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

-Scott Fuller, Exception. Article 1 :: Project Charter – Universal Buy-in This is the first in a series of 6 articles looking at how to successfully deliver your CRM project, the rest of the series will look at: Architecture and Integration – The Big Picture Partner Selection – A Vendor vs A Partner Data; Data; Data – The Devil is in the Detail Project Management – Quality, On Time, On Budget Users, Usability and Usage – First, Last and Always The purpose of the Project Charter is to engage all interested and/or potentially affected parties, solicit feedback and gain a mandate to move to the next phase. It is a Pre-liminary Business Case, a succinct document preferably with an equally succinct presentation containing: Purpose: Definition and those Responsible Benefit: Objectives and KPIs, including indication of costs Resources: Key Players and Roles (RASCI Model), including external parties if known Architecture: Technology added, impacted or replaced Scope: Deliverables and Key Milestones The expected outcome is that everyone in the business is at least informed of the project scope and impact and those Responsible for the Delivery and Accountable for the Benefits are ready to drive the Project to its successful conclusion. The introduction of this Project ‘Vision’ gives many parts of the business an opportunity to participate in its inception and contribute to the direction. It should always be a 2-way engagement to create valuable buy-in and support. 3 x Critical Success Factors These are CSF’s for the Charter, not the Project: Multi-level and multi-functional buy in At the initiation of any project it is easy, and safer, to confine the visibility to the immediate user group and line management. However a customer management solution to be successful will require the commitment of all parts of the organisation, from Board to Basement, […]

Australasian manufacturers’ statistics on productivity increases may be world’s highest

Auckland based ‘Empower Workshop Productivity & Scheduling Software App’ has pioneered the technology of using touchscreens on the workshop floor, with a low-cost subscription – based productivity software app for all jobbing manufacturing and engineering industries, custom work, “one off” jobs, bespoke manufacturing, or small batch production. The method is simple, workshop staff use their touchscreens to access their job list then start and finish each of their jobs. 50-inch TV screens in the office and on the workshop floor display results in ‘real time’ and continuously throughout the eight-hour day: individual staff, all jobs, all job status, all job times and all job variances. Research over 20 years across 82 New Zealand and Australian jobbing manufacturing and engineering businesses using Empower technology has produced the following statistics. To our knowledge these statistics are both the most comprehensive research available (82 businesses involved) and the highest productivity increases confirmed in the world (23.56%). The key Metric for all manufacturers and engineers using this technology is % Labour Time Reduction on all Jobs, which is % Labour Cost Reduction on all Jobs. The eighty-two manufacturers and engineers using this technology achieved on average a 23.56% Labour Time Reduction on all Jobs, across all machining processes and all assembly and fabrication processes, which is across the entire business. In comparison, if you had 10 processes to manufacture a given product and you purchased a new CNC machine to reduce labour time by 50%, (there are 10 processes to manufacture a given product and your new CNC machine that you have purchased reduces labour time by 50% in that single process) that would be a 5% Labour Time Reduction on all Jobs, across the entire business. This research will continue for the next 10+ years with 24 additional manufacturing and engineering businesses adding […]

Q & A:Lydia Frater and Lily Sanson, HERA Whanake Scholarship Recipients

HERA, in collaboration with the Māori Education Trust, created the Whanake scholarship in 2018, to foster genuine interactions with young Māori and actively extend the industry’s capacity by creating a more diverse and attractive industry for Kiwi. The scholarship is targeted at Māori students in their first year of a four-year Bachelor of Engineering degree and extends over the four years required for degree completion. To date, there have been three full recipients of the scholarship – Sarah Lawson, Lily Sanson and Lydia Frater, who was recently announced as the 2022 scholarship recipient. A further three students have received one-year scholarships to support their first year of studies. HERA spoke with Lily and Lydia about their scholarship experience so far, and their thoughts on the engineering industry within New Zealand. What drew you to engineering and the Whanake scholarship? Lydia: I didn’t even know what engineering was until my last year of high school. I always did well in the sciences at school, however no one introduced the idea of engineering to me until I attended a Rotary science camp, which sparked my interest. From there, I proactively spoke to one of my head teachers who helped and directed me on the right pathway. I later found out my grandfather had been an engineer, so there is a beauty in that for me. Lily: I knew from a young age engineering was interesting to me, but never knew the term. Then my sister mentioned it at dinner, which led to me learning more about it. The Pūhoro STEM Academy actively encouraged and supported my studies which definitely helped my journey into the engineering industry. On scholarships, my whānau instilled early on how important they are, so in addition, I feel very grateful to have received the HERA Whanake Scholarship as […]

A breakthrough innovator in this year’s KiwiNet Awards

Is Johnathan Ring from Zincovery, University of Canterbury which is decarbonising zinc recycling. The award recognises an upcoming entrepreneurial researcher who is embracing opportunities to commercialise their research. Zincovery CEO and founder Jonathan Ring. Useful and ubiquitous, loved for its durability, galvanised steel has provided industry, homes, hospitals and critical infrastructure with an attractive, corrosion-resistant, hygienic material for 150 years. However, few have thought about the toxic environmental impact of this process or the cost of recovery. Fewer still have made inroads to a solution. That was until Jonathan Ring, Founder and CEO of Zincovery, developed a disruptive technology to recycle zinc from furnace waste. One of its key benefits is the ability to produce zinc with 70% less carbon emissions than the existing recycling process. Jonathan started the development of the ‘Zincovery’ technology during his Master’s project with Professor Aaron Marshall at the University of Canterbury. Jonathan is committed to fighting climate change and protecting the environment from pollution. Current zinc recycling methods result in large carbon emissions and significant material wastage; Jonathan is determined to change that. The Zincovery technology can recycle zinc and produce less than 1 tonne of CO2 per tonne of zinc (typically recycled zinc requires five or more) using an innovative, low-temperature furnace process. The technology has the potential to save isolated steel mills over $500,000 in transportation costs and reduce the landfilling of over 3 million tonnes of dust per year. The global market opportunity for the technology is estimated at over $10 billion per annum and growing. Jonathan has taken his Master’s project from the lab to a start-up company in just two years and now manages seven employees. Under Jonathan’s lead, Zincovery has secured significant private investment, was awarded the prestigious C-Prize in 2019/20 and has customers lined up across multiple […]

The Great Resignation affects digital transformation plans

A study by SAP SE has found nine in ten (92%) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in New Zealand say workforce volatility, including the Great Resignation, has directly impacted their digital transformation plans. This is critical, given 79 percent of SMEs say digital transformation is very important to their organisation’s survival over the next year. These insights have been revealed in new SME research which explores the impact of the Great Resignation on New Zealand’s SMEs. The study, Transformational Talent: The impact of the Great Resignation on Digital Transformation in APJ’s SMEs commissioned Dynata to survey 1,363 small and medium business owners and decision-makers across eight countries in the region, including 101 in New Zealand. The impact of the Great Resignation on SME digital transformation in New Zealand As the world economy recovers from the pandemic, businesses now face another challenge – the ‘Great Resignation’. Coined in 2021, the phrase refers to a worldwide trend of millions of employees across the world leaving their jobs. SAP’s research found the Great Resignation is real and impacting SMEs in New Zealand today. Three quarters (79%) of respondents agreed that more employees are resigning now compared to just 12 months ago, easily the highest in Asia Pacific and Japan. 36 percent of SMEs said they are not finding it easy to cope with the impact of the Great Resignation. The talent crunch is impacting organisation’s ability to digitally transform their businesses. In fact, lack of skilled talent ranks alongside difficulty balancing priorities as the top challenges to achieving successful transformation for New Zealand SMEs, ahead of traditional obstacles like cyber security or lack of budgets. Investing in talent and training to mitigate the Great Resignation SMEs in New Zealand are investing in their workforce to mitigate the effects of the Great Resignation […]

Three companies on the road to a low-carbon economy

-Barbara Nebel, thinkstep-nz This month we introduce you to three New Zealand companies that use different tools to edge closer to a low-carbon economy. Manufacturers Red Stag and Hynds Group and logistics provider FoodCap are making progress against the Government’s new Emission Reduction Plan (ERP). But first, a recap on the ERP. The government released the ERP in May 2022. The plan contains the strategies and policies needed to move all industries, including manufacturing, to a low-emissions economy over the next three decades. It will ensure we reach our national goal: net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In June issue of NZ Manufacturer, on Page 20, we explained what the plan contains https://issuu.com/mediahawkesbaylimited/docs/nz_manufacturer_june_2022 The ERP affects manufacturers across Aotearoa New Zealand In this article we look at how Red Stag, Hynds Group and FoodCap are managing their products, tackling their carbon footprints and transforming their business models to reduce their environmental impacts. We also see how they are benefitting from these activities commercially. Red Stag: reducing the environmental impacts of its operations and products The ERP encourages businesses to understand and reduce the environmental impacts of their products and services. Rotorua-based timber company Red Stag is already doing this. The company uses on-site biomass boilers to turn wood waste into steam for its drying processes and is a net exporter of renewable electricity to the national grid. Red Stag uses sustainability tools like Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Product Declarations to create and promote more sustainable products. Before we see how Red Stag is doing this, let’s look at what these tools involve. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) LCA measures the environmental footprint of a product over its life cycle – from sourcing (and potentially growing) its raw materials, to making the product, to using and disposing of the product at the […]

Q&A Holger Heinzel, HERA

Digitisation and new technologies are having a profound impact on every facet of the manufacturing industry. As has been discussed in this forum, Industry 4.0 is upon us – enabling and also pushing businesses to collect and analyse data to streamline and improve the efficency of their systems and processes. The new tech gives so much – freed-up time and productivity boosts, less waste, far better and faster insights for a business to improve. We appreciate, though, that innovation requires investment and this is a time when many organisations are maintaining a hawk-like eye on capex and opex. The good news is that it’s worth it: HERA’s 2021 report in collaboration with BERL modelled the potential economic impact of Industry 4.0 on the New Zealand construction industry and found that gains over the next five years could be as much as $8 billion, and a heartening $4 billion at the moderate optimistic forecasting. And that is only for that part of the NZ economy. The potential for individual businesses and the wider industry is clear if we can take advantage of it. To that end, we are focusing on tools and methodologies to help members and other manufacturing organisations with the transition to Industry 4.0. A good starting point for company is to establish where they currently sit at, as a starting point for their transformation journey or how far they might have already come. What is the SIRI Assessment? Siri, short for Smart Industry Readiness Index, is an Industry 4.0-focused global assessment scheme. It was developed out of Singapore and is available to manufacturers in New Zealand. In the past four years, over 300 companies worldwide have used the SIRI Assessment to formally evaluate their facilities and processes and kick-start their Industry 4.0 transformation. The tool works for a wide […]

Company Profile: Nautech Electronics

Nautech at EMEX 2022. Nautech Electronics has worked tirelessly for over 30 years to deliver their clients the high-quality electronic solutions they need. They use the very latest technology and Kiwi ingenuity to establish themselves as a world leader in electronics manufacturing and product engineering. Recognising the marine industry’s growing need for electronics installation and service, Nautech was established in 1989 as a home-based business. They now operate out of a state-of-the-art facility with a team of 78 specialists. With an innovative and collaborative approach, Nautech focus on excellent service, reliable delivery, IP protection and competitive pricing. Today, Nautech continue to deliver their clients the world-class electronic solutions they need to succeed. At Nautech, Quality isn’t just a process – It’s their philosophy. Nautech has partnered with the EMA for the Callaghan Innovation funded Smart Factory Showcase as part of the Industry 4.0 Demonstration Network which launches in July. Andrew Turner, Managing Director and Owner shares the company’s path: Can you tell us a little more about Nautech and the customers you serve? We manufacture for almost all industry sectors, from consumer to automotive, marine, aeronautical the way to defence and aerospace. We also design and develop products for customers as well as our own range of emergency warning products. Can you explain what Total Quality Management means to Nautech? TQM starts with management but is really a culture, it needs “buy in” from the whole team. At Nautech, all members participate in improving processes, products, services, and their own work environment. What advances have you seen in manufacturing since Nautech was established in 1989? So many! Back then, almost all electronics used thru hole components. We purchased our first wave soldering machine in 1996, and later that year, our first SMT placement machine. It was 2000 before we upgraded […]

Becoming a low-emissions economy

-Barbara Nebel, thinkstep-nz The Government’s new Emission Reduction Plan (ERP) will move all industries, including manufacturing, to a low-emissions economy over the next three decades. In this article we look at what the ERP means for manufacturers: for the inputs you use (including transport, energy and buildings), the products you make and the waste you create. What is the ERP? Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is one of New Zealand’s biggest challenges. The ERP contains the strategies and policies that will make our Zero Carbon Act 2019 happen. It sets out how we will meet the first of three emissions budgets, for the period 2022 to 2025. To reach our end goal (net-zero emissions by 2050), we need to cap emissions at 72.4 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gases each year over the next three years. Why does this matter, now more than ever? The World Meteorological Organisation believes that there is a 50:50 chance that global temperatures will temporarily reach 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in at least one of the next five years. This is one of the thresholds we need to avoid under the Paris Agreement. Reducing emissions across your business’ value chain The government has these sources of manufacturing emissions firmly in its sights: transport, energy, buildings, waste. It is also expanding the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS). Emissions from transport Road transport accounts for about 20% of New Zealand’s emissions. It is our fastest-growing source. The ERP sets a goal of significantly reducing transport-related carbon emissions by 2035. Manufacturers should expect a push to decarbonise heavy transport and freight. The government wants to reduce emissions from freight transport by 35% and the emissions intensity of transport fuels (the volume of emissions created per unit of GDP) by 10% by 2035. You will continue be […]

Comment: Improving is easy, isn’t it?

-Ian Walsh, Managing Director, Intent Group. I was recently asked, ‘why are there so few world class companies?’ This is a very good question: there aren’t that many globally and there are even fewer in New Zealand. Before we can answer that question however, there are other questions we might consider first, such as ‘what is world class and how do you define it?’ This question doesn’t get to the nub of the issue though; it’s more a question of measurement. The more relevant question is ‘what makes it so difficult to drive improvement and become a world class company?’ It’s not like there aren’t a few companies trying to get better. So, what separates the ones who are making progress from the ones who are not? There’s been extensive research over decades on this. As I’ve mentioned in previous articles ‘What gets measured gets managed’ and ‘It’s all in the data’, better performing companies have well-defined measurement of performance throughout the business with a balance of leading and lagging indicators, and they are able to analyse this data to provide the right information in the right format in a timely manner. However, while these performance measuring systems are necessary for world class performance, these alone are not sufficient to make a company world class. This is akin to trying to climb Everest after having had some climbing lessons and bought the right gear. To make the ascent you will need more. Research shows better performing companies have improvement structures, multi-tiered meetings which connect and align the organisation to supercharge improvement. ‘We have those!’ I hear you say, as many clients in the past have noted. Many companies have beginning of day, end of day, daily management meetings and such like. However, some of these meetings are nothing better than […]

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