Hitachi and Wenco International Mining Systems, a Canadian subsidiary of Hitachi Construction Machinery, will start a Cloud project.
The joint Proof of Concept (PoC) project will combine Hitachi’s cloud service and Wenco’s Fleet Management System (FMS) with Teck’s mining operation team. They will demonstrate how much the efficiency of the system will be improved. The results of the project will be evaluated for approximately 40 days after its launch on January 20.
In this PoC project, Wenco’s FMS will be installed at Hitachi’s data center in North America, and will provide cloud-based FMS service to Teck via the internet. Teck will support the project and provide feedback on the performance and efficiency of the system within one of its facilities located in British Columbia, Canada.
“Minimizing learning curves on hardware and software, expanding accessibility, and reducing capital costs will increase system longevity and effectiveness for our clients,” said Phil Walshe, president and CEO, Wenco.
Using on-board computers, the Wenco FMS is installed on dump trucks, excavators and additional equipment. It displays mine-specific instructions for the operators that help increase efficiencies at a mine site.
Currently, the FMS is individually maintained and operated on each mine site, but the cloud-based FMS service utilized in the PoC project will demonstrate the ability for mines with multiple sites to manage their mine sites from one facility. The goal of the project is to reduce the initial start-up and operating costs of the FMS in small-scale mining.
Hitachi has positioned the mining-related area as one of the core focus areas of the Social Innovation Business, and will accelerate the global rollout of these business activities. Also Hitachi has organized its smart information related products and services into Intelligent Operations.
“The PoC project that Hitachi and Wenco are starting with Teck is a new chapter in the history of resources development,” said Keiichi Shiotsuka, CEO of Services Business, Information and Telecommunication Systems Company, Hitachi.
