Fragmentation Driven Continuous Improvement Process™

To help make the most out of mining and process resources Seekers Strategic Solutions is offering the Fragmentation Driven Continuous Improvement Process™ - FDCIP™. A combination of unique process and supporting technologies creates the platform for maximizing asset’s productivity and reducing operational cost.

Seekers Strategy Solutions provides FDCIP™ tools, training and support thru the implementation until the tools and the process becomes an integral part of the operation.

This method utilizes the OODA continuous loop –

·        Monitors and compares the fragmentation in different locations in the process

·        Attributes the findings to performance indicators.

·        Compares the results to benchmarks.

·        Simulates alternate scenarios for improvement, and

·        Presents the downstream contribution effect.

The technologies utilized in this process are -   fragmentation photo analyses, mobile equipment and process monitoring tools. The advantage of the concept is the integration of the tools to create aHead’s Up Display – HUD. The process starts with defining the operations objectives, identifying tools and restrictions.

Keywords

1.      Situational awareness - SA.

a.      The ability to identify, process, and comprehend the critical elements of information about what is happening with regards to a complete mission, in our case plant mine to gate process. More simply, knowing what is going on around you and what are you going to do about it.

b.      Robust understandingof cause and effect based the process of pushing data from different sources up the information hyrchey and creating a reliable balanced picture.

2.      Continuous improvement OODA process – a four step that is continuously repeated-  Observe, Orient, Decide & Act.

a.      Observe – collect reliable data reflecting all aspect of the operation.

b.      Orient – Create a Situational Awareness.

c.      Decide- make a decision (and a plan) based on the objective, SA, guidelines and restrictions.

d.      Act – carryout the plan. As the plan is in motion the situation changes and the OODA process (Loop) starts again.

3.      FDCIP - Fragmentation Driven Continuous Improvement Process. a continuous Improvement loop with fragmentation as its leading factor.

4.      Fragmentation Photo Analyses – a method to evaluate the particle distribution in a pile or on a running conveyor. This method utilizes a digitized picture of a pile, identifies, measures each particle and creates a distribution curve. As this is a digitize process and  is both accurate and extremely fast it allows to conduct measurements on running conveyors and at a truck dump location such as the primary crusher. 

5.      HUD – Head’s Up Display or “Dash-Board”. The means by which it is possible to display important information collected from different sources in one place that allows correlation between the different items and decision making. 

6.      Downstream contribution – the impact of an event at the beginning of the linear mining process, blasting, may have on events at the end of the process, final product. The intent is for that initial event to impact the next phase but the whole process. Events at the beginning of the mining (blasting) process are considerable cheaper then events at the end (crushing)