Having worked with respected companies like Evolution, OZ Minerals, and Resolute, our methodology has been built on fundamental truths over more than 20 years.
We specialise in bridging the gap between missed targets, despite a smart strategy. This is a global problem, with Accenture finding 61% of miners missed their own guidance targets, costing the industry $64B in lost forecast revenue alone over 5 years. This is before considering the impact on shareholders and other stakeholders.
The trouble starts with the productivity paradox. Despite the advances and investment in technology on sites, McKinsey has found productivity is 25% lower than it was in 2005 even when accounting for depth and grade. Production has scaled, but so have the inefficiencies and waste.
This paradox hasn’t arisen from a lack of ambition, it’s a product of applying 19th century thinking in the 21st century. We all know that better grades of the past hid more sins, operations weren’t as lean, and there were fewer societal pressures like ESG. Yet, decision makers are still not taking this into account.
Most of today’s operational reality remains hidden to the boardroom due to the Iceberg of Ignorance. The research shows us that 100% of operational issues are known to the front line, but only 4% are known to decision makers.
We experience this speaking with potential clients when they approach us, after they’ve already self-diagnosed. Under the guise of consulting experts, they go to market, looking for a body shop that will implement the fix they want. Whilst this may reduce some symptoms, it doesn’t actually solve the problem or address the root cause. This leads to a treadmill of silver bullets and band-aid solutions as leaders play whack-a-mole with operational issues.
For example, they see the obvious dysfunctions like ineffective daily or weekly review meetings and conclude the meetings are broken. While this is not wrong, it’s only part of the picture. The truth is that the whole cascading planning process is usually completely ineffective, resulting in everyone just doing their own thing, but that’s much harder to see.
As complexity, and the number of competing priorities only increase, it becomes increasingly difficult to safely hit budget each quarter.
Change fatigue and cynicism set in.
Sites are forced to borrow from the future, accruing operational debt.
Like a high-interest loan, eventually, it comes due. Breakdowns, safety incidents, burn out, loss of key people, and delays all have the same impact — reliability. Generally, at this point, the site misses their production target, and ultimately their financial results. Before they can get back on track, they have to first pay off these ‘debts’, further impacting production.
Ultimately, chaotic sites are the hiding place of accountability, so these factors can go unnoticed for a long time. The reality is that only a mine that’s in control is safe and reliable.
The root cause of these challenges is a lack of Operational Capability. This is a site’s ability to consistently, predictably, and reliably execute strategy. The Execution Gap is the difference between strategic ambition, and the site’s ability to deliver (performance).
It all starts with Operational Clarity, the hidden opportunities and excellence that are known to your site, but not to you.
Only then can we bridge the gap by improving Operational Capability. We call this the Invisible Engine, as it determines whether a site will succeed or fail.
This Invisible Engine is responsible for:
To bridge the gap, the approach needs to not only be systematic but also top-down and bottom-up. Our Execution Gap Blueprint is a mining best practise approach to build the Invisible Engine.
The ultimate result is a “boring” mine with predictable production and cashflow.
Our mission is to transform operational turbulence into predictable, reliable, and bankable performance.
