NZ Manufacturer October 2017

October 2017

Need High Quantities of Prototypes Fast? direct3dprinting.com.au

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From the MSCNewsWire reporters’ desk

German conglomerate’s apple business in NZ faces uncertain future Locals had been led to believe Baywa AG was expanding This is what you call mucking about our manufacturers and exporters.

Hawkes Bay apple juice company T&G Foods faces an uncertain future as the owner the gigantic Munich trading house Baywa AG tries to sell it into an unreceptive market Local fabricators had tooled up anticipating the expansion of the old Turners & Growers business and now they find themselves contemplating the possibility that the business, big by New Zealand standards, but tiny by Baywa’s might simply shut its doors.

Several years ago that The Munich-based company BayWa AG acquired over 100 per cent of the third largest apple producer in New Zealand, Apollo Apples Ltd., through its New Zealand subsidiary Turners &

5 Growers Ltd.: The on-season/off-season growing cycle made sense at the time.

But now the German firm cites a decline in fruit volumes and a slide in apple juice concentrate prices.

BUSINESS NEWS Manufacturers need to get in quickly when Amazon launches in Australia.

T&G Foods has the capacity to process up to 200,000 metric tonnes of apples and other fruit at its two manufacturing continued on Page 9

NZMEA has a new name:

The Manufacturers’ Network

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-Dieter Adam, Chief Executive The NZMEA (New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association) has a proud history of supporting New Zealand manufacturers since 1879. We have now changed our name to The Manufacturers’ Network!

technologies that are evolving at an ever-increasing rate, and still operate in environment where an overvalued exchange rate eats into their margins.

Today, manufacturing in New Zealand faces many challenges. Manufacturers need to hold their own and want to grow their business in an increasingly interconnected and highly competitive global environment.

We felt it was time to signal more clearly through our name what the focus of our organisation is. Our motto remains the same: We Support – We Connect – We Speak Up.

Whether it’s through exporting or competing with imports, it’s all about remaining globally competitive!

To achieve that, manufacturers need to overcome a chronic shortage of people with the right technical and leadership skills, manage to improve productivity through the adoption of advanced manufacturing

MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY Move fast and break things.

As many of my conversations with members and other manufacturers interested in becoming a member have confirmed, that is and should be the order of priority, and a lot of the ‘Support’ happens through the connections we make.

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COMPANY PROFILE

continued on Page 26

Pertronic wins award.

connect

members

with

Inspiring Manufacturing and Innovation Excellence

1-3 May 2018

ASB Showgrounds, Auckland

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Bringing 1000’s of industry professionals and innovators together: • To Showcase, Educate & Sell to the industry professionals • To see and touch the latest products and technology for the sector • To better understand regulatory change within the industry

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LIANCE E COMP Z D A R G HEM FOOD WITH C IS EASY

2017

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Media Kit including Editorial Calendar

NZ Manufacturer is distributed to 22,900 manufacturing and industrial companies throughout New Zealand.

Manufacturing Technology / New Products for Manufacturers / Disruptive and Future Technologies / Export Success / Trade Show Previews and Reports SouthMACH 2017 / AusTech 2017 / Company Profiles / Analysis / Interviews / Food Manufacturing / Infrastructure / Smart Manufacturing

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CONTENTS DEPARTMENTS

ADVISORS

5 BUSINESS NEWS Manufacturers need to get on board with Amazon Australia.

6 MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY Best of scanning technology from Fuji Xerox.

Artec 3D unveils Artec Leo. Innovative visual inspection from FARO. Review: Move fast and break things.

Craig Carlyle

Is Director of Maintenance Transformations Ltd, an executive member of the Maintenance Engineering Societyand the Event Director of the NationalMaintenance Engineering Conference.

5

10 COMPANY PROFILE Hutt Valley manufacturer wins gold award for R & D.

Catherine Beard

Is Executive Director of Export NZ and Manufacturing, divisions of Business NZ, NewZealand’s largest business advocacy group, representing businesses of all sizes.

11 FOCUS Companies need to shape, not predict, the market.

12 DEVELOPMENTS What coalition agreements may mean for manufacturers – and what they won’t 3D toothbrush made from metal.

8

13-14 FEATURE

Dieter Adam

The top IoT applications.

Turn concepts into reality.

Chief Executive, New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association has a Ph.D. in plant biotechnology, consulting and senior management roles in R&D, innovation and international business development.

17 SMART MANUFACTURING To have good ideas, remember to get bored.

Remote-controlled trolley collector wins award.

Otago Polytechnic students win in national design awards.

IIoT helps companies remain globally competitive.

Seven ways the Fourth Industrial Revolution can help the planet.

Drones detect human vital signs from afar.

Lewis Woodward

10

22 SUPPLY CHAIN

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.

Modified container keeps explosives and flares safely contained.

Supply Chain Excellence: Series 7 – Lean Suppliers.

16

24 FOOD MANUFACTURING Research to use bacteria in revolutionary ways.

Artificial Intelligence to help wine profits flow.

Irish dairy flows to NZ agritech.

Dr Wolfgang Scholz

Is HERA Director and a Fellow of the Institute of Professional Engineers NZ.

27 NEW PRODUCTS Telescopic boom has in-built innovations.

Safety increased with Sync Grip Pullers.

Hardness tester goes from strength to strength.

29 DEVELOPMENTS HERA investing in future of young engineers.

30 BUSINESS NEWS Bored and Brilliant.

Ten ways automation could boost your business.

21

Looking after our PUBLISHER

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

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

CONTRIBUTORS

Dieter Adam, Holly Green, Vishnu Rayapeddi, Hamish Conway Clive Hickman, Jeremy Hadall, Seaver Izatt NZMEA, www.mscnewswire.co.nz

ADVERTISING

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

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

manufacturers The Manufacturer’s Network is the new name for NZMEA (New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association) as it looks to strengthen its support for the country’s exporters, which it began doing in 1879.

There’s no doubt about it, our manufacturers need to remain competitive and continue to improve their manufacturing processes, productivity and ‘push’ to find new markets overseas.

One of the roles of The Manufacturers Network is to grow their membership base – surely a good thing for all as they continue to connect manufacturers together for the common good.

WEB MASTER

Bruce Metelerkamp E: bruce@hha.co.nz

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

Lower Hutt based company Pertronic Industries recently won the Discovering Gold Award at the recent Wellington Gold Awards, which recognise excellent Wellington regional business.

DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS E: info@nzmanufacturer.co.nz Free of Charge.

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

Vol.8 No.9 October 2017 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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The company’s win was for the development of a new fire alarm control panel for the Australian market.

If you haven’t already read the Page 1 story of German conglomerate’s Baywa AG apple business in NZ facing an uncertain future its worth a look at. This is a story which needs to be told to look after our manufacturers and exporters.

ASIA

MANUFACTURING NEWS

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Locals had been led to believe Baywa AG was expanding Hawkes Bay apple juice company T&G Foods is one such company facing an uncertain future.

Local fabricators had tooled up anticipating the expansion of the old Turners & Growers business and now they too find themselves contemplating the possibility that the business, big

by New Zealand standards, but tiny by Baywa’s, might simply shut its doors.

Several years ago, the Munich-based company BayWa AG acquired over 100 per cent of the third largest apple producer in New Zealand, Apollo Apples Ltd., through its New Zealand subsidiary Turners & Growers Ltd.: The German firm cites a decline in fruit volumes and a slide in apple juice concentrate prices.

Doug Green

Success Through Innovation

EDITORIAL

If you don’t have time to do it right you must have time to do it over.

-Author Unknown

BUSINESS NEWS

Amazon expert:

don’t fear Amazon Australia - leverage it!

An Amazon e-commerce expert says New Zealand businesses need to stop fearing Amazon’s impending entry into Australia, and start making the most of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Hamish Conway, Director of Amazon e-commerce advisors Sell Global, says contrary to many people’s belief, Amazon is more of a business enabler than a competitor.

“Their entry into Australia presents businesses on both sides of the Tasman with huge opportunities. Amazon is should be embraced because – if used well – it will enhance and not hinder sales.”

As the world’s most trusted brand, Amazon has become most successful e-commerce channel and is on track for also becoming the first $1 trillion stock.

These days, more products are sold on the platform via third-party sellers than

by Amazon itself.

Mr Conway has experience on all sides of the Amazon equation – selling his

own products, other brands on Amazon in the USA, UK and Europe and also advising businesses who want to have Amazon as a part of their e-commerce strategy.

Manufacturers, retailers and distributors need to be ready to get in quickly once Amazon Australia launches.

He says there is a misplaced belief that Amazon is just for very low-priced products or that selling on it will result

in one losing control of their product.

“The opposite applies. Selling via Amazon – if done properly as a third-party seller – will provide more control and more profit. This will enable businesses to complement rather than cannibalise their other sales channels.”

Amazon is a particularly successful platform for quality consumer products – something that New Zealand businesses do well.

“A lot of high quality, unique products are made or sold here. This gives our businesses a point of difference on Amazon that could not be easily copied.”

He notes that, if they haven’t done so already, manufacturers, retailers and distributors need to be ready to get in quickly once Amazon Australia launches.

Mr Conway says the key lies in doing it well and being properly prepared: “Many businesses aren’t getting the most out of their Amazon experience.

Just because you are there on Amazon doesn’t mean you’ll make sales.”

“Get in first and get on page 1, because that’s where 86% of the sales occur.

Getting in early will be invaluable for protecting your brand and pricing, and staking your claim on how the brand is presented on Amazon. If you don’t do this, then someone else will.”

“It is a highly competitive market so success requires best-practice.”

Find a great home for your business EAST TAMAKI A great place to do business

getba.org.nz www.nzmanufacturer.co.nz

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MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY

Great ideas need landing gear as well as wings.

-C.D. Jackson

Best of scanning technology Fuji Xerox NZ Ltd are the New Zealand Distributors of Kreon 6 and 7 axis Ace measuring arms and the Kreon Solano & Skyline range of scanners.

engineers and allows companies to produce improved products while save time and money.

Kreon scanners provide many benefits for product design including; reducing time to market, enhancing aesthetics, and improving ergonomics. In recent years, leading companies have successfully implemented 3D scanning into their design process to develop superior products.

The company recently ran Customer seminars in Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland to demonstrate the ease of use, and accuracy of the Kreon Ace 7-axis measuring arm and Solano Blue laser scanner along with Geomagic metrology software.

All sessions were well attended. And the participants saw the Kreon 3D scanning technology used to generate high quality digital data images from physical objects into Geomagic reverse engineering software.

3D scanning bridges the gap between the physical world and 3D design software, changing the product design workflow. 3D scanners project a line of laser light onto the surface of the object while sensor cameras continuously record the changing distance and shape of the laser line in three dimensions (XYZ) as it sweeps along the object.

They also saw scan data used for quality control checks of components for evaluation of geometry, shape, design dimensions and tolerances compared to their CAD file.

The shape of the object appears as millions of points called a “point cloud” on the computer monitor as the laser moves around capturing the entire surface shape of the object. After the huge point cloud data files are created, they are registered and merged into one three-dimensional representation of the object and post-processed with

Design with 3D Scan Data 3D scanning technology has become the mainstream tool for reverse engineering and complex part inspection. The Kreon Ace measuring arm and scanner is also a powerful tool for new product design. It provides new capabilities to designers, and

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a software package such as Geomagic Design X or Geomagic Wrap.

Speed important Scanning speed is often a primary criterion when buying a 3D scanner.

Speed is important for time consuming operations such as quality control on multiple parts.

Speed is also important when scanning large components, requiring multiple passes. In many cases, working time and productivity are directly linked to scanning speed.

So, what do we mean when we talk about scanning speed?

The 3 key points to assess the speed and quality of a 3D laser scanner are 1.

Laser line length: The standoff distance is the optimum distance from the scanner to the object. The field of view is the length of the laser scan at the optimum distance.

The closer the scanner must be, the narrower the laser line. For example: A 50mm laser line will require 10 scans to obtain an object area but a 100mm laser line will only require 5.

2.

Frequency: One of the most important indicators. The number of laser lines recorded per second. The higher the frequency, the less gaps between each laser line.

3. Acquisition: the number of points per second captured on the object area. Acquisition speed is calculated by multiplying frequency by the number of points on each laser line The speed and performance of a scanner can be measured on these parameters.

Reverse Engineering 3D Laser scanning is the fastest, most accurate way to acquire 3D digital data for reverse engineering. The Kreon Ace measuring arm and scanner is the ideal tool for reverse engineering legacy products for design changes, manufacturing replacements, and incorporation into new designs.

The output of a 3D scanner is a point cloud. A point cloud is simply thousands or millions of X, Y, Z coordinates, each coordinate being a measurement of the scanned subject.

Reverse engineering is the term commonly used to describe the process of converting or re-engineering a point cloud into a 3D CAD model.

Geomagic Wrap delivers an easy-to-use, fast, accurate path from point clouds to 3D polygonal mesh and geomagic Design X to surface models that can be used for engineering, manufacturing and industrial design.

Once a designer reverse engineers an object, Geomagic DesignX software

can transfer the model natively into most major CAD software packages.

The result is a native, full-parametric CAD model with a fully editable feature tree. Germanic software is the key to creating fully-parametric CAD models from scan data.

Reverse Engineering Techniques There are two main approaches to reverse engineering. The first method results in a 3D model that matches the physical object as closely as possible.

The second method results in a 3D model containing the design intent.

Design intent models are generally created in the case of a heavily used part, a poorly manufactured part, or a handmade model. It is also possible to reverse engineer an object where some areas match the original and some areas are altered for design intent purposes.

Verification and Validation 3D scanning provides the ideal solution for measuring, inspecting, and troubleshooting the shape and dimensions of an object. Engineers and designers are often given the challenging task of determining why a product is not fitting or functioning properly. Determining the cause of a problem is difficult with traditional measurement instruments.

Kreon 3D scanners provides a clear picture of an object. Defects such as warp, twist, and wear become apparent when the scan data of a manufactured part is compared to the original CAD model. Germanic® Control X™, 3D inspection software provides a comprehensive metrology software platform that delivers powerful tools. geomatics Control X™, generates colour deviation maps. The deviation map colours red, orange and yellow describe areas with larger deviation from the CAD file. Cyan and blue colours describe areas with too little deviation. In addition to colour deviation maps, Germanic software contains the functions for full part layout with standardized geometric dimensions and tolerances (GD&T).

