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MINING SERVICES

Even the mine kitchen is on

the automation track

he rate of technological change in the
Tresources sector is sweeping every-
one along for the ride and services cov-
ering every facet of the industry must en-
sure they are up to speed.
Even camp management services are
adjusting to automation and the Internet-
of-Things. Paul Cooper, chief executive of
Sodexo Energy & Resources Australia,
told Paydirt his company had invested
heavily in technology and innovation to
keep pace with the demands of major re-
sources companies.
“There has been huge investment in
automation and remote operations in the
industry and service companies have had
to respond to that,” Cooper said. “Clients
expect that we mirror the trend so we in-
vest heavily in innovation.”
For Sodexo, this means introducing au-
tomation and other technological innova-
tions into its suite of life services includ-
ing village management, transportation,
catering, cleaning, building maintenance Technological innovation and automation are increasingly being incorporated
and landscaping services. into quality-of-life services on mine camp sites across australia

having a “huge impact” on the way labour Cooper said the quality and sustain-
was allocated at Sodexo sites, passing on ability of camp life were becoming in-
savings as well as productivity and safety creasingly important to miners and their
improvements to clients. employees.
“Clients want us to remove resource “From food and village living perspec-
from the field which has a direct impact tives, expectations have changed dra-
on safety on site,” he said. “We are not re- matically in the last decade,” Cooper
ducing our headcount; we are redeploy- said. “People don’t expect the bad food
ing people to Perth. and accommodation of years ago. There
“It means we can be highly efficient. In- is an expectation that village life will be
stead of sending a specialist out to site, an extension of home life. Employees are
we can use augmented reality from Perth prepared to forego salary for better liv-
to identify and fix issues.” ing standards in the village. We provide
Sodexo is using its innovation pro- everything from yoga, to personal fitness
grammes to drive improvements across trainers, to smashed avocado on toast. It
its business, including in catering. Last is all part of companies’ retention strat-
month, the company announced its data- egy.”
driven food waste prevention programme, While industry heavyweights are most
WasteWatch powered by food waste pre- inclined to pursue innovation in quality-
paul Cooper vention technology provider Leanpath, of-life services, Cooper has seen compa-
would be rolled out at 35 Australian sites nies from across the operating spectrum
“We now monitor everything on site, over the next 12 months, as part of its introduce new processes on site.
right down to the temperature of a cool global objective to prevent 50% of food “The solutions we provide for the majors
room, digitally through our own remote waste from its operations by 2025. won’t suit everyone, but our scale means
operations centre in Perth,” Cooper said. The WasteWatch programme will en- all clients can benefit from our purchasing
“Perth has become an innovation hub for able sites to capture food waste data, power,” he said. “Smaller companies are
the global group. We have developed our identify opportunities to reduce waste less inclined to embrace innovation be-
own digital platform in-house which we and drive operational and behavioural cause their margins are tighter, but they
are now rolling out globally.” changes. According to the company, the get the benefit of what we provide to the
Cooper said modern communications programme will be deployed across mul- majors which they are happy with.”
technology – the Internet-of-Things – was tiple segments in Australia, including en- – Dominic Piper
ergy and resources.

Page 70 NOVeMBeR 2019 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT