"What's new in this inquiry is that we've been able to do some comparisons with other what we call the small advanced economies and the answer is that we appear to be a long way behind, maybe even half the levels of productivity in terms of labour productivity,"

That old chest nut. New Zealand firms for the last two decades have lagged behind those in similar economies when it comes to investing in productivity enhancing technology. Is the old number 8 wire thinking where you muddle through with less or with only what you know holding us back?

The irony is most firms are muddling through with more, more staff and more time at unnecessarily higher cost to cover systemic issues in operations that could be resolved with increased cost saving digitization of the workplace. This is certainly true of warehousing firms that experience tremendous growth but then realize the complexity of the warehouse can no longer be managed effectively by mere humans. Product goes into the warehouse but what happens in between receipting and shipping is a bit of a mystery. Lack of visibility results in rising inefficiency and creeping costs. Poor accuracy leads to expensive returns and customer dissatisfaction.

Though the quote above does not directly relate to supply chain, it is nevertheless relevant and applicable to all industries struggling with the transition from a manual labour intensive approach to one with a better mix of capital in the workplace. To reverse our sad productivity metric, perhaps the notion of ingenuity that kiwis are famous for needs to include greater openness to what’s new and not just what we can eek out from the old.

New Zealand's best firms a 'long way behind' in productivity (msn.com)