Diagnostic

We assist business leaders to quickly determine the improvement potential for a business. They help establish targets, and a plan to deliver them that is owned by your managers. Our diagnostics are the first step to help capture these improvements in a rapid and sustainable fashion.

These diagnostics help you determine the improvement potential – the ‘dollar size of the prize’; what levers to pull in order to deliver that improvement; the order in which these levers should be pulled (prioritisation); the approach to use for each and the resources required in order to deliver them in a particular timeframe. More importantly, our consultants make sure diagnostics are always completed with management involvement. Our plan has managers making the final presentation of the diagnostic and presenting targets and a process that they are aligned with and own.

At Partners in Performance, we draw on our extensive IP and experiences in consulting and line management, across a broad range of industries, to analyse the areas of improvement in your organisation, in a rapid and accurate manner.

Our approach has five stages:

1. We determine what is driving current performance and identify improvement potential
2. We assess organisational wiring and your organisation’s ability to deliver and sustain the identified improvements
3. We conduct training sessions with management and staff to introduce your organisation to key methodologies
4. We share with you relevant improvement experiences and best practices from other businesses
5. We summarise the improvement possible in the business, ascertain targets over the next period (e.g. a year) and find an approach that will deliver these targets

Benchmarking

We can either leverage our own extensive database of benchmarks or conduct internal benchmarking within the group, comparing like-for-like operations. To do this, we work with your people to rapidly clarify what the full potential of your equipment or process is. With your people we identify and agree the underlying key drivers in each business and identify the maximum (full potential) performance possible on each driver (or example, using a technical limit analysis to understand the maximum possible production rate of a piece of equipment under perfect conditions).

We also understand the limits of benchmarking: in that performance is a function of the type of asset or ore body and two operating environments are seldom the same. We then agree on what is possible to achieve in a focused timeframe (e.g. a year). We use both internal and external benchmarks and full potential to create an understanding of what is possible. We also achieve ownership of improvement targets from your people by developing a shared plan for how to reach them over time.

Our approach is divided into two stages:

1. We benchmark detailed operational input key performance indicators (KPIs) related to equipment and people performance – internally and/or externally
2. We share and compare our experiences from similar operations around the world, which gives a more in-depth comparison and discussion of what is possible

During the diagnostic Partners in Performance did a great job identifying the key areas of opportunity in a very short period of time - $$$ opportunities and wiring opportunities. The consultants also got on very well with our management team, which was key in our decision to engage them. ANDREW, GENERAL MANAGER – OPERATIONS, NICKEL MINING INDUSTRY