NZ Manufacturer July 2021

July 2021

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PRODUCTIVITY Four essential elements to improv productivity.

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THE LEADERS Terry Carter, NZ Tube Mills Ltd.

DEVELOPMENTS 25 How to survive the labour crunch.

Gold Coast trade soars in NZ

A unique bond between New Zealand and Australia’s Gold Coast is flourishing as demand for trans-Tasman trade builds on the back of the quarantine-free travel bubble.

In 2019-20, Gold Coast exported $4.88 billion in products and services internationally, led by the rapidly growing manufacturing, health care, transport and education sectors.

an innovative acoustic product developer, Mark Robinson, said the business originated in New Zealand, and moved its manufacturing unit to Yatala on the Gold Coast, exporting back to New Zealand as well as America, the United Kingdom and other international markets.

“Our city’s economy is driven by small businesses with around 66,000 registered today,’’ Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said.

Robinson, also the owner of the New Zealand Warriors rugby league team, said the New Zealand market was key for the Gold Coast.

“New Zealand is an attractive market for many businesses. We share so much through sport, education and social connectivity given the high New Zealand ex-pat population here in our city.”

“They appreciate good quality and good people and you’ll get a better margin selling your product into New Zealand,” Robinson said.

Capitalising on this relationship are local Gold Coast businesses accelerating the city’s economic recovery.

Trade and Investment Queensland Director Business Development New Zealand, Richard Simpson, said the Gold Coast was an attractive trade destination given its diverse range of businesses and industry sectors.

“Market diversification is critical. There are tremendous opportunities coming out of Covid that can be capitalised on,” Simpson said.

“As a result of the close, long-standing relationship between New Zealand and the Gold Coast, the economic opportunity has never been greater.

“Collaboration is key, and there are programs and initiatives here on the Gold Coast and across Queensland that can help businesses break into the New Zealand market.”

Senior Business Development Manager at the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, Philippa Hawken, said there were unique benefits for Australian businesses looking to trade with New Zealand.“A long-standing free trade agreement signed in 1983, and the subsequent single economic market agenda, allows Australian products to enter duty free – a huge financial incentive for Australian businesses trading to New Zealand,” said Hawken.

“Australia and New Zealand have a mutual recognition of skills and occupations, so there’s no need to retrain or practice in the same skill or occupation in New Zealand.

Listen to uniquely Kiwi stories contributing to New Zealand’s future

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CEO of Gold Coast business OzKleen and Fiik Skateboards, Tom Quinn, said New Zealand was the perfect market for international expansion for Gold Coast companies.

“It’s a good market to start with, it’s close, so airfares are cheap, and they speak the same language. It’s really an easily digestible first market for an emerging business,” he said.

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OzKleen, who manufacture environmentally friendly cleaning products, already exports to six countries and have plans of further expansion once travel restrictions are lifted.

Buy it—own it

Following from the success of OzKleen, Quinn said his electric skateboard company Fiik Skateboards had also begun exporting to New Zealand.

Import STL, SVG, DXF

“Word of mouth works very strongly in New Zealand, more so than any other country I’ve been to. Once you get that word of mouth going in New Zealand, the whole country picks up your product very quickly,” said Quinn.

“That’s the best advice I could ever give anyone entering the market – work on word of mouth.

It just takes care of your marketing for you at no cost.”

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“Australian products are well respected in New Zealand, and New Zealand government tenders are open to Australian companies to bid for.

“The food and beverage sector in New Zealand is worth over $71 billion. We’re seeing a lot of opportunity around food ingredients, premium food, technology, partnerships and research.

“There are also opportunities in space, marine, defence, agritech, smart technologies, infrastructure, construction, services and sport, to name a few.”

Chief Executive officer of Gold Coast-based Autex –

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CONTENTS Contents

DEPARTMENTS 1

LEAD LEAD

ADVISORS

Gold Coast trade diet soarson intrack.

NZ. Get your carbon

EDITORIALNEWS 64 BUSINESS When EMEX 2021 comes to town.

Kirk Hope

Competenz appoints new director.

BUSINESS NEWScan work smarter in times 6 How manufacturers Manufacturing in the age of sustainability. of change.

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Is NZ’s Covid response world class?

MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY UKK’s CPTPP a win for exporters.

Industry 4.0 – Hansa Products

MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY 8 Upgrading Industry 4.0 with edge analytics.

NZ Code can make manufacturing more competitive.

10 PRODUCTIVITY

Dewalt Design Assist breaking new ground.

Essential elements to improve productivity.

6 6

Is Chief Executive of BusinessNZ, New Zealand’s largest business advocacy body. He has held a range of senior positions at Westpac and is a barrister and solicitor.

Ian Walsh

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ANALYSIS 10 TECHNOLOGY 11 MANUFACTURING Time for change.

Ian is Managing Director of Intent Group, a master black belt improvement specialist and global lean practitioner. He is passionate about improving productivity and helping to create world class New Zealand businesses.

Preventing production downtime through Anatomy ofmonitoring. a data-driven supply chain. centralised

EMEXLEADERS 2021 14 THE 12 Floor Plan and Exhibitors.

-15 Terry Carter – General Manager, NZ Trade Mills Ltd. 16 ANALYSIS Achieving carbon neutrality: One company’s CIRCULAR ECONOMY 14 THE lessons learnt.

Leeann Watson

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Is the Chief Executive of the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber).and is a strong voice for Canterbury business.

Good as gold: Waste in a circular economy.

SMART MANUFACTURING 17 TRADE 15 Australia launches lunar exploration mission.

What NZ should win from its trade agreement Cutting edge tool for underwater recovery. with post-Brexit Britain.

Matrix 320 reader empowers traceability for automation and logistics.

SMART MANUFACTURING

19 helpsCONTROL link rapid Covid-19 test and QUALITY 21 Rfider digital travel pass technology.

Lewis Woodward

12 12

NDC sensors control manufacturing at the fromt line.

Update makes 2D/3D profile sensors smart.

NEW PRODUCTS PRODUCTS 22 NEW

Structural bearings deliver extreme Global project for innovative plasticslow-level recycling friction performance. continues to gain momentum.

Cost-effective and lubrication – free mounting 3D ipLaser cutting quotation suite halves of solar panels. customer response times.

AC Servo System provides highest-level safety.

DEVELOPMENTS 25 25 ADEVELOPMENTS future facing Pact.

Mint Innovation raises $20m to build gold biorefineries.

Marama Labs raises funds for growth.

27 28

Brett O’Riley

19 14 15 25

HRS highlights steam injection for food

sterilisation.

REAR VIEW

Is automotive for hydrogen?

The robots areready coming.

REAR VIEW Climate Change Commission calls for decisive action.

Is Managing Director of Connection Technologies Ltd, Wellington and is passionate about industry supporting NZ based companies, which in turn builds local expertise and knowledge, and provides education and employment for future generations.

17 28

EMA chief executive Brett O’Riley has a background in technology and economic development.

Brett actually grew up with manufacturing, in the family business, Biggins & Co. He currently holds board roles with Wine Grenade and Dotterel Technologies and is also on the NZ Film Commission board.

PUBLISHER Media Hawke’s Bay Ltd,1/121 Russell Street North, Hastings, New Zealand 4122.

MANAGING EDITOR Doug Green T: +64 6 870 9029 E: publisher@xtra.co.nz

CONTRIBUTORS Holly Green, Barbara Nebel, Dominic Sutton, Ishan Galapathy Rebecca Reed, Daniel Sultana Barbara Nebel, Femi Perumbally Alexander Gillespie

ADVERTISING Doug Green T: + 64 6 870 9029 E: publisher@xtra.co.nz

DESIGN & PRODUCTION

I read articles by Bruce Cotterill in the business section of Saturday’s NZ Herald because he is a good writer and commentator. He is insightful and thought provoking, astutely saying how a lot of people see the current business situation, who don’t transfer their thoughts into actions.

Bruce is wanting an MMP government with checks and balances, where decisions need to be discussed, taken to referendum. Not like now where there are changes going on behind closed doors. A majority government…who would have thought!

Kim Alves, KA Design T: + 64 6 870 8133 E: kim.alves@xtra.co.nz

He believes we are in the middle of a social experiment which is curbing our freedoms, at a rapid rate.

WEB MASTER

Draconian measures are stopping businesspeople travelling overseas and allowing badly needed skilled people from entering. We need these people; we rely on them.

Julian Goodbehere E: julian@isystems.co.nz

Our society is transforming without us being involved.

PUBLISHING SERVICES On-Line Publisher Media Hawke’s Bay Ltd

DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS E: publisher@xtra.co.nz Free of Charge.

MEDIA HAWKES BAY LTD T: +64 6 870 4506 F: +64 6 878 8150 E: publisher@xtra.co.nz 1/121 Russell Street North, Hastings PO Box 1109, Hastings, NZ NZ Manufacturer ISSN 1179-4992

Vol.12 No. 6 JULY 2021

Copyright: NZ Manufacturer is copyright and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher. Neither editorial opinions expressed, nor facts stated in the advertisements, are necessarily agreed to by the editor or publisher of NZ Manufacturer and, whilst all efforts are made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility will be taken by the publishers for inaccurate information, or for any consequences of reliance on this information. NZ Manufacturer welcomes your contributions which may not necessarily be used because of the philosophy of the publication.

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Action needed for better business

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This Editorial is a departure from what I normally write about – innovators, business success, productivity, developments – because there is a need for us all to do the best we can to keep moving the country forward.

To realise just how little impact we have in bringing about change. To work together to build business markets and not rely on Wellington to tell us how good life is.

The farmers protest around the country recently is a marker.

What comes from it will be a government which realises they are pushing their agenda without understanding the issues farmers face. Or one that will march on with their eyes shut, pushing their agenda.

If they ignore such events as the farmers protest, if they don’t learn from them, they may not be around next time.

Doug Green

Success Through Innovation

Editorial

Company Profile

How do you remain globally competitive in today’s manufacturing environment?

In the current business climate we are all having to do things smarter and faster to keep up with the pace of change. Manufacturing is no exception.

Become part of Industry 4.0 and access these FREE resources

• Access our free webinars and site visits where other businesses that have under-gone the network site visits process share their knowledge.

• Have your business assessed for Industry 4.0 readiness using the internationally recognised Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI).

• Connect with others in similar sectors facing the same challenges to bounce ideas off.

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Further questions?

To find out more please contact Michael Burgess at EMA or Frank Phillips at LMAC Michael Burgess +64 9 367 0936 manufacturing@ema.co,nz Frank Phillips +64 (0) 272233077 frank.phillips@lmac.co.nz

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BUSINESS NEWS Competenz appoints new director Industry training organisation Competenz has appointed Amanda Wheeler to the newly created role of Director, to lead the organisation through its transition into Te Pūkenga, The New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology and beyond.

Ms Wheeler is the current General Manager of Industry Training within Competenz and will commence in her new role on 02 August 2021.

Competenz Board Chairperson George Adams said the board were excited by her vision and commitment.

“Amanda’s passion for industry training is clear in everything she does. She is a vocal and proud champion of the mahi the team at Competenz does and is extensively versed in the intricacies of the 38 industries they serve.

“We know Amanda will be a strong advocate for vocational education and Competenz within Te Pūkenga, at all levels, as the organisation navigates the changes ahead,” Mr Adams said.

Ms Wheeler is an extensively experienced leader, having held chief executive and senior roles for the past 18 years in medium-sized corporate and non-government organisations.

She understands the demands of New Zealand’s industries and is passionate about helping Kiwis build skills, careers and businesses through qualifications that make it easy to learn on the job.

She joined Competenz in 2017 in a stakeholder management role and has led the core field-facing team since 2018. During this time, Ms Wheeler has worked hard to cement the connection between the training advisory, forestry, and customer teams and businesses across the 38 industries they work with.

“I am proud to be entrusted with leading the new Competenz Business Division within Te Pūkenga – it’s a truly thrilling opportunity and one that I will relish,” Ms Wheeler said. ’I’m particularly excited to help shape the future of vocational education: the bringing together of work-based, online and classroom learning will bring massive benefits to learners and employers alike.”

Ms Wheeler is the first person to be appointed to the role of Director, Competenz Business Division, Work-Based Learning Subsidiary, Te Pūkenga.

The position has come about as part of the Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE) which sees all industry training organisation and polytechnics joining together by December 2022.

The Director takes the place of the Competenz Chief Executive position, currently held by Fiona Kingsford, which has been disestablished.

Ms Kingsford said she knows she is leaving the organisation in great hands. “I’ve had the pleasure of working with Amanda closely over the last four years.

“She innately understands industry training and has led the field team through times of both incredible growth and also incredible challenge – Covid-19 and the need to adapt quickly to new ways of working while continuing to offer the same outstanding levels of service is just one example. I look forward to watching her and the Competenz Business Division flourish.”

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Business News How manufacturers can work smarter in times of change and uncertainty

By Dominic Sutton, Founder of StockTrim, inventory forecasting SaaS, build specifically for SMEs. Running a business right now is challenging. Unpredictable demand disrupted supply chains, cashflow uncertainty all make things a lot more difficult.

At the same time, the Pandemic and changes with cloud computing have made it increasingly easy to add on tools that can solve problems and dramatically increase efficiency.

It has taken some time, but small and medium sized wholesalers and manufacturers are increasingly finding smart tools to eliminate the uncertainty and ‘do better business’.

Areas where automation can help with inventory planning?

The desire to match supply with demand is not new at all. But what is new is the recent arrival of SaaS tools that blend accuracy, ease of use and affordability in a nice trifecta for SME’s involved with creating and shipping product.

Consider these 5 things that relate specifically to manufacturers: • Multi-level, multi-site bill of material (BOM) drill down It is important to understand where there may be risk at any level of the supply chain. You need to get visibility across your network but if something changes, you also need to instantly recalculate demand and supply balancing at every node.

This gives you visibility to the impact of change as it cascades down to the lowest levels of the supply chain. Without this fast, multi-level, multi-site BOM explosion, planners are left struggling with Excel spreadsheets, trying to figure out a response to a change.

And 90% of these planning spreadsheets contain errors, either through formula errors, input mistakes or human bias.

Usually, it will take days or even weeks to get a wrong answer versus understanding the impact of change in minutes.

• Automated Intelligence There is so much going on in the supply chain that major efficiencies can be realised if you can automate the routine and escalate exceptions to the planners for their immediate attention.

Andrew Dewez from Shine Drinks knew the importance of automating repetitive tasks and having the right systems and processes to keep things efficient. His time and expertise were better spent on other things in the business.

As companies look to diversify supply options, sourcing decisions could be more complex than ever before.

New suppliers may need to be sourced fast, but the impact of varying lead times needs to automatically flow through every part of the BOM. • Demand Forecasting There are lots of examples where machine learning will be utilised so the computer can do the heavy

lifting and planners can focus on what matters.

Another area where the proprietary machine learning algorithms used in intelligent inventory forecasting software play a critical role is in demand sensing.

Creating more accurate short-term forecasts in volatile situations will go a long way in helping supply planners see the impact of change and respond in a timely manner.

As Kristin from The Baron, a health foods and snacks manufacturer /importer comments “Its bang-on as far as demand forecasting goes. Removes the headache of uncertainty for me”.

• Collaboration SMEs often suffer from one staff member holding a lot of planning information in some ‘Taj Mahal’ of a spreadsheet.

While this may in fact be an impressive document, it is barely understood by few people in the organisation. When this person leaves or is absent, things can go astray very quickly.

The best decisions usually are not made in isolation.

Supply planners will need to converse with sales, operations and the business owner to work through resolutions that are best for the company, not just for the department.

If supply is on allocation, it only makes sense to collaborate with demand planners and customer service representatives to understand how to best allocate limited supply. Or start moving over stocks before they become a problem for cashflow and space.

All participants will need to provide input so everyone has confidence in their plans and responses to change. Software like this ‘democratises’ inventory planning in SMB’s.

We aren’t going to say this is a ‘new normal’ (fairly sure we are sick of this term anyway!) as no-one really knows where we go from here.

But one thing is certain – there is always a need for matching supply with demand as efficiently as possible.

One of the major advantages that smaller manufacturing and wholesale business have over their international conglomerate competitors is agility.

Being able to find, attach and sync data via a native API with your existing system all within minutes (without being a computer whiz) is a relatively new concept for SME business owners. But it’s now available.

I challenge any SME manufacturer or wholesaler to critically analyse how their materials and inventory are being matched with demand and implement changes before the hidden costs become more blindingly obvious.

Cost of spoilage, missed orders, delayed production runs, increased storage etc all contribute to an arsenal of headaches. As a recent customer exclaimed “This is what we need right now, it’s a lifesaver!”

As companies look to diversify supply options, sourcing decisions could be more complex than ever before.

• Speed As the saying goes “It’s not the big that eat the small, it’s the fast that eat the slow” Right now agility is key.

Things are changing by the hour. The speed of understanding the impact a change will have on your supply plans will have to be faster than ever before, at least sub-hour.

You also must be able to test resolution as fast. Any lag time in testing alternative sources, allocating limited supply or responding to new regulatory restrictions will cause plans to be obsolete before you can act.

For planners to have confidence in their decisions, they need to be able to create scenarios for decision support in seconds.

Cloud based software is available anywhere you have WIFI and can be synced on demand with your inventory recording software or ERP.

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Manufacturing Technology title INDUSTRY 4.0 NETWORK SITE VISITS Hansa Products Business overview From their base in Hamilton, Hansa Products design, manufacture and service wood-chippers that are gaining a reputation for quality and performance around the world. Having grown rapidly over the past 10 years and moved to multiple new premises in the process, they have actively employed technology to cut down on administration time and costs and boost the value added by their team.

Background As a rapidly growing manufacturer with a complex supply chain and large and geographically widespread customer base, the Hansa team were at risk of incurring large administrative overheads as they grew. Managing suppliers, customers and engineering changes alone could have introduced multiple roles to manage data entry and paperwork, as well as introducing opportunities for errors in data.

A traditional quoting process would involve capturing all the requirements of a customer on an email or phone call, transferring this data manually into a computer system, generating a PDF, saving it, locating it, and attaching it to a reply email to the customer. This was followed by entering the contact details into a CRM and manually scheduling a follow up call in a week’s time.

This process could easily take a team member 20 minutes by the time they collated all the relevant information, typed up an email and sent it back to the customer. Multiplied across all the enquiries in a day this seemingly small task clocks up significant

manage data to operate efficiently and deliver the right service and experience to customers. They started small and engaged an independent company to build a data management portal for customers tracking distributors, dealers and end users and their order history.

When enterprise automation is introduced, the information from the phone call or email is entered through data validated fields (dropdowns etc.) and the click of a button completes all the above steps instantaneously with very few opportunities for error.

This quickly progressed into the ability to automate call scheduling and follow up (similar to many CRM systems today). This ability to automate previously administrative and time-consuming tasks opened the management teams’ eyes to the possibilities of automating numerous other processes.

After starting small, the team then scaled fast, rolling out solutions in quoting, purchasing, and managing engineering changes. The agile approach allowed them to deploy solutions rapidly and identify and fix issues rapidly which promoted a culture of continuous improvement around the ideal of ‘zero admin.’ >

INDUSTRY 4.0 NETWORK SITE VISITS Hansa Products Conclusion

The solution

Anytime enterprise information needed to be collated and reported, or sent to suppliers or customers, it represented a potential waste and opportunity for inaccuracy, which in turn formed an opportunity to improve. Through these constant iterations, despite growing rapidly, the company has never needed to employ any admin staff. Any minor admin required is managed easily by existing areas in engineering, marketing, and sales.

Early on in their growth, the management team identified the need to quickly and accurately

This could equally apply to other businesses, for example those where engineering drawing updates

non-productive time. Minor inaccuracies could also be introduced when manually entering information, for example with purchase orders, where getting a single digit wrong could cause significant waste downstream in production.

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are needed. An error-strewn and laborious process is converted into a one button click, which would also archive all old drawings of that part number, generate the new drawing, send the new drawing to the supplier and update revisions on paperwork.

When these results are mirrored across all enterprise functions the result is ‘zero admin’ with all tasks completed ‘at source’ meaning there is little to no delay in processing, and data is always up to date and accurate. This is essential with multiple points of contact servicing customers around the world.

Ultimately this has resulted in the Hansa ‘office’ team, despite having no administration staff, categorising themselves as having an hour or less of admin each week.

Key Learnings In going through the Network Site Visit, there were several key learnings – • Very few, if any, clerical or data errors due to automated data transfer between processes • Significantly lower overheads as a result of less admin and production efficiency • Elevation of team members to add more value for customers and take on more interesting roles • Empowered change culture to constantly challenge the way systems operate and make them more efficient for the benefit of all.

Further questions?

To find out more please contact Michael Burgess at EMA or Frank Phillips at LMAC Michael Burgess +64 9 367 0936 manufacturing@ema.co.nz Frank Phillips +64 (0) 272233077 frank.phillips@lmac.co.nz

Manufacturing Technology Upgrading Industry 4.0 with edge analytics Johan Jonzon, Co-Founder and CMO of low-code streaming analytics platform Crosser, explains the important role of edge analytics in Industry 4.0.

A 2020 survey conducted by industrial automation provider Yokogawa revealed that 48 per cent of respondents valued productivity as a key focus in their digitalisation strategies, while 40 per cent regarded operational efficiency as their main objective.

Edge computing plays a key role in facilitating this acceleration, but making the edge intelligent is essential to maintaining its value.

Edge analytics is the process of collecting, analysing and acting on data gathered from IIoT devices directly from the edge, enabling manufacturers to improve their efficiency and make innovation happen faster. But how?

Accessing machine data Big data laid the foundations of Industry 4.0, yet accessing it in the right way continues to challenge manufacturers. Factory floors have so many different machines, which all collect data with the potential to provide valuable insight.

Retrieving relevant data in the correct format is the first hurdle for manufacturers looking to make the most of their edge capabilities.

However, it isn’t just the quantity of data that edge analytics controls. It is also used to harmonise data by converting different datasets into a common format for machine compatibility and comparison.

Factory floors hold equipment from multiple generations, which all collect data in different ways.

Processing this vast amount of data at the edge

prevents overwhelming the cloud system, and also significantly reduces associated costs.

By avoiding expensive cloud entry services, only processing and storing relevant data on the cloud can reduce costs by up to 99 per cent.

Streamlining industrial processes Overcoming data access issues is the first benefit of edge analytics for manufacturers, but establishing how to make the most of the data collected is the next piece of the puzzle.

It is estimated that between 60 and 73 per cent of all data collected is not used for analytics. However, tapping into data in real time can enhance machine performance and streamline operational efficiency.

Analysing data at the edge equips manufacturers with the opportunity to evaluate it as data is being produced and respond to machines to enhance their performance.

For example, the speed at which a machine is running could be modified immediately in response to the data collected from the next machine on the factory floor.

Choosing to do this at the edge rather than the cloud makes this application possible. Keeping the data local facilitates valuable machine to machine (M2M) communication across equipment from different generations running on different protocols using data from different sources, streamlining manufacturing processes.

Improving business management The efficiency of the factory floor affects every business operation — if production slows or equipment fails there could be major disruption to

the entire supply chain.

Just as edge analytics can connect machines and processes without sending data to the cloud, it can also integrate data into the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

An ERP system is a business process management software that manages a company’s finances, supply chain, operations, manufacturing and human resources activities all in one place.

ERP systems are increasingly moving towards an event-driven architecture (EDA), which uses information to connect business functions in real-time by responding to ‘events’.

Modern event-driven edge analytics software can be used as the connecting layer between the factory floor and the ERP system, which can be used to send relevant data in real time to other business functions.

In this way, data collected directly from the factory floor can be used across multiple business areas, to improve quality control, meet increases in product demand, and avoid disruption due to unexpected equipment downtime.

Edge analytics is a key technology for making the most of a smart edge infrastructure. By facilitating real-time communication between machines, processes and other business areas for more efficient production output, edge analytics allow manufacturers to maximise machine data’s potential for increased efficiency not only on the factory floor, but across the entire company’s operations.

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Productivity Four essential elements to improve productivity, performance and profitability 2020 demonstrated the importance of global supply chains and local manufacturing to keep our supermarket shelves full.

To achieve this, we need to run efficient supply chains from paddock to plate, procurement to delivery and supplier to consumer.

But most businesses aren’t delivering anywhere near their true potential, capacity or capability.

With over two decades of experience in global manufacturing, I’ve seen how the best-of-the-best companies operate. There are several ‘syndromes’ preventing such companies from operating like a world-class Swiss watch.

First, our affection towards automation is flawed. We implement technological applications as solutions looking for a problem.

A recent study found that overall supply chain maturity has decreased despite heavy focus on technology. Second, we hold the view that we’re already there.

We believe we are doing well based on our own yardsticks and standards.

Finally, the too busy issue. It feels good to be busy, but are we being productive? If we can’t find time to make time, then we’ll never have enough time.

If we are serious about shifting our performance year-on-year, then focus on Operational Excellence (OpEx) processes to deliver results. Such frameworks form the blueprint to consistently shift performance, productivity and, ultimately, profitability.

Before starting on an OpEx journey, address these four ‘paradigms’ to ensure that your approach is right, expectations are clear and teams are ready.

Peak versus Hills: This paradigm highlights the notion of staying focused on conquering one significant peak over a long period, as opposed to exhausting and frustrating your team by climbing hill after hill. This paradigm is not about how we develop strategy, but rather how to build traction in deploying it.

How do you keep your team engaged and inspired? Are you breaking down your strategies into bite-sized chunks to help your team make incremental progress? How do you share the load across your team? As per Sir Edmund Hillary, ‘It is not

the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.’

Elephants versus Turtles: This paradigm refers to how elephant calves are raised by herds thus increasing their chances of survival to around 65% compared with turtle hatchlings at only 0.1%.

When trying to move a business forward, we invariable come across constraints and problems that hold us back from advancing with speed and ease.

The secret to unlocking greater capacity, efficiency and capability is to regularly identify, prioritise and solve critical issues in a structured way.

While this is not a novel concept, the issue is that we try to do too much and end up not doing very much at all. This begs the question: are you laying turtle eggs or nurturing elephant calves?

Signal versus Noise: With so many daily distractions, how does your team stay focused? What clear signals do your team use to track progress effectively?

This paradigm focuses on dialling up the right signals while reducing the noise, so your team can operate with its finger on the pulse.

Have you established metrics that matter to your team? Are they reviewed regularly? And most importantly, how does your team take decisive and swift actions to correct any negative trends? At any given time, every team member should know if they are winning or losing.

Sprint versus Marathon: An overused but apt phrase is business excellence is a marathon. However, many still try to sprint the marathon and leave their team feeling burnt out and exhausted.

This paradigm focuses on building the awareness and capabilities of your team to meet the increasing demands of maturing businesses and OpEx practices.

How comfortable is your team at successfully leading change, managing risks and influencing key individuals?

Solving day-to-day chaos doesn’t improve year-on-year performance. By addressing the above four paradigms and implementing an Operational Excellence framework, over time you will notice: increased agility in the business, making your trek to

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the peak uneventful; improved accountability within your team to take action, make progress and deliver results; integrated alignment with the strategic plan, never losing focus on what you set out to achieve; and intensified awareness with your key team members to do more, grow more and be more.

Excellence is a journey. So, start it, support it and sustain it.

Ishan Galapathy, author of ‘ADVANCE: 12 Essential Elements to Supercharge Productivity & Profitability’ (Bison Press, $30.00), has a wealth of knowledge in the field of Operational Excellence (OpEx), having worked across six countries for over two decades.

Renowned for his simplified techniques, Ishan works with manufacturing businesses to help them move from Chaos to ExcellenceTM.

But most businesses aren’t delivering anywhere near their true potential, capacity or capability.

Manufacturing Technology Preventing production downtime through centralised monitoring -Daniel Sultana, Director of Security & IOT Systems for APAC, Pressler

Poor production efficiency can lead to congestion within manufacturing workflows, as well as production and order fulfilment and this ultimately has an impact on profitability.

Closely interconnected manufacturing environments enable businesses to learn and adapt, allowing them to reach much higher levels of production efficiency than previously achieved before the IT and OT environments were integrated.

To bring together IT and OT, infrastructure monitoring must allow the individual creation of maps and dashboards with the option of integrating elements from both worlds to deliver understandable and familiar data to IT experts as well as OT professionals.

Whilst manufacturers are scrambling to meet the new challenges brought about by the benefits of converging their Information Technology and Operational Technology (IT/OT) environments, there is another crucial aspect they must consider, too: how to monitor it all to reduce risk and optimise production efficiency.

The risks of exposing OT

new processes. Traditionally isolated areas must be connected, and new processes must be established and continuously controlled.

To achieve and ensure this, a superior, central control station is required to monitor, visualise, control and regulate production and IT.

Preventing downtime In industrial IT, it is vital to inform the right person in the right place with the right information for every equipment failure event - in real-time!

It is essential to deliver this downtime information to the technicians and engineers that manage them in a way they understand in a single glance.

Sending an email to the system administrator is not sufficient for mixed IT/OT environments. A roles and rights system is required to establish individual alert management.

Convergence requires exposing OT and this creates risks because security concerns have always been the main reason for the isolation of production away from IT.

It needs a broad range of alerting methods like SMS or push notifications to reach people away from their desk. Finally, triggering an action to automatically solve issues is often a must.

Machines and facilities have always been shielded from the outside world. Exposing production lines so that machines can communicate with customers, letting them make direct orders, for example, and with other aspects of the infrastructure requires opening up OT in new ways.

Monitoring a production line to prevent bottlenecks

Communication problems

By combining various techniques and ideas, live monitoring of a manufacturing line can be implemented that provides valuable data for engineering and business decisions and for improving the output by removing any bottlenecks identified.

Due to their isolation, machines and production facilities have never had to communicate with the exterior IT world. As a result, proprietary systems and protocols were developed, which are not compatible with classic IT. Universal protocols like MQTT or standards like Modbus TCP or OPC UA can put things right, but still, too few IT systems understand such universal languages. Diverse protocols and standards handicap communication between IT and OT environments.

Rethinking processes Even simple Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) initiatives require re-thinking and establishing

For a production line to function efficiently, relevant parameters to monitor are the output, overall run-time of production and the stop frequency of the line.

On a production line, they need access to data about how many products are manufactured, at which time and when gaps in manufacturing happened and why.

Often production data is collected manually on

paper forms or entered into digital questionnaires post-production.

The production line or the control system can not be altered or interfaced directly due to the very complex validation and verification standards used.

Manufacturers need to install passive sensors that detect objects passing along the production line and then collect the data in a central hub for further processing.

This will provide a convenient graphical user interface for production metrics, which shows easy-to-read real-time graphics and summaries that are constantly updated throughout the day.

It is important to be able to show how production is doing at every given time in relation to the elapsed production time.

A monitoring system needs to constantly send the current time of day, in minutes, to a sensor.

Then it is possible to calculate the percentage of time passed in the current production workday versus the produced products as a percentage of the total goal for the day. Using those two values, it’s possible to show if production is on target or not.

This calculation is vital to be able to react in real-time to bottlenecks, causing delays in production output.

The frequency of production, i.e. output per hour, also provides historic analysis to test potential improvements in production efficiency.

The best way to solve bottlenecks is by monitoring metrics such as throughput, capacity and wait time.

Then it is possible to evaluate the consequences of those bottlenecks. What operations are being delayed as a result?

Thirdly, manage those bottlenecks. What can be done immediately to solve them? And finally, work towards preventing future bottlenecks from arising.

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The Leaders Terry Carter – General Manager New Zealand Tube Mills Ltd What does your company do?

We have gone from a manufacturer of raw tube and exhaust systems to a manufacturer of steel tubular trellising solutions.

Founded in Seaview, in the Hutt Valley, the company was forced to shift its focus from the automotive industry to the horticultural market when its work in manufacturing exhaust systems for cars dried up in the late 90s after New Zealand’s car assembly plants slowly disappeared.

We are one of one only two steel tube manufacturing plants in New Zealand. We buy coil, predominantly from N Z Steel, and make them into tube and up until 2010 we basically made tube for other people to make things (furniture etc).

Some clever engineers at the time came across an opportunity to create tubular steel innovative trellising solutions for the horticulture industry for both new vineyard and the replacement of damaged wooden posts.

Promoted under the ECO TRELLIS brand, these vineyard posts have proven to be a great sustainable option.

More recently the development of two other trellis systems (one for orchards and one for Berries) called the Eco V & VP and ECO BERRY.

What sort of state was NZ Tube Mills in when you first started and how did you turn it around?

When I came on board in late 2012 the company was in trouble. They had a great product, but sales were down - in fact they were losing money hand over fist, and it was only a matter of time before they would be forced to shut shop.

My brief from the then Australian based Group CEO was ‘the business is struggling and needs volume’ as sales revenue was declining year on year.

When I started there was just one salesperson based in the South Island and that one person covered the whole of Australasia for all of the companies products.

I soon worked out what we needed were more ‘arms and legs’ on the ground selling specific product to target markets. I basically got more people on the ground and the rest is history.

We added a dedicated vineyard salesperson and went to trade shows which turned out to be highly impactful. We now have a salesperson in every key wine growing state of Australia which has been instrumental in getting new business.

I took it upon myself to handle all the exports to the other markets including the United States as well as market any new product that was developed.

In 2012, when I started, sales of ECO TRELLIS were $250,000 - last year we turned over $12 million dollars for this product alone.

The growth has been exponential in the past 5 years, as more acceptance of the product has been received.

