Manufacturing Technology

Science fiction of the last century now very close to reality

There’s no doubt that momentous change is underway and that there will be huge employment impact from the disruptive change. In the latest in the Future of Business series, MYOB explores the technological revolution that will transform the way we connect, relate and interact with one another. Yet, while we will have experienced a dramatic shift in the way we work by the 2040s, what might be even more remarkable is the increased value of the human experience. MYOB Chief Technical Advisor and futurist Simon Raik-Allen says, even with incredible advances in technology, people need to be together to truly be creative. “Right now, we’re on the cusp of what the World Economic Forum calls the fourth industrial revolution. There’s no doubt that momentous change is underway and that there will be huge employment impact from the disruptive change. But, like the last industrial revolution, it is more likely to enrich our experiences and provide more opportunities for meaningful work and exciting business.” Mr Raik-Allen believes that, rather than technology isolating or excluding people, it will bring them together. “It doesn’t matter how advanced our technology becomes, in the end, it will come down to people and values. The next revolution will lift humanity, embrace creativity and shape a world that empowers communities. People will always be at the centre of the business, and their experience will be more valued than ever.” “This is our vision at. We understand that business isn’t just business, it’s personal. Although we continue to design, innovate and advance our technology, ultimately it’s the human connection that enables our business and our clients to succeed. We’ve believed this for the last 25 years and we’ll be doing this for the next 25.” Looking back to look forward While not all the technologies promised for the […]

At last, effective job scheduling software for manufacturers

-By David Lawrence, Lean Manufacturing Consulting. I wrote this article in the hope it helps manufacturers and engineers with a far smarter and far better means of job scheduling. I have worked in the manufacturing industries as a Production Manager for most of my 30 year career. In the last six years I have also implemented Empower time tracking and factory productivity software in over 30 engineering businesses and 70 other manufacturing businesses throughout Australia and New Zealand. I am an independent contractor who works directly for engineers and other manufacturers. I myself have struggled with job scheduling with NO good software available until 2016. I have manually updated spreadsheets several times through the day to “rejig” the schedule, I have updated job lists on paper and on whiteboards and then held meetings with other management and factory staff through the day to communicate the revised schedule. Sound familiar ? In the last two years ‘Empower Job Scheduling’ has been re-built in the latest Cloud technology and it now works extremely well. This is a direct result of Empower implementing literally several hundreds of improvements suggested by many of our successful clients. Empower Software is a locally owned company and has been developed with NZ and Australian engineers and other manufacturers over 14 years, which has proved invaluable in the success of this development. Our Wish List at the start of the new Empower Job Scheduling Development included: 1 Must suit all forms of engineering, including general engineering, fabrication, sheet metal, structural, component manufacturing, trailers and all forms of agricultural and other equipment manufacturing. Must suit all businesses sizes from 6 factory staff to 100+ factory staff 2 Must allow Jobs and Tasks to be moved simply and quickly from one day to another by dragging and dropping within the […]

ARANZ Medical named Supreme Innovator of the Year

ARANZ Medical, a specialist in 3D scanning and informatics solutions for the healthcare sector, has been named the winner of the Bayer Supreme Innovator of the Year in the 2016 New Zealand Innovators Awards. The company was also named the winner of the Innovation in Technology Solutions category for its key innovations Silhouette and FastSCAN. Dr Bruce Davey, CEO of ARANZ Medical says, “This is a wonderful acknowledgement for our dedicated team who are passionate about developing innovative technology to help people heal people. We’ve replaced some of the most primitive processes in healthcare that hadn’t seen any innovation in decades with highly innovative and sophisticated yet easy-to-use medical technology.” ARANZ Medical’s 3D scanning and information solutions for skin and wound assessment transform clinical assessment processes, improve quality of care, and make healthcare more cost-effective. Key innovations include: Silhouette, an FDA-approved advanced wound surveillance system which supports precise and productive wound management in clinical practice and research; and FastSCAN which enables the custom-fit of orthotics and prosthetics. Dr Davey says, “We can help improve the lives of millions of people worldwide, including high risk groups such as diabetes sufferers and the elderly, by empowering healthcare providers to address challenging medical problems in wound care and orthotics/prosthetics. Silhouette and FastSCAN literally shed light on changes in the skin with a level of accuracy and ease that has not been possible before, so healthcare providers can make better-informed decisions that could lead to better healing outcomes.” The company’s technology is being used in over 35 countries in a range of settings from clinical researchers in rural Africa studying the Buruli ulcer, one of the most neglected tropical diseases, to the largest healthcare providers in the US and UK. Dr Davey says demand for their technology is being driven by diseases like diabetes, […]

Why modernise control platforms?

