The NZMEA signals an even stronger focus on supporting globally competitive manufacturers with the launch of a new name
With the changing face of manufacturing and the increasing global opportunities advanced technologies offer, the NZMEA has introduced a new and simply stated name supported by a strong logo that reflects where it wants to take the industry into the future - The Manufacturers’ Network.
“We are hugely proud of our history, having supported manufacturers and manufacturing since 1879. But today the industry is different. With a global reach and growth opportunities relying more and more on collaboration, strong networks and an indepth knowledge of future trends, it was time our name reflected these values, clearly and simply, says Mr Dieter Adam, CE, The Maufacturers’ Network.
Today, manufacturing in New Zealand faces many challenges. Manufacturers need to hold their own and want to grow their business in an increasingly interconnected and highly competitive global environment. Whether it’s through exporting or competing with imports, it’s all about remaining globally competitive. To achieve that, manufacturers need support now more than ever.
“Manufacturers need a champion and an expert immersed in trends and opportunities who they trust so they can get on with running their businesses as competitively as possible, knowing we have en eye on the future. That’s where we fit in, says Adam.
“The Manufacturers’ Network represents the best of our collaborative spirit and smarts. We are a Network because we know that working together, and collaborating locally, allows us to compete globally, to stay up with - if not ahead - of trends, and to remain agile and efficient.
“We have deliberately chosen to use THE ahead of Manufacturers’ Network as it shows strength in what we do. Our focus is narrow and deep. We are THE Manufacturers’ Network, focused on supporting New Zealand manufacturers — the people behind the industry,” says Adam.
Manufacturing is the second highest contributor to GDP and we know that making a difference to this sector will make a difference to New Zealand and New Zealanders. Given this, the focus of The Manufacturers’ Network will be that of a specialist support network.
“I have recently returned from Hanover Fair, Germany, and built relationships there which will be invaluable going forward. Our networks aren’t just amongst the New Zealand industry but globally too.
‘There was a gap and we have made a commitment to filling it. As The Manufacturers’ Network, we are the experts in manufacturing,” says Adam.
| A Manufacturers Network release || September 22, 2017 |||
Former McLaren employee John Nicholson, who prepared Can-Am and F1 engines for the team and played a key role in the World Championship victories of 1974 and 1976, has passed away in his native New Zealand. He was 75.
Nicholson was also a gifted driver in his own right, and he even briefly made it to F1, competing in the 1975 British GP as well as four non-championship races. Although he never raced a works McLaren, he did a lot of testing for the team, driving Can-Am, F5000, F2 and on occasion F1 machinery.
John was born into a mechanical background in 1941. His father, who was an armourer in the air force, raced powerboats in New Zealand, and in his youth John helped to prepare them. From school he went to work for an engine reconditioning business, and he undertook a four and half year engineering apprenticeship – and in his final exams he earned the top marks in the whole country.
He had a few races in his father’s boat before he began competing on four wheels, initially in karts. He then acquired a Lotus Elan, and subsequently a Lotus 27 single-seater. In 1968 he took part in the New Zealand GP, a round of the Tasman Series – and thus joined a grid that included Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme, Jim Clark, Chris Amon, Pedro Rodriguez and Piers Courage. In an uncompetitive car he finished ninth, albeit many laps down.
He later replaced the Lotus with a year-old Brabham BT18. He then decided to head to England, with an ambition to race in F3, and after earning some cash as a mechanic in the Far East he arrived on May 9th 1969. Like many Kiwis before him, he saw McLaren as his natural home.
“I’d contacted a few friends in Britain concerning a job here and had written to Bruce McLaren,” he said in a 1974 Autosport interview. “But I’d never met him, nor knew who he was. I arrived on the Thursday, and went straight to Earls Court.
“Meanwhile my friends had talked to Phil Kerr at McLarens and on the Saturday I took the Green Line bus down to see McLaren. I went in round the back and two guys recognised me, Alan McCall and Jimmy Stone, but there was this guy with his back to me. When I asked to see Mr McLaren he turned round and said, ‘I presume you’re Mr Nicholson.’”
He’d got the job – he was given responsibility for building the team’s Can-Am Chevy V8 engines, working under the supervision of American George Bolthoff. Bruce duly won the 1969 Can-Am title with engines that Nicholson had helped to prepare in England. John’s driving talents came to good use, and he did some testing at Goodwood.
In late 1969 Bolthoff came up with the idea of setting up an engine shop in the USA at which to prepare both Can-Am and Indy engines. The plan was that John should start the 1970 working in England, before moving to this new McLaren Engines Inc facility in Livonia, near Detroit.
It was of course to be a fraught season for the team. In May Hulme suffered serious burns at Indianapolis, and then in June Bruce was killed at Goodwood in a Can-Am testing accident.
