Anchor Brewery saves water with BLITS project

Giving your employees more autonomy in the workplace that not only increases productivity in the workplace, but also saves you water as a company? It can be done, attests Brewery Het Anker from Mechelen. "You have to use the knowledge that is on the shop floor. The BLITS project brings that knowledge to the surface, and it's paying off," says brewing engineer Bart Meulepas.

BLITS stands for Supervised Learning In TeamS, an initiative emanating from our sector fund Alimento. The project, which consists of about 5 sessions, aims to bring out the knowledge present in our own food heroes. An external facilitator guides a group of employees within one company to solve a specific challenge together.

From the Green Deal Brewers to BLITS

Het Anker is one of the partners in the Green Deal Brouwers, through which 16 Flemish breweries are committed to reducing water consumption per liter of beer produced. Brewing engineer Bart Meulepas: "During a meeting with the Green Deal Brewers, the BLITS project came to our attention. It appealed to us because the project starts from the same approach as our company: working bottom-up and giving more autonomy to employees." 

"With the BLITS project, we looked at how we could bring down the amount of water consumed per liter of beer. We approached that question from two sides: we looked at both how to further reduce water consumption and how to reduce beer losses."

The project consisted of 5 short sessions in which employees could throw their solutions into the group. Anyone who was interested could participate in the sessions. "People on the shop floor think from a different perspective: they think more hands-on than management and therefore come up with different ideas," he said. Those insights the external facilitator tried to extract from the first session, to present to management afterwards," Bart said. 

Concrete measures in no time

Remarkable: all participants had an intrinsic motivation to start working in the workplace immediately after the sessions. Bart explains: "The BLITS project was an opportunity for the employees, via a facilitator, to freely put their proposals on the table. They proposed their own ideas, got the green light for them and could then get to work on them. This worked enormously productively: the employees felt more involved in the organization. They felt heard and that generated trust and more drive in the workplace. That is the main strength of BLITS."

In doing so, did Brewery Het Anker invent something groundbreaking? "Not necessarily," Bart explains. "But it did provide a bunch of useful measures that our Food Heroes were allowed to implement themselves. As a result, the team works more efficiently and motivated, as well as saving water for the company. The BLITS project yielded more indirect results than expected.

Within a few months we will be able to quantify the measures in concrete terms. The project got us thinking. We are now considering integrating BLITS into our own organization. We are internally training a colleague to do in-house BLITS projects."

Some of the measures

• Better programming of the bottling system means that only those tires that are in use are lubricated. Leaks were also sealed.
• An adjustment to the flush eliminates its use of water when it is in standby. 
• The bottle rinsing machine now includes a pressure regulator in order to consume less water when rinsing bottles. The machine includes a clearer control panel and manual to avoid water consumption due to operational errors. 
• When filtering the beer, a viewing light now provides better visibility and thus more efficient filtration. 

Would you also like to get started with BLITS?

With the BLITS methodology, you can address various challenges within your company. More info on the approach can be found on Alimento's website, at Why opt for BLITS: Supervised Learning In Teams? Moreover, Alimento also provides financial support for such pathways.

fevia.be / food.be