a Time Usage Model, or a visual representation of the framework, GMG said, as well as recommended definitions for common industry operational key performance indicators (KPIs) to report asset availability and utilization.
“The Time Usage Model is a valuable operations tool that mining companies can use to capture overall asset operational time and downtime, which enables the measurement of and tracking of performance,” the group said.
“This tool will allow management personnel to monitor and manage time usage, providing a foundation for operational excellence.”
Guideline contributor Craig Yeliga, senior specialist – dispatch at Teck, added that “having a Time Usage Model and key metric calculations standardized across all our operations has resulted in insightful and actionable analysis” for the miner.
He pointed out that the outlines will also enable benchmarking between companies via the standardized definitions and common classifications of operational activity, along with a standardized Time Usage Model and KPIs.
GMG said its forthcoming work will include creating a more specific classification of maintenance time, validating the model in conventional and autonomous operations, adding further granularity to the model, and expanding the existing framework to incorporate underground and fixed plant operations.