As the Technology and Innovation group ramps up RACE21™, meet Andrew Milner, Teck’s Senior Vice President, Innovation and Technology
What is your leadership style and philosophy with respect to innovation and technology?
I believe in transformational, empowering, participative and supportive leadership styles and always trying to learn from leaders who demonstrate these qualities. I believe these leadership traits can help unleash a mindset of innovation and help empower our workforce to explore new ideas and bring them forward.
How can we promote innovative thinking and harness ideas from employees?
I am focusing on building a culture of Empowerment, Innovation and Performance. New ideas will be actively encouraged at all levels. We have also given our teams a path to fund truly innovative ideas outside of the normal budget process. We are seeing that already with the Ideas at Work Fund, where we’re tapping into our operations, encouraging people to bring forward ideas. We are close to getting the first funds flowing—I am very excited to talk more about that soon.
What are your priorities for 2019?
In 2019 we will begin implementing a strategy called RACE21™, based on the idea that while technology has been a driving force of improvement in mining, the basic operating system has remained unchanged for decades. With the expansion in analytics, automation and digital tools, we are in an era where the transformation of mining to something more like a manufacturing model is possible. This will be a source of enormous value and competitive advantage for the miners that can capitalize on it.
What will RACE21™ mean for Teck?
There are four pillars to RACE21™. The first pillar is Renew: looking at our foundational infrastructure, systems and processes, and what we need to do to position Teck to be world class in that space, so we can support a future operating state.
The second is Automate: looking at company-wide automation opportunities for robotics, processes and equipment.
The third pillar is Connect: looking at how we leverage data and treat it like we would any other high-value asset to lower variability across the full value chain.
And the fourth pillar is Empower: the collective impact “Renew”, “Automate” and “Connect” of looking at how we work, what skills we need and how we can truly enable our people to meet these new opportunities.
The 21 represents the focus we will have over the next three years to make sure we can make tangible progress in these areas.
What other opportunities do you see in applying technology and innovation across Teck?
We’re seeing a lot of change and disruption in the world right now, and the pace of change is increasing in the mining industry. So a big focus for me will be to make sure we’re ready for those changes, so we can leverage the right opportunities and partnerships that will strengthen us as a company.
Another key opportunity for us is in sustainability—I’m a father of three and I’m motivated to build a better world for the next generation. I believe that through a combination of innovation, technology and the products we produce, we have huge potential to help contribute to a better world.
About Andrew
Andrew joined Teck in November 2018 to take on the new role of Senior Vice President, Technology and Innovation, responsible for the development of a long-term, enterprise-wide, technology and digital plan for Teck. He will also be responsible for oversight of the plan’s implementation and helping to build a culture of innovation across the entire organization.
Andrew joined Teck from BHP, where he was Vice President, Technology Production Systems. He brings to his role more than 25 years of experience and expertise in strategy development and delivery of technology production systems globally. In an earlier role, Andrew was also General Manager and Global Practice Leader, Innovation Delivery at Rio Tinto.
