Marshall Industries celebrates ninety years of roofing in Southland
Manufacturing from 1938 and still going strong. A Southland business that has spent generations working on the region’s homes, farms, and businesses is marking a major milestone, with a legacy that has quietly helped shape the way New Zealand builds. Marshall Industries is celebrating ninety years in business, a journey […]
Fonterra’s real turnaround was productivity
From April issue of NZ Manufacturer magazine Geerten Lengkeek, Managing Director, Productivity People Miles Hurrell’s resignation marks the end of a significant chapter for Fonterra, and in many ways, for New Zealand. Fonterra isn’t just another company. It’s our largest business, a global-scale manufacturer, and the commercial engine behind […]
How one local council helped 1,200 low‑income residents finance solar and home energy upgrades
Could this work in New Zealand? Feedback please. Paris Hadfield, Research Fellow, Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Monash University Most of Australia’s existing homes are old, uncomfortable and expensive to run. Too many are energy inefficient, and rising electricity and gas prices are making things worse. Mainstream programs are supporting home […]
Christchurch apprentice graduate soars to the edge of New Zealand’s space future
When a spaceplane flew last year carrying experimental hardware developed for California Polytechnic (Cal Poly), a young Canterbury engineer was watching closely – knowing components she had helped manufacture were on board. Yelena Cunningham, 21, a Manufacturing Engineer at Dawn Aerospace in Christchurch, played a role in building parts used […]
The cost of Deindustrialisation: How New Zealand’s manufacturing decline threatens our economic future
NZ Manufacturer magazine wants more business owners and decisionmakers to speak up and positively make suggestions on issues affecting the future of manufacturing. Dont be silent when your ideas can make a difference. Speak up for your country. Doug Green, Publisher By Sean Doherty, Manufacturing Commentator | NZ Industry Trends […]
Turning manufacturing around
The announcement by McCains of their closure in Hastings and that of Heinz Wattie’s to close three sites around the country has come with a (wait for it) vacuum of comment, suggestions and concern. Neither does it affirm the benefits of having fifty cent cans of vegetables coming into NZ […]
Ecostore: Building world-class sustainable manufacturing from Auckland
Offering environmentally responsible and eco-friendly alternatives to conventional products has been the goal of Ecostore since its foundation in 1993. That purpose is backed by a sophisticated manufacturing operation in Auckland, where ecostore develops, manufactures and packs its home cleaning, personal care and baby products at its own Toitū Net Carbon […]
Exporting in 2026: Sustainability and proof
Exporters are not being asked for their sustainability commitments. They are being asked to prove them. Across global markets, sustainability is becoming a condition of doing business. Not because it is the “right thing to do” (although it is), but because regulators, retailers and procurement teams are building sustainability into […]
Why our car dependence is now a strategic liability
Timothy Welch, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau The war in Iran and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz have sent oil prices past US$100 a barrel – and Kiwis flocking to fill up. Petrol just hit NZ$3 a litre and some stations have reported running […]
Tech companies are blaming massive layoffs on AI
Uri Gal, Professor in Business Information Systems, University of Sydney In the past few months, a wave of tech corporations have announced significant staff cuts and attributed them to efficiency gains driven by artificial intelligence (AI). Companies such as Atlassian, Block and Amazon have announced they would lay off thousands of employees due to increased […]
Workplace literacy: The hidden lever of performance
Adam Harvey, Business Performance Partner – Manufacturing, The Learning Wave We all know the story: New Zealand productivity lags behind much of the OECD. For years, it’s been in reports, debated at conferences and written in board packs. You feel it when the same issues resurface, rework creeps back […]
In God we trust: All others bring data
David Altena is Head of Growth & Partnerships at SmartSpace.ai & Co-Founder & Host of The Better SMB Podcast. david@altena.solutions Rob Bull is Director of the New Zealand Lean Academy. rob@nzla.nz Edwards Deming’s line has been quoted so often it risks becoming wallpaper. But for New Zealand […]
Busy Isn’t Productive: The Hidden Cost of Broken Flow
A practical reset for factories stuck in firefighting, batching and workarounds. By Neil Robinson, a Senior Business Consultant with Argon & Co (Auckland) specialising in productivity improvement, Lean systems and capability building. A Six Sigma Black Belt and experienced facilitator, he helps manufacturing teams make flow visible, stabilise performance and embed practical continuous improvement routines from frontline to leadership. Busy isn’t productive. Most manufacturing leaders have seen it up close: people are flat out, machines are running, forklifts are moving — and yet output, delivery and margin are unacceptable. The hidden cost isn’t laziness or lack of commitment. It’s broken flow. If you’ve ever launched a “transformation initiative” that looked perfect in the boardroom but lost momentum on the shop floor, you’re in good company. Programmes rarely stall because people don’t care. They stall because the one thing everyone needs to understand — how work actually flows — was never made visible in a way that sticks. Flow is the backbone of every World Class operation. When product moves smoothly from one step to the next, everything improves: quality, productivity, lead time, DIFOT, cost and morale. But when flow is interrupted, busyness increases, work piles up, frustration grows and improvement stalls — even with good people trying hard. Why flow matters — and why it’s hard to teach Every operation wants work to move smoothly from start to finish. When flow is strong, performance becomes predictable. When flow breaks down, the system pays — in delays, rework, expediting, excess WIP, stressed teams and missed delivery. The enemies of flow often look “normal” in day-to-day work: batching, long changeovers, unclear priorities, waiting for information or materials, bottlenecks, and the classic workaround — “just put it anywhere for now.” These interruptions are easy to tolerate individually, but together they quietly drain […]