ECO TRELLIS has proved to be so successful there has been huge recent growth across the US and Australian viticulture markets. Our other trellis systems are gaining good acceptance too, in orchards within Australasia.

How are you finding current business conditions?

We are about 40% up on last year. This is a result of 10 years of hard slog, and it boils down to the fact we have a great product. We are also in the right space for horticulture and viticulture.

The viticulture market is doing exceptionally well in NZ now because there is huge demand from overseas markets, and we are riding on the back of Sauvignon Blanc.

We sell a lot of our ECO TRELLIS product to Constellation Brands in the USA which own the Kim Crawford brand – one of the original Sauvignon Blanc winemakers in NZ. They grow that variety here and ship the grapes over in bulk and bottle it in the USA. Our Pinot Noir is also becoming increasingly popular to export, with vineyards investing in our trellis product, particularly in Central Otago.

Where are the opportunities for your company?

The opportunities are adding to the existing product range and providing a solution for our customers.

For example, instead of just making our steel ECO BEAM for kiwifruit we also make posts and braces for organics.

The apple growers used to have big timber poles which were hard to put in and easy to break so we came up with a system that the grower can easily install rather than using heavy equipment likes cranes.

All of the ECO range also

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beneficial because it is recyclable, environmentally friendly and warranty is offered, unlike CCA treated timber.

It’s important to note everything we do as a company is very seasonal – we focus our activity on the NZ market from the start of April to September, so it was important to spend the other 6 months of the year focusing on moving into the Northern Hemisphere.

It has been hard work and a challenge to tap into the United States marketplace, but we are now selling to three out of the top 5 wine brands in the country.

More expansion into the Northern hemisphere is next. We have just secured some funding from NZTE so a company based in France can carry out a specialised marketing investigation into six different countries in Europe.

This will help us have a better understanding of who the players are and what barriers those countries might have (i.e. tariffs). From that data, we will hopefully be able to decide what countries to tap into first.

The general life expectancy of a vineyard is 20-25 years because it gets diseased, and yields are way down over time.

We are coming up to that era in Marlborough, from first plantings, so there is a real opportunity to drum up new business in vineyards seeking our trellising solutions for the redeveloped vineyards.

How are you finding staff retention and recruitment at present?

We have 58 staff in total and are big on investing in our staff and retaining them. The business has a lot of long servers. The biggest challenge we face now is hiring staff – we are so flat out we do not have the workers.

These are not highly skilled jobs. Typically, we take on Temps, to see they can do the work initially and get here on time.

We currently could take on 5 or more staff but just can’t fill roles so currently our permanent staff are doing overtime to meet the demand, but we can’t keep that up forever, or risk burn out.

We offer 4-day weeks (10 hours a day) to most

NEW PRODUCTS

The Leaders

New cradle containers revolutionise log transportation production staff, so people have the choice to have a 3 day weekend or, when available, work overtime on the Friday

come back to bite). Show vision.

What have been some of the challenges you have faced as a leader over the years?

What role has the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce had in supporting your business?

Leading shipping container supplier Royal Wolf and KiwiRail have jointly developed a bespoke logging container that The business was very mature, with a lot of long significantly efficiencies and capacity when transporting logs to the Port of Tauranga for export. serving staff.

Yes, we export toimproves Australia and the United States Do you export?

although as I mentioned we are containers, looking to tap The 484 logging cradle cassette builtinto by Europe.

Royal Wolf’s Intermodal Business Unit, were specially In 2018 about of our total wasold export designed as a17% replacement forbusiness KiwiRail’s log and nowwhich we are up over 35% export. wagons were designed to only carry logs.

Is company experiencing Theyour new 20-foot cassette containers canincreased be loaded costs?

If so, how do you deal with them… and secured onto different types of railway wagons reduce staff,compatibility up prices, go to increase andoffshore? capacity across KiwiRail’s network.huge increases in steel prices and We are witnessing over 50% increase in raw says materials since December.

“We’re problem solvers,” Michael Horne, Royal It hasn’t hit the market to any great degree but it’s about to. Steel is an international commodity, and it comes back to China which has become a net importer as opposed to an exporter.

There is extremely high demand for steel, and limited supply combined with the fact the biggest player (China) is not exporting has resulted in a significant price increase.

Our vineyard product is typically 20% more expensive than timber.

If steel prices keep increasing, we will have to increase our prices, and this could be detrimental to us as it will widen the gap between the ECO TRELLIS and timber products.

This we’ve always done “We it thatmodify way” Wolfcreated General“but Manager Intermodal. mentality challenging thespecific status logistics quo, whilst containers -tosomeet a company’s and being mindful thatKiwiRail’s culture change time. are a transport needs. loggingtakes cassettes perfect lessons example ofhave us tailoring a container solution What you learnt along the to help increase efficiencies and capability for a way? client.”

Act promptly when required, but mostly take time Royal Wolf worked closely with KiwiRail to develop to form a considered view, then be decisive and a prototype container followed by the manufacture committed. of a batch of containers and then the final product.

What have been the highlights for you?

Mr Horne says having the right container is essential Our successlogistics with the ECO TRELLIS suite of products to enable companies to maximise loading –and from small beginnings to a wider range, increased capacity for products as they transport freight sales, and – that range is now a major part of around theexport country. the business.

“There are a wide range of commodities and Winning the odd industry notably taking products transported in our award, containers but coming home the Wellington GOLD Supreme Business up with a solution for the safe transportation of logs Award ina2019 huge recognition for our required very which specificwas design. entire team.

The cassette containers are functional but also highly What advice give someone innovative becausewould they areyou able to be secured to a looking to get into a leadership range of different wagons in the KiwiRail role fleet.”in a

NZ workplace?

Just go for it! I’ve always been involved in coaching, so it was kind of natural ‘to lead’. It’s not for everyone but sure is challenging and rewarding most of the time. operation where safety and ergonomics are a Who inspires you and why? major concern, including the transport, lifting and John Key. Aof self-made man but with empathy for placement pads and their abilityanto withstand the people too.

And of course, my clever engineers, extreme loads without permanent deformation. who always come up with solutions.

Compared with steel plates, they offer very high What the best piece of business advice recoveryisduring deformation – making them ready you had had? to use for a much longer period. Because they Our Steel & Tube CEO, Nick Calvarias (who was are old virtually indestructible, they are also highly tragically killed inCut a Car v Bicycle cost-efficient, says to Size Plastics.accident a few years back) said “always be honest to yourself, your Cut to Size designs and manufactures components colleagues and your customers”. for applications across Australasia from its Head What somewhere of facilities the keyinclude action’s Office inare Sydney, CNC businesses can take to help themselves machining facilities coupled with GibbsCAM and network stay connected?

Solidworks and software.

Be aware of what organisations, like Hutt Valley The low weight of cast Wearex float pads makes them Chamber of Commerce are offering – attend those easier to handle during use and assembly. Ergonomic events that are important to you that will add value handles can be designed into their structure, or rope to your approach to business. handles integrated into their construction.

KiwiRail’s network extends the length of the country with approximately one third of New Zealand’s export goods transported by rail. Each week KiwiRail operate 800 freight services carrying goods around the country.

“We support sustainable practices and rail is certainly an environmentally friendly and cost-efficient transport solution. Companies are always looking at opportunities to reduce costs and we help them do that with simple, yet highly efficient containerised solutions.”

As well as creating bespoke intermodal and freight solutions, Royal Wolf’s standard Intermodal and Freight range includes 20, 25, 40 and 48-foot Curtainside and hard sided containers, and a selection of side door containers which allow easy Helen Down Terry Carter. side access toand goods.

Hutt of Commerce hasofprovided a RoyalValley Wolf Chamber is the leading provider shipping good resource for business related matters, ably lead container solutions in Australasia, from high volume by Executive Helencontainers Down. for hire, through fit Chief for purpose storage The Chamber keeps us updated with what is happening from both Government and the wider business community which is beneficial to us.

Portable outrigger lifting pads make light of challenges We don’t own the 8,000 square metre site we are currently located on in Seaview.

Our lease comes up Light, easily handled and virtually unbreakable in 4 years lifting and if pads we aren’t able to renewrated our lease, outrigger that can withstand loads and thatthan could50happen in a prime of more tons pergiven pointwe areare engineered by location, we will have to relocate and that will be Cut To Size Plastics for high stability jobs involving challenging as infrastructure, there is limitedexploration, supply of construction,enough resources commercial space in the region! mobile worksite equipment and emergency use.

We may then have to be forced to change our The pads – weighing as little as 14-21kg for point business model, focus only on ECO TRELLIS and buy loads of 40-60 tons – are custom-fabricated from the more high-speed equipment if we were restricted on proven Wearex™ UHMWPE (Ultra-High Molecular space. Relocation out of the Wellington area could Weight Polyethylene) family in particular shapes be a real possibility. required for diverse ground conditions.

What qualities do you need to be an These include conditions encountered by truck effective leader in the workplace?

cranes, rigger cranes, mobile cranes, auxiliary cranes, Lead from the front, don’t ask the staff to do mobile concrete pumps, manlifts, access equipment, anything you wouldn’t do. mobile drill rigs, 4wd service vehicles and by Be a good,used considered listener. Be not machinery for agribusiness, oil decisive, and gas, but mining, impulsive.

Take time to consider what is put in front pipelining, civil engineering and similar applications. and be mindful of setting precedents (that could The Wearex family is particularly suitable for

I also believe the Chamber is a great advocate for local businesses, so I feel comfortable knowing it has Theyback, are so easily transportable in 4wd and diesel our to speak. trucks and Hutt machinery, example,ofsuch as those A recent Valleyfor Chamber Commerce used acrossConfidence mining, infrastructure, construction Business survey found what businesses want thediverse mostand is often to connect and energy sites across remote with each other. What are some of the worksites. benefits for your business when it comes to being a member of the Chamber and why did you join?

The benefits include the ability to connect and talk to like minds about what is affecting them and why.

Leading a business can be a lonely place, so it is good to have that access to others.

We can share knowledge, build networks, and discuss any concerns which is definitely advantageous for us as a business.

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The Circular Economy Good as gold: Waste in a circular economy

By Barbara Nebel and Femi Perumbally https://www.thinkstep-anz.com/ There is no waste in a circular economy, only resources and opportunities to use them to their full potential.

Unlike a linear economy, a circular economy or ōhanga āmiomio, proposes a model in which economic growth is not connected to an increased use of limited, natural resources. Instead, growth in a circular economy relies on designing products and systems for longevity in their first life and recyclability and reusability for consequent lives.

Therefore, we can keep resources in use for as long as possible and reduce the demand for raw (virgin) material — getting the most value out of existing materials and reducing the costs of material extraction methods in the process.

However, we currently live in a linear economy with a take-make-dispose model in which waste is inevitable.

While there is still a way to go before we reach a truly circular economy, some businesses are leading the transition with innovative approaches to create value with waste-based products. From galvanising to paint to IT equipment waste, we look at some of the local businesses creating golden opportunities with waste.

Zincovery — Creating a waste free industry The galvanised steel industry produces a waste acid with a high concentration of zinc — an eco-toxin that is essential for humans in trace amounts but toxic to aquatic life. Generally, this is disposed of via wastewater and landfill after treatment.

However, this results in the loss of zinc, a useful mineral, and its incomplete removal from wastewater degrades most sewage treatment processes and causes environmental damage to waterways.

Zincovery tackles these issues by taking the waste acid and recycling it while also recovering zinc. While extracting valuable materials from waste is certainly circular economy friendly, it does not necessarily have to be climate friendly.

Zincovery considers the climate impact of their processes with a carbon footprint, ensuring that they have the data required to make well-informed decisions that don’t cost the planet.

Avertana — Breathing life into waste Avertana delivers on its vision to ‘breathe life’ into existing industrial waste by extracting valuable minerals and chemicals from waste that are used in the manufacture of everything from paint and paper to fertilisers.

The focuses on delivering circular economy solutions by taking low-value by-products from heavy manufacturing and turning them into commodities, without creating additional solid waste.

James Obern, VP Commercial and Co-Founder of Avertana, explains the benefits: “Starting with a low-value raw material and turning it entirely into products gives our process a much lower manufacturing cost and also a far smaller environmental footprint than the take-make-dispose value chains we see today in the industries that our process serves.”

Avertana is well-positioned to tap into the increasing demand for sustainability in industrial supply chains.

“Our discussions with major end-users of the products our process makes, from paint to water treatment chemicals to concrete, have confirmed they are strongly motivated to make their supply chains more sustainable,” says James.

Waste slag, a solid by-product of steel manufacturing, is the main area of focus for Avertana as it provides the raw material for their extraction technology.

The idea for Avertana’s slag refining process originated from a desire to connect unavoidable industrial waste with large commodity markets.

Although the team had a good understanding of their technology’s potential impact on climate and the environment, they wanted to base their decisions on data rather than intuition.

James explains why they undertook a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study: “We originally set out on the LCA journey because we wanted to measure how our process stacked up against the technology options already available to pigment manufacturers.

“While we intuitively understood that our solution should be greener, the LCA process allowed us to quantify the expected environmental advantages of our process at scale.

“The LCA enables us to be confident that what we are bringing to market is truly a better alternative to current pathways, not just for CO2 emissions but also solid and hazardous waste reduction.”

Mint Innovation — Turning waste into gold Another local company is completely reconceptualising waste, turning e-waste — a significant area of waste in NZ — into gold.

Mint Innovation has developed low-impact and low-cost technology that extracts gold and other precious metals from e-waste such as old laptops, computers, and mobile phones.

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The company is looking to work with local recyclers to collect e-waste, recover metals, and make them available for reuse in the manufacture of new products.

The company has a pilot plant in Auckland and has recently announced an upcoming large-scale bio-refining facility in Sydney.

While Mint Innovation focuses on recovering precious materials from e-waste, the Government focuses on minimising the amount of e-waste that is being sent to the landfill. In July 2020, the Government announced six priority products including e-waste for regulated (mandatory) product stewardship under the Waste Minimisation Act. Product stewardship puts more responsibility for a product’s end-of-life on the people who create, import, sell, and use it, rather than on communities, councils, neighbourhoods, or nature.

While regulated product stewardship is an important step to address waste, it is only part of the wider equation. Companies like Mint Innovation fill in the technology gap to progress from minimising waste to creating value out of waste.

Taking it one step further with cradle to cradle design These companies transform waste into opportunities, keep resources in use for as long as possible, reduce the demand for virgin resources, and minimise waste. If we go back one step further and design products for a circular economy, we can make it easier and more cost-effective to extract materials at their end-of-life.

The ultimate circular product is one designed with cradle-to-cradle (C2C) principles. Traditionally, products are designed for one life with a cradle to grave approach, with some being recycled and most being landfilled at the end of its useful life.

The Cradle to Cradle® design principles established

by Dr. Michael Braungart and William McDonough offer an alternative to keep materials in circulation with technical and biological spheres.

All materials are considered nutrients in a cradle-to-cradle system and return to their respective spheres to be used again and again.

According to Cradle to Cradle®, there is no such thing as waste, only materials in the wrong place.

Although C2C is built on circular principles, it employs a wider systems approach to ensure that it does not neglect the other impacts that can be caused by a product at any stage in its life cycle.

This includes the working conditions of people in the supply chain and the carbon footprint of products.

A C2C certified product is designed with circular economy principles and created in alignment with high social and environmental standards. At the end of its life, a product made according to C2C principles is the best place to find waste as good as gold.

Trade What New Zealand should win from its trade agreement with post-Brexit Britain Alexander Gillespie Professor of Law, University of Waikato Bruised by its divorce from the European Union, Britain is busy getting out more, making new friends and renewing old acquaintances.

Serenaded with promises of cheaper cars, whiskey and marmite, Australia was first to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) with the UK — but New Zealand is not far behind.

The National Party opposition was quick to criticise the Labour government for being too slow with a UK deal, but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern responded pointedly by saying New Zealand wanted “quality over speed”.

The significance of the Australian deal has also been downplayed, with the credit rating agency Moody’s saying, “the economic impact of the trade deal is negligible”. Others have argued the deal is more about demonstrating post-Brexit sovereignty than economic gain.

Yet there’s no denying Britain needs to diversify its markets to offset the negative economic impacts of Brexit. New Zealand, too, is keen to grow trade after the pandemic disruptions and diversify its trade markets beyond China.

With a deal expected this August, the big questions are: what’s really in it for New Zealand, and what considerations will have guided negotiations?

Much has changed since Britain joined the old European Common Market and cut the colonial apron strings. New Zealand is a different country now and can cut a deal on its own terms.

For example, beyond limited quota volumes, British tariffs on New Zealand butter and cheese are equivalent to 45% of the product value, 16% on honey and up to 20% on seafood products. The tariff on New Zealand wine ranges between £10 and £26 ($18–$48) per litre.

So, New Zealand should expect nothing less for it exports than the gains Australia has just made.

While there is a lot of detail yet to come about the Australia-UK FTA, it appears British quotas will rise and tariffs drop quickly over the next decade.

According to some analysis, this is effectively an elimination of the old trade barriers.

The same must be a bottom line for New Zealand’s primary products, too. There may be resistance from the British agricultural sector, which has been sounding the alarm that free trade could “could spell the end” for farmers. It won’t, but the Australian FTA reportedly caused a “ferocious row” within Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet.

Regardless, settling for anything less than Canberra achieved would be a national disgrace for New Zealand.

Priority 2: principle The FTA’s scope needs to be wider than just product exchange. For example, New Zealand is part of an international initiative pushing for an agreement on climate change, trade and sustainability.

Including the guiding principles of that agreement – removing tariffs on environmental goods, eliminating harmful fossil fuel subsidies, and the development of eco-labelling programmes – should be a priority.

As New Zealand continues to improve its agricultural response to climate change and humane farming standards, this will help deflect any blowback against its exports. It also represents a competitive advantage, with New Zealand being seen to be using international trade to drive sustainability standards.

Māori interests must be the other main priority in this area. After all, Māori have a unique relationship with

the British Crown, given it was the emissaries of Queen Victoria with whom the Treaty of Waitangi was signed.

As the emissaries of Elizabeth II (the great-great-granddaughter of Victoria) negotiate this latest milestone in the relationship, they must be made fully aware of the importance and relevance of the Treaty to any new agreement, especially with Maori-led trade initiatives.

Priority 3: people Finally, the agreement must also be about people.

Britain will be seeking to mitigate the reduced migration flows caused by Brexit, and New Zealanders will be prime targets. Aside from the tourist potential, Britain will want Kiwi students, workers and entrepreneurs.

Retaining and expanding British access for New Zealanders, however, must be reciprocal. If not, New Zealand risks losing one of the few positive outcomes of COVID-19, namely the “brain gain” of returning expats.

The government’s so-called “once-in-a-generation reset” of the immigration system is central to this, moving New Zealand away from relying on low-skilled workers to attracting those with higher skills. Making New Zealand an attractive and viable option for Britain’s best and brightest should be a by-product of the FTA. With formal negotiations concluded, the “quality” of the eventual deal remains to be seen. But New Zealanders should expect an agreement that appropriately acknowledges the special relationship between the two countries.

More than that, New Zealand is no longer the junior partner. The reality is, for post-Brexit Britain, a good deal for New Zealand is still a good deal.

Scott Morrison and Boris Johnson announcing the broad terms of the Australia-UK free trade deal agreement in London in June. AAP

Priority 1: product Where once Britain was New Zealand’s most important trading partner in the 19th century, today it ranks sixth. Well behind China, Australia and (ironically) the European Union, trade with the UK was nonetheless worth nearly NZ$6 billion by 2019.

But it’s not exactly a two-way street.

While New Zealand embraced free trade and did away with many import tariffs, Britain still imposes tariffs on imports. So, while British motor vehicles attract very little in the way of tariffs (other than GST) in New Zealand, there remain prohibitively high tariffs and quota restrictions on New Zealand’s key exports to the UK.

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HEADING

Strengthening digital skills for industry – new micro-credential launched Low levels of digital literacy among staff is a challenge facing many manufacturing businesses, and strengthening those skills is not only essential to meet rapid technological changes in the workplace, it’s vital to increasing productivity.

Digital literacy encompasses numeracy, literacy and computer skills. Across the manufacturing sector, digital literacy has been identified as the most pressing skills gap due to the technological changes required to remain competitive.

manufacturing is improved quality and productivity.

This is achieved by digitally networking as many parts of the manufacturing processes as possible; from ordering to dispatch and including the upstream supply chain and real-time production.

To improve the level of digital literacy and to begin to meet the demands brought about by Industry 4.0, Competenz has developed a new micro-credential specifically for the manufacturing industry.

“This new micro-credential programme will give workers the essential skills required to confidently use digital technology in a manufacturing workplace.”

“As technology progresses and we move further into Industry 4.0, workers must be upskilled to keep pace with new systems and processes, especially older employees who are not digital natives, but who have invaluable experience in their fields,” says Competenz Sector Manager Jahn Vannisselroy

In 2020, the micro-credential programme was piloted at Auckland precision electromagnet manufacturer Buckley Systems. It was launched to the wider industry.

“One of the key benefits of Industry 4.0 in

The pilot programme involved ten trainees, all of whom are highly skilled but lacked in digital knowledge and confidence.

“Over nine weeks, the workers improved their skills to the point where productivity increased in the machine shop. What’s more, they expanded their confidence in using their knowledge enabling them to transfer their skills to other aspects of their life,” says Buckley Systems chief people officer Dion Orbell.

“You can just tell they are so much more engaged to use digital now than they were at the beginning. We did not want to let go of these craftsmen. We want to continue to grow them because, without them, we can’t continue to grow our business.”

Buckleys CNC Programming Machinist David Treeby says the course was great and done at a pace “where you learned a subject before moving on to a new one, ensuring everyone kept up”.

“We learned about flowcharts, spreadsheets and other applications. Businesses keep moving and technology keeps moving all the time so you need

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to learn everything you can about digital literacy. It also applies in everyday life and it’s an important skill for everyone at any age – you can’t get left behind,” Treeby says.

The micro-credential is fully funded under the government’s Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund (TTAF) for employers who enrol their staff before 31 December 2022.

“With an aging workforce it’s imperative we enable companies to keep their tradesmen and craftsmen,” says Vannisselroy. “This micro-credential, which we can tailor to a specific company, is giving people the confidence to meet technology head-on.”

