Application of the Equipment Replacement Dynamic Programming Model in Conveyor Belt Replacement: Case Study of a Gold Mining Company
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Date
2015-02
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
MCSER Publishing
Abstract
As assets age, they generally deteriorate, resulting in rising operating and maintenance costs and decreasing salvage values.
In this paper a comprehensive Dynamic Programming-based optimisation solution methodology is used to solve the equipment
replacement optimisation problem on the replacement of conveyor belts at a Gold Mining company in Zimbabwe. Given a
mining setup with one and two-year old conveyor belts the ultimate objective is to keep or replace the conveyor belt such that
the overall cost of material handling is minimised within a five-year period. The findings reveal that this mining system should
replace conveyor belts yearly. It is concluded that, an equipment replacement policy for conveyor belts is a necessity in a
mining system so as to achieve an optimal contribution to the economic value that a mining system may accrue within a period
of time.
Description
Open access journal article
Keywords
Dynamic programming, Conveyor belt, Optimization, Replacement, Equipment replacement
Citation
Zvipore, D.C, Nyamugure, D.,Maposa,D and Lesaoana M. (2015).Application of the Equipment Replacement Dynamic Programming Model in Conveyor Belt Replacement: Case Study of a Gold Mining Company. Meditteranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6 (2) p 605-612.