Maintenance Strategy Optimisation using ReliaSoft | HolisticAM
Industry: Mining Sector
Services Required: Professional Development – Maintenance Strategies
Location: Orange, NSW, Australia
Holistic Asset Management (HolisticAM) was engaged by a mining company – Newcrest – to provide professional development for their site Reliability Engineers. The objective was to enable each engineer to source and analyse equipment performance data using the ReliaSoft RAM Suite to identify underperforming assets, and to model the potential benefits of improved performance. HolisticAM mobilised a specialist reliability engineering consultant to develop and deliver bespoke online training content, and to provide mentoring services to reinforce individual capability.
Newcrest Cadia is an underground / open cut copper-gold mine located near the city of Orange in New South Wales, Australia. Cadia produces gold from a gravity circuit and gold-rich copper concentrates from a flotation circuit at Cadia. The gold is then refined at the Perth Mint, and concentrates are piped to a dewatering plant at nearby Blayney and sent by rail to Port Kembla for export.
THE CHALLENGE
Cadia is undergoing significant expansion with associated increasing throughput, and a Molybdenum circuit expected to be commissioned during FY22. The increasing demand on existing assets created the following challenges:
- Increasing reliance on consistent asset uptime
- Lack of a data driven one-way approach to identify and prioritise improvement opportunities
- Variable knowledge base and skill set within the Reliability Engineering team
As a result, Cadia felt a need to enhance the capability of their Reliability Engineers to systematically identify and manage underperforming assets
THE SOLUTION
HolisticAM delivered customised online learning targeting the following core topics:
- Reliability engineering fundamentals
- Performance data handling and general analysis
- Maintenance Plan Optimisation process
- Life data analysis – theory and practice
- Reliability Block Diagram modelling – theory and practice
- Reliability Centred Maintenance – theory and practice
Participants were engaged through a series of interactive learning sessions and facilitated individual practical activities to ensure they developed the skills necessary to apply the knowledge as part of their day-to-day duties. To aid in this process each participant was issued a demo license of ReliaSoft RAM Suite for the duration of the course.
THE RESULTS
THE ADDED VALUE
We provided value to Newcrest Cadia by:
- Enhancing the understanding of Reliability Engineering as an applied engineering discipline
- Demonstrating a systematic methodology for improving asset performance
- Explaining real-life factory data handling and analysis techniques
- Demonstrating and mentoring the use of ReliaSoft RAM Suite for applied data analysis and performance modelling
Building confidence among participants in their individual ability to achieve sustainable improvements in equipment performance
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