impi! exists to prosper businesses by continually
transforming practices and empowering people.
In 2012, with 20 years experience in production, project management and lean management, Pierre Bienvenüe
began developing a program to support operational excellence within organisations, integrating best practices
into a live quality management system. The aim was to solve several organisational problems:
01
Increase long term engagement
of senior and middle management in the transformation drive
02
Develop a culture
of continuous improvement
03
Cement the change through integration
in the quality management system
04
Develop a long-term relationship between
the organisation and the impi! coach
05
Reduce the total cost and risk
associated with ongoing transformation
IN 2013,
impi! and Traction Software Inc. from Providence, RI, USA began a partnership to develop solutions and content for CounterPoint Trading – a budding packaging company producing paper bags and wipes. The company was experiencing growing pains and required support to develop its business processes while nurturing a culture of decision making and improvement.
Traction wanted to provide augmented solutions for quality management through its software, the cloud-based platform, TeamPage. Five years of collaboration and development between the three partners produced impi! 1.0 – a flexible and battle proven answer for integrated business transformation that is currently supporting clients in the USA and South Africa.
Counterpoint
Our product development phase began in 2005 in partnership with Counterpoint, a manufacturer based in Durban, South Africa. Counterpoint produces customized wipes and paper packaging by running 15 different manufacturing processes on a three-shift operation, six days a week, in a 4500m2 manufacturing plant.
From 2009 to 2012, the Counterpoint grew too fast, without foreseeing or understanding its weaknesses or how to overcome them. Running day to day without long-term objectives, Counterpoint was unable to sustain its growth. Without effective management systems in place, the company experienced severe information lags of two to three months at a time. The situation resulted in crisis management as the problems continued to stack.
As a final resort, impi! was implemented at Counterpoint. It brought direction back to the company, creating organisational purpose while instilling a long-term outlook. Within six months there was solid internal controls that empowered the organisation to weather external factors like economic downturns and fluctuating exchange rates. impi! created clarity, alignment, stability and agility in decision making.
From 2013 to mid-2018 Counterpoint’s yield grew 240% without investing in additional machinery while successfully overcoming three successive crises. The business owners attribute these results to their investment in impi! and the effectiveness of its integrated approach.
In April 2019, Counterpoint received an ISO 9001 accreditation from SGS.
“impi! is both a method and a structure that has been integrated into our business, becoming its own management system with the tools to support it. It has shaped the DNA of Counterpoint, laying the foundation for our current and future success.”
Ruben van Wambeke (Counterpoint Financial Director)