CASE STUDY
T
he Royal Swazi Sugar Corporation
(RSSC) is a sugar manufacturer
based in the north-east corner
of Swaziland. Spanning around 20,000
hectares, it has two mills that produce the
sugar for the European and SADC markets.
However, the global sugar market is
struggling against low pricing, which could
impact the organisation.
“The global sugar market is in a state of over-
supply, with pricing being very low – a 30%
drop within the last 12 months,” said Rob
Coombe, Group IT Manager and CIO of RSSC.
“The reason for the over-supply is a
combination of a slowdown in the global
economy and very good crops in Brazil and
India. Europe also changed the sugar regime
in 2017, removing quota’s especially for
African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.
This caused both an increase in production
in Europe but significant drop in demand
for sugar from Africa. Overall there is still an
annual growth in global sugar production
and this is a commodity we believe that will
see the price rise again.”
The company identified four business
cases for IoT that would improve on an
incremental and strategic level. The first was
focused on farmland production, the second
on the versatility and usage of strategic
water resources, the third was around
inbound logistics and the fourth was in the
use of machinery.
“We had some data and sensors already
in place, but they were not part of an
integrated solution,” added Coombe.
“A small portion of our vehicles had
sensors sending live position, speed and
some engine data to a website. We also
had sensors on the Mbuluzi river system
showing the flow rate on the river by
observation of the height of the river
across a weir and have had historical data
on the farm for the last 30 years.
“To resolve this, we got together with
Britehouse and SAP to deploy the sensors
THE DIFFERENT PLATFORMS AND
TECHNOLOGY GIVE US AN INDUSTRY
ADVANTAGE AND BRITEHOUSE HELPS
US KEEP IT.
and data more effectively. We used design
thinking workshops – a new experience
for our farmers and engineers – to flesh
out the business case and select the areas
that would have the biggest return on
investment. We put the sensors into SAP
HANA on a Leonardo platform so we could
integrate all the data and technology easily
with other information.”
www.intelligentcio.com
Coombe said SAP was selected as RSSC’s
ERP of choice in 2013, with Britehouse
added as a support partner three years later.
“They won the tender based on many
criteria, but we were very impressed with
their leadership team, the commitment to us
as a customer and the referrals from other
customers of theirs,” he said.
The company currently has a variety of pilot
projects in play. One uses the data from
sensors on the trucks to view where the cane
trucks are, what they are delivering to the
mill and to assess other data points such as
driver behaviour and fuel consumption.
The water pilot is currently reviewing the
flow of water in the two main rivers to
ensure better utilisation and dam storage.
The goal is to overcome the impact of the
drought while building up reserves around
the estate.
“Technology is essential in solving these
challenges,” said Coombe.
“Agriculture is a very scientific business with
a lot of analysis, thinking and agronomy.
We knew that if we could get the right data
in front of the right people at the right
time, we could improve our yield by small
percentages. The trick has been to look at
areas that provide the best returns on our
technology investment.”
For RSSC, the power of IoT lies in its ability
to add value to the business and allow for
improved decision making – this is one
of the primary reasons it chose to work
with Britehouse.
“Britehouse brings this capability along with
global assistance due to its affiliation with
Dimension Data and, thanks to their close
relationship with SAP, we had high-level
support across the board,” added Coombe.
“Now we know the state of the water in the
field, crop demand and the cost of getting
water to the field. We can look to long term
planning far more effectively and make the
right decisions. The different platforms and
technology give us an industry advantage
and Britehouse helps us keep it. From our
perspective, IoT is just connecting sources
of data with the users in a way that assists
them to add value to the organisation. In
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