SBS Tanks

Name of Project: Steelman Region: Region 1 Project Manager: Neo Lekaowa 1. Project Background Productivity SA revisited the company... Steelman is wholly owned by Staalbeer, a steel merchant with three branches in Potchefstroom, Vereeniging and Bothaville. Staalbeer is the sole supplier of raw material to Steelman and its sole customer absorbing all its produce. Steelman’s core business is to perform value adding activities to steel and bring it to the specifications that the customer requires. These value adding activities are performed on steel products that are used in the construction and built environment industry. There are three main value adding departments all housed at the Potchefstroom branch, which are the roof sheeting, palisades and cut and bend for reinforcing. From Potchefstroom, value added products are supplied to the two other branches of Vereeniging and Bothaville. The one contributing most to the bottom line is the roof sheeting line, where different types of steel roof sections are rolled from galvanized coil. The next is the palisade line where palisade sections for perimeter walls are welded. Lastly, it’s the cut and bend section, where steel reinforcing is cut and bent to customer requirements for load bearing concrete columns and foundations. At the later stage the business shut down the cut and bend department as it was accumulating losses and introduced light steel manufacturing business. Macro-Economic Environment Shortage and Fluctuation Steel Price Load Shedding and its effects to Businesses Eskom’s mandate is to ensure security of supply to service the South African economy and society. At all times there must be sufficient supply to meet demand, however electricity demand is not constant because of peak periods when demand is higher and continuous growth in the number of customers requiring electricity services. This means that the power system requires constant and prudent management of supply to meet demand but, today, Eskom faces the challenge of a constrained power system that will affect us until substantial new power capacity is available. Load shedding is a controlled process that responds to unplanned events in order to protect the electricity power system from a total blackout. Therefore, load shedding is used to manage our power system and protect it from such an event. As South Africa strive to manage the country’s electricity, load shedding has a serious impact on industries that rely on continuous electricity production and Steelman is no different. While electricity is not the high-cost drivers, production becomes low, and some employees cease work. Steelman resort to the utilisation of generators however it is not enough. Prioritization of which machines need to stay on becomes critical. The available electricity is therefore used in the most critical productivity. 2. Challenges At the time of the first assessment, the business was not providing quality service to its customers, the products were not delivered well on time, the production throughput was not streamlined and there was too much waste in the production process. Each business unit of cut and bend, palisade line and roof sheeting have their own matrixes of floor space utilisation, conversion cost, labour costs, and overheads. The cut and bend area had the largest and most expensive machinery in the whole company, however sales of products from this area yielded the least profitability as prices throughout the industry were fixed on weight. Based on this and collaborated with the MD Johan Roos the cut and bent area was the largest loss-making department and it was earmarked as the initial improvement area. There were a lot on production inefficiencies as the general workforce needed more knowledge on improving productivity. • The flow of materials from the cropper to the manual benders was not optimal as a lot of time was spent waiting for the crane to transport the materials at the same time reducing productivity as machine idle time was as high as 15%. • Transportation waste of long lengths was identified where goods were delivered to one place as incoming material, however these are moved again with no processing to an area where they would be displaced from, a total distance of 45m. This created idle time for many of the products being produced as crane waiting time was sometimes longer that 10mins. Production coming from the RSM machine was being placed on the floor requiring the operator to then spend