Implementing Kreon 3D scanning into the design process gives a company many advantages over its competition.

In addition to efficiencies in product design departments, Kreon 3D scanning offers cost and time savings for manufacturing and quality control.

Kreon Ace measuring arms and Kreon scanner combined with geomatics software is available from Fuji Xerox NZ Ltd. To learn more about the high precision Kreon Ace measuring arm and scanner, please visit http://betterbusiness. fujixerox.co.nz/kreon-scanning/

Different isn’t always better, but better is always different.

-Author Unknown

MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY

Artec 3D unveils Artec Leo, the first AI-based handheld 3D Artec 3D, a developer and manufacturer of professional 3D hardware and software, has unveiled Artec Leo, a first-of-its-kind smart device and one of the fastest handheld 3D scanners in the world capturing data at up to 80 frames per second (FPS).

Building on last year’s release of Autopilot – an AI-based feature within the Artec Studio 11 software that automatically processes raw 3D data into high-quality 3D models, Artec has achieved a major industry milestone by creating a 3D scanner that can autonomously collect and process data onboard, without connecting to a tablet or computer.

On Artec Leo’s multi-touch, half HD screen, the user can watch their object being digitised into a full-colour 3D model in real time, which makes the scanning process simple and intuitive.

our AI algorithms, it captures and automatically processes huge amounts of data all on a single device that requires minimal training to master.

“Leo’s next-generation platform is a massive breakthrough in the industry and we intend to build on this success to expand our line of smart 3D scanners.

Our goal is to make professional 3D scanning as easy as shooting video for any industry and Artec Leo is the next big step in achieving that goal.”

“Artec Leo embodies the next wave of the 3D scanning industry,” said Artyom Yukhin, president and CEO of Artec 3D.

Artec Leo features a comfortably large field of view and impressive 80 FPS 3D reconstruction rate, making scanning large objects or scenes a straightforward task. At the same time, users can bring the scanner closer to particular areas of interest to pick up intricate details with a 3D point accuracy of 0.1 mm.

“It is intuitive, mobile, and, using

This makes Artec Leo perfect for

The built-in battery pack, ergonomic grip, and balanced design of the 3D model scanner allows for easy wireless operation and access to hard-to-reach locations.

digitising a wide range of forms and sizes, from a small mechanical part to a large forensics scene. With a custom engineered ergonomic design, this tetherless portable 3D scanner feels very natural in the hand, offering an unrivalled user experience.

NVIDIA. “This is important for a wide variety of industries, including industrial design and manufacturing, healthcare, science, education, animation, and computer graphics.”

Utilising a cutting-edge proprietary two-in-one optics system, with a 3D camera and colour camera combined as one, Artec Leo can achieve unparalleled precision in texture mapping at a resolution of 2.3 mp.

Built on the state-of-the-art NVIDIA Jetson, Artec Leo is the smartest and most powerful 3D scanner on the market, capable of processing large volumes of 3D data onboard.

The scanner also includes a 9 degrees of freedom (DoF) inertial system (accelerometer, gyro and compass), which provides precise information about its position and environment.

This enables the device to understand the difference between the object being scanned, the surface it is on and the wall behind it so that it can automatically erase the unwanted data.

High-quality geometry is also achieved, thanks to the use of a disruptive VCSEL light source, which allows for capturing objects in bright, outside conditions – an environment which is generally unconducive to 3D scanning.

“Our Jetson embedded computing platform pushes the limits of visual and AI computing and, through our work with Artec, real-time 3D capture, modelling and visualisation is now possible in a handheld scanner,” said Lazaar Louis, product management lead for Tegra and business development for VR/AR products at

www.nzmanufacturer.co.nz

Additionally, this advanced technology has allowed Artec 3D to create a flash system that can be adjusted based on the surrounding light conditions for enhanced 3D capture. This also enables users to scan in 3D HDR, making it easier to capture tricky objects, such

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MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY as those that are black or have shiny areas.

This is a useful feature for those times when a large screen could be helpful or for collaborative work. The scanner has a built-in SSD drive to store 256 GB of captured data, while micro SD cards can be used to extend the capacity of

While the scan can be seen on the Artec Leo’s screen, it can also be streamed to other devices, such as tablets or laptops.

The price of light is less than the cost of darkness.

-Arthur Nielsen

the device, something which can be especially handy for field conditions.

Additional battery modules can also be purchased for unlimited 3D scanning in areas with no available power supply.

Once scans are completed, data can be

uploaded to a computer via a Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection, or directly to the cloud.

Objective3D are the New Zealand distributors for all Artec 3D scanners.

Move Fast and Break Things -Jonathan Taplin (Jonathan Taplin is Director of the Annenberg Innovation Lab and a former tour manager for Bob Dylan and The Band, as well as a film producer for Martin Scorsese. An expert in digital media entertainment, Taplin is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and sits on the California Broadband Taskforce and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Council on Technology and Innovation.

Fake news. Digital monopolies. Stealth Marketing. This is the story of how the internet, which began as a dream, has become a nightmare and the people that did it.

The modern world is defined by vast digital monopolies turning ever-larger profits. Those of us who consume the content that feeds them are farmed for the purposes of being sold ever more products and advertising.

began to be shaped around the values of the entrepreneurs like Peter Thiel and Larry Page who founded these all-powerful companies.

Their unprecedented growth came at the heavy cost of tolerating piracy of books, music and film, while at the same time promoting opaque business practices and subordinating the privacy of individual users to create the surveillance marketing monoculture in which we now live.

Those that create the content - the artists, writers and musicians - are finding they can no longer survive in this unforgiving economic landscape.

But it didn’t have to be this way.

In Move Fast and Break Things, Jonathan Taplin offers a succinct and powerful history of how online life

It is the story of a massive reallocation of revenue in which $50 billion a year

has moved from the creators and owners of content to the monopoly platforms.

With this reallocation of money comes a shift in power. Google, Facebook and Amazon now enjoy political power on par with Big Oil and Big Pharma, which in part explains how such a tremendous shift in revenues from creators to platforms could have been achieved and why it has gone unchallenged for so long.

And if you think that’s got nothing to do with you, their next move is to come after your jobs. Move Fast and Break Things is a call to arms, to say that enough is enough and to demand that we do everything in our power

to create a different future.

Taplin wields his axe mercilessly...by the end of this book you will agree with Taplin that the tech firms are abusing their monopoly power to rip us off and debase our culture - breaking the world as he sees it...It is time for consumers to break back. This manifesto is a punchy start. * The Sunday Times * He is hunting big game; it is his contention that the giants of the cyberworld-from Google to Amazon-are threats to the fundamental foundations of democracy and that they also cement inequality into our systems in new and dangerous ways.

ACE 7 AXES Measuring Arm 2 m to 4.5 m and Kreon scanner Up to 200mm laser line width Very high scanning speed: up to 600,000 pts/sec Accuracy to 15 microns Integrated battery and WiFi Contact and non-contact measurement

7 Distributed in NZ by Fuji Xerox NZ Ltd.

SCANNING HAS NEVER BEEN SO INTUITIVE To learn more about the high precision Kreon Ace measuring arm and scanner, contact: Fuji Xerox NZ Ltd, Head office: 79 Carlton Gore Road, Newmarket, Auckland, Tel 09 356 4200 www.fujixerox.co.nz/3D http://betterbusiness.fujixerox.co.nz/kreon-scanning/

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Invest a few moments in thinking.

It will pay good interest.

-Author Unknown

MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY

Innovative Visual Inspect for inspection and design FARO, for 3D measurement and imaging solutions for factory metrology, construction BIM/CIM, product design, public safety forensics, and 3D solutions applications, announces the availability of the FARO Visual Inspect product family.

This innovative platform enables large, complex 3D CAD (computer-aided design) data to be transferred to an iPad and then used for mobile visualisation and comparison to real world conditions.

This enables real time, actionable manufacturing insight through earlier stage error detection in the production, construction or design processes.

the iPad through an innovative, compressed, mobile format which provides an exceptional degree of flexibility and mobility that together drive increased productivity. The end user is able to document problems and errors with text and images and then easily export both into a Microsoft Excel office document.

The Visual Inspect product family offers two exceptional value options.

• Visual Inspect: enables intuitive mobile viewing, verification and documentation of complex 3D data •

Visual Inspect AR: enables complex 3D data to be overlaid and compared to actual data in real time

Visual Inspect is a true next generation solution as it moves 3D CAD viewing away from the traditional desktop PC to a mobile “in hand, on demand” solution.

The integrated iPad camera supports Visual Inspect AR as a more cost-effective alternative to other Augmented Reality (AR) products that require expensive cameras.

3D CAD data is stored locally on

The Visual Inspect product family can

be ready for use via a simple three step

Apps store, calibrating the iPad and

process that includes first downloading

then activating the application with

the iPad application from the Apple

the calibration file.

continued from Page 1

German conglomerate’s apple business in NZ faces uncertain future sites, one in Hastings and the other in Nelson.

The company processes apples into apple juice and has also diversified into the production of higher margin fruit ingredient products including diced apple for the food services industry, apple sauce in bulk and small format pouches for retail consumers.

The company was founded in Germany nearly 100 years ago, operates in 34 countries and has nearly 20,000 staff The uncertainty about the company’s New Zealand apple business is a surprise just because the main problems were well-known at the outset of the acquisition.

These included supply problems due to

the widespread pulling up of orchards, and the labour problems involved in the picking of the fruit in the remaining orchards.

processing future here comes at a time of intense political sensitivity over the acquisition of New Zealand’s primary resources by foreign firms.

Baywa is a conglomerate in that it is involved in energy, notably solar, as well as in building materials, and farm equipment.

This has been compounded by the worry of local constructors who had been led to believe that the company was on an expansionary path.

The uncertainty over the company’s

Switching in EMC environments with NHP We all understand that using screened output cables on VSD applications is best practice for eliminating potential electromagnetic disturbances (EMC).

What is not so well understood is how to retain the advantages of continuous cable screening while using a motor isolator. Using a standard motor isolator risks breaking the continuity of the EMC screen.

An effective EMC Isolator can provide a solution to this and is very similar to a standard motor isolator. However, there are some key differences. These include a copper coated enclosure lining, a pre-installed earth terminal and the addition of EMC glands. These differences maintain a continuous Faraday cage from the VSD output to the motor terminals as well as earth connection.

With this in mind, NHP has released the Katko EMC Isolator which is purpose-built to provide continuous cable screening in a simple and

effective manner for VSD and HVAC applications.

Combining an IP65 / IP66 rating with a choice of polycarbonate, aluminium and stainless steel, this EMC Isolator ensures consistent operation of industrial equipment, making it ideal for use where maintaining EMC compliance throughout the installation is vital – particularly applications with motors controlled by VSDs.

Locally tested to comply with EN55011, the Katko EMC Isolator from NHP also ensures safe operation in environments with electromagnetic disturbances, so

you can ensure a high level of safety without compromise.

For added application flexibility, the compact unit has been specially designed to occupy less space, ensuring easy installation and operation with a choice of larger enclosures for increased wiring space.

Complete with internally copper-coated polycarbonate or aluminium up to 160A (AC21) and door interlock with defeat mechanism when switch is in ON position, the EMC isolator is also padlockable in OFF position with up to 3 padlocks.

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NZ Manufacturer October 2017

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DEVELOPMENTS

The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.

-Samuel Smiles

Hutt Valley manufacturer wins gold award for R&D from the competition.

Lower Hutt-based Pertronic Industries won the Discovering Gold Award at the recent Wellington Gold Awards, which recognise excellent Wellington Region businesses. The Discovering Gold category is for major research and development achievements.

The F220’s seven-inch (800 x 480 pixel) colour LCD display provides a great deal more information than the small monochrome displays on competing products available in Australia. This is especially beneficial on large projects such as shopping malls and residential skyscrapers, which have complex networked fire alarm control panels monitoring thousands of sensors and control devices.

Pertronic’s win celebrated the development of a new fire alarm control panel for the Australian market. The project was triggered partly by the introduction in Australia of new standards requirements for fire alarm control panels.

Large complex projects also demand powerful high-speed information-processing capability, which is why the Pertronic F220 has a 456 MHz ARM9 microprocessor and large memory resources.

However, Pertronic also took the opportunity to introduce innovative new features to the Australian fire systems market. As a result, the Pertronic F220 offers a combination of features and benefits that set it apart

The

F220’s

advanced

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NZ Manufacturer October 2017

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The Australia National Construction Code requires certain categories of new buildings to be fitted with automatic fire detection and alarm systems that

satisfy Australian Standards AS 7240.2, AS 7240.4, and AS 4428.3. The F220 was independently tested in early 2016 by Wellington-based Opus Laboratories, who certified that the F220 meets the requirements of these standards.

Confident that their new product ticked the regulatory boxes, in May 2016 Pertronic Industries launched the F220 at the “Fire Australia & Hazmat” trade show in Melbourne. After the launch, the product quickly became the primary driver of Pertronic’s sales growth in Australia.

capabilities

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underpin many innovative features that benefit fire alarm installers, maintenance engineers, facility managers, occupants, and fire-fighters.

For example, during a fire alarm incident, the large easily-read display provides a plain-language description identifying the exact location of the source of a fire alarm. This helps facility managers and fire-fighters deal with any problem, potentially saving lives.

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FOCUS

He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.

-Harold Wilson

Companies need to shape, not predict, the market Instead of just gradually improving or creating new products and services, businesses now need to look at everything that impacts on what they make and how it is used – and shape that wider ecosystem. Nearly always, this will involve collaborating with other firms and players - sometimes even with competitors.

It’s called “market-shaping” or “market innovation”. New Zealand firms seem to have the fundamentals of what it takes to shape markets, but very few are doing it – which is likely resulting in many lost opportunities and product failures.

These are some of the conventional-wisdom-busting conclusions reached

by University of Auckland researchers, Associate Professor Suvi Nenonen and Professor Kaj Storbacka, from their three-year research project into market innovation.

“There was a quote from Mahatma Gandhi that we heard more than once from managers of entrepreneur-driven companies: ‘Be the change that you wish to see in the world’,” says Dr Nenonen, who is the director of the Graduate School of Management at the Business School.

