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There is a common belief that to be a successful industrial designer one has to be a ‘maker of things’ at heart. Making objects, whatever that might be, is a very satisfying way to spend time working because at the end of the day there is a definite physical result, something very tangible, something others can relate to. Making things and designing things are both essentially creative: one has to have an agenda or a brief/objective to fulfil a requirement. The difference between the two is that to make things is physical while to design things is largely imaginative. Obviously some people are naturally better at designing things; their background might have enabled them to train their 3D thinking and therefore allow them to visualise the imagined result. Designing and making are therefore naturally very closely aligned. For the industrial designer to efficiently produce workable results for a manufacturer they do not need only a well-defined brief, but one that is a life document which remains adaptable to the findings and revelations that a design process brings. Designers cannot be 100% familiar with every manufacturing process there is. Often the designer has to quickly learn what the individual process demands whilst being able to isolate elements which need to be resolved by specialist expertise. This essentially turns the designer into a facilitator of various disciplines which are used to orchestrate their specialty areas. Under the guidance of the designer who upholds the design intend and mediates the outcome in the interest of the end user, the previously defined attributes culminate in the character and performance of the product. Sounds a bit like wizardry, but it is merely the controlled ÔunfoldingÕ of methodology common to the discipline of the industrial designer. Without the manufacturing sector industrial design would be a breadless […]

If the last few years has shown us anything, it’s that our metals engineering industry is tough as nails and a survivor. However with the continued pressure, including from imports, the time for some re-thinking of how to do business better has come. The opportunity is the Metals NZ Industry Conference and the place is the Classic Flyers Aircraft Museum in Tauranga. The main conference event and the Industry Awards Gala Dinner are held on the 9th of May in the Classic Flyers Aircraft Museum. Unique exhibition opportunity The Aircraft Museum offers an ideal venue for the metals engineering industry to meet. Against the atmospheric backdrop of classical metal aircraft, the venue also offers ideal space for an exhibition offering visible, direct and cost-effective advertising opportunities. Visit the conference web site at www.metals.org.nz for information, or contact Brian Low at marketing@hera.org.nz    

 A new, free utility called PartMaker Viewer allows users to view 2D prints, 3D models and even complete 3D assemblies and so provides a great tool for viewing and sharing manufacturing and engineering data. One very beneficial feature of PartMaker Viewer is that allows PartMaker users to collaborate with others in their organization as well as those outside of it who may not have access to PartMaker, free of cost. With PartMaker Viewer anyone, be it company management, shop floor personnel or even a shop’s customers or other external partners can see the work being done in PartMaker. This can easily be done by just exporting a file from PartMaker’s Simulation as an STL and bringing it into PartMaker Viewer. PartMaker Viewer is a free utility offered by Delcam. It is not a timed evaluation that will expire. Contract manufacturers and job shops can encourage their customers to download PartMaker Viewer in order to work more collaboratively with them. “PartMaker Viewer is a great addition to the PartMaker CAD/CAM software suite,” says PartMaker Division, President Hanan Fishman. “With the addition of PartMaker Modeling last year and the recent introduction of the new Advanced Surface Machining module, PartMaker is perhaps the most complete suite of production-oriented CADCAM software on the market today. PartMaker provides a complete production engineering CADCAM solution from geometry creation, to engineering data repair and modification to tool path creation to machine simulation to NC code generation.”    

Businesses in New Zealand and Australia want tax changes to get closer to a single economic market, says BusinessNZ.  A joint report released today by the Productivity Commissions of New Zealand and Australia: Strengthening Trans-Tasman Economic Relations recommends many steps to help align the business environments of the two countries. BusinessNZ Chief Executive Phil O’Reilly says the report contains useful recommendations in areas such as investment, intellectual property, occupational licensing, visas, biosecurity, quarantine, student loans and others. “These can help build on the Closer Economic Relations process towards our two countries truly becoming single economic market. “However it is disappointing that the Productivity Commissions have stopped short of recommending action on the issue of double taxation, perhaps the biggest unresolved issue for business in both countries.”  Companies based in Australia or New Zealand with operations in the other country currently have their profits taxed twice, since neither country recognises the other’s system for offsetting tax credits.  Mr O’Reilly says this double taxation is an unnecessary financial burden on trans-Tasman business, and a system for mutual recognition of tax credits is needed.  The Productivity Commissions’ report recommends generally removing investment restrictions to facilitate movement of capital, but stops short of recommending mutual recognition of tax credits, leaving it to the two Governments to decide. Mr O’Reilly said it was time for the politicians in both countries to show leadership on the issue. “We know the New Zealand Prime Minister is supportive of removing double taxation, and business would urge his engagement with his Australian counterpart to achieve this policy change. “We are on the eve of the 30th anniversary of CER – achieving this change in 2013 would be a fitting move towards a true single economic market.” Strengthening Trans-Tasman Economic Relations is  on www.productivity.govt.nz  

Everyone concerned about our alarming rates of youth unemployment should be celebrating today’s announcement on the Starting-out wage, says David Lowe, Employment Services Manager for the Employers and Manufacturers Association. Then they will be looking out for more ways to help, he said. “Without an incentive an employer with a choice between an experienced worker and an inexperienced worker will choose experience every time,” Mr Lowe said. “Though there is no silver bullet for creating jobs for young people, the Starting-out wage offers a vital first step up the employment ladder. “Unless there is an incentive for taking on the added issues of employing youth workers, young people will continue to be over represented in the unemployment numbers. “The Starting-out wage will restore a form of youth rates that were abolished in 2006 and which proved, as predicted, to hurt the very people its supporters were trying to help. “Independent research from Pacheco at the time found job opportunities for youth would fall by nearly 20 per cent for all teenagers if youth rates were abolished, but that turned out to be very conservative.”  

Chrystal ball gazing isn’t the most reliable pursuit but we need to start somewhere when we consider the Budget which will be released tomorrow at 2.30pm in Wellington. These are some of the issues I would like to see addressed: *Job creation – incentives and investment for NZ’s tomorrow. Build some companies, let’s show some flair and use our imagination to grow manufacturing. *A basic living wage – Let’s face it, prices keep on going up and wages are too low (who wants to live on $13.50 an hour, who can feed a family on this rate?) Why should workers stay in NZ if there is no incentive? *Education – schools to have no more than 25 children in the classroom. For the Minister of Education to tell us anything higher is really Government not being in touch with education’s needs. No philosophy, just Treasury controlling the dollars or is it Quality versus Quantity? *Youth Training and Apprenticeships – Greater incentives for work based training, a career path for the future. *Reduction in company taxes – For smaller companies to weather it through these tough times. *Measured development of our energy fields – No fracking, but let’s look at other options for growth. *A cap on local government rates – they can’t keep going up when wages don’t keep going up. -Doug Green  

    EMEX 2012 sales manager Rob Lavender. This is an exclusive live opportunity for you to speak to the show visitors after the show via video footage. At the show a ‘two minute interview’ will be conducted on exhibitors’ stands showcasing products on display. After the show this footage will be loaded onto the EMEX website giving show visitors a constant reference to products over the next two years. nextSTEP Email rob@xpo.co.nz  

A new patented tool-free quick mould changeover system designed for the SFR Rotary blow moulding range of machinery, reduces the time required to change from one bottle format to another, with a tangible decrease in the machines downtime. The system is available as an option for all models of the range of SFR EVO from six blowing cavities to 24 blowing cavities. The system reduces the time it takes to change a blow mould to only 50 seconds, which represents a saving of 70% compared to the previous system. The changeover is very simple, safe and completed by un-locking / locking the two mould shells (cavities) and the mould base. All tool-free operations can be performed by only one person. This represents a substantial improvement of the availability of the stretch blow moulding machine. nextSTEP Contact:max@nzmanufacturer.co.nz     ]                                          

Kerry McDonald, chairman of Grant Thornton New Zealand Ltd, looks at the performance, or lack of performance, of company directors. New Zealand company directors – in both the private and public sectors – need to have a much more rigorous and focussed approach to performance if they are to add value, live up to their potential, restore investor confidence and lift New Zealand’s productivity. In short, we need to spark a revolution in New ZealandÕs corporate governance culture Ð maybe not among all organisations, but certainly in those that are not really cutting the mustard! The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and meltdown in New Zealand’s non-bank finance sector was immensely damaging and left investors with a jaundiced view of the markets, institutions, directors and regulators. Who can blame them? And, as recent economic figures indicate, we are not out of the woods yet.  The extent of corporate and board failures in the USA is particularly sobering considering that it is less than a decade after Enron and the imposition of Sarbanes Oxley – designed to prevent a repeat performance. Yet, the GFC was a repetition, on a larger and more damaging scale, with little sign that the major regulators had any understanding of what was happening. This hangover risks spawning yet another generation of New Zealanders Ð like that following the 1987 crash Ð who are unwilling to put their savings into equity or securities investments. Property, with its low rate of effective taxation compared with rates on income from simple savings products, is likely to remain as the default investment for most. A further challenge is New Zealand’s rate of productivity growth, which halved in the last decade from an already low level. The impact on incomes and living standards is clear and serious, as is the impact on output and employment […]