NZ Manufacturer March 2022 by Media Hawkes Bay Limited

March 2022

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11 SMART MANUFACTURING

Family business suppliers to the pneumatics industry.

ANALYSIS Industry 4.0 for ACC to improve employees lives.

CIRCULAR 15 THE ECONOMY Six tips for going circular.

Hutt Valley businesses step up to help build talent pipeline in the region -Rebecca Reed It’s the same old story for every business, particularly those in the manufacturing sector…how do you fill the shortage of tradespeople and find the right workers for the job? The lack of skilled workers in Aotearoa has only intensified since Covid, with employers battling to attract and retain talent to keep up with their workflow demands. In the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce recent Business Confidence Survey at the end of 2021, 56% of employers in the region said they were struggling for talent. Chief Executive, Patrick McKibbin, has been a long admirer of an innovative model born out of the Hawkes Bay that has become a real success story in attracting and retaining young talent. This model was the brainchild of engineering employer, Patton Engineering. After struggling to find and attract the right workers, particularly apprentices, Patton Engineering decided to do something about it

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

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themselves. In 2018, Patton Engineering partnered with Hastings Boys’ High School to create a model to support students towards a pathway into engineering that could be rolled out nationwide. To realise this vision, they focused on secondary students who were undertaking trades training as part of their technology class.

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Machinery, materials, and gear were provided to the school through sponsorships, grants, and donations. Patton Engineering also engaged their suppliers, like Steel and Tube, to provide the school with materials at the same cost it sells to Patton. This Steel and Tube deal is now available to all schools across New Zealand. How exactly does the model work? Essentially Patton Engineering, and now another 31 employers working with the school, provide work experiences through the year and then get to see and select the future employees for their business. For the business this has a fantastic ROI with lower cost

continued on Page 18

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31 May – 2 June 2022 Auckland Showgrounds

Exhibit at NZ’s largest trade-only manufacturing and engineering industry show EMEX showcases the ingenuity in the New Zealand engineering, manufacturing and automation industries. Display your equipment, tools, products and services that help Kiwi companies succeed on a national and international scale. Meet face to face with key decision makers and connect your advanced manufacturing technologies to New Zealand’s leading innovators.

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To receive a copy or for further information contact publisher@xtra.co.nz

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

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

The Lead story (Page 1) is inspiring and I encourage other chambers of commerce and companies in the regions to come forward with their stories of staff training, overcoming hurdles affecting their businesses going forward.

CONTRIBUTORS Holly Green, Rebecca Reed, Jarrod Kinchington, Greg Buckley, Jim Goddin, Edwin Dando, Georgina Fenwicke, Scott Leach Elizabeth Tofaris

As you will read, Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive, Patrick McKibbin, has long been an admirer of an innovative model born out of the Hawkes Bay from engineering employer, Patton Engineering, that has become a real success story in attracting and retaining young talent.

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

After struggling to find and attract the right workers, particularly apprentices, Patton Engineering decided to do something about it themselves.

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

In 2018, the company partnered with Hastings Boys’ High School to create a model to support students towards a pathway into engineering that could be rolled out nationwide.

WEB MASTER Julian Goodbehere E: julian@isystems.co.nz

To realise this vision, they focused on secondary students who were undertaking trades training as part of their technology class.

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And now Patton Engineering, and another thirty-one employers collaborating with the school, provide work experiences through the year and then get to see and select the future employees for their business.

MEDIA HAWKES BAY LTD T: +64 6 870 9029 E: publisher@xtra.co.nz 121 Russell Street North, Hastings NZ Manufacturer ISSN 1179-4992

This is a splendid example of finding a way forward through focus and determination and in these times of staff shortages it is the way to go. Providing students with a vision for their future… wrap it up in gold!

Vol.13 No. 2 MARCH 2022

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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Well done Patton Engineering

The trades we need in this country to keep everything going and make things work are understaffed and under resourced. And trades are what keep NZ moving forward. Degrees are important – what floats your boat – but trades industries are in high demand and provide certainty in employment.

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Doug Green

Success Through Innovation

PUBLISHER

DEPARTMENTS

1 Contents LEAD

ADVISORS

Get your carbon diet on track.

EDITORIAL 4 DEPARTMENTS When EMEX 2021 comes to town. LEAD 1 BUSINESS NEWS step up to help build Valley businesses 6 Hutt talent pipeline ininthe Manufacturing theregion. age of sustainability. NEWS 6 BUSINESS Is NZ’s Covid response world class?

8 8 10

MHM Automation continues growth UKK’s CPTPP a win for exporters. trajectory. Preferential trade tariffsTECHNOLOGY for Kiwi exporters a MANUFACTURING step closer. NZ Code MANUFACTURING can make manufacturing more SMART competitive. Axis, a hands-free motor mount for precision Dewalt Design Assist breaking new ground. 3D capture. Aerotech introduces premier two-axis scan ANALYSIS head. TimeMachines for change. Soul fund raise to advance metaverse experiences. Anatomy of a data-driven supply chain. Family business suppliers to the pneumatics industry. EMEX 2021

14 12 ANALYSIS Floor Plan and Exhibitors. -15 Industry 4.0 technology proposed to ACC to employees lives. ANALYSIS 16 improve AchievingMANUFACTURING carbon neutrality: One company’s 14 SMART lessons learnt. How to master manufacturing’s data and analytics.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY SMART MANUFACTURING 15 17 THE Six tips forlaunches going circular. Australia lunar exploration mission. 16 ANALYSIS Cutting edge tool for underwater recovery. Seven steps to reboot your business. Matrix 320 reader empowers traceability for MACHINE AND PROPERTY automation and logistics.

17 MAINTENANCE factory ceiling. QUALITY CONTROL 21 The NDC sensors control manufacturing at the 19 AUTOMATION fromt line. in today’s economy. Automation SECURITY 20 CYBER NEW PRODUCTS 22 Meeting manufacturing’s cyber security 22 25

Structural bearings deliver extreme low-level challenges. friction performance. How to establish a successful security champions program in 2022. – free mounting Cost-effective and lubrication of solar panels. MACHINE TOOLS AC Servo System provides highest-level Schaeffler strengthens bearings businesssafety. and develops DEVELOPMENTS bearings for e-mobility. Mint Innovation raisesdrivers $20m to risk. build gold Smart Dashcam alerts biorefineries. RS Components webinar introduces new range to reduce MRO steam spend.injection for food HRS highlights sterilisation. Igus 7th axis extends working space by up to 400 percent. Is automotive ready for hydrogen?

24 ROBOTICS REAR VIEW many axes does my robot need? 28 How Climate Change CHAINCommission calls for decisive 26 SUPPLY action. Royal Wolf sets sail for future growth in global supply.

27 THE LAST WORD

New low-cost solutions help manufacturers go digital.

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.

6 7

Ian Walsh

8 9

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

Leeann Watson

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

10 9 12 12 15

Lewis Woodward

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.

Brett O’Riley

EMA chief executive Brett O’Riley has a background in technology and economic development. Brett actually grew up with manufacturing, in the family business, Biggins & Co. He currently holds board roles with Wine Grenade and Dotterel Technologies and is also on the NZ Film Commission board.

19 19 25 24 28 26 www.nzmanufacturer.co.nz

NZ Manufacturer March 2022

Business News MHM Automation continues growth trajectory despite covid challenges Increases in revenue, profitability and $40 million of forward-booked orders were among the highlights of the half year report released by MHM Automation recently. The NZX-listed automation company reported revenue growth of 19% to $29.5 million and EBITDA growth of 45% to $2.12 million for the six months to 31 December 2021. These results continue the momentum of growth the company has seen over the last two years, primarily driven by strong sales of its Milmeq chilling and freezing equipment to the Australian red meat sector. MHM Automation Chief Executive Officer, Richard Rookes said the growth was admirable, particularly given the challenges posed by Covid and border restrictions. “It is a real credit to the performance of our team. Our project managers and procurement teams have negotiated numerous logistics challenges, and our ability to continue to deliver projects to clients overseas was only possible thanks to the dedicated staff who were prepared to travel in uncertain circumstances,” he said. “We welcomed the news of the imminent re-opening of New Zealand’s borders, as this will significantly reduce our project risk and costs going forward,” he added.

Key projects delivered during the year included a milestone 200th Milmeq plate freezer installation for a major Australian meat processor and a first-of-its-kind robotic de-boxing line for a leading meat processor in the US. Mr Rookes said the company’s continued success was a reflection of the world-leading status of its technologies, and its ability to innovate to resolve customers’ production challenges. “Take the universal robotic box cutter for example. It’s a robotic system that can open boxes of various shapes and sizes on the fly, without operator invention. Our client told us they could not find a system on the market that would fulfil this task, so we developed one to meet their needs,” he said. The global pandemic was also credited with increasing demand for automation across all industries. “The ability to attract and retain staff has long been an issue for food processing businesses but the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated that issue. Our customers across the globe are telling us they need to automate aspects of their operations to ensure business continuity,” Mr Rookes said. MHM Automation forecasted its growth trajectory to continue but acknowledged it faced some headwinds with a shortage of people and increasing costs.

The H&C Universal Robotic Box Cutter – a first-of-its-kind innovation developed by MHM Automation for a US meat processing company.

“We are currently about 20 people short across the business, in areas from controls and mechanical engineers to skilled tradespeople. The New Zealand Government immigration policies continue to restrict the available talent pool, which is in turn driving wage inflation,” Mr Rookes said. Acquisition has been another driver of growth for MHM Automation, with the company having successfully acquired and integrated three businesses in the past five years, the most recent being Christchurch-based fabrication business Southern Cross Engineering Limited (SCE) which it acquired in 2021. Mr Rookes said the company’s acquisition of brands such as Milmeq, H&C, and SCE had enabled diversification into new market sectors and delivered operational synergies. He indicated acquisition would continue to form part of the company’s growth strategy. “We are currently in discussion with a number of potential targets and expect to finalise these negotiations in the coming months,” Mr Rookes said.

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Business News Preferential trade tariffs for Kiwi exporters a step closer Preferential trade tariffs promised as part of last year’s Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement are a step closer for New Zealand exporters as TradeWindow has been recognised as a designated certification body by NZ Customs Service to issue certificates of origin under the enabling regulations for the Agreement. RCEP, ratified by New Zealand in late 2020 came into force last month. It is the world’s largest free trade agreement (FTA), encompassing 15 countries, with 2.3 billion people that together account for US$12.7 trillion of trade in goods and services, or around a quarter of total global trade[1]. The 11 countries already active under the agreement are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Japan, Lao PDR, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. Four further countries; Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Philippines are still in various stages of ratifying the agreement. TradeWindow is an Auckland-headquartered software company that provides digital solutions for exporters, importers, customs brokers and freight forwarders. Now it is the first third-party to commence issuing New Zealand certificates of origin for the countries now active in the RCEP trading bloc, after last month receiving authorisation by NZ Customs under S435 of the Customs and Excise Act 2018.

