Orica has been awarded for its fragmentation measurement technology, FRAGTrack™ and entrenched culture of innovation, taking out the 2nd spot in the Australian Financial Review’s Most Innovative Companies List 2020 under the Agriculture, Mining & Utilities Service sector.
The prestigious annual list published by The Australian Financial Review (AFR) and Boss Magazine is based on a rigorous assessment process, led by a panel of industry experts and innovation consultancy, Inventium.
From a pool of over 600 nominated organisations across Australia and New Zealand, Orica’s FRAGTrack™ has been recognised as a pioneering technology in the Agriculture, Mining &Utilities Service industry, delivering significant value for customers.
FRAGTrack™, Orica’s automated fragmentation measurement device, accurately and reliably measures rock size and fragmentation following the blasting stage in mining and quarrying.
While traditional methods are prone to operator bias and cannot generally operate in harsher mining environments, FRAGTrack™ captures, analyses and reports real-time data digitally.
Orica’s Chief Commercial and Technology Officer, Angus Melbourne, said this new technology is about putting customers first with the help and assistance of industry leading innovation.
“FRAGTrack is an excellent example of this innovative spirit on show. This technology has evolved through collaborative innovation between our experts, customers, technology partners and the industry,” he said.
Designed in collaboration with Design Anthology, Newie Ventures and Your Engineer Mechanical Engineering, the technology can be installed and upgraded remotely–creating safer, more accurate mining outcomes.
When judging the innovation, the AFR industry panel considered three key elements – how valuable the problem is that the innovation is solving, the quality and uniqueness of the solution, and the level of impact that the innovation has had.
However, the organisation must also be able to demonstrate a truly innovative culture and a sustainable and repeatable approach to innovation across the business.
Celebrating the achievement, Orica’s Chief Commercial and Technology Officer, Angus Melbourne, said it is great to be recognised for our innovation, as it is behind everything they do.
“Innovation underpins everything we do at Orica, and it’s our pioneering spirit, amazing people and commitment to working collaboratively with our customers that allows us to continue to deliver products and technologies that are shaping the future of mining,” Angus said.
“Customer collaboration is key to our innovation process. By understanding our customer’s challenges and sharing their goals and aspirations, we can deliver better outcomes on site today, and use these insights to create new technologies that will deliver value tomorrow.
“At Orica, we are proud to be leading the change in digital, automated blasting. The convergence of these technologies is allowing us to think differently, mine differently, operate more precisely and most importantly, remove people from harm’s way. FRAGTrack exemplifies all of this, while ultimately delivering significant value for the industry.”
This award for the FRAGTrack™ technology follows the International Good Design Engineering Award for Outstanding Design and Innovation, the Endeavour Awards Australia’s Most Innovative Manufacturing Company and Best industrial IIoT Applicationat the IIoT awards held in August.
IMAGE | The detailed design process of FRAGTrack™
