This month is an important one for a Wollongong business that works with companies to develop their people and practices.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
CTPM was established on January 1, 1996 and has helped 81 companies in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, India, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia to get the most from their people and processes.
Founder Ross Kennedy and University of Wollongong’s Professor Gunter Arndt had been working to develop a system to specifically support Australian workplaces. Clients now range from Asian mining companies to food and beverage enterprises such as Coopers Brewery, Goodman Fielder, and New Zealand Sugar Company.
The CTPM team has 130 years industry experience and 70 years consulting experience. It is also an Australian Registered Training Company for Certificate IV and III in Competitive Systems and Practices.
Mr Kennedy delivers real improvements in a timely manner by training people within organisations to become trainers. There is a five level excellence award process where improvements are measured against world’s best practice. There have been 43 awards presented to 19 companies since 2002 with Bampu Lampang Coal Mine in Thailand and PT Kitadin Tandung Mayang Mine in Indonesia achieving the highest level recognition.
Mr Kennedy had previously at BlueScope before moving to Cable Makers Australia in Liverpool. David Morgan Williams then convinced him to help David Brown Gear set up a factory at Bulli. He was doing PhD at the University of Wollongong at the time on Just In Time Manufacturing. He later worked with Coopers and Lybrand and connected with people in North America. He then set up Ross Kennedy and Associates and chaired a forum on TPM about why it was not working as well as it could in Australia. Prof Arndt recommended Australia have an institute like other countries to customise the TPM technique. It was decided something was needed faster so Mr Kennedy created the Centre for TPM as a not for profit membership based privately owned company.
“We set it up to help industry, government and academia to understand how you could take the Japanese manufacturing concepts and Australasianise them,” Mr Kennedy said.
Mr Williams and Prof Arndt were initially directors as well and the Australasian version of TPM was launched in 1998.
“We have just expanded and grown and kept developing it from there,” Mr Kennedy said.
The Centre for TPM is now called CTPM. Mr Kennedy’s wife Debbie has been involved since day one and daughter Samantha Rowan is responsible for marketing.