The Daily News

For more than three decades, Ian Walsh, Managing Director of Intent Group, has been driving improvements in organisations around the globe. Ian understands deeply what is required to deliver and sustain improvement. Here he shares his thoughts on what New Zealanders can do to recover from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. I began my career in Australia, running production plants for household products. We had a good team of people, all doing their best. But every day, for varying reasons, the lines and processes would break down. Stan, the fitter, would diagnose the problem, disappear for a while, then return with the tools and equipment to fix the issue. Meanwhile, we stood around, waiting, or headed outside for longer stoppages until the next event. This was normal, and for many companies, it still is. Years later, I co-lead a technology transfer project to Japan. Living and working there was one of the most profound experiences of my life.  Over 40 years since WWII, the Japanese post-war recovery was complete, nothing short of miraculous, with their GDP second in the world. They were making everything from cars to electronics. This factory, near Akashi, made paper products and on my first hands-on day, the line ran with no downtime and over 99% efficiency. It just ran and ran, humming with a sense of urgency as product kept coming off the end. We hastened around the machines, checking gauges and materials, quality testing product. Operators adjusted the equipment based on this data and charts. Everyone seemed to know what they needed to do, when and how to do it, and to communicate important information as needed. After four weeks, the line had averaged over 98% and the entire factory was operating over 97% across 13 lines! This was a revelation to me. […]

Stephanie Pretorius is a Senior Consultant with business transformation specialists, Intent Group. My emphasis is on enhancing performance and alignment through continuous improvement and innovation. I am also Intent’s Service Quality Manager and develop our internal systems for engagement management. Our goal is to ensure our clients are 100% satisfied and receive the highest quality service. As were many businesses, Intent was affected to a large degree in the short-term by Covid-19. The ability to be alongside and work closely with our clients at all levels is a core part of what we do. So some of our consulting activities were restricted during the lock-down period. However, with levels easing we are now back onsite at clients and working with them to make a difference. In the recent turmoil I believe many companies have come to appreciate they need to better understand their core business and be more efficient at what they do. Their long-term sustainability depends on it. One way we help clients achieve that is by improving productivity. Opportunities we see going forward include Circular Lean for cradle to grave sustainability, and Lean Construction. The construction industry took a significant hit from Covid-19 and has had low productivity which is still an ongoing issue. I am a passionate proponent of continuous improvement. I believe in core Lean principles over tools; a focus on process (which is how businesses generate outcomes); robust problem solving to resolve at root cause; and a holistic approach from strategy deployment to daily management systems. I am a trained Toyota Kata practitioner which is a methodology for creating and experimenting towards a targeted outcome. This approach came from Mike Rother’s ground-breaking study of Toyota’s underlying management practices as to how they create the improvements they do, rather than what improvements they have created to […]

The EMA says its 7000 members and businesses across the country are relieved at the Government’s announcement of Alert Level 1 from midnight tonight but warns the hard work for the economy lies ahead. Head of Advocacy and Strategy, Alan McDonald, says the move to Level 1 should give employees and employers the confidence to return to their workplaces and rebuild their businesses. “We can be rightly proud of controlling COVID-19, but now we need to see people and confidence returning to our CBDs and businesses. We need a similar nationwide response to kick-starting the economy,” he says. “We feel for the many employers who’ve seen their business close or have been forced to lay-off valued staff who in many cases were also friends. We also feel for the many thousands of people who have lost their jobs. It’s been an incredibly tough time and unfortunately the closures and redundancies are by no means ending with the move to Level 1. “For many it is too late but now we need a national response to get people flowing back through our town centres, back to work and getting the economy moving. International uncertainty and lack of confidence in the domestic economy means we need to see measures that will help restore the confidence of business owners, investors, workers and consumers to get the dollars flowing again. We need to get the economy on a fast-track to recovery.” “With the lack of cases and the excellent regimes businesses have put in place to maintain people’s health no one should have any concerns about getting straight back to work,” he says. Mr McDonald says that while recent news of the wage subsidy extension will be will be welcomed by the 40,000 eligible, the EMA was also keen to discuss a comprehensive comeback […]

The latest trade data from Statistics New Zealand confirms the increasingly high-value nature of the trade relationship between New Zealand and the United States. Executive Director of the NZUS Council Jordan Small said while these figures do not yet fully capture the impact of Covid-19 they do still reflect the established direction of trade with the United States where some of our fastest growing exports are in the form of bits and bytes transported by fibre optic cable. “The US is New Zealand’s most important market for commercial services and New Zealand is a significant consumer of US commercial services. We’re trading in CAD drawings for 3D-printed rocket engines, architectural and engineering plans, music scores, cinematic and small screen productions, agreements for plant variety rights, financial services and software for accounting, food production and cinema management.” Two-way trade has been growing consistently over the last 5 years and today is valued at $19.4B. New Zealand sells $4B of services of all types to the United States – 41% of all exports to the United States. In comparison, less than 20% of exports to China are services and this has been decreasing over time. Some of New Zealand’s fastest growing exports to the US are: § 258% increase in intellectual property exports since 2015 § 60% increase in ICT services since 2015 § 50% increase in business service exports since 2015 § 73% increase in wine exports since 2015 “Trade with the US is driving change in the New Zealand economy towards high value goods and services that deliver high-paying jobs. The most recent trade data shows that in many of our highest value sectors the US is our number one market. While some of these sectors have been hit hard by COVID-19 we expect that they will recover quickly. “The […]