RPMGlobal’s (RPM®) advanced mine planning and scheduling software — XECUTE® and XPAC® Solutions — are already used extensively around the world across various commodities and mining methods. The significant growth in sales of these products can be attributable to both their innovative nature and the fact that more organisations are starting to realise the power connected solutions can deliver to their planning functions.
XECUTE is RPM’s short-term scheduling solution that enables miners to maximise planning value by using intelligent integration to connect planning with operations, using a highly visual user interface to enhance communication between mining specialists.
XECUTE supports this by providing short-term work assignments to HPGPS and Fleet Management systems. The Dynamic integration then allows the solution to bring back the ‘actuals’ (from those systems) to view what work was done and compare it spatially to the shift plan.
XECUTE takes guidance from longer schedules ensuring that operations are always working towards the strategic goal of the longer-term planners. Short-term planners then have a rich visual compliance tool, overlying longer-term guidance, the short-term plan and actual operations all in one 4D environment.
One of the major differentiators of RPM’s scheduling tools is the Integrated Product Optimiser (PO). Product Optimiser is a mathematical algorithm that determines the optimal allocation of material to destinations through the mining supply chain.
Unlike other scheduling packages, Product Optimiser is integrated with the schedule to find the optimal way to process, blend and stockpile products to maximise value from what is about to be mined. Mining organisations tend to have very sophisticated supply chain operations which makes it difficult to produce a specific blend at any given point.
Product Optimiser optimises the process by determining the single best solution with all of the material available at any given point in time with the goal to maximise the NPV. Product Optimiser can therefore have a significant role in reducing stockpile costs by providing the ability to define the requirements of the blend before the port.
Nobody wants to rely on passing across flat files or legacy integration anymore. XECUTE has, as its foundation, RPM’s Enterprise Planning Framework (EPF) ™, with enterprise data feeds providing planners with the most up-to-date scheduling inputs which are then automatically pushed to downstream systems.
The 2019 financial year has seen a significant increase in the industry’s adoption of XECUTE as more miners begin to reap the benefits of closing the gap between planning and execution.
Over recent months RPM has added a number of new XECUTE customers in what has been the fastest uptake of a new solution RPM has experienced in many years, and pleasingly it is across a range of commodities (Oil Sands, Coal, Copper, Iron Ore and Gold).
Commenting on the uptake of XECUTE, RPM CEO Richard Mathews said: “The mining industry is focused on plan compliance and driving more predictability into their planning processes. Not only because of the cost savings available to them but because predictable operations are also safer ones. To create XECUTE, we listened to the market, worked with key players and delivered a solution that can align horizons, optimise the plan with the supply chain, and connect planning/maintenance and production as well as delivering a visually rich compliance tool.”
“As we move increasingly toward autonomy, solutions such as XECUTE are vital. With more automation comes less human intervention, with better data collection and integration comes better execution and with better execution better outcomes are realised.”
“The investment we have made into enterprise integration over the last seven years is really paying dividends to both RPM and the industry.”
XECUTE roadshows and information webinars are happening right now all over the globe. Please contact us for more information or get in touch with a reference site to learn more. The latest upgrade, XECUTE 2.1, encompasses a range of key features to maximise planning value and agility, including increased frequency of planning and improved automated data gathering and reporting.