Digital deployment creates USD 100 billion in value
Sandvik and IBM are collaborating to develop new data-driven productivity and predictive maintenance offerings for the mining and rock excavation industry.
The growth in onboard instrumentation and data gathering capabilities in heavy equipment are presenting natural resource industries with opportunities to employ advanced analytics and models to identify and resolve productivity issues and improve process optimization and performance.
Deployment of digital technologies is expected to create as much as USD 100 billion value to resource-producing companies by 2035, according to a report from analyst firm McKinsey.
Added value to customers
Sandvik's business area Mining and Rock Technology has teamed up with IBM to jointly develop new offerings in data-driven productivity and predictive maintenance services for the mining industry.
The first wave of work has been done on loaders and trucks, connecting up to 15 units and integrating live data from multiple on- and off-board systems to run the analytic algorithms.
It is a natural step for us to collaborate with a company like IBM.
"Sandvik has been working with mining customers on mine automation and remote monitoring of machines for more than 20 years, says Lars Engström, President, Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology. "Our OptiMine® and AutoMine® solutions are also important systems for data collection and consolidation that provide us with a great platform to get off to a flying start with IBM analytics solutions. So it is a natural step for us to collaborate with a company like IBM – experts in advanced analytics cognitive computing and modeling – to create even more value to our customers."
"This collaboration fits well with our service portfolio, which is based on traditional life-cycle, enhanced technical, and business services, all of which are aligned to improve safety, secure competences for mine operations and increase our customers' productivity."
An offer that boosts effectiveness
The combination of information services, remote data collection and data analysis will enable increased effectiveness by improving productivity, saving cost and reducing time wastage. It helps mining and rock excavation companies make well-informed decisions regarding production plans and maintenance schedules, and provides the opportunity to monitor and improve upon the general utilization levels of their equipment.
This will lead to higher yield at lower cost of ore per ton. Sandvik have already seen cost per ton decreases of 20-50 percent with some of the latest digital technologies, and aim to push that even further with this new analytical capability.
"We look forward to taking our expertise in Internet of Things, advanced analytics and asset management and combining that with Sandvik's years of experience in developing mining processes and machine technology to build a collaboration around innovation and delivery of smarter digital services offerings for natural resource companies around the globe," says Anders Fredholm at IBM Europe.