Shame it's a shill post, because this is a very interesting topic. A mine a few miles down the road from our biggest client was basically run into the ground by mismanagement, and equipment selection/management was a major part of that.
It's pretty easy to track down trucks and loaders that use the same engine and tires, to make a spares inventory practical and affordable. We're doing that with our acquisitions - all Deutz -912 air-cooled diesels and as much tire/rim commonality as we can swing! Likewise, using conservative availability estimates based on the age and condition of equipment being operated - good rebuilds, bad rebuilds, old junk, old reliables, and new computerized abominations. Most of all, keeping abreast of your operators to make sure it's being employed correctly and not abused. One of our LHDs has been run out of fuel by the client's operator twice in about a week. I've heard of a freshly-rebuilt Wagner ST-6 with a $60k remote control installation being turned over in a stope, flopped around like a dead fish until it was righted, and the operator carried on running it like nothing had happened. And they wondered why equipment reliability was poor...
