Unfortunately, analysis and resolution of negative outliers can also lead to significant waste of capital and investment. For example, flooding is frequently categorized by the likelihood of an amount of rainfall over a period of time: a \u201c100-year flood\u201d or rainfall causing a flood that statistically should only happen once every 100 years. This doesn\u2019t mean you won\u2019t get two 100-year floods in two consecutive years. It just means that statistically, it\u2019s unlikely. Mathematically, this is 1% x 1% = 0.01% likelihood. Fairly unlikely.<\/p>\n
Mines tend to operate similarly, responding to major events, whether they are safety, production losses, major equipment or plant failure, or other catastrophic failures. A \u201cfire\u201d is run to, resolved, and great effort is made to help ensure that \u201cfire\u201d never happens again. Again, Fire = Bad.<\/p>\n
A better response lies in a data-driven, two-stage approach to problem solving. First, quantify the likelihood of the negative event happening. Multiply that by the event\u2019s impact from a financial or societal perspective.<\/p>\n
Example 1: Equipment Failure<\/strong><\/h2>\nEquipment failure is a common example of a negative outlier, especially if it impacts production. One piece of equipment critical to most mines is the loading and hauling units. Let\u2019s say in an example mine, there are two loading units (wheel loader, face shovel\/excavator, etc.) and 10 hauling units. Generically speaking, you could estimate that each loading unit handles five hauling units. If a loading unit goes down, 50% of the production is lost while it is being repaired. Conversely, if one hauling unit goes down, only 10% of the production is lost.<\/p>\n
Modern mines measure their equipment effectiveness using a Time Utilization Model (TUM). The Global Mining Guidelines (GMG) Group<\/a> has developed a good example. This measures the amount of time the equipment is used, when it is not being used, and why it is not being used. Let\u2019s say for example, a mine\u2019s TUM calculations show that unplanned maintenance downtime of face shovels is 1% of the total available hours. Conversely, the unplanned maintenance downtime of haulage equipment is 10% of the available hours due to more potential failure modes with more subsystems that could fail, such as brakes, tires, suspension, hydraulics, payload, etc. Obviously, if a face shovel goes down, it will receive a lot of attention as 50% of the production is stopped. But which has the biggest impact over time?<\/p>\nShovels = 1% unplanned maintenance downtime x 50% production loss = 0.5% total impact to production<\/p>\n
Haulage Fleet = 10% unplanned maintenance downtime x 10% production impact = 1% total impact to production<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.hexagonmining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/firebad1-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a>Equipment failure is a common example of a negative outlier, especially if it impacts production.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\nClearly, the shovel going into an unplanned downtime is a larger \u201cFire\u201d and remember, \u201cFire Bad\u201d. But the smaller fires occurring more frequently on the haulage fleet have the greater impact when you inspect the data. If you\u2019re focusing efforts on a Reliability Centered Maintenance program, starting with the haulage fleet makes more sense.<\/p>\n
Example 2: Safety<\/strong><\/h2>\nAccidents, especially fatalities, should always be treated with the greatest attention. Investigating why an accident happened and how to prevent it in the future is essential. Part of working with Hexagon and its award winning safety suite<\/a> sometimes means I am working with new customers who are trying to prevent the recurrence of a recent safety incident. We frequently begin with a comprehensive review of the recent incident or accident. Utilizing frameworks like the ICMM Critical Control Management Framework<\/a>, we analyze the details and determine what preventative measure could have prevented the accident.<\/p>\nUnfortunately, these sites have often missed common scenarios that are well known, well understood, and easily prevented through a combination of standard operating procedures (SOP) and safety technology when those procedures are missing. These are not outliers, but rather typical, well known and well understood. For example, parking behind the blind spot of a truck is usually a violation of site SOPs and a safety technology like Hexagon\u2019s MineProtect Vehicle Intervention System would prevent the truck from reversing over a vehicle whose driver neglected those SOPs.<\/p>\n
Shovels = 1% unplanned maintenance downtime x 50% production loss = 0.5% total impact to production<\/p>\n
Haulage Fleet = 10% unplanned maintenance downtime x 10% production impact = 1% total impact to production<\/p>\n
<\/a>Equipment failure is a common example of a negative outlier, especially if it impacts production.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n Clearly, the shovel going into an unplanned downtime is a larger \u201cFire\u201d and remember, \u201cFire Bad\u201d. But the smaller fires occurring more frequently on the haulage fleet have the greater impact when you inspect the data. If you\u2019re focusing efforts on a Reliability Centered Maintenance program, starting with the haulage fleet makes more sense.<\/p>\n Accidents, especially fatalities, should always be treated with the greatest attention. Investigating why an accident happened and how to prevent it in the future is essential. Part of working with Hexagon and its award winning safety suite<\/a> sometimes means I am working with new customers who are trying to prevent the recurrence of a recent safety incident. We frequently begin with a comprehensive review of the recent incident or accident. Utilizing frameworks like the ICMM Critical Control Management Framework<\/a>, we analyze the details and determine what preventative measure could have prevented the accident.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, these sites have often missed common scenarios that are well known, well understood, and easily prevented through a combination of standard operating procedures (SOP) and safety technology when those procedures are missing. These are not outliers, but rather typical, well known and well understood. For example, parking behind the blind spot of a truck is usually a violation of site SOPs and a safety technology like Hexagon\u2019s MineProtect Vehicle Intervention System would prevent the truck from reversing over a vehicle whose driver neglected those SOPs.<\/p>\nExample 2: Safety<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.hexagonmining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/RobRoadtoMinexpo2-1024x768.jpg\")
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