ROHAN DAVIDSON

» “ As part of our digitalisation approach , one key component is to take the best technologies across all industries and adapt them to our operations . And we have leant heavily on the tools and techniques forged in the petrochemical industry and we have developed our own industry-leading capability and Advanced Process Control ( APC ). APC automates the implementation of the Operating Model across our plant control systems , unlocking optimisation that has previously been beyond our reach .”

» “ At its heart , APC employs virtual operators or algorithms in closed loop control that are responsible for optimising a single process step to achieve a target output . This might be a mill rotation or maybe a sump level or a valve setting . The technology is particularly useful where the process steps involve time lags , like long conveyor runs or surge pins or float tanks . Operators and their conventional control systems struggled to accommodate these time lags but they lend themselves very well to advanced mathematical modelling . In particular , with artificial intelligence and machine learning we can usually produce models that outperform the best operators running these complex systems .”