Coal Age

APR 2013

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haulage & loading 2013 preview continued and leadership, and why implementing a safety culture within the organization is vital to ensuring every employee returns home safely. Those who attended Haulage & Loading 2011 will certainly remember Jim Spigener's presentation. He shared the results of investigations of tragic incidents and the responses he found from interviewing those who survived. This year, Spigener, who is a senior vice president with BST, takes it one step further with The Zero-Harm Organization: Shifting the Focus from Injuries to Exposures. In his presentation, he will explain how the zero harm goal is not simply an extension of injury reduction goals of the past. One of the key characteristics of zero harm performance is a shift from a focus on injuries to exposures as the trigger for action and the measure of change. This focus means asking people to act when exposure increases, not just when an injury is imminent (or has already happened). "Until we move the focus from injury prevention to exposure management we will continue to be surprised by seemingly 'out-of-the-blue' events," Spigener said. Drawing on real-world examples of organizations that are making this shift, this presentation will discuss what an exposure focus means in terms of process, culture and results, and outlines steps for getting there. Following a similar theme, Mike Harnett, director of operations, Work-SMART Ergonomics Ltd., will present Shattering Myths: The New Face of Fatigue Manage-ment. He will discuss the most recent scientific research on the best way to maximize safety and performance while minimizing the effects of fatigue as they relate to shift work, on-call and overtime practices. Utilizing a solutions-based approach, key topics include the effective use of lighting technologies, the latest fatigue detection devices, optimizing shift schedule design, and ways to reduce cognitive impairment and resulting human error. After the break, Todd Ruff, business development manager–North America for SAFEmine Technology, will present Test Results of a GPS-based Collision Avoidance System at Line Creek Operations. Line Creek is a Teck Resources coal mining operation located near Elkford, B.C., Canada. A trial of the SAFEmine Traffic Awareness and Collision Avoidance System was conducted on surface mining equipment and light vehicles at the mine in 2012. The system April 2013 uses GPS to determine vehicle location, speed and direction of travel and broadcasts this information to other nearby vehicles to increase the operator's awareness of nearby traffic and potential collisions. Data will be presented on a six-week trial regarding alarms associated with speeding, close vehicle interactions and potential collisions. The session will conclude with Correlation of Close Proximity Events and Operator Alertness, presented by Jon Olson of GuardVant. The correlation of data from integrated on-board proximity detection systems, and operator fatigue and alertness systems are enabling a comprehensive analysis of these events. This analysis is supporting the development of comprehensive integrated solutions using onboard equipment, realtime sensor data and tunable algorithms to further improve operator safety, production and equipment maintenance. Workforce Training The Monday afternoon session, Workforce Training, kicks off with Kay Sever, president, OptimiZ Consulting, presenting Truth, Trust & Tons—Solutions for the Hidden Cost of Reactive Cultures in Mining. Mining culture is defined as how people interact with equipment and each other, Sever explained. In a reactive culture, people don't trust each other, superintendents won't work together, supervisors are inconsistent with crews, and support groups make promises they do not keep. Resolving these issues has never been easy because "improvement sabotage" was working behind the scenes. The solution starts with a new perspective on change, understanding the truth about sabotage, and management strategies that design a "Culture Engine," which maximizes production, minimizes cost and improves department relationships (even operations and maintenance). In 2011, Chuck Frey, marketing manager, VISTA Training, discussed new training programs for mine operators. At this year's conference, he will present Blended Learning: A More Effective Model of Haul Truck Operator Training. Too often, haul truck operator trainees do not retain enough of the knowledge they learn during training, which could lead to future problems. Blended learning—providing training via multiple modalities using a highly structured, building-block approach—has shown promise in solving this challenge because it's aligned with the way adults prefer to learn. Frey will present data gathered over a three-year period from three mines in North America and will provide examples of blended learning in action. Historically, equipment operator training in the mining industry has been conducted using a "trial by fire" approach, with new operators receiving most of their instruction on the job operating mobile equipment with little formal training or practice time. This approach has a number of drawbacks, including taking a piece of equipment out of production for new operator training. In her presentation, Improving Mine Productivity through Advancements in Mobile Equipment Simulator Technology, Paula Oransky, business development manager, CAE Mining, will discuss advancements in equipment simulation technology. This type of training is enabling mining companies to train new operators in realistic Quinn Talks CORESafety at Haulage & Loading Luncheon During the Monday luncheon, which is free for all full-conference registrants, Hal Quinn, president and CEO, National Mining Association (NMA), will provide an update on the NMA's CORESafety initiative, an industry-wide partnership built on a foundation of leadership, culture and health and safety systems. www.coalage.com 27

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