On May 7th the team at our Escondida mine in Chile celebrated its second Quality Circles Congress, a festival of continuous improvement that displays its workers’ best initiatives in Safety, Productivity and Methodology. 

Thirteen “Circles” or teams representing the asset’s different departments and Head of Projects shared their solutions with the operation through playful and entertaining presentations. Escondida workers demonstrated talent, creativity and innovation to explore solutions that could be applied in the future. 

The event was led by Escondida President, Mauro Neves, and the jury responsible for choosing the best teams was comprised by Mia Gous, General Manager Spence, Juan José Tohá, Head of Corporate Affairs South America, and José Antonio Díaz, Executive Director of Fundación Minera Escondida.  

“I was left with the impression that Quality Circles is a very good way of showing people’s ability to improve the way they work and also to give them well-deserved recognition before their colleagues for taking the opportunity to improve,” said Tony Ottaviano, BOS Program Director & Improvement, who attended the event. 

The next version of Quality Circles will take place in 2020 at Escondida and will be a new opportunity for teams similar to “Solutions Team”, “Los Sinfiltrantes”, “Pingo-Pingo” or “Flotadólares”, among others, to present their innovative proposals with enthusiasm and commitment.