Business News

Nominations Open for HERA Industry Awards

HERA is seeking nominations for the HERA Industry Awards to be presented at the Industry Awards Gala Dinner in the Rendezvous Hotel Ballroom, Thurdays 3rd September, as part of the Metals Week event celebrating the metals industry organised by Metals NZ. Every HERA member has a real chance to pick up one of these prestigious awards. The HERA Awards will be presented alongside awards from other Metals New Zealand partners: SCNZ, NZSSDA, NASH, MRM, CTNZ, TiTENZ (formerly TiDA) and GANZ. The Awards are peer-based and therefore, we need your assistance to identify those individuals and engineering companies who have excelled in the following three categories: 1. Keith Smith Memorial Award for Distinguished Service to the Metals Industry. 2. NZ Metals Engineering Exporter of the Year. 3. Most Innovative NZ Metals Engineering Company Finalists will be entitled to two free tickets to the Industry Awards Gala Dinner and the winner of each award will be reimbursed for their travel and accommodation expenses. Additional bookings will have to be made through the Metals Week registration web site. For more information about the HERA awards, visit the HERA Industry Awards page in About Us. The nomination form is downloadable from HERE. Nominations should reach HERA before 15th July 2015.

Analysis: Canterbury Manufacturing Pathways

The aim is that this first-hand experience will encourage students to seek employment or further training to move into a career in manufacturing. * By Tom Thomson, President of the New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA). How can we inspire the next generation to seek work and education in the manufacturing industry, and show them the great opportunities it can offer? With the average age of employees in the industry now approaching 50 years, this is a question that the Canterbury Development Corporation (CDC), NZMEA, Competenz, the Ministry of Education, CPIT, schools and manufacturers have been considering, as part of a wider effort to improve conditions for manufacturers in the region. This process has resulted in the Canterbury Manufacturing Pathways (CMP) project, a tripartite collaboration between employers, schools and training providers, which is focusing on a range of initiatives to improve the supply skills and talent of secondary school students into training and jobs needed in the manufacturing sector. Some of these initiatives include manufacturing site visits, giving students and teachers a direct and intriguing view of operations, as well as speaker visits to schools to inspire and break misconceptions. Also under discussion are scholarships and paid internships to attract talented students who might not otherwise have considered a career in manufacturing. A key part of this project is the Manufacturing Gateway Programme, which gives students an opportunity to gain basic trade skills, confidence and experience in what it is actually like to work in a manufacturing business. The Gateway Programme targets 16 – 19 year old students with an aptitude in engineering. The programme is based on the Level 2 requirements for the National Certificate in Mechanical Engineering, and begins with a five-week pre-trades block course at CPIT, giving them basic training in workplace safety, workplace practices as […]

ITF congratulates John Blakey

The Industry Training Federation (ITF) is marking the announcement that John Blakey, Chief Executive of Competenz, will step down as CEO at the end of the year. “John has made an outstanding contribution to industry training and vocational education over the last 30 years” ITF Chief Executive Josh Williams says. As well as leading Industry Training Organisations, John is a former Tertiary Education Commissioner and Industry Training Federation Chair. John is currently a member of the reference group for Labour’s Future of Work Commission, discussing the skills and training required for New Zealand’s future workforce. “John has been an unwavering champion for vocational education and training, and a system that genuinely connects learning and work.” Josh says. “John has provided invaluable guidance and leadership to our sector over many years, and we are pleased that John will remain involved in the sector as a Competenz Board member. “We wish John well for the remainder of his tenure, and also congratulate CEO designate Fiona Kingsford on her appointment.” Josh says.

Manufacturers and exporters welcome interest rate cut

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) cut the OCR today to 3.25%, reflecting low inflation, weakening demand, low commodity prices and a high exchange rate. This is welcome news for manufacturers and exporters, as it will help to bring New Zealand’s settings closer in line with that of our competitors, say the New Zealand Manufcturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA). NZMEA Chief Executive Dieter Adam says, “We are pleased to see the RBNZ take action and cut the OCR. Manufacturers and exporters have been working hard to compete in trying conditions for some time and today’s cut will be appreciated. New Zealand’s interest rates have been an outlier compared to the rest of the advanced world for some time, and weakening conditions, low inflation and our overvalued currency justify the RBNZ’s move. “The RBNZ continue to describe our currency as overvalued, which has been hitting exporters and import competing manufacturers’ competitiveness – this OCR reduction will help to bring our currency back in line and continue its downward trend. We would encourage the RBNZ to cut again in July if current conditions persist. “Risks in our economy still remain, particularly around the Auckland housing market and lower commodity prices. More action may be needed to ensure house price inflation does not increase in response to lower interest rates. ‘The cut will help commodity exporters through lower borrowing costs and currency – but continued low commodity prices highlights the need for our economy to become more diverse, both in the products we make and the markets we sell them, focusing on adding value and making the most of the resources and skills we have – a strong manufacturing sector can play a leading role in achieving this and has the potential to contribute much more to our economy.”

