Plant Shutdown Maintenance Improvement

Quick changeover analysis streamlines grinding mill shutdown

  • 2 minutes read

This ASX-listed mid-tier copper and gold producer, operating across two locations in Laos, recognised the need to reduce plant shutdown durations to increase annual production output.

On investigation, the team recognised that grinding mill relining was the critical path activity for all significant shutdown activities; therefore, any improvement in the time taken to reline the ball mill would reduce the total outage duration.

41%

Reduction in shutdown duration (63 hours to 37)

$360k

EBIT cost saving per shutdown event

$1.44M

Annual EBIT increase across two sites completing bi-annual shutdowns
Knowledge of quick changeover methodology transferred to local workforce in Laos

The approach

ORBIZ facilitated the observation and analysis of the end-to-end shutdown process, including planning, execution, and post-shutdown review, to identify and facilitate implementing the most valuable opportunities to reduce waste and improve shutdown times.

The project team completed a deep-dive analysis of the current relining process that identified several significant opportunities for eliminating waste using the Quick Changeover methodology. This activity included value-stream mapping of all resource and tool movements to identify and understand the inefficiencies in the flow.

The solutions

The project team used a change management plan to implement all the agreed-upon process improvements and train each team member in the new working practices. These new working practices were embedded by introducing a standardised work process.

Short interval control was also introduced to monitor standardised work compliance. This included closer management of material and labour utilisation and provided escalation protocols for any deviation from the plan, thus enabling rapid problem resolution while fostering a continuous improvement culture.

The program successfully developed the in-house capability of Laos-national supervisors and team leaders by broadening their understanding and practical working knowledge of operational improvement tools and methodologies.

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