Editorial

Filtration face off: Melt-blown fibres versus electrospun nanofibres

New research into the effectiveness of melt-blown fibres and electrospun nanofibres has found nanofibre filter media provides significantly increased protection against bacteria and viruses such as Covid-19. The research, conducted by Dr Fabrice Karabulut from Revolution Fibres in New Zealand, contrasts and compares nanofibre filtration with traditional melt blown filters in light of increased global demand for PPE and the future need for more effective face masks. Dr Karabulut says melt blowing, a commercially successful and low-cost process for producing filtration microfibres, produces fibres with diameters in the range of 1-10 micrometres. “The structure of a melt-blown filter is like a non-uniform fishing net. Its pores are 1-3 micrometres in diameter which are much larger than bacteria and viruses which are just 0.1 micrometres.” He says the diameters of nanofibre range from 10 – 300 nanometres, which is 10 – 100 times smaller than conventional melt-blown microfibres, meaning they are very effective in protecting against viruses such as COVID, bacteria and other toxic particles. “Electrospun nanofibre is characterised by a very large surface area and small pore diameter which significantly increases the probability of particles in the smaller, submicron and nanometre range depositing on the fibre surface – thereby improving filter efficiency.” Increased breathability and reusable Dr Karabulut’s research is contained in the White Paper Melt-Blown Fibres vs. Electrospun Nanofibres as Filtration Media which outlines the differences between nanofibre filtration capability and melt-blown filtration. As well as increased filtration performance, he also found the breathability and reusable nature of nanofibre made it superior to melt-blown filtration. “The current pandemic has amplified the need for masks to be reusable but retain effectiveness,” he says. “A recent study testing the reusability of melt-blown and nanofibre filters when cleaned with ethanol showed melt-blown filters were only effective for single use due to the […]

Seven things for business

Business needs seven key things from the next Government, according to BusinessNZ’s election manifesto. A Business View for the 2020 Election outlines businesses’ medium-term needs and desires, based on a survey- of over a thousand businesses across New Zealand. The manifesto shows businesses are focused on succeeding in the economic conditions arising from Covid and on building a strong new economy: 1. Focus on the economy: businesses say economic well-being should be NZ’s priority right now. 2. Plan for reopening the border: they want to see the border opened safely as soon as possible. 3. Build infrastructure: most want to see the next Government spending on significant infrastructure to boost economic recovery. 4. Manage resources better: businesses want better systems for the allocation, care, and development of natural resources to allow for growth. 5. Cut regulation: Government needs to reduce unnecessary regulation on small businesses. 6. Build skills: businesses are seeking highly developed skills and want to see more apprenticeships and technical training for tomorrow’s workforce. 7. Stay ambitious for sustainability: businesses know customers want appropriate environmental standards and view them as necessary to future-proof business. Chief Executive Kirk Hope said the manifesto gives a snapshot of how business is reacting to the current uncertain environment and where they want the focus of the new Government to be. “Clearly, businesses are concerned to see rapid economic recovery from the Covid situation. “They want the Government that takes power next month to have a strong focus on economic growth and wellbeing, and to regulate in a way that lets business help deliver it.” The BusinessNZ election manifesto is here on www.businessnz.org.nz -The Deloitte and Chapman Tripp BusinessNZ Election Survey canvassed the opinions of 1,193 businesses of all sizes in all parts of New Zealand during June 2020.

Collaboration and sector support builds sustainable supply chains

-Helen Down, Chief Executive, Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce The local manufacturing sector continues to play a critical role in ensuring New Zealand has resilient and sustainable supply chains. The Covid-19 operating environment has caused significant uncertainty and disruptions to the global supply of product and goods, and opened up new opportunities for local manufacturing to re-examine and refocus networks and flows, and create new connections across the sector to stabilise supply chain reliability. Without a doubt, if well supported by government policy, the manufacturing sector will play a key role in the long-term Covid-19 economic recovery, including with job creation. “When products and services are scarce, it is often harder for a small country like New Zealand to compete in terms of buying power on the world stage. Overseas suppliers often favour markets with higher demand.” Helen Down said. The disruption of the global pandemic exposed gaps, but also opened up opportunities. “The Chamber has seen a spike in enquiries coming in for new product development from companies who would otherwise have imported product from overseas with the disruption to shipping and air freight.” The Chamber is now actively promoting and supporting opportunities for greater collaboration in the manufacturing sector, as well as continuing conversations with government to seek greater support. “It will be important to be smart about manufacturing those things that are going to be harder to get due to Covid-19, and as a manufacturing sector, work together to create domestic manufacturing capability. “Many manufacturers have demonstrated their ability to adapt very quickly, refocus skills and resources, and scale up as needed, or create in-demand products quickly. “This can include identifying products we haven’t previously, or are not currently manufacturing, but where there is likely to be a high demand such as health products, masks, and ventilators,” […]

What is World Class?

