You can feel it the moment you walk the floor.

A strong shift hums. Clear direction, tight handovers, problems solved right then and there.

A weak one? Well, we’ve all seen those too. Targets slip, rework piles up, and safety gets shaky. And when you’re there, no machine in the world can fix it.

That’s why, when Ashburton Meat Processors Ltd started gearing up for export readiness, a high-stakes shift for any plant, Plant Manager Karl Thin didn’t wait for cracks to appear. He knew the change would succeed or stumble based on how well his supervisors could lead.

So, instead of hoping they’d “step up” on their own, Karl backed them with something many manufacturers leave too late: a deliberate investment in the people who hold the place together.

These aren’t people sitting in offices with spare hours to “strategise”. They’re busy every minute of their shift running the floor, keeping product moving, quality high, and safety sharp, all while managing teams who want answers about where the business is headed.

 

The stakes

Change exposes the gaps.

Missed handovers turn into production delays. Quality slips mean costly rework. Safety conversations happen only after something’s gone wrong. And when people don’t understand the “why” behind change, resistance grows fast.

Karl knew that without strong leadership, the shift to export readiness would magnify every one of those problems.

 

Why leadership was the lever

Frontline leadership isn’t about titles. It’s about tone. The way expectations are set. The way conflict is handled. The way people feel when they walk onto the floor.

Ashburton Meats’ leaders had the technical skills down pat. But export readiness needed more:

  • Guide their teams through uncertainty without losing focus on performance.
  • Hold the right conversations at the right time.
  • Build trust and accountability across shifts and departments.

 

Learning leadership in the thick of it

This wasn’t theory. It was a 10-session journey run in the middle of real change.

The programme was built for their experiences leading on the floor.

Leaders from across the plant shared ideas, swapped solutions, and worked on what good leadership looked like in practice: the behaviours to model, the conversations to have, what not to let slide, and how to tackle it when it does.

Between sessions, they put their tools to work:

  • Sharper instructions so messages landed the first time
  • Stepping back to let teams solve problems, freeing leaders to focus on quality and planning.
  • Giving feedback in the moment, fixing issues before they spread.

Each session built on the last, fuelled by real wins and setbacks from the floor. Midway through, one question dominated: How do we lead people through what’s coming next?

So we adapted. We built in case studies and practical tools for leading through change, the kind that supervisors could walk out and use that same afternoon.

 

The impact: Real results

By the end of the programme, the shifts were clear, and they were exactly what the plant needed to keep moving forward.

Supervisors were taking real ownership and accountability for their areas, backing their decisions and following through.

They had the ability to lead through change, not just react to it when it landed on their doorstep.

They’d built the confidence to have the right conversations at the right time, tackling issues early before they became fires to put out.

And they understood, maybe for the first time, how their own leadership behaviours directly shaped performance, quality, safety, and culture on the floor.

On the floor, the communication is sharper, conflict is handled, decisions are quicker, and supervisors now delegate to free up their time to focus on what is important.

 

This proves something every manufacturing leader should know but too often forgets:

When you invest in your frontline leaders, you change the trajectory of your plant.

If you’re heading into change, a new market, a new product line, or a major operational shift, you can either build the leaders to carry it or spend the next 18 months firefighting.

Because in the end, it’s not the plan that gets you there. It’s the people who lead it.

Karl made his choice early.

What’s yours?