“People are beginning to realise that, with the pace of change and digital disruption, you can no longer predict the market, but you can innovate and shape it. You can reconfigure the playing field. The old rules say you have to reactively adapt to the environment that you are part of. The new playbook says: seek to proactively adapt that environment to yourself, so it works better for you and others.”

Market innovation means deliberately shaping existing markets or creating whole new ones. It often involves tech innovations, but not necessarily. It is about identifying the bottlenecks in the wider system – points where the need for a particular resource holds everything up - and fixing them.

For instance, switching your business model from selling to leasing machinery means that customers need less capital to acquire the machinery, which makes the market bigger.

Take Apple’s iPhone. It was not the first smartphone, but it was the one that popularised the device, making new customers out of people who had never thought about owning one before.

One key to its success was identifying the bottleneck of continuously coming up with enticing new Apps – what actually makes the smartphone smart.

So, Apple created the App store, outsourcing this role to app developers and focussing on developing the iPhone hardware and operating system.

Switching your business model from selling to leasing machinery means that customers need less capital to acquire the machinery, which makes the market bigger.

“Market innovation is not simply a matter ‘build it and they will come’,” says Dr Nenonen. “Rarely, if ever, will a new technology be so radical and compelling that it spontaneously calls into being a market. Just like the car needed roads and the iPad needed wireless technology, innovations generally need certain conditions to make them viable. These conditions often involve a whole lot of different players, from suppliers and partners to support infrastructures and regulators.

“To make a new market, it’s not enough to create a ‘minimum viable product’; firms now need to identify the ‘minimum viable system’ their product needs.”

Dr Nenonen and Professor Storbacka received a Marsden Grant for their project “Is New Zealand betting on the wrong horse in the international innovation race? The importance of market innovations for small open economies”.

They looked at 21 companies from New Zealand, Finland (their birth country), Singapore and Sweden that had a market-shaping innovation, and drilled down into the capabilities and activities which had allowed them to change the rules of the game. Half of the market-shapers they analysed were SMEs, the other half larger companies.

They pinpointed Examples were:

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capabilities.

• capabilities used by firms to directly influence the market, such as bundling or unbundling products and services, building the infrastructure that supports customers using your product, cutting out middlemen, developing new terminology, creating new technical standards, and influencing regulations

• underlying thinking that supports these capabilities, which includes understanding what creates value to customers, being willing to seek win-win-win scenarios that benefit everyone involved, investing in organisational learning, and adjusting plans accordingly “Our call to shape markets represents a 180 degree turn for those with a traditional business education,” says Professor Storbacka. “It requires a profound shift in mind-set about how the market works and therefore how to best grow your business. That shift is from fighting for a bigger market share, or piece of the pie (zero-sum game), to baking a bigger pie for everyone (positive-sum game) via systemic innovation.”

“It may take a long time, often years, but investment costs are usually considerably lower than in traditional R&D,” says Professor Storbacka.

There is still a place for traditional innovation, they say, but firms need to recognise when to use each approach.

“Our findings raise the question: why are New Zealand firms not realising their potential to shape and innovate markets? Many new products fail – we believe this is because many managers are stuck in the traditional, narrow view of markets that does not allow for market-shaping.”

Says Dr Nenonen: “Entrepreneurs may intuitively practice some of the marketing-shaping capabilities and activities we identified, but that comes from their personal vision or hunch, not a deeper understanding and systematic approach. With this project, for the first time we’ve provided a playbook and a toolkit for firms of all sizes and at all stages.”

The pair have co-authored a book on market shaping aimed at managers and entrepreneurs, to be published

by Emerald in 2018. Their 2010 book Designing Markets: Are you Market Driven or Market Driving? was awarded best business book in Finland in 2010.

Based on their analysis, the researchers developed a questionnaire to measure market-shaping capabilities in New Zealand firms.

They found the New Zealand managers reported more of the underlying capabilities than the 21 proven shaper case studies they had analysed, but lagged behind in capabilities needed to put it into action, particularly the abilities to:

QUESTIONS FOR FIRMS WANTING TO INNOVATE: • What is the “system” that has to be there for my customer to reap maximum benefit from my product or service?

• Are there some bottlenecks in that system that limit value creation – either to my customer or our other stakeholders?

• Introduce radically new products or services • Encourage customers to look beyond current use of their product • Influence what customers looking for in their product

• Who could I partner with to eliminate these bottlenecks?

are

• How will I make sure that everyone in my “minimum viable system” benefits from this change?

• Engage with media to influence the language used to report on their industry

• Am I prepared to change my market shaping plan as I learn as I go?

• Influence how their industry is measured and reported upon by official bodies

• Am I willing to continue market shaping for a longer period of time (usually market-level change takes years – and it definitely won’t happen in the next financial quarter)?

They also found that market innovation pays, leading to sales growth, improved financial performance and market share, and that it can “grow the pie” across sectors.

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NZ Manufacturer October 2017

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DEVELOPMENTS HEADING

If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

-Attributed to Albert Einstein

What coalition agreements may mean for manufacturers – and what they won’t -Dieter Adam, Chief Executive, The Manufacturer’s Network

As we write this, the make-up of New Zealand’s next government is still undecided. Yet it might be useful, even at this stage, to look at what has already been decided, irrespective of the outcome, and what policies are still being negotiated. be severe international economic or political (and military) crises. These tend to drive our dollar down, but it is hardly what we or our members are looking for.

For instance, New Zealand First has indicated that monetary and exchange rate policy are being discussed with both possible coalition partners, and, potentially, measures to stem offshore buying of housing.

For immigration, it is likely changes will also be on the table. Labour has already committed to reducing immigration from the current highs, and National, while they have not set a specific reduction policy, have brought in measures already that have led to a tightening to the system that is already having an effect.

The exchange rate has been a consistent concern for manufacturers for years, being significantly overvalued over the last decade, which has played a role in holding our tradable sector back.

While some changes to monetary policy and a Reserve Bank Governor with a fresh approach to managing the OCR could have some effect on the exchange rate, it seems unlikely that discussions will result in changes or policies that will address the root causes and have a significant effect.

For the here and now, immigration makes up a vital component of filling the skills shortages that hold our manufacturers back from growing their business, especially in the area of experienced skilled trades’ workers.

Regardless of which coalition wins out, they need to recognise the importance of a smart immigration policy that can continue to meet the skills needs to support the sector.

So whatever the well-meaning declarations of the incoming government may say, the only development that could see our exchange rate drop in a meaningful way in the next three years would

A targeted immigration policy does, however, need to be paired with policies aiming at building the skills capacity of our own people, helping them to gain skills in areas of need and support businesses to upskill their staff.

In terms of a potential Labour, Greens and New Zealand First Government, there are some policies across these parties which could be positive for manufacturers.

Labour productivity falling further behind our OECD competitors off an already very low base.

The Greens have a policy of introducing a Minister for Manufacturing, and Labour, Greens and NZ First have all expressed some support for increasing spending on Research and Development, which could be a positive move for manufacturers if implemented with a focus on both product and process innovation.

National has already been pretty clear on their direction, largely continuing their work of their time in office, with no big changes. It is hard to tell what concessions they may afford to NZ First, but they may involve immigration,

p o l i c i e s focusing on the regions (such as rail expansion in Northland) and some measure to address foreign buying of housing, such as a stamp duty.

To get a better idea of what the implications of each coalition may be for manufacturer’s bottom line, The Manufacturers’ Network hosted a special event with Newsroom’s Bernard Hickey on Monday 16th of October.

Bernard reminded us of the core problems in our economy that none of the parties currently negotiating a role in government appear to be willing to tackle in a meaningful way – labour productivity falling further behind our OECD competitors off an already very low base, the share of exports in GDP falling, instead of rising as the National government had promised when it took office, and housing supplies unlikely to catch up with demand in spite of all the promises being made.

He mentioned the misallocation of capital into non-productive assets as one of the root causes for the above, and suggested measures and policies that could revert that trend – none of which are part of the portfolio of policies currently being discussed in Wellington.

The Manufacturers’ Network will continue to argue that a consensus approach to addressing our long term productivity deficit needs to be front and centre of policy going forward, paired with a mind-set of increasing our exports and high-value production.

Develop your people and grow your business Speak to us about apprenticeships and skills development

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FEATURE

The impossible is often the untried.

-Jim Goodwin

3D toothbrush made from metal Zare from Boretto, Italy, has ventured to design a new toothbrush in collaboration with Nussbaumer Design, headed by Christoph Nussbaumer. The result is very unusual – this toothbrush is made from metal. Under the brand name MIO, this 3D-printed toothbrush featuring a timeless design is produced by means of additive manufacturing.

One of the technical strengths of 3D metal printing lies in its ability to redefine the function and geometry of products. So it’s hardly surprising that a 3D toothbrush made from metal has a different effect than a common toothbrush. And this holds true even though injection-molded toothbrushes made of plastic have been design objects or years now.

When we buy a new toothbrush, today we can find ergonomic designs that combine customisation and functionality, with colors and shapes that are intended to captivate us.

Zare’s 3D metal toothbrush goes one step further.

In 2013, Zare procured its first 3D metal printer – an M2 cusing from Concept Laser.

Thanks to the company’s experience with conventional machining techniques and plastic prototyping, Zare quickly realised the advantages of 3D metal printing, introducing its customers to the new possibilities.

Zare breaks the mould Though Zare was already successful in 3D metal printing, the company never really had the idea to create a designer toothpaste made from metal.

The objective was to take a normal object of daily use and create a luxury item not yet available that could only be created using additive manufacturing based on its design.

In the end the company chose a “customisable” toothbrush made from metal. The production costs didn’t play

a decisive role, the focus instead placed on a unique design, exclusivity and user friendliness, in this case ergonomics.

At Zare, a company originally from the prototyping sector, these dependencies were ground for a new approach. Why not produce 3D printed toothbrushes made from stainless steel or titanium?

Both materials are standard in the dental industry and certified for oral use. Stainless steel 316L is common in dental technology.

Titanium is biocompatible and particularly attractive for those with allergies to other materials. And both materials exude the sought value and exclusivity. The logical deduction: both materials are perfect for producing the envisioned design.

MIO luxury toothbrush set made from metal with exclusive packaging

are patented. Each toothbrush has a serial number and can be customised.

However each version can even be ordered with a matte, polished or galvanised surface finish or in original Morag for those who want an object with less alterations and as close as possible to the additive matter.

Experience also promised that an M2 cusing Multilaser from Concept Laser would achieve an excellent surface quality. Particularly in the oral cavity, a very sensitive area, end products must have a perfect surface quality. This is why the toothbrushes are finished manually to ensure perfect results and maximum user comfort.

Individuality combined strong brand name

with

With its ergonomic design and changeable brush head made from silver, the 3D printed toothbrush is extremely durable, customisable and marks a new level of value in terms of its look and feel.

a

After around half a year, the team decided on two design variants, each available in both right-handed and left-handed versions as well as in two different materials (stainless steel 316L and titanium). Both design versions

Zare’s “gut decision” has shown one thing for sure: 3D metal printing is about transforming creative design and geometry into new products and functions.

Zare’s 3D factory with machines from Concept Laser

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

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FEATURE

If all efficiency experts were laid end to end — I’d be in favour of it.

-Al Diamond

The top industrial IoT

applications

The term “Industrie 4.0” heralds the coming of a new industrial revolution through smart manufacturing. The term “industrial Internet of Things” has a more muted-sounding promise of driving operational efficiencies through automation, connectivity and analytics. But the focus of IIoT — on industry at large — is broader.

Here, we take a comprehensive view, rounding up IIoT leaders and pioneers, drawing on the feedback from industry analysts and consultants.

shelves to hunt for products.

In 2014, the robots helped the company cut its operating costs by 20%, according to Dave Clark, a senior vice president at Amazon.

The companies on this list are not idly boasting about the promise of IIoT to transform their business; they have already begun the transformation.

4. Boeing: Using IoT to drive manufacturing efficiency Aviation pioneer William Boeing quipped that it “behooves no one to dismiss any novel idea with the statement, ‘It can’t be done.’”

1. ABB: Smart robotics Power and robotics firm ABB is one of the most visible to embrace the concept of predictive maintenance, using connected sensors to monitor its robots’ maintenance needs — across five continents — and trigger repair before parts break.

The multinational aviation company founded in Boeing’s name apparently still subscribes to that ethos. It is now working toward the long-term goal of making its service offerings more important than its products while being the most valuable information provider in aviation.

Also related to IoT is the company’s collaborative robotics. Its YuMi model, which was designed to collaborate alongside humans, can accept input via Ethernet and industrial protocols like Profibus and DeviceNet.

The company has already made significant strides in transforming its business. Boeing and its Tapestry Solutions subsidiary have aggressively deployed IoT technology to drive efficiency throughout factories and supply chains. The company is also steadily increasing the volumes of connected sensors embedded into its planes.

2. Airbus: Factory of the Future To say that assembling a commercial jetliner is an elaborate affair would be an understatement. Such craft have millions of components and tens of thousands of assembly steps, and the cost of mistakes during the process can be enormous.

5. Bosch: Track and trace innovator

To tackle the complexity, Airbus has launched a digital manufacturing initiative known as Factory of the Future to streamline operations and bolster production capacity.

In 2015, Bosch launched what would be the Industrial Internet Consortium’s first test bed. The primary inspiration behind the so-called Track and Trace program is that workers would spend a sizable amount of their time hunting down tools. So the company added sensors to its tools to track them, starting with a cordless nutrunner. As the resolution of the tracking becomes more precise, Bosch plans to use the system to guide assembly operations.

The company has integrated sensors to tools and machines on the shop floor and given workers wearable technology — including industrial smart glasses — designed to reduce errors and bolster safety in the workplace.

In one procedure, known as cabin-seat marking, the wearables enabled a 500% improvement in productivity while nearly eliminating errors.

Heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar has long been an IoT pioneer. Recently, the company, which now often goes by “Cat,” has been showing off the fruits of its investments in the technology.

The online retail giant doesn’t often get called an IIoT company, but, to be sure, the company is an innovator when it comes to warehousing and logistics. As MIT Technology Review has put it: Amazon is “testing the limits of automation and human-machine collaboration.”

For instance, consider how it is using IoT and augmented reality (AR) to give machine operators an at-a-glance view of everything from fuel levels to when air filters need replacing. If an old filter expires, the company can send basic instructions for how to replace it via an AR app. The company’s marine asset intelligence division is also an innovator.

