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If you haven’t heard, the Japanese mining equipment manufacturer, Komatsu, has just announced their agreement to acquire U.S. based Joy Global. Once the deal is consummated this expands Komatsu’s footprint from primarily surface level mining equipment to underground mining operations. No intent is made here to analyze the deal on the financial merits. However, the prolonged downturn in the mining sector has depressed valuations considerably making this appear to be a relatively low risk investment compared to Caterpillar who made the acquisition of Bucyrus International at the peak of the market in 2011 and is now paying dearly for their mistake.
Komatsu, Joy Global and Caterpillar have all been on the forefront of not only developing a vision for the intelligent digital mine, but have actually deployed extremely sophisticated solutions that have incorporated many of the key tenets of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). However, the challenge in the mining industry is that each equipment supplier has developed a proprietary solution for creating an IIoT infrastructure. Komatsu has been actively seeking commercially available solutions since they have formed several partnerships with General Electric since 2014. In 2014, Komatsu and GE Transportation announced a joint venture, Komatsu GE Mining Systems LLC, to develop a new generation of underground mining equipment. The following year, Komatsu announced another partnership with General Electric to provide “big-data” analysis services for mining companies using “Internet of Things” technology. While the mining industry has been taking the leading in developing some of the more sophisticated technologies to automate mining operations, Komatsu has been on the forefront with a highly articulated vision that incorporates autonomous trucks, on board data collection systems, machine health monitoring, satellite communications, and remote data storage.
Komatsu developed KOMTRAX Plus machine management system for mining operations. This fleet management system for large equipment obtains detailed information about machine condition via satellite communications. Komatsu and distributors can analyze vehicle health and other operating conditions and provide the information to the remote jobsite via the Internet on a near-real time basis. Similarly, Joy Global has deployed Smart Services which gathers relevant equipment information to deliver pre-emptive and predictive maintenance services for underground mining equipment. Joy Global’s intent was to take the next step and share this individual and collective intellectual capital with its customers and the industry at large for the greater good of the mining industry. However, with a new owner this could very well change.
The acquisition is a good sign for the industry that remains in a slump. Often, a downturn provides machine builders to refocus on R&D to develop the next generation of equipment and in this case IIoT infrastructure. When Komatsu initially launched the KOMATRAX Plus machine management system the commercial availability of Cloud infrastructure from Amazon, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle and others did not exist. Commercially platforms to run analytics such as General Electric’s Predix were simply not around. On the ground the underlying concept has already been flushed out as Komatsu’s mobile mining fleet is already sensory-rich, integrated into sophisticated monitoring systems that predict equipment failure or maintenance requirements. Mobile machines are also expanding their utility in the mining operations as equipment becomes increasingly autonomous. Machines are incorporating a multitude of sensors to navigate and assess road conditions. This information can also be incorporated into the larger ecosystem of data collected in the Cloud to help sophisticated big data analytics to be applied to predict wear on other vehicles using these same roads and help further digitize mining assets. In their roles as “mobile sensors,” these intelligent, connected, mobile machines can also be equipped with sensors to take air quality, ore quality and other measurements and transmit them to cloud-based applications for both real-time decision support and historical purposes.
Komatsu, Joy Global and Caterpillar have all been on the forefront of not only developing a vision for the intelligent digital mine, but have actually deployed extremely sophisticated solutions that have incorporated many of the key tenets of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). However, the challenge in the mining industry is that each equipment supplier has developed a proprietary solution for creating an IIoT infrastructure. Komatsu has been actively seeking commercially available solutions since they have formed several partnerships with General Electric since 2014. In 2014, Komatsu and GE Transportation announced a joint venture, Komatsu GE Mining Systems LLC, to develop a new generation of underground mining equipment. The following year, Komatsu announced another partnership with General Electric to provide “big-data” analysis services for mining companies using “Internet of Things” technology. While the mining industry has been taking the leading in developing some of the more sophisticated technologies to automate mining operations, Komatsu has been on the forefront with a highly articulated vision that incorporates autonomous trucks, on board data collection systems, machine health monitoring, satellite communications, and remote data storage.
Komatsu developed KOMTRAX Plus machine management system for mining operations. This fleet management system for large equipment obtains detailed information about machine condition via satellite communications. Komatsu and distributors can analyze vehicle health and other operating conditions and provide the information to the remote jobsite via the Internet on a near-real time basis. Similarly, Joy Global has deployed Smart Services which gathers relevant equipment information to deliver pre-emptive and predictive maintenance services for underground mining equipment. Joy Global’s intent was to take the next step and share this individual and collective intellectual capital with its customers and the industry at large for the greater good of the mining industry. However, with a new owner this could very well change.
The acquisition is a good sign for the industry that remains in a slump. Often, a downturn provides machine builders to refocus on R&D to develop the next generation of equipment and in this case IIoT infrastructure. When Komatsu initially launched the KOMATRAX Plus machine management system the commercial availability of Cloud infrastructure from Amazon, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle and others did not exist. Commercially platforms to run analytics such as General Electric’s Predix were simply not around. On the ground the underlying concept has already been flushed out as Komatsu’s mobile mining fleet is already sensory-rich, integrated into sophisticated monitoring systems that predict equipment failure or maintenance requirements. Mobile machines are also expanding their utility in the mining operations as equipment becomes increasingly autonomous. Machines are incorporating a multitude of sensors to navigate and assess road conditions. This information can also be incorporated into the larger ecosystem of data collected in the Cloud to help sophisticated big data analytics to be applied to predict wear on other vehicles using these same roads and help further digitize mining assets. In their roles as “mobile sensors,” these intelligent, connected, mobile machines can also be equipped with sensors to take air quality, ore quality and other measurements and transmit them to cloud-based applications for both real-time decision support and historical purposes.