Developments

Shop floors are often ground zero for scepticism regarding the Internet of Things (IoT). To the employees who work on the shop floor, IoT might seem like little more than the latest technology buzzword. Yet, the network connectivity that’s at the heart of the IoT is already rippling through the manufacturing industry. Manufacturers are realising significant productivity gains as a result of IoT-related improvements in sensing, analysis, prediction and control, and higher levels of automation. How organisations obtain the all-important buy-in from shop floor stakeholders? They must pay careful attention to change management. Capitalising on IoT opportunities is as much about reshaping an organisation as it is about implementing innovative technologies. The Importance of IoT Seventy to 80 percent of manufacturing processes are already automated. So then, what’s the big deal about IoT? By coupling software applications with sensors and controls that gather real-time production data, IoT links the entire manufacturing environment, including mobile devices used by workers and supervisors. Take a look at the impressive advances IoT is notching on the shop floor. A packaging and chemicals company, for example, made considerable gains in asset management by outfitting its forklift operators with Google Glass. The operators quickly scanned batch IDs of boxes and automatically generated transfer orders that integrated with the company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system; this system also easily tracked packages as they checked in and out of storage bins. As a result of this connectivity, the company improved its inventory management and productivity. And by avoiding multiple touchpoints, it also reaped significant cost savings. In another success story, a logistics company implemented a GPS and telematics-based solution that alerts it to supply chain disruptions such as port strikes, traffic congestion, or weather-related problems. The real-time notifications allow the company to reroute global consignments and grant the […]

Business Lighting Solutions (BLS) is eyeing up lucrative growth opportunities, as the innovative New Zealand-based LED lighting manufacturer launches a new product line targeting the global food processing industry. BLS Commercial Director, Paul Stoddart, said the company’s new patented product Soffito was poised to revolutionise lighting in food production areas – an industry conservatively valued at over $1 trillion USD. The product has already stirred up significant interest amongst the food processing industry in New Zealand, in advance of its release later this month. Stoddart said Soffito answers a number of key issues within the industry that were identified by BLS, following ongoing discussions with leading food processors aimed at better understanding the challenges and problems they face with current lighting solutions. “We found that most customers were using highly inefficient metal halide light fixtures, basically a tin box with a prismatic lens,” Stoddart said. “This type of fitting is highly-inefficient because it relies on outdated metal halide technology and suffers further losses through poorly designed lenses.” The only option available to the industry for decades, it failed to keep pace with technology and address key issues around maintenance, performance and importantly hygiene. Using the organisation’s wealth of experience with LED lighting, BLS fast-tracked an interim retrofit solution which was well received by its food production clients. “Despite that initial success, whilst convenient, the retro-fit solution still relied on the old outdated lens and was not operating at its maximum potential efficiency. Furthermore, the ongoing problems around performance and hygiene were still present.” Regardless, the BLS design team headed by seasoned designer Chris Wheatley was confident that it could produce a world-class alternative utilizing its combined skills and expertise. “Chris is an intuitive designer whose work is firmly embedded in European-style functional aesthetics. An alumni of the RCA London which […]

After exporting its equine feed products into Asia for many years, Reporoa-based company Fiber Fresh has also now launched its calf feed products into the international marketplace. Fiber Fresh is New Zealand’s largest animal nutrition export company, specialising in high nutritional equine and calf feed products. It celebrated 30 years in business earlier this year. The company’s launch into the calf feed market in Japan also includes a research partnership with the school of veterinary medicine at Rakuno Gakuen University in Hokkaido. Fiber Fresh founding director Michael Bell says launching into the Japanese calf market is a milestone for the company. “We have been exporting to international equine markets for nearly 30 years, with many of the world’s top thoroughbred horses fed our products. It’s extremely exciting to now see developments in the international calf market, particularly in Japan, where we see many synergies with our fibre feeds.” Since the early days, Fiber Fresh has worked alongside scientific institutes in New Zealand and conducted multiple trials in order to support its claims that its fermentation processes, by which the forage feed’s nutrition is enhanced, produces the best possible feed for both horses and calves. “The partnership with Rakuno University is our first international research partnership, and involves trials on the health benefits of rearing calves on Fiber Fresh for their first 100 days. The results have the potential to be revolutionary for Japanese farmers and production,” Mr Bell says. Initial research involved rearing a trial group of dairy calves on FiberStart and milk alone for 100 days, as well as a control group fed the traditional grain-based diet. Results of the 100-day trial astounded researchers, with the Fiber Fresh-reared calves showing fully-developed and more robust rumens and papillae, larger lymphatic systems, no weaning checks once milk was stopped after 45 […]

