Business News

Australia and New Zealand Receive Standardisation for Oral Fluid Drug Testing

The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA) welcomes the new standards for oral fluid testing processes and technologies. TDDA has long believed that oral fluid testing technology and processes required reviewing and to become a joint Australian and New Zealand standard. The AS/NZS 4760:2019 (CH-039 Detection of Drugs in Oral Fluids) Oral Fluid testing standard by Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand dictates consistency around testing methodology, the quality of devices required, and how labs manage test samples. “The new standardisation delivers value to employees and employers alike. It provides a framework and guidelines to ensure that oral fluid testing is carried out in a way that will deliver accurate, reliable results,” says Kirk Hardy, CEO, TDDA. TDDA is on track to be the first to achieve cross Tasman accreditation and provide independent and reliable externally audited oral fluid drug testing collection service to International Standards Organisation (ISO) standards. TDDA-Omega laboratories is also seeking accreditation to AS/NZS 4760: 2019 for the provision of laboratory confirmation services. “If a drug tester follows the standard, they’ll use a process that ensures the testing carried out meets the requirements of the AS/NZS 4760:2019, giving it more scientific rigour to withstand legal challenges. We’re also in the process of verifying a device to meet the criteria of the new standard” says Hardy. Even with standardisation improvements with collection, Hardy warns that oral fluid testing isn’t a catch-all testing product, and not all workplace testers are accredited or will follow the standard. “Businesses who care about compliance and the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 need to make sure they’re using an independent, accredited, certified tester that follows the new standard. But companies also need to understand it’s not a one size fits all test,” says Hardy. TDDA recommends utilising a range of different testing methods, […]

Hawke’s Bay businesses, councils partner on climate action

By Adele Rose – 3R Group Chief Executive When it comes to action on human-accelerated climate change in New Zealand we often look to conversations held in the main centres like Auckland and Wellington, or action from central Government to lead the way. But Hawke’s Bay is showing regional Aotearoa is just as capable of taking the lead. Some of the region’s five councils have been working on a response plan to climate change since 2014, and now the business community, alongside the councils, is coming together to tackle the issue through the Climate Action HB initiative. Achieving real and meaningful action on accelerated climate change has, and always will, rely on partnerships. Partnerships between people, businesses, councils and governments. In Hawke’s Bay you need look little further than the coastal erosion to see the very real effects of human accelerated climate change on the region. The economy of the Bay is heavily reliant on tourism and the primary industries, and while sea level rise is most often cited when talking about climate change, factors like warmer winters, fewer frosts and unseasonable wet and dry periods will impact the primary sector particularly, and the region overall. These impacts have obvious consequences for everyone – from residents living next to the sea, to orchards in the plains and farms in the hill country. Other impacts, such as food security, go beyond the region itself. The critical need to address these impacts was seen in the attendance of nearly 120 representatives from Hawke’s Bay businesses and councils at the inaugural event for Climate Action HB, an initiative led by 3R Group with support from Hawke’s Bay Regional Council. Attendees at the Business CoLab event on November 25 in Napier included major regional stakeholders such as Napier Port, Hawke’s Bay Airport, and Pan […]

