We are offering several interesting opportunities for customers to influence SAP’s Energy & Natural Resources Solutions such as – Chemicals, Mill products, Mining, Utilities, and Oil, Gas, and Energy (OG&E). An exciting opportunity to influence SAP has begun with the third cycle of the 2021 SAP Customer Engagement Initiative (CEI). The SAP Customer Engagement Initiative enables you as an SAP customer or partner, to get early insights into SAP’s product developments and directly work with the developers to define and shape future product directions. The projects will be open for customer registration until November 12, 2021. Energy & Natural Resources projects for registration: Asset Health Collaborative Maintenance & Service Collecting Vehicle data from Data aggregators into SAP Digital Vehicle Hub Complex Solution Configuration Configurable ANDON Board for visual management Digital Twin Handover with Equipment Procurement Expanding the Digital Thread with Next Gen Configuration Management Guided Selling for SAP Sales Cloud Intelligent Business Insights with Intelligent Situation Handling INTELLIGENT DOCUMENT EXTRACTION OF FREIGHT INVOICES Japan Tax Recalculation and E-Invoicing Low Code No Code Process Automation with SAP Workflow Management and SAP Intelligent RPA Mobile Experience for Project Management Mobile Field Service Execution: Creating the Optimal User Experience Model-based Products and Spare Parts Catalog Registration for indirect Taxation Abroad (RITA) for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Rules Engine - SAP Asset Performance Management SAP Integrated Business Planning: Integration to other systems SAP Logistics Business Network SAP Outcome-Based Business Insights SAP Work Clearance Management Service Cockpit in SAP 360 Customer view Smart Sensing for the Edge Social User Assistance (UA) features in SAP Help Portal Sustainability in Procurement: User Research Transportation Planning & SAP TM Optimizer based Sales Order Scheduling Vehicle Costing Verify- AI/ML use in auditing expense reports How do I register on the Customer Influence website? A short overview about how to find and register for a CEI project can be found on influence.sap.com. Follow-up after registration: When you register for a project, you will be invited to an introductory call with the SAP project lead. At this point further participation is optional. Typically, all activities are governed by the Feedback Agreement with SAP. If you are also interested in other CEI projects that are currently open for registration, see here the full list. Thank you in advance for your participation! ... View more

Josephine Monberg interviews mining industry experts, Shabir Ahmed and Anton Kroger, in this episode of Industry Insights by SAP.  For more episodes on Industries, please subscribe to “Industry Insights by SAP” Podcast Series. Josie: (00:03) Welcome to the industry insights by SAP podcast series. My name is Josephine Monberg and I am your host. You are now listening to the COVID 19 special edition of our show. Welcome to our podcast. Hi everyone and welcome to this episode of our podcast. We are taking a closer look at different industries and how they are being impacted by our current global pandemic COVID 19. And today we are taking a closer look at the mining industry. And to do this, I am joined by two guests both in their virtual home studios Anton Kroger who's in Australia and Shabir Ahmed, who's in South Africa and they're both mining industry experts from SAP. So super excited to have you both in the studio. So before we get started and talk more about mining specifically and COVID 19, maybe starting with you, Anton, what is your role at SAP? What do you typically do? Anton: (01:13) So I described myself as the, uh, the translator between what technology offers and I guess what business needs is I've come out of the business world, um, but sometimes translate into technologies challenging. And that's very part of my role. So I look after all natural resources in Australia. So I described that as anything that comes out of the ground apart from potatoes and asparagus. Josie: (01:36) Thank you. And over to you Shabier, or what is your role? I'm assuming it might be similar to Anton's. Shabir: (01:44) Yes, it's a, it's very much similar also focusing on the, on the same industries, extractive industries if you want to call it that. But uh, um, similar to what Anton just said, uh, is trying to bridge the gap between business and technology Josie: (02:02) and Shabir you are in South Africa. What's it like being trapped in your home in South Africa? Shabir: (02:12) Yeah, we've been uh, uh, you know, under lockdown for several weeks now. Initially at 21 day locked down. It's been extended until the end of, um, at least until the 1st of May. So it has been difficult. Um, you know, we uh, are generally, um, you know, very used to visiting customers and getting in front of customers, but not being able to do that does pose a challenge. But we are trying to go as best we can under the circumstances. I think the priority is to, to save lives and, uh, you know, to, uh, try and contain the pandemic as much as we can. Josie: (02:54) And Anton you are in Australia. What's the situation there? Um, you know, dealing with COVID 19. Anton: (03:04) Yeah, thanks. So I think, I think we've been very fortunate in Australia and that, um, we reacted fairly quickly. Uh, certainly in Western Australia they close the borders fairly early on, uh, and a lot of changes we're putting in place. Um, so I think that has really limited the impact. So while we are still, I guess practicing social distance, we certainly not as constrained as other countries like South Africa. Uh, we can still get out, go to the beach and do some of the things that we enjoy. Uh, and certainly from a mining perspective that that has had some impact, although it has not stopped operations. So the message we're getting from the industry is that we're still very much open for business in Australia, which is quite