Commercial & industrial growth

TradeWindow Origin Ltd had existing authorisation to issue NZ Certificates of Origin under the China and the AANZ FTAs. TradeWindow CEO AJ Smith says the company is very pleased, as an authorised certifier, to offer New Zealand exporters the opportunity to gain access to possible preferential trade tariffs under the framework of the new agreement. “It is exciting that RCEP is now in play and we can work alongside exporters on the front line of global trade to unlock the gains of this major new trading bloc for hardworking New Zealand producers, manufacturers and marketers. This week has seen our first RCEP certificates of origin going through for some of our best-known exporters under this new trading framework,” says Mr Smith. The certificates are offered through TradeWindow Origin Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of TradeWindow, on an a la carte basis, or through TradeWindow’s Prodoc and Cube integrated digital trade platforms. TradeWindow listed on the NZX in November last year.

Employment growth

Economic output

Crime rate East Tamaki is the largest industrial precinct in Auckland with 2000 businesses and a growth rate higher than the regional average.

getba

getba.org.nz

Greater East Tamaki Business Association Inc.

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NZ Manufacturer March 2022

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.

Dr Barbara Nebel CEO thinkstep-anz Barbara’s passion is to enable organisations to succeed sustainably. She describes her job as a ‘translator’ – translating sustainability into language that businesses can act on. Barbara and her team deliver sustainability services from strategy, through product assessments and carbon reduction plans, to communications. Clients include many manufacturers on both sides of the Tasman.

NZ Manufacturer March 2022

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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.

Georgina Fenwicke

After working in fast paced Supply Chain and Transport teams at Deloitte and Uber EMEA, Georgina Fenwicke founded Frankie in February 2020. Frankie is an Operations Control Centre for Industrious Property Teams to maintain assets and equipment at scale with their contractors. They work with Industrial, Education and Food processing clients across New Zealand.

Axis, a hands-free motor mount for precision 3D capture Matterport Axis is a revolutionary motorised mount that works with a smartphone to capture 3D digital twins of any physical space with increased speed, precision, and consistency. This convenient, hands-free solution produces reliable high-fidelity results with just a click of a button.

Matterport Axis and the smartphone in their pocket to reliably capture a digital twin from every location across a chain of properties.

From homes to offices, hotels, rentals, retail locations, even a factory floor, Matterport Axis is an affordable way to supercharge 3D capture using just the phone in your pocket.

This enables merchandising teams and facility managers to virtually inspect, plan, and manage multiple locations online, eliminating routine travel and on-site visits while rapidly increasing productivity.

Axis makes it effortless for anyone with a smartphone to digitise any kind of space with a new level of precision and ease of use. With Matterport Axis, organisations can scale up their efforts to affordably capture high-fidelity digital twins at multiple locations simultaneously. Distributed teams get reliable, consistent results from their smartphones, and Axis helps to ensure that every scan from every location achieves the same level of precision. Matterport Axis simplifies deployments across all industries including: Retail and Hospitality. On-site employees can use

Real Estate. Professionals, property managers, and vacation rental owners can now create digital twins with greater speed and ease with Axis’ affordable, hands-free 3D capture - to publish stunning virtual tours online in less than an hour. Construction and Insurance. Builders and insurance adjusters can readily deploy multiple Axis units to the field to accurately scan and share detailed digital twins from any compatible smartphone, for every stage of the job. Enabling remote inspection, tracking, and management with contractors and building specialists anywhere in the world.

Aerotech introduces premier two-axis laser scan head Aerotech Inc., a global leader in precision motion control and automation, has released the AGV-XPO, a high-dynamic, two-axis laser scan head that combines low-inertia, high-efficiency motors with ultra-high resolution position feedback and optimised structural dynamics to deliver rapid acceleration profiles and excellent part-profile tracking with minimal following error. “We know our customers need to achieve exceptionally high speeds and accelerations plus outstanding part-path accuracy, so our AGV-XPO scan heads are engineered from the ground up to minimise any tradeoff between throughput and precision,” said Brian Fink, Aerotech product manager. The AGV-XPO is ideal for high-throughput applications that require superior dynamic precision, minimal following error and rapid move-and-settle performance, including display processing and manufacturing; high-speed drilling and cutting; electronics manufacturing; large-field and long focal length scanning; and femtosecond laser processing.

Key features include: • Increased process throughput with innovative, dynamically optimised design; • Superior dynamic accuracy and improved process yield with high resolution feedback; • Enhanced thermal stability with optional air and water cooling; • System design flexibility with a multitude of optical configurations; and • Easy synchronisation with other motion axes for seamless integration and ease of use.

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NZ Manufacturer March 2022

Beckhoff automation solutions Founded in 1980, by Hans Beckoff as a one-man operation, Beckhoff implements open automation systems using proven PC-based control technology. The primary areas their product range covers include industrial PCs, I/O and fieldbus components, drive technology, automation software as well as control cabinet-free automation.

alternatives to traditional control technology.

Products that can be used as separate components or integrated into a complete and mutually compatible control system are available for all sectors.

The corporate headquarters of Beckhoff Automation GmbH & Co. KG in Verl, Germany, is the site of the central departments such as development, production, administration, sales, marketing, support and service.

The company’s new automation technology stands for universal and industry-independent control and automation solutions that are used worldwide in a large variety of different applications, ranging from CNC-controlled machine tools to intelligent building control. Development of innovative products and solutions based on PC-based control technology is key to the company’s continued success.

EtherCAT, the real-time Ethernet solution, provides a powerful and future-oriented technology for a new generation of control concepts.

There are 4,500 employees worldwide and 1,900 engineers. The company has 39 representative offices worldwide from an overall total of 75 representatives worldwide. Beckhoff also has representation in New Zealand. Technical training is available.

The company has recognised many standards in automation technology that are taken for granted and introduced to the market as innovations. Beckhoff’s philosophy of PC-based control as well as the invention of the Lightbus system and TwinCAT automation software are milestones in automation technology and have proven themselves as powerful

Soul Machines fund raise to advance metaverse experiences Soul Machines, the groundbreaking company pioneering the creation of autonomously animated digital people in the metaverse and the digital worlds of today, announced its US$70 million Series B1 financing led by new investor SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Additional participation in this round comes from new investors Cleveland Avenue, Liberty City Ventures and Solasta Ventures.

winner Mark Sagar, believes every sector will deploy digital people as a digital workforce to represent themselves and their brands in the metaverse.

Existing investors including Temasek, Salesforce Ventures and Horizons Ventures also participated in this round. The latest round of funding brings total investment in the company to US $135 million.

The future of Customer Experience in digital worlds is going to be key to winning in all the digital worlds people do business, work and play.

Soul Machines, founded in 2016 by serial tech entrepreneur Greg Cross and Academy Award

The company will use its latest investment to continue its rapid growth in the Enterprise market, with a specific focus on continuing its deep tech research on

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its Digital Brain technology and launching the future of digital entertainment for the metaverse with hyper-realistic digital twins of real life celebrities. Soul Machines is focused on creating the future of Customer Experience, which delivers highly personalized brand experiences at scale while it collects detailed customer insights in a way that has not been possible before. Soul Machines works with global brands and celebrities including Carmelo Anthony, NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE®, P&G, Twitch, The World Health Organization, The Pan American Health Organization and more.

Technologies enable smart factories to self-adapt By Jarrod Kinchington, Infor ANZ vice president and managing director Judging by the headlines, continuous logistics issues, continued pandemic restrictions, and rising prices for raw materials will mean that manufacturers have their work cut out for 2022. In addition, the drive towards sustainability is adding pressure to readjust the manufacturing footprint. Most manufacturers are still stuck with a geographic footprint, which was driven by labour arbitrage around the globe, rather than by factors such as closeness to customers or ecological concerns. To increase efficiency, many producers have started to implement Industry 4.0 technologies. Industry 4.0 came with the promise of a smart factory being profitable at the production lot size of one unit. The concept was introduced at the brink of the millennium change with the introduction of cyber-physical systems to share, analyse and guide intelligent actions for various processes in the industry to make the machines smarter and to lower downtime. Analytics can also be used for other aspects like logistics, demand forecasts, production scheduling and quality control, capacity utilisation and efficiency boosting. But we still stand at the beginning for leveraging the

true potential of Industry 4.0. Smart technologies offer no less than the possibility to redesign the global manufacturing footprint, to position factories closer to markets, reduce logistics nightmares and increase visibility of the ecosystem partners, including suppliers and customers. There are six important ingredients for a strategy to create the future-proof smart factory:

4. A tightly linked view and streamlined processes across the order system, shop floor operations, and the supply chain optimise capacity and requirement management and failover alternatives across the entire system. 5. A global view and command structure to react quickly to supply chain challenges. A connected supply chain operating with a single view of orders, shipments and inventory, and shared digital processes provides the visibility needed to improve velocity and the agility to respond to disruptions in a timely and efficient manner. 6. More intelligent automation, using AI-driven insights, can lead to assembly lines that are adjusting automatically. Smart technologies allow smaller manufacturing sites to be situated close to the customers. But how can producers reach fundamental business decisions as to how to relocate manufacturing sites?

1. Customers increasingly demand highly personalised products as well as an enhanced customer experience. Manufacturing companies adopt highly agile cloud-based solutions to gain the ability to increase individualisation, service additions, and serve higher flexibility requirements. 2. The need to reduce delays and transport costs, as well as the drive toward a more sustainable production and the imperative to reduce the distance to the physical end-consumer lead organisations to redesign the manufacturing footprint, with the support of leading-edge technologies, to build smaller, smart factories closer to the customer. 3. Smart decisions require end-to-end-visibility. This requires a consolidated view across the manufacturing business, including the commercial, the procurement and the operational sides.

The most important ingredient needed is good intelligence. True, manufacturing organisations leverage plenty of data across the operation. But is the data linked up, consistent and treated to enable insightful business decisions?

