3 practical ways to shift from reactive to proactive maintenance
Overcome your resource constraints and start preventing failures with these practical tips.
The mining industry is at a critical juncture, with a range of factors driving the need to transform asset management and reliability. These include surging demand to support the energy transition, and a shortage of resources needed to meet that demand.
In this environment, organizations must take additional steps to mitigate unplanned downtime and extract the full value of their resources—including people, assets, and budget. This requires a shift from reactive firefighting to proactive maintenance.
Proactive maintenance may seem like a strain on resources, but in reality, it can increase productivity and lower costs. For example, budget spent on urgent repairs can be reallocated to preventative maintenance that enhances performance or extends asset life. Proactive maintenance also allows operators to make the most of scheduled downtime rather than disrupting production.
Despite these and a myriad of other benefits, making the shift to proactive maintenance can feel like an arduous task. Here are three practical ways to get started.
1. Embrace data-driven strategies
Maintenance strategies executed in the field may not account for the asset's age, condition, or required performance, leading to suboptimal practices and increased risk of failure. Condition monitoring and asset strategy management can help mining operators build, deploy, and continuously align maintenance strategies with changes to asset condition and operational context.
Data-driven strategies can also optimize performance and enhance resource efficiency. For example, by harnessing condition monitoring data, operators can optimize maintenance schedules based on need and likelihood of failure rather than arbitrarily chosen intervals. This reduces time and budget spent on excessive maintenance and lowers costs and risks stemming from under-maintained assets.
Condition monitoring data can also help operators identify and address minor issues before they escalate into major failures. They can also plan maintenance outages when needed to reduce unplanned outages and minimize production loss.
One global mining giant struggled with inconsistent maintenance practices as well as aging infrastructure and a reliance on undocumented institutional knowledge. Through partnering with Baker Hughes and leveraging Cordant™ Asset Strategy, the company undertook a comprehensive asset audit and criticality assessment.
The project addressed gaps in the client’s maintenance program by providing comprehensive optimized maintenance strategies and plans for tens of thousands of critical assets across 10 sites.
The new maintenance strategies will help the client to manage their asset strategy as operating and market conditions change. Strategies are also anticipated to save time by eliminating non-value-added tasks. Most importantly, new maintenance strategies and plans are expected to significantly reduce unplanned downtime of critical assets, delivering anticipated cost savings of more than $103M over 20 years.
2. Apply AI and automation
New technologies and digital tools, including AI and automation, can help to optimize maintenance and increase resource efficiency. For example, by automating tasks such as the collection of condition monitoring data, mining operators can significantly reduce manual labor.
Automation and AI can also be used to analyze and give context to the huge amount of data collected from disparate systems, translating the data into valuable KPIs that allow for better decision-making. Additionally, Operators can use AI to efficiently filter for alerts that matter and carry out as much analysis, diagnosis, and prescriptions as possible to free up team bandwidth.
While integrating AI into your asset management and maintenance practices may seem complex, solutions like Cordant™ Machine Health come with pre-trained, purpose-built AI models which makes it possible to deploy faster and detect failures early on. This results in short time-to-value and higher ROI vs general-purpose AI which can take months to deploy and years to deliver value.
3. Leverage strategic partnerships and "As-a-Service" models
When in-house resources or specialized skills are scarce, strategic partnerships and "as-a-service" options offer a lifeline. Mining operators can engage trusted industry service or technology providers to access specific capabilities needed to enable a more proactive approach to maintenance.
Cordant™ is available to be delivered as-a-service and via outcome-based service models. Solutions can be bundled to deliver Asset Health in a variety of options. You can pair sensor and condition monitoring technology with software, purpose-built AI models, and expert support to alert operators of degradation, diagnose root causes, and prescribe fixes, so they can improve reliability and meet demand, despite constraints on resources.
The path forward: Embracing proactive maintenance
Transitioning from reactive to proactive maintenance is essential for mining operations looking to maximize efficiency and performance. Embracing data-driven strategies, leveraging AI and automation, and forming strategic partnerships can help and lead to significant savings and improved operational outcomes.
Learn more about how to overcome resource constraints and unlock new value in a challenging environment.
Download our eBook: Mining in a Resource-Constrained World: Strategies to Improve Reliability and Maximize Efficiency.