additional time to package the product from the floor. The operator motion took up an additional 13mins. 3. Productivity SA Approach Nurturing visit and financial analysis were conducted. Furthermore, the Future Forum was established and capacitated, an in-depth analysis outlining problematic areas was conducted and relevant interventions were identified. The champions to implement the turnaround strategies were identified and capacitated and were very instrumental to the implementation of the turnaround strategy. It was then decided that the production planning system be modified to allow for confirmed orders from branches to be placed directly on the production schedule. Secondly, orders from the branches of Bothaville and Vereeniging would be prioritised to consider delays of receiving products. All nine members of the cut and bend area including the supervisor and management embarked on 7 wastes training to assist them in being able to identify the different types of wastes. This then allowed them to understand the effect of these wastes on productivity. Ideas of how productivity could be improved were initiated and refined. This was of great importance as we do believe that ideas to improve the work area should come from the people most affected by the current state. Based on our many years of experience it is more likely for an idea to be rejected by the shop floor employees if they feel that it was imposed on them, then them being an active part of the process. Subsequently, Productivity SA engaged the entity to determine the impact of the interventions…. 4. Results and Impact Workplace collaboration and Impact The Future Forum and Champions Training enabled a dialogue between management and labour and assisted in deliberating issues affecting business performance. Workers ability to cocreate solutions amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. The Turnaround Solutions programme implemented in 2016 (renamed the Business Turnaround and Recovery Programme in June 2020) was hailed successful, with material improvements in waste management, business operations and worker morale. Key to the success of the intervention was the cocreation of solutions between the workers of Steelman and its Management Team. Productivity South Africa engaged with Steelman as a follow up to unpack the impact of the TAS and identify whether there was room for further intervention. The initial impact of TAS included significant reduction in absenteeism, increase in worker morale and collective accountability. Mr Johan, in the follow up discussion, described his workers as a “thinking workforce” post the TAS programme, where workers were now giving input and adding value to problem solving and cocreating solutions. These interventions are worth celebrating as this investigation shows that even five years post the deployment of Turnaround Solutions, workers remained equipped and capacitated to continuously improve aspects related to machine reliability, management of redundant material and continuous improvements in factory layout. At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the initial shutdown in April 2020, Steelman applied for relief through Government’s Covid-19 Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme. This application was successful, and employees enjoyed the subsides wage benefit for a period of x months. All protocols were adhered to, including social distancing, sanitising and compulsory mask wearing. Steelman has thankfully not had a single case of Covid-19 amongst its employees. The general expression conveyed was that the Turnaround Solutions programme had equipped the company and its employees to be flexible and adaptable to change, increasing staff morale and the ability to engage in and cocreate solutions. Mr Johan unequivocally attested the success of the staff’s ability to work together during the uncertain times of the pandemic was a direct consequence of the capacity building and training knowledge imparted during the turnaround solutions programme. Going forward, Productivity South Africa has identified opportunity for further intervention, especially with a focus on collaborative problem solving and re-igniting the Future Forum as a platform for staff to increase and promote a collaborative relationship between management and the workers in the workplace. These forums serve as a basis for the identification of challenges and outlining the turnaround strategies and required interventions.

