Underground mine scheduling modelled as a flow shop: a review of relevant work and future challenges

• Published in: Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Vol. 118; no. 12; p. 1265
• Main Authors: Åstrand, M., Johansson, M., Greberg, J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: flow shop; Gruv- och berganläggningsteknik; Mining and Rock Engineering; optimization; scheduling; underground mining
• ISSN: 2225-6253; 2411-9717; 2411-9717
• DOI: 10.17159/2411-9717/2018/v118n12a5

Advanced planning and automation are increasingly important in modern mines. Sophisticated methods for long-term mine planning are often used, and the advent of autonomous machines makes the actual operation more predictable. However, the interface between these two timescales, i.e. the scheduling of the mobile production fleet, often limits the ability to operate mines at maximum profitability. We show how scheduling the production fleet in an underground mine can be modelled as a flow shop. A flow shop is a general abstract process formulation that captures the key properties of a scheduling problem without going into specific details. Thus, the flow shop enables mine scheduling to reap the benefits of scheduling research from other industries. We review recent results from the mining community and the flow shop community, and introduce scheduling methods used in these two fields. This work aims at providing value to researchers from the mining community who want to leverage their skill set, as well as to theoretical researchers by presenting the mining process as a potential application area. Lastly, we discuss the results, and outline some future challenges and opportunities facing the industry.