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Beard the Lion - Study Tour 2016, Hallenweg 17, Enschede (2026)

27/01/2017

Bizonder Gazelleg daily mail 13 27-01-2017

Friday January 27th, the day of the last company visit. To end in style, we were not going to a company like any of the companies we visited before. We went to a vineyard. Aaldering Vineyard is a wine estate in Stellenbosch and is owned by a Dutch family, called Aaldering. It is an incredibly beautiful place and they make great wines there (we tasted some).

When we arrived, the weather was not great. It was windy and it was raining, so we ran out of the bus and into the wine cellar. We were welcomed by Jacqueline Aaldering and the wine maker, Guillaume Nell. Guillaume told us everything about wine making and what happens in the cellar. He also showed us the finished product storage and gave us something to taste. This was the juice from the grape straight from the press. This means there was no alcohol in it yet and it was definitely not wine, because it was not gone through the fermentation process yet. However, there was already a good taste to it.

While we were in the cellar talking about wine, Jacqueline came in with some coffee and biscuits. Not soon after that the sky cleared and the rain disappeared, so we went into the field to take a look at the grapes, taste some grapes and learn some more about wine making and the importance of the soil, temperature and sun. After the tour around the estate, we conducted the interview and went out for lunch. We went to the neighbours across the street, where we ate some pizza with the entire group, including Jacqueline, Guillaume and our bus driver Stefan.

After lunch, it was time for the highlight of the day, the tasting. We tasted four different wines made from the same Pinotage grape. A white wine, a rosé, a wooded red wine and a non- wooded red wine. The white wine was really special, because it is a white wine made out of red grapes. The way this white wine is produced is quite complex and really clever. The red wooded Pinotage was not even labelled and not ready for selling yet. However, we did get the change to taste this, so we were extremely lucky.

Stef decided to brighten up the day even more by taking a bet with Jacqueline. If he would jump in the well and swim to the other side, she would give him a bottle of wine. Guess what Stef decided to do. He took of his clothes and swam to the other side. The water was really nice, so Daan decided to join Stef. Jacqueline stood by her word and gave Stef and Daan (who did not even take the bet) a bottle of wine, a red Pinotage from 2013, which is long sold out, so it was quite a special bottle as well.

All in all, it was a very successful day for all of us and obviously mostly for Stef and Daan. We ended the day by going out for dinner with the entire group at a restaurant called black sheep. Remy ordered Amarula shots for everybody to thank the committee for their effort and time. This was most appreciated, so thank you Remy.

Tomorrow will be the final day in South Africa. We will make a short visit to Robbeneiland before flying back home, so to all of you who would like to see their loved one again, they will be with you soon!

Lesson learned today: “When you pay peanuts, you get monkeys” - Guillaume Nell

26/01/2017

Bizonder Gazelleg daily mail 11/12 25/26-01-2017

First of all, I need to apologize for not sharing a daily mail with you yesterday. To make it up to you, I will first recap on yesterday before telling you about today. Yesterday we went to ACA Threads, a company specialised in producing yawn and nylon threads for all sorts of markets. Some of the markets they supply are: the sailing industry, the car industry and a large share goes to the clothing industry.

We arrived yesterday at 9 o’clock and were guided into the board room. We had a short briefing on what we were going to do that day. We went through this many times already, the last couple of days, but this time it was a bit different, because we would now be visiting for two days instead of one. We came up with a plan and decided we should do the interview and the plant tour on this first day and after lunch, which was great, we would split into five groups and each group would analyse a certain improvement opportunity in the company. For this analysis, each group could ask any staff member that was involved in that part of the production. To make life easier for us, ACA Threads even arranged that all supervisors and managers were wearing red polo shirts with their name on it.

At the end of the day, all students formulated a problem definition and came up with a list of information they would need for the following day in order to analyse the problem and come up with solutions. This list was shared with the operations manager, so he could provide the students with the information this morning.
This morning at 10:30 we were back at ACA Threads to continue with the second part of the improvement cycle. The information needed by the students was provided by Chris (the operations manager) and the students started working on their ideas. By using the A3 method, the student performed an improvement project and after lunch, which was great again, they pitched their findings and recommendations to the management team of the company. The ideas that were presented were quite good and we believe that ACA Threads can definitely benefit from our two day visit. Chris believed so as well and he invited us all to come back next year to see which of our ideas have been implemented by then.

