POP 2010 from a different point of view

OSTRAVA – Last year’s deliveries of the state-of-the-art mining equipment under the POP 2010 Project (Productivity Optimization Program) are successfully done. The Horník Magazine provided a regular update on the difficulties encountered during the transportation of shields, shearers, roadheaders and other parts underground as well as on the excellent results of the crews when installing and commissioning the equipment. But – how did all this start?

A new chapter in the OKD history was opened in fall 2008 when Klaus-Dieter Beck, CEO, announced the largest capex project in the company’s history: “In the course of two years, we will procure mining equipment worth more than eight billion Czech crowns to our operations,” told CEO then to the surprised journalists who quickly calculated that, besides the Nošovice car factory of Hyundai, this amount exceeds most of any other investment projects in the region.

Weeks and months of preparatory works and negotiations with manufacturers followed – not a single piece of equipment was selected from a standard product portfolio, all of them were tailor-made for individual operations. This related to a wide training program involving entire crews of OKD employees from managers to longwall operators.

At that time, one of the largest logistic operations in Europe had already been started. “We needed to deliver more than 150,000 different parts of equipment weighing in total some 21,000 tons. So, one by one, there were 1,100 trucks coming from Bucyrus Headquarters in Lűnen and tens of other manufacturing facilities in various corners of Europe setting out on their journey to northern Moravia. All went well so we could transport all parts and pieces down to respective longwall faces,” Richard Pavlík, POP 2010 Project Manager, described the situation.

Once underground, it was all up to the skills of OKD employees though they were assisted by experts delegated by equipment manufacturers in the first weeks. After first months of equipment operation, we can say it was good investment. Even if it takes some time before the billions-worth investment is paid back, it will definitely represent a future competitive advantage for the company.

Production results in January 2009

New equipment is currently operated at all OKD mines. Deliveries continue this year too and in total, POP 2010 should include 9 longwall and 23 development sets topped with the deliveries of heavy equipment handling and transportation tools.

(Vladislav Sobol)