Family business suppliers to the pneumatics industry JWR Pneumatics is a family run business dedicated to providing technical sales and great customer service to the pneumatics industry. Jonathan Wood is the general manager, who started JWR Pneumatics in May 2021. He gained his qualification and experience in the Hydraulic and Pneumatic industries, both in New Zealand and in Melbourne, Australia over ten years. JWR Pneumatics understands how freight and manufacturing time delays are frustrating, adding huge costs to the end user. Their team is focussed on keeping good stock levels to give customers a fast order turnaround. JWR Pneumatics prides itself by being willing to go the extra mile. They understand that manufacturing can be difficult to forecast future sales and have overcome this problem by having an agreement with existing customers, by keeping high volume custom products on their shelves, enabling them to give an immediate supply to customers, without unnecessary

delay. JWR Pneumatics imports pneumatic equipment from Italian supplier Airwork. Airwork is an Italian manufacturing company with 25 years experience who specialise in the design, manufacturing, and supply of standard and customised solutions in the pneumatic automation industrial field. Airwork manufactures all their pneumatic equipment in Italy to the highest standard while maintaining competitive pricing. JWR Pneumatics keep a wide range of plastic push-fit pneumatic fittings from sizes 4mm up to 16mm and a wide range of pneumatic valves in stock ranging from solenoid, pilot and manual operations, in sizes from 1/8 BSP threads to 1/2BSP thread sizes. They also stock air filtration units and standard ISO size cylinders. Although JWR Pneumatics is committed to selling Airwork pneumatic equipment, they are not limited

solely to Airwork products. They are also resellers for Master Pneumatics and Festo. JWR Pneumatics are more than happy to brand match where possible to make the refitting of replacement pneumatic components as easy as possible. JWR Pneumatics can supply consignment fittings in a cabinet for your workshop, tool room or store. Some benefits for this are saving time and money by preventing employees traveling to other businesses trying to find the right fitting adding to loss in production time. By having a JWR Pneumatics consignment cabinet, you will only be charged for what fittings you use on a monthly basis. They are very competitive with their pricing and more than happy to quote.

Reliable stock levels with great customer service We supply: Pneumatic valves Pneumatic cylinders Pushfit and nickel plated brass fittings Air filtration

We are a: Airwork distributor Master Pneumatic reseller Festo reseller

www.jwrpneumatics.co.nz | jwrpneumatics@gmail.com | Mobile: 027 304 3214

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NZ Manufacturer March 2022

ANALYSIS

Industry 4.0 Technology Proposed to ACC to Augment and Improve Employees Lives Through Use of Wearable Tech -Greg Buckley, Innovation and Transformation Architect, HERA Late last year HERA, with industry partners, submitted an expression of interest to ACC’s Injury Prevention Fund, which invited EOIs specifically relating to innovation to reduce harm and injury in the workplace associated with psychosocial and mental health risks.

marry up data to optimise health and safety in the workplace.

We have since engaged further with ACC and submitted a full proposal explaining how these risk factors could be reduced in sectors relating to our organisation through the use of Industry 4.0 technology.

It means organisations can find ways to manage their workforce safely in a way that is transparent, allowing people to see the risk and how it is mitigated on a daily basis, as people are shifted to work that is better aligned with how they are currently functioning.

The potential employee wellbeing and financial benefits from better management of psychosocial risk factors in higher-risk workplaces (such as construction and heavy engineering) are massive. In 2020, approximately 170,000 workers were employed in the New Zealand construction sector, with the ACC-related cost of the construction sector totalling nearly $450m over the past three years. HERA currently has 250 member organisations with around 25,000 workers in total, which equates to an approximate ACC cost per annum of nearly $22m. What is HERA, with its partners in innovation, proposing to introduce with the support of ACC? A three-year programme of work, including ongoing research, which involves the deployment of wearable technology to track biological and physiological markers among employees who work in fields where heavy machinery is operated. The programme is aligned with emerging research on the link between the stress response and bio-markers that indicates an individual’s propensity to psychosocial risk and negative mental health impacts. By measuring health vitals such as heart rates and sleep cycles – as well as other bio-markers associated with stress – the wearable technology can track individual responses and overlay this data with survey data on mental health submitted by each employee. It is an example of using wearable tech to gather and

NZ Manufacturer March 2022 /

If someone is showing signs of psychosocial risk such as fatigue, irritability or distractibility, they may be redeployed away from heavy machinery until those risk factors have dropped back to safe levels.

The design of this programme comes as we are achieving a real solidification of employers and employees recognising that most health and safety advances in the workforce will come from managing psychosocial risk properly – specifically ensuring, through the use of technology and reporting, that people are not tired, distracted, or disengaged. This leads to a healthier, happier, safer workforce where people go home in one piece. HERA would like to see people understand the role of technology to augment and improve employees’ lives. This is a great example of how we can deploy tech in that mode, with concrete data attached. It is not about replacing people but creating as much value as we can for our workforce. The thrust of all our innovation work in 4.0 technology is that the tech serves us, not the other way around, so everything is human-centric and focused on optimisation that simply makes people’s lives better. As we prepare for further discussion with ACC we are working with organisations in the HERA membership to build this framework for tech to optimise people’s psychosocial risk profiles. This explicitly supports ACC’s goals to bring down work-related harm and the associated costs, and this is a particularly important area because while innovation within the psychosocial space is challenging, and quantifying this risk in the

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Greg Buckley

workplace is difficult, it is where technological input into wellbeing strategies can deliver substantial real-world results and lasting changes in health and safety. Within the HERA membership we are proud of the pivot that has been done in the past two years to improve staff wellbeing and be forward-thinking in how we care for people on and off the job. Fortunately our members take a global view and see that wellbeing strategies aren’t just the right thing to do, but taking active, innovative steps to invest in workplace injury prevention offers an assurance to the market that this is an employer that is looking out for the best interests of employees. In a competitive employment market this is a smart talent retention strategy, and a number of members are already doing it well and setting a standard for others to apply. The use of wearable technology we are now proposing is a natural follow-on from existing programmes at a broader wellbeing level, and is a toolset that is even more quantifiable and measurable, allowing all parties, right up to ACC, to demonstrate the return on investment. If you would like to find out more about Industry 4.0 and why it is an important part of HERA’s innovation work, visit our website www.hera.org.nz/industry40/. A recent Stirring the Pot podcast episode, The war against safety complacency, also explores the intersection of health and safety and technology.

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NZ Manufacturer March 2022

How to master manufacturing’s data and analytics Manufacturing is on the verge of a data-driven revolution, but like all revolutions it will require the right actions, individually and collaboratively, to realise its full potential. Within a few years, manufacturers will collaborate in hyperconnected value networks in which data and analytics applications drive productivity, new customer experiences, and societal and environmental effects.

the importance of these success factors:

Indeed, data and analytics are a key driver in realising the “Factory of Future” by enabling transparency, predictions and autonomous systems.

The advanced process control is informed by an accurate digital twin based on a thermodynamic model. Moreover, effective visualisation tools also provide transparency to the operators.

Already today, we see leading manufacturers applying data and analytics to achieve their objectives for efficiency, sustainability and resilience. The imperative to boost efficiency and productivity is driven by intense cost pressures as well as liquidity issues arising from Covid-19 pandemic-related business disruptions. Sustainable operations are at the top of the agenda for many companies.. At the same time, they are seeking to build more resilient and connected supply chains, so they can anticipate and react faster to disruptions.

Petrochemicals: A large petrochemical client of Schneider Electric is leveraging advanced process control to improve asset productivity and energy consumption in a highly complex integrated plant.

Thanks to strong existing infrastructure, no additional sensors were needed, and the system turns existing data into improved actions and insights. Moreover, the combination of IT knowledge and operational excellence skills was crucial to implement this advanced solution. Ultimately, the Schneider Electric solution helped the client realise a return on investment within a few months and increasing profitability by more than $10 million annually.

Most companies recognise that data and analytics are rapidly changing the way they manufacture goods. Despite the high ambitions and strong value proposition, companies have not yet tapped the full potential.

This success story highlights the significant impact of advanced analytics applications on productivity and sustainability that can be achieved with open and interoperable solutions which work seamlessly with existing infrastructure.

A triad of interconnected success factors

Industrial containers: Data and analytics helped VIZUU, a subsidiary of Schaefer Werke, transform from being a traditional supplier of industrial containers to a digital service provider.

Successful companies have demonstrated that three elements must be combined to drive full-scale implementation of data and analytics. First, they focus on value in selecting applications. Second, they establish a solid technological backbone comprising both information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT). Third, they promote organisational readiness to ensure that investments deliver the anticipated returns. Examples from various industry sectors demonstrate

Industrial containers are equipped with sensors that record a large variety of different parameters – e.g. filling level, temperatures, position, etc. – and publish the data to an SAP IoT cloud. A multitude of different applications process the data to increase transparency and efficiency along the supply chain, with a 10% reduction in working capital, 20% increase in turnover ratio and 10% reduction in claim costs. Moreover, it allows VIZUU to create an additional business and new revenue streams through offering services. This successful business model requires a strong infrastructural backbone comprising of big data services, rules and authorisations for data management, as well as device connectivity. Building technology: Toshiba performs advanced analytics on building-related data to enhance asset performance and reduce the environmental footprint. In fact, energy consumption was cut by 16% with carbon emissions even reduced by 54%.

To achieve this, data from a multitude of partners and assets – such as entrance gates, elevators, air conditioning and lighting – is collected through heterogenous sensors and equipment. This data feeds value-adding applications, such as an improved energy management through, for example, optimised air flow, better utilisation of machines and the control of ambient parameters based on predicted people movement. These applications rely on a strong technological backbone allowing the acquisition and processing of a large amount of data as well as the connectivity of individual assets to a multi-tenancy Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) cloud with role-based access control. Equally important, Toshiba considers the collaboration between the asset manufacturers, building owners and tenants to be a key success factor in this case.

A framework for manufacturing data excellence To help companies navigate through the complex landscape of applications and offerings, the triad of value-focused applications, technological foundations and organisational enablers needs to be codified into a common structure and terminology. The first step is an assessment of the status quo using the framework. Companies need to objectively assess their maturity in implementing applications and technological and organisational enablers. They will then be able to compare their individual maturity versus the benchmark and define their individual target state. The framework and assessment support a learning journey in which leading companies share best practices on data excellence and disseminate insights from their experience. Building on the Platform for Shaping the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Production, the framework can also be leveraged to forge new partnerships to develop applications or advance the maturity of critical enablers. Such partnerships play a vital role in accelerating new ecosystems and increasing their maturity, such as by implementing more advanced artificial intelligence or better data security standards. Moreover, as additional partners join from existing or new industries, the ecosystem grows and can capture the benefits of greater scale.

Collo measures the quality of liquid processes in real-time The technology is based on RF signals that can penetrate any liquid, machine learning, and sophisticated edge computing analysis. It is a simple-to-use solution that adapts to any liquid process automatically and results in an eight-dimensional multiparameter, real-time analysis that makes it possible to adjust the process immediately when there is a quality issue. Collo’s liquid fingerprint technology gives the manufacturing industry an opportunity to ensure that a liquid process behaves consistently from batch to batch.

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As an example, it can monitor fermentation processes widely used in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries and many other bioprocesses, to ensure that the delicate microbiological process is progressing as intended. The number of scrapped end-products can be minimised if the quality deviations are detected early in the process. Why invest in a new factory if it is possible to radically enhance the production at the current factory just by improving the way the process quality is measured? Since Collo can adapt to almost any fluid, it means

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that the manufacturing industry can focus its quality assurance on real problems in real-time, instead of relying on blind samples that only provide retroactive snapshots of the process. With the aid of machine learning, the system was able to pinpoint the liquid quality deviations in the process. The study showed that the analyser could be used on a large scale to monitor industrial wastewater streams for early detection of anomalies like chemical spillage, product losses or other abnormal behaviour.

