February 2019
www.nzmanufacturer.co.nz NEWS 5 BUSINESS Key business groups
21
merge to boost manufacturing sector.
THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY Plastic is a global problem and opportunity.
25 Developments Engineer awarded Honorary Doctorate.
Davos 2019 – What does ‘Global Risks’ mean for New Zealand Manufacturers? -Dieter Adam, Chief Executive, The Manufacturers’ Network
Every January, the world’s leaders come together in Davos to discuss the burning issues we face – or so the media say. This year, some of the world’s leaders failed to attend, they had rather more ‘burning issues’ to deal with at home. For New Zealand, however, the reception received by our Prime Minister there more than made up for that.
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It’s tempting to dismiss the event as ‘just another talkfest’, but that wouldn’t do justice to the work undertaken all year by the World Economic Forum (WEF), which Davos is only a part of, and arguably not the most important one. The topics discussed at Davos, and the reports presented there, are many, but among one of the more important ones is the annual Global Risk Report, summarising the views on the topic of about 1,000 global business, academic and government leaders, with economics and technology experts from businesses in Europe and North America the biggest group of contributors.
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Respondents are asked to rank risks based on the likelihood of occurrence, and the expected severity of impact. Of the nine risks identified as having the highest likelihood, combined with the highest impact, six are describing environmental crises or events directly linked to Failure of Climate-Change Mitigation and Adaptation, and the seventh (Large-scale involuntary Migration) is directly linked.
The carbon footprint of New Zealand’s manufacturing sector is small.
The only ‘technical’ risk in this category, by the way, is Cyber Attacks. More traditional risks relating to the economy, financial institutions and systems, asset price collapse, etc., as well as social and political risks like Profound Social Instability or Terrorist Attacks, all fall (well) below that, both in likelihood of occurrence and severity of impact. Looking at the trends over the past ten years (the Global Risk Report is published annually), we can clearly see a migration from economic to social to environment risks being of biggest concern.
continued on Page 28
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CONTENTS DEPARTMENTS
NEWS 1 BUSINESS Davos 2019 – What does ‘Global Risks’ mean
ADVISORS
for New Zealand manufacturers
4 EDITORIAL
Leeann Watson
Is the Chief Executive of the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber).and is a strong voice for Canterbury business.
A year to bring about positive change.
5 BUSINESS NEWS
Key business groups merge to boost manufacturing sector.
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8 MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY
Sprint Global programme 2019 to take start-ups to the world. Demand for higher quality parts and products to drive generative design .
Dieter Adam
Chief Executive, New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association has a Ph.D. in plant biotechnology, consulting and senior management roles in R&D, innovation and international business development.
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10 ANALYSIS Automation could revive Australia’s manufacturing industry.
12 PRODUCTIVITY Investment in digital technologies drives
Kirk Hope
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.
profits and Productivity.
13 BUY NZ MADE 30TH ANNIVERSARY.
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16 ROBOTICS Construction and mining the next frontier of
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Myths about manufacturing in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Lewis Woodward
robotics.
17 SMART MANUFACTURING
Researcher creates ‘smart silicone’ that reacts to heat and light. Industry 4.0 hype, hope and thresholds.
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CIRCULAR ECONOMY 21 THE Plastic is a global problem and opportunity.
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.
Dr Troy Coyle
PRODUCTS 22 NEW Putting you in control of difficult materials.
Is HERA Director, she has extensive experience in innovation, research management and product development, most recently as Head of Innovation and Product Development & Pacific Islands Export Manager at New Zealand Steel..
Pipe bevelling machine for hard alloys.
24 DEVELOPMENTS
Plastic packaging re-think needed. Dr Ian Parton awarded Honorary Doctorate.
MANUFACTURING 26 FOOD Food production innovation to be adopted overseas. Recovering high value products maximise returns. What’s your beef?
Craig Carlyle
21
CHAIN 29 SUPPLY Konecranes adopts Internet of Things
technology. More than a steel box – shipping containers ubiquitous.
VIEW 31 REAR What the next 20 years will mean for jobs.
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Is Director of Maintenance Transformations Ltd, an executive member of the Maintenance Engineering Societyand the Event Director of the NationalMaintenance Engineering Conference.
A year to bring about positive change
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
You know what these are: Climate Change and Productivity.
CONTRIBUTORS
Sceptics say that Climate Change doesn’t exist. They either don’t know any better or they may be right. But for the good of us all we still need to look at current business practices and determine what changes can be made to address the situation. What are we emitting into the atmosphere? What source of energy do we use that may be causing an environmental problem and what can be done to rectify the situation?
Dieter Adam, Holly Green, Peter Hern, Roland Thomas & Matt Hale www.mscnewswire.co.nz
ADVERTISING Doug Green T: + 64 6 870 9029 E: publisher@xtra.co.nz
as,
DESIGN & PRODUCTION Kim Alves, KA Design T: + 64 6 870 8133 E: kim.alves@xtra.co.nz
WEB MASTER
What is our individual role in climate change?
Bruce Metelerkamp E: bruce@hha.co.nz
When you hear that ice are melting, water levels rising and temperatures increasing then we do indeed have a problem.
PUBLISHING SERVICES On-Line Publisher Media Hawke’s Bay Ltd
Productivity is harder to measure because there are a lot of people in society who contribute a lot without the financial reward. Their efforts are not on payrolls or known about by IRD. There are reasons for this of course: homemakers don’t have the same esteem as a bank manager, nor the salary that goes with just as much hard work.
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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.10 No. 1 FEBRUARY 2019
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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There are two crucial areas that business needs to address this year.
NZ Manufacturer February 2019 /
Productivity and a living wage or a fair wage, not just a scrapping by wage is a difficult subject. Companies don’t want to raise wages and salaries unless they really need to. They want to make a profit for shareholders and no more was this apparent than at the recent Davos gathering. Someone owns the oil and someone else owns the property and the
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workers gather around for a share of the crumbs. Productivity keeps the wheels turning, to making the goods for market and positioning our country as an export earner on the world stage. The highest percentage of what we manufacturer comes from the land. Not that what we make in a workshop or factory is irrelevant, but the numbers add up to our greatest export success comes from land valued enterprises. Let’s be clear employers want to reward staff for their efforts and compulsory collectives wont help with this. And in this we have control of our raw components and original parts to put together the cheese or wine for export. The home-grown product is what we aspire to perfect. Raw components on the scale required for say, vehicle manufacture, doesn’t existing New Zealand. The demand is not there, or is it? Why not an electric vehicle made in New Zealand. Regional development can come to the fore.
Doug Green
Success Through Innovation
EDITORIAL
It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out, it’s the pebble in your shoe. -Muhammad Ali
BUSINESS NEWS
Key business groups merge to boost manufacturing sector
Leeann Watson, Canterbury Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive.
Three of New Zealand’s most influential business networks are merging to help boost the manufacturing sector for the years ahead. The Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce (The Chamber), The Manufacturers’ Network (TMN), and the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) are merging their operations supporting manufacturers to further enhance their respective services to the New Zealand business community. The Chamber Chief Executive Leeann Watson says the merger is a vital step towards future-proofing the manufacturing sector in New Zealand
and will have a significant positive impact on the business community as a whole. “We are really excited about the additional benefits and opportunities the merging of our services will bring to business and, in particular, manufacturing across New Zealand,” says Ms Watson. “This initiative will provide TMN members access to a much greater range of services and expertise
The Manufacturers’ Network Chief Executive Dr Dieter Adam.
EMA Chief Executive Kim Campbell.
available through The Chamber and EMA, and additional manufacturing expertise for our manufacturing members.”
The Manufacturers’ Network Chief Executive Dr Dieter Adam says the merger will bring benefits for all involved.
EMA Chief Executive Kim Campbell says the merger comes at a key time for employers.
“We look forward to working together to further enhance manufacturing in New Zealand, given the exponential changes the industry is facing.”
“TMN is working in exciting and challenging areas of manufacturing expertise such as rapidly evolving technological change, robotics and applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the workplace,” says Mr Campbell. “The specialist expertise TMN will bring to our existing membership will position our manufacturing members well for the future.”
TMN will continue to support manufacturing across New Zealand through The Chamber and EMA. It will operate in a similar fashion to the successful ExportNZ model which has specialist exporters serviced under that umbrella, but within the BusinessNZ family.
Find a great home for your business EAST TAMAKI A great place to do business
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Are you a food manufacturer? Your business may need to be registered for the Food Act 2014 It’s easy. To find the food rules that apply to you, visit www.mpi.govt.nz/foodact
For more information, contact New Zealand Food Safety at: foodactinfo@mpi.govt.nz or phone 0800 00 83 33
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Improving the Life of the Line Eckhart is Leading Industry 4.0 With Additive Manufacturing Solutions
Eckhart, a leader in advanced industrial solutions, is committed to improving the lives of factory-floor workers through safety, reliability and efficiency in manufacturing for industries from medical device to automotive. “Industry 4.0 is really the ecosystem that is a smart factory. It takes all of the systems in a factory, ties them together to help not only those who manage the process, but also to help the employees on the factory floor become more informed on the health of the system,” said Andrew Storm, Eckhart’s CEO. “Ninety percent of Fortune 500 manufacturing CEOs believe adopting Industry 4.0 technologies is imperative,” added Dan Burseth, vice president of Eckhart. “And we build technology implementation plans with some of the largest manufacturers in the world, designing tools, equipment and automation that truly improve the life of the people tasked with running the line.”
Customized, Proven Additive Solutions
Eckhart customizes factory floor solutions to address specific needs of each client, walking the floor to see exactly where ergonomics, line of site or bill of materials can be improved using autonomous guided vehicles, collaborative robotics and additive manufacturing. “Our customers want proven solutions, durable solutions; the assembly environment is harsh. These tools are being used 60 times an hour for an 8-hour shift, 3 shifts a day, 6-7 days a week,” said Bob Heath, Eckhart’s Additive Manufacturing Applications Engineer. “With Stratasys engineering-grade materials, Nylon 12 with carbon fiber and ULTEM™ 1010 resin, we are able to produce durable, lasting solutions that can hold up and withstand the rigors of an automotive environment.” When working to streamline production for their leading industry clients, from Ford to Mercedes to Airbus, Eckhart has shown how additive manufacturing with Stratasys materials greatly improves the way things have always been done. “Traditionally, we had to design our parts around the way we were going to manufacture them, whether it was manually machining or CNC machine, our part design was limited to our manufacturing capabilities,” said Heath. “But with additive manufacturing, the complexities and capabilities are limitless.” Many of Eckhart’s clients have seen great benefit from small tweaks to their processes, adopting 3D printed jigs and/or fixtures for applications such as a lug nut starter, badge alignment tools and wiper alignment set fixtures. “Pressing on badges, emblems on vehicles – these things are repetitive tasks. When we go into plants and we pick up a badge tool, and it’s heavy, it’s either above or right at that ergonomic limit for the operator to be able to pick up 60 times an hour. So we’re alleviating the repetitive injury strain on the operator,” explained Heath. “We provide solutions that are not replacing operators but are making up for the operators they can’t hire, or projecting the ability of one operator so that one can be the same as five, and additive manufacturing is one of the tools that we have to facilitate that,” said Drew Morales, Director of Business Development and Engineering Systems at Eckhart.
Industry 4.0 is really the ecosystem that is a smart factory. It takes all of the systems in a factory, ties them together to help not only those who manage the process, but also to help the employees on the factory floor become more informed on the health of the system.” Andrew Storm CEO, Eckhart
Eckhart uses Jigs and Fixtures for GrabCAD Print™ software to design new tooling with speed and ease.
Partnering for a Streamlined Future
Eckhart recognizes time and innovation are top priorities, and all businesses are under an extreme amount of pressure to iterate faster. Eckhart sees this across the board, from heavy truck manufacturers like Caterpillar to medical device manufacturers Medtronic and Boston Scientific, to aerospace manufacturers Boeing, Airbus and Lockheed Martin. “We feel very strongly that 3D printing is the catalyst that allows businesses to test hypotheses much faster than they’ve ever been able to before,” concluded Storm. “Speed and customization ultimately is empowered through the use of 3D printing.”
www.objective3d.com.au/carbon-fiber-3d-printing/
Durable and lasting tools used 60 times an hour for an 8-hour shift, 3 shifts a day, 6-7 days a week.
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MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY
Your goals, minus your doubts, equal your reality. -Ralph Marston
Sprint Global programme 2019 to take startups to the world Applications open for founders to accelerate startups garage-to-global journey; customer acquisition focussed accelerator programme supported by top entrepreneurs ecentre, the business incubator hosted at Massey University, has announced the launch of Sprint Global 2019, an accelerator-style programme to help startups founders to go global faster. Sprint Global is open for applications for the February 2019 programme, with eight fully funded places available for founders seeking to hone their skills in customer acquisition, global market entry and building startup networks.
“Founders will be able to ask all their burning questions about the journey ahead, such as, ‘How do I grow my customer base?’, ‘Am I going global fast enough?’, ‘Am I connected enough locally and globally?”
“Sprint Global is designed for the New Zealand startup context and focuses on founders who have a working prototype and are ready to engage with the market in New Zealand or overseas,” says Jackie Young, CEO of ecentre Ltd. “We take early stage startups with a validated business model, and accelerate their customer acquisition and global expansion by providing access to mentors, sector experts, investors and other resources.”
“Getting the fundamentals right early on and creating value for customers that generates revenue is a great way to validate a business,” says Sprint Global mentor Sarah Perry, Co-founder and Chair of SnapComms and Author of ‘BRAVE Bootstrapping. How to Grow a Global Tech. Business without VCs’.
