Effectiveness of using Learning Factories to impart Lean principles in mining employees

Abstract

An urgent need exists to drive operational excellence in mining operations. Lean philosophy can improve productivity and efficiency when implemented holistically. There is therefore an incentive to build embedded, Lean capability in mining to consistently drive meaningful business results. Learning Factories have been used in other industries to effectively develop this competency at all hierarchical levels. Anglo American has recently developed a training facility in South Africa, using the Learning Factory concept to teach Lean skills to mining employees. This paper presents the results of a study that investigated the effectiveness of using the Learning Factory in this context. The Kirkpatrick model, for evaluating training effectiveness was used as the analytical framework. Results show that the Learning Factory is effective in imparting Lean skills within a short space of time and that all employees can achieve a similar or higher understanding of Lean regardless of their starting point.