different to the situation in other countries. Josie: (03:47) Yeah. And that's, and you've hit on a key point there, cause we do want to talk about the impact that we're seeing on mining right now and of course you're going to be able to provide different perspectives in terms of where you are located. But if we look at it from maybe a global perspective to start with, what's the impact that you're seeing on mining right now, maybe starting with you, Anton? Anton: (04:08) So I think mining, if you look across all the major commodities, um, generally speaking, mining is okay. So there's certainly been a little bit of softening. Uh, particularly the base metals we've seen that come down 20, 30%, uh, off the back of, you know, decline in global demand. But some of the heavier bulk commodities have generally held out fairly well. Iron ore is sort of holding up. Uh, the price is still up there. It's not, hasn't drastically declined coal come down a little bit. Um, you know, especially on the, um, the coking side where we sort of seen that decline just basically as a, as a function of the slowdown in China. Um, but other commodities like gold, you know, they, they're on the up. So it's sort of, it depends a little bit on the commodity that we're talking about. Uh, so generally speaking, the industry is, is seeing this as a sort of a short term position, although I guess there is a big question Mark is do you know how long the recovery will take in, in China and Asia, which is our major trading partner and what that impact will then be depending on really how long it's going to take. Josie: (05:13) thank you for providing that kind of global overview. Shabir if we zoom in on South Africa specifically, what are you seeing in terms of the impact there? Shabir: (05:23) Yeah, so in South Africa, uh, again, we have, um, certain commodities that have been impacted, you know, much more than others. Um, these are primarily in the PGMs or the platinum group metals. You know, we have platinum, palladium, rhodium, those types of metals have been infected, uh, affected rather in the earlier days. You know, those, uh, the value of those stock prices were eroded by as much as 30%, uh, gold, uh, much of the same as, um, the global trend. Uh, prices are still high. And I think those, uh, companies, uh, you know, are more, you know, I would say they prepared to withstand, you know, much longer period if it does go on to that. Yeah. Josie: (06:10) Hmm. And Anton zooming in on Australia, what's going on specifically there? Anton: (06:17) Yeah, so look, I think, um, you know, you've got to break it down into two perspectives. So there's, there's very much the response phase. Um, and I think we're probably delighted to agree over the response phase. And if I look at what happened in the response phase, big changes in, in, in roster schedules. So, you know, we've gone from one on two off, two to two on, two off the top rosters. So essentially what a lot of the companies have tried to do is minimize the number of swings. So that's the rotations. Um, and that that's meant longer rosters. So a lot of those changes have happened. Um, the biggest challenge has been the, the flying fire community. Um, because a lot of those people sort of live in, in different countries and obviously with border closures that become a challenge. So we are seeing, um, a number of those rosters operating below full capacity, so that, that's probably be the major change, um, where people have focused then obviously at the camps themselves. Anton: (07:09) Um, big changes in terms of just the canteen set up, you know, people not being able to do the same time sort of being forced to go back to their, their, their bunkers or their bungalows and eat in their room on their own, you know, so that those, those changes have been put in place. Um, some of the sites that are less remote, um, have also pushed the law that the COVID social distancing rules with regular police inspections. So, so the compliance component has been a big focus. So you know, some of the other types of activity, you know, big shift towards moving to work from home, uh, for, you know, non, I guess direct labor top roles. Um, that's been a big challenge for a lot of companies cause culturally this is just not something they used to. Um, so a few of them have sort of really been scrambling to get laptops into, you know, the hands of employees that normally have desktops and then now you take your home office home so that those are sort of being the big, the big initial steps. the emerging risks now and the conversation's shifting towards fatigue is a big consequence of changing. A lot of that work style behaviors meant that guys longer rosters are remote for longer periods of time and they don't have that social interactions. So that's starting to play on their minds. And likewise at home people are generally finding working longer hours and still having to juggle kids at home and everything else. So fatigue is certainly the, the topic at the moment that I think we're facing within the industry. Josie: (08:35) Hmm. And Shabir are you, do you have any examples of any mining companies that are doing certain things to better cope and respond to COVID? Shabir: (08:45) Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the things which enter on as touched on already is ensuring that the nonessential staff work, work from home personally. Uh, you know, the priority is obviously to, to try and limit the, uh, the spread of the virus in the workspace itself. So most of the minds are, um, you know, focusing on trying to limit the number of workers in very confined spaces. I mean in mining those spaces are generally backed. Um, they're not very conducive to a practice in social distancing. Uh, in general specific example I could go is that, um, you know, when the miners do actually go down underground minus, particular in the gold sector, they don't send down as many as they would be during a normal shop under normal circumstances. So they reduce that by