Application of Reconfigurable System Thinking in Mining and Mineral Processing Environment: Toward Sustainable Mineral Beneficiation

One of the most crucial elements of the mining operation is mineral processing. The majority of mined materials undergo some type of size reduction and/or other beneficiation process, from solid ores to fine minerals such as coal, granite, limestones, and other industrial minerals. Before the invention of large equipment, the operation of “spalling”—the breaking up of raw ore—involved the use of hammers held in the hands. Mechanical methods were soon discovered to do this. Numerous sectors have applied reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) thinking to produce modular, individualized, adaptable, and scalable products. Due to changes in mining equipment users’ needs, the dynamic and complex nature of the mining production environment of the available location, the nature of the mining operation, and the associated risks, RMS is frequently used to produce various product variants of mining equipment with low repair costs, high adaptability, and minimal maintenance costs to meet customer satisfaction. More specifically, the proposed book chapter investigates a variety of literature reviews related to the concepts of reconfigurable manufacturing systems, architectural design features, control capabilities, and its function in the mining machine manufacturing industries, as well as the possible long-term application of RMS in this sector. In addition, related maintenance solutions for proposed machines to functionally assess or predict the condition of machines to ensure the reliability, availability, and maintainability of these machines at any particular time when needed are presented and discussed.