The Circular Economy Six tips for going circular (from manufacturers who are doing it) -Jim Goddin, thinkstep-anz Every expert was once a beginner – and that includes the three New Zealand and Australian manufacturers who share their circular economy (CE) expertise here. Ged Finch, Jason Graham-Nye and David Bell run or work in manufacturing businesses based on CE principles. Ged is R&D Manager at XFrame, a business which designs and manufactures reusable prefabricated structural framing. Jason co-founded gDiapers which designs and makes compostable nappies. David is Manager Sustainability and Insight at steel recycler, manufacturer and distributor InfraBuild. Our three experts have learned a lot about CE since they started out. In a recent thinkstep-anz webinar, they shared their tips for taking a manufacturing business circular. Their advice is relevant for businesses that design and manufacture their own products and for contract manufacturers too. Before we hear from our experts, here’s a look at CE and how it can add value to your manufacturing business.

Circular economy in a nutshell

In addition, as the trees grow, they store carbon, reducing the amount of gas emitted into the earth’s atmosphere. gDiapers’ nappies compost down to create nutrients that support soil health. InfraBuild diverts scrap metal from landfill and reduces the need for virgin materials.

And the business benefits of going circular? There are many. For InfraBuild, CE means manufacturing more efficiently and reducing waste. This reduces costs and ensures a steady supply of recyled materials that are converted into new steel products. gDiapers have created a commercial product built on a universal need (nappies) with a replenishing market (babies). For X-Frame, going circular brings a commercial opportunity. A product which makes commercial and residential fit-outs and layouts more flexible, less disruptive and more economic and which creates less waste appeals to end customers and the building trade too.

CE is often confused with recycling. It’s much (much!) more. CE is based on three principles. Here’s how they play out in the real world of product design and manufacturing at XFrame, gDiapers and InfraBuild.

The CE advice from our manufacturing experts

Principle 1: designing out waste and pollution

Talk with customers. How can you design your product so they can use it more intensively, as XFrame have? Talk with suppliers too. Are there opportunities to use circular materials at the start of your manufacturing process, as InfraBuild do?

XFrame estimates that their reusable framing can reduce construction waste from a single home by up to 5 tonnes. gDiapers’ products eliminate waste from disposable nappies. InfraBuild recycled 1.4 m tonnes of scrap metal in Australia in 2021. Principle 2: keeping products and materials in use More than 95% of the materials in an X-Frame building can be recovered and reused, many times. The materials in gDiapers’ nappies can be composted and put back into the soil. InfraBuild keep materials in use by feeding their electric arc furnaces with 100% scrap metal wherever possible. Principle 3: regenerating natural systems The timber XFrame use to manufacture their framing grows locally and is harvested sustainably.

1. Do your research

2. Focus on your data Accurate data is critical, from day one. Without it David says you’ll struggle to understand your starting point, to map where you want to go, and to measure your progress along the way. If you’re designing or redesigning your product, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and circularity metrics are your friends. 3.Collaborate You can’t go circular alone. CE is about systems, and systems involve partnerships. Collaborate – inside and outside your business – with suppliers, customers and your competitors. One of the directors

Jim Goddin.

on the gDiapers Board worked for competitor Kimberly-Clark. 4.Educate everyone (including your industry) People are busy and need convincing to try something new. Show them the bigger picture, including the long-term environmental and social benefits of going circular. gDiapers aren’t just making nappies. They’re tackling a huge environmental issue: ‘Every minute over 300,000 plastic disposable diapers enter landfills or pollute our oceans’. Educate your value chain, including ‘downstream’. For example, your new product may fly through factory testing, but it’s what happens ‘out in the world’ that matters. That’s why XFrame include contractors (‘Roger and his nail gun’) in their training programme. Educate your industry. For example, if you’re manufacturing a product from reused materials, there may be market resistance. Is your product durable? Can it meet quality codes? Tackle issues such as these with your industry association. 5. Find the best way in for your business Revamping your packaging is a good place to start. It may be easier than redesigning your product – fewer suppliers involved, less financial outlay. Bonus: you’ll learn a lot to help you take your product and manufacturing processes circular too. Minimise or eliminate your packaging. Make what’s left recyclable or reusable. Running a pilot can be worthwhile. InfraBuild’s pilot helped the company understand the opportunity to develop Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) metrics for all their EPD products. They use these metrics in their markets to support discussions and change, and to ‘go beyond recycling’. 6. Consider certification gDiapers’ original hybrid nappies were the first product to be Cradle to Cradle® certified. While the process was ‘hard work’, Jason says it was worth it. Certification helps gDiapers market its product’s environmental credentials and manage their suppliers. It also identified a hazardous material in their supply chain which the supplier has since removed. There we have it. Six tips, three manufacturers who are seeing the benefits of going circular.

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NZ Manufacturer March 2022

Analysis Seven steps to reboot your business - Edwin Dando co-founder Radically

If you’re one of the many businesses struggling in Auckland after months of lockdown Edwin Dando from Radically has seven steps to get your business cranking. As Seth Godin says, ”Opportunity is another word for a problem to be solved.”

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes If you’re in business your job is to create a customer. Too many businesses think about what they need not what do my customer’s experience. So what is life like for them right now? What are the problems? What can your business do for them to make life a bit easier? Understanding your customer and their real pain points is the first step to unlock opportunities.

Validate what your customer needs It is easy to think you know what your customer needs, but it’s wise to validate this. Call people you know. Ask them what similar challenges they have had. Ask your customers the same questions. When they visit your business or you speak with them, use this as an opportunity to find out their challenges. Remember every problem is an opportunity for you to add value.

Engage your team A common mistake many business owners make is assuming they have to solve all their business problems alone. This can make running a business very lonely! Don’t forget your team are naturally creative and probably have some good ideas. Don’t ignore the receptionist who often sees everything but is never asked for their view. Your retail staff probably see some easy wins and just wish someone would listen to their suggestions. Create a culture of real interest in your customers so that everyone thinks about how to add value to them.

Don’t dismiss any ideas at this stage. Let the ideas flow. The obvious is put the face of your business online immediately and monitor the phone. Set up a Facebook page and get active. Don’t forget you are an expert in your area. What do people need during a crisis? A trusted expert. Start sharing your expertise! Write simple tips and tricks around what you know. If you’re in food share your photos. If you’re in retail share new stock, trends or specials. Remind people to go for a walk, pop by your shop. By adding value to your customer you build trust and loyalty, which translates to profits over time. Could you send out a regular email to customers, summarising information that is relevant for them along with ways you may be able to help them?

create long-term loyalty.

Capture customer information Every touchpoint with your customer is a chance to establish a deeper relationship – that’s what business is all about. Give people a good reason to offer their email to get your regular newsletter. Create a form on your website for customers to sign-up to your regular email. Or you might ask them to follow you on social media.

Monitor

Systems such as Campaign Monitor or Constant Contact allow you to see who opens what, what they click on, how often and where in the world they are, allowing you to build up a picture of what people are interested in.

The business landscape is always changing and so are your customer’s needs. If your team have less work than usual consider creating a profile of your main customers so you can work out whether a monthly phone call or email is how best to stay connected.

Do you offer contactless delivery? Could your staff do a few delivery runs a day? If your staff can’t do it, could you engage an Uber driver twice per day?

Think about your elderly customers – their world is becoming increasingly difficult to be a part of, how can you meet their needs?

All these ideas will cost you either some time or a little money (or both), but the opportunity to build long-lasting loyalty with your customers is priceless.

Keep on top of what your customers value, why they value it and how you can satisfy it. These are the building blocks of business success.

Repeat

Every business is different, but where they are all the same is that they need to build a clear picture of customer needs and challenges.

Remember, few plans survive contact with reality. Once you get underway you will no doubt discover things you hadn’t expected. Often, there is opportunity in these as they tell you what customers do and don’t value.

Design solutions

Don’t be scared to repeat! This is how smart business discovers customer value. Get your team back together and discuss what you have tried, what has and hasn’t worked and what you have collectively learned.

Talk through possible solutions to your customer’s problems with your team. Get creative!

Brainstorm what you can try next. Be clear on the goal - creating a wonderful customer experience to

Opportunity is another word for a problem to be solved.”

Air dryer for sustainable and smart operation BOGE’s DS-2 series is even more environmentally friendly than their predecessors and come with refrigerant R 513 A as standard, which has much lower global warming potential than the refrigerants previously used. But it is not just their remarkably low CO2 footprint that gives the new refrigerant dryers the edge; they also offer economic advantages. The smart control perfectly adjusts to the actual demand and reduces power consumption at a constant pressure dew point. Other components also ensure efficient operation. The smart control automatically switches off the cooling compressor at partial load as soon as the required dew point has been reached. The cooling temperature is stored in the heat exchanger. This

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cold reserve cools the incoming compressed air until the dew point rises again. The cooling compressor only starts up again to maintain the required temperature level, and thus only begins consuming energy at this point. This principle allows energy savings of up to 79% compared to a dryer in continuous operation. The new frequency-controlled fan ensures a stable condensation pressure and reduces energy consumption by up to 25%. Furthermore, the patented design of the heat exchanger combined with low differential pressures and a low refrigerant requirement results in lower power consumption. The high efficiency components reduce pressure losses to a minimum, which prevents over-

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compression. Using the climate-friendly refrigerant R 513 A significantly reduces the global warming potential

Machine and Property Maintenance The Factory Ceiling -Georgina Fenwicke There is much to discuss about the Factory floor and for good reason. The operational layout, the transport plan, proximity to the inwards and outwards doors, the racking config. All of these drive greater productivity and operational efficiency in a building. However, little is often mentioned about the Factory ceiling. Long run steel roofing. Bitumen. Tiles. Clearlite. There’s a real mix of roofing products used in New Zealand’s Manufacturing facilities. For Operations managers and manufacturers, the Factory Ceiling is one of the biggest capital risks and value add areas. Consider the following opportunities: • Increasing the roof height for an extra rack of space - occupancy of Industrial property is at all time highs as supply chains • Regular maintenance of the roof - preventatively maintaining your roof profile is just smart business. It protects against - Leaks and product damage - Dust build up and contamination of product - Longer life and depreciation costs spread out over a longer period of time Frankie is an Operations Control Centre where your teams can get on the same page around building and machinery maintenance.

Property Operations is a mix of Asset and Facilities management, a holistic function that controls and allocates capital (CAPEX) and operating expenses (OPEX).

remotely and give contractors a bit of breathing room to schedule around their team’s capacity. Keeping on top of what has and hasn’t happened yet is critical.

A day in the life of a factory manager is a moveable feast. There are issues that crop up every morning that need to be solved quickly - a roof leak, flooding, a broken door, the lift isn’t working.

