4 min read
In this article, part five of our 6-part Digital Transformation Series, we delve deeper into the question: Is digital transformation just about technology? We look at human factors, the importance of technology adoption and how a thin slice approach can help ensure digital transformations target the bottlenecks of your operations first.
Australia isn't Silicon Valley
Australia has one of the most competitive mining, oil and gas industries in the world, which will continue to boost its economy as it transforms. It didn’t get to be that way by taking unreasonable risks and there’s no reason leveraging new digital technologies should be considered unreasonable.
If done properly, significant operational improvements can and will drive profitability. Successful change is approached from an operational perspective and not a top-down corporate world view that ignores expertise and practicalities on the shop floor.
The Harvard Business Review recommends one of the key approaches that can help ensure a successful project is to recognise that ‘digital transformation is not about technology’.
Let’s face it, much of the hype around digital transformation is based on white-collar workers or developers building iPhone apps in Silicon Valley.
As Joe Pease, Principal Consultant at Mineralis, said in a MetPlant keynote, “fail fast” doesn’t cut it in this industry. “The poster child of Silicon Valley, lean start-up thinking, just doesn’t apply in the mining industry,” he said. “Even the digital transformation arguments that you will see in the information industry are hard to apply in the complex, variable industry of minerals processing where even the raw materials are constantly variable and the processes are extreme.”
“We all know the challenge was never “should we” innovate, but “how” should we innovate. Innovation In this industry doesn’t look the same as in other industries and “fail fast” is not an option.”
Human factors at the heart of success
In his analysis ‘Turning Mining Performance Around: Moving From Efficiency to Effectiveness’, Stratflow Australia’s Hendrik Lourens reminds us that a production system includes three critical, interacting elements: technology, process and people. “Most productivity improvement efforts have focused on these elements in isolation, and in particular on better technology (automation, big data) or improving on process models. Strengthening and adjusting the linkages from these elements to the people link, and the people element itself have not received much attention,” he says.
There is little doubt that human factors are a core success indicator that require separate consideration.
Engagement and consultation matter
On-site experience shortages frequently place stress on operators and maintainers that can be relieved through automation and real-time decision enablement. Technology solutions must be designed, deployed and evolved to promote acceptance and avoid resentment due to front-line workers feeling the pressure of becoming a human-machine.
Engagement and consultation to ensure technology is enabling and empowering rather than hindering or replacing human capability is key to success. “Magic happens in the blends of discipline,” said Peter van den Heuvel, Manager of Shell’s PI CoE, explaining how Shell has put technology into the hands of managers, engineers and operators. Cutting-edge technology and talent are not enough. Companies must break down organisational and cultural barriers that stand in the way, recommends the Harvard Business Review.
How eLearning can be an effective way to upskill your workforce for digital transformation
Did you know that eLearning courses use 90% less energy and make 85% less CO2 than in-person classes? eLearning is also said to improve employee performance by 15-25% and increase retention rates to up to 60% (compared to 8-10% for face-to-face training).
eLearning is also:
- Flexible and convenient
- More accessible to more people
- Customisable
- Cost effective
- Interactive and engaging
When paired with a simulator, eLearning has even been shown to accelerate commissioning, start up and ramp up times.
Technology adoption is key
Approaches to data and automated decision management that emphasise and support human decision-making, rather than detracting from it, will find better acceptance and yield more reliable results. A greater focus on technology adoption and a lesser focus on impact from technology will also provide greater long-term benefits.
Change needs to leverage the skills that are present and allow digital transformation to be undertaken in a way that is sensitive to the needs of workers. This means to leverage the skills of those familiar with the plant and processes and who can provide valuable anecdotal support for inferences drawn from advanced analytics.
Simple and proven digital solutions can be quickly deployed to enable real-time monitoring and analysis, but then human expertise can augment this to identify and decide on the biggest constraints impeding efficient operations.
By investing the time and resources to resolving the worst-performing parts of the operation and always targeting the bottleneck first, digital solutions can deliver fast returns on investment to support the ongoing transformation. This is what we call the ‘thin slice approach.’
The thin slice approach
The bottom line: technology should enable staff to continue undertaking meaningful work
As knowledge and understanding of the system increase, more sophisticated analytics and automated decision enablement techniques can be applied to better enable front-line workers. In doing so, operations can transition through a digital maturity journey and shift to a predictive environment leveraging what machines are good at (event detection, database queries, etc.) and empower front-line workers with what they are good at (complex reasoning, intuition, field inspections, etc.) – in other words, ensuring that your staff aren’t just monitoring the outputs of machines but continuing to undertake meaningful work.
For help on assessing your operation’s level of digital maturity, get in touch with our team of experts.
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