To learn more or to register your interest, go to competenz.org.nz/digitalskills

Future-proof your business and equip your team with digital skills Digital Skills for Manufacturing

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ADVISORS Mike Shatford

is an expert in the field of technology development and commercialisation. His company Design Energy Limited has completed over 100 significant projects in this vein by consulting for and partnering with some of New Zealand’s leading producers.

Among Mike and his team’s strengths are industrial robotics and automated production where the company puts much of its focus.

Sandra Lukey

Sandra Lukey is the founder of Shine Group, a consultancy that helps science and technology companies accelerate growth. She is a keen observer of the tech sector and how new developments create opportunity for future business.

She has over 20 years’ experience working with companies to boost profile and build influential connections.

Iain Hosie

Iain Hosie, NanoLayr, Technical Director and Founder Iain is the co-Founder and Technical Director of Revolution Fibres. Iain has been deeply involved in nanofibre production and the development of many unique nanofibre products in the past ten years. Iain co-founded Revolution Fibres in 2009 and led the business since 2012, taking it from a small start-up to a recognszed leader in nanofibre production. Iain has recently moved to the Technical Director role – with a focus on keeping Revolution Fibres at the forefront of textiles innovation.

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Rfider helps link rapid Covid-19 test and digital travel pass technology New Zealand software company Rfider is providing the digital link between a Singaporean-based Covid-19 testing technology company and the platform supporting an increasingly popular, global travel pass.

Chief executive John Pennington says Rfider was first selected by Invitrocue, a multinational, bioanalytic solutions provider, to provide tracking, tracing and verification technology for its saliva-based antigen and PCR-based testing.

“Each test has a unique ID it carries from manufacture through to use and reporting. That ID helps defeat counterfeiting and allows individual test results to be authenticated,” Mr Pennington says.

“We have proven compatibility with Evernym’s Verity, which is the technology platform supporting the IATA travel pass. The travel pass is being trialled by more than 40 airlines at the moment.

“Unlike the tiny bit of paper New Zealanders are given to carry as proof of their vaccination, or single test results, we can digitise this type of data and send it securely to individual’s mobile devices to use for

things like the travel pass.”

James Monaghan, vice-president of product for Evernym, says trust, reliability and privacy are critical for the exchange of health data.

“We are pleased to be working with Rfider to make this possible,” he says. “With this partnership, individuals will be able to store their health data securely on their mobile device and privately share it with trusted providers and authorities with the tap of a button.”

Dr Stephen Fang, Invitrocue’s executive director, says the Rfider platform is providing the mission critical infrastructure required to effectively deploy rapid-testing technologies internationally - and at scale.

“Our tests are able to accurately test for asymptomatic and symptomatic cases of COVID-19 in minutes – without the need for expensive lab equipment,” Dr Fang says.

“With Rfider we are able to scale the deployment of this testing technology and get results to decision

makers and test subjects in real-time.

It is a step-change in not only the way testing is conducted, but how we can get better data faster.”

Dr Fang says the partnership also has the potential to revolutionise point-of-care testing for other infectious diseases and general health.

Mr Pennington says right now the Rfider platform can help to dramatically reduce the time taken to get test results to workers at hospitals, airports, hotels, and has huge potential for recovery of the meetings, incentives, conference, and events (MICE) market internationally.

Roderick Kamleshwaran, a partner at global MICE sector consultancy GainingEdge, says the events sector - from meetings to mega events like Dubai World Expo - is actively looking at rapid Covid testing at venues as a key tool to providing confidence to attendees to return to large gatherings.

Digital communication solution increases coverage and security A new digital radio system from Motorola Solutions and communications partner Central Radio Services (CRS) is helping New Zealand’s City Forests to work more safely and efficiently while complying with COVID-19 work requirements.

Initially deployed to replace an outdated analogue radio network, the system delivers many additional benefits. Among them are contact-free communication and social distancing in the field, replacing the need for drivers to exchange paper job dockets with a digital docketing system.

The new solution incorporates SLR5500 digital two-way radio repeaters across four sites with TRBOnet radio dispatch software providing valuable data and safety features, helping to locate workers wherever they are in the forest.

The system also provides a touch-free method for workers to exchange other essential job details including truck numbers, log quantities and crew ID numbers. All of these solutions are integrated and connected to a digital network radio core provided

by the Orion Network.

Maintaining safety and connection City Forests manages more than 23,730 hectares of forest in the Otago region, growing more than seven million trees while maintaining high standards and certifications for sustainability.

Ensuring safety and security for workers and recreational forest users throughout such an expansive area requires instant, dependable and secure communication.

option to plug in further capabilities to improve safety in the future,” Bonner said.

Motorola Solutions Channel General Manager for Australia and New Zealand, Rhys Clare, said the evolution of digital radio technology is helping enterprises to increase collaboration and performance across their entire operations.

“Enterprises have always depended on radio systems

Forest Production Manager for City Forests, Guy Bonner, said his organisation has experienced many benefits by migrating to an advanced digital communication system.

“Upgrading our network to digital not only enabled clearer voice communication, but provided us with other useful features like text messaging and GPS capability,” said City Forests’ Forest Production Manager, Guy Bonner.

“Moving to a digital platform also gives us the

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Quantum Max FaroArm with multiple laser line probes Faro has releasd its all-new Quantum Max ScanArm, the most advanced portable measurement tool that features three purpose-built hot-swappable Laser Line Probes (LLPs).

Designed to meet a variety of small and medium-sized measurement needs, the LLPs — xR, xP, and xS — ensure that users are no longer forced to choose between speed, accuracy, or resolution.

Maximise value and productivity by over 30% with the enhanced performance and scanning capabilities of the Quantum Max. Each LLP is enhanced with Faro CLR (Continuous Light Rectification) technology, which provides users the highest quality scan data on dark, translucent, and reflective surfaces, eliminating the need for sprays, time-consuming surface preparation, and cleanup while avoiding finished product contamination.

together for overall productivity • xS: Best for large parts or expansive surface areas when data collection speed is top priority — extra wide laser stripe delivers double the coverage in a single pass, allowing users to collect data over 65% faster Quantum Max further enhances speed and accessibility with its kinematic mount that allows each LLP to be interchanged with seamless ease.

The portable measurement arm is fitted with a

With the Quantum Max ScanArm, getting the inspection job done as fast and precisely as possible has never been easier. Changing probes is quick and easy in just seconds, with no need for recalibration so inspection can continue, virtually uninterrupted.

The new Faro LLP family features: • xR: Suited for high-precision tasks or areas on a part with tight tolerances to capture data with up to 30% better accuracy and resolution • xP: Offers a balance of the xR for resolution and the xS for speed so coverage and accuracy blend

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small, light end effector, allowing users to better access hard-to-reach confined spaces while reducing operator fatigue.

SmartFactory ready, Quantum Max is fully compatible with Faro CAM2 software and its Repeat Part Management feature, which allows guided inspection routines to be pre-programmed.

Operators can now perform the exact same inspection routine, minimising variability and maximising repeatability.

Update makes 2D/3D profile sensors smart

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The latest release of the modular uniVision image processing software from Treotham has it all: While in the past an external analysis module always had to be used to evaluate 2D/3D profile recordings, the smart 2D/3D profile sensors now combine sensor and analysis module directly in the compact housing thanks to uniVision 2.4.

FEATURES

New overlays also provide even more user comfort and high-resolution digital cameras with 12 MP offer an even greater choice in the configuration of vision systems.

All the 80 models in the weCat3D series can now also be used as a smart version, with no external analysis module (IPC) required. Both the profile recording and evaluation then take place directly in the sensor housing.

The smart 2D/3D profile sensors show their full strength in particular in plants where space is at a premium. “At the same time, the quality of the profile data generated in the smart sensor remains the same. This new version, which is available with a software license update, is therefore ideal for applications with lower scan rates of up to 50 Hz, for example for angle measurement, but also for high profile quality requirements where highly reflective surfaces such as metals need to be reliably detected,” explains Wenglor Product Manager, Martin Knittel.

“Customers also save the cost of expensive IPCs for applications that do not require high IPC performance. For applications with high performance requirements, the solution with a separate control unit (IPC) is of course still available, offering maximum flexibility and easy interchangeability.”

More visualisation options for greater convenience The web-based visualisation of the results will now include additional overlays in images and height profiles as part of the uniVision 2.4 release.

With overlays such as boxes, cross-sectional areas, rectangles, polygons or images, results such as scanned codes, blobs or threshold images can be displayed directly in the image or profile.

Additional texts such as code content, intersection point or angle information can be assigned to the overlays. Static images (e.g. logos) and OK/NOK images can also be displayed.

New digital cameras with higher resolutions

SUPPLY CHAIN

In addition to the existing digital cameras with a resolution of either 1.6 or 5 MP, there are now also high-resolution cameras available with 12 MP. Compatible with the C mount threaded connection, the new models are also available in either a colour variant (colour) or in a black-and-white version (monochrome).

COMPANY PROFILE DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES

“The advantage of these digital cameras is that the very compact design offers a complete range of resolutions from 1.6 to 12 MP – but is used for the same mounting and connection technology,” says Knittel. “The high-resolution 12 MP cameras also display more details with the same visual field and the same focal distance.” There are a total of seven C mount lenses with fixed focal distances between 6 and 50 mm as suitable accessories for these cameras.

INDUSTRY 4.0 SMART MANUFACTURING

Control examples and output hold time make operation easier To make it easier to integrate all uniVision products into external control systems, sample programs will be available in future. There are examples for the Siemens’ TIA portal, Rockwell’s Studio 5000 Logix Designer, Beckhoff’s TwinCAT 3 and Omron’s Sysmac Studio, for example.

PRODUCTIVITY Advertising Booking Deadline – 6 August 2021 Advertising Copy Deadline – 6 August 2021

The examples show integration via various standard interfaces such as PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, TCP/IP or UDP. For all digital outputs of the control unit, it is also possible to easily detect whether new results are available via the output hold time.

Editorial Copy Deadline – 6 August 2021 Advertising – For bookings and further information contact: Doug Green, P O Box 1109, Hastings 4156, Hawke’s Bay Email: publisher@xtra.co.nz

The highlights at a glance • Smart 2D/3D profile sensor: Profile recording and evaluation directly in the sensor without additional IPC

Editorial material to be sent to : Doug Green, P O Box 1109, Hastings 4156, Hawke’s Bay

• VisionSystem2D: New digital cameras with resolutions of 12 MP ensure high-quality images

Email: publisher@xtra.co.nz Tel: 06 870 9029

• Expansion of visualisation: New overlays in the image and profile as well as static images • Examples of easier integration into control systems via various interfaces • Digital outputs on the control unit: Output hold time for easy checking of results

At NZ MANUFACTURER our aim is to keep our readers up to date with the latest industry news and manufacturing advances in a tasty morsel, ensuring they do not get left behind in the highly competitive and rapidly evolving manufacturing world.

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Around New Zealand

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Business Opportunities

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New Products Global project for innovative plastics recycling continues to gain momentum The “Hydrothermal Plastic Recycling Solution” of startup Mura Technology promises the conversion of plastic back to oil in just 25 minutes. In order for entry into a sustainable circular economy to succeed, globally active industrial companies such as igus are supporting the development of this technology.

Dow Chemical, the world’s second largest chemical company, is now another partner on board.

With the “Hydrothermal Plastic Recycling Solution” (HydroPRS), Mura Technology has developed a novel technology for chemical plastic recycling. The aim is to build a sustainable circular economy for plastics and prevent plastic waste from entering the environment.

