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A Digitalization Model Structure for Sustainable and Enhanced Profitability in Industry 4.0
The strategic sectors of decarbonisation, digitalisation, aerospace and defence heavily depend on a secure supply of critical raw materials worldwide. However, several well-known critical raw materials mining projects had to close due to unforeseen costs that resulted in economic instability stemming from a misinterpretation of the features of the orebody and other boundary conditions. In addition to uncertainties with mineral prices, such misinterpretations are related to ground conditions, metallurgical recoveries, and geological consistency. Circumstances occur with unexpected discontinuities, differentiated geotechnical and rock mechanic properties of orebodies, overly optimistic recoveries, and payable products during the operation. Using digital technologies in mining operations has demonstrated advantages in reduced labour and wear component costs and higher production. Nevertheless, the application of artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, predictive analytics, real-time data, and other relevant digital technologies in mine planning and optimisation still needs to be explored. An in-depth study is required to reveal the potential of digital technology applications in mining planning and research domains.
This study aims to present the current application of digital technologies in mine planning and operation and the extent to which such technologies can potentially handle the evaluation and prediction of techno-economic uncertainties during the project evaluation and implementation. Moreover, the study seeks to integrate the findings and define frameworks of a digital tool for the continuous economic analysis of critical raw material projects from the resource evaluation stage through project completion. Text-mining algorithms supported by Python programming are utilised to study insight reports from leading software companies and consulting organisations and relevant published papers in international peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. More funding and the interest of academics and software developers would be drawn in if the potential applications of digital technology in raw material sectors are made more apparent. /::::/ Please visit the link (https://www.ausimm.com/globalassets/conferences-and-events/society-of-mining-professors/somp2024_proc-ebook.pdf) to read the full text. Thank you.
Coal dominates Indian energy because it’s available domestically and cheap (especially without a carbon tax). If the global focus is on the energy transition, how does India ensure a just transition? Managing winners and losers will be the single largest challenge for India’s energy policy.
Coal is entrenched in a complex ecosystem. In some states, it’s amongst the largest contributors to state budgets. The Indian Railways, India’s largest civilian employer, is afloat because it overcharges coal to offset under-recovery from passengers. Coal India Limited, the public sector miner that produces 85% of domestic coal, is the world’s largest coal miner. But despite enormous reserves, India imports about a quarter of consumption.
On the flip side, coal faces inevitable pressure from renewable energy, which is the cheapest option for new builds. However, there is significant coal-based power capacity already in place, some of which is underutilized, or even stranded.
Low per-capita energy consumption means India must still grow its energy supply. Before India can phase out coal, it must first achieve a plateau of coal. How this happens cost-effectively and with least resistance isn’t just a technical or economic question, it depends on the political economy of coal and its alternatives. Some stakeholders want to kill coal. A wiser option may be to first clean it up, instead of wishing it away.
Across 18 chapters, drawing from leading experts in the field, we examine all aspects of coal’s future in India. We find no easy answers, but attempt to combine the big picture with details, bringing them together to offer a range of policy options.
Digitalisation in mining refers to the use of computerised or digital devices or systems and digitised data that are to reduce costs, improve business productivity, and transform mining practices. However, it remains increasingly difficult for mining companies to decide which digital technologies are most relevant to their needs and individual mines. This paper provides an overview of digital technologies currently relevant to mining companies as presented and discussed by mining journals, the media and insight reports of leading consultancy agencies. Relevant technologies were systematically identified using text-mining techniques, and network analyses established the relations between significant technologies. Results demonstrated that currently 107 different digital technologies are pursued in the mining sector. Also, an analysis of the actual implementation of digital technologies in 158 active surface and underground mines reveals a limited uptake of digital technologies in general and that the uptake increases with the run-of-mine production. Large-scale mining operations appear to select and apply digital technologies suitable to their needs, whereas operations with lower production rates do not implement the currently available digital technologies to the same extent. These minor producers may require other digital transformation solutions tailored to their capabilities and needs and applicable to their scale of operations.
Industry 4.0 offers new possibilities to combine increased productivity with stimulating workplaces in a good work environment. Used correctly, digitalization can create attractive jobs in safe control room environments, which provide space for the employee’s full expertise and creativity. This is true also for the mining industry. But, to succeed, it is important to analyze the development from a worker’s perspective. What will happen to their work? What skills will be needed in the mine of tomorrow? We must also consider the risks, such as privacy issues, increased stress, and work-life boundaries. These questions must be understood if we are to create workplaces that can attract a young and diverse workforce to tomorrow’s mining industry. In this article, we try to illustrate what the new technology can mean for the individual miners. We formulate the notion of Mining 4.0 (Industry 4.0 in the mining industry), where we try to create an image of how the future might look from a miner’s perspective and how mining companies may navigate their way to a future that works for all miners. To illustrate the range of possible outcomes, we formulate two scenarios: one utopian and one dystopic. At the end of our article, we bring forward six recommendations that can be considered a beginning of a road map for the human side of Mining 4.0.
