Japanese heavy equipment manufacturer Komatsu’s subsidiary MineWare is planning to integrate its Argus shovel and excavator monitoring system with Australian software company RPMGlobal’s short-term scheduling solutions.
The integration is expected to allow mining companies to compare their planned production activities against what is actually happening in their mine in real-time.
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Both firms have been working together over the last year in support of the integration project.
The companies have also executed a product development partnership agreement in relation to the initiative.
RPM managing director and CEO Richard Mathews said: “We are not announcing a collaboration and then promising to go away and build something in the future: we are unveiling a completed development project.
“We used the new mining ISA95 enterprise integration standards, which means this integration is robust, open and flexible.
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By GlobalData“This solution fills a void in the mine plan compliance and control space. As the mining industry moves closer towards autonomy and stricter Short Interval Control (SIC) processes, there is a distinct need for data to be validated and then transferred between software applications using enterprise integration platforms and standards.”
RPM noted that the integration enables its software products to transfer critical spatial planning data directly from the mine planning systems to the operator display, which is installed on the loading equipment.
Furthermore, once the equipment progresses through the mine face, loading data from MineWare’s Argus solution is sent back to the operator and displayed in their planning systems, allowing users to review, analyse and adjust their plan based on actual working information.
The integrated solution is said to offer greater real-time decision-making capabilities for both planners and equipment operators.
RPM’s systems will also provide longer-term plan guidance in a visual manner, allowing planners to assess where they need to be over a given length of time, thereby facilitating improved plan predictability.
MineWare CEO Andrew Jessett said: “Full integration between mining operations systems, and planning and scheduling packages, is critical for optimising the end-to-end mining process and value chain.
“Through this partnership, we are enabling a new level of interoperability that creates a dynamic planning and scheduling environment.
“This environment delivers greater integration and feedback between planning and operations for continual improvement.
“For the mine, this maximises productivity through greater control, flexibility and predictability of the mining and extraction processes.”
MineWare was previously acquired by Japanese manufacturing company Komatsu in March last year.