• Working remotely but together: Working remotely often blurs lines of responsibility. Having a tool to clearly track who is doing what and when is critical to avoid duplicating work

There’s also the backlog of scheduled works and Inspections to be coordinated that week.

All of these factors drive our product roadmap at Frankie. Frankie is cloud software for Industrious property teams to extend the life of buildings and kit to prevent unbudgeted property spend.

Annually, there’s a need to plan budgets, review the condition of major areas of the building and review the quality of service contracts. Factory and Operations are facing a number of challenges in 2022: • Availability of parts: Supply chain challenges for machinery parts are now into the months. Air Freight is driving big costs increases. A strong maintenance plan and understanding of your Parts risk is CRITICAL. • Contractor availability and the need to reschedule: The omicron wave is going to make a few of us homebound for the next few months – we’ll need to work

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NZ Manufacturer March 2022

Lead continued from Page 1

Hutt Valley businesses step up to help build talent pipeline in the region to recruit, lower churn of staff, and increased loyalty and retention.

Williams believes the industry has a moral obligation to give back to the community and the trades sector.

In the case of Patton Engineering, they have removed the risk of employing a young person that might not be a fit for their business or might not like the work they have taken on. In fact, they have improved their apprenticeship retention to close to 100% in the last 3 years.

“It is imperative we make the investment and build a more skilful environment. If we don’t, then we’ll be wailing again in 12 months’ time that we can’t get apprentices and subsequent tradespeople into our companies.

Selected students are then offered an apprenticeship at Patton Engineering when they finish school, explains Managing Director Johno Williams. “We wanted to show them that trades, and particular engineering trades, are a great option. They can leave school at 17, walk straight into a job and start earning. It’s also an opportunity for employers to ‘try before they buy’ by offering work experience so they know they are investing in people who truly want to be there. “We know that when these kids finish school and come to us or other employers, we have confidence in their ability because we are recognising their talents early on. We are selective on who we’re bringing into the company, as we’re looking to these students to be our future leaders. This is going to set them up for the rest of their life if they’re the ones chosen to get an apprenticeship.” By testing at our workshop every two weeks, we’re effectively trailing before we buy. We know that when these kids finish at school and come to us or other employers, we have confidence in their ability and can put them straight into basic fabrication with our team. We’re now getting to recognise these talents directly out of school. And, unless you’re getting into the school, talking to the teachers, you won’t see that, you won’t know that.”

The success of this model inspired Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Patrick McKibbin to bring together local businesses, secondary schools, government, and council representatives to hear the Patton Engineering story at an event hosted by Hutt Valley High School this month. “The combined strength of schools and employers working together ensures that students are work ready, have a great attitude towards work, and understand what is required of them. Patton’s model is a fantastic example of companies from all sectors of the trade industry working together to provide apprenticeships and opportunities for high paid and sustainable employment.” The feedback from Hutt Valley business owners has been positive with many keen to get involved if a scheme like this was started in the region “What Patton Engineering and Hastings Boys High School have been able to achieve in such a short time, is truly impressive. The journey so far has gained momentum with other employers too, which can only add benefit to the students and themselves. “For any scheme to operate in the Hutt Valley, will take the focus and determination of the Educators to work alongside prospective employers – we will definitely be one of those employers!” says Terry Carter GM off NZ Tube Mills in Lower Hutt. Amanda

Walters,

Hutt

Valley

Education

Employment Vocational Coordinator for the Chamber says secondary schools who attended the event are also convinced it’s a great model and badly needed in the region. “I have several visits to employers organised for Careers staff for 2022, as consistent feedback that I get from employers is that students are not prepared enough, or have a good enough understanding, of their industry when they leave school. If I can get the Careers staff to understand the minimum requirements that an employer needs or have a better understanding of the role that an employer has available, they will instil this into their students.” Kerry Weston, Careers Advisor for Upper Hutt College, who attended the event is also positive about the model. “It was a fantastic opportunity to hear about a partnership between a school and industry that is working really well and providing such great opportunities for students. It is an inspiration to all schools to explore different options to allow students to explore vocational education options.”

For a model like this to succeed, everyone needs to be on board and come to the party, says Chamber CEO Patrick McKibbin. “We are committed to working with our local businesses and secondary schools to achieve something like this in the Hutt Valley. It’s a fantastic model because everyone wins - the employers gain workers that truly want to be there, the student has a fantastic career pathway set and the local economy benefits. The opportunities are endless.”

Denise Johnson, Principal - Hutt Valley High School; Salla Delport Head of Department for Technology for Hastings Boys High School; Johno Williams, Managing Director - Patton Engineering; Patrick Mckibbin - Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce CEO.

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Automation Automation in today’s economy With labour shortages forecast to continue and predictions that up to 30% of the workforce may have to isolate in the coming months, businesses are increasingly looking to automation as a solution to reduce the impact of a tightening labour market. Over the last 18 months businesses have been grappling with a severe labour shortage, with unemployment dropping to 3.2 percent earlier this month, the lowest level on record. Caleb Nicolson, TMX’s New Zealand General Manager, says “the number of enquiries about automation have increased significantly across both our New Zealand and Australian businesses as organisations look for solutions to staff shortages. “Businesses are facing inflation, high wage costs, closed borders and now, the reality that staff may have to isolate for long periods of time over the next few months. Automation is increasingly being seen as a way to reduce the impact of these external factors.” “More businesses see automation as a way to increase efficiency and reduce their reliance on a shaky labour market – that trend is accelerating in a covid environment. Businesses are recognising that incorporating automation can also help protect their people and customers by freeing up space and reducing staff contact in warehouses,” says Caleb. He states that while traditionally automation was the domain of large corporates, there is now increased

interest from small to medium sized businesses who are able to access automation at a lower price point. “Small to medium businesses are also the ones who are hit hardest by labour shortages and increased labour costs, so for them, an investment in automation is one which can pay dividends long term. “Automation doesn’t always have to be on a grand scale. There are a range of solutions available, from simple technology such as leveraging your existing WMS with pick and putwall processes, to vertical and horizonal carousels to more advanced solutions such as automated storage and retrieval (ASRS) at the pallet, carton or unit level”, notes Caleb. “There are a lot more automation providers and local partners in New Zealand compared to 10 years ago. While steel and shipping challenges are causing challenges around pricing, we are definitely seeing an uptick in interest in automation”.

volume of automation demand in North America and Europe. “Identifying what kind of automation solution would best fit your business can seem complex so I’d encourage anyone interested in automating to seek independent advice to help them navigate the process”.

The warehouse automation sector is a rapidly growing market, with Reports and Data last year reporting that the global logistics automation market will reach $120 billion USD by 2026. Planning and implementation can take time and is dependent on the capacity and timelines of automation suppliers. New Zealand organisations also need to consider the incredible

Industry 4.0 The Industry 4.0 Demonstration Network is a Government initiative to help businesses realise the beneﬁts of a range of digital technologies that will enhance the New Zealand manufacturing sector. Find out more about Industry 4.0

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NZ Manufacturer March 2022

Cyber Security Meeting manufacturing’s cyber security challenges - Scott Leach, Vice President APJ at cybersecurity firm Varonis

In February 2021, Security Intelligence reported a 156 per cent increase in ransomware attacks on manufacturers worldwide. Some of the biggest attacks included a demand for $US17 million from a Taiwanese laptop maker and another attack for $US34 million from an electronics manufacturer for Apple. Verizon’s 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report also found the manufacturing sector facing a significant increase in ransomware attacks. These accounted for 61.2 per cent of all breaches in the sector analysed by Verizon. None of these reports offered any reason for this surge in attacks on manufacturers. Still, it has been well-reported that the increasing interconnection of legacy operational technology (OT) and newer information technology (IT) systems has greatly increased the attack surface for manufacturers. OT can now be compromised to gain access to IT, and vice versa. To make matters worse, OT systems were historically isolated from the internet and therefore were not designed to face cyberattacks. Manufacturers must double down on security, and ensure their data is protected and managed safely. This is particularly important for customer data and intellectual property, which could be extremely valuable to a rival organisation. Taking a data-centric approach to security Traditional security measures rely on a ‘walled garden’ approach. Anyone within the walled garden--i.e., employees, contractors and those granted network access--are automatically assumed to be trustworthy, and not verified. Instead, a data-centric approach utilises a zero-trust model, where no-one is assumed to be trustworthy and every access attempt to sensitive data is verified. Typically, the identity of the accessor, the device they are using, their location and the data they are seeking access to are all checked against pre-authorisations.

There are plenty of technology solutions available to implement a zero-trust policy. The hard part for any large organisation that typically holds thousands of files is managing this authorised access to data: deciding which employees need which files to do their jobs, and keeping track of access attempts to detect any potential suspicious activity.

Securing millions of files Take, for example, the following large U.S.-based manufacturer (anonymised for privacy): with more than nine terabytes of data spread across more than 11 million files, in 1.4 million folders and almost 10 million permissions, this company faced a considerable challenge in securing its data. It had no idea of the size of its attack surface, or how much of its sensitive data was exposed. It decided to build a data governance structure from the ground up, starting with a data risk assessment with assistance from Varonis. It quickly discovered that everyone in the company had access to over 90,000 social security numbers, presenting a serious risk. In addition to pinpointing the biggest vulnerabilities, the data risk assessment provided actionable steps to help the manufacturer prioritise and fix its largest security risks. One of the steps it took was to implement technology that monitored all access attempts to company data. When one user’s account received over 300,000 hits in a very short period of time, the security team was alerted and able to quickly determine whether this activity was malicious or just a technical problem. However, zero-trust alone won’t offer complete

protection against an internal threat, such as a disgruntled employee who decides to destroy important files before leaving a company. And because they have inside knowledge, they know exactly which files to delete to cause maximum disruption. Again, technologies are available that can detect mass deletion attempts in real time, block them, and restore data rapidly. However, the moral of the story is, a zero trust security approach needs to be complemented with good data management policies and practices.

Detecting unauthorised deletions In another example, a major manufacturer supplying the auto industry experienced one of these mass-deletion attacks. Like many manufacturers today, this company is part of a ‘just-in-time’ supply chain, where a single facility ships out car components dozens of times every day and can receive as many as 150 truckloads of supplies. Without IT systems to support processing of associated documentation, everything comes to a grinding halt. A disgruntled employee decided to try and sabotage operations before leaving the company, deleting data they knew would cause significant disruption. Fortunately, the company had implemented systems that enabled it to quickly identify what happend, who it was responsible, and restore only the affected data. The CIO estimated that without such technology in place, recovery could have taken up to two weeks. Data deletion by a trusted insider is not necessarily malicious: it can also be accidental. One large manufacturer with revenue north of $US1.5b lost an entire shared drive when an employee thought they were only cleaning up their own personal data. Of course, that data should never have been exposed, but the company was not up to the complex task of safely managing all its data stored at over 40 sites worldwide. To safeguard against future incidents, it implemented technology capable of limiting access and deletion of data as appropriate.

