Editorial

Choose applications relevant to your needs

From NZ Manufacturer, October 2023 -Adam Sharman, Senior Partner, dsifer As organisations look to embrace the benefits of digitisation through automation, IoT and AI, a trend is emerging that embraces the growing availability, specificity and cost effectiveness of a plug-and-play approach to developing an IT and data architecture. Advances in functionality, connectivity and speed to deployment have resulted in the ability to pick and choose applications that are relevant to the specific requirements of the organisation’s industry, operations and environment at a time when the vast majority of IT professionals report significant time waste due to bloated, generic applications. Whilst this trend towards a plug-and-play system architecture has multiple benefits, it requires careful consideration of the underpinning data architecture to ensure that, not only are data privacy and sovereignty maintained but that the data generated by the plug-and-play ecosystem is collected and utilised as a performance and strategic asset. In our interactions with manufacturing businesses in New Zealand and the UK, we are seeing the importance of establishing an independent, centralised data architecture as an enterprise asset to support the plug-and-play IT architecture, receiving data feeds from the operational systems, and using a combination of these source datasets to create meaningful and actionable insights. There is still much debate on the relative benefits of physical centralisation (data lakehouse) versus a virtually centralised (data mesh). In our experience, both have their place depending on the organisation’s context. However, the key characteristic of the data architecture that supports a plug-and-play IT approach are that the data assets, architecture and governance are independent of the IT applications, data siloes are removed to support integrated enterprise insight and access points are decoupled to accelerate collaboration whilst maintaining data integrity. Organisations who have adopted this approach report multiple benefits, including: Enhanced Data Governance and […]

2022- A Year in Review for HERA

-Dr Troy Coyle 2022 was possibly the most successful year for HERA in its over 40-year history. This was certainly the case for research grant success and strengthening our research capability for the manufacturing and construction sectors. Decarbonisation In 2022, we at last launched our zero carbon steel program Hōtaka Whakakore Puhanga Waro (mo te Hua Rino). This program allows zero carbon steel to be specified, with credible offsets certified by Ekos. The offsetting requirements are based on credible life cycle analysis and Environmental Product Declarations and offer additionality (i.e. they reliably lead to reduced net carbon) through nature positive offsetting via planting and regeneration of native forests that offer biodiversity and local employment benefits. This program offers zero carbon options for most steel products used in New Zealand, including stainless steel, rebar, roofing and cladding, light gauge and structural steel. This comprehensiveness, reliability and independence makes it a first of its kind globally. We also commenced development of Australasia’s first material passport. This work will see steel re-use at end of life be supported and we hope that once developed, this can be rolled out across many building materials. This will make buildings become “banks of materials”, where materials can be “withdrawn” and re-used. This has obvious carbon benefits. Manufacturing industry support I continue to be engaged with key developments in the manufacturing sector, joining the Advisory Board for the Advanced Manufacturing Industry Transformation Plan and co-sponsoring the Innovation and Sustainability workstreams. I also was re-elected to the role of Co-Chair of Hanga-Aro_Rau, the Workforce Development Council for Manufacturing, Engineering and Logistics. HERA was also one of only two international partners in the newly created $260 million Australian-based Sovereign Manufacturing Automation for Composites Capability Cooperative Research Centre (SoMAC). Leading the way for Construction 4.0 HERA was awarded $10.3 million […]

