CDI Holdings · Case Study Library
MDW® Team Spotlight · Adam Tas, Stellenbosch — Distell Primary Wine Production
The Thunderbirds at Adam Tas
Quality, Cost, and Innovation at the Pre-Bottling Stage
Distell Primary Wine Production · Adam Tas Facility · 5 Million Litres Per Month · Two Oceans · Graça · Zonnebloem · Drostdy-Hof
5M L
Wine clarified
per month
per month
30%
Filter sheet usage
reduction achieved
reduction achieved
<1ppm
Dissolved oxygen
consistently maintained
consistently maintained
<3
Concessions per
month target
month target
Context
Mission-Critical Work, One Team, Five Million Litres
The Thunderbirds operate at the Adam Tas facility within Distell's Primary Wine Production Division — the team responsible for the final clarification of wine prior to bottling. Processing approximately 5 million litres per month, they handle some of South Africa's most recognised wine brands: Two Oceans, Graça, Zonnebloem, and Drostdy-Hof. The work is technically precise and operationally consequential: poor performance at this stage propagates directly into quality failures, costs, and supply disruption across multiple bottling lines.
The Thunderbirds are not a business unit or a programme — they are a team. The case they represent is MDW at its most human scale: what structured ownership, measurement, and continuous improvement look like when they live in a single group of people, in a single process, every day.
The Thunderbirds are not a business unit or a programme — they are a team. The case they represent is MDW at its most human scale: what structured ownership, measurement, and continuous improvement look like when they live in a single group of people, in a single process, every day.
The Challenge
Precision at Scale — Where Every Metric Has a Consequence
Managing microbial risks, DO&sub2; thresholds, filter sheet costs, and tight bottling schedules simultaneously required both technical discipline and improvement mindset. Concessions and product clarity complaints were the visible consequence of getting any one wrong. The challenge was embedding a culture of ownership and proactive improvement in a highly technical environment where reactive responses had previously been the norm.
The MDW Approach
Five Focus Areas, One Team, Complete Ownership
1
Quality Control & Microbiological SafetyStrict targets for TMTC microbial counts and concession incidents (<3 per month). Dissolved oxygen (DO&sub2;) managed to remain below 1 ppm through careful control of filters, pump-overs, and leakage points. Run charts and proactive monitoring gave the team early-warning capability — shifting response from reactive correction to preventive management.
2
Cost Management & Filter OptimisationMonthly filter sheet usage benchmarked against a target of fewer than 5,500. A breakthrough improvement plan — identified and implemented by the team — reduced average usage from ~4,500 to approximately 3,200 sheets per month: a 30% reduction in a high-frequency consumable, achieved through structured problem-solving applied to a process the team fully owned.
3
Speed, Scheduling, and Supply ContinuityAgile response to bottling line demands — including use of overtime and second filtration passes when required — to maintain uninterrupted supply to three active lines. The commitment was not to a process; it was to the customer on the other side of the bottling line, whose schedule depended on the Thunderbirds delivering on time and in full.
4
Supplier-Customer IntegrationService-level clarity established with wine blenders, the laboratory, dry stores, and bottling line stakeholders. The Thunderbirds operated as a link in a chain — with defined inputs, defined outputs, and structured relationships on both sides. Internal supplier-customer thinking, applied at team level, made cross-functional collaboration practical rather than aspirational.
5
Innovation, Recognition, and the Culture of Continuous ImprovementContinuous small-step innovations tracked and implemented monthly — not as a programme requirement, but as a team habit. Improvements in attendance, housekeeping, and business contribution measured alongside the technical KPIs. Morale supported through performance bonuses and visible recognition — signals that contribution was seen, valued, and consequential.
Five Focus Areas
Quality & Microbiological Safety — TMTC targets, DO&sub2; <1ppm, concessions <3/month, run-chart monitoring.
Cost Management — filter sheet usage target <5,500/month; breakthrough plan reduced average to ~3,200.
Speed & Service Delivery — uninterrupted supply to 3 active bottling lines; agile scheduling and second filtration.
Supplier-Customer Integration — service-level clarity with wine blenders, the lab, dry stores, and bottling stakeholders.
Innovation & Morale — monthly innovations tracked and implemented; attendance, housekeeping, and recognition measured.
Results
Technical Precision and a Culture of Ownership
<1ppm
DO&sub2; Consistently Met
Dissolved oxygen levels consistently maintained below 1 ppm — the single most critical quality threshold in the pre-bottling process, met through proactive team discipline.
30%
Filter Usage Reduction
Filter sheet usage reduced by nearly 30% through a team-led breakthrough improvement plan — from ~4,500 to ~3,200 sheets per month.
<3
Monthly Concessions
TMTC and concession incidents maintained within target range — protecting product quality across Two Oceans, Graça, Zonnebloem, and Drostdy-Hof.
Monthly
Innovation Rate
Innovation implementation rates sustained throughout the year — continuous small-step improvements embedded as a team habit rather than a periodic initiative.
Owned
Cross-Functional Links
Improved collaboration with internal suppliers and customers as service-level clarity replaced informal dependencies across the value chain.
Proud
Team Engagement
High engagement and passion for performance excellence — a team that chose a name for itself, tracked its own metrics, and owned every outcome.
“
Micro-level control and macro-level visibility are both critical — empowered teams drive breakthrough and continuous improvements in tandem.
Key Lesson · The Thunderbirds · Distell Adam Tas MDW Programme
Key Insight — MDW at Its Most Human Scale
The Thunderbirds are the proof point that MDW is not a management system — it is a team system. Five million litres per month. Five focus areas. One team with a name they chose themselves, metrics they track themselves, and problems they solve themselves. This is what J2 looks like when it works: not a programme being monitored from above, but a group of people who simply run their process like a business and take pride in every number they own.