While the company’s ambitions to use drones for delivery has won considerable media attention, the firm’s fulfilment warehouses make use of armies of Wi-Fi-connected Kiva robots.

Last year, Forbes ran an article explaining how the company used sensor-driven analytics to save a bundle of money on boats and shipping vessels.

The basic idea behind the Kiva technology, which Amazon acquired for $775 million in 2012, is that it makes more sense to have robots locate shelves of products and bring them to workers rather than have employees go to the

NZ Manufacturer October 2017

While predictive maintenance is a familiar concept, Fanuc has embraced it more aggressively than most. Last year, GM awarded Fanuc’s Zero Downtime (ZDT) system its Supplier of the Year Innovation Award.

8. Gehring: A pioneer in connected manufacturing Gehring Technologies, a 91-year-old company that makes machines for honing metal, was early to embrace IIoT technology.

Now, the company enables its customers to see live data on how Gehring’s machines work before they place an order. It does so by using digital technology, beaming real-time information from a new machine to a customer to ensure that it meets the customer’s requirements for precision and efficiency.

Gehring uses the same cloud-based real-time tracking to reduce downtime and optimize its own manufacturing productivity through monitoring its connected manufacturing systems, visualizing and analysing data from its machine tools in the cloud.

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9. Hitachi: An integrated IIoT approach The Japanese company stands out from other industrial companies in terms of its integration and experience across operational and information technology.

While most other industrial conglomerates leverage partnerships to fill in the gaps in their IoT knowledge, Hitachi is more independent. The company has more than 16,000 employees focused on the technology in some capacity.

7. Fanuc: Helping to minimise downtime in factories

While it offers an IoT platform known as Lumada, Hitachi also makes a plethora of products leveraging connected technology, including trains, which the company is beginning to sell as a service.

Robotics maker Fanuc is serious about reducing downtime in industrial facilities. Using sensors within its

Hitachi has also developed an IoT-enhanced production model that it claims has slashed production lead times

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10. John Deere: Self-driving tractors and more As the field of agriculture becomes more of a science and less of an art passed down the generational line, John Deere is responding by deploying Internet of Things technology — perhaps most notably with self-driving tractors.

As The Washington Post wrote in 2015, Google didn’t lead the self-driving vehicle revolution. John Deere did. The company also happens to be a pioneer in GPS technology. The most-advanced systems it uses in tractors are accurate to 2 centimetres. In addition, the company has deployed telematics technology for predictive maintenance applications.

11. Kaeser Kompressoren: Air as a service Founded in 1919, the German maker of air pumps, compressed air dryers and filters is an innovator when it comes to integrating digital communications into its products.

The company offers “digital twins” for its products and supports predictive maintenance. One of its best-known Industrie 4.0 efforts relates to its business model innovation as selling “air as a service,” which is a remarkable feat for a company that has sold machinery for the past century.

12. Komatsu: Innovation in mining and heavy equipment

6. Caterpillar: An IIoT pioneer

3. Amazon: Reinventing warehousing

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robotics in tandem with cloud-based analytics, the company can predict when failure of a component such as a robotic system or process equipment is imminent.

by half within its Omika Works division, which manufactures infrastructure for electricity, traffic, steel manufacturing and other industries.

The Japanese heavy equipment maker has a plethora of IIoT innovations.

Starting in 2011, it has deployed connected technology in its Japanese production facilities. Komatsu has linked all of its robots at its central production facilities to the internet, enabling managers to keep an eye on international operations in real time.

The company is an innovative force in mining. Its massive self-driving trucks can be spotted in Rio Tinto’s Mine of the Future in Australia.

Komatsu recently acquired U.S. mining equipment maker Joy Global, which had developed connected longwall shearers for coal mining that can wirelessly send 7,000 data points per second to the company’s data centre.

13. KUKA: Connected robotics German robotics specialist KUKA has an IoT strategy that extends to whole factories. For instance, Jeep asked the company to help build a factory that could churn out a car body every 77 seconds. The company responded by helping the company build an IoT-enabled factory with hundreds of robots linked to a private cloud.

The plant can produce more than 800 vehicles each day.

Taking initiative pays off. It is hard to visualize someone as a leader if she is always waiting to be told what to do.

-Sheryl Sandberg

14. Maersk: Intelligent logistics Shipping millions of containers to 121 countries across the world, the Danish shipping company has embraced the Internet of Things to keep track of its assets and optimize fuel consumption and the routes of its ships.

The technology has proven to be especially useful for refrigerated containers, whose contents could spoil in the absence of tight temperature control. Because the company spends some $1 billion annually on transporting empty shipping containers, Maersk has enlisted sensors and data analytics to inform how it stores and locates them.

The company is using blockchain technology to optimise its supply chain operations further.

15. Magna Steyr: Smart automotive manufacturing Austrian automotive manufacturer Magna Steyr is an innovator when it comes to smart factories. The company, which has 161,000 employees internationally, can precisely track assets ranging from tools to vehicle parts, automatically ordering a replenishment when necessary.

Magna is also testing the use of “smart packaging,” enhancing it with Bluetooth, to help keep track of components in its warehouses.

Autonomous vehicles within its facilities help ferry components through plants

during assembly, optimizing routes dynamically.

temperature as well as the presence of radiation and toxic gases.

18. Rio Tinto: Mine of the Future

Magna has a long history in custom automotive manufacturing, building different types of cars on the same assembly line since 1999. Now, it uses wearable technology to help guide its employees in the production of bespoke vehicles.

17. Real-Time Innovations: Microgrid innovation

The British/Australian mining conglomerate launched an innovative automated mining initiative in Pilbara, a remote region in Western Australia with deep reserves of iron ore. Driverless trucks and trains haul ore away from the mining sites while an autonomous drill technology enables a remote worker to oversee multiple drills from a single console.

Last year, the company won the AutomotiveInnovations Award from the Centre of Automotive Management and PwC Germany.

16. North Star BlueScope Steel: Keeping workers safe Wearable technology has enjoyed a high profile since Fitbit was founded a decade ago, but the underlying use cases for most consumer-grade wearable devices has arguably changed little since then. In the industrial realm, however, steelmaker North Star BlueScope Steel has deployed wearables in helmets and wristbands in a proof-of-concept project to help managers track employee safety and spot hazardous scenarios before they lead to injuries.

RTI and a handful of partners have created innovative technology that divides the power grid into an array of microgrids that can each be managed independently.

This strategy can help utilities manage the complicated network of energy that spans everything from solar panels to windmills to traditional natural gas, coal and nuclear plants. Such microgrid technology will become a necessity.

Driverless ships may be in its future as well. The company has a control centre complex in Perth that connects to its mines as well as its rail and port operations, where engineers, analysts, programmers and technicians remotely guide mining operations.

The traditional monolithic method of transmitting electric power is simply not up to the task of managing a grid that derives most of its power from renewable sources.

The wearables also track health metrics such as body temperature, pulse and activity levels, enabling supervisors to give taxed workers a break when necessary. In addition, the steel producer is using connected sensors to monitor extremes in environmental

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NZ Manufacturer October 2017

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DEVELOPMENTS

You must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures.

-Charles C. Noble

Turn Concepts into Reality The Roland range of digital workbench technology enables a wide range of materials to be inexpensively modelled and a concept to be proven in a material before committing to a full production version.

By keeping the process in-house you are able to produce tangible prototypes to test ergonomics, fit, form, function and pattern-making, with the obvious benefits of eliminating costly outsourcing and maintaining the security of proprietary concepts - all of which makes perfect business sense.

of 3D printers with the benefits of CNC-machined parts.

Roland’s MDX-40A and MDX-540 series milling machines cost significantly less than 3D printers while producing precision prototypes out of a wider variety of non-proprietary materials. A larger selection of materials makes it easier to create prototypes, including UV resistance, bending strength, surface hardness and electrical conductivity.

Rapid Prototyping Made Easy Many product designers and engineers who are researching additive rapid prototyping (RP) systems as a way to test form, fit and function of their prototypes may be unaware that there is a better, cheaper, faster solution.

Roland SRP solutions come with SRP Player, powerful, easy to use CAM software that delivers the speed, tight tolerances and exceptionally smooth surface finishes required for prototyping and customised rapid manufacturing applications.

Roland subtractive RP systems (SRP™) produce form models faster than any 3D printer on the market and easier than any other CNC mill on the market. That’s because Roland offers a complete software/hardware solution that combines the ease of use

Functional Prototypes Mill functional prototypes use a wide range of materials that additive systems

DEALERS SOUGHT For over three decades Roland DG have become experts in 3D digital fabrication technology systems.

We are seeking interested parties to become local dealers for the range of Roland DG milling machines, 3D printers and engravers. This is a rare opportunity to represent an internationally successful and reputable brand. If this sounds like something you want to be a part of contact us today for more information.

Mitch Boocock Channel Partner Manager 021 332 744 mitch.boocock@latitude.net.nz

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do not support. Users can choose from popular engineered plastics such as ABS, Acetal and Nylon, as well as acrylic and polycarbonate for transparent parts and a variety of woods and metals including aluminium, brass and copper. Compared to additive RP systems, Roland desktop devices produce functional prototypes that are better for structural, thermal and electrical testing.

thoroughly review a design and confirm

Models & Moulds

aluminium and brass to meet a range

Product designers rely on models to

of production demands.

its fit, finish and functionality. Roland’s MDX series creates models in ABS and other materials used to produce actual products. As a result, users can review a prototype that closely matches their final product. The MDX series produces precision injection moulds, parts and jigs for small lot production.

The MDX-540 mills light metals such as

IoT in the warehouse By 2020, there will be 25 billion smart devices, transmitting data to us, to the cloud and to each other. These devices range from smart cars to home thermostats, from implanted sensors on containers to label tags on our clothes.

indicators to better manage their distribution and fulfillment operations from their wrist. With real-time visibility into warehouse operations 24/7, managers can better meet the demanding requirements of today’s modern distribution operations.

The Internet of Things (IoT) allows for the remote monitoring of equipment, containers, pallets or packages to see how equipment is performing or to track products throughout the supply chain. Sensors and automatic ID equipment like RFID and bar code readers are among IoT devices.

Forklifts were some of the first equipment to become intelligent, donned with diagnostics that tells the forklift to signal when it needs to be serviced. A warehouse control system can direct a forklift to a pick location and tell it at what height the product is stored, speeding picking operations.

In the warehouse, these devices are used for inventory tracking, receiving, put-away, cycle counting, picking, restocking and data entry.

Adopting these technologies and the IoT improves visibility across the entire supply chain, lowers costs and streamlines operations.

RFID tags in the warehouse floor can signal the forklift not to exceed a certain speed in a particular location due to traffic in the area, thus avoiding a collision and improving safety.

As the Internet of Things becomes widely accepted, more and more devices are given sensors that can be monitored and controlled. The Warehouse Control System (WCS) is the key to IoT success, monitoring and controlling all of the intelligence devices in a warehouse.

A WCS allows warehouse managers to gather critical key performance

Conveyors can contain sensors to only turn on when there is a product coming towards a particular section.

The conveyor will not be running unless there is a product on it, thus saving energy. The WCS contains the move logic for the warehouse.

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

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

Sandra Lukey

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

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

Phillip Wilson

Chris Whittington

Senior Lecturer at AUT, Chris Whittington is a versatile Engineer, Educator and Researcher. Chris has had many years experience in senior engineering and product management.

Chris has a strong background in computational modelling, 3-D scanning and printing, and a strong interest in engineering education.

Phillip Wilson of Nautech Electronics has over 25 years of experienced in the development, commercialisation and implementation of advanced manufacturing technology, robotics, automation and materials. Serving companies operating within the aerospace, automotive, offshore, defence, medical and scientific industries on a global basis.

More recently specialising in change management and business re-alignment for a range of commercial entities from medium sized to divisions ofOctober large corporates. www.nzmanufacturer.co.nz / SME’s NZ Manufacturer 2017

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Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. ~Aldous Huxley

Remote-controlled trolley collector wins award for ‘Game Changing’ Innovation A Melbourne engineering company, Lockelec Innovations, has solved the problem of wayward supermarket trolleys, with a Bluetooth remote controlled trolley collector, the Red Rover.

supermarkets, banks and even the MCG).

The ingenious Red Rover trolley-collector removes the manual-handling hazards involved in trolley collection and results in significant productivity improvements.

A staff member provides direction of the ‘trolley train’ by simply guiding the lead trolley in the desired direction, while the Red Rover provides silent, motorised pushing power from behind.

The bane of supermarket operators worldwide is the manual collection of the ubiquitous supermarket trolleys scattered throughout car parks. Not only is the practice of collecting the trolleys labour intensive and unproductive, it results in numerous injuries and costly Workcover claims.

Innovation has been a part of Lockelec’s fifty year, three generational culture which has pioneered countless battery-powered innovations across materials-handling, hospitality, health care and public transport systems.

The Red Rover, billed as the ‘sheep dog of supermarket trolleys’, is earmarked for a national and global roll-out.

Coles supermarkets, conscious of the ‘trolley problem’, scanned the world for technology which would make the collection of the trolleys a simpler, more ergonomic process.

After an exhaustive search and numerous prototypes, Coles chose Braeside-based engineering company Lockelec Innovations to create a solution. After twelve months of developments and trials, Lockelec’s remote-controlled (Bluetooth) ‘Red Rover’ was born.

About Lockelec Innovations Their compact lithium-powered Electric Motors are making workplaces safer and more productive and saving millions - in hospitals around the world, hotels, supermarkets, banks and even the MCG

The innovation recently won Coles’ Rising Star award for Supplier of the Year, which was accepted in Melbourne

by Lockelec Managing Director Stuart Lord, a third generation owner of the Braeside company.

(Lockelec leads the world with their compact lithium-powered electric motors and a range of innovative technology solutions to make workplaces safer and more productive;in hospitals around the world, hotels,

devices and many other innovations. He still drops in to the firm.

These days, Stuart Lord and his team, design and manufacture the silent motors, powered by long-lasting lithium batteries which convert wheeled workplace equipment, into efficient, motorised units, in the Healthcare and Material Handling sectors.

Lockelec’s world-leading devices eliminate the need for staff having to push, pull and lift cumbersome regular equipment, thereby reducing the risk of strain, injury, pain and expensive Workcover claims. An increase in staff morale and productivity follows.

