AMA & Icehouse partnership launch brings new era for NZ manufacturing 🤝

In a world where change is no longer linear but exponential, staying hyper-connected isn’t optional-it’s survival. That was the message from Catherine Lye of the AMA at this month’s partnership launch with Icehouse where manufacturers, founders and facilitators compared notes on people, productivity and the pathway to world-class performance. 

What happens when a plan meets momentum 

Sarah Ramsay, CEO of United Machinists, recalled joining Icehouse Owner Manager Programme in late 2019 with a stretch goal: expand beyond Dunedin. “I built our plan on the Owner Manager programme  and then the world changed two weeks after graduating in March 2020” she said. “So whilst the execution changed, the strategies I learned and network of Owner Operators and Icehouse advisors that I developed through the programme could not have been more critical at such a challenging time”. Today, United Machinists manufactures across high-tech, aerospace, defence, automotive and medical sectors with 99% of their work coming from outside Dunedin. 

Ramsay’s first step into automation was pragmatic: inspecting fiddly medical components that were hard on the team’s hands and eyes. A UR5 robot paired with a coordinate measuring machine now runs the process 48 hours unattended - without job losses. Staff moved into higher-value projects. “The question became: where can we grow our team’s existing skills and our capacity, without massive capex?” 

Competing with the world starts on the shop floor 

For Cameron McInnes of Jenkins Group, operating in the print industry forced the company to be razor sharp on cost and quality. The miss? “We didn’t invest soon enough in leadership capability on the shop floor,” he admitted. “We’re making up ground.” 

Automation has helped solve chronic labour shortages, particularly in roles few wanted. “Our packhouse customers struggled to hire,” McInnes said. “Automation meant they could employ locals to operate machines, creating meaningful work.” 

Both leaders argued the people pipeline matters as much as the technology. Polytechnics are lifting their game; McInnes singled out EIT Hawke’s Bay for providing “a great platform” in foundation skills. Ramsay prefers growing talent through collaboration with polytechs and universities over plugging holes with reluctant labour. 

Fixing the funnel and making productivity exciting 

Ramsay didn’t mince words on the talent bottleneck: “We can’t get apprentices out of high school because it counts against schools’ UE rates and funding if they lose a student to an apprenticeship in year 12 or 13, so the funnel is broken.” Her team is experimenting with a productivity wage: a bonus for every hour a machine is productive without an operator. The result? “Massive acceleration in productivity and innovation, because there’s something in it for everyone.” 

Lye highlighted an industry-led Waikato initiative: Earn as You Learn – NZ Certificate in Manufacturing, launched in February after NZQA approval in November. Students split time between Wintec and employers over 10 weeks; 21 students have gone through so far. One firm hosted ten students and would “hire 90%.” An open day drew nearly 100 registrations. “We pushed hard to get this training up and running,” Lye said. “It shows what a regional coalition can do.” 

Every region, she noted, needs its own fit. In the Hutt Valley, a Manufacturers Passport tours students through local firms, funded with AMA support. “Government won’t solve this for us,” Ramsay added. “Industry has to lead.” 

The leadership gap you can’t automate 

Icehouse CEO Olivia Blaylock cited a US study showing many managers land their first leadership role in their early 30s but don’t receive formal training until their early 40s. In New Zealand, especially in manufacturing, the gap is wide. 

“Leadership training gives everyone a shared language and people skills,” McInnes said. “If you start in a senior role with us, you start with leadership development, you need the mindset shift before the job.” Jenkins has already seen performance lift after sending a senior manager through the Icehouse’s leadership development programme. 

Ramsay agreed: “Technical skills are easy to teach. People skills are harder.” Communication, in particular, can be the difference between cohesion and chaos. She referenced the classic ‘How to Make Toast’ exercise to help teams see systems, not silos. “It’s about stepping from ‘I’m an individual’ to ‘I’m part of a team,’ and understanding the impact you have on others.” 

Measure what matters (and make it visible) 

Global competitiveness, the group agreed, comes down to clarity of outcomes.  

United Machinists now uses live dashboards to simplify decision-making and keep everyone on the same page.  

McInnes said the headline metric is blunt on purpose: margin dollars, not revenue. “The sales team knows the number we need to live on,” he said. “It focuses the whole business.” 

A partnership built for exponential changing times 

The AMA and Icehouse partnership is more than a logo lock-up. It’s a working alliance to connect, skill and lift New Zealand manufacturing, one cohort, one leader and one production line at a time. 

With industry leading from the front and the Icehouse sharpening the human edge, exponential growth in New Zealand’s manufacturing sector is completely achievable.