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The sky’s the limit for growing Hutt Valley manufacturer

A high-tech design and manufacturing company based in the Hutt Valley is taking on the world while nurturing the region’s young talent. Times-7 designs and manufactures radio frequency identification antennas, otherwise known as RAIN (UHF) RFID. Founded in 2006,the company has established itself as a leading company in the global RFID market, exporting its products worldwide. Jos Kunnen, CEO and Managing Director, is committed to sustainable manufacturing in the Hutt Valley, saying, “this is the perfect place to be with other businesses around us that can support our growth and ambitions.” As uncertain as the future seemed when Covid-19 emerged, Jos says demand has skyrocketed due to an expanding market for RFID products. “We export almost everything we make, so we rely heavily on what happens in the rest of the world, especially North America and Europe.” When the first wave of covid-19 hit the US and Europe, projects stopped because no one could install products in retail stores, factories, or warehouses. Orders slowed, and supply chains became stressed and unpredictable. “Many companies suddenly realised they were not accurately tracking their inventory. They had to figure out how much stock they had but couldn’t get into their warehouses to check due to lockdown. They needed automation, so the demand for RFID products soared.” Last year, Times-7 celebrated its 15th year in business and is well-positioned for growth. Before Covid-19, companies were already piloting or deploying RFID; however, they realised they needed to speed up the implementation process. “This has driven demand. We are a part of a global RAIN Alliance group, and there are reports of others in our industry also experiencing significant growth. For context, the annual number of UHF RFID tagged items has risen from 21 billion to 28 billion over the last year. “All these tags need […]

Getting back on track

It is very good news that the country is now in Orange and flexibility around people gathering allows business to breathe a sigh of relief. We can only go up from here! As a nation – as a business nation – we have been wrapped up in Covid cotton wool for so long that many businesses closed and others will not get back to previous levels of performance. And of course, we don’t have enough skilled people for the work at hand at present and the continual threat of OE and crossing the ditch for better financial reward means it will be years before New Zealand can get back on a firm financial footing. Into the black…if at all. Keeping all the balls in the air is a challenge for this small economy, with so much demand on government finances to maintain existing systems. Closing down the country during Covid may have worked for health and safety but certainly not for business. One could argue that an amount of money needs to be spent on skilled workers, both internal and from overseas, (some will come back) to help realign the economy. Decent rates of pay so that effort is rewarded and a real incentive for improving productivity and efficiency. Keeping in mind, of course, that supply chain issues affect movement of goods, affect productivity, just as it does the current demand for New Zealand products. Changing markets, changing times. This government is going to have to live with their decision to halt the good work of so many businesses for the rest of their lives. It will haunt them to know that those who had, suddenly, had not. To arbitrarily decide who trades and who doesn’t – not based on their own personal business experience – was always going to […]

It’s all in the data

-Ian Walsh, Managing Director, Intent Group I thought I’d follow on from my pre-Christmas article “What gets measured gets managed” with the next step in continuous improvement: data analysis. This can sound ominous but how you design and implement your analytics is critical to success. Before starting to improve performance and productivity you need to identify and understand the losses and wastes associated with your process. For production lines this could be lost time, lost speed, yield losses, giveaways, lost labour, or downtime by key equipment. Ideally, this information should be grouped by cause such as planned downtime (changeovers, meetings), quality losses or rework, or some other cause. A good data system should tell you major losses, and their resulting impact and frequency. And it will be able to slice this information by shift, by day, or by any other time period you need. This data is essential to understand the nature of the loss, establish the source of the loss and then work on the approach to fixing it and futureproofing it and other systems in your workplace. At a simplistic level, this is the role data plays in your work: find, analyse, fix, prevent. It’s worth noting at this point that your data analysis can be done manually and using spreadsheets – in fact this is a position that many businesses starting to dip their toes into the data analytics pool find themselves in, but there are much better tools available now that really ought to be used. The future (and ideally present) of data analysis is in tailored Internet of Things (IoT) software where you can plug your raw data and it tells you, in real-time rather than retroactively, the story that you need to know, for fixing and optimizing processes. Why wait until the end of […]

Tough conditions see SMEs seeking new government leadership

More than two thirds of local SMEs believe the economy will decline in the coming year Dissatisfaction with Government performance sits at 60% National’s Christopher Luxon leads preferred PM poll by 17 points Low economic confidence underpinned by revenue struggles, profitability declines, rising inflation, and the lingering impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, is prompting more local SME owners and decision makers to seek a change in the country’s leadership, according to new data from the 2022 MYOB Business Monitor. The nationwide survey of over 1,000 SME owners and managers – running annually since 2009 – highlighted that confidence in the economy was approaching levels last seen during the first outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020, with large numbers of SMEs reporting falling revenue and slowing quarterly activity. More than two thirds (68%) of local SMEs believe the New Zealand economy will decline in the next 12 months. Over a quarter (29%) expect that decline to be significant, while in contrast just 16% of SMEs believe the economy will improve over the coming year. MYOB Head of Go-to Market, Jo Tozer, explains that the steep decline in SME confidence follows a perfect storm of conditions negatively affecting business operations. “If we just look back over the past six months, SMEs have had to navigate a tough second half of 2021, worsening supply chain disruptions and inflationary pressures, and a new Covid-19 outbreak hampering operations and staffing abilities in the first few months of this year,” says Jo. “It was concerning when we saw the proportion of SMEs saying they expected the economy to decline reach 55% in October last year – up from 41% in March, but these latest confidence numbers are even more worrying. “With the exception of when Covid-19 initially reached our shores and we entered the first […]