Many of the products are exported throughout the Asia Pacific region.

From the Prime Minister down, Australian manufacturers are encouraged daily to be more innovative. Lockelec Innovations, has a long and distinguished record of innovation in mobility devices.

Innovative engineering is obviously in the genes of the Lord family. Patriarch, Bob, a former WW2 RAAF pilot, pioneered the world’s first motorised wheelchairs - the Rollee, as well as Intravenous monitoring equipment.

He was also first to design and manufacture a disabled car-conversion system and invented a windscreen rain-sensing system and the first motorised patient lifter-hoist.

Now in the hands of the youthful Managing Director, Stuart Lord, Lockelec was founded by his grandfather, Bob, a pioneer in battery-powered mobility

The innovations continue with grandson Stuart, who has transformed workplace problems into creative engineering solutions, like The Evo

hospital bed mover, The Rollee electric bariatric wheelchair and medication carts (above).

Other innovations include, The Drover Ride-On and Stand-On tug mover, the Electric CSSD (sterilised) trolley and even a Bolt-On drive system to retro-fit existing trolleys.

Lockelec recently exported forty motorised CSSD (sterilised) hospital trolleys (right) to Singapore worth approximately $400,000. It’s one of many markets in the region the company exports to.

Beyond Health Care and Materials handling sectors, the Lords create a range of solutions-based engineering for the Military and Rail/Rolling Stock industries.

In the Melbourne Metro rail network, Lockelec has custom-designed and supplied rail equipment to every rail carriage. Yarra Trams have also received creative solutions to engineering problems. Worldwide Lockelec customers include some of the biggest transportation companies, including, EDI Rail, Siemens, Faiveley Transport, Alston and Bombardier.

To have good ideas, remember to get bored Nick Douglas I treat my earbuds rough, so every year or two they break. And every time, as I walk around the world without a constant soundtrack of Spotify and podcasts, I think to myself, “I really ought to do this more often.” And then I have ideas.

Manoush Zomorodi explores the creative power of boredom in her TED talk, “How boredom can lead to your most brilliant ideas.” Like any TED talk, it’s littered with vague anecdotes and factoids about brain chemistry, but there’s also practical advice like deleting an addictive app for a day, or using a tracker app to realise just how much time you’re spending on your phone each day.

There is plenty of practical advice for snapping out of the info-addiction

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habits that keep you from creative boredom. It could that tap on the shoulder: “Hey, maybe put down your phone today.”

Many of us who’ve struggled with creative work know that we have to allow ourselves to get bored, that we can’t simply work on them when we’re “in the mood.” That’s the difference between a hobby and something bigger.

But a decade into a creative career, I still need reminders like this. Otherwise the temptation of constant podcast listening, phone fiddling, and TV watching takes over.

The fight to maintain some boredom never ends. So let this be your reminder.

Don’t water your weeds.

-Harvey MacKay

Otago Polytechnic students win in national design awards Otago Polytechnic Design students have enjoyed success in this year’s prestigious national Best Design Awards.

The Awards, announced at a ceremony in Auckland in October, recognise excellence in graphic, spatial, product, interactive and motion design. The Best Awards are held annually to showcase the highlights of New Zealand design. They are judged by a jury of international design experts, and the very best piece of design in each discipline was given the supreme Purple Pin. Otago Polytechnic students had two wins in the Product Design category.

The silver went to ‘The Glo’, a high-tech children’s wheelchair, designed by Jeremy Metherell, Elizabeth Anderson, Steven Kulicke and Malwin Schloegel.

Malwin, one of the international students, flew in from Germany for the awards, making the win even more special.

Renwick) won a bronze award in the student Graphic design category.

The Cactus Hammock (by Jeremy Metherell) won a bronze award in the student product category. The hammock, which embraced the Cactus Outdoor Supplies ethic of ‘simplicity, durability and function’ has proven to be a commercial success, and is now onto its third production run.

“We’re delighted at how well our Product and Communication Design students did at this year’s awards,” says Andrew Wallace, Product Design Lecturer at Otago Polytechnic.

The Roller Derby zine series (by Lily

Otago Polytechnic had a total of nine students named as finalists in this year’s Best Awards, including four Communication Design students in the Graphic Design category.

The Glo wheelchair (Silver, Product Design Award).

“They’ve got bright futures ahead of them. According to the 2017 PWC report, Design is now earning more than Agriculture toward New

Zealand’s GDP. It’s an exciting time to be launching a career in this industry.”

IIoT helps companies remain globally competitive Companies in Australia are turning to the Industrial Internet of Things to streamline production and reduce costs to remain globally competitiv

up an offering for clients in a different way so they can increase their insights and their capabilities in a cost effective fashion.”

industrial communications systems support at Techport Australia, the nation’s premier naval hub at Port Adelaide.

South Australian business Dematec Automation has been helping companies streamline their operations for almost three decades. Its core business for many years was working with manufacturers but a downturn in that industry has seen it diversify into defence, food and beverage, water and agriculture.

Water is now Dematec’s biggest industry. The company was engaged

by HydroPlan to work on the $22 million Gawler Water Reuse Scheme, which captures stormwater from the often-dry Gawler River north of Adelaide and pumps it through 43km of pipelines to holding dams and underground aquifers to be used to irrigate vineyards in the western Barossa Valley.

The site is home to Australia’s two largest naval projects – construction of three Air Warfare Destroyers and the Collins class submarine sustainment program.

“The key drivers of what we do are to make our clients more productive, more efficient and give them the capability to do things they couldn’t do before, or to be more compliant or safe,” Dematec CEO David Hart said.

“Because we operate in a global economy, if you can’t be as efficient or as flexible in what you do then people are going to buy lower cost items from Asia or they will go for premium products from Europe or America.

“The Industrial Internet of Things is something that’s more recent and allows us to leverage advances in cloud computing and communications technology and use that to package

The electrical, control, and communications infrastructure for the project was delivered by Dematec and is managed by a 3G telemetry system that allows HydroPlan to efficiently operate the system remotely via tablet or phone thereby reducing ongoing management costs.

“They even have cameras that run on this network so if there is a problem the first thing they do is look at the relevant camera to see what’s going on before they send someone out to the site to address the issue,” Hart said.

Dematec also provides the control and

access to any resides on the AEMO website electricity price Hart said.

“At that site there’s a huge amount of infrastructure in place to deliver all the services required for the construction, maintenance and commissioning of those vessels,” Hart said.

“This can automate that decision making for you and give you the ability to set rules around it to optimise the price you pay for power or how you use power to minimise bills.

“So there’s a huge amount of data that is getting generated and pulled together in one place.”

“If you’re on the electricity spot market then you could say ‘I don’t want to run if the price is above $100/MWh’ or if you’re an irrigator and you’ve got a big tank then you can let it run right down and fill it up when the price is negative and AEMO is effectively paying you to use power.

Dematec still has a number of manufacturing clients including Philmac and Techno Plas and is also looking to move into aged care.

The industrial internet of things is also able to help companies that consume a lot of power and buy their electricity from the spot market to design their production around the cost of power through customised web platforms.

“Once you’ve got that sort of connectivity and access to information then you can start basing decisions around it.”

“One of the benefits of having this hosted on the internet is you can get

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structured data that internet such as the showing the current for South Australia,”

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Comfort zones are most often expanded through discomfort.

-Peter McWilliams

7 ways the Fourth Industrial Revolution can help the planet At the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) first Sustainable Development Impact Summit in New York, several of the discussions focused on how today’s tech revolution – the so called Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) – can create a better, cleaner and safer world.

augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR), and bio-tech including gene editing tools, or nanotechnology.

We really just are at the beginning of the 4IR’s beginning. That means we are not too late to do our best to make sure this industrial revolution, unlike its predecessors, is a sustainable one.

The imperative is clear: while society today is the most prosperous and dynamic the world has ever created, our Earth system is under unprecedented stress.

While some of the most potentially game-changing and pervasive 4IR solutions have not been invented yet, we have a good idea of some of the 4IR tech-related trends that are looking inevitable over the next 20-30 years.

Scientists say our planet has been torqued out of a stable system into uncharted territory. Examples include sobering warnings that 92% of the world’s population live in places where air quality is unsafe, according to the World Health Organisation, and that we may face a 40% shortfall in the freshwater that we need to support our global economy by 2030.

Here’s seven that venture capitalists have front of mind as they look to find the world’s most important companies of tomorrow, with examples of the opportunities they present for a sustainable Fourth Industrial Revolution.

We frequently hear of studies and warnings on species extinction rates, deforestation, our nitrogen cycle, weather catastrophe losses and more.

Amplifying all of the above is climate change and the growing risk as the Earth warms of crossing critical tipping points where major changes to the Earth system are triggered. And the hard truth is that current national commitments under the Paris Agreement are still only halfway to what’s needed to limit global warming to 2C.

1. Proliferation of AI. The convergence of machine learning, big data and hardware advances speeding up computations (graphical processing units – GPUs – and soon deep learning chips) have brought AI from “in vitro” into everyday life. Because of AI, the 4IR is an intelligence and productivity revolution.

We are going to add AI to more and more things every year, and the AI itself is going to get smarter every year. This smartness can optimize material use, optimize energy use and optimize whole human systems – from energy and transport grids, to cities and industrial value chains. We also want AI to think differently from humans, not just think faster, so that together humans and AI can solve our most difficult scientific problems.

Think about the power this creates for weather and natural catastrophe prediction, biomimicry science or advanced material science for clean energy generation.

With risks to our environment so large and so urgent, transformative change is a must. Which is why, and how, the 4IR for the Earth program will play the 4IR – the world’s most rapid period of innovation ever – to our advantage.

Riding today’s tech revolution wave 4IR technologies cut across digital, physical and biological domains; think artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), self-driving vehicles,

2. Roll out of automation.

Automation will replace many of the tasks that we have previously done, but it will also create whole new categories of tasks and services that we will soon realize we can’t live without. For the environment, there are many opportunities from cleaner and optimised mobility solutions, to energy and waste efficient robotics in industrial processes.

But we will need to make sure the increase in productivity that automation delivers does not have a rebound effect on other areas like vehicle use, road congestion or unsustainable natural resource extraction (e.g. AI-powered drone fishing fleets).

3.

Increased tracking and monitoring, from the myriad of smart devices, wearables, sensors, meters and the IoT that links this growing network of billions of devices all up. Location and spatial services are a hot area for tech investors and entrepreneurs.

But how can this revolutionize transparency and accountability, real time, around how companies, governments and individuals behave with our water, forests, air, precious minerals, wildlife and oceans?

4. More sharing. Homes, offices, rides, are all examples that have been successfully shared, but what can we share that isn’t being shared now? There is going to be a lot more disruption in this space to come. But what are the sharing business models our environment needs most? How do we maximize sharing solutions to minimise consumption-related waste, and life cycle energy, materials and water use?

5. More decentralisation enabled by 4IR technologies including IoT, AI, blockchain and 3D printing. Many decentralised solutions can have significant environmental and well as

inclusivity benefits.

For example, peer to peer renewable energy grids with intelligent virtual power plants or decentralised manufacturing with 3D printing reducing greenhouse gas emissions from distribution.

6.

More collaboration, and on a scale and with a speed we haven’t experienced before. We don’t have all the tools for this yet but open APIs and open source movements will be key, along with technologies like blockchain that enable transparency and trusted transactions for collaboration. How can we focus this on environmental goals – from problem-solving amongst diverse expert groups, to local community action and environmental movements?

7. More experiences – the internet of information is going to move to one of experiences as augmented, mixed and virtual reality come of age. Those in the industry believe this whole area is a few years away from exploding. Technologists are working on the final ingredients to increase resolution, field of view, improve hand tracking and deeper immersion, as well as solutions for affordability.

As the technology improves to enable an increasingly intimate social experience, the business case to fly for face to face meetings erodes and the impact on mobility more broadly could be huge.

The 4IR will be about the marriage of minds and machines. The machines will help us be smarter, more productive, predictive and social.

They will not be the answer to our environmental challenges, but they can help us deliver the answer, from changing the dynamic of our cities and how we build things, to mobility, consumption, and how we power and feed society.

Our lives will never be the same, but as the new 4IR for the Earth programme aims to show, the good news is that the change can be both positive and sustainable.

The 4IR for the Earth programme is a collaboration between WEF, Stanford University and PwC, and which is also supported by the Mava Foundation.

The programme looks to accelerate tech innovation for Earth’s most pressing environmental challenges.

Fragile planet: The earth’s systems are under stress, but new technologies can help

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It will help identify, support and scale new ventures, partnerships and business models that harness tech to transform how the world tackles environmental challenges.

We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise, we harden. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Drones detect human vital signs from afar Drone technology is being developed to detect vital signs of life in humans stranded in war zones or isolated and injured by natural disasters.

Researchers from the University of South Australia have successfully trialled the use of drones to remotely measure heart and breathing rates using advanced image-processing systems.

Project supervisor Sensory Systems Professor Javaan Chahl said the breakthrough drone system detected movements in human faces and necks in order to accurately source heart and breathing rates.

The algorithm created by UniSA PhD students, Ali Al-Naji (pictured), and Asanka Perera, enables the drones to detect vital signs in several people at once, even while they are moving.

He said while the drones took measurements from a distance of three metres in recent trials, the technology could be advanced to take the readings from much further away.

Other possible applications include monitoring the vital signs of residents in nursing homes or in areas prone to human infection such as neonatal wards.

“The drone actually has a stabilised commercial go-pro attached to it. Using image processing on the video footage, Ali [the PhD student researcher] was able to extract the

heart rate and breathing rate of the person without any difficulty,” he said.

automatically and provide a trace for each individual as to where their heart rate and breathing rate is.

“The drone will single each person out

“We’ve also used telephoto optics to look out over 50 metres and we will expand this to 500 metres in the near future using a telescope.”

Professor Chahl said using drones was necessary in environments that were unsafe or inaccessible to humans such as war zones and areas devastated by natural disaster.

“There are scenarios when maybe a drone is the only thing that can get there,” he said.

“A lot of environments are hostile so a drone is the safest option – places like the ocean require drones in order to gain access to people in trouble quickly and safely.

“There’s also situations in clinical settings where you wouldn’t really think it’s worth having electrodes and instruments to monitor patients, but if you can just have a camera do it, you may be able to put instrumentation where you wouldn’t normally put it.”

