Managing with micros

Often going incognito, micro-computer chips are invading almo mine machinery. Laptop and other portable computers can now process information in the field. Today’s surveying equipment has on-board computers gathering and processing information in real time and making it available in machine-readable form to other computers for mine evaluation and planning purposes. Lubrication systems, ventilation systems, energy management systems, all types of process control equipment, and even mobile machinery such as haulage equipment, come with micro-processors that help in their dispatching, operation and monitoring.

Powerful and integrated mine evaluation, planning and scheduling systems are appearing on micro-computers that put them within the reach of even the smallest mine or exploration firm. Systems that cost several hundred thousands of dollars a few years ago now can be purchased for less than $100,000. For example, Greg Warren, head of Datamine’s Canadian operations, reports that one system is available on most micro-computers for about $20,000 and the supporting hardware for anywhere from $12,000 to $25,000. Others in this marketplace include MicroLynx, Vulcan, PC Mine and Surpac.

This type of system typically handles everything from geological drafting, drillhole data-processing, geostatistics, block modelling, pit design, pit planning, production scheduling, terrain modelling, underground mine-planning, survey data input and information for export to financial planning systems. Often this system runs best on workstations (made by companies such as Apollo or Sun) rather than on plain micro-computers; this is due to the workstation’s enhanced graphic capabilities and faster speeds. “Pit designs used to take a week or more and now are done in less than a day,” says Dwight Teed of Rio Algom. He adds: “We also make much better decisions and communicate much more effectively with all parties than we did with the manual systems.”

Rio Algom uses a composite of older modules that it custom-built along with some components of MicroLynx. “If we hadn’t developed our own modules some time ago and been able to transfer them to micro-computers, we’d no doubt be using one of the many packages available in the marketplacc,” says Tom John, Rio Algom’s technical evaluation manager.

In the administrative systems area, micro-computers are increasingly replacing minicomputers and mainframes at mine sites and at head offices. It is not unusual to see a series of micro-computers linked with a local area network (LAN) completely replace older (and much more expensive) mini-computers and mainframes. “We have a number of mini-computers and mainframes in use today in our Elliot Lake operations and, if we built these systems again today, more micro-computers, local area networks and bought-in packages would be used rather than custom-built systems,” reports Gordon Clee, Rio Algom’s systems supervisor.

Computers Reduce Costs

These smaller computers are appearing on most desks in most companies and often outperform their larger and much more expensive ancestors. They also reduce the costs and the time required to develop applications, because it is simpler and faster to build applications to run on micro-computers. The application devvlopment process on all hardware platforms is also being improved in both speed and quality through use of system development and program generation software. These development productivity tools also reduce systems maintenance costs through standard coding techniques.

Relationships between systems have undergone dramatic change in the past few years. Many of the systems in mines today were crafted on a stand-alone basis to get the workforce paid and to ensure adequate financial reporting. The needs of thhse operating the mine were secondary to the information needs of financial reporting and control. Field staff often entered data with no real benefit to themselves — resulting in the frustrating feeling that they are feeding the electronic beast for someone else’s benefit. Applications today generally are designed first to serve the needs of the project and supervisory staff actually running the mine, and then to “kick out” information into the financial systems at the appropriate spots, which represents remarkable reverse.

“Our prime objectives in developing the new and more integrated systems architecture for Kidd Creek Mines in Timmins in the mid-1980s were to place good day-to-day tools in the hands of our operating staff and work crews, to introduce non-financial data into our databases (so we could obtain management information of more than financial value), to speed up the reporting (so we had more than ancient history on our desks) and to reduce the hardware cost from the expensive mainframes,” reports Doron Cohen, former head of systems for Kidd and now vice-president of systems at TransCanada PipeLines.

“We opted for a distributed network of mini-computers spread throughout the mine, metallurgical site and head office, supporting local networks of microcomputers used by all levels of operating staff,” says Cohen. “If we had to do it again today, micro-computers would figure more prominently and the “minis” might even be gone. We acquired packages for most of our applications and custom-built very little. Our biggest challenges were systems integration and implementation.”

Possibly the fastest growing area in computer communications today is the local area network (LAN) market.

Communication Networking

LAN involves simple networks that link the computers in one work area of the company, such as a single department or floor of the building. They make possible sharing of data, programs and relatively more expensive devices such as plotters, printers or modems. Often they have gateways into wider area networks such as lines to other nearby mines, the mill or to head office.

“No system is an island today,” says Falconbridge’s Bell. “We are putting in place a foundation of systems and communications which will link almost every computer in the company — from process control units to desktop microcomputers. Our major challenge is to get the right data to wherever they are needed whenever they are needed. We put everything from energy management systems to process control computers on our network. We see a need for a hierarchy of data from the plant floor up into the financial reporting systems.”

