MINING & ResouRcesPoRtfolIo 19/20Committed to solving the problems that really matter for global competitiveness through technology integration www.novasystems.com

MINING & ResouRces

AustrAliA & New ZeAlANd

Mining and Resources companies continue to face significant and sustained challenges against a global backdrop. These encompass: volatile commodity prices; shareholder pressure to meet return on investment targets; an imperative to continue improving perfor-mance in health, safety and environment outcomes; unpredictable and increasing regulatory change and the associated compliance burdens; and, the challenge of rapidly integrating new technologies into increasingly complex operating environments. Adding to this, large corporations are now at the frontline of unprecedented and highly sophisticated cyber crime. Key performance indicators for executives and managers today extend well beyond revenue and profitability.

To help our mining clients meet these challenges, Nova Systems draws upon our deep and world-class systems engineering heritage in the Mining, Aerospace, Defence, Oil & Gas, Power, Water and Rail sectors. We bring a unique, proven and holistic view of the way complex systems interact, assuring the execution of complex capital, technology integration and asset management projects while meeting productivity targets, statutory regulations and safety requirements.

Our people are hand-picked and combine operating experience with highly developed strategic advisory and system engineer-ing capabilities to enable our clients to gain the most value from their assets across the whole asset life-cycle. We work as part of integrated project teams to reliably and consistently develop and deliver projects on time, within budget and to the required level of quality. We have a strong focus on early stakeholder engagement, change management, knowledge and skills transfer and achieving high service standards; measuring our success not just by seeing our clients succeed, but also by an enviable level of new work from previous clients.

We are specialists in the introduction of enabling technologies and are currently working with clients who are bringing world-leading autonomous systems into their operations. Our clients get the most out of working with us through early engagement in the project lifecycle – preferably at the concept stage, where our talents for getting to the core of the issue and crafting the best-fit strategy to deliver the right outcomes delivers them the optimal return. It’s never too late to call us, though. We have helped many clients recover from difficult situations faced well into project lifecycles.

Tim AndersonProgram Manager - Energy & Resourcestim.anderson@novasystems.com

Mining companies must deal with multiple and evolving challenges, all the while delivering:• Continual improvements in safety and environmental performance. • A leaner and more productive workforce, with fewer personnel exposed to site hazards and the psycho-

logical impacts of remote living.• Ongoing cost-of-production improvements to increase profitability.• Faster returns on investment and longer asset lives.• Improved operational adaptability and responsiveness to changing operating and market conditions.• Better and near real-time situational awareness across dispersed operations.• Reliable results and predictable outcomes across all their operations – with no surprises!

Nova Systems sees the future of mining involving:• Fewer personnel on-site and in harm’s way.• Increasingly autonomous production systems that are monitored and controlled remotely, protected from

cyber threats and inherently resilient.• Exponential growth in operational data, providing huge opportunities for improvement through analytics.• Appropriately detailed and fused visibility of mine-to-market performance in near-real time.• Asset health monitoring and predictive maintenance systems that optimise capital expenditure. • Management systems and tools that support flatter, more nimble organisational structures and distributed

decision making, and a single source of truth across the business.• Reduced environmental footprints and potential for unintended outcomes.• Optimisation and decision making supported by digital transformation programs.

MINING & ReSOuRceS

cONTAcT

cONTAcT Tim AndersonProgram Manager - Energy & Resourcestim.anderson@novasystems.com

• Systemsafetyassurance,includingsafetycasesandsafetymanagementsystemsdevelopmentforthemostcomplexoperationalscenariosandsystems.

• Operationalsafetysupport,includingindependentassessment,culturalchangemanagementandleadershipcoaching.

• Operationalresilienceanalysis,includingsupportwithimplementationofim-provements.

• Managementandoperatorsituationalawarenesssupport,includingneedsanalysisandsolutiondelivery.

• Cybersecurityassessmentsandsupporttoimplementdefensivestrategiesandtools.

• Operationalconceptdevelopment,userneedsanalysis,requirementsdefinitionandprocurementsupport,includingtenderevaluationandprojectengineeringmanagementforcapitalprojects.

• Verificationandvalidationservices,includingtestandevaluationsupportencompassingtrialsplanningandexecutionaswellasthedeliveryofbespoke,practitioner-centricleveltrainingintestandevaluation.

• Reliability,availabilityandmaintainabilityservices,includingsparingandsupplychainoptimisationsupport.

• Telecommunicationsengineeringsupport,includingsatellite-basedsystems,encompassingsystemdesignandmodelling-baseddeploymentplanning.

• DynamicsimulationmodellingofoperationsusingModelBasedSystemEngi-neering(MBSE)toolstoallowrapidandnon-disruptiveevaluationofmultiplescenariosforoptimisation.

• Shutdown,recommissionandfieldupgradeandmodificationsplanning.• Unmannedaerialvehiclesfeasibilitystudies,trialsandoperationsmanagement,

includingsupportwithdatacaptureandanalysis.• Digitaltransformation.• Complexproblemsolvingthroughour‘NovaVortex’methodologythatbreaks

downcomplexproblemstogettotherootcauses,andthenmapsoutasystemsapproachtoinnovationandtechnologyintegration.

cAPAbIlITIeS

Nova Systems offers integrated solutions to support our mining clients at every level to confront and overcome the challenges of delivering this future.