effect or at least 50%. Um, so those are types of measures, you know, that they are doing. I think also another one is that, uh, the mindset, uh, they do have clinics, uh, generally as far as the infrastructure, but they are basically reconfigured and, uh, you know, set up those clinics to be able to cope with cases where there are reported infections and so on. Josie: (10:04) Hmm. So let's talk a little bit about that actually like more specifically some of the challenges and opportunities if you could. I mean, you do advise of course, mining companies. So what will you say that is the best strategy to, of course respond, but also in a more longterm, um, you know, more longterm view to better come out of this crisis. What would you say to those mining companies maybe starting off with you, Anton? Anton: (10:32) It's certainly in my part of the world, we haven't had a major outbreak in a mining camp yet. So there isn't really a precedent certainly in Australia that I'm aware of in terms of how you deal with it, contain it as quickly as possible and then, and then try and isolate as minimize the impact that way. It is definitely a major risk, um, that we are seeing. Um, what's also quite interesting at the back of that conversations, we've started to see the acceleration of a lot of business cases towards more automation. Um, so Australia, again, we're quite lucky in the sense that we're very advanced in, in automation. So, you know, companies rely on the fact that you can drive a truck from 2000 kilometers away, um, as a, as a big differentiator. But in these times, you know, that that becomes a bigger conversation on what else can we automate. Anton: (11:17) So that then starts to spread that workforce out as well. Uh, and serves as another way to kind of isolate and contain. But yeah, it's, it's an emerging topic. Um, as I said, it's challenge. We, we haven't seen some mine sites implementing, um, infrared scanners to try and detect, uh, cases early. Um, so detection I guess is the other, the other piece. And then another, the other strategy you've seen the, the, some of the companies implemented obviously big, big focus on health. Um, so a lot of focus on getting an sanitizer into those locations. Um, to the point where, you know, we've had a lot of discussions, shortages in those sorts of things. Um, and so that, that actually becomes an interesting discussion because as you know, most miners will look at critical spares being the bits of kit that are hard to find or have a long lead times, whereas that is not so shifting towards, you can I get enough hand sanitizer on site. So, so the definition of what's now critical spares is also changing, which is quite interesting. Josie: (12:14) Shabir anything from your perspective, maybe also specifically for South Africa? Shabir: (12:20) Um, what we are seeing is, um, focus on, uh, trying to leverage, uh, any opportunities to, you know, to protect the workforce. We, I've seen apps or applications being deployed to an answer process of contact tracing, uh, and tracking the movement of people. One of the unique challenges we have in South Africa is that the mining industries largely dependent on migrant workforce. Uh, you know, our mine operations are spread across enabling countries such as, uh, Lisutu, uh, and Mozambique and even Zimbabwe. So, you know, we do have an influx and a flow of people across these borders and that is a big concern. Um, for most of our mining bosses, controlling the flow of these people across borders is quite a challenge place, uh, and track the movement of these people. Then what we also see is, um, drive towards automation, probably not as, um, advanced as what we see in Western Australia. Shabir: (13:22) In some parts of Africa. We do have cases where mines are already leveraging, uh, you know, that, uh, automation, we have cases in Mali for example in the CMR mine. Uh, and they, we have a, you know, almost a fully automated, uh, underground mine that basically automates all the processes from, you know, from, uh, drilling and blasting and hauling and across the board. And while we certainly, I mean, in my view, I would certainly see an update in, in those types of technologies moving forward. But yeah, generally the uptake has been extremely slow, uh, because of poor economic climate, that mindset to sustain over the last few years. Josie: (14:06) So you do see that COVID 19 is accelerating digital transformation. And in this case more specifically, um, automation. Shabir: (14:17) What I also am finding, uh, the mining companies like other companies, um, you know, a little bit more cautious in approaching, uh, digital transformation for example. What they are doing is, uh, kind of, uh, you know, taking a phased approach. So they are looking at the immediate priority obviously is to protect, uh, the operations and the work staff. Um, so they focusing digital transformation on, you know, uh, topics that will announce protection for examples, uh, protection, uh, you know, against, uh, cyber cybersecurity. Uh, they could be vulnerable to cyber attacks in this, in this period. Uh, also, uh, you know, reputation management mines act irresponsibly in this time. It could have severe consequences for that. The next phase is to try to optimize. And that is where the big opportunity comes with automation. So we talk about, uh, technologies like robotics process automation to automate and optimize, uh, you know, uh, some of the manual, uh, types of processes are very common there. And then lastly, I think where we, uh, the real, uh, opportunity for transformation is coming. We see does this, where the minds are really embracing full scale digital transformation and this is where they start, uh, you know, reconfiguring their businesses to grow the business, uh, moving forwards. Josie: (15:42) Hmm. And Anton, do you have anything to add to that? Anton: (15:44) Yeah, look, I think it's, it's been very, very exciting over here as well. One of the, one of the things that a lot of my customers have