Faster, Smarter, Smaller:
Digital Technologies Push New Frontier For Metals Industry

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What does Digital Transformation mean to Mining and Metals companies?

At first glance, many parts of the metals, mining and manufacturing industry may not seem the most obvious candidates for digital technology-driven efficiency gains. For one, many of the manufacturing processes are generations old. Steelmakers have been using electric arc furnaces and Linz-Donawitz processes since shortly after World War II, while aluminium producers have been smelting the light metal using the Hall–Héroult process since its discovery late in the nineteenth century.

It is difficult to apply modern, industrial data-driven pricing methods to markets where one’s own prices are not in one’s own control, are commonly set on exchanges, and have themselves become speculative financial instruments for lightning fast algorithmic traders.

At a really high level, it’s about sensors becoming affordable to allow pervasive sensing,” Perry Zalevsky, senior director of industry at OSIsoft, said. “At the same time, networks and connectivity make it possible to relay data from sensors in real time to better monitor and optimise operations. Once the data is there, increased computer power is making more analytics available both at the edge and in the cloud.

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