Background 

Downer Professional Services has helped BUMA Australia optimise mine production by improving mined material movement using near real-time data analytics. 

BUMA needed to know when trucks were being over and under-loaded and operations and maintenance teams had identified improvement potential across load-haul-dump operations, driver nuances, and sub-system performance of excavators and haul trucks.  

However, BUMA’s existing approach to data analytics provided a retrospective view that couldn’t be actioned across its contracts with Stanwell Corporation, BMA Coal Alliance, and Millmerran Power Partners. 

A near real-time solution with a seamless interface for asset owners, operators and maintainers was identified as value-delivering initiative. 

Downer Professional Services designed, configured and managed a Neuroverse-based solution for tracking, reporting and optimisation of mined material movement. The solution also collected haul-track health (big data) for upcoming machine health analysis 

What we did 

Downer Professional Services business analysts worked closely with BUMA stakeholders to understand the underlying business challenge, opportunities, and constraints.  

The team identified an analytical solution using Downer’s Neuroverse platform and associated integration requirements. 

The professional and managed services solution was implemented at a pilot site before moving to full production status and included: 

• Integration specialists securely integrating BUMA’s Excavator and haul-track telemetry systems with Neuroverse; 
• Data engineers shaping acquired data within Neuroverse to meet a variety of real-time and periodic analytical workloads; and 
• Analytic specialists designing actionable insights for control room, in-cab, and mobile use-cases. 

Downer Professional Services ensures the solution was highly available by providing fully managed technology and support services on a subscription basis. 

The solution will be rolled out to other Australian and global BUMA sites and is planned to expand from operations optimisation to maintenance optimisation  

Results 

The Downer Professional Services solution allows BUMA to track mine production and material movement in near real-time, allowing shift supervisors to manage and act on variations to plan during the shift including: 

• Detection and correction of haul-truck overloading to avoid equipment damage; and 
• Detection and correction of haul-truck underloading to optimise productivity.