The following is a consolidated overview of the various mining industry projects involving eProcesses Consulting since 2006 in iron ore and gold mines in North America, South America, and Africa. 

The project began with an analysis of the historic financial and operational data and the core processes. The analysis yielded best demonstrated performance, effective capacity, and average performance for each process and functional area. The analysis revealed performance gaps and a list of recommended projects.

Goal alignment assessed the extent to which executive level goals and objectives aligned with each level lower in the organization. A list of projects emerged as necessary for attaining the combined goals and objectives of the organization. Project management facilitated the achievement of each of the organization’s goals for the fiscal year.

Engineers and supervisors received training in Six Sigma, Lean, and Kaizen tools and techniques. The projects they did concurrent with the training added to the skill set of the individuals and contributed to the organization’s operational and financial improvement and goal attainment. The training prepared the organization to sustain a culture of continuous process improvement.

The improvement areas included increased equipment availability, increased yield per blast and blasts per shift, faster lab turnaround, better processing yield and capacity, and increased equipment and people utilization.

The project team worked with client management and IT staff to develop and implement a balanced scorecard management dashboard. The dashboard provides management with a view of operational performance by department, by shift, by area, by equipment type, and by individual piece of equipment. The dashboard home page includes a graphic representation of overall organizational performance by department or functional area using a single relevant or consolidated metric. Each view of the dashboard has drill down capability by month, week, day, or shift. Each metric has time series and pictorial views.

Mining and natural resources companies generally have tremendous improvement potential due to the scale and scope of most mining operations.