Title: Production improvement techniques in process industries for adoption in mining: a comparative study

Authors: Amol Lanke; Behzad Ghodrati; Jan Lundberg

Addresses: Divison of Operation and Maintenance Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden ' Divison of Operation and Maintenance Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden ' Divison of Operation and Maintenance Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden

Abstract: High profitability and customer satisfaction are of supreme importance for any business. To achieve both objectives, an organisation must design a structured approach. To achieve profitability, organisations look to principles of lean manufacturing and techniques such as EFQM, and business excellence. This paper reviews such methodologies across different industries, comparing techniques and elements. Its objective is to determine which methodologies are most applicable to the Swedish mining industry and propose a method to achieve lean mining. To this end, the paper looks at the methodologies of a food manufacturing industry, an automobile component manufacturing company, the manufacturing and service sector, and the oil and gas industry. It finds that the method used in the oil and gas industry is more relevant to mining, even though it has some flaws. Further research is needed to adapt this method to the mining industry.

Keywords: mining production; production improvement; lean mining; mining PAP; food industry; oil and gas industry; automobile industry; process industries; EFQM; business excellence; automotive components; component manufacturing; Sweden; mining industry; lean thinking.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2016.079781

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2016 Vol.19 No.3, pp.366 - 386

Received: 11 Apr 2014
Accepted: 30 Mar 2015
Published online: 14 Oct 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article