emqnet

Our thinking:
Look Forward

SOME MIGHT LIKE TO PIGEONHOLE US AS A CRISIS MANAGEMENT COMPANY. BUT THAT’S SIMPLISTIC OLD-SCHOOL THINKING. emqnet IS SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT. WE’RE AN OPERATIONAL RESILIENCE COMPANY, AND DATA IS OUR CURRENCY.

The data imbedded in the emqnet platform is the cornerstone of our operational resilience difference. It’s how we comprehensively measure, for the first time, a company’s resilience capability. Its responsiveness to crises, decisiveness in decision-making, stakeholder management, communication efficacy, and cohesion between teams.

This rich cache of information, collated across hundreds of data points, is not only a barometer of your occupational health and safety, compliance and ESG performance, but it also tells a valuable story to your investors. Stakeholders with a financial interest in the operational continuity of your business. What is investor certainty worth to you? To us, it’s everything. emqnet is about looking forward and shaping tomorrow’s markets and business landscapes today.

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Our Latest Thinking

News & Articles

Mining Mega Trends Insights 2022
A disgruntled workforce, emboldened by an aggressive union campaign, rapidly spirals into an industrial crisis.
emqnet in Action: Defusing an industrial dispute
Data is vital for informing decision-making in mining operations and accurate information must be shared between key personnel without delay.
birds eye view of 3 blue cranes mining an unknown site.
emqnet in Action: Mining Fatality
Data is vital for informing decision-making in mining operations and accurate information must be shared between key personnel without delay.
Power Plant
emqnet in Action: Powering on without power
Data is vital for informing decision-making in mining operations and accurate information must be shared between key personnel without delay.
Ghana shooting: a lesson in managing civil unrest
Data is vital for informing decision-making in mining operations and accurate information must be shared between key personnel without delay.
Why data capture and sharing matter for mining operators
Data is vital for informing decision-making in mining operations and accurate information must be shared between key personnel without delay.
A disgruntled workforce, emboldened by an aggressive union campaign, rapidly spirals into an industrial crisis.

emqnet in Action: Defusing an industrial dispute

Article, Case Study /

Data is vital for informing decision-making in mining operations and accurate information must be shared between key personnel without delay.

emqnet in Action: Defusing an industrial dispute Read More »

A disgruntled workforce, emboldened by an aggressive union campaign, can rapidly spiral into an industrial crisis – threatening productivity, stakeholder relations and reputation. It’s a lesson one of the world’s largest gold mining companies learnt first-hand when a union industrial dispute escalated into a full-scale blockade.

A workplace in crisis

Tensions had been simmering at a gold mine in Argentina when union-led conflict over site access reached a tipping point, forcing the mine into a costly shutdown. Union-backed workers downed tools and blocked internal roads, stopping mining operations for more than 20 hours. The downtime cost the group a day’s productivity, equating to about 26kg of extracted gold.

But the shutdown could have had deeper repercussions if not for the company investing in a comprehensive operational continuity plan. Armed with the specialised knowledge and tools from the emqnet platform, enhanced by two recent training exercises, the group was able to defuse the situation swiftly, bringing the blockade to an amicable end and getting workers back on the job promptly.

Dissecting the response

Within 10 minutes of activating the event on the emqnet platform, 53 people had been notified of the blockade, including the executive team. Contingencies were initiated to ensure that essential work relating to maintenance and ventilation continued while production work halted. The mining company simultaneously activated its chain of stakeholder networks, liaising with police, local authorities, the Labour Ministry and the media, who were probing the mine shutdown. This engagement resulted in authorities quickly issuing a conciliation order to break the impasse. Roadblocks were subsequently lifted, site access reinstated and operations resumed. In less than 24 hours the mine was back running at full capacity and the industrial turmoil was over.

