Digital transformation of a legacy industrial giant

For decades, Baiyin Nonferrous Group has been a key player in China’s nonferrous metals industry—often referred to as the “eldest son” of China’s nonferrous metals sector. But like many long-established industrial organizations, it was faced with aging assets, legacy systems, manual processes, and a lack of visibility across the enterprise.

Baiyin Nonferrous Group needed more than incremental improvements. It needed a digital transformation to meet today’s operational challenges as well as set the foundation for future growth.

From data bottlenecks to process innovation: New issues for an established enterprise

Baiyin Nonferrous Group is involved in the mining, smelting, processing, and trade of nonferrous metals such as copper, zinc, gold, and silver, as well as rare precious metals. Nonferrous metal production involves intricate processes, diverse equipment, and geographically dispersed sites. Over time, this complexity has resulted in disconnected systems and unreliable data, while aging infrastructure further complicated data collection at scale.

Across plants and mines, automation levels varied widely, and systems were fragmented. Critical production data was often manually recorded and shared, making it difficult to ensure accuracy, timeliness, or traceability.

And like many organizations across the industry, Baiyin Nonferrous Group faced sustainability challenges. Increasingly stringent quality inspections and increased pressure to optimize energy use—while improving product quality and controlling costs—required a more sophisticated, data-driven approach to operations and management.

Together, these challenges created a clear mandate: establish a unified, reliable data foundation to enable operational visibility and continuous optimization.

AVEVA System Platform, as a mature and excellent data acquisition platform, can integrate data collection and comprehensive monitoring across multiple operating conditions through expansion. With efficient data scaling capabilities, it provides strong data and analytics support for group-wide, integrated management.”

– Hong Tao General Manager, Baiyin Bluebird Digital Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd.

Data acquisition as the starting point for transformation

Baiyin Nonferrous Group adopted a structured transformation strategy that combines top-level design with rapid phased deployment. At the core of the initiative was a critical priority: solve the data problem first. To accelerate execution, the company, in a joint venture with Shanghai Bluebird, formed Baiyin Bluebird, a dedicated digital transformation entity, and partnered with Schneider Electric for strategic guidance. Baiyin Nonferrous Group selected AVEVA System Platform to serve as the foundation for its digital transformation. Known for its scalability and interoperability, the platform enabled the company to standardize and unify data acquisition across mining, smelting, and energy operations.

Baiyin Nonferrous Group was able to integrate information from its diverse equipment and legacy systems, enabling real-time, reliable data capture for production, energy consumption, and safety and environmental metrics.

This transformation replaced fragmented, manual processes with a centralized, automated data infrastructure, eliminating silos and establishing a single source of truth.

Connecting OT and IT in an integrated intelligent data platform

With a robust data foundation in place, Baiyin Bluebird developed an integrated intelligent management and control platform—BBMCI.

By connecting operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT), BBMCI provides a unified environment for both production/operations management and enterprise business management.

In practice, BBMCI not only delivers comprehensive visualization of production, equipment, energy consumption, safety, and environmental data, but also establishes data-driven optimization of production command, reporting and analytics, cross-functional collaboration, and intelligent decision-making.

Tangible impact: Improving efficiency, reducing waste, and driving profit

Baiyin Nonferrous Group’s digital transformation drove significant operational improvements, enabling organization-wide and site-level visibility along with end-to-end traceability. Managers can now access real-time production data, improving the speed and accuracy of decision-making. The platform also supports remote operations, reducing high-risk fieldwork and routine inspection workloads, while enhancing overall production safety.

Digitized production records enable technical teams to analyze process performance and optimize workflows, while integrated analysis of quality and process data provides a more precise basis for reducing defects.

At the same time, energy consumption monitoring highlights inefficiencies and guides targeted energy savings initiatives. Together with cost analysis capabilities that support a more optimized cost structure, the platform equips leaders with the visibility and intelligence needed to improve efficiency, reduce waste, and drive stronger profitability.

Through digital transformation, we can clearly see real-time data across all production sites. We can also perform remote operations directly through the control platform, greatly reducing some higher-risk on-site operations. And because we can view real-time equipment status on the platform, the amount of routine inspection work has also been greatly reduced.”

– Wu Kef u, Chief Engineer Baiyin Nonferrous Group Copper Company

70% digital control across key production processes

After more than four years of sustained effort, Baiyin Nonferrous Group achieved impressive results. It implemented 13 major digital intelligence projects, including a centralized copper smelting control center.

The organization achieved 70% digital control across key production processes, with 85% digital adoption across business management. The company’s copper business unit has also been recognized as a national intelligent manufacturing demonstration factory, positioning Baiyin Nonferrous Group as a benchmark for the industry.

Beyond immediate gains, Baiyin Nonferrous Group’s digital transformation has created a scalable digital backbone for future growth. The unified data platform not only addresses today’s operational challenges, but also enables advanced analytics, automation, and intelligent optimization in the years ahead and provides broad scalability.

This allows the digital transformation journey to continue extending into the future and to continuously create new value.

By turning data into a strategic asset, Baiyin Nonferrous Group has fundamentally redefined its operating model, transitioning from a traditional industrial enterprise to a modern, data-driven organization.

Industrial innovation in a data-first era

Baiyin Nonferrous Group’s journey illustrates a broader shift across heavy industry: digital transformation is no longer optional. It is the foundation for resilience, efficiency, and sustained competitiveness.

With a strong digital core in place, Baiyin Nonferrous Group is now equipped to lead the next phase of industrial innovation, demonstrating how legacy enterprises can successfully reinvent themselves in a data-first era.