At 3 o’clock we left for the hostel again, after taking a group photo with the entire management team. Back at the hostel, the students worked some more on the A3 before going out to eat in groups. Tomorrow we will not go to ACA Threads, but we will go to Aaldering Vineyards. There we will do research, but we will also be tasting wine of course. If there is no daily mail tomorrow, you know the reason why.

Lessons learned: “Good is the greatest enemy of excellent” – Chris & “Don’t assume that people understand even the simplest principles” - Chris

24/01/2017

Bizonder Gazelleg daily mail 10 24-01-2017

Yesterday we had an amazing afternoon at the Tafelberg, but this came with a cost today. People were still tired at breakfast from the climb or perhaps it was the night out that drained their energy level? Anyway, we left at 08:10 to visit a food production company called BM Foods. BM Foods is a smaller version of Unilever and produces food under different brand names. They have four different factories on the same location and in each factory they produce another product.

So, we were welcomed and guided into one of the canteen areas. Everything was prepared for us, the beamer was set up, the tables were arranged and the visitor forms were put in place for us to sign. The visit started with an introduction session, during which the company and the students introduced themselves to each other and continued with a factory tour. For this tour, the group was split into three and each group went into a different factory. The guys that visited the fish factory were most lucky, because they were allowed to taste the product. The visit was concluded with the interview and an interesting discussion session on how to improve the process with small alterations. For lunch we were given some of their own products to taste and I must say it tasted good.

After the company visit it was again time for some sightseeing. This time, Boulders Beach, Kaap de Goede Hoop and Cape Point was on the planning. We started at Boulders Beach, where we visited the penguins. When we were driving towards Boulders Beach, the prospects weren’t in our favour. It was raining cats and dogs and it looked like it wasn’t about to stop soon. However, miraculously we arrived at Boulders Beach and the sky turned blue and the sun was out. This meant we were able to chill with the penguins in the sun.

We stayed for about half an hour, before we drove on to Kaap de Goede Hoop. The drive towards Kaap de Goede Hoop was stunningly beautiful. There was coast on one side and mountains on the other. It was rocky, green and blue all together at once. We even spotted some ostriches. Once we arrived at Kaap de Goede Hoop we were all impressed by the view and we quickly climbed up the rocks towards the view point. This trip was full of dangers, because some wild baboons were attacking us and went after Koen’s (Schipper) cookies. Koen Schipper started running, but couldn’t shake of his determined attacker, so he threw away his full package of cookies and the baboon quickly ran after it and ate all the cookies in under a minute. We were all relieved that the baboon was now quietly eating, but unfortunately it did not end there. A younger baboon joined the stage and decided to make a scene. He started screaming out of the blue, which scared all of us and triggered the older baboon to attack Koen Bossink. Koen started running and fell over some stairs, which was a very funny moment. Fortunately no one was harmed and the baboon did not bite Koen or anybody else.

Once we survived the baboon attack we walked on and came across one of the most beautiful sights and one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. We decided to descent from the rocky wall and walk on the white sandy beach below. It was a great decision. We stayed there for a while before some of us walked up to Cape Point. At this moment it started to rain again, but luckily it stopped when they reached the top, so they had an amazing view to enjoy. At around 5 O’clock we went back to the bus and took an amazing route back to the hostel. Again the view was stunningly beatiful. Back at the hostel everybody went his own way for dinner and we looked back at a great day.

Lesson learned today: Don’t take any food out when near to baboons. Once they have their mind set on that food, you won’t be able to prevent them from taking it unharmed.

23/01/2017

Bizonder Gazelleg daily mail 9 23-01-2017

This morning was not the easiest morning for most of us. Yesterday was a long day and we had to wake up early again for another company visit and just like any other Monday morning, people needed to get used to doing serious stuff. Luckily, in this hostel breakfast is arranged, so no one had to prepare breakfast and no one had to do the dishes.

