SUPPLY CHAIN OPERATIONS
“ We wanted to be different . We wanted to take experienced miners and teach them how to be consultants not take consultants and teach them how to be miners ”
BRAD JEWSON DIRECTOR OF MINING , OUTLIERS MINING SOLUTIONS
Perhaps surprisingly , both Hewitt and Jewson agree that most senior managers are open to how technology can help improve efficiency rather than seeing it as a threat . " These are result-driven people . This approach delivers better business results ," says Hewitt .
Continuous improvements For clients looking to improve the performance of their operation and invest in their people , Jewson recommends a focus on continuous improvement , built on a Lean Six Sigma program and specific to the mining industry .
" We have a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt program where we train individuals from all areas of the operation – finance , human resources , mine operations , maintenance , engineering ," says Jewson . " And we teach them the Lean and Six Sigma methodology for continuous improvement . So rather than hiring a continuous improvement expert , who may not understand mining , you have 15 people across your organisation implementing improvement projects in their area that deliver real value in terms of cost savings , production increases , or reduction in risk .
" This also creates a common language for improvement and it creates a site-wide culture of continuous improvement . We ' ve had single programmes deliver tens of millions of dollars of value in terms of increased production and reduce costs while making a real investment in the development of their people .
" We had a mining partner in Canada that trained 24 of their people in our Lean and Six Sigma program . The result was a group of accredited Green Belts delivering improvement projects in all areas of the business . The combined value of the projects delivered was over US $ 60 million in just two years ." miningglobal . com 93