Manufacturers urged to adopt innovative processes amid macroeconomic challenges

… Biscuit and Bakery subsector appoints Akin Akintayo as chairman

MANUFACTURERS in Africa’s most populous country have been urged to adopt innovative processes in their operations to cut down costs and eliminate waste amid worsening macroeconomic challenges.

Owen Akinwande, plants manager, Cadbury Nigeria Plc (Mondelez Nigeria) who made the call during the Biscuit and Bakery Products sectoral group of MAN annual general meeting said high energy and borrowing costs amid FX volatility and low purchasing power among other challenges confronting manufacturers have forced the country’s manufacturing average capacity utilization to between 40 and 50 percent.

Akinwande stated that amid worsening macroeconomic challenges manufacturers must innovate to remain in business and compete.

He noted that the innovative approach should be end-to-end and be in process and products. “To ensure relevance in the industry and be competitive, manufacturers must innovate,” he said.

He defined innovative manufacturing as an organisation-wide effort involving the radical redesign of manufacturing processes and products to achieve dramatic improvement in critical manufacturing performance measures.

The plant manager urged manufacturers to adopt the lean manufacturing method of production to eliminate any form of waste in the production line.

He noted that wait time in the production line and unused productivity within the organisation is a loss while calling on manufacturers to continuously improve their production line.

According to him, production line improvement can come in the form of equipment, safety and product improvement to reduce conversion costs.

He advised manufacturers to invest in automation, noting that it involves the use of technology to reduce cost, eliminate non-valueadding work, streamline

processes, convert analog information into digital formats, and improve efficiency and data analysis.

Akinwande called on them to constantly benchmark themselves with peers both internally and externally to identify, comprehend, and adapt knowledge of exemplary practices and processes from organisations worldwide to assist them in improving their process or product performance.

Also, during the AGM themed ‘Innovative Manufacturing: Re-engineering Nigeria’s Manufacturing Sector for Exploits,’ Akin Akintayo was appointed as the new chairman of the Biscuit and Bakery Products subsectorial group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN).

In his acceptance speech, Akintayo appreciated the members of the subgroup for entrusting his and the new executive members with the responsibility to lead.

He assured the subgroup that the team would devote itself to serving the interest of the association and advancing the cause of the biscuit and bakery products manufacturing sector in the country.

“With your support, cooperation and collective effort, I am confident that we will achieve remarkable success and propel the biscuit and bakery products manufacturing industry in Nigeria to new heights,” he said.

In his address, Segun Ajayi-kadir, director general of MAN said the AGM presents the opportunity to reflect on the achievements, and challenges faced by the sub-group over the past year with MAN at the forefront championing the course for the creation of a conducive, viable environment for efficient and profitable production of its membercompanies amidst the prevailing economic conditions in the country.

“I encourage us to sustain the resilience and tenacity with which we collaborated with the last executives, and to forge new alliances with the incoming executives, to inspire and shape the future of the Biscuits & Bakery Products manufacturing industry.”