talked about is the fact that they actually use this as an opportunity to accelerate projects and it's sort of highlighted how quickly things can get done when you need to get done. Um, so, you know, I've got a small minor up in Queensland, you know, developed a couple of apps within literally days that were deployed to help push communication out. Um, they've been very active around re-engaging, so you know, switching a lot of their messaging to SMS for example. You know, those projects are just flying through the laptops. One that I talked about, you know, sounds ridiculous, but you know, these guys mobilize 143 laptops in under a week. Um, so that, that is no small feat. Anton: (16:24) We had another coal miner, you know, put in, in infrared sensors also within the matter of a matter of days. So it's, it's, it's really, I think for a lot of people highlighted just how quickly you can move in the tech space if you really want to. Um, and that's quite significant. Um, a couple of other miners, you know, they've started to use Qualtrics to, to, to roll out, understand some of the fatigue issues, you know, and that's literally happening within the matter of hours. So, you know, within a matter of hours you can have this survey setup, you can have the distribution channels in place and get the, get the information out and start getting back some of those insights. So, so these guys are moving very, very quickly in that space supply chain side. As I mentioned, you know, one of, one of my customers has started to use the Ariba discovery tool to look for spare parts and things that they didn't realize they even needed. So, you know, one of the interesting ones is, as I mentioned, the hand sanitizers become a challenge, but, um, they were able to buy hand sanitizer in bulk. Um, but now the challenge is finding enough bottles, put it in a so they can distribute it on site. So again, using the tool, uh, to, to find those sorts of things. So it's certainly where it's happening is happening very, very quickly. And I think that surprised a lot of people and kind of really talks to what is possible that tech space today. Josie: (17:34) And to talk a little bit more about how SAP is helping, cause you've touched on Qualtrics now in a Rebbe also, we do offer these free solutions. So Shabir have you seen anything in terms of, um, how has piece helping your customers in, in South Africa Shabir: (17:52) we have, um, uh, instances where our, uh, our customers not only in mining, uh, you know, across other industries as well have leverage that, uh, tapping into the network, uh, because you know, the supply chains have been disrupted. Um, so, you know, the primary objective there has been to try, um, you know, and uh, ensure that they can source, uh, you know, the critical space and, uh, you know, the critical materials that they need to keep those operations going. So other areas, uh, that we have seen, uh, as well also in the area of Qualtrics. So similar to what Anton um, you know, as mentioned, we have, uh, some mines that have, uh, taken, taken up generally of laboratory capability as well Josie: (18:40) for any final remarks, maybe also looking far ahead, maybe even predicting what's going to happen. Do you have anything to say to, you know, if you could say anything to your mining customers what they should be looking at in the very long term, maybe starting with you, Anton? Anton: (19:02) Yeah, so I think one of the things I spend a lot of time doing is actually studying some of the previous recessions that we've gone through. And you know, mining has the advantage that is quite used to a cyclical business. So it kind of comes and goes. But certainly if you, if you go back to the GFC and some of the previous decisions and one thing that's come out, a lot of literatures, the companies that made the investments and the right investments in technology have definitely come out way ahead. So to the tune of, you know, 10 or 13% profit points over those that didn't, in fact, those that didn't, you know, came out very, very flat and a lot of them disappeared. So the big thing about major resets or recessions like this is it opens the door wide open to the new players coming into the industry. Anton: (19:41) And I think for a lot of our minors that they need to look at that carefully and think about what the potential impact is. Um, so certainly, you know, it's exciting watching the conversation unfold. And, and w we sort of touched on your supply chain is one of the emerging areas, but we had a very interesting conversation the other night talking about the threats and challenges with returning to work, for example. So, you know, all of the miners now interested in, in what does that look like? And what became apparent is that, you know, one of the miners said, well actually we're not returning to work. Um, so they are already starting to think about how do they use this change in culture and change your way of thinking to actually reset their business. Um, so they focus as well let's get people working from home. Anton: (20:23) Um, they, they'll drive up in inherent productivity, but it also gives them a lot of flexibility because they don't have to be in remote towns that could be anywhere. So then their, their ability to access talent all of a sudden exponentially grows. So, so there's some really progressive thinking that, you know, has the fundamental to start disrupting the way people go about hiring talent. So these are typical things that, you know, successful companies that have gone through sessions in the past have focused on, um, you know, liquidity will become another issue. So really getting a good handle on where your costs are. Um, we see that as a, as a big focus area. How do we help customers get that visibility? And really as a system of record, a lot of that information is sitting in there. Um, but you know, part of what we do now is help them extract that so they can make some informed decisions around where those costs are and where they're going to