Ceenex

Ceenex and partners aim to get rail back on track

martin.franklin — Fri, 21 May 2010 17:07:35 +0000

(May 2010) Arlington, VA – Ceenex aligned with Maendeleo Ventures, LLC and its partners to provide solutions to the railroad industry. The joint offering, Maendeleo Rail, aim to leverage the Revolutionizing Rail strategy. Revolutionizing Rail is a holistic strategy for returning railroads to excessive profitability.

The Maendeleo Rail strategy (http://maendeleoventures.com/sectors/rail) is based on breakthrough innovations from engineers with over thirty years experience as executives and consultants. Maendeleo Rail’s people have worked on every continent and are located around the world. Maendeleo Rail uses a local approach with local partners, tailored to meet local challenges. Furthermore, Maendeleo Rail is not affiliated with any suppliers and is thus free from influence or ulterior motives.

Revolutionizing Rail aims to identify ways to increase revenue through better business plans, maximize operational capacity and improve safety and reduce operating costs through more realistic operating practices, improved modeling and common sense signaling. It reduces the risk of operating a railroad, allowing the railroad to better serve its customers.

Ceenex will provide its operational modeling capabilities, allowing Maendeleo Rail to cost-effectively investigate different opportunities. This will be done through application of Knowledge Based Optimization and Simulation (KBOS) to solve problems that happen in the real world using a virtual business. Advanced analytics and modeling tools enable opportunity identification and rapid analysis of expected impacts.

About Ceenex (http://www.ceenex.com)
Ceenex is an independent management, technology and engineering advisory firm, solving complexity through the application of their skills in business engineering, development consulting, project and program management, and information engineering. Ceenex is privately owned with offices in Pretoria (South Africa) and Arlington (Virginia, USA). The Ceenex statement of qualifications covers more than 200 assignments with a strong sectoral focus in logistics, government, water & waste, mining, ICT, agriculture, SMME and donors.

About Maendeleo Ventures, LLC (http://www.maendeleoventures.com)
Maendeleo Ventures, LLC is a firm created and specifically dedicated to bringing about sustainable, positive change in the world by creating and promoting trade, education and innovation through business and technology. Maendeleo Ventures sees opportunity where other people see problems.

Contact:
Martin M. Franklin
Ceenex LC
3300 Fairfax Drive, Suite 208
Arlington, VA 22201
Office +1.202.525.6030
Cell +1.571.213.1008
martin.franklin@ceenex.com
www.ceenex.com

Simulation of a Pit-to-Port coal operation

martin.franklin — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 20:06:12 +0000

The client conducted a pre-feasibility design and assessment study of a Coal Project in Mozambique. The project aims to mine, rail and export 11 million tons of coal through a sea port. The port facility will contain a rail yard and tippling facility, a stockyard with automated stacker and reclaimer, and a single berth with barge loader. Due to the depth of the port ships will be loaded off-shore at anchorage with floating cranes and barges.

Ceenex assisted the project by developing a dynamic simulation model of the rail and the port facility and to use the model to investigate the following:

Verify the capacity of the system to transship 11M tons from tip to ship given the constraints of mining and plant production, rail, stockyard layout and capacity and transshipment operations.
Explore opportunities to reduce the maximum required stockyard capacity and throughput.
Evaluate capability of transshipment tenders to perform at the required level.

Simulation Components

The following components were studied in the simulation:

Mine and Plant

High level modeling with throughput, maintenance and breakdowns

Plant Stockpile

Detailed stockpile, stacker & reclaimer
Train load-out

Railway

Detailed route, stations rail loops with other traffic

Port

Detailed train offloading
Detailed Stacker and Reclaimer with 12 sub-stockpiles

Ship/Barge loading

Maintenance/Breakdowns
Transshipment
Ship schedules
Channel scheduling
Barge/Ship trans-loading
Weather forecast (including tropical storms)

Model snapshots:

Rail Layout

Mine/Port Layout

Ceenex LC aligns with Simio, LLC

martin.franklin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:35:02 +0000

(March 2010) Arlington, VA – Ceenex LC is excited to announce the new role as authorized representative for Simio, LLC, developer of 3D simulation software. Ceenex is an independent management, technology and engineering solutions provider who excel at assisting clients with either basic or complex decision making requirements through the application of advanced analysis tools and techniques.

