Five current, former and retired employees of Vale's Manitoba Operations Maintenance Management Professional (MMP) Course Study Group - Larry Roy, Murray Keough, Dan Cox, Dave Hennessey and Ray Majerus - were recognized in Calgary last November by the Plant Engineering and Maintenance Association of Canada (PEMAC), at their annual MainTrain conference, with an inaugural Capstone Award for a technical paper discussing a proposed asset maintenance strategy for the proposed Thompson (1D) deep orebody mine shaft.
Roy is superintendent with divisional support and maintenance services in Thompson; Keough is maintenance superintendent at Birchtree Mine; Dan Cox, who is retired, was a reliability co-ordinator with divisional support; Dave Hennessey, also retired, was a production scheduler at T1 Mine; and Ray Majerus is a former manager in divisional shops-logistics.
The five maintenance professionals co-authored the technical paper, "Set a Maintenance/Service Strategy and Program New Shaft and Headframe for the 1D Deep Ore Body Vale Base Metals - North Atlantic, Manitoba Operation." It was completed in May 2011. They wrote the report as their final paper to complete the Maintenance Management Professional (MMP) certificate program offered by the Plant Engineering and Maintenance Association of Canada.
Their instructor was Adrian de Groot, who worked for Vale here for years, as well as serving on city council for many years. De Groot, who was named the fourth recipient of the Order of Thompson by the Thompson Community Foundation last Sept. 28, moved to Neepawa last year.
De Groot encouraged Roy, Keough, Cox, Hennessey and Majerus "to submit the work to PEMAC to demonstrate Vale's leadership expertise in asset management," Vale News, an internal newsletter for Vale employees in Canada and the United Kingdom, published by Vale Canada Limited in Toronto, reported Dec. 3. "The paper articulated a detailed strategy for initial and ongoing service and maintenance of the proposed shaft, covering all areas from scheduling to human resources."
The Capstone Awards were initiated last year by the PEMAC board of directors "to encourage and recognize excellence in MMP program participation, as demonstrated by excellence in the Capstone project," said Cindy Sneddon, PEMAC's executive director, at the awards ceremony that was part of the association's MainTrain conference in Calgary Nov. 19. The theme of the conference was "implementing change."
The award is open to both individuals and teams and there are two categories for the Capstone award: Best Capstone project, business process focus, and Best Capstone project, technical focus.
"The winners know who they are, as they will be presenting their projects (at MainTrain)," said Sneddon just before the awards.
"We would like to thank them very much for their bravery because for both winners, this will be the first time that they are presenting at a conference," Sneddon said.
Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to walk in space, was the event's keynote speaker, talking about life on the on the International Space Station, the importance of co-operation among participating countries, and the role a positive outlook and perspective on life has in achieving the exceptional.
While Roy, Keough, Cox, Hennessey and Majerus nabbed the technical prize, the winner of the Capstone Award for a business-focused project was Ross Markowski. His project was called "Cabin Gas Plant Maintenance Structure & Workplace Leadership." Markowski is a mechanical supervisor at Cenovus Energy, a Calgary-based Canadian oil company.
Hennessey, in his acceptance speech on behalf of Vale's Manitoba Operations Maintenance Management Professional (MMP) Course Study Group, stressed the importance of managing ego - particularly among their group of mining industry veterans and subject matter experts - as well as crediting co-operation and strong leadership, as being the keys to their success.
