Will the budget boost small firms? Not in the way we might think
Rod McNaughton, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau With the lid lifted on Budget 2026 many small and medium New Zealand businesses will be poring over the detail to see what it has in store for them. Many may come away disappointed. With the government having been upfront about its […]
Manufacturing excellence celebrated at annual awards
NZ Manufacturer Manufacturing awards presented during EMEX 2026. The people and businesses driving innovation, growth and resilience across New Zealand’s manufacturing sector have been recognised at the second annual Minister for Manufacturing Awards. “This year’s finalists have set the bar for excellence in modern New Zealand manufacturing,” says Minister for […]
Critical materials: the hidden supply chain risk for manufacturers
By Jim Goddin, Head of Circularity at thinkstep-nz The Iran crisis has exposed a hard truth for global business: supply chains are only as resilient as their weakest link. When conflict disrupts major trade routes, the effects spread quickly through the wider economy. The immediate shock may be geopolitical, […]
A New Service to Power Your Projects
We’re heading back to EMEX 2026, and this year we’ve got something new to share. Complex projects rarely sit neatly inside one discipline. Electrical design, automation, controls, mechanical design, commissioning, and documentation all need to line up. We’ve introduced Automation & Controls so we can support clients across more of […]
Listening harder in a noisier world
By EMA Head of Membership and Export Simon Devoy If there’s one thing Kiwi manufacturers and exporters don’t need in 2026, it’s more noise. Between tariffs, geopolitical tensions and the return of supply chain disruption, clarity is harder to find. That is why the ExportNZ DHL Export Barometer matters, and […]
Delivering Productivity at EMEX 2026
Ian Walsh, Partner, Argon & Co For over 20 years, we have helped hundreds of New Zealand businesses improve productivity and increase EBIT. The outcomes are practical, measurable, and often achieved without significant capital investment. For example: A plastics manufacturer increased throughput by 60%, with the same labour cost A […]
Lessons from the 1%
Success isn’t what you start. It’s what you don’t stop. When you spend time inside New Zealand’s best manufacturing businesses there’s a pattern that shows up again and again. They don’t launch more initiatives They don’t chase the latest tool They don’t rely on heroic effort or last‑minute pushes. They […]
Leadership: The difference between the plan you have and the results you get
Adam Harvey, Business Performance Partner – Manufacturing , The Learning Wave You can feel good leadership before you see it. A strong shift hums. There’s a rhythm: Clean handovers, problems solved where they happen, and a team that knows what “good” is. Output is steady. Waste is controlled. The team […]
Data, Decisions, and the Drive for Productivity, A Digital Path to World Class Performance
Article 3: V2 –By Neil Robinson, a Senior Business Consultant with Argon & Co (Auckland) specialising in productivity improvement, Lean systems and capability building. If you’re reading this third article in the series, you already know that New Zealand manufacturers face a difficult reality: our productivity lags many of the […]
EMEX is with us again
From May issue, NZ Manufacturer magazine The latest version, EMEX 2026, is mere days away. The most focussed trade fair for manufacturing businesses in New Zealand continues to display the latest and advanced equipment and technology which our companies require to improve their levels of Productivity and to make […]
Business exit and the waiting trap
-Mike Warmington, Director, Platform 1 There has always been talk about a tsunami of businesses actively seeking an exit of some description. It has not come to New Zealand yet and with covid, tariffs, wars, high interest rates and fuel price concerns there is a lot of waiting going on. […]
World-First construction tech could cut building emissions by 80%
-Mark Devlin New world-first technology developed to prevent design errors from cascading throughout the country’s most complex construction project to date could reduce cost overruns in New Zealand’s $275bn infrastructure pipeline by millions of dollars, as well as cutting new building emissions by up to 80%, according to new data. […]
Free 60-minute webinar
$144K recovered. 18% more output. When literacy improves, performance follows. As an operational or HR leader, you see the issues every day. Downtime that shouldn’t have happened. Instructions that were acknowledged but not followed. People waiting around for instructions, not sure of what’s next. And a strange silence during safety briefings or shift handovers. Most leaders call it “poor engagement”. Some call it “poor attitude”. But what if it’s not the real problem? The real constraint holding us back In Kiwi operational environments, at least 50% of frontline teams lack the literacy and numeracy skills to thrive in increasingly complex workplaces. Think manufacturing, construction, and logistics, and that figure is closer to 70%. This isn’t an HR issue; it’s a literacy issue showing up as lost performance. And it’s quietly draining your bottom line. What you’ll experience in 60 minutes: The redacted reality: We’ll apply a “CIA-style” redaction tool to a real-life induction document to show you exactly what a worker with an average reading age actually sees. What looks “clear” to you isn’t always readable to them. Connecting the “performance leaks” to the literacy gap: Connect the dots between downtime, rework, missed targets, and silence in meetings. You’ll see literacy gaps where you once saw attitude and engagement issues. How we start with the numbers, not textbooks: Learn how we build capability around your targets, your operational challenges, and your numbers, and strengthen literacy and numeracy to make it stick. What happens when it clicks: We’ll share real Kiwi case studies where teams built the literacy to read and respond to the work, they delivered an 18% lift in output, and recovered $144K in waste. The Operational Performance Diagnostic: You’ll leave with a high-level Operational Performance Diagnostic to pinpoint exactly where your plant is leaking performance Stop guessing. […]