Focussed Business Improvement has been a dream of founder Mark Lovegrove for a number of years. After leading change initiatives as an employee in businesses in the Power, IT, Heavy Engineering and Manufacturing, Pulp and Paper, and Sawmilling industries Mark decided to start up his own business specialising is assisting mid sized New Zealand businesses to “unlock their business potential”.
His passion for continuous improvement started back in his last year of a Mechancial Engineering degree at Auckland University, where his third professional project was on improving the productivity of a heavy engineering fabrication business. After graduating with Honours, Mark worked as a consulting mechanical engineer for 7 years, then in the power industry for another 7 years, before joining a small IT business as their General Manager.
An opportunity arose to lead a rapidly growing business in the New Zealand heavy engineering sector, which he lead for over 9 years, heading up many continuous improvement initiatives. This is where he was exposed to Lean Manufacturing techniques, and was able to implement many simple lean tools delivering effective bottom line results. While in his role as General Manager he learnt first hand the need for strong governance and leadership to set the direction of the business, and the importance of the engagement of the staff with the right attitude, skills, and abilities to drive the business in the direction set by the Board. Alignment throughout the business is key to its success.
Mark then joined an Australian owned Maintenance outsourcing provider as the Alliance Manager, where he lead a team of around 100 maintenance specialists responsible for the maintenance and reliability of one of New Zealand’s largest pulp mills. During his time in this role he learnt what Best Practice Maintenance is, and how to achieve it – working closely with people in both operations and maintenance to deliver record production in his last year at the site.
An opportunity arose in New Zealand’s fastest growing sawmill as Asset Manager. Mark was responsible for maintenance across the site, along with the operation of the Energy Centre, and the central services such as power, steam, compressed air, along with Buildings and infrastructure. He also headed the site projects team, who had a number of capital projects on the go.
In this role Mark was instrumental in significantly lifting the site’s Maintenance Effectiveness, measured by external audits – taking the site from Reactive maintenance, through Emerging Maintenance to Proactive Maintenance. This required a thorough understanding of where the business was at, where the gaps were, then working closely with key operations and maintenance people to drive the required changes.
Now that Mark has set up Focussed, he is looking forward to working with businesses that recognise they have improvement opportunities but are struggling to commit the time or don’t have the internal skills to make the necessary changes. Mark will work with you and your teams to understand your current state, facilitate the determination of the desired future state, then develop a journey plan or pathway to get there.
Call Mark now to arrange a free meeting to discuss your business improvement opportunities, and how Focussed could assist you to unlock your business potential.