Conventional Production Planning as a Business Continuity Strategy Under Explosive License Disruption: A Case Study of a Marble Quarry in Saraburi Province, Thailand

Abstract

This study examines how a marble quarry in Saraburi Province, Thailand maintained production continuity when a compounding regulatory crisis — comprising the simultaneous expiration of an explosive permit (P.5), parliamentary dissolution, a caretaker government, and an escalating border dispute — converged in December 2025. A mixed-method, single embedded case study design was employed, combining quantitative blast records with qualitative process data drawn from emergency team minutes, Daily Review Meeting (DRM) records, and an after-action review (AAR). Findings indicate that same-day business contingency plan (BCP) activation and systematic blast parameter optimization enabled the mine to produce 14,744.38 metric tons over seven working days, exceeding the minimum daily target 14.04-fold, while maintaining a powder factor of 0.095 kg/ton. Only 34.95% of the resulting stockpile was consumed during the 28-day license gap, providing 82.28 days of operational reserve. The DRM mechanism facilitated within-crisis learning that contributed directly to production outcomes. Post-crisis AAR led to a revised BCP incorporating a compounding crisis scenario, a 90-day early-warning trigger, and a permanent minimum stockpile policy. These findings suggest that conventional blasting practices, when systematically integrated with a BCP framework, can serve as an effective business continuity strategy under regulatory license disruption. The study proposes a preliminary integrative framework — the License Crisis–Proactive Production with Organizational Resilience (LCPP-OR) model — as a basis for further research in mining operations facing political and regulatory uncertainty.