The Sprint Global programme is run over two separate eight-week rounds, and is highly flexible to fit in with founders from around New Zealand. The first programme for early stage customer acquisition runs 18 February to 12 April 2019 and a follow on programme for global customer acquisition runs 13 May to 5 July 2019. Founders can largely complete the programme remotely, with the option to complete either one or both rounds. There has never been a better time to build startups according to Young. “There are no barriers to going global from day one. Our fantastic line up of mentors quite literally have a whole world of experience. We’ll match each founder to a mentor who can share their short-cuts and smart-cuts to building global businesses from New Zealand,” says Young.
Over 20 top entrepreneurs and experts have signed on as mentors to share their hard earned learning experiences from their own entrepreneurial journeys.
“Entrepreneurship is in our core in New Zealand, so we need to focus on what we’re good at – innovative products – and find innovative ways to access customers that suit the business, rather than copying the one-size-fits-all Silicon Valley investment playbook. Sprint Global’s customer acquisition focus can also put the business in a stronger position to take on investment later on,” says Perry, who helped build SnapComms into a global success through clever sales and marketing. The company’s innovative internal communication software has over 2 million paid users in 75 countries. Sprint Global is an iteration of previous ecentre Sprint programmes, with successful ecentre alumni including inventory management software company Unleashed Software, website and ecommerce company Zeald, horticulture software startup Dataphyll and student discount platform Niesh.
Neish founders James Koo (L) and Jae Yoo.
For Niesh, the programme culminated in a collaboration that brought together 15 entrepreneurs, investors, academics and government representatives with startup experience to answer the question “where to grow next.” Co-founder Jae Yoo says, “We initially thought we just needed to spend more time to work through issues, but what we needed to be successful was the right assistance to identify not only where to grow, but also when.” Niesh has 37,500 student users on its platform and is growing at 300% per annum. In late 2018 the company secured $1 million of seed capital. Young says, “Our new Sprint Global programme is very much a collaborative effort to help shape new startups in the ecosystem. We’re pleased that founders have the chance
Sprint Global focusses on founders who are ready to engage with the market.
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The Sprint Global programme design is informed by research conducted by Massey University and ecentre into local investor behaviours and preferences, along with global innovation ecosystem benchmark data from UBI Global and Startup Genome. ecentre receives funding through Callaghan Innovation’s Founder Incubation Programme to help startups commercialise their great ideas faster and effectively. Partnerships with other key government agencies and organisations provide additional access to startup-specific resources. Participants of Sprint Global are also given the opportunity to take part in an in-market immersion week in Silicon Valley during October 2019, including attending the TechCrunch Disrupt conference.
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to take part with no fees and no equity through the support of Massey University, Callaghan Innovation, Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development (ATEED) and other partners committed to developing New Zealand’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Preference will be given to applicants from New Zealand-registered early stage technology-enabled businesses in B2B or B2B2C markets that have global growth potential.”
SIGNAGE
CREATIVITY
Newsletters WEBSITES
Contact Kim on M 027542 7111 E kim.alves@xtra.co.nz
A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others. -Ayn Rand
MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY
Demand for higher quality parts and products to drive generative design
Generative design enables the design of lighter, cheaper components while maintaining strength and solidity, ultimately creating a higher quality product. For that reason, the adoption of generative design software is taking off in aerospace and defence, automotive, footwear and clothing, furniture, industrial machines, and oil and gas industries and leading to an uptick in engineering throughput in each of them, finds ABI Research, a market-foresight advisory firm providing strategic guidance on the most compelling transformative technologies. “The rise of the sharing economy and additive manufacturing will drive both demand for and the ability to produce higher-quality goods,” explained Pierce Owen, Principal Analyst at ABI Research. “Generative design expands design possibilities by creating shapes different from those that humans would create. It idealizes the design by creating something that best fits the constraints to optimise the products for various requirements.” For several years now, industrial companies have used geometric topology optimisation – eroding the geometric shape of a product given a set of constraints to improve performance - and are using it more as the use cases for additive manufacturing have increased. Generative design takes that another step by creating, or generating, the geometric shapes from an engineer’s requirements rather than changing existing shapes. Also, unlike topology optimisation,
generative design creates many iterations, variations and/or alternatives for engineers to compare, rather than simply removing unnecessary pieces or particles. Additive will drive both generative design and topology optimization as it provides greater build freedom to fulfill a wider variety of designs. Traditional Computer-Aided Design (CAD) vendors such as Dassault Systèmes, Siemens and recently, PTC, already have or will have embedded generative design capabilities within their CAD environments as plug-ins or
kernels.
computing power per month.
PTC acquired Frustum in November 2018 to do exactly that within Creo.
For larger established brands with a full CAD product, that product with all its modules can cost as much as US$65,000 per year. As a result, the generative design software market has brought in about US$3.5 billion in 2018, but according to ABI Research’s forecasts that will grow to US$10.8 billion by 2022 and US$44.5 billion by 2030 with a CAGR of 24%.
Several of Siemens products, including NX, NX Nastran, HEEDS, Capital, and Simcenter 3D generate and validate designs in the context of constraints with a combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI), rules-based algorithms and GPU processing. Dassault Systèmes brings generative design together with traditional CAD, convergent modelling, topology optimisation, physics-based design and simulation within its CATIA product.
But, to meet and exceed the complex demands of many different industries and scale adoption, generative design vendors need to understand the challenges of the engineers that use their software, set expectations for how the software can help, and provide holistic solutions.
Additional Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks has an exclusive partnership with DM Labs Live Parts, generative design software from Desktop Metal that “grows” parts based on the way embryos and cells grow. Some design engineering consultancies, such as GRM Consulting, also offer their own generative design software.
“Generative design can bring spectacular advantages to complex designs or organizations that need more throughput from engineering departments. The downside is a steep learning curve, and some engineers find it a difficult change to start using generative tools.
The pricing for generative design tools, modules, and products varies wildly depending on the business model, the computing hours, and the brand.
“Vendors should try to avoid disrupting the way engineers work and simply look to provide a tool to make them more productive and reach better final designs faster,” concluded Owen.
For newer, standalone products, subscriptions can cost as little as US$1,000/year for 10 hours of
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NZ Manufacturer February 2019
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ANALYSIS
The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs . . . one step at a time. - Joe Girard
Automation could revive Australia’s manufacturing industry By Peter Hern, Country Manager, Oceania, Universal Robots
Since 2016, the Australian manufacturing industry has experienced ongoing public scrutiny for the closure and offshoring of manufacturing, especially within the automotive sector, due to the high costs of labour. However, there is now opportunity for Australia to revive this industry. This requires a period of substantial change with the implementation of new, autonomous technologies. With these technologies, companies can be more efficient in countries where labour is expensive. Disruptive technologies and advanced automation, such as collaborative robots, or cobots, can help regenerate the dwindled manufacturing industry in Australia. This would allow Australia to compete on a global scale and contribute to global supply chains. A recent report by Bain and Company, Labour 2030: The Collision of Demographics, Automation and Inequality¸ has forecast that automation will create an economic boom over the next decade, offsetting a slowing in labour growth, something Australia needs to ensure it is a part of.
Competing on a global scale Deloitte’s Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index revealed that as the digital and physical worlds of manufacturing converge, advanced technologies are becoming ever more important at company level and in global competitiveness. Technology-intensive sectors are dominating the global manufacturing landscape in advanced economies and allow a strong path to achieve or sustain competiveness. However, even while being an advanced economy, Australia is ranking at 21st on this index. Germany is at the forefront of advanced automation, with industry
4.0 being a whole-of-country strategy to strengthen the economy through manufacturing. At this current time, Australian manufacturers are falling behind their global counterparts in the adoption of industry 4.0, and as a nation, must embrace the digital transformation of manufacturing to compete as a player in global supply chains.
Bringing back jobs Between November 2016 and November 2017 the manufacturing industry experienced a decrease in employment by 4.5% due to the significant closures experienced across Australia. Automation is predicted to reverse this decrease in employment and bring back the industries which have left due to high costs of labour. If companies proceed by adopting automation and moving back to Australian shores, jobs will be created in workplaces nationally. While there is ongoing concern that automation will result in job loss in existing workplaces, the implementation of autonomous technologies means rather than forcing unemployment, employees can undertake more innovative jobs. They are given the opportunity to upskill and move to more advanced tasks, which will facilitate changes in job descriptions. By freeing employees of mundane and heavy-duty jobs, automation will work to create more efficient workplaces for employees, allowing manufacturers to be innovative and grow, while also saving on costs.
Cobots drive down costs and increase production Whether you run a mining site or an automotive factory, cobots’ ergonomic design also makes them lightweight and compact and enables them to operate even within small and confined spaces. Compared to traditional robots, cobots have enhanced in-built safety features, making it perfectly safe for people to work in close proximity. These safety features eliminate the need for fencing and bulky barriers, subject to risk assessments. Implementing cobots also increases workplace safely, freeing employees from mundane and heavy-duty jobs and mitigating OHS hazards. Cobots drive efficiency for manufacturers by reducing human error and working faster and more consistently 24 hours a day, meaning payback time can be as little as 12 months.
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The benefits of automation One company experiencing ongoing benefits from the implementation of automation is BHP. Following the introduction of autonomous drills across its Western Australia iron ore sites and autonomous hauling trucks at Jimblebar Iron Ore mine site, BHP is becoming a key player in the revival of Australia’s manufacturing industry. The company has seen a complete cost reduction of 20% and a significant increase in employee safety, with a reduction of incidents by 80% as employees transition into roles at a remote operating centre in Perth. Automation, innovation and technology are not only helping reduce costs and increase employee safety but are also paving the way for a more competitive and innovative manufacturing market. By adopting automation within manufacturing, Australian companies are able to increase speed of production and revive the industry. Australia can again become an attractive market for manufacturers, bringing back jobs and strengthening the economy to compete on a global scale.
title text
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2019
Media Kit with Editorial Calendar INCLUDES: Manufacturing Technology / New Products for Manufacturers / Disruptive and Future Technologies / Export Success / Trade Show Previews and Reports - SouthMACH 2019 / AusTech 2019 / BuildNZ 2019 Company Profiles / Analysis / Interviews / Food Manufacturing / Infrastructure / Smart Manufacturing / Industry 4.0 / Robotics & Automation / Productivity / 3D / Supply Chain / Women in Manufacturing / Additive Manufacturing /
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NZ Manufacturer February 2019
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PRODUCTIVITY
One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results. -Nobel-laureate Milton Friedman
Investment in digital technologies drives profits and Productivity Digital technologies such as robotics, mobile and social media, the internet of things, artificial intelligence and big data analytics are transforming the global economy. Overall, investments in these technologies are leading to an increase in productivity for many companies. However, several factors influence the return on investment. The growth associated with these investments is currently driven by the top 20% of companies (by productivity) within each industry sector. Without broader implementation, an “industry inequality” could emerge, creating a small group of highly productive industry leaders and leaving the rest of the economy behind. SMEs, often the driver of national economies, could suffer from competitive disadvantages. The findings are based on a survey of over 16,000 businesses between 2015 and 2016 and mark a first attempt at quantifying the business impact of digital technologies. Among the key results are that investment in a combination of cognitive technologies, the internet of things, robotics and mobile/social media led on average to an increase in productivity three times higher than investments in any of these technologies individually. As digital technologies redefine competitiveness across industries, top executives are looking to making the right choices and investments that drive growth and productivity gains. The research provides a critical mapping for those executives in understanding which combinations of technologies are delivering real returns on investment, under which conditions, and indeed which ‘battles in the new’ are being won by incumbents versus levelling the playing field for new disruptors. The report, which aims to help business leaders make informed investments in technology, finds considerable variation between industries when it comes to digital investments. On average, heavier industries realise greater returns in productivity. Chemistry and Advanced Materials registered the greatest returns, with
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industry leaders achieving 160% additional EBITDA per employee investing in these technologies and 120% for the remainder of the sector. Gains by Professional Services businesses follow, generating 80% and 40% respectively. The heavier industries claim the highest gains from investment in robotics (90%), while mobile and social media provide a 70% return for service-oriented companies. Of the technologies analysed, cognitive technologies offered the highest return, generating $1.90 per employee for every dollar invested. It is expected that the largest investment in these technologies between 2016 and 2020 will be in the internet of things as IoT build-out will generate the huge amounts of data needed for artificial intelligence and big data analytics to flourish. Digital transformation is a key driver of sweeping change in the world around us, improving people’s lives and opening new opportunities for businesses to grow and create value. Yet gaps occur when innovation moves faster than organisational and societal frameworks allow. Wherever companies are on their digital journey, the path is clear: they need to invest in the technologies that maximise business opportunity on the one hand while developing people’s skills and capabilities to be successful in the digital age with the other. Would-be technology investors should be aware, however, that while industry leaders overall generate higher returns than followers, the survey finds that when it comes to internet of things and cognitive technologies, followers are able to benefit from the best practices
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innovation to create a flexible, accountable workforce
and reduced costs made possible by pioneering leaders, and thus achieve a greater return.
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Now, companies are running the risk of investing in digital technologies without a full picture of the impact of those decisions.
