There seems to be an ever-growing list of stakeholders and KPIs to satisfy. With many commodity prices under pressure, the need to improve productivity while maintaining a safe operation adds even more strain. At the same time, many vexing industry problems have persisted for decades—even with billions spent, they seem to be getting no better.
We all know what those problems are:
Productivity remains well below levels achieved a quarter of a century ago.
Consistently meeting budgeted targets is as challenging as ever, with average production often falling short.
The shelf life of the mine plan is measured in days.
Employee engagement is in the doldrums.
Digitisation and AI are not delivering as we hoped.
Figure 1: Seemingly unrelated intractable problems
Yet here are quotes from GMs and Mine Managers who have achieved outcomes that might initially seem too good to be true.
GM Board and Pillar Mine:
"When we first started this journey, our team thought it would be impossible to achieve the targets."
"The results can be seen in hard numbers as well as in the changes in relationships, roles, and mindsets."
Mine Manager, Open Cut Iron Ore Mine:
"We managed to exceed all of our production targets."
"It enables our employees to see clearly how their area of responsibility fits into the overall performance and to hold each other accountable."
"We now see problems developing in advance and deal with them in a spirit of calmness."
GM, Longwall Coal Mine:
"We unlocked 33% hidden capacity simply by aligning the parts of the business."
"In 40 years of operation, it is now operating as efficiently as ever."
Figure 2: A crisis of paradigm (Gary Wong & Associates)
The Industrial Age gave us the "balanced capacity" paradigm, which focuses on optimising each part of the operation individually. The Information Age then layered vast amounts of data to control and optimise every aspect of operations in real-time. However, mining is not a simple, linear system. It is a complex, interdependent, adaptive system—and trying to manage it with traditional thinking, even with better data, is unlikely to stabilise your operations or free up your time. By trying to optimise everything, the understanding of the overall system becomes fragmented, leading to stop-start production flows as the parts desynchronise. Merely adding technology to an outdated paradigm doesn't resolve the underlying issues—it often exacerbates them. Output decreases, costs increase, and variability plus interdependencies lead to constant firefighting. Your people struggle to see the impact of their efforts, which crushes engagement and morale, leaving you with all your time and energy consumed just trying to keep things afloat.
We are now at another transition point—from the Information Age to the Ecological Age. This shift demands that we adopt new practices while maintaining the best elements of the previous age.
What Should a Good Solution Deliver?
A robust solution should not only help us make the transition but also be low-risk, easy to implement, enjoy enthusiastic support from employees and management and show results quickly.
For the past 20 years, Stratflow has helped more than 90 mines address the root causes of these challenges by focusing on three core principles that unlock hidden capacity and bring stability to production flow:
Focus: Hone in on the most critical constraints to system throughput.
Alignment: Synchronise departments through clear, visual performance metrics and KPIs.
Psychological Safety: Create a culture where everyone feels empowered to speak up, take initiative, and innovate.
Figure 3: From unstable flow to "superflow in a spirit of calmness"
This graph from a coal mine client shows how quickly the combination of focus, alignment, and psychological safety can resolve the vexing problems mentioned at the beginning of this article. With these principles in place, output rises while variability drops. This, in turn, improves productivity, stabilises the mine plan, and reliably achieves budget targets—or clearly indicates when a budget is unrealistic.
So rather than endlessly fighting against gravity, go another way—transforming your operations from a constant struggle into a naturally flowing system."
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