You can’t protect what you don’t see In summary, a data-centric approach to security goes well beyond zero trust. Manufacturers must be able to easily identify what data is contained in every file (personal, intellectual property or financial), limit data access to only those who need it, track every access attempt, automatically monitor activity to identify potential attacks, and remove stale data with the click of a button.

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Cyber Security Establish a successful security champions program in 2022 While developers and security professionals both aim to deliver secure applications quickly, development teams often lack secure coding knowledge. AustCyber identified a critical shortage of nearly 18,000 cybersecurity specialists, citing education and training as the solution. As a result, organisations often introduce security gates into the software development life cycle (SDLC), rather than build security expertise within their development teams. These security gates are the cause of developer frustration as code reviews reduce development velocity. Instead of disrupting development with gates, organisations can implement a security champions program to build security guardrails into development. Security champions are developers with an interest in security and a home in development, and the program helps them grow their interest into expertise. This cross-functional expertise allows them to act as an interface between development and security — two teams that have traditionally been siloed. Here are five considerations for implementing an effective security champions program. 1. Ensure your program is developer-focused Security champions programs require a developer-focused approach to get a high level of participation. Understanding the goals, pain points, and needs of the developer is foundational to the program, as adoption will only occur if the program is focused on making security easy for developers. 2. Secure buy-in at a leadership level The most effective rollouts of a security champions program obtain security and engineering executive

buy-in from the beginning — or after a small pilot. With executive sponsorship, the program leaders can communicate the objectives and expectations down to security and development teams, scrum masters, and more. With leadership buy-in, developers are more likely to put time and effort into the program themselves, as they won’t be concerned that they will be penalised for taking on activities unrelated to their role. This encourages developer participation and contributes to the success of any security champions program. 3. Define your expectations Security champions programs must set clear expectations for roles, responsibilities, and activities. These expectations should be closely aligned with the needs and pain points of developers. Start with one or two activities that security champions should focus on and add to them as the program grows. There also needs to be open communication between security champions, the champion and their development team, and the champion and their security coach. Setting clear expectations for what security roles mean and what people can expect from each other ensures security knowledge and experience are shared throughout the organisation. 4. Establish measurable goals In order to clearly define the expectations for a program, set clear KPIs from the start. These could include metrics that track the efficiency that security champions bring to the security team and

DevSecOps pipeline. The goals also serve as the basis for determining the ROI of the program. For example, a security champions program can have different designations or achievements based on certifications completed, hours of security work, significant security wins, and more. This encourages developers to not only become security champions, but also to further their own security knowledge and experience. 5. Acknowledge developer achievements The best security champions are those that join the program voluntarily. But organisations can increase adoption by rewarding developers for participation. Some rewards and perks could include security champion gear, tickets to security conferences like the Australian Cyber Conference and the NZ Cyber Security Summit, or additional education opportunities. In addition, recognising developer achievements is another great way to empower them to work towards security-related goals in the future. Internal recognition by a security executive or mention of a security win during meetings can go a long way towards the adoption and success of any security champions program. By building a security champions program, organisations can accelerate secure development organically with buy-in from both teams.

Worker safety The BUZUD’s Safe AQ UG Blood Glucose and Uric Acid Monitoring System. enables users to measure blood sugar and uric acid levels conveniently and accurately from the comfort of their homes within 30 seconds—without the need to visit a laboratory. The system saves time by testing for both blood glucose and uric acid levels quickly and simultaneously. While it is safe and affordable to test for blood glucose levels at home, the conventional way to test uric acid levels is to send a urine or blood sample for testing to a laboratory. This process is costly and can take up to 3 days before the results are available. The handy BUZUD Safe AQ UG Blood Glucose and Uric Acid Monitoring System uses FAD-GDH (flavin adenine dinucleotide-dependent glucose dehydrogenase) technology, coupled with the anti-interference enzyme layer design. This enables more accurate blood glucose tests based on electrochemical glucose measurements without interference by oxygen, blood, ascorbic acid, and other internal and external interference sources in the blood sample. According to the World Health Organisation, 422 million people worldwide have diabetes and it is one

of the leading causes of death in the world.

The Monitoring System includes the following:

Effectively managing diabetes would depend on patients regularly testing their blood glucose levels and taking steps based on using the results to take action—many do not test as regularly as they should.

• Safe AQ UG blood glucose and uric acid meter

High uric acid levels occur when the kidneys are unable to eliminate uric acid efficiently, and can cause uric acid crystals to form.

• Blood glucose control solution

Untreated and constantly high uric acid levels can lead to gout, permanent bone, joint and tissue damage, kidney disease, and heart disease. Regularly monitoring of uric acid levels is key to effective uric acid management.

To help the user keep track of blood glucose and uric acid levels, the Safe AQ UG blood glucose and uric acid meter stores 200 of the most recent results (100 blood glucose and 100 uric acid test results) with date and time stamps.

• Safe AQ UG blood glucose test strip • Safe AQ UG uric acid test strip

• Uric acid control solution

Features and Advantages The BUZUD Safe AQ UG Blood Glucose and Uric Acid Monitoring System is easy to use, where blood glucose and/or uric acid test strips are inserted into the Safe AQ UG blood glucose and uric acid meter. A lancet is used to prick a finger and a small sample of blood is applied to the test strips. Blood glucose test results will be shown within five seconds and uric acid test results within 25 seconds. Then, it just takes one-click to eject the test strips in a safe and hygienic way.

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Machine Tools Schaeffler strengthens bearings business and develops bearings for e-mobility Innovative bearing solutions play a key role in sustainable mobility by making powertrains and chassis systems more energy efficient. In electrified vehicles, every bit of energy saved translates into increased range. Vehicle developers are therefore looking closely at every bearing location as they seek to optimize friction performance and enhance utility for the customer.

TriFinity: Three bearing rows for maximum modularity

Schaeffler understands the major potential impact of innovative bearings, and is now presenting two further product innovations designed specifically for electric vehicles: the TriFinity triple-row wheel bearing and the high-efficiency ball bearing with centrifugal disc.

Schaeffler’s TriFinity product is a triple-row wheel bearing designed for use in electrified powertrains. TriFinity is no bigger than standard two-row ball bearings, but is able to transfer greater axle loads, while also offering a significantly longer service life and improved rigidity.

“Innovative bearing technologies are a core part of our product DNA and underpin the success of our Automotive Technologies division,” said Schaeffler AG CEO of Automotive Technologies Matthias Zink.

Moreover, this innovative ball bearing design provides an alternative to preloaded tapered roller bearing units. Switching from tapered rollers to balls leads to significant improvements in frictional torque and rigidity, resulting in a 0.7 percent reduction in electricity consumption per vehicle in FTP75 test cycles.

“Schaeffler is looking to fit its efficient and high-precision bearing solutions in electrified powertrains and chassis systems, as well as conventional powertrains, to further enhance these systems and make them more sustainable.” To achieve greater synergies and even shorter development times for its custom solutions, Schaeffler established a new Bearings business division within its Automotive Technologies division

at the start of this year.

The combination of the TriFinity with Schaeffler’s face spline technology allows downsizing solutions in the form of wheel bearing units with smaller diameters, and hence reduced bearing and seal friction, optimised bearing weight, and a smaller carbon footprint. For the same dimensions, the clearance-free face spline technology reduces

bearing weight while enabling the component to transmit up to 50 percent more drive torque. It also makes the bearing easier to mount and reduces noise emissions in electric vehicles.

High-performance ball bearing for enhanced efficiency and maximum service life Schaeffler’s new high-efficiency ball bearing with centrifugal disc is a high-performance, friction-optimised and sustainable product for electromobility applications. It combines the benefits of both open-bearing and sealed-bearing designs. With 0.3 Nm less friction and CO2 emission reductions of about 0.1/km per bearing, the high-efficiency ball bearing with centrifugal disc is a smart yet simple solution that has a major impact on overall performance. It has ten times the service life of an open bearing and represents a significant reduction in costs. This product innovation has already received the Magna Supplier Award and has been nominated for the 2022 German Innovation Award.

Smart Dashcam alerts drivers to risk

Teletrac Navman is launching Smart Dashcam, a revolutionary solution that uses powerful technology paired with AI-enabled features within a forward and driver-facing dashcam. The Smart Dashcam uses the power of edge computing technology to capture and analyse footage in real-time, identifying external and in-vehicle events to alert drivers of risky and dangerous situations. By capturing and analysing 100 per cent of drive time, managers are equipped with a comprehensive picture of safety and driver behaviour, helping to promote a safer driving culture in transport organisations that ultimately delivers better safety outcomes for everyone. Artificial Intelligence combined with telematics data and advanced onboard sensors mean that the Smart Dashcam can detect and determine when and how driving events are occurring in real time. Driving alerts are then combined with telematics data to keep drivers and back-office staff on top of what matters most.

opportunities to help businesses successfully manage risk. With footage and accompanying information from the vehicle available to the back office at any time, the Smart Dashcam provides operators with the ability to request footage, ensure the safety of drivers on the road and protect the business against fraudulent incident claims, while collecting detailed analytics and scorecard information. Designed specifically for businesses that operate fleets of vehicles from light-commercial through to trucks, the Smart Dashcam complements and

The Smart Dashcam features built-in scorecard and driver coaching features. Analytics paired with captured footage and driver scores helps promote healthy competition between drivers, provides structure for rewards, and a method for managing on-road behaviour while giving greater opportunity for continual development. Drivers get automatic notifications of events as they occur, providing real-time visibility into risky behaviour and continual performance coaching

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enhances the capabilities of Teletrac Navman’s fleet management and regulatory compliance solutions by providing fleet managers, safety managers and vehicle owners with critical insights into safety, behaviour, and efficiencies. Te Manatū Waka Ministry of Transport data from 2020 shows there were 55 fatal crashes and 130 serious injury crashes involving trucks on New Zealand roads that year. A total of 61 people died and 166 were seriously injured as a result of these crashes. To help businesses avoid becoming part of these numbers, the Smart Dashcam improves driver performance by measuring events that occur on the road against key safety and performance metrics as they occur – such as rolling through stop signs, close driving and other drivers changing lanes nearby. Combined with managed change through the entire business, this helps to create a culture of safety and development by individually coaching drivers through identified areas of concern and creating opportunities to improve. The Smart Dashcam joins Teletrac Navman’s growing safety and performance solutions, including the recently announced VT102 AI-enabled device, enhancements to the Driver Scorecard feature and NZTA-approved electronic driver logbook (EDL), assisting drivers in the management of their work time and rest compliance reporting.

