Case Study: Seamless Transition: Organizational Design for a Development Mine
The Challenge
An existing open pit copper mine in a remote community in Northern Canada decided to develop an underground block cave. They are currently in the pre-feasibility stage and aim to design an organizational structure to progress through feasibility, planning & design, construction, and into production. The goal is to ensure a smooth transition between each phase and to develop a capability development plan with the local First Nations to secure jobs for them.
The Approach
During a 4-week workshop, we focused on several key areas:
Organizational Goals and KPI Alignment:
Established organizational goals and a cascading KPI tree for each development stage.
Design Principles:
Limited to no more than 5 layers from project director to frontline employee.
Prioritized hiring local First Nations members when possible.
Ensured job transfers between functions and departments at different stages.
Created objective triggers for organizational design changes between stages.
Functional Macro Design:
Analyzed each stage to determine functional allocations.
Micro Design:
Developed position profiles and job descriptions for each stage.
Skills Selection Process:
Created a process for selecting skills for various positions.
Communication Plan:
Developed a communication plan aligned with a 5-year implementation timeline based on project progress.
The Results
The project has now entered the construction phase. The transition from feasibility to planning & design to construction was smooth, aided by the cascading KPIs that helped align the project director and mine manager.
“We had an idea of what we wanted to do, but with help we put a lot of structure around it. As we were executing the plan, we realized we could trigger the changes and get ahead of schedule. Right now we should be in full production earlier than anticipated.”