Ecosystem thinking: success is increasingly dependent on customers, partners, and supply chain and other stakeholders
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Data access and management: real-time insights are only possible with robust data infrastructure, warehousing and analytics
This is either because they find the benefits hard to quantify, they are worried about disrupting their own business model or they just don’t know how to make the right investments. Key drivers for maximising value from digital investments: - Agile and digital-savvy leadership: nimble decision-making process combined with strategic vision across all management levels - Forward-looking skills agenda: Reskilling and aligning hiring around
- Technology infrastructure readiness: Effective use of cloud storage, cyber security, interoperability and transparency is key
BUY NEW ZEALAND MADE 30TH ANNIVERSARY Iconic Buy NZ Made celebrates 30th birthday The Buy New Zealand Made Campaign is turning 30 and celebrating with events around the country to showcase member companies along with the iconic kiwi trademark, which has evolved to become a significant marketing tool for businesses in an increasingly competitive world. Launched in 1988 by the then Manufacturing Federation, the campaign is now owned by BusinessNZ and is completely private sector-funded. It provides the licence for businesses to use the kiwi trademark to promote their New Zealand-made goods and services that meet the requirements of the Fair Trading Act for country of origin labelling. “The kiwi trademark is a trusted brand that is globally recognised as a label depicting NZ-made products,” says Executive Director Ryan Jennings. “When products carry the registered trademark, buyers can be confident it’s made in New Zealand. Ryan Jennings says “New Zealand’s brand promise is one of product purity made by trusted producers. “This enables businesses like Whitestone Cheese to guarantee the quality of their cheese. It creates opportunities for producers like Harraways to create new snack products to complement their breakfast line-up and it enables businesses like Raisey’s Original to export their sought after protein powders to the world.” Kiwis are proud to purchase produce made here. Asia consumers will pay a premium for products where the source can be authenticated through tracing back to the source. Both are reasons why labelling your produce as ‘New Zealand Grown’ or ‘New Zealand Made’ can create a market origin advantage for your business. Get New Zealand labelling for your business: www.buynz.org.nz A new 100% Kiwi Business book authored by Ryan Jennings can be ordered from: www.businesskiwi.com Below are examples of New Zealand made products from the companies who make them.
Raisey’s Original - New Zealand made protein supplements “Being New Zealand Made gives us a competitive edge when competing with international brands, domestically and in the export market. New Zealand whey protein is widely known as the best you can get and that gives us real confidence in taking Raiseys to potential worldwide distributors. “We truly believe in our products and we truly believe in the power of the Buy New Zealand Made brand, backing us up and giving all our valued customers, wherever they are, peace of mind. You just can’t buy the advantage that being New Zealand Made brings. Kane Raisey - Raisey’s Original.
™
Harraway’s - New Zealand made breakfasts and snacks “We see trends, we identify trends and opportunities, and we’ll try to make it happen in the marketplace given the opportunity in front of us before we really seriously invest in it. We’re tying into the growth of veganism, so it’s vegan friendly. Obviously, it’s made with oats: baked, fried... there’s no artificials in there, and it’s all about a New Zealand story that’s international. “There’s a lot of interest worldwide in people taking wholesome, natural ways to address their health issues, so it’s not about pills and potions anymore. It’s about the food we eat and the wholesome nature of our food. If there’s a choice that you can buy something from overseas or something New Zealand made, why wouldn’t you buy New Zealand?”. - Peter Cox - Harraway’s.
Whitestone Cheese - New Zealand made cheese “Whitestone Cheese started in 1987 with one cheese, one vat and one cheesemaker. A family business with my parents, Bob and Sue. They were the founders and as a son and family member I’ve always supported them all the way through and been a part of the business as it’s grown. “When I came back in 2003, we had 10 staffff. We’ve now got 80. We’ve gone from making one cheese - now we’re making 25 across four different varieties. I’m loving living in Oamaru in regional New Zealand and producing good quality products. At the end of the day, that’s what we’re in the business of enjoyment.” -Simon Berry - Whitestone Cheese. (The latest cheese release came as a result of discovering a unique blue cheese mould strain from a farm in North Otago. The strain is famous for the French cheese it produces named Roquefort, yet through an idea, some prospecting and a little luck, they’d found something that has opened a pathway to bring a new cheese to Kiwis and the world. “It’s a totally different flavour - quite mild yet it boasts complex,
savoury flavours”.)
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PRODUCTIVITY Myths about manufacturing in the Fourth Industrial Revolution Like all good industry trends, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) for manufacturing has come to mean many things. While most would agree that it involves the incorporation and interconnectivity of new technologies across production systems, questions remain around the business case to implement these solutions. In a recent survey, manufacturing leaders cite “high cost of scaling” and “hard to justify business case without short-term impact” as top reasons preventing the full adoption of 4IR technologies across the enterprise. But are these roadblocks well-founded given the advances in the 4IR? Innovations in manufacturing are far more accessible than many leaders realize.
As the futuristic possibilities of the 4IR are discussed, several myths have also emerged that are holding back the transformative potential of this new era in production. Below are four of the most significant myths. Dispelling them has the potential to accelerate the adoption and integration of 4IR solutions and unlock its inherent benefits for production industries for every region of the world. Myth #1 – 4IR technologies are too expensive For decades “technology” and “innovation” have been synonymous with “expensive”. Whether it was the first DVD player, flat screen TV, or tablet computer, the early iterations of these technologies tended to come with high price tags. However, the beauty of the 4IR is that
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Prices of robots are falling
Image: REUTERS/Stringer
so much can be done without breaking the bank. For example, by connecting analytics software packages to a “data lake” consisting of existing plant data, in combination with data captured from comparatively inexpensive Internet of Things (IoT) devices, companies can generate insights from enormous amounts of actionable data to make themselves m o r e efficient and more agile. While this does require a significant a m o u n t of upfront work to implement, it typically translates into optimized processes, shortened cycle times, increased quality, reduced energy losses, shorter downtimes due to maintenance, and improved overall equipment effectiveness. Even when we consider more capital-intensive 4IR investments like advanced robotics, the cost/benefit continues to move in favour of manufacturers implementing these technologies. Not only are prices of robots and automation falling, but they are doing so as labour costs increase and robot capabilities are increasing. For example, robots’ axes of operation – for example, the range of motion for robotic arms – have increased six-fold in the last 25 years; their user interface is such that line operators can adjust their behaviour and operation “on the fly”
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with recordable programming; their capability to support human operation has increased as safety standards have increased; and advances in AI continue to lower the cost of the integration of such systems.
cash flow increase. The key driver is that higher transition costs and capital expenditures of the frontrunners is over-compensated for by output gains.
Global manufacturers understand that the latest machinery, equipment, robotics, and so on, would drastically transform the way they do business. However, there’s also a broad awareness that refitting an entire factory requires significant investment.
The 4IR in manufacturing is often associated with robots and smart algorithms taking over tasks from humans, creating “lights-off factories” in which humans are no longer needed. This vision fosters fear of massive unemployment and social unrest.
Myth #2 – 4IR will cause widespread unemployment
Robotics prices versus labour cost
Therefore, some manufacturers wait for technology prices to drop further before investing in a broad scale-up. But, this “smart follower” strategy does not seem to pay off in the 4IR due to the different economics related to data and connectivity. A McKinsey Global Institute simulation suggests that the frontrunners in adoption of artificial intelligence, a key 4IR technology, will increase their cash flow by 122%, while followers will see only a 10%
While there is no doubt that repetitive tasks will decline, recent reports
Last year, we were talking about repairing the roof while the sun shines. This year, it’s more about preparing for inclement weather. -a CEO in attendance at Davos provide a more positive outlook for the workforce: “The Future of Jobs” report by the World Economic Forum shows that 75 million jobs will disappear and 133 million new jobs will be created by 2022 due to the 4IR, across all geographies, industries and functions. Not only will there be more jobs, but the new jobs will also be more attractive compared to the disappearing jobs, with more diverse and challenging tasks, and a higher emphasis on creativity, problem-solving and interpersonal communications skills. In manufacturing, while we expect a decline of tasks for assembly and factory workers, material handlers, quality inspectors and maintenance technicians; this decline will be counterbalanced by an increase of roles in the fields of data analytics, artificial intelligence, software and application development and technologies. The challenge to be overcome, then, is how to re-skill the existing workforce. Efforts to build capabilities are at the forefront for leading organizations. So-called “lighthouse” examples from some of the world’s most advanced 4IR factories are investing significant resources on change management and upskilling their workforces, with digital academies being deployed to train a large share of their employees. These re-skilling endeavours are supported by the fact that new technologies are becoming easier to implement – for example, employees without IT backgrounds can learn how to develop apps using code-free app development platforms, and collaborative robots can be “trained” without programming. Expected average reskilling needs across companies, by share of employees, 2018-2022 Opinion Manufacturing Profiles Letters to the Editor Politics of Manufacturing Trade Fair World Diary of Events World Market Report Q/A Export News Machine Tools Business Opportunities Commentary As I See It Business News Appointments Around New Zealand Australian Report New to the Market Lean Manufacturing Equipment for Sale Recruitment Environmental Technology Manufacturing Processes
environment.
Without doubt, the 4IR has a huge disruptive potential on the workforce in manufacturing. It is essential that more organizations take an active role in reskilling their existing workforce; that individuals approach lifelong learning proactively; and that governments assist in these efforts; to ensure that the workforce and society will benefit from the opportunities that are brought by the 4IR. Myth #3 – Businesses must forgo profits to achieve sustainability It is well-accepted that implementing more advanced technological solutions can help make businesses more efficient and therefore more sustainable. For many business leaders, talking about sustainability remains either a marketing strategy, or a signal that the company is going to forgo greater profits to become “greener”. It is this mindset – that one must choose between what is right for the bottom line and what is sustainable – that must shift. To do this, we need to first change the way we think and define sustainability. Today, it is far more than planting trees or putting a few solar panels on the roof – although these are still good things to do. Instead, we need to think about sustainability in terms of sustained success, and in the broader context of contributing positively to the workforce, society at large, and the
growth, enabled by an 11% increase of the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
Equally important, becoming sustainable does not have to mean massive changes. For example, the installation of intelligent lighting controls can save over 40% of energy used in lighting, and a building energy management system to optimize a plant’s energy use can save up to 30% of energy consumption. Some of the easiest savings can be made through managing off-time schedules more accurately.
In addition, the network of lighthouses shows that 4IR technologies are not the exclusive domain of developed economies. In fact, China is one of the leaders, with a high number of lighthouses, and other lighthouses are in Eastern Europe and in the Middle East. Enno de Boer, a partner at McKinsey, said: “The high number of lighthouses in China is a clear sign of China’s ambition to retain and enhance its manufacturing base while labour costs increase, to avoid a migration of manufacturing jobs to countries with lower wages.”
Myth #4 – 4IR is only for large multinational companies in developed markets There’s a common understanding that only large multinational companies in developed markets can deploy and benefit from 4IR technologies. This is not always the case, according to a recent World Economic Forum white paper “Fourth Industrial Revolution: Beacons of Technology and Innovation in Manufacturing”, which details 16 of the world’s most advanced 4IR factories. For example, one of the “lighthouse” factories is owned by Rold, an Italian SME with 250 staff, which implemented 4IR technologies with a small team and limited investment. The company created full transparency of its production process in order to identify and resolve root causes for quality deviations and performance losses. After only one year, the company achieved 7-8% revenue
Image: McKinsey Global Institute If manufacturers can collectively come to see these four myths for what they are – self-imposed barriers to attaining new heights of success – then we may finally unlock the full potential of the 4IR for industry and usher in a new era of innovation, productivity and inclusive growth.
NZ MANUFACTURER • March 2019 Issue • Features
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
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PRODUCTIVITY Advertising Booking Deadline – 11 March 2019
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Editorial Copy Deadline – 11 March 2019 Advertising – For bookings and further information contact: Doug Green, P O Box 1109, Hastings 4156, Hawke’s Bay Email: publisher@xtra.co.nz
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At NZ MANUFACTURER our aim is to keep our readers up to date with the latest industry news and manufacturing advances in a tasty paper morsel, ensuring they do not get left behind in the highly competitive and rapidly evolving manufacturing world.
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ROBOTICS
It doesn’t matter where you are coming from, all that matters is where you are going. -Brian Tracy
Construction and mining the next frontier of robotics In the past, for heavy industry-related locations like mines, robots were controlled by teleoperation or navigate autonomously across uneven terrain or within subterranean interiors with little to no human interaction. This was the same for construction sites, where robots must understand changing floor plans, keep track of inventory, and navigate stairs. Thanks to advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), wireless telecommunications, location-based technologies, and navigation systems, this is being realised. Modern robotics tend to be associated with either indoor environments like
factories and warehouses, or in the home. But there is a multitude of other, less structured and more challenging environments where AMRs are only just beginning to proliferate. Advanced mobility enabling autonomous navigation will empower robotics vendors in construction, extraction and elsewhere. While in 2018, 28.7% of commercial robots’ shipments had some degree of autonomous navigation, in 2027, the
percentage will be 79.3%. Construction robots may be involved in specific tasks, such as brick-laying, painting, loading, and bulldozing. We can expect hundreds of AMRs in the next 2 years, mainly doing haulage. These robots help to protect workers from a hazardous working environment, reduce workplace injuries, and address labour shortages. For the robots to operate in challenging, hostile, and unsafe environments without human assistance, the key beneficiaries will be OEMs who choose to adopt navigation-providing operation systems (OS) from third-party providers. Specialist robot companies have a greater opportunity to attract capital due to increased interest, and with the formulation of cloud services from AWS and Google, have more opportunity than ever to develop advanced capabilities like mobile manipulation and advanced analytics. However, they will struggle to get
an in-house solution off the ground without partnering with third-party providers on localisation and navigation technologies. Given the complexity of localisation, mapping, and navigation alone, a delegation of responsibility to third-party providers is often the best way to go. These types of partnerships are crucial as the OEMs have the industry know-how and existing infrastructure that address site-specific requirements. Therefore, while the proliferation of start-ups dedicated to building robotic platforms for construction-related tasks is intriguing, the more developed opportunity is currently the interaction between OS providers and traditional OEMs, like Komatsu and Caterpillar, in automating heavy vehicles used in mining extraction. These may be OS providers like Braincorp and Autonomous Solutions Inc., who specialise in navigation, or technology providers Humatics. As both industries continue to strive for cost efficiency and workplace safety, task-specific autonomous mobile robots hold the key to the future.
How much do robots affect jobs and productivity? Robots’ capacity for autonomous movement and their ability to perform an expanding set of tasks have captured writers’ imaginations for almost a century. Recently robots have emerged from the pages of science fiction novels into the real world, and discussions of their possible economic effects have become ubiquitous (see e.g. The Economist 2014, Brynjolfsson and McAfee 2014).
and communication technologies. But it is worth noting that robots make up just over two percent of capital, which is much less than previous technological drivers of growth.
