CDI Holdings · Case Study
MDW® & World Class Manufacturing · Cumbayá & Pascuales — SABMiller Top-Performing Brewery
Cervecería Nacional Ecuador
Brewing a Culture of Excellence — When WCM Becomes a Lifestyle
SABMiller · Cumbayá (UIO) & Pascuales (GYE), Ecuador · 515 Employees · 90% Internal Trainers (CEFOR) · SABMiller Top-Performing Brewery
Background
Tactical Wins Without Cultural Roots — The Sustainability Problem
Cervecería Nacional (CN), one of Ecuador’s largest beverage producers and a SABMiller member, faced the challenge that defeats most improvement programmes: short-term KPI wins that did not hold. Traditional initiatives created surface-level results, but the deeper behavioural and leadership shifts required for long-term excellence were absent. KPI results required excessive management intervention. Leaders were not empowered or accountable for team development. Communication gaps hampered problem-solving. The shop floor lacked the ownership, discipline, and recognition culture that world-class performance requires.
The Challenge
From Reactive Firefighting to a Vibrant, Empowered Culture
The challenge at CN was cultural, not operational. Engagement was low, recognition was absent, and training was externally delivered and disconnected from daily work. The organisation needed a transformation that reached beyond the KPI board into the daily routines, personal motivations, and leadership behaviours of 515 people across two sites. The ambition was stated precisely: make World Class Manufacturing not a programme CN does, but a lifestyle CN lives.
WCM as a lifestyle — not what CN does, but who CN is.
Six CDI Modules Implemented
Mini-Business Goal Alignment
Daily team performance connected to company strategy at every level
5S Visual Workplace
Physical standard established across both Cumbayá and Pascuales sites
Asset Care & Lean Workflow
Maintenance discipline and process efficiency driven by team ownership
Coaching for Performance
Frontline leaders developed to develop rather than direct their teams
Quality Assurance & Value Service
Customer-facing quality owned at the point of production
Engaging Leadership & Problem Solving
Managers equipped to engage, develop, and solve problems at the right level
515
Employees across
Cumbayá & Pascuales
Cumbayá & Pascuales
90%
Internal trainers
CEFOR programme
CEFOR programme
6
CDI modules fully
implemented
implemented
SABMiller
Top-performing brewery
network ranking
network ranking
The Approach
Making WCM a Lifestyle — Four Interlocking Strategies
1
CEFOR — Internal Capability at 90%
The CEFOR programme placed 90% of training delivery in the hands of internal staff — operators, technicians, and team leaders who understood the work, the culture, and the context from the inside. Training covered the full operator role: operations, quality, and maintenance, with deliberate alignment between personal growth and company strategy. When the person at the front of the room is a colleague rather than a consultant, the credibility of the content changes. CN’s 90% internal trainer ratio is the most complete internal capability-building approach in the SABMiller cases in the CDI library.
2
Recognition & Motivation — Rewarding Excellence and Improvement
A structured Recognition Plan promoted healthy competition across teams and rewarded both excellence and improvement — recognising not only who was best but who was getting better. Performance awards celebrated team integration, pride in contribution, and personal accountability. The recognition architecture made excellence visible and personal simultaneously — turning performance data from a management tool into a team identity signal.
3
The Mandela Plan — Well-Being as a WCM Strategy
The Mandela Plan addressed the dimension most improvement programmes ignore: the whole person. Better leave compliance, overtime reduction, and structured team activities signalled that CN respected life outside the factory. Sports events, family celebrations, and internal festivities built the belonging that makes sustained engagement possible. Cross-site visits between Cumbayá (UIO) and Pascuales (GYE) shared practices and built a unified CN identity. It is the most honest acknowledgment in the library: WCM as a lifestyle requires that the workforce actually enjoys the life they are living at work.
4
Six CDI Modules — Complete Programme Architecture
All six CDI modules implemented across both sites — Mini-Business Goal Alignment, 5S Visual Workplace, Asset Care and Lean Workflow, Coaching for Performance, Quality Assurance and Value-Driven Service, and Engaging Leadership and Problem Solving. Full module implementation gave CN a complete MDW architecture rather than a partial one — every element of excellence addressed simultaneously rather than sequentially.
5
WCM as a Lifestyle — The Integration That Makes Excellence Permanent
The distinction between WCM as a programme and WCM as a lifestyle is structural, not semantic. A programme is something an organisation does for a period. A lifestyle is something an organisation is, continuously. CN achieved the lifestyle through three integrations that most organisations miss. First, capability was built internally through CEFOR, so the programme’s expertise lived in the people who would continue to work there after the consultants left. Second, well-being was embedded through the Mandela Plan, so the improvement culture was associated with a better life rather than more work. Third, recognition rewarded both excellence and improvement, so the culture continuously generated its own momentum rather than waiting for management direction. The result: continuous upward trends in hygiene, energy, and maintenance KPIs; CN ranked among SABMiller’s top-performing breweries; and teams taking pride in standardisation, performance tracking, and coaching — not as external requirements but as expressions of who CN had become. From reactive firefighting to vibrant, empowered culture. That is the MDW® journey completed.
Results
Engagement, Performance, and SABMiller Network Recognition
Top
SABMiller Ranking
CN ranked among SABMiller’s top-performing breweries during the programme period — Ecuador competing at the top of a global brewing network.
90%
Internal Trainers
CEFOR delivered 90% of training through internal staff — the most complete internal capability-building approach in the SABMiller cases in the library.
Upward
KPI Trends
Continuous upward trend in hygiene, energy, and maintenance KPIs — the sustained trajectory that distinguishes WCM as lifestyle from WCM as project.
Engaged
Shop Floor
Measurable improvement in employee involvement, innovation, and visual problem-solving — teams moving from passive compliance to active contribution.
Proud
Cultural Shift
Teams taking pride in standardisation, performance tracking, and coaching — ownership of the WCM standard rather than compliance with it.
Unified
Two Sites
Cumbayá and Pascuales connected through cross-site visits, shared practices, and a unified CN identity — one culture across two geographies.
“At Cervecería Nacional, MDW® was more than a framework — it became a lifestyle. By linking leadership behaviour, daily routines, and team development, the organisation moved from reactive firefighting to a vibrant, empowered culture grounded in ownership, performance, and pride.”
Programme Conclusion · Cervecería Nacional · SABMiller Ecuador
Key Insight
CN demonstrates that WCM is sustainable only when integrated into the daily life of the workforce — not just their work life. The Mandela Plan is the element most programmes miss: well-being, family, belonging, and recognition are not cultural add-ons. They are the conditions under which operational excellence becomes personal. CEFOR made the expertise internal. The Mandela Plan made the culture worth sustaining. Together they made WCM a lifestyle.
