Kaizen Events
A Kaizen Event
is designed to cause a breakthrough on a significant challenge facing your mindset.
The term is loosely translated from the Japanese to “change for the good”.
Are you are running many small projects that do not generate significant value —
There is a ‘going through the motions’ effect on improvement projects?
or
Is there a persistent operational issue that has yet to be solved —
that is annoying, costly, or even dangerous — and there is frustration around it?
What is a Kaizen Event?
A Kaizen Event is a 3-5 day focused, collaborative improvement workshop where your process experts solve a persistent operational problem together.
We work in-person at your mine site, where the work actually happens. It’s designed to create a breakthrough on something important that’s been stuck—and to do it in a way that builds your team’s problem-solving capacity while delivering measurable results.
How it works:
We work with your frontline operators, engineers, and site leaders who know the process best
We focus on learning from data and testing solutions in real-time
We measure results with KPIs and track implementation at 30, 60, and 90 days
The solutions are owned and driven by your team, not handed down by consultants
When to use Kaizen Events:
- You have a specific, high-impact operational problem that’s been persistent
- You want to build momentum and excitement around improvement
- You need quick wins to prove the value of business improvement
- You want to develop your team’s problem-solving skills in action
Breakthrough topics we've tackled:
Increasing haul truck tire life
Reducing unplanned downtime on crusher
Reducing downtime to change concaves in crusher
Recruiting and placing new hires
Capturing non-compliances
Reducing month-end close time
Completed Kaizen Breakthrough Results
Mid-tier copper mine breakthrough (2019):
- Facilitated 3 consecutive onsite Kaizen events to identify 17M Euros ($19M USD) in new value creation and cost savings, including
overbreak reduction and drill quality improvement (2019, 4 weeks)
More breakthroughs (2024-2025):
- Mapped out data-driven decision-making capacities across all sites and identified top 3 opportunities to improve (2025, 1 day)
- Streamlined backfill operations to create more agility and planned downtime in the batch plant (2025, 3 days)
- Analyzed employee travel experience and developed new process to reduce voluntary turnover worth $860,000 annually (2025, 3 days)
- Reduced enterprise risk to revenue worth $19M, improved leverage with customer, and captured market upsides in new markets (2025, 3 days)
- Mapped out long-term mining plan including equipment, new hires, communications, resourcing, permit, and equipment requirements. Unlocked growth profile of 120,000 oz per year through 2039 (2025, 3 days)
- Captured operational improvement opportunities on the throughput of crushing operations. Operational cost reduction with solutions identified were $2.4M annually (2024, 3 days)
What You Get from a Kaizen Event
Immediate Value
- Dollar-valued solutions to your operational problem
- Implementation roadmap with clear ownership
- Momentum and buy-in from your frontline team
Long-term Capability
- Dollar-valued solutions to your operational problem
- Implementation roadmap with clear ownership
- Momentum and buy-in from your frontline team
Typical Investment
- Dollar-valued solutions to your operational problem
- Implementation roadmap with clear ownership
- Momentum and buy-in from your frontline team
STAGE 2- IMPROVEMENT SOLUTION:
BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT FUNCTION BUILDING
A multi-year partnership where we help you build an internal Business Improvement function from the ground up. By the time we're done, you'll have full-time BI resources, systems, processes, and an improvement culture that drives continuous results across all your sites—without needing external consultants.