MES & advanced process control
Manufacturing execution and advanced process control that first stabilise the process, then optimise it — more throughput, recovery and energy efficiency from the equipment you already own.
A Manufacturing Execution System sits between the plant floor and the business systems above it, tracking what's actually being produced, at what rate, with what quality and what downtime, in real time rather than in a shift report written up after the fact. Advanced process control (APC) goes a layer deeper, using models of the process itself to hold variables like feed rate, temperature or reagent dosing closer to their optimal setpoints than a human operator adjusting manually ever consistently could.
The sequence matters here as much as the technology: a process that isn't stable can't be usefully optimised, because APC tuned against erratic behaviour just automates the instability faster. Stabilisation comes first, closing the gap between what the plant is designed to do and what it's actually doing shift to shift, and only once that baseline is reliable does optimisation layer on top. Done in that order, the gains — more throughput, better recovery, lower energy and reagent consumption per tonne — come from the plant and equipment already on site, not from a capital project to replace it.
ERP tells you what the business did; operational technology decides what the plant does next. Through the 4Sight group's operational-technology cluster — an AVEVA Endorsed System Integrator and Gold System Integrator for Rockwell Automation, with deep Siemens and Schneider practice — we bring plant automation, MES, digital twins and industrial AI to Botswana's mines and plants, coordinated from Gaborone and connected to the business systems we already support.
Plant automation & SCADA
PLC programming, SCADA and HMI development across Siemens, Rockwell Allen-Bradley and Schneider platforms — engineered, commissioned and supported by the group's industrial software engineers.
Digital twins & simulation
Simio-based simulation and digital-twin models that test mine plans, plant changes and schedules in software — so expensive decisions are rehearsed before they are made.
Asset performance & predictive maintenance
Condition data turned into maintenance calls before failures stop production — asset performance management delivered as a packaged solution, not a research project.
Industrial AI
Agentic, domain-aware AI assistants for heavy industry, grounded in your plant data — putting expert answers where operators work and easing the industrial skills gap.
IT/OT integration & security
The bridge to your ERP: production, consumables and downtime landing in the business systems automatically — with the OT network segmented and secured, because a plant is a target too.
Can industrial automation projects really be delivered in Botswana?
Yes — and this is exactly what the 4Sight alliance is for. The engineering depth sits in the group's operational-technology cluster, an AVEVA Endorsed System Integrator and Gold System Integrator for Rockwell Automation working across the region; AccTech Botswana provides the local presence — scoping, coordination, IT/OT integration and the support relationship. You get specialist OT engineering with a Gaborone partner accountable for it.
What is the difference between IT and OT, and why does one partner matter?
IT runs the business — ERP, payroll, email; OT runs the plant — PLCs, SCADA, control systems. Most sites buy them from different vendors who never talk, which is why production figures get re-typed into spreadsheets before finance sees them. One partner across both worlds means the plant and the ERP are designed to feed each other from the start.
What is a digital twin, and is it worth it for a mine?
A digital twin is a software model of your operation — pit, plant or logistics chain — accurate enough to test decisions against. Its value is proportional to the cost of the decisions you rehearse on it: fleet sizing, plant modifications, scheduling strategies. For operations where a wrong call costs millions, simulating it first is cheap; for a small stable plant, we will say honestly that simpler analytics serve you better.
Can plant systems feed our ERP automatically?
Yes — that is IT/OT integration, and it is where we are most at home. Production quantities posting to inventory, fuel and reagent consumption to cost centres, downtime events to maintenance and costing — captured once at source and landing in the ERP without re-typing. The integration discipline we practise daily on business systems, applied at the plant boundary.
Where should a mine or plant start with digitisation?
Where data is still captured on paper and typed in later — that is the cheapest gap to close and it funds the rest. From there the sequence is usually: reliable plant data collection, then MES to structure it, then optimisation and AI on top. Buying the AI before the data exists is the classic false start, and we will tell you so.
Platforms: AVEVA · Rockwell Automation · Siemens · Schneider Electric · Simio · 4Sight OT