Problem: In 2017 Greenside Coal decided that productivity needed to be improved. They decided to give the Stratflow method a chance. 

 

Intervention: Using the theory of constraints to identify obstacles to flow (bottlenecks) groups of employees devised and implemented the actions required in their areas.   

 

Results: On October 16 the company reported "Greenside Smashes all-time production records". For September underground had produced a record 511 000 tons of run of mine. These improvements occurred within 4 months of the project starting.

Mining manager Dawid Taljaard explained that output increased from 14500 tons per day to 18000 tonnes a day in a very short period. 

"The colliery is currently exceeding the global CM industry benchmarks by 10% and expects to see its five CM mine in the region of 23000 tonnes a day shortly. "When we first started the journey, our guys thought it would be impossible to achieve " said General Manager Vijay Kumar, adding that all doubt was removed when they shattered the mines all-time production record on 6 September. On this day they cut 27000 tons of safe coal over 24 hours. Despite significantly higher output operations have continued injury free, proving that safety and high levels of productivity go hand in hand.