Upper Hutt manufacturer investing in the future

-Rebecca Reed What started as a small operation out of a shipping container up the back of Kiwi Point Quarry in Ngauranga Gorge, Wellington, has turned into quite the success story for manufacturer Real Steel. Fast forward twenty years later, the company employs more than 100 people and proudly operates out of a 8500 square metre factory site in Upper Hutt. The manufacturing business imports steel out of Sweden and other countries to make steel parts for road transport, forestry, and recycling industries. It also produces a lot of steel for building truck trailers, wear parts, and materials for processing machines. This growth experienced by the company, a family run business, comes down to high employee satisfaction, innovation, and quality service for the customers it serves nationwide, according to owner and Managing Director Luke Mathieson. “We’ve put a lot of effort into focusing on our systems, the traceability of our parts and the way we work with our customers because at the end of the day it all boils down to getting parts out to the customer on time, and being a good, solid trusted supplier.” Real Steel’s efforts were recognised recently at the Wellington Regional Business Awards where they were presented with the Hall of Fame Award, a unique award which recognises and celebrates those enduring businesses that have made significant contributions to the economic and social fabric of Hutt Valley. The awards are given to business who have consistently exhibited excellence in a resilient and sustainable manner over a proven length of time. Investing in innovations With an eye to the future, Mathieson says the company has invested in several innovations including developing and building their own systems and machinery to manage the volume of parts in the factory as a result of rapid growth. “We have thousands […]

Industrial Tube celebrates a decade in the stainless tube market

Industrial Tube general manager Ian Foster. New Zealand’s leading tube manufacturer is celebrating another company milestone, achieving 10 years in the stainless precision tube market. Waikato-based Industrial Tube entered the stainless market in 2013 when it purchased machinery and stock from Stainless Tube Mill. Reflecting on the journey, Industrial Tube general manager Ian Foster says the company has made great progress and achieved a huge amount in 10 years. “Initially, we operated the stainless mills in Auckland, and then in 2014, added a purpose-built extension for the new stainless plant to our existing facility here in Hamilton,” he says. “Once the Auckland machinery refurbishment was completed and functioning, we installed a second polisher and added a larger mill from STM Australia. This enabled us to produce 5, 6 & 8-inch tube, all requiring considerable effort to ensure we had the right equipment, capability and capacity to support our customers.” In 2017, Industrial Tube’s mill team shifted their focus to efficiency, adjusting the plant to enable the production of regular sizes and lengths of tube up to 20 metres, and polishing up to 12 metres, which the company continues to offer today. “Most recently, we commissioned an internal polisher for the larger sizes of tube, which was designed and built by our internal engineering team. Combined with our BLM LT7 3D tube laser cutter, we are now able to produce almost any requirement in the market,” says Mr Foster. “We are seeing real benefits from this, recently being awarded two large contracts for stainless steel components, involving several of our processing solutions,” he adds. Throughout Industrial Tube’s journey, Foster says the team has strived for quality, and at times, have had to supply replacement products when they missed the mark. “We have always stood by our service promise, which is the […]

Winstone Wallboards uses circular economy to reduce carbon emissions in plasterboard

-thinkstep-anz Circular economy thinking is helping Winstone Wallboards (WWB) reduce carbon in Aotearoa New Zealand’s built environment. Around 15% of our country’s greenhouse gas (carbon) emissions relate to our buildings. Knowing that construction waste contributes heavily to these emissions, WWB set itself a challenge. WWB manufactures plasterboard under the GIB® brand. It is New Zealand’s only manufacturer of this product. The company wanted to reduce plasterboard wasted in construction across New Zealand by 30% without changing the design of its product. Its Designing out Waste programme (supported by the Ministry for the Environment, Canterbury Joint Waste Committee, Auckland Council, WasteMINZ, AUT and BRANZ) and circular economy practices have helped WWB reduce waste, emissions, costs and business risks and build relationships and the resilience in the industry. The circular economy The circular economy changes how we produce and consume goods. It designs out waste and pollution, keeps products and materials in use, and regenerates natural systems. In a circular economy, sending construction waste to landfill is a ‘leakage’ from the product’s ‘system’ (the processes involved in converting inputs to outputs). Identifying five carbon ‘hotspots’ in plasterboard Our thinkstep-anz team helped WWB identify five ‘hotspots’ of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) for construction waste across their product’s lifecycle. The diagram below shows the emissions created when the manufacturer makes and transports its product to its customers, and when its customers use and dispose of the plasterboard. The emissions these activities release are examples of ‘embodied carbon’ in building products. The link between all these sources of emissions? Waste. Circular economy: designing out waste on building sites On an average residential building site, around 23% of all materials, including 700kg of plasterboard waste, end up in a skip bound for landfill (source: Wastage Rate Report (Construction Resources and Waste Platform), REBRI – BRANZ). Much […]

How to successfully deliver your CRM project with Clarity, Simplicity and Certainty.

