History of MaintainNZ

MaintainNZ is a non-profit charitable trust based in Kawerau, Eastern Bay of Plenty. The trust was established to work with industry, unions and education providers to invest in people and skills and drive productivity.

In the 1990s, the EPMU carried out skills analysis research on the staff working in NST sites in Kawerau. “We found that the average age of our workers was 47 years old and, combined with the limited amount of apprenticeship training, that we were going to have a skills shortage fairly soon.” says Dave Cussack, EPMU delegate and NST employee.

Fonterra in Edgecumbe were facing the same issues. Being a small town, Kawerau had the added challenge of attracting and retaining skilled labour. The key issues were:

• an increasing shortage of qualified maintenance personnel across New Zealand
• the lack of relevance of available education and training options
• the lack of industry-based education, training and employment opportunities in the area.

Fonterra management felt it was important to have a maintenance best practice programme. “There wasn’t any single place we could go to for a definition of maintenance best practice,” says Rob Probst, Fonterra’s National Maintenance Manager. “We recognised that not only we and other companies in this area, but the whole of New Zealand could benefit from an organisation that could provide maintenance training qualifications and also the expertise and implementation strategies for developing reliable manufacturing operations.”

The challenge was how to improve maintenance training and best practice in order to address skill shortages and get productivity up to an international level.

MaintainNZ was established in 2004 by local partners NST, EPMU, Fonterra and Kawerau College. The aim was to develop a National Centre for Maintenance Excellence, a training and education centre aimed at improving manufacturing productivity through the application of best practice maintenance training and education.

“To address our skill shortage and to get our productivity up to an international level we knew we were not going to do it with our current workforce,” says Peter Chrisp, NST Senior Vice President, Profitability Improvement.

A common agenda and understanding emerged among all members of the MaintainNZ network. Together they could:

• build maintenance best practice capability to influence operational efficiency
• develop the availability of a skilled workforce for employment to counter the current ageing workforce
• upskill existing trades people
• influence trades training to produce people with skills and talent relevant to the needs of industry.

The MaintainNZ partnership was extended to include Auckland University of Technology (AUT), which had the expertise to introduce new approaches to industry-driven training, and industry training organisations, to ensure all training courses linked to nationally recognised qualifications. Another partner, NZTE, supported MaintainNZ through the Eastern Bay of Plenty Major Regional Initiative.

In the past, Kawerau College relied on the big industries to employ its students. “But the reality was that it was no longer happening as our students didn’t have the required skills,” says Principal Steve Hocking. “So we partnered industry and the EPMU to develop a model that allowed our students a structured career pathway.” Since 2004, approximately 80% of the graduating students from Kawerau College have picked up engineering-related apprenticeships.

Fonterra’s involvement was pivotal to MaintainNZ, providing the scale and a national coverage to turn a concept into a reality. The company now puts all its apprentices through programmes at MaintainNZ.

Being part of the MaintainNZ network allows organisations to operate more productively in accessing resources and information; coordinating with related companies; and measuring and motivating improvement.

MaintainNZ builds on giving people new skills to work in business at a higher level of responsibility, says Andrew Little, MaintainNZ partner and EPMU National Secretary. A more talented and skilled workforce benefits both the working people themselves and also the business and the country.

“MaintainNZ is a great example of where everyone shares the vision and understands the problems involved and works towards solving them,” he says.

Key learnings

• To stay competitive, industry must invest in training and skills.
• Success is possible through shared agenda and joint commitment from partners.
• Targeted training produces people with skills and talent relevant to the needs of industry.
• Succession planning can counter an ageing workforce and improve staff retention.

Table 1: Return on investment