CIPS Christchurch regional committee deliver a double success!

06 Apr 2009

The CIPS Christchurch committee were proud to facilitate two networking breakfast forums recently on March 20 at Linwood Service Centre and on March 27 at Windflow Technology Ltd.

The first event in the Christchurch calendar was hosted by City Care Ltd, a NZ wide contracting company specialising in the fields of Facilities Management, Water & Waste Water and Parks. Speakers, Craig Taylor (City Care’s Divisional Manager, Parks) and Nigel Reaney (Managing Director, LMAC Consulting Ltd) discussed the process of introducing lean manufacturing principles into City Care with the first go live project focussing on their mowing business.  After working with staff to overcome the challenges of change management including the review of tools, process and human resources, City Care discovered some very positive results to come out of the exercise, including the need to identify and measure performance against the “the lowest repeatable time” (benchmark). 

The demonstrable benefits from this project have encouraged City Care to invest further in their internal capability and capacity and roll out this process, which they’ve renamed “Lean Contracting”, to other divisions within the company. 

CIPS committee member, Karen Speirs declared, "this look at a rather left-field process proved that lean principles were not restricted to manufacturing and can in fact be applied to any business process". The number of questions asked at the conclusion of the presentation certainly suggested the topic gave attendees food for thought.

The second event on March 27 was hosted by Windflow Technology. The theme of the event was 'Buying New Zealand Made' and with Windflow Technology boasting a well controlled and profitable supply chain that sources 92% of their materials from local New Zealand suppliers, it generated real interest from the Procurement community.

Jules Ganley, Production Manager, and Mark Westbury, Inventory and Logistics Manager from Windflow Technology spoke at the breakfast and also acted as guides for the post breakfast tour. This proved to be extremely popular with attendees, with the sheer size of the turbines up close impressing more than a few.
 
Both breakfasts were well attended and the CIPS Christchurch committee are keen to keep the momentum rolling. The next event is planned for mid-year with details to be released shortly.