The method uses water, heat and pressure to convert plastic waste back into oil in just 25 minutes. The startup Mura Technology has already entered into collaborations with the engineering services company KBR and the motion plastics specialist igus. igus was the first investor from the industrial sector at the end of 2019 and had further increased its investment to 5 million euros in March.

Now, Dow Chemical, a global developer and producer of plastics, is joining as another major partner. The collaboration will further drive the scaling of Mura’s advanced recycling process.

first line with a capacity of 20,000 tonnes per year is expected to start operation in 2022.

Once all four lines are completed, Mura will be able to recycle up to 80,000 tonnes of plastic waste per year and supply Dow with the raw materials obtained through the process.

Plastic waste becomes new packaging

Dow will use this to develop new plastics for food packaging and other packaging products that will eventually be returned into global supply chains.

The world’s first facility to use HydroPRS on a large scale is currently being built in Teesside, UK. The

Dow’s commitment is also intended to demonstrate that Mura’s solution can meet both the sustainability

and performance requirements of the industry and that products made with HydroPRS can be used on a large scale to produce new plastics. igus CEO Frank Blase also welcomes the collaboration: “Strong partnerships are needed to help this technology achieve a breakthrough and thereby create a noticeable effect for the environment. We are delighted for Mura that Dow is on board.”

Dow Chemical invests in Mura’s HydroPRS technology.

It has the potential to recycle all kinds of plastic and recover oil from it.

Torque wrench offers twice the lifespan The Enerpac HMT 13000 interchangeable torque wrench is being introduced to the Asia-Pacific and Australasia offering faster operation, fewer moving parts and rugged alloys that give it 2.5 times the typical lifespan of comparable tools.

The HMT 13000 – an extension to the previously introduced HMT product line – is designed especially for low-profile applications only and suits hex sizes from 2 7/16” to 4 5/8” AF (62mm to 115mm AF).

The HMT 13000 delivers output torques from 1,829 to 18,289 Nm (1,349 to 13,489 Ft. Lbs) in applications including those requiring powerful tool access to confined spaces in tasks in mining and aggregates, oil and gas, infrastructure and construction, manufacturing, maritime and power generation and distribution.

It shares the same advantages of low cost of ownership as the broader range, and is also cost-effective and reliable because the cassettes have up to 25% fewer internal components than other manufacturers, reducing the risk of failure and cost

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of repair.

The HMT 13000 distinguishes itself through its speed, durability, and efficiency. It is designed to be interchangeable with different tools in the market.

When it comes to speed, it offers a best-in-class output-to-weight ratio and is up to 25% faster than leading competitors. As for durability, superior alloys make this tool lightweight and gives it a 2.5x longer life expectancy than comparable tools.

These include system-matched electric, air and petrol-powered types as well as the XC Series cordless torque wrench pumps, ideal for remote locations, sites that do not have access to power or where having electric cords could cause trip hazards, such as in maintenance workshops.

The modular parts allow for interchangeability, at the same time guaranteeing a higher productivity.

Its 30-degree angle of rotation saves time and money and is 25% more efficient. Other features that improve operator efficiency are a 360-degree swivel hose attachment, lightweight design that results in less fatigue, and a standard ergonomic safety handle.

The HMT series is complemented by S and W torque wrenches – and by one of the world’s most comprehensive ranges of pump technologies.

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Enerpac’s low-profile HMT1300 series torque wrench

New Products 3D ipLaser cutting quotation suite halves customer response times New cloud-based laser cutting quotation software from ipLaser typically more than halves the time and manual input required by laser cutting companies to prepare precise estimates for world industries using their services.

The ipLaser cloud-based technology suite – which can automatically process three-dimensional engineering and production graphics provided by customers – not only automates business processes and saves time, but also transforms and expands business opportunities for the huge and rapidly growing number of laser service providers.

“It does this by enabling laser cutting businesses to respond to customers’ needs more quickly and to reach many more prospective customers than previously in a given time,” says ipLaser Managing Director Mr Ivan Cooper.

“So the new process – which we believe is unique in the global market – goes far beyond saving time and costs, to fundamentally change and improve the way a business built around laser cutting can grow.”

“This technology is a game changer across multiple industries, because laser cutting is one of the world’s fastest growing industries, with the machine market alone expected to exceed $US7 billion (almost $9 billion AUD) by 2024, as major industries adopt this fast and accurate technology that flexibly responds to the digital revolution of industry 4.0.” ipLaser’s new technology differs from conventional 2D-based laser quotation technologies in that it can be fed full 3D schematics of a product and sift out precisely all the 2D sheet metal surfaces required to be cut by a laser workshop of any size and complexity.

The new automated 3D process eliminates many previous obstacles to the use of 3D encountered by laser cutting companies, whose services are delivered in a 2D sheet metal environment, using surfaces that must be extracted from 3D drawings.

Ivan Cooper says previous challenges in the conversion included high cost and time demands: “3D packages are expensive, trained operators are expensive and finding the time to train people (if

they have no prior experience) is hard too.”

Simplifying the process makes it more accessible for any operator without 3D experience, in both large and small laser shops.

This means businesses can scale up to handling 3D models as a customer quoting source quickly, driving opportunity and growth ahead of their competitors, says Mr Cooper.

The new 3D software complements and extends the worldwide success of the ipLaser time saving and revenue growing software developed from practical laser shop production floor and quotation management experience over more than 30 years.

The new technology taps into the experience and needs of thousands of ipLaser software users globally, who have contributed their ideas, catering to the needs of laser cutters servicing the world’s major industries, including automotive, aviation, architectural and construction products, engineering electrical, manufacturing, metals, mining and energy, shipbuilding and textiles.

Seamless transition ipLaser’s latest software ties in seamlessly with a job shop customer’s existing 3D drawings and automatically breaks down their complexity into the myriad of simple 2D shapes that require laser cutting.

“No job shop customer wants to be asked to provide differently formatted drawings. In most cases, they’ll just seek to work with someone who can more easily meet their needs.

“With the latest ipLaser software, job shops can automatically extract their customer’s parts from a 3D model, effectively breaking down roadblocks to getting the job done most efficiently,” says Mr Cooper.

processing and reporting aspects of their own laser cutting business and those of their worldwide user base.

The result is the ipLaser cloud-based platform, which is designed to meet the requirements of busy, modern laser job shops, by enabling accurate, consistent and timely quotations for complex parts requiring multiple processes. ipLaser seeks to address the following opportunities: • Quote turnaround times, enabling customers to receive instant quotes with the ipLaser online quoting portal. It also enables staff to prepare quotations more efficiently for customers from simple to complex parts with quote turnaround times from minutes to hours – not a day or days • Pricing consistency. The Administrator-controlled rules of ipLaser ensure consistent quantity-based pricing to the customer, regardless of which customer service staff member prepared the quote or the location in which the quote was prepared • Process improvement. ipLaser promotes business growth by timely delivery of quotes to customers, either via the online store or direct with service staff. The simplicity of the ipLaser system enables a broader selection of company staff to assist with quotes and therefore releases more multi-skilled staff to address wider business opportunities, says Mr Cooper. ipLaser is used by job shops in Australia and New Zealand. It is expanding into the growing industries of the Asia-Pacific, which see the laser cutting industry’s role in Industry 4.0.

“With ipLaser’s product suite, any operator can produce quotes from a 3D drawing, with no 3D experience required, allowing them to meet customer requests efficiently without investing heavily in 3D technology,” he says.

The new technology also enhances accuracy and customer service by automatically using rules involved in the job for consistency. Customers get faster, more accurate and more complete quotes from anyone in the business.

Ivan Cooper and his business partner Peter Olle have been involved in profile cutting job shops for more than 30 years.

ipLaser’s new 3D quotation software takes a customer’s 3D model and automatically identifies all component parts.

It separates them out and generates a quote based on materials, labour and any customised pricing.

They base their new suite of ipLaser technologies (different parts of which are suitable for different laser shop tasks) on research and practical experience in developing a business management solution to ensure effective control, efficiency and accuracy of the quoting, order

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NZ Manufacturer July 2021

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Change your bearing now

No corrosion, no additional lubrication, light weight. This is what makes our high-performance plastics special.

They replace metal in plain, spherical and ball bearings, in slewing ring bearings and in linear technology.

Less cost and higher service life for moving applications, proven in the igus test lab; get a competitive edge with our dry-tech® range. All motion plastics can be configured and calculated online. igus.co.nz/dry-tech

Moving energy made easy

Our comprehensive range matches energy chains and cables to the movement on your machine. For vertical, horizontal or rotary motion, as standard or as special solutions, with smart technology for predictive maintenance. From individual components with no minimum order quantity to harnesed, readyto-intstall systems. All motion plastics® can be configured and calculated online. igus.co.nz/the-chain

igus® products exclusively available from Treotham New Zealand Ltd www.treotham.co.nz 24

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Developments A future facing Pact A circular economy is a systemic approach to economic development designed to benefit businesses, society, and the environment.

It is regenerative and aims to gradually decouple growth from the consumption of finite resources.

Since 2002, the Pact Group has been a driver of the circular economy through reuse, recycling and packaging solutions.

The Pact Group employs over 6000 people and has over 8000 customers. They are an ASX listed company that is the largest provider of returnable produce crates in Australia and New Zealand.

Their annual product output is approximately 11 billion units. It is a future facing company that is constantly evolving to find ways to grow business whilst lowering the footprint businesses place on the environment.

Their contribution to the circular economy involves three divisions within the company. Pact Packaging works with companies of all sizes to create recycled packaging solutions. Industries include dairy, FMCG, health and personal care, and industrial.

With 110 operating sites globally, and a commitment to the inclusion of 30% of recycled material in their packaging, they lead the field in sustainability in their category.

Pact Reuse has created a solution to single use packaging, and works with major food producers and supermarkets to help them reach their sustainability goals.

They have replaced 150 million single use boxes

with 5 million plastic crates. They also recycle many millions of clothing hangers and manufacture waste bins for councils.

Pact Recycling is at the cutting edge of plastics recycling and partners with governments to maximise the reuse of waste. The output of this feeds the other two divisions.

Pact has grown through acquisition. This presents challenges for the business as each site it acquired had its own legacy suppliers and procurement systems, with little data around spending patterns.

This created inefficiencies across the business and ultimately cost the company time and money.

These circumstances certainly applied to Pacts MRO procurement where they were purchasing a multitude of products across numerous suppliers.

This made standardisation and site level compliance problematic, and economies of scale difficult to achieve, as managing pricing across a vast number of SKUs was challenging and pre-negotiated pricing benefits were non-evident.

By onboarding RS Components, Pact has moved away from manual procurement processes with its associated inefficiencies to a centralised automated replacement.

RS Components eProcurement system allows for detailed analysis around MRO spending, which creates value for Pact.

This approach means that spending across each site is visible, it eliminates leakage on a sitewide basis which means that Pact now enjoys standardised pricing and discount levels on SKU’s across all sites nationally allowing for continuity around pricing.

Responses to procurement inquiry are now down to one day, and as RS Components eProcurement system is predictive, it can ensure that stock is available in localised warehouses as opposed to being housed in its UK headquarters.

This means that Pact enjoys faster access to stock with delivery times cut from an average of seven days down to one.

All this has led to significant savings for Pact, with further benefits as the system is further refined.

