An integrated mine development and supply system

In the face of intense global competition and other business pressures on coal miners, ongoing quality initiatives and continuous process improvements are needed to enhance business performance. By viewing a minesite in terms of key processes, rather then departments, and employing innovative technologies and better applying organisational resources, there exists enormous potential to achieve reductions in process cost and time. The paper identifies and selects one critical coal mining process, namely the supply system, to think about how productivity improvements might occur and what changes might be employed to enhance overall system performance. While the supply system is only one of few processes existing at a minesite, the paper addresses only the supply process, but includes interaction across traditional interdepartmental boundaries. The paper has been prepared for a wide audience and is based on experience and observation at several underground mines however some of the concepts are a result of "dreaming" in the face of global competition.