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in a perfect world. "We needed to elimi- nate a lot of that spaghetti, but we had to be careful," Wesner said. "This is under- ground mining and there is a lot of risk. It's dangerous and bad things can hap- pen. As we redefine or redesign the processes, we do not want to introduce more risk into the operation." LCE looked specifically at improving communications, which has nothing to do with the actual mining process. It's simply information flow between the var- ious steps. On an underground walk-through, Wesner asked: Does everybody have the tools they need when they need them? The answer from the manager was: Absolutely. During a raise borer move, he asked to see the toolbox. The miners had a big empty toolbox. "Tools were scattered everywhere," Wesner said. "That's inef- fective and it relates to ownership issues, primarily cultural and behavioral issues. The miners needed to put the tools away so that when the next crew arrived they could get to work straight away. This is basic blocking and tackling." The mine was able to eventually blast four times per day. Reaching that level of production represented a $15 million bottom line impact. "They couldn't see themselves accomplishing this goal, because they could not visualize their value stream," Wesner said. Another mine was unable to meet the production plan for the year. The prob- lem revolved around the raise boring process and the effectiveness of having the right tools in place. After looking at the value stream, they focused on shaft efficiency as far as getting materials to the right place at the right time. Because mining was a drift-and-fill process, they had to back-fill drifts before they could move to other parts of the ore body. That was a restraint. Four or five projects were identified to improve mine performance. As an exam- ple, they wanted to complete a drift and fill in 14 days, but it always seemed to take them 28 days. After mapping it out on paper, they developed a playbook that said they could do it in 14 days. "They began to execute according to the play- book and they completed the process in 12 days," Wesner said. "Moving from 28 days to 12 days was a significant gain in accessing more ore. That had a $255 million impact to the bottom line and they met their production numbers by just stepping back and looking at the process from the outside." Wesner is quick to point out that noth- ing that has been covered here is new. These techniques have been around for 15 to 20 years. "We are just trying to bring them together," Wesner said. "When we did these projects, we didn't ask the engineering teams or leadership teams to implement the plans. We went to the miners doing the work and got them to take ownership. Afterward, what we heard from the miners was: We want- ed to help, but we were never asked." These results came from engaging the organization in a different way. It still requires active and visible leadership to celebrate the small victories. That's where the company builds positive momentum. JUNE 2014 • E&MJ; 101 www.e-mj.com PERFORMANCE OPITMIZATION EMJ_pg92-101_EMJ_pg92-101 6/3/14 3:17 PM Page 101