Automation and monitoring of the production process in underground mines – Polish experience in implementing the INDUSTRY 4.0 paradigm

The monograph is dedicated to a wide range of recipients interested in the digital transformation of traditional branches of economy into learning organizations, i.e. those that, in a systematic and active way, using their own experience and available information resources, optimize their business model in accordance with the industry 4.0 paradigm, maintaining competitiveness in the changing, dynamic market. The digital revolution of the raw materials consortium described in the monograph explains and documents the digital transformation that took place in the JSW mines in the years 2016÷2020. The book covered processes related to underground computerization, radio communication, monitoring of occupational safety conditions, automation and the use of advanced data analytics to make management decisions. It presents the experience gained by entire research teams in the result of realizing strategic projects for nearly four years, documenting the greatest technological breakthrough in the Polish mining industry in years. The DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION of Poland's key raw material consortium – extensively described on the pages of the monograph – on the one hand allowed for the implementation of strategic efficiency programmes such as QUALITY and EFFICIENCY, but what is equally important, it allowed for the elimination of the huge technological debt with which Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa S.A. has been dealing with it basically since its establishment in 1993 and in the subsequent years of its operation. This debt, growing year by year, strangled the technological innovativeness of the JSW S.A., especially in the years 2000÷2015, paralyzing the implementation of advanced IT projects and not recognizing the OT area at all, the implementation of which could have significantly improved the production monitoring and control processes in the JSW mines. The book presents the Polish experience of entire teams of engineers: IT specialists, automation specialists, miners, geologists and economists, transforming the traditional branch of the economy, which is mining, into a European raw material consortium with ambitions, showing, among others: − how to build a management and supervision strategy over the production area of a modern raw materials company, − how to design the integration and automation of entire production processes and innovative IT/OT solutions in the production and commercial cycle in the field of technical infrastructure, communications, applications supporting security areas and data processing, − how to monitor the area of cybersecurity, security of systems and automation devices used in production, − how to create planning for the desired future, based on the analysis of past experience and functioning in the present and future. The systems for locating people and equipment, gasometric systems, monitoring of methane drainage networks and seismic phenomena, described in the monograph, have a significant impact on ensuring the appropriate level of safety.