This week’s edition of Let’s Talk features our experts discussing strategies for maintaining product quality while maximizing production efficiency under resource constraints.
Welcome to this week’s edition of Let’s Talk, where we sit down with industry experts to tackle your most pressing questions. In today’s discussion, our panel addresses a challenge familiar to manufacturers and operations managers everywhere: how to balance production efficiency with product quality when resources are limited.
Whether you’re facing budget cuts, material shortages, or workforce constraints, this balancing act can feel like walking a tightrope. Push too hard for efficiency, and quality suffers. Focus exclusively on quality, and productivity grinds to a halt.
Our experts share practical strategies, real-world examples, and proven frameworks for finding that sweet spot, where you maintain the standards your customers expect while making the most of every resource at your disposal.
Let’s Talk!
Craig Nielsen, Vice President, Asia Pacific & Japan, GitLab
“Balancing production efficiency with product quality when resources are limited comes down to being deliberate about where AI and human expertise are applied.
The winners won’t be the companies that adopt AI fastest. They’ll be the ones most intentional about what they assign to AI versus humans. With 90% of executives expecting agentic AI to become standard within three years, the real differentiator will be knowing exactly which tasks benefit from human creativity and judgment versus which should be automated.
Organisations that are thoughtful about this calibration will create compounding advantages, freeing teams to focus on high-value decisions and strategic thinking, while AI handles tasks such as code generation and routine maintenance. Companies that get the balance wrong face a double penalty: human talent wasted on automatable work, and AI making decisions requiring nuanced judgment.
For example, the developer role is fundamentally shifting from writing every line of code to becoming system architects and AI orchestrators, breaking down complex challenges and coordinating multiple agents. Teams that embrace this evolution will build faster, innovate more effectively, and attract top talent seeking cutting-edge human-AI collaboration.”
Graeme Evans, Regional Vice President, Epicor Australia & New Zealand
“Across ANZ manufacturing, resource constraints remain one of the biggest challenges I hear about. Skilled labour is hard to find, material costs continue to rise, and supply chain unpredictability has not fully eased. Many manufacturers feel pressure to move faster just to keep up, but in my experience, cutting corners only creates bigger issues later, from quality problems to rework to reputational damage.
What I am seeing instead is a strong shift toward building resilience without adding overhead. Modern ERP systems play a central role in this. When manufacturers make full use of the digital tools already available to them, they gain clarity, consistency, and control across operations. Embedding digital work instructions into the ERP ensures every operator follows the right steps every time, which protects knowledge in an environment shaped by workforce turnover and multi-generational teams.
When margins are tight, clarity of process becomes one of the most powerful tools a manufacturer has. By aligning quality expectations with day-to-day workflows, and supporting teams with the right digital tools, businesses strengthen productivity and protect their reputation even in a resource constrained environment.”
Anthony Capano, Regional Director, APAC, Intuit Mailchimp
“The key isn’t just doing more with less; it’s also doing the right things better. The most effective way to strike that balance is to let customer signals and data guide your decisions.
By paying close attention to how customers engage with your brand and products, from what resonates with them, to where they hesitate, to what drives sales, you can pinpoint which products are and aren’t delivering value. That clarity helps teams invest more time and energy in high-impact improvements, while scaling back work on products or categories that aren’t moving the needle.
That’s where having the right analytics tools is crucial. Intuit Mailchimp’s updated Shopify integration, for example, allows teams to unlock deeper behavioural insights like product views, checkout starts, and search activity. When insights are connected across channels, teams get a clear view of the entire customer journey, making it easier to move fast, make informed product decisions, and drive results.”
Elise Balsillie, Head of Thryv Australia and New Zealand
“When resources are tight, the worst mistake business owners make is trying to do more of everything. That is how quality slips quietly while teams stay busy. The real discipline is deciding what must never be compromised and being ruthless about simplifying the rest.
Quality lives in very specific moments, such as how quickly you respond, how clearly you communicate and how reliably you deliver. Those are the points customers remember and judge you on. Protect them. Everything else should earn its place.
I encourage business owners to look closely at their workflows and ask where time is being lost to rework, manual follow-ups or unclear ownership. Improving efficiency here does not lower quality, it actually lifts it. Fewer errors, faster response times and more consistent delivery create a better experience for customers and staff alike.
Efficiency should come from removing friction, not squeezing staff. Clear processes and well-chosen tools allow teams to focus on meaningful work instead of patching gaps.
Balancing efficiency and quality is not about choosing one over the other. With clarity around what customers value most, both become easier to sustain, even when resources are stretched.”
John Deeb, GM ANZ, Field CTO APAC, Workato
“When resources are limited, the most effective way to balance production efficiency with product quality is to automate and orchestrate workflows. In lean teams, quality tends to suffer when processes depend on manual effort and people remembering what to do after each step. It creates more room for typos, miscalculations, and unlogged details, which lead to bigger issues.
Automation removes that fragility. By automating repeatable work such as approvals, data updates, handovers and basic quality checks, businesses apply the same standards every time, even when workloads spike. That consistency reduces errors and enables reliable production quality.
Orchestration then turns those individual automations into a reliable system. It ensures work moves cleanly from one system or team to the next, with the right data, checks and approvals happening in the right order. Instead of isolated automations that rely on manual coordination, orchestration threads processes end-to-end so nothing stalls or gets missed as volume increases.
To do this well, businesses should prioritise automation platforms that offer deep native integrations, strong security controls and reliable support. When workflows are built on stable, well-governed connections rather than brittle add-ons, businesses can automate and scale with confidence.”
Greg Wilkes, CEO of Develop Coaching
“When resources are tight, most businesses think they have a binary choice: move faster or maintain quality. That’s a false choice.
The real balance comes from focus.
First, be ruthless about what “quality” actually means to your customer. Not every feature, finish or process adds value. Identify the two or three things your customer truly cares about and protect those at all costs. Everything else is negotiable.
Second, standardise before you optimise. Efficiency doesn’t come from working harder, it comes from reducing variation. When teams follow clear, repeatable processes, quality becomes predictable and productivity rises without extra headcount or spend.
Third, fix bottlenecks, not everything. Limited resources demand prioritisation. Look for the one constraint slowing everything down, whether that’s approvals, rework, or poor handovers, and address that first. Small changes here often unlock disproportionate gains.
Fourth, measure what matters. Speed without feedback erodes quality. Simple metrics like defect rates, rework time or customer complaints keep teams honest and improvements grounded in reality.
Finally, involve the people doing the work. They see waste, friction and shortcuts long before leadership does.
Efficiency and quality don’t compete when you design your operation properly. With limited resources, clarity and discipline beat complexity every time.”
Charles Liu, Marketing Director, Cubic Promote
“When resources are tight, don’t chase ‘more.’ Chase ‘what matters.’ Start by defining the few quality standards your customer will never forgive you for breaking—those are non-negotiable. Then simplify everything else: reduce variation, standardise steps, and build checks into the process early, not at the end where fixes cost more. Look for the bottleneck that creates the most rework and solve that first. Efficiency isn’t speed; it’s confidence. When your team knows the ‘why’ behind the standard, they make better calls under pressure. Do less, better—on purpose.”
Maria Kathopoulis, CEO & Chief Marketing Officer at UNTMD Media
“Efficiency and quality aren’t opposites. Chaos is the enemy of both.
The highest-performing teams standardise everything except what truly differentiates them. According to ISO research, standardised workflows reduce error rates by up to 50%, freeing human effort for higher-value work.
Quality drops when teams rush decisions repeatedly. Efficiency improves when decisions disappear altogether. Templates, guardrails, and defaults protect standards without slowing momentum.
Another key principle: automate the repeatable, humanise the critical. AI can draft, analyse, and structure. Humans should refine, judge, and create meaning.
Toyota famously built quality into the process, not the inspection. The same applies here. Quality must be designed upstream, not fixed downstream.
If quality requires heroics, the system is broken.”
Catie Paterson, Director, Blue Kite HR Consulting
“When resources are stretched, the instinct is often to push harder or cut corners. But true leadership is about doing better with less—not just more. The key is clarity and empowerment.
Start by defining what “quality” really means for your business and your customers. Quality isn’t a checklist; it’s the real-world experience of your product or service. Share this vision with your team and listen to their ideas – those closest to the work often have the best insights.
Empower your people with autonomy and trust. When individuals understand the “why” behind their work, they naturally find innovative ways to deliver both efficiency and excellence. Focus on building a culture where continuous improvement is celebrated, not perfection.
Balancing efficiency and quality isn’t a simple trade-off – it’s a mindset. Lead with integrity, communicate openly, and remember: your people are your greatest asset. When you invest in their growth and trust their expertise, your business will soar, even when resources are limited.”
Justin Lester, Director, Market Enablement & Activation, Lexin Solutions
“Resources, whether people or materials, are ALWAYS limited, and organisations will continue chasing fires until they slow down and systematically address the root of the problem. If you try to maintain everything equally, you end up destroying both efficiency and quality output.