cut it. And then I think the last big point that they need to focus on is the scenario planning component, which is really then starting to predict out, you know, if we, if we're talking about a short cycle, you know, there's a scenario if this continues as another scenario. So obviously tools like analytics cloud and integrated business planning are really the tools that then start to change the game in terms of how you model those scenarios and they will have different business outcomes. Josie: (21:40) Do you have anything to add to that? Maybe you could also provide a perspective from South Africa. (21:45) What I think, um, COVID 19 has done, uh, is that it has really forced mining companies to actually rethink their strategies. You know, mining companies are not immune to volatile commodity cycles and so on. And they deal with that on a day to day basis, but they, they're not necessarily, uh, being prepared to deal with COVID 19. Um, you know, it was, is one, um, you know, Enedis, uh, described it, uh, it is a black Swan event. Companies, you know, I've been found scrambling, um, the response to the crisis. So the first thing, uh, and I think moving forward, um, is that companies will put a lot more thought and effort into ensuring that they can sustain a crisis of, of this nature if it does come in the future. Shabir: (22:39) Um, and you know, uh, mining Indaba in Johannesburg, out in February, the, the CEO of Ivanhoe mining, you know, actually made a statement, which I think it scared a lot of, uh, people that were there in the audience, but it was also kind of a wake up call. You know, you said that, uh, you know, uh, COVID 19, uh, will not be the last of, you know, a virus or pandemic of this type. Um, and we need to be prepared for waves, uh, and waves of more of these types of bandana. So better preparedness. Uh, obviously leads to people, to companies thinking about, you know, how they can do this scenario planning to become more predictable in how they will, uh, you know, implies using, uh, the types of tools that we provide to do this. Um, uh, so that you can have a view of your entire operation, uh, you know, from exploration right across, through to processing to logistics, transportation and sales and marketing, uh, so that you have your finger on the pulse, um, you know, per se. Shabir: (23:48) Uh, and then the other area obviously is an area which mine is, have been focusing on for some time now, but they're just going to become more better at it and leveraging technology to a great extent. And that is to, uh, ensure that, uh, they are in a, in, um, in a healthy financial position to be able to sustain that. Um, we have a large number of junior minors, um, in South Africa. Uh, and, uh, you know, they, they were, um, you know, totally unprepared. In fact, we've had, uh, already two of the first victims. Uh, you know, we have now to add to file for bankruptcy, um, because you know, the balance sheets, we're not in a, in a, in a very healthy position. So the financial scenario planning, uh, ensuring that you can leverage your balance sheet, making sure that you have adequate liquidity in place. Shabir: (24:43) Uh, and all of these, you know, require the types of technologies that we generally provide to, uh, you know, to uh, to our minds. So those are the, you know, those are the key areas. And then of course, uh, as I've said before, um, I think there's going to be a serious conservation being given into, uh, a greater level of automation minds have been generally very conservative. Again, South Africa to invest in those types of, uh, you know, uh, technologies and initiatives. But, uh, COVID 19, uh, in I would say is going to, um, encourage a great investment, uh, into automation, um, uh, digital transformation. Josie: (25:31) Yeah. So it's about being a business that can look ahead using technology to both automate but also to simulate scenarios to be prepared for a potential next crisis. Cause. I do think that is very possible. Shapira and Anton, thank you so much for joining me on this episode of our podcast and making us a lot more smarter about what's going on in your industry. So thank you for that. Shabir: (26:00) Well, thank you. Pleasure to join you. Josie: (26:05) Thank you for listening to this episode of the podcast. Please subscribe to our channel industry insights by SAP, open SAP apples to learn more about what SAP is doing to help you cope in covert 19 you can go to sap.com about global health safety and find free access to select SAP software. Shabir: (26:31) Stay safe. Everyone. ... View more

Once upon a time . . . Snow White lived together with seven dwarfs in the forest. While the seven dwarfs were busy working in the mine, Snow White took care of the house. This old story is one we all know. Men go to work, women stay at home. Especially mining is one of the most male-dominated industries in the world. Who has ever heard a little girl say: I want t o be a miner? Some say women are somewhat less able to carry heavy metals like men. Hard labor, grit and perseverance created a masculine identity for the mining industry. But times have changed… Physical labor is becoming less important and will be more and more replaced by machines and industrial robots. Physical strength is not a prerequisite for a successful enterprise any more. The importance of worker’s education level is increasing and this can be achieved by women and men equally. In a world of fluctuating commodity prices, companies are embracing data, analytics and connectivity to help them compete. Organizational agility and fast-paced innovation are strategic imperatives. And this makes diversity possible and important. Studies show that companies with female board representation have a higher return on Sales. McKinsey’s Women Matter demonstrates that corporations with women at the top have better financial returns than those without. These new insights drive the push towards a “fairer” future based on gender, even in a male-dominated mining industry. The adoption