Manufacturing Technology

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 […]

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 […]

A three dimensional panoramic view of the turquoise spring Kiikunlahde in Hollola, Finland in a mini planet panorama style.

Sustainable Technologies in 2022

At the core of sustainability are cost savings which has led economists and environmentalists to see eye-to-eye on the long-term benefits of sustainable practices in business. RS Components value both the environment and energy conscious design. In addition to their global support of the environment initiatives of Engineers Without Borders, the RS library of accessible consumer materials cover everything from tech-articles to product-selection guides on the most environmentally-economic products on the market. Their commitment to keeping their RS Components customers up-to-date on sustainable product trends compelled them to launch a webinar – Sustainable Technologies in 2022. A panel of experts from the leaders in industry include Schneider Electric, Fluke, Phoenix Contact, ABB and RS PRO who will discuss how business can become more sustainable in operations. Join the Sustainable Technologies in 2022 seminar by clicking on the link below to register: https://au.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=sustainable-technology&cm_mmc=AU-PR-_-IUPAU_20220323-_-DTC_203_0322_APAC-_-Sustainability_edm And add this date in your diary 12PM Thursday 7th April 2022 All attendees who stay until the end of the session will receive a FREE e-Gift Card valued at $20*.

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 […]

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 […]

New Euchner MBM bus module for EtherCAT P

If there is one area where applications are becoming ever-more complex, it’s safety engineering. Euchner has not only kept up with this trend with its Multifunctional Gate Box (MGB) safety door system, but has gone a step further by employing modular design to make the MGB2 Modular fully customisable for maximum optimisation. Available from Treotham, the modular system features a separate locking module, bus module and submodules, making it suitable for implementing a wide range of additional functions. In addition, the brand new bus module MBM is available in a version that connects to EtherCAT P, which means that every single function of the Multifunctional Gate Box 2 (MGB2 Modular) safety door system can also be used with EtherCAT P. Following on from its market firsts in PROFINET and EtherNet/IP connection, this is another success, reasserting the company’s claim as a pioneer of innovative bus systems. In this latest system, comprehensive diagnostic functions in the form of EtherCAT messages and the integrated web server provide a fast and detailed overview of the device status. Due to the ease with which parameters can be set, even replacing the system during servicing is a simple matter and takes no more than a few minutes.

igus 7th axis extends working space by up to 400 percent

Articulated arm robots can travel over six metres, quadrupling their working space: the 7th axis is now compatible with all lightweight articulated arm robots worldwide thanks to a simple Plug & Play kit. So far, models from Universal Robots, Epson and the igus robolink series from Treotham have benefited from this increased mobility. Now Omron, Franka Emika, Doosan, Yuanda Robotics and many other lightweight robotics suppliers are joining the list. The first users of the so-called 7th axis, a linear axis with an electric toothed belt drive that igus launched in 2020, were thrilled according to Alexander Mühlens: “Suddenly, thanks to the additional axis, their articulated arm robots are as mobile as humans. This enables them to take on multiple tasks in automation environments making them significantly more productive,” says the Head of Automation Technology at igus. “We therefore decided to extend the compatibility of the system to all manufacturers worldwide – such as Omron, Franka Emika, Doosan and Yuanda Robotics. With a matching Plug & Play kit of hardware and software we make customisation possible.” Ready-to-connect complete solution for all lightweight articulated arm robots In the future, all lightweight articulated arm robots with a weight range of 10 to 50 kilograms or, depending on the dynamics, a payload of 2 to 20 kilograms can use the 7th axis. Treotham supplies the system as a ready-to-connect complete solution from a single source. It consists of a drylin ZLW toothed belt axis with a length of up to six metres and two parallel rails made of aluminium. These can be mounted on the floor, walls or ceilings and a toothed belt drive with stepper motor for a positioning accuracy of 0.3 millimetres. Also included is: an energy chain for guiding energy and data cables; a switch cabinet integration kit with cables; […]

