Thomas Katane, Group Quality Manager, and Gerald Wheeler, Divisional Manager, from BBF Safety Group, presented at ODI’s conference, “Cultivating a culture of Operations Excellence: A better way, every day,” held on October 22, 2026, at the Premier Hotel, O.R. Tambo, Johannesburg. Their presentation was titled:
“The BBF operations excellence story: a multi-dimensional approach”
BBF Safety Group manufactures safety footwear, producing market-leading brands in both leather safety footwear and gumboots. It employs more than 1 500 people across four manufacturing facilities in South Africa.
Thomas and Gerald shared their company’s journey towards operational excellence.
The company’s management approach is multi-dimensional, comprising three elements:
1 Strategic and emotional alignment (building the human platform),
2 Objective alignment (turning strategy into action and focusing effort on key outcomes), and
3 Operational excellence (using the 20 Keys system).
BBF implemented the 20 Keys in 2020/21 to improve its factory production processes. The 20 Keys were condensed into 9 modules; value stream mapping was introduced to establish the operational foundation, with “War on Waste” as a prime focus.
The nine modules were:
Module 1: Programme Overview & Goal Alignment
Module 2: Pulling Together & Teamwork
Module 3: Safe Workplace Organisation (5S)
Module 4: Small Group Activities (SGAs & Kaizen)
Module 5: Lean Workflow & Value Stream Alignment
Module 6: Skills Development & Capability Building
Module 7: Cost & Efficiency Control
Module 8: Quality Assurance & First Time Pass Rate
Module 9: Asset Care & Total Productive Maintenance
The company instituted an intense coaching and education programme, which cascaded downwards from management to team leaders and operators.
One action plan at a time, BBF rolled out operational excellence (OE) as a way of doing business. These were: CAPDO (a four-step continuous-improvement framework: Check, Analyse, Plan, Do) ), root cause analysis, waste awareness, first time pass rate analysis, and TPM (Total Productive Maintenance).
The changes transformed the factory floor into a clean, safe, and efficient environment.
Even more impressive were the marked improvements in product quality, cost-efficiency, and speed. All three sites have roughly doubled their quality levels, increased speed of production in their injection process, and reduced manufacturing costs per unit.
Core lessons learned during the OE implementation process:
- Data as a behavioral driver: Data dashboards streamline meetings and empower shop-floor operators to make independent decisions.
- Inclusivity and bottom-up buy-in: Engaging operators on machine downtime analysis creates true ownership; motivated people move mountains.
- Leader standard work: Entrenching daily mini-business unit meetings ensures everyone carries the higher organisational objective.
Thomas and Gerald ended their presentation by acknowledging the impact of operational excellence:
A factory is not just buildings and machines; a factory is its people. Operations Excellence takes people on a journey of excellence.
They paid special acknowledgment to George Meiring, ODI facilitator over the past 5 years, “for his relentless dedication in coaching all learners across the finish line”.
To find out more about the Learnerships offered to BBF Safety Group’s employees, please click the following links:
NQF2 Production Technology – Competitive Operations
NQF3 Production Technology – Competitive Operations
To read more about our keynote speaker, Hermann Rolfes, Managing Director of Wispeco Aluminium Pty Ltd (a 100% subsidiary of Remgro Ltd), presentation, “Planting in Fertile Ground: Cultivating Excellence through People”, click here.