When leaders formulate a business strategy, it ensures that every aspect of a business is planned. This means more efficiency and better and more effective plans.
Strategy helps to define a business, gives it a set of values, and gives it purpose. It helps a business to understand what success actually looks like.
Peter Ferdinand Drucker’s (Austrian-American management consultant, educator, and author) words come to mind:
“Strategy is a commodity; implementation is an art”
The Astral Foods 20 Keys Conference took place at Irene Country Lodge in Centurion on 14 September 2022. Strategy implementation and how this is supported by the 20 Keys Business Improvement Programme was the focus of the day.
Nikki Moodley (Operations Improvement Executive)
Astral Food’s Nikki Moodley, opened the 20 Keys Astral Conference.
During the late 1990’s Astral chose 20 Keys as its preferred programme to support a continuous improvement journey. Nikki spoke about how the 20 Keys programme houses all the tools needed on such a journey.
Mr Chris Schutte | CEO
Astral CEO Chris Schutte, described by Nikki Moodley as a legend and a visionary leader, then confirmed his passion and support for the 20 Keys programme. He highlighted the direct correlation between business success and how well a business is doing on their 20 Keys journey. According to him 20 Keys helps to mitigate business risk, supports efficiency improvements and supports the business in its strategy. The Astral strategy is to secure a better future in our land and the conference assist in the execution of this strategy. He summarised by saying 20 Keys should not be taken lightly!
Gary Arnold | Group COO
‘Managing the business cycle’
An insightful presentation by Gary Arnold described how volatile the poultry industry is and the importance of a workplace improvement programme to ensure business survival. He highlighted the role of 20 Keys as a business tool and as a programme that must be implemented by all. When continuous improvement underpins your behaviour it helps a business to adapt to challenging circumstances and to face challenges successfully.
At Astral a culture of continuous improvement is fostered and it has become the way that things are done. The 20 Keys programme provides the framework for this journey where one sometimes seems to face the impossible.
Nikki Moodley | Operations Improvement Executive
Highlighting the importance of people and culture, Nikki then referred to the famous Peter Drucker quote that says that “culture eats strategy for breakfast”, which implies that the culture of your company always determines success regardless of how effective your strategy may be.
Drucker believed that a powerful and empowering culture was a surer route to organisational success. Peter Drucker (1909-2005 | one of the most widely-known and influential thinkers on management)
Gideon Jordaan | HR Executive
‘The Astral Way’
Gideon Jordaan then started his presentation to say what a privilege it is to be speaking about the importance of culture in an organisation. Ultimately it is all about people and an excellent strategy needs to be implemented by good people. To ensure good governance in a large business your need programmes such as the 20 Keys.
He emphasised the importance of communication and the role that leaders play in building up people. It is these interactions with people that builds the culture in the organisation and not the periodic performance management discussions. Gideon also mentioned that the first-line management is a very important level in the organisation, they manage the vast majority of people. He emphasised that this level needs to be developed and coached.
Ultimately the culture of the organisation is defined 95% by leadership at ALL levels.
Nikki Moodley | Operations Improvement Executive
Thinking about the importance of leadership reminded Nikki of Robin Sharma’s book on “Leader who had no title” that talks about awakening the inner leader in each one of us. We are ultimately all leaders and need to do self-introspection on the importance of this role. Some food for thought.
The remainder of the presentations for the day were all aligned to the different business divisions:
- Agriculture
- Meadow Feeds
- Commercial
- Sales and Support
AGRICULTURE DIVISION
OBED LUKHELE: MD: Agriculture
Obed stressed how important 20 Keys is to the Agriculture division. It is completely integrated into the business. He highlighted Key 2: Goal Alignment and the importance of energised and motivated people as well as Key 10: Workplace Discipline and the role it plays in minimising waste.
Obed explained the Farms 20 Keys Model which focusses on 12 selected Keys (developed in partnership between Astral and ODI). He then shared specific improvement gains made in Agriculture over the years and the importance of continuous improvement.
The slide shared about improvements made in the Comrades marathon was relevant encouragement to all!
Majola Sin: Breeder Farm Manager and GAIL ARRIES: BROILER FARM MANAGER
’20 Keys, roadmap to optimal Bird Health and Performance’
Gail shared about the importance of their team and how together they are responsible for the success of applying 20 Keys. She shared about their MBA (mini business area) and the strength of visual management using their QCDSM (Quality, Cost, Delivery, Safety, Morale) graphs.
A lot of focus was placed on the importance of team members taking ownership and establishing value adding work habits.
As a team they make used of tools such as the CAPDo cycle, Action Plans, Fishbone Diagram, SGA (Small Group Activities), 5W’s and 1H.
Majola then spoke about all the relevant Keys relating to bio security. Various keys are used to ensure bio security. Key 3 and the use of SGA’s (Small Group Activities) in particular are effectively used to find solutions to challenges that are experienced. 20 Keys especially assists employees to generate creative ideas and suggestions.
