Forgotten deal relied on common sense instead of currency
The advent of New Zealand’s only branded home-grown vehicle the Trekka 50 years ago was the result of a counter trade, a barter, that even today is still staggering in its simplicity. Indeed, the sheer scope of the barter even today is still unrecognised just because it was so straightforward.
New Zealand had a surplus of wool.
Czechoslovakia’s Skoda Works had a surplus of vehicles.
Therein lay the deal.
Until this moment it has remained a secret. We will now reveal how it worked out in practice.
The organisation to see the opportunity was Motor Holdings of Auckland. The company in that era decided to run the deal through an offshoot in Palmerston North known as Five Star Motors.
In those days 50 years ago Palmerston North was an important centre of the auto industry in terms of assembly and distribution.
It was now that the government was approached with the outline of the deal.
The reason that a government approval was necessary was that at this time any import of any kind at all was controlled by quota and licence.
At this time. 50 years ago, the export price of wool declined by 40%.
New Zealand's sheep population continued to rise. Available storage space everywhere was crammed with unsold wool.
But still the government sought to squelch the deal on the grounds that the barter or counter-trade was simply a device to by-pass the rigid import licencing of that era.
But Five Star motors had a trump up its sleeve which it now played carefully.
Fifty percent of the showroom floor price of the New Zealand-ised Skoda would be local input.
Moreover, it would be branded as a New Zealand product and with a New Zealand name.
It was now that the Customs Department began to give way. The Trekka had taken on a political life of its own. The department backed down. The Trekka had arrived.
The skill and patience of the Palmerston North negotiators who implemented the Trekka counter trade had much to do with Palmerston North’s presence as a swinging parliamentary seat between National and Labour.
The rest of the story is relatively well-known. The Trekka, which looked like a boxier version of the Land Rover was one of the cheapest vehicles available in a market where new car prices were high, and cash deposits of up 60 percent were mandatory.
Better still, the Trekka, a forerunner of the SUV, was available off the floor, on low deposit, making new car ownership accessible to many for the first time.
The Trekka though will be remembered as the most successful counter deal ever. Its success was in its simplicity.
The most curious thing about it was that it was so hard to repeat as New Zealand trade began to turn eastward. In spite of Asian customers being notoriously and institutionally bad payers – another topic still rarely talked about, especially departmentally—it proved a hard act to follow.
In our next revelation on the silent, and officially-ignored world of counter-trades, we will detail an example of one that did not work out and very largely because of the absence of official support.
From the MSCNewsWire reporters desk - Wednesfday 7 December 2016
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Global beverage brand approval to supply SCS Connect
Shanghai Maling completes purchase of controlling stake in Silver Fern Farms
John Key Fades Away-– a Market Trader Quits his Position at The Top
BNZ Confidence Survey - 6 December 2016
Martin van Beynen: John Key inspired confidence
New tool to help girls & women embrace STEM
Wellington Drive Technologies is pleased to announce that following the conclusion of a global beverage brand’s comprehensive technology sourcing process it has been selected as an approved supplier of connectivity hardware for use in the brand’s coolers. This approval allows Wellington to supply its SCS Connect solution to the brand’s network of cooler manufacturers and beverage bottling partners and follows the earlier announcement of the brand’s terms and conditions having being signed.
It should be noted that this approval does not indicate preferred status or determine a minimum level of business; the customer’s network is free to choose from a short list of approved connectivity suppliers, including Wellington.
Wellington continues to work with the brand and its network partners to establish the timing of programmes to adopt SCS Connect and the volumes Wellington will supply over the coming twelve months.
Wellington CEO Greg Allen commented, “We are excited to be selected by this global customer as a connectivity supplier. This is the next step in the customer’s adoption project and we will be working diligently to support the adoption process over the coming twelve months. Our focus continues to be on further innovation of the SCS Connect platform and growing manufacturing capacity and field support capability to support the development of this new and exciting business.”
