Operator Safety

When evaluating operator skills, individuals should be measured and ranked on:

• Knowledge of security procedures
• Fulfilment of security norms
• Use of all appropriate elements of personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Appropriate adjustments to changing physical conditions or terrain
• Recognition of risks in surroundings
• Preparation for an emergency

When evaluating operator attitude, individuals should be measured and ranked on:

• Planning the work
• Showing initiative
• Learning from errors
• Cooperating with supervisors
• Completing reports correctly

The Missing Link in Social Licence to Operate
Internal Disconnects and Short-Sightedness Limit Potential Impact
By Jon Wylie

Most mining companies are aware of the need for a positive relationship with the local community and the impact that this relationship has on continuing operations. While individual programmes to address this need differ, the majority are focused on developing positive community relationships utilizing elements such as training and education, preference in hiring local or indigenous workers, development of a business centre supporting local contractors to bid on work, or cultural programmes such as support for local artists or clubs. Typically, community engagement programmes are well funded by the operation and can exceed 10% of revenue.

The Missing Link: Integration across Units

We would like to focus on one often overlooked opportunity. Generally, the true total dollars going into the community far exceed the designated "community outreach funding." So how can resource companies effectively maximise their community spend to create the greatest impact? The foundation for this, we believe, is how well the community engagement activity is integrated into normal day-to-day operations. Once addressed, this then builds a foundation for effective engagement of the community.

As part of numerous programmes, we have reviewed the engagement points between the mine site and the community. Typically, we find that community engagement is either the purview of a single department (such as external relations), or shared among the safety, organisational development, health and environmental departments. Unfortunately, several departments that are often neglected with respect to involvement — mining operations, exploration, maintenance and capital engineering — all have significant impact on the community either in terms of spend, use of contractors and need for trained workers. Therefore, if these departments and efforts are not well coordinated, the organisation may find itself working at cross purposes.

Missteps and Missed Opportunities

For example, we often witness capital programmes managed by project engineering teams. The focus of their efforts is bringing in the project on budget and schedule and having it meet the performance requirements as dictated. This mandate leaves little room (perceived or real) for community engagement activities, such as breaking down the engineering work into bite-sized pieces that may be farmed out to contractors, such as site preparation or clean up.

Alternatively, an international engineering firm may be hired to manage the project. These firms often then hire national contractors who hire local contractors. From the community point of view they are now working for the mining company, though paid by the national contractor. How the international engineering firm or the national contractor treats their employees and community relationships ultimately will impact the mining company's community relations. Essentially, work can be outsourced, but the public relations will come home to roost with the mine itself.

Additionally, we have seen instances in which the external relations department is looking at ways to generate employment opportunities in the local area, while the corporate side is looking to reduce overall contractor spend. These two issues are clearly interwoven and potentially could conflict with one another if not properly managed.

We are currently serving on several projects which have both a community and business improvement impact. The opportunities identified range from looking at ways to make contractors more productive, reducing spend, training contractor supervisors, simplification of purchasing and tender bid processes, examining how capital project work packages are developed and tendered, tracking and measuring the actual spend within the community and how much of the goods and services procured actually stay in the community, and more.

In Sync

Nearly all investments in community relations yield meaningful returns, but those programmes which consider all community engagement points will deliver the greatest impact. A siloed approach will lead to inconsistent or even self-defeating initiatives, whereas the best programmes include representatives and input from every department that interfaces with or impacts the community in any way.

>> Read about the positive cultural transformations achieved at PT Inco Indonesia.

Need to increase employee engagement in your mine or facility? Contact us for a no-obligation consultation.

Waste Not, Want Not
Mining Industry Yet to Embrace Energy Efficiency
By Gemma Manning

The energy-intensive mining and metals sector has been alarmingly slow to adopt sustained energy management practices. Our recent research found that 43% of companies in Australia and New Zealand still have not having implemented an official energy policy.

The study, entitled, 'Meeting the Corporate Energy Challenge: Are Companies Walking the Talk on Energy Efficiency?' further reports that of the mining companies surveyed:

• 52% have only had an energy policy in place for between 1-5 years
• Only 5% have had a policy in place for more than 15 years
• 38% do not have a designated person responsible for energy
• 38% have no dedicated energy team with specific energy goals

Energy Efficiency at What Cost?

Increased energy efficiency does not have to come at the expense of throughput. In a recent engagement we collaborated with a mine's Business Excellence team to combine throughput enhancement and energy cost reduction. The project focused on increasing ore feeding rate to kilns at a ferronickel mining and smelting operation.

