3/17/08 - CBAM and Mid Range Planning

Dingo has recently engaged with a prominent coal customer in Canada. Elk Valley Coal is the Northern Hemisphere's leading producer of metallurgical hard coking coal for the global steel industry. Responsible for about one sixth of the global seaborne market supply, Elk Valley Coal is the second-largest supplier of its product in the world.

The Elkview mine is located in the Elk Valley region of southeastern British Columbia, 15 kilometres from Sparwood. The minesite is comprised of approximately 23,000 hectares of coal lands. The mine has been in operation for more than 30 years

Recently the Elkview CBAM project team has engaged in the second phase of the project with the introduction of Condition Based Component Changes. This program is built on three well defined programs developed by Dingo; Component Condition Assessment, Risk Assessment and Financial Impact assessment of component extension.

After an initial education and training sessions with crews and management, and interaction at a planning meeting, maintenance managers at Elkview immediately recognized an opportunity to integrate the CBCC program with their mid range planning process.
The current process used at the site involves looking at a 12 month overall plan, and a more detailed 3 month mid range plan for each equipment group (Shovels, trucks, Auxiliary equipment etc). 
Some of the challenges in executing the existing planning process are:

• Dealing with the data.  There is no central repository for planned work and follow up items.  Planning is done using a series of site developed spreadsheets.
• The planning process is a little cumbersome and has evolved over time.  It currently does not include component condition assessment information

In a relatively short timeframe (several weeks), the team has identified opportunities which they believe will lead to improvements in mid range planning.  Some of those are highlighted by the following examples.

• Some gaps in information have been discovered for example, a pump drive on a 992C wheel loader not being monitored at all.  This was discovered when a CBCC condition assessment was completed for the power train components coming due in Feb ’08.
• Opportunities exist for combining work for overall efficiency; an example of this is where an engine replacement was scheduled for October, and the unit’s power train is scheduled for February rebuild.  With amount of work, the team is exploring the possibility of combining the work with resultant overall lower downtime.
• Through the assessment process, the team discovered an instance where a item was budgeted for February rebuild, after it had been rebuilt the previous September; Condition assessment also found evidence of a slipping clutch which may result in repairs being completed under warranty.
• The team dug into a 637 scraper front transmission review because of the monthly Condition Based Component Change process, and it became clear that sample frequency need to be adjusted to gain confidence on a component push decision. This could lead to additional breakdown avoidance opportunities on this component and demonstrates how these two programs are feeding off each other.   

Already the team at Elkview has developed a keen awareness for how the Condition Based Asset Management Program can help them manage their mid range planning processes.
The increased monitoring processes of Condition Based Component Change program interacts and builds on the Breakdown Avoidance program, providing more opportunity to catch problems early.
The Action Tracking module in Dingo Trakka™ appears to be a valuable tool for the customer to manage actions resulting from mid range planning meetings, driving improved accountability.
The customer sees so much value for the CBAM process that work priorities have changed:

Traditionally, the priorities of major maintenance activities at Elkview have been:

1. PM’s
2. Repairs
3. All other activities including Oil Analysis & Diagnostics

Recently, Elkview has revaluated their scheduling priorities as a result of implementing Dingo’s Condition Based Maintenance program and have re-prioritized maintenance activities to:

1. PM’s
2. Action Items generated through Trakka/Action Tracking
3. Repairs

• Having a chance to do some level of diagnostic work through TSG's
• The TSG's are viewed as a training aid, useful for Elkview technicians (not as useful if a vendor performs the actions)
• Actually helps moral – the technicians have an opportunity to do something more technical that typical repair work