The need for bigger picture thinking

An old Chinese proverb says: “Unless we change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.” This may seem perfectly obvious, but in business it is necessary to be poised for swift change. Industries, technologies, legislative and economic factors are continuously evolving. While some of these factors are external to the mining company, mine operations require constant re-evaluation of their internal processes to ensure optimal performance of its business. There is a strong drive within the industry today to reduce the cost per ton of target production however the Tomahee consulting way in essence focus on performance improvement. Through our consulting engagements we have proven that the most effective intervention in the reduction of cost per ton produced is secured through a stepped improvement in production throughput. Over more than a decade of performance improvement engagements in the mining industry, our experience has been that performance of the overall throughput of the system is rendered sub-optimal in a drive to maximise the performance of individual processes of the system and found that a function measured on what’s optimal for itself does not necessary deliver what’s best for the business. Traditional performance measures support a philosophy of individual or localised process optimisation causing a silo’ d effect or local optima.

This is amplified by systems such as technical, production, costing and other, as well as the good old excel spreadsheet that natively seek to optimise performance and manage cost at a unit level. While this make sense for the “whole of the unit or business function ”, the net effect is detrimental to the overall performance of the value chain throughput. “We cannot do the same things and expect different results”. Breaking this cycle require Retiring the old way of work, Replace it with a new one in achieving the desired outcome then sustain this outcome by embedding this behaviour. Once this is done securing its benefits is achieved through conscious Repetition of the new philosophy. To guarantee a quantum leap in the improvement of production performance, the old frame of mind as an operating philosophy requires a total reset. This is where we as a company over time and through many performance improvement engagements has met the need of our clients. Our proven approaches will consider the many "moving" parts of the entire mining value chain, calibrate the performance level at each sub process to maximise the overall performance of the entire system. Tomahee Consulting Services is a dynamic consultancy with extensive experience across all mining commodities, types and methodologies in the industry. Through our consulting approach, supplemented by our experienced mining specialists, we support our clients in reaching the maximum value hill of their mining operations.