of technology is serving as a positive catalyst for both gender diversity as well as sustainable growth. Today Snow White could have been THE success factor. But what does this have to do with SAP? SAP is the leading provider of software solutions for the Mining industries. With the help of SAP technology, Snow White could have worked from the dwarfs' house. With the usage of commodity supply chain management, she could have improved profitability through effective sales contract handling and commodity supply chain management. Snow White could have taken insight into mine operations and optimize equipment use with integrated information and operational technology. And above all she could have improved operational risk and compliance to make sure that the dwarfs worked in a safe environment with reduced emissions, water and energy consumption. So Mirror, mirror on the wall, who has the most intelligent enterprise of them all? For more information about the SAP Solution Portfolio for Mining please visit: SAP Industry Solution Portfolio for Mining   Sources: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/featured%20insights/women%20matter/reinventing%20the%20workplace%20for%20greater%20gender%20diversity/women-matter-2016-reinventing-the-workplace-to-unlock-the-potential-of-gender-diversity.ashx https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Business%20Functions/Organization/Our%20Insights/Women%20matter/Women_matter_oct2010_english.ashx https://www.google.com/searchq=snow+white+png&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjW8NSfs4XoAhUO_KQKHRITAJ8Q_AUoAXoECAsQAw&biw=1267&bih=593#imgrc=KYQ6PqgqXITmFM ... View more

SAP recently spent a week in Perth, Australia with 35 technology and business leaders at the SAP Industry Advisory Council for Mining.  Before I share some highlights - first a few points about Perth – a fabulous city! 5 Fun Facts About Perth Perth is consistently ranked one of the most livable cities in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit for its high living standards, safe environment and prosperous economy. Perth is also known as the 'City of Light'. The naming is the result of the fact that when astronaut John Glenn orbited above back in 1962, he could identify Perth because everyone turned on all their lights, making Perth highly visible. Perth has the largest inner-city park in the world, Kings Park and Botanical Garden is even bigger than New York’s Central Park. It’s the only place in the world you can find quokkas – and join the growing list of lucky people that get to meet them (me included)! The 2 million people that live in Perth – and anyone that lives in Australia – are the funniest people in the entire world. Source:  my own experience. Ok so what did we all do in Perth?  Industry, business and technology leaders from SAP, mining companies and industry partners spend three days talking about a wide range of topics relevant to the future of mining including how to support the industry to mine responsibly and sustainably.    The first day was at the SAP offices in Perth and day 2 and 3 were hosted at Curtin University, ranked 2nd in the world for Mineral and Mining Engineering. Photo:  2019 SAP Industry Advisory Council for Mining. Perth, Australia The 3 days contained an amazing level of discussion - below we captured highlights of 5 of the most interesting topics discussed. ESG, Shared Value and Sustainability are on everyone’s minds The broad topic of shared value and sustainability was a top focus area for all companies including how to address growing expectations from customers, investors, employees, communities and society.  What is shared value?  According to the Harvard Business Review, “Shared value is not social responsibility, philanthropy, or sustainability, but a new way for companies to achieve economic success. Shared value is a management strategy in which companies find business opportunities in social problems and focus on maximizing the competitive value of solving social problems.”  The advisory council talked passionately about how we as an industry can apply technology and agreed on a first use case to support a wide range of topics including: Community engagement and collaboration Cultural heritage Localization Electrification Basic health and mental health Education and opportunity for workers and indigenous communities Income generation beyond mining Safety and Operational Excellence remain critically important Safety of course was a top concern and area of focus– especially how the use of technology and innovation can help improve safety of all mining operations. Topics include efficient production and logistics that contribute to lower emissions and energy use and reuse of materials that is part of the “circular economy” and a closed-loop of material circulation.  One large miner talked about reducing incidents significantly by scheduling more training directly after vacations.  Research and analysis found that a higher percentage of workers forgot safety procedures and steps after extended vacations and a simple process of refreshing the training brought down incidents.   Most of the companies are actively working with technologies such as drones, machine learning, sensors and remote assistance wearables in the areas of autonomous vehicles, collision avoidance, remote control and such as smart glasses and helmets that track worker health. The Circular Economy will change the future of mining The Circular Economy was noted as one of the key macro topics driving change in the mining industry.   What is the Circular Economy?  Clearly, the traditional model of “take, make, use, dispose” is no longer valid for the health of planet Earth, and we are at a historic tipping point where the only clear solution is to move toward a zero-waste value network.  According to The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which works with organizations to build a framework for an economy that is restorative and regenerative by design, a circular economy is based on the principles of designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems. Today 40% of steel produced is made from scrap metal and 41 mobile phones yields as much gold as 1 ton of ore.  Currently, our world is less than 10% circular, according to the Circularity Gap report.  This means that 90% of what we produce is going to dumps and oceans – a lot of wasted potential value.  The mining council sees this as both a big area of risk and a huge area of opportunity to embrace this circular future and use technology to facilitate business in areas like scrap management, traceability, recycling and tracking environmental and social flows. How to make use of all that data, and where to get a data scientist! We spent a lot of time talking about how to more effectively use all the data mining companies are capturing from the mines, assets, environment and supply chain.  The processing speed and analytics tools are greatly improved, there are still many challenges to making this data actionable including bad data - and even how to determine if your data is bad.    And importantly, every company lamented about how difficult it is currently to find and keep data scientists!  I have to admit I had that conversation with my 18-year-old college freshman who is in the middle of trying to decide what career path to jump on! One mining company talked about their aspirations to use big data in the area of improving plant efficiency.  They are working to improve their decision including getting the right data models and algorithms and putting an appliance on site to analyze their current production and advise the metallurgical specialists in ways to improve productivity.  Their dream is to figure out a digital signature of the optimal point of how a plant runs.  And if or when that point changes, the experts would be alerted to on what to change to get back to the optimal point. Spare part visibility and availability for maintenance planning Another top area of focus is spare parts availability.  Mining companies are eager to find digital answers to help increase their asset utilization.  They want to address short term demand impulses, supply fluctuations and changes to customer orders.   Spare parts visibility and availability continue to be a pain point for mining companies. Intelligent machines and Digital Twins are increasingly being considered to help order material for re-stock or spare parts for maintenance automatically.  A digital twin establishes a direct connection between the physical product or asset and its designed, manufactured, and deployed digital representation.  This relationship can be used to intelligently assess design integrity, operational characteristics, and maintenance projections for each uniquely defined product or asset. Visibility at this level can lead to improved and accelerated product design, more effective maintenance operations. Other key use cases our mining council members discussed included: Predicting parts demands Master data management/stock management – 1 vote Stock visualization Shortage of inventory level Maintenance planning and scheduling Mobility in warehouse Centralized warehouse To learn more about how technology is supporting and helping drive change in the the mining industry, read: White paper: Making mining more agile and transparent – from the pit to the customer– with intelligent technology Additional assets including the newly released Future of Mining white paper: https://www.sap.com/australia/cmp/oth/crm-xa19-mda-miniglp/index.html?campaigncode=CRM-XA19-MDA-MINIGLP&source=blog-au-global-mining-summit-event     ... View more

Morning, I am looking for a transition where I can place a list of material numbers in SAP and it returns the min & max level for each individual material, I did try MM60 but I can only view the MRP type there is no option in the change layout for the min, max of the stock materials. Thanks. ... View more

More than 450 attendees from over 20 countries attended the 4th International SAP Metals and Mining Summit in Moscow, Russia on September 11th and 12th to discuss a wide variety of truly thought leading digital innovations and business processes that are changing the metals and mining industries.  In addition, more than 7500 people join the event on line, making it an impressive and unprecedented experience. On the first day, participants enjoyed a great atmosphere at the SAP Experience Center and exchanged their latest accomplishments, met industry peers, took part in lively discussions and shared plans for the future. Speakers presented their accomplishments at 20 breakout sessions over the two days. Along with Metalloinvest, Severstal, thyssenkrupp, Nornickel, TrenItalia, Polyus, Jindal Saw, ETEM Gestamp, ERG and OMK spoke about their latest experiences in optimizing critical business processes and embracing new digital technologies. More than a dozen SAP partners and multiple startup companies supported the Summit with over 20 booths demonstrating various digital solutions. Eckhardt Siess, Vice President for Mill Products and Mining, and Georg Gradl,Global Vice President at SAP for Mining & Metals, gave interviews to the Russian press. On the second day Metalloinvest, a major integrated metals and mining company, invited the most adventurous industry peers to meet at their main production site, located over 600 km from Moscow near ancient Russian town of Stary Oskol. There, Metalloinvest showed guests their production facilities and presented results of the first phase of a comprehensive digital transformation. Please watch the highlight video of this event: For more information visit the following websites: Event homepage Speaker presentations       ... View more

we have a material under UMBW to create PR for normal PO . But its creating STO PR with Item cat. U. since the PR can'' t be changed . Unable to create PO. MRP 2 in Material master , spl.proc.key is blank. which is correct. please assist how to resolve this issue. Thanks MTD ... View more

As Mining companies continue to slog through this period of fluctuating commodity prices and demand....  we continue to hear stories about companies trying out new business models by expanding beyond traditional industry boundaries.  3D printing is one such area that can not only impact how a mine works - but also give new business opportunities to mining companies. 3D Printing supporting mining company processes 50% of mining executives surveyed say they will invest in 3D visual display within the next five years.  (Source:  The New Canary in the the Mine, The Economist Intelligence Business Unit) People remain a crucial aspect of a successful mine, with recruitment, retention, and productivity key focus areas. Many tasks will become automated, but people will be an even greater asset in ensuring the success of the mine as their roles change. Geo-sensing, automation, wearable technology, user interfaces, virtual reality, and 3D simulations are new technologies that will impact mining employees in the future, so they can focus on their work rather than on bridging process inefficiencies. Employees don’t want to read manuals or attend lengthy training session to learn how to use new systems. Instead, they want a solution that is intuitive, simple, and visual, similar to the consumer applications used in their personal lives. Implemented technology must included 3D graphics and be visually captivating in order for it to thoroughly be adopted. New user interfaces will make much more use of images and pictures in place of words. Voice and gesture recognition will make using software easier and safer on mobile devices. Virtual reality and 3D imaging and modelling will be common and reflect the transition of people’s roles from transaction workers to exception workers, who engage when the digital rulebook needs human creativity. 3D Printing as a new business opportunity for mining companies This recent article in All3DP gives an interesting perspective on how mining companies can benefit: Over the years, miners have profited from digging up these mineral sands and then shipping them to countries, such as China, to be used for whitening tiles or in paints. Now though, miners from companies including Rio Tinto PLC and Iluka Resources Ltd. are hoping to be at the forefront of change by supplying the same materials for use in 3D printing. Their plan is to work on ways to cut the cost of producing titanium dioxide, the compound commonly produced from mineral sands, and investing in technologies that will make it more attractive for the 3D printing industry. “It is potentially a turbocharger over time on demand for titanium dioxide,” said David Robb, Iluka Resources’s managing director to The Wall Street Journal. Industrial 3D printing offers great potential to diversify the market for mineral sands as manufacturers are looking for stronger, more lightweight materials that don’t cost more than the ones that they currently use. Boeing Co., which already makes several hundred types of aircraft parts using 3D printing, including air duct components, has been investigating a process called electron-beam melting, as it works well with titanium. To 3D print designs with titanium, the powder is melted layer by layer with a laser to create the item after slicing a digital image of an object. However, they say that titanium powder is currently much more expensive than aluminum and steel, so there needs to be a strong business case for it to replace those materials. The size of the market for 3D printing powder is set to increase at a compound rate of 24% each year through 2020 to be worth US$500 million, according to MicroMarket Monitor, an India-based research company. It foresees 3D printing being increasingly adopted in the manufacturing of some components used in the automobile and aerospace industries. However, although this sounds promising 3D printing does not account for much of the titanium-dioxide market and miners say it may be years before it contributes to their profits in a big way! but they have to start somewhere! learn more about Digital Transformation in Mining byreading this white paper or going to SAP.com/mining for more customer stories ... View more

An exciting opportunity to influence SAP has started with the cycle of the 2019 SAP Customer Engagement Initiative (CEI). The SAP Customer Engagement Initiative provides you with early insights into new SAP product developments Make sure that your voice is heard.This is your opportunity to provide feedback, input and ideas at early stages of development. Participate in remote or on-site sessions to discuss ideas and see if they fit your requirements Collaborate with SAP product management to shape new product features Build a network with other SAP customers and partners using the same product. Find below the list of all projects that are relevant for Mining or browse the full project list here. The projects will be open for customer registration until June 28, 2019. Check out our shortlist of CEI projects here: Predictive Maintenance Analytics Asset Retirement Obligation Vendor Self Service Portal for Invoice Information New User Experience for Sales Order Management in SAP S/4HANA (Fiori UI) Evolution to Real-Time Inventory: Cycle Counting in SAP S/4HANA Dashboard for Chief Procurement Officers in SAP S/4HANA Connect SAP Analytics Cloud and on-premise New design time for SAP Fiori launchpad pages and layouts SAP Fiori implementation experience - scoping, rapid activation and Professional user experience flows and operational data and processes Artificial intelligence, user experience How do I register on the Customer Influence website? A short overview about how to find and register for a CEI project can be found on influence.sap.com. Follow-up after registration: When you register for a project, you will be invited to an introductory call with the SAP project lead to discuss your engagement way forward. Typically, all activities are governed by the Feedback Agreement with SAP. Thank you in advance for your participation! ... View more