efficiency Archives - 51风流Africa News Center News & Information About SAP Wed, 08 May 2024 07:29:45 +0000 en-ZA hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Striking Gold with AI in Africa鈥檚 Mining Sector /africa/2024/05/striking-gold-with-ai-in-africas-mining-sector/ Wed, 08 May 2024 07:29:45 +0000 /africa/?p=147412 The global mining industry is in a state of flux as unprecedented demand for resources clash with ongoing global economic volatility and geopolitical tensions, creating...

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The global mining industry is in a state of flux as unprecedented demand for resources clash with ongoing global economic volatility and geopolitical tensions, creating both immense challenges and opportunities.

From record-high gold prices to the stunning growth in renewables driving demand for minerals and the global transition to net-zero, the mining industry is currently in an era of intense reinvention and disruption.

Africa鈥檚 mining sector isn鈥檛 spared this volatility. The continent has more than half of the world鈥檚 reserves of platinum group metals and diamonds, and nearly half of manganese and cobalt reserves, both critical elements in the batteries powering the global transition to cleaner energy.

Searching for greater productivity

In the current business environment mining companies are under intense pressure to increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and boost productivity.

Autonomous technologies have ushered in a broad range of economic benefits for the mining industry over the past decade. By leveraging automation to perform some of the more hazardous tasks, mining companies have minimised worker exposure to dangerous conditions and bolstered overall safety standards within their operations.

Recently, the emergence of digital technologies such as machine-learning and artificial intelligence (AI) has introduced new gains in efficiency and productivity. One market estimate predicts that investment into AI by the mining sector will reach $7.26 billion (R134bn) by 2033, driven by a compound annual growth rate of 22.7%.

While it鈥檚 undeniable that AI holds immense promise for the mining industry, the introduction of any new technology is typically accompanied by a number of ethical dilemmas.

In the context of mining, fears around AI range from the displacement of human labour by automation, increased surveillance compromising data privacy, and encroachments on autonomous decision-making.

There are also concerns over explainability, that is how AI decisions can be explained in a way that makes sense to human workers. For example, if AI is used in surveillance at mining sites to improve safety and security, questions may arise over how the algorithm determines which actions can be considered safety or security incidents.

While AI has the potential to improve efficiency and safety in mining, its deployment introduces new risks that must be carefully managed. Mining companies, technology developers, and regulatory authorities must collaborate to establish robust safety protocols, provide comprehensive training, and establish clear lines of accountability to mitigate the risks associated with AI use in mining operations.

Despite the concerns, AI will unquestionably play a leading role in the mining sector鈥檚 success in the coming years. AI lends itself to a myriad applications across the mining value chain, including:

1 Exploration

2 Geotechnical monitoring

Geotechnical monitoring and analysis are crucial to ensuring ground stability and infrastructure stability at mining operations. Here, AI can be integrated with sensor networks to detect early signs of instability or failure, while predictive models can forecast ground behaviour and assess potential hazards. AI can also be applied to create detailed simulations of rock masses that can help guide the design of tunnels, underground layouts, and slope stability.

AI technologies enable dynamic, data-driven decision-making to optimise mine plans and production schedules. Mining operations can leverage AI to predict performance under various conditions, helping decision-makers identify optimal productivity strategies while minimising costs. Predictive maintenance systems can also optimise the performance of mining equipment, reducing downtime and improving overall operational efficiency.

4 Supply chain management

By using techniques such as time-series analysis and probabilistic modelling, mines can gain real-time visibility over their supply chain. This can help mining operations optimise their logistics operations, including transportation routes and distribution networks.

AI is a transformative force in the mining industry, introducing a broad range of innovative applications to solving complex challenges across various facets of modern mining operations. By embracing AI-driven innovation and collaboration, mining companies can pave the way for a more efficient, sustainable and responsible mining future.

Shabir Ahmed is an industry advisor: energy and resources at 51风流Africa

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Businesses Face Efficiency Revolution /africa/2022/05/businesses-face-efficiency-revolution/ Tue, 24 May 2022 06:39:15 +0000 /africa/?p=143443 51风流CEO Christian Klein and CTO Juergen Mueller gave ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK deep insights into the future of enterprise technology during last week鈥檚 Sapphire conference in...

