With the 20 Keys implementation of safe and efficiently organised workplaces, the control and organisation of stores (like materials used in the production process, machine parts and consumables) are very important as it impacts on safety, efficient working, cost saving and ensuring a smooth flow of production.

Key 1 of the 20 Keys system for continuous improvement is all about cleaning and organising to make work easy.

The implementation approach is to:

• train teams in Key 1,
• allocate responsibility areas, and
• implement the CAPDo (Check, Analyse, Plan and Do) cycle for continuous improvement.
• Do regular progress reviews (Check), with Key 1 check-sheet and map

20 Keys is the vehicle towards continuous improvement. Management support is crucial on a continuous improvement journey. At County Fair Lab, Wendy Bosman is busy with her Key 1 practical activity. She has done quite a lot already since our last ODI visit during February 2020. Elizna van Dyk: Operational Manager Veterinary Services at County Fair, is supporting Wendy in her Key 1 implementation.

ODI is offering an online service for 20 Keys training and implementation support. The service, based on the 20 Keys system, is tailored to your specific needs, and according to the stage of your operations excellence journey.

Support varies from individual and group-training sessions, to Key Leader action plan progress reviews, and next steps discussions, using specific tools and techniques, implementation of small group projects, and any other relevant support. The service is available on an hourly basis; scheduled according to your availability, time constraints, and convenience. To read more, click here.

The post Quick and visible change with Key 1 of the 20 Keys system appeared first on ODI.

A continuous focus on strengthening an organisation’s operations improvement capability, through a system of knowledge that is embedded into the people, processes and technology, and which is the organisation’s way of working.

The challenge with continuous operations improvement is about sustaining the effort and results. The question is often what the requirements are for doing that?

I recently did the annual Excellence Award progress reviews at two of the Astral Foods, Meadow Feeds, Feed Mills (Paarl and Randfontein), where the 20 Keys System has been implemented since August 2003. During the review some of the requirements for sustaining such an implementation, and having consistent results in terms of QCDSM (Quality, Cost effectiveness, Delivery, Safety and Morale), again became clear:

1. A framework for improvement is followed, focusing on all the elements of operations, in a holistic and integrated way. Without a framework the focus is often quickly diluted, leading to ad hoc improvements and day-to-day issues taking preference. The framework is a balanced approach which focuses on the longer term and achieving short term results as well as on results (outputs) as well as ensuring that the inputs (people, processes/systems, and technology) are continuously strengthened.

2. All the Keys of the 20 Keys System are implemented, in all direct and indirect functions.  Implementing the Keys in an integrated way provides a synergistic effect in terms of results and is an important part of sustaining the implementation, like a beanstalk plant where the individual beanstalks grow together to make for a strong plant

3. A structured approach is followed, whereby the CAPDo (Check, Analyse, Plan and Do) cycle of learning and improvement is used for doing regular progress reviews, both internally and externally (by ODI), progress is measured against operations best practices and action plans are updated accordingly. This provides a clear indication to everyone what the current situation is, the target and required actions. Apart from that it also creates new energy and a sense of challenge in the business.

4. There is active involvement of senior and middle management, from board level where feedback is given about progress at sites, to regional and site management who participate with on-site progress discussions, signing off of action plans for improvement, attending on site Champion meetings and regularly walk the floor, giving advice and recognition. First-line managers are developed to not only effectively manage the technical aspects of their jobs, but also the people reporting to them as well as operations improvement. The role of first-line management is a critical success factor and plays a significant role with sustaining the implementation. After all, more than 80% of people in the organisation typically reports to that level.

5. Champions are allocated to act as on site experts with regards to the various elements of the system. They support the implementation in line functions and have regular meetings to discuss progress, challenges and update action plans. A Site Facilitator ensures that the overall focus of the implementation is aligned with management objectives, provides support to Champions and feedback to management.

There isn’t a silver bullet, when you get the basics right results will follow, and it must always be remembered that people make up the organisation.

Both Feed Mills were re-certified in terms of the 20 Keys Excellence Award. Requirements for the award include:

• Sustaining high levels of maturity, measured against best practices, with all the Keys
• Improving Quality by 50%
• Improving Productivity by 50%
• Improving Speed/Reduction in Inventory by 25%

Well done to all at Meadow feeds Paarl and Randfontein!

Author: Johan Benadie – Director at ODI

To read more about the 20 Keys Continuous Operations Improvement System, click here.

The post Sustaining the 20 Keys System implementation for 17 years! appeared first on ODI.

ODI members are sharing some handy tips on using the 20 Keys during lock-down.

1. In part 1, Joan Bull, Johan Benadie and Mike Foxon, placed emphasis on Key 6, 7 and 10 respectively.
2. In part 2, Maryke Bergh, Angela Newman, Ilse Doyer, Gerda Holder and Valery Hansen referred to Keys 1, 2, 4, 5, 11, 15, 16, 18 & 20.

