9MARCH 2024for-profit industry association for the Australian Mining Equipment, Technology and Services (METS) sector. The total revenue of the Australian METS sector in 2020 was $AUD114 billion (recovering from COVID). In their 2020 survey of 619 METS businesses, 90% said that innovation was important to their business, with two-thirds saying it is very important. The number one and most chosen driver of innovation amongst METS companies is customer-driven problem-solving.In summary, the mining industry is faced with big challenges that require solutions at specific times. The history of miners to, firstly, slowly develop solutions and, secondly, not deploy these in short timeframes creates an overwhelming situation. Most overwhelmed are the industry suppliers who shoulder the challenge of innovation and product development. Accelerated product development and step-change innovation are seen as the crux of the solution.Innovation and Product DevelopmentThe cornerstone for product development processes is the Stage-Gate® system developed by Cooper in the late 1980s and published in the early 1990s. This process is described as a sequence of steps: ideation, concept, business case, product development, validation, and launch. At every step, the appropriate leader decides whether to exit or move to the next step. The decision event is the `Gate'. Cooper's latest Stage Gate, the Hybrid Sage Gate, has features for accelerating the innovation and product development process. He details that the way to accelerated product development (APD) is via focused project teams coupled with effective portfolio management ­fewer projects but better projects. This increases resources on projects to maximize speed. He proposes new digital tools ­Virtual Reality, Simulation, Machine Learning and AI ­ that can both enhance and accelerate new-product projects. He advocates for the inclusion of business operating systems that have become universal in modern business. These include elements of the LEAN and Agile toolboxes, including high customer interaction and the clarity of a value proposition. He provides detail on changing the series-based stage gate approach to one where managers overlap stages in their new-product process and move key decision points forward to minimise the impact of long lead-time tasks. The point is to move faster and drive step change.Step change to the industry via Digital Transformation is inevitable. Simulation, modelling, and analysis conducted to gain insight into complex systems, testing new operating or resource policies and new concepts or systems before implementing them, and gathering information and knowledge without disturbing the actual system are now critical to accelerating product development. Sensors and the Internet of Things allow for masses of data to be analysed all the time and remotely from the operation. The roadmap for accelerated product development and step-change innovation seems readily available. Is the industry ready and receptive?Accelerating product development is the desired outcome. However, moving quickly through the Stage Gate has little effect if the industry is not willing to deploy. The critical role for miners lies in the period between proof of concept and proof of value. At this stage, in-field trials and in-field validation are critical. To date, we are poor at this. This is evidenced by the well-known paradigm `the first to be second.' It is interesting that the industry has a name for its hesitancy to embrace innovation and take some risks. This is a paradigm we must break through. Genuine collaboration and innovation partnering have a large role to play. The digital transformation provides a great toolkit to facilitate confidence in the new product/service in question. Behavioural change is the key. Simulation, Machine Learning and AI ­can both enhance and accelerate new-product projects
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