Sasekisani Primary Co-Operative

Sasekisani Primary Co-Operative – a business collaboration between nine members of the Mahonisi Village in the Malumulele area, Limpopo – approached Productivity SA and more specifically the Turnaround Solutions Programme, seeking assistance to improve their productivity, operating standards and their finances. The business’ primary operation is the laying and hatching of chicken eggs. The problem areas identified were: • Poor governance and operational cash flow, bookkeeping issues as well as high debt levels. • Poor utilisation of their facilities and a high mortality rate of egg laying chickens. After the problem areas had been identified, interventions were put in place.These included – improving accuracy and the access to the business’ information, the implementation of a quality management system, correcting the administration surrounding fundraising efforts and finally thorough financial planning and cost management. Results: • 155.56% increase in employee numbers, 7.4% decrease in temp staff and a 100% decrease in the number of contract employees. • 1220.35% increase in turnover, 1679% increase in gross profit and a 1010.29% increase in net profit. • Productivity levels increase by a staggering 122.35%.

Rickard Air Diffusion

Rickard Air Diffusion – a leading, award-winning producer of Variable Geometry VAV equipment and controls internationally with over 150 employees – needed a performance management system, which would engage the shop floor level employees in daily meetings to coordinate the operations of the business; facilitating the visual display of performance; and providing focus, direction and alignment of all levels of employees’ goals to the goals of the business. Thus they approached Productivity SA’s Workplace Challenge Programme for assistance. Firstly, staff were provided with an orientation programme, regarding the nature of the change management system. This was followed by the implementation of the Goal Alignment principles and the formalising of Mini-Business Units and a Meetings structure. Finalising the goal alignment exercise, the company strategy was cascaded from the High Level Monthly Dashboard down to the MBUs in the form of quality measures (rework and scrap); cost of poor quality measures (cost of rework and scrap); delivery measures (lead times / units produced / production efficiency); safety measures (accident free days / incidents / health); and morale measures (Attendance and Innovations). The results: • The factory’s WPC Programme audit score has grown steadily to 80%. • Labour efficiency has improved. • The company’s problem solving ability (people measure) has improved. substantially, as can be seen through enhanced cooperation between diverse departments, such as Powder Coating, Engineering and Sales. • Communication has improved throughout the business. • Scrap rates have been reduced substantially. • Labour costs have decreased, enhancing the company’s competitiveness. • Material costs have decreased.

Promptique Trading 7 CC

Promptique Trading 7 cc – a security services company – looked to Productivity SA and more specifically the Turnaround Solutions program, to help them with their operations, finances and human resource management. The challenges facing the company included unskilled and mismanaged employees, a lack of a marketing strategy and poor fleet management. Productivity SA implemented wide ranging staff training programmes, developed a marketing strategy, created a new business model, introduced new HR policies and aligned strict fleet management protocols. The results: • An overall increase in multi-skilled employees who are able to further develop their skills and who themselves are managed effectively. • Five new clients – an improvement of 167%. • A meticulously managed fleet management system ensured a decrease in fuel costs. • 400 jobs saved were saved and the company’s staff number increased by 49%.

Legaci

Legaci – a small but superior, award-winning dry cleaning and laundry service company with 32 employees and three shops (one industrial plant) – approached Productivity SA’s Workplace Challenge Programme to realize a dream to franchise throughout Africa. Since joining the WPC Programme the following toolkits have been implemented – Goal Alignment Toolkit, Cleaning and Organising. Achievements since joining the WPC Programme include role clarification in all levels, a common purpose has been identified and finally the employees feel that they all own their own vision. Soft results of the Cleaning and Organising toolkit include the simplification of training, a registration process of incoming and outgoing work has reduced customer complaints, Legaci has started to eliminate wastage. Other tangible results: • Overall costs have been reduced significantly . • Cleaning & Organising (5S) Process has already produced valuable results, in terms of a reduction in customer complaints related to dry cleaning. • Employees are looking forward to the remaining Toolkits of Teamwork and Leadership.

Gasket and Shim Industries

Gasket and Shim Industries – a company with ambitions to become the best supplier of soft-cut components in Southern Arica – joined Productivity SA’s Workplace Challenge Program to organise their factory and office areas, improve communication, boost company morale and find a system that could facilitate expected orderly growth. The Workplace Challenge Program includes a World-class Management System, Goal Alignment, Cleaning & Organising (5S), Teamwork, and Leadership. All of these programs were implemented meticulously throughout the entire business’ structure. The results: • Overall performance has improved significantly, including their overall safety standard. • Business delivery performance has improved, gradually going up from 60% on-time delivery to about 80% within eight weeks. • Sales performance has improved drastically with the value of order delivered in the next month ranging from 9 to 11 times the value of quotes issued during the previous month. • Gasket and Shine were chosen as a Productivity SA finalist in September 2016.

Fabchem

Fabchem – a company that specialises in roof and sidewall support technology that makes underground mining safer – adopted Productivity SA’s Workplace Challenge Programme so as to improve on all operational processes, improve their balance sheet, identifying core functions and selling off non-core functions, reinvigorate the spirit of innovation as well as improving the organisation’s delivery performance.