Reaping the benefits of smart manufacturing

Manufacturers can have many hundreds or even thousands of endpoints in their network, from laptops, PCs, and mobile devices to networked production-line machines spread throughout the facility. These connected systems deliver operational efficiencies and even competitive advantage to manufacturers. Smart manufacturing has helped manufacturers achieve productivity gains of 17 to 20 per cent and quality gains of 15 to 20 per cent. However, smart manufacturing also introduces cyber risks, which must be addressed in the most time-efficient, reliable way. Steve Hunter, senior director, Asia Pacific and Japan, ForeScout, said, “In the past, production-line machines were air-gapped; they didn’t have a network connection, so they were safe from cyberthreats. Now, with every machine and device connected to the corporate network and the internet to facilitate smart manufacturing, that safety buffer is removed. Therefore, it’s essential for manufacturers to know what devices are in their network, how vulnerable they are, and their compliance status. All endpoints, including Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, need to be secured.” In many industries, endpoint management is conducted using agents, with IT departments choosing a combination of agents to address their specific requirements. However, the use of agents can create performance issues in manufacturing operations, meaning an agent-based approach is not well-suited to manufacturers. When networked operational or production-line devices are scanned, it can impair performance, reboot the device, or even crash it entirely. This causes expensive downtime. These devices are often vulnerable because they’re older, rarely patched, and less protected against threats. Even new IoT devices can become exploited, because they’re generally not designed with security top of mind. These new IoT devices are often deployed without configuring the few security settings available to them, such as leaving default credentials in place. This lets malicious actors use the unsecured IoT device to access the entire network. […]

A year to bring about positive change

There are two crucial areas business needs to address this year. You know what these are: Climate Change and Productivity. Sceptics say that Climate Change doesn’t exist. They either don’t know any better or they may be right. But for the good of us all we still need to look at current business practices and determine what changes can be made to address the situation. What are we emitting into the atmosphere? What source of energy do we use that may be causing an environmental problem and what can be done to rectify the situation? What is our individual role in climate change? When we hear that ice are melting, water levels rising and temperatures increasing then we do indeed have a problem. Productivity is harder to measure because there are a lot of people in society who contribute a lot without the financial reward. Their efforts are not on payrolls or widely known about. There are reasons for this of course: homemakers don’t have the same esteem as a bank manager, nor the salary that goes with just as much (if not more) hard work. Productivity and a living wage or a fair wage, not just a scrapping by wage is a difficult subject. Companies don’t want to raise wages and salaries unless they really need to. They want to make a profit for shareholders and no more was this apparent than at the recent Davos gathering. Someone owns the oil and someone else owns the property and the workers gather around for a share of the crumbs. Productivity keeps the wheels turning, to making the goods for market and positioning our country as an export earner on the world stage. The highest percentage of what we manufacturer comes from the land. Not that what we make in a […]

Konecranes adopts Internet of Things technology

Konecranes, specialising in the manufacture and service of cranes and lifting equipment, has implemented Siemens’ digital innovation platform to accelerate its product development process and connect product and performance data together. The company is using MindSphere, the open, cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) operating system, and the Teamcenter portfolio, the world’s most widely used digital lifecycle management software, to leverage the digital twin and reduce the number of physical prototypes, which helps to increase efficiency and decrease product validation time. The Konecranes proof of value is one of the first implementations of IoT to develop a framework that connects and synchronizes the virtual (engineering design, analysis and simulation) and physical (testing and operational reliability) worlds. The product design process is currently based more on an engineer’s experience and generally shared assumptions than measured facts from existing products. These assumptions often lead to non-optimised designs that are over engineered. With an integrated digital twin platform, there is major potential in speeding up the product development process, reducing prototypes, increasing traceability and thus improving quality and reduce development cost. Today design, simulation and prototype testing organisations operate in their own silos, often using out of date processes for their work. At Konecranes, a digital twin was utilised as the communication approach between all three organisations to review data and provide feedback around engineering, simulation and testing intent. Using the Siemens platform for digital innovation, Konecranes has been able to connect the data from all of these organisations to create one 360 degree view of how prototypes are running and performing, and correlating requirements to, real world performance data. A closed-loop digital twin framework using IoT and product lifecycle management (PLM) technologies can lead to faster design issue resolution and shorter prototyping phases by leveraging virtual sensor data in product simulations to provide […]

