Perfect Shift is designed to improve performance and reduce downtime of the mining fleet at the Jubilee, Komsomolskaya and Aikhal deposits in the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic in eastern Siberia, Russia.

The Aikhal Division started to look into organisational changes required for the mine's efficiency improvement initiatives in late 2019. To adapt Perfect Shift to the Jubilee mine, Alrosa's PSDC created an Aikhal production system development function.

Artem Polyvyanny, head of the Aikhal Production System Development function, said: "The Perfect Shift has been successfully piloted at Nyurba and Udachny Divisions. Preliminary results showed higher performance and lower downtime of the mining fleet. Now we need to change the mining and transportation processes and minimise unproductive time at Aikhal Division."

The Perfect Shift at Aikhal Division will focus on pit stop, hotseat and flexible swing shift initiatives. Pit stop means that full maintenance, refuelling and inspection of the mining fleet between the shifts will take place at a fixed time and place. Hotseat means that a replacement driver will change the regular mine truck driver during his lunchtime. Flexible swing shift facilitates operational continuity.

These three initiatives are expected to improve the mine truck utilisation rate to above 81%.

The Perfect Shift will be launched at the Aikhal Division in April. A Unified Control Centre has already been set up to cut the downtime of mine trucks waiting for loading. A service centre based on the mining equipment repair shop will be created to perform the maintenance of mine trucks and excavators during each shift.