The German Coal Miner Using 1,000 iPads to Help Weather a Rout
- RWE looking to improve efficiency with software, iPads
- First energy and utility customer for IBM, Apple partnership
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during an Apple announcement at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on October 22, 2013 in San Francisco, California. The tech giant is expected to announce its new iPad 5, iPad mini 2, OS X Mavericks and possibly a new retina MacBook Pro.
Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesGerman coal and power producer RWE AG, weathering the worst rout for the country’s electricity market in over a decade, is turning to Apple Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. to help shave costs.
Field workers at RWE’s Hambach coal mine started using software on Apple iPad mini devices in December. They’re already saving 30 minutes a day by cutting down on paperwork, said Andreas Lamken, chief information officer of RWE’s generation unit. The company has deployed a “couple hundred” of the handheld tablets and plans to distribute more at its two other mines and then to utility workers in the coming months, with a goal of reaching as many as a thousand, he said.