Construction and mining the next frontier of robotics adoption

In the past, for heavy industry-related locations like mines, robots were controlled by teleoperation or navigate autonomously across uneven terrain or within subterranean interiors with little to no human interaction. This was the same for construction sites, where robots must understand changing floor plans, keep track of inventory, and navigate stairs. Thanks to advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), wireless telecommunications, location-based technologies, and navigation systems, this is being realised. Modern robotics tend to be associated with either indoor environments like factories and warehouses, or in the home. But there is a multitude of other, less structured and more challenging environments where AMRs are only just beginning to proliferate. Advanced mobility enabling autonomous navigation will empower robotics vendors in construction, extraction and elsewhere. While in 2018, 28.7% of commercial robots’ shipments had some degree of autonomous navigation, in 2027, the percentage will be 79.3%. Construction robots may be involved in specific tasks, such as brick-laying, painting, loading, and bulldozing. We can expect hundreds of AMRs in the next 2 years, mainly doing haulage. These robots help to protect workers from a hazardous working environment, reduce workplace injuries, and address labour shortages. For the robots to operate in challenging, hostile, and unsafe environments without human assistance, the key beneficiaries will be OEMs who choose to adopt navigation-providing operation systems (OS) from third-party providers. Specialist robot companies have a greater opportunity to attract capital due to increased interest, and with the formulation of cloud services from AWS and Google, have more opportunity than ever to develop advanced capabilities like mobile manipulation and advanced analytics. However, they will struggle to get an in-house solution off the ground without partnering with third-party providers on localisation and navigation technologies. Given the complexity of localisation, mapping, and navigation alone, a delegation of responsibility to third-party providers is […]

Schneider Electric partners with Nozomi Networks to secure and protect critical infrastructure

Schneider Electric has signed a global partnership agreement with Nozomi Networks, the leader in industrial cybersecurity and operational visibility. Under the terms of the agreement, Schneider Electric will collaborate with Nozomi to provide customers in the industrial manufacturing and critical infrastructure segments advanced anomaly detection, vulnerability assessment and other cybersecurity solutions and services, helping them to control, prevent and mitigate risks to their operations and business performance. The partnership enables Schneider Electric to respond more aggressively to immediate demand for effective, operational technology cybersecurity services, solutions and expertise in oil and gas, power, building automation and other industrial sectors. Schneider Electric will offer Nozomi Networks’ advanced solutions for industrial control system cyber resiliency and real-time operational visibility to customers worldwide. Schneider Electric will combine its EcoStruxure IIoT process automation and industrial control solutions with Nozomi’s SCADAguardian platform for real-time operations visibility, including: • Advanced ICS Cybersecurity Solutions: The bundled solution will deliver the deep network visibility and OT cybersecurity industry operators require in one, comprehensive and highly scalable solution. Nozomi Networks SCADAguardian solution provides accurate asset discovery, superior threat detection and flexible and scalable deployment options to Schneider Electric customers. • Nozomi Networks Certified Consultants: Schneider Electric consultants around the world will continue to be trained as certified Nozomi Networks engineers, scaling to support clients throughout their cybersecurity solution implementation, and providing expert OT threat hunting and forensic analysis. • SCADAguardian Live in Schneider Electric Sites: Schneider Electric customers can experience Nozomi Networks’ real-time operational visibility and cybersecurity solutions via live threat scenarios running in Schneider Electric sites around the world. EcoStruxure is Schneider Electric’s open, interoperable, IoT-enabled system architecture and platform. EcoStruxure delivers enhanced value around safety, reliability, efficiency, sustainability and connectivity for customers. EcoStruxure leverages advancements in IoT, mobility, sensing, cloud, analytics and cybersecurity to deliver Innovation at […]