About Wellington Drive TechnologiesWellington Drive Technologies is a leading global provider of energy efficient electronic motors, airflows solutions and ‘Cloud Connected’ refrigeration control solutions for the commercial refrigeration markets. It serves some of the world’s leading food and beverage brands and refrigerator manufacturers with advanced products and solutions that reduce their costs, improve product sales and reduce energy consumption. Wellington is headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, and is listed on the New Zealand stock exchange under the ticker symbol NZ:WDT
Press release NZX
Rubrik, the Cloud Data Management company, announced today that Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing, a leading health food manufacturer in Australia and New Zealand best known for its Weet-Bix, UP&GO and So Good brands, has selected Rubrik as its data management platform for production workloads.
"We are keen on adopting innovative and best-of-breed technology that enables our IT team to deliver services seamlessly. Rubrik has delivered game-changing results. We have drastically reduced management overhead, increased data accessibility, and accelerated development and testing of critical enterprise applications," said Alastair Stuart, Infrastructure Services Manager.
"We are excited to have Sanitarium adopt Rubrik Cloud Data Management to deliver management simplicity and scale-out savings," said Bipul Sinha, co-founder and CEO, Rubrik. "With Rubrik, Sanitarium can now provide automated data protection and accelerate development and test systems on one fabric that extends from data center to the cloud."
PALO ALTO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 12/06/16 --
About RubrikRubrik has developed the world's first Cloud Data Management platform for data protection, search, analytics, archival and copy data management for hybrid cloud enterprises. Fortune 500 companies use Rubrik to manage data at scale while realizing data-driven services anytime, anywhere. Rubrik has been named to Gartner's Cool Vendors in Storage Technologies, 2016 and recognized by Forbes as a Next Billion Dollar Startup. For more information, visit http://www.rubrik.com and follow @rubrikInc on Twitter.
THE Pacific Islands Trade & Investment (PTI) agency successfully met with exporters in Honiara in a bid to open up the New Zealand market to Solomon Islanders.
Twenty attendants from 15 export companies went through a day-long programme with PT&I that is spearheaded by the PT&I (NZ) Auckland branch with support from the Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SICCI).
Ian Furlong, the trade development manager of PT&I (NZ) described the training a big success and one that has attracted very keen interest compared with the programme in other Pacific countries.
It is the first time for PT&I to engage the Solomon Islands in this programme and is among 10 Pacific island countries to undergo the training this year.
The PT&I team will travel to Port Vila, Vanuatu next.
“There was good attendance and the people were good. Our objective is to help exporters in their business and the training on Thursday was very positive,” said Furlong.
Furlong conducted the training with PT&I COO & Head of Investment, Manuel Valdez.
Participants were briefed on the New Zealand market, the requirements and finances needed as well as selling and buying options.
The programme also equipped participants on effective business planning methods and marketing skills needed.
“At present most (Solomon Islanders) aren’t exporting to the New Zealand market and part of this programme is to encourage this market.
“New Zealand is an ideal market for entrepreneurs in the Solomon Islands and from the training we’ve found that the participants are very interested and want to know more.”
Thursday’s training, however is just the first phase of six steps of the programme.PT&I NZ trade development manager Ian Furlong leading the NZ export programme
PT&I NZ trade development manager Ian Furlong leading the NZ export programme
Some five or six companies of the 15 who attended will be selected to join a sales mission to New Zealand next year. From there the attending companies will learn more of the mission and will get the opportunity to meet buyers where they can build their own relationship.
The programme runs through a timeline until March 2017.
SICCI Business Analyst Charles Persson who joined the programme on Thursday described it as highly professional with a great two-way interaction making attendees think creatively about their products.
“This programme provides excellence skills and networks for businesses to grow and access new markets.”
SICCI acknowledges the importance of exports to the Solomon Islands economy and looks forward to the next stage.
The family that owns the Bluebridge Cook Strait ferry service has sold the bulk of its transport business to an Australian equity company.
Champ Private Equity has agreed to buy Strait Shipping, owner of Bluebridge, and Freight Lines from the Barker family, it was announced on Tuesday.