FoodWaikato plant expansion to inject $38.5m into NZ economy

In the picture: FoodWaikato plant manager Dave Shute gives Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce a tour through the plant. Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce today opened the $5m expansion of Waikato Innovation Park’s FoodWaikato plant. The expansion is expected to inject an extra $38.5m per year in export revenue back into the New Zealand economy from the sale of new, value-added consumer products directly produced there. The first stage of the plant, a spray dryer facility, was opened in May 2012 and was funded by Innovation Waikato Ltd. and a Government grant of $3.95m and cost $12.8m to complete. The second stage was largely funded by a $3m equity injection from Callaghan Innovation and allows specialty ingredients such as vitamins, minerals and oils to be wet blended with milk or fruit juice prior to being spray dried in the facility. “The functional and regulatory constraint of the plant as it was, meant we were limited to processing liquids in the form they arrived in at the site, which created significant challenges for many of the target firms FoodWaikato was created to assist,” said Waikato Innovation Park chief executive Stuart Gordon. “Higher value products like infant formula and aged care formula tend to involve mixtures of ingredients, but mixing offsite and transporting to FoodWaikato created regulatory, product integrity and processing challenges. “So we have added ‘wetside’ processing capability that now allows the mixing process to be done onsite, meaning FoodWaikato can now provide a greater level of development and innovation capability to dairy companies – cow, goat and sheep – as well as fruit and vegetable producers. “We’re moving from helping our customers manufacture ingredients that sell for around US$4700 per tonne to US$25,000 per tonne. At full capacity, we will produce around 2500 tonnes of new, value-added products each year” demand […]

Increase revenue by increasing productivity

The increased revenue from increased productivity will come from being engaged in the question, how can we come up with one product fitting all our different customer’s needs? -Katalin Csikasz, TechPro Plus Interested in increasing revenue by streamlining, mass-producing and increasing production volume through your factory all in once? If the answer is yes – stay tuned. TechPro Plus, an Auckland company specialising in solutions for manufacturers, specialises in this. One project they took on started out as a product QA and compliance enquiry and ended up with streamlined production, increased productivity and revenue plus an opportunity and possibility of new markets. TechPro Plus was invited to quality check a product that was supplied internationally and there were various installation complaints from the end customers in NZ. After inspecting the product, they found that the product was slightly outside of the NZ requirements. While the overseas manufacturing partner was fully on board to be part of the solution, TechPro Plus had to be realistic, as they were able to manufacture the whole yearly NZ order requirements in just one day. The manufacturer was not going to invest in a different die for NZ production, given the small volume, so to find the solution TechPro Plus had to be creative and look outside of the box. TechPro Plus first provided remote consultation to save costs. Later to fast track the project, a visit to the overseas factory enabled hands on consultation. After walking through the production line, and gathering all the necessary information, TechPro Plus found that the overseas company, the manufacturer, has always looked at ways to enter other countries with their product, but was held back with the significant capital expenditure for building different expensive dies for each country; and also with the stand down period for changing the […]

Growth continues in April

The latest New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA) Survey of Business Conditions completed during May 2015, shows total sales in April 2015 increased 14.08% (year on year export sales increased by 17.06% with domestic sales increasing 8.10%) on April 2014. The NZMEA survey sample this month covered NZ$358m in annualised sales, with an export content of 69%. Net confidence rose to 17, up from -5 in March. The current performance index (a combination of profitability and cash flow) is at 100.3, up from 94.3 last month, the change index (capacity utilisation, staff levels, orders and inventories) was at 98, down from 100 in the last survey, and the forecast index (investment, sales, profitability and staff) is at 105.67, up on the last result of 100.83. Anything over 100 indicates expansion. Constraints reported were 83% markets, 11% production capacity and 6% skilled staff. Net 22% of firms reported a modest rise in productivity in April. Staff numbers for April increased 3.36% year on year. Tradespersons, supervisors, managers, professional/scientists and operators/labourers all reported a moderate shortage. “In April, domestic sales continued on their recent trend of growth, experiencing year on year improvements. Export sales also stayed in expansion for the second month. However growth of turnover was at a lower rate than March for both domestic and export sales.” says NZMEA Chief Executive Dieter Adam. “This month’s survey saw some more positive signs looking forward, as confidence improved for a second month, moving back into positive territory after two months in the negative, along with the forecast index seeing improvement, suggesting manufacturers and exporters are feeling more positive for the future than they have in recent months. Staff numbers also felt another increase in April. “However risks and pressures remain, the low payout in the dairy sector is starting to feed […]

