CMM-based Lean Implementation Measurement Framework for Effective and Sustainable Mining Operations

Abstract

Mining industry forms the backbone of a nation’s economy. It contributes significantly towards growth of a nation. With continuous increase in demand for mineral resources, the mining industry is expected to witness a decent growth in the coming years. This growth brings many more challenges for the industry. In an industry where safety, efficiency and productivity are crucial to profitability, even small incremental changes in system / process and framework can make a big impact. There are many improvement frameworks implemented by manufacturing industries to enhance effectiveness and efficiency. Lean is one of the most widely used framework by organizations across the globe which has helped industries in improvement of processes and systems. Lean provides a major opportunity to address some of the mining industry’s greatest challenges. In Mining, lean can dramatically improve performance across all functions. This paper explores the possibility of use of lean in mining for efficient and sustainable operations and propose a framework for measurement of level of lean implementation for better planning, monitoring and tracking. The proposed measurement framework will be based on the existing Capability Maturity Models (CMM) used software industries.