Truck Shovel Productivity: The Historical and Future Strategic Advantage for Teck Coal

The coal business unit of Teck will move over 300 million bank cubic metres of material or approximately 800 million tonnes in 2015 using a fleet of large haul trucks and shovels. The mining and maintenance costs alone to move this material will be approximately id="mce_marker".3 billion. The cost of loading and hauling the material will be approximately half that cost and represents the single largest cost of producing steelmaking coal. This thesis will focus on truck/shovel productivity in the coal business unit of Teck as this represents one of the most significant areas of opportunity for cost reduction. A 10% improvement in truck/shovel productivity could yield a return approaching id="mce_marker"00 million. I have identified significant gaps in the relative performance between the operations and identified the operation that consistently demonstrates the highest performance. That performance is a result of both a high level of operating standards as well as a culture that has long embraced productivity as a core value. I am proposing that Teck consolidate and expand on the work done to identify best practice in truck/shovel productivity at the Greenhills operation. Further, I am proposing that we leverage the process used in developing a culture of safety in Teck to develop a framework for developing a culture of productivity across both the coal business unit and Teck as a company.