Lessons learned

“The incident demonstrates the crucial role stakeholder management plays in dispute resolution. The enterprise had done their homework – identifying key stakeholders and building relationships – so that when a crisis emerged, teams could immediately engage their networks.” Jarrod Wilson, emqnet CEO

The incident demonstrates the crucial role stakeholder management plays in dispute resolution. The enterprise had done their homework – identifying key stakeholders and building relationships – so that when a crisis emerged, teams could immediately engage their networks. Without the requisite preparations in building and strengthening these stakeholder connections, negotiating a resolution would have been a far more complex and protracted process. As with any incident, the after-action review also plays a critical role in strengthening and maturing an organisation’s operational continuity program, so they are best placed to navigate future crises.

 

Like this case study? Read more like it here.

birds eye view of 3 blue cranes mining an unknown site.

emqnet in Action: Mining Fatality

Article, Case Study /

Data is vital for informing decision-making in mining operations and accurate information must be shared between key personnel without delay.

emqnet in Action: Mining Fatality Read More »

In 2018 a fatality occurred at a remote Australian coal mine operated by a $200 billion multinational resources company. A bulldozer fell into the mine pit, killing the driver, in an accident that occurred during a peak holiday period when the general manger was off-site. Operations ceased and the 1200-strong workforce was stood down while the relevant authorities attended the scene. In total, the mine was shut down for two days, at a cost of AU$1 million an hour. However, the disruption could have been much worse if the mining company did not have a rigorous operational continuity framework in place.

Planning and Preparation

While any workplace death is a tragedy, it’s an eventuality all enterprises – especially those operating in hazardous environments – must prepare for. With the emqnet crisis management platform and process-led strategies, the mining company was able to respond to the incident swiftly and effectively, minimising operational downtime. The enterprise had uploaded their crisis management plan to the emqnet platform in the months leading up to the fatality and, just days beforehand, participated in a live training event. This routine practice gave all teams the capability and capacity to effectively respond to the real-life mine incident.

Response and Recovery

Within 10 minutes of initiating an event on the emqnet platform, key stakeholders had been alerted, the Emergency Management Team (EMT) had activated, and site operations paused. Within two hours, next of kin had been notified, site and severity assessments had been completed, police had been called in and employee assistance programs initiated. During this early window, government stakeholders were also contacted, internal and external communications drafted, and a spokesperson appointed. Within four hours, the body had been recovered, an inspector had taken control of the site, and the event moved into the pre-investigation phase. Each action, communication and decision followed a prescribed process, enacted and documented through the emqnet platform.

The strength of the platform was demonstrated in its ability to seamlessly connect off-site personnel, updating team members enterprise-wide on the one, centralised system. As a result, the general manager, who was on leave at the time and several hours away, was able to link into the event via the mobile app and receive real-time updates. This platform connectivity meant that by the time the manager arrived at the site some hours after incident activation, they had full situational awareness and were immediately able to assume a lead role in the Incident Management Team/Crisis Management Team (IMT/CMT) without any undo delay. The swift, efficient response – enabled by the emqnet framework – potentially saved the enterprise hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity. In an era where companies are measured on their triple bottom line, the promptness and efficacy of the response also publicly demonstrated the enterprise’s commitment to upholding its obligations to its workforce and regulators.

“In an era where companies are measured on their triple bottom line, the promptness and efficacy of the response also publicly demonstrates the enterprise’s commitment to upholding its obligations to its workforce and regulators.” Jarrod Wilson, emqnet CEO

After Action Review

The post-incident review is just as important as the response and recovery phase. This forensic analysis of what went well and what could be improved will enhance the company’s resilience program going forward. The review, which exposed incident notification weaknesses and failures in communications equipment, will inform how the enterprise’s crisis management plan is revised and augmented. This, coupled with ongoing training, ensures the organisation is best placed to respond to whatever unforeseen eventualities may occur in future.

Like this case study? Read more like it here.

