Business Challenge
The mining industry faces a considerable increase in demand, thanks to the recent and upcoming global economic growth. Adopting an optimized and integrated mine-to-ship supply chain management approach can help address various operational challenges such as execution disruptions (broken equipment), late ship departure penalties, and reduced customer service levels. The typical mining supply chain has a lead time from mine-to-ship that may not exceed 24 hours, a target level of inventory at the port that might cover a demand of just a few days, and a limited queuing capacity at the marshalling yard. This type of supply chain needs to be managed in a much more integrated way if higher global performance is to be delivered. While optimizing equipment utilization at each stage of the supply chain (in silos) is important, it is not sufficient. Only an integrated and optimized supply chain can help maximize the overall production throughput as well as meet customer order fulfillment in a timely manner.
The Solution
IBM Optimization Mine to Ship allows integrated mining companies to enhance their mine-to-ship supply chain operations by optimizing each supply chain component in a fully integrated schedule. The scope of this solution spans from the loading of materials into the trains at the mine hub to the berthing of the ships, their loading and their departure. It offers various capabilities including the ability to take into account real-time operation information regarding equipment status, rolling stock status and location, equipment efficiency and planned maintenance, etc. The result is a closing of the gap and associated costs between planning, scheduling, maintenance, and execution.
The solution is built on top of the IBM ODM Enterprise platform, which allows efficient What-If analysis and scenario comparison, making it easier to collaborate for the various supply chain stakeholders.
Value Proposition
IBM Optimization Mine to Ship allows integrated mining companies to:
- Produce and dynamically update fully integrated mine-to-ship schedules
- Maximize production throughput (produced and shipped tons)
- Minimize mine-to-ship operation disruption costs and delays
- Maximize customer service levels
- Minimize demurrage costs and maximize demurrage bonuses
- Maximize execution scheduling reliability
Team
The solution was jointly developed by IBM’s global team of experts from ILOG-France, ILOG-Spain, India Research Lab (IRL), and Natural Resources – Center of Excellence (NR-CoE). IRL designed and developed the hybrid optimization framework leveraging mathematical programming and constraint programming to tame the modeling and computational complexity of integrated planning and scheduling.
This software is representative of that body of work and part of the Industry Solutions Asset Program. For more information visit www.ibm.com/software/data/information-agenda/catalog/profiles/Opt_Mind_to_Ship_IND_12.html