To achieve this, the company formulated a five-year strategy roll-out. The first phase would focus to consolidate and strengthen the business over a period of two-years while the second phase would effect a three-year period of growth and expansion (due to be rolled-out after the completion of the first phase). 13 Mini-business units (MBUs) were created within the company, these consists of a functional group of people who work as a team to manage themselves, perform their technical functions and measure themselves. The SBUs would receive oversight and guidance from the Plant Level Steering committee, which consists of six management members. Whilst implementing the Goal Alignment Toolkit, the team members realised who the suppliers were and who they themselves were supplying to. Furthermore, the 13 MBUs have been streamlined by the realisation that each Mini Business Team is an internal Supplier as well as an internal Customer of the other Teams. The results: • Quality, Cost, Delivery, Safety and Morale performance charts show a positive trend. • A spirit of continuous improvement throughout the company. • A rigorous and effective system for getting employees to generate and implement many innovative ideas which are starting to deliver valuable innovations to the whole organisation and its customers.

Eat Smart Organics

Eat Smart Organics – a company that specialises in the preparation and packaging of superior fresh convenience foods aimed at the retail, corporate and catering sectors – approached Productivity SA about the Turnaround Solutions, seeking to improve their productivity levels. Firstly, optimisation of current planning processes was needed and the building of capacity at a production management level to sustain the improvement in two main areas, better resource utilisation in order to reduce operating costs, and alignment and efficiency improvements between its food preparation and packing operation. The Turnaround Solutions Programme identified that there was a need to optimise resource utilisation, production management capacity needed strengthened and finally the absence of any team-based approach to problem solving. While some benefit to operational efficiency was derived by introducing bulk premixes and by improving planning processes, the biggest impact could be seen by the implementation of the Future Forum. This is probably the biggest highlight of the intervention. Driven by a formal agenda and agreed code of conduct, the forum has established an identity of its own (now called the Organic Forum) with a good culture of communication and improvement starting to develop.

Dirang Mmogo Business Enterprise (DMBE)

Dirang Mmogo Business Enterprise (DMBE) – a specialist environmental company that provides holistic environmental management services to the public and private sector – turned to Productivity SA’s Workplace Challenge Programme to help them increase their overall productivity. Embracing all that the Workplace Challenge Programme covers, DMBE quickly jumped into action by attending various workshops, including a best practice workshop and implementing the 10 best operating practice steps. It didn’t take long for DMBE to identify areas that urgently needed attention, these included, machine breakdown due to poor maintenance and equipment loss resulted in high costs and loss of valuable operating hours. Poor on-site customer service, caused by staff who were unable to assist customers without a manager being present. The results: - Since implantation of the systemic line/strip cutting method, DMBE has reduced wastage from 50% to 10% and shown a 50% improvement in time management. - WPC charts measuring quality, delivery, safety, costs and moral have assisted in showing savings and performance improvements to staff members. - Staff have been empowered to assist customers when managers are not available. - The cleaning and organising toolkit has improved stock control and reduced equipment loss. - Staff now receive various incentives and benefits, directly influencing the overall moral and willingness of staff to be more productive. - Overall improvement in terms of sales, cleaning and organising throughout the business. The hard work was well worth it as on 27 September 2016, DMBE was recognised as the winner of the North West Regional Productivity Award for outstanding performance in the emerging sector. What’s next? - Mini-Business Units are due to be implemented to encourage teamwork and group assessment. - Better communication has directly resulted in higher workplace moral and a general sense understanding.