Power Plant

emqnet in Action: Powering on without power

Article, Case Study /

Data is vital for informing decision-making in mining operations and accurate information must be shared between key personnel without delay.

emqnet in Action: Powering on without power Read More »

In the height of the Australian summer, a gold mine in remote Western Australia was confronted with the unthinkable. A gas plant had tripped, halving supply and instantly shutting down part of the mine site. To make matters worse, the disruption was expected to last two days, diminishing production at a mine that typically produces more than 11 tonnes of gold a year.

Maintaining operational continuity

With no control over external supply continuity, the company had to rapidly exercise levers within its power to minimise the operational impact of a gas shortfall. There was no time to waste: every minute was costing the enterprise money. Event activation on the emqnet crisis management platform was immediate, and within five minutes a team of 10 key personnel was notified and assembled. Their primary concern? How to shield the core operations of the business from a major supply disruption. Fortunately, they had at the ready their Trigger Action Response Plan (TARP) – a crisis management blueprint for overcoming the most severe threats to operational continuity.

Plan for prosperity

The TARP was tried and tested. In the four months before the gas disruption event, the enterprise had undertaken two training sessions to put their crisis response framework to the test. This resilience-building exercise meant that when faced with a real-life event, personnel could act quickly and decisively. Their first task was to shut down any non-essential energy use so that power could be diverted to core mining operations. The crisis management team then had to investigate alternative fuel sources and suppliers, liaising with the Australian Energy Market Operator and other stakeholders to shore up reserves. While output was affected, the enterprise succeeded in mitigating productivity loss, and within six days normal operations had resumed and the incident was closed on emqnet.

Like this case study? Read more like it here.

Ghana shooting: a lesson in managing civil unrest

Article, Case Study /

Data is vital for informing decision-making in mining operations and accurate information must be shared between key personnel without delay.

Ghana shooting: a lesson in managing civil unrest Read More »

In the rich volcanic belt of south-west Ghana violence erupts near a gold mine operated by
one of the world’s largest resource companies. A civilian is shot dead in the skirmish,
property vandalised and workers attacked, leaving two with glass injuries. An angry mob
forms and the situation has the potential to escalate out of control, jeopardising production
at an operation that yields more than 18 tonnes of gold a year.
The crisis management team knows what to do. They have prepared for this type of
scenario. An incident is activated through the emqnet crisis management platform and
withing five minutes 43 personnel – from site teams to group executives – are notified. The
teams enact their crisis management response and withing 72 hours the incident is over and
normal operating conditions resume.

Preparation is key

It’s no stroke of luck that a $34 billion company was able to rebound from potential disaster
largely unscathed. The enterprise had been training, planning and preparing for just such an
incident for years, with the most recent training exercises conducted one month prior to
activation. This meant that when confronted with a real-life incident, the group had the
capability to instantly enact their crisis response, following the well-rehearsed framework of
the emqnet platform.

A textbook response

With relevant personnel notified almost simultaneously upon incident activation, the
company was able to switch to crisis mode without delay. Situational awareness was
promptly established, and the event assigned a medium-level threat on the severity matrix.
The company recognised the urgent need to protect assets, staff and the broader
community, and resolved to immediately bolster security, liaising with local authorities and
the regional police commander to deploy more than 200 officers and put the military on
standby. The site was secured, night shift suspended, supplier traffic diversions established,
and contingencies made for employees remaining on site. Importantly, the management
team leveraged their stakeholder relationships, reaching out to local village chiefs to
negotiate with agitated youths. The situation was defused, and the mine was back to full
operation just 72 hours after activation on emqnet.

Like this case study? Read more like it here.

Why data capture and sharing matter for mining operators

Article /

Data is vital for informing decision-making in mining operations and accurate information must be shared between key personnel without delay.

Why data capture and sharing matter for mining operators Read More »

Data is vital for informing decision-making in mining operations and accurate information must be shared between key personnel without delay. Collecting unnecessary data can slow this process down. Dynamiq’s digital resilience platform, emqnet, allows operators to capture important data, benefiting both internal and external stakeholders. This improves crisis event response, creating continuous operational improvements, and greater transparency for regulators and investors over time.

