Norilsk Nickel will reduce costs for technical repair using Process Mining

On June 22, 2020 it became known that PJSC Norilsk Nickel MMC implemented technology Process Mining for increase in efficiency of process of maintenance and repair of the equipment (TORO) in scales of all production. The project is implemented jointly with specialists of Group "PAMAKC".

The organization of effective process of maintenance and repair of the equipment at the enterprises plays a critical role in the conditions of the crisis phenomena and the high competition. Any faults and breakdowns lead to forced equipment downtimes which involve heavy losses.

Norilsk Nickel — the leader of the Russian mining and metallurgical industry, the largest global manufacturer of palladium and the refined nickel, is among world leading manufacturers of platinum, copper and cobalt. For the company it was important to provide unconditional transparency of process of maintenance and repair of the equipment, having created, at the same time, the convenient tool of end-to-end analytics of process. The solution which will allow to reduce time and costs for technical repair and hardware maintenance and also to optimize stock balance of spare parts was necessary.

Norilsk Nickel involved the specialists of RAMAKS Group having deep examination in the field of process analytics to project implementation. As the solution the Celonis Process Mining platform, according to analysts of Gartner, leading in the field was selected. From Norilsk Nickel implementation of technology was provided by a project team headed by the head of the business direction of data and the digital systems Alexey Manikhin.

At a stage of planning results and KPI, significant for business, were approved:

• Cutting of costs for overtime works and work on the weekend,
• Reduction of labor costs due to decrease in cancellings of orders of TORO,
• Decrease in losses of the capital because of repair postponement.

Experts of RAMAKS Group counted KPI and developed a monitoring system for the purpose of increase in efficiency of each of them for 30%.

Project implementation became complicated the fact that at implementing solution its integration into deeply customized SAP platform integrated into an IT landscape of Norilsk Nickel was necessary. In spite of the fact that modules of SAP were the largest components of an information system of the customer, our specialists successfully carried out with them integration of Celonis Process Mining, and end-to-end process of TORO was completely recovered. Now the reporting on the course of processes of TORO arrives every day that more than it is enough for the operational analysis, – Roman Anyutin, the head of the center of examination Process Mining of RAMAKS Group comments

System implementation allowed to reveal with the maximum accuracy weak points in the existing process of TORO and to remove the causes of time and financial losses. Also on the basis of data retrieveds identification of zones of further optimization and increase in efficiency of TORO became possible. The company purchased the convenient tool for obtaining information on process indicators.

Implementation of Celonis Process Mining will allow Norilsk Nickel to increase controllability of processes of maintenance and repair. A system allows to carry out online the analysis of accomplishment of business processes, to find deviations of a current status from target and to quickly make decisions. The present possibilities are especially important when planning repairs on all time horizons. High-quality planning will allow to reach effects in reduction of above-standard stocks. I will emphasize separately additional effect of the project: high-quality development of our reporting system. It became more convenient and flexible for understanding of the business customer, – the director of the department of industrial assets of Norilsk Nickel Andrey Skokov comments

The success of the project implemented by Norilsk Nickel together with RAMAKS Group in 2019 is caused by special approach to the solution of similar tasks. Except traditional operations on implementation and integration of technology of process analytics, experts implemented business results, significant for the customer. Also on the party of the customer the competence center of Process Mining was unrolled to help it to grow up own technology specialists. This complex of actions gave in the amount significant economic effect within the project and its continuation.

The next stage after application of integration measures reduction of a downtime of the equipment is expected.