But a serious problem inhibits these discussions – there has so far been no systematic empirical analysis of the effects that robots are already having.
Therefore, while the proliferation of start-ups dedicated to building robotic platforms for construction-related tasks is intriguing, the more developed opportunity is currently the interaction between OS providers and traditional OEMs, like Komatsu and Caterpillar, in automating heavy vehicles used in mining extraction.
Industrial robots increase labour productivity, total factor productivity, and wages. At the same time, while industrial robots had no significant effect on total hours worked, there is some evidence that they reduced the employment of low skilled workers, and to a lesser extent also middle skilled worker.
A first glance What exactly are industrial robots? A machine is an industrial robot if it can be programmed to perform physical, production-related tasks without the need of a human controller. (The technical definition refers to a “manipulating industrial robot as defined by ISO 8373: An automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator programmable in three or more axes, which may be either fixed in place or mobile for use in industrial automation applications”.)
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Industrial robots dramatically increase the scope for replacing human labour compared to older types of machines, since they reduce the need for human intervention in automated processes. Typical applications of industrial robots include assembling, dispensing, handling, processing (for instance, cutting), and welding – all of which are prevalent in manufacturing industries – as well as harvesting (in agriculture) and inspecting of equipment and structures (common in power plants). From 1993-2007, the ratio of the number of robots to hours worked increased on average by about 150%. The industries that increased robot use most rapidly were the producers of transportation equipment, chemical industries, and metal industries.
Addressing reverse causality Could it be that higher productivity growth causes a larger increase in robot use, rather than the other way around? On average, the increased use of
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robots contributed about 0.37 percentage points to the annual GDP growth, which accounts for more than one tenth of total GDP growth over this period. The contribution to labour productivity growth was about 0.36 percentage points, accounting for one sixth of productivity growth. This makes robots’ contribution to the aggregate economy roughly on par with previous important technologies, such as the railroads in the nineteenth century (Crafts 2004) and the US highways in the twentieth century (Fernald 1999). The effects are also comparable to the recent contributions of information
These may be OS providers like Braincorp and Autonomous Solutions Inc., who specialise in navigation, or technology providers Humatics. As both industries continue to strive for cost efficiency and workplace safety, task-specific autonomous mobile robots hold the key to the future.
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.
Matt Minio
Managing Director, Objective3D Matt has extensive hands on experience as a user and supplier of 3D Printing technology. He comes from a mechanical design and engineering background with 25 years’ experience in multiple high end 3D cad applications across a range of industries, including aerospace and automotive. He has been heavily involved in the 3D printing evolution - from initial early prototyping to todays advanced 3d printing technologies producing production parts straight off the printer. As Managing Director of Objective 3D, he provides Stratasys, Desktop Metal and Concept Laser 3D printing solutions to a host of industries across Australia and New Zealand.
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Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. - Jim Rohn
Researcher creates ‘smart silicone’ that reacts to heat and light
Wellington nanotechnology researcher Andreas Zeller has created new techniques to make high value smart elastic silicone by incorporating nanocrystals and quantum dots. The smart elastomers have a wide range of commercial applications from smart bandages that change colour when they need changing, to soft robots for delicate surgical manipulation, to eco-friendly paints that could control their environment by absorbing or reflecting heat depending on the season.
further by adding nanocrystals and quantum dots to add photochromic and thermochromic characteristics, which means it has new high value function as it can react to heat and light.” Silicone functionalised with photochromic nanoparticles responds quickly to UV light as a reversible reaction darkens the film, which naturally returns to normal over time. “So thin photochromic silicone film could, for example, be used as UV and sun protectant on windows,” says Dr Zeller.
Dr Zeller started his Emerging Innovator project to identify the beach-head application for the ‘smart silicone elastomer’ technology as a Research and Development Scientist at the MacDiarmid Institute at Victoria University of Wellington. He is continuing his research project in his new role as a member of Callaghan Innovation’s Microfabrication Team, with ongoing support from the MacDiarmid Institute and Principal Investigator, Professor Thomas Nann.
To create colour changing silicone that responds to changes in temperature, Dr Zeller has added thermochromic nanoparticles. “Thermochromic functionalised silicone has a diverse range of potential applications including smart industrial seals that signal if a device is overheating and medical devices that give feedback as to when they need cleaning or replacing,” he says.
“Silicone is an important material as it is biologically inert, highly elastic, optically transparent and easily moulded. Its excellent properties lend it to widespread and diverse applications from lab-on-a-chip devices for point of care diagnostics to solar cells and holographic displays,” says Dr Zeller. “I’ve taken this silicone a step
Dr James Hutchinson, CEO of KiwiNet, says: “Through the KiwiNet Emerging Innovator programme Andreas successfully developed a
proof of concept for his smart silicone technology and has undertaken important market validation across several industries. We’re delighted that as a result he’s attracted industry interest in his technology. We look forward to seeing his technology incorporated into a range of products of value in the future.” Zeller’s work has been assisted by a network of researchers from Victoria University of Wellington, MacDiarmid Institute and Callaghan Innovation. Andrea Bubendorfer, who leads the microfabrication team at Callaghan Innovation, says: “The technology Andreas has developed has really
exciting potential. Soft, stretchy and flexible materials are coming into the spotlight for their ability to integrate into high value environments such as soft robotics, wearables and health related applications, for just a few examples. The work Andreas has done to make these materials “smart” by functionalising them creates new high value opportunities.” The next step for Dr Zeller, following his graduation from the KiwiNet Emerging Innovator Programme, is to conduct further research to obtain smart silicone films even thinner films than the 500 µm he has already developed.
Using big databases to find superconductors of the future A more systematic, data-driven approach could identify materials that can improve our energy use. conduct electricity with virtually no resistance. Superconducting materials have improved the field of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and have led to the development of particle colliders that can be used for research related to splitting atoms.
Japanese researchers have found an approach to more quickly and successfully identify superconducting materials. “The data-driven approach shows promising power to accelerate the discovery of new thermoelectric and superconducting materials,” the researchers say in their study published in the journal Science and Technology of Advanced Materials.
Currently available superconducting materials can only perform at extremely low temperatures. If researchers can find superconducting materials that work at ambient temperature, electricity could be
Superconductors are materials that
A data-driven approach helps identify superconducting materials. (Credit: National Institute for Materials Science)
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conducted over large distances without energy loss. Current approaches to searching for these materials are somewhat random, and results strongly depend on researcher’s intuition, experience and luck. Materials scientist Yoshihiko Takano of Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science and colleagues have shown that sifting through an inorganic materials database using specific search parameters can provide a more systematic way to finding superconducting materials.
database, selecting materials that have a similar crystal structure to SnBi2Se4 but a narrower ‘band gap’, a property related to atomic structure that allows electrons to jump up from one energy level to another and thus partake in electrical conductivity. Their best choice was PbBi2Te4 (formed of lead, bismuth, and tellurium). They synthesised PbBi2Te4 crystals, examined their structure, chemical composition and other properties, and found that those properties met the predictions.
They searched through AtomWork, a large database for inorganic materials. In a previous study using this same approach, the team identified SnBi2Se4 (a compound of tin, bismuth, and selenium) as a potential superconductor. Experiments showed that this was indeed the case.
They exposed the crystals to high pressures and varying temperatures and found that the electrical resistance of PbBi2Te4 decreased with increasing pressure, reaching a superconductive state at 10 gigapascals, about half the pressure needed for SnBi2Se4 to become superconductive.
But SnBi2Se4 requires very low temperatures and high pressures to become superconductive. The team searched once more through the
This work “presents a case study for the important first-step for the next-generation data-driven materials science,” the team concludes.
The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. -Ayn Rand
TIC-TOC technology moves Tactile Internet a step closer to reality Researchers at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in South Korea have developed technology capable of sending packets of digital information at 25 Gb/s (giga-bit per second) - 10 times faster than currently available speeds.
to work on 5G networks.
The technology, named TIC-TOC, is a critical component of the future Tactile Internet, in which information is sent and received at speeds on par with human perception.
For example, it could be possible to deploy and operate robots in dangerous or disaster areas with instant sight and feel communication between human controllers and machines. When the machine sees something, the humans sees it, and when the human remotely controls the robot’s hand or head, the motion will happen immediately.
The technology operates at a speed fast enough to download a 3 GB movie within one second. Furthermore, the TIC-TOC system enables more urgent data to jump ahead of other information packets and be transferred in one milli-second (1/1000 of a second), the same speed at which the human sense of touch works. TIC-TOC stands for “Time Controlled Tactile Optical Access” and is designed
The researchers anticipate the TIC-TOC technology will help advance virtual reality and augmented reality in all sorts of sectors, from education and healthcare, to entertainment and public safety.
The same could be true for telesurgery, with a doctor remotely controlling a robot performing the surgery, but the doctor feels as if she were in the operating room because the response is instantaneous. “The Tactile Internet is expected to be
the fourth industrial revolution,” said HwanSeok Chung, a project leader at ETRI. chips and optical transceivers to speed up data processing time. The optical transceiver converts high-speed electrical data into optical signals to transmit over optical fibres.
“We will see robots, cars and all other machines connected to the Internet all around us. Tactile Internet will enable humans and machines to interact with each other even from far away.”
The chips guarantee latency (the time from data’s origin to destination) is less than 1 milli-second with ETRI’s new low latency-oriented packet scheduling technology controlling network traffic. The chips could further increase network speeds faster than 25 Gb/s by combining several channels for data transmission.
The team developed TIC-TOC in order to help address the traffic jams that occurs within current information processing systems, causing delays. By increasing the speed at which information can be transmitted, and allowing more important information to jump the queue, they have ensured that as soon as a user clicks on a webpage, it loads instantly, or they can watch a video live essentially without any delay.
A few hurdles remain before commercialization such as system implementation. ETRI continues researching to solve such hurdles, and the tactile Internet enabled by TIC-TOC should be available in one year.
Described in the Journal of Lightwave Technology, the TIC-TOC technology consists of internet access control
Schneider Electric partners with Nozomi Networks to secure and protect critical infrastructure Schneider Electric has signed a global partnership agreement with Nozomi Networks, the leader in industrial cybersecurity and operational visibility. Under the terms of the agreement, Schneider Electric will collaborate with Nozomi to provide customers in the industrial manufacturing and critical infrastructure segments advanced anomaly detection, vulnerability assessment and other cybersecurity solutions and services, helping them to control, prevent and mitigate risks to their operations and business performance. The partnership enables Schneider Electric to respond more aggressively to immediate demand for effective, operational technology cybersecurity services, solutions and expertise in oil and gas, power, building automation
and other industrial sectors. Schneider Electric will offer Nozomi Networks’ advanced solutions for industrial control system cyber resiliency and real-time operational visibility to customers worldwide. Schneider Electric will combine its EcoStruxure IIoT process automation and industrial control solutions with Nozomi’s SCADAguardian platform for real-time operations visibility, including: • Advanced ICS Cybersecurity Solutions: The bundled solution will deliver the deep network visibility and OT cybersecurity industry operators require in one, comprehensive and highly scalable solution. Nozomi Networks SCADAguardian solution provides accurate asset discovery, superior threat detection and flexible and
scalable deployment options to Schneider Electric customers.
EcoStruxure is Schneider Electric’s open, interoperable, IoT-enabled system architecture and platform. EcoStruxure delivers enhanced value around safety, reliability, efficiency, sustainability and connectivity for customers.
• Nozomi Networks Certified Consultants: Schneider Electric consultants around the world will continue to be trained as certified Nozomi Networks engineers, scaling to support clients throughout their cybersecurity solution implementation, and providing expert OT threat hunting and forensic analysis.
EcoStruxure leverages advancements in IoT, mobility, sensing, cloud, analytics and cybersecurity to deliver Innovation at Every Level. This includes Connected Products, Edge Control, and Apps, Analytics
• SCADAguardian Live in Schneider Electric Sites: Schneider Electric customers can experience Nozomi Networks’ real-time operational visibility and cybersecurity solutions via live threat scenarios running in Schneider Electric sites around the world.
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The most difficult thing is the decision to act; the rest is merely tenacity. --Amelia Earhart
Industry 4.0 hype, hope and thresholds – Roland Thomas, CEO of OFS. Unrealistic expectations of Industry 4.0 technology can lead to dissatisfaction. industry been digitising, automating, simulating and monitoring for years? The answer to this turns out to be “Yes”. Many of the central concepts behind Industry 4.0 have roots tracing back to early in the 20th century.
What is Industry 4.0? The Fourth Industrial Revolution, coined Industry 4.0, is the cyber-physical transformation of manufacturing. Industry 4.0 is marked by technology breakthroughs like ‘The Smart Factory’, Communications Platforms’ and ‘Event Driven Services’, and is effectively transforming traditional manufacturing. the terms used to describe Industry 4.0 are complex. The premise of a ‘Smart Factory’ is essentially digitally modelling critical components and functions of a production facility (using a digital twin and system modelling) as well as the elements in the facility that are required to perform them (cyber-physical systems) and using these digital models to control the equipment (using an industrial digital computer), enabling you to use automation based on events to control production processes and services. By digitally modelling the production facility, staff can input and retrieve data on the move, using their mobile devices and wearables. They are also able to communicate with computers and utilise communications platforms and natural language processing. Production staff, by symbiotically working alongside computers, enable the baseline of expected performance to be updated with relevant data from throughout the factory. Machine learning and predictive analytics are then able to control and improve production processes, detect and predict when there will be a mechanical failure on site (PHM) and even trigger a maintenance event (PdM/CBM).
Hype or Hope Disillusionment occurs when the expectation of a particular technology exceeds its level of maturity or capability. Gartner, a global research and advisory firm, have published a graphical representation of the difference between the expectations of technology and the actual outcome.
predictable pattern throughout their life cycle. The pattern begins with the ‘Technology Trigger’ when a product is first released. At this point the expectations for the technology are low, as only those close and knowledgeable to the innovation are making judgements and these are generally fact based.
