Thursday, 19 May 2016 07:55

SIDE to look at saving time

Written by 
SIDE organisers are urging South Island farmers to take time off and attend this year's event. SIDE organisers are urging South Island farmers to take time off and attend this year's event.

How many times over the last week have you or anyone on your farm had to wait for something, or spent time searching for a misplaced item?

That's something Sarah Watson and DairyNZ Regional Leader Richard Kyte plan to ask dairy farmers attending the 2016 South Island Dairy Event (SIDE) in Invercargill on June 20 to 22.

SIDE is an annual three-day dairy conference organised by farmers for farmers to learn, network, and find inspiration and motivation. The programme combines stimulating presentations with practical workshops on dairy farming and business management.

The pair are presenting a workshop at SIDE, their mission to help farmers hunt down their own time-wasters, be they searching for a lost tool, not being able to finish a task on-time because you're waiting for something, or having to reorder drugs because they're run passed their use-by date.

While these examples are seemingly small, they can add up, its improving time efficiency that makes the day-to-day work easier and less stressful, improves productivity, and ultimately boosts the bottom line.

PeopleMAD owner Ms Watson has been running the Dairy NZ FarmTune programme, and has seen farms save up to half an hour a milking per person each day simply by identifying waste then fine-tuning the process.

She and Mr Kyte plan to give farmers some take home tips on lean thinking to help focus their energy on the things that matter, add value to the business and help the whole team to operate efficiently.

"Everyone will have something they can improve; we're just equipping workshop attendees with the tools needed to objectively look at their systems with their teams to find what their own time issues are."

"There are a lot of things impacting on the business which are outside our control – this is one positive way of taking back some control and hopefully influencing profitability. And the beauty of this way of reviewing day-to-day operations and noticing the waste is that it costs nothing."

SIDE organisers are urging South Island farmers to take time off and attend this year's event, as now, more than ever, is the time to talk, share ideas, and benefit from social interaction with peers.

More like this

Owl Farm marks 10 years as NZ’s first demonstration dairy farm

In 2015, the signing of a joint venture between St Peter's School, Cambridge, and Lincoln University saw the start of an exciting new chapter for Owl Farm as the first demonstration dairy farm in the North Island. Ten years on, the joint venture is still going strong.

Featured

Farewell Jim

In a few hundred words it's impossible to adequately describe the outstanding contribution that James Brendan Bolger made to New Zealand since he first entered politics in 1972.

National

Machinery & Products

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Quid prod quo?

OPINION: Ageing lefty Chris Trotter reckons that the decision to delay recognition of Palestinian statehood is more than just a fit…

Deadwood

OPINION: A mate of yours truly recently met someone at a BBQ who works at a big consulting firm who spent…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter