HIGH PROFILE
AI for actionable intel
Wenco is bringing mobile mining equipment AI for asset health specialist Rithmik Solutions into its extensive ecosystem . Paul Moore caught up with Wenco EVP Corporate Strategy , Eric Winsborrow , to learn more
Getting more out of your mine is one of Wenco International Mining Systems ’ mantras , and that includes not just one of the industry ’ s most respected fleet management systems , Wencomine , but also open autonomy and perhaps not as well known , mobile equipment asset health .
Wenco has had its ReadyLine onsite asset health platform available for some years , but as of late 2023 / early 2024 and based on close cooperation between Wenco and parent Hitachi Construction Machinery ( HCM ), this will be available on the cloud as well . ReadyLine is brand agnostic as a multi-OEM site wide solution , but the cloud version will also be used as an integral of HCM ’ s advanced remote monitoring system for Hitachi mining equipment coming out of the Japan factory – branded as ConSite Mine Plus ( the Plus is for real time analytics and value added capabilities such as AI ).
Development is well underway and part of this is testing the new architecture with existing Readyline customers by bringing live data back for storage in Wenco ’ s cloud . With customer permission , the data streams is also being opened up to Wenco ecosystem partners , of which highly successful mining asset health AI startup Rithmik is one .
Wenco ’ s strategy aims at creating even more value from that data by using open standards to enable third parties to cost-effectively access live data streams from customers around the world . At the same time , Rithmik has been engaged with its own customers , some of which happen to also be Wencomine FMS users , although that requires an additional step of Rithmik and the customer
working to integrate FMS data from the customer site . The idea is that once ReadyLine in the cloud is available , Rithmik and other partners can access the machine data streams by simply connecting to Wenco ’ s cloud , without worrying about integrating with the customer ’ s infrastructure .
So where is the win-win ? Wenco brings connectivity in near real time and has an in-depth understanding of its customers and their needs and goals . Partners like Rithmik get access to mining customers and their equipment data streams in a cost-effective and simple integration , and customers get an opportunity to test leading edge technology to determine if they create value for their business without the setup costs . With customer permission , OEMs and their dealers can also obtain insights to improve the quality of their equipment , predict the need for parts replacement , and increase overall customer satisfaction .
The big picture of course is providing miners with more value through digitalisation – more specifically actionable intelligence through data . And it is obtained through an ecosystem , not through a machine OEM domain . “ Wenco ’ s focus on being open not only applies to our technology but how we approach our partnerships ,” explains Winsborrow . “ If Wenco and our parent Hitachi are
going to create value for customers , it will be by
enabling new entrants into mining . What we are doing with our open autonomy strategy can also applied to digital transformation , such as the use of AI and partnerships like Rithmik .”
Rithmik was founded back in 2018 with its core offering being Asset Health Analyzer™ or AHA™ . Behind this is its analytics engine which it calls RapidAnalytics Infrastructure or RAI which enables extremely quick AI model testing and creation , leveraging the maximum potential of cloud computing . Wenco first engaged with Rithmik in 2019 . “ We had already met a lot of AI companies and had wondered how we could bring them across from other industries and sectors into mining , especially around asset health and mobile equipment . Asset health use cases are often the starting point for Industrial IoT , but rarely are these technologies initiated in mining . What we liked about Rithmik is that they started their business trying to solve the mobile mining equipment asset health issue as their primary business focus , precisely where we were starting with ReadyLine .”
Before starting Rithmik , Co-Founders CEO Amanda Truscott , CTO Kris Isfeld and COO Kevin Urbanski worked for Matrikon , where they spent more than a decade working with mobile mining equipment data . Rithmik ’ s first use case involved data from a Canadian coal mine , and they have since worked with companies in oil sands , iron ore , copper and gold mining .
Winsborrow explained that challenges in conditions based monitoring and predictive maintenance come from many factors . “ Traditionally , predictive maintenance has suffered from data overload from hundreds of sensors that analysts try to make sense of ; OEM sensors that are often too late or non-existent to predict / prevent unplanned maintenance ; and a time-based maintenance approach dictated by OEM MTBF estimates . These data challenges inhibit meaningful FMEA / root cause analysis by customers . Add to this data challenge that it is very difficult for customers to align siloes of machine , CMMS / work orders and FMS data and a a lack of historical data and failure mode labels to train AI models , and it is not a surprise that delivering on the promise of predictive maintenance in mining operations is a major challenge .”
Wenco ’ s strategy is to bring in leading edge technology partners to help resolve these issues for customers . The Wenco-Rithmik partnership is still informal , as Wenco gets its technical infrastructure in place for ReadyLine in the cloud . At the moment Winsborrow says it is bringing Rithmik in one customer at a time . The mine currently running the platform based on Rithmik linking to Wenco via an API is in Africa , but plans are being made to roll out the solution with more customers and more commercially in Australia in 2023 and elsewhere as the cloud version of ReadyLine comes online . Long term Wenco foresees Rithmik ’ s AI becoming at least a recommended option on Readyline and ConSite
26 International Mining | FEBRUARY 2023