CAPE TOWN (miningweekly.com) – As engineering company WorleyParsons’ global centre of excellence for mining, WorleyParsons RSA expends a substantial amount of energy and resources on developing advanced solutions for its customers that will increase accuracy and efficiency while reducing risk.

The project delivery and engineering consultancy has been developing a five-dimensional (5D) project design platform that integrates sophisticated technology tools to provide a greater degree of predictability throughout the life cycle of an asset, ultimately increasing profits, even in the ongoing volatile commodity markets.

“We orchestrate the best available standard systems so that they can plug into each other. There are a number of powerful engineering design processes and programmes that are used to improve efficiencies in the mining and other sectors,” WorleyParsons RSA mining GM Henry Jonker said on the sidelines of the Investing in African Mining Indaba, in Cape Town.

He added that the company was one of the first engineering consultancies in the mining sector to develop methods that integrated these products to combine the benefits of both. Jonker explained that WorleyParsons RSA was essentially taking individual puzzle pieces and figuring out how to slot them together to show customers the bigger picture of their project.

WorleyParsons RSA began developing its integrated design project platform over five years ago, by integrating three-dimensional (3D) intelligent design data mapping with over 20 different engineering design processes and programmes to create a visual 5D design scope that incorporates schedule and cost. He elaborated that this 5D integrated project platform approach had already been applied to a number of projects and was proving to save customers time and money.

SYSTEM APPLICATION
Meanwhile, WorleyParsons RSA engineering manager Mushir Khan commented that, by applying the integrated technology to the front end engineering design contract for Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mines’ (BRPM’s) Phase 2 100 000 t/m Merensky concentrator, the project was completed “successfully and expediently”.

“This is the first project where the integrated technology was applied to its fullest potential and it has proven to work efficiently. We were able to quickly identify value improvements by picking up optimisation from the previous design by using 5D technology. Optimisation is usually done after a project is finished – in this case, we used 5D technology in parallel with optimisation, saving the customer time and money, while concurrently identifying risks and value improvement propositions.”

Khan explained that the norm was to first complete a feasibility study and then address all the risks that were identified in the feasibility stage, followed by establishing value improvements to reduce costs and improve construction schedules.

For the BRPM project, by using the integrated technology model, WorleyParsons was able to do the feasibility study and value improvement simultaneously and determine 90% of the dimensions and costs, enabling the next phase – the detailed engineering – to be undertaken quickly and accurately, resulting in a predictable construction cost.

Khan stated that this high level of accuracy is obtained by plugging in real-time costs into a 3D parametric design module to create a cost-based estimate. “We can now seamlessly integrate 3D parametric design in a 5D platform, making detailed engineering much easier and quicker, and enabling us to give our customers a far clearer overview of their projects,” he said.

WorleyParsons RSA has been using parametric design for some time, particularly for bulk material handling to simulate how processes will work based on specified parameters entered. Parametric design is a type of 3D modelling that is able to demonstrate how a product or process will function based on varying parameters or values.

Parametric design models allow for flexible designs, 3D visualisation of a process as parameters change, and quicker designs.

“WorleyParsons RSA will be applying integrated technology as a standard offering going forward on new projects,” noted WorleyParsons RSA business development executive Murray Macnab.

He noted that, at a very low additional cost, customers are also able to get an operational model as part of the offering.

“With our integrated technology module, we can create the framework and groundwork to deliver a project to a predictable construction deliverable, and we can also take that same module and go into operations,” added Khan.

Macnab, moreover, noted that all the data generated was electronic, therefore, there would be no more containers of paperwork that could get lost or damaged, or not be used again. “Costing models can be imported straight into SAP and all the data from a design model, such as parts suppliers, operational information about parts [and the like] can be uploaded to a customer’s system. The data can also be used for simulation, for example operating of plant or an underground mine,” he pointed out.

Macnab commented that a “vast amount” of data was generated as a project was established and, as one of the “jigsaw pieces” of the company’s integrated technology offering,  WorleyParsons could use the data to offer customers a large degree of predictability over the life cycle of a project, thereby “take guessing out of the equation”.

“We cannot predict the selling price of commodities at any given time, but we can predict productivity and maintenance schedules that can prevent unexpected shutdowns, by using the data that has been generated during the feasibility and engineering stages.

“By obtaining a further small amount of information, customers can be informed and prepared about future productivity and maintenance issues, thereby mitigating cost risks,” he highlighted.

Macnab pointed out that, globally, WorleyParsons had already been using this “digital enterprise” in the oil and gas sector to offer customers a greater degree of predictability.

“Our objective is to ensure that all our services focus on reducing risk, while quantifying data to increase productivity,” he concluded.