Professor Chahl said the research began as a response to increased infection rates in countries where electrodes were being used to detect vital signs in neonatal babies.

The research, published in the latest issue of Biomedical Engineering Online, was been conducted over three years using 15 healthy humans aged between two and 40.

The technology is yet to be exposed to possible investors, but peripheral conversations with interested parties have shown immense potential.

“Digital technology like this – one good conversation with an industry partner who has an idea and we could be seeing this come to life in months.

The barriers are very low,” Professor Chahl said.

University of South Australia PhD student Ali Al-Naji with his drone technology.

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SUPPLY CHAIN

Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing, layout, processes, and procedures.

-Tom Peters

Modified container keeps explosives and flares safely contained signals, life rafts and other survival equipment to customers such as the New Zealand Defence Force, commercial marine and civil aviation operators, and recreational boaties.

In a shipping container first for New Zealand, safety and survival company Survitec Group is using a modified container known as a Relocatable Explosive Magazine (REM) to safely store flares, rockets and live ammunition.

The 20-foot REM container has 5mm thick steel walls and a 10mm thick steel door with the inside completely lined and insulated with timber.

Dave Chapman, Survitec National Sales Manager, says the need for the container arose when Survitec moved earlier this year from its inner-city site, which had an inbuilt dangerous goods bunker, to its Mt Wellington servicing and warehouse facility.

The bespoke storage container was developed by shipping container specialists Royal Wolf and is strong and robust enough to withstand a blast if explosive materials malfunction or are ignited.

“The container is ideal because it is a bespoke design made especially for Survitec’s very unique storage needs.

It’s also affordable because we’re able to rent it rather than having the

Survitec, which is New Zealand’s longest running safety and survival supplier to the marine and aviation industries, provides marine distress

capital outlay of building a purpose-built storage facility,” he says.

Chapman says the REM is a cost-effective and highly efficient solution for companies like Survitec who handle dangerous goods.

“We constantly strive to not only comply with, but to set the standards for, health and safety within our industry, and the REM container helps make this process and meeting the relevant Health and Safety requirements much easier.”

Paul Creighton, Royal Wolf’s Executive General Manager New Zealand, says the REM is an example of the versatility of containers and how they can be modified for a wide range of uses.

“New Zealand’s stricter Health and

Safety laws put more emphasis on how dangerous goods should be treated so we’re particularly proud of this container because it’s the first of its kind in New Zealand and takes storage of these sorts of materials to another level.

“Containers are an incredibly strong and solid structure with a 10 kPa protection level – and made from heavy gauge, corrosion resistant Corten steel. But they’re also very adaptable and there really is no limit to what you can make out of them and the REM highlights this.”

Leading shipping container company opens new site in Invercargill The largest provider of shipping containers in Australasia has opened an office in Invercargill to meet growing demand for container building solutions and portable storage in Southland.

Royal Wolf specialise in the hire, sale and modification of new and refurbished shipping containers, and portable container buildings such as kiosks, kitchens, worker’s lunch rooms, and public safety walkways for construction sites.

Executive General Manager Paul Creighton says the opening of the new facility is a reflection of Southland’s potential for further growth in the region which has brought about increased inquiry for containerised solutions.

The new Royal Wolf container showroom, which will be run by Senior sales Executive Andrea Sherlock, is located at 154 – 156 Clyde Street.

The Invercargill facility adds to Royal Wolf’s strong nationwide network of customer service centres in 12 cities and towns around New Zealand, including its architecturally designed container building office in Auckland.

“We used to be able to service Invercargill from out of Dunedin and Christchurch but demand has increased so much in the region in recent years that having locals and container product on the ground is essential.

“We foresee the business growing steadily in Invercargill and Southland and the new facility ensures customers will have customer service contact on the ground and access to our full range of products.”

Mr Creighton says with nationwide construction activity showing no sign of slowing down, Royal Wolf has a record number of shipping containers on lease which are being used for everything from storage facilities

He says the Invercargill office will also provide product supply support to the Central Lakes area in light of the growth it is experiencing.

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and workers’ lunch rooms through to pedestrian walk ways.

“Invercargill and other areas of Southland are no exception and we foresee in the future the demand for container solutions and products is only going to increase which is why we’ve made a significant investment to get this facility up and running.”

He says as well as being used extensively in the construction industry, Royal Wolf containers are also ideal for everything from use at events and concerts, through to providing temporary accommodation and transporting dangerous goods.

“Containers are an incredibly strong and solid structure, but they’re also very adaptable so there really is no limit to what you can make out of them. The pedestrian overbridge we constructed out of a 40-foot container and two 20-foot boxes at the Burt Munro Challenge in Invercargill.

“The beauty of Royal Wolf is that it can provide everything from simple and reliable storage solutions through to modified and bespoke containers that take the shape of portable kitchens, toilet facilities, or architecturally designed office space. We can modify them to whatever a customer wants.”

SUPPLY CHAIN

One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it.

-Sidney Howard

Supply Chain Excellence: Lean is very popular in manufacturing.

What benefits can Lean provide you with in procurement and the extended supply chain?

Characteristics of Lean Suppliers: • Lean suppliers are able to respond to changes. Their prices are generally lower due to the efficiencies of lean processes, and their quality has improved to the point that incoming inspection at the next link is not needed.

• Lean suppliers deliver on time and their culture is one of continuous improvement.

• To develop lean suppliers, organisations should include suppliers in their value stream.

• They should encourage suppliers to make the lean transformation and involve them in lean activities. This will help them fix problems and share savings. In turn, they can help their suppliers and set continually declining price targets and increasing quality goals.

Developing Suppliers Principle 11. Respect your suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve (Source: The Toyota Way by Dr. Jeffrey Liker) • Have respect for your partners and suppliers and treat them as an extension of your business.

• Challenge your outside business partners to grow and develop. It shows that you value them.

• Set challenging targets and assist your partners in successfully achieving them Lean Supply Chain Characteristics • Key Suppliers as Long-term Partners • Maintain competition between 2-3 supplier partners per region (but not in same geographical area) • Suppliers are partners in product design – Early involvement in concept stage – Work to target price set by

Series 7 – Lean Suppliers

Segments – Participate in VE/VA for cost reduction Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) • Supplier relationship management is a comprehensive approach to managing an enterprise’s interactions with the organisations that supply the goods and services it uses.

The goal of supplier relationship management (SRM) is to streamline and make more effective the processes between an enterprise and its suppliers.

• SRM includes both business practices and software and is part of the information flow component of supply chain management (SCM).

SRM practices create a common frame of reference to enable effective communication between an enterprise and suppliers who may use quite different business practices and terminology.

As a result, SRM increases the efficiency of processes associated with acquiring goods and services, managing inventory, and processing materials.

Supplier Stratification • Effective SRM requires a clear understanding of which suppliers are the most strategic to the organisation and which are less important. Rather than viewing the suppliers on which the organisation spends the most resources as the most important, additional factors should be considered such as: – Risk, – Operational criticality, – Technical integration, – Total value, – Long-term fit with the organisation, – Profitability, – Distributor services, – Performance, and – Loyalty Governance and Organisation • Once the importance of an individual

Service Level Agreements Performance Management

supplier is established via supplier stratification, the next step is for the entity to define the team structure that will be required to manage the supplier on a day-to-day basis as well as the roles involved in those skills and activities and knowledge that team members will be expected to possess.

• Once a team structure with roles and responsibilities is defined, the next step is formalise the on-going governance process to make supplier management repeatable, transparent to management and consistent throughout the organisation. An effective set of governance practices establishes: • Schedules • Attendee Lists • Agenda for key supplier relationship review meetings • Templates for supplier relationship reviews • Detailed designs of day-to-day supplier management activities such as contract management, financial management, and issue resolution and • Triggers and escalation paths for supplier issue resolution Supplier and Organisation Development

and

• Organisations should support continuous performance improvement by holding suppliers accountable for poor performance and providing incentives for outstanding performance.

Performance management consequently adds value to the organization.

• If service level and performance management is to maximize value to the organization, the first step is to identify the organisation’s key business value drivers and to understand how the supplier can impact those as well as the target performance level and tolerance ranges. In some cases, it may be advantageous to redefine the scope of the supplier relationship to ensure that the supplier can truly impact value.

• The next step is to establish a contractual agreement that clearly defines supplier performance expectations, target levels, and tolerance ranges. In addition, it is critical to formalise the consequences of underperforming or over-performing to agreement, the specific trigger points and conditions for remediation once a service level agreement (SLA) breach occurs, the process of remediation, and ownership of the supplier performance within the organisation.

This article is compiled by Vishnu Rayapeddi, a Lean Manufacturing & Supply Chain Operations Specialist, who works as the Client Solutions Manager for NZPICS, the only Premier Channel Partner of APICS in New Zealand.

NZPICS Offers the following courses in Supply Chain in affiliation with APICS: CPIM (Certified in Production & Inventory Management, CSCP (Certified Supply Chain Professional), CLTD (Certified in Logistics, Transportation and Distribution) and Principles of Operations Management, which is a fully customisable solution to businesses. For further information, please visit www.nzpics.org.nz or call on 09-525 1525.

• An organisation benefits greatly when key suppliers reduce costs, introduce new services designed to address the organization’s needs, and work with the organization to streamline joint processes.

• For purchasing organisation, the process develops new services and products that can: – Increase customer and / or tax payer value – Close capability and performance gaps – Create reliable and long-term source of supply – Provide access to new ideas and opportunities for improvement and – Prioritize capability development and supplier investment

Attain Global Certifications in Supply Chain, CPIM, CLTD and CSCP

with the help from NZPICS! Enrol now!

Contact us Now! Phone: (09) 525 1525 (09) 525 1535 E: info@nzpics.org.nz OR enquiries@nzpics.org.nz Web: www.nzpics.org.nz

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FOOD MANUFACTURING

When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favour.

-Elon Musk

Research to use bacteria in revolutionary ways A new Lincoln Agritech research programme will find revolutionary ways of using naturallyoccurring bacteria and fungi to increase the availability of nitrogen to plants and improve plants’ tolerance to stress.

The first of the two projects will benefit the forestry and pastoral sectors by allowing pine trees and grasses to convert atmospheric nitrogen into plant-available mineral nitrogen in the same way that legumes such as clover do, and by improving the plants’ tolerance to stress.

A second programme will work towards naturally removing ‘off’ flavours in wine.

Lincoln Agritech is an independent multidisciplinary research and development company owned by Lincoln University.

Biotechnology Team Manager Dr Richard Weld, who is leading the research, says the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has awarded the programmes a combined $8.2m.

Dr Weld says this can be achieved by optimising the natural microbial communities associated with the plants, thereby creating new symbioses between plants, bacteria and fungi.

“We will select bacteria that fix nitrogen and that enhance plant tolerance to stress,” says Dr Weld.

“This is a notable achievement for a small organisation.”

“These bacteria will then be combined in symbiotic association with two fungi which naturally live within plants.

“After this, the fungal-bacterial hybrids can be introduced to pine trees and perennial ryegrass. The combination will make the plants more resistant to stress and more able take up nitrogen.”

Dr Weld says the five-year programme is world-leading, as no other researchers have attempted a triple symbiosis between fungi, bacteria and these plants.

The research team from Lincoln Agritech, Lincoln University, Scion and AgResearch includes scientists who have been instrumental in developing fungal biocontrol endophytes.

hydrogen sulphide from wine, which can be responsible for ‘off’ flavours.

Dr Weld says the research will use the wine industry as an exemplar, but the technology can benefit other industries where hydrogen sulphide is also an issue.

The programme involves researchers from Lincoln Agritech, Plant and Food Research, Aix-Marseille University, France and will take place over a two-year period.

Lincoln Agritech CEO Peter Barrowclough says the recent MBIE success is a great opportunity to build on the company’s existing Biotechnology expertise, to collaborate with research partners and industry, and improve outcomes for the primary sector.

The team will work with commercial companies which are already producing and licensing fungal endophytes. The new fungal-bacterial hybrids will be added to their product lines.

“Our job is to do the over-the-horizon science to keep our primary industries competitive. We are very grateful to MBIE for supporting these research programmes, and we are looking forward to helping the wine, pastoral and forestry sectors keep their competitive edge on the world stage.”

The second research programme involves using bacteria with two unique features – they are naturally magnetic and have an unusual sulphur metabolism that allows them to derive energy from hydrogen sulphide. This means they can be controlled using magnetic fields and used to remove

Industry participants in the project include Agrimm Technologies Ltd, Agriseeds Ltd, ArborGen Inc, Grasslanz Technology Ltd, Indevin NZ, KonoNZ, Lake Taupo Forest Management Ltd, NZ Forestry Owners Association, NZ Wingrowers, PGG Wrightson Seeds, Rayonier Matariki, and Timberlands.

The Lincoln Agritech Biotechnology Group (from left to right): Dr Richard Weld, Dr Johanna Steyaert, International Intern Camille Vagner, Nicholas Glithero, PhD Student Thomas Flinois and Simon Lee.

Artificial Intelligence to help wine profits flow and assess the number, sizes and distribution of grape bunches,” says Dr Fourie.

Artificial Intelligence has been making waves in many industries and is increasingly affecting life as we know it.

“We’ll then feed this data into computer algorithms, which have been designed by the University of Canterbury, to predict grape yield at harvest time.”

Now the New Zealand wine sector is getting in on the act, with Lincoln Agritech Ltd developing a computerised system to make early-season predictions on the grape yield a vineyard is likely to harvest.

Lincoln Agritech Ltd is a research and development company owned by Lincoln University.

Dr Fourie says profitable wine production depends on early knowledge of the grape yield that is likely to be harvested each season.

“This currently involves hiring a large number of workers to manually sample grape bunches.”

“Estimating the yield as soon as possible allows marketers to know how much wine will end up being produced.”

Lincoln Agritech is working on creating a more convenient system that uses electronic sensors to accurately count grapes.

The main focus of grape varieties for the study is Sauvignon Blanc, after which the team will identify how

“The sensors will capture and analyse grape bunches within individual rows,

NZ Manufacturer October 2017

The project is funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and NZ Winegrowers.

Collaborating partners include Plant and Food Research, Lincoln University,

the University of Canterbury, CSIRO (Adelaide), NZ Winegrowers and local winegrowers in the Marlborough region.

