For Mining Companies

A Focus on Equipment, Cost and Culture

...and the Barriers that Prevent Change.

Over 30 years of mining experience help you optimize performance.

My work with metals, coal, gold and iron ore operations has made me aware of mining's strengths and weaknesses when it comes to improvement. Mines need:

a common-sense approach to capturing hidden opportunities (production and cost),
better cooperation between departments to optimize results,
processes that help management teams "manage change like they manage operations", and
strategies for removing barriers to change, sustaining improvements and building credibility.

I have hands-on experience helping each of these departments get better:

Metals: Drilling/Blasting, Loading, Hauling, Crusher/Convey, Grinding Flotation, Tailings, Smelting, Refining, Pelletizing
Coal: Drilling/Blasting, Dragline, Loading, Hauling, Longwalls, CMs, Belts, Coal Haulage/Loadout, Preparation Plant
Support Functions: Engineering, Marketing, Accounting, Permitting, Contract Management, Environmental
Relationships Between Departments:
- Operations / Maintenance Partnership
- Maintenance / Warehouse / Purchasing Partnerships
- Planning / Training / Operations / Maintenance

The critical importance of relationships between departments is often overlooked, undervalued or misunderstood. As a result, millions of dollars may be invested in tools and methods while the organizational barriers that prevent change go unaddressed, forfeiting expected benefits. Elements of this work include:

Customer / Supplier Relationships - Between Departments and Between Customers

Key Measures, Process Requirements, Contractual Specifications, Environmental Restrictions
Departments that do not work well with each other.
Manager Cooperation to achieve enterprise-wide goals.

Management Team Development to manage change and address uncomfortable issues:

Management Team Effectiveness, Leading Improvement
Hesitancy to speak up about what really needs to be fixed.
Fear of asking for what is needed to improve communications and workflow.
Unintentional sabotage of improvements by conflicting management processes/communications.

Together we can define a scope of work that fits your needs:

Customized Improvement Systems (design, implementation, training, execution coaching)

Improving the Effectiveness of Existing Programs (Six Sigma, Lean, etc.)

Help with Specific Tools/Methods (key measures, flowcharts, process control, etc.)

Management Team Coaching (working together more effectively, meeting to solve problems instead of meeting to listen, then go back to work) (see Management Training (ICI)

Process Improvement Team Facilitation / Action Plan Execution (see below)

Creating New Processes (especially those involving many departments - mine start-up, other)

Removing Organizational Barriers between departments (emphasizing, identifying and capturing customer/supplier requirements, spreading process knowledge and the "big picture")

Process Improvement Team Facilitation:

It is often said that those closest to a problem are the best ones to fix it. Process Improvement Teams are formed for this purpose - to fix recurring problems that are most familiar to them while increasing efficiency and reducing costs. Good foundation training is critical to a team’s ability to identify/analyze opportunities for improvement and execute/monitor action plans for success.

Our training approach is different. We strive for simplicity to help everyone feel connected and confident during the change process. We also use examples that apply to the work being discussed.

Teams we have trained and facilitated:

MINE MANAGEMENT TEAMS – Overview of improvement tools, methods for identifying and valuing opportunities for improvement, management’s role in forming, sponsoring and closing out teams.
OPERATIONS / MAINTENANCE – Drilling / Blasting, Dragline, Fueling, Operating Delays, Production Scheduling, Belt Splicing, Belt Moves, Longwall, Continuous Miners, CM Battery Change, Coal Haulage,Preventive Maintenance
COAL PREPARATION PLANT- Chute Plugs, Load-out, Process Control
MINE START-UP PROCESS - defined a multi-departmental process for consistent mine start-up
SUPPORT FUNCTION TEAMS -Division Procurement, Marketing and Accounting Departments
NON-PROFIT BOARDS - Strategic Plan Development and Execution.

My History with Mining Goes Way Back...
My grandfather fought in World War I, then operated a steam shovel in the coal fields of Ohio after the war. This is a picture of his Marion Shovel and his commemorative copper medallion. Maybe my passion for helping mines succeed was passed to me long ago....

OPPORTUNITY: An odorless invisible element defined as a favorable set of circumstances in business. The only element with an infinite atomic number and weight. When discovered and captured, it reacts with improvement programs and corporate cultures to produce a desirable green substance found in financial institutions.