Activity Schedule Schedule activities

Activity Schedule

To access this dialog use one of the following:

• Activate the Schedule ribbon and select Schedule | Edit.

The Activity Schedule dialog is used to view and modify the scheduled activities as well as schedule delays, selected mining blocks or stockpiles, for the selected Period.

This option opens up the machine view of the schedule, and is a recommended method of viewing the schedule for editing.

There are multiple options available to adjust the position of activities, and even the view of the schedule is adjustable via the Style section (you may, say, want different view for each activity type).

From this dialog actions such as Spillover and Downtime split can be performed;

• Spillover will move any records which exceed a machines availability to the next period, effectively spacing out the schedule correctly.

• Downtime split will add a zero duration delay to the start of any downtime that occurs on the machine, this is used for synchronisation (second column) to link to the delay enabling a machine to ‘take over’ at the point of the downtime.

Within Synchronisation there are options to control the starting times of activities based on other machines and activity types. This is all based on loader sequence.

You can manually move records to other machinery, assign them to go to other locations or use a different haul truck as well as adjust the amount of material mined (note that this must not invalidate an activity flow)

Selection within the activity schedule dialog will permit interactive block selection within the 3D and Design views.

 

Field Details:

The following fields are available in this dialog:

Period: select a period from the dropdown, with which to filter the grid vales.

Machine Type: select a machine type from the dropdown, with which to filter the grid vales.

Machine Class: select a machine class from the dropdown, with which to filter the grid vales.

Style: select a grid formatting style from the dropdown, with which to filter the grid vales.

Styles Manager: open the Style Manager dialog.

 

Activity Schedule grid: contains a list of the scheduled activities and their associated columns for the selected Period.
 

Only Categories with non zero tonnes are displayed in the grid.

 

Sync: synchronize activities by defining start and finish date/time parameters using the Synchronisation dialog. The following two synchronisation types are possible:

 - no synchronisation parameters are currently set for the listed activity; if required, click to define and set

 - synchronisation parameters are defined and set for the listed activity.

Activity: scheduled activity type.

Block: scheduled block number.

Category: scheduled material category label.

Selected: tick the required checkbox(es) to select the corresponding schedule grid item(s) before clicking a Selection group button. Options include:

- the activity is not selected,

- the activity is selected and available for use with the Selection group commands.

Ticking the checkbox in the grid header will select all displayed activities..

 

Start/Finish Time/Date (Cycle Time): these columns describe the activity start and finish.

Lead Duration: an optional delay that is associated (added to) the start of the activity to allow inter-activity events (e.g. post-blast settling) to occur without impinging on the duration of the activity itself.

Working Duration: the operational duration of the activity as determined by start/finish data of the activity, and relate to the operating hours of each fleet.

Downtime Duration: any inoperational time, as determined by the relevant Calendar will be shown in this column.

Percent: the percentage of the Block or Stockpile remaining.

Volume: the tonnage remaining for the selected block or stockpile Category.

Tonnes: the total tonnage assigned to the block/stockpile category. A warning message will be displayed and the tonnage set back to the amount available if the user enters a tonnage or volume to be mined that exceeds the available maximum

Volume Available: the total tonnage available for the current activity

Machine Class: the class of machine to which the current truck is associated.

Destination: the destination of the mined material for the current activity.

Truck: the specific truck model involved in the current activity, as described by a machine type.

Bench Exit: the bench exit point to be used to transport the mined material, as defined using the Haul Routes dialog. If mining blocks are scheduled with an invalid bench exit (i.e. unavailable to the block/pushback) those records will be highlighted in red.

Only bench exits that are valid for the mining blocks scheduled within the set period will be allowed.

Ramp Sector: select an existing sector consisting of pit ramps, as defined in the Haul Routes | Sectors tab.

Surface Sector: select an existing sector consisting of surface sector roads, as defined in the Haul Routes | Sectors tab.

Dump Sector: select an existing sector consisting of dump roads, as defined in the Haul Routes | Sectors tab.

What is a Sector?   A Sector consists of a number of Roads which, when combined, define a contiguous haulage path. For example, a number of ramp roads, each connecting one bench exit to the next bench exit and eventually a pit exit, would be combined to form a ramp sector defining the complete haulage path from a particular bench exit to a pit exit. Each bench would have a its own Sector. A number of contiguous haul route Sectors are required in order to define the total Haul Route for material being hauled from the source (Block) to its Destination.   Ramp, surface and dump sector types connect the following types of nodes: Block and Bench Exits Bench Exit and Pit Exit Pit Exit and Destination Destination and Dump Point.

 

Bench Factor:

Truck Hours: The Truck Hours will be shown for the selected haul truck class and haul route.

EFH Empty: the equivalent flat haul distance in kilometres for the return (empty) truck journey. This is the distance the truck could travel along the flat whilst empty in the same time as the time taken to travel the actual return (empty) route.

unloaded trip time x unloaded flat haul speed x number of trips

Tonnes Available: the total tonnes hauled by that truck class over a period.

Haul Distance: the total outward (loaded) distance hauled by that truck class over a period.

EFH Loaded: the equivalent flat haul distance in kilometres for the outward (loaded) truck journey. This is the distance the truck could travel along the flat whilst loaded in the same time as the time taken to travel the actual outward (loaded) route.

loaded trip time x loaded flat haul speed x number of trips

 

Switches:

Selective Loading: tick this checkbox to allow adjustment by selective loading of the block's individual material Category items.

Automatic Redraw: tick this checkbox to enable automatic redraw of annotation in the Design window i.e. to reflect the current schedule status.

Repeat Spillover: click this button to enable the automatic spillover option. When selected spillover will continue through multiple periods until the following events occur:         

1. • There is nothing left to spillover,
   • There are no more periods to spill in to,
   •  If some capacities are exceeded and a warning message is shown.

