Kamoto Copper Company

TCard

Project overview

Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) is a copper and cobalt producer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, jointly owned by Glencore (75%) and Gécamines (25%).

Mipac worked with two assets – the Kamoto Concentrator (KTC) and the Luilu Refinery.

KCC extracts ore containing copper and cobalt from its open pit and underground mines. The ore is transported from its mining operations to KTC. The ore is then crushed, concentrated and transferred to the Luilu Refinery.

Problems and challenges

KCC was facing numerous issues, including:

No system to manage operational activities
Struggling with repetitive operational tasks
Delays and frustrations with giving instructions on a daily basis
Superintendents unable to keep track of which tasks were assigned and which were incomplete
Tasks not being assigned correctly
Critical tasks not being consistently performed across operational crews

KCC sought Mipac’s help to rectify these issues.

KCC required a system to manage operator activities. KCC sought a simple-to-use operator management system that was able to allocate instructions automatically. The system needed to be bilingual, with French for operators and English for reporting, managers and administration. Training videos were also required to be bilingual.

TCard

TCard was identified as the appropriate solution to KCC’s challenges and to help their operational team.

TCard was born out of the need to develop a fit-for-purpose industrial task management solution to improve transparency and standardise regular task activities to ultimately improve production, safety and housekeeping. TCard is a simple-to-use task management tool designed to help plan, schedule and manage tasks easily and efficiently, facilitate two-way communication and provide clear visibility of the status of tasks. TCard provides enhanced communication and engagement, greater transparency, and increased operational awareness.

The solution

Mipac’s in-house Software Development Team worked closely with KCC to co-develop new functionality within TCard to meet their unique operational requirements and needs including:

Mutli-language support allowed KCC to view TCard menus and popups in English and French, and translate all terms into French.

Mipac also offered a customised option for the translation of training videos to French. Options for this included:

Renarration in French, which includes script translation, voice-over, and re-synchronisation against the existing video
Recapture video in French, which includes recapturing the existing video so that it includes translated French slides and content
Online video training for Operators, Superintendents and TCard administrators.

Implementation process

Alongside KCC, Mipac successfully executed TCard’s implementation across both KTC and the Luilu Refinery.

As a part of the first-year subscription price, Mipac includes TCard’s rapid implementation service. The implementation process involved Mipac hosting multiple workshops, with tailored training given to the KCC teams.

Mipac’s team built capabilities within the KCC team so they were able to independently implement the remaining TCards.

In collaboration with KCC, Mipac prioritised actions on the TCard roadmap. This included giving precedence to features including:

TCard for mobile
Overdue task enhancements
Improved reporting insights

Results

Once TCard was implemented at KCC, they were able to:

Improve coordination between management, Supervisors and Operators
Increased reporting of non-conformances for spillages and safety
Improved accountability, with specific people completing specific tasks
Send reports to all levels of the organisation in one email
Reduction in unexpected downtime
Enhancement of overall operational efficiency

As a result of tasks being automatically sent to all levels of the organisation, accountability and responsibility for task completion increased. There has been an increase in reporting of non-conformances. Since implementing TCard, day-to-day life onsite has become more consistent and simpler.

KCC was able to work with Mipac to further develop TCard and introduce features that help improve operations, including having areas reported separately.

KCC is also introducing digital Logsheets to work in conjunction with TCard.

"We've noticed the coordination between the Superintendents, supervisors and the operators has improved a lot. Now we are getting a lot of feedback from the operators. Because we have a TCard email that comes with all the comments, we tend to pick up very important feedback...I like TCard as a system, it's quite straightforward, it's simple and it's functional."

Marvin Muller

General Manager Processing KTC, Kamoto Copper Company S.A.

"Mipac are extremely helpful. They go out of their way to accommodate us in terms of our requirements and needs, so we really appreciate the support we get from the Mipac team. They are very good. We love working with them...I like the way they integrate all their products; they'll certainly make our life a lot easier."

Trust Shumba

KTC Operations Compliance Superintendent, Kamoto Copper Company S.A.

Kamoto Copper Company – TCard