Maintenance of mobile mine equipment in the information age

Abstract

Maintenance represents a significant proportion of the overall operating costs in the mining industry. Despite the large cost of maintenance, management has only given passing attention to the optimization of the maintenance process. The focus has remained on the optimization of mine planning and operations where all the low hanging fruit was picked years ago. Recent initiatives in the field of mobile equipment maintenance have been in the area of remote condition monitoring. In order for an advanced maintenance technology to succeed it must have a strong philosophical basis and the supporting hardware and software infrastructure. A high bandwidth radio network, reliable interfaces, and a real‐time maintenance management system will enable remote condition monitoring systems. Explores reliability centered maintenance, remote condition monitoring, and the use of production and maintenance data for real‐time interactive maintenance management.