Aerospace Industry Lessons for Mining

Part 2: Transforming the supply chain

This series of articles is dedicated to exploring the value of the digital twin in the mining industry by using the aerospace industry as an example: they have a product and we have a product, a product that we also need to get to a volatile and competitive market in the most cost-effective and sustainable way.

In Part 1, I explained how aeronautical giants like Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier, and Gulfstream used Dassault Systèmes 3DExperience to create a digital twin inside a virtual twin experience that helped them identify how to make their production rate flexible enough to quickly adapt to changing market needs and demands. I also discussed how I believe the lessons learned by the aerospace industry can be applied to mining and our resource lifecycle management.

This article looks at a second key question asked by manufacturers and suppliers within the aerospace industry that also resonates within the mining sector:

How can we reinvent our supply chain to improve visibility, on-time delivery, and first-time quality?

The issue

As the first article in this series pointed out, current estimates are that commercial air traffic could double in the next 20 years. There is also the possibility that the defense and space sectors may dramatically increase their spending over that same period.

With supplier-created parts and content representing 50% to 60% of the value of an aerospace system, any rapid increase in aircraft manufacturing — let alone one as large as experts anticipate over the next few years — will hit both original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers hard.

Combine that potential rapid increase in demand with continuing price pressures, and aerospace OEMs and suppliers realised it was crucial for them to work together to transform their supply chains before it was too late.

Which is where Dassault Systèmes came in …

To stay competitive, aircraft manufacturers wanted:

• higher visibility into supply chains to ensure tight, seamless integration
• increased on-time delivery through shared development of inventory targets as well as strategic and resource plans, and
• improved first-time quality (also known as zero-defect design).

To help them reach those goals, leading aircraft manufacturers and their suppliers adopted Dassault Systèmes 3DExperience as their network platform because it allows them to:

• Collaborate in real-time

Like many in mining, a lot of aerospace manufacturers and suppliers were working in a digital world made up of mixed and often incompatible software. This chaotic environment not only slowed data flow between OEMs and suppliers, it also slowed virtually every work process along the value chain, from design and development to production and delivery.

The digital continuity achieved by linking software and systems on the 3DExperience platform ensures full and immediate access to any required data by authorized users. It enables complete transparency and real-time collaboration among all stakeholders, no matter where they are or what software they are using.

Aerospace OEMs and suppliers are now working seamlessly together to design components and integrate systems and plans. Through real-time alerts of plant disruptions, bottlenecks, and anything else that might cause a production delay, they are also now successfully avoiding a range of potential issues across the entire supply chain.

For mining companies, taming the digital chaos is also an increasing imperative, both internally and with external suppliers. Internally, for example, new data acquisition technologies mean vast new sources of information are now available to inform and enhance geological modeling and resource estimation. But making sure this data can be easily retrieved and used by geologists and other stakeholders when it comes in such a wide variety of types — lab results from Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), diamond drilling core descriptions of physical samples, penetration rate data collected by data historians on drilling rigs, etc. — is challenging.

A network platform, where mines integrate and manage all of their data, systems, software, and processes in one central hub, allows real-time collaboration:

• between internal departments — for example, updated information flows seamlessly from resource estimation to mine planning and design, and
  • with external suppliers — for example, data on changing LHD size and capacity required for a new block caving project with a very strict deadline moves to and from the supplier instantaneously.
• Increase first-time quality

In the aerospace industry, many products are required to conform with strict safety and other regulations. When products do not conform, OEM’s face both delays and unwanted costs.

First-time quality — or zero-defect design — compares process input with process output (for example, if an LHD manufacturer produces 10 loaders per week but five don’t meet quality standards, the measure of first-time quality is 95%, with the remaining 5% being scrap) to decrease product deficiencies and increase customer satisfaction.

With all data integrated on a central network platform, aerospace OEMs and suppliers can now measure first-time quality after every process along the production line to:

• determine the number of defects
  • identify the root causes of those defects and take steps to correct them, and
  • measure and tweak procedure efficiency (how many sellable items are produced per sample).

The idea of first-time quality, of comparing process input with process output, can of course be applied to mining industry suppliers, but it can also be applied to mines themselves, where our product is not an object, like an airplane or an engine, but a metal or mineral.

Linking all sources of production data, for example — such as fleet management, weighbridge, laboratory results, stockpile, etc. — on a single platform would allow mine managers to see all stages of the mining process and to identify such essentials as:

• the causes of production delays or equipment downtime
• actual production compared to target production
• how well grade control is performing, and
• where the latest data required for production reporting is located.

With that greater insight into mine production, mines can respond appropriately to the causes of delays, smooth out procedures or workflows where required, and reduce waste.

Next in this series

Improving supply chain visibility, on-time delivery, and first-time quality by adopting Dassault Systèmes 3DExperience network platform has helped the aerospace industry prepare for a future of increasing demand and rising costs.

In the next three articles in the Aerospace Industry Lessons for Mining series, I will explain how we helped the aerospace industry answer these other key questions:

• How can we integrate new technologies to improve performance and meet demand while also driving costs down?
• How can we develop a competitive technology and service portfolio quickly and with minimal risk?
• How can we deliver on our economic, environmental, and social promises?

About the Author 

Diego has over ten years of experience leading digital transformation and mine planning projects for national and multinational organizations. He has an MBA from Universidad Católica de Chile, a Diploma in Supply Chain Management from Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, and an Electronics Engineer from Universidad de Concepción.

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