Human centered approach to maximizing returns from innovation, transformations, and operations excellence

The mining industry seldomly finds itself in a predictable steady state. In the last decade, the sector was impacted by geopolitical instability, increasing pressures to maintain license-to-operate, growing demand to meaningfully deliver on ESG commitments, pandemic related supply chain disruption, and most recently significant inflationary pressures. If history is anything to go by, there should be low expectation that things will improve markedly in the short-term. That being said, and to paraphrase the saying, from adversity comes opportunity.

Mining companies are actively investing in understanding how their business models, strategies, and tactics need to change and adapt to the emerging context. Specifically, configuring to “future-proof” their business’ people, processes, and technologies to create an adaptable platform that delivers sustained value and competitive advantage.

Meaningful value can be realized through innovation, transformation, and creating a culture of operations excellence. However, as initiatives move from strategy to execution, there is, in most cases, a significant decline in realized value delivery as the focus moves from the design to operationalization.

Why so many initiatives fail to deliver promised benefits is typically highly situational and complex. A common early indicator of disappointing results is an underappreciation of the people aspects of the people-processes-technology model for change.

Placing people at the centre of improvement is an effective means to accelerate value delivery initially, build longer-term sustainability and return on investments; while building adaptability. This is especially relevant where the “people” in question are on the frontline where many operations and innovation orientated improvements succeed or fail. After all, the distributed nature of mining requires a reliance on high levels of discretionary decision making in the frontline to cater for short-cycle variability and deviations-to-plan.

Placing frontline workers, specifically, at the centre of improvement processes fundamentally means integrating success factors as early as possible; and incorporating inputs from these teams in the design process. Some of the ways to place these teams at the centre of improvements include the following:

1 Engage early and meaningfully with the frontline: 

Engaging early supports aligning around the imperative for change and allows for early identification of potential derailers at a point where these can be mitigated effectively. This is an early opportunity to demonstrate a real commitment to building a fit-for-purpose solution which is an important step in building ownership of operational outcomes. In practice, this will vary from operation to operation, but effective tactics include any opportunities to embed improvement teams in operations to better understand practical challenges and opportunities. Cross-functional and role idea generation, in-situ engagements (i.e., waiting areas, underground workshops, etc.), ride-alongs, or day-in-life-of reviews are examples of effective ways to locate the problem to be solved and solution under design in the area of delivery.

2 Define the expected outcome and configuration of the solution from the perspective of the frontline: 

The locus of control of frontline teams is typically significantly narrower and on a shorter timeframe than the intended benefit of the overall solution. For example, a shift supervisor has an area of influence restricted to their area of mining and is likely incentivized on weekly, or at most, monthly production objectives which can be lost in the bigger picture of an improvement approach. The intended benefit of an improvement initiative needs to be cascaded to reflect what frontline teams have control over and contextualized in terms of how it will impact on their performance metrics. It may be useful to ask, for example,

• Can the frontline relate personally and individually to why the initiative is important?
• Is their role, expectation, and the benefit clear and unambiguous?
• How will they interact with the system, and how can it be configured for their ease of use?

3 Build ownership and accountability in technical and operational teams: 

In the world of “flavour-of-the-month” initiatives, there is a risk that any new activity is disregarded as the next fad. Integrating the process with the existing operating system supports positioning of the improvement as “the way we do business” rather than an addition to the current workload. If a robust operating system is not in place, creating it around the work being done is an effective way to create the opportunity for discussions that support achieving the intended outcome. Transparency, visibility, and short-interval engagement are key. A well-configured management operating system provides just that as well as the opportunity to create an action and accountability orientated culture where teams agree what is to be done, what is needed to achieve it, and then holds each other to account in a short interval to deliver.

As mining companies seek to build competitive advantage and the platforms from which to sustain this in the coming years, it remains an imperative in the short-to-medium term to recognize the pivotal role that frontline teams play in delivering value from investments in innovation and operations excellence. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, a key foundational element of any successful improvement lies in building inclusion and integration with frontline teams early in the process and providing the opportunities, routines, and forums to build ownership and accountability.

Callum Stewart is a senior manager at EY Canada.