Immersive Technologies has announced the winners of its 2019 Global Business Improvement Award and the top honor was presented to Freeport-McMoRan’s Bagdad Operations in Arizona, USA. Finalists were selected for their achievements in continuously improving operational safety, efficiency and productivity through strategic simulator-based training initiatives. These projects demonstrate excellence in aligning people, process and technology to push the performance envelope.
The company partnered with Immersive Technologies and focused on an improvement in the amount of material produced per hour by reducing load times. The business improvement project used simulations to improve operator performance by honing skills and providing feedback, which resulted in a 12% reduction in loading times. Trained operators were compared against a control group, and it was found the simulator-trained group produced 19% more tons per hour.
Bagdad Technical Training Superintendent Freeman Myers said, “Using Immersive Technologies’ simulators helped us identify and implement processes to make our operations run more efficiently. Our operators have experienced the benefits of simulation-based technologies and contributed to enhancing our Bagdad Operations. Our partnership with Immersive Technologies has created a strong team focused on the success of our people and creating value for our business.”
Two other mines were finalists: Codelco’s Radomiro Tomic copper mine in northern Chile and Roy Hill’s iron operation in Western Australia.
With a fleet of more than 90 haul trucks, efficient training was critical to ensure availability of skilled operators and increase workforce availability at Radomiro Tomic. Codelco’s Engineering and Process Control Team used an Immersive Technologies simulator, prestart inspection and managed services support to improve their haul truck training program efficiency. Simulation and learning technology enabled Codelco to increase training engagement levels and transfer skills 16% faster than traditional methods, with estimated savings of $700,000 per year.
Roy Hill mines initiated a continuous improvement project to reduce excavator operator performance variance and improve production outcomes.
Leveraging simulation and advisor support from Immersive Technologies, Roy Hill succeeded in delivering a 6.7% improvement in instantaneous dig rate and 4.1% improvement in production dig rate averages across three excavator size classes.