Computer-based digital communications services now link remote mining properties to head offices, making the distance and remoteness all but irrelevant to the effective monitoring and management of mining properties around the world. Infosat Telecommunications now offers SkyCom, providing data and voice links to remote locations throughout Western Canada. Both Telesat Mobile and Motorola have announced global cellular telephone systems that will make telephone services available across Canada and around the world 24 hours a day as early as 1993.

The use of digital communications via satellites makes voice communication and the sending of data and maps routine and timely almost anywhere on the face of the globe.

The merging of voice and data traffic communications on digital communications lines offers the ability to cut costs and to improve both services. It often leads to a decision to integrate the staff groups supporting each into one communications support group, usually in the information systems area of the company involved.

Systems integration was the dominant theme of computing across all industries in the 1980s. While this will continue in the 1990s, the dominant trend of this decade promises to be expert systems.

Expert Systems

These systems embody the knowledge of experts in an area and make that knowledge available to others working in the same area for their day-to-day use. For example, Rio Tinto Zinc has developed an expert system for use by its maintenance mechanics in a mine in Africa and now is installing it at other locations around the world. A mechanic enters the symptoms exhibited by the machine in question and the computer suggests both the problem and alternative ways of fixing it! This system was designed by Rio’s best mechanics and maintenance supervision and is making a major contribution to the quality of repairs.

These types of systems are expected to become widespread in the next few years. They can be especially helpful for mines operating at remote locations where the cost, retention and motivation of highly skilled staff are ongoing concerns. Traditional computing was adopted early at remote locations such as Iron Ore Co. of Canada in Sept Isles, Que., because of the high cost of labor and the challenge of attracting and retaining staff. Expert systems hold a similar promise of improvement.

Application Packages

There is a strong trend toward the purchase of packages throughout all industries, including mining. This includes such things as electronic “spreadsheets” (a type of software for microcomputers that offers the user a visual display of a simulated worksheet), word processors, integrated mine-planning and management systems, material, maintenance, labor distribution, financial systems and even executive systems that present financial and operating results to the president and other senior executives.

Rio Algom is in the final stages of implementing a purchased executive information system. The company transmits fairly detailed operating and financial results from several properties and some non-mining operations into head office in several spreadsheets. These are then fed into a purchased consolidation system and the purchased executive information system. “This method of integrating results from all sites made sense, since each site generally has its own computer systems and they are all different,” says Rio’s Clee. “Most mini-computer vendors can `download’ data to micro-computers and that’s what our sites do. They download from their applications into spreadsheets on a micro and then transmit the results to us. Transmission takes five to 10 minutes and gives us all the detail we need.

“There will be much less custom development in most companies in the future — it just makes sense to purchase packages where you can and the ones on the market are getting better and better,” Clee adds. One of the major systems challenges facing exploration and mining companies is the orderly phasing out of much of their older custom-built application software in favor of purchased packages that most often run on micro-computers rather than mini-computers and mainframes.

The introduction of carefully selected packages has the double-barrelled benefit of increasing the effectiveness of the systems through improved functionality and of radically reducing costs for maintenance and support of the older hardware and custom-built software. It also reduces the risk of departure of key technical staff and allows participation in continual upgrades of the product since most application software vendors are motivated to develop their products further, just to stay in business. Vendors can also help bridge user staff departures by training the new staff. Most offthe bread-and-butter mining requirements and financial systems can be purchased as packages rather than custom-built.

There are still some instances where custom development makes a lot of sense — for example, when a system cannot be purchased because of its uniqueness. These are often the so-called strategic advantage applications that may reach outside the company to change the balance of power in supplier or customer relationships or to give a competitive edge in the market.

A trend related to the purchase of application packages is the use of outside software contractors such as package vendors to allow them either to extend their applications or do development work when a suitable package cannot be purchased. This contributes to expanded capability in the vendor’s standard offerings and early benefits for the iniating company.

The role of the systems group is quite different if most packages are purchased rather than custom-built. “Our programmers shouldn’t be called programmers any more,” says Falconbridge’s Bell. “They are really systems implementors and systems integrators who don’t program much anymore.”

Much of the support for a purchased package now comes from the vendor dialing into each company’s computer and resolving the difficulty, often while a staff person is on the voice line discussing the problem. This further reduces exposure to scarce technical staff who may depart or be ill at an inconvenient time. It also spreads support risk among several organizations and their technical staff.

The proliferation of computers in mining operations is having a major impact on mining productivity and effectiveness. The challenge facing mining management is how to knit all these systems together into a meaningful whole that makes sense and that maximizes he benefit from the investment. The benefits of planning and of system integration can be enormous.

