Schneider Electric provided a single, turn-key solution that has provided improved global visibility and understanding of MMG’s overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). As a result of this implementation, MMG has optimised asset utilisation across five mines, ultimately leading to a 10-20% improved global capacity.

Similar to other metals, mining and minerals companies, MMG was challenged to generate greater value and improve operational efficiency in order to best compete in today’s economic environment. The company sought to implement change management strategies to transform how the company operates in order to increase productivity and profitability. The company chose Schneider Electric’s Ampla MOM solution – coupled with business consultation services – to improve asset utilisation with a commercial-off-the-shelf solution implemented in a cost-effective manner to deliver its target business efficiencies.

Mark Dwyer, business technology manager at MMG, said: “We needed a long-term solution that would standardise our asset utilisation across our five mines. It had to provide us with a global understanding of OEE so that we could improve our business processes and ultimately improve our mine throughput. The solution needed to be flexible enough to adapt to the local operating conditions of each mine, while also providing us with standardised asset utilisation data that we could analyse in real-time.”

Schneider Electric’s Ampla software solution now delivers real-time visibility into global production – converting legacy OEE data from a lagging indicator into a leading predictor of how asset investments are managed and optimised. Ampla is seamlessly integrated with other IT and OT systems to enable single sign-on, as well as to provide root-cause analysis of utilisation events.

Ampla’s ability to connect multiple plant and business systems was another key consideration, as it enables MMG to capture more relevant data that is easily ‘digestible’ while delivered in real-time, so offers more valuable intelligence for analysis. As a highly configurable, flexible and easy to integrate solution, MMG can rest assured that their solution will meet its needs well into the future.

Dwyer continued: “We had to have the capability to drill-down to the root-cause of any equipment asset that was exhibiting less than perfect utilisation. The new system and processes had to drive continuous improvement through the business, be readily accepted by users everywhere, and this had to be achieved in a single sign-on environment compatible with our existing systems.”

For MMG, change management was an important part of the asset utilisation programme. Schneider Electric began the project with a business consulting exercise via a discovery services study that delivered a thorough understanding of the business requirements. Additional services provided by Schneider Electric to MMG included business consulting, solution design, implementation services, licensing and support, documentation and user training.