Operational excellence
Rio Tinto Coal Australia is focused on continuous improvement in every respect. When it comes to business improvements, we are focused on the key areas of our business, including marketing, asset management, coal mining and processing.
Our approach
Collaboration is a key focus of business improvement at Rio Tinto Coal Australia. By establishing common systems, solving common issues and sharing knowledge and experience across all Rio Tinto Coal Australia sites and the wider Rio Tinto Group, the business is able to improve efficiency and create additional value.
Results
Excellent business improvement results were delivered across all of Rio Tinto Coal Australia's opertions in 2007 despite external impacts such as port and rail constraints.
• In marketing $76 million in value was created through Rio Tinto Improving Performance Together (IPT) marketing initiatives. These included opportunities to optimise sales through product mix, minimising costs to market and risk management.
• Blair Athol Mine delivered improvements of $4 million. Part of this value was delivered by offsetting dozer hours by utilising cheaper available dragline hours for rehabilitation work.
• At Bengalla, more than $12 million in value was delivered. One of the initiatives included D11R noise suppression which reduced cabin noise from 85 - 91 dB to 76 dB. Additional value was delivered through using more efficient equipment and mining designs.
• CHPP improvements at Hail Creek Mine delivered more than $3 million in improved efficiency. These projects included tuning control loops, controlling Dense Medium Cyclone feed and improving the accuracy and stability of TBS density control, all resulting in a more efficient process, that processed more coal in less time. This was part of a total of $6 million in value delivered at Hail Creek.
• Hunter Valley Operations delivered a total of $38 million of improvements. One third of this value came from coal yield improvements delivered through a spirals circuit upgrade; DMC upgrade and seam preparation work in the pit with mine planning. These yield improvements deliver more with less.
• An increase in longwall productivity with the use of a support crew added $7 million in value at the Kestrel mine.
• A combination of improved mine plans, increased plant yield, greater dragline productivity and an increased use of MTWs equipment resulted in a total of almost $13 million additional value delivered at Mount Thorley Warkworth.
• Improvements being delivered at site are supported by the processing, mining, dragline, assets teams in Brisbane through a one RTCA approach to business improvement. Business improvement tools such as Lean and 6 Sigma are being used to solve problems and improve our operations.
Read about how Rio Tinto Coal Australia is producing more coal with more efficiency in our feature story on sustainable yields.
In 2008 our target is for Rio Tinto Coal Australia's business improvement programme to deliver $80 million in value across the business.