Beekman Super Canopies

Beekman Super Canopies – the leading fibreglass bakkie canopy manufacturer in Africa – approached Productivity SA regarding our Workplace Challenge Programme with the goal of enhancing the company’s internal communication processes within the different levels of the organization, to engage with employees throughout the company’s management functions and finally to streamline the general business itself. With our help, Beekman Super Canopies gradually implemented all the of the WPC Toolkits and achieved remarkable results in both the Stikland and Wadeville factories. After the introductory best operating practice workshop and management system toolkit, they proceeded to implement the goal alignment toolkit where they established mini-business units (MBUs) for every component of the factories’ functions. This was followed by placing special focus on increasing overall teamwork and finally cleaning and organising of the businesses’ processes. Ewald Rossouw of the “Top Hats” MBU (Plug Manufacturing) spoke for the team when he acknowledged that the MBU members all learned a lot from the practice of formulating suitable performance measures for their MBU. They discovered that quality, cost, delivery and morale measurement also apply to their kind of work! The results: • Improvement in presentation and leadership skills shown by employees during meetings, resulting in the contribution of innovative ideas to operations. • The practice of circulating responsibilities (SBUs) have increased overall employee involvement. • Overall increase in quality and delivery performance shown throughout the participating factories. • More factual decisions taken by managers resulting in better manager–staff relations. • Many of the MBUs’ Standard Operating Procedures have been streamlined, contributing to a general improvement in operational efficiency of the company. • A stronger focus on achieving key performance goals throughout the company has led to healthy competition among employees, leading to higher overall productivity levels.

Abagold

Abagold ‒ an international cultivator, processor, producer and marketer of quality abalone ‒ invested in Productivity SA’s Workplace Challenge Programme to improve their overall productivity, communication and sense of responsibility among staff. Through guidance and support, we helped the company realise their goal of becoming a high-performance organisation. As a result, Abagold instilled a practice of self-management and a mindset of continuous improvement and innovation throughout all divisions ‒ and the organisation as a whole. Continued efforts and a tireless resolve to inspire innovation ensured incredible results for the company, and they reaped the rewards. In 2014, Abagold received Productivity SA’s National Innovation Award, and the Western Cape Regional Productivity Award. “The award is testament to the dedication of Abagold’s employees. Internally, the programme is referred to as ‘The Abagold Way’, as it defines how we work, rather than being a project with a start and end date. We are grateful to Productivty SA for their fantastic support and guidance.” ‒ CEO of Abagold, Christo du Plessis The results:

• A rise in production and profit.
• Use of minibusses has facilitated the flow of measurable information to all operational levels.
• Enhanced monitoring ability of all 180 operational and business departments.
• More streamlined communication across all divisions – between management and employees, as well as minibus units ‒ resulting in better information sharing, healthy debates and new ideas.
• Improved engagement and motivation among staff ‒ better understanding of job roles and expectations, how they add value to achieving the wider business goals, and what constitutes waste of productivity.
• Improved employee attendance ‒ due to greater commitment and involvement.
• Improved safety performance.
• Marked improvement in employee participation and involvement, resulting in pride, confidence and healthy competition.