Only then do expectations and product capability slowly grow together during the ‘Slope of Enlightenment’ when realism and understanding of the new technology begins. Unfortunately, today, many Industry 4.0 technologies are placed in the land of ‘Peak of Inflated Expectations’. The Hype Cycle is used to help distinguish if a company should invest their time and resources into one of these technologies or wait until it begins its path on the ‘Slope of Enlightenment’. The hype causes confusion but it does not imply that these technologies are without real benefit, rather, it says that judging the technology by the expectations rather than how mainstream ready it is, will lead to disappointment.
What’s New?
The Hype Cycle illustrates that expectations of new technology and innovative products follow a
At the opposite end of the spectrum is the idea that Industry 4.0 is nothing new. I mean... hasn’t the manufacturing
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Data has been collected for over 50 years. Three-dimensional printing in the form of stereo-lithography dates to the late 80’s, and WiFi (802.11) to the late 90s. So how is industry 4.0 considered to be new and innovative when this technology has been around for years?
It is worth looking, therefore, at what may have changed to make these technologies deliver more today than they have in the past.
Gartner have termed this graph the “Hype Cycle”.
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The digital twin relies on simulation and origins of simulation, date back to the 1940s and the origin of AI to the 50s.
Prerequisite Technologies Arrived
Expectations then rise dramatically during the ‘Peak of Inflated Expectations’ as general consumers hear of the innovative product and begin to blur what can be achieved with their expectations. Once the realisation sets in that the product will not be able to live up to consumers unrealistic expectations the ‘Trough of Disillusionment’ follows.
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to grow. This in turn spawned better machine learning algorithms and it all accelerated from there.
For a technology to move from possible to practical there are always several prerequisite technologies needed for it to work. Consider the smartphone. Before they could exist, they needed computer chip miniaturisation, touch screen technology, satellites, and rockets to launch satellites so Google™ maps could work. They needed network technology, voice and video compression technology and much more. Most of these innovations were not created for the smartphone but were prerequisites for its existence. Once they all existed the smartphone was almost inevitable (Kevin Kelly, The Inevitable). In manufacturing, networked factories are the fundamental glue that has only recently been realised. Many companies are yet to start even today. Clearly if devices are to talk to the office and each other, they need a way to talk. The evolution of robust industrial strength WiFi removed a major cost barrier, especially in clean environments which may need stainless steel conduit everywhere you want a “blue wire”.
Machine Learning Matures Another big change to manufacturing has been the maturing of categories of AI, such as Machine Learning, from the AI Winter into Spring. Experts have been predicting we would achieve a fully cognitive AI system since the 1960s. This moved to the 70s, the 80s and was not realised until the mid-2000s with the availability of expensive graphics GPUs, only then the momentum began
Some forms of Machine Learning have undergone year on year incremental improvement until they reached a threshold of performance which is better than humans and therefore became useful. In this situation there is no breakthrough leap. Rather, one day it is a novelty and the next day a useful tool. Consider the machine learning applications that are used to identify images or voice recognition and interpretation. Early versions of both were very limited and were not useful, hence tend to be dismissed. It was, for example, difficult to create a general machine learning image recognition solution to reliably distinguish between a puppy and a muffin or cookie. But incrementally, it could take years, technology gets better and better until, one day you find it is within the human error range, at which time the usage of the capability explodes.
Conclusion We might be in the Twilight Zone of Industry 4.0. Some things are real, and some, practically speaking, still fantasy. Keeping your company moving towards Industry 4.0 means focusing on high value solutions, attainable only with today’s technology. This takes effort. At the same time, an experimental mindset to patiently keep up to pace with the evolution of technology, and leap only when the innovations become practical is more important than ever. Ensuring that your company doesn’t fall prey to inflated expectations but is always open to being innovative and exploring options that could save time and resources isn’t easy, but it is fun.
Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.--Winston Churchill
THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Plastic is a global problem and opportunity New technologies and approaches could transform waste plastic from a problem into a huge opportunity.
Plastic is a most versatile and ubiquitous material, it is difficult to imagine life without it. Despite the growth it has enjoyed for decades, the detriment caused to society and the environment by its abundance can no longer be ignored. With 13,000 pieces of plastic litter found in every square kilometre of ocean, and the manufacture of four plastic bottles producing a level of greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to travelling one mile in a medium-sized petrol car, there has never been a more pressing time to reinvent traditionally linear modes of production. Antoine Frérot, CEO of Veolia, notes the steep increase in plastic production over the last half-century, from 15 million tonnes during the 1960s to a reported 311 million tonnes in 2014. This figure is expected to triple by 2050, when plastic production may account for 20% of global annual oil consumption. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates the costs arising from single-use plastics, together with those of the greenhouse gases emitted during production, to be $40 billion. This staggering figure exceeds the current plastic industry’s profit pool and further strengthens the arguments for why current plastic production and consumption must be curbed. It simply no longer makes financial, social or environmental sense. As the global movement to protect the planet against spiralling plastic production continues to gain momentum and the industries responsible for its production face new heights of scrutiny, a new plastics opportunity has emerged for business to both create value and drive more sustainable practice simultaneously.
Plastic as its own raw material With this new plastics opportunity in mind, could plastic become its own solution? If the cornerstone of circular economy thinking is applied to plastics; if economic growth is decoupled from limited natural resource use; and if new ways are found to reuse plastic products already in existence - the versatility of plastic may span new heights, create new value for businesses and protect and future-proof our planet. If regulatory and voluntary measures prioritising recycling and recovery can also align with sustainable innovation and new technological advancements, the global need for virgin plastic could be dramatically reduced. For example, at present the treatment, recycling and collection of plastic packaging varies depending on the plastic type in question. This makes the appropriate action to take unclear, and disincentivizes correct resource-recovery practices. As some suggest, a global standardisation of plastic packaging types may be one solution to this issue. This could be realized through a fusion of public sector collaboration to create effective policies, coupled with self-regulated industry standards – resulting in improved recycling rates and easier resource recovery. By closing the loop, plastics would no longer be classified as waste. They would instead act as a key source of value, entering and re-entering the value chain as technical and biological inputs. This closed-loop solution has
gradually begun to gain momentum as businesses realize the potential size of the prize on the table now that the technology exists to enable the use of plastic as a raw material in future plastic production.
data intelligence platform integrates thousands of informal recyclers into their supply chain, providing job security and improved livelihoods, in addition to helping cities manage their waste more effectively
Technological innovation driving change
In a similarly innovative move, Perpetual has developed and brought to market a sustainable and cost-effective technological process that alters post-consumer PET bottles into high-quality, sustainable (poly) ester used to make new bottles, packaging film and textiles.
The era which we are entering, known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, is defined largely by rapidly developing technological capabilities. The World Economic Forum and Accenture Strategy have identified three types of technologies that support the transition to a circular economy, which span the digital, physical and biological realms.
This ester can directly replace other esters that have a higher carbon footprint. Water giant Evian, in partnership with ground-breaking tech company Loop Industries, has publicly pledged that all its water bottles will be manufactured from recycled plastic by 2025.
Sustainable innovation must be at the heart of the development of the technological capabilities that are fundamentally altering the world in which we live.
Loop Industries has developed a technological solution that enables the creation of high-quality plastic resin for Evian’s bottles without making any more plastic.
A sustainable plastics innovation engine is already whirring into life, with many pioneering companies such as Banyan Nation, Evian & Loop Industries, Bureo and Perpetual Global using these Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies to lead the charge in creating a new, waste-free plastics reality.
Loop Industries’ technology uses a catalyst that can separate PET plastic into its individual monomers without heat or pressure. These monomers can then be remoulded into plastic resin and can subsequently filter out impurities, creating virgin-quality PET plastic resin at scale.
One of India’s first vertically integrated plastic recycling companies and the Circulars People’s Choice Award Winner for 2018, Banyan Nation has developed a pioneering technology capable of converting collected post-consumer and post-industrial plastic wastes into high-quality recycled granules, known as Better Plastic.
Where reduced resource use and increased economic gains are championed, plastic’s use as a raw material has the capacity for transformative change.
These granules are comparable in quality and performance to virgin plastic. Banyan’s award-winning
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NEW PRODUCTS
It is not what happens to you that matters, but what you do about it that makes the difference. --Rhett Power
Putting you in control of difficult materials Dormer Pramet has launched several high-performance grades for milling hard materials and for precision thread turning. The new milling grades - M4303 and M4310 - provide durability and reliability in semi-finishing and finishing applications.
Each is designed for high speed milling for the die and mold segment, offering consistent wear and longer tool life. An ultra-thin PVD coating increases cutting edge toughness, while its substrate provides high hardness and strength of cutting edge, preventing fracture by chipping.
7215 grade and offers an optimum balance of toughness and wear resistance in hardened steel and cast iron. It can also be used for machining stainless steel, steels and non-ferrous metals.
Created within the company’s Pramet range, the M4303 replaces the previous 7205 grade and provides superior wear resistance. It has been developed for hardened steel above 55HRC and cast iron, but can also be used for machining steels and non-ferrous metals.
The new T8010 is ideal for continuous high precision thread turning of steels, stainless steel, cast iron and super alloys. It further extends the company’s Pramet assortment in this application area and supports the universal grade T8030.
The M4310 takes over from the existing
Offering excellent wear resistance
Dormer Pramet also has a high wear resistant grade for thread turning.
while ensuring operational reliability, the T8010 has enhanced plastic deformation resistance which provides a stable cutting edge and allows for increased speeds. A gold finish on the insert provides a simple wear indicator, while a hard substrate and PVD coating has been optimized to deal with interior residual stress, helping to improve tool life. To find out more about all the latest indexable products launched, contact your local Dormer Pramet sales office or visit www.dormerpramet.com to download the new Pramet product brochure.
Ultra-flat high tonnage cylinders for harsh conditions Ultra-flat high tonnage lifting cylinders with stop rings for reliability and safety are being introduced by Enerpac to bring the power and precision of high-pressure hydraulics to applications involving limited space and often harsh operating conditions. The compact and robust CULP Series 700 bar lift ring cylinders – in capacities from 10-100 tons, with 6mm stroke – are designed for applications where high lifting forces and extremely low starting heights are required in confined spaces, starting at 2.8mm. Weighing from 1-11.5kg for easy placement and operator convenience, the robust cylinders offer up to 4 per cent side load at maximum capacity, as well as incorporating stop ring protection for maximum stroke limitation to avoid damage and downtime.
The new cylinders also feature nitrocarburised surface treatment for harsh conditions, such as those encountered on applications such as construction and civil engineering, infrastructure, mining and energy, oil and gas, road and rail, tunnelling and safe lifting of heavy plant in electrical, manufacturing, maritime, water and waste water and fabrication projects. “One of the big advantages of high-tonnage ultra-flat cylinders is that
Enerpac CUSP series cylinder
operators can stably and progressively lift the load from beneath, keeping it precisely balanced. Cylinders such as these also provide a lifting solution where access for overhead lifting is restricted or non-existent,” says Enerpac National Sales Manager Mr Darryl Lange. Another major advantage is that the cylinders feature the ultra-flat cylinder design proven for harsh conditions in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea in the complementary series of CUSP cylinders, in capacities from 1-1000 tons and with lifting strokes of 7-17mm (or 6-10mm with tilted stroke). The new cylinders’ nitrocarburised protection is also shared with CUSP cylinders, providing sideload resistance and corrosion protection for safe use in the harshest conditions. The protection
is also shared by Enerpac’s new RLT low-height telescopic cylinders, which provide longer cylinder strokes of 17-40mm in confined spaces. “The new cylinders are complemented by Enerpac pumping solutions in more than 1000 configurations, proven throughout Australasia for applications prioritising speed, control, intermittent or heavy duty. Pumping solutions include P series Hand Pumps, XC series Cordless Pumps, XA series Air Driven pumps, ZU4 series portable electric pumps, ZE series Electric Pumps and SFP series Split Flow pumps for multi-point lifting and lowering applications where uneven loads need to be positioned equally. In order to operate ultra-flat cylinders safely, a solid lifting surface is required for correct support.
200 MHz, 4-channel oscilloscopes ensure measurements at affordable price Keysight Technologies, Inc. a leading technology company that helps enterprises, service providers, and governments accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world, has announced the 200 MHz, 4-channel models of the InfiniiVision 1000 X-Series oscilloscopes, providing professional-level measurements and capabilities at an affordable price, including 4-wire Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) decode and remote connection via local area networks (LANs). The new InfiniiVision 1000 X-Series oscilloscopes use the same user interface and measurement technology found in the higher performance Keysight InfiniiVision oscilloscopes. The intuitive front panel is easy-to-use and features built-in help enabling customers to quickly understand oscilloscope functions and improve overall test efficiency.
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Seventeen complementary training signals are preloaded to ensure rapid use of the advanced measurement and analysis capabilities inherent in the InfiniiVision 1000 X-Series. These training signals can also be used in conjunction with the free educator’s training kit, which includes a comprehensive oscilloscope lab guide and oscilloscope fundamentals slide set. “Visualising electrical signals to understand both timing and voltage relationships is one of the most important sources of insights for the electrical engineering community,” said Teit Poulsen, director, Altoo Measurement Science. “Keysight’s new 4 channel DSOX1000 series oscilloscopes provide the highest level of signal insight and functionality at an unprecedented low price point while retaining the legendary Keysight
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quality. Allowing more engineers greater insight in the behaviour of their electrical designs.” The InfiniiVision 1000 X-Series models are bandwidth upgradable via software license, enabling customers to purchase the bandwidth needed now, and upgrade as designs evolve in the future. The InfiniiVision 1000 X-Series oscilloscopes are available at 70, 100, and 200 MHz of bandwidth and accelerate innovations with: • Custom Keysight MegaZoom IV ASIC technology which delivers 50,000 waveforms per second update rate and 2 GSa/s sample rate which allows visualization of random and infrequent glitches and anomalies that similarly priced oscilloscopes might miss. • Six-in-one instrument integration including a frequency response
analyser (Bode plotting), function generator, protocol analyser, digital voltmeter, and frequency counter, which saves valuable bench space. • Standard LAN connectivity enables multiple engineers to work on one instrument by connecting to the network via LAN and accessing an internet browser for remote control. This allows students and co-workers to share equipment and work on projects from anywhere, saving time and money. • Professional-quality measurements and software analysis capabilities including 24 automatic measurements, the gated fast Fourier transform (FTT) function, and mask testing help quickly analyse and determine signal parameters.
If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut. -Albert Einstein
NEW PRODUCTS
New pneumatic monitoring system: a Health & Safety manager’s dream! BFM fitting’s no-tool, snap-fit installation already makes them a much safer option than traditional hose-clip type connectors, eliminating the risk of injury to workers by slipping screwdrivers during installation & change-overs. But, as with any flexible connection in a live production system, if the connector is removed at any time, there is still a potential risk hands can be placed near dangerous moving parts, such as rotary valves and knives. Now, a recent innovation developed by the team at BFM® will further enhance
safety for workers when dealing with connector removal in these types of positions.
need an added level of security for their workers” said BFM® CEO, Blair McPheat.
The BFM Pneumatic Monitoring System (see adjacent image) pumps pressurized air between the silicone cuff of the BFM connector and the spigot it sits inside.
“We’re providing the system as a package and it can easily be retrofitted to most existing BFM® fitting installations” said Mr McPheat.
An air-line sensor immediately detects if this outward pressure is released as the connector cuff starts to be removed, setting off an alarm and/or shutting off any moving parts below.
“The standard option is waterproof and dustproof (to IP65 level), and we’re also providing an ATEX-compliant version to ensure that the system can be installed in plants with high-spec compliance requirements”.
“This system has been developed to give peace of mind to customers who
The system has a tamper-proof gauge, and it can also be used as a positional
sensor to ensure all connectors in a large plant are installed correctly at all times. BFM® Global Ltd is the New Zealand based manufacturer of the BFM fitting system, a revolutionary snap-in flexible connector and spigot that eliminates the problems associated with traditional hose clamp systems.
Pipe bevelling machine for hard alloys A portable pipe bevelling tool is ideally suited for machining hard alloys typical of subsea applications and pulls a thick chip without cutting oils. The Millhog Commander I.D. Clamping Pipe Bevelling Tool features large clamp pads with six contact points to evenly spread their holding forces
and mount rigidly. Ideal for making precision joint preps on Super Duplex, P-91, and other high alloy pipes, this vibration-free pipe machining tool pulls a thick chip without cutting oils and transfers heat away from the pipe surface which prolongs blade life.
sets of clamps for the entire range of the tool, the Millhog Commander I.D. Clamping Pipe bevelling Tool can prep all schedules of pipe from 95.25 mm I.D. to 355.6 mm O.D.
Only requiring one mandrel and seven
A 3HP pneumatic motor is standard; an
This tool can perform 37-1/2 bevels, compound, counterbore, and J-preps.
1800W electric and hydraulic motors are optional.
THE FACTORY OF THE FUTURE WILL MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE, POSSIBLE SINGLE PASS WELDS IN THICKNESSES UP TO 200MM WITH NO CONSUMABLES
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PLEASE VISIT FOR MORE INFORMATION
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DEVELOPMENTS
You can’t achieve a goal without having it. -Shawn Doyle
Plastic packaging re-think needed The first-ever study on NZ’s entire plastic packaging system highlights how even radically improved recycling will not solve all its problems. New Zealanders need to rethink the way we make, use and dispose of plastic packaging. It highlights how everyone has a role to play and no one entity can solve the issues associated with plastic packaging. A co-ordinated circular economy approach is required, which tackles the root causes of the problem not just individual symptoms. In a circular economy the life cycles of materials are maximised, usage optimised and at the end of life, all materials are reutilised so that nothing is wasted. This presents a viable and prosperous alternative to the dominant linear, ‘take, make, waste’ system. The study was led by James Griffin of SBN’s Circular Economy Accelerator. “There has been an explosion in the use of plastic packaging in the last 60 years because it is relatively cheap, lightweight and durable. Unfortunately, systems to properly manage it have not kept pace. This has led to a global waste and pollution crisis, including here in New Zealand. More recently, the stresses in our system were highlighted when China effectively closed its doors to the world’s waste.” The study identifies measures to
significantly increase recycling rates such as reduction in the types and formats of plastics used, more on-shore processing facilities, consistent collections around the country, increasing demand for recycled materials and a container deposit scheme. James cautions that, although such measures offer opportunities to improve the situation, recycling alone cannot solve the issues associated with plastic packaging. “There needs to be a wider approach, for example, problematic and unnecessary plastic packaging needs to be identified and eliminated from our supply chains. Reuse models need to be adopted and scaled as an alternative to single-use plastics.” The SBN study drew on global research by the UK’s Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF), as well as more than 40 interviews with key stakeholders across NZ’s plastic packaging system. The work was supported by 10 major New Zealand businesses. Many of them have signed up to The New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, developed by EMF and UN Environment. This has 290+ signatories, representing 20% of the world’s plastic packaging production. The Commitment includes targets for eliminating problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging. It involves moving
from single-use to reusable packaging. It aims to stimulate new ways to ensure all packaging can be easily and safely reused, recycled, or composted by 2025. Another goal is to significantly increase the amounts of plastics reused or recycled and made into new packaging. The targets are set to be tightened over time. Participants are required to publish annual progress reports. The SBN study was partly designed as a foundation piece to help enable participating business to meet these commitments and go beyond them. The report provides 47 recommendations to achieve a new comprehensive nationwide plastic packaging system that works. The top recommendations are as follows: Individual businesses need to: • audit the types and amounts of
plastic packaging they use. This should find out the types of plastics being used and identify problematic single use plastics • set bold targets to design out problematic packaging and enable dramatically improved recycling • support suppliers providing packaging formats with high levels of recycled content The business sector also needs to work together to: • expand the market for recycled materials • develop product stewardship schemes for rigid plastics And the government needs to: • develop and implement a comprehensive plastic packaging strategy with bold and ambitious targets
Revolutionary power-efficient solution for network energy An exclusive Australian supplier of DC Power Converters and energy solutions, Powerbox Australia, recently released EnergyHub by Enatel Energy at Comms Connect Melbourne Exhibition and Conference. More than 1500 people from a broad range of industries attended this years event seeking out the very latest communications information, technologies and solutions. EnergyHub is a complete lithium-ion power solution for providers of power utilities, telecommunications and security, as well as transport operators. These industry sectors have historically
relied on lead-acid battery solutions and worn the associated operation costs. Incorporating both DC rectifier technology and integrated lithium-ion battery modules, EnergyHub from Enatel Energy offers a truly dynamic li-ion solution. EnergyHub offers significant financial benefits because solutions are more efficient and less maintenance is required over the long term, vastly reducing operational costs when compared to the conventional lead-acid type batteries still widely used. As organisations begin to work with brand new EnergyHub, they will notice that this revolutionary system allows for much greater energy density and depth of discharge.
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“EnergyHub, which utilises li-on batteries, leaves more room for revenue-generating network equipment. Tight cell management from Enatel’s proprietary BMS in combination with the new RM848HE Rectifiers allows for optimised charging/discharging to improve system functionality,” said James Rutty, Business Development Manager of Powerbox Australia. “In addition, the EnergyHub requires zero set-up cost, can be easily scaled up to meet changing load demands and it shares a hot pluggable interface with EnergyPak battery modules to maximise usability.” According to Mr Rutty, safety of the system is ensured with the use of ‘Cold Terminal Design’, which stops voltage from travelling through the battery’s power and control pins to cut off the supply of current when it’s not
connected to the charger. EnergyHub offers complete transparency of all energy data including battery cycle life, depth of discharge information, cell temperature and battery end of life (EOL) notifications. The next-generation SM controller allows network operators to monitor and control the system remotely integrating seamlessly with network and building management systems. EnergyHub by Enatel Energy will be available in early 2019 through Powerbox Australia. Powerbox designs, manufactures and distributes an extensive range of high quality and reliable power conversion systems and energy solutions. Powerbox offers a carefully chosen and evolving range of innovative products that will perform for a long time under the toughest of conditions or most demanding applications.
Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have 24-hour days. -Zig Ziglar
DEVELOPMENTS
Engineer and business leader awarded Honorary Doctorate Visionary business leader and engineer, Dr Ian Parton, will be awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering from the University of Auckland. Dr Parton studied at the University of Auckland’s School of Engineering its Ardmore days, graduating with a Bachelor of Engineering in 1969 and a PhD in 1972, both in Civil Engineering. His engineering career has spanned more than 40 years, during which time he was instrumental the transformation of New Zealand’s business and export engineering service. This includes being managing director of Worley Group where, under his
leadership, the company grew to become one of New Zealand’s oldest engineering and management consulting firms and one of our largest employee-owned consulting firms, active in over 40 countries. He was in 2007 awarded the William Pickering Award for Engineering Leadership. Dr Parton’s philanthropic contributions to the University of Auckland are many and varied, and include being on the
committee for the University’s current philanthropic campaign, For All Our Futures. University of Auckland Dean of Engineering, Professor Nic Smith, says Dr Parton’s career is remarkable for its longevity, diversity and the profound impact he has made as an Engineering Leader across multiple sectors. “In his long relationship with the University, he has brought his strengths and passion for the profession, making a huge and highly valued contribution to the increasing vigour of the discipline of Engineering at the University of Auckland.”
From student project to business essential A University of Waikato computer science project has led to the development of a software program that could revolutionise the building industry. Fifth-year computer science and law student Taylor Wilton and building company Waikato Homes have just
launched Encompass, a program to make the process known as back-costing a lot quicker and more straightforward. Back when he was in his third-year Taylor was one of a group of students doing a compulsory practical paper that required them to go into a business
other industry programs don’t offer.
and come up with a software program that fixed an ongoing problem.
Waikato Homes say their business has grown during the past year and it would now be much harder to run without Encompass.
Waikato Homes was willing, and once the university project finished, they worked with Taylor to refine it. Taylor says it tracks the company’s building expenses to a granular level; the beauty being its detail, which
Green Innovation to Revolutionise Construction Industry A new, greener, stronger, and more durable construction binder made primarily of fly ash, a by-product of coal-fired power plants, has revolutionised the construction industry. This breakthrough, which was conceived by an undergraduate student at UNIST, started with a simple idea of reducing environmental pollution, while improving the quality of construction materials.
UNIST.
This technology has been now estimated to be worth KRW 100 million.
In his third year, Dongho did a research internship with Professor Jae Eun Oh working on the research in the development of eco-friendly construction materials using industrial by-products. That experience was key in changing his direction to pursue the combined M.S./Ph.D. degrees in Urban and Environmental Engineering at UNIST.
Last September, UNIST has transferred two of its ground-breaking inventions, namely ‘Manufacturing Technology for Fly Ash-based Cementless Binders’ to Hawoo Eco-friendly Construction Materials Co., Ltd. Through the agreement, which includes KRW 100 million worth of initial payment for the technology transfer, UNIST will receive 1.5% of the total revenue generated from this transfer, as running royalty. This technology transfer has been carried out by Professor Jae Eun Oh and Dongho Jeon in the School of Urban and Environmental Engineering at
This technology transfer is especially meaningful, as it started out as a simple idea of finding a more sustainable concrete manufacturing solution and turned into so much more.
“The fly ash generated in coal fired thermal power plants in South Korea tends to exhibit lower reactivity, which results in a significant decrease in strength, says Mr. Jeon. “To resolve the issue with the low reactivity, I thought of various ways to enhance the intensity of the existing fly ash.” “In search for solution, the idea of
in January 2015 issue of Cement and Concrete Research, the top 3% SCI-rated journal in construction sector.
using the reaction to form the chemical compound calcium carbonate (CaCO3) could improve the compressive strength of fly ash,” says Mr. Jeon, while explaining the technology development process. “I was unfamiliar with this work at first, but Professor Oh willingly helped me with the research.”
The new cement binder technology exhibits high intensity even with short curing times, thus achieving both price competitiveness and lightness which are essential in the construction field.
Their new zero cement fly ash binders, developed via the proposed m e t h o d , exhibited enhanced intensity, which is five times higher than that of existing fly ash binders. Professor Oh and Mr. Jeon p u b l i s h e d Recently developed lightweight high strength artificial aggregata. their findings Copyright: UNIST
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FOOD MANUFACTURING
If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large. — Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon
Food production innovation to be adopted overseas A Tasmanian engineering innovation in strawberry and other hydroponic food production is set to be adopted by major berry producers in the UK and Europe. Rod Marshall, Managing Director of Marshall Machinery in Launceston, has returned from meetings in the UK and Europe, in response to expressions of interest from international berry producers. At these meetings, Mr Marshall demonstrated and promoted the unique “COIR-RX” hydroponic substrate processing machine,
which has been entirely researched, developed and manufactured by his company in Tasmania. Worldwide, crops such as strawberries, tomatoes and capsicums are planted within plastic substrate bags containing coir, rock-wool, or other materials, then disposed of at the end of each growing cycle. Until now, the process to separate the plastic from substrate and plant material, then package materials for recycling, has been a massive, mainly manual process for growers, or simply dumped into landfill. The COIR-RX processing machine replaces this manual process with a mobile platform that travels along the ends of strawberry rows to feed in the materials, separate them, then automatically capture, compress and wrap the plastic for recycling. The machine also ejects the organic material which becomes an effective
mulch. A single COIR-RX machine can process up to 2000 one-metre long substrate bags per hour. This takes less than 5% of the time and half the cost of the current laborious process of removing, transporting, picking through materials, manually sorting and bagging. The system is also vastly more discriminating while sorting, ensuring a much purer separation result for both plants and plastic. Mr Marshall said, “After years of research and development, we now have a functional machine that is proving itself in actual field use.” “Marshall Machinery is now ready to respond to expressions of interest it has received from major berry producers in the UK, who have heard of the productivity and profitability benefits of COIR-RX, which has no competing
systems for end-to-end processing in the world.” Mr Marshall said. “I have met with these producers in the UK with a view to exporting our locally manufactured COIR-RX machines.” As well as responding to specific registrations of interest from UK growers, Mr Marshall attended the European “EIMA” Agriculture Conference and Exposition in Italy, from 7 to 11 November 2018, which is one of the largest events showcasing innovations in agriculture in Europe. Mr Marshall plans to build on the expressions of interest from UK growers, by educating key stakeholders in the EU agriculture market about COIR-RX, with the vision of building an innovative agriculture machinery exporting operation from Tasmania, while continuing to work with local growers on next-generation specialist solutions.