As products age and give way to new technologies, the need arises to proactively plan and manage the transition from existing equipment to leading-edge products and technologies. Automation components, software and systems represent major capital investments that are instrumental to the success of industrial operations. In the face of rapidly changing markets and technologies, the industrial enterprise must keep step to remain competitive. Today’s contemporary automation systems offer unprecedented advancements in performance, flexibility, and security, with the potential to provide a competitive edge. Technology continues to advance at a rapid rate, accelerated by the emergence of the Industrial Internet of Things and advances in enabling technologies, including data analytics, remote monitoring and mobility. Rockwell Automation continues to incorporate these latest technologies in control and automation platforms and although the PLC-5 programmable logic controller has been a valuable part of their portfolio for more than 30 years, no technology can last forever. Modern control systems provide a higher level of integration, driving improved asset utilisation, increased system flexibility and easy access to information. The high performance, Rockwell Automation ControlLogix platform delivers the capabilities to converge production disciplines (discrete, motion, process and safety), including extreme environments and high availability applications, into an integrated plant-wide architecture enabling a connected enterprise. Information shared between Information Technology (IT) and Operations Technology (OT) across a secure network enables: · Greater production visibility, for quicker response to customer demand · Higher profit margins through improved inventory management, cycle times and quality control · Improved capacity and asset utilization, leading to greater Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) · Regulatory compliance and reduced exposure to security risks Migrating to the ControlLogix family of programmable automation controllers (PAC) provides the platform to leverage advancements in technology, including improved access to information, more informed business decisions, faster performance for more throughput and […]

Image analysis system detects facilities failures

An image analysis system supports quality improvements and increased productivity by detecting signs of operational failures in production line facilities and deviations in worker activities on the front lines of manufacturing. The image analysis system is expected to be able to dramatically improve the in-process guarantee rate(1) for products through a transition from “representative point management” in quality assurance based on lots to “all point management” (continuous monitoring of the status of Man, Machine, and Material) based on individual product serial numbers. Furthermore, by shifting the role of on-site management supervisors from a focus on “after the fact” measures to the monitoring of trends and preventative measures using obtained image data, they will tie these activities into the prevention of failures before they occur. In recent years, mega-recalls in various industries have brought about a renewed awareness of the importance of accumulating and managing manufacturing performance data to identify the causes of product defects, and to implement countermeasures. In the advanced manufacturing workplaces of the future, it will be necessary to gather a wide range of work-related performance data, including manufacturing performance and inspection data and the results of visual checks by workers. It aims to reach new traceability by establishing mutual links among these different forms of product performance data. All of these will be achieved by introducing new manufacturing execution systems that incorporate IoT technologies. The image analysis system uses depth cameras to extract 3-D forms in order to measure worker activities, and obtains positional information on human joints, such as hands, elbows, and shoulders. Then, based on frontline interviews and observations, it derives standard behaviour models that exclude information not directly related to tasks (e.g., the length of arms and legs). Furthermore, it identifies deviations in worker activities by using statistical comparisons with those standard behaviour models. […]

Nautech, overcoming adversity through innovation

To be sustainable a business needs to be dynamic and continually evolve. It needs to innovate developing new product service offerings that can be taken to market. Long term contracts where a business relies on a small number of high value customers are fine. However, the impact of losing one or more of these key accounts is potentially catastrophic, particularly if the loss accounts for a significant proportion of a company’s revenue. Last year Nautech Electronics experienced such a scenario first hand. After 20 years of designing, developing and installing emergency lighting, power management and associated equipment in to New Zealand Police vehicles. The contract was lost and with it a substantial proportion of the company’s business. In many instances, such an event may have resulted in the loss of the entire business. However, after the dust settled it proved to be the point that Nautech Electronics transformed from being a product centric traditional manufacturing business into a lean, agile marketing led, Solutions provider building electronic and electromechanical sub-assemblies for some of New Zealand’s leading technology based exporters. Today assemblies manufactured by Nautech can be found in OEM products sold around the world. In business for over 25 years Nautech has always operated within a number of distinct market segments. Specialist vehicles, contract manufacturing and more recently race track control systems. With the loss of the police contract came the realisation that there was no other specialist vehicle fleet business anywhere else in NZ that came close in either fleet size or installation value. This meant that in order to survive and prosper the business needed to re-focus and change. Following a comprehensive review of the business and its market segments a strategic decision was taken to focus on developing and expanding its contract manufacturing division. With small but established […]