We provide comprehensive support ranging from tactical, ‘ground-up’ assistance through to portfolio-wide strategic planning, and have access within the Nova Group of Companies and our technology partners to skills, capabilities and technolo-gies that will help you succeed on many fronts. Nova Systems enables technologies to solve client problems that really matter.

AUTONOMOUS HeAvy veHICLeS

Nova Systems has been engaged by a major mining com-pany to assist them with the introduction of autonomous vehicle technology into their operations.

The company had been trialling autonomous haulage but could not effectively measure the benefits and shortcom-ings of the available solutions. Nova Systems was able to create a set of objective measures for the system perfor-mance and then conduct a Testing & Evaluation (T&E) pro-gram to evaluate these measures. Nova Systems worked as an integrated member of the mining company’s team, delivering and growing the autonomous haulage capability in the business and taking it from a small-scale trial to a site-wide operation critical to productivity.

Nova Systems was engaged to assist the same company to understand and codify the safety systems and controls for autonomous vehicles and drill rigs on the mine site. Through collaboration with the client, Nova introduced a new methodology and structure that allowed the mining company to easily understand and communicate the safety of these systems, both in terms of design and operation.

Nova Systems remains a trusted advisor with this client and continues to assist the organisation with the deployment and commissioning of new autonomous haulage and drill-ing operations.

SySTeMS THINKING

Nova Systems draws upon our systems engineering exper-tise and heritage to provide our clients with objective con-fidence that new technologies and operationally critical assets meet their intended purpose and deliver improved technical certainty, safety outcomes and cost savings.

We put the problem first and apply proven critical thinking tools and techniques to identify leverage points and define the operational needs of our clients, translating these into prioritised functional requirements from which suitable technology solutions can be selected whilst avoiding unin-tended consequences. Using this approach, Nova Systems positions our clients well, ensuring the correct information is available to develop long-term strategies or have confi-dence in decisions concerning more immediate matters. In this manner, technology options can be comprehensively and systematically evaluated, and the impact of deficiencies or compromises can be assessed before lengthy and expen-sive procurement decisions are made.

A common root cause of complex program failure is not having a complete, concise and correct set of requirements for the system being delivered – i.e. not understanding the problem to be solved and the requirements needed to re-dress it. More than two out of three complex projects fail to deliver within time and budget. A systems approach miti-gates this likelihood and provides the best possible chance for a project to succeed.

SySTeMS eNGINeerING MANAGeMeNT FrAMewOrK

Nova Systems was engaged by a heavy-haul rail operator to assist with the development and deployment of a systems engineering management framework in line with internal plans, informed in part by guidance from the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator. Like most well established and mature organisations, the operator had existing systems and processes covering various facets of the systems lifecycle but recognised a need for a systems engineering framework to formalise, verify and unify the existing process.

In response to this, Nova Systems authored a systems engineering management framework by applying a tailoring approach to ISO 15288 that accounts for operational risk profiles, existing documen-tation and structure, as well as the input received from a wide range of client stakeholders through workshops facilitated by our consult-ants. The resulting product provides our client with an exemplar documentation suite against which they can now better manage rolling stock operations, acquisitions and upgrades.

Importantly, Nova Systems’ experience has allowed us to intelli-gently apply systems engineering theory to deliver a timely, fit-for-purpose and cost-effective solution to our client that satisfies their business needs and meets regulatory requirements.

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SySTeMS ASSeT MANAGeMeNT ApprOACH TO HIGH CrITICALITy INFrASTrUCTUre SeLeCTION

Nova Systems provided systems engineering services in assisting a major mining company with the selec-tion of new communications systems that would support the company’s remote operations and au-tonomous systems into the future. Nova consultants worked with the client’s project feasibility team to understand the business needs, then assisted the project to derive the downstream functional and technical requirements and technical specifications.

Vendor-facing documentation packs were authored to assist the miner in going out to market to elicit re-sponses to the requirement set. Nova Systems con-sultants created objective assessment criteria and guided the project staff as well as potential vendors through the assessment process. Nova consultants expertly managed stakeholder ex-pectations through a myriad of often complex discus-sions and workshops to arrive at decisions that met the business need.

The result has allowed our client to be confident in their technology choice and vendor selection, assured that the solution meets the business re-quirements and has a high likelihood of meeting performance and operational cost forecasts and ex-pectations.

AuTONOMOuS SySTeMS ADvISORy AND ROADMAP

Nova Systems is providing strategic advisory, systems engineering and safety engineering support to a prominent underground and open-pit gold mining operator. The client is striving to establish world-class true remote operations from the surface to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, personnel having to work underground.

Nova Systems consultants initially worked with the client’s executives and mine management team to define their long-term aspirations and then authored a vision statement and a complementary capability roadmap for approval.