Agriculture research hub attracts NZ science and innovation company to be adopted overseas New Zealand-based science and innovation company Plant & Food Research is establishing a base at the largest agricultural research and teaching hub in the Southern Hemisphere.
Plant & Food Research Australia is a wholly owned subsidiary of the New Zealand science organisation Plant & Food Research, a NZ Government-owned Crown Research Institute.
The move into the University of Adelaide’s Waite Campus in South Australia will give the company access to world-class facilities and drive research collaborations aimed at enhancing production, sustainability and value-adding in the horticulture, food and agriculture industries.
The company has previously worked with the University of Adelaide on agricultural product development, almond orchard systems and harvest technologies. It is also a partner in the new University of Adelaide-led Research Consortium – Agricultural Product Development,
increasing the value of agricultural waste and turning it into new products; and has formal agreement in place to work with the University’s Adelaide Glycomics on complex carbohydrates and their potential in a range of sectors. Established in Adelaide’s southern suburbs in 1924, The Waite is the largest concentration of agricultural research and teaching expertise in the Southern Hemisphere. Plant & Food Research Australia will join 15 complementary organisations
already at The Waite, including CSIRO, The Australian Wine Research Institute, Australian Grain Technologies and the South Australia Research and Development Institute (SARDI). Like New Zealand, the South Australia relies heavily on agriculture, seafood and wine exports to drive its economy.
Recovering high value products helps food factories maximise returns -Matt Hale, HRS Heat Exchangers When processing any kind of remotely viscous food product it is inevitable that a certain amount will adhere to surfaces, such as the inside of vessels and pipe work, or become left in equipment after processing. The potential value of this lost product can soon add up, especially when handling large quantities of viscous, valuable products such as honey, syrups and purées. There is relatively little data available on the amount of product lost during processing in Australia and New Zealand,and one of the first actions is to establish a National Food Waste Baseline. Globally an estimated 30% of the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted somewhere in the supply chain.
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One European study in 2010 suggested that 4.1 million tonnes of food was lost during processing each year in the UK alone, although the analysis focused on calculating the environmental impact of such waste, rather than the economic costs to businesses and society. At a time when all forms of food waste are under increasing scrutiny, it is important that all parts of the food chain are as efficient as possible when it comes to wastage. The good news is that the processing and packaging part of the food chain is already the most efficient, accounting for just 4% of overall food losses according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). However, there is always room for improvement and management processes and equipment design
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are the two biggest tools food manufactures have at their disposal. Many manufacturers are already adopting this type of best practice. For example, since 2009 PepsiCo has reduced food losses at its UK sites by 20% as part of a wider initiative. There are two ways of minimising such losses in equipment and in a combination. The first involves designing equipment, such as tubular heat exchangers, which prevent product adhering to the surface in the first place keeping it flowing through the system. The second aspect is the use of dedicated systems to clean and recover product from equipment after processing and before full cleaning occurs. Many modern heat exchangers are
designed to handle viscous fluids without fouling. Some of these units use the corrugated tube designs, while other units used in more demanding situations use scrapers to continually remove residues from the surface of the tubes before they build up. These heat exchangers can be used for numerous processes, including heating and cooling, cooking, concentrating, pasteurising and sterilising. This self-cleaning provides two advantages in use. Firstly, as the foodstuff being treated is kept moving and does not adhere to the tube surface losses during processing are minimised. Secondly, because a ‘fouling layer is not built up, the optimal thermal performance of the heat exchanger is maintained increasing process efficiency and reducing energy use or treatment times.
Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you. — Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
FOOD MANUFACTURING
What’s your beef ? How ‘carbon labels’ can steer us towards environmentally friendly food choices What did you have for dinner last night? Might you have made a different choice if you had a simple way to compare the environmental impacts of different foods? What did you have for dinner last night? Might you have made a different choice if you had a simple way to compare the environmental impacts of different foods? Most people do not recognise the environmental impact of their food choices. Our research, published in Nature Climate Change, shows that even when consumers do stop to think about the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their food, they tend to underestimate it. Fortunately, our study also points to a potential solution. We found that a simple “carbon label” can nudge consumers in the right direction, just as nutrition information helps to highlight healthier options. Most food production is highly industrialised, and has environmental impacts that most people do not consider. In many parts of the world, conversion of land for beef and agricultural production is a major cause of deforestation. Natural gas is a key input in the manufacture of fertiliser. Refrigeration and transportation also depend heavily on fossil fuels.
Food for thought To find out whether consumers appreciate the environmental impact of their food choices, we asked 512 US volunteers to estimate the greenhouse emissions of 19 common foods and 18 typical household appliances. We told the respondents that a 100-watt incandescent light bulb turned on for 1 hour produces 100 “greenhouse gas emission units”, and asked them to make estimates about the other items using this reference unit. In these terms, a serving of beef produces 2,481 emission units. As shown below, participants underestimated the true greenhouse gas emissions of foods and appliances in almost every case. For example, the average estimate for a serving of beef was around 130 emission units – more than an order of magnitude less than the true amount. Crucially, foods were much more underestimated than appliances.
Adrian R. Camilleri
Dalia Patino-Echeverri
Rick Larrick
Senior Lecturer in Marketing, University of Technology Sydney
Associate professor, Duke University
Professor of Management and Organizations, Duke University
equivalent to a light bulb turned on for 2,127 minutes – or almost 36 hours.
you have a pretty solid idea of how a toilet works, until you are asked to describe it in exact detail.
Second, it displays the food’s relative environmental impact compared with other food, on an 11-point scale from green (low impact) to red (high impact). Our serving of beef and vegetable soup rates at 10 on the scale – deep into the red zone – because beef production is so emissions-intensive.
Food is a similarly familiar but complex phenomenon. We eat it every day, but its production and distribution processes are largely hidden. Unlike appliances, which have energy labels, are plugged into an electrical outlet, emit heat, and generally have clear indications of when they are using electricity, the release of greenhouse gases in the production and transportation of food is invisible.
In the can - a carbon label for beef and vegetable soup reveals its high environmental impact.
One way to influence food choice is through labelling. We designed a new carbon label to communicate information about the total amount of greenhouse emissions involved in the production and transport of food. Drawing on knowledge from the design of existing labels for nutrition, fuel economy and energy efficiency, we came up with the label shown below. It has two key features.
To test the label, we asked 120 US volunteers to buy cans of soup from a selection of six. Half of the soups contained beef and the other half were vegetarian. Everyone was presented with price and standard nutritional information. Half of the group was also presented with our new carbon labels.
Overall, food production contributes 19-29% of global greenhouse emissions. The biggest contributor is meat, particularly red meat. Cattle raised for beef and dairy products are major sources of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Meat production is inherently inefficient: fertiliser is used to grow feedstock, but only a small portion of this feed becomes animal protein. It takes about 38 kilograms of plant-based protein to produce 1kg of beef– an efficiency of just 3%. For comparison, pork has 9% efficiency and poultry has 13%. We could therefore cut greenhouse emissions from food significantly by opting for more vegetarian or vegan meals.
Volunteers who were shown the carbon labels chose significantly fewer beef soup options. Importantly, they also had more accurate perceptions of the relative carbon footprints of the different soups on offer. Consumers consistently underestimate the greenhouse emissions of food. Camilleri et al. Nature Climate Change 2018
Improving consumers’ knowledge People often overestimate their understanding of common everyday objects and processes. You might think
Figuring out the carbon footprint of every food item is difficult, expensive, and fraught with uncertainty. But we believe a simplified carbon label – perhaps using a traffic light system or showing relative scores for different foods – can help inform and empower consumers to reduce the environmental impact of their food choices.
First, it translates greenhouse emissions into a concrete, familiar unit: equivalent number of light bulb minutes. A serving of beef and vegetable soup, for example, is roughly
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DEVELOPMENTS
I never dreamed about success, I worked for it. — Estee Lauder, founder of Estee Lauder Cosmetics
continued from Page 1
Davos 2019 – What does ‘Global Risks’ mean for New Zealand Manufacturers? Compare that with New Zealand: In the latest (2018) Institute of Directors Sentiment Survey, the top three
obviously see the environmental risk factors playing out more in the long term, too.
nominations for single biggest risk facing your organisation were Labour Quality & Capability, Regulatory Red Tape, and Technology Disruption.
And yet, we must ask ourselves, are we not taking climate change and its impact on economies and societies seriously enough in New Zealand?
And only 40% of respondents agreed that companies should be obliged to report on risks, issues, practices and impacts related to Climate Change. In the latest EMA Employers Survey from October 2018, 71% of respondents say there is, or soon will be, a skill shortage in their industry sector.
Sure, the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from manufacturing in New Zealand are miniscule by comparison. In 2016 emissions from Energy Use in Manufacturing contributed 8.8% of the country’s total GHG emissions, and three quarters of that fell to food processing (mostly milk drying), chemicals and non-metallic minerals.
To be fair, when asked about their risk outlook for 2019, respondents in the Global Risk Report put issues around the confrontation between major powers and their impact on international trade, as well as cyber-attacks, into the top spots; they
Another 6.2% of total come from Industrial Processes and Product Use, but of that only 0.9% were contributed by other processes, i.e. general manufacturing. So, altogether the carbon footprint of New Zealand’s
manufacturing sector is small, especially when divided by the value added in terms of GDP per hour worked, and this is true particularly for our high-value non-food manufacturing sector. Whether we are doing enough to communicate that fact to the rest of our society, and to our customers overseas, is another question. Presumably, however, the respondents in the Global Risk Report didn’t put climate-change related risks to the top just out of concern that their own freedom-to-operate might be curtailed on the basis that they are large emitters themselves. And for us it is not that hard to imagine what even moderate sea level rises and the resulting coastal inundation would do to our transport infrastructure (SH1 at the Kaikoura and Kapiti Coasts, for example), not to mention the social
disruption, cost of mitigation and impact of labour availability arising from the need to relocate large parts of our major cities. And when we look more closely, the short-term physical impact of climate change in the form of more frequent extreme weather events is a very prominent concern; we only need to look at the vulnerability of our transport infrastructure to such events (flooding and landslides) to appreciate that we are far from immune to such disruptions. What manufacturers in New Zealand can do to mitigate those risks is another question, but looking at the resilience of our supply chains, for example, may be a good start. And where we locate our factories when it comes to replacement or expansion is another.
Has your business registered for the Food Act 2014? It’s the final countdown for businesses that make, sell or transport food to meet the 28 February 2019 Food Act registration deadline.
“We want make it easier for businesses to make safe and suitable food and comply with food safety requirements.”
This includes food manufacturing, such as manufacturers of dried/dehydrated fruit or vegetables, confectionery, meat, poultry, fish products, dairy products and fresh ready-to-eat salads.
Under the Food Act, new food businesses have to register as soon as they start trading and existing food businesses (operating under the Food Hygiene Regulations 1974 or Food Act 1981) had from 1 March 2016 until 28 February 2019 to register in stages, with a different groups registering each year.
New Zealand Food Safety (a business unit of the Ministry for Primary Industries/MPI), is urging owners/
managers of all New Zealand businesses that make, sell or transport food, which have not registered yet, to find out immediately if they need to register a plan or programme under the Food Act 2014. The Food Act came into force on 1 March 2016 and introduced a common-sense, risk-based approach to food safety. New Zealand Food Safety’s Manager Food & Beverage, Sally Johnston said that under the Food Act all people growing, making, transporting and
selling food had a responsibility to keep it safe and suitable. “Most New Zealand food businesses have now registered, which is excellent,” Ms Johnston said. “New Zealand Food Safety, local councils and industry organisations are working hard to help all remaining businesses to meet the 28 February 2019 deadline for registration. “If existing food businesses are not registered by the 28 February deadline, they will be operating unregistered businesses, their retail customers may refuse to accept their goods or use their services, and MPI and local councils may need to take enforcement action. So, immediate action needs to be taken to get registered.
“If a business wants to find out what rules they need to follow and how to register, they can use the online tool Where Do I Fit? as a starting point – www.mpi.govt.nz/where-do-i-fit,” Ms Johnston said. “For questions about the registration process and deadline, please contact your local council, email foodactinfo@ mpi.govt.nz or call 0800 00 83 33.”
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Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success. — Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter
SUPPLY CHAIN
Konecranes adopts Internet of Things technology Konecranes, specialising in the manufacture and service of cranes and lifting equipment, has implemented Siemens’ digital innovation platform to accelerate its product development process and connect product and performance data together. The company is using MindSphere, the open, cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) operating system, and the Teamcenter portfolio, the world’s most widely used digital lifecycle management software, to leverage the digital twin and reduce the number of physical prototypes, which helps to increase efficiency and decrease product validation time. The Konecranes proof of value is one of the first implementations of IoT to develop a framework that connects and synchronizes the virtual (engineering design, analysis and simulation) and physical (testing and operational reliability) worlds.
