Towards the Application of Process Mining in the Mining Industry—An LHD Maintenance Process Optimization Case Study

Nicolas Velasquez, Angelina Anani (), Jorge Munoz-Gama and Rodrigo Pascual
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Nicolas Velasquez: Department of Mining Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 8320000, Chile
Angelina Anani: Department of Mining and Geological Engineering, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
Jorge Munoz-Gama: Department of Computer Science, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 8320000, Chile
Rodrigo Pascual: Centre for Advanced Asset Analytics, Mechanical Engineering, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 8320000, Chile

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-18

Abstract: Inefficiencies in mine equipment maintenance processes result in high operation costs and reduce mine sustainability. However, current methods for process optimization are limited due to a lack of access to structured data. This research aims to test the hypothesis that process mining techniques can be used to optimize workflow for mine equipment maintenance processes using low-level data. This is achieved through a process-oriented analysis where low-level data are processed as an event log and used as input for a developed process model. We present a Discrete-Event Simulation of the maintenance process to generate an event log from low-level data and analyze the process with process mining. A case study of the maintenance process in an underground block caving mine is used to gain operational insight. The diagnosis of the mine’s maintenance process showed a loss of 23,800 equipment operating hours per year, with a non-production cost of about 1.12 MUSD/year. Process mining obtained a non-biased representation of the maintenance process and aided in identifying bottlenecks and inefficiencies in the equipment maintenance processes.

Keywords: underground mining; LHD maintenance process; DES; process mining (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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