Name: John Sarena
Title: Senior MES Analyst Processing Date: 25/9/2014
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Iluka – Company Overview
• lluka is a major participant in the global mineral sands industry.
• Involved in the exploration, project development, operation and marketing of mineral sands products.
• Its main assets and operations are located in Australia, with a mining and processing operation in Virginia, USA.
• Iluka is the largest producer of zircon in the world
• Second largest producer of titanium dioxide minerals
• The company also has a royalty over iron ore sales revenues from specific tenements of BHP Billiton's Mining Area C (MAC) province in the north west of Western Australia.
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Iluka Simplified Australian Ops 2006/7
MB Separation Plant
MB Mine Storage and Port
MW Mine
Customers MW Sep & SR Plants Storage and Port
SW Sep & SR Plants Storage and Port SW Mines
Murray Basin Region
Mid West Region
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Metallurgical Accounting Set up
Met Accounting System Mid West Met Accounting System Murray Basin Met Accounting System South West
• Three separate Met Accounting Systems were set up
• Each system utilized the same software and separate databases
• Over a number of years each system evolved separately to the other
• No naming conventions or standards
• Different names were set up for common:
Plant areas
Materials
Measures
Equipment
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Typical Data flow for each system
Met Accounting System Process Control System Historian and Downtime Events Plant Data Lab Data Mining Data Weighbridge and Loadrite Data Web Reports Warehouse
Data Key Management Data
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Typical Data flow for each system
Met Accounting System Process Control System Historian and Downtime Events Plant Data Lab Data Mining Data Weighbridge and Loadrite Data Web Reports Warehouse
Data Key Management Data
Excel Official Reports
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The Business Changed
• The Jacinta Ambrosia (JA) mine commenced operations in 2009
• JA Mine based in Eucla, South Australia provided mineral to different regions
• Raw Materials and bi-products were also being shipped around from one region to another
• Three regions essentially became one Australian Operation
• Iluka set up offices and warehouses in different parts of the world to better service it’s customers
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Met Accounting Change Required
• Existing Met Accounting System was no longer adequate
Three systems don’t serve one operation
Different terms and names hinder future use of data
Software was due to be upgraded
• Rather than simply upgrade the software the business decided to consolidate and standardize
• The goal was one system that:
Better reflected the current business
Could be easily changed or configured as the business evolved
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The Goal for the new system
People Processes
Systems
Slide by Leila Maslen (Iluka)
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Challenges related to this noble task
• Conventions and standards needed to be set up and agreed to prior to commencing
• All software configurations needed to change
• Historical data needs would need to be considered
• All existing reports would cease to work
• New reports required
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Systems
• Your vendor is your partner
• You need the right mix of skills internally and externally
• Generally systems is the easiest part
• Great systems will only get you so far
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Processes
• Take the time to process map your software related processes
• Ensure your process maps include:
– People
– Data flow
– Technology used (other software systems, web reports, clouds, excel)
• Don’t use written procedures to draw your flow charts!
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• Need them to own it before, during and after the project execution
• We need their ideas, requirements and feedback before execution
• We need their knowledge and sign off during execution
• We need them to maintain and run it after execution
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• “With people, if you want to save time, don't be efficient. Slow is fast and fast
is slow.” – Steve Covey
• Plan and resource your project to include massive engagement with your stakeholders – Particularly for change
• Share the dream and why the dream is important
• Find out what is important for them
• Implementing modifications based on stakeholder feedback is gold
• Engage before, during and after execution
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• Senior Person in the organization is mandatory
– Properly resource project
– Help convince other senior people
– What is important to my boss is important to me
• Who is doing the engaging is important
• Include Metallurgists, Accountants, Operational people to engage other professionals
• Include a Change Manager
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Reporting – The Pay Off
• Reports are where most people interact with your data
• All Met Accounting based reports needed to be re-written
• Large group of stakeholders needed to be engaged
• Engagement and usage data used to determine priority
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Reporting – Excel – Friend or Foe
• Excel as a friend
– People already trained
– Brilliant tool for ad hock reporting analysis
– Can be automated
• Excel as a foe
– People get attached to their spreadsheets
– Dangerous if used to store data
– Can make you lazy
– Some people should not use it
• Excel tips and tricks
– Discuss excel with your stakeholders
– Automated spreadsheets should reload all data from database all the time
– Remove the need to use excel for official reports
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The finished product
• We now have a single Met Accounting System.
• It is easily configurable and easily able to meet changes thrown up by the business
• Changes are made based on standards, conventions and a change process
• Many reports can be used for multiple sites due to common terms
• Key data such as budgets/forecasts/targets/specifications are accessible in our reports
• All reports have a report specification detailing where data is available
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Iluka Resources Limited
www.iluka.com
For more information, contact: For more information, contact:
John Sarena, Senior MES Analyst Iluka Resources [email protected]