From June issue, NZ Manufacturer magazine www.nzmanufacturer.co.nz

In a Bay of Plenty workshop, the first press of the day starts up. Meanwhile, 18,000 kilometres away, its twin in Stuttgart is already changing over to the next job, 30% more parts out the door before smoko. Same equipment, same potential just different culture.

David Altena is Head of Growth & Partnerships at SmartSpace ai & Co-Founder & Host of The Better SMB Podcast.

david@altena.solutions

New Zealanders already work around 15 percent longer than the OECD average while generating 20 percent less output per person. Our productivity gap has widened from 34 percent in 1996 to roughly 40 percent today. “Good enough for NZ” is quietly costing us millions every pay cycle.

The Budget for manufacturers is a brand-new 20% “Investment Boost” tax deduction: buy qualifying plant or machinery after 22 May 2025 and you can write off one-fifth of the cost in year one, on top of normal depreciation.

Rob Bull is Director & Principal Consultant at Plexus Consultant & C0-Founder& Host of The Better SMB Podcast. rob@nzla.nz

Before racing for a purchase order, pause. A tax break multiplies whatever capability you already have, good or bad. Before you bolt a faster robot to yesterday’s habits, take ninety days to hard-wire a culture that expects to win.

After all, every dollar you save on tax is wasted if the new kit sits idle for want of process discipline.

Winning is a system, not a slogan

In factories that outperform global peers, five habits show up in every shift and hum in the background like the compressor:

Uncompromising clarity – three numbers on every wall, one for productivity, one for quality, one for innovation and improvement. The strategic goals are translated into performance metrics the whole team can understand and influence.

Standard work before scale – nobody automates chaos; they avoid it through documentation of standards, teaching the standards and only then do they increase speed. Jones & Sandford Joinery tripled output in the same footprint once every process was written, taught and audited monthly

Real-time learning loops – 10-minute huddles surface yesterday’s misses before they repeat; operators own their fixes, managers coach. The team’s plan is clear and reset for the day. Zero ambiguity.

Relentless benchmarking – quarterly calls or visits to plants that make you sweat a little; targets reset on the flight home.

These habits spin into a flywheel of positive momentum.

Run that loop for a year and complacency feels as out of place as a loose bolt in a gearbox. Daily discipline on the basics is the secret sauce of world-class factories.

Three myths that keep you average

We can’t afford it

Daily huddles cost nothing. Your first team board can be a simple whiteboard and marker. The discipline is free; the waste it surfaces is expensive. Performance follows a positive culture set in daily huddles.

Our people won’t buy in

People resist change inflicted on them; not change they helped design. Involve the team that lives the process, and ownership follows. Let them reduce their frustrations first, strategic gains follow.

We’re different

Whether you cut metal, mould plastic, or roast coffee, defects, delays, and disengagement look identical on a P&L. Excellence is industry-agnostic. Your factory might be unique, but the challenges are faced by more factories than you think.

Proof it works here

Need proof that excellence travels? As referenced in our April article The Skills Shortage Smokescreen, Jones & Sandford Joinery in New Plymouth tripled output inside the same four walls with the same people and machines after embracing Callaghan Innovation’s Lean programme. Roger Jones sums it up: “Same factory, same machinery, three times the output”. Their secret wasn’t a new CNC line, it was huddles, standard work and a scoreboard the team could read at a glance.

We’ll dig into this story more on The Better SMB podcast when we sit down with a leading NZ manufacturing MD to unpack how their culture of excellence and discipline and the envious results they are achieving.

Getting Started: A 90-day performance sprint

This sprint won’t work without visible, present leadership. Excellence isn’t delegated—it’s modelled.

If excellence is a choice, the first step is choosing a date. Circle next Monday on the wall planner and use this 90-day roadmap to make “world-class” your new default.

 

Week	Focus + Key Actions
1-2	Choose your North-Star metric. What is your vision? Pick 1-2 measures.  Keep it simple at the beginning.  The number of errors, late deliveries, times stopped because of missing or lost inventory.
3-4	Build your first live scoreboard Manual or digital but update each shift and let operators post the number themselves. Let them reflect and improve based on the data.
5-8	Embed daily learning loops 10-minute stand-ups: yesterday’s result, today’s target, barriers, counter-measures
9-12	Remove a chronic constraint Map the bottleneck, run a kaizen blitz, quantify hours or dollars saved, and celebrate the wins
13	Reset and raise the bar New standards become new baselines; replicate the sprint on the next big problem.

Remember, success isn’t measured by how fancy the tools look or a glossy lean badge, only by how fast the constraint moves.

Here are some leading indicators you’re on track

• Downtime talk shifts from blame to root cause.
• The team reviews the data, not anecdotes
• New hires understand “what good looks like” by morning tea on day one
• Suppliers mention your culture before they mention the purchase-order number.

Those signals tell you the standards are now self-managing—a sure sign you’re ready for bigger bets.

The payoffs that outlive the quarter and go beyond the balance sheet

• Talent magnetism – the best people want to work where winning is possible and celebrated
• Innovation readiness – stable, measured processes reveal the true ROI of innovation instead of hiding it in the noise. The team is innovation fit because they are practicing it everyday.
• Capital confidence – bankers back capex faster when they see predictable cash conversion combined with control charts instead of gut feel
• Community pride – a factory that expects to win sponsors apprenticeships, not resignation parties
• National impact – Every factory that lifts output per hour closes our national productivity gap one basis point at a time

The sooner you start, the sooner “world-class” becomes your default setting.

Excellence isn’t a slogan; it’s the ticket price for competing in a world where borders are digital and benchmarks reset overnight. Expect to win, raise the bar, aim for excellence.

What will your scoreboard look like in 90-days?