It’s a well known fact that New Zealand companies cannot foot it against ‘run of the mill’ product coming out of Asia.  The key for us is to leverage the extraordinary (albeit undervalued) ingenuity that’s embedded in the kiwi psyche, to develop ‘value add’ products that command a premium.

However, it’s a tricky thing to develop innovative product that is delivered on time, to spec and on budget.  And even trickier is to ensure you get a good ROI.  The following presentation was given to the NZMEA (Manufacturers & Exporters Association) to help these companies understand how a robust development process will help them develop products that deliver the intended value.  A well thought out development process will achieve the following:

1. Improve Innovation/ Design/ Engineering
2. Direct focus on the Customer Need
3. Reduce Time to Market
4. Reduce Development Cost
5. Improve Product Quality

Developing Products to Deliver Value

2008 saw The Ideas Foundry at Fieldays with our latest product WinDry,  A wind powered Gumboot dryer.  A very simple and clever idea for the age old problem of drying one’s gumboots.  The product had a phenoninal response including a spot on TV One’s breakfast show, TV 3 news and several newspaper articles.  Look for these in stores from Mid 2010.

If you like the sound of dry feet in your gumboots each morning, you can find out more about WinDry at the WinDry Website

Sustainability is a subject that we should all be very concerned with.  This is a global issue that New Zealand needs to take seriously.  To date, our clean, green image is probably more to do with our minimal population than it is about our social responsability to the planet. 

Formway had a very strong environmental focus which resulted in very positive commercial gains.  The following presentation was presented to the New Zealand Government annual procurement conference and outlines the process of sustainable design and also the commercial benefits that a company can achieve.

Sustainable Procurement Conference
November 2005