Model for economic replacement time of mining production rigs including redundant rig costs
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a practical model to determine the economic replacement time (ERT) of production machines. The objective is to minimise the total cost of capital equipment, where total cost includes acquisition, operating, maintenance costs and costs related to the machine’s downtime. The costs related to the machine’s downtime are represented by the costs of using a redundant machine.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, four years of cost data are collected. Data are analysed, practical optimisation model is developed and regression analysis is done to estimate the drilling rigs ERT. The artificial neural network (ANN) technique is used to identify the effect of factors influencing the ERT of the drilling rigs.
Findings
The results show that the redundant rig cost has the largest impact on ERT, followed by acquisition, maintenance and operating costs. The study also finds that increasing redundant costs per hour have a negative effect on ERT, while decreases in other costs have a positive effect. Regression analysis shows a linear relationship between the cost factors and ERT.
Practical implications
The proposed approach can be used by the decision maker in determining the ERT of production machines which used in mining industry.
Originality/value
The research proposed in this paper provides and develops an optimisation model for ERT of mining machines. This research also identifies and explains the factors that have the largest impact on the production machine’s ERT. This model for estimating the ERT has never been studied on mining drilling rigs.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Atlas Copco and Boliden mineral AB, for supporting this research. Special appreciation is extended to the experts at Boliden mineral AB and Atlas Copco for sharing their valuable knowledge and experience. The authors would like also to thank Arne Vesterberg at Boliden mineral AB and Andreas Nordbrandt at Atlas Copco for them supports. The authors would like also to thank for the support of CAMM (Centre of Advanced Mining & Metallurgy) project in this research work. The authors’ sincerest gratitude is extended to the reviewers and the editor of this journal for the valuable comments that the authors’ received from them, which helped to improve this paper.
Citation
Al-Chalabi, H.S., Lundberg, J., Al-Gburi, M., Ahmadi, A. and Ghodrati, B. (2015), "Model for economic replacement time of mining production rigs including redundant rig costs", Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 207-226. https://doi.org/10.1108/JQME-07-2014-0041
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited