The information
age has definitely arrived and in fact has only begun to affect our business
processes. Traditionally mining companies have been innovators and leaders with
technology, but applying information technology systems to machines directly
working on the mining extraction process poses challenges to those introducing
the technology. Caterpillar is now presenting machine guidance and information
systems for dozers, graders, blast hole drills, shovels, excavators, wheel
loaders and trucks. These systems simply increase the flow of real information
in real time and deliver it to the end users who can make informed decisions
that effect real productivity gains and at the same time eliminate the role of
the middle manager who used to monitor and control these activities.
Technology also
offers cultural changes that appear intangible, but offer significant gains to
those that implement technology. Critics state that these intangible benefits
are still available to traditional processes, however these intangible elements
are never identified nor managed without the introduction of technology enhanced
processes.
The benefits of
these technologies are real and dramatic, existing users offer impressive
testimonials, but still the technology can be disproportionate in the time it
takes to introduce to an operation. Caterpillar finds that senior to executive
management needs to be a part of the technology introduction, to coordinate all
departments and set technology strategies.