In 2016, Monsanto — the world’s largest supplier of seeds — wanted to find out if the use of computer science could improve something as simple as planting a seed. How they did it, and what similarities it has to the digitization of quarrying, you can read here:
For thousands of years, farmers have watched their crops after harvest.
The line of thought went something like this:
- This year we got 55 tons of hay
- That was 10% more than last year
- We planted late this year
- Then we’ll plant late next year too
Those who use this method try to look into the future with knowledge from the past, which is basically logical as long as the growing conditions are the same from year to year. But when it rains twice as much this year as it did last year, the estimate collapses.
Pioneers in agricultural computing
In Monsanto’s offensive efforts, it was important to increase expertise around the timing of sowing, and they spent the spring of 2016 extracting data from hundreds of thousands of data points. Many times a minute, they measured everything from soil temperature and soil moisture to weather forecasting. The sum of these measurements Monsanto used to make recommendations to different farmers in different regions.
After collecting data, Monsanto was able to make recommendations like this:
“Those of you who live in Iowa, Nebraska, should plant corn over the next three days to give the seeds a jumpstart with little to no rain.”
Result?
Already on the pilot project, they achieved 4% better land utilization in North America. If you add up how much grain is grown on the North American continent, it adds up to tens of millions of tons of grain.
Opportunities in digital facilities
Since the beginning of time, farmers have been thinking about what seeds to plant, how much, where and when in spring. It’s a real issue that farmers are grappling with.
Data only becomes valuable when it solves real-world problems. This also applies to the digitization of quarries:
Veidekke milled
Digitization of crushed stone plants
At Freste we did not see the need to build a control room, as production can be controlled via a tablet. For the most part, the plant controls itself, only notifying if something is not right.
In Veidekke Industri’s digital facility at Freste, there are sensors that allow the plant to control itself. If the feed box of a crusher or sieve is about to fill up, the conveyor belt that takes in mass slows down.
In addition, the sensors sound an alarm if something is wrong, and operations personnel can stop parts of the plant via tablets. This catches problems at an early stage and prevents breakdowns.
From real time to future
When you go from improving a problem on last year’s data, to improving the problem in real time, you’ve already made a quantum leap.
And once you get this far, the road ahead is really interesting; The next step is to fix problems before they occur.
The most unique aspect of a digitalisation of quarries is the long-term effect, as we can see trends that show recurring problems.
In the long run, we can set up calculations like this:
X+Y x 5 hours = increased chance of drum engine breakdown by 70%
Then we can set the alarm on the parameters X+Y. When both prameter X and parameter Y occur at the same time, you will get an alarm telling you: In 5 hours there is a high chance that your drum will stop and your boss will be fly pissed.
Read more:
How is an innovative organization actually built?
In addition to keeping your immediate manager happy, data can also give you insight into resource utilization, energy consumption and uptime of various components.
Data from sources other than quarries
In addition to retrieving data from sensors in the quarry itself, it is also possible to connect to external sources. A good example of this is free data from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, which gives us the opportunity to connect to current weather forecasts from 10 million data points.
The only thing we have to do is download a file from yr.no and apply it correctly. It’s actually that simple.
How could we realistically use data from yr.no in your quarry?
In all conditions where weather affects production.
A quick example:
The sum of weather forecasts, wind gauges and humidity meters can control your dust suppression system, where the effect gradually increases already two hours before it started to blow up.
Some advantages of digitization of quarries
- Free up time
- Less downtime
- Accurate maintenance
- Operational efficiency
New knowledge in the mining industry
To get more digital facilities, we need to start by looking at what data points already exist today. Many of today’s quarries have sensors that are not used to create utility.
The main reason for this is a lack of expertise. A very few operators have employed their own PLCs/automatics. Far more people should do this. Not so that you build all solutions yourself from scratch, but to understand, plan and make use of all the possibilities that exist.
You may not be aware of it, but it is quite possible that you have the ability to extract data from equipment that already exists in your facility.
As technology is a field that can provide a major competitive advantage, it is important to keep up with developments even if you do not have to take it all at once. The most important thing is to look at the plant you already have and start small.
To map out which components you already have in your plant, download and fill out this simple checklist:
