New direction from a proactive and forward thinking Executive team at South Africa’s leading contract mining company, MCC Contract Mining & Services, a division of the eXtract Group, has led to the investment in one of the largest operator training center projects in Africa. Partnering with Immersive Technologies, MCC has identified the quality of their equipment operator resource as a critical driver to improving asset productivity and reducing operating costs.

Immersive Technologies is contributing to MCC’s value creation process through the introduction of a mature and proven Managed Workforce Development Solution, which directly improves operator skills and their understanding of the factors that affect asset productivity, cost reduction and safety. This solution will be distributed across the eXtract Operator Training Academy and three mining operations. It incorporates seven Advanced Equipment Simulators, nineteen simulator modules (or Conversion Kits®) and seven Pre-Start Inspection training & assessment systems. This solution will be staffed by a team of embedded Immersive Technologies personnel servicing all four locations including a full time Business Improvement Specialist, a dedicated Training Manager and Operator Training personnel.

“The partnership with Immersive Technologies places us at the forefront in operator training. It allows us to train operators in a way that mitigates technology integration risks. In addition, having trainers on site encourages operating teams to continuously tap into the expertise offered through Immersive’s best practices. We are therefore confident we will see positive results in developing the best qualified operators throughout all operations,”

As part of MCC’s drive towards efficiency and performance the strategic partnership with Immersive Technologies, will focus on:

• Addressing complexities associated with multiple mine sites
• Removing workforce operational inefficiencies
• Reducing asset maintenance costs arising from operator abuse
• Addressing complexities associated with a mixed mobile equipment fleet

An existing customer, MCC chose to further invest with Immersive Technologies based on their global industry leadership, technology, processes which are accepted as best practice, quality of products as well as their integrated approach to training and development.

The managed services training solution offered by Immersive Technologies allows MCC to keep the equipment simulator assets off the balance sheet and appealed to MCC’s new low asset intensity financial model.

“MCC is now a member of a growing list of miners and mining contractors across five continents that recognize the value offered by Immersive Technologies’ Managed Services. Our unique model allows us to consistently deliver quantified operational improvements to our customers with low risk and at an exceptional cost verses benefit. For this reason we expect to see continued strong adoption of our managed services globally,”

The fundamental components of the Managed Workforce Development Solution are:

• A Compliance Training Model that focuses on the certification of operators in line with the Company’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and other relevant statutory requirements.
• A Value Creation Training Model that identifies and addresses the skills and knowledge required for leveraging up asset productivity and reducing operating costs.
• The ImmersiveHUB which captures essential metrics from various sources including fleet management systems and equipment simulators, for the purpose of real time gap and training needs analyses.
• An Employee Profiling System that utilizes metrics from the LMS to provide a detailed profile of individual operator performance for Development, Recognition and Reward purposes.
• A Blended Learning Model that utilizes a balance of efficiency and effectiveness to achieve desired training and cost outcomes.

The MCC and Immersive Technologies partnership provides a blueprint for duplicating these managed services at MCC and other mining operations worldwide. This partnership evidences the industry’s faith and acceptance of our leadership and maturity to help drive operational improvements across multiple mine sites globally.

"As MCC grows into a global player, they were looking for a partner who could replicate and scale their value creation model across multiple operations and allow MCC to focus their effort on their core business and not on workforce development activities across the group. Immersive Technologies is well positioned as the largest provider of managed workforce development solutions for mining across the globe,”