New data will be added to the system each year, leading to continuous improvements in the model’s accuracy, with the system’s predictive power improving over time as more data is gathered under different conditions.

“Grape growers and wineries spend a lot of money trying to predict their grape yield each year,” says Lincoln Agritech Optics and Image Processing Team Leader Jaco Fourie.

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much technology development will be needed for Pinot Noir.

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Great day out there...for laying in a meadow and reading a book.

FOOD MANUFACTURING

Never confuse movement with action.

-Ernest Hemingway

Irish dairy flows to New Zealand agritech -Seaver Izatt / Business Development Manager / NZTE Europe Two themes that have had more than their fair share of negative press in the last few years – Europe and dairy. But here’s a good news story for a change, and the protagonist is the Emerald Isle itself, Ireland.

Ireland is in the middle of a dairy boom.

Two and a half years into a five-year industry plan, it is set to smash its ambitious targets set for 2020.

When EU quotas were lifted in 2015, Ireland stated that it was going to increase milk output by 50 percent in five years. It is on track to deliver this result in just three.

Whilst the Irish government is responsible for managing the delivery of this strategy, it is clear that the success lies in a cross-industry joined-up approach. And this was made blatantly clear on 19-21 September during the annual ritual of Ireland’s agricultural community, the National Ploughing Championships. Central government agencies, local government bodies, industry associations and farmers across Ireland were actively engaging with one another.

Issues appear to be well-communicated top-down and bottom-up, shaping policy and farm behaviours.

What does all this mean for New Zealand? Despite churning out huge dairy volume increases, Ireland still faces challenges – some of which New Zealand can help it overcome.

There are a few caveats: New Zealand companies won’t play a major role in some localised issues - such as how to navigate the exit of Ireland’s largest customer, Britain, from the single market union of the EU; how to diversify product sales into new emerging markets; and how to create a “fair” policy to ensure more money is transferred back to the farmer rather than retained in high retailer margins.

to provide a platform for farmers to engage directly with smart farming solutions generated from New Zealand.

The dairy systems in Ireland are almost directly parallel to those in New Zealand (95 percent pasture-based), so Irish farmers look to New Zealand for ideas and inspiration.

Where better to present these ideas than the Irish equivalent to New Zealand’s Agricultural Fieldays?

The

Ploughing

Championships

at

benefited in some way – either from new deals, new leads or new orders.

Screggan, County Offaly attracts twice the number of attendees as Fieldays (292,000 which constitutes five percent of the Irish population) with such significance that Ireland’s President, Prime Minister, Government Ministers, Heads of Associations, and every farmer and their family attends.

NZTE created a ‘smart farming’ theme for the New Zealand pavilion with a virtual reality (VR) experience taking people to a virtual New Zealand dairy farm.

The use of VR was designed to attract attendees to the pavilion and leave them excited and engaged about New Zealand farming innovation, primed to talk to New Zealand companies and the NZTE team about their specific needs.

And for the first time in four years, farmers are spending again.

At the New Zealand pavilion, five companies exhibited together with exposure to this enormous crowd of attendees. Two weeks later, all have

Introducing

A point of difference in today’s busy FMCG market.

Developed by AsureQuality, inSight™ provides shoppers with independently verified information about the products they are about to buy.

After a successful application process, producers can place the inSight™ logo and a QR code on their product packaging.

When shoppers scan the QR code at the point of sale they can access information about the product, including: • • • • •

Environmental sustainability Social and ethical concerns Nutritional information Safety and quality Origin

But New Zealand companies are well-placed to help Ireland with the on-farm challenges of how to address labour shortages through technology, increase efficiency, increase productivity, and improve farm safety.

Irish farmers want to work smarter, not harder.

Why the Need for inSight™? inSight™ takes product assurances into the 21st century inSight™ is a new brand developed by New Zealand Government owned AsureQuality, global experts in food safety and quality.

We know how important food safety and quality is to you.

We wanted a way that you could get independently verified information about a product, that would give you confidence in it before paying for it.

The revolution in Ireland’s farming industry is a movement away from the farmer mentality of being a livestock manager, towards being a business manager. A mental shift that has long-since occurred in New Zealand.

For the second year running, NZTE has hosted a New Zealand pavilion at Ireland’s Ploughing Championships

inSight™ makes sense because: • You want to know more about the food you are eating

A new innovation taking product assurances into the 21st Century

Freephone 0508 00 11 22 | www.aqinsight.com

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BREAKING TECHNOLOGY

“If you don’t have time to do it right you must have time to do it over.

- Unknown

Supple high power cushions deliver global benchmarks of lifting safety Pneumatic actuation, isolation and suspension specialists Air Springs Supply are offering globally proven answers to the problem of safe heavy lifts in remote and awkward site conditions, including confined pipeline trenches, soft ground, uneven earthworks and vehicle accident recovery areas.

which can be easily transported by 4wd or helicopter – is one of a range of Pronal elastomer products that can overcome the safety and difficulty issues by delicately raising irregular loads with optimum safety and flexibility.

They can gently raise heavy and irregular loads ranging from road and rail vehicles, pipelines and plant, through to beams, bridge components, building components, machinery and resource development structures and maritime vessels and structures and machinery used in resource exploration and development.

Such conditions – including wet and sandy conditions common throughout Australia and New Zealand – can create hazards for conventional lifting technologies where there is insufficient room overhead to employ suitable cranes, even if they can be brought overland to a remote site.

Sometimes, also, there is insufficient stability underfoot to employ lifters that produce high point loads both on the ground and on the object being lifted.

The CLT cushions – which won the Best Practice in WH&S category of the latest national Australian Bulk Handling Awards – are part of a wider range of tough Pronal specialist lifters from Air Springs Supply, ranging from ultra-thin bags (just 20mm thick deflated) that

The latest Pronal range of CLT lifting cushions from Air Springs Supply –

Pronal cushions, as used by militaries and civil and industrial emergency response

can lift weights of more than 60 tons, through to vulcanised cushions constructed from a specially formulated fabric coated with synthetic rubber.

Pronal lifters are also available in cylindrical, stackable and customised configurations to suit conditions on remote production and exploration sites.

“Pronal products are relied upon globally to function safely in the most arduous conditions. They are used by militaries and civil defence and industrial emergency services to hoist

loads as difficult as damaged aircraft and immobilised locomotives and heavy trucks. So, they are engineered to top quality and strength standards,” says James Maslin, National Sales and Marketing Manager for Air Springs Supply, which is national distributor for Pronal products.

Pronal bags combine the advantages of high durability and power with gentle, precisely controlled lifting that can spread the load over broader surfaces of the object being lifted, rather than focusing the power on point loads.

Bonfiglioli fan enhances performance of Trasmital 300M drives handling, mining process equipment, food and beverage, materials handling, water treatment, waste handling and heavy industries. They typically use a low speed and high torque for reliable performance in a compact space.

Bonfiglioli’s new 300M series planetary gearbox with integrated fan for improved thermal rating and performance is ideally suited to harsh Australian conditions To enhance the performance of its Trasmital planetary gearboxes, Bonfiglioli is introducing to Australasia an integrated fan option on its new 300M series. The fan is connected directly to the IEC motor, which leads to an improved thermal rating and increased thermal power of up to 217%, depending on the model.

The high levels of torque together with the compact nature of planetary gear units can lead to thermal restrictions, particularly in arduous conditions common in Australian industries.

The integrated fan is connected to the IEC motor flange in a compact and efficient way. A keyway hollow shaft connection with the motor means that no joint is required. Integrated

Planetary gearboxes are staple workhorses for bulk materials

fins optimise the air flow and cooling surfaces throughout the entire air conveyor housing.

The integrated fan is designed to fit any size Bonfiglioli or commercial motor and the 300M series has 100% interchangeability with Bonfiglioli’s current 300 series models, so no machine modification is required when upgrading to the new units.

Major applications for the 300M series include: • Mining – car dumpers and stacker reclaimers • Materials Handling – screw conveyors

and apron feeders • Cranes and Winches – jib cranes and ship loaders • Food and Beverage – spiral freezers and flaking machines • Water and wastewater – mixer agitators and band screeners

continued from Page 1

NZMEA has a new name:

The Manufacturers’ Network manufacturers through MEAssist (to be known as Network Assist from now on) to share knowledge and advice, and our Factory Floor workshops, for example, or giving members a platform to learn from experts in various areas through our Leadership Network events, or the study tour to Germany we organised earlier this year, for example. In other words, we are and act as The Manufacturers’ Network – and that’s exactly what we are going to call ourselves from now on!

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To continue our focus on helping our manufacturing members prepare for the future we have organised another study tour happening later this year, this time to visit a number of Australian companies who are implementing networked manufacturing technology effectively in their operations.

If you would like to learn more about our name change and what The Manufacturers’ Network can do to support your business, visit www. themanufacturersnetwork.org.nz

Fear begets fear. Power begets power. I willed myself to beget power. And it wasn’t long before I actually wasn’t afraid. -Cheryl Strayed

NEW PRODUCTS

HT28 RTJ PRO Telescopic Boom with in-built safety and sustainability innovations United Forklift and Access Solutions is introducing to Australasia its new Haulotte HT28 RTJ PRO Telescopic Boom, featuring the latest advanced safety and sustainability innovations for optimal performance in a range of access and maintenance applications.

The new Haulotte HT28 RTJ PRO boom lift has a maximum outreach of nearly 24m, below ground reach of 3m and ground clearance of 48cm. It is compact, easily transported and offers excellent rough terrain capabilities.

“The HT28 is robust, easy to maintain and suitable for all industries. The latest innovations will bring the productivity and reliability that the Haulotte brand is already known for globally,” said Mr

Andrew Macdonald, National Product Manager – Access Division, United Forklift and Access Solutions, which is the national distributor for Haulotte products in Australia.

“It is ideally suited to tasks requiring access equipment in industries such as building, construction and infrastructure, ship maintenance, forestry, mining and maintenance of large structures,” said Mr Macdonald.

The new HT28 boom also has an optional dual load capacity of 230-350kg. In the 350kg mode, the platform can accommodate up to 40% extra equipment weight. The unit also has an oscillating axle, 4 wheel steering, hydraulic differential wheel lock, high ground clearance, and gradeability up to 45%.

Safety

The Haulotte HT28’s maximum outward reach of almost 24m makes it ideally suited to tricky and awkward access applications

operators to help avoid unnecessary service calls or field intervention on rental equipment, maximising machine uptime. By directly accessing the machine parameters and diagnostic information in real-time, fault diagnosis is three times faster.

Alexandre Saubot, CEO Haulotte Group, left, congratulates The Telescopic Boom lift also comes David Maxwell, Managing Director of United Forklift and with the next generation of secondary Access Solutions, right, on receiving the first HT28 RTJ PRO to arrive in Australia guarding, Haulotte’s ACTIV’Shield™ Bar 2.0, which provides a safety automatically switches off the engine gap to prevent physical crush injuries after 90 seconds of idle, reducing when the machine is in operation. running time by up to 20%, and ACTIV’Shield Bar 2.0 offers additional reducing fuel consumption by up to protection without compromising 8%. productivity.

By automatically stopping and The HT28s are also fitted with Haulotte’s restarting the engine, Haulotte’s STOP new industry-first ACTIV’Lighting Emission System reduces engine use System, which allows loading and and peripheral components by up unloading to occur at night. The to 20%. This extends machine life, ultra-high performance lighting extends residual value, decreases fuel system is located at several points consumption and lowers operating around the machine. The lighting costs, and with 20% less noise, permits system illuminates controls and the area around the boom so operators use in sensitive areas like hospitals and can safely carry out manoeuvres in a office buildings.

The new HT28 comes with in-built ACTIV’Screen technology that provides real-time diagnostics and is capable of displaying malfunction resolution, machine settings, maintenance alerts and service intervals.

Sustainability

ACTIV’Screen’s on-board fully coloured monitor screen and diagnostic system provides precise information for

Another innovative new feature fitted to the HT28s is Haulotte’s world first STOP Emissions System for booms that

well-lit environment.

“The innovative safety and sustainability features of the new HT28 make it a truly industry-leading telescopic boom, with useful benefits for a huge range of access applications,” said Mr Macdonald.

Hardness tester goes from strength to strength The Swiss-made Equotip 550 Portable Hardness Tester is now even more impressive with the introduction of the Ultrasonic Contact Impedance (UCI) probe.

Along with the range of Leeb probes and Portable Rockwell probe, the Equotip 550 offers the ultimate NDT solution

to your hardness testing requirements.

The UCI Measuring Principle The UCI (Ultrasonic Contact Impedance) method uses the same pyramid-shaped diamond as a conventional Vickers hardness tester. Unlike Vickers testing, no optical evaluation of the indentation is required, enabling fast and portable measurements.

The Equotip 550 stands out with its new generation full colour, dual processor Touchscreen Unit packed with features.

The instrument also has enhanced software with interactive wizards, automatic verification processes, personalized options, custom report functions and much more.

The UCI method excites a rod into an ultrasonic oscillation. The test load is applied by a spring and typically ranges from 1 to 5 kg of force (HV1 – HV5).

As the diamond is forced into the material, the frequency of the rod oscillation changes in response to the contact area between the diamond and the material under test.

The instrument detects the shift in frequency, converts it to a hardness value which is immediately displayed on the screen.

Advantages of UCI for NDT • Measures only surface hardness • Extremely fast with operator guidance when to apply and release

While measurements are shown in Vickers, automatic conversions to Rockwell and Brinell can be displayed.

The UCI method excels in testing of small and complex shaped parts comprised of fine-grained metals, while the rebound method is preferred for larger, coarse-grained forgings and castings.

• Highly portable • Test in any direction but must be perpendicular to the surface • Can measure hardness of a coating, plating or case hardened surface • Indentation is very small therefore non-destructive • Small probe can access the HAZ of welds, gear teeth and splines for example

The Equotip 550 Portable Hardness Tester is a complete all-in-one hardness testing solution which combines Leeb with portable Rockwell and now UCI (Ultrasonic Contact Impedance) methods.

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• Adjustable load for material hardness and coating with no need to change UCI probe

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NEW PRODUCTS

People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.

And what you do simply proves what you believe.

