Alex Fenn
Alex Fenn,Head of Technology and Innovation, has been with Sibanye Stillwater since it was unbundled from Gold Fields Limited in 2013. At Sibanye Resources' Gold and Platinum divisions, he oversee Safe Technology and Innovation-related projects.
How has your experience as the head of technology and innovation at Sibanye Stillwater helped the firm?
I have been with Sibanye Stillwater since it was unbundled from goldfields in 2013. I have held numerous roles in the company ranging from mobile machinery engineering in the gold division, to new technology, specifically anomaly, and recently, more on the innovation side. My portfolios in engineering, technology, and innovation domains led me to head up the innovation drive for surveillance stored at the moment.
Could you shed some light on some of the recent trends and developments in the engineering field related to mining?
Mining was predominantly managed in a safety context on lagging indicators such as certain areas that are consistently below standard, and certain people consistently behaving adversely, not necessarily to the principles, values, or standards. We are now able to understand these leading indicators.
We are trying to leverage digital technologies to collect and understand the data better through analytics. We are trying to enhance the value of that data by building datasets of new streams of information. Using proximity detection and collision avoidance system to prevent machine-to-machine collisions and machine-toperson incidents, which in turn improves overall productivity and efficiency of operations. The systems will design new solutions that will create an intervention at the source or engineer out a specific risk, but also provide data that would then help us understand whether there are any leading indicators in the absence of the need for the intervention if that makes sense.
I think that the second trend, which is incredibly relevant globally is electrification as an enabler of decarbonization. Deeper mining is a carbon-intensive industry with a lot of heavy machinery that needs high carbon intensity of grid electricity. This creates a high demand for electricity resulting in the excessive use of coal and the emission of carbon.
We have deep-level conventional mines in some cases, which do not need a lot of machinery. We also use diesel machinery, as an example, we're now looking at the electrical equivalent to reduce carbon emissions associated with the same. But, with the utility being a very large scope, there's the efficiency arbitrage, in that network that's still relevant for that. We are trying to optimize the carbon emissions, whether it be through the replacement of equipment, the optimization of processes, or the efficiency of specific machinery, we're looking at reducing our global emissions across the board in every region in which we operate.
Could you elaborate on some challenges that businesses are facing in the implementation of the latest technologies that help reduce their carbon footprint and adopt greener technological scenarios?
The industry in general has been very receptive to solutions offered by the market.
In a lot of cases, new technologies are not specifically designed for mining applications. These technologies are just trying to fit a solution for a problem that either doesn't exist, or the solution isn't wholly appropriate for that problem. One of the key things to do as an industry to mitigate against that is, to identify what your primary objectives are, what problems the business is experiencing, and what opportunities exist in the market to differentiate yourselves as an example, and then start developing solutions around those challenges, problems, and opportunities to leverage where the bulk of the challenge lands is, where the value is.
The first component is to say there's genuinely been a mismatch between what is available, versus what we understand to be the challenge internally. And as a result, that kind of erodes the value of that technology implementation. If there are a lot of technologies implemented then there is a lot of change fatigue, and people just get tired of technology. To solve that problem, opportunity, and innovation are something that we're heavily focused on at the moment.
The second constraint is the implementation versus adoption discussion. Implementation is to take something and apply it to a process to make it work. Adoption is a lot more complex in the sense that free implementation, as opposed to just overlaying a process with technology, and yielding a small benefit. Efficiency is reworking that process, so that the technology, the process, and the people responsible for that, work in harmony to completely optimize that and improve the effectiveness of that process dramatically. Reworking everything as opposed to just applying the technology and then ensuring that post the implementation, you take as many people along the path of capability, building skills, development, etc, as are required to make sure that that implementation is sustainable. And then you completely remove what existed before so people can't fall back on an old and inefficient process. I think underpinning the entire process of adoption is inclusive innovation.
To understand the process in terms of your employee base, you understand exactly what everyone's perspectives are on that process. As a first step, solicit input from those people to understand how you could optimize it, re-engineer the process, apply the appropriate technology, and then ensure that everyone associated with that process is educated as well.
What piece of advice would you give to fellow innovators in the field on how they can keep an eye out for the best technology to use in their fields?
For a market-oriented business that pursues, numerous clients, the customer base is quite large. To meet their demand, they try to tailor the product. Then work backward from there and understand how they can optimize their product to satisfy that demand. For a company like ours, our customer is essential to the employee, because we have got a small customer base at the moment. To optimize our business, through innovation is to focus on the people that contribute to the bottom line, which is the entire employee base, I think it's engaging with your customer, whether it be an external one or an employee to understand exactly what you can do to do better.
"We are trying to leverage digital technologies to collect and understand the data better through analytics. We are trying to enhance the value of that data by building datasets of new streams of information "
For example, we introduced a new value, which is a big step for us, which is the value of innovation as a company value. And that as a descriptor to that just says we intentionally find new ways to do things better. The source of that information in our mind will come from the people that are most familiar with the processes, products, structures, systems, etc, that they deal with daily, looking to the right sources of information to try and identify the right problems to solve.
Innovative companies face challenges in solving problems but are very good at identifying the right problems and then solving those problems. Because if they just solve problems for the sake of solving problems, they might not deliver an effective innovation portfolio.
I think the other tip would probably be, to recognize and appreciate what you don't know. So that you can then partner with people that do, and leverage those ecosystems to maximize the collective intelligence of your organization, whether it be internally or through an ecosystem of partnerships, because generally, if you don't have the answer, internally, it's not that hard to find someone externally.
We pride ourselves in prioritizing diversity of thought in terms of what we love to solve for, inclusively, whether that be at an employee level or in an ecosystem, creating networks with customers, suppliers, and various stakeholders. We leverage those networks effectively to generate as much intellectual capacity and property as possible.
