BHP Billiton has selected Loc8’s cloud platform to manage costs at the company’s Mooka Iron Ore railcar facility in Australia.
The mining company will implement complete automation of railcar maintenance tasks as part of an A$1bn ($775.6m) capital productivity project.
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BHP will use the software application Loc8 to track the of automation, data dissemination and operation of the processes controlling 67 robots for the rolling stock reliability system (RSRS) at the company’s Nelson Point and Mooka Ore car repair shops (OCRSs).
Mooka OCRS is said to be an integral part of BHP Billiton Iron Ore’s (BHPBIO) overall expansion strategy.
The Mooka facility aims to manage full robotic automation of its rail car maintenance tasks, such as replacement of bearings and lubricating moving parts.
Loc8 chief technology officer Owen Batt said: "BHP Billiton’s newly created iron ore car maintenance facility in Mooka, WA, has taken the opportunity to set a high standard in efficiency from the ground-up in using Loc8 effectively as its ‘digital oil’ to run its maintenance operations."
At a new railway marshalling yard, BHP expanded its operations to 240 million tonnes a year to include the OCRS at Mooka siding along the existing Port Hedland to Newman Mainline.
The facility identified the requirement in a bid to address additional rolling stock maintenance requirements as a co-commitment to Rapid Growth Rail Project 5.
Initially, it will be able to service 18 ore cars per ten-hour shift, totalling 36 cars a day. This will further rise to 58 cars a day.
