Auto Scheduler

To access this dialog:

 Activate the Schedule ribbon and, providing Data Settings have been defined, select
Optimize | Auto Scheduler

What is Auto Scheduler?

Auto Scheduler is a mathematical optimisation engine that searches for an optimal short-term
or medium-term schedule with the goal of automating (as much as possible) the process of
creating a mining schedule. Auto Scheduler may be used to create a mining schedule from
scratch or to fill in a given partial schedule. All of the settings available to you for creating a
mining schedule manually, including destinations, haulage, loaders, activities and targets are
used by the Scheduler when creating a mining schedule.

Specifically, given a set of periods to schedule, Auto Scheduler decides which blocks to mine in
which periods, and where to send the material in each block category (subject to
block dependencies), destination capacities, loader capacities, haulage capacities and other
user defined constraints with the objective of maximizing total cash flow or a given user
defined objective.

The Scheduler also finds a mining sequence of blocks for each loader in each period and also
decides which other activities such as blasting and drilling to perform in which period.

Only one instead of Auto Scheduler can be active at any time. If you attempt to run
more than one instance of the scheduler, you will be alerted.

What Decisions will Auto Scheduler Make?

 o For each mining block and each category of each mining block, the scheduler decides
what fraction is mined in each period, which loader should extract it, and to which
destination (plant, stockpile, or dump) should the mined fraction be sent.

o For each block activity, the scheduler decides the fraction of each
block activity performed in each period.

What is the Overall Objective of the Auto Scheduler?

The default objective of the scheduler is to maximize the total cash flow for the mining
sequence. This is calculated using several different user inputs for mining costs, haulage costs,
processing costs, recoveries, and product prices. It is also possible for you to define an
objective as an expression, which is defined within the Targets dialog.

What Constraints with the Auto Scheduler Satisfy?

The following constraints are implemented in the scheduler:

o Destination capacity constraints limit the tonnes that can be sent to that destination in
every period and in total over all periods.

o Loader capacity constraints limit the tonnes that are mined in every period by a loader.

o Haulage capacity constraints limit the total number of truck hours available. This is
defined for each truck set through the number of trucks, their availabilities, utilisation,
and efficiency.

o User-defined constraints that consist of expressions of reserve attributes with optional

lower and upper bounds on the expression value. The expression can be either a
simple linear expression or a ratio of two linear expressions.

o It is also possible to supply a pre-schedule of either partially or fully mined periods,

which will be followed by the scheduler.

Use Auto Scheduler Locally vs. Cloud Optimization

Licenses notwithstanding, you can choose how to process your Auto Scheduler runs; either
locally or remotely, using Datamine's Summit Scheduler cloud service. Summit Scheduler is an
out-of-application, cloud-based platform for running the Auto Scheduler where the payload
and resources required to crunch the numbers and solve the optimized operational schedule
problem is the responsibility of the Azure cloud server, whereas the local version of this
functionality will utilize local system resources. Summit Scheduler usage requires internet
access whereas a local scheduling operation does not.

The decision to run locally or remotely is made per-run, meaning you can elect to 'offsite'
some optimizations to the cloud whilst maintaining local management of other scenarios.

Logging onto a Summit Scheduler site (contact your local Datamine office for information on
accessing this facility) will enable you to queue runs and download completed runs. If your run
has already been completed and downloaded you can apply it to your application without
being logged into the Summit Scheduler website. As remote (off-system) scheduler runs are
not run locally, this has the advantage that several runs can be queued and that the scheduler
can be run in the background without needing to keep a Studio OP application running.
 Notes About Licensing

Two separate licenses govern access to scheduling functions;

o Summit Scheduler License

o Auto Scheduler License

Neither license is included in the Studio OP core system.

o Access to local optimization requires ONLY an Auto

Scheduler license.

o Access to the remote Summit Scheduler functionality

is governed by BOTH licenses; both must be installed in
order to connect to a Summit site and launch remote
optimization.

You will also require a Microsoft Live account login that

has been registered with the target Summit Scheduler
website.

This login is specific to Summit Scheduler and is

separate from any existing Summit login for the
purposes of data management or web application
access (e.g. SOPP).

Licenses are validated when you attempt to "Start" an

optimization.

If you need further guidance on licensing scheduling functions

in Studio OP, talk to your local Datamine office.

By default, you will be set up to access the locally-installed scheduling engine.

Auto Scheduler's Primary Function

The scheduler searches for an optimal short-term or medium-term schedule with the goal of
automating (as much as possible) the process of creating a mining schedule. Auto Scheduler
may be used to create a mining schedule from scratch or to fill in a given partial schedule. All
of the settings available to you for creating a mining schedule manually, including destinations,
haulage, loaders, activities and targets are used by the Scheduler when creating a mining
schedule.

Specifically, given a set of periods to schedule, Auto Scheduler decides which blocks to mine in
which periods and where to send the material in each block category subject to
block dependencies, destination capacities, loader capacities, haulage capacities and other
user defined constraints with the objective of maximizing total cash flow or a given user
defined objective.