To see more details of each respective Key in the 20 Keys System for Operations improvement, go to our interactive 20 Keys wheel and click on a Key of your choice. Click here to access the interactive 20 Keys wheel.

Huibie Jones – Managing Director

In line with Key 19: Conserving Energy and Material, we have created greater cost awareness at home, and together the family have come up with ideas to conserve energy, and to improve the yield on groceries. One example of a cost saving has been to only use the washing machine when there is enough clothing to wash and not just because it is a particular day of the week.

Planning a menu carefully for the whole month, mainly to reduce trips to the shops, has also been excellent in terms of savings on grocery spending. It has led to some very interesting new meals – some really good, and some not so good.

With having to juggle so many different tasks at home now (including helping with History projects),, Key 17: Zero Monitoring has been essential. This little device attached to the outside tap means I can water the vegetable garden (also newly planted since lock-down started) without stressing that I will forget to turn the tap off. In Cape Town, we do not have a lot of water.

As always, I am a great believer in Key 1: Cleaning and Organising, and how it improves productivity. This particular Key 1 MODAPTS Drawer of mine has been in full use since 2013, and eliminates searching for the right tools for the job. No one in the family dares to take out an item, and not put it back.

It probably needs to be upgraded to the new ODI version, seeing as we hardly use an envelope opener these days – Key 18: Using Information System has made the opener a bit obsolete.

Gerald McKinnon – Director

One of the seven wastes found in Key 13: Eliminating Waste is waiting.  I need chronic medication, and support my local small pharmacy near my home. Often I had to stand in a queue for my medication, as it is a two-man pharmacy.  Since lock-down, I have arranged with the owner to telephone before I collect, with one day notice. Now, I don’t have to wait any longer, and keep safe through physical distancing. I walk in and walk out, and if there is any payment, I do an EFT transfer once I get home. Simple, yet effective, and still supporting small businesses.

Mbali Tshabalala – Consultant

We all know that technology is important, and that the rate of its application is increasing. At ODI, we use technology in line with Key 18: Using Information Systems, and Key 20: Leading Technology, to support our day-to-day activities, and we are busy with developing online learning platforms. We have also, for quite some time, been using Zoom or Skype for our mini-business meetings, and also systems like OneDrive. The lock-down period is accelerating all of this, requiring new skills from all of us. Working from home also got me thinking about the role of information technology at home.

Working from home, I had to quickly learn to use Microsoft Teams for coaching learners on the learnerships that I facilitate. It also requires careful scheduling, according to their available time and shifts, and then to accordingly work out an hourly plan. Some learners need more time, so I have to be sensitive toward their needs. Depending on the learners and their access to technology, I sometimes use WhatsApp, rather than Microsoft teams. This is a very different way of working, but I thoroughly enjoy it. I also realised that many employees do not have access to basic information technology, something that I think organisations should look at.

At home, my son Lethabo, has a school schedule to adhere to; they get a lot of homework, already at a young age! In order to complete all his assignments, we all had to learn some new technologies for submitting schoolwork, so we were doing some multi-skilling according to Key 15. Every time an assignment is submitted successfully, there is much happiness and celebration in the house. To ensure that we get everything done during the day, I get up very early to prepare breakfast. We use breakfast time to discuss the day, almost like a mini-business meeting. Late afternoon, we all clean house accordingly to a schedule, like having a Small Group Activity, with everyone allocated specific responsibilities. Daddy makes lunch, and he is the teacher, something which he hasn’t always had time for, but it turned out that he is a level 4 (like on a skills matrix) teacher!

Jamey Wheeler – Office and E-learning Administrator

For a working mom, Key 16: Planning and Scheduling is important. I found out that being at home during the lock-down is even more challenging in terms of fitting in work, looking after children, and doing the usual household tasks. I quickly learned that I have to plan, so every evening for 30 minutes, I pre-plan the kids’ school work, to fit into my own and my husband’s new schedules of working from home. Careful scheduling is done, with time slots during the day, so that school work is done in stages, without conflicting with my, or my husband’s work commitments and other tasks. We also plan for keeping the kids occupied mentally; small kids can be quite a handful, and demanding when they are not kept busy, which will disrupt our work.  In between, I need to maintain the household; not an easy task to balance all these responsibilities,  I think in Key 16 it is called some Japanese word, Heijunka, which is about work levelling. Without proper planning and scheduling, things will often go wrong, and be disorganised. In real life, things of course do sometimes go wrong, like when a colleague requests some support (and in ODI we do it immediately), just when you start school work with the kids – quick re-scheduling, and some overtime working is then necessary!

