By: Paul Steyn - Project Manager for Field Services, Anglophone Africa, Schneider Electric

While many organisations concentrate on immediate returns and reactive field services, establishing a long-term support strategy offers significantly greater benefits. By utilising data-driven insights, field services teams facilitate smarter CAPEX decisions through optimised asset planning, forecasting performance and recommending timely upgrades or replacements.

Before digitisation, maintenance was scheduled at fixed intervals, typically once or twice a year, based on product-specific guidelines. That approach still holds value, but digital systems now enable predictive maintenance, allowing issues to be detected and addressed before scheduled service dates. In environments like mining, this means operators can respond to early warnings triggered by harsh conditions or overuse, avoiding unexpected failures, safety risks, and costly downtime.

By combining scheduled human intervention with real-time diagnostics, organisations gain continuous visibility into asset health. Investing in digital systems with predictive capabilities shifts maintenance from reactive to proactive, protecting both operations and budgets.

Processing raw data from equipment

Whether in the mining, food and beverage or industrial automation sectors, digitised systems compare input to output in real time. Backend platforms process raw data from connected equipment and present it in a user-friendly interface tailored to each application.

This connectivity also gives deep insight into asset lifecycle status. For example, if a piece of equipment is designed to last 20 years, that lifespan depends on operating conditions, scheduled maintenance and timely replacement of critical spares, much like servicing a car.

Digitisation helps organisations stay proactive, enabling smarter planning of both OPEX and CAPEX. The return on investment (ROI) lies in visibility. Emerging issues can be detected early, failures can be prevented, and timely support from OEMs or service providers can be coordinated. Instead of reacting to breakdowns, organisations can shift to a planned, proactive model. If a device shows signs of stress, a purchase order can be issued and a technician dispatched with full diagnostic data already in hand. This streamlines intervention, ensures the right parts are ordered in advance, and reduces downtime.

Power of predictive insight

Ultimately, digitisation extends asset life and protects against costly failures. But the most critical ROI is safety. If a connected device signals a risk of catastrophic failure, you can act immediately, clearing the area, shutting down operations and resolving the issue before harm occurs. That is the power of predictive insight.

Greater visibility into the installed base and plant performance enables smarter planning, more efficient CAPEX allocation, and improved operational output. For example, if a system is operating at 86% capacity, digitisation allows you to identify where and how to optimise performance, potentially lifting productivity to 90% or beyond.

Sustainability, in this context, means implementing long-term, reliable systems that consistently save energy and reduce costs. A strategic approach to asset management, combining digitisation, connectivity, training, scheduled maintenance and breakdown support, helps end users proactively manage their operations. Once you establish a baseline of your installed base and internal capabilities, you can identify gaps in technical proficiency and plan targeted upskilling for your team.

Digitisation challenges in Africa

In the African context, the conversation around digitisation is gaining momentum, and rightly so. For OEMs and end-user organisations, connecting and visualising operational data is essential for safety, productivity, predictive maintenance and better forecasting of production constraints.

However, the real challenge is not the availability of smart devices, but the communication infrastructure needed to connect them. In sectors like mining, we often present advanced hardware with rich connectivity features, but the end user lacks the network capacity to transmit data back to a centralised system. Unlike Western markets, where infrastructure supports seamless integration, African operations face a gap between device capability and infrastructure readiness.

Schneider Electric’s approach goes beyond supplying best-in-class digital equipment. We focus equally on ensuring that the supporting infrastructure is secure, reliable and capable of handling high-volume data transmission. Our embedded software includes advanced threat detection and cybersecurity protocols to protect both data integrity and customer trust.