Case study · Mining
Cobre Panamá: from a first cohort of 30 to 250+ trained across the operation
Minera Panamá started with a single cohort of 30 people in a maintenance planning and scheduling course. Four years later, more than 250 of its personnel have been trained, the course runs in Spanish, and the program has expanded into preventive maintenance.
250+
personnel trained
4.6/5
participant rating
2022+
ongoing enrolments
The client
About Cobre Panamá
- Industry
- Mining (copper)
- Client
- Minera Panamá, a subsidiary of First Quantum Minerals, operator of the Cobre Panamá mine in Colón Province, Panama
- Engagement
- Online training in maintenance planning and scheduling (PS100, PS200) and preventive maintenance (PM100), supported by live Q&A sessions
- Timeframe
- 2022 – ongoing
- Scope
- 250+ personnel trained
The problem
The challenge
Cobre Panamá is one of the largest copper mines in the Americas, and in 2022 its maintenance organisation was dealing with the problem most large sites know well: planning and scheduling done differently by every team. Different departments used their own ad hoc methods, which meant wasted time, wasted resources and missed opportunities to get ahead of downtime.
There was a second problem. Most of the workforce speaks Spanish, and the training available to them was predominantly in English. Any training program that ignored that fact was going to fail the people who needed it most.
Minera Panamá wanted a single, standardised planning and scheduling process across the operation, and training that its Spanish-speaking teams could actually absorb and apply.
The solution
What we did
Minera Panamá first engaged Reliability Academy in 2022 to train 30 personnel in maintenance planning and scheduling, using our PS100 and PS200 online courses. To close the language gap for that first cohort, we partially translated the course material into Spanish: not a word-for-word conversion, but a translation that kept the maintenance terminology their teams use on site.
The online, self-paced format let participants across the operation work through the material on their own schedule, while everyone learned the same process from the same content. We backed the courses with regular live Q&A sessions, run from the first cohort onwards, where participants could work through their specific planning and scheduling questions with us directly. Throughout the engagement, weekly progress reports kept the client’s training coordinators on top of every participant’s progress.
Based on the results, Minera Panamá kept expanding the program, cohort after cohort, from 2022 through to today. The engagement grew beyond planning and scheduling to include the PM100 Developing & Improving Preventive Maintenance course, and the PS200 course is now fully available in Spanish, with Cobre Panamá participants enrolled in the Spanish-language version.
The outcome
The results
Cobre Panamá doesn’t publish operational metrics, so we won’t invent any. What the record shows:
- Growth from an initial 30 personnel in 2022 to more than 250 trained
- A repeat engagement running from 2022 to today, expanding from planning and scheduling into preventive maintenance, with enrolments now continuing under a group-wide training arrangement with First Quantum Minerals covering both its Panamanian and Zambian operations
- A PS200 cohort feedback scorecard rating the course 4.6 out of 5 overall, with 4.8 for experience
- Client-reported improvements: in their signed Letter of Recommendation, Minera Panamá highlighted “the practical applications and improvements they have been able to implement in our operations as a direct result of the training”
Client feedback
In the client’s words
We have seen tangible improvements in our maintenance planning and scheduling processes, which have contributed to enhanced operational efficiency and reliability.
What’s next
Start with your team
If you want a standardised planning and scheduling process across your site, start by training your team using our PS100 Implementing Maintenance Planning & Scheduling and PS200 Maintenance Planning & Scheduling training courses - available in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese or Turkish.
See what this could look like for your team
A 30-minute call with Erik: your operation, your gaps, and whether this is the right fit. No pitch deck.