George Meiring – Senior Consultant: Eastern Cape

I have focused a lot on water conservation, inspired by Key 19: Conserving Energy and Material. Port Elizabeth is a drought-stricken area, and over the past few years, we have, systematically, been working towards reducing our dependency on water supplied by the municipality (limited resources from the dams in the Eastern Cape). We installed tanks with a total capacity of 10,500 l to supply the household. A 5000 l tank, a 2500 l tank, and three 1000 l cubicle thanks were installed. Two of the 1000 l cubicle tanks were connected with a pressure sensitive pump that supplies water to the toilet in the main bedroom. The 500 l capacity tank is also connected with a pump, to supply the whole household with rainwater. For human consumption, we installed a filter unit to filter the rainwater (really nice tasting J). During this lock-down period, we were almost totally independent of municipal water. The only time that we needed to switch over, is when the power was down. At the peak of our consumption, about three years ago, we used a maximum of 28,000 l per month; this has been reduced dramatically to 4000 l per month. During this lock-down period, from 3 April, when we had about 5 mm of rain, we have used zero water from the municipal supply; only rainwater has been used. We only require about 20 mm of rain per month to remain totally independent from municipal supplied water. We only switched back to municipal water when the rain stayed away, and our tanks were empty. During this lock-down period, there were three days on municipal water.

Another area is electricity conservation. Energy conservation is a big thing in our household, driven by Marita, my wife. During lock-down, she recorded our electricity consumption meticulously, on a daily basis, and made some notes as to what appliances were used. Our average electricity consumption turned out to be about 11 units (kWh) per day. We determined that the water conservation, described above, added about 1½ units (kWh) of electricity consumed per day. The electricity conservation was achieved by installing two solar geezers that only needs electricity during the night (no sunshine). Our electricity conservation during lock-down was achieved by switching off the electricity supply to geysers.  What also contributed was that we had no guests in our house. We have determined that when a guest is in the house, the electricity consumption jumps by 25 units per day.

While in lock-down I was also forced to really enjoy my garden more. It made me very aware of  Space utilisation. I worked out a way to run around my house, through the living area, and round and round and round and round. It did add some graphics to our garden, in that there is now a footpath through and over the lawn.

The pictures of the running maps show the 10 km done around my house while on level 5 lock-down, while the second picture shows the level 4 lock-down. I’m lucky that the beach is exactly 5 km from my house.

In terms of work, Key 18: Using Information System has been very important. I rely on the use of computer technology to coach learners.

Lock-down has forced us to move forward faster in terms of our adoption of the fourth industrial revolution in our own lives as well. Having to coach a team of learners at a factory in the Free State, from my house office in Port Elizabeth, we started using technology to do that. This worked out quite well, as the photos show.

Pieter de Bruyn – Consultant

For a DYI person like myself, it’s important to be multi-skilled and multi-tasked as far as possible. It was, therefore, necessary to revisit my skills, Key 15: Skills Versatility, during lock-down, to identify any shortcomings.

Being more at home than usual, you are requested to do tasks normally not done by you, and you have limited knowledge about it. An outside DYI man seldom has any domesticated skills. My domestic skills were limited to making my bed (from military days), and sweeping the kitchen. I have received some training and coaching for the first two weeks of lock-down to improve my competency level at home. Currently I am rated as follows on my various skills –

• gardening = 4/5,
• home maintenance = 4/5,
• general home assistance = 3/5.

My biggest problem has been the speed at which I am required to perform certain tasks. More practice and coaching have been recommended.

ODI is a globally represented productivity and management consulting company. Our mission is to provide holistic solutions that promote people development and operations excellence. We do this through training, coaching and consulting, supported by a range of excellent products.

The post The Power of the 20 Key principles to enhance productivity at home during lock-down! (Part 3) appeared first on ODI.

ODI members are sharing some handy tips on using the 20 Keys during lock-down. In part 1, Joan Bull, Johan Benadie and Mike Foxon, placed emphasis on Key 6, 7 and 10 respectively. To read part 1 of our 3 part series, click here.

To see more details of each respective Key in the 20 Keys System for Operations improvement, go to our interactive 20 Keys wheel and click on a Key of your choice. Click here to access the interactive 20 Keys wheel.

Maryke Bergh: Senior Manager – Learning and Development

Key 20: Leading Technology helped me to eliminate two of the eight wastes; the waste of time/waiting, and the waste of motions. My recently installed rain meter with Bluetooth helps me to see the readings inside my house. No need to go out in the rain and cold, while we have to stay healthy. I also no longer need to keep records manually; it is all done electronically – daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. Yes – I did grow up on a farm, and rainfall readings are still very important to me.

I can see the temperature inside the house, the outside temperature, as well as humidity, from inside my house!.

