What's the point? This is a question often asked in exasperation at the tribulations of your latest challenge. Where this question is rarely used, but perhaps should get greater attention, is challenging the purpose of the administrative tasks that you are doing each day, week, and month. As was highlighted in Part 1, there are significant investments across all businesses being diverted into non-productive activities. And for what?

There are a multitude of reasons for administrative reporting. They are not all captured, but here's a few of the common cases: 

• Monitoring performance (production, productivity, cost, revenue, profit)
  
• Confirming changes are having the desired effect (validation)
  
• Provide information for rewarding or penalising performance

Of course, we all want to know how many widgets were produced, the rate is widgets per hour, and the cost is $ per widget. The critical aspect of procuring this information is not merely its presence, but what decisions you make with it. Herein lies the value proposition: is the cost of your diverted administrative effort justified by the decisions the business is taking on the back of it?

The generation of reports and data each month may have satisfied a purpose when it was initiated often many years earlier, but the currency of that purpose needs to be challenged and adapted to the conditions, costs, and technologies of today. Are you taking action based on the information generated to create a positive return? To be continued...

** I trust you enjoyed my article. Please Follow, Like, Share, and add your Comments. And most of all, stay tuned for the next instalment!

James Marshall is a passionate resources industry consultant with experience across technical, operational, commercial, and management functions in Australia, Indonesia, and New Zealand. James can be reached through LinkedIn, Facebook, and at www.marshallmining.com