FABI FASHIONS

Background Fabi fashions CC herein after called Fabi Sportswear is a clothing manufacturing factory in Somerset West, Western Cape. The factory which started from a garage in 1988 is a close corporation between the two co-founders, Retha Van Rensburg and Peter Schoeman. From the time of establishment, they were a fashion clothes manufacturer which then shifted to the production of sports and school wear in 2000. The factory is a small to large volume and high product variety producer of school wear and sportswear for schools, where much of their market lies. The company’s product portfolio includes garments for the leisure sports groups and the cooperate industry as well. This flexibility to produce quite a variety is brought about by the company’s ownership of an inhouse embroidery, printing, and sublimation facilities. The firm is a current beneficiary of the Business Turnaround and Recovery Program (BT&R) being offered by ProductivitySA. The engagement between Fabi sportswear and ProductivitySA was influenced by the factory’s operational and financial distress. The financial distress was due to the dwindling market as a result of the restrictions imposed by virtue of the Covid 19 pandemic. However, business has fortunately picked up since the inception of relaxation of the restrictions which saw the resumption of academic and sports activities, as well as business. Furthermore, the organisation got enroute to develop its own ranges as part of its innovative strategies to take on a bigger market slice. Nonetheless, all this positive rebound was riding upon an ailing operational foundation which Productivity SA transformed into improvement projects, which defined the Fabi Sportswear – ProductivitySA BT&R engagement. In depth causes that led to the engagement The operational In-depth assessment unearthed several issues which derived to operational irregularities. These included the • Absence of an operational measurement and performance system (KPIs) • Absence of a pre-production planning and tracking system • Operations which were being handled outside of the knowledge of the production unit’s production capacity. There were no established production cycle times hence the company would mostly agree to unrealistic delivery dates, thus affecting the ability to deliver on time and in full (OTIF) • High absenteeism and lack of accountability. These operational irregularities were evident reasons behind: • High garment repair rates • High fabric re-cuts rate that contributed to the high materials bill • Prevalent bottlenecks which contributed to low production efficiency • Low production efficiency • Low employee morale Immediate response The above irregularities prompted the first step in which the operational status of the factory’s operations had to be established statistically. Different data collection tools were developed and employed for the purpose of drawing a clear picture of different metrics within the production flow. Progress to date Though this is still work in progress several positive wins have already been sprouting out by virtue of this initial step, with the following two being prominent. 1. A decline in reworks One of the first steps was the establishment of an operational baseline regarding re-works (quality) as was with all the other KPIs. The month of April was murky since there were no data collection tools as yet. Therefore, we averaged a few orders that were inspected during the Gemba walks and took these figures as a sample. In May we then instituted data collection tools to collect data regarding the nature and the frequency of the realised defects. The data would be inputted onto a spreadsheet which reflects on the daily re-works rate and the frequency of all the realised defects. We realised 42% in repair rate in the month of May. I. The measurement system became an early warning system which facilitated prompt informed decisions to be made to counteract negative trends. II. We shifted the personnel to an “every garment” checking system where every operator would conduct a quick check on every garment they work on so as to pick up defects at the inception stage. III. The developed data tools incorporated the revealing of daily re-works rate, the nature of the defects and the respective frequency of each defect. With this, the production manager would track the responsible workstation and investigate the cause for further action. IV. The measurement system made the production personnel aware that the daily production progression was now being measured and they needed to keep their heads up. 2. A decline in fabric re-cuts The factory loses some of its value to fabric re-cuts. This is mainly due to lost/missing panels along the production process and damaged panels during the production process. Before the month of May, the fabric re-cuts data collection tools were redeveloped to ascertain the correctness and accuracy of the collected data. This is the reason behind an inclining trend in the month of May and June. Reasons for the decline: • A quick 5S system which brought about order and arrangement on the temporary orders • A policy was instituted to have the production manager to sign for every panel that needs a regard. • The factory uses a bundle system which we enhanced to allow every involved entity to, “all the time”, confirm the quantity of panels on a bundle in signing before and after working on it. Before After  

