A Productivity Paradigm

I have spent some time looking at the issues relating to productivity and why working hard on a mining solution rather than a “Business Improvement” solution is really important.  You know at the end of the day that the most important strategic ability your mine has is to be able to implement value-adding change.  Also, there is that catch phrase “continuous improvement” which is really, really important when considering the most important strategic ability.  It is interesting when studying data from best practice operations to see the trend of their performance.  In the majority of cases it trends up.  It might be 2% one year, 3% the next and maybe some years it is 0% or down a bit, but the trend is unmistakable.

While Six Sigma, Lean, TOC, etc. are all useful systems, you have to be careful that the improvement you gain is in the removal of your commodity not just the understanding of the “correct” process of business improvement.

However, lets take a step back and assume you are not one of the 10% of mines that has best practice performance of your mining equipment.  Where do you start?  Well the first place you start is in the collection and use of data.  There are monitors for all equipment now and there is no reason not to have one on every piece of equipment.  We have just kicked off a project with Vale in Brazil and they have many, many small excavators and small trucks running around a number of their mines.  From a fleet of 5 m³ excavators and 40 tonne articulated trucks they have a monitor on everything and the data quality is as good as anything in the world.  This is a company which is trying to catch up technology and bring their mines into the 21^st century and they have monitors on everything.  You need to be the same.  It has often been said that if you don’t measure it then you can’t improve it and while this is true it is more than this.  If you don’t acquire it, analyse it and apply it then you can’t improve it.

OK, so we assume you have monitors (and even if you are still to get them) there is a very simple paradigm for improving your equipment.  That is; Fill it up and do it more often.  “Too easy”, I hear you say.  “We already do”, most will respond.  My response to this then is - why aren’t you achieving best practice?  If your P&H4100XPB shovel is moving less than 50 million tonnes per annum or your EX5500 Excavator is less than 24 million tonnes or your Cat 793 truck is less than 5 million tonnes per annum per truck then why aren’t you doing what best practice operations do?  The problem is twofold.  

Firstly, many mines find excuses not to “fill it up”.  These excuses range from, “I can't overload the machine” to “If I don’t fill it up then I can cycle quicker” to “We can’t handle the spillage” to …….  Any of these sound familiar?  Another issue for many mines is that operator have been taught to not fill it up.  The number one, most important thing you can tell an operator is to fill it up.  Irrespective of whether it is a truck, dragline, excavator, front end loader or electric rope shovel the singular directive should be given to the operator; “Fill it up”.  This sounds simple but an operator must be taught what full is and then how to achieve it consistently.  It is surprising how many different definitions there are of “full”.  I will return to this issue of full in future posts as it is a really important concept which many miss.  

Secondly, you must treat every second of time as being important.  This is another one of those attitude issues.  Do you operate your truck for 5,000 hours per year or 6,000?  Think about it this way.  If you could save 15 minutes a day simply by being more efficient in how you park your equipment and how you start it up again (this is one we have actually studied and we reckon 15 minutes a day is the average most mines could achieve per piece of equipment) you would save 90 hours per year.  The key here is attitude towards time.  The average hours worked for a Komatsu 830e truck is 5,159 per annum while best practice mines operate them for 5,675 hours per annum.  Interesting isn’t it.  Now right here I can hear the excuses, weather, height above sea level, hauling profile, etc. but the underlying issue is attitude.  If you found yourself making excuses as soon as you saw those numbers then you need to have a think about your attitude.

Graham Lumley 

BE(Min)Hons, MBA, DBA, FAUSIMM(CP), MMICA, MAICD, RPEQ