Building success from the floor up

By FIONA ROTHERHAM

When Simon Jones bought Wellington company Thermoplastic Engineering five years ago he quickly found the previous owner had been a "benevolent dictator."

The plastic fabrication company produced a quality product but employees tended to "leave their brains at the door," Mr Jones said.

He tried to turn that around by allowing decision-making to take place on the factory floor rather than dictating everything from the corner office.

The 15 employees are included in weekly production meetings and invited to participate in longer-term planning.

"I get told off as managing director," Mr Jones said.

The result: new ideas generated, significant cost-cutting in the manufacturing process, new product design and exports to the highly competitive Australian market.

The company, which turns over $4 million a year, is hoping to achieve exports of $1 million to Australia this year.

On-the-job training and workforce multi-skilling are also emphasised. There is a lack of available outside industry training so people with broad general technical skills are taken on and trained in-house for more than one job.