Selection:

Move Up: move the currently selected Block activities up by one; the mining sequence is then changed; the order in which the Blocks are listed is taken to be the mining sequence within a Period and is used by EPS to set up links between Blocks.

This option is only available if more than one Block is listed for the selected Period.

 

Move Down: move the currently selected Block activities down by one; conditions apply as above.

This option is only available if more than one Block is listed for the selected Period.

 

Move Prev: move the currently selected activities to the previous Period.

Move Next: move the currently selected activities to the next Period.

Delete Activity: delete the currently selected Block activities i.e. remove the records from the schedule.

Delete will put the material back, but only for a loading activity; other types of activity do not actually extract material.

 

Downtime Split: splits the selected activity with a downtime occurring during its mining so that the activity happens either side of the downtime and a delay is inserted for the time which the downtime ends. This will then allow the delay or start / finish of the downtime to be synchronized.

Schedule:

Delay: insert a delay activity using the Insert Delay dialog. Delay activities are activities which do not take any material, they only have a duration.  They can be used to model the time it takes to move a machine from one block to another or times when the machine is doing a particular event e.g. shift change.

Blocks...: open the Schedule Activities dialog in order to add the currently selected block to the schedule.

Stockpiles...: open the Schedule from Stockpiles dialog.

Undo Mining...: open the Undo Mining dialog and undo mining activities using defined filter criteria.

Spillover: spill the selected activity over in to the next period(s) i.e. split the activities which have exceed the Period Time constraints (the times will be shown in red) into the required number of shorter duration activities tasks and spread them over the required number of current and future periods in order to meet the time constraints. The activities which are in the ‘Spillover Zone’  will be moved to the front of the next period. This button is affected by the Repeat Spillover option.

 

When the Activity Schedule dialog is accessed from the Update Schedule dialog, certain features are 'greyed out' to restrict its functionality.

 

What can be Adjusted?

The Activity Schedule dialog is used to modify:

• Tonnage or Volume of each material Category of a Block to be mined
• Destination of the material Category
• Haul Route to be used to get to the Destination
• Machines to be used when mining the material
• Haul Truck class to be used with the Loader
• Haul factor for the Bench.

Using the Activity Schedule dialog

The Activity Schedule dialog is used to schedule the selected blocks and stockpiles, for the selected Period, using the various settings and options available in the this and associated dialogs.

Mining and stockpile blocks are first selected in the Design window before selecting and defining the appropriate dialog settings.

This dialog will be opened with the current Period shown. The Period number can be modified using the arrow keys. By default the dialog will be opened with Loader set to [<assigned loader>]. A drop down list is available which will allow the dialog grid contents to be filtered on a selected Loader .

The tonnage remaining is shown for each block or stockpile Category, along with the total. A warning message will be displayed and the tonnage set back to the amount available if the user enters a tonnage or volume to be mined that exceeds the available maximum .

The Percent field shows the percentage of the Block or Stockpile remaining. It is possible to change the Percent value and this will change the Tonnage and Volume values.

The available Destinations depend on the Rock Types enabled in Destination Rocktype Settings. Studio OP requires that every Rock Type must be enabled for at least one Destination before the ISTSStudioOP scheduler can be used.

The Loader and Haul Truck classes that are available in the drop down lists will depend on the Haul Truck Settings. Certain combinations of Loaders and Haul Truck classes can be set to model the typical fleet configurations of the site. For instance, certain combinations may not be allowed due to poor matching of loader capacity with haul truck capacity.

The available Bench Exits are shown in a dropdown list. These depend on the Destination selected and the haul routes that have been set up. The user can modify this selection if required.

The Ramp Sector will be chosen based on the selected Bench Exit and the Pit Exits that are linked to the chosen Destination. These must be set up beforehand in Haul Route Settings such that there is a valid route for each the Destination of each material Category on every Bench in the schedule. An alternative Ramp Sector can be selected if an alternative haul route exists.

The Surface Sector is selected from the chosen Pit Exit and Destination. As with the Ramp Sector, the Pit Exit is chosen on the basis of the shortest cycle time. An alternative Surface Sector can be selected if an alternative haul route exists.

The Dump Sector is optional and is selected from the dropdown list of possible Dump Sectors for the given Destination. The Dump haul can also be modelled by entering an initial cycle time and an incremental cycle time in the Haul Route Settings.

The Truck Hours will be shown for the selected haul truck class and haul route. Changing any of the above parameters will change the haul truck hours.

Selective Mining

In order to mine selectively, the Selective Loading checkbox needs to be checked.

Selecting a Category in the Activity Schedule grid, by ticking the required Selected checkbox, will select a listed category.

If you want to selectively mine a category and then change the order of mining such that the loader sequence is Block1-Cat1, Block2-Cat1,Block1-Cat2 then you must create these independent activities when you schedule.

The alternative is that if Block1-Cat1 and Block1-Cat2 were mined as one activity (i.e. have the same LDRSEQ) and they are to be split in the loader sequence then a new loader sequence would have to be calculated.

Activity Schedule Validation

If a Destination is changed in theActivity Schedule grid,the associatedBench ExitandSectors settings are checked to ensure that there is a valid route for the new Destination. If avalid route cannot be found then a warning is issued.

For example it may be possible that there are two Bench Exits on a bench and only Plant material can go out BE1 and Stockpile material out BE2. If the Destination is changed from Plant to Stockpile then the Bench Exit must change and the associated Sectors must change.

	Related Topics
	Haul Routes SectorsHaul Routes RoadsHaul Routes DestinationsHaul Routes Bench ExitsSchedule Selected Blocks Automatic Blending Insert Delay Undo Mining Grid Format