RungePincockMinarco (RPM) has launched XECUTE™, an ultra-short term mine planning solution, which “delivers a step change in the traditional methods of mine planning” by providing a purpose built, enterprise grade, Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) execution planning solution. XECUTE has been engineered with a “100% visual” user interface enabling users to create and
maintain their mine plan through an interactive viewer, rather than using cells in a spreadsheet.
This highly visual approach to mine planning is a true communication medium and facilitates real time collaboration between mining specialists including surveyors, geologists, mining
engineers, production managers, maintenance managers and shift dispatchers, all within the one easy-to-use visual application. Its enterprise architecture allows for this to happen across a
site, or across remote locations. The multi-user collaboration within XECUTE enables users who have different responsibilities within a mine to understand the impact and interrelationship of their planning requirements on both the actions of others and the mine plan as a whole, now and into the future.
Commenting on the release, Richard Mathews RPM’s CEO and Managing Director said: “XECUTE is innovation in the true sense of the word. The idea for this product originated from a
mine planning engineer in one of our major customers who looked outside the box to the gaming industry for an intuitive, easy to use but incredibly complete solution to use in the ultra-
short term horizon for mine planning. Previously, the ultra-short term horizon was dominated by one off manual spreadsheets and office whiteboards which all failed to have any linkage to the original mine plan, nor did they deliver the mining instructions to the production systems which are needed in order to deliver on that plan. It became very obvious to us, this missing link was a productivity roadblock for every operation globally and as an Industry we needed to take a fresh and innovative approach to the way in which we deliver planning solutions in this horizon.”
He added: “Innovation is about having an idea which if realised will change the way people do things forever – and then having the courage and fortitude to invest in that idea to bring it to life. In
XECUTE we were presented with an innovative idea and after sizeable investment in different technologies we finally made the breakthrough we needed. XECUTE is an enterprise mine planning application which will change the way people think about, build, manage and execute their ultra-short term mine plans.”
XECUTE turns the current process of building and maintaining a mine plan on its head. Ultra-short term mine planning has historically been about taking disparate data and information from
different technical mine systems and bringing them together in a manual process to create a visual representation of the mine. XECUTE takes the most up to-date spatial and equipment data associated with the mine, including survey data, wire frames, block models, mine faces, drill and blast patterns, the mining equipment register and maintenance schedules and combines it with real time mine data to provide a complete 3D representation of the mine.
Due to its highly interactive and graphical nature, XECUTE enables engineers to interface with all of this data whilst observing and assessing the impact in real time of different ultra-short term
scenarios or recent operational issues which may have arisen in the mine (poor blast, equipment failure etc) on their mine plan. Once the optimal plan is selected the associated operational instructions are immediately distributed to the operational team so that mining interruptions are minimised, equipment is better utilised and the quality/blend of the final product is optimised.
“We have been working with a large miner who not only shared our vision but immediately realised how XECUTE could help them reach their productivity goals. The early feedback has
been very positive and they have been instrumental in bringing this product to market” Mathews commented. The highly visual interaction within XECUTE, which is inspired by gaming technologies, provides users with features which have never before been available in technical mine planning solutions, including touch screen functionality, 4D animation, context menus and a real time multi-user option which is ideal for remote operations.
