CDI Holdings · Case Study Library
BAOS — MDW® at Scale · Beluluane, Mozambique — BHP Billiton
Mozal Aluminium
Aligning Strategy to Action — BAOS, Zero Harm, and 55 Teams in Six Months
BHP Billiton Subsidiary · USD 2 Billion Investment · 250,000 Tons Primary Aluminium · 800+ Employees · Beluluane Industrial Park, Mozambique
$2B
BHP Billiton
investment
investment
250K
Tons primary
aluminium/year
aluminium/year
55+
Teams trained
in 6 months
in 6 months
5
Levels of
goal alignment
goal alignment
Context
A USD 2 Billion Smelter Choosing People as the Performance Lever
Mozal Aluminium, located in the Beluluane Industrial Park near Maputo, is one of Southern Africa's largest aluminium smelters — a BHP Billiton subsidiary representing a USD 2 billion investment, producing 250,000 tons of primary aluminium annually across 800-plus employees. With the capital infrastructure in place, the strategic performance lever was alignment: ensuring that BHP Billiton's imperatives of Zero Harm, operational excellence, and community investment translated into meaningful daily actions at the team level.
BAOS — the BHP Aluminium Operating System — was developed as a client-branded application of MDW® principles, tailored to Mozal's strategic environment. Like Letsema at Transnet and SAMS at Schoeller Allibert, BAOS is MDW expressed in the language of its host organisation.
BAOS — the BHP Aluminium Operating System — was developed as a client-branded application of MDW® principles, tailored to Mozal's strategic environment. Like Letsema at Transnet and SAMS at Schoeller Allibert, BAOS is MDW expressed in the language of its host organisation.
The Challenge
Cascading Strategy to 55+ Teams Across a Complex Smelter
In a capital-intensive, high-hazard operation, the gap between strategic intent and frontline behaviour is not just a performance problem — it is a safety risk. Mozal needed to cascade Zero Harm from a corporate value to a daily team discipline, build operational accountability at the team level, and create the audit and tracking infrastructure to sustain both.
The BAOS Approach
Strategy to Action — Five Levels, One Aligned System
1
Strategic Alignment to BHP Billiton ImperativesBAOS aligned directly to three strategic imperatives: Zero Harm in Health, Safety, and Environment; Operational Excellence through EBIT improvement and cost control; and Community Investment at 1% of pre-tax profit. The five-level goal alignment pyramid ensured every team's daily priorities were traceable to corporate strategy — strategy made visible on the shop floor.
2
Team Leader Coaching and Rapid DeploymentRollout initiated with Team Leader Coaching, structured training, and facilitation. Over 55 teams trained and activated within six months — a deployment pace that required both planning discipline and coaching quality. Four full-time facilitators dedicated to sustainment alongside the Executive Steering Group ensured the pace of rollout did not outstrip the quality of embedding.
3
Multi-Level Meetings and Performance DashboardsMulti-level meeting cadence installed from individual teams through to the Executive Steering Group, creating performance visibility at every level of the alignment pyramid. Innovation tracking and structured audit tools made team-level performance a formal input to departmental and executive reviews.
4
Zero Harm as a Daily Team DisciplineCIFR (Combined Injury Frequency Rate) and near-miss tracking embedded into team KPI dashboards — not as a reporting obligation but as a team-owned safety metric. Safety became visible at team level where it could be discussed, acted upon, and celebrated as part of the daily performance rhythm rather than escalated after an incident.
5
BAOS Integration, Induction, and Sustaining the SystemBAOS embedded into induction programmes and performance reviews — the structural decisions that determine whether a programme sustains beyond initial deployment. New employees encountered BAOS as part of how Mozal operates from day one. The four full-time facilitators and the Executive Steering Group represent a structural commitment to sustainment that is rare: what is measured defines culture. When Zero Harm, cost per ton, team innovation, and coaching quality are all measured at every level of the pyramid, they stop being performance indicators. They become the operating values of the organisation.
BAOS Goal Alignment Pyramid
Executive Steering Group — strategic imperatives & BSC accountability.
Department Level — departmental KPI ownership & review cadence.
BAOS Section — section performance tracking & coaching reviews.
Team Level — mini-business teams — daily performance & innovation.
Individual — personal accountability & coaching conversations.
Results
Safety, Cost, and Culture Aligned from Team to Executive
Zero Harm
Safety Culture
Strong adherence to Zero Harm KPIs — CIFR and near-miss tracking embedded at team level, shifting safety from a reactive management concern to a proactive daily discipline.
Lower
Conversion Costs
Conversion costs ($/ton) reduced through team ownership of losses and efficiency — operational excellence delivered from the team level, not imposed from above.
55+
Teams Active
Over 55 mini-business teams live and performing within six months — deployment pace matched by coaching quality through four full-time facilitators.
Daily
Planning and Review
Teams conducting daily planning and performance reviews — the behavioural shift that converted the goal alignment pyramid from a structure into a living system.
Smooth
Leader Transitions
Strong team structure enabled smooth transitions when leaders changed — the test of a genuinely embedded system is whether it survives personnel change, and BAOS passed it.
Owned
Section Accountability
Section-wide ownership and coaching improved accountability across all levels of the pyramid — the BAOS architecture making alignment visible, auditable, and sustained.
“
What is measured defines culture — KPIs must reflect behaviours, not just outcomes.
Key Lesson · Mozal Aluminium · BAOS MDW Programme
Key Insight
Mozal demonstrates that MDW® scales in capital-intensive, high-hazard primary metals environments as readily as in consumer goods or distribution. BAOS joins Letsema and SAMS as client-branded MDW programmes that achieved something specific: the host organisation made MDW its own language. When a programme has its own name, its own pyramid, and four dedicated facilitators, it has become the operating system — not an initiative running alongside the business.
