Operational excellence
Delivered $163 million in value through business improvement initiatives.
Our approach
We are focused on continuous improvement in key areas of our business including marketing, asset management, mining and processing.
Collaboration is an important part of business improvement. By establishing common systems, solving common issues and sharing knowledge and experiences across sites and the wider Rio Tinto Group, our business is able to improve efficiency and create additional value.
2009 performance
In 2009, we produced approximately 33 million tonnes of thermal and semi-soft coking coal, and about 13 million tonnes of hard coking coal.
During 2009 the business improvement team continued work to introduce and embed a LEAN methodology to help find ways to do business better, faster and smarter. The LEAN programme is based on teamwork and is helping us solve problems, improve performance, reduce waste and increase efficiency in our business.
Business improvement programmes created $163 million in value throughout 2009. While this was significantly down on the $655 million in value delivered during 2008, it was in line with value delivered in 2007. The large increase experienced in 2008 was driven by the specific market conditions at the time.
Business improvement programmes
