While tracking equipment utilization is common in mining, it only tells part of the story. Productivity suffers when equipment isn’t allocated to the right area, at the right time, or in the most effective sequence. If planners and supervisors focus solely on running equipment at full capacity, they risk missing a more important question: Is our equipment being used in the right place to maximize results?
The real goal is to minimize downtime, keep production steady, and boost resource extraction. Focusing only on the tool (equipment) instead of the process (the mining sequence) is a costly oversight. High equipment utilization is valuable, but so is equipment availability, especially when variables like process sequence, operator availability, or distance between stopes come into play. Supervisors make countless daily decisions about where to allocate equipment, often with incomplete information.
Look Beyond Equipment Utilization for Real Mine Productivity
A better measure is mine face utilization-how effectively the mine’s surface area is used to optimize the entire process. This approach zooms out to focus on process optimization, not just equipment metrics. Consider a hospital emergency room: success isn’t about keeping equipment busy, but about allocating resources to save the most patients, factoring in staff, patient flow, and specialist availability. The same logic applies to mining: how well are all variables-equipment, labor, sequence-being managed to maximize productivity?
As Jesus Minjares Soule, Principal Consultant at Unison Mining, explains:
“Many supervisors pay more attention to the equipment. But what matters more than the equipment is how much time I’m spending intervening with the equipment. What matters is how the equipment interacts with the space of the mine area available, and the miners, in the right sequence. You don’t want to delay anything despite multiple variables at play, while also ensuring adherence to the mining sequence, making the most of resources available at every stage, whether labor and equipment.”
Data-Driven Mine Scheduling: The Key to Better Mine Face Utilization
Modern mining operations benefit from advanced scheduling tools that factor in all relevant variables-equipment status, workforce, process sequence, and distances-to optimize allocation decisions. With Unison Mining’s Master Schedule tool, supervisors can leverage real-time data and algorithms to assign resources according to priority tasks in the mining sequence, rather than relying on guesswork.
This approach ensures that equipment and personnel are always allocated where they’ll have the greatest impact, reducing bottlenecks and maximizing throughput.
Intelligent mine scheduling not only improves plan adherence but also helps supervisors respond quickly to changing conditions, ultimately driving higher productivity and profitability.
Unlock the Benefits of Optimized Mine Face Utilization
By shifting focus from equipment utilization to mine face utilization, and by using data-driven scheduling tools, mines can:
- Reduce downtime and delays
- Improve resource extraction rates
- Make smarter, faster allocation decisions
- Achieve better alignment with production targets