Capital gains tax disappointing for business

Key areas of the Tax Working Group Final Report released today were disappointing, says Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Leeann Watson. One of the most important and contentious elements of The Report, aimed at addressing the structure, fairness and balance of the New Zealand tax system, was around capital gains tax. Ms Watson says the proposed capital gains rules should not be implemented because of the significant impact on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). “We support the Government’s review to ensure that our tax system is fit for purpose for a changing business environment. However, there is very real concern that taxing both shares and business assets under a comprehensive capital gains tax regime would create double taxation. “This could disadvantage New Zealanders owning shares in New Zealand and create inconsistencies around overall taxation on investment.” Ms Watson says a capital gains tax would be unlikely to achieve the desired outcome for business. “There is concern around the effect for capital markets in a capital constrained economy with a long-term savings deficit. Adding further tax on the savings and investment of those New Zealanders in the middle-income bracket won’t drive the deepening and broadening of the capital base that we need for business investment, which is higher productivity and wages. “While the impetus behind the changes are aspirational, there is little to indicate they would significantly reduce overinvestment in housing or increase ‘tax fairness’. In addition, there is concern that additional administration costs and investment distortions could outweigh any benefits and potentially discourage much-needed investment and innovation by locking businesses into current asset holdings. “It is vitally important that we remain competitive as a country and are not continuing to add further compliance for business and in particular small business, who represent 97% of all businesses in our […]

How much do robots affect jobs and productivity?

Robots’ capacity for autonomous movement and their ability to perform an expanding set of tasks have captured writers’ imaginations for almost a century. Recently robots have emerged from the pages of science fiction novels into the real world, and discussions of their possible economic effects have become ubiquitous (see e.g. The Economist 2014, Brynjolfsson and McAfee 2014). But a serious problem inhibits these discussions – there has so far been no systematic empirical analysis of the effects that robots are already having. Industrial robots increase labour productivity, total factor productivity, and wages. At the same time, while industrial robots had no significant effect on total hours worked, there is some evidence that they reduced the employment of low skilled workers, and to a lesser extent also middle skilled worker. A first glance What exactly are industrial robots? A machine is an industrial robot if it can be programmed to perform physical, production-related tasks without the need of a human controller. (The technical definition refers to a “manipulating industrial robot as defined by ISO 8373: An automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator programmable in three or more axes, which may be either fixed in place or mobile for use in industrial automation applications”.) Typical applications of industrial robots include assembling, dispensing, handling, processing (for instance, cutting), and welding – all of which are prevalent in manufacturing industries – as well as harvesting (in agriculture) and inspecting of equipment and structures (common in power plants). From 1993-2007, the ratio of the number of robots to hours worked increased on average by about 150%. The industries that increased robot use most rapidly were the producers of transportation equipment, chemical industries, and metal industries. Addressing reverse causality Could it be that higher productivity growth causes a larger increase in robot use, rather than the other […]

Demand for higher quality parts and products to drive generative design

Generative design enables the design of lighter, cheaper components while maintaining strength and solidity, ultimately creating a higher quality product. For that reason, the adoption of generative design software is taking off in aerospace and defence, automotive, footwear and clothing, furniture, industrial machines, and oil and gas industries and leading to an uptick in engineering throughput in each of them, finds ABI Research, a market-foresight advisory firm providing strategic guidance on the most compelling transformative technologies. “The rise of the sharing economy and additive manufacturing will drive both demand for and the ability to produce higher-quality goods,” explained Pierce Owen, Principal Analyst at ABI Research. “Generative design expands design possibilities by creating shapes different from those that humans would create. It idealizes the design by creating something that best fits the constraints to optimise the products for various requirements.” For several years now, industrial companies have used geometric topology optimisation – eroding the geometric shape of a product given a set of constraints to improve performance – and are using it more as the use cases for additive manufacturing have increased. Generative design takes that another step by creating, or generating, the geometric shapes from an engineer’s requirements rather than changing existing shapes. Also, unlike topology optimisation, generative design creates many iterations, variations and/or alternatives for engineers to compare, rather than simply removing unnecessary pieces or particles. Additive will drive both generative design and topology optimisation as it provides greater build freedom to fulfill a wider variety of designs. Traditional Computer-Aided Design (CAD) vendors such as Dassault Systèmes, Siemens and recently, PTC, already have or will have embedded generative design capabilities within their CAD environments as plug-ins or kernels. PTC acquired Frustum in November 2018 to do exactly that within Creo. Several of Siemens products, including NX, NX Nastran, HEEDS, […]

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