ABB, as a provider of physical and digital solutions, has developed a digitalisation roadmap for the mining industry based on five structuring values.
ABB has developed a digitalisation roadmap to enable more efficient and sustainable mining operations.
Considering the volumes of data generated by modern mining solutions, it is becoming increasingly important to ensure digital transformation programmes provide clarity, pace, and control. ABB’s digitalisation roadmap is designed to help companies navigate the complex landscape and pursue programmes that deliver value.
The company works with a broad scope of equipment and technologies – from mining robots and trolley-assist systems to AI and augmented reality. In its view, automation, digitalisation, and electrification must go hand in hand for effective transformation and to support sustainable and efficient mining operations.
The five solution areas address: sustainability, asset performance, process performance, operational excellence, and a connected workforce and can provide demonstrable evidence that digital transformation strategies are working. There is also a horizontal cybersecurity layer that is critical across the five pillars.
Although these five solution areas are based on long-established customer needs and the company’s solutions and domain expertise, they also reflect the significant changes that have taken place in mining in recent years. An important aspect of digitalisation is to promote greater collaboration across different areas of the value chain. The value pillars all need to be connected to maximise plant benefits.
For example, predictive maintenance has a clear connection to sustainability and production. A reliability engineer, who needs to work closely with the production manager, may sometimes face a decision that involves running a piece of equipment close to a failure curve, even though that could result in higher energy consumption. To achieve holistic optimisation of the value chain, digitalisation needs to serve as a basis for collaborative ways of working, in place of traditional siloed operations. Integration is a critical part of progress in digitalisation.
“With data, it is essential to remember that if we cannot measure, we cannot control. Advanced algorithms cannot make the right predictions if the basics are not right. For a complex and important project such as cost reduction, we can dig into millions of data points, but that data still needs to be correctly processed and managed to extract relevant value from operations,” says Erik Pretorius, Global Lead, Large and Strategic Projects, Mining and Minerals Processing at ABB. “Most of the time spent in data-driven projects is still around preparing the data correctly. That is a big hurdle, and it is the same in mining. Correct use of the technology, combined with domain expertise, are key to enable data integration and deliver the five value solutions,” Pretorius says.
For more information visit: go.abb/processautomation