Cluster group gains traction

Eastpack chief executive Tony Hawken says the company has adopted basic lean principles and has seen a 28 per cent reduced labour. Photo / File

The Bay of Plenty's lean cluster group, which utilises techniques that arose out of Japanese management innovations to eliminate waste and encourage problem-solving within workforces, continues to grow in strength.

"We are now linking with clusters across the country and also seeing greater interest from offices as well as manufacturers," said Jenny Milson, from New Zealand Trade & Enterprise Bay of Plenty-Waikato. Ms Milson facilitates the cluster, which brings together companies from across the Bay for regular site visits to learn from each other.

The cluster was formed in 2008 to encourage more companies to start implementing lean-based productivity improvements.

The concept is simple - to maintain continuous productivity improvement by empowering workers to identify ways to eliminate waste and improve efficiencies.

The Japanese refer to the importance in manufacturing of being close to genba, meaning the scene of the crime or, in manufacturing terms, the factory floor where value is created.

"If we want to improve our air-dried vacuum processes, with less cost and less waste, who's going to have the best way of doing that?" said Geoff Morgan, chief executive of high-end petfood manufacturer Ziwipeak. "Not me sitting in the office, but the guy at the scene of the crime, the genba guy on the factory floor."

And the productivity gains are significant. "We are producing 60 per cent more work with the same machinery since we began implementing lean work processes," said Andy Cameron, managing director of Oasis Engineering, which began the lean path in 2006 and was a foundation member of the cluster.

Tony Hawken, chief executive of kiwifruit post-harvest company EastPack, agreed productivity gains could be considerable.

"It has reduced our labour costs by 28 per cent, without us making anyone redundant," he said.

EastPack has adopted basic lean principles across the whole company, not just to its cool store operations, but to its grower services and administration, and now into its expanded operations following its merger with Satara in March.

Oasis Engineering's Mr Cameron noted that it was important to have buy-in from the owner or the chief executive.

"And the workforce has to be closely involved - if people don't buy into it, they are better off going somewhere else.

"It is actually an empowerment tool that means the workers get to be a bigger part of the decision-making."