Manufacturer receives innovation commendation from Government

The introduction of Kiwi-designed innovative products has seen a New Zealand based exporter recognised in a new government-lead initiative to promote creative research and development in New Zealand business. Heating appliance manufacturer Rinnai was assessed on their innovative practices by the Callaghan Institute, a stand-alone crown entity established in 2013, and tasked with encouraging innovative practice in New Zealand businesses. In a new initiative, Callaghan Innovation is now using an international benchmark framework – the IMProve Innovation assessment – to gauge the success of Kiwi companies, and provide them with feedback on their competitiveness and sustainable growth in terms of the global market. In the report, Rinnai was given an overall score of 63% for their innovation management performance, compared to an average score of 50% among 594 comparable companies from around the world in the machinery/equipment (plant construction) class. Rinnai was also ranked higher than a category of global Growth Champions – a group defined as the top 10% of their category, based on the highest and most sustainable growth in sales, operational profit and number of employees over the last four years. The outstanding results reflect a dedicated approach to innovation within the Kiwi company, says Rinnai’s design manager Ben Hawkins, which has also seen sales growth of 109% since 2009, and currently exports to Australia and Japan. “Rinnai has a real focus on innovation, and we have increased that focus in the last four years, so it’s good to know the processes and practices we have put in place are working,” says Hawkins. Hawkins says products such as Rinnai’s Neo Gas Fireplace (designed as an insert model into existing Masonry chimneys), which offered a simple installation with good efficiency performance and functionality that suits customers’ needs, is a key example of the result of innovative practices at […]

Bliss in Invercargill

Sometimes we talk about the regions as if they under some secluded rock, a long long way from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. It is true, however, that we don’t know enough about what they are doing – if we live in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch – even when companies in the regions put their exports on a plane to market. I am pleased to report of manufacturing news from the regions, specifically EIS, the Invercargill based multi-disciplined automation and electrical company which has been in business for nearly 20 years. They are going well because they realised the importance of technology to the growth of the business and they are currently delivering projects throughout New Zealand and as far afield as Saudi Arabia, Canada and Australia. When we hear about how well the regions are going we focus on social conditions, primarily. What we don’t always hear is where the entrepreneur is finding markets for his innovations from such far flung places as Whangarei, Westland and Lyttelton. The trailer manufacturer in Rotorua talks to me about the difficulties of competing with imported goods…is he still bothering? I’ll need to find out. The sole New Zealand agent based in Hamilton who finds it cut throat doing business in Auckland tells me he doesn’t like driving up the motorway. But back to the point, if you are a manufacturer based in the regions tell me what you are making, how you are faring in the competitive world, how your pride and joy has made you a millionaire. If you don’t want to tell me, if you fear competition. If the world is too small for you to share your story get over it. There is nothing new under the sun…just a whole lot of different ways of doing the same thing. With […]

Open Polytechnic study opens up career opportunities

With a high demand in New Zealand for qualified, skilled engineering graduates, Open Polytechnic provides a variety of study pathways to help those working in the industry with professional development. Flexible distance learning enables students in employment to enhance their careers through on-going learning and upskilling. Blair Falconer, who is completing his National Certificate in Electrical Engineering (Advanced Trade) this year, says that he decided to study through Open Polytechnic to not only help him grow in his current role, but also give him the skills to develop into a more senior role as his career progresses. In his busy position as wind technician and electrician at Meridian Energy’s West Wind wind farm in Makara, Wellington, distance learning was the best option for him. “I don’t have to attend class so I have more time and can plan to do study on specific days. It is flexible and I can do it when it suits me, during my lunch breaks or after work,” he says. “I used the online campus for submitting most of my units. It’s very easy to use, and if I leave my books at work, I can still access the online learning material from home. The learning material is easy to read, with plenty of diagrams and photos.” Blair is looking to study further, with a solid foundation in Advanced Trade. “I think the National Certificate in Electrical Engineering (Advanced Trade) is a good taster in a lot of different areas, not just in electrical engineering, you also cover health and safety, drawing, accounting and electrical legislation.” Open Polytechnic Head of School of Engineering, Trades and Construction, Christo Potgieter, says there are many study options for those looking to develop their engineering careers. As well as the National Certificate in Electrical Engineering (Advanced Trade), Open Polytechnic also […]

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