1-1-2012 underground coal mine delay data analysis system

Due to the high levels of uncertainty in underground coal mining operations, delays occur regularly which inadvertently reduce the utilisation of mining equipment. In most coal mines delay data is primarily sourced from shift reports, machine monitoring and production systems. The recording process is initiated commonly at the end of a shift to ensure the correct information is recorded for the managerial decision process. An issue that the Australian coal industry faces is the lack of a standardised delay recording process and delay classification system. Tools used within the industry to analyse delay data are mostly mine specific and offer no means of comparing the mine performance to the performance at other mine sites. This paper describes a VBA based delay data analysis tool UCDelay for underground coal mines. UCDelay is an add-in Excel module for classification of delay data into a standardised form.