As you already know, it has become quite usual for us to arrive on site too early. Today was no exception. We arrived 20 minutes early at Gear Pump Manufacturing, but according to the bus driver this is seen as polite in South Africa. That’s probably why we were welcomed in and were guided through the production straight away. Safety was clearly not a major focus point for this company, given the fact that we were only given ear plugs while walking through a cast iron foundry. The sparks were literally flying around us. Miraculously we all came through safely and unharmed and were ready to conduct the interview.

The interview was held outside, because there was no room inside to fit 30 people in. This was not a problem if we were not standing between a very loud substation machine and a busy road. Once the bus driver also started his engine to be able to use the air-conditioning, it became impossible to hear each other. However, the group succeeded and achieved enough information to write the report.

After the company visit we went to the Tafelberg , where most of us took the hiking trail up. This was supposed to be a 2,5 hour track to climb the Tafelberg. People started confidently and all of us made it to the top. Some of us even did it in under an hour and most of us in just more than an hour. However many of us underestimated the difficulty of the hike. It was a constant ascending walk and not a single part was flat. Count in the high temperature, the burning sun and the fact that some of the steps were too high for some of us, you can imagine it has been rough. It was very rough, but also very worth it. The view on top of the Tafelberg was amazing and so was the sunset. We had a nice cold beer and enjoyed the sunset before going back to the hostel.

Lesson learned today: Bring enough water when climbing the Tafelberg, because you will sweat more that you could ever imagine.

23/01/2017

Bizonder Gazelleg daily mail 7&8 21/22-01-2017

Sorry guys, you haven’t heard from us in two days. We were on safari and we had no internet connection in the resort, but we will take you back now to last Saturday and Sunday and tell you all about our amazing weekend, starting with Saturday morning.
Saturday morning we left the 1322 backpackers hostel and we all had to pay the bill of the honesty bar. For some of us the payment due was a bit higher than for others, but for the amount of beers consumed all bills were very low. We drank all week for just over 20 euros each. Once this formality was behind us, we left for the Bakgatla resort in Pilanesberg, where we would spend the weekend.

Just before 2 O’clock we arrived and half an hour later we went on a game drive. We were divided over two vehicles and we drove into the Pilanesberg Nature Reserve looking for the Big Five. It did not last long before we spotted our first animal, the zebra. Not much longer, we bumped into a group of elephants and this was quickly followed by spotting lions near and hippo’s in the water. We were extremely lucky. Below is a “short” list of animals we spotted during the game drive.

- Elephants
- Giraffe
- Zebras
- Rhinos
- Lions
- Hippos
- A jackal
- Gnus
- Impalas
- Kudus
- Springbok
- Slender Mongoose

After the game drive we had diner in the resort’s restaurant before most of us went to bed early. This was a wise decision, because Sunday morning we had to wake up at 04:30 for the bush walk.
Sunday at 5 o’clock we were divided into four groups and were each driven to a certain area in the reserve. At this location the group would leave the vehicle and walk into the park with two armed rangers. One in the front and one at the back. We walked through the bushes and across the grazing lands looking for animals and learning about the flora at the same time. We ate some fruit fresh from the bush and spotted all sorts of animals, including the rare Tsesebe, which is one of the quickest antelopes. None of us came into a close encounter with a dangerous predator. Most of us only came near to impalas, gnus, zebras and smaller animals like: spiders, caterpillars, grasshoppers and bird. Some of us also saw a jackal and monkeys.

When the bush walk was over and we all returned to the resort, we had to pack our bags and check out, because we would be heading to Cape Town later that day. Before we headed to Cape Town, we went on a quad bike activity. Most of us had no idea what to expect, so we just went there hoping for a success. Well, a success it was. We drove through the reserve in a large group of quads and we drove right passed the wild animals. We passed a Rhino with a baby at about a three meter distance and we drove right through a group of impalas and later through a group of giraffes and gnus. The paths were really challenging, so even if you did not see the animals, the ride itself was more than worth it.
After the quad biking we were ready for the flight to Cape Town, however we were not prepared on what we would look like after the quad biking. Every single one of us was covered in red dust from the soil in the reserve. Not just our faces, but also our clothes. Our bags were already packed, so we had no choice but to get in the plane looking like savages. On the airport people were looking at us, but we made it to Cape Town without any problems and had a nice shower at the 91Loop hostel.

