Our BHP Billiton way
It’s the way we share knowledge and expertise
A recent Business Excellence project focused on increasing the ore feeding rate to two kilns at our Cerro Matoso ferronickel mining and smelting complex in Colombia. The solutions implemented not only increased the ore feed rate, but also reduced both the gas consumption in the kilns and the energy consumption in the electrical furnaces. The resulting cost savings generated an additional US$23 million EBIT.
Every moment of every day, all around the world, our people are working hard to supply our broad range of commodities to the global marketplace. Our customers depend upon our products to help them achieve their goals.
In the 2007 financial year, we
made 2,250 shipping voyages
and 5,600 port calls. That’s
15 port calls and 65 deliveries
for each and every day of the
year. This is made possible by
our world-class operations,
industry leading systems and
our high-calibre people – people
like Lee Kirk, Panamax Desk
Manager in our Hague office.
Photo: Hague marketing office
– The Netherlands
240,000 PRODUCT DELIVERIES TO MORE THAN 1,300 CUSTOMERS GLOBALLY.
While the commodities we produce are many and varied, and the locations of our assets spread far and wide, the issues and challenges that hinder performance can often be remarkably similar. Sharing knowledge, expertise and ideas across our operations, therefore, is vital. We use a series of networks to help us identify and share successful practices for the benefit of everyone across the Company.
Different locations, same values
The values, standards, policies and processes that we apply to the behaviour and actions of our people at one operation are the same as those applied at any other part of the business, regardless of geography or culture. This consistent philosophy helps us to ensure the health and safety of our employees, as well as governing the way we work with customers and other stakeholders and the way we manage investment decisions.
More than 6,000 of our technical experts across the world share their ideas and best practices through more than 300 virtual communities that we operate globally. This makes us more efficient and ensures good ideas are spread across the organisation.
Our Charter values provide the overriding guide for how we work. They outline our major commitments as an organisation – commitments to health, safety, environment and community responsibility; integrity in what we do and what we say we will do; high performance; relationships that focus on the creation of value for all parties; the courage to lead change; and respect for each other.
The real benefits of Business Excellence
Our Business Excellence program runs company-wide and helps us to encourage and apply best practice across the broad spread of our businesses and corporate functions. In doing so, we can increase revenues, decrease costs and improve operational efficiency.
The program establishes an ‘excellence cycle’, which requires every business to regularly evaluate performance, examine opportunities for improvement and measure the resulting financial benefits.
Crucially, the program ensures that successful improvements are shared across all our assets through knowledge-sharing networks and Communities of Practice (CoPs). This is where the real benefits of the Business Excellence program are demonstrated. We are running 300 CoPs throughout the Company, with more than 6,000 technical experts sharing their ideas and best practices electronically, by telephone and in dedicated workshops.
When our team at New Mexico Coal in the US wanted to increase output by improving the use of conveyors, they contacted the conveyor maintenance CoP. Within 24 hours, operations from around the world provided the New Mexico team with improvement ideas that were quickly put in place.
Improvement projects just like this deliver significant financial benefits every year in every business.
