Developments

It’s no easy task to deliver IT services for an international event on the scale of the FIFA U-20 World Cup New Zealand 2015, but it was a task that local company Origin was confident it could achieve to the highest international standards. The Auckland-headquartered company won the 22-day tournament tender over one of the biggest IT companies in New Zealand thanks to their “innovative approach, focus on customer experience, and technical excellence”, says Origin CEO Michael Russell. With the contract calling for planning and project management; delivery and installation services; IT communications, cabling, wifi, power, backup, hardware and wireless supply; and onsite support services at stadiums as well as remote helpdesk support for all technology services, it was a “huge and quite unique” project, says Origin project manager Matt Sellar. “While these are all services Origin already offers, many of our processes had to be adapted,” says Sellar. “Also, because specifics were still being worked through between FIFA and the LOC (Local Organising Committee), we quoted the project based on the best information we had at the time, but as it progressed the amount of changes and variations were immense.” Coping with changes to the initial planning proved to be one of the key challenges for Origin, according to Sellar. “We soon realised our usual variation process was too slow. Ordinarily we may get a few variations and hardware has already been procured, but during this project we ended up with over 100 separate hardware orders totalling well over 3000 pieces – each of which had to be tracked, reported, configured if required, and delivered to a tight schedule.” The company quickly implemented some new systems to deal with the orders, using a quick email system and Onenote notebooks to confirm the variations, and collaborating on spreadsheets via a […]

The largest Nachi robot ever sold in New Zealand was on show at SouthMACH in July – in the form of a 7-axis robotic machining centre from NZ based robotic machinery builder AutoMATE™. Design Energy Limited, owners of the AutoMATE™ brand and NZ distributor for Nachi Robotics, have developed a robot machining centre based on the newly released Nachi SRA210 six axis robot. This particular system, for customer Cutting Innovations in Auckland, is equipped with a 7.5kW – 24,000rpm HSK tool-change spindle, rotary table and PowerMILL CAM software. The result is a system offering a machining envelope of 2.5m x 2.5m x 2.5m with +/-0.25mm accuracy. Mike Shatford, Director of Design Energy explains: “AutoMATE™ machining centres are highly adaptable, with robot and fixturing options available to suit a wide variety of machining requirements. The high level engineering used to develop each system structural loading of each machine is carefully analysed using FEA analysis. Providing high levels of rigidity and stiffness are key to successfully carrying out machining operations using a multi-axis robot.” The team at Design Energy are already considering producing further machining cells of various configurations and would be keen to hear from interested parties. Contact:info@designenergy.co.nz

The aging of New Zealand’s manufacturing workforce, a decline in school leavers, and a shortage of skilled people continue to challenge manufacturers to find new ways to bridge their skill gaps. “We talk to manufacturers across New Zealand every week,” says Andy Bunny, National Manager General Manufacturing at manufacturing industry training organisation Competenz. “They’re all telling us the same thing: it’s hard to attract and retain skilled people.” The manufacturing workforce is aging. In 2006, 55% of the general manufacturing workforce was aged 40 and over. In 2014 that figure was 64%. The trend is similar in specialised manufacturing industries too, like plastics processing and wood manufacturing. “These are big numbers,” says Andy. “And they bring with them big challenges. These older people have built up skills during their careers. Who’s going to replace those skills when they retire? Who’s going to mentor younger people? And, if you’re a small manufacturing business, who are you going to sell your company to, so you can enjoy a comfortable retirement?” He warns employers not to rely on school leavers to plug the gaps. “The number of young people leaving school is volatile: it’s fallen strongly since 2004 and that fall’s going to continue for a few years yet. And employers across New Zealand are competing for these people.” Bringing in skilled immigrants can help, but it introduces new challenges like language and a lack of familiarity with New Zealand practices. Poaching another company’s employees is self-defeating. “It becomes a vicious circle.” The solution? According to Andy, the manufacturing sector needs to look at this issue at an industry level and invest in technical and business skills for the long term. “Training is a sustainable way to lift productivity, quality and safety. It has lots of spin-off benefits too, like increasing your employees’ […]

The so called “Low Tech” companies are vitally important because they employ 60% of workers. We have been overlooking the value and innovation that goes on in so called “low tech” companies, according to a European expert on industry. Auckland University recently hosted Prof. Dr. Hartmut Hirsch-Kreinsen Chair of Economic and Industrial Sociology TU Dortmund University, Germany. He spoke about the latest research that is uncovering these “low tech” innovators. He says everyone has been in love with “high-tech”companies, the definition of which is companies that have an R & D investment of over 5% of turnover and “low tech” having 1% or less investment in R & D. However the so called “Low Tech” companies are vitally important because they employ 60% of workers – many more than the medium to high tech companies, and they are remarkably stable and innovative in a specific way. Common attributes are step by step product improvement, incremental innovation, small batches and also large scale production, relatively stable market segments, close to important customers, flexible and fast delivery, and semi-skilled or unskilled workers. They have the capacity to integrate external knowledge and high tech components and are the recipients and carriers of high tech innovations. They learn by doing, trial and error and have the capability to manage networks. Policymakers (Callaghan Innovation and MBIE) should also focus on the so called “low-tech” businesses. Innovation is more than just R & D investment as low tech businesses are good at using high tech developed elsewhere and leveraging it in innovative ways. So what can policy makers do to support? Prof Kenneth Husted from Auckland University says; • Support creative reconstruction (don’t write off industries as “sunset” just because they are going through change) • Stimulate collaboration across sectors and size • Support to aggregate […]

By Dieter Adam, Chief Executive, New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association. I recently spent time in Wellington, meeting members and officials from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and Callaghan Innovation. It was interesting to discuss MBIE’s recent Sector Reports, and to see how government defines and views manufacturing, in particular high-tech manufacturing. There are still misconceptions on what manufacturing is, and what should be considered high or medium-technology manufacturing. High-tech manufacturing is often touted by government as an important source of growth and innovation for our country. But it does not capture all the high value-added activity happening across manufacturing businesses, and focusing only on what is defined as high-tech can lead to missing and undervaluing all the innovation and growth that is created in other parts of the sector, just because they do not fit a specific definition. The definition used for high-tech manufacturing in the Sector Reports covers those manufacturers who spend greater than 8% of revenue on research and development (R&D). By this definition, the high tech sub-sectors of manufacturing are: pharmaceuticals, aircraft manufacturing, professional and scientific equipment manufacturing and computer and electronic manufacturing. Medium-tech manufacturing is defined by R&D expenditure of between 2% and 8% of revenues, and sub-sectors listed as medium tech are: Chemical manufacturing, transport equipment manufacturing and machinery and equipment manufacturing. It is important to note that these definitions have been created by the OECD and are used so to allow international comparison. One issue is that any definition based on R&D expenditure relies on such expenditure being captured reliably by the accounting practices used by the companies in question. We know that this is often not the case, as doing so introduces additional complexity in accounting methods without any immediate benefit to the firm. Moreover, accepted definitions of ‘R&D […]