Tag Archives: Industry 4.0

ABB tackles ‘open automation’ with UWA, ETP, AMIRA Global and Gold Fields

Automation, Communications in mining, Equipment maintenance, IoT, Mine operation news, Mineral project development, Mining maintenance, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining software, Precious metals, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

ABB says it has linked with the University of Western Australia’s (UWA) new Energy & Resources Digital Interoperability Industry 4.0 (ERDi i4.0) TestLab, run by Enterprise Transformation Partners (ETP), to advance Industry 4.0 open process automation standards.

This includes collaboration on AMIRA Global’s P1208 Interoperability Enablement for Natural Resources project, which is designed to realise the future digital mine. It aims to develop and implement interoperability standards for mine planning, mine scheduling and execution so equipment and applications for mine operations become ‘plug and play’. Building on the University of Western Australia I4.0 ERDi Test Lab (pictured), this initiative will enable an off-site test laboratory to evaluate efficacy of interoperability of technology without disrupting ongoing mining activities, according to ABB.

Separate to the AMIRA project, ABB is also working closely with ETP on an integrated systems project at Gold Fields’ Granny Smith mine, 740 km northeast of Perth, Western Australia, one of the largest and highest producing gold operations in the country.

The project will enhance ABB Ability™ Operations Management System (OMS) Platform – Fleet Management Software Module to support the latest in reliable messaging and Industry 4.0 interoperability standards; ISA-95 (IEC 62264) via B2MML V7.0, ABB said. This advancement will enable the mine to connect and coordinate mine operators, workforce, equipment and all mining activities in real-time, from face preparation to crusher, according to the company.

“In 2019, we launched the Integrated Systems project to increase production throughput of the Granny Smith gold mine,” Michael Place, Technical Service Manager, Gold Fields Australia, said. “To achieve the objective of a fully-connected mine, we are working with ABB and ETP to build an integrated business process and system architecture that will enable visibility of operational activities in near real-time via automated information exchange between various mining systems.

“The system architecture has been designed to allow deployment across various operations, both open pit and underground. This deployment will be the major phase of the technology strategy for the Granny Smith mine and will be a pilot for integrated platforms across Gold Fields Australia, which aims to create one of the most innovative, digitally connected mines in the world. This project and agreement will be key to achieving this.”

ETP Managing Director, John Kirkman, said: “ABB’s investment, both in financial terms as well as time, together with their expertise, is critical for this project to support the re-engineering of products that are often required to deliver a reliable, performant and standards compliant software package.

“The performance requirements of a software package that exchanges and processes granular events with rich information in real-time, when compared to a software package designed for periodical manual entry, are like comparing chalk and cheese, and that’s where ABB plays a big role.”

Stuart Cowie, Head of Industrial Automation Process Industries, ABB Australia, added: “Industry 4.0 and digital transformation are huge opportunities for the Australian mining industry with automation, analytics, and artificial intelligence generating insights and accelerating greater productivity and efficiency.

“This underlines ABB’s commitment to ensuring Industry 4.0 concepts influence its product roadmaps into the future, and demonstrates the significant value that can be delivered to customers through interoperability and automation across both processes and systems. It will give ABB valuable insights into digital transformation and Industry 4.0 concepts for mining. Through our work with the ERDi TestLab, the OMS platform has become an even more powerful tool with reliable real-time access to operational data through ISA95 standardised messages.”

As part of POC 1, ABB will showcase ABB Ability Operations Management System and Fleet Management System software to AMIRA P1208 project sponsors, automatically exchanging information with scheduling and materials tracking software packages via i4.0 standard interfaces.

Australia has much to gain from resource sector technology advances, report says

Automation, IoT, Mining industry recognition, Mining policy, Mining services, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , ,

Harnessing new technologies in the mining, oil and gas industries will add A$74 billion ($50 billion) to the Australian economy by 2030 and create more than 80,000 new local jobs, according to a new report from METS Ignited and NERA.

Titled ‘Staying Ahead of the Game Report’, the report says data analytics, automation and robotics technologies continue to transform the resources sector and Australia needs to be at the forefront of technological progress or risk other countries taking the lead.

The report was designed to attempt to predict the nature and scale of how Australia’s resources industries, including both the producers and their supply chains, might change if they fully embraced the latest advances in operational technologies such as analytics, automation and robotics.

It further analysed what these changes mean for employment and workforce development (especially in the operations areas across regional Australia), and the wider economy.

To estimate the impact of these technological changes, the report analysed 30 types of technological innovation considered most relevant and carried out more than four dozen interviews with industry and technology experts to support the findings.

It also laid out a four-step roadmap that, it said, will lead Australia to success. The four steps were around strengthening collaboration, creating and supporting national cross-industry automation technology clusters, expanding the “entrepreneurial ecosystem” and boosting skills and research and development.

Australia’s Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, Karen Andrews, said Australia has one of the most competitive mining, oil and gas industries in the world which will continue to boost its economy as it transforms.

“A vibrant and competitive resources sector is vital to Australia’s economic future and the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies will be a key driver of industry transformation,” she said. “The use of analytics and robotics not only provides significant safety and environmental benefits, it is also rapidly increasing job opportunities.”

Andrews added: “This kind of technology opens up new, unexplored opportunities for the resources sector and what this report shows is the huge economic opportunity if new technology is embraced.”

The report was produced by METS Ignited and NERA, two industry growth centres established to drive innovation, productivity and competitiveness.

It comes shortly after a A$2 million Future Technology Project Fund was made available through NERA for projects that accelerate the commercialisation of science and technology, improve the uptake of innovative digital technologies, and encourage future investment, productivity and global trade, in the oil, gas and energy sector.

ERG adds ARC Advisory and SAP to digital transformation program

Automation, Base metals, Communications in mining, IoT, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , , , ,

Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) says it has signed letters of intent (LOI) with ARC Advisory Group and SAP for the continuation of its large-scale digital transformation program, grounded in the principles of Industry 4.0.

Jointly with Oner Mind, ARC Advisory Group is to perform an independent technological audit of ERG’s entities in Kazakhstan, which includes power generation, aluminium and ferroalloy assets, and develop an action plan for business process optimisation, ERG said.

Commenting on the signing, Galymzhan Akhmetov, ERG’s Chief Information Officer, said: “ERG’s entities differ by industry and size; that’s why we need a world-class independent audit to maximise the effectiveness of production process management.”

Uwe Grundmann, General Manager of ARC Advisory Group’s European operations, said ERG’s digital transformation would benefit from the business’s knowledge base and experience.

In further support of the group’s ambitious programme, ERG also announced a new area of cooperation with SAP, which will see the implementation of a new system focusing on repair and maintenance management and ensuring equipment reliability.

Serik Shakhazhanov, Chairman of the Management Board at Eurasian Group LLP, which operates ERG’s entities in Kazakhstan, said the partnership would enable the group to enhance its competitive edge and develop the best industry practices of asset management.

The milestone was also welcomed by Eugene Teremov, Managing Director of SAP Kazakhstan, who said the signatories have a shared commitment to innovation.