Capital Equipment News September 2020

DIGITALISATION

and sometimes hazardous environments; suitability of the technology; the organisation’s understanding of their digital maturity and others. “As with all business decisions, embarking on the use of technology would require a strong value proposition and an accompanying financial benefit. After this, the work begins.” He identifies five points to consider when devising a strategy to implement digital technology on mines, the first of which being a “root cause understanding” of the requirement. Another point is the decision to optimise systems and processes prior to technology

deployment as new systems can cut out time-intensive activities that offer minimal value-add, allowing employees to focus on their core tasks. “When making the ‘partnership versus out-the-box solutions’ decision, the mine decides whether it is suited to changing its operation to fit the technology or whether the technology should augment the mine’s current abilities. There are many products and companies that sell the dream of the mine of the future. If you dig a little deeper, you may find a reluctance to develop solutions that suite your needs.” Mines should insist on interoperability where practical and, should further expansion be on the cards, ensure that the individual service providers and their offerings facilitate these functionalities. He says representatives at varying levels of the organisation affected by the technology should be at least consulted prior to the decision-making process to ensure that the systems will address the problems within the organisation and promote buy-in when they are deployed. The last point on his list is that of effective communication: “Strong, digital- focused leadership with an effective and timely communication strategy around technology deployment aids acceptance through understanding.” He says once organisations’ leadership delves into technology adoption in the mining environment, they soon realise the complexity and may perceive the solutions as too costly. “If done correctly, however, the use of technology could unlock significant value that has been lying dormant in these organisations.” Accenture’s Croeser says the business case for going digital “has always been there”. He ascribes its slow adoption to the lack of value realisation at scale. “South African mining companies have skipped a key step in their digital transformation journey. Enamoured by the promise of technologies such as artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles and augmented and virtual reality, they have overlooked investments in key foundational technologies such as advanced analytics and integrated platforms.” He says, in doing so, these companies miss out on nearly R51-billion arising from the deployment of advanced analytics and integrated platforms. “They also risk not being able to completely tap the gains available from the digital technologies already deployed. Our research has shown that organisations who focus on the processes, technologies and people experience huge returns on their digital investments. Our evaluation of the

“We have been seeing big opportunities in the use of digital technologies for our clients and for thyssenkrupp.”

Matthias Göing, thyssenkrupp head, Global Product Lifecycle Management

“The adoption of digital technologies in core areas could contribute to tremendous improvements in operational efficiencies, ultimately driving improved profitability.”

Kumeshan Naidu, Epiroc South Africa regional automation centre manager

“All transformation activities require a catalyst to ignite the journey. COVID-19 may just be one of those catalysts.”

Eric Croeser, MD, Accenture Technology in Africa Industry X.0

“Data availability and connectivity are the prerequisites of digital transformation. Without these two main pillars the advantages of digital cannot be harvested.”

Martin Krex, thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions global product lifecycle management, Automation and Digitalisation

TALKING POINTS

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS SEPTEMBER 2020 14