UNICON Process Transformation
Based on the fundamental values of UNICON and the firm conviction that Safety is Good Business, dss+ helped UNICON successfully complete the first phase of the cultural strengthening process in their mining operations.
In an organization like UNICON, where doing the right thing is one of the premises, working to improve the way risks affect the safety of the people is NON-NEGOTIABLE. Thus, in 2017 the UNICON leadership made the decision to focus on addressing the critical risk of its mining operations and to move the organization from a culture of compliance to one of commitment.
Process Transformation Towards a Culture of Commitment to Safety
The process began with a diagnostic of the organization's safety culture, the generation of the organization's safety vision, and its formal integration into the business vision. Later, leadership analyzed the strategic lines of action proposed by dss+ and developed the action plans to facilitate the organization to achieve its objectives in the area of safety that was part of the implementation phase.
Process
The first stage of the implementation phase, which lasted a year, was based on strengthening leadership skills, where the participants could be true agents of change towards a culture of commitment to safety, with the accompaniment of the governance of the critical risks of mining and concrete operations, to improve execution. This allowed the organization, to advance in two fundamental axes: the human one - through the implementation of the safety leadership program that enables a leader who can transform himself, in order to transform his work teams; and the technician - through practices for risk management at an operational and tactical level.
"A few years ago, we were surprised to analyze that despite managing many management tools and National Safety Committees, our staff acted only for compliance. One understands that monitoring people to make them aware of safety is unsustainable and not feasible. Therefore, we decided to move from that reactive stage to a culture of safety where at all times, and without having a supervisor nearby, all our workers act safely."
UNICON Operations Manager.
The path to achieving results in the first stage of the implementation phase involved various activities: building a shared understanding around what is visible and felt leadership in the field; with and from the people, the disciplined performance of rituals safety; the effective realization of behavioral observations; the conduct of investigation processes of incidents and accidents led by the owner of the area, and close monitoring of activities with critical risk in the operation, among others.
"I, as Chief of Operations of Cerro Lindo, have learned that everything that happens in the Plant is My Responsibility, and I assume that Responsibility. Our commitment to making Safety a Value, it´s inherent to our daily work, every day we wake up and act with Safety ".
Project Manager at UNICON Plant - UM Cerro Lindo. (Client: Nexa Resources)
Along the way to strengthening the safety culture, the organization has been moving along the learning curve towards a culture of commitment, generating a renewed awareness of leaders about the expected behaviors of a member of the organization. All this lived in the light of a mining culture in Peru that traditionally focuses on production goals, but within the scope set by UNICON, has managed to evolve, adapting to a cultural space where production and safety do not compete but, on the contrary, they coexist, increasing flexibility to respond to the dynamic needs of nearby interest groups.
"What remains here on the road is to deploy the concept of zero accidents through Visible Leadership."
Head of Operations at the UNICON Mining.
In the second stage of implementation, which has been extended for an additional year. The process of strengthening leadership competencies in safety has been transitioned to the strategic level, with all parties of the leadership team now involved. The level of relevance that they place on safety will be the north star that dictates where the organization wants to move in accordance with the commitment, commercial leverage for this competitive advantage, and improvements in the organization's safety management indicators. With that, they obtain better benefits for safety and for the business.
Results
Some of the benefits obtained by the UNICON organization in the first year are:
"We have improved a lot, not only in the Safety indicators, but also in what we talk about in the company, in how we communicate with customers, the priority we give to safety, the investment we dedicate to it, because we have to invest in this, it is not free. And although I cannot give a number, we have started to recover business that we had lost."
UNICON General Manager.
Other results at the management level are:
- Leadership alignment in what are the critical risks of the operation.
- Greater control over the most critical risks.
- Establishment of the governance structure to manage the critical risk of the operation at the operational, tactical and strategic levels.
- Strengthening of customer relationships.
- Recognition at the leadership level of opportunities for improvement in relation to the Investigation and Analysis of Incidents and Behavioural Observations and joint operational, tactical, and strategic work to improve these practices.
- Improvement of equipment and machinery integrity through agreements with suppliers.
- Improvement of the efficiency of the operating process.
The objective of UNICON continues to be that each one of its collaborators arrives safely home, for that reason they maintain their firm decision to move forward and make every effort to achieve it, always aiming at Business Sustainability.
"This transformation process, if we do it well, will bring the benefit of greater operational excellence, less cost for hours not lost, and in the end, it will make the organization increasingly competitive, always efficient, and always at the forefront."
UNICON Director.