Schneider Electric and 4Sight have embarked on an exciting project at a prominent South African mining group that sees the partners implementing a value chain optimisation (VCO) solution, which includes AVEVA’s Production Management & Unified Supply Chain offering.
Charl Marais.
The project, which is earmarked for completion by November 2023, will replace the mine’s multi-layered and highly complex Excel-based supply chain environment with two components:
• AVEVA Unified Supply Chain, which plans up to two years into the future, optimising activities such as processing, logistics, inventories and product requirements and provision.
• AVEVA Production Management, which monitors current activities to track conformance to the optimised plans.
“Combined, the two components will allow the mine to plan for future demand, while making provision for activities that have not been completed, or that have deviated from initial planning. The implemented solution therefore becomes a dynamic, repeatable and predictive system that allows the customer to accurately manage its supply chain based on past and future information,” comments Charl Marais, OT Digital Transformation BU manager at 4Sight.
“With the project, we’re providing the mine with a VCO solution that will allow it to manage demand and supply accurately, ensuring that the right material is in the right place without incurring unnecessary expenditure,” says Dr Suven Ramsunder, digital transformation expert at Schneider Electric.
“As a practical example, due to fluctuating fuel costs, it might be more cost effective to use trucks at certain times to transport materials to the various ports, as opposed to trains and vice versa,” adds Marais.
Suven Ramsunder.
Information automated
The current Excel environment is highly complex and managed by a few individuals – a risk factor if one or more individuals are not available. By implementing the VCO solution, the mine will benefit from an automated system that is less reliant on human interaction. Furthermore, the automated system mitigates human error such as finger trouble, which can cause havoc in a manual environment, thus delivering reliable information across the various systems on the mine’s sites.
This does not imply that people are not essential, as Schneider Electric and 4Sight recognise that people are the lifeblood of an organisation. The aim of this solution is to enable the relevant personnel to be more efficient and effective in their duties, without the added stress of a complex system. A fully automated system also delivers answers in minutes and can be run frequently, unlike the current system, which delivers forecasting slower and less frequently.
Schneider Electric’s products are vendor neutral, which means the VCO solution will integrate with the mine’s current systems, driving down costs in replacing existing equipment and overcoming interoperability challenges. Ultimately, Schneider Electric and 4Sight aim to provide the mining group with an optimised supply chain to deliver on time, reliable and actionable information, save on costs, and enhance operations.
Five data centre trends to watch in 2025
IT in Manufacturing
Any innovation that comes out in 2025 – whether it’s flying cars, highly advanced AI or a breakthrough medical treatment – will be built on the back of an equally innovative IT foundation driven by data. Data that needs to be stored, managed and made accessible in the data centre, in the cloud or at the edge. Is it too much of a stretch to say the future of humankind is dependent on data storage? We don’t think so.
Read more...Recovering from a cyberattack
IT in Manufacturing
While many organisations have invested heavily in frontline defence tools to try to keep out bad actors, they have spent far less time and money preparing for what happens when the criminals eventually get in. And they will get in.
Read more...The value of proactive maintenance management Schneider Electric South Africa
IT in Manufacturing
Maintenance has come a long way from the days when we waited for things to break, and thanks to the ever-increasing capabilities of technology, predictive maintenance has become a viable solution for keeping equipment running smoothly and efficiently around the world.
Read more...Pinpointing pipeline occurrences in seconds, not hours Schneider Electric South Africa
IT in Manufacturing
At any given moment, thousands of kilometres of critical assets flow through pipelines that cross veld, mountainous areas, dense forests, and even busy streets. Surprisingly, many of these pipelines operate either unmonitored or with scant oversight, leading to missed opportunities for operational continuity and efficiency.
Read more...Next-generation AI-enhanced electronic systems design software Siemens South Africa
IT in Manufacturing
Siemens Digital Industries Software has launched the latest advancement in its electronic systems design portfolio. The next-generation release takes an integrated and multidisciplinary approach, bringing a unified user experience that delivers cloud connectivity and AI capabilities to push the boundaries of innovation in electronic systems design.
Read more...Spatial computing and AI – where no man has sustainably gone before Schneider Electric South Africa
IT in Manufacturing
Some will argue that we now live in a sci-fi world where we dream of electric sheep, and today’s technology – unlike HAL – can provide us with the answers we seek. To the realist it might seem a bit implausible, but when you start using terms like ‘spatial computing realises sustainable AI’ it doesn’t seem that far-fetched.
Read more...Changeover switch between two power supplies Schneider Electric South Africa
Electrical Power & Protection
Schneider Electric South Africa has unveiled the Resi9 Changeover Switch product range which provides the perfect solution to switch manually between two power supplies or circuits.
Read more...Partial discharge monitoring solution for MV switchgear Schneider Electric South Africa
Electrical Power & Protection
Schneider Electric South Africa has unveiled its PowerLogic PD100 Partial Discharge Monitoring Solution, designed to be installed on MV switchgear to detect anomalies early, to prevent unplanned downtime.
Read more...Safeguarding DCS today and tomorrow Schneider Electric South Africa
IT in Manufacturing
Today’s distributed control systems (DCS) are highly intelligent, converging OT and IT in a centralised manner that allows for simplified management and coordination of operations. It is technology evolution at its finest, but with a caveat, cybersecurity challenges.
printer friendly version