Alucida at work
Rio
Tinto Coal Australia’s Hail Creek Mine features in the March edition
of Rio Tinto’s Review magazine.
Alucida worked with Hail Creek management since the beginning of construction
in late 2001 to develop the mine’s culture, set its long-term goals and,
in 2002—2003, develop its Safety Management System. Alucida also provided
Hail Creek with strategic planning, human resources development and community
relations management.
About the case studies
These case studies derive from our experiences with clients over the last 10 years. To protect our clients’ confidentiality we have altered details and created composite scenarios.
Improving an inventory management system
Problem:
Our client introduced new software to manage inventory across their sites statewide. But the software created more problems than it solved: many people used it incorrectly, or not at all, and the inefficiency cost the business. Senior managers became frustrated that the software hadn’t delivered the results they expected.
Insight:
First, we interviewed staff who had to use the software. This immediately revealed that although some people had difficulties using it, the real problem was that no one understood how their role fitted into the inventory management system as a whole. We also discovered that no one was responsible for inventory management.
We recommended that one person be given responsibility for owning the inventory management system. We then helped that person develop, document and implement a standard for inventory management, with input from experienced frontline workers. The standard set a workable benchmark for inventory across all sites; it described the system, including the business rules and the accountabilities of all the people who played a part in it.
We also helped to supplement the standard with procedures that would help staff to apply the standard to their work and show them how to perform common tasks.
Outcomes:
The standard gave senior managers a workable blueprint for the way inventory management should work at every site and a plan for making it a reality. The implementation plan, and the new system are now owned by one person, whose ongoing responsibility is to monitor, evaluate and improve it. Further, every person who manages inventory now knows not only how to do their job, but also how vital it is to the organisation that they perform their job correctly.