Lesson learned: Pack an extra set of clothes when you go on a quad bike activity.

20/01/2017

Bizonder Gazelleg daily mail 6 20-01-2017

This morning was unlike any other morning. Today a visit to the Royal Netherlands Embassy was on the program and it was scheduled for later in the morning. This meant that people could sleep somewhat longer. Although, they could have if they had gone to bed in time. However, yesterday evening we had a braai arranged by the owners of the hostel and this turned in to one big party, where people drank way too much and went for a swim late at night, or should I say early in the morning. You can imagine the faces that gathered around the breakfast table.

After breakfast, everybody slowly moved towards the bus and tried to look fresh before we arrived at the embassy. I can’t say everybody succeeded in this. We were welcomed at the embassy by a panel of 7, including the ambassador himself. We were told about the role the embassy plays in helping Dutch companies enter the South African market and how they try to learn from South African companies. We also talked about history and apartheid. The visit only lasted an hour and a half, but was very interesting even so and it was the first place that served good coffee, which meant a lot to some of us.

The visit to the embassy was concluded by taking a group photo and we were off to the hostel again at 11:15. At the hostel we prepared ourselves for a very special visit. Tim and Bas came up with the idea to buy school necessities, several educative games and foot- and basketballs to go and bring it to a program for the poor children at Kliptown in Soweto, which is run by the tour guide who guided us Sunday, with anybody who’d like to join.

At around 15:30 most of us arrived at Kliptown where we played a game of soccer with a lot of children. We were lucky, because once we arrived it was lightly raining and the sun was not out. It had been 32 degrees in the shade all day, which would have made it impossible for us to play soccer. We handed over the stuff we bought and the organisation crew of the program was extremely happy with it. The children were also very happy with our visit, because we could throw them in the air, they could sit on our shoulders, the could climb us and they could feel our (leg)hair and biceps, which must have been unreal for them judging by their faces. Children were fighting over us, because everyone wanted to be lifted or thrown in the air. At a certain point, one of the girls even came up with the idea to form a line in front of Daan, so he could make them do backward summersaults one by one.

The Go Pro (camera) was also a big hit. All the children wanted to hold it, weather it was filming or not. They were pointing it all over the place, but mostly on themselves. Once one of the children was holding it, about 20 more of them ran towards him trying to take it from him and hold it as well. It was an amazing afternoon, but very tiring as well. In the bus back to the hostel, a lot of the guys were sleeping, because they were exhausted of throwing children around for an hour.

The committee arranged dinner for the entire group to end the day and the food was great. After dinner we went back to the hostel to talk some more about what an amazing day we had and to pack our backs for the weekend Safari.

Lesson learned today: Don’t start lifting children in Kliptown, because before you know it you have to lift every single one of them and there is no way out.

20/01/2017

Bizonder Gazelleg daily mail 5 19-01-2017
Before I start telling you about today, what we did and what we’ve learned, I would like to mention that we discovered that the committee has a negative learning curve. This means, that while days go by we are actually getting worse in estimating the time needed to travel to our destination. The last two days we arrived half an hour early, but that is nothing compared by the 50 minutes of today. In our defence, I got to say that the bus driver has a big part in this, because he told us it would take us 2 hours while we believed we could do it in 1,5 hours. Sorry Eddie, but this one is on you.

Now that we cleared that out, you can understand why the day started at a gas station 2 minutes away from the company we were about to visit, called Dutton Plastics. Because we were so early we decided to wait our time out at this gas station, instead of knocking on the door hoping to get in early. Not many of the student bothered having to wait, because they could finally get a good cup of coffee. Drinking coffee is not that common in South Africa, so we don’t get it a lot and if we get it, it usually is not very nice.

