Brisbane, Australia-based RPMGlobal has announced the newest release tool of its XPAC Solutions scheduling suite, which it said is a first for the mining industry: hybrid scheduling.

The new feature for XPAC 3.1 offers speed and performance upgrades as well as functionality and architectural improvements that can add agility for the user.

“Hybrid scheduling is an industry first that provides users with the flexibility of manual scheduling, together with the time savings and ease of automated scheduling,” RPMGlobal said.

In the past, XPAC users could manually schedule, then transition to automatic scheduling without issue at any point. By adding hybrid scheduling, those same users can define a high-level strategy that works for their specific application, such as shovel move timing or new pit openings – letting the AutoScheduler deal with the details of the project.

Hybrid scheduling functionality in XPAC 3.1 also offers a major update to the user interface. “Users no longer need to process the entire schedule every time they make an adjustment to the configuration. They can now step through the schedule incrementally, pausing at key milestones and refining the schedule as they go,” said the company.

As most other scheduling softwares currently allow only manual or only automatic, mine planners can now have the ability to do both and use the functions as needed in any combination depending on the application need.

RPMGlobal Chief Technology Officer Paul Beesley calls XPAC 3.1 a “major step-change” for mining’s approach to planning and scheduling.

“XPAC Solutions 3.1 gives … more flexibility and capability than ever before, which is critical for the dynamic environment in which mines operate,” he said.

“Planners can pause the schedule at any point and visualise the status of the mine and key equipment so it’s much faster to build practical, efficient dig sequences for all major equipment.”  

Source: RPMGlobal