Phase 1: Understand the digital opportunities

The first phase of our digital implementation approach involves reaching an understanding of the potential benefits of a technology application. Start by understanding which technologies are already in place along with their roles and effectiveness. Then, review the technologies that your competitors, stakeholders, and leading suppliers are using. Finally, conduct an external scan of digital technologies in other markets and industries, and consider their potential application in the mining environment.

In addition, map the data sources, data stores, methods, and systems against major revenue and cost levers to gain a deeper understanding of the potential value of any new application. Following are a few examples of high-value opportunities to apply technologies:

Recovery. Determine how analytics and machine learning can be used to improve the organization’s understanding of process conditions.
Throughput. Assess how big data analytics can help identify potential bottlenecks (for example, by optimizing routing and scheduling).
Reliability. Identify methods to use predictive maintenance, asset health visualization, and condition monitoring to more rapidly identify and correct issues.
Operating costs. Evaluate ways to automate labor and streamline processes. For example, one utility company we worked with was spending more than a third of its operating expenses on water leaks. Integrating data from five systems into one database significantly improved the company’s ability to predict leaks, while also reducing the time it took to search for leaks. The result was a 25 percent reduction in direct search-related costs.

Phase 1 creates a digital vision and ambition for the organization—a no-holds-barred picture of the ideal approach. While only realistic components of the vision will initially be adopted, a future-looking view encourages ongoing innovation. Prioritizing opportunities allows the organization to balance a solution’s value with its ease of implementation, considering the time horizon and feasibility along with the company’s digital maturity.

Phase 2: Launch digital solutions in trial areas

Once the immediate priorities and the digital vision are established, the implementation process then focuses on defining the organizational requirements and technologies for the pilot areas. During this phase, the company confirms the chosen path and creates short- and long-term transformation road maps for the digital initiatives.

Using our digital implementation methodology, the world’s largest gold mining company was able to pinpoint the digital opportunities with the most potential by rigorously testing the solutions against the mine’s internal measures as well as Kearney benchmarks. The company assessed the potential solutions in isolation and within the end-to-end processes. Each process in the value chain was identified at its initial level and its target level, from low digitalization all the way to full digital potential. Through piloting attractive solutions, management could demonstrate value and build support for change.

The gold mine’s pilot process also kick-started a cultural journey, paving the way for future initiatives by encouraging employees who were not digital natives—people born during the digital age who use technology seamlessly—to become digital immigrants—born before the widespread use of technology but able to adapt and use new technology. In most digital transformations, this kind of cultural shift requires a willingness to anticipate and foster change in every function, sometimes even before it happens. Facilitating cultural change, launching into a digital future, and capturing the most value hinges on taking the time to understand how changes will impact resources, systems, and people and then using that understanding to inform the scope and pace of change.

Armed with growing cultural support along with insights from the pilot areas, the global gold miner developed a site-specific road map for its digital transformation and ranked the opportunities across functions and across three time periods (see figure 4).