Any kaizen event will reveal how one small incremental process improvement can be worth significant bottom-line impacts. Kaizen, Japanese for “improvement” or “change for the best,” refers to philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, and business management. When used in the business sense and applied to the workplace, kaizen refers to activities that continually improve all functions, and involves all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers.

The announcement by the German carmaker comes as it seeks to boost its sales in the region, and the world’s biggest carmaker by 2018. By that time the company also hopes to achieve its goal of selling a million Volkswagens and Audis, its luxury brand, to American customers.

Total SA of France has become the first oil major to back shale gas exploration in Britain by announcing that it will commit £30 million to advance drilling projects in Lincolnshire. Total will pay $1.6 million in back costs and fund a work programme of up to $46.5 million, with a $19.5 million minimum commitment.

Gold output from its Sukari mine, its only producing asset, totalled 91,546 ounces in the December quarter, seven percent up from the same three months a year earlier and eight percent higher than production in the September quarter. This contributed to full-year production of 356,943 ounces from Sukari, which beat 2012’s total by 36 percent. The company’s 2013 guidance for Sukari had been at 320,000 ounces.

“In the early 1990s, a period of time now recognised as being the dawn of China’s economic take-off, the country’s import and export industries were very much in their infantile days,” explains Patrick Lam, Managing Director of Yantian International Container Terminals (YICT). “It was against this backdrop that the Central Government and the Shenzhen Municipal Government resolved to develop a large container port at Yantian, in Guangdong Province, China.

As we have recently seen in our extensive coverage of Trinidad & Tobago’s state oil company Petrotrin and its engagement in the exploration, development and production of hydrocarbons as well as the manufacturing and marketing of petroleum products, this island nation’s near term future is largely defined by its onshore and offshore resources. Major and junior exploration companies are scrapping over new licences and preparing to pour billions of dollars into development projects.

Howard Craig was brought in from the oil and gas industry over three years ago: his mission to breathe new life into one of South Africa’s key businesses. Rand Refinery, since 1967 the sole producer of Krugerrands and gold bars destined for the bullion banks of the world along with gold bars, is the pipeline to the market for the greater part of Africa’s gold doré – the semi pure product from the mines.

Over the last two decades the West African country of Ghana has successfully evolved into a stable and mature democracy. Hand-in-hand with this development has been the emergence of its blossoming economy, one that continues to grow ahead of the average for the African region, with GDP growth registered at 15 percent in 2011 and 7.9 percent in 2012.