No price was mentioned in the announcement.
The sale represents the end of an era for the Barker family but was in keeping with founder Jim Barker's wishes, says Strait Shipping managing director spokeswoman and Mr Barker's daughter Sheryl Ellison.
"We are extremely proud of these three leading New Zealand transport businesses and we are excited about their future under a new growth focused ownership," she said in a joint statement.
Mr Barker had been closely involved with the sale until his death in August, Ms Ellison said.
"It was Dad's vision that these businesses would continue to thrive, grow and lead New Zealand's transport industry into the future and we're confident that this sale will ensure this."
Strait Shipping started its Cook Strait service with one ferry in 1992 when Mr Barker wanted a service to transport cattle. It now operates two ferries, the Straitsman and Strait Feronia.
The Barker family will retain ownership of Bulklines and Stocklines, which are not included in the sale.
It’s now easier for young girls and women to pursue career opportunities in science, technology engineering and maths, Womens’ Minister Louise Upston says.
The ‘STEM Directory’ is a new online tool launched by the Ministry for Women and identifies initiatives, programmes and associations through which young girls and women can connect, discover and learn about science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM).
“A huge focus of this Government has been helping New Zealanders prepare and adapt to an economy that is an increasingly becoming more reliant on STEM-related skills,” Ms Upston says.
“Women are particularly under-represented in the highest growth areas such as digital technology and engineering, so I have made it a priority to find new ways of sparking their interest.”
In New Zealand, women make up about 23 percent of people employed in IT and about 13 percent of people employed as engineers.
“This tool is a small but significant way we can work to turn this around, ensuring women aren’t left behind in a constantly changing workforce and young girls can more easily find clear ways in STEM fields,” Ms Upston says.
“I want to encourage all young girls and women, schools, businesses - and men who want to encourage the important women in their life – to make use of this tool and become the next leader in these fields that are so crucial to New Zealand’s future.”
The STEM Directory is available at: http://women.govt.nz/news/stem-directory
Galvin Engineering announces the appointment of Three Sixty Distribution as their selling agent in New Zealand.
Specialising in the supply of mechanical, refrigeration and plumbing products to the NZ market, the Christchurch-based Three Sixty Distribution has built their success on a foundation of strong relationships with key merchants in the country.
Three Sixty Distribution will not only stock and supply Galvin Engineering's complete range of tapware and associated products in New Zealand but also provide after sales maintenance and backup to support the products.
Galvin Engineering’s agreement with Three Sixty Distribution strengthens their position and reputation as a quality manufacturer of tapware and valves in Australia and internationally.
| An Industry News Release | Tuesday 6 December 2016 |
Digitizing the manufacturing process via ERP systems can greatly improve ROI. However, it doesn’t come without challenges. For many manufacturers, there is a disconnect between what goes on in their factories, including their engineering departments, and the core business processes supported by their ERP systems. It creates significant lag times for management to access, analyze and act on data from the manufacturing and development processes. Not having this data in real time could create problems with planning, inventory control, the supply chain or meeting customer expectations.
Barriers to incorporating data from machines on the shop floor into ERP are dropping. Much of the newer equipment is now internet-enabled, and some older machines can be adapted for connectivity. Companies like GE and Siemens are working to standardize platforms for machine-to machine communication. The leading ERP vendors have all taken advantage of this new connectivity to incorporate the machine data into relevant workflows.
So why aren’t all manufacturers connecting their shop floors to their ERP systems? The same old reasons for avoiding any significant technology project: cost, resistance to change and lack of understanding of the ROI.
Complexity can be a factor, too. Mike Lackey, global vice president of solutions management for SAP, gives the example of a company that has dozens of machines from multiple vendors. “The true value [of digital transformation] is tying all the machines together to see what they are producing, the cost structure, performance, and the quality of the output,” he says. “You can’t look at the data off the machines in silos.”
Industrial digitization and its impact
“Industrial digitization concerns two dimensions or core processes,” says Magnus Wilkerson, professor of production systems at Matardalen University in Sweden. “First, the order-to-delivery process, or operational process, integrates data across system layers and throughout the value chain. Critical activities are the integration of MOM/MES (manufacturing operations system/manufacturing execution system) layer into the architecture as well as the supply chain data integration. Second, the industrial digitization concerns the product and production development process. It integrates data across development platforms and stakeholders and enable virtual builds of new products and virtual verification of new processes.”
Those stakeholders might be people internal to the organization such as product managers, engineers or planners. They could also be external such as contract manufacturers, suppliers, or partners. Lackey spoke of an SAP customer, a large medical device manufacturer, that was designing and building a large and highly specialized piece of equipment used in cancer treatment. Because the manufacturing and engineering processes were digitized and connected, what SAP calls a component of Industry 4.0, all the stakeholders from the customer to the people designing and building the unit were on the same page.
The stakes were high. “Their client [a hospital] had spent more than $1 million setting a room up for this equipment,” says Lackey. “With S/4 HANA, bottlenecks and shortages were identified sooner allowing the manufacturer to respond faster managing customer expectations and insuring an on-time delivery.”
The tools to measure ROI are available. Robert Sinfield, director of portfolio marketing at ERP vendor Epicor Software, gives the example of rubber and plastics manufacturing. “It’s very repetitive manufacturing, and manufacturers want to maximize efficiency,” he says. “Solutions to measure efficiency give visibility into the manufacturing process. They can detect deviations in small volumes of time that normally you would not be able to identify.”
For example, the system might identify a machine running at 3 percent lower efficiency over the past three days and send an alert to the service department. That drop might not have been noticed if the machine were not connected to the internet with a monitoring solution that was integrated with the manufacturer’s ERP system. This is important, because even a tiny increase in efficiency in a high-volume manufacturing process can yield significant returns.
Scrappage, or material wasted due to quality issues in the manufacturing process, is another area where intelligence at the machine level can improve efficiency. Sinfield says one Epicor customer cut its scrap average from around 4 percent to 1.37 percent, which also contributed to a 3.1 percent decrease in downtime and consequently lower cost of sales. Annual cost savings for this company were $600,000. “This puts the ROI down to months,” says Sinfield.
The benefits don’t stop there, however. “Where it gets clever, [the efficiency data] is presented to finance so that they can understand energy consumption and make judgments about overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) measures. Looking at downtime, they can see if it makes sense to continue servicing the existing equipment or purchase a new machine,” says Sinfield.
Connecting people as well as data
Getting a steady flow of actionable data from the shop floor to business managers and back is important, but just having access to that data might not always be enough. That’s why Epicor has embedded a social framework to support teams associated with a project or process. “Social is built into the fabric of Epicor. It supports a fundamental shift to allow interaction both internally and externally,” says Sinfield. “It’s not just about collecting and analyzing information. It’s really about letting a team collaborate around a project.”
ake a custom engineering-to-order project, for example. Working out the specifications would involve engineers, procurement, and manufacturing. Quality assurance personnel might be needed later on. Customer service and sales need insight into the process to make sure product and delivery expectations are met. “These are all normally quite disparate points with disparate systems outside ERP,” says Sinfield.
When something fails during the process, alerts might go to the project engineer, the sales engineer, and maybe an outside consultant. They are all able to dialog within Epicor ERP, pulling in things like business objectives around the project or the original engineering breakdown when needed. If a fault in a material is found, the supplier might also be brought into the loop within the system.
At some point, finance might get an alert that a project is delayed. They can see through the ERP system exactly what is causing the delay and make decisions about planning or change forecasts based on what they see. “That’s where it really starts to make sense to bring [data] together in ways we were never able to do before,” says Sinfield.
Implementation considerations and challenges
Wilkerson outlined four key challenges for companies looking to digitize their manufacturing processes.
1. The integration of digitization into the operational management and improvement systems. “The technology needs to support the production systems of the companies in their continuous improvement and not build additional layers of management systems,” he says.
2. The management and transformation of legacy systems. “In digitizing a ‘brown field’ manufacturing site, you struggle with numerous systems,” says Wilkerson. “Investments are often made in specific situations. It is necessary to use these windows of opportunity in a conscious development towards a smart factory vision.
3. Ensure robustness in the systems and do not build in sensitive technologies that endanger the delivery or quality of manufacturing.
4. Setting up pre-engineering platforms, test rigs, and demonstration capabilities within production development. “This has been a natural element within product development for decades but not seen as necessary in production development,” says Wikerson. “With the emergence of new technologies while maintaining absolute delivery precision in existing processes, pre-engineering platforms for testing and validating new technologies is central to speed up adoption of technology and best practices.”
Sinfield advises companies considering implementing a system to integrate manufacturing intelligence with their ERP systems to consider two metrics: efficiency and quality. “Companies need to take a step back and ask what they want to see,” he says. “They may not know where they need to be focused.”
In manufacturing, new technology can sometimes be a tough sell to the people on the shop floor, but that might not be the case with digital transformation. Lackey told of one high-value SAP deployment. “We thought we would get push-back from the shop floor,” he says. “But the shop floor supported it. It made the job easier, and the project was successful because of that buy-in.” He attributed that support to frustration using existing antiquated systems.
The prospect of having more data available might seem overwhelming to some stakeholders in the manufacturing process. However, the digital transformation of industry isn’t simply about making more data available. It’s about making the right data available when it will do the most good. “We’re living in the age of information overload,” says Sinfield. “Having the concept of in-context information is incredibly important to derive value for the business.”
Michael Nadeau is an analyst and writer in New Hampshire. Published December 6, 2016 by CIO
Departing Premier Emphasises status as non-professional politician
In the end his trader’s instinct told him that the market for John Key futures had reached its zenith and that it was thus time to quit the position.
It was John Key’s good luck to take up New Zealand’s portfolio of prime minister at the precise time that a baby-boomer backbone electorate tired of an extended doctrinal politics and instead required the stability needed to catapult them into an easy retirement.
John Key anticipated by a decade the dismay with professional politicians that is so evident today and he now brought to the job a solid earlier life as an international investment banker.
In the most effective National Party style he was also an outsider who inserted himself onto the inside track of the nation’s natural party of government.
From an everyday working class background his aw shucks everyman manner plus matching quizzical grin and horrible New Zealand accent were all genuine.
He brought to his decade at the top the professional banker’s ability to take his successes with equanimity and similarly his pratfalls.
He now leaves to his anointed successor finance minister Bill English the interrelated boiling pots of expensive urban housing and immigration.
His centrist instincts made him reluctant to introduce a capital gains tax to cool down the domestic property market. Similarly his businessman background meant he was reluctant to cap immigration which he saw as a priority for economic growth rather than petrol on the fire of the nation’s perennial property Klondike.
He was the first New Zealand leader to get on buddy terms with a United States president and nobody doubts that more golf games will soon be launched from his and similarly retiring president Obama’s Hawaii holiday homes.
The blots on his premiership are mostly made up of the bizarre.
There was the case of the Auckland café meeting photo-op in which coalition boondoggling was revealed by a hidden tape recorder lurking unseen near the tea pot. This incident then became compounded when enforcement authorities ostentatiously went after the tapes,
There was the Dot Com affair in which a North European IT entrepreneur was allowed to settle in New Zealand with a view to gingering up the digital scene, only to become the subject of a US extradition warrant.
The subsequent and continuing series of events presented and continues to present a Keystone Kops style of unwitting entertainment to the nation at large.
Then there was John Key’s personal campaign to change the flag. This was the most bizarre of all because it was so obviously bungled in that Mr Key was unable to advance any clear reason why there should be a flag change in the first place.
Such as, for example, the near universal confusion over the look-alike Australian and New Zealand flags.
Not all his positive efforts fell into the public spotlight.
His deft hand on his exclusive right to dispense patronage was one such example. His ability to conceal what he really thought, notably in dealing with only semi-informed questioners, was another.
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242