Our strategic advisory and systems engineering knowledge has enabled this mining operator to adroitly navigate the complex set of interdepend-ent options and systems to arrive at a program of works that will yield compounding value and meet business objectives. Nova Systems consult-ants analysed operations, assessed opportunities and prioritised a series of initiatives to meet the intent of the roadmap.

Downstream deployment capability waves, or initiatives, have been struc-tured and vendor-facing documentation authored in a manner that en-sures the completed works will be highly integrated, reliable and enduring in the operational environment.

TeST AND evALUATION TrAINING

Nova Systems was engaged by a large multi-national mining company to deliver three-day introductory Systems Engineering and Test & Evaluation (SETE) courses to panels of technical staff from across Australia. The cli-ent is renowned for thinking big and relentlessly improv-ing its operations through the application of advanced technology.

Nova is a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) offering bespoke, practitioner-centric Certificate IV and Diploma level courses in Test & Evaluation (T&E). As a consulting business that believes in helping our clients become in-formed buyers and operators, we are delighted to be able to offer such training in conjunction with coaching and re-view services. Many of our clients also learn valuable skills and insights simply by engaging us to perform work. Nova believes that we should not just leave our clients with a report or a document; we aim to help you on a journey to a consistent, controlled and effective approach to dealing with complex problems.

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DIGITAL TwIN AND MODeL BASeD SyStemS engineering (mBSe)

Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is an advanced meth-odology that is used to develop simulations of complex systems. A ‘Digital Twin’ is a software replica of a physical asset, process or system that can be used for various purposes, and is often used for decision support and optimisation studies. In various industrial sectors, Digital Twins are being used to optimise the operation and maintenance of physical assets, systems and manufacturing pro-cesses.

Digital Twins are a formative technology for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), where physical objects can operate and interact with other machines and people virtually.

Nova Systems was engaged to apply our Nova Vortex Methodology to develop an MBSE model of a major upstream gas operation expe-riencing unpredictable power cost spikes from the national energy grid. Nova Systems worked with the client to build an MBSE model of the operation from the extraction wells through compression and pumping stations to the port operation for liquification and export.

The MBSE model was built using Nova Systems’ Technology Col-laboration Partner, PTC, Integrity Modeler platform and allows the client to conduct scenario modelling to develop playbooks, proto-cols and plans for maintaining production while minimising energy consumption, especially during periods of peak electricity prices. Nova Systems continued to collaborate with the client to provide a complete digital asset strategy, including building a digital twin proof of concept.

INFORMATION & cybeR SecuRITy

Australia’s cyber security needs are becoming larger, more diverse and more so-phisticated as organisations increasingly become subject to evolving and aggressive cyber threats. Information and cyber security in today’s highly networked environ-ments is essential to ensure business continuity. Mining companies, as with other businesses, need to be sufficiently resilient to a cyber attack so that critical activities can still be undertaken when operating in a cyber denied environment.

Nova Systems’ Information and Cyber Security Program brings together a capability of highly qualified professionals that has acquired specialised knowledge to support organisations in achieving their objectives.

Nova Systems implements cyber security through a risk management framework that is based on the Australian Department of Defence Information Security Manual methodology. The methodology is best practice in mitigating or minimising the threat to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) systems. However, there is no one–size–fits–all approach to cyber security due to the varying complex-ity of different ICT systems. Nova Systems adopts a risk management approach to cyber security providing the flexibility to allow for differences in environment, busi-ness operating strategy and the businesses appetite for risk. This approach allows companies to balance the operational and economic costs of information security measures with the need to protect the information and systems that support their organisational functions.

Nova Systems works with our clients to establish the estimated costs of malicious cyber attacks and how to best detect, deter and respond to cyber security threats in the context of the business operating model. The developed mitigation plan pro-vides recommendations that balances the recommended security controls, opera-tional constraints and economic cost.

Nova Systems has extensive cyber security capabilities and experience in accrediting Australian Department of Defence SECRET systems. Nova Systems is also proud to have been a Gold Sponsor of the inaugural 2017 Defence Industry Cyber Security Challenge, hosted by the Australian Cyber Security Growth Network (ACSGN).

Nova Systems was formed in 2000, rapidly becoming one of the pre-eminent providers of specialist engineering services to the defence sector.

Today, Nova Systems employs more than 500 specialist consultants across Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Singapore, collaborating with its blue chip clients across industry sectors including mining, oil and gas, utilities, aerospace, government and rail.

We provide industry and government with world class, independent expertise. We work not just as consultants, but as trusted partners, as committed to your success as you are.

Our size and extensive network allows us to resource project teams tailored to specifically meet client needs and objectives, yet we remain nimble and flexible. We apply innovation and ingenuity, drawing on the talents and expertise of our people, applying cross-sector thinking, national as well as global perspectives and emerging best practice initiatives.

Specialist services

• Commissioning and test• Capability development and delivery• Project development and delivery• Specialist engineering design• Certification and design approvals• Operational and systems safety• Asset management and logistics• Training (registered RTO)

www.novasystems.com

AbOuT NOvA SySTeMS

MINING | OIL & GAS | POWER | WATER | TRANSPORT www.novasystems.com