While this appears to be a production challenge, the solution often lies in maintenance. The only way to effectively balance efficiency and quality when stretched thin is to categorise your assets and focus on supporting them in descending order of criticality.
To navigate this, you must:
- Ensure all critical assets have preventive maintenance performed proactively.
- Verify technicians are properly staffed and trained to support these specific assets.
- Stock the essential parts needed to support these assets in case of an unexpected event.
This can be a daunting task for a business with a significant equipment list, so setting simple, effective guidelines around assessing criticality is essential.
Once you stop treating everything as equal, you gain the clarity to release trapped working capital and ensure your limited resources are protecting the assets that actually drive your revenue. Then you won’t let the noise of the non-critical distract you from the engines of your success.”
Trent Bowes, Production Manager at Revolution Print
“To balance production efficiency with product quality under resource constraints, we leverage the LEAN methodology to eliminate waste without compromising on the high quality that we want to give to our clients.
When the pressure is on, we want to prioritise getting things “Right First Time”. Whilst speeding up production may offer a temporary illusion of things being done, it often results in rework and poor-quality controls that in turn erodes long-term efficiency and blows out the cost of operation. To get the balance right, we focus on three strategic pillars.
First, we identify bottlenecks by mapping every stage of production, allowing us to see where things are building up and removing wasted time and resources where they accumulate most.
Second, we implement standardised work through cross-training. This ensures that every member of our team follows the most efficient, quality-proven way, which drastically reduces variance and human error.
Finally, we prioritise preventive maintenance. By investing small increments of time into equipment upkeep, we’re able to reduce the impact that a catastrophic, resource-draining breakdown can incur when maintenance is deferred.
This proactive approach ensures that our limited resources are utilised for value-added production rather than crisis management, ultimately creating a sustainable synergy between speed and excellence.”
Sinead Minihane, CEO, 2 Cents Worth
“To keep profit margins stable across volatile months, project based work needs to be structured with consistency and discipline. Use a single, repeatable method to price and manage projects so margins don’t depend on who scoped the work or how busy the business happens to be. Every project should be priced using estimated hours multiplied by a standard charge rate, with a built-in buffer of at least 20 per cent to protect against scope creep and underestimation. Standardising projects into small, medium and large categories with agreed hour ranges and price guides removes guesswork and prevents teams from starting from scratch each time. It’s also critical to ensure project work doesn’t erode business-as-usual profitability by scheduling it into quieter capacity weeks. Work in progress should be monitored closely, with a formal review triggered once 80% of budgeted hours are used, before margins are lost. Any out-of-scope work should be quoted and approved as a variation immediately, rather than absorbed into the original fee. Finally, reviewing each project after completion, comparing budgeted versus actual hours, allows pricing assumptions to be refined over time. Simple rules, consistent buffers and tight WIP control are key to keeping margins steady, even in unpredictable months.”
Morgan Wilson, Founder & Director, creditte accountants & advisors
“When resources are tight, the real danger is cutting the wrong corners.
We see this all the time. Businesses push harder for speed or cost savings and slowly erode the very thing customers come for: quality. Once trust starts to slip, it is expensive to rebuild.
The balance starts with clarity. Business owners need to be clear on what quality actually means to their customer. Not everything needs to be perfect, but the things that matter most must be non-negotiable. Identify the parts of your process that directly affect customer outcomes, experience, or safety, and protect those first.
From there, look for efficiency around quality, not instead of it. That might mean simplifying what you offer, fixing issues earlier to reduce rework, or tightening systems so fewer mistakes happen in the first place. In many businesses, removing manual admin frees up skilled people to focus on higher-value, quality-critical work.
The goal is not to do more at any cost. It is to do the right things well, consistently.
When priorities are clear, efficiency and quality stop competing and start reinforcing each other.”
Sarah James, Director, The Sensory Specialist
“For us, quality starts long before production. We focus on getting samples, refining them until they’re right, and only bringing products to market that meet our standards for durability, safety and performance. That means partnering with the right manufacturers and building long-term relationships based on trust, not shortcuts.
Efficiency comes from being strategic, not cheap. We work with suppliers who allow lower MOQs while we properly test products before scaling production, so we’re not overcommitting resources too early. We also build efficiency through strong systems – clear processes, quality control points, and consistent production standards – so we don’t waste time or money fixing mistakes later.
We stay very close to our numbers: what sells, what converts, and what doesn’t. Emotional attachment can’t drive decisions – if a product doesn’t perform, it has to go. Being disciplined with data protects both quality and sustainability as you grow.”
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