The implementation of Industry 4.0 has a far-reaching impact on industrial value creation. Studies on its opportunities and challenges for companies are still scarce. However, the high practical and theoretical relevance of digital and connected manufacturing technologies implies that it is essential to understand the underlying dynamics of their implementation. Thus, this study examines the relevance of Industry 4.0-related opportunities and challenges as drivers for Industry 4.0 implementation in the context of sustainability, taking a differentiated perspective on varying company sizes, industry sectors, and the company’s role as an Industry 4.0 provider or user. A research model comprising relevant Industry 4.0-related opportunities and challenges as antecedents for its implementation is hypothesized. In order to test the model, partial least square structural equation modeling is applied for a sample of 746 German manufacturing companies from five industry sectors. The results show that strategic, operational, as well as environmental and social opportunities are positive drivers of Industry 4.0 implementation, whereas challenges with regard to competitiveness and future viability as well as organizational and production fit impede its progress. Moreover, it is shown that the perception of Industry 4.0-related opportunities and challenges as antecedents to Industry 4.0 implementation depends on different company characteristics.
The solution of the problem of improving the human environment and working conditions at mines is based on the provision of the rationale of parameters and conditions for the implementation of an environmentally balanced cycle of comprehensive development of mineral deposits on the basis of the design of mining engineering systems characterized by the minimization of the human factor effect in danger zones of mining operations. In this area, robotized technologies are being developed, machinery and mechanisms with the elements of artificial intelligence, and mining and transport system automatic controls are being put into service throughout the world. In the upcoming decades, mining machines and mechanisms will be virtually industrial robots. The article presents the results of zoning of open-pit and underground mine production areas, as well as mining engineering system of combined development depending on the fact and periodicity of human presence in zones of mining processes. As a surface geotechnology case study, the software structure based on a modular concept is described. The performance philosophy of mining and transport equipment with the elements of artificial intelligence is shown when it is put into service in an open pit.
Both modeling and simulating a system of systems (SoS) are difficult due not only to a changing environment but also the unique behavior that is linked to different participating systems. Generating architectures for a SoS is a multi-objective optimization problem with large number of variables and constraints. The paper presents several of computational intelligence techniques that can generate SoS architectures, such as genetic algorithms (GA), and particle swarm optimization (PSO) combined with Type 2 Fuzzy logic nets. The Maritime search and rescue (SAR) was used as a SoS domain scenario to both implement and demonstrate the architecting methodology. SAR utilizes a variety of systems, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), coordination command control, communication systems and other larger manned vessels. The proposed methodology delivers SoS architects of SAR missions the ability to exploit the interdependence among all systems as well as individual system's inherent characteristics to satisfy stakeholders’ desired attributes. The architect is thus able to design architectures that are robust, efficient, net-centric, and affordable.
The dynamic planning for a system-of-systems is a challenging endeavor. Department of Defense (DoD) programs constantly face challenges to incorporate new systems and upgrade existing systems over a period of time under threats, constrained budget, and uncertainty. It is therefore necessary for the DoD to be able to look at the future scenarios and critically assess the impact of technology and stakeholder changes. The DoD currently is looking for options that signify affordable acquisition selections and lessen the cycle time for early acquisition and new technology addition. This paper gives an overview of a novel methodology known as the Flexible Intelligent & Learning Architectures in System-of-Systems (FILA-SoS). This approach allows for analyzing sequential decisions in evolving SoS architectures. An ISR SoS example illustrates an application of the method.
Negotiation and collaboration issues in large organizations, with centralized control, across the globe, are becoming more complex with each passing day. The Acknowledged System of Systems (SoS) is a new approach that addresses some of these issues in a systematic, efficient manner. This paper proposes a hierarchical architectural framework to support Acknowledged SoS architecting and analysis for a Department of Defense (DoD) Acquisition process. A major challenge of the successful planning and evolution of an Acknowledged SoS is the lack of understanding of the impact of presence or absence of a system and its interface with another constituent system on the overall architecture. The agent based model (ABM) structure developed here provides Acknowledged SoS manager that has both ability to address the managerial issues as well as a decision making tool for SoS architecting. This paper offers a complete integration of the techniques used to represent SoS architectures. The work illustrates the modeling approach through a domain setting.
