Nautitech welcomes dedicated field support electrician Shane Donoghoe…

Shane, welcome aboard, what do you plan to do first?

Thanks, I am fortunate to have prior experience working directly for a mine site in NSW. This has given me a heads up on all kinds of machines such as Sandvik miners, Waratah shuttle cars and PJB cruisers to name a few. I also understand gas systems and have had experience with different kinds and brands out there. This experience will carry directly into my role at Nautitech as field support electrician.

People generally have very good things to say about Nautitech so I am glad to have the opportunity to now work on and support their products. I plan to get around to NSW and QLD mine sites as efficiently as possible and connect them more closely with Nautitech as a supplier by understanding their needs more carefully, and assisting with onsite installations and training. Nautitech also has some excellent innovations around thermography, lighting and data transmission. With my background working at a pit full time I feel pretty confident in being able to find the situations where this gear will add value to a mine.

All sounds very positive, and what generally happens after you down tools on a Friday?

Well last weekend I was fishing with the old man off Wollongong which is always enjoyable, I am also a big NRL follower, I enjoy most sports really.

Shane, field support is a very important aspect of Nautitech’s 2014 strategic plan and we are very glad to have you on board!

Saminco and Nautitech share a focus on underground coal. Saminco’s main product is traction drives that operate reliably in harsh conditions. Based in Florida USA, the company employs over 120 people at multiple locations.Senior Saminco representatives have recently spent considerable time with us here at Castle Hilll (NSW) providing technical documentation and training to assist Nautitech with selling, overhauling and installation of their very highly regarded products. Nautitech will start with a focus on the JS400 and JD400 Traction Drives for Shuttle Cars.

We trust that Saminco will become one of our most important business partnersand look forward to a long, mutually profitable, and enjoyable working relationship.

For any queries about Saminco products please contact Ian Pollard on 02 9899 6857.

At Nautitech the components of Lean and six – sigma that are applicable to the company’s success and growth have been implemented and are being lived by the whole team.Nautitech has a 99% delivery to all customers, and has improved the quality of their products immensely, while keeping prices static for 7 years. A phenomenal performance by everyone at the company, and one that is so rare in Australia.When you ask people about what their company does, they often describe products and services in great detail. Often overlooking the fact that all companies exist, no matter what business you are in, to make money. With that in mind senior managers rightly attend seminars seeking new ideas. Then head back to their respective companies with what they think is the elusive silver bullet they have been searching for. A God sent solution to the entire similar list of problems they are experiencing.

However the vast majority of LEAN, Six Sigma and LSS programs discovered and implemented in this way fail. Last count it was in the region of 90%. If you attend a Six Sigma seminar where a consultant is selling Six Sigma that is the only potential solution you will be offered. What are the chances of getting this right when the senior manager knows nothing about the methodology and the consultant knows nothing about the company?

There is nothing wrong with the methodologies, in the right application they can and will deliver awesome results. For me, the error is made by the company’s managers being seduced by buzz words and improvement claims of purist consultants. So if there is nothing wrong with the methodologies, to be more successful you should look at what should come before these methodologies?

Your Business management systems should be the platform that you launch from, they should be a means to an end. If your systems are not actively assisting you to add to the bottom line then you have to get them working for you first. Then and only then can you make the call on what CI (Continuous Improvement) you need.

Your business management Systems should increase your bottom line while meeting all your legal and ethical obligations. These systems should ensure compliance, and be linked to the pulse of your business. Minimising or preventing losses and incidents and highlighting how processes can be made more productive, consistent, safer and faster.

These Systems once developed can and should be integrated. They lay the foundations for your Process Improvement strategies. Lean, Six Sigma and or LSS without this foundation you will surely fail as you have no bedrock to anchor your improvement strategy in. By using all of your people to develop robust, easy to maintain systems that add value, you set yourself up for the CI program of choice. If for instance this is LEAN you do not have to launch LEAN, as it is just a continuation of your business management systems.
Mention Systems, Processes and Procedures though and people have nightmares. Most would rather get on with the sexy stuff and let someone else worry about the systems. So a house of cards is built that cannot support resource hungry CI programs.

So firstly build a solid platform by:

Adding Lean or Six Sigma to a robust business management system, does not guarantee you success, but it does reduce the risk of failure. After all there are hundreds of ways to fail and only one way to get it right. So take a deep breath and do some honest internal assessment, if you feel you are not ready for CI, you are probably right. So rather than launching into the next big thing, which all so often gets automatically opposed, get to work fixing your systems and processes.So what comes before successful Lean and six – sigma? Hard work by your whole team that’s what, but If this makes the industry that we all work in safer, it has been worth the effort.Cheers and good luck with your CI initiatives and journey.

If you have are struggling with your own CI programs I would be glad to offer some advice, click here to send me an email.

Alex Lester.

So Douglas, what’s the big news? 
The Spitfire BPLM has proven to be a reliable product for shearers in underground coal mines around Australia and abroad. We have been working to transfer that success over to continuous miners and now have data from trials to demonstrate it. A key challenge is that continuous miners typically send the data on the power conductors instead of the pilot cores (like shearers). Data is coupled onto the cable using a new high voltage capacitive coupler.What’s the net benefit that underground coal miners should expect?
It is well known that continuous miners can log valuable operational data. However, it hasn’t always been easy to get that data out of the machine and up to the surface where it can be analysed for fault logging, productivity, and maybe one day even for remote control. When a continuous miner stops or is not running optimally this can translate into a tremendous opportunity cost that is not easy to detect without reliable data.  The Spitfire has now been tested underground on continuous miners here and in the USA. The results are very good. We are achieving enough data throughput for reliable real time operational monitoring with enough spare bandwidth to also transfer video data for continuous miners that have HD or thermal cameras fitted.

What cable lengths have been tested and performance level achieved?
With typical maximum cable lengths of 400 m our customers are getting TCP data rates around 20 Mbps. The data rate is higher for shorter lengths.

Douglas, thank you for the update and congratulations on achieving this important milestone.

Click here for technical usage diagrams of the Spitfire.