The companies have coined the term ‘mineufacturing’ to define the direction in which many mining companies are moving today.
“Digital disruption in mining is gaining momentum fuelled by the intensifying zeal of industry leaders to adopt attested manufacturing philosophies like lean manufacturing, just-in-time production and total productive maintenance,” a Schneider spokesperson said in a recent blog post.

“Led under the guise of ‘operational excellence’, the core desire of mining businesses today is to produce the right amount in the right way, minimising waste and loss. This is seen as the most effective way to remain competitive amidst tightening markets and socio-environmental conditions globally. We are seeing the transformation of many mining companies to move to a manufacturing way of thinking or what we call ‘mineufacturing’.”

There has been a recent wave of interest among mining companies to adopt Short Interval Control (SIC) which is a factory-floor process for driving intra-shift production improvements. Similar in thinking to the Kaizen process of incremental improvements to the manufacturing process, mining companies are instead using the more classic manufacturing improvement process known as the Deming Plan-Do-Check-Act (or PDCA) cycle.

In response, Schneider and RPM will unveil a commercial off-the-shelf SIC solution designed especially for the mining industry.
“By integrating Schneider Electric’s Integrated Planning and Optimization Solution (IPOS) software suite with RPM XECUTE and HAULSIM products, we have achieved the PDCA process into a true SIC solution that allows for intra-shift improvements and adjustments,” the spokesperson said.

Schneider Electric and RPM will be providing a demonstration of this solution in Las Vegas.