Reliability revolution - Is a new shift in paradigm occurring?

In the Dollar Driven Mining Conference(1), Sandy Dunn raises the important issue that Availability and Utilization, which are traditionally considered as being performance measures by many mining organizations, are insufficie nt for decision-making on equipment strategies. She emphasizes that we ough t to focus on the equipment reliability, instead, as it has a significant i mpact on equipment performance: "The focus on reliability is revolutionizin g the way that mining companies look at improving short-interval scheduling and equipment performance." The purpose of this article is to discuss the equipment reliability issue and address the need for the analysis of variou s performance measures through "what-if" examinations of various business c onditions and operation scenarios. This can be achieved by developing compr ehensive reliability and maintenance optimization models, which are integra ted with the operational characteristics of operating systems.