Throughput Increase

Kidd Creek has installed an integrated information system using IBM System 38s, Digital Equipment VAXs Macintosh micro-computers and networks in Timmins linking the mines, the concentrator, the copper smelter and the zinc leach plant. All process control and business systems are accessible on the menu-driven system. “Every morning I come into my office and spend about 20 minutes scanning our operations on my Macintosh computer,” says Mike Amsden, vice-president of the Kidd Creek division of Falconbridge Ltd. He continues: “The system lets me scan for hot spots and concerns. When the process control system went into the leach plant, we were able to maintain quality and achieve a major increase in throughput. It allows much finer control of things. It is hard to imagine running an operation like ours without both the process control systems and the communications to allow access to the information. I think we’ll see a lot more of these types of systems in the future.”

The main challenge to senior management is how best to capitalize on these new realities. There is, on the one hand, the need to re-engineer how the work is done, taking into consideration the newer technologies. Alternatively, there is a need for early, regular and reliable results. Systems that simply make the current work processes more efficient often miss the boat entirely. They may save some effort or time but usually can be made much more effective if the work itself is critically examined and restructured, taking into account the new tools and their capabilities for local data entry, local processing and communications. The restructuring of basic business processes often rearranges work among departments and so must be sponsored by the senior management team or it will not succeed.

The Nature of Data

The one fundamental resource underlying all systems and basic business processes is data. The forms and reports in use may change over the years, but the data content usually does not change much unless the basic business processes themselves change. Therefore, it is important to understand the operation’s data and their natural grouping into databases before deciding on strategies for information systems.

Of particular importance is a concept that guides all departments and staff in all phases of the life of the mine in terms of desired applications, the data used, the data shared and the interrelationships among the applications and databases. This concept is called a “systems architecture” and it permits the company to determine the suitability of each system project proposal. The systems architecture becomes an ultimate target and each project should move the company toward the goal.

The key to developing a simple and practical systems architecture is to reason top-down, starting at the general manager level. Each basic business process is “decomposed” into its constituent basic business processes to two or three levels below the general manager. A unique list of data classes used by the basic business processes is developed across the operation, independently of how the company is currently organized. The data classes are then grouped into subject area databases, and alternative ways of automating each database are examined.

Many databases are born early in the life of the mine and continue being developed right up to mine closure. Purchasing, equipment maintenance and human resource databases are examples of databases that start building early. Each database will have many applications that use the data and each application may use several databases. The key to success is simplicity: storing the data as few times as possible to reduce the risk of inconsistent data and to make use of source data entry and source data correction to the fullest extent possible. There are seldom more than about 10 or 12 different subject area databases required in the development and operation of a mine.

Systems Architecture

A good systems architecture will usually process data at the lowest practical level, transmitting only summary data to the higher levels of the organization. Detailed data should, however, be available to higher levels on an inquiry basis so they can explore the detail behind the information they are receiving. For example, timesheet data should be entered at the site and only those elements needed at the corporate site for payroll and summary analysis be sent to the corporate location. As a rule, local staff must derive significant benefit from the data entry they are performing or they will perceive the work as boring and of no consequence and will not be motivated _ with attendant impact on accuracy and timeliness. For example, project progress information must be made available to local project managers and summary information sent to head office or to senior management.

Many mines are finding the concept of an “operational ledger” system central to their needs. This operational ledger contains detailed non-financial operating data as well as financial details. It typically sends detailed financial data on to the general ledger system and often receives some data back from the financial systems. This splitting of the ledgers allows the needs of operating staff to be the prime purpose of the operations ledger; also, serving the financial reporting and control needs becomes the prime purpose of the financial systems. It results in simpler and easier systems.

The main mission of the information systems group is to help senior management conceive and implement the new systems architecture. They also have a major role to play — in partnership with users — in package selection, package implementation and in integration of the various packages in use throughout the company. This places a premium on interpersonal communication and teamwork skills and usually changes the staff selection criteria greatly. The systems group usually needs to upgrade and expand its communications specialist skills to support the increased need for networking and data management.

Those mines that make effective use of information technology in a connected way throughout their operations will have a much higher chance of surviving and prospering into the next century. It is no surprise that the systems group is now reporting at higher levels than in the past, often directly to the general manager. This reflects the widespread use of systems in the non-financial areas of the company.

Wisdom is Essential

Senior management often underestimates the importance of human involvement with systems. Computers by themselves do nothing; they only work through staff. If they aren’t used wisely, they won’t perform to expectations.

Information technology is playing a critical role in all areas of mining and exploration. Mine-wide communications networks and data management are increasingly important to success. The dependence on in-house technical computing staff is changing as the quality of support from systems and communications service organizations is improving. The in-house staff are becoming more system selectors, system integrators and consultants who work in partnership with system users. The role of the senior systems executive is becoming increasingly important and this person is frequently a member of senior management.

Many mining and exploration companies are radically improving the contribution of systems to productivity improvement and cost performance. At the same time, they are reducing the risks in computing and are often reducing or holding level annual expenditures on systems through the retirement of older minicomputers and mainframes in favor of newer and much less expensive alternatives.