-Simon Sinek

CombiLift unveils new multi-directional forklift truck Combilift, the Irish manufacturer of multi-directional forklifts, has launched a new all-wheel drive, electric, multi-directional counterbalance forklift truck, with a lift capacity of 4,000 kg. the launch of the Combi-CBE 4t with a lift capacity of 4,000 kg. Previously the electric model was only available up to 3,000 kg.

The launch of the new Combi-CBE4t came in advance of Combilift’s participation in Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland trade and investment programme visit to Australia and New Zealand as part of the State Visit by Irish President Michael D Higgins to Australia and New Zealand.

The all-wheel drive Combi-CBE 4t, coupled with large rubber tyres, allows the truck to work effortlessly indoors and out and to work on all types of terrains. Its versatility enables it to offload from HGVs, bring product directly to racking or free stacking areas, as well as to feed production lines. Combined with load sensing steering and no fumes, this means that this forklift is ideal for indoor warehouse operations.

The new innovative Combi-CBE 4t forklift was launched by Combilift, at the GIS, Lifting, Industrial and Port Handling and Heavy Transport show at the Piacenza Expo exhibition centre in Italy.

It is based on the original multi-directional counterbalance forklift truck which Combilift brought to market in 2006. The Irish manufacturer is building on the success of the Combi-CB range of forklifts, with

Side shift comes as standard and an integrated hydraulic fork positioner is an option to facilitate the handling of various sized loads, without operators

having to leave the cab to manually adjust the forks. Driver convenience and comfort is also a consideration in the design of the new Combi-CBE 4t.

Hydraulic steering and synchronised front wheel positions allow for ease of control while driving in all directions.

The new model is very cost effective

according to the Combilift Managing Director. “As a customer focused company Combilift strives to provide our dealers and customers with machines that not only do the job but also save them money. By opting for the electric model customers no longer need to allocate space for fuel storage.

Manpower halved, safety increased with Sync Grip Pullers their locking jaws for simultaneous engagement and optimised safety. A safety and workplace benefit is that the pullers will even grip on surfaces where normal pullers would slip off – for example, on tapered bearings, says Mr Darryl Lange, Enerpac National Sales Manager.

The new SG-Series Sync Grip Pullers – in mechanical and hydraulic configurations up to 45 tonnes capacity – optimise safety, simplicity and speed of removal of bearings, bushings, gears, sleeves, wheels, fly-wheels, sprockets and other shaft-mounted items.

Hydraulic versions of the new Sync Grip pullers are complemented by Enerpac’s extensive pump and safety hose ranges.

With the Christmas-New Year Maintenance Season approaching, many operations and engineering managers are seeking ways to achieve stripping and refurbishment of shaft-mounted machinery more quickly, safely and efficiently.

Such tasks are one of the most common jobs maintenance personnel have to fit into the narrow window of opportunity over this period, when a host of gears, pulleys and other shaft-mounted components must be speedily removed from static and mobile plant, including tracked and wheeled vehicles, rail and materials handling plant and electric motors and gearboxes.

Enerpac’s new Sync Grip Pullers (hydraulic model, left and manual model, right).

Being introduced to Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, the new tools’ applications include maintenance of fixed and mobile machinery and plant as well as heavy vehicles and rolling stock in industries such as the automotive, construction, civil, mechanical, production and process engineering, manufacturing and metal working, mining and energy, oil and gas,

One of the latest solutions to such tasks from Enerpac in Australasia is its new range of Sync Grip Pullers, which feature synchronised movement of

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Features of the new ranges include:

in mechanical pullers for confined access situations • High-strength forged jaws for superior reliability • Optional accessories that expand application range and increase utility.

• Hydraulic models are available in standard kits which include detachable hydraulics cylinders and a choice of pump options, along with a gauge assembly and hose for safe monitoring of applied pulling forces.

• Cross-bearing puller sets available to complement Sync Grip technology, featuring quick set up to tackle a variety of jobs and precise hydraulic control for fast, efficient and safe pulling. Available in 6-22 tonne capacities with maximum reach 357-831mm and 260-580mm in spread range.

• Backed nationally and on-site by the sales, service and technical expertise of the Enerpac distributor network, which has been a market leader in Australasia for more than 50 years

• Maximum reach, mechanical pullers, 105-600mm spread range 110-680mm).

• Maximum reach, hydraulic pullers, 320-700mm, spread range 350-980mm • Threaded spindle and jaw indexes provide adjustable reach • Three jaw configuration for even load distribution, with two-jaw configuration available

Enerpac’s comprehensive maintenance product ranges also include Cross-Bearing Puller Sets, left, and Master Puller sets, right

materials handling, primary production, road, rail and tracked vehicle transport, water and waste water industries

For loads up to 20 tonnes, the SGM-Series mechanical pullers provide an economical and efficient option, with all the same rugged high-strength features as the hydraulic option. For more complex tasks, up to 45 tonnes, the MPS-Series hydraulic pullers offer hydraulically applied pulling force through a detachable hydraulic cylinder, to increase pulling capacity and reduce operator fatigue.

When one jaw is closed around the bearing surface, the others automatically close at the same time, making the puller easier and safer to operate. The synchronous feature of the SGM and SGH Series Pullers makes positioning the puller simple.

HERA NEWS

You will never win if you never begin.

-Helen Rowland

Investing in next generation with sponsorship of IPENZ events for young engineers If there was ever a cause to invest in, not much else would be worth more than investing in your future. HERA recognises this and places value not just on the future of our engineering profession but also our next generation.

To this end, HERA through funding from its charitable foundation (HEERF) recently sponsored the Young Engineers Forum in Wellington hosted

by Institution of Profession Engineers (IPENZ).

Our Manager Industry Development Dr. Boaz Habib represented HERA at this event speaking on the important role IPENZ accreditation plays towards professional acknowledgement of our consultant members constituting around 30% of our membership.

IPENZ will be rolling out their new membership engagement plan very soon to provide added value to its

members.

This will also be joined with a new brand and identity development for IPENZ which is all about ‘giving life to engineering’ and for this they have come up with their new logo of a ‘butterfly’ signifying the process of life.

IPENZ Chief Executive Susan Freeman-Greene launched the brand and other conceptual strategies at the Young Engineers’ Forum in Wellington and invited feedback on the concepts from the group of young engineers in attendance.

It was heartening to see that we

development all the while enhancing the profile and image of the engineering profession.’

have come a long way from the ‘shy introverted stereotype’ often associated with our engineering discipline through a very vocal and opinionated bunch of young engineers at the forum.

HERA will be sponsoring another IPENZ event for student engineers in November which will provide a valuable networking opportunity for students and engineering firms.

Through all this HERA is doing its part to represent the professional capabilities of our membership.

Leadership was in the making! and Boaz added further fuel to this fire with an encouraging message from HERA to the young audience about the need for innovation and for the engineers to continue honing their skills in innovation and creativity.

If you would like to know more about IPENZ activities or on how to become a registered engineer, please inquire with HERA or directly approach IPENZ.

‘This is what will be needed to thrive into the future and is what has brought us so far in our professional

2017 New Zealand Manufacturer Excellence in Manufacturing For an Entry Form and further information contact: Doug Green, Publisher, NZ Manufacturer P: 0064 6 870 9029 E: publisher@xtra.co.nz

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BUSINESS NEWS

There is no passion to be found playing small-in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

-Nelson Mandela

Bored and Brilliant How spacing out can unlock your most productive and creative self

By Manoush Zomorodi devices without completely leaving the digital world.

Has your smartphone become your BFF? Do you feel bored when you’re not checking Facebook or Instagram?

Zomorodi also explores why putting greater emphasis on “doing nothing” is vital in an age of constant notifications and digital distractions.

Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self explains the connection between boredom and original thinking, and explores how we can harness boredom’s hidden benefits to become our most productive selves.

She speaks with neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists about “mind wandering”--what our brains do when we’re doing nothing at all, and the link between boredom and creativity.

In 2015, WNYC Studio’s ‘Note To Self’ host Manoush Zomorodi led thousands of her listeners through a week of experiments designed to help them reassess their technology habits, unplug for part of each week and jumpstart their creativity.

Bored and Brilliant is about living smarter and better within a digital world.

Technology isn’t going anywhere, and who would want it to?

Bored and Brilliant teaches us how to align our gadget use with what we hold dear and true, and find equilibrium in this new digital ecosystem.

Throughout the book are a series of challenges that will help readers rethink their relationship to their

Cyber risks rising More than a quarter of New Zealand businesses faced a cyber attack in the past year, according to Grant Thornton’s International Business Report survey.

Check and improve your cyber security to protect yourself, your business and your customers. Government, internet providers, technology companies and organisations like Digital Journey can do their bit to help, but you need to step up too:

about staff and customers, you’ll need to do more.

1. Think about where your risks lie.

Forgetting to back up data

2. Take protective steps.

Develop a long-term plan about how you’ll collect, keep and back up data.

This will save you time and protect you from losing important data if you’re hit by a cyber attack.

Common mistakes — and how to avoid them Make sure you’re not making these simple cyber security mistakes.

3. Tell any staff what they need to do.

Protective steps can be as simple as switching on two-step verification on your email. But if you rely on sensitive data or store personal information

Not having an acceptable use

policy This policy outlines what an employee can and can’t do when using IT equipment or the internet at work. Use our Workplace Policy Builder to create yours. It will help staff understand the rules — and reduce the risk of someone accidentally letting a cyber attacker into your system.

Keeping staff in the dark To reduce your chances of being hit by scams, frauds and hack attacks, everyone in your business needs to be aware of current risks and commit to safe practices. Set aside time to educate

yourself and your staff on new threats.

Update your policies and procedures with new protection practices.

Protective steps can be as simple as switching on two-step verification on your email.

Relying on old passwords Passwords must be kept safe and secure, and changed frequently. If you have trouble remembering them, use a password manager app. Use two-step verification — also called two-factor authentication — to provide even stronger protection against unauthorized access to your data and accounts.

Procrastinating on updates Running old operating systems or software leaves you vulnerable to cyber criminals who have figured out how to hack old systems. Every time your operating system or software asks if you want to run an update, do it.

-Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

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REAR VIEW

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

-Thomas A. Edison

10 ways automation could boost your business Clive Hickman, chief executive of the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), and Jeremy Hadall, chief technologist of the MTC, outline the business changes they expect to see over the next five years as a result of automation.

1. Productivity will increase Think about the introduction of robots to a car production line. Volkswagen has gone from around 4,000 people working in this environment to nearer 150, while at the same time increasing overall employee numbers from 30,000 to 70,000 across the business.

Business Impact: Improved productivity is good news, as businesses will get more bang for their buck. When you become more productive, you create more demand, and therefore more jobs. More jobs could also mean a higher skill level of employee.

2. Workers will be safer and happier We strongly disagree that people will be replaced by automation. Yes, people will be redistributed, but this will be one of the most important benefits automation brings. Wherever there exists a dirty, dull and dangerous job with humans exposed to risk, there exists the perfect opportunity for automation.

Business Impact: Workers’ quality of life could be drastically improved as well as allowing them to move into a more highly skilled role including operating the robot. For businesses, this means a workforce with improved prospects, better morale, and a higher skill level.

3. Customer service will reach new heights Ocado is one of the best examples of how customers can benefit from a business adopting automation. To a large extent, they are only able to fulfil their promise of the faster delivery times that you and I have come to expect because so many of their processes are automated.

could mean that fleets are autonomous in the near future, which will cause a huge shift in distribution and lead times: imagine vehicles which can be on the road 24/7.

Business Impact: After considering the investment required, businesses will need to contemplate how automated factories and warehouses will physically interact with their supply chains – they will require seamless integration from the start of the chain right to the end.

5. Workplaces will be transformed Robots require much less space than people. They can be built floor-to-ceiling, and can occupy much less hospitable environments than humans can; an unmanned rig in the middle of an ocean, for example.

Business Impact: Linking automation and data together allows us to codify a process which can be implemented anywhere in the world, in smaller, more flexible and collaborative workspaces.

This is part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), where the process is delivered remotely, but controlled centrally. This will allow the profits to be repatriated to the UK.

6. Public brand perceptions will change There is an interesting marketing opportunity for businesses who adopt automation before it becomes ubiquitous. The majority of the public have had their perception of automation and robots shaped by sci-fi

Business Impact: Before automation can achieve its full potential in UK businesses, it’s crucial that IT systems and defences are robust enough to withstand malicious attacks. In the wake of the recent WannaCry attacks in particular, we expect enhanced IT security to be a high priority.

depictions and the media and there’s still a vague association with an Arnold Schwarzenegger-shaped machine.

Business Impact: The connotation that robots are ‘cool’ could provide a great opportunity for businesses to capitalise on brand perceptions of them being at the forefront of technological advancement. The flipside of this is that businesses who fail to automate could become old-fashioned or obsolete.

9. Competitiveness will improve You can’t compete with low-cost economies on price point using traditional labour intensive technologies. We have to do it through productivity. Automation is one of the most effective ways of increasing our productivity as a nation.

7. Internal culture and attitudes will shift There is a big difference between buying from a company who uses robots, and working alongside one.

The fear that workers will be replaced by robots is a sensitive subject, and should be handled tactfully.

Business Impact: Individual businesses play a vital role in increasing overall productivity and competitiveness by exploring opportunities for automation.

Business Impact: For automation to be embraced internally, workers need to understand how it benefits them. Businesses should also review their goals from an ethical standpoint before deciding to automate. The more common it becomes, the more automation will be accepted by consumers and employees alike.

10. Businesses will adopt automation at varying rates, or not at all How eager a business is to adopt automation will depend on what type of work they do, internal culture, and budgetary considerations. We’ll see early adopters who are technology savvy and those who have to adapt to survive.

8. IT security concerns will come to the fore Having fully-automated factories, vehicles, or robots which link to an entire IT system can pose significant security issues for businesses. If a cyber-attacker was able to gain access to even just one robot, it could have potentially catastrophic consequences for any business and its customers.

Business Impact: How much a business invests in automation will depend largely on its ambitions.

There’s no reason smaller companies can’t invest at the same rate as their larger counterparts on a pro rata scale.

Business Impact: Automation can be an invaluable tool for cutting down on errors, facilitating faster deliveries, and for speeding up processes such as restocking. All these contribute to a company’s ability to improve service and deliver exactly what their customers want.

4. Supply chains will need to keep up The way companies manage their supply chains will evolve. From a logistical point of view, automation

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