Nicholas Luff has been assisting Glencore’s Clermont Open Cut operation in a short-term planning team. During this time, Nicholas has learnt and assisted in the dig and dump design process as well as scheduling loading equipment to follow a weekly plan. He has also assisted in running weekly planning meetings that implement his designs and schedule as well as weekly reconciliation meetings to measure conformance to plan.
Nicholas has been part of a new initiative to expose experienced digger and dozer operators to short term planners’ tasks. This has been achieved through teaching CAD software skills, which allows them to see how all designs follow standard operating procedures. This has been valuable as experienced operators understand the mining process required to efficiently mine. It has also developed a good relationship between the operators and engineers which has resulted in positive communication during difficult design concepts.
Nicholas has found the MEC graduate program to be a perfect tool for progressing his professional development, especially with MEC running multiple graduate modules that assist in developing soft skills. This is something that many graduate engineers struggle with but is now something he feels comfortable doing. It has assisted him when communicating designs or information on hazards with supervisors and managers.