Kaz Minerals – Automated Reporting Package for Defect Elimination

About KAZ Minerals Bozshakol

KAZ Minerals Bozshakol is a large scale, open pit copper mine located in North-East Kazakhstan. The concentrator has an annual ore processing capacity of 25 million tonnes and a mine life of 39 years. Bozshakol commenced production of copper concentrate in February 2016 and was declared commercial in October 2016. KAZ Minerals has another operation called Aktogay, located in Southern Kazakhstan, which has a concentrator identical to Bozshakol’s. Aktogay commenced production of copper concentrate in December 2015 and was declared commercial in July 2016.

Figure 1 (a,b,c) – KAZ Minerals Bozshakol Images

Source: https://www.kazminerals.com/our-business/bozshakol/

1 Summary

The KAZ Minerals Bozshakol Reliability Department for Fixed Plant has developed an Automated Reporting Package. This package ensures defect elimination by successfully transforming asset failure data into actionable value-adding information. The processes were introduced to an inexperienced Reliability workforce at an immature site. This workforces has been able to manage these processes to achieve a positive outcome for the business.

  1. Reports developed following Asset Management Best Practice Principles (see section 2.1)
  2. Automated Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly Reports and YTD Dashboard (see section 2.2)
  3. Reports ensure corrective actions are in place for each downtime event (see section 2.3)
  4. Contributed to a 3.8% increase in availability and a reduction in unplanned maintenance downtime from 50 hours to 7 hours per month, over a 12-month period (see section 2.4)
  5. Realised time savings of over 520 hours (52 working days) per year in reporting (see section 2.4)

2 Description of Framework

2.1 Asset Management Best Practice Principles

  1. The Automated Reporting Package takes guidance form AMC Asset Management Framework section 8.2.5 (Performance monitoring) to achieve performance monitoring as the reports continuously benchmark the assets’ performance against key performance indicators.
  • As per AMC Asset Management Framework section 8.2.5.4 (Data and information requirements), the Automated Reporting Package is supported by a suite of approved KAZ Minerals Bozshakol site standards developed in-house. This ensures a process for analysis of asset failure data and its transformation into actionable value-adding information is adhered to by detailing:
  1. A methodology and technique for evaluating and validating the data collected
  2. Quality control of data used and information reported
  3. Responsibilities for compiling, analysing, storing and protecting data
  4. Guides for transforming of data into relevant information for stakeholders
  • The Automated Reporting Package uses principles from ISO55001-9.1 (Monitoring, Measurement, Analysis and Evaluation) to transform asset failure data into value-adding actionable information to:
  1. Reduce equipment failures by eliminating defects that cause the most downtime
  2. Improve decision-making within the Maintenance and Operations departments
  3. Extend the life of critical equipment
  4. Evaluate feasibility of OPEX and CAPX projects
  5. Enable benchmarking across the two identical KAZ Minerals sites of Bozshakol and Aktogay
  6. Promote a culture of continuous improvement in the Maintenance department
  • The Automated Reporting Package is in line with ISO55001-9.3 (Management Review) and ISO55001-10 (Improvement Process) as it enables:
  1. Corrective actions to be in place when a non-conformity occurs by means of downtime analysis and tracking of corrective actions
  2. Proactively identifying preventative actions to take based on downtime trends and repeated downtime events
  3. Continuous improvement by continually providing value-adding information to stakeholders in line with ISO14224 (Collection and Exchange of Reliability and Maintenance Data for Equipment) to effectively manage assets in a similar way to the model in section 6 of ISO14224 (Figure 2)

Figure 2 – Feedback of Analysis from Collected Reliability and Maintenance Data

Source: ISO14224:2006 Section 6

2.2 Originality and Ingenuity

The reporting structure of the Automated Reporting Package is as follows:

ReportSnippetPurpose
DailyShow run-hours for critical assets over the last 24 hoursShow milled tonnes over the last 24 hoursShow all downtime events for the last 24 hours including downtime category, reason and commentsEnable Supervisors, Foremen, Superintendents and Managers to assign corrective actions for downtime events as soon as they occurUsed to supplement crew handovers
WeeklyShow availability trends for the last 20 weeks Show downtime trends for the last 20 weeks by category (i.e. Mechanical, Electrical, Instrumentation, DCS)Show top 5 downtime events for the last 5 weeks to highlight recurring downtime events Show availability and downtime event details for the entire week to ensure corrective actions are in place for each downtime eventUsed to supplement handovers during roster changes
MonthlyShow monthly availability and downtime trends against targets to enable acting on deviations from targetsShow YTD availability and downtime to enable making data-driven strategic maintenance decisionsShow Pareto of downtime events to enable Superintendents and Managers to assign corrective actions for downtime eventsSupplement monthly Reliability meeting to drive defect elimination and hold stakeholders accountable to their actions Used to supplement handovers during roster changes
QuarterlyShow availability trends clustered by quarterShow top 7 downtime events for each quarterShow top 10 YTD downtime events by category: Mechanical, Electrical, Instrumentation, DCSEnable making data-driven strategic maintenance decisionsSupplement OPEX and CAPEX planning
Year-to-Date DashboardPrinted and placed on noticeboards Provide a snapshot of availability and downtime for the concentrator which can be understood at all levels in the organisation from Senior Manager to TechnicianShow availability and downtime trends per monthShow planned maintenanceShow top 10 YTD downtime events by category: Mechanical, Electrical, Instrumentation, DCSShow top 10 unplanned downtime events for each month

Table 1 – Structure of Automated Reporting Package

2.3 Program Management

The Automated Reporting Package enables defect elimination by ensuring corrective actions are in place for each downtime event. For the framework to be effective, the following supporting processes have been implemented:

  1. Daily downtime validation is performed starting with an initial Daily Report sent by the Reliability Engineer at 6:10AM to maintenance and operations Foremen. The Foremen and the Reliability Engineer validate the downtime and agree on its reason. The Reliability Engineer then sends the final Daily Report to all Superintendents and Managers at 6:50AM (Figure 3a).
  • A weekly downtime validation and correction meeting is held every Saturday with representatives from Operations, Mechanical, Electrical, Instrumentation and Metallurgy to agree and validate downtime for the week (Figure 3b).

Figure 3 (a,b) – Daily and Weekly Downtime Validation and Correction Processes

Source: KAZ Minerals Bozshakol Downtime Management Procedure

  • A monthly Reliability meeting is held following the release of the Monthly Report on the 1st day of every month. The meeting is held with representatives from Operations, Mechanical, Electrical, Instrumentation, Planning and Metallurgy to ensure actions are in place for each downtime event. This drives defect elimination by holding stakeholders accountable to their actions.
  • Root Cause Analysis thresholds were developed and included in a Root Cause Analysis site standard. These thresholds dictate when to trigger a Root Cause Analysis based on downtime duration as well as failure complexity at the discretion of the Reliability Superintendent.
  • A Root Cause Analysis tactical plan Excel report was developed and automated showing outstanding actions in English and Russian. The report is emailed out on the 15th day of the month and 5 days before the end of month.
  • Quick reference guide PDFs were developed for all reports in both English and Russian.

Figure 4 (a,b) – Quick Reference Guides

Source: KAZ Minerals Bozshakol Quick Reference Guides Developed by Reliability Department

  • Tutorial videos were made showing, specifically, how the reports were developed starting from a blank spreadsheet to the finished product. The videos show all details regarding the PowerQuery, Excel formulas, macros, VBA code, constructing pivot tables, formatting of graphs, etc. These videos are strictly for internal use for the Reliability Engineers at the KAZ Minerals Bozshakol Site.

Figure 5 (a,b,c) – Snippets from Excel Tutorial Videos for Creating Downtime Reports

Source: KAZ Minerals Bozshakol Reports Tutorial Videos Recorded by the Reliability Superintendent

  • The Automated Reporting Package enables benchmarking across the two identical KAZ Minerals concentrators at Bozshakol and Aktogay. Benchmarking is used to:
  1. Identify weaknesses and strengths across the sites using availability and downtime data
    1. Improve KPI-driven planning and execution of work
    1. Promote a continuous improvement culture across both sites

2.4 Benefit to the Organisation

  1. The Automated Reporting Package contributed to a 3.8% increase in availability and a reduction of unplanned maintenance downtime from 50 hours to 7 hours per month, over a 12-month period, in 2020. Plant availability for the year in 2019 was 87.2 %. Availability increased to 91% in 2020 with Q4 availability exceeding the target at 94.1% (Figure 6a).
  • The main driver for the improvement in availability was the constant reduction in unplanned maintenance downtime (Figure 6b). Equipment failures were reduced by ensuring defects were eliminated through continuous improvement by ensuring corrective actions were in place for each downtime event. The reports were also used to supplement handovers to ensure no critical information was missed.

