At Grain Field Chickens (GFC), a large chicken processing plant situated in Reitz, South Africa, which recently achieved the International 20 Keys Excellence Award, a need was identified for quick, in the workplace, re-training for employees working in some Production Departments.

Adolphina Mojatau, the Key 14 Leader and also a trainer at the plant, identified that some workers, when they are still new or have been assigned to a different production line, work less efficiently than others. In a high speed plant like GFC a small difference in efficiency of workers has a large impact on overall efficiency due to the number of people as well the high throughput rate of the plant. It is often not feasible to do formal, in the classroom, training in such cases, as production lines are finely balanced and withdrawing workers will affect throughput. To do all of it on the production line, while in production, is often also not an option.

Adolphina and the supervisors involved, identified the specific training needs and set up a Key 14 “Kaizen Corner”. This is basically an area, in this case, in the plant, close to the production lines, where some equipment is installed and where a supervisor or trainer can practically do refresher training, and provide coaching for ensuring that the SOP is followed and that work is done at the optimum efficiency level.

The attached photographs show one such a corner. Tracking is done of its usage and all usage is done under supervision, to ensure the safety of people using the equipment.

Author: Johan Benadie: Director at ODI

To read more about Grain Field Chickens and Key 8 of the 20 Keys system for operations excellence, click here.

ODI has been in business since 1989. For most of that time, we have been in partnership with a Japanese company, the PPORF Development Institute (PDI). PDI is the original developer of the 20 Keys programme for operational excellence.

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The VKB Group can be esteemed to be a “house of brands” with a unique composition of brands of companies and products that makes the group one of the leaders in the agricultural environment.

Grainfield Chickens (part of the VKB Group) has been implementing 20 Keys for a few years and is aiming to achieve the International Excellence Award by April 2020.

Johan Benadie of ODI and Landi vd Merwe, Continuous Improvement Manager at VKB Agri Processors, kicked off the 20 Keys implementation at Triple V Feeds, Vrede with a planning workshop. The factory has highly sophisticated equipment and produces a range of animal feeds that is distributed by the VKB and NTK network of outlets. Every function also presents their Quality, Cost effectiveness and Delivery objectives for the next year. Jaco Viljoen, Executive Head of VKB Feeds, attended the session to share his expectations and support with goal alignment of objectives. “It was energising to see how passionate people are about the business” says Johan.

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

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