Case Study

Program Management: Underground Mine

Problem

Our client, an Ore Producer, was tasked with a large multi-year complex project.  The overall scope of the project was to engineer, fabricate and build underground ore-handling equipment and infrastructure in a newly mined area.  Cost and schedule were imperative, but the scope had been poorly defined. A Kaizen Project Management team was brought in to lead the project.

Root Causes

This client had limited expertise in project management which prevented accurate scope development, resulting in poor time and cost management leading to projects always being late and over budget.

Solution approach

• Our team took the appropriate time to properly define the scope of the project and develop a procurement plan which allowed time to seek alternatives and non-typical vendors.
• Applied a “Cost of Quality” rationale to plan and monitor quality through the project to address issues before they became expensive on-site repairs.
• Included fabricators and installers on the project team to ensure that these scopes were planned into the project methodology.
• Risk analysis & mitigation used to save money and time.
• High accuracy scope, budget and schedule achieved using lean team communication principles.

Benefits

• Open team communication and diverse inclusion resulted in identification of cost and time savings.
• Project completed ahead of schedule.
• Project completed on budget.