The global recession of the 1980s drove commodity prices down and
intensified cost competition. The 1990s saw a restructuring of the mining
industry with the survivors adopting new technology, significantly
increasing workplace productivity and reducing capital and operating
costs. Major changes in mining industry business strategies evolved in
the late-1980s including the development of miner - supplier - manufacturer - partnerships, cultural changes in work practices and
common goals between the partners to reduce the cost of production.
These industry trends are putting new demands on mining machine
manufacturers and dealers both on the `hard' side of the machine
business, such as research and product development programs, and on the
`soft' side in terms of business processes, use of human resources and
communication. The paper describes several mining industry trends as identified by a
large supplier to the industry, and discusses the impact they are having,
and will have, on mining machine development and the provision of
product support services to the industry.