Machine Tools RS Components webinar introduces new ranges to reduce MRO spend Financial efficiency and saving time were the focus of the recent RS PRO Webinar held in late 2021, which attracted attendees from across the Asia Pacific. During the webinar, attendees were introduced to key RS PRO ranges and service offerings, including some of the recent range additions across Hand Tools, Sensors & Connectors, Automation & Control and Facilities Maintenance products. Decisions have consequences. And because every decision matters, every part matters. That’s why RS PRO offers an ever-expanding choice of over 60,000 quality-tested products engineered for demanding manufacturing and industrial environments. Scott Philbrook, Managing Director of RS Components ANZ said the webinar was a great success, showcasing our huge portfolio of quality-tested products for a range of industries and working environments. “With huge local stock holding of the RS PRO range across Asia Pacific you can get the products you need, when you need them.” He explained. “This

webinar showcased our ever-growing range of RS PRO products, outlined the potential applications and gave us the ability to answer questions directly from industry participants.” Scott Philbrook said. The RS PRO range offers customers a choice where the combination of quality, performance and price create exceptional value. Our range of more than 60,000 high-quality, competitively priced industrial products and electronic components can be as much as 30% on branded alternatives. To ensure customers have complete confidence in the RS PRO offering, all products and components are backed by the RS Seal of Approval, representing leading industry standards for audit, inspection, test and certification. “Our local portfolio has recently seen significant increase with thousands of new product lines

added to complement our existing RS PRO offering. The expansion in the range is meeting demand in the Australian market for affordable options for engineers looking for choice” says Scott Philbrook, Managing Director of RS Components ANZ. The webinar was recorded and available for viewing at this link: https://my.demio.com/recording/ mp6Jh3cs Visit RS PRO today to Discover everything a business needs to efficiently run, under one brand, at the price and quality you expect. For more information on the expanded products visit: https://au.rs-online.com

igus 7th axis extends working space by up to 400 percent Articulated arm robots can travel over six metres, quadrupling their working space: the 7th axis is now compatible with all lightweight articulated arm robots worldwide thanks to a simple Plug & Play kit. So far, models from Universal Robots, Epson and the igus robolink series from Treotham have benefited from this increased mobility. Now Omron, Franka Emika, Doosan, Yuanda Robotics and many other lightweight robotics suppliers are joining the list. The first users of the so-called 7th axis, a linear axis with an electric toothed belt drive that igus launched in 2020, were thrilled according to Alexander Mühlens: “Suddenly, thanks to the additional axis, their articulated arm robots are as mobile as humans. This enables them to take on multiple tasks in automation environments making them significantly more productive,” says the Head of Automation Technology at igus. “We therefore decided to extend the compatibility of the system to all manufacturers worldwide – such as Omron, Franka Emika, Doosan and Yuanda Robotics. With a matching Plug & Play kit of hardware and software we make customisation possible.”

Ready-to-connect complete solution for all lightweight articulated arm robots In the future, all lightweight articulated arm robots with a weight range of 10 to 50 kilograms or, depending on the dynamics, a payload of 2 to 20 kilograms can use the 7th axis. Treotham supplies the system as a ready-to-connect complete solution from a single source. It consists of

a drylin ZLW toothed belt axis with a length of up to six metres and two parallel rails made of aluminium. These can be mounted on the floor, walls or ceilings and a toothed belt drive with stepper motor for a positioning accuracy of 0.3 millimetres. Also included is: an energy chain for guiding energy and data cables; a switch cabinet integration kit with cables; motor control system and the respective software solution, as well as a carriage with the adapter plate that is adapted to the geometry of thousands of articulated arm robots.

All components are perfectly matched, so that users can quickly put the system into operation and benefit from the new mobility without expensive design and tuning work.

7th axis is lubrication-free and maintenance-free Users save time and money not only in planning and purchasing the 7th axis, but also in operation. All made possible because the system works maintenance-free. The reason is because the carriages move on the aluminium rails with the help of drylin linear technology. The high-performance plastic of the bearings enables low-friction and maintenance-free dry operation. The absence of lubricants also makes the system hygienic. The stainless steel version with FDA-compliant components makes the linear guide ideally suited for sectors such as the food industry.

All components are perfectly matched, so that users can quickly put the system into operation.

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Robotics

How many axes does my robot need? Manufacturers are incorporating robots into their operations at a significant rate, and given the many benefits that industrial automation has, this is only set to increase. With this growing popularity, industrial robots are available in a huge range of configurations and sizes, with different numbers of axes for a range of applications. Robots can move on anywhere between one and seven axes, with more axes offering more flexibility of movement. However, despite the growing accessibility of robot in industry, it can still be difficult to know which type of robot out of the many now available is the best choice for an application. Traditionally, when someone thinks of an industrial robot, they will picture a robotic arm. These are articulated robots and can mimic the actions of a human arm thanks to their directional control and large range of movement. Other types of robots, such as Cartesian robots or four-axis models such as SCARA robots are more limited, often only able to move on two to four axes. These robots are suited to many applications and certainly have their benefits, but the restrictions on motion can be an issue when more sophisticated movements are required. This is when an articulated robot is a better option. Articulated robots, including six and seven-axis robots, can move vertically and horizontally, but are also able to roll, pitch and yaw —they can rotate around the X, Y and Z axes. This gives them additional range and flexibility. They are typically mounted on a pedestal, with articulation points in the base, body, arm, shoulder, and wrist. This also allows them to work at differing levels and between planes, offering more versatility of motion sequence. Articulated robots are more capable of intricate or complex processes such as automotive assembly due to this ability to accurately manoeuvre. Articulated robots with multiple axes are known as high degree of freedom (DOF) robots. These robots

NZ Manufacturer March 2022 /

have a multitude of potential applications, including welding, assembly, pick-and-place, packaging, painting, and palletising. They can be used for handling and material removal, along with machine tending tasks. Articulated robots are often more costly, and their increased complexity does make programming more challenging, but the productivity and efficiency gains and long-term financial savings provide a good return on investment (ROI). Six-axis robots can be used for all of these applications and are currently the most commonly used type of industrial robot. Though six axes are sufficient for most industrial applications, the increasing complexity of the tasks required of them means that the robots themselves must become more sophisticated. Seven-axis robots have the same axes as six-axis robots, but the additional degree of freedom allows them even greater flexibility. There are two different primary configurations for seven-axis robots. The additional axis may be located within the robotic manipulator arm, or it may be in the form of a robot transfer unit (RTU), a track along which the robot is able to move. Though an additional axis is not always essential, the greater choice of joint configurations that comes with it makes a robot more manoeuvrable and can save time in terms of repositioning. The seventh axis allows the robot to move in more complex ways, which is beneficial for intricate tasks such as welding where working from an appropriate angle is key for output quality and consistency. The robot can approach the product or workspace from a wider range of angles that operatives or six-axis robots may not be able to achieve, which can be considered when programming and used to reduce cycle times and use less physical space within a workshop.

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This also allows the robot to move and rotate around obstructions and equipment, avoiding collisions and potential damage to the robot or the surrounding environment. The ability to move around objects also removes the need for effector adjustment and gives greater tooling stability. The addition of an RTU as a seventh axis has the added benefit of the robot travelling linearly over much longer distances. The RTU can move the robot between workstations and equipment, or across the full workspace to carry out different tasks. Operators can then automate a series of processes in sequence using the additional mobility from the track system using a single robot rather than a series of individual units. Though articulated robots tend to be more costly than their linear counterparts, a seven-axis robot can be cheaper and more straightforward to integrate into an existing operation depending on the required system, as it can reduce the need for additional equipment such as robotic positioners. Their superior manoeuvrability can also help to improve cycle times and productivity. Investment in a seven-axis robot has the added benefit of avoiding costly downtime through damage and repositioning. Though six-axis robots are the most common choice for industrial applications currently, seven-axis robots are increasing in popularity — and it is easy to see why. Seven-axis robots offer all the benefits of traditional articulated robots, but with an additional degree of freedom and superior flexibility. For complex tasks and processes, a seven-axis robot can offer long term productivity gains and the versatility to suit a range of applications to a consistently high standard. -John Young, EU Automation

Developments

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FEATURES

New Euchner MBM bus module for EtherCAT P If there is one area where applications are becoming ever-more complex, it’s safety engineering. Euchner has not only kept up with this trend with its Multifunctional Gate Box (MGB) safety door system, but has gone a step further by employing modular design to make the MGB2 Modular fully customisable for maximum optimisation. Available from Treotham, the modular system features a separate locking module, bus module and submodules, making it suitable for implementing a wide range of additional functions. In addition, the brand new bus module MBM is available in a version that connects to EtherCAT P, which means that every single function of the Multifunctional Gate Box 2 (MGB2 Modular) safety

April 2022 Issue

door system can also be used with EtherCAT P.

INDUSTRY 4.0

Following on from its market firsts in PROFINET and EtherNet/IP connection, this is another success, reasserting the company’s claim as a pioneer of innovative bus systems.

PRODUCTIVITY

In this latest system, comprehensive diagnostic functions in the form of EtherCAT messages and the integrated web server provide a fast and detailed overview of the device status. Due to the ease with which parameters can be set, even replacing the system during servicing is a simple matter and takes no more than a few minutes.

PRODUCT DESIGN ROBOTS & AUTOMATION

continued from Page 27

RECRUITMENT

New low-cost solutions help manufacturers go digital Trialled at the IfM Shoestring lab in Cambridge and used in a pilot by a photo chemical machining manufacturer, this low-cost vision system enables machines to be controlled via legacy wall-mounted panels that give visual information on the status of the machine in the form of red and green lights, on and off switches, and a panel that displays the machine’s temperature.

‘Those taking part in the process become more

Alex Campbell (SMAS) says the wider implications of

Advertising Booking Deadline – 4 April 2022 Advertising Copy Deadline – 4 April 2022

It extracts the data from the panels, which can then be viewed digitally, analysed in real-time and stored across a network.

the project should not be underestimated.

Editorial Copy Deadline – 4 April 2022

‘By encouraging project-based learning, Shoestring

Solution 3: Augmented status viewer

but is also inspiring the next generation into the

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

EMEX 2022 PREVIEW ISSUE

confident in what digital solution can offer in terms of the company’s investment, which will lead to productivity improvements and the upskilling of those working in industry.’ By providing a bridge between industry and academia,

is not only building up digital skills in the workforce manufacturing industry,’ he says. Roddy Scott, sector manager for ESP Scotland, which works to build capacity to deliver skills for the energy, engineering and construction sectors by working with Scotland’s colleges and industry partners, explains the value of the project to the education sector:

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‘Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring is a great fit for us because it is helping us inspire young people To meet the need for companies to send digital information from the shop floor direct to management, this demonstrator uses augmented reality to overlay status information from machines.

to come into STEM. It helps build skills, knowledge and build capacity.’ The project is also encouraging student involvement via ‘Hackathons’ — online events providing students

Using the app on their tablet or smartphone and holding it up to the machines allows a work room manager to see different metrics, such as inventory and operational status.

with the opportunity to build prototypes with cutting

Bridging the digital gap As well as tackling the perceived costs of digitalisation, the project is addressing the challenge for small manufacturers who may lack in-house digital skills, knowledge, or confidence to develop solutions. By working in partnership with small manufacturers and offering hands-on support, Shoestring is helping company staff become more confident in terms of digital decision-making and investment. Duncan McFarlane explains:

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

edge digital technologies and receive feedback from

Opinion

As I See It

industry leaders. The project has received additional

Manufacturing Profiles

Business News

funding for Hackathons and several proof-of-concept

Letters to the Editor

Appointments

demonstrators from Pitch-In, a programme which

Politics of Manufacturing

addresses barriers to the successful development,

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Around New Zealand

introduction and further exploitation of IoT.

