Steps in Fleet Selection

Dr. B. C. Paul 2000, revised 2008

Note- General steps and methodologies found in these slides
roughly follow material found in Surface Mining manuals by
SME and literature published by Caterpillar Equipment Co.
This presentation includes screen shots from the FPC program
compiled by Caterpillar Equipment Company.

Sizing Truck and Loader

Fleets
30 years ago would have been all
manual methods
Today have computer aided
versions of same manual
methods
Also have versions that consider
event probabilities
Full computer simulation

Class Approach

Will show features of manual

methods
Features still drive most computer
aided methods

Then show applications of

computer software
Things still need to be dealt with
in full computer simulations

A Software Package
(Caterpillars FPC)

Starting FPC
Of course can also
Be done from a
Desktop icon

After a Picture of a Truck

We Get the Initial Screen

Highlight File and Pull

Down the Menu
Pick New
(for New
Project)

FPC Opens With the

Project Tab Active
I start out entering a
1- Job Name
2- Job Description
3- Prepared For
4- Prepared By
5- Study Date

I Must Pick My Unit and

Display Standards
Pick Metric or
English Units with a
Radio Button
Pick production
Targets measured in
Weight or volume
Pick Decimal Format
Pick Currency

Pick Project Specific

Information
Enter Your Fuel Cost
For Diesel
Enter Your Planning
Time unit
Enter Your Number
Of hours per planning
unit

Commentary

Diesel Fuel Costs

Often mine machinery is run off

highway so there is no highway
tax on diesel (no 46 cents and usually bought
on bulk contract)

Called Red Dog because sometimes

put a dye in it (so youll get busted for
on highway use)

Most planning units are by the

year

Specialty Items Needed

Shift Efficiency how much of the

scheduled time is actually spent working
equipment

An average is 50 minutes/hour or about 83-84%

Operator Efficiency

Truck is capable of certain performance often

not realized by human operators
According to caterpillar studies operators
approach mechanical limits more closely as haul
gets longer
By picking operator efficiency by Haul distance
the program will use caterpillars operator
studies results

A Bunch of What?

Problem of Bunching
If have a lot of trucks they tend to arrive
in clusters rather than evenly spread
Means loaders will loose some time with
no trucks and trucks will wait in line
even when perfectly matched
Caterpillars studies and bunching
factors can be used by selecting
average bunching.

Finish the Fill In

Im putting in 84%
For my shift
Efficiency
Im calling for
Average bunching
Im having operator
Efficiency estimated
By haul distance

Optimizing?
Try several different fleets
Get Cost of Each Fleet
Pick the Fleet with the lowest
cost that you have confidence in

Usually there are some

assumption or preferences that
you will not just pick the cheapest

Main Steps in Fleet

Selection
Step #1 Visualization and
Matching - Equipment must fit the
mine
Step #2 Develop Cycle Times Need to know how much the
equipment can produce to know
how much equipment you need
Step #3 Identify Quantities of
Equipment Needed

Main Steps Continued

Step #4 - Cross Check the
Selection for practical fit
Step #5 - Estimate Economics
Step #6 - Compare Different
Fleets
Step #7 - Make the Selection