Figure 6 (a,b) – Improvement in Availability Consistent Reduction in Unplanned Maintenance Downtime

Source: KAZ Minerals Bozshakol Reliability Reports 2020

  • The Automated Reporting Package realised time savings of 525 hours in reporting over a 1 year period which is equivalent to 52 working days at KAZ Minerals Bozshakol. Table 2 below shows the time taken for reporting before and after automation. The Reliability Engineers’ net yearly time spent reporting was reduced by 483 hours, from 545 hours to 62 hours. The time savings enable Reliability Engineers to spend more time on value-adding tasks including:
  1. Root Cause Analysis
  2. Developing and improving maintenance strategies
  3. Field inspections and providing technical support
  4. Reliability analysis and making recommendations
  5. Performing quality control checks for critical repairs
Report Before Automaton After Automation
  Reliability EngineerTranslator Reliability EngineerTranslator
Daily 20 minutes 2 minutes
Weekly 2 hours30 minutes 2 minutes
Monthly 20 hours4 hours 4 hours1 hour
Quarterly 20 hours4 hours 2 minutes
  545 hours 40 minutes90 hours 62 hours 2 minutes48 hours
Total 635 hours 40 minutes 110 hours 2 minutes
     
Savings 525 hours 38 minutes

Table 2 – Reporting Hours Saved: 525 hours per year

3 Specific Contribution

The reports are one-click-automated reports developed in-house by the KAZ Minerals Bozshakol Reliability Department. The specific process for analysis of asset failure data and its transformation into actionable value-adding information follows an Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) methodology and is as follows:

  1. A PowerQuery is used to extract asset failure data from the downtime management system. Data Analysis Expressions are used to filter, concatenate and transform the incoming data (Figure 7a).
  • The data is loaded into the Excel Data Model of a spreadsheet where translation tables are linked with data and calculated fields are created to enable further filtering (Figure 7b).

Figure 7 (a,b) – PowerQuery and Excel Data Model with Linked Tables

  • Pivot tables are used in the Excel workbook which pull data form the Excel Data Model. The data is further transformed by using formulas in a number of structured tabs with checksums to add robustness to the process and allow for troubleshooting (Figure 8a).
  • Information is presented in a Report tab using visualisations including column graphs, bar graphs, pie graphs, stacked column graphs, donut charts, waterfall charts and Pareto charts. (Figure 8b).

Figure 8 (a,b) – Data Transformation by Pivot Tables, Formulas and Data Visualisation

  • A macro automatically generates and saves a PDF with a standard naming convention (YYYYMMDD: Daily Report, YYYYWK00: Weekly Report, YYYYMM: Monthly Report) (Figure 9a and 9b). The macro composes an email with the PDF report attached and emails it out to stakeholders.

Figure 9 (a,b) – Excel Macro and Standard Naming Convention for Reports

4 General Comments

The Automated Reporting Package is part of a higher level Reliability Workflow which underpins all the work undertaken in the Reliability Department at KAZ Minerals Bozshakol (Figures 10 and 11).

No.About
1Reliability Workflow
2Reliability KPIs
3.1 Procedure: Root Cause Analysis
3.2 Procedure: Downtime Management
3.3Procedure: Maintenance Strategy Improvement
4.1Standard Safe Work Instruction
4.2Standard Checklist
4.3Maintenance Strategy Improvement Report
5.1 Shutdown Reliability Inspections Workflow
5.2Shutdown Reliability Report
5.3Shutdown Work Request Extract Report
5.4Shutdown Inspection Asset Condition Report
6.1Standard Root Cause Analysis Report
6.2Root Cause Analysis Tactical Plan Report
7.1Daily Reliability Report
7.2Weekly Reliability Report
7.3Monthly Reliability Report
7.4Quarterly Reliability Report
7.5Yearly Reliability Report
7.6Year-to-Date Reliability Dashboard
Figure 10 – Automated Reporting Package within Higher Level Reliability Workflow

Figure 11 – KAZ Minerals Bozshakol Reliability Workflow Showing where Automated Reporting Package Fits In

Comments from KAZ Minerals Bozshakol Maintenance Manager – J.G.

The idea that an inexperienced workforce at an immature site could introduce and manage these processes to achieve some positive outcomes for the business is a good story.

Comments from KAZ Minerals Bozshakol Operations Manager – B.K.

The automated reporting package for defect elimination is an excellent tool that has brought both measurable and behavioral improvements to the way we work. The advantages that this tool brings to our business is the engagement with the various stakeholders and focus on the accountability for agreed actions to resolve issues identified. It brings structure and a systematic consistent approach to a workforce that has not previously been exposed to improvement methodology at this level. 

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