Case Studies

According to www.stats.govt.nz approximately half of NZ manufacturers have less than 50 FTE employees and one in five manufacturers employ less than 10 people. These companies underpin the NZ economy but are they benefiting from Lean thinking? Owners and / or managers of SMEs who believe that their company has more potential than it is currently realising might benefit from undertaking a lean program. Lean thinking can be used to generate cost reductions, or gain improvements in lead time and delivery performance. Applying lean thinking might also highlight opportunities to reduce inventory in order to free cash and fuel further growth. However, for SMEs companies, “going lean’ can be particularly challenging and improvement efforts are often put on the back burner due to unresolved implementation questions such as: Will the tools be effective here?  Will I get buy-in? Will the benefits exceed the costs So how does the smaller manufacturer get started on the continuous improvement journey? One route is to consider a government subsidised Public Program in Competitive Manufacturing.  Public CM programs are typically aimed at individuals with organisational accountability for continuous performance improvement. These courses introduce best practice continuous improvement methodologies from the world’s leading organisations. The emphasis of a good quality CM program is on ‘learning by doing’ and knowledge sharing with other course participants and the assessment of learning is based around the implementation of workplace projects. On a public diploma level CM program the participant can expect to learn many technical aspects of a lean implementation including: How to map their own value stream and use this to identify wastes The importance of a balanced scorecard and application for their own company The ‘best practice’approach to reducing changeover times How to apply ‘Just In Time’ to their own workplace How to manage a 5S system […]

Comment by Heavy Engineering Research Association Director Dr Wolfgang Scholz The Heavy Engineering Research Association has just put a funding proposal to Government’s research funding agency the Foundation for Research Science and Technology (FRST) aimed at supporting the New Zealand Metals Industry in becoming more productive and developing export opportunities. This new proposal comes at a time when Government and industry advisor’s stress the need for companies to join Government in increasing investment in research and technology (R&D) if we want the New Zealand economy to transform and create wealth funded on knowledge-based, high value-added and profitable industries. Government Science Advisor, Sir Peter Gluckman, outlined recently at a medical technology conference that our industry spending on R&D is at best 0.4 % of GDP, while in more advanced nations, industry spends as much as 2% of GDP on research and technology. However, he noted that New Zealand’s Government fares much better and is the only nation where Government RS&T spending is actually higher than industry’s with 0.5-0.7%, which is close to the average of the advanced nations’ 1% for government-funded RS&T. He also noted that the medical technology sector – to which our metals industry makes a significant contribution  through tool making, casting or general metals-based manufacturing – has shown resilience despite the global financial meltdown and is predicted to be a billion $ industry within the next 5 years. In 2008, metals-based products – excluding steel- and aluminium-based products of our two steel companies and NZAS – provided export earnings alone of over $560M. I am convinced that with the right leadership and incentives in place, our strategically important industry will be able to crack the billion dollar export mark as easily as medical equipment exports are projected to. We have an amazing depth of capabilities due to our […]

New Zealand’s biggest, oldest and most comprehensive engineering, machinery, electronics and manufacturing industry showcase returns next year and is already proving popular, with almost half the show space pre-booked. EMEX 2010 is the prime business tool for everyone working in industrial engineering and maintenance, control and instrumentation, machine technology, plant automation and monitoring, welding, forming and cutting, and software and computerisation. In many cases you can get hands-on experience with the technology and compare and contrast alternative solutions on site. If you’re grappling with problems, or looking to make improvements and expansions you need to visit EMEX 2010. Similarly, if you’re in the business of providing those solutions, you need to be exhibiting at EMEX. EMEX 2010, which takes place from the 4-6 May 2010, will have an even bigger focus on new technologies and innovations, and will see a return of the highly successful and innovative Heavy Metal machine technology exhibition within EMEX. Many exhibitors are planning to feature hot new technology, systems, software, equipment and instrumentation. As the prime event of its type, and a vital industry business tool, companies exhibiting will be going all out to give visitors an unbeatable hands-on experience. They’ll also have their top people on site to ensure that immediate technical advice can be provided. Show organiser dmg world media has also worked to enhance the learning and development aspect of EMEX 2010. There will be a seminar series as well as specially created ‘social’ areas to support visitors who want to network and talk over common issues and share experiences. With almost half the space booked, EMEX 2010 is expected to attract 160 exhibitors or more. There are already some from overseas confirmed, and EMEX 2010 is hoping to have at least 20 first-time exhibitors aswell. As in previous events there is […]