The mining industry is not a usual industry. It includes the extraction of precious material.
According to Markets and Markets “The global mining machinery market size is projected to reach USD 36.2 billion by 2025, from an estimated value of USD 29.0 billion in 2020, at a CAGR of 4.5%. Increasing use of electric machinery in underground mining and increase in demand for metals and commodities are the driving factors are expected to boost the mining machinery market.”
The job in the mining sector is very hard working & exhausting. The management of mining organizations does not have too much money to invest in. Their daily operations are very complex and It has several assets and equipment that are very costly in nature. Most importantly the mining industry is dependent on assets and equipment that is why maintenance is important for them to maintain.
Because does the hard work continuously for long hours it is important for assets that they are maintained so that productivity does not suffer. When money is a huge concern, equipment maintenance software can really help! Basically, it is a type of asset management software! Before learn about equipment maintenance let us discuss a basic and quick intro about asset management!
What is asset management?
Asset management is the process of managing assets efficiently. It takes care of assets by keeping track of every asset and equipment. Furthermore, it can help in keep track of asset life and managing assets for maintenance. With proper asset management, you can find data that can be helpful in saving unnecessary money & maintenance. You can get the complete list of assets & it assists in identifying those assets which are not productive or taking maintenance more than required. Asset management helps in increasing the return on investment (ROI).
What is equipment maintenance software?
As the name suggests equipment maintenance software is mainly focused on maintenance. It takes care of assets; this software comes in handy especially when maintenance is a big concern lots of equipment are there to track. All these assets and equipment are at a different-different locations.
When there are a lot of concerns then equipment maintenance software not only tracks all the assets and equipment but it lets you know where each asset is located. Furthermore, you do not have to worry about maintenance anymore as this software notifies the technicians for maintenance of each and every asset.
Security has been always a big concern for the mining industry. They have to keep their assets secure and their employees as well. Equipment maintenance software keep track of assets and reduce their failure chances. Thus, it adds security to assets and employees also.
How does equipment maintenance software help the mining industry?
Equipment maintenance software helps the mining industry in various ways:
Asset maintenance – Sometimes there are lots of assets that are essential to an organization providing them maintenance on time is significant. Otherwise, it can lead to asset breakdown and that will not only interrupt daily operation. But also, it will lead to increased expenses for maintenance as we know sudden asset failure is more costly than regular maintenance.
One of the main reasons this software is implemented because they want to avoid maintenance costs and decrease downtime of the asset. For the same reason, this software emphasizes preventive maintenance. Preventive maintenance takes care of assets proactively & avoids asset failure. It increases asset reliability, productivity, and asset life as well.
Enhance equipment efficiency with analytics – Data analytics are very helpful in finding the pitfalls of the company. In clear words, they are helpful in detecting issues similarly data also helps in finding the solution for the problem. For instance, you can know where you are putting more resources and where you need to invest more.
Data analytics can help in calculating the performance of each asset & you can know how much maintenance is taking! Furthermore, you can identify the areas where improvement can be done in an asset in order to increase performance. When asset performance will increase, it will lead to more revenue generation. In simple words, you can maximize return on assets with data analytics.
Unproductive asset identification – With the help of equipment maintenance software you can identify those asset and equipment which are no longer used in the organization. Data analytics also lets you know those assets and equipment which are taking more maintenance than necessary. It simply means that it will impact your bottom line. As we said above in the mining industry saving unnecessary expenses is a big concern.
How does this software identify unproductive assets? With the assistance of tags and labels. These tags and labels are adhered to the assets and equipment and linked to the software. After which they provide the real-time location, asset status, and also who is using them and when it will be returned! How much asset is taking maintenance and so on!
Thus, asset history helps in making a decision. The software collects information and reaches a decision on how frequently an asset is used and how productive it is! This software provides asset history through which you can reach a decision.
What are various types of maintenance?
There are several types of maintenance that an organization can use but mainly these maintenances can be categorized into two main categories proactive maintenance and reactive maintenance.
In proactive maintenance, one does not wait for a complete breakdown of the asset at the first sign the asset is added to a queue for maintenance. Proactive maintenance schedules maintenance. If this equipment is at high risk, then priority will be high and if the risk is low then the equipment will be scheduled at low priority. However, asset dependability is also taken into notice while scheduling maintenance.
Proactive maintenance avoids sudden asset failure and helpful in decreasing downtime of assets. Moreover, it makes the asset more reliable and increases asset life.
Reactive maintenance is reactive in nature. When asset breakdown has occurred then reactive maintenance is used. This type of maintenance is more costly than proactive maintenance. As mining assets are complicated and maintenance team needs to know what is the issue & they have the pressure to resolve the issue quickly and bring equipment into running condition as soon as possible. In this case, new inventory is also installed. Thus, maintenance bill increases, and operation is also halted so production also suffers.
If an organization is dependent on assets too much such as the mining industry, then reactive maintenance is needed to be avoided. Especially, critical assets (these assets are on which operation relies such as digging and breaking mountains).
In proactive maintenance, there are many maintenance types are included such as preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance, condition-based maintenance. In reactive maintenance, emergency maintenance, corrective maintenance, run to failure maintenance are included.
Conclusion – The mining industry has lots of activities and they need to keep track of equipment. Several organizations use spreadsheet and pen and paper approaches. It is not accurate! Equipment maintenance software automates the process.
Equipment maintenance software is a type of asset management software that provides several benefits other than we have mentioned such as scheduling work, manage work orders & reducing downtime. For the mining industry, it is important to maintain accuracy. With the help of tagging, you can get an accurate location of assets and equipment. This will increase the transparency of assets and equipment. Furthermore, it helps in decreasing the chance of asset theft and misplacement. Equipment tracking is not only done for equipment but also for inventory such as a screwdriver, nut-bolts boxes, etc.