Having headed to the States John wrote to team boss Teddy Mayer saying he wanted to return to the UK, and he did so at the end of the year, after the recuperating Hulme had clinched the 1970 Can-Am title. His timing was good, because Cosworth announced that for 1971 it didn’t want to service the whole F1 grid’s DFV engines. Nicholson was given the job of preparing those of McLaren.
“I’d never seen a DFV in my life,” he said. “I pulled one apart and thought, ‘I’d better go to Cosworths for a couple of days.’ There I was helped by Alan Peck and learnt by pulling them apart and putting them together. With no knowledge, but the help of four good guys and a small place, we set to work doing McLaren’s DFVs. I had to supervise, and it took two weeks for one man to build an engine.
“They didn’t give much BHP, about 400 to 420, although suddenly we got a 440 engine, ‘061,’ Denny’s favourite. These freak engines turned up in many teams during the 1971 season.”
In March 1972 Hulme scored McLaren’s first GP win for three years, and the first with an engine overseen by John, at Kyalami.
It was a busy time for John, for in 1971 he also resumed his own racing career, driving a March in the Formula Atlantic series, before moving to a Lyncar chassis for ‘72. At one stage he crunched the nose at Oulton Park, and unable to afford he a new one, he fitted a McLaren F1 nose that Hulme and tried and rejected!
At the end of 1972 he was offered a job by March Engineering – company boss Max Mosley wanted him to prepare the team’s BMW F2 engines, and there was even a chance for John to race as well. He eventually rejected the offer, but he had itchy feet, and it had set him thinking.
“I went back to McLarens determined to leave, go it alone, and continue in Atlantic. It was a Saturday afternoon and when I got back, Teddy Mayer was at McLarens. I told him what I was going to do, but he wouldn’t hear of it. We went to Phil Kerr’s house that evening, and by the time I’d left, we had a business contract to go into overhauling McLaren’s DFVs as a separate business.”
John found a premises in Hounslow, and with all bar one of his original colleagues, established Nicholson-McLaren Racing Engines in early 1973. That year Denny Hulme scored the new company’s first GP win in Sweden, and later Peter Revson won at Silverstone and again in Canada.
Meanwhile John’s own racing career flourished as he won the 1973 British Formula Atlantic title, repeating his success in 1974. That year also made own foray into F1 with a Lyncar chassis, with which he did the two British non-championship races, although he failed to qualify at the British GP. He would make his one and only Grand Prix start at Silverstone in 1975, crashing out in the rain. The main problem he had was finding the time to fit his own racing around his business, and by 1977, he had decided to hang up his helmet.
He was a busy man off track. In 1974 McLaren ran a third works car, with Hulme and Emerson Fittipaldi in Marlboro colours, and Mike Hailwood in Yardley livery, so there were more engines to service. In addition he picked up work from Graham Hill’s Embassy team. That year Fittipaldi scored McLaren’s first World Championship win, powered by John’s engines.
And the race wins would keep on coming. Fittipaldi finished second in the World Championship in 1975, and then James Hunt scored a sensational title success in 1976. Hunt continued to be a pacesetter in 1977, winning three races.
McLaren then went through a bad patch until Ron Dennis came on board at the end of 1980, and John Barnard’s carbon chassis was introduced for 1981. John Watson and Niki Lauda scored some memorable successes, but the tide was turning towards turbos, and the days of the Cosworth were numbered.
In late 1983 McLaren began the switch to the Porsche-built TAG Turbo, and Nicholson’s involvement with the team was over. However, there would continue to be a link as John turned his attention to servicing DFVs for many historic racing contenders, including of course some McLarens.
John retired to New Zealand several years ago, but the company he founded is still operational, in racing, engineering and aviation, although there has been no direct connection with McLaren for some time.
| A McLaren.com release || September 20, 2017 |||
Memorandum of understanding signed to combine European steel activities in 50/50 joint venture
Positioning as strong quality and technology leader
Annual synergies of €400 million to €600 million expected
Signing of agreement targeted for early 2018 and closing by 2018 year-end
thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel have today signed a memorandum of understanding to combine their European steel activities in a 50/50 joint venture. Their aim is to create a leading European flat steel player to be positioned as quality and technology leader. The new entity is set to have pro-forma sales of about €15 billion and a workforce of about 48,000, currently at 34 locations. Shipments are envisioned to be about 21 million tons a year.
Dr. Heinrich Hiesinger, CEO of thyssenkrupp AG: “Under the planned joint venture, we are giving the European steel activities of thyssenkrupp and Tata a lasting future. We are tackling the structural challenges of the European steel industry and creating a strong No. 2. In Tata, we have found a partner with a very good strategic and cultural fit. Not only do we share a clear performance orientation, but also the same understanding of entrepreneurial responsibility toward workforce and society.”
Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Steel: “The Tata Group and thyssenkrupp have a strong heritage in the global steel industry and share similar culture and values. This partnership is a momentous occasion for both partners, who will focus on building a strong European steel enterprise. The strategic logic of the proposed joint venture in Europe is based on very strong fundamentals and I am confident that thyssenkrupp Tata Steel will have a great future.”
To be named thyssenkrupp Tata Steel, the planned joint venture will be managed through a lean holding company based in the Netherlands. It is to have a two-tier management structure comprising a management board and a supervisory board. Both boards are to have equal representation from thyssenkrupp and Tata. The codetermination structures in Germany, the Netherlands and Great Britain will be retained.
thyssenkrupp intends to contribute its Steel Europe business to the planned joint venture. There are also plans for the joint venture to include thyssenkrupp MillServices & Systems GmbH, a steel mill services provider that is part of the Materials Services business. Tata would add all of their flat steel activities in Europe.
The memorandum of understanding signed today paves the way for thyssenkrupp to involve employee representatives at thyssenkrupp AG and in the Steel business in the process ahead on an ongoing basis. All employee participation rights will continue to be respected as before.
In the months ahead, due diligence will be conducted. In the process, the negotiating parties will give each other access to confidential business documents to the extent permissible between competitors. Based on this as well as on discussions with the entire Supervisory Board, it is envisaged to sign a contract in early 2018. Closing – the effective start of the joint venture – could take place in late 2018 following antitrust approval by the relevant authorities.
Synergies within the joint venture
In the initial years – from closing onward – the joint venture partners plan to focus on establishing the joint venture and leveraging synergies. These are anticipated among other things from integrating sales, administration, research and development, joint optimization of procurement, logistics and service centers as well as improved capacity utilization in downstream processing. After the ramp-up phase, the joint venture partners expect annual synergies of €400 million to €600 million.
Additionally, the production network is to be reviewed starting in 2020 with the aim of integrating and optimizing the production strategy for the entire joint venture. It is not yet possible to quantify the additional synergies from this integration in detail. The scope for optimization also depends on numerous external factors such as the outcome of the Brexit negotiations and the implications that follow. Other external parameters include the development of the regulatory environment in areas such as emission trading and international trade policy.
The two joint venture partners expect that leveraging the cost synergies across the entire entity will require a reduction in workforce over the years ahead by up to 2,000 jobs in administration and potentially up to 2,000 jobs in production. This burden is expected to be shared roughly evenly between the two parties, which means a total of about 2,000 jobs at thyssenkrupp.
“We will not be putting any measures into effect in the joint venture that we would not have had to adopt on our own. On the contrary: By combining our steel activities, the burdens for each partner are lower than they would have been on a stand-alone basis,” said Hiesinger.
The steel industry has faced massive challenges in Europe for many years: Steel demand is characterized by a lack of dynamic. There is structural overcapacity in supply and constantly high import pressure. This leads to the fact that various stages in the value chain are operating well below capacity. Consequently, all producers are under pressure to fill capacity and forced to pass on restructuring gains to the market time and again. The result is a downward spiral and a need for restructuring about every three to four years, with major steel assets coming under threat of closure in the medium term.
Reasons for partnering with Tata Steel
There are five reasons why combining the European steel activities of thyssenkrupp and Tata is the best possible next consolidation move:
Economies of scale: Economies of scale are a key success factor in a market caught up in ongoing consolidation. Combining the No. 2 and No. 3 in Europe results in a powerful new No. 2 for quality flat steel with a very competitive market position and promising growth prospects.
Complementarity: The businesses of thyssenkrupp and Tata are a good complementary fit. thyssenkrupp is stronger in the OEM sector while Tata’s strength lies with industrial customers. The main operating locations in Duisburg, IJmuiden and Port Talbot have good logistics links and serve customers in different, economically powerful regions. That makes for significantly broader overall coverage of customer sectors throughout Europe.
Performance orientation: The steelworks of thyssenkrupp and Tata rank among the most efficient facilities in Europe. Thanks to effective cost management, both producers operate at a profit. The two companies have paved the way for this over recent years, piece by piece and independently of each other: Tata, for instance, with the restructuring of Port Talbot and by selling long steel activities, and thyssenkrupp with the sale of CSA and capacity adjustment at HKM.
Innovative strength: Both partners aspire to quality and technology leadership in the European steel industry and continually develop innovative products and solutions for customers. High-tech steels are frequently the basis of industrial value chains in Europe and a key competitive differentiator.
