On 29 August at Emperors Palace Convention Centre, Johannesburg, Endress+Hauser South Africa launched Innovating Africa’s Industries (IAI), an exciting new conference established in cooperation with other key industry players to collaborate on a journey to address the challenges faced by the process automation industry when adopting innovation and new technology. The event received keen support from industry and attracted various companies – Rockwell Automation, DRA Global, Andritz Delkor, WEC Projects, Krones, PSA Global and GEA – as sponsors.
In an effort to use tomorrow’s technology to prepare today’s experts, IAI was the first conference of its kind, to be hosted in Johannesburg, attracting a large audience including:
• Plant managers interested in increasing plant output and ensuring safety
• Maintenance managers interested in decreasing downtime and associated costs
• Engineering managers interested in plant optimisation and continuous improvement
• Operations managers interested in increasing efficiency and plant uptime
• Leaders of innovation interested in using technology to gain competitive advantage
• Automation managers interested in seamless integration to reduce transactional costs
This conference addressed many challenges identified by industry, amongst others:
• Rapidly changing trends
• IIoT and digitalisation
• Lack of skills and knowledge
• Increasing production output under demanding conditions
• Access to real-time plant information
• Ensuring safety and environmental compliance
Organised in three concurrent industry segments – Food & Beverage, Water & Wastewater, and Primaries & Metals. Each session had a stimulating agenda with different speakers sharing their expertise on various topics related to the industry. Some of the highlights were, smart mining with big data, digital transformation and the evolution of digital automation in the mining industry, digitalisation and smart cloud solutions in food & beverage applications, the journey to digital water, biological wastewater treatment technology, and preservation of water quality. Interactive exhibition stands were also available for delegates to visit during break intervals to see live demonstrations of these powerful solutions and technologies. Representing the Mining expo were DRA Global and Andritz Delkor, the Food & Beverage expo featured Krones, GEA and PSA Global, and WEC Projects represented Water & Wastewater while Endress+Hauser and Rockwell Automation represented all three industries.
Delegates also witnessed case studies of how innovative solutions empower the process industries. For example, Francois Theron from Clover shared a presentation on engineering management challenges, while Saziso Ngida from ABInBev unpacked end-user expectations for seamless integration.
The day ended on a high with a networking event where delegates unwound at the cocktail evening while enjoying some live music performances.
This is what the delegates had to say about IAI:
“The event highlighted brilliantly what is happening in the industry at the moment,” Andrew Anderson, DRA Global.
“The event was fantastic,” Andries Masekwa, Heineken SA.
Special thanks go to:
• All valued customers for giving this prestigious event their attention.
• Participating sponsors for their support and contribution to the success of the event.
• The speakers who shared their valuable knowledge and insight.
| Tel: | +27 11 262 8000 |
| Email: | info.za.sc@endress.com |
| www: | www.endress.com |
| Articles: | More information and articles about Endress+Hauser South Africa |
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