Deployment Model for Site: Open Pit FMS
Site Information
GroundHog Deployed the OpsCenter for Dispatch, and the Fleet Management System app at Sukari Gold Mines – the largest open pit Gold Mine in Egypt.
Miners primarily spoke Arabic. So, GroundHog added Arabic Language support.
Production Operations Management – Pre-GroundHog
The site had operators capture information on paper to record their daily trip counts, and bucket counts. In these binders, operators tracked the following:
- Trip Counts (source –> destination)
- Trip start time, Trip end time
- Engine Hours (SMU Hours)
- Shovel logs
- Drill logs
- Pre-start inspections
- Maintenance inspections
Phase 1: Site survey
During the site survey the project team spent 5 days observing and documenting the current process, including:
- Shovel — Haul Truck allocation schemes
- Average queue times, and hang times (manually recorded using a Spotter)
- Call signs
- Pre-shift meeting protocols
- Daily Logs and reports
- Excel tracking sheets
- Interviews with Shift Supervisors, Operators, and Maintenance Supervisors
- Project Manager and Mine Manager
Satellite Images & Data Import Templates
During phase 2, GroundHog worked closely with the site project team to import their Excel based tracking system into the GroundHog OpsCenter platform. Imported data included:
- Satellite Images (using Drones at this site was not permitted by the Government)
- Names of all the mining locations (benches, ROM pads, Stockpiles, Crushers)
- Names, Makes and Models, and Capacities of all the primary and auxiliary equipment
- Names, roles, skillsets, and safety training documents of all miners, supervisors, geologists, and managers
- Material types, and grades
- Consumables types and quantities
Phase 2: Staging server and Training the Trainers
The GroundHog Customer Success team installed and configured a staging server (pre-production) on a secure GroundHog AWS Cloud. The team also imported all resources related information. The Customer Success team worked with the site’s Continuous Improvement Team to configure the following:
- Customizing the Time Utilization Model to match the mine’s TUM template
- Mining Cycle templates (drill, powder-load, blast, muck, bolt, shotcrete, etc) based on heading / stope sizes
- Setting up sizes of benches, stockpiles, etc
- Updating the status of each heading, stope, etc.
- Updating material inventory
- Configuring various types of consumables used
- Configuring shift start times, etd times, etc
- Uploading mine maps
Setting up and configuring Geofences for automated Trip Counting
The GroundHog Customer Success team worked very closely with the Sukari project team to setup and calibrate the Geofences, including the sensitivity of the Geofence boundaries. This calibration was completed over 3 shifts.
Dry Runs and SOP Document Creation
After training Dispatch/Mine Control, we did a few hours of dry-runs on all the following activity types:
- Shift Planning
- Hot-shift change overs
- Drill operations
- Excavator operations
- Haul truck related operations
- Auxilliary support operations (e.g. Scaling, etc)
- Equipment up / down / delays / standbys
- Daily shift-end report (Daily Physicals)
- Safety logs
- Incident reports
- Near miss reports
Based the experience during the dry-runs, the team created a first version of the Mine Control Standard Operating Procedures
Phase 3: Go live and Customer Care
Once the site went live, the Customer Care team actively participated during shift-handoffs and for about an hour after work started at the face, until Mine Control felt confident enough to run the show by themselves. The Customer Care team did periodic check-ins with Mine Control throughout the shift for the next two weeks.
Transition to Support
After 2 full crew rotations (4 weeks), the site transitioned from Customer Care to Customer Support.
GroundHog’s support team has a standing meeting with the customer team to review the system, analyze data, seek customer feedback and make improvements to the product and process.
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