PART 1 – Industry 4.0 Enabling Technologies

Foreword

Welcome to Part 1 of a four part series on Digital Transformation. For an overview on this series please read the Introduction containing the topics covered as well as acknowledgements of the individuals that made this possible.

The Industry Problem

Consider the Mine that is faced with mounting pressure to produce and maintain up-time without failing to meet its production obligations to clients and stakeholders. Efficiency and effectiveness must be achieved in order to survive and as such, the mine is forced to seek new solutions for better operational performance. The mine must find the margins and cut back on deficiencies and unreliable processes. In reality, most businesses operating on today’s stage are faced with similar situations: Profitability is directly tied to assets working optimally without failure or downtime, that is, being highly reliable. To ensure its viability and sustainability in this competitive environment, an organization must therefore embrace the shift of its processes into the new digital revolution known as Industry 4.0.

Enabling Technology

The following definition of Industry 4.0 was adapted from the best-selling author Bernard Marr (Bernard Marr, 2018):

The digitization of manufacturing has enabled industries to completely transform the way products are produced. The transition to new digital innovations is so profound that it is “being called Industry 4.0 to represent the fourth revolution that has occurred in manufacturing”:

-The first industrial revolution was mechanization through water and steam power

-The second was the mass production and assembly lines using electricity

-The third was the adoption of computers and automation

-The fourth adds smart and autonomous systems fueled by data and machine learning

The following sections set the stage for the arrival of industry 4.0 in the mining industry and subsequently dives into the required components to establish the so-called “Smart Factory”.

The Shift from Industry 3.0 to Industry 4.0 – Optimization of Mine Systems

When computers were introduced in the mining industry (Industry 3.0), it was disruptive thanks to the addition of an entirely new set of technologies, namely mine planning systems. These systems included three-dimensional modeling of the resource, ramp design, as well as planning and scheduling to meet production demands. Other examples of technologies were concentrator on-stream analysis, particle size monitoring as well as digitalizing standards such as LME future pricings.

Shoshana Zuboff, a noted Harvard social scientist and author of the celebrated classic “In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power (1988)”, documented the pitfalls and promises of computerized technology in business life (Zuboff, 1988). This work clearly identified the impact of Distributed Control Systems (DCS) based on studies conducted in the paper industry. Of note, it demonstrated that a control room operator was more aware of the state of operations than the plant foremen, and how it impacted the success of these early efforts. Simply put, the foremen’s written notes on cigarette packages were now obsolete and they were persuaded to learn from new control systems and associated technologies.

Fast forwarding to today as Industry 4.0 unfolds, devices such as transmitters, actuators, servos, controllers, self-driving haulage trucks and computers are interconnected and communicate with one another to ultimately facilitate decisions with little to no human contribution. These interconnected devices combined with the Industrial Internet of Things, that is, the ability for things to transfer data over a network, pave the way for industry 4.0 and the so-called “Smart Factory”.

The ensuing challenge for organizations is to devise the strategies and processes needed to collect, validate, store, analyze, utilize and ultimately monetize the data through the Financial Digital Twin (FDT). As these aspects become clearer, the ability of smart machines to transfer valuable and actionable data into the hands of decision makers will become more relevant.

Components of Industry 4.0

The following list contains examples of components found in the context of Industry 4.0 which are also commonly associated with our day to day life (Erboz, 2017).

• Mobile devices
• Self-driving vehicles
• Wireless Meshes
• Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platforms
• Cyber-physical systems
• Process simulation
• Location detection technologies
• Advanced human-machine interfaces
• Authentication and fraud detection
• 3D printing
• Smart sensors
• Big data analytics and advanced algorithms
• Multilevel customer interaction and customer profiling
• Augmented reality/ wearables
• Cloud computing
• Data visualization and triggered "real-time" training

The advent of cyber-physical systems that monitor and track physical processes allows the creation of a virtual copy of the physical world (simulation) also known as a digital twin. When set-up properly, such systems have the ability to make decentralized decisions (e.g. self-optimization) and operate with a high degree of autonomy. In the past this was termed “model reference control”.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)

As previously mentioned, the IIoT is the concept of connecting devices to the internet as well as to one another. As such, IIoT applications are quickly becoming limitless with 41.6 billion connections expected by 2025 (Carrie MacGillivray, 2019). Examples of devices range from cell phones and smart watches, Arduinos (open-source electronics) and sensors to employee smart badges where the latter can be used to monitor heart rates and oxygen content in the work location - critical in underground mines. This also applies to components of machines, for example the temperature of the cylinder head of a diesel engine on a haul truck or the vibration of a mill. As evidenced here, the IIoT is a huge network of connected things that also includes people.

IIoT applications are quickly becoming limitless with 41.6 billion connections expected by 2025

The result of the widespread use of broadband internet is the decreased cost of communications. This has led the introduction and integration of Wi-Fi capabilities to traditional mine devices. Offerings for wireless connectivity between a mines field devices and control systems already exist. It is now possible to consolidate all our individual mine control rooms into central facilities wherever geographically it is convenient enabling easier access to highly educated control room personnel. This trend will invariably become more important and common in the near future.

Other examples and advantages of the IIoT in the context of the mining industry are:

• The ability to provide automated smartphone SMS messaging for event notifications such as a breakdown of a shovel or primary crusher that can be sent to key staff in a ranked chain of command.
• The use of drones out in the field to measure ore stockpile volumes (Nichols & Lee, n.d.).

As well, not only can we monitor existing equipment, we can make use of equipment that is designed from the ground up to support more advanced operational processes. Self-driving trucks designed to navigate haul roads and to go to the crusher or stockpiles are revolutionizing mines.

Having access to these technologies is one thing, but properly utilizing them in a unified and streamlined organizational process is another. Ultimately, the aim is to collect information and data using these IIoT devices, process and analyze it and distill it into actionable data with which real and impactful decisions can be made by the appropriate individuals.

In Part 2 of this series, I will introduce three core components covering process control to business management: The Digital Twin of the Organization (DTO), the Digital Twin of the Process (DTP) and total information management. Integrated together, these three elements form the Financial Digital Twin (FDT) – representing the complete organization providing total operational performance management of the business, its equipment, and its personnel to support ongoing sustainability and profitability.

References

Bernard Marr. (2018, 09 02). What is Industry 4.0? Here's A Super Easy Explanation For Anyone. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/09/02/what-is-industry-4-0-heres-a-super-easy-explanation-for-anyone

Zuboff, S. (1988). The Future of Work and Power. Basic Books.

Erboz, G. (2017). How To Define Industry 4.0: Main Pillars Of Industry 4.0. Conference: 7th International Conference on Management (ICoM 2017), (p. 8). Nitra.

Carrie MacGillivray, D. R. (2019). Worldwide Global DataSphere IoT Device and Data Forecast, 2019–2023. IDC.

Nichols, J., & Lee, B. (n.d.). Drone Surveys. Retrieved 01 16, 2020, from Kespry: https://www.kespry.com/resources/ /