IDCON specializes in consulting on maintenance and reliability for the heavy process industries, including mining. IDCON assists organizations worldwide in consultation, training and implementation of processes.

Our mission is to improve overall production reliability and lower manufacturing and maintenance costs for your mine.

IDCON’s reliability and maintenance consultant expertise includes maintenance and reliability assessments, maintenance planning and scheduling, root-cause analysis, preventive maintenance, operator essential care / TPM, and materials and spare parts management. We also work with leadership development in maintenance management.

Idcon's expertise includes maintenance and reliability assessments, maintenance planning and scheduling, root cause analysis, preventive maintenance, operator essential care/TPM, and materials and spare parts management.

JOY Longwall Shearer in the maintenance shop for inspection prior to use.

The maintenance planning and scheduling work process is 'the hub' in effective reliability and maintenance management. We work with your mine to enhance maintenance planning and scheduling.

We will also support you in training for inspection techniques and other preventive maintenance tasks. Currently, there is significant interest in our customized training in equipment components and inspection techniques for operators.

JOY Longwall Shearer in the maintenance shop for inspection prior to use.

Our philosophy emphasizes achieving results through people. We believe the partnership between operations and maintenance is key to making tenable improvements in reliability. IDCON works with your mining team to create the sustained levels of awareness and buy-in required to produce the processes, action, and change that will transform your mine’s organization and garner bottom-line results.

Best practice in mine maintenance assessments

IDCON has defined ‘Current Best Practices’ (CBP) in reliability and maintenance management. The CBP defines best practices for reliability and maintenance management in around 200 elements. We use these elements as a benchmark when we perform a maintenance audit for your organization.

To start the process, IDCON will work with the leaders of your organization over 2-5 days to develop the reliability and maintenance strategy using the CBP as a baseline. The companies we work with typically decide to adopt IDCON’s standard CBP after we customize it for them.

Despite the many obvious differences between a mine and a dairy factory or paper mill, work practices are very similar among the industries due to the similar equipment components (motors, bearings, cylinders, etc.) used in large machines.

Once the leaders of the mine have agreed on the CBP, IDCON revises the list and documents the best practices for the client. Using the CBP method keeps everybody in your organization on the same page and has been very beneficial to our mining industry clients in terms of reliability and maintenance.

The maintenance audit CBP is used by numerous corporations such as African Minerals, Arch Coal, Yancoal, Sydvaranger mining, Kazakhmys, SSAB Steel, Fonterra, International Paper, Whirlpool, Stora Enso and many others.

Enhancing mine maintenance planning and scheduling process

The maintenance planning and scheduling work process is the key to effective reliability and maintenance management. We work with your mine to make maintenance planning and scheduling more effective. Support may include classroom training, on-the-job training, and advice about different approaches and strategies. We will work with you to customize your experience with IDCON to meet your specific needs.

Asset management/preventive maintenance

IDCON emphasizes that the success of an organization primarily depends on the people in the company. The equipment will not work if personnel isn’t thoroughly trained in managing it. Our PM program delves into asset management issues at your mine and then trains your people to eliminate them after analyzing the problem for the root cause.

IDCON can educate and train your organization in documenting, executing and managing the Asset Management/Preventive Maintenance process at your mine. We will also support you in training for inspection techniques and other Asset Management tasks. Currently, there is significant interest in our customized training in equipment components and inspection techniques for operators.

Root cause analysis

Root Cause Analysis often complements the Asset Management process since Preventive Maintenance identifies problems that have to be analyzed and eliminated. So, once we work with you to figure out the problem, we help you figure out why the problem exists and then create a plan for elimination. Our Root Cause Analysis consulting and training helps your organization structure problem-solving using very simple tools.

Materials and spare parts management

Optimizing and organizing materials are critical to enable excellence in maintenance planning and scheduling. We offer training in the management of spare parts with regards to reliability and organization and management of the spare parts storeroom. We also offer criticality assessments.

Coaching mine maintenance managers

Having well-trained and highly disciplined mine maintenance managers is imperative for your organization to function correctly. Effective leaders can make or break an operation. IDCON offers leadership training and support for the managers and schedulers at your mine. Contact us today so that we can be your partner in the improvement of your mine.