Steelman

Name of Project: Steelman Region: Region 1 Project Manager: Neo Lekaowa 1. Project Background Productivity SA revisited the company... Steelman is wholly owned by Staalbeer, a steel merchant with three branches in Potchefstroom, Vereeniging and Bothaville. Staalbeer is the sole supplier of raw material to Steelman and its sole customerabsorbing all its produce. Steelman’s core business is to perform value adding activities to steel and bring it to the specifications that the customer requires. These value adding activities are performed on steel products that are used in the construction and built environment industry. There are three main value adding departments all housed at the Potchefstroom branch, which are the roof sheeting, palisades and cut and bend for reinforcing. From Potchefstroom, value added products are supplied to the two other branches of Vereeniging and Bothaville. The one contributing most to the bottom line is the roof sheeting line, where different types of steel roof sections are rolled from galvanized coil. The next is the palisade line where palisade sections for perimeter walls are welded. Lastly, it’s the cut and bend section, where steel reinforcing is cut and bent to customer requirements for load bearing concrete columns and foundations. At the later stage the business shut down the cut and bend department as it was accumulating losses and introduced light steel manufacturing business. Macro-Economic Environment Shortage and Fluctuation Steel Price Load Shedding and its effects to Businesses Eskom’s mandate is to ensure security of supply to service the South African economy and society. At all times there must be sufficient supply to meet demand, however electricity demand is not constant because of peak periods when demand is higher and continuous growth in the number of customers requiring electricity services. This means that the power system requires constant and prudent management of supply to meet demand but, today, Eskom faces the challenge of a constrained power system that will affect us until substantial new power capacity is available. Load shedding is a controlled process that responds to unplanned events in order to protect the electricity power system from a total blackout. Therefore, load shedding is used to manage our power system and protect it from such an event. As South Africa strive to manage the country’s electricity, load shedding has a serious impact on industries that rely on continuous electricity production and Steelman is no different. While electricity is not the high-cost drivers, production becomes low, and some employees cease work. Steelman resort to the utilisation of generators however it is not enough. Prioritization of which machines need to stay on becomes critical. The available electricity is therefore used in the most critical productivity. 2. Challenges At the time of the first assessment, the business was not providing quality service to its customers, the products were not delivered well on time, the production throughput was not streamlined and there was too much waste in the production process. Each business unit of cut and bend, palisade line and roof sheeting have their own matrixes of floor space utilisation, conversion cost, labour costs, and overheads. The cut and bend area had the largest and most expensive machinery in the whole company, however sales of products from this area yielded the least profitability as prices throughout the industry were fixed on weight. Based on this and collaborated with the MD Johan Roos the cut and bent area was the largest loss-making department and it was earmarked as the initial improvement area. There were a lot on production inefficiencies as the general workforce needed more knowledge on improving productivity. • The flow of materials from the cropper to the manual benders was not optimal as a lot of time was spent waiting for the crane to transport the materials at the same time reducing productivity as machine idle time was as high as 15%. • Transportation waste of long lengths was identified where goods were delivered to one place as incoming material, however these are moved again with no processing to an area where they would be displaced from, a total distance of 45m. This created idle time for many of the products being produced as crane waiting time was sometimes longer that 10mins. Production coming from the RSM machine was being placed on the floor requiring the operator to then spend additional time to package the product from the floor. The operator motion took up an additional 13mins. 3. Productivity SA Approach Nurturing visit and financial analysis were conducted. Furthermore, the Future Forum was established and capacitated, an in-depth analysis outlining problematic areas was conducted and relevant interventions were identified. The champions to implement the turnaround strategies were identified and capacitated and were very instrumental to the implementation of the turnaround strategy. It was then decided that the production planning system be modified to allow for confirmed orders from branches to be placed directly on the production schedule. Secondly, orders from the branches of Bothaville and Vereeniging would be prioritised to consider delays of receiving products. All nine members of the cut and bend area including the supervisor and management embarked on 7 wastes training to assist them in being able to identify the different types of wastes. This then allowed them to understand the effect of these wastes on productivity. Ideas of how productivity could be improved were initiated and refined. This was of great importance as we do believe that ideas to improve the work area should come from the people most affected by the current state. Based on our many years of experience it is more likely for an idea to be rejected by the shop floor employees if they feel that it was imposed on them, then them being an active part of the process. Subsequently, Productivity SA engaged the entity to determine the impact of the interventions…. 4. Results and Impact Workplace collaboration and Impact The Future Forum and Champions Training enabled a dialogue between management and labour and assisted in deliberating issues affecting business performance. Workers ability to cocreate solutions amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. The Turnaround Solutions programme implemented in 2016 (renamed the Business Turnaround and Recovery Programme in June 2020) was hailed successful, with material improvements in waste management, business operations and worker morale. Key to the success of the intervention was the cocreation of solutions between the workers of Steelman and its Management Team. Productivity South Africa engaged with Steelman as a follow up to unpack the impact of the TAS and identify whether there was room for further intervention. The initial impact of TAS included significant reduction in absenteeism, increase in worker morale and collective accountability. Mr Johan, in the follow up discussion, described his workers as a “thinking workforce” post the TAS programme, where workers were now giving input and adding value to problem solving and cocreating solutions. These interventions are worth celebrating as this investigation shows that even five years post the deployment of Turnaround Solutions, workers remained equipped and capacitated to continuously improve aspects related to machine reliability, management of redundant material and continuous improvements in factory layout. At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the initial shutdown in April 2020, Steelman applied for relief through Government’s Covid-19 Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme. This application was successful, and employees enjoyed the subsides wage benefit for a period of x months. All protocols were adhered to, including social distancing, sanitising and compulsory mask wearing. Steelman has thankfully not had a single case of Covid-19 amongst its employees. The general expression conveyed was that the Turnaround Solutions programme had equipped the company and its employees to be flexible and adaptable to change, increasing staff morale and the ability to engage in and cocreate solutions. Mr Johan unequivocally attested the success of the staff’s ability to work together during the uncertain times of the pandemic was a direct consequence of the capacity building and training knowledge imparted during the turnaround solutions programme. Going forward, Productivity South Africa has identified opportunity for further intervention, especially with a focus on collaborative problem solving and re-igniting the Future Forum as a platform for staff to increase and promote a collaborative relationship between management and the workers in the workplace. These forums serve as a basis for the identification of challenges and outlining the turnaround strategies and required interventions.