Getting the right information to those who need it is critical in mining operations. Credit: Schroptschop via Getty Images.

When it comes to data capture in mining, it is crucial to be clear on what is required and its value in terms of decision-making. Furthermore, operators must make sure that data integrity is maintained, which helps build a consistent database over the long term to establish patterns and trends. Timely information in the right hands enables better decision-making.

A digital resilience platform is the most efficient and reliable way of collecting and sharing operational data, which would be almost impossible using the traditional manual approach.

“Data-driven decision-making is essential in today’s business, but mining leaders need to consider what data they need and why it is important,” says Jarrod Wilson, CEO of Dynamiq.

“Corporate reporting for stakeholders, including board members and external agencies for ESG assessment, feed into the need for greater consistency and transparency in data capture. Operationally, the benefits of quality data also help with trend identification to put better controls in place, asset and geographic profiling for performance, talent identification through seeing your people perform under pressure, and lessons learned for continuous improvement.”

Dynamiq’s emqnet resilience platform records valuable incident data, allowing your organisation’s leaders and their incident management teams to make informed and timely decisions. This increases the effectiveness and efficiency of your organisation’s response actions to any crisis.

Targeted investment

Being able to access critical data allows leaders to assess where they need to invest to protect their people and operations. Trend data, both real and training, reveals the level of effort and investment going into various assets and functions to determine where investments can be targeted to fill a particular capability gap, or demonstrate the efficacy of the existing capability to assure stakeholders that the threats in a particular environment are well prepared for.

“You can explore trends and potentially arrest those trends before they become too obstructive,” says Lucas Saunders, Head of Advisory at Dynamiq.

“A simple example could be if the data is pointing at incidents occurring an hour before shift change over, does that mean that there’s a fatigue issue and health and safety need to do a review of their fatigue management plan?”

Talent identification

Rarely understood and only seen by the best of businesses, observing and assessing how your people perform and make important decisions when under pressure allows for your best talent to shine and help build the future leaders of your business.

By assessing post-incident outcomes, the lessons learned not only improve your operational resilience program; but also shine a light on who has performed well and made quality decisions. Reviewing data leads to constructive feedback, aiding the professional development of team members, and identifying areas they need to improve to advance their careers.

Data built over a period of time highlights within a teams-based resilience program where your best and brightest staff are and allows you to deploy them where they can make the most positive impact on your business time and again.

How to build the dataset you need

emqnet is configurable to be specific to your own business’s unique needs. Data input fields and various platform features are developed to allow consistent capture across your organisation and targeted so you can capture what you need for quality reporting and in-depth analysis.

Dynamiq’s Advisory team works closely with clients to understand their needs and ensure that the platform can meet today’s operational demands, but also makes sure that you can build a quality dataset over time.

“Consistency across data capture is really important. Not just for reporting, but also to improve business-related outcomes,” adds Wilson.

The impact of quality data

Leading ESG operators in the industry use emqnet data to support reporting requirements and also demonstrate that they have a credible crisis management capability that can be relied upon. All data in emqnet is auditable, with interactions and activities logged in real-time. This increased transparency builds trust with regulators and stakeholders.

“You can download a complete chronological report of the event, providing the necessary data for effective post-incident reviews or discovering lessons learned,” explains Saunders.

Data from emqnet has also been used for a diverse range of highly sensitive issues, for example, HR-related incidents. Furthermore, emqnet was used to formulate a government’s national response to a highly infectious disease outbreak pre-Covid and leveraged the stakeholder function in the platform to manage internal and external issues through the duration of the response.

“In the platform, the client was logging all of the infections and local issues. And because they’re a material site in that country, our data from emqnet became the proxy for their health data for that nation,” adds Wilson. “The data became the proxy for decision-making beyond the business.”