-Scott Fuller, Xception This is the third in a series of six articles looking at how to successfully deliver your CRM project. Taking the time to look past the functional capability offered by a company will determine if you want a Partner or a Vendor. There are very good reasons to purchase your CRM solution from a Vendor, implement it asap and then just pay the Licence Fees for the term of the Agreement. Full Stop!! There are however more and far better reasons to look ahead to see how your full CRM ecosystem (Refer to Article 2 in this series) will support the evolution and growth of your business in the long term and how valuable a Partner can be. The behaviours of your Partner, vs a Vendor, are highlighted in Table 1 below. In short, a Vendor will give you exactly what you asked for and how you can leverage the generic capability and services. A Partner will take the time to understand your business, as well as technology, requirements and use them to drive out the right solutions. Project Factors Partner Vendor Shared Vision Drives the program Fits it to the tool Detailed Requirements Designs solutions Presents capability Functional Fit Customises for purpose Allows configuration Acceptance Testing Fully involved Facilitates how-to Training & Support Personalised / Periodic Modular / Static Resources – Time & $$$ Quoted / Evolves Fixed / Inflexible Table 1 – Partner vs Vendor So before starting your search for the right CRM, start by deciding the characteristics of your Partner, or Vendor. Will you deal directly with Vendor or via an implementation Partner? Either way, how do want to engage, what involvement do you expect, what services will you require to compliment your in-house resources? Is it more cost effective to pay an […]

Computer Recycling

If we want to create business solutions that better serve the environment, we need to shift our manufacturing mindset from take, make, waste – to reduce, return, reuse. This circular economy mindset, whereby products can be endlessly used through continuous business systems, is what gave birth to Computer Recycling. Computer Recycling is Aotearoa’s leading electronic waste recycler, recycling more that 4.8 million kilograms of waste since it was bought by Managing Director, Patrick Moynahan in 2018. Patrick took out a loan and used his personal savings to purchase and consolidate Computer Recycling into what it is today. The company’s goal is to eliminate electronic waste from the country’s landfills by actively engaging in sustainable recycling and reuse practices – a mission focused on driving Aotearoa’s circular economy. The average Kiwi produces 20kg of e-waste per year, which is one of the highest amounts per capita on Earth. That’s around 80,000 tonnes of e-waste per year – estimates suggest that a mere 2% of it is recycled. A lot of people don’t consider what happens to electronics, or waste in general, once it’s in the bin. It’s trickier for e-waste given it contains toxic plastics and metals which can harm our environment. That’s why it’s important e-waste is properly disposed of, and where applicable, recycled. For businesses, it’s one thing to manufacture and sell a product, but there needs to be equal consideration for what happens to that product at the end of its life. Businesses need to be responsible for a product’s entire lifecycle. It’s their responsibility to ensure products are disposed of / recycled properly, and they need to educate customers on appropriate disposal habits as part of that. At Computer Recycling, e-waste is both refurbished and recycled. Once the e-waste is gathered, it’s then brought back to Computer […]

