HIGH PROFILE
supplies the interoperable management system
for each mine. What will make the Hitachi option
stand out?
A We absolutely hope that other OEM vendors
embrace this approach. It will be the customers
who win as a result of it. The problem is that other
vendors have had a decade to embrace open
autonomy and for pragmatic reasons that benefit
their strategy, they have chosen not to develop
their solutions in this manner. We believe that
Hitachi’s approach is the most effective because
of the OEM providers with decades of experiences
in mining operations, only Hitachi is creating
solutions using this Open Innovation and
Interoperability focus. The newcomer vendors
who are entering the market do not have the
experience of the major mining OEM vendors, or
the experience providing sophisticated Digital
Mining and Fleet Management Systems. Hitachi is
one of the few companies that have both the
experience and the open approach that customers
require. Having said that, many companies that
could see themselves as competitors should
really see themselves as partners, since no one
vendor has the entire solution that customers
require, and customers want to have choice. No
system will be entirely from a single vendor. The
mine of the future will have one attribute that
always has been present, a heterogeneous multi-
vendor ecosystem that the customer will integrate
end-to-end. The question will be: As vendors, how
easy will we make it for them?
Q Is there not a risk that this open approach
might reduce potential for sales of Hitachi’s own
autonomous options such as its Hitachi AHS
system for haul trucks?
A We’ve identified that from the beginning and
openly embrace it. The customer has to have the
choice. Autonomy is a disruptive technology, and
all disruptive technologies introduce new entrants
that can put the old vendors at risk. Frankly, that
may be a primary reason why other OEM vendors
are so closed. It isn’t just because it’s practical for
them to develop their solution, it reduces the risk
of being replaced. But that does not benefit the
customer. It benefits the vendor, at least in the
short run. Hitachi and the other vendors have to
be willing to help the customer succeed, even if it
means their own sales are at risk. Frankly, however,
the long-term losers in disruptive technologies
tend to be closed platforms. A good example of this
is what’s happened to Apple’s iPhone market share
vs Google’s Android. Whereas Apple’s share has
halved over the past seven years, Android’s has
doubled and now has eight times the market share
of IoS devices. This does not even include the
original cellphone/ smart phone vendors such as
RIM’s Blackberry, Nokia and Motorola, who were
the original leaders in the field. The long term
winners tend to be the innovative open platforms.
Today, Hitachi isn’t the leading player in the truck
market and sales of trucks are less than 5% of
HCM’s revenue, so the open philosophy in that
sense is more valuable to HCM than the sale of
trucks. That’s not to say selling trucks isn’t
important because it is, but HCM is a company that
thinks about its business long term, and at its core,
understands the sustained success of our business
is based on creating value for our customers. It’s at
the core of how we make decisions, and how we
consider business options.
Q Has this new Solution Linkage been deployed at
any sites as yet such as at your AHS flagship
Maules Creek or has it been trialled at the
Meandu AHS development project?
A Solution Linkage is available for construction
customers and is being introduced into mining.
The initial platform components are already being
used by customers who are planning to integrate
different AHS vendors who are not from the big
three. We can’t announce any customers or
vendors at this time but hope to do so in the
future. This is exactly the intention of the Open
Autonomy approach that Solution Linkage will
provide. We will be creating a cloud based
platform in the future, but in the meantime,
customers can work with Hitachi and Wenco to
help them integrate chosen autonomy vendors. IM
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