BHP announced that Escondida, through its Cathodes General Management, was awarded the Shingo Prize Award.
The Shingo Prize Award is the highest award bestowed by Utah State University’s Shingo Institute, recognising organisations for their operational excellence system.
As a result, Escondida became the first BHP operation to achieve the award and the first private mining firm in Chile to be certified.
According to BHP, it has been a long journey for the company, which began in 2020 when the Electrowinning area accepted the challenge, and where more than 1,200 workers, both direct and collaborators, live daily according to the principles and practises of the company’s BOS Operating System, which is based on the Shingo model.
To receive the recognition, the Cathodes General Management was assessed by a group of Shingo Institute examiners who strictly reviewed how the work teams implement the BHP’s Operating System, BOS, daily.
Escondida President Jim Whittaker highlighted that “it is an honour for our asset to receive this award, which represents the work of thousands of people who strive to achieve continuous improvement. This reinforces the fact that the workers are the true protagonists in our operation, who contribute to achieving operational excellence in various areas, such as safety, productivity and culture, thus projecting ourselves into the future in a sustainable manner. The evaluation of our Cathodes area and the subsequent winning of the award acknowledge this way of working and inspire us to continue along this path.”
Escondida’s Cathodes General Manager Olga Alfaroadded, “our operating system based on the Shingo principles, has given us the tools to humbly lead and to respect each one of the persons that are part of Cathodes. The Shingo Prize inspires us to keep on building together the company that we love and invites us to keep on improving every day, always having, at the core of what we do, the safety and the BOS principles, which will allow us to continue projecting ourselves into the next decades to be able to lead from Chile the copper production that the world needs.