The product design process is currently based more on an engineer’s experience and generally shared assumptions than measured facts from existing products. These assumptions often lead to non-optimised designs that are over engineered. With an integrated digital twin platform, there is major potential in speeding up the product development process, reducing prototypes, increasing traceability and thus improving quality and reduce development cost. Today design, simulation and prototype testing organisations operate in their own silos, often using out of date processes for their work. At Konecranes, a digital twin was utilised as the communication approach between all three organisations to review data and provide feedback around engineering, simulation and testing intent.
Using the Siemens platform for digital innovation, Konecranes has been able to connect the data from all of these organisations to create one 360 degree view of how prototypes are running and performing, and correlating requirements to, real world performance data.
management (PLM) technologies can
A closed-loop digital twin framework using IoT and product lifecycle
support downstream product lifecycle
lead to faster design issue resolution and
shorter
prototyping
phases
by leveraging virtual sensor data in product simulations to provide accurate results. It can also improve overall quality and processes.
More than just a steel box - shipping containers ubiquitous It was a year when shipping containers were modified into many different creations – and with construction still booming the big steel boxes continued to pop up on streets around the country. Royal Wolf, the largest supplier of shipping containers in Australasia, has been involved in a wide range of projects this year – from designer dog kennel hotels for the NZ Defence Force and pedestrian tunnels at Auckland’s CRL project, to container accommodation for drilling workers in the Far North. In Bay of Plenty, Royal Wolf worked with Little Big Events and the Tauranga City Council on the planning, design, and engineering requirements for hospitality and retail precinct Our Place Tauranga.
that we’re so well known for,” says Paul Creighton, Royal Wolf Executive General Manager. Mr Creighton says Royal Wolf also developed its Wolf Lock premium hire container this year, a new product that makes opening container doors easier. “Opening a conventional container, with heavy steel doors and a number of large levers, is hard work and requires
a twisting motion using two arms. The Wolf Lock allows access through a single lever that needs only one hand and light pressure to open it.”
“Our containers are being used for everything and anything. Considering they’re essentially a big steel box, it’s amazing how versatile they can be. Even I’ve been surprised by some of the projects we’ve been a part of this year with things like the dog kennels and the Morris Minor driving experience.”
He says the ongoing construction activity around New Zealand has increased demand for already popular container products such as hoardings, which are used as pedestrian walkways near construction sites.
Containers were chosen for the construction project because they are strong, secure and have an industrial chic aesthetic that suits an inner-city environment. At Auckland’s Museum of Transport and Technology, a modified shipping container was used as a giant display case housing a 1950s Morris Minor for the Accelerate: Driving New Zealand. Iceland Drilling, working on the Ngawha Geothermal Power Station expansion in Northland, has used container accommodation in other parts of the world and it was the best option locally. “Projects like the Defence Force dog kennels and Our Place Tauranga are a great showcase of Kiwi ingenuity
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BUSINESS NEWS
I try not to make any decisions that I’m not excited about. — Jake Nickell, founder and CEO of Threadless
Historian berates billionaires at Davos over tax avoidance Rutger Bregman tells panel that the real issue is the rich not paying their fair share -Martin Farrer
A discussion panel at the Davos World Economic Forum became a sensation after a Dutch historian took billionaires to task for not paying taxes. In a video shared tens of thousands of times, Rutger Bregman, author of the book Utopia for Realists, bemoans the failure of attendees at the recent gathering in Switzerland to address the key issue in the battle for greater equality: the failure of rich people to pay their fair share of taxes. Noting that 1,500 people had travelled to Davos by private jet to hear David Attenborough talk about climate change, he said he was bewildered that no one was talking about raising taxes on the rich. “I hear people talking the language of participation, justice, equality and transparency but almost no one raises the real issue of tax avoidance, right?
And of the rich just not paying their fair share,” Bregman tells the Time magazine panel on inequality. “It feels like I’m at a firefighters conference and no one’s allowed to speak about water.” Industry had to “stop talking about philanthropy and start talking about taxes”, he said, and cited the high tax regime of 1950s America as an example to disprove arguments by businesspeople at Davos such as Michael Dell that economies with high personal taxation could not succeed. “That’s it,” he says. “Taxes, taxes, taxes. All the rest is bullshit in my opinion.” A member of the audience, former
Yahoo chief financial officer Ken Goldman, challenged his comments and said it was a “one-sided panel”. He argued the fiscal settings across the global economy had been successful and had created record employment. But another panel member, Winnie Byanyima, an Oxfam executive director, took up the fight and said high employment was not a good thing in itself because many people found themselves in exploitative work. She cited the example of poultry workers in the US who had to wear nappies (diapers) because they were not allowed toilet breaks. “That’s not a dignified job,” she said. “those are the jobs we’ve been told
about, that globalisation is bringing jobs. The quality of the jobs matter. In many countries workers no longer have a voice. Addressing Goldman, she said: “You’re counting the wrong things. You’re not counting dignity of people. You’re counting exploited people.” Billions of dollars were leaked by tax avoidance every year which should instead be going to alleviate poverty in the developing world, she added. After the panel Bregman tweeted a link to an opinion piece he wrote for the Guardian in 2017, saying “most wealth is not created at the top, but merely devoured there”. -The Guardian
Former trade commissioner appointed head of group sales at Facteon Global specialist in intelligent manufacturing, Facteon (formerly Fisher & Paykel Machinery), has appointed John Cochrane as the company’s new Group Sales Manager.
at ATEED (Auckland Tourism Events & Economic Development group). Prior to this, he was the New Zealand Trade Commissioner for Southern China.
Global specialist in intelligent manufacturing, Facteon (formerly Fisher & Paykel Machinery), has appointed John Cochrane as the company’s new Group Sales Manager.
Facteon builds factories and machinery for the internet age and is trusted by some of the world’s biggest brands and businesses to design, implement and maintain their production plants.
Growing up in Los Angeles, John started his career as a chemical engineer working in an R&D division of Xerox Corporation for nine years, before moving to Christchurch to take up a role with Commtest Instruments.
With growing client bases in international markets spanning New Zealand, China and the US, John will be responsible for leading Facteon’s sales teams in New Zealand and China.
Of his latest appointment, John explains that he is eager to showcase New Zealand’s technological manufacturing capabilities to a global audience.
With growing client bases in international markets spanning New Zealand, China and the US, John will be responsible for leading Facteon’s sales teams in New Zealand and China.
General Manager at Facteon, Dave Body, says he is thrilled to have John join the business.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to my engineering roots and working with a growing, talented team at Facteon. The business has proven experience in building intelligent machinery and factories in a number of key international markets and it’s a hugely exciting time in the sector – there are new developments, new partnerships, and new solutions around every corner.”
General Manager at Facteon, Dave Body, says he is thrilled to have John join the business.
“In addition to a strong engineering background, John’s substantial experience in China and senior management roles in our sector meant that he was the perfect fit for our business as we look to continue our growth both here and internationally. “With John in the driver’s seat, I’m confident that we will be able to successfully implement scalable structures and systems in New Zealand, China, the US, and beyond to boost the already strong sales momentum we have seen to date.” Before joining Facteon, John held the position of Head of Business Attraction
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Facteon builds factories and machinery for the internet age and is trusted by some of the world’s biggest brands and businesses to design, implement and maintain their production plants.
“In addition to a strong engineering background, John’s substantial experience in China and senior management roles in our sector meant that he was the perfect fit for our business as we look to continue our growth both here and internationally.
More than150 staff are employed by Facteon in New Zealand and China, providing intelligent manufacturing solutions for household names including Fisher & Paykel, Haier, and GE Appliances.
“With John in the driver’s seat, I’m confident that we will be able to successfully implement scalable structures and systems in New Zealand, China, the US, and beyond to boost the already strong sales momentum we have seen to date.”
Former trade commissioner appointed head of group sales at Facteon
Before joining Facteon, John held the position of Head of Business Attraction
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at ATEED (Auckland Tourism Events & Economic Development group). Prior to this, he was the New Zealand Trade Commissioner for Southern China. Growing up in Los Angeles, John started his career as a chemical engineer working in an R&D division of Xerox Corporation for nine years, before moving to Christchurch to take up a role with Commtest Instruments. Of his latest appointment, John explains that he is eager to showcase New Zealand’s technological manufacturing capabilities to a global audience. “I’m looking forward to getting back to my engineering roots and working with a growing, talented team at Facteon. The business has proven experience in building intelligent machinery and factories in a number of key international markets and it’s a hugely exciting time in the sector – there are new developments, new partnerships, and new solutions around every corner.” More than150 staff are employed by Facteon in New Zealand and China, providing intelligent manufacturing solutions for household names including Fisher & Paykel, Haier, and GE Appliances.
REAR VIEW
See things in the present, even if they are in the future. — Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle
What the next 20 years will mean for jobs The next two decades promise a full-scale revolution in our working lives. Before we investigate the next 20 years, let’s take a quick look at the present – and something once considered paradoxical. We’re already living in an age of a lot of robots – and a lot of jobs. As the number of robots at work has reached record levels, it’s worth noting that in 2018 the global unemployment level fell to 5.2%, according to a report last month – the lowest level in 38 years.
new world. We need to build an education system for lifelong learning – and a culture that promotes it. Rewiring the system should begin with pre-kindergarten, which should be free and compulsory, while education should remain similarly accessible throughout someone’s working life.
These types of policy should lead to positive-sum outcomes across the workforce: the labour pool adapts to the available jobs, businesses have the talent they need to achieve their goals, and government sees a bump in the tax base from steadier growth in the workforce.
and heavily subsidised skills-training. Others, such as “portable benefits” and a Universal Basic Income, or UBI, are similarly worth continuing to examine for their utility too. And we should challenge ourselves to continue driving innovation in this area – and work with governments to create sandboxes for these ideas to be tested, while respecting the needs of today’s workforce as well as tomorrow’s.
Solution #3:
Provide people with more freedom and flexibility
In other words, high tech and high employment don’t have to be mutually exclusive. We’re living the proof of that today.
Acting together, government and business can make people’s lives easier by creating more inclusivity. They can begin doing that by embracing remote work, flexible scheduling and the power of the platform.
Given this synchronicity between employment and tech, there are reasons to be hopeful that jobs will become more accessible, more flexible and more liberating over the next two decades.
Working in an office is often neither possible, nor practical, for new parents, single parents, some of those living with a disability or many others in our society – but given the option to work from home or set their own schedules, many would be able to earn an income. And many already are.
Here are five significant changes: • AI and robotics will ultimately create more work, not less. Much like today. • There won’t be a shortage of jobs but – if we don’t take the right steps – a shortage of skilled talent to fill those jobs. • As remote work becomes the norm, cities will enter the talent wars of the future. Untethering work from place is going to give people new geographic freedom to live where they want, and cities and metropolitan regions will compete to attract this new mobile labour force. • The majority of the workforce will freelance by 2027, based on workforce growth rates found in Freelancing in America 2017. • Technological change will keep increasing, so learning new skills will be an ongoing necessity throughout life. The most constructive discussion is not whether there will or won’t be changes, but what we should do to ensure the best, most inclusive outcomes. Here are some recommendations that could help guide us towards a positive future of work:
Solution #1:
Rethink education Fast technological change means that the people operating constantly evolving machines need to learn new skills – quickly. Our current education system adapts to change too slowly and operates too ineffectively for this
Skills, not college pedigree, will be what matters for the future workforce – so while we should make sure college is affordable, we should also make sure higher education is still worth the cost, or revisit it entirely and leverage more progressive approaches to skills training. Skills-focused vocational programmes, as well as other ways to climb the skill ladder (such as apprenticeships), should be widely accessible and affordable. Furthermore, our education system needs to equip people with skills that machines aren’t good at (yet). This means meta-skills such as entrepreneurship, teamwork, curiosity and adaptability. As government adapts at all levels to a changing workforce, businesses, too, must shoulder some of the load. And, like government, businesses needs to invest both in the workforces they have today and the one they will need tomorrow. That means they need to spend more resources training new workers for job openings, and to invest more in up-skilling their current employees. Tax policies can encourage companies to take these steps. For example, governments can tax companies whose former workers end up being unemployed or take lower-paying jobs – both of which are signs they’ve under-invested in their workforces.
Solution #2:
Change worker protections from a safety net to a trampoline
Today’s message to government is: “First, do no harm.” But more importantly, looking ahead, encouraging government policies that don’t discourage independent work, including freelancing, can allow more people to work who otherwise might not be able to.
Our tax, healthcare, unemployment insurance and pension systems were all created for the industrial era, and they won’t serve anyone in the future if we can’t make significant reforms.
Promoting remote work and flexible scheduling could advance women’s participation in the workforce and, according to some economists, reduce gender inequality.
For decades, that system was aligned with how most workers were employed. But as that has changed, and indeed, is quickly passing us by, all parties should “explore ‘decoupling’ benefits and protections from the status of full-time employment and distributing them more evenly across the productive workforce.
Local communities can also facilitate independent work by creating more virtual workspaces and tools to get work done. This would help expand opportunities into new communities, opening rivers of new capital into towns as decentralized workplaces take root, even on a micro level.
Innovation and technological advances in the delivery of such benefits can help with this shift too. For a safety net of the future to be effective, it should embrace technology to deliver benefits.
The past three industrial revolutions have enabled increasing levels of globalisation. And while they have generally been positive for the global economy, the transitions have often been very scary, and have even left some people behind in the long term.
It must also be designed by its stakeholders – not merely the citizens being trained, but also the businesses, trade unions and other groups who depend on that reskilling and upskilling to ensure they can meet their goals with workers in the pipeline.
Now, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or 4IR, is enabling globalisation 4.0, and while its positive effects are likely to be as strong, if not stronger, than the prior versions, we need to make sure this revolution creates the most inclusive growth possible for all.
Myriad policy ideas are already being tested in changing delivery of benefits – such as “flexicurity”, Denmark’s model, which offers government benefits like unemployment security
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