A good example of Key 19: Conserving Energy and Materials was shared, titled – TOO GOOD TOO WASTE. Here waste was actually turned into a useful product.
Majola ended with placing emphasis on the importance of involving all employees in generating ideas and linked it to the following famous quote attributed to Henry Ford (1863-1947) and Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909)
“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.”
Dennis Mbamo and Sean Glover
‘Effective Maintenance supports Biosecurity’
Dennis and Sean referred to the implementation of Key 9: Maintaining Machines and Equipment and how this supports a bio security environment.
The goals of Key 9 are indicated in the illustration below:
All of these goals are strengthened by the maintenance MBA and Keys 1,2,3 and 10 to energise people to do Key 9 well.
Key 15: Skills Versatility serves as the platform to create a team that can maintain equipment over a very broad spectrum. Examples of implementations by the maintenance was shared and some important factors such as stock levels, demarcation and SOPs were highlighted.
Interesting was the discussion about the relationship between Key 11: Quality and Key 9: Maintaining Machines and Equipment.
The important role of Key 19: Conserving Energy and Materials in environmental sustainability was very insightful.
The maintenance team ended with this very apt quote by American cartoonist and writer Ted Key (1912-2008):
“Every job is a self-portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence!”
Meadow Feeds Division
Michael Schmitz | MD: Feeds
Michael emphasis the importance of delivering feed that is:
- At the required quality
- On schedule and at
- The best cost of manufacture,
And how a Continuous Improvement journey supports all of these points.
Ed Martin / Carlo Van Wyk / Clinton Lawson
’20 Keys – Formulating the Strategy for the growth of Tomorrow’
The sales team then explained how different Keys relate to their job and support them to do this at the best quality and integrity. They believe that the road to success is paved by 20 Keys and listening to the team made one realise again how important it is to follow a structure approach such as the framework provided by the 20 Keys programme.
IT tools used to increase team efficiencies is directly linked to Key 1: Cleaning and Organising with specific emphasis on organising and SMIR (single minute information retrieval).
The team also highlighted the power of Key 2: Goal Alignment in ensuring that all team members work together in achieving their set goals. Key 2 is the platform to measure specific KPI’s which in turn lead to increased productivity in the team. These KPIs are categorised as QCDSM (Quality, Cost, Delivery, Safety, Morale) and further aligned to the relevant Keys of the 20 Keys programme. By doing this all teams are made accountable for their own performance.
A lot of reflection went into this presentation, with specific reflection on the past where a lot was learnt and then looking at the future and what is needed to continue to be successful.
NicolE Van Niekerk / Gianni Sansovini
‘More than just Continuous Improvement’
Nicole and Gianni presented how the 20 Keys programme provides and overarching integrated approach for continuous improvement. The interrelationship between the different keys were described and the team effectively explain how a project (that they related to a heart transplant) was executed successfully by using the tools of different Keys.
It was incredible to listen to the number of projects successfully done by the Meadows team.
Some important Keys on their journey included:
Key 2: Goal Alignment. They linked Key 2 to important aspect including data access, goals, accuracy, feedback, time management and monitoring.
Key 16: Production Scheduling is used to streamline production.
The team left us with the quote by Matthew Reilly:
I Didn’t Come This Far To Only Come This Far
We look forward to the next time this team presents to hear how far they got!
Meadow feeds is also proud of the twenty one Excellence Awards received and retained to date.
COMMERCIAL DIVISION
Frans Van Heerden | MD: Commercial
Frans van Heerden highlighted the holistic approach of the 20 Keys programme. He spoke about Key2: Goal Alignment and Key 10: Workplace Discipline as the foundation of what we do and who we are. 20 Keys provides a problem-solving toolset for a continuous improvement journey. Improvement made must also be displayed visually in order to encourage everyone. MBAs are used to come up with projects for improvement and 20 Keys is then utilised to drive these projects to completion.
Continuous improvement is a never-ending journey with celebrated small wins and not a race to the finish line. He ended off by saying that a solid continuous improvement approach is a project based approach linked to the 20 Keys.
Bhanu Jughoo / Robert Maarman
‘Yielding positive results ‘
Bhanu and Robert shared very practical examples of increasing yield. They shared how SGAs are used to get teams to work together and to generate lots of suggestions for improvement.
Terence Grenfell
‘Strengthen the Business Core with Effective Maintenance ‘
Terence shared how the core of the business can be strengthened using IT to connect different departments. Improved data helps to move the focus to priority issues and enables the team to find the root causes of these issues. Much focus was placed on the importance of Key 9: Maintaining Machines and Equipment and how integral this Key is to achieving business targets.
Vernon De Reuck
‘Diversity in Motion’
Vernon shared his continuous improvement journey and especially the amount of change that has happened over the years. With his in-depth knowledge of continuous improvement. Vernon captured the audience reflecting on his holistic approach of implementing the 20 Keys programme. Some Keys elaborated on includes:
Key 2: Goal Alignment and Key 16: Production scheduling with specific focus on successfully executing daily objectives.
