4 min read / March 8, 2024
While machine guidance and fleet management systems (FMSs) have undoubtedly proven their ability to drive improvements in productivity and accuracy on their own, their capabilities and value can be increased dramatically when integrated together.
For example, mines wishing to manage and improve their material blending can leverage a robust FMS (such as our DISPATCH® system) in combination with a high-precision machine guidance system (such as out ProVision® system for loading equipment). The improved shovel accuracy afforded by the machine guidance system reliably ensures that the material loaded into trucks aligns with the mine plan, while the FMS ensures the correct routing of that material to appropriate stockpiles or crushers.
Mines that leverage the DISPATCH FMS also have the optional Blending and Dynamic Material Inventory Reporting modules at their disposal, which further optimize the material blend by:
Implementing a high-precision machine guidance system for drills, which provides continuous navigation to help drill operators satisfy accurate hole patterns, depths, angles, and spacing, can further improve the reliability of the material being dug.
The ProVision system for drills can optimize material fragmentation and resource management by ensuring the right material is blasted, and with the appropriate explosives. This ensures that the mine is extracting the desired grade and material type, while improving digability for shovels at the dig face and minimizing stoppages at the crusher as a result of incorrect blends or improperly-fragmented material.
Integrating fleet management and machine guidance systems can also help with any reconciliation efforts that a mine must sometimes undertake to explain deviations from plan.
By exchanging data and consolidating it into one common language, the APIs can help mining organizations dramatically optimize their production, equipment uptime, efficiency, and more.
So far, we’ve developed APIs for:
The Core API exchanges data between the DISPATCH and/or ProVision systems and any supervisory and control system, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems like SAP.
The API enables immediate publication of production, time tracking (for time model usage), and dispatcher input event notifications, and allows for a complete feedback loop among external or downstream systems. It also increases modelling accuracy within third-party systems, thereby helping to improve plan compliance.
Sharing data between supervisory systems and production systems, in real time, enables the API to help operations optimize their overall productivity.
The API enables the sharing of such key information as equipment location at the time the unit was put into ‘down’ status, and the name of the operator who put the unit down, among many other datapoints.
The Crusher API uses Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), and DISPATCH FMS data to optimize productivity by reducing queues and bottlenecks at the crusher.
The API provides real-time visibility into crusher status, performance, and feed rate, while automating advancements of crusher-related load and haul cycle states.
It enables the DISPATCH FMS to redirect trucks to stockpiles and mitigate the effects of unnecessary queuing at the crusher (such as fuel and time waste, and the potential for vehicle-to-vehicle interactions as a result of too many trucks squeezed into a confined area).
The API also enables the monitoring of bin levels in real time, reducing black belt losses by calling for ROM feed on demand.
The HME Aftermarket API layers information from the DISPATCH FMS with bolt-on solutions that are not part of the original manufacturer’s build, to create some decision-making logic about these solutions.
The Machine Guidance API connects the ProVision system to a third-party mining application, enabling mines to bridge the gap between planning and execution, and optimizing their mining operation by enhancing the visibility between the field and mine planning department.
The API enables real-time updates to the mine planning software, rather than having to send huge chunks of data at the end of a shift or during a weekly update.
The Payload System API layers information between the ProVision and DISPATCH systems, and third-party shovel payload monitoring systems like the Argus system, to optimize payload.
The API consolidates inputs into the DISPATCH and ProVision systems, as well as truck and shovel payload data, and presents it all in a unified, single interface.
The single display provides visual payload guidance directly on the ProVision mobile screen and eliminates the need for operators to interact with (or focus on) multiple screens, allowing them to instead focus on their task at hand:
Mining optimization has always been the foundation of our customers’ success; it’s part of our company DNA and the cornerstone for the future of smarter, safer, more sustainable mining. The APIs help to refine mining optimization by enabling the real-time connection of technologies across the mining value chain. By connecting upstream and downstream processes, across all makes and models of equipment and technology, the APIs open the door to mine-wide optimization and interoperability.