By Ian Walsh, Managing Director, Intent Group What do we mean by world class? Over the last few years, I have facilitated business sessions on productivity with business leaders, based on this fundamental question. What I have found interesting is the majority of them don’t know what world class is. They believe it is something to aspire to, that is probably unachievable, but they can’t actually define what it is. Of course, it is different if you ask them what isn’t world class, or to describe the last world class experience they had. If you were to ask them to list examples of companies they would consider to be world class, I’m certain that a range of great restaurants, Air New Zealand, Apple and others, would populate these lists. World class is not about perfection, but rather beating or outperforming your competition in the important things that your customers care about and are willing to pay for. Why do people buy Toyotas? They are reliable (quality) and people pay more for them because of this. Toyota has figured out how to make cars cheaper and more reliable than anyone else by focusing on delivering this value. For perspective, Toyota identifies over one million improvements per year, or over six per employee, and over 90% of those improvements are implemented. How do you compare? Unfortunately, over the last 10 years, when posed the question whether they have asked their own customers why they choose them or what they value, 90% of SME’s responded that they did not know! Almost none of them have segmented their customers to figure out what the different customer segments value. As a result, they have misaligned systems and processes and are failing to deliver value as efficiently and productively as possible. Consider the value proposition of […]

Southern regions to become collaborative industrial powerhouse

Can Southland and Otago’s manufacturing engineering sector be the fastest growing and most competitive of its kind in New Zealand? Despite the challenges being thrown at the sector, the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) believes it can. SOREC has launched its capability mapping project to establish these two regions as an elite collective of engineers and manufacturers who are able to execute projects across numerous industries and fields. SOREC was established by industry for industry, to ensure the sustainability of engineering in Southland and Otago. It is an incubator for industry to work together by growing and sharing the pie. As New Zealand cautiously claws its way to recovery post-Covid-19, it’s the country’s regions that can feel the greatest impact. However, those regions also have significant potential to drive economic recovery. SOREC has a plan to help build on that potential, and now that plan is being put into action. During the next few months, the organisation will be conducting research and surveying the manufacturing engineering sector in the two regions, to create a comprehensive matrix of all the businesses that fall into this industry and mapping their capabilities. SOREC general manager Ceri Macleod said this would create a database of skills and a prospectus of sorts for Southland and Otago. “This will effectively show potential clients what we can do, how vast our breadth of knowledge and skills are, and the value we offer in working collectively,” she said. “It’s going to give the southern region the ability to put forward compelling business cases for large manufacturing engineering contracts, in sectors such as defence, transport, infrastructure and high-tech production by working collaboratively.” If international and national contracts could be filled from the south, then the growth of the industry would mean more jobs, greater investment in new technology, […]

Setting the pace: Starting a step change in construction performance

By Stephanie Pretorius, Senior Consultant, Intent Group Lean in construction is still well behind manufacturing in terms of uptake in New Zealand. There are some key factors affecting the pace of change, including lack of an industry standard for ‘what good looks like’. Construction has just begun to realise the potential benefit that comes from a focus on continuous improvement to processes, maximising customer value and improving throughput. How can construction pick up the pace and make sustained progress towards performance improvement? Construction is a collaborative industry that has a number of recognised issues. A joint initiative between Government and Industry was started last year in an effort to address known issues and kick-start closing the gap towards better performance. The 2019 Construction Accord sent a clear signal that sector transformation is needed over a three-year span with improved performance being the goal. Downer’s Transport Services Northern business is an excellent example showcasing ways to actively realise the intent of the Accord. One of the objectives of the Accord is to lift performance through better business management practices. Downer started an improvement journey in 2017 that was aimed at introducing better practice and creating a stable foundation for continuous improvement (CI). Their culture was transformed over the last three years as the business pursued CI with dedication and commitment. While it is still the beginning of their journey, they have made remarkable progress due to strong leadership and wide team engagement towards the new direction. The initial driver for the business was a step change in culture with a focus on continuous improvement to better protect intellectual property across core processes within the business. Setting an intention to be significantly different in three years, the Northern Leadership team embarked on a transformation journey. The goal was to develop the capability […]

Post-Covid-19 construction crunch – From survive to thrive

-Stephanie Pretorius, Intent Group New Zealand’s construction industry has been heavily disrupted since the arrival of Covid-19 to our shores. A relief package is now available, with the New Zealand Government investing heavily in the industry to the tune of $3B. Funded infrastructure projects include a significant amount of ‘shovel ready’ projects identified to support the short-term pipeline over the next 12 months. Despite extra funding, certain segments of construction are likely to still be negatively impacted. As an example, Auckland alone recently lost $500m from Council revenue budgets; the flow on effects are still to be determined. The funding pipeline may be affected for multiple years and there is risk of misalignment of capacity as funding may swing between years. The intent of the fast tracked ‘shovel ready’ projects is to quickly stabilise cashflow, as well as the pipeline for the industry, and to help construction survive in the short term. But how can we take this further and help construction to thrive in the long term? As a sector, construction has been ‘sailing close to the wind’ for a long time with tight margins and low productivity. The Construction Accord (Accord) has set the tone for the future, outlining goals for improved productivity, capability and resilience. Now is the time for industry players to take ownership of the direction for their own long-term sustainability. If improving productivity is an Accord goal – who will be the first to take bold action? Staking a claim to become excellent at what you do, and getting better every day, is going to pay dividends in terms of preferred supplier status, higher profitability, people retention and development, and ultimately long term survival. Many construction businesses took away lessons learnt from their Covid-19 experience as the ability to respond and adapt to trying […]