Diary of Events

Looking ahead, the Shoestring team are developing

World Market Report

a web-based portal to allow users design their

Q/A

own Shoestring solutions. To help them finalise

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Equipment for Sale

the framework for the portal and the approach to

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putting solutions together, the team are developing

Business Opportunities

Environmental Technology

more demonstrators with industry partners.

Commentary

Manufacturing Processes

-This article originally appeared in The Manufacturer

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NZ Manufacturer March 2022

Supply Chain Royal Wolf sets sail for future growth in global supply As the global logistics squeeze continues to make front page news, the humble cargo box has seized the spotlight. Logistics woes now impact an estimated two out of three businesses, with no easy fix in sight for the world’s fractured supply chain. The two-year-old pandemic continues to whip up a perfect storm of culprits: global labour shortages; container crews benched for weeks on end by Chinese quarantines; a logjam of empty containers piling up at congested ports. The result? Soaring freight and transportation costs colliding head-on with a spike in e-commerce, spawned by long lockdowns. Royal Wolf, Australasia’s largest importer of new shipping containers and the biggest rental supplier, is right in the eye of the storm. Managing Director, Neil Littlewood, speaks about the challenges of the commodities squeeze, countering customer frustrations, and finding new growth solutions in adverse conditions. Compounding forces When you consider that about 90 per cent of the world’s exports are transported via ships and that most of those goods arrive ashore in container boxes, the scale of the problem becomes clear, says Mr Littlewood. Weighing in, too, are factors not directly pinned to C0vid-19. Australia’s trade imbalance with China means empty containers aren’t returning to China. Plus, the six-day Suez Canal blockage last March effectively paralysed one of the world’s most vital shipping arteries. On top of Omicron, you’ve had the Chinese New Year with its sacrosanct shutdown of factories and the Winter Olympics in Beijing coming straight after that, says Mr Littlewood.

or 40 foot) containers, they would be in production within 4–6 weeks. From order to port, we would expect a 6-8 week period. Now it’s more like 5-6 months. To give another industry example, one of Royal Wolf’s biggest customers who buys major volume every 12 -18 months, would typically see their international freight costs account for about 14 per cent of their purchase. Nowadays, that’s closer to 45 per cent. Ship availability is also being severely compressed by blank sailing. Shipping lines are deciding that there is not enough volume, and therefore commercial value, for them to pull into a port – even though it’s on their route. Our New Zealand market has certainly been impacted by blank sailing, says Mr Littlewood. And with shipping programmes being thrown out by extended port quarantines, the reliability of forecasting has drifted away as well. Countering customer frustration There’s no doubt that the inflated shipping prices and supply blockages are a significant frustration to our customer base, says Mr Littlewood.

To combat the supply-chain fallout, Royal Wolf has moved to increase its prices. When you’re buying containers at 120-140 per cent more than you were two years ago, the return on your asset is obviously much longer - so as our shareholders look to us for the right level of return, we have increased rates across all areas, reports Mr Littlewood. Despite new-build price hikes exceeding 100 per cent on pre-COVID levels, we have increased our new hire rates between 5 and 12 per cent, depending on the product type. Changing customer behaviour The pandemic had also reshaped customer patterns.

The first and fundamental principle in managing client frustration is to treat your customers with respect. No one likes giving their customers bad news, but you have to give them pragmatic news ? and realistic timeframes.

Most tier-one rental customers are also retaining hires for longer to reduce future supply-chain issues.

Playing the long game

All this means that we are running at unprecedented levels of asset utilisation, so we’ve had to work really hard on our ability to turn around hire equipment faster. Our business is tighter and our forward-order books are much stronger.

Both container prices and production times are at least double their pre-COVID levels, reports Mr Littlewood.

That’s because our American parent company, United Rentals, believes that this present situation will be a longer game, says Mr Littlewood.

Pre-pandemic, if we placed an order for standard (20

To this end, Royal Wolf scaled up their container

NZ Manufacturer March 2022 /

Royal Wolf – a rate leader

With the limited availability of quality second-hand containers, many customers are now choosing to rent units instead at a much more cost-effective daily rate, reports Mr Littlewood.

Rates and reliability

While our competitors aren’t in a position to supply, we have been securing additional market share, he says, and by having more new-build product coming in, our fleet will be younger.

But most of our customers have been understanding because they realise that central to this pandemic is the fact that there are things that are beyond our control.

We believe that our competitors have substantially reduced their purchasing. Therefore, we have gone the other way and heavily increased our capital investment in quantities that are unprecedented in our 26-year history, despite the higher prices.

All these ripple effects just compound in a sphere as interconnected as the global shipping industry.

fleet by acquiring the hire, sale and modification division of Sydney firm Price & Speed Containers Pty Ltd in October 2021.

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We’ve had unprecedented organic growth in our rental sector in the past 12 months. Our rental fleet on hire has grown by more than 15 per cent.

The rule book is very different now, and in some ways, the global supply chain crisis has been advantageous largely due to our proactive asset management and capital investment.

The Last Word New low-cost solutions help manufacturers go digital Cost-effective, off-the-shelf technologies are helping manufacturing SMEs to transform into highly efficient, digitally enabled businesses. Elizabeth Tofaris explains more about the Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring project. the same direction is hugely powerful, the value of which is not to be underestimated.’

are now being used to digitise the location and status of jobs.

Following digital assessments, the Shoestring team classify many of the commonly experienced challenges and priorities facing manufacturers and create a list of top priority requirements for proposed low-cost digital solutions.

This cross-site job tracking pilot enables workers to print tracking labels, record when a job enters and leaves the facility using barcode scanning, and then store all these records centrally in the cloud, so that live job progress can be viewed at any time.

The innovative project, which involves a range of small manufacturers, technology partners including the Raspberry Pi Foundation and Siemens together with manufacturing networks such as the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS) and Make UK, exploits low-cost, commercially available technologies in mobile computing, sensors and analytics software.

This has led to the development of a toolbox of solutions incorporating consumer-grade components (such as Raspberry Pis) and low-cost sensors (such as Bluetooth low-energy beacons, off-the-shelf sensors and motion cameras), combined with existing cloud computing platforms, human-machine interaction (consumer-grade AR/VR technologies), Internet of Things (IoT) suites, and interfaces such as iPads and Alexa.

This simple but effective solution demonstrates the combination of open source and other low-cost off-the-shelf software technologies to collect and record typical manufacturing activities observed on a shopfloor.

By tackling some of the challenges of implementing digital solutions without big budgets or in-house digital expertise, Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring is bringing these solutions into many small-scale manufacturing environments for the first time.

Research Associate Dr Greg Hawkridge explains that the aim of Shoestring is not to develop a comprehensive business case, but to ‘identify priorities based on clear benefits and determine the minimal set of features that would be required to make a solution functional’.

‘We hope this will help small companies put a “toe in the water” in the digital space,’ says project director Professor Duncan McFarlane.

Top 10 digital requirements as identified by manufacturers

In a programme involving more than 200 companies from across the UK and overseas, the EPSRC-funded Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring project based at the Institute for Manufacturing, in collaboration with the University of Nottingham, has begun to deliver a toolbox of solutions that can be readily adopted by small and medium-sized manufacturers, using off-the-shelf, affordable technologies.

Working closely with individual companies to address their unique needs, the project team has developed a number of proof-of-concept solutions to things like inventory tracking and voice-activated orders, with industry pilot partners including Buchanan Orthotics, Warren Services and PCML testing their adaptability in industrial settings. Alex Campbell from SMAS described the approach as a ‘perfect fit’ for many of its clients thanks to its easy, low-barrier entry route to digitalisation. ‘Digitalisation can be expensive, confusing and difficult. The Shoestring approach aims to be the opposite of that. It’s a breath of fresh air for the manufacturing industry and we believe this is what a lot of businesses want and need as a first step.’

Small-scale manufacturing the smart way The Shoestring approach begins with developing an understanding of priority business areas for digitalisation, using ‘requirements workshops’ together with on-site visits to companies (as well as online workshops added since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic). This is a critical starting point, explains says McFarlane: ‘It provides the basis for the research team to identify which solutions are the top priorities across the industry and helps us decide which solutions to build first.’ Alex Campbell echoes the value of the workshops to companies, helping them to build a shared vision with employees: ‘To be given a safe space [for employees] to have these kinds of conversations, share thoughts, ideas and, crucially, align themselves and end up facing in

Management can see where all the jobs are in the queue and how they are progressing; ensure no orders are lost or misplaced; identify capacity issues for technicians; advise customer status; and see jobs close to completion.

Examples of Shoestring solution development Solution 1: QR inventory tracking system

1. Job tracking (location & status) 2. Unified change management and issue reporting between design and production operations 3. Digitised work procedures

instructions

4. Capacity monitoring resources)

(human

and and

assembly machine

5. Process monitoring 6. Gathering and analysis of product or customer demand 7. Machine or process configuration support 8. Predictive maintenance 9. Internal lead time monitoring 10. Job scheduling (human and machine resources)

Shoestring in action One company keen to explore how digitalisation could help improve productivity is family-run manufacturer Buchanan Orthotics, which make modular, bespoke and specialist footwear for clients such as the NHS. After working alongside the Shoestring team to assess needs and develop a solution unique to their operations, the company is now piloting a job tracking solution.

This low-cost inventory tracking system was built to simultaneously scan and identify supplier parts arriving either alone or in a tray. Using a Raspberry Pi camera and image processing libraries for QR code recognition, newly delivered boxes (containing parts) are placed flat on a tote, which the operator then manually scans under a webcam that is connected to a Raspberry Pi and screen. The QR code recognition then triggers a back-office query to retrieve information related to stock levels and locations. Users can then update associated stock levels.

Solution 2: Legacy panel digitalisation

‘Buchanan has worked with the Shoestring team to outline and identify a project which is now at the pilot stage, and the potential benefit to the company will be significant, without the impact of major capital investment,’ says Ryan Currie, Buchanan’s commercial manager. Where the company previously used a paper sheet to track orders through the system, low-cost scanners

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NZ Manufacturer March 2022

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