The Scheduler also finds a mining sequence of blocks for each loader in each period and also
decides which other activities such as blasting and drilling to perform in which period.

Using Auto Scheduler

After launching the Auto Scheduler dialog

What is the Overall Objective of the Scheduler?

The default objective of the scheduler is to maximize the total cash flow for the mining
sequence. This is calculated using several different user inputs for mining costs, haulage costs,
processing costs, recoveries, and product prices. It is also possible for you to define an
objective as an expression, which is defined within the Targets dialog.

Scheduler Constraints

The following constraints are implemented in the scheduler:

o Destination capacity constraints limit the tonnes that can be sent to that destination in
every period and in total over all periods.

o Loader capacity constraints limit the tonnes that are mined in every period by a loader.

o Haulage capacity constraints limit the total number of truck hours available. This is
defined for each truck set through the number of trucks, their availabilities, utilisation,
and efficiency.

o User-defined constraints that consist of expressions of reserve attributes with optional

lower and upper bounds on the expression value. The expression can be either a
simple linear expression or a ratio of two linear expressions.

Using Auto Scheduler

The Auto Scheduler Run Configuration dialog The Auto Scheduler Run Configuration
dialog showing 1 queued (local) run

The procedure for launching remote (Summit Scheduler) runs and local runs is very similar, and
the same dialog is used for both scenarios:

Field Details:

On startup of Studio OP, all scenarios within the Summit Scheduler folder inside the project
folder are listed in the Auto Scheduler dialog. This folder is used to store configuration
information that is passed to the scheduler for solving.
The top of the dialog shows the current paths to a Summit Scheduler website (if configured),
and your Local optimization engine.

By default, the Summit (Scheduler) path points to Datamine's site at

https://scheduler.summit.dataminesoftware.com/. You can change this in your Project
Options dialog.

Active connections (remote or local) are shown in green, whilst an inactive remote connection
is shown in red. By default, a local optimization engine will be connected.

To connect to your Summit Scheduler site, click Connect. Providing a Summit Scheduler license
is available, you will be asked to connect to Summit using your Microsoft Live account
credentials. After successful connection, the Summit path will be shown in green.

The following fields apply to both remote and local optimizations.

The status of each optimization run is shown along with settings for each case. For runs that
have not been completed yet, you will be able to configure the majority of these settings. For
completed runs, these settings will be read-only.

o Scheduler: choose whether the run will be processed remotely ([Summit]) or locally
([Local]). The default value for new scenarios is [Summit].

When running locally, the project must remain open for the duration of the run
otherwise the run will be cancelled.

o Status: shows what's going on with the corresponding scenario - it will either be
Running, Waiting, Stopped or Completed. If a run is Waiting, you will be able to edit its
properties, otherwise these properties will be read-only.

Summit Scheduler optimizations, once complete, will broadcast a message to the local
client (if a connection still exists) to indicate the run has finished:

o Gap: the scheduler will keep searching for better and better solutions until it has found
a solution is within the Gap percentage of the best solution or until the Timeout (see
below) has been reached. A higher Gap value means faster solve times but potentially
worse solutions and conversely lower Gap values mean better solutions but potentially
much longer solve times.

o Timeout: controls the amount of time the scheduler can run for the scenario. If the
time limit is exceeded, the Scheduler will return the best solution found so far if any.

o From Period and To Period: these control the number of periods for which a solution
will be found.
 o Use Haulage: controls whether the projects truck and haul route information is sent to
Summit Scheduler. If your project contains this data and you choose to select No this
data will not affect your solution but will still be loaded back in upon selecting ‘Use’.
This is to prevent loss of data and give the option to manually assign haulage and to
remove the constraints of haulage if required.

o Mining Method: chooses whether loading is carried out Selectively (can mine from
categories within a block independently) or Non-selectively (Must take the same
percentage of each category).

o Schedule: option to include the current project schedule as a basis to solve from. Only
information within your period selection will be considered in the "pre-schedule". This
can be useful to integrate existing mining plans with the optimal solution.

The following commands are available on the right of the dialog:

o New: create a new optimization run based on your current schedule data. This will
allow you to enter the details for the run (see above for information on these
properties).

o Start/Stop: once a scenario has been selected and configured, you can Start it.

This will do one of the following:

o Initiate the upload process for Summit Scheduler (if the run is set to the
[Summit] Scheduler type and you have logged into the Summit site, and have
access to both Summit Scheduler and Auto Scheduler licenses).

Once running, a Summit Scheduler run can be aborted using the Stop button.

o Initiate local optimization of your schedule, assuming an Auto Scheduler

license is available.

o View: view the disk location of a generated schedule table.

o Use: on successful completion of a schedule run, you can apply the schedule
information to the loaded (local) data objects by clicking Use.

Even if Auto Scheduler failed to find a solution for a previous run, you can still "Use"
this scenario to reinstate your previous schedule settings - this allows you to make
adjustments to your schedule before resubmitting it. This is an effective way of fine-
tuning a previously failed schedule to generate a solution.

Related Topics

Auto Scheduler FAQs

Contact Datamine
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