Industry 4.0 in Focus

From NZ Manufacturer magazine – April issue. -Bob Hawley, Managing Director, Red Steel Limited HERA member Red Steel had its foundations laid in the 1960s as a building company specialising in steel construction. It was officially formed in November 2002 before purchasing Woolaway Steel Structures in January 2003. Red Steel specialises in structural steelwork and undertakes contracts predominantly in the lower North Island of New Zealand from its purpose-built facility in Pandora, Napier constructed in 2015. HERA spoke to Managing Director Bob Hawley about the future of steel, the impact of Industry 4.0 and some of the challenges and opportunities the company is facing. How are you finding current business conditions? Getting work is not an issue. The challenge going forward is the planning to ensure we have the resources required to fulfil our clients’ requirements. Often we are fabricating projects before they are needed because we have the time to fabricate it now, whereas we can see in two months’ time, for example, when a client might need the job, we haven’t got the fabrication capacity. This goes against the ‘just in time’ manufacturing process but becomes necessary as construction programmes are constantly changing. Also impacting are the other trades that have constraints with material supply – we might be on programme but the project gets delayed whereas another project hasn’t. It is a big juggling act. How has your company been impacted by the pandemic? The lockdowns had a large impact, but at the moment it is probably harder. With lockdowns all trades stop working and projects just start again from where they left off. Everyone is in the same boat. At one point recently we were nearly a third of the staff down so our fabrication output was reduced but work continues on site and we are […]

SAP research finds cultivating curiosity helps Kiwi businesses retain talent

A curious workplace culture contributes to attracting and retaining talent, by increasing engagement and reducing burnout among employees. SAP has found New Zealand companies that foster a more curious culture* experience major competitive benefits, including higher levels of employee satisfaction and engagement according to new research released today. ‘Capitalising on Curiosity’ , a survey of senior business leaders and employees across Australia and New Zealand, found that employees in New Zealand who work for organisations with a curious culture are much more likely to say they are satisfied in their current role (82 per cent) than those who do not work for curious organisations (46 per cent). Dr Amantha Imber, organisational psychologist and founder of behavioural science consultancy Inventium, says that job satisfaction is affected by how people think and feel about their role. “When people are satisfied in their role at work, they’re more engaged, productive and loyal to the organisation. Those working in curious organisations are more likely to feel their work has purpose and more likely to be more creative and innovative, which results in better performance and better outcomes.” Curiosity boosts engagement Innovative approaches to ways of work and recruitment are more critical than ever. Eight in ten senior business leaders in New Zealand believe a culture of curiosity is important for their organisation, a number that increases slightly to 82 per cent when factoring in the need to adapt and grow in the current challenging business environment. New Zealanders working at organisations with a curious culture are much more likely say they feel engaged at work in their current role than those who say they work in incurious organisations (84 per cent compared to 49 per cent). And in today’s tight labour market, almost half of employees surveyed (48 per cent) would consider leaving their […]

Irene Kaur one of the women changing the engineering industry

Kiwi electrical engineer Irene Kaur is by any measure breaking new ground. The STEM movement – now active in education sectors in many countries – is designed to attract more girls and women to fields that have traditionally been defined and dominated by men. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics have in the past had a lack of appeal to females as a career opportunity, due to it being seen as a male-dominated field, lack of awareness and promotion as a viable career opportunity for woman As of today, the percentage of female graduates in electrical engineering at the University of Auckland shows the imbalance still remains persistent: 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 % female 16% 24% 16% 24% 29% Part 4 -female 10 18 9 10 16 Part 4 -male 52 58 49 31 40 There are only four female chief executives on the NZX50, and according to one of them, Spark’s Jolie Hodson, the tech sector has roughly a 70:30 male to female skew. In light of the clear inequity, many organisations are taking it upon themselves to look at how they can better support females and diversity in the workplace, including looking at key initiatives like flexibility, equal opportunities, ongoing training and support. Schneider Electric has been named as one of the 25 companies engineering students most want to work for, based on a global survey (conducted September 2020 to May 2021) by Universum of 84,000 students from 10 of the world’s biggest economies – the list ranks Schneider Electric alongside the likes of Pfizer, Apple, Google and Microsoft. Part of the attraction is creating a culture and ethos that are welcoming to women, and Kiwi electrical engineer Irene Kaur (pictured) is by any measure breaking new ground – but she doesn’t see herself as knocking down barriers for women […]

Meeting manufacturing’s cyber security challenges

Scott Leach, Vice President APJ at cybersecurity firm Varonis In February 2021, Security Intelligence reported a 156 per cent increase in ransomware attacks on manufacturers worldwide.Some of the biggest attacks included a demand for $US17 million from a Taiwanese laptop maker and another attack for $US34 million from an electronics manufacturer for Apple. Verizon’s 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report also found the manufacturing sector facing a significant increase in ransomware attacks. These accounted for 61.2 per cent of all breaches in the sector analysed by Verizon. None of these reports offered any reason for this surge in attacks on manufacturers. Still, it has been well-reported that the increasing interconnection of legacy operational technology (OT) and newer information technology (IT) systems has greatly increased the attack surface for manufacturers. OT can now be compromised to gain access to IT, and vice versa. To make matters worse, OT systems were historically isolated from the internet and therefore were not designed to face cyberattacks. Manufacturers must double down on security, and ensure their data is protected and managed safely. This is particularly important for customer data and intellectual property, which could be extremely valuable to a rival organisation. Taking a data-centric approach to security Traditional security measures rely on a ‘walled garden’ approach. Anyone within the walled garden–i.e., employees, contractors and those granted network access–are automatically assumed to be trustworthy, and not verified. Instead, a data-centric approach utilises a zero-trust model, where no-one is assumed to be trustworthy and every access attempt to sensitive data is verified. Typically, the identity of the accessor, the device they are using, their location and the data they are seeking access to are all checked against pre-authorisations. There are plenty of technology solutions available to implement a zero-trust policy. The hard part for any large organisation that […]

The Factory Ceiling

-Georgina Fenwicke, Tell Frankie There is much to discuss about the Factory floor and for good reason. The operational layout, the transport plan, proximity to the inwards and outwards doors, the racking config. All of these drive greater productivity and operational efficiency in a building. However, little is often mentioned about the Factory ceiling. Long run steel roofing. Bitumen. Tiles. Clearlite. There’s a real mix of roofing products used in New Zealand’s Manufacturing facilities. For Operations managers and manufacturers, the Factory Ceiling is one of the biggest capital risks and value add areas. Consider the following opportunities: Increasing the roof height for an extra rack of space – occupancy of Industrial property is at all time highs as supply chains Regular maintenance of the roof – preventatively maintaining your roof profile is just smart business. It protects against Leaks and product damage Dust build up and contamination of product Longer life and depreciation costs spread out over a longer period of time Frankie is an Operations Control Centre where your teams can get on the same page around building and machinery maintenance. Property Operations is a mix of Asset and Facilities management, a holistic function that controls and allocates capital (CAPEX) and operating expenses (OPEX). A day in the life of a factory manager is a moveable feast. There are issues that crop up every morning that need to be solved quickly – a roof leak, flooding, a broken door, the lift isn’t working. There’s also the backlog of scheduled works and Inspections to be coordinated that week. Annually, there’s a need to plan budgets, review the condition of major areas of the building and review the quality of service contracts. Factory and Operations are facing a number of challenges in 2022: Availability of parts: Supply chain challenges for machinery […]

Technologies enable smart factories to self-adapt

By Jarrod Kinchington, Infor ANZ vice president and managing director Judging by the headlines, continuous logistics issues, continued pandemic restrictions, and rising prices for raw materials will mean that manufacturers have their work cut out for 2022. In addition, the drive towards sustainability is adding pressure to readjust the manufacturing footprint. Most manufacturers are still stuck with a geographic footprint, which was driven by labour arbitrage around the globe, rather than by factors such as closeness to customers or ecological concerns. To increase efficiency, many producers have started to implement Industry 4.0 technologies. Industry 4.0 came with the promise of a smart factory being profitable at the production lot size of one unit. The concept was introduced at the brink of the millennium change with the introduction of cyber-physical systems to share, analyse and guide intelligent actions for various processes in the industry to make the machines smarter and to lower downtime. Analytics can also be used for other aspects like logistics, demand forecasts, production scheduling and quality control, capacity utilisation and efficiency boosting. But we still stand at the beginning for leveraging the true potential of Industry 4.0. Smart technologies offer no less than the possibility to redesign the global manufacturing footprint, to position factories closer to markets, reduce logistics nightmares and increase visibility of the ecosystem partners, including suppliers and customers. There are six important ingredients for a strategy to create the future-proof smart factory: Customers increasingly demand highly personalised products as well as an enhanced customer experience. Manufacturing companies adopt highly agile cloud-based solutions to gain the ability to increase individualisation, service additions, and serve higher flexibility requirements. The need to reduce delays and transport costs, as well as the drive toward a more sustainable production and the imperative to reduce the distance to the physical end-consumer […]

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