Joy Global

Joy Global knows a thing or two about mining and without them, mining itself would look fundamentally different. From the humble beginnings of Joe Joy, Henry Harnischfeger and Alonzo Pawling; today Joy Global stands as the leading supplier of advanced equipment, systems and direct services for the mining industry. Trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) since 2011, the global corporation designs and manufactures equipment for both surface and underground mining, used for a variety of applications and minerals.

Joy Global has a vision; to be a world-class service company delivering the most reliable and productive products, systems and solutions that solve mining’s toughest challenges. In order to achieve this, facilities and equipment service centres span six continents and more than twenty distinct countries.  Their mission is clear. Joy Global want to partner directly with customers to enable them to achieve zero harm, the highest production and the lowest lifecycle cost for their mining operations, while making every customer a reference. They are grounded in experience. Grounded in performance and innovation. Grounded in their values; Integrity, Respect, Diversity, Teamwork, Reliability and Performance.

Partnering for performance

Joy Global has the world’s largest direct service network, putting the customer at the heart of its operations. An unwavering focus on the customer drives everything they do. Joy Global has the competitive advantage, and at the heart of it is a direct service model that emphasises collaboration, safety and efficiency. The business takes its service to the customer, opening Joy Global Service Centres within close proximity. Eurasia President, Dean Thornewell said: “We believe that Joy Global employees offer our customers the best service and level of technical expertise. With this in mind we open Service Centres across the globe to be on hand. We wholly believe in working directly with our customers to help them overcome their toughest mining challenges. This approach is our USP and makes us quite unique.”

Building with industry challenges in mind

By working alongside their customers, Joy Global is well positioned to understand the challenges that they face on a daily basis. “We take pride in working closely with our customers, understanding their issues, realising industry trends and then providing solutions,” notes Thornewell. Not only does this ensure that Joy Global has a first-class relationship with the mining industry, it also allows them to change the game in mining through new products, services and technical development. “As our customers move into new markets, we move with them,” Thornewell points out. “Mineral extraction around the world is becoming more complex every day. We provide equipment and technology solutions to market that help with extraction in more difficult ore bodies and locations.”

“We monitor the markets, our customers and their plans for future growth and development. We look at key indicators of the world economy and shape our business accordingly. We are agile and respond to challenges easily and quickly. The equipment and technology we develop is adaptable to the ever changing industry.”

Creating growth

Performance and new product development has been critical to Joy Global’s long term growth and success, and the company has always been on the leading edge of innovation. Thanks to Joy Global, today’s mines are more sustainable and more automated than ever.  Providing smart, innovative products and systems, Joy Global is moving the needle in mining productivity with safety improvements, production increases and lower costs.

As Thornewell  explains, “We are very focused on helping our customer have complete automation of the mining process. Our R&D team is constantly working towards taking people out of harm’s way and using automation to operate the equipment.” An automated mining process allows for performance optimisation, health monitoring and 24/7 support. JoySmart Services uses advanced technology and prognostics to deliver technical insight and automation services to the mining sector.   Joy Global continually implement programs and initiatives to create a more efficient and effective business. These are not just programs; they are part of their core values and therefore represent the focus on things that matter.

Taking Joy Global to the next level

Continuous improvement is critical to business development and delivering world-class service is built upon world-class processes and metrics. Joy Global Business System (JBS) is an in-house operational excellence strategy which drives productivity through a lean initiative that simplifies the process, eliminates waste, leverages automation and keeps people out of harm’s way. “It drives factory performance all round the world,” continues Thornewell. “We have made significant improvements at factories across the globe by investing in continuous improvement.

Zero harm mentality

“Safety is our number one priority,” states Thornewell. “Our aim is to achieve zero harm, even down to the smallest cut finger. Every day that we have zero harm is a success. We also believe that safety is our customers’ number one priority – the need for safety truly underpins the industry as a whole.”

We have all heard of 5S. But Joy Global has its own 6S measuring system, which includes ‘safety’ as number one on the list. “We have an entire department dedicated to health and safety, which benchmarks performance across the globe. At the end of each year the best performing factories are recognised by the President of the business, so it’s very much part of our corporate culture.”

People management

Joy Global employs in excess of 14,000 people worldwide and has a robust talent development program in place. There is not only substantial in-house development, but also external affiliations with universities and colleges. “We identify people early on as potential talent; senior leaders, technical innovators, and people leaders. We have very structured reviews of people, for example a series of criteria that we measure people against. We very much believe in developing people within the business.” 

Joy Global has achieved huge success over the years by focusing on its people, innovation and continuous improvement, but most importantly it realises that its customers are central to the business, holding it together and driving it forward. As long as mining continues to pose the tough challenges, Joy Global will be ready to “solve mining’s toughest challenges”.