The Pact Group and RS Components have formed a partnership that will streamline Pact’s MRO procurement, delivering efficiencies around purchasing, fulfillment, and sales analysis. This will further Pact’s objective of driving the circular economy.

How to survive the Kiwi labour crunch as outsource avenues shut In recent years it has become common for Kiwi companies to outsource work to virtual staff in places like the Philippines and India, but the toll of Covid-19 is shutting down even these options for local businesses.

BetterCo Business Advisors and Chartered Accounting firm director Peter Prema says Covid-19 is ravaging traditional outsourcing markets for New Zealand companies, causing stoppages or unrealistic delays in the fulfilment of service businesses like accounting, IT, call centres, construction and professional services.

“The New Zealand Labour Government’s determination to squeeze immigration, tightening competition for local talent and limited options to outsource overseas are just the tip of the iceberg – wait until Australia, and other countries start poaching our talent.

“The Government is clear that they want to reduce, even cut off, so-called low skill immigration, but I think they have it wrong – New Zealand is going to need to replace a mix of skills.”

Prema says the nurses strike is one indication that many skilled Kiwi workers are dissatisfied with current conditions, making them highly poachable by other countries.

“Local companies are struggling to attract even so-called low skilled workers because I think most

people who want to work, or can work, are already working.

“I believe this idea that New Zealand is somehow more attractive because of our Covid-19 record is nonsense.

“When the vaccinations kick in, we are going to have to compete for talent like everybody else, and the reality is that we cannot match Australia and others dollar for dollar.”

He predicted that the Government’s immigration strategies and the realities of Covid-19 induced competition for labour internationally would eventually drive the country into recession.

“Most SME owners are powerless to influence Government decision making – it is literally out of hour hands, but as business owners, we have a responsibility to take evasive action.”

Four day work week “Benefits and salaries are important, but they are also a given. If you want to attract good quality workers, you’re going to have to be a flexible employer.”

“Flexible employment conditions can go further than just working from home and could extend to things like a four day work week. People want to work less but get paid the same, and we may need to come to the party on that,” Prema says.

Invest in training “Many New Zealand SMEs have traditionally been reluctant to invest in training because staff leave and take their skills elsewhere, but it isn’t an option anymore – an employer will just have to work harder to retain people.”

Thirteenth cheque and other benefits Christmas bonuses – as much as a thirteenth cheque – and shares in the business are some of the options to attract good people.

“People want money, time, growth and purpose – if you can get that combination right, you may have a better chance of holding on to your talent,” Prema says.

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Developments Marama Labs raises funds for growth Wellington-based deep tech startup Marama Labs has secured $1.25m in new funding in a round co-led by US-based venture capital firm Quidnet Ventures and New Zealand Growth Capital Partners (NZGCP), with support from several New Zealand investors.

Marama Labs’ chemical analysis tools give industrial customers, such as wineries, unique chemical insights on their products, and when combined with its cloud-based data-analytics platform, Marama Labs helps customers control and optimise

their production processes, save money, and build products and brands that truly connect with consumer demand.

The funds will be used to expand the team, grow its customer base, and further develop the Marama

Labs proprietary hardware and software platform.

The investment will allow Marama Labs to continue to expand its reach to international customers and markets in the US and Europe.

With a customer list already including several leading New Zealand and Australian wineries, and international distribution partnerships in place in Australia and in-discussion in Europe, Marama Labs CEO and Co-Founder Dr Brendan Darby says customer feedback shows users are already seeing significant value from the product and understanding what it can do to help them transform their businesses.

“The science behind our sensors is pretty groundbreaking, and customers are telling us they’re unlocking new value since adopting the platform. It’s allowing them to respond proactively to the changes in the global wine landscape in ways they just couldn’t before,” says Dr Darby.

“Winemakers spend millions of dollars each year producing some great products, and they’re truly skilled at what they do. Yet before Marama Labs, there had been no simple way to understand, manage, and control several of the most critical chemical components that underpin the best wines.

Marama Labs Co-Founders (left to right): Prof. Eric Le Ru (Science Adviser), Dr Brendan Darby (Chief Executive Officer), and Dr Matthias Meyer (CTO).

“Wine is such a complex product. We’re using light to track colour and flavour characteristics from essentially the grape to the bottle. This gives winemakers the best science right when they need it - in the loop between wine producer and wine consumer,” says Dr Darby.

New government alliance to lead technology climate response A cross-government partnership is on a mission to turn New Zealand into a centre of global CleanTech excellence, solving pressing environmental problems.

scoping initiatives to boost commercialisation and, ultimately, a targeted approach to CleanTech clusters.

Callaghan Innovation, New Zealand Growth Capital Partners, the Science for Technological Innovation National Science Challenge, Auckland Unlimited and UniServices have established the NZ CleanTech Mission partnership to convert local CleanTech into thriving and profitable businesses.

“It’s not easy for innovators to navigate the challenging commercialisation stages of R&D and investment to translate their ideas into globally successful businesses. The New Zealand Climate Tech for The World report, for example, reveals that NZ? innovators are raising 95% less investment than other comparable small, advanced economies,” Mr Muir explains.

The joint mission follows the freshly launched New Zealand Climate Tech for The World, a deep-dive report into NZ’s CleanTech opportunities, the most in-depth research to date in this area. Among the report’s key recommendations is to increase collaboration among government organisations.

“We need to support climate innovation as a step towards achieving the national and global carbon targets, set by the Climate Commission. Through creating technologies to address these targets, New Zealand can also build a high-value export sector, and new employment opportunities,” says James Muir, CleanTech Lead at Callaghan Innovation.

Solving commercialisation challenges The partnership statement outlines a number of key actions: Developing a five-year roadmap, supercharging local and international connections,

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“The NZ CleanTech Mission will ensure that CleanTech is flagged as a critical priority, on a nationwide and coordinated level. The aim is to ensure CleanTech innovators, whether out of businesses, labs or garages, have a responsive, connected, and easy-to-navigate ecosystem of support.”

680 high-value R&D jobs specifically.

To help ClimateTech innovators and stakeholders navigate this crucial economic and social area, Callaghan Innovation has also developed a New Zealand ClimateTech Mission hub online, which will house the Partnership Statement, NZ ClimateTech for the World report, and additional tools and resources, such as inspiring case studies, industry insights, and an ecosystem map.

The goal now is to take the findings and insights from these resources and support innovators to apply them to their own environmental products and processes. This will help them maximise commercial opportunities and, importantly, drive critical solutions to environmental problems.

New Zealand’s CleanTech opportunities

The New Zealand Climate Tech for The World report, for example, identifies significant commercial opportunities for local climate innovators to grow niche offerings, specifically in the agriculture and energy sectors.

Callaghan Innovation’s recent review of NZ’s earlyand growth-phase businesses identified up to 300 CleanTech innovators working on technologies, including novel apps, plastic alternatives, new energy sources, and industrial waste processing. In Financial Year 2020, 98 CleanTech businesses funded

by Callaghan Innovation generated $334m revenue, supported 1,860 jobs and invested $95m in R&D with

“Aotearoa has a strong agricultural foundation, so it makes sense that this is where Kiwi innovators could maximise impact in the ClimateTech space. NZ is also a frontrunner in adopting renewable energy, which now powers 85% of our electrical grid. The focus from here is to leverage our strengths, existing resources, and growing appetite to explore new energy sources,” Muir adds.

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Rear View The robots are coming If you’re worried that robots are coming for your job, you can relax — unless you’re a manager.

A new survey-based study explains how automation is reshaping the workplace in unexpected ways.

Robots can improve efficiency and quality, reduce costs, and even help create more jobs for their human counterparts. But more robots can also reduce the need for managers.

The study is titled “The Robot Revolution: Managerial and Employment Consequences for Firms.” The co-authors are Lynn Wu, professor of operations, information and decisions at Wharton; Bryan Hong, professor of entrepreneurship and management at the University of Missouri Kansas City’s Bloch School of Management; and Jay Dixon, an economist with Statistics Canada.

The researchers said the study, which analysed five years’ worth of data on businesses in the Canadian economy, is the most comprehensive of its kind on how automation affects employment, labour, strategic priorities, and other aspects of the workplace.

More Robots, More Workers Contrary to popular belief, robots are not replacing workers. While there is some shedding of employees when firms adopt robots, the data show that increased automation leads to more hiring overall.

That’s because robot-adopting firms become so much more productive that they need more people to meet the increased demand in production, Wu explained.

“Any employment loss in our data we found came from the non-adopting firms,” she said. “These firms became less productive, relative to the adopters.

They lost their competitive advantage and, as a result, they had to lay off workers.”

aggregate it at the firm level, division level, to get lots of different operational metrics very easily,” Wu said. “And those are the kinds of things that managers tend to do.”

But it’s a bit more complex than that. The managerial decrease comes from the changing composition of employment. Although robot adoption results in increased employment, the increase is not uniform across skills, Wu said.

Low-skilled workers, such as box packers, and high-skilled workers, such as engineers, grow in numbers, but middle-skilled workers become endangered.

“When you see a huge decrease in middle-skilled work and an increase in those extremes — high- and low-skilled labour — it means the type of managers you need to manage this new workforce will be different.”

Someone who supervises low-skilled workers can manage a lot more people when the firm brings in robots because of the standardization and efficiency.

But the change is more ambiguous for managers of high-skilled workers.

Those employees are typically responsible for innovation, rather than operations, which is harder to measure.

“Highly-skilled professionals are very good at what they do, better than their managers. They don’t need managers to tell them how to do their jobs or make sure they arrive to work on time,” Wu said.

“Managing high-skilled workers is much more like coaching or advising. Managers advise them to help them to achieve the best they can at work, and that kind of skill is very different from supervising work.”

The Revolution Is Inevitable Wu said the robot revolution is “inevitable” given the leaps in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other technologies rapidly transforming the workplace. She encouraged business leaders to embrace the change and explore strategies to maximize the benefits.

For example, the study found that robots were associated with greater use of performance-based pay because automation reduces variance.

In other words, it’s easier to meet production quotas when robots are on the job. Robots also reduce workplace injuries, according to the study.

“In the next couple of years, you’re going to see huge industry turbulence, if you haven’t seen it already,” she said.

“The firms that figure it out, either by luck or by ingenuity, are going to kill it. And the firms that don’t figure it out are not.”

Wu also urged business leaders to be mindful of their low-skilled workers. As a company automates and the middle-skill level shrinks, those entry-level workers lose upward mobility.

“In our old paradigm, we don’t expect people to stay on those jobs forever,” she said. “But now you notice that the career ladder is broken. There is no middle skill to go to. There are no supervisory jobs to go to.

“That means that the contract, where there is an implicit understanding that you will move up eventually from your low-skilled work, needs to be revisited because it’s changing.”

Armed with facts about automation, firms need to consider a bigger-picture strategy when bringing in robots, she said.

“The story is really about how do you leverage technology better to become more productive, to become more competitive?

And how do you change your managerial firm practices so you can get the most out of your robot technologies?” Wu said.

Robots Render Some Managers Obsolete Certain kinds of managers become superfluous as businesses increase automation, according to the study. The drop is simply an effect of modern technology, Wu said.

As different tasks and processes are automated, human error is drastically reduced. So, too, is the need for close monitoring of that work by managers.

“Technology can generate reports on what the robots did, what material they used, and they can

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