Mind the Gap: Closing the distance between AI hype and factory reality
From August 2026 issue NZ Manufacturer magazine. Manufacturers are under pressure to adopt AI fast. But an AI that doesn’t know your operation isn’t a productivity tool — it’s a liability with good grammar. Here’s why AI needs grounding before you let it loose on your business. By Ursula Riemer, […]
From Garage to Global: 20 years of Brolly Sheets
Family-owned, Kiwi-designed brand Brolly Sheets began with a problem at home. Founder Diane Hurford sewed the first Brolly Sheet after repeated middle-of-the-night bed changes during toilet training. The reusable, absorbent, waterproof bed pad quickly gained traction. What started as a homemade solution grew into a New Zealand manufacturing and export […]
NZ’s largest industrial landowner set to invest $110m in rooftop solar
New Zealand’s largest industrial landowner is set to invest over $110 million in a rooftop solar and battery storage rollout it says will lower production costs for local and export firms while reducing pressure on the national electricity grid at peak times. Over the next decade, the initiative will see […]
Stop managing outcomes, start managing behaviour
Your culture is the operating system driving those results — whether you measure it or not Ask a room of manufacturing leaders whether culture matters and every hand goes up. Ask them how they measure it, or when they last deliberately intervened in it — and the hands come down. […]
Profile: Green Gorilla tells sustainability story that matches its impact
Green Gorilla has spent more than a decade challenging the idea that waste should simply be hauled away and buried. Since 2010, the 100% New Zealand-owned business has grown into a major waste and resource recovery operator, helping customers recover more materials, reduce landfill and take a more practical approach […]
Manufacturing’s automation moment is here – now comes the workforce challenge
Jo Verry, Senior Key Account Manager at industry training organisation, Competenz You lock up your warehouse at night, switch off the lights and press play on an autonomous drone. By morning, it has flown the aisles, scanned barcodes, completed stocktakes and delivered real-time inventory data before the first staff member […]
Why the most valuable asset in your plant isn’t on the balance sheet
-Mike Warmington, Director, Platform 1 As the owner you can be the most valuable asset in the business. Manufacturing companies focus on equipment, inventory, capacity, and productivity. All are very important to success, however what is often overlooked is that a key asset is the systemisation and transferability of the […]
New Zealand talks about productivity, but does not build the capability to deliver it
From July 2026 issue, NZ Manufacturer magazine.We invite readers to feedback to us on this excellent article. How do you see things? How is Productivity in your workplace? Ian Walsh, Partner, Argon & Co New Zealand does not have a shortage of productivity commentary. We have reports, benchmarks, speeches, and […]
Pressure equipment in practice – Pressure Equipment Workshop 2026
4th September 2026 – Novotel Lakeside, Rotorua New Zealand’s manufacturing and engineering sectors are operating in a period of rapid change, where productivity, compliance, skills, and technology are all moving at once. For many businesses, the challenge is not simply keeping pace, but making sound decisions in an environment where […]
Connecting the dots
David Altena has 30 years of tech industry experience and is a founding director of The Better SMB Limited. david@altena.solutions Rob Bull, Director of the New Zealand Lean Academy rob@nzla.nz Connecting The Dots Everyone’s busy, capable and pulling in different directions Most manufacturers […]
Keeping Southland Opportunity in Southland Hands
As Southland attracts increasing investment and larger projects begin to emerge across the region, Southland-based agency Naked Creative is encouraging businesses to consider whether they are positioned to capitalise on the opportunities ahead. Here comes Tender Ready! The agency, which has long championed regional development and the success of Southland […]
Science reform: The missing link in NZ’s manufacturing productivity puzzle ?
The Problem We Have Been Ignoring By Sean Doherty, Manufacturing Commentator | NZ Industry Trends Ask any manufacturer about their biggest constraints and the answers are familiar: energy costs, skilled labour, margin pressure, and global competition from economies with far greater scale. What rarely comes up is New Zealand’s persistent […]
Sustainability: Digital product passports and the MCI – a practical guide for manufacturers
From June issue, NZ Manufacturer magazine Manufacturers are being asked to answer harder questions about their products: What are they made from? Where did the materials come from? Can they be repaired, reused or recycled? And can those claims be verified? Digital product passports (DPPs) are emerging as a practical answer. They give each product a digital record that can travel with it through the value chain, making trusted information easier to share, update and use. For manufacturers, this is becoming a way to prepare for changing regulations, support circular economy goals and make product data more useful for customers, suppliers and recyclers. Manufacturers are also under pressure to prove claims around recycled content, durability and end-of-life recovery. Together, DPPs and the Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) can provide a practical way to measure and communicate circularity performance. What is a digital product passport? A digital product passport is a structured digital record that stores and shares information about a product across its life cycle. It can bring together technical specifications, material composition, recycled content, installation and repair manuals, end of use pathways, chemicals of concern, and other product details in one digital thread. Digital product passport information can sit with each product, using a QR code, RFID tag or other digital identifier. It can also be managed across a whole project through systems like Rosella Street, an Australian-built platform that helps manufacturers and project teams collect, manage and report passport data. The idea may sound technical, but the purpose is simple: to give procurement officers, project teams, asset managers, deconstruction crews, recyclers and regulators reliable product information when they need it. As Jim Goddin, thinkstep-anz’s Head of Circular Economy explains, product information is increasingly expected to move with the product itself. Mick Fritschy, Director and Co-founder of enterprise software company […]