Simio® is object-oriented simulation software offering intelligent objects and the ability to model any system rapidly without compromise. Simio® was created by a team of experienced simulation software developers led by Dr. Dennis Pegden, former founder and CEO of Systems Modeling Corporation. Simio® is built on .NET technology, has built-in integration with Google 3D Warehouse, and was designed to be both powerful for advanced users and easy for beginners.

About Ceenex
Ceenex is an independent management, technology and engineering advisory firm, solving complexity through the application of their skills in business engineering, development consulting, project and program management, and information engineering. Ceenex is privately owned with offices in Pretoria (South Africa) and Arlington (Virginia, USA). The Ceenex statement of qualifications covers more than 200 assignments with a strong sectoral focus in government, water & waste, mining, ICT, agriculture, SMME and donors.

About Simio LLC
Simio is a private company headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, dedicated to delivering leading edge solutions for the design, emulation, and scheduling of complex systems. Simio® was founded by a highly experienced team. C. Dennis Pegden, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Simio LLC, has over 30 years of experience in simulation and scheduling and has been widely recognized as an industry leader. He led in the development of SLAM (marketed by Pritsker and Associates) and then founded Systems Modeling Corporation, now part of Rockwell Automation. Dennis led the creation of the market-leading simulation products SIMAN® and Arena®, as well as the finite capacity scheduling product Tempo (later renamed RS Scheduler).

Contact:
Martin M. Franklin
Ceenex LC
3300 Fairfax Drive, Suite 208
Arlington, VA 22201
Office +1.202.525.6030
Cell +1.571.213.1008
martin.franklin@ceenex.com
www.ceenex.com

Project management support of a national educational advocacy program

martin.franklin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:08:22 +0000

The client, a large U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry, representing about 400 corporations involved in production, refinement, distribution, and many other aspects of the industry, initiated a new multi-million dollar multi-year communication strategy and needed guidance in setup of a project management monitoring system and related reports to monitor progress.

The project entailed the highest level of visibility and confidentiality with rapid turn-around times and shifting priorities. Furthermore the project involved input from multiple departments and external vendors, therein requiring the best, most efficient and effective approach.

The client assigned a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from Ceenex to specify, configure and implement the enterprise project management monitoring solution. The engagement has been extended over multiple years to provide continued support of the Project Tracker, including information capturing, training, executive reporting, and maintenance of the web portal as needed.

Project Deliverables

Configuration of Program Management Monitoring System
Project Management Support
Management and Progress Tracking Reports

Coal Supply Simulation Modeling

martin.franklin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:06:41 +0000

The client operates a complex encompassing several coal mines and two duplicate stockyards, with close to 1 million ton live combined capacity, which feed two synthetic fuel plants. The mines are connected to the stockyards with conveyor belt systems. A dynamic simulation model was developed in Gensym’s G2 to investigate process improvements and evaluate process improvement projects, with the goal to minimize the risk of inability to supply to the synthetic fuel plants. The model was further used to investigate coal quality issues and in techno-economic analysis of new trajectories. The model is built in an object orientated environment that provides rapid development and “what if” analysis.

Control systems testing and operator training for a new coal beneficiation plant

martin.franklin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:06:01 +0000

The client required that the control system for a new coal beneficiation plant, which included a network of Programmable Logical Controllers (PLC’s) and Supervisory Systems (SCADA), to be tested in a non destructive environment. A simulation model of the process, which was also used to test and optimize the plant design, was used.

