Abstract
The theory of Integrated Operations or a "factory model' has long been a vision of the mining industry using lean principles. However, challenges with business operating models, geology, data quality, computing power, available applications and overall corporate strategy have limited de-bottlenecking the value chain.
The good news is that the future is now here. The only thing holding mining companies back is the strategic plan to define the business outcomes and how to ensure that all corporate KPIs are aligned to the strategic vision. The journey to IO is underpinned by advances in computing power, interoperable consumer of the shelf solutions, artificial intelligence and machine learning have enabled operations to have a clear line of site to the entire operation.
Moving away from the transactional nature of point solutions to an integrated view where the mine, mill, logistics, maintenance, and corporate directives are integrated, reducing the cannibalization of KPIs between business units. Changes to the plan based on unexpected geological changes, no problem, re-run your integrated plan, seeing updates to you short, medium and long-range plans. By doing so identifying potential risks due to operational changes. The end result seeing increased throughput, recoveries, mechanical availability / utilization and ultimately increased profitability.