Net Evolution

How Net Evolution helped BHP Billiton lower costs by automating the process of data collection in their pilot plants.

BACKGROUND

BHP Billiton's Stainless Steel Metals (SSM) division is the world's third largest nickel producer. Their goal is to grow through expansion and participation in new projects to become the nickel producer with the highest margins in the world.

PROBLEM

When taking a concept for a new industrial process from a laboratory experiment to a production plant, BHP Billiton faced several problems:

Data Aggregation in Pilot Testing Programs

To help fulfil its vision, BHP Billiton's SSM team needed to lower costs and improve the efficiency of its pilot plant testing programs. Specifically, they had issues regarding the existing approach to data acquisition and reporting.

Issues with existing data acquisition and reporting

Using largely non-automated methods, the SSM team were encountering a raft of problems that increased the cost and reduced the effectiveness of their pilot programs, including:

• Samples not taken - this could result in whole programs needing to be rerun, wasting possibly weeks of valuable time and resources
• Too many samples taken - without an effective overall control framework, often duplicate samples were sent away for testing, wasting up to $50 per sample
• Multiple measuring systems - their existing approach had trouble dealing with inputs from plant historians, shift logsheets, internal and external lab results
• Tracking lab results - it was difficult to track samples sent to external labs and then later input those results
• Producing reports - when management or customers wanted an update on the results of the latest testing, the process of preparing a report in Excel was time-consuming and error-prone

Desperately needing a better, more automated system of data acquisition and reporting, BHP Billiton's SSM team approached Net Evolution.

SOLUTION

The breakthrough came when Net Evolution conceived a 24-hour time/space coordinate system as the fundamental framework for monitoring the various pilot plant configurations.

24-hour time/space coordinate system

This paradigm allows the SSM team to specify all the required testing across the pilot plant using the following parameters:

• Who - which service provider is going to perform the analysis to determine measurement (e.g. plant operator, plant instrumentation, external laboratory or internal laboratory)
• What - what measurements are going to be recorded (e.g. temperature, concentration, density) and what aggregation method to apply (e.g. instantaneous, differential, average, maximum, minimum)
• Where - which location and phase to sample in each unit operation (e.g. loaded resin output stream of the second solvent extraction unit)
• When - the specific time that the sample is to be taken

Reusable templates

Using these parameters, the SSM team can build reusable templates that define all necessary sampling for scheduled testing (e.g. Control, Mass balance, etc) and non-scheduled testing (e.g. Start up, Shut down).

Another huge advantage of the solution is that it automatically identifies elements of overlap between these various templates and prevents the unnecessary duplication of sampling and testing.

Simplifying testing and labelling

Each shift, the system prints off a series of sample labels that acts as both a prompt to the operators so they know exactly what to sample, from where and at what location - as well as providing a convenient bar-coded identifier for the sample.

Interfacing with analytical equipment

Previously test results from analytical equipment, such as XRF XRD, ICP and plant historians, had to be manually exported as a CSV file and then manually uploaded into one or more spreadsheets. In the new system, Net Evolution built interfaces directly between the analytical equipment and the system to automatically deliver test results into a centralised database.

Integrating external lab results

When lab results arrive from external providers in the form of an Excel (CSV) file, the results can be imported via a convenient web based interface into the database. Results can be previewed before acceptance and any dubious samples sent back as repeats for retesting. The system also ensures that the accepted repeats replace any incorrect results in the system

Streamlining manual log sheet recording

Plant metallurgists can easily design and implement log sheets using Excel that plant operators can directly fill using a familiar Excel interface. An Excel Add-in enables the shift metallurgist to upload the data directly into the centralised database as soon as the log sheet is completed.

Ease of data interrogation

The new system stores test results in a database that can be queried using the Excel interface with which scientists are so familiar. Extracting data and performing analysis doesn't require any knowledge of sample numbers. Authorised users simply need to specify what they're looking for (who, what, where and when) and the custom Excel Add-in functions instantly draw out the latest production data. This represents a huge advance over existing approaches because users don't have to manually find the appropriate test data - which saves time and eliminates errors.

Fast and accurate reporting

This Excel Add-in means that management and customer reports can be generated effortlessly and sent easily. Updating a report with the latest production data is simply a matter of recalculating the spreadsheet and sending it.

RESULT

Net Evolution's automated approach to data acquisition and reporting has transformed the pilot plant testing process of BHP Billiton's Stainless Steel Materials division. It has improved testing, lowered costs and made life much easier for metallurgists, chemical engineers, and plant operators.

Improved testing

Chemical Engineer Russell Robinson, says that the new system has allowed a dramatic increase in the scale of testing. "When we had to try to control things manually with just an Excel spreadsheet, we could only handle about a quarter of the tests we can do now. The system's automated a huge number of things we previously had to do manually."

Ease of tracking

Plant Metallurgists also appreciate the ease with which they can now track test results from external suppliers. "In the past, it was hard to keep track of what you'd sent out for testing and which results you'd received back. Now you can just look on the screen and see immediately what's been delivered and what hasn't."

Excelling in Excel

While Russell appreciates the underlying web-based system that allows them to specify and acquire the appropriate data, it's the Excel Add-in that has made the biggest difference to his daily work at BHP Billiton's Newcastle pilot plant. "That's the best bit of it from my perspective. To create a report before, I'd have 3 or 4 spreadsheets linked together and if someone got in and fiddled with a cell the whole thing could come crashing down. Now, you just specify what you want - you don't need to know what the formula is or where the data is stored - and it delivers you the information you're looking for. That's made my life a whole lot easier."