The solutions implemented not only increased the feed rate, but also reduced both the kiln gas consumption and electrical consumption of the furnaces. The resulting cost savings generated more than US$20 million in EBIT improvement.

It's Tough Out There
Mining Productivity Challenges Reflected in Annual Study
By Cay Mims

The 2007 Global Proudfoot Productivity Report was released last month. Based on proprietary data collected from 2,477 operational performance reviews in 38 countries during the past four years, it concludes that the leading cause of unproductive time globally is poor supervision — responsible for 31% of the wasted time — followed by poor management planning/control of work (30%) and poor communication (18%).

In addition to these findings, the report includes a ranking of issues related to key barriers to productivity improvement, based on a survey of 500 senior business executives in 15 countries conducted in June and July 2007.

The executives cited inappropriately qualified workers (12%), external communication problems involving suppliers and customers (11%) and internal communication problems (11%) within their companies as the leading barriers to increased productivity. Poor sales performance (6%), inadequate or poor supervisor performance (6%) and outdated technology (4%) were cited least often as influential barriers.

The Six Sigma / LEAN Gap
Changing Processes by Changing Behaviour
By Cristopher Del Angel

When an organisation decides to make any significant change to its internal processes, just the initial talk of the intended change can be unsettling to a workforce comfortable in its current routine. The situation is exacerbated if management fails to communicate its reasons for wanting to implement the change and fails to demonstrate strong, visible support for it.

Change agents, whether they are Six Sigma experts, LEAN leaders or others, must be mindful of one key ingredient in managing people: changes in processes or procedures are sustained only when changes in behaviour occur. People who are asked to implement change first need to understand why a specific change is needed and that they can make a difference within their areas of influence.

Experiences in the field indicate that most managers come up short in their approach to the behavioural elements of change. For example, while it might be clear what type of change in a mining operation is needed to enhance throughput, the results of that change hinge on whether behaviour is modified permanently, rather than on whether the change has precisely incorporated the technical requirements.

Securing Worker Buy-In

We often note a behaviour change gap within companies that devote significant resources to the Six Sigma or LEAN philosophies. The talented experts driving these types of initiatives generally are extremely successful at developing technical changes that positively impact company performance. Their focus tends to be robust in statistical analysis and in addressing specific parts of the process. Much less specific and robust, however, is their approach to the workers upon whom the mine or company depends.

Thus, at Six Sigma companies or sites, a sizable gap may exist — process improvements may be designed perfectly to reach their objectives, however the workforce may not be prepared to accept them as part of their daily routines.

Involving Everyone in Change

To enhance production at the smelting operation of a Six Sigma-driven company, we recently succeeded in significantly re-defining its slagging process (keeping the slag release flowing at the expected rate for an increased number of operating hours during its 24/7 operation). To help us alter the behaviour and encourage the workforce to be open to this change, we developed a Skills programme that specified the way in which activities had to be developed. The programme analysed potentially dangerous situations as well as specific needs that had to be taken into consideration to ensure quality of the job and optimization of production time.

This programme was supported by a series of communications and visual aids at the point of execution. These tools enabled workers to understand graphically how they had performed each time and how their improvements impacted the organisation's overall performance. Involvement and participation at all levels of the organisation, as well as recognition of base personnel, were all key in making this improvement a success.

The result of this programme was a 30% reduction in the shutdown time for cleaning the slag hole. Improvements in the quality of the work were achieved as well, which reduced the frequency of shutdowns needed for cleaning (during which workers were exposed to extreme temperatures and dangerous conditions) and increased the operational time significantly.

My Place in the Big Picture

At the same time, operators gained a greater understanding of the value of their work and how it affected / benefited the company's overall results, and the company determined it needed to devote more time to enhancing the skills of its supervisors and operators. While many had worked there for more than 10 years, some did not understand the forces driving the business strategy and how management quantified their individual contributions to the operation.

A behaviour-focused approach makes change sustainable. It helps the workers change the way they feel and think about their jobs by aligning attitudes and behaviours with the system and process changes, as well as with the overall direction of the company. Further, it keeps us ever aware that a technically-sound change designed by Six Sigma, LEAN or similar applications could be at risk of failing unless supported by the appropriate behavioural change.

Need to close the gap between Six Sigma / LEAN and behavioural change? Contact us for a no-obligation consultation.