Throughput is rarely a capacity question. It is a discipline question on the frontline.
OEE on the line and the plant. Downtime, planned and unplanned. Reliability against nameplate. Quality losses against the recipe. The capability the COO recognizes as the lever that pays first.
Most throughput gains land at the supervisor, not at the asset. The line, the cell, the open-pit fleet, the concentrator all run below nameplate because the operating cadence does not hold the discipline shift after shift. Proudfoot installs the operating system that closes the gap between actual and nameplate, on operating environments where capital and technology have already been deployed and the result has not landed.
Where throughput leaks.
Throughput is the most visible operating result. The CEO reads it monthly, the CFO reads it weekly, the COO reads it daily. The supervisor lives inside it, shift after shift. When throughput leaks, the leak is rarely a capacity question on the nameplate; it is a discipline question on the frontline. Capacity is what the asset can produce; throughput is what the operation actually produces.
The gap between capacity and throughput is held by four sub-capabilities the engagement installs against. Each lands on a different leak point; together they cover the throughput surface.
Four sub-capabilities. One discipline.
Increase OEE
Availability, performance, and quality at the asset. Each component sized against the operating reality of the operation. OEE moves with shift discipline, supervisory cadence, standard work, and the operating system holding the line against plan.
Reduce downtime
Planned and unplanned. Planned downtime that runs longer than the standard requires; unplanned downtime that runs more often than the asset reliability profile justifies. The discipline is to cut the gap between scheduled and actual planned, and to lift the underlying reliability that drives unplanned.
Improve reliability
The asset reliability profile against nameplate. Reliability-centred maintenance, planned versus unplanned ratios, MTBF and MTTR sized to the asset register. Reliability is the long-tail throughput lever; the gain compounds over the operating year.
Reduce quality losses
First-pass yield, recipe adherence, in-process quality at the supervisor level. Quality losses are throughput losses by another name; the rework loop costs more than the prevention discipline.
Where throughput discipline runs.
Most visible across:
- Mining: concentrator OEE, mill productivity, debottlenecking against design throughput.
- Manufacturing: line OEE, frontline supervision at scale, model changeover, throughput at multi-site coordination.
- Cement and Building Materials: kiln throughput, finish mill OEE, plant productivity.
- Food and Beverage: bottling line OEE, line speed, OTIF.
- Paper and Packaging: paper machine speed, converting line stability.
- Oil and Gas: refinery yield, downstream throughput.
Production. Asset Management.
Increase Throughput is most visible across two functions.
Production
Line and plant OEE; supervisor cadence on the shift; standard work and frontline problem-solving.
Asset Management
Reliability-centred maintenance, planned shutdown discipline, asset availability against nameplate.
The Construction function carries throughput on capital project execution where the project operating reality is itself a throughput environment.
The methodology backbone.
The Proudfoot System runs the engagement across 5 phases and 86 steps. The Proudfoot MOS (the 6+4 Element Framework) is the operating system the throughput discipline is held against. The 8 Active Management Behaviours (8AMBs) are the supervisory behaviors; Proudfoot SIC runs the cadence against the throughput plan; Aerial Mapping structures the executive interviews; MOS Critic scores the operating system in flight.
The full methodology lives on the methodology page.
What it looks like when it lands.
20% increase in daily ore throughput, with no additional capital expenditure.
$42.5m in first-year annualised financial benefits. Throughput recovered against design by holding the operating cadence at the supervisor level shift after shift.
Kiln productivity uplifted across an integrated cement operation.
Recipe adherence and shift discipline across the kiln operating crews; alternative-fuel substitution lifted within recipe constraint.
Bottling line OEE improved across multi-site beverage operations.
Frontline supervisor coaching against the 8AMBs profile; standard work installed on changeover and clean-in-place cycles.
Talk to our throughput team.
Heavy industry and mining throughput.
Manufacturing throughput across complex operations.
Five days on the throughput question.
Two senior Proudfoot operators on the priority site for five working days. Proudfoot AI reading the operating data and the corpus first, remotely. MOS Critic on the operating system, day-in-the-life-of observation on the supervisor, quantified opportunity hypothesis sized to the throughput envelope.