Surface miner is proved to be an efficient rock excavation technique in surface mines. However, till date, mining industry is facing a problem in selecting best surface miner model suitable to their conditions amongst the models available in the market. The readily available models are purchased by the mine authority and then, are deployed in the mines. This results into the increase in mining cost and reduction in performance. The field engineers are also unable to operate the surface miner in the optimum mode of operation. This paper has reported an investigation carried out to identify the factors affecting performance of surface miner. Computer software has also been developed to assist the mine management in selecting the most suitable surface miner. This also assists the field engineers to select the optimum mode of operation to arrive at the maximum possible production. Key words: Surface miner, operating mode, software, cuttability.