Culture and capabilities: The two partners each have a highly capable and dedicated workforce who strongly identify with their company. thyssenkrupp and Tata have a cultural DNA equally characterized by the will to embrace change in order to secure their future. And both companies have the backing of strong shareholders through a trust structure that perpetuate the ideas and values of the original owners.
Further milestone on strategic way forward
Steel Europe will be accounted for on the balance sheet as a discontinued operation after signing. From closing of the transaction, the 50-percent share in the joint venture will be accounted for using the equity method, meaning based on the proportionate carrying amount of the investment. When the joint venture comes into effect, this will bring about a significant improvement in key balance sheet ratios for thyssenkrupp AG, most notably in the equity ratio and in gearing (ratio of net financial debt to equity). At the same time, the move creates a solid financial structure for the steel business.
The planned joint venture marks another key milestone on thyssenkrupp’s strategic way forward. In its evolution into a strong industrial group, thyssenkrupp has two priority aims: reducing dependency on the highly volatile steel business and enabling optimum development of all business areas.
Heinrich Hiesinger, CEO of thyssenkrupp AG: “We have always targeted the best solution for thyssenkrupp. A joint venture with Tata is the only option that addresses the structural overcapacities in the European steel market, that creates substantial added value through synergies and at the same time is in line with our corporate culture. This also marks a clear commitment to our roots, as the joint venture enables thyssenkrupp to retain its involvement in steel.”
NADI | Local production drives down costs and gives boost to local economy. Bellingham’s decision to move production to Nadi is a win-win for the island nation and local developers.
Nadi, Fiji – 18 September 2017 – The island nation of Fiji is thriving in its seventh straight year of economic growth. From textiles to sugar, one of Fiji’s fastest growing sectors is manufacturing. The country has now expanded into pontoon manufacturing with the announcement of the partnership between Bellingham Marine and Marine Structures and Consultancy (MSC) Limited.
Two of the country’s best-known marine service operators, Hall Dredging and Bob Oldham recently took control of MSC. Both have worked on Bellingham projects over the years and maintain an excellent working relationship with Bellingham Marine New Zealand (BMNZ).
In the final week of July, the first Unifloat pontoons were manufactured in the Fiji plant under the watchful eye of BMNZ management, who gave the pontoons their stamp of approval.
There is great opportunity in the region. Favorable financial and governmental conditions have opened Fiji’s doors to companies like Bellingham Marine that are looking to set-up operations in the South Pacific.
“Having a production plant in Fiji allows us to provide clients in the region with more competitive pricing,” shared Bruce Birtwistle, General Manager of Bellingham Marine New Zealand. “Transportation and production costs are greatly reduced.”
“Our partnership with MSC not only benefits our clients, but the local community,” added Birtwistle. “The plant bring new jobs to the region and helps further bolster the local economy.”
As the world's leading marina design-build construction company, Bellingham Marine specializes in floating dock, floating platform and floating wave attenuation systems for marinas worldwide. The company also produces dry storage systems for the upland storage of boats.
| A Bellingham Marine release | September 19, 2017 |||
Leading food company Alliance has acquired the business of Goldkiwi Asia, a Singapore -based marketing and sales company, as it seeks to capture more value from its markets in Asia.
Alliance Group chief executive David Surveyor said the new business will be known as Alliance Asia.
Goldkiwi Asia is well established and has built sound customer relationships in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia since the early 1990s.
Mr Surveyor said the acquisition represents an important step in the company’s vision to create a stronger co - operative to benefit its 5,000 farmer shareholders and staff.
The acquisition will position Alliance directly in the market a nd accelerate the co-operative’s understanding and responsiveness to its Asia - based customers. “This will ensure we are now closer than ever to our Asian customers and end - consumers with our new Asian headquarters in Singapore connecting us to some of the world’s largest populations and their growing demand for quality foods.
It will also lift Alliance’s visibility and engagement across all steps of the supply chain.”
Alliance has worked closely with Goldkiwi Asia for more than 25 years and the company has played a key role in building Alliance’s presence in the region, he said. “This is a proven relationship and a natural next step in our strategy. Goldkiwi Asia has supported our strategic co-operation with our important Chinese in - market partner Grand Farm. This will continue as we seek to improve the returns and add value to both businesses.”
Goldkiwi Asia staff will transfer to Alliance Asia.
Paul Stephens, Founder and Director of Goldkiwi Asia, said: “The acquisition is at the right time for the business. We are moving up the value chain and we are driven to secure a better return. “Consumers want to know more – not just about the food, but also its story.
Alliance is 100% owned by farmers, who take great care and know their craft. This resonates with consumers.” Mr Surveyor said Alliance Group is developing new approaches to retail and e