BHP Mt Arthur Coal Finds An Innovative Partner in Pegasus

The Challenge

BHP is the world’s second largest mining company and Australia’s fourth-largest company by revenue. BHP Mt Arthur Coal is the largest coal production site in the NSW Hunter Valley, producing coal for the energy sector.

In a highly regulated, high-risk industry, BHP recognised inconsistencies around contractor management – a lack of clarity about worker roles and responsibilities, and inadequate critical controls to manage risk.

This inconsistency, and legislative requirements, triggered BHP to introduce a global Contractor Management Framework to standardise contractor engagement and safety.

“We needed to know contractor safety was being appropriately managed,” said Laurentiu Aldea, Superintendent Site Systems.

The Solution

The Pegasus Contractor Management System underscores BHP’s Requirements for Safety standards, where having the right controls in place to effectively manage safety risks will lead to improved safety outcomes.

“When we researched what was available on the market, there was nothing quite as robust as Pegasus which was able to meet most of our contractor compliance and onboarding needs.”

A Safer Mine

BHP Mt Arthur Coal’s Pegasus solution includes Company Pre-Qualification, where the insurances and licences of contracting companies are collected and verified, and Worker Competency Management, where workers are registered with site roles, supporting competency documents, and appointment letters.

“The same as a driver is required to have a driver’s licence to ensure safety on the roads, a mine worker is required to be trained, authorised and competent to perform their work safely on a mine,” said Laurentiu.

“The Pegasus contractor management system ensures workers are authorised to perform work safely, therefore assisting us in the journey to achieve Zero Harm on our site”.

A 50% Increase In Contractor Compliance

With the safety and compliance of over 3,500 contractors now managed in the Pegasus platform, BHP Mt Arthur Coal has tangible results of the success of the partnership.

“Before implementing the Pegasus Worker Competency module, compliance reporting was sitting at around 25 per cent,” said Laurentiu. “It has since risen to around 75 per cent, a 50 per cent increase in contractor compliance.”

$300,000 A Year Saved

The volume of contractors engaged to work at BHP Mt Arthur Coal meant administrators were working fulltime to manage contractor compliance and onboarding. Substantial savings are now being enjoyed with the Pegasus solution, enabling more people to monitor the data collected, but fewer needed to manually process it.

“Based on the volume of contractors onboarding in each operational department, we have saved two admin resources, which is approximately $300,000 each year,” said Laurentiu.

An Innovation Partnership

The unique features of the Pegasus platform stood out when BHP Mt Arthur Coal was choosing a workforce safety partner, including the alignment of the Pegasus vision and BHP’s needs.

“The greatest benefit of working with Pegasus has been the high level of innovation and features available in their packages that aren’t available in other products we have investigated,” said Laurentiu.

Innovations like the Pegasus Client Portal – providing client’s insight and control in their own portal, linked to data in their contractor system – the Mobile App – for instant compliance checks – and the Asset Management Portal – for compliant equipment – has cultivated a partnership based on continuous improvement.