Mine production index (MPI)-extension of OEE for bottleneck detection in mining

Although mining production depends on various equipments, significant amount of production loss can be attributed a specific equipment or fleet. Bottleneck is defined not only by production loss but also by our satisfaction from the equipment. The user satisfaction could be measured as machine effectiveness. Mining literatures on performance improvement and optimization of equipment operations assert importance of availability, utilization and production performance as key parameters. These three parameters are useful for evaluating effectiveness of equipment. Mine production index (MPI), which can represent the effect of these factors, has been applied for continuous operation in mining. MPI uses Fuzzy Delphi Analytical Hierarchy Process to determine importance of each three parameter for individual equipment. A case study in a Swedish open pit mine was done to evaluate the field application of MPI. The results reveal that crusher is the bottleneck equipment in studied mine. As a methodical approach, an algorithm which uses MPI and detects bottleneck in continuous mining operation has been proposed.