CASE STUDY
Rio Tinto were embarking on a $1.4 billion expansion of their Western Australian port and handling facilities for iron ore. But would their design, developed through front-end engineering, deliver the enduring value they were hoping for?
What was the opportunity?
A small window of opportunity emerged in which to conduct a design challenge workshop. Despite the considerable work and investment made in developing their project designs, Rio Tinto remained open to improvement opportunities. So, despite a little skepticism, Rio Tinto bought into a workshop involving 25 people with differing functional roles in the project. They represented the engineering, environmental, operations, stakeholder engagement and marketing teams.
How did we tackle the challenge?
We applied a novel “intentional design” approach, that is generally more strategic, challenging and deliberate in its methods than prevailing concept and front-end engineering practices.
Employing a suite of conceptually simple yet powerful thinking tools, Rio Tinto’s team identified several critical but previously overlooked project objectives.
Taking an integrated systems view of the project, the team were then challenged to identify all plausible ways of meeting the expanded suite of project objectives. Importantly, this task was not assigned to groups on the basis of discipline. Cross-functional groups were retained to look at each objective from multiple perspectives, thereby creating a larger suite of solution options in a more integrated manner.
Appealing solution options were screened and packaged into a singular integrated high-value design. What emerged was described as “a breakthrough” and an “elegant” solution.
To further support the execution of this superior solution into practice, the team translated the design into updated project specifications.
What were the results and their impact?
By taking a strategic and systemic view of the project – looking beyond the fence line of the port precinct to include Rio Tinto’s connected assets – several opportunities emerged to substantially de-risk the project and save millions of dollars.
Just-in-time delivery of the iron ore enabled a substantial reduction in the footprint of stockpiles adjacent to the port. It also contributed to massive reductions in energy and water use, dust pollution, and encroachment on sensitive turtle habitat. No new technology was required to achieve this outcome.
This transformation in the project design occurred over the course of three days. Major whole-of-life risks were eliminated (not mitigated), and the total cost of ownership was reduced by 10% at the very least: a ROI of 70,000%.
Peter, one of senior engineers participating in the process, said “I’ve worked for BHP and Rio Tinto for most of my career. I’ve never been involved in a process like this. It’s outstanding. We’d be crazy not to do this on every project!”