Essay On Innovation And Entrepreneurship

Industry 4.0 could be described as the vision that emerged from an initiative to make the German manufacturing more dynamic and competitive to a globally adopted term. According to Bessant and Tidd 2007, industry 4.0 refers to the intelligent networking of processes and machines for different industries with the assistance of communication and information technology. Thus Industry 4.0 could be characterized by the evolving automation that acts as a bridge for the physical as well as the digital world through cyber physical systems powered by Industrial IoT. Industry 4.0 could also be described as the transformation from a central industrial control system to smart products defining the overall production steps and processes and better customization of products based on the needs and preferences of the customers (Mullins and McLean 2019). As a whole, Industry 4.0 and its associated technologies could be considered as the policy, vision, and as well as concept in motion with reference to standardization, influence, and architecture (Drucker 2014). This report aims at describing the impact of industry 4.0 and its associated technologies on Anglo American (an FTSE 100 organization) belonging to the mining sector. The report also identifies two industry 4.0 technologies that have recently been executed in the mining industry and their impact on Anglo American.

 

Industry 4.0 technologies comprise of different technologies including IoT (internet of things), Artificial intelligence, cyber physical systems, industrial internet of things and others are considered as the best and most appropriate solutions for incorporating and integrating business processes in different industries including mining (STRICKLAND III, Thompson and Gamble 1940). Mining plays a significant role in the economic development of nations and the implementation of Smart Mine and Smart cut technologies have helped the mining industry in staying relevant with the dynamic changes and prepare the organization based on the overall systemization of technological solutions for the mining industry that directly corresponds to the prime guidelines for the technological platforms thereby developing new infrastructure, developing industrial production all at the same time. In the case of contemporary mining, it has become imperative to have real time flow of information between organizational levels and floor systems of the shops involves (Wang and Huang 2020). However, the existing gaps in both of them make it difficult for the makers and leaders to have correct and timely data for making the decision for the organization in an optimum manner. Thus, it required mining organizations like Anglo American to focus more on their cycle time, quality, production, chain status, and other imperative operational elements in order to attain effective as well as optimum business operations. Therefore, with the execution of Industry 4.0 technologies in the mining industry, it has become effective in seamlessly communicating and delivering optimum operations to the customers and clients associated.

 

Anglo American is a mining organization that focuses on transforming the nature of mining for a smarter, safe, and more sustainable future. The organization uses several precise technologies, less energy, and water to build a brighter and healthier future around all its business functions that are dependent on the products and services offered.  Thus, Anglo American is a leading global mining organization ranked in the FTSE 100 with an exceptional mining portfolio as well as processing operations with underdeveloped resources with over 106000 people working for the organization all across the globe in more than 15nations of the earth (Anglo American 2022). Other than this, Anglo American aims at making the mining future bright by integrating creativity, smart innovation, and integrity with the utmost consideration for the people, families, local communities, and customers associated. Anglo American also aims at connecting the resources in context to the people who required and value them in order to make the future of mining more sustainable. Anglo American is leading the mining industry by identifying new manners of mining and applying sustainable processes to the developed products. Thus, using less water, energy, and more precise extracting technologies, Anglo American aims at lowering its physical footprint for every ounce, kilo, and carat of precious metal or mineral used by the organization. Anglo American also believes in humanity and thus focuses on showing respect and care for all people and at fairly, ethically, transparently, and honestly withal its key stakeholders.

 

The fourth industrial revolution could also be considered as the ongoing transformation of conventional industries with smart and digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, process automation, and analytics that have changed the manner in which mining business operations operate and could be conducted. The revolution of industry 4.0 and its impact on elements, drivers along with technologies behind the revolution have been identified using different perceptive from different sectors including mining (Forouharfar, Rowshan, and Salarzehi 2019).

 

It has been observed that the technologies that make the Industry 4.0 possible help the organizations in leveraging their existing data and sufficient additional information sources, collecting information collected from linked assets to obtain processes that are effecting and effective on different levels. This information identified by Industry 4.0 technologies is also helpful in creating end to end information streams across the overall value chain and enable the kinking organization and other industry to realize new business models and services that could be offered to stray effective and relevant in the forthcoming years (Keupp, Palmié and Gassmann 2012). However, for the mining industry to understand and realize what industry 4.0 actually is, it is imperative to identify the entire value chain that incorporates the origins of the elements and materials used within the organization for performing various smart manufacturing irrespective of the number of intermediary actions and the associated end consumers.

 

The Industry 4.0 technologies enable organizations within different industries including mining to apply and implement more direct models of personalized production, servicing along with customer interaction thereby cutting the irrelevance, ineffectiveness, and cost of channels within the established digital supply chain models (Infosys 2022). Hence, these are a few goals and prime objectives of Industry 4.0 technologies within the customer centric sense of customers who are highly demanding, and who value speed, value added innovations, and services and are cost efficient as well.

 

Mining operations and processes are significantly labor intensive and need a huge investment to ensure the health and safety of the employees and prevent the organization from any kind of stockpiles (Deloitte Insights 2022). Mining organizations like Anglo American have understood the importance of implementing Industry 4.0 technologies and this has helped the organization in continuously exploring other new technologies thereby reducing the overall costs and enhancing the productivity margins along with worker safety. Anglo American focuses on attaining sustainable mining operations and makes thorough plans that are sufficient in keeping up to the stringent environmental as well as labor regulations.