After coffee we arrived exactly on time at the gate of Dutton Plastics, where everybody had to do a breathalyser test to check for alcohol in the blood. This procedure is quite common in South Africa, because it is prohibited by law to drink at work or to serve alcohol to employees, visitors or anybody else. Everybody came through, however the guard like to play games with us and made some of us retake the test or wait at the gate as if they had not passed the test.

After we passed we were welcomed by 6 people from all kinds of expertise within the company and we had a short introduction program and we received some safety instructions. The safety instruction were given by Walter, who did this at his own unique way. He was slow, correct and funny. After the safety instructions we had some great finger lunch, so we could enter the plant safe and full.

The tour through the plant was really interesting. We were guided past many plastic injection moulding machines. Oh, I forgot to mention the products that are being produced at Dutton. Dutton produces toilet seats, flushing systems and everything that is needed with it. We were shown how a toilet seat is produced, in 37 seconds and what happens to the redundant plastic that is scraped off. It is grinded again and reused to make another toilet seat. We were also shown how the inside of a flushing system is assembled and where the end products are being stored. In many parts of the process we have seen Lean tools and techniques being used, but the students also found many more improvement opportunities.

After the tour, there was some time reserved for the interview, but unfortunately the person who was supposed to answer our questions was not present. He was replaced by the managing director. It was quite an honour that such a high up person made time for us, but he was not really the right person to answer our questions. However, we have seen a lot, so most our questions can be answered by what we have seen.
To end the day we had a very nice South African “Braai”, arranged by the owners of the hostel. It was a great braai and we had a great evening. I notice the daily mails are getting longer and longer, so this might be a good time to round off. Tomorrow we will visit the Dutch embassy and there will be a new Bizonder Gazelleg daily mail.

Lesson learned today: “Safety starts with loving yourself, It guarantees 98% of your own safety” - Walter

18/01/2017

Bizonder Gazelleg daily mail 4 18-01-2017

We have already reached the 4th Bizonder Gazelleg daily mail. “Time flies when you’re having fun”, a wise man once said and fun we had today. Today we visited Clover, the biggest manufacturer of dairy products in South Africa. You could best compare Clover with FrieslandCampina. Clover had just build a gigantic and hyper modern visitors centre of which the official opening will be in February, however we had the honour to be the first group to get a tour through this visitors centre.

It seems to become a habit of us to arrive half an hour early, because just as the days before, we were way too early and this time this meant we were standing in front of a five metre tall closed door. Soon the door opened and a lovely lady, dressed in a beautiful dress welcomed us and gave us a pre-arranged tour through the company, which ended in a tasting of the products. This tour was more of a marketing technique and not very useful for us, because we weren’t allowed to actually go to the GEMBA (Lean term for work floor/shop floor) and could only watch the production from behind glass. This made a lot of students nervous, but soon they understood that this was just a small part of the program and the real tour in the production plant would follow afterwards.

Before we could do the “real” tour we came for, we first had to conduct the interview. It looked as if Clover decided to involve the entire company in this interview session. About 6 people were waiting for us in the auditorium to answer our questions and during the tour through the plant even 6 more people were brought in to join. It was amazing how much time and effort was being spent by them for this visit. With the interview we obtained a lot of information and we quickly realised how well Clover had implemented Lean.

After the interview, it was time for the tour through the fresh milk production line. Everybody had to wear a lab coat, ear plugs and a beautiful hairnet. We were absolutely looking awesome, especially Lars, who was totally rocking his outfit. The first thing we were shown was the central meeting room, where all the teams started the day by discussing their performance with the help of performance boards. This room was a school example of how it is supposed to be done. The boards were updated by the employees themselves and they were analysing their own performance and worked out improvement ideas, which they came up with themselves. In other words, they are responsible for their own performance and it is their project.

I notice we are going more and more into the technical details, but the visit to this company made us all very enthusiastic. Everything else we saw after this room, from the filling lines up to the distribution was even more interesting than we expected. After lunch we visited the beverages production plant and here they had this amazing performance room as well. All over the company they implemented their own continuous improvement program and it showed everywhere.

