February 2018 – Highservice: Servicios mineros

HighService Engineering & Construction wins a new contract at Minera Los Pelambres

HighService Corp subsidiary will execute industrial assembly works, as established in the agreement that came into effect this month

HighService Engineering & Construction (HSIC), a subsidiary of the holding HighService Corp, announced the award of a new contract at Minera Los Pelambres (MLP), owned by the Chilean group Antofagasta Minerals (AMSA).

The contract, called ‘Service bottlenecks P&G Plant Stage II’, came into force in February and includes industrial assembly work, mainly mechanics and structure.

The agreement includes the following works: make modifications to the material transport equipment for the Gravel Plant, modify the chutes, repower the engines, change the transmission and incorporate frequency variators in the belts that feed the crushers.

HighService Engineering & Construction General Manager, Israel González, highlighted the confidence that Los Pelambres has placed in the company, assuring that: “This new contract, with one of the most important mining site in the country, comes to support the work carried out by HighService Engineering and Construction in a working relationship with experience, and motivates us to continue improving the service we provide in mining and other industries. ”

Los Pelambres ranks sixth in production nationwide and is the seventh largest copper producer in the world. The company operates since the end of 1999 in the province of Choapa, Coquimbo Region, with a processing capacity of 210 thousand tons per day of ore.

HighService Engineering & Construction implements Operational Excellence Project

Adoption of the “Lean Construction” method is positioning the company as a leader in high productivity services

Productivity and efficiency in the management of the projects have become a comparative advantage for the company HighService Engineering and Construction (HSIC), belonging to the holding HighService Corp.

This is due to the fact that the company, within the framework of its Operational Excellence Project, has implemented the “Lean Construction” model, which seeks to maximize the value and minimize the potential losses that can be generated in the projects, through tools that improve productivity of the processes, ensuring the deadlines and costs committed to their customers.

One of the benefits of this methodology is that downtimes are avoided due to poorly executed activities, incorrect work instructions, overcrowded areas, lack of resources, rework due to poor execution and poor planning of the works.

“Thanks to Lean Construction’s approach, we have significantly improved our procedures and execution processes, which positively impacts the final outcome of each project, benefiting our clients with successful contracts,” explains HS General Manager, Israel González.

Continuous improvement

The implementation of this methodology has generated a profound impact on the company, which has had to establish eight main objectives.

According to Anibal Amira, Manager of Development and Productivity, these stages are summarized in: 1. Stabilizing the processes; 2. Standardize and document the operations associated with critical processes; 3. Establish a methodology to determine critical risks and prevention and mitigation measures; 4. Improve critical business processes; 5. Establish a standard that allows evaluating performance and maturity; 6. Establish metrics and generate a new BSC that ensures the business; 7. Form leaders and ensure competence of hierarchical positions; and 8. Improve communication processes.

“Thanks to this new way of work, today we are a much more productive and efficient company, both internally and in the work we do for our customers,” assured the executive.

The company says that measuring the productivity of a site is a simple process, but achieving good results in productivity needs the support of the entire organization. In this way, HSIC is focused on the implementation of this project, programming the services, defining agile processes, establishing traceable records, adjusting the production capacity of the services, stipulating new formats, etc. “All this in a process of continuous improvement to achieve operational excellence in the execution of our contracts,” says Roberto Toledo, Quality Manager.

Greater savings and profits

Israel González assures that the use of the method “Lean Construction” has meant to obtain positive results in the projects, which have an impact on savings and profits for HSIC and its clients.

“The final result is the improvement of the entire engineering and construction process, and the reduction of all activities that do not add value, in order to achieve a simple flow, uniform and in a shorter execution time”, explains the manager general of the company.

The executive adds that, for this reason, the “Lean Construction” method considers construction not only as a transformation, but as a flow of resources to obtain a product. “In this way, you can visualize the abundant losses that are usually found in construction, and that the traditional work system that operates in the industry does not allow to see, anticipate or resolve,” he concludes.