US Benchmarking Trip
In May a small team of Mastermyne leaders traveled to the Illinois Basin in the United States to benchmark against two world class Board and Pillar, Cut and Flit operations. The trip was carried out in conjunction with Komatsu.
The ‘bare bones’ approach to mining at these operations was amazing. Reduced regulatory and compliance constraints in the US allow for highly efficient operation and production. Most importantly, safe work practices still appeared to be upheld. It was also observed that the people culture was very much aligned to the Mastermyne Way with everyone working together as a tight knit team to get the job done.
Whilst on tour, the benchmarking team visited a Smart Solutions Centre in Mt Vernon where they were shown some amazing advances into the data collection and analysing for production panels globally. Of particular interest was the component tracking system (CTS) that monitors the condition of components based on tonnes and establishes audit points before critical failure. With upcoming projects in our business, the information gained throughout the trip was invaluable.