Angela Newman – Associate

Of course, for me, Key1: Cleaning and Organising is so important.  Sorting, tidying and getting ourselves organised in order to create two live/on-line home offices, as well as two home schooling sites from a single person workspace, was quite a challenge. Key 18: Using Information Systems helped to ensure that all the relevant software needed were available. Key 5, to be able to change over quickly, has also become a daily activity. This entails various changeovers, depending on whoever is called to the next live meeting. The room can be one home office, then suddenly another one, or become a classroom, or a space for sports lessons, which also takes place using Zoom.

We are definitely struggling with Key 10 though; the discipline for home schooling is not always so good!

Ilse Doyer – Senior Consultant

The visual management concept of Key 2: Goal Alignment helps everyone in the family to align to Mommy’s sanity; I mean vision. Key 5 for quick start ups helps in the morning. Now, no one says they are waiting for Mommy, before they start their chores. Key 16 ensures that work is scheduled in the house, keeping in mind level loading! Key 15: Skill Versatility is also in use, because we are learning Martha’s skills on how to look after the house, just in case she is ever again absent for seven weeks at a time. Wait a minute….!

Gerda Holder – Operations Manager

Key 15: Skills Versatility has been very important during the lock-down period. My colleagues and I had to learn new skills very quickly, to support one another, and to accelerate product development. At ODI, one of our values is to continuously improve; not only ourselves, but also our products and services. This development has been phenomenal to experience.

Key 4: Reducing Work-in-Progress has also helped us, by using the principle of having a fast flow of work, and eliminating build-ups of work. All our work is done on OneDrive, which allows quick sharing, and quick corrections. We follow the CAPDo cycle, with action plans kept updated on OneDrive, which ensure that everyone is aligned, and follows the same plan. At the same time,

Key 11: Quality Assurance, reminds us constantly to eliminate mistakes; it creates a lot of waste when the next person finds an error, which then must be communicated back to the person who did the work in order to correct it; things must be done right, first time, or when an error slips through (we are all human), the correction must be done very quickly.

ODI has always been proud of their administrative function, which delivers quick and quality service, and always goes the extra mile. During this period there are many additional demands related to product development, lock-down legislation, and other tasks, I really enjoy being part of that!

Valery Hansen – Associate

I rely so much on Key 16: Planning and Scheduling now, because I received the green light to move to my new home. This has to be planned carefully, to eliminate having to drive backwards and forwards. It has to be one well planned moved.

Other than that, I touched on Key 15: Skills Development, with a CamScanner that I had to download and use to get my son’s assignment to his teacher. My own personal IT assistant, my daughter, was the coach. The principles in Key 2 of Pulling Together has been well practiced in our house.

Lastly, I realised again during these trying times how important it is to show kindness to others.

While in lock-down, it’s a perfect opportunity to scale-up. ODI is offering the NQF5 Productivity Learnership as an online programme. To enrol for this prestigious qualification, email e-support@odi.co.za

To read more about NQF5: Productivity, click here.

The post The Power of the 20 Key principles to enhance productivity at home during lock-down! (Part 2) appeared first on ODI.

With Key 6, processes and procedures are analysed, with the objective of improving productivity. Processes and procedures are studied for improvement by means of process flow diagrams like activity flow diagrams and physical flow diagrams, and operations improvement sheets.

The key concepts of Key 6 of the 20 Keys system for operations improvement are:

• Improve productivity through ongoing analysis and improvement of processes, procedures and tasks, in production and supporting functions
• Levels of Kaizen (spot, line, area, volumetric); from a very narrow, to a holistic focus
• Value analysis of processes, procedures and tasks; eliminating/reducing non-value adding activities
• Ongoing improvement of procedures, with the standard operating procedure (SOP) as basis
• Focus on productivity improvement in all production and supporting functions

Recently, an online Zoom session was held for the first time with all Astral Key 6 champions. Delegates were spread across the country, while participating in this session. Johan Benadie (Director at ODI) did coaching on Key 6 with all the delegates, with input from Nikki Moodley (Astral Operations Improvement Executive). Nikki commented afterwards that it was an awesome session.

A WhatsApp group has also been created for all these delegates, to assist them with their Key 6 studies. Everyone will work their way through the Key 6 workbook, and submit a document of a practical implementation online, to be assessed. This is a big effort to ensure sustainability of improvements in the workplace.

Author: Huibie Jones – MD at ODI

To read more about ODI’s Continuous Operations Improvement System, click here.

ODI’s operations improvement system provides a tool to benchmark an organisation against international best practices. It describes the steps towards improvement through 5 levels in each Key, with the use of practical, easy to use checksheets and picture-based maps.

The post Key 6 of the 20 Keys system for operations improvement & the Astral champions appeared first on ODI.