The model was initially designed to consist of a physical model and control model, where the control model could be switched off to accept control inputs from the control system. A rule based model of the motor control circuits (MCC) panels and other devices was built to interpret the control systems signals, by which the control system controlled the simulation model. The simulation model included response to test PID-control loops. The client required that every IO be tested before the control system was moved to site. This requirements by the client resulted in valuable time being saved in on site commissioning , as all remaining errors in the control system could be attributed to physical on site issues. The model was also used to familiarize operators with the new plant, while controlling the model through the control system.

Surface rail dynamic simulation modeling

martin.franklin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:05:22 +0000

A surface rail toolkit was utilized to determine the constraints in a overland shaft complex rail system, and there after to determine systematic improvements that would be required in order for the rail system to be able continue to supply dependently after changes and increases in the ore production from the shaft as dictated by future shaft development. The model, created in Gensym’s G2, enables very fast “what if” analysis. Scenarios were tested with changes to the: physical rail network, number of shaft silos, shaft silo capacities, tipping area layout, number of tips, number of locomotives, ore hopper capacity and number of hoppers per train.

Mining and transport logistics modeling toolkits

martin.franklin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:04:09 +0000

Dynamic simulation modeling toolkits were developed in an object orientated environment for rapid application during the analysis of underground conveying systems. The conveying toolkit was applied to several decline shaft systems which produce up to 3 products and included full materials handling from underground ore passes to surface silo’s (therefore including rail and rock hoist sub models). The toolkits were extended to include men and materials transport up to production and development ends with the addition of underground rail, man hoist, monorail and chairlift modules. A surface rail toolkit was developed which was used quantify the potential value to be derived from a rail dispatch system and for decision making on improvements to the rail and plant tipping infrastructure.

Johan C. Wagner

martin.franklin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:21:02 +0000

Name: Johan C. Wagner
Designation: Managing Director/CEO
Experience: 18 years
Qualifications: Pr Eng; BSc. Eng. Hons, University of Pretoria; MBL cum laude, UNISA
Professional affiliations: Society of Management Consultants, UK

Johan Wagner has more than 20 years technology and management consulting experience and specializes in capabilities of strategy and leadership, institutional redesign and information technology. He has worked on various projects in Africa, Europe, America, Latin America and Asia providing advice to Central & Municipal Government, Public and Private Utilities, Mining and Industry Sectors in the following key areas in terms of service offerings:

Envisioning, Strategic Analysis, Design and Decisioning
Business Process Design/Systems Engineering/Enterprise Engineering/BPR
Integrated transaction processing systems (enterprise resources management systems)
Institutional Redesign, Technology based Transformation, Management Structure Design and Implementation
Information Infrastructure Analysis, Design and Implementation
Public Utility Reform
Technology and Engineering
Information transfer, Training and Capacity Building

Johan currently is the Managing Director of Ceenex (Pty) Ltd. Until February 2000 he held the position of Managing Director of Booz.Allen & Hamilton (South Africa) Limited and also the Chief Representative of the Booz.Allen & Hamilton Moscow Office. As Principal of Booz.Allen & Hamilton Inc, a global, independent management and technology consulting firm, he lead the Strategy Review Team of the International Client Service Team out of Washington DC. He was tasked to develop a 5 year, 2 500 staff, $500 million p.a. portfolio strategy for this team. He is author and co-author to more than 20 publications and presenter at several international conferences.

He was contracted to the City Council of Pretoria as Chief Information Officer responsible for the implementation of the Information Infrastructure Business Plan (IIBP2000) which includes delivery of 60 plus capital projects exceeding R100 million. One of his projects was the design, specification and tendering of an integrated resources management system, named the One Integrated Transaction Processing System (OITPS). His local government consulting experience includes work for Alberton, Pretoria, East Rand Services Council, Eastern Gauteng Services Council, Lekoa Vaal Metropolitan Council, Westonaria, Khyalami Metropolitan Council, Kempton Park, Edenvale, Bedfordview, Germiston and East Rand Water Care Company. Career highlights include setting up sustainable businesses, hostile strategy facilitation, international fact finding missions, designing enterprise strategies, solving complex process and systems problems, capacity building for executive management and authoring and delivering papers at international conferences.