A powerful recipe for innovation & growth

Greg Balla, CEO, Aofrio. Adding software to hardware – AoFrio is a New Zealand technology leader that few local people know about. With deep manufacturing and hardware roots, the company has decades of experience supporting food and beverage companies around the world with their refrigeration. Now, the business has innovated beyond hardware and invented the world’s first Internet of Things (IoT) platform for commercial refrigeration. The combinations of hardware, like motors and fans, and smart IoT-enabled refrigeration controllers and sensors help customers sell more products, save costs, track assets, gain insights to do business better and save on energy and carbon emissions. AoFrio is growing into a hardware-enabled, software as a service (SaaS) provider. It’s their pathway to lifting recurring revenue (because they sell their solution ongoing to customers), to expanding in existing markets and exploring new regions around the world. But the path to getting there has been long and not without its challenges. In the words of Greg Balla, CEO of AoFrio: From where I sit now, it’s easy to see a future where hundreds of millions of refrigerators around the world are connected to AoFrio’s platforms, giving us data to drive powerful, purposeful outcomes for customers. But there are many moments in AoFrio’s history that plotted the way to becoming the company we are today. We’re now in the position where we can couple our hardware abilities with software and data-driven insights to give clear customer insights and actions that are impactful to their bottom line. One of the turning points for us is around 2012. The company was tired of purely competing on price. Deciding instead to design the best refrigeration motor in the world. We set a goal that our electronically controlled motor would be better than the competition in every single respect. Most […]

Comvita’s Harmony Plan: sustainability strategy built on purpose and values

Comvita’s ambitious sustainability strategy, its Harmony Plan, is guiding the Bay of Plenty-based manufacturer to ‘leave the world in a better place’. The global market leader in Mānuka honey and bee consumer goods set out, almost 50 years ago, to work in harmony with bees and nature in New Zealand, to heal and protect the world. From the beginning, the company’s aim has been to help people feel better and live well. The Harmony Plan – an interconnected ecosystem Comvita has identified where it can have the most impact and has built its sustainability plan around four cornerstones. The company aspires to be a leader in climate action, act as kaitiaki (guardians) for bees, restore balance in nature, and invest in its people and communities. ‘The Harmony Plan reflects the commitment we hold ourselves to. To be successful, we have to deliver positive outcomes for all our stakeholders,’ says Heather Johnston, Comvita’s Head of Safety and Sustainability. Comvita’s tips for making progress on sustainability Heather is keen to share Comvita’s experience to help other manufacturers make progress. She offers this advice. Understand your ‘why’ Start by identifying your purpose. Why are you in business? Link this purpose to everything you do: how you produce, package and market your products, how you train your team and build your culture, how you manage your supply chain. For the team at Comvita, the ‘why’ was simple. They want to heal and protect the world by working in harmony with bees and nature. Focus on what matters – from the start Making progress on sustainability is about tackling the right things at the right time. “Don’t go for the ‘shiny’ things,”says Heather. “Keep purpose at the core, prioritise what matters most and where you can have an enduring, positive impact – in your business […]

Q&A: Leigh Richardson, former co-owner,Auldhouse

You are a former co-owner of Auldhouse and have been with the company for over two decades now, which is a fantastic achievement. How have you seen the business grow and evolve during this time and what role have you played in this? I have experienced a lot of change. Auldhouse was created by a husband-and-wife team over 35 years ago, sold into BlueStar Group and then became part of Wang, later known as Gen-i. Gen-i was sold to Telecom NZ, which in due course became Spark, before the shareholders executed a management buyout 9 years ago. And of course, we have now been acquired by DDLS. It’s been fascinating to partner with many vendors such as AWS, Microsoft, Cisco, Citrix, VMware and Red Hat, and see how the market has adopted their technologies over time, for example, during the shift from on-prem to cloud. It’s also been incredibly exciting to lead the evolution of training delivery since the pandemic. Traditionally, Auldhouse was an in-person training organisation with a small (but expanding) online delivery solution. We were forced to pivot to a complete online delivery format during the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns. This format proved to be extremely successful and still accounts for a large percentage of our delivery now. The adoption of virtual training has opened many new training opportunities for our customers. What is the secret to staying with a business for so long and what do you specifically enjoy about working with Auldhouse so much? The secret for anyone in any role is change, diversity and tangible results for you, your team, and your customers. I have been lucky to have held roles in Auckland, Wellington and Sydney and of course being an owner for 8 years brings even more challenges and rewards. We have an incredibly […]

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