AMT AUG/SEPT 2020

Page 58

056

MEDICAL

Howard Wright: Simple. Smart. Human Howard Wright Limited designs and manufactures specialised hospital beds and stretchers at its plant in New Plymouth, New Zealand. Production Manager Greg Jones recently spoke about the company and how equipment from TRUMPF helps it maintains an edge over its competitors. AMT: How long has Howard Wright been in business? Greg Jones: The company has been in business for almost 60 years, and we have just over 55 staff members. It’s a nice place to work in terms of a manufacturing facility. As we make hospital products, it has to be clean and it’s well heated so it’s comfortable to work in. More recently we have increased production to meet the increased number of COVID-19 orders from the UK and Australia. Most of our market is export, so 50% Australia, 30% New Zealand, 10% the UK, with Japan and Belgium making up the balance. We continue to see our growth coming from overseas markets. When competing overseas, it’s highly competitive, with a lot of beds coming from Asia as well as Europe. We compete well as our products focus on end user needs, quality and service support. AMT: What are the keys to your company’s success? GJ: We manufacture a highly specialised product. We were one of the first to go completely electric, with a battery backup. Many stretchers around the same time would have had some electric components, but not the entire unit. We have certainly led the industry in terms of innovative design and workplace health and safety, right from the start. Our design philosophy is “Simple. Smart. Human”, so we are extremely customerfocused. For example, our stretchers can go really low to the ground, the existing designs are usually quite high and can cause problems. We help prevent a lot of falls around hospital beds through our design and R&D approach. We work closely with nurses and doctors to help design products that are intuitive to use, so they can focus on the patient. AMT: Tell us about your role in the company. GJ: I’m Production Manager now; however, prior to this role I was working on the R&D side for over seven years. I think it helps, my background in R&D within the manufacturing department as I understand both sides. Essentially, we are a customer of the R&D department. I work closely with them to ensure we have more common components and more common suppliers. AMT: How you do remain ahead of the competition? GJ: Our whole philosophy is working with all end users and ensuring that they are

AMT AUG/SEP 2020

front of mind with all our design thinking. We also keep on top of new technology and how we can improve production. AMT: What equipment do you currently have? GJ: We have a TRUMPF TruLaser Tube 5000, which converts raw tube, with a bundle feeder to load the machine. We also have some Haas equipment, a gantry router, milling machines and some welding robots. All powder coating is done in-house. For the manufacturing department, we work hard on a single piece flow, this enables us to be more agile. We have an assembly line with inline QA checks. This is followed by an independent QA check at the end of the process, before the product is dispatched. We operate with low levels of stock to ensure cashflow is optimal, and we also

measure performance daily and quarterly. AMT: What problem were you trying to solve when you purchased the TruLaser Tube 5000? GJ: I started just after the purchase was complete. However, I was still privy to the decision-making and reasons why. While it’s been one of our biggest purchases, it’s been wonderful in terms of manufacturing components of 1-3mm thick. The reason we purchased the TRUMPF machine was that we were moving away from outsourcing this process; we also moved away from a lot of manual processes in-house. Almost instantly we could see benefits from not paying the margin on production costs. We also benefited from the ability to carry less inventory; we could also change the design quickly. The laser completed up to


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MANUFACTURING HISTORY – A look back in time

5min
pages 120-121

SCHUNK improves efficiency for gear manufacturer

5min
pages 106-107

AMTIL FORUMS

18min
pages 108-111

Kalgoorlie business thrives under pressure

4min
page 100

ADE & Austin deliver revolutionary truck tech to NT mine

7min
pages 101-103

Manufacturing under COVID-19: Overcoming challenges

7min
pages 98-99

Dimac Tooling – Comprehensive workholding

6min
pages 104-105

Lucidworks – Building digital ecosystems

2min
page 97

Carving out a path for India’s economic boom

6min
pages 92-93

ANCA: Time-saving enhancements for offline productivity

4min
page 96

Digitally transforming businesses in the manufacturing sector

6min
pages 94-95

Tornos: Growing up ‘Swiss

5min
pages 90-91

Constructing South-East Asia’s largest 3D printer

4min
pages 88-89

NEPEAN - Strength, service and uncompromising quality

5min
pages 86-87

Robovoid: Using AM to support construction innovation

5min
pages 84-85

QUALITY & INSPECTION

13min
pages 80-82

ONE ON ONE

13min
pages 76-79

MAPAL: Process-reliable face milling with a long tool life

4min
pages 74-75

Guhring additive tool cuts costs for aerospace subcontractor

3min
page 73

Can fabricated metals industry easily transition to onshoring?

4min
pages 68-69

Iscar – Cast-iron LogIQ

8min
pages 70-72

Jmar expands capabilities with new Yawei investment

5min
pages 66-67

COMPANY FOCUS

14min
pages 62-65

Robots in labs: Making healthcare more productive

6min
pages 60-61

Better prototyping: Nidek cuts time-to-market with 3D printing

7min
pages 54-55

3D-printed medical implants

7min
pages 56-57

Howard Wright: Simple, smart, human

5min
pages 58-59

From bomb-detection to virus-detection – World-first

6min
pages 52-53

RAM3D – Bringing additive manufacturing to medical

5min
pages 50-51

Export/import controls on medical equipment for COVID-19

4min
pages 48-49

PRODUCT NEWS

22min
pages 36-43

From the Ministry

3min
pages 14-15

Surging ahead in times of COVID-19

11min
pages 44-47

VOICEBOX

21min
pages 30-35

From the Union

5min
pages 18-19

From the CEO

5min
pages 12-13
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