The Power of Integrated Maintenance
In the mining sector, success in an increasingly competitive market requires industry to optimize operational efficiency while maximizing production output.1 As companies navigate volatile economic cycles and geopolitical uncertainties, the ability to streamline operations, reduce costs, while simultaneously maintaining high productivity levels is critical. Equipment management offers a powerful solution, enabling mining companies to optimize the lifecycle of equipment by:
- Maintaining high utilization and availability
- Increasing equipment performance.2
- Reducing operating costs and risks
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In this context, availability measures how much time a piece of equipment is ready for use, and utilization refers to the amount of time the equipment is productively in use.3 Strategic maintenance practices aim to maintain high availability rates, which allows for high utilization of equipment.
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Proactive Maintenance |
Reactive Maintenance |
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| Definition | Addresses the root cause of equipment failure with pre-scheduled shutdowns and maintenance on equipment. Goal is to reduce downtime. | Occurs at the point of equipment failure. Also known as “run-to-failure” or “breakdown maintenance.” |
| Approach | Scheduled inspections, maintenance, includes equipment history in maintenance approach. | Scheduled after breakdown, can lead to unscheduled downtime during production hours. |
Table 1: General Differences between Proactive and Reactive Maintenance
Maintenance can account for 30-50% of total annual operating costs.
However, equipment maintenance is notoriously costly. Recent industry studies suggest that maintenance can account for 30-50% of total annual operating costs4, and these expenses continue to rise.5,6 What’s worse, unplanned, reactive maintenance is 3-9 times more costly than proactive, planned maintenance (see table 1 for descriptions).7 While planned equipment maintenance is a necessity, it’s the unplanned maintenance that can cost companies tremendously, due to downstream impacts such as unplanned downtime, missed production targets, and safety risks.
To address this challenge, integrated maintenance solutions through platforms like sofvie are setting new standards for cost optimization while fundamentally redefining equipment management practices in the mining sector.
As the following case study demonstrates, integrated equipment maintenance strategies that combine enhanced communication and proactive maintenance have proven to optimize equipment availability and utilization while simultaneously reducing operating costs. By leveraging these strategies, mining companies can achieve the necessary balance between operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness required to thrive in today’s competitive landscape.
What is Integrated Maintenance?
Integrated maintenance is a strategy that unifies all maintenance activities, contracts, and planning under a single system and management team. This approach relies on strong leadership to transform the often adversarial relationship between maintenance and operations into a cohesive workforce. From day one, project leadership ensures that success will be measured by overall performance rather than individual results, effectively breaking down the stereotypical divide between teams. By setting clear expectations and maintaining strong communication, this strategy creates an environment where both groups collaborate seamlessly. Each worker understands their role and its impact on daily outcomes, leading to enhanced communication at all levels.
The benefits of an integrated maintenance approach are far-reaching:
- Minimizes miscommunication – between teams, departments, and workers
- Enhances safety – reduces risks associated with equipment failure
- Extends lifespan of equipment – prolongs use of equipment, improves reliability
- Reduces severity of repairs and equipment damage – catches minor issues before they turn into significant damage
- Optimizes management of spare parts (inventory control)
- Energy efficiency – ensures equipment operates at optimal efficiency
- Transparency & accountability – encourages a sense of ownership of equipment for operators and maintenance personnel
This approach allows operators, who are often the first to recognize changes in equipment performance, to identify early signs of equipment failure and facilitate timely proactive maintenance. Managers can then utilize operator feedback to align maintenance strategies with broader operational goals. By creating an environment where proactive maintenance practices can thrive, integrated maintenance allows the entire workforce to participate in the maintenance process.
Case Study:
Equipment |
Availability |
| Prime Movers | 95% |
| Haulage Truck | 91% |
| Scoop | 90% |
| MacLean Bolter | 89% |
Sofvie Inc. partnered with a Canadian mining company for an 18-month project to produce 220,000 tonnes of nickel ore. This project provided an opportunity to challenge the status quo in equipment management by leveraging sofvie as a fundamental pillar of their maintenance strategy. The results were impressive. Throughout the project, equipment maintained an average of 90% availability while prime movers reached 95% availability (Table 2). Lateral development was completed with just 6% overbreak, indicative of the operational efficiencies achieved with an integrated maintenance strategy.
sofvie was leveraged as the communication tool for all workers, unifying frontline staff, maintenance personnel, subcontractors, and management under one system. The platform enabled operators to report early equipment failure signs, facilitating proactive maintenance and minimizing downtime. This allowed the maintenance department the time necessary to schedule maintenance, be strategic with procurement of spare parts, react to challenges, and limit equipment downtime to the execution of the work.
Key to the project’s success was the implementation of sofvie’s Technician Field Service Report (TFSR). When combined with sofvie’s pre-ops, equipment status, and equipment history reports, the platform created a passive communication channel between management and the operators of equipment. This data-driven approach reduced administrative burdens, streamlined decision-making processes for timely repairs, and empowered workers to report issues directly.
The impact of this integrated approach on maintenance outcomes was significant. Overall, 80% of all maintenance work was proactive and planned in advance, with only 14% being reactive. This shift towards proactive maintenance, coupled with high equipment availability and utilization, resulted in operating costs that were 50% lower than initially budgeted (see graph below).
The project demonstrates how innovative equipment management strategies and enhanced communication can reduce budgeted costs for mining companies. Sofvie was leveraged as the communication tool to ensure challenges (i.e., breakdowns, repairs needed) with equipment were translated into actionable solutions, which kept availability and subsequently, utilization high throughout the project. As a result, equipment downtime was minimized, which significantly reduced operating costs below the initial budget.
Project sentiments:
Conclusion:
This case study demonstrates the power of integrated maintenance in a Canadian mining operation. With the use of sofvie, the project achieved:
- 90-95% equipment availability
- 80% proactive maintenance
- 50% reduction in budgeted operating costs
These results highlight the importance of real-time communication and data-driven decision-making for optimal equipment performance. Sofvie gives a voice to all workers and ensures that critical data from those closest to the equipment is incorporated into the overall maintenance strategy, promoting a culture of cooperation, company-wide. In an industry where equipment reliability directly impacts productivity and profitability, and overall performance of equipment depends on high availability and utilization, an integrated approach to maintenance can offer companies a competitive advantage in a high-stakes industry.