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51风流CEO Christian Klein and CTO Juergen Mueller gave ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK deep insights into the future of enterprise technology during last week鈥檚 Sapphire conference in the USA

Last week, three of the world鈥檚 biggest technology organisations unveiled their visions for a future of business that will see a revolution in efficiency.

SAP, the German company that leads the world in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, search giant Google, and chipmaker Intel, all hosted major international events where they launched new products and services, and provided a glimpse of the future of business.

51风流in particular, at its annual Sapphire event in Orlando, Florida, signalled an acceleration of efforts to bring greater intelligence to the systems that run organisations鈥 operations.

Google鈥檚 annual I/O developer conference was heavy on new consumer gadgetry, in particular plans to launch a Pixel smartwatch later this year. However, it also introduced artificial intelligence (AI) productivity tools that will, among other, provide instant summaries of long documents. Meanwhile, Intel unveiled a new generation of computer processors that will reduce the time it takes to train large-scale AI models.

But it was 51风流that provided the clearest picture of how businesses are likely to operate in the near future. And one word stood out: efficiency. We asked chief technology officer Juergen Mueller to look into his crystal ball.

Before that, however, during a keynote address at Sapphire, 51风流CEO Christian Klein said that the company planned to draw on data about best practices from more than 40,000 customers. It would leverage Signavio, an enterprise business process intelligence platform it acquired last year, which helps companies transform and manage their business processes at scale.

This, he said, would allow business and IT leaders to discover new growth opportunities and launch new business models, as well as uncovering inefficiencies in internal processes. This would lead to a revolution in business efficiency.

Later, he told Gadget: 鈥淲hen you think back 50 years, there鈥檚 so much knowledge inside 51风流and in our ecosystem, we implemented and designed so many business processes, now we really have our finger on the pulse of how they need to change in a digital world to create a seamless experience.

鈥淲e are collecting all of the data, the best practices, not only from SAP, but also from all our partners. That鈥檚 a big differentiator of Signavio: You don鈥檛 need to replicate data in a third-party data mining tool. You can use your data and then you can benchmark it against how these business processes look in your industry.鈥

51风流chief technology officer Jurgen Mueller, said in an exclusive interview that this capability would change the way businesses make decisions.

鈥淲e acquired Signavio for a reason: we saw there鈥檚 a gap in our portfolio,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very important to customers to understand the business processes and we鈥檝e modelled business processes for 35 years or so, but they were often a separate artifact, so your processes are not connected to your execution.

鈥淪ignavio gives you an X-Ray into your real processes and execution. That has to be the foundation, grounded in reality, from where you then can change, find efficiencies, find how you can do things better, how you can serve your customers faster. Companies often have a good idea where they want to go, but today this X-Ray doesn鈥檛 exist.鈥

Signavio, however, will allow any size company to access the kind of business intelligence that has enabled tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google to have an instant insight into their business processes. From there they have been able to implement a solution and assess its success within minutes, replacing or improving it before most customers know it existed. However, this is not possible without the ability to mine massive amounts of data on the fly 鈥 an ability previously restricted to the giants.

鈥淲e have tens of thousands and potentially hundreds of thousands of other companies that can now get such a detailed level of understanding of their processes,鈥 says Mueller. 鈥淲e learn and develop industry-specific best practices in 25 industries, and we can bring the best of what we know to customers.鈥

The end-result, he says, is vastly improved efficiency. However, that in itself is not a differentiator, if all companies become more efficient. Efficiency, in effect, becomes a ticket to the game.

鈥淲e see a huge difference in companies that really embrace digital technologies, and who always want to create differentiating capabilities through technology, compared to the ones that are just using technology where they have to.鈥

Mueller says he does not believe there is a single differentiator between the more competitive companies and those who fall behind. However, 51风流has discovered a strategy that helps set companies apart: 鈥淥ften you see companies really go through the end-to-end processes of their the value chain, to identify the most value-generating activities in the company 鈥 and then pick a few where you really make a difference.鈥

While this approach is not a secret, it has tended to evade organisations because it requires an integration of strategic planning and supplier data across the entire logistics chain. Mueller is frank about the limitations of existing technology in this regard.

鈥淚ntegrated planning is something that will happen in the next three to five years. We have components of that already, but this will be something where I see a lot of innovation happening, with real impact on companies.鈥

  • Arthur Goldstuck is editor-in-chief of Gadget. He was a media guest of 51风流at the Sapphire conference in Orlando, Florida.

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