Tshedza Concrete Art

Tshedza Concrete Art – a manufacturer of unique quality paving and building bricks to a wide variety of clients – approached Productivity SA’s Workplace Challenge Programme, with a special focus on Lean manufacturing methodology. Using the Fishbone Diagram to analyse the reasons for under-production, Tshedza Concrete identified various production problems. In the long run the Workplace Challenge Programme was intended to entrench a continuous improvement culture within the company. Next, Mini Business Units were established to implement the Goal Alignment Toolkit of the WPC Programme in order to streamline and align Tshedza’s strategic objectives with operations. Thereafter the Cleaning and Organising toolkit was implemented to create a working environment that is safe and practices that follow ergonomics principles towards reducing work fatigue. The results: • Production has increased three-fold and on-time delivery has increased due to the purchase of new machinery. • All products have been SAB approved with a quality rep appointed to conduct quality checks. Customer satisfaction surveys are also used to identify any customer complaints regarding quality. • The overall reject and rework rate has decreased significantly. • Absenteeism and staff turnover rates have fallen. • Sales and profit/revenue has seen a drastic upturn. • In September 2015 Tshedza Concrete Art won the Limpopo Regional Gold Productivity Award, and in October 2015 a well-deserved National Gold Productivity Award in the Emerging Sector Awards category.

The Blinds Syndicate

With the help of Productivity SA, The Blinds Syndicate enhanced their overall productivity, inspired a positive working environment and streamlined their processes ‒ which culminated in expansion of the business, creation of new jobs and an increase in revenue. The Results

• Turnover increased by 33% between 2007 and 2008, and 16.9% from January to April, 2009.
• Defect rate decreased to 0.32% from January to April, 2009 (of 12 272 units delivered, only 40 were returned).
• Factory size increased from 87m2 in 1996 to 1 800m2 in 2009.
• Company grew from 14 employees in 1996 to 52 in 2007, and to 74 in 2009.
• Number of company vehicles expanded from 6 in 2007, to 9 in 2009.
• Improved employee morale ‒ absenteeism was kept constant at 1.9% in 2007 (52 employees) to 2.5% in 2008 (78 employees).
• New innovations introduced greater efficiency and elimination of bottlenecks ‒ production time reduced by 50%.

“The biggest lesson I’ve learned from the programme is that if you share your knowledge, you grow, and it makes you feel good as a person. I am excited to come to work every day.” ‒ Supervisor at The Blinds Syndicate, Leon Munsamy.