A major operation was stuck at 81% of nameplate capacity. The site had received significant investment in equipment and infrastructure, yet production wouldn't budge. Previous consultants recommended expensive plant upgrades that pilot trials showed would deliver minimal improvement. At current prices, the 19% gap represented $170 million in annual foregone revenue. The operations team knew they were maintaining equipment well. Something systemic was constraining the system.

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We embedded our team across all shifts to observe how ore actually moved through the operation. Not what the data said. What really happened. This ethnographic approach revealed the true constraint: the interaction between stockpile management and plant feed created micro stoppages that cascaded through the entire system. Operators trying to maximise instantaneous throughput were creating the mining equivalent of a traffic jam. We developed new protocols that seemed counterintuitive, actually slowing certain processes to improve overall flow. Visual management systems helped operators see how their decisions rippled downstream.

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Production increased 19% within 3 months without any capital investment. The improvement delivered $170 million in additional annual revenue. The approach fundamentally challenged the organisation's engineering first mindset, proving operational innovation could unlock more value than equipment solutions. The site now hosts regular visits from other operations wanting to understand the transformation.

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