JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Automation technology group ABB South Africa has completed a $2.1-million order for diversified mining major Anglo American, delivering its latest enterprise and asset management (EAM) system, Ellipse EAM Version 6.3.3, to 11 Anglo American coal mine sites.
The system has provided Anglo American’s coal business with an enterprisewide solution for finance, supply chain, work scheduling and engineering.
Booked in May 2015, ABB completed the project in December.
Ellipse EAM was an upgrade on the previous Version 5 system and end-of-life hardware, which had served Anglo American’s coal mining operations for the past 12 years.
ABB senior practice director of enterprise software Andy Ives noted that Ellipse EAM was designed for asset-intensive operations such as mining.
"The ABB Ellipse system allows you to plan maintenance because it shows how your plant assets and equipment are performing, including trends over time. It saves asset-intensive plants money [as] you can effectively manage your resources and, in so doing, reduce unplanned outages," said Ives.
The Ellipse system provided for plantwide maintenance and included an equipment register, stores and inventories functionality, as well as a financial component, all of which supported planned maintenance.
Asset-intensive industries that had used the ABB Ellipse suite of EAM software included mining, utilities, transmission grids, municipality electricity grids, defence, rail, petrochemicals, pulp and paper, steel, telecommunications and renewable energy producers.