Methods and systems for deploying equipment required to meet defined production targets

A method of deploying equipment required to meet a defined production target for a material processing system, the equipment including at least one material loading system and at least one material conveying system, comprising:

• generating at least one production constraint for at least one of the material loading system and the material processing system;
• estimating an effect of entropy on a cycle time of the material conveying system by performing a stochastic simulation based on historical cycle times to produce a future cycle time estimate for the material conveying system;
• estimating an effect of entropy on a material processing time associated with the material processing system by performing a stochastic simulation based on historical material processing times to produce a future material processing time estimate for the material processing system;
• predicting whether a delay will occur during the operation of at least one of the material loading, material conveying, and material processing systems based on historical delay data;
• estimating a duration of the predicted delay by performing a stochastic simulation based on the historical delay data;
• determining a loading system capacity and a conveying system capacity required to meet the defined production target based on the estimated production constraint, the future cycle time estimate, the future material processing time estimate, and the estimated duration of the predicted delay;
• and
• deploying one or more material loading systems to meet the determined loading system capacity and deploying one or more material conveying systems to meet the determined conveying system capacity.