Daily Data Checks – BORING Waste or Value Accelerator?

What does your daily data check process look like?

I’ll wait…

Now unless you’re a 7th dan data guru fighting daily in the data trenches of your mine.

My guess is that you likely have no idea.

Or even worse - its looks like this ??

It could actually be the case that there is no daily process (Eeeeeep ??).

You might say, “Well come on Harry, we ain’t got no time for daily data checks, we have a mine to run!”

Get in – I am going to show you why you don’t have time NOT to get a daily data checks process in place.

Data is an asset

When managing a mine, or any operation, data is a pillar (or even the foundation) holding up your decision-making process.

And this decision-making process is driving the performance of your mine.

Think about the money you have invested so far – hardware, software, cloud, people, processes, cyber – the list goes on.

You would hope that all this investment is going into a high-quality asset that can unlock productivity gains for the years to come.

You would also hope, given its complexity, that it is being looked after and appropriately respected!

Why daily checks matter

Think about the last time you had a serious production issue in your operation, try to think about an issue where you had to pull cycle data or process data.

The moment you pulled that data and made decisions on it, you made a choice to accept the quality of that source data.

It may not have been conscious – but it was a choice - nonetheless.

My challenge to you is, if that data is driving real decisions in a real mine, then shouldn't its quality be assured?

If you are making decisions on flawed data, the consequences can be ghastly. Millions lost, demoralization of your team, and personal hits on your reputation.

Not cool.

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In my opinion, one of the biggest drivers for unlocking value in your operation is a solid daily data checks process.?

Small Steps Lead to Big Results

Even starting ultra small can be a huge benefit, for example checking every shift to ensure the basics:

• No more than 12 hours per shift, per piece of equipment
• No unknown locations and/or materials
• No unknown logins for operators
• Basic Pareto to understand the biggest delays – with a quick sense check.

All these are very basic to establish and can be done in minutes, not hours.

The real challenge? Actually doing it.

Most would agree that this is a no-brainer, “Of course,” they say, most even have a step-by-step procedure that details the exact steps required.

Now, come closer – I am going to tell you a big… no huuuuuggggeeeee… secret.

Even with procedures, even with clear accountability and responsibility… MOST still don’t do IT.

Why?

My best guess is complacency.

When you first get your data operations running, there are plenty of obvious issues.

This means there is a burning need to stay across issues via some form of regular checks.

Then things get a little better...

Then after a while, it seems as if they are perfect.

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So what happens? Daily checks are now seen as OPTIONAL… we all know what happens after that.

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My stance is – things are very rarely perfect – and stopping your checks – well that can be a very career-limiting decision.

So what can you do?

It's simple really – these two things can bed in any daily checks process very quickly – as always, the way is clear – all it needs is the will to make sure it's done.

1. Run data on the data, use a form to track – i.e., Office365 forms or I have even used Google forms – the process. Now you can run a report on the daily check compliance.
2. Make it visible – put that compliance report right up there with the production data. I dare you.

Would you notice a day of zero production, or a week of no production? Yes you would.

How about days or weeks without the daily checks done?

This?should be as obvious, and that's why I ALWAYS put these charts right up where the world can see.

Now you are tracking - and have a scoreboard...nice.

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From here use your leadership skills to make sure it’s a priority.

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Make sure appropriate feedback and coaching gets it to where it needs to be.

Simple right?

Now go an be the one who actually does it - you will thank me later.

Need help??

Are you thinking your data might not be 100% squared away or you’re not getting the expected results from your tech investment?

Why not see if I can help – worst case is we have a chat and get to know each other…reach out via messages.

? My name is Harry.

??Elevating miners with next-level mining technology

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