Eastern Mining Co. introduces kaizen proposals at its assets
Published by Jessica Casey,
Editor
World Coal,
Eastern Mining Co. has begun to successfully apply the total production optimisation (TOP) methodology and the Japanese Kaizen philosophy to its assets. The estimated economic effect at the initial stage of implementation will amount to more than 250 million rubles. The first payments have already been made to employees whose ideas have been put into operation.
The Kaizen philosophy is based on a continuous improvement of all production, development, supporting business processes and management. One of the unique features of the project is the key participation of the company's employees directly in it. It is the ideas of the ordinary workers involved in the project that form the main direction of ideas for improvement. More than 1200 employees of all VGK assets have currently joined the project.
The main projects already planned for implementation will have an impact on increasing the service interval for vehicle maintenance at the Solntsevsky coal mine. For example, previously Komatsu HD-785 dump trucks were in operation for 250 hours between scheduled technical inspections. The proposal of a group of project participants will allow to increase this period by 2 times up to 500 hours. This will affect productivity and cost savings. Also, the Kaizen proposals taken into account will improve the efficiency of coal transportation to the port by increasing the number of trips and eliminating organisational losses as much as possible.
In total, there are 71 proposals in work, and 55 of them have an estimated economic effect. The leader in terms of the number of submitted ideas was the Solntsevsky coal mine. Its employees proposed 35 ideas, some of which have already begun to be introduced into production.
Project participants, whose proposals are accepted for work, receive financial rewards. The amount of payment is influenced by the economic effect that the company will receive from its implementation. Tracking the economic effect is carried out on a monthly basis by the specialised departments of the company.
In early August, the first ideas were approved and the first payments to the company's employees have already been made. The main remuneration will be paid in two stages after confirmation of the actual economic effect for the quarter and year.
“With the help of the TOP methodology and the system of Kaizen-proposals, Eastern Mining Co. joined the process of continuous improvement. We are now at the initial stage, but we are already seeing the first results. It is important to understand that absolutely every employee can take part in the project, share their ideas. They may also relate to his area of work and the processes of interaction between services", commented Roman Katsay, Head of the project for total optimisation of production at VGK.
Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/mining/20102020/eastern-mining-co-introduces-kaizen-proposals-at-its-assets/
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