Business, Covid, and the 2020 election

Most businesspeople approve of the Government’s handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, but many are uncomfortable with New Zealand’s resultant debt. And business wants a plan for raising economic performance to deal with Covid fallout. The key findings of the Deloitte and Chapman Tripp Election Survey hosted by BusinessNZ- were presented at the virtual Deloitte and Chapman Tripp Election Conference hosted by BusinessNZ in Auckland today. This year’s survey shows a clear view by business that the Government has done well in its initial response to the Covid-19 situation. There are mixed feelings about whether the Government has spent the right amount on business support, but there is strong support for the wage subsidy and leave schemes. Looking ahead to the period of Covid- and post-Covid recovery, businesses want to see the Government focused on economic well-being, with a coordinated plan for recovery that includes building infrastructure. For the general business environment, businesses want to see the regulatory burden on business reduced, the RMA overhauled, and 90-day job trials allowed for all businesses. A large majority don’t want tax increases. Deloitte Chief Executive Thomas Pippos says, “The survey defines the areas of interest to New Zealand business. This year’s results show a clear focus for future governments, even with the high levels of uncertainty caused by Covid-19. “There is an understanding that as a country, we are dealing with an unanticipated and disruptive situation. Overall, survey results suggest there is general support for the actions taken by the Government to date in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic which is the key positive the Government can take from the survey findings.” Chapman Tripp Chief Executive Partner Nick Wells says, “With little sign of the pandemic easing in the short term, and an uncertain prospect of a vaccine, our collective focus needs to […]

Immigration changes “a great boost” to local businesses

Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Leeann Watson says businesses in Waitaha Canterbury will welcome the news that valued workers that have been stuck offshore will now have the opportunity to return to Aotearoa New Zealand. The announcement by Minister of Immigration Kris Faafoi will help new residents stuck offshore keep their residency status while Covid-19 travel restrictions remain in place. This means that individuals whose travel conditions are about to expire will receive a 12 month extension to travel to New Zealand, and those whose travel conditions have expired on or after 2 February 2020 (when travel restrictions began) will be issued a new visa, also valid for 12 months. “The announcement that visa holders that are normally resident here and have retained their job can apply for a border exemption is a great boost to local businesses,” says Ms Watson. “Sectors right across the region have felt the impact of the loss of these workers, many of whom hold essential positions in their workplaces. Employers have indicated that many projects have been delayed or negatively impacted in infrastructure, health, and telecommunications without these critical workers. “Many of these visa holders have lived in New Zealand for years and make a strong contribution to our communities. “This is a really positive step towards establishing a balance between efficient border management controls and the importance of allowing the movement of people into the country for our economic recovery. It also provides businesses with a degree of certainty around this issue during what continues to be a very challenging and unsettling time.”

Applications open for ATNZ Apprentice of the Year 2020

The country’s largest employer of mechanical engineering apprentices, Apprentice Training New Zealand (ATNZ) is excited to announce applications are now open for their highly coveted Apprentice of the Year Award. ATNZ General Manager Susanne Martin said the award is open to all apprentices in their second year or more of mechanical engineering training who have signed a current training agreement with ATNZ and recognises the skills and talent of an exceptional all-rounder. This is the third year of the awards for ATNZ, a not-for-profit group training organisation that employs more than 340 engineering apprentices and places them with host companies around New Zealand. “This award celebrates an ATNZ apprentice who is not only a high performer thriving in their apprenticeship, but also has an outstanding attitude. They are proactive in their work, particularly around health and safety, and show obvious enjoyment in what they do,” Ms Martin said. Along with being crowned ATNZ Apprentice of the Year, the winner will receive $1,000 of tools and a $1,000 JBHiFi voucher – doubling the value of the prize pool of previous years. Ms Martin said applications come from across all spheres of the engineering trade. She believes the unprecedented challenges of 2020 will have further spotlighted extraordinary future tradies. “Every year we’re blown away by the calibre of applications, and the obvious talent we are nurturing as we grow the next generation of Kiwi tradespeople. With the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, now more than ever, we need success stories to celebrate. We know during the lockdown and restart, what assets our apprentices have been to our host companies. That’s why we ask host companies to recognise the valuable contribution they have made to their workplaces and encourage their learners to apply,” Ms Martin said. Applications must be received by no later […]

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