Intelligent asset management not only makes mining safer and more efficient, it can also reduce heavy equipment energy consumption by around 20% for improved sustainability and cost control.
This is according to Drew D Troyer, Principal Director of Industry X – Intelligent Asset Management (IAM) at Accenture, who travelled to South Africa this week to participate in the Investing in Mining Indaba, in Cape Town.
Troyer says asset management is crucial for managing safety, efficiency and costs in asset intensive industries such as mining and manufacturing. “These industries depend on heavy machinery to create value. Well-managed heavy machinery assets tend to be more efficient with lower energy consumption, which is important for achieving sustainability goals, in addition to achieving productivity and safety goals,” he says.
Troyer notes a key focus for international organisations is achieving net zero environmental impact by 2050.
“Achieving net zero depends very much on the materials we use to power operations, as well as the materials we release into the environment. About 30%-35% of the carbon dioxide equivalent material sent into the atmosphere comes from industrial sources. The US Department of Energy has conducted a number of studies that indicate that by implementing best practices and existing technology, the mining industry can reduce energy consumption by around 20% and become more sustainable.” In South Africa, the focus on reducing energy consumption is also driven by ongoing load-shedding and a need to run operations on self-generated power.
Troyer explains that intelligent asset management is an evolving art – the practice of managing equipment intelligently to ensure it performs optimally. “Decades ago, IAM entailed interrogating machines with handheld sensors that evaluated how much a machine vibrated, the noise it created and the amount of heat it generated. More recently, we have transitioned to a point where data acquisition is more automated. For example, we can continuously monitor ultrasonic acoustic emissions – a very high frequency sound that indicates reduced lubrication and increased friction – and which triggers self-lubrication,” Troyer says.
“Smart manufacturing or intelligent asset management enables organisations to more efficiently survey the health of their equipment assets and effectively respond to that information. It is about the acquisition of data and the conversion of that data into meaningful information that enables people to make better decisions. In some cases that may be to automate certain aspects of the process so they are better able to serve the dashboard goals of profit, safety and environmental performance,” he says.
Troyer says his motto for asset managers is "think globally, act locally" when building sustainability into plant design and performance. “As an asset manager, it’s unlikely I will create the breakthrough that makes the production of green hydrogen cheap and easy. But I can have a great deal of influence on how a plant or process or mine is designed and run. I can ensure that by properly monitoring and managing equipment, our engines are running at a high level of combustion efficiency,” he says. “For example, the best case in terms of energy conversion in a diesel engine is going to reach around 45% energy efficiency, but that can drop to 30% quite easily if you have improper fuel, maintenance and operation, and the operator would never know it. But there are ways in which we can reduce parasitic frictional losses.”
Troyer notes that sustainable mining also encompasses health and safety and stakeholder value. Intelligent asset management supports these KPIs, he says. “If you have the lowest cost of production per unit in a constrained market, you’re more profitable. Ultimately, achieving this comes down to the performance of your assets. Mining comes down to three things: geology, the market and the performance of the assets. You may not have control of the first two factors, but you have a great deal of control over asset performance. Intelligent asset management also supports health and safety, because reliable and efficient equipment is also safe equipment.”
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