Michele A. McDonald

martin.franklin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:21:53 +0000

Name: Michele A. McDonald
Designation: Director
Experience: 16 years
Qualifications: Pr Eng; B. Eng. cum laude, University of Pretoria; B. Eng. Hons cum laude, University of Pretoria
Professional affiliations: Water Environment Federation (WEF)

Michele McDonald is a professional engineer with 16 years work experience, 2 years as a project manager in the construction industry and 14 years’ consulting experience mainly to Government, Public and Private Utilities and Water and Waste Environments and Information Engineering. She has performed several assignments for both the public and private sector in South Africa, USA, France, Poland, Russia and Brazil. Career highlights include institutional support and program management of national water sector programs; water services strategic and institutional designs; project management of large infrastructure projects; solving complex process and systems problems; auditing and analysis of business and infrastructure; UML design of business processes and systems. She has worked on numerous projects in the following key areas:

Project Planning & Program Management
Business Process and Systems Modeling
Business and Strategic Analysis and Design
Institutional Support and Decisioning Processes
Performance Monitoring and Control
Information Systems Planning and Design
Information Technology Analysis and Design
Information Management Design and Support
Technology and Engineering
Decision Support Systems Analysis & Design

Michele A. McDonald started her career at Protokon (a construction business unit), which is an affiliate of Transnet (Public Transportation Corporation) in January 1992 as an Assistant Engineer. She furthered her career by entering the private sector in April 1993 when she joined consulting engineers, Wagner Nel (Pty) Ltd as Civil Engineer. In February 1995, she joined the Wagner Nel Management Consultants team and became responsible for infrastructure and institutional strategies. Towards the end of July 1996, Me. McDonald joined Booz.Allen & Hamilton (South Africa) Ltd and was appointed as Senior Consultant. She was promoted to Associate level in July 1997 and Senior Associate level in September 1998. During September 1998, Ms McDonald was transferred to Booz.Allen & Hamilton corporate campus in McLean, Virginia where she was a key resource in the development of a portfolio strategy for the International Client Service Team. Me. McDonald resigned from Booz.Allen & Hamilton in February 2000 to return to South Africa. In March 2000, Me. McDonald and two colleagues started Ceenex (Pty) Ltd, a firm of consulting business engineers focusing on technology-based transformation and business engineering. Me. McDonald is an Executive Director and shareholder of Ceenex (Pty) Ltd.

Some projects performed by Me. McDonald as part of Ceenex (Pty) Ltd includes:

Key Expert for the Lesotho Water Sector Information Management System
Management Support Service for the Transfer of Water Services Assets and the National Refurbishment Program
Provisioning of a Support Service to the Gauteng, North West and North Cape Regional Offices for the Transfer of Water Services Assets and National Refurbishment Program
Support to coordination of Provincial Water Services Authorities Water Services Development Planning Process: North West Province
Project Management Support for the Engineering Functional Centre of uThukela Water (Pty) Ltd
Design Support for the Engineering Functional Center of uThukela Water
Amajuba DM asset valuation and transfer
Madibeng Section 78 internal assessment
Support to the coordination of Provincial WSA’s Water Services Development Planning Process: KwaZulu Natal
Madibeng Transfer of Assets
Establishment of Water User Associations in the North West
Transaction Advisor for the Madibeng Utility Management Information System
Engineering, Planning, Analysis, Modeling and Simulation (PAMS)of the uThukela Water Strategic Plan SP2030
Development of the Amajuba Water Services Development Plan
Development and Review of the Newcastle Water Services Development Plan
Design and Development of a Customer Services Agreement System (CSAS) for De Beers
Business Analysis and Design of the Catchment Information Management Decision Support System (CIMDSS) for Rand Water
Design and Implementation of the IIBP2000 information infrastructure business plan of the Pretoria City Council involving a technology leapfrogging upgrade of all information infrastructures