The impact of digital wearables on safety in the South African mining industry

Abstract

The mining industry is currently at a turning point and is encountering several challenges, including the need to improve efficiency, reduce costs, limit its impact on the natural environment and improve safety. In order for mining organisations to stay globally competitive they need to adjust to the new norms of efficient mining at a low cost. The greater the depth of mining the more dangerous mining activity become (Zulu et al., 2021, pp. 184-200). The research was influenced by the need to improve safety through the use of digital technology to collect active data. The concept of digital wearables allows for the collection of a vast amounts of data in real-time which can be used to reveal unknown reoccurrence’s due to certain behaviour or conditions which results in incidents that could have been avoided. Data analytics can be used to design models to easily predict and eliminate a peak in operational scenarios based on the employee groups and mediate prior an incident occurs (Deloitte, 2019). The primary objective of this study is to determine how digital wearables can be utilised to indicate impending hazards by providing data that mines can use to improve safety. There is a need to develop models that are aligned with technological improvements directed at improving safety in mining operations. A quantitative research method was adopted in the research as it describes the investigation and use of numerical data by means of specialised statistical techniques (Oberiri, 2017, pp. 40-47). The method used to conduct the study was a questionnaire in the form of a survey based on a Likert-type scale. Due to a low survey response there were 51 actual respondents and 40 respondents derived from the cleaned data to the survey which included mine management employees, middle management and junior level working on the site. The influence on the dependent variable was populated into the SPSS model to test if the data is a good fit. The data was exported to SPSS and used to run different tests on the sample (Lee, n.d., pp.143-178). Key drivers from the sample data results were identified as the low information efficiency flow currently whereby majority if respondents agree that impeding hazards and injuries can be reduced by way of training to improve human interaction with technology and availability of real time data. The results suggest that technology can play a role in enhancing safety standards in mines. Technology will improve information efficiency but organisations lack “holistic and proactive approaches” in balancing the adoption of technology and industrial social sustainability (Mangaroo-Pillay et al., n.d., pp. 1-12)