Smart Manufacturing Today

  -David O’Connor, Head of Emerging Markets, The Learning Wave As we bid farewell to the challenging winds of 2024 and step into a fresh new year, there’s a sense of optimism and energy for what lies ahead for Kiwi manufacturing businesses. The opportunity to drive growth while scaling operations presents an exciting challenge – one that calls for agility, adaptability, and steadfast commitment to a skills-first approach in talent development. With over 230,000 workers, New Zealand’s manufacturing sector is a cornerstone of the national workforce. This scale brings a unique opportunity to lead the way in creating long-term skills pathways and building a highly capable workforce. As we look at 2025, focusing on two key priorities will be pivotal: Cultivating highly capable leaders that can lead safe, productive and thriving workplaces  – evidence shows that this has never been more critical or urgent. Creating a  highly functioning and well funded pathway from school to work that ensures our young people can see their future and career pathway in the sector. By equipping today’s leaders and tomorrow’s workers with the transferable skills to lead the sector into the future, we believe that this is key to  transforming the new green shoots of potential into lasting prosperity for NZ Inc. As we step into 2025, the sector has a prime opportunity to elevate itself to become world class, driven by a blend of advanced technology and empowered and skilled people. Success lies not in smart technology alone but in harnessing three key pillars: workforce development, innovation, and collaboration. A Future-Ready Workforce To fully harness the benefits of advanced technologies, manufacturers must invest in a skilled, adaptable workforce. With over half of New Zealand’s workforce lacking basic digital confidence, bridging the skills gap is critical. Businesses and training providers should co-design accessible, […]

From December NZ Manufacturer magazine, The Year in Review If 2024 was the year of “survive to 25”, what will 2025 bring?  Many businesses this year were very focused on managing cost, avoiding unnecessary spending and looking to how they can improve their productivity to improve returns. Of course, many of the traditional levers had already been pulled, so many businesses did not have a lot of fat to start with, so cost reduction did not offer a lot of opportunity. The need to avoid borrowing (due to interest rates), precluded a lot of capital options either new kit, or technology meaning many have relooked at productivity. The reality is many don’t know where to start, because they are unable to see how you could get more from the current team, given everybody is already working so hard. However, this is exactly what must happen, the reality is NZ has been lagging the world in the adoption of best practices, improvement techniques, workforce development for over 40 years. We now have a burning platform! So, my hope for 2025 is: We see an increased adoption of lean techniques and tools and a genuine interest to properly adopt these tools across all sectors of industry. These are proven globally for over 60 years; the key is the right sponsorship and the right sherpa. As business starts to recover, we see adoption of AI/automation tools to support item 1 above. The tools are not a solution in themselves but help build capability and can supercharge the productivity journey. The SIRI assessments supported by government have been helpful in getting business started on this journey, let’s hope this continues next year. A unified approach to leadership and team capability development, with Te Pukenga, NZQA and other parties becoming aligned in the need to […]

The downward economic trend for the NZ SME manufacturing industry has stabilised, with key signals pointing to a recovery, according to new data from inventory management software company, Unleashed.  The quarterly Unleashed Manufacturing Report showed purchasing activity by New Zealand manufacturers rose in Q3 for the first time since the end of 2022, indicating future growth for Kiwi producers. The 6.2% average rise in purchase orders over the past three months, combined with stabilising sales revenue, comes after a sustained period of decline for the wider sector. Unleashed Head of Product Jarrod Adam said New Zealand manufacturers had been waiting for a break in the economic clouds, and these positive metrics could be the start of further good news. “This is the first time we have seen purchase orders rise in over a year and a half, which points to the difficult situation that many local manufacturers have been in of late. The news will bring welcome relief to many businesses, and may be the sign that the storm is over and some brighter days are ahead for NZ Inc,” Adam said. Unleashed’s report analyses business performance across 12 manufacturing sub-sectors in Australia, NZ, and the UK – drawing on the live sales, inventory, purchasing, lead time and profit margin data managed within their cloud software platform – to assess the overall health of the sector. Purchase orders up 6.2% (June 31 2024 to September 31 2024) For the manufacturing sector, which generally has long sales cycles, tracking purchase orders is a useful predictor of future revenue. Purchase order numbers have been dropping consistently over the past three years (with exception of Q4 2022). While still down 26% on the same quarter in 2021, at an average of 82 orders, the change marks an important turning point for local producers. In a similar vein […]