 

Different organizations including mining have currently embraced a new generation of predictive and integrated technological solutions that enables the organizations in making people more comfortable and enable better tracking mechanism within the organizations as well. This has significantly impacted the mining industry (in a positive manner) to leverage the new wave of systems thereby harnessing the overall power of new technologies in a more integrated manner. One such technological application of Industry 4.0 is the use of drones within the mining industry. Anglo American also uses this smart technology associated with Industry 4.0 for its inventory management, mine surveying, stockpile estimation as well as hot spot detection. Anglo American uses drones specifically for mine surveying that enable the organization to obtain detailed information about the sites before initiating the mining projects and accordingly document its progress to make visualized changes in the site within the stipulated time. The drone technology inspired by industry 4.0 technology also enables Anglo American in accessing highly toxic and hard to reach business areas for providing better information for mine planning. In its coal mine projects, Anglo American uses drones to detect and select the specific hot spots in coal stockpiles to evaluate the potential combustion areas and enable employees to take required measures beforehand. Drones used by this mining organization (Anglo American) further assist in water shedding management, blast panning emergency response along with haul route surface optimization which is essential for eliminating structured operations for enhancing employee safety.

 

Mining could be the path to the carbon neutral future of the world. Hence, it is imperative for several mining operators including Anglo American to navigate the every present highly cyclical business marketing conditions along with capital intense operations in a progressive manner. Anglo American being the leading mining organization has understood that the mining industry is capable of deriving numerous advantages after the implementation of big data analytics into its business processes (Said et al. 2021). This is because Big Data analytics in the mining industry would act as a big blip on the radar of the overall industry that would enable many organizations in identifying and implementing the next wave of efficiency gains in different aspects. These aspects might also incorporate analysis, transformation, and processing, ore extraction, and manufacturing that would enable better and faster decision making at different levels of the organization. Anglo American operates in a highly dynamic and competitive business environment, thus, every effort made by the organization to enhance the overall margins would require this organization to use operational intelligence in a very appropriate manner (Micklethwaite 2018). Therefore, Anglo American has implemented this Industry 4.0 technology (Big data Analytics) to better drive asset utilization, boosting the overall productivity of the organization and addressing and accordingly responding to the material flow delays in a more better manner. Other than this, implementing big data analytics in its mining operations enables Anglo American and other mining organizations to ensure, sustainability, profitability, and safety of miners by capturing information from the different systems used in open cast mining or underground mining. This technology has also helped the organizational business in installing actionable insights for real time planning, workforce management, and productivity along with better and enhanced cost rationalization.

 

Analytical programs allow and aggregate a large volume of internal as well as external information and data to identify the current trends in the market thereby making accurate and appropriate anticipations to address and respond to the existing and potential business complexities. The analytics programs and mathematical automation system implemented by Anglo American allow the organization in identifying better business opportunities while shaping the strategies to accelerate predicted responses (West 2012). Hence, Anglo American has implemented several intelligent systems that identify and reveals more patterns including abnormalities in operating machinery and data, and behavior of employees that enables Anglo American and other mining organization to prevent major issues including equipment failure. Big data analytics also plays a major role in offering faster responses such as the evacuation of the existing miners during the process thereby optimizing fuel consumption through maintenance that is a collection based (Feng et al. 2020).

 

In the same manner, the scope of big data analytics in the case of the mining industry is significantly high, as this industry 4.0 technology enables the mining organization like Anglo American in catching hazards that would challenge and impact working functions adversely causing industries and frustrations of the employees. The ability to offer real time feedback and communication through big data analytics can also help the mining industry and associated organizations like Anglo American in staying equipped with the required infrastructure that could be difficult to install at later stages (Shahmoradi et al. 2020). As a whole, both the technologies (use of drones and big data analytics) in the mining sector will assist in the development of more predictive and systematic insights thereby designing an entirely integrated solution and acting as a foundation for the next generations in terms of predictive and safety systems within the mining sector.

 

In order to take proper advantage of these Industry 4.0 technologies, it is imperative for Anglo American to consider moving with the changes and embrace new technologies existing in the business environment. It is also recommended that Anglo American is capable of predicting and correlating its operational parameters in order to enhance the overall business efficiency and mitigate existing and potential risks accordingly. Anglo American must also use data in technical maps and tracking solutions in order to optimize the overall processes and benchmark the overall performance as a whole. thus, it is also imperative and recommended to Anglo American to make more investments in data analytics technology as would help the organization in identifying several operational databases and explore more opportunities thereby exploit them to maintain required profits for the organization.

 

Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that Industry 4.0 is responsible for describing the organization of production and manufacturing processes on the basis of technology as well as device autonomously communicating with each other and with the business model of the industry as well. Mining organizations like Anglo American have understood the importance of implementing Industry 4.0 technologies and this has helped the organization in continuously exploring other new technologies thereby reducing the overall costs and enhancing the productivity margins along with worker safety. As a whole, the industry 4.0 and its associated technologies will help the organizations in leveraging their existing data and sufficient additional information sources, collecting information collected from linked assets to obtain processes that are effecting and effective on different levels

 

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