Key 17: Efficiency Control and how this underpins warehouse optimisation
Key 18: Using Information Systems to support the extensive use of IT systems in logistics.
Key 13: Eliminating Waste and how the tools in this Key assist in verify the accuracy of systems.
A most important task of logistics is to ensure that the Astral products end on the shelve and the role of the following Keys were explained in the process:
Key 16: Production scheduling and how to ensure on time delivery
Key 12: Developing your suppliers and creating synergies between different parties.
Key 18: Using Information Systems to schedule the complex process of transporting fresh product accurately
Key 17: Efficiency Control is used to optimise route scheduling
Vernon continued to explain the use of different Keys in areas such as technology, staff training, reducing losses, developing suppliers and many more areas.
The successful use of the 20 Keys programme has contributed to Vernon and his team receiving the Outstanding Achievement Award. Well done to the team!
SALES AND SUPPORT FUNCTIONS
Wilfred Harris / Duncan Williams
‘Keep IT moving forward’
Pioneering work has been done in the sales and support division. The IT team described their 20 Keys journey and specifically referenced the following Keys:
Keys 2,6,12, and 20 to support systems software Keys 5,9,18 and 20 to support hardware.
Key 1 – to ensure a safer, cleaner and more organised work environment.
Key 3,5,12 and 20 has ensure an incredible increase in productivity and played an integral part during the COVID 19 pandemic to keep everyone connected
Keys 17 and 13 to eliminate waste and to be aligned with the best in the world.
Keys 1,2,12 and 20 to improve communications.
Keys 4,12,18 and 20 have increased ERP productivity significantly.
Keys 1,13,19 and 20 to support document storage Keys 3,10,14 and 15 have created a positive work environment and taught the IT team how to work together effectively.
Ferdinand Nel / Donovan van Tonder
‘From vision to reality’
Ferdinand and Donovan shared their journey on how their team has overcome obstacles by working together as a team. This has been a continuous improvement journey underpinned by the 20 Keys programme. some of the Keys highlighted included:
Key 15: Skills versatility and cross training has been critical in the multi skilling of team members
Key 11: Quality, improvements in this Key has been achieved through standardisation in the industry
Key 17: Efficiency control and how this has supported the achievement of target.
Other Keys that have played an important role includes Key 1 – SMIR, Key 6 – processed improved and waste eliminated, Key 11 that has led to improved accuracy. The team stressed how critical 20 Keys have been in managing chance and achieving integration across the board. They said that due to the 20 Keys structure they have had success with all their projects.
Elizabeth Mkhwebane
‘Work Safe = Home Safe’
Elizabeth discussed factors important to safety and how Key 3: Small Group Activities have been integral in finding the root causes to any possible safety issues. A most interesting presentation that made everyone aware again of the role that the 20 Keys programme can play in assuring that everyone goes home safely every day.
SHAM ASMAL
‘Chicken Sales People aren’t crazy, just Cockle Doodle Doo!‘
Sham shared that the saled people have had huge success in applying the integration of the 20 Keys. Often one is in a situation where the answer is not evident , these are the times when a structures approach helps you to get to the best possible conclusion.
Sham emphasised the important of teamwork and the role of following Keys were discussed:
Key 2: Goal Alignment to ensure an effective team structure
Key 3: Small Group Activities to guide the process of finding answers
Key 8: Coupled Manufacturing to improvement communication
Key 16: Production Scheduling to ensure ontime delivery to customers
Key 6: Kaizen of Operations to continuously improve operations in the sales department
Key 13: Eliminating Waste and in particular eliminating the waste of time.
Sham shared very good MBA visual displays and emphasised that ultimately 20 Keys means improved communication.
She ended by thanking Nikki Moodley for her coaching and support in the team’s 20 Keys journey.
Sham left the audience with the quote from John Ruskin: “Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.”
Nkosinathi Njoko / Vernon De Reuck / Gianni Sansovini / Pieter du Plessis
Key Takeaways
Some take aways by those selected by “Spin the Wheel” included:
- The integrated power of the different Keys
- The phenomenal implementation by the Agri Team inspired
- The importance of management commitment to ensure a successful continuous improvement journey
- The importance of everyone using the same approach to achieve continuous improvement
The importance of adapting in order to be efficient
Evert Potgieter | Director: Risk
The International 20 Keys Excellence Award was handed over to Boschkop Hatchery, National Chicks, who recently passed the final review with flying colours. The award, which is jointly awarded by PDI Japan and ODI South Africa, is awarded for excellent operations performance over a period of 3 years. (To read more about the requirements for the award, click here.)
Evert asked the question – So what now? What is next?
He highlighted the importance of culture and working together as teams. He encouraged everyone that attended the Astral 20 Keys conference to share their knowledge and convert all in the use of the 20 Keys programme.
Gary Arnold concluded that it is the most inspiring Astral 20 Keys conference he has attended in 25 years.
From all of us at ODI, this was an excellent 20 Keys Conference – Well done Astral.