The mining industry is at a tipping point in its history, in need of innovation to ensure it remains sustainable and able to better weather challenging economic times. That is why there has been a growing call from leading industry executives over the past several years to bring philosophies proven in other industries into mining technology.

The pursuit of operational stability will see the mining industry move to formalizing and standardizing their business processes, driven by the need for conformance, predictability, safety, cost management and productivity. Achieving operational stability will require robust planning practices; optimized scheduling; and strict adherence to plan, but mines that can become stable will benefit from reduced costs and improved performance in production.

So, is there a model that can be followed in mining to leverage the technologies used in manufacturing to achieve operational stability? The answer is yes. The white paper “Adopting Manufacturing Philosophies to Improve Operational Stability (click here)” looks examples from manufacturing and how these technologies can be leveraged by mining companies.

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On the web: 3DS.com/natural-resources/