The big three of AHS success: Absolute Autonomous proven success program for AHS performance improvement and success.
What does decades of AHS operating, scrutinising, adjusting, and reviewing give you? A lot of grey hair!!!
Despite the grey hair, it gives you a realisation that AHS still has a long, long way to go before it comfortably outperforms a manually operated haul fleet.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Safety improvements that come with AHS speak for themselves and have years of proven record to back it up. It is generally the biggest and by far the most important reason for any company to adopt AHS in open-pit mining operations.
When comparing apples to apples with a manual and AHS fleet, the gains are more subtle and less apparent. Of course, the autonomous truck has the ability to operate almost 24 hours per day, but most AHS operations aren’t getting anywhere near that type of utilisation out of their autonomous fleets.
From decades of continually working closely with AHS in all the roles that come along with this still relatively new technology, we have developed three proven and tested pillars of what is required to begin a journey to AHS maximum performance and profitability.
Now, these three pillars are not a simple set of tick-and-flick tasks to implement, but rather required adjustments to a miner's current operating model to much better complement an AHS mining operating model.
1 – AHS Mining Process:
This includes things generally already part of a miner's day-to-day operations but will also involve new processes that need to be created and implemented to complement AHS operations. Some examples of these are operator changeover processes, weekly AHS road network audits and improvements, AHS dump management and new KPIS. These are just a few examples that all need specific details related to operating an autonomous pit.
2 – AHS Performance Training:
This is one area where we see AHS mining always coming up short. AHS training is a crucial aspect of extracting maximum safety and productivity from AHS equipment. It is imperative for an AHS miner's success that the operations teams have the highest level of system functionality training possible. This advanced training needs to come after initial AHS safety training and includes much more than just understanding the correct buttons to push.
3 – Culture:
This is the area that will make it all happen, and without the right culture at a mine site, AHS will be just another system bolted onto the trucks. Having a continuous improvement culture is undoubtedly critical to the outcome of any AHS operation. A workforce full of teams that are highly motivated, drilled, regimented in their daily tasks, and have clear KPIs about what is expected will complement AHS superbly and will elevate operational performance. Individuals that can think critically and challenge the status quo will begin to nurture a culture of efficiency and continuous improvement.
I have not mentioned leadership in this article yet, but without doubt, these three pillars of AHS success will not be achieved to a high standard without quality leadership and guidance.
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