Indian coal power capacity has doubled in the last ten years, and its coal pipeline is the second largest on the globe. This paper analyzes the political economy determinants of India's reliance on coal in the power sector. We base our analysis on a novel theoretical framework to assess how actors having different objectives shape coal investment decisions in India. Our results are based on the analysis of 28 semi-structured expert interviews conducted in Delhi. We find that India's substantial expansion of coal power can be explained by the following factors. First, the power sector was liberalized to ensure sufficient supply. This resulted in large industry conglomerates investing in coal and securing long-term profits as renewable energy support was ineffective. Second, the planned public investments in new coal capacity are motivated by securing the long term availability of electricity. Third, the reliance on coal in Eastern India for jobs, and the presence of local vested interests, are major barriers to a transformation away from coal. Fourth, pollution regulations that would limit coal use are ineffective because of the strong political influence of coal-proponents.
The paper provides a comprehensive framework to assess, i.e. serves as the diagnostic tool to assess the current capabilities of an organization. First, to provide a prescriptive purpose in order to identify future desirable levels and provide holistic improvement guidelines for the organization in terms of maturity and readiness of a manufacturing organization. Second, to discuss the current status and policies of India towards Industry 4.0. To successfully transform Indian Manufacturing industry towards Industry 4.0, it is necessary to clearly define strategies, standard technological policies taking all stakeholders into account to build strong technological standard roadmap with a strong economic and social system that can quickly respond to any unexpected changes in the sector.
Industry 4.0 promises the fourth industrial revolution by integration of cyber and physical worlds through technology. Industry 4.0 implementation will result in human interaction with technical system in a specialised manner. Therefore, Industry 4.0 will also be a socio (human related) and technical (nonhuman related) system in pursuit of a common goal. The purpose of this study is to suggest a mechanism to include Socio-Technical Systems Theory perspective while designing architecture for integration while implementing Industry 4.0. Building on the previous literatures on Socio-Technical Systems Theory and Industry 4.0, the article proposes bringing the two approaches together and presents a framework for integration mechanism. Successful implementation of Industry 4.0 warrants vertical, horizontal and end-to-end integration. This study suggests a design mechanism for three types of integration mechanism in Industry 4.0 by considering the socio-technical systems impact on people, infrastructure, technology, processes, culture and goals. Further, the integration is also suggested for analysis on the impact of stakeholders, economic situation and regulatory frameworks around which the operating organizations are operating. This is the first paper to propose the consideration of Socio-Technical Systems theory while designing the horizontal, vertical and end-to-end integration for sustainable implementation of Industry 4.0.
The mining industry faces a number of challenges that promote the adoption of new technologies. Big data, which is driven by the accelerating progress of information and communication technology, is one of the promising technologies that can reshape the entire mining landscape. Despite numerous attempts to apply big data in the mining industry, fundamental problems of big data, especially big data management (BDM), in the mining industry persist. This paper aims to fill the gap by presenting the basics of BDM. This work provides a brief introduction to big data and BDM, and it discusses the challenges encountered by the mining industry to indicate the necessity of implementing big data. It also summarizes data sources in the mining industry and presents the potential benefits of big data to the mining industry. This work also envisions a future in which a global database project is established and big data is used together with other technologies (i.e., automation), supported by government policies and following international standards. This paper also outlines the precautions for the utilization of BDM in the mining industry.
The phrase system of systems has been in use for well over 10 years. As customers of the aerospace and defense industries began asking for broad capabilities rather than for single systems to meet specific requirements, the notion of a system composed of multiple independently operating systems has become more important as the way to meet the desired set of capabilities. This brings new challenges to system or systems-of-systems engineers and their ability to design and analyze alternatives for systems of systems. Because individual systems can operate independently within a system of systems, many engineering methods and tools used to design and analyze large-scale, but monolithic, systems do not appear to work for systems of systems. This paper presents a three-axis taxonomy that can guide design method development and analysis of alternatives for aeronautical systems of systems. Based on this perspective, two experiments in applying the methods are presented for system-of-systems problems that involve aircraft and/or air transportation.
Early Identification of SE-Related Program Risks: Opportunities for DoD Systems Engineering (SE) Transformation via SE Effectiveness Measures (EMs) and Evidence-Based Reviews
- Barry Boehm
- Dan Ingold
- Winsor Brown
- Joann Lane
- George Friedman
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An implementers' view of systems engineering for systems of systems
- Judith Dahmann
- George Rebovich
- Joann Lane
- Ralph Lowry
- Kristen Baldwin
Coal India to see investment of Rs 2 lakh crore in five years: Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi
- Sarita C Singh