The day ended in a short Question and Answer session with Archie and Zet, which are two amazing, friendly and most of all very skilled guys. We thanked them many times for their time, effort and enthusiasm before we headed back to the hostel. Back at the hostel, the students worked out the interview into a report and ended the day with a nice cold beer. It was an extremely exhausting day, but fortunately tomorrow we don’t have to get up that early, so we can recover a bit.

Lesson learned today: “Involving all the employees wins half the battle” – Archie Molefe.

17/01/2017

Bizonder Gazelleg daily mail 3 17-01-2017

AkzoNobel, the global market leader in paint, powder coatings and other chemicals, but most importantly, the only Dutch company in the program was on schedule to be visited today. Once again we had to get up at six o’clock, but this time a different group of students prepared breakfast and none of us was wearing a suit, because in South Africa this is not commonly done. Their motto is to dress according to the temperature, which means it is too hot for a suit every day. How unfortunate….

The visit to AkzoNobel was our first visit during which we would conduct the interview. This was an exciting moment, because the interview forms the basis for our research and has to be good to get the right information. On the way to Akzo the students prepared for the interview by carefully looking into the interview questions. The students were fully prepared once we arrived at a large industrial site just outside Johannesburg.

We were half an hour early, which was quite a shock for our host, however we were welcomed in very politely and were guided to the board room, where the cold drinks were waiting for us. Once the employees overcame their astonishment of us being so early we could start (45 min. later). We started with a short introduction from both side followed by a guided tour of two hours around the premises. The tour was amazing and very interesting, but the group was split in half, which meant that 15 people were waiting for two hours. After the first group came back a lovely lunch awaited us. The lunch contained hardly any healthy stuff, but that is something you have to deal with in South Africa. The average diet of a South African contains meat and …. Oh wait, just meat.

After lunch the second group went on the tour, while the first group shared their ideas. Once the second group returned, it was finally time for the interview. The interview was conducted very well, although there is still room for improvement. A real Lean thinker would be proud of us, because according to Lean, you will always have to continue improving. Off course the day ended in a big thank you to our hosts and a group picture. The first company visit was a fact.

Lessons Learned today: Wearing obligatory earplugs while on a guided tour is not very convenient.

16/01/2017

Bizonder Gazelleg Daily mail 2 16-01-2017

This morning everybody woke up at 06:00 hours to prepare for the first visit of the trip. Some of us had some struggles realizing it was Monday and the serious part of the study tour had just begun. One by one people joined for breakfast, which contained scrambled eggs prepared by the committee.

After breakfast, we left almost on time dressed in suits and looking sharp. Today we left for the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg to learn about the vision on Lean in South Africa. Some of us weren’t yet used to waking up this early, so it was pleasantly quiet in the bus. After a two hours drive, due to traffic jams we arrived at the university, which looked quite different from what we are used to. First of all, there were guards all around the premises and we had to pass a security block before we could enter the campus. Secondly the main university building was actually looking beautiful and classic roman instead of “worn down supposed to be modern”.

Not soon after being surprised by the look of the university, we entered the building and opinions drastically changed. Old looks nice on the outside, but not on the inside. We entered a classroom with ancient, drawn on little desks and a school board that you’d expect 30 years ago, however the lecture given by the teachers from the university was very interesting, as was the discussion that followed. We talked about Lean and the differences in educational system all morning before leaving for lunch.

Once we all finished our lunch it was time for a quick tour around campus and the first group picture. The tour was very nice, but also exhausting, given the fact that we were walking dressed up in suits, while the sun was out and the thermometer showed 30 degrees Celsius. You are probably not surprised if I told you we finished the day with a quick dive in the pool to cool off.

Finally, some people decided they wanted to cook a nice chicken curry and many people signed up. The rest went out for dinner. It was a nice introduction to the study tour concept, but tomorrow the first real challenge is up, because then we are going to visit Akzo Nobel.

Lesson learned today: South Africans pronounce “money” as “many” (pretty confusing)

Beard the Lion - Study Tour 2016

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