A robust management process allows managers to rapidly prioritise issues and then plan to meet them as quickly as possible. The process works from the boardroom, where the world price of coking coal can dramatically affect profits, to the coalface, where a roof fall can halt production. Both environments require managers to react quickly and appropriately to the changing circumstances.
A clearly defined management process brings together the different elements of the mining process into one overall plan and ensures crucial links between the individual components are addressed. It ensures the mine is being run as an integrated system rather than a collection of unrelated systems.
However, focusing on the process rather than the results can lead to poor performance. A good management process should provide control not of people, but of results, and the more the better.
Managers expect results. Customers expect deliveries. Ensuring the company develops a “delivery” culture where “you get what you want when you want it” is the key to optimising a mine’s potential.
There are four key elements to a management process:
Planning: Good quality, integrated planning over the short, medium and long term horizons.
Action: Decisive action taken to execute the plan.
Review: Thorough review and analysis of the actual performance relative to the plan and identification of actions required to prevent repeats of failures.
Intervention: Focused intervention, to include changes identified in the review cycle into new plans as required.
Planning
Good planning requires high quality relevant data and good interpretation. The planning process must address the risks and plan for contingencies. Unforeseen events must be considered. The process should allow deviations from the plan to be recognised and dealt with at the lowest possible level. Too many times in an uncertain environment everyone sticks to a plan knowing failure is inevitable. The plan is sacrosanct and failure becomes acceptable.
Plans will change. In fact, in the uncertain environment of coal mining they must change. Decisions on when and how to change the plan have to be made quickly. It is how the process of change is managed that determines how effective the change will be and how the desired results will be obtained. A good, robust management process allows active planning, rather than planning by reaction, to ensure desired outcomes are achieved.
Recently an unforeseen geological anomaly resulted in a major coalface roof fall at UK Coal’s premier mine, Daw Mill. The management system in place allowed us to tackle the problem of working our way through a 100m long, 10m high fall, using a systematic process to recover the face - quickly, efficiently and effectively.
Everyone knew his/her role. Each shift had objectives and goals to achieve. The fall area was systematically filled, the forward face impregnated with polyurethane resin for two shears and then these shears were taken before the next cycle began. The result was a successful response to an unforeseen event.
The second key to good planning is to ensure those responsible for implementing the plan have ownership. To make the plan work the people carrying out the plan must be involved in developing it and then held accountable for the outcome.
Wherever you are in the organisation you need to know the way forward. Visibility of the plan throughout the company and progress towards its goals within the organisation are essential.
Efficient, cost effective longwall mining means using the high capital value equipment for as many hours a day as possible, every day for the length of the panel. One example of exploiting good planning is integrating the maintenance policy into the production cycle and not adopting the attitude “the belts are stood for a few hours, let’s take the opportunity to do some maintenance”
Who has ownership of maintenance? The longwall superintendent or the engineering department? Some would say the whole team has ownership. Under a good management plan, only one person has ownership, and that is the longwall superintendent. He also carries the burden of accountability.
In a target-led organisation, there needs to be a constructive challenge when making plans. There needs to be a healthy challenge between those that create the plan and those that manage the plan. There must be a focus on being ambitious and challenging. If you are too aggressive, personnel carrying out the actions will feel failure; if you are too hands-off, the plans will lead to failure.
A good business plan defines not only what you propose to achieve but how you will achieve it. It must be a living document and the driving force behind the business.
Action
Execution of the plan is simple in theory yet hard to achieve in practice. Why? Well, this varies from company to company.
Execution relies on people; how engaged they are in the organisational process, and their level of involvement and commitment. If the people aren’t engaged, involved and committed, the plan will fail, and you will never fulfil the potential of the business. This applies from the very top, the CEO, all the way down. If company leaders do not show exemplary standards of commitment and engagement, why should those below them?
By the same token, the company must ensure they have the right people. If you don’t get the people process right, you will never fulfil the potential of the business. A robust people process provides a powerful framework for determining the organisation’s talent over time and for planning the actions required to meet those needs. The process must be based on an understanding of the needs of the company, developing leadership at all levels, and succession planning in depth. It is clear that the operations of the human resources department must be integrated into the overall management process.
Ask yourself how much time you spend working with your people. Not just talking to them, but energising them to perform and stretch their own limits. This process takes time to develop, but, as the group director operations for UK Coal, I spent most of my efforts in this part of my work because it produced the greatest rewards for the business.