Innovative solution to improve contractor management in the Australian mining industry
Our subsidiary in Australia was able to implement a successful management model to prevent contractor fatalities, establishing performance requirements, responsibilities and roles for everyone involved in the process.
In recent years, South 32, a global company with assets in Australia, Africa, South America and the United States, had experienced serious accidents with its contractors. As a result, the design and effective implementation of a management process to minimize the accident rate became a strategic priority for the company.
Under the organization's differentiating motto, "Let's all go home safe and sound," the decision was made to implement a new contractor management system that would take into account the existing good work and also introduce new processes to optimize it. In January 2021, a team led by Gary Warden, Country Manager of Vantaz Australia, was assembled to bring the design of this project to life.
"We put together a core team of operational and functional managers, as well as the support of a wider network across the company, which gave us a lot of support in developing this challenge," explains Gary.
The first step in implementing the system was to design a work system. We conducted many workshops with the different stakeholders to map the existing process. We had to understand what the different challenges and aspects of the process were in each asset, because it is different for each country. After that, we described a standard of how we could bring the contractors of the South 32 assets into one management system.
Working with many people was something that Gary identified as complex, but defining roles was key to the success of the project. "Within each asset, a person was appointed who was responsible for implementing the new system. They led the human side of the initiative. They knew the day-to-day work of the contractors and were 100% involved in the more operational process," he said.
This ensured that all workers had the necessary training and qualifications, as well as the appropriate licenses and competencies, to perform the work safely and with quality.
In this sense, about four thousand people joined a global training of the new work system, where Vantaz Australia was in charge of generating dashboards con el estado de avance de las capacitaciones y los procesos de implementación de cada activo.
In addition to providing a PMO service for the project, Vantaz also developed several tools to support the various roles involved in contractor management, such as analyzing the risks associated with scopes of work or the ability of contractors and South32 staff to manage contractors. "We designed simple tools with intuitive interfaces and automated data flows to maximize the use of the tools and minimize the effort required to use them," comments Gary.
This innovative project is currently being implemented. According to Vantaz's country manager, "The priority is on operations where there is a higher risk and a large number of contractors. At the same time, we are working with internal teams in functions such as human resources and marketing.
Once the project is implemented, the main goal is to reach a 0 rate of serious accidents. To this end, he points out that they have been consistent with training. However, "all this has to do with a change of culture and that takes time. The focus is on contractors, but there are also challenges for employees," he says.
A case of success
Gary Warden says the project has received very good feedback: "It is considered a great success at the company level to have achieved a working system in such a complex environment. Gary also says that the team had great support from the company's top management. "We were fortunate to have the support of our project sponsor - the Vice President of Supply. He was the best example of a sponsor I have ever seen in my working life," he says. The Vantaz Group is proud to have been part of this great process to improve the safety and quality of life of workers in the mining industry.