by Gary Hook, CEO Metals New Zealand China steel chief says demand ‘evaporating at unprecedented speed’. If anyone were in any doubt about the magnitude of the crisis facing the world’s largest steel industry, listening to Zhu Jimin would put them right. Demand is collapsing along with prices, banks are tightening lending and losses are stacking up, the deputy head of the main steel mills’ group said in China on Wednesday. “Production cuts are slower than the contraction in demand, therefore oversupply is worsening,” said Zhu at a briefing by the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA). “Although China has cut interest rates many times recently, steel mills said their funding costs have actually gone up.” China’s mills – which produce half of the world’s steel – are battling against oversupply and sinking prices as local consumption shrinks for the first time in a generation. The fallout from the industry’s struggles is boosting trade tensions as China’s mills seek to sell their surplus overseas. “China’s steel demand evaporated at unprecedented speed as the nation’s economic growth slowed,” Zhu said. “As demand quickly contracted, steel mills are lowering prices in competition to get contracts.” Medium and large-sized mills incurred losses of 28.1 billion yuan (A$6.2 billion) in the first nine months of this year, according to a statement from CISA. Steel demand in China shrank 8.7 percent in September on-year, it said. Crude steel output in the country fell 2.1 percent to 608.9 million tonnes in the first nine months of this year, while outbound shipments jumped 27 percent to 83.1 million tonnes, according to official figures. Chinese steel mills face some of their worst conditions ever and the vast majority are losing money, Citigroup Inc. said in September. The outlook for mills in the country is the worst ever amid […]

https://www.nzpics.org.nz-Vishnu Rayapeddi Whenever we ask what supply chain is, we get different answers depending who we ask. Some say it is planning & purchasing or procurement and some say inventory management and some others may say it is logistics management. Yes all these correct answers. But there is much more! According to APICS (Association for Operations & Supply Chain Professionals, USA) dictionary, “Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR®) model” is “A process reference model developed and endorsed by the Supply Chain Council as the cross-industry, standard diagnostic tool for supply chain management. “The SCOR model describes the business activities associated with satisfying a customer’s demand, which include plan, source, make, deliver, and return. Use of the model includes analysing the current state of a company’s processes and goals, quantifying operational performance, and comparing company performance to benchmark data. SCOR has developed a set of metrics for supply chain performance, and Supply Chain Council members have formed industry groups to collect best practices information that companies can use to evaluate their supply chain performance”. In essence, the SCOR Framework is the world’s leading supply chain framework, linking business processes, performance metrics, practices and people skills into a unified structure. By deploying the SCOR framework at your organization you can: 1) Increase the speed of system, 2) Implement Support organizational learning goals, and 3) Improve inventory turns. Level 1 Processes included in SCOR are: Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, Return and Enable Level 1 Metrics included in SCOR are: a) Perfect order fulfilment, b) Order fulfilment cycle time, c) Upside supply chain flexibility, d) Upside supply chain adaptability, e) Downside supply chain adaptability, f) Overall value at risk, g) Total cost to serve, h) Cash-to-cash cycle time, i) Return on supply chain fixed assets, j) Return on working capital. So, how do we define […]