Barrick suppliers in Peru adopt corporate best practices with help of innovative program

Headquarters of Transportes Rodrigo Carranza, one of the 51 companies that participated in the lean supplier program in 2011.

In Peru, Barrick is working with its suppliers to help them become safer and more socially and environmentally responsible. Through its Lean Supplier Program (LSP), the company is promoting its practices and leading international standards for continuous improvement.

Established in 2008, the LSP helps Barrick suppliers and contractors identify opportunities to improve performance in one or more of seven areas: safety, environment, social responsibility, continuous improvement, timely delivery, invoicing and inventory control.

The first stage of the program involves an evaluation to determine where there are opportunities for improvement. Oftentimes, companies lack policies and procedures in important areas like safety or the environment, making it difficult to develop company-wide standards, says Carlos Salguero, a member of Barrick’s Logistics and Supply Chain department in Peru who is closely involved with the program. Barrick, which has extensive experience in this area, helps companies create policy and procedure documents and provides training on how to implement them.

“It’s not just about having the written documents,” Salguero says. “It’s about putting what’s in those documents into practice, and demonstrating results.”

Ramón Castilla, a general contracting firm based in the city of Huaraz, won the LSP Safety Champion Award for the second straight year in 2011. While safety was always an important part of the company’s culture, Migdonio Macedo, General Manager at Ramón Castilla, says the company’s safety protocols are so deeply ingrained now that employees practice them without even thinking about it. “They do it automatically,” he says. “It’s an approach to safety that we learned from Barrick.”

Ramón Castilla holds regular training sessions and workshops to ensure employees are familiar with its safety policy and procedures, Macedo says. Signs predominate around the company’s headquarters in Huaraz and at off-site projects reminding employees to observe best practices. Meetings are held regularly at all levels of the company to discuss safety concerns and issues, and at the end of each month, if no safety incidents have been reported, a company-wide barbecue is held.

Ramón Castilla is one of 51 Peruvian companies that participated in the LSP last year. Transportes Rodrigo Carranza (TRC), a transportation and logistics company, is another. Anselmo Carranza, General Manager of TRC, says the company’s participation in the program was a springboard that led it to seek ISO 14001 Certification for its environmental management system (EMS). ISO 14001 is an internationally recognized standard that requires an in-depth evaluation of a company’s EMS by the International Organization for Standardization, a non-governmental organization that is the world’s largest developer and publisher of international standards.

TRC, which is based in Lima, received ISO 14001 certification in January 2011 and was recently recertified. “Since we started working with Barrick, and participating in the Lean Supplier Program, we have been exposed to a high-standards environment,” Carranza says. “It has made us a better company.”

Headquarters of Transport es Rodrigo Carranza, one of the 51 companies that participated in the Lean Supplier Program in 2011.