Family business suppliers to the pneumatics industry

JWR Pneumatics is a family run business dedicated to providing technical sales and great customer service to the pneumatics industry. Jonathan Wood, general manager (pictured), started JWR Pneumatics in May 2021. He gained his qualification and experience in the Hydraulic and Pneumatic industries, both in New Zealand and in Melbourne, Australia over ten years. JWR Pneumatics understands how freight and manufacturing time delays are frustrating, adding huge costs to the end user. Their team is focussed on keeping good stock levels to give customers a fast order turnaround. JWR Pneumatics prides itself in being willing to go the extra mile. They understand that manufacturing can be difficult to forecast future sales and have overcome this problem by having an agreement with existing customers, by keeping high volume custom products on their shelves, enabling them to give an immediate supply to customers, without unnecessary delay. JWR Pneumatics imports pneumatic equipment from Italian supplier Airwork. Airwork is an Italian manufacturing company with 25 years experience who specialise in the design, manufacturing, and supply of standard and customised solutions in the pneumatic automation industrial field. Airwork manufactures all their pneumatic equipment in Italy to the highest standard while maintaining competitive pricing. JWR Pneumatics keep a wide range of plastic push-fit pneumatic fittings from sizes 4mm up to 16mm and a wide range of pneumatic valves in stock ranging from solenoid, pilot and manual operations, in sizes from 1/8 BSP threads to 1/2BSP thread sizes. They also stock air filtration units and standard ISO size cylinders. Although JWR Pneumatics is committed to selling Airwork pneumatic equipment, they are not limited solely to Airwork products. They are also resellers for Master Pneumatics and Festo. JWR Pneumatics are more than happy to brand match where possible to make the refitting of replacement pneumatic components as easy […]

How to master manufacturing’s data and analytics revolution

Manufacturing is on the verge of a data-driven revolution, but like all revolutions it will require the right actions, individually and collaboratively, to realise its full potential. Within a few years, manufacturers will collaborate in hyperconnected value networks in which data‑and‑analytics applications drive productivity, new customer experiences, and societal and environmental effects. Indeed, data and analytics are a key driver in realising the “Factory of Future” by enabling transparency, predictions and autonomous systems. Already today, we see leading manufacturers applying data and analytics to achieve their objectives for efficiency, sustainability and resilience. The imperative to boost efficiency and productivity is driven by intense cost pressures as well as liquidity issues arising from Covid-19 pandemic-related business disruptions. Sustainable operations are at the top of the agenda for many companies.. At the same time, they are seeking to build more resilient and connected supply chains, so they can anticipate and react faster to disruptions. Most companies recognise that data and analytics are rapidly changing the way they manufacture goods. Despite the high ambitions and strong value proposition, companies have not yet tapped the full potential. A triad of interconnected success factors Successful companies have demonstrated that three elements must be combined to drive full-scale implementation of data and analytics. First, they focus on value in selecting applications. Second, they establish a solid technological backbone comprising both information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT). Third, they promote organisational readiness to ensure that investments deliver the anticipated returns. Examples from various industry sectors demonstrate the importance of these success factors: Petrochemicals: A large petrochemical client of Schneider Electric is leveraging advanced process control to improve asset productivity and energy consumption in a highly complex integrated plant. The advanced process control is informed by an accurate digital twin based on a thermodynamic model. Moreover, effective visualisation […]

MHM Automation continues growth trajectory despite covid challenges

Increases in revenue, profitability and $40 million of forward-booked orders were among the highlights of the half year report released by MHM Automation recently. The NZX-listed automation company reported revenue growth of 19% to $29.5 million and EBITDA growth of 45% to $2.12 million for the six months to 31 December 2021. These results continue the momentum of growth the company has seen over the last two years, primarily driven by strong sales of its Milmeq chilling and freezing equipment to the Australian red meat sector. MHM Automation Chief Executive Officer, Richard Rookes said the growth was admirable, particularly given the challenges posed by Covid and border restrictions. “It is a real credit to the performance of our team. Our project managers and procurement teams have negotiated numerous logistics challenges, and our ability to continue to deliver projects to clients overseas was only possible thanks to the dedicated staff who were prepared to travel in uncertain circumstances,” he said. “We welcomed the news of the imminent re-opening of New Zealand’s borders, as this will significantly reduce our project risk and costs going forward,” he added. Key projects delivered during the year included a milestone 200th Milmeq plate freezer installation for a major Australian meat processor and a first-of-its-kind robotic de-boxing line for a leading meat processor in the US. Mr Rookes said the company’s continued success was a reflection of the world-leading status of its technologies, and its ability to innovate to resolve customers’ production challenges. “Take the universal robotic box cutter for example. It’s a robotic system that can open boxes of various shapes and sizes on the fly, without operator invention. Our client told us they could not find a system on the market that would fulfil this task, so we developed one to meet their needs,” he […]

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