How new technology is changing market research

-Bill McMurray, Managing Director, Asia Pacific and Japan, Qualtrics The rapid evolution of technologies such as mobility, data analytics, and cloud computing, is changing the way organisations gain insight into their markets. This technology is making it easier for manufacturers to accelerate business decisions through insight gained from market research platforms. Of all the new technology making market research faster and more effective, mobility is one of the most important. Thanks to mobility, manufacturers researching their markets and products now have easier access to more detailed market feedback. With more than half of the New Zealand public now claiming access to the internet via smartphones, according to Nielsen’s 2015 New Zealand Multi-Screen report, mobile technology can give manufacturers a broad scope for connecting with consumers. The saturation of mobile devices also provides a useful mechanism to collect data in real-time with visual images and other multi-media content. This lets manufacturers monitor behaviour as it occurs, providing the opportunity to test or adapt products and services, marketing, and strategies instantly. Mobility, social media, and website intercepts provide increasingly-flexible platforms to find the right engagement methodology. Qualtrics recommends manufacturers consider six key elements of effective market research: Defined objectives Defining objectives is the first step to determining what the business wants to get out of the research, which questions to ask, and who should be involved in the process. If businesses don’t take time to work out their objectives, they may waste valuable resources without gaining any improvements. Include necessary definitions Not everybody understands certain titles and terms in the same way. To ensure all customers are on the same page and the results are accurate, businesses should include definitions at the beginning of the research survey, or attached to individual questions, depending on the layout of the survey. Make surveys easily […]

3D happy with EMEX

“We have been exhibiting at Emex for the past five years, with good results. However this year we had an outstanding success with multiple large orders for our new UP BOX 3d printers. The UP BOX allows customers to 3d print in a multitude of industry plastics, including wood! ” -Bruce Jackson, 3D Printing Systems https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSV1mpVnSUw

Networked Manufacturing

– Dieter Adam, CEO of the NZMEA The next wave of technological developments, described as Industry 4.0, have the potential to substantially change the nature of manufacturing, around the world and in New Zealand. Though its future and realities are uncertain, it could represent huge opportunities for those who can leverage technology, and risks if we cannot keep up. Take networked manufacturing. At the core of this is the idea that the physical elements on the factory floor – machines, tools, transportation systems and products are all networked; they can send data to a central control point and to each other and receive instructions from a central control point and from each other. Centralised monitoring and control of production equipment is not new – the interconnectivity of all elements and the potential to process and learn from large amounts of data, however, is new. This technology could give manufacturers the ability to monitor and record the performance of pretty much any tool or machinery on a production line in terms of each individual action. Beyond the immediate quality control, this will allow far-reaching retrospective analyses of potential mechanical failure when the cause of a vehicle accident is investigated, for example. Other uses could include fully autonomous local logistics, self-managing the flow of materials through a process line and factory, or physically attaching further-processing instructions to semi-finished products on a line (via RFID) to allow automatic variations within the production process. It will provide more flexibility to use input from other parties to define customisation without having to manually change tools or adjust production lines. At the macro level (systems level), Big Data systems will allow the analysis of ever more complex sets of data to identify and predict the occurrence of (rare) events. One of the most potent Big Data […]

Five steps to protecting Industrial Internet of Things infrastructure

1. Implement layer-7 inspection technologies for improved visibility Granular visibility of ICS protocols is a helpful step to increasing intelligence over data traffic. Linking this visibility to users and inspecting file-bearing applications is an essential part of this process. Next-generation firewalls employing advanced deep-packet inspection technology can help to deliver this capability. 2. Apply zero-trust network segmentation It is important to apply zero-trust rules with access allowed on a ‘least privilege’ basis, where users are given access only to the systems they need to carry out their duties. This approach can result in a marked reduction in the number of vectors that can be used by an attacker, while also providing better correlation between user and application. 3. Use modern tools for preventing zero-day attacks So-called zero-day attacks exploit previously unknown vulnerabilities in computer code to breach systems. Tools that can detect and prevent such threats at both the network and the endpoint levels are now essential for protection. A combination of malware ‘sandboxing’ solutions and advanced endpoint protection technology can help reduce the success of such attacks. 4. Secure mobile and virtual environments Mobile devices should be checked for proper configuration before being allowed to access the network and, once on the network, applications should be limited to reduce the potential attack vectors. For virtual environments, virtualised firewall technology should be used to provide better visibility to data traffic. 5. Use a cohesive security platform Many legacy ICS environments don’t have adequate security, and those that do often use security systems with point solution architecture. This can hamper performance, incident response, and administration. Next-generation firewall architecture, on the other hand, along with new models of centrally-connected endpoint security measures, support optimal operation and threat detection.

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Manufacturing Technology