Mining the Value of Data: Lundin Mining's Self-Service Analytics Revolution with SAP Datasphere & Azure

Company Profile

Lundin Mining is a Canadian based mining company which operates mines in five countries, producing vital base metals. Headquartered in Toronto, they focus on responsible mining that creates value. With projects in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Portugal, Sweden and the United States of America, they primarily produce copper, zinc, gold and nickel.

Business Challenges and Objectives

In the dynamic realm of mining, when Lundin Mining sought a transformational leap in their asset management and aspired to seamlessly transition to a cutting-edge, scalable data-driven platform, they turned to Applexus. What started as a visionary challenge soon evolved into the heartbeat of our success story—the mission to elevate their operations without compromising business agility.

Cost Inefficiency

Higher costs due to inefficient resource allocation and planning during maintenance.

Operational Inefficiency

Challenges in task scheduling and work order management and the need for real-time tracking.

Predictive Insights Gap

Analyzing maintenance plans without predictive insights, hindering proactive decision-making.

Data Integration Complexity

Difficulty in bridging the gap between different data sources.

Reporting Bottlenecks

Inefficient reporting and compliance issues.

Keeping the objectives as a priority, Applexus focused on finding the roadblocks and then finding solutions that work the best for Lundin Mining. Like in every scenario, Lundin Mining had their fair share of loopholes. Higher costs, inefficient resource allocation, and planning during maintenance were some of the bottlenecks we had to deal with. The manual and error-prone nature of scheduling tasks and managing work orders added to the complexity.

Real-time tracking for tasks and unplanned maintenance work was missing, causing delays. Moreover, analyzing maintenance plans lacking predictive insights restricted our ability to make proactive decisions. Rectifying these issues was crucial for improved efficiency, cost reduction, and smarter maintenance planning.

And bridging the boundary between SAP S/4HANA data residency and the wider data store for Operations residing at Azure Data Lake was a major task in-hand. Where the majority of data is outside S/4HANA, continuing to use Azure Data Lake with Power BI as the front end was more of a challenge in itself. Finding a way to make the most of the data we had access to and compartmentalizing them to visualize analytics from them was not easy.

Solution

For Lundin Mining, Applexus implemented SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud for SAP-centric data visualization. When dealing with data outside S/4HANA, we stuck with Azure Data Warehouse and Power BI for visualization.

To combine S/4HANA and Mining Operational data, we integrated SAP Datasphere with Azure Analytics platforms. Leveraging ODBC connector between SAP Datasphere and Azure Data Factory for unilateral data movement between the systems ensured a seamless approach for the integration. It ensured a unified view, allowing us to understand both SAP and non-SAP data sources effectively. This streamlined strategy aligns with the goal of making informed decisions using diverse datasets.

Key Benefits

Through our strategic project, we've unlocked numerous benefits: improved operations, empowered decision-making, enhanced agility, integrated data sources, efficient reporting, cost savings, and an impressive 10-fold boost in user experience, propelling our business into a new era of efficiency and satisfaction

Real-time Visibility - Access to oversee & monitor $13 mn capital expenditure | 90%​ Improvement in Process and Compliance Reporting | 10X User Experience Improvement | 20-40%​ Overall software licensing cost reduction ​

01

Real-time Visibility for Capital Expenditure Oversight

• Datasphere ensured real-time oversight of $13 million in Capital Expenditure for Mine and Mobile Equipment.
• Real-time oversight enabled strategic monitoring for proactive budget optimization and resource allocation.

02

Optimized Operational Performance

• Achieved enhanced adherence to work plans, improved labor efficiency, and increased equipment reliability.
• Streamlined operations, ensuring tasks align with plans and resources are utilized efficiently, leading to improved overall asset management.

03

Empowered Decision-Making with Self-Service Analytics

• Established a scalable and modernized data platform that enables business users to access and analyze data independently.
• Facilitated self-service analytics, empowering users to make data-driven decisions swiftly, fostering a culture of informed decision-making.

04

Enhanced Business Agility and Collaboration

• Enabled real-time monitoring of trends, periodic maintenance snapshots, and improved collaboration.
• Improved agility in responding to market trends, timely maintenance interventions, and enhanced collaboration, resulting in increased operational adaptability.

05

Integrated Data for Holistic Insights

• Datasphere to Azure integration streamlined the analytics landscape for efficient data analysis and decision-making.
• Enabled cross-site analysis of mine production data alongside SAP production costs, facilitating comprehensive financial analysis.

06

Maintenance Compliance and Cost Reduction

• Self-service capabilities achieved an impressive 90% compliance in maintenance operations, ensuring adherence to schedules.
• High compliance resulted in significant cost reduction by minimizing equipment breakdowns and associated costs.

07

Strategic Cost Reduction with Cloud Architecture

• Implemented a cloud-driven architecture, resulting in a 20-40% reduction in software licensing costs.
• Achieved significant cost savings while maintaining operational efficiency, enabling reallocation of resources to strategic initiatives and investments.

08

Exponential Improvement in User Experience

• Realized a 10x improvement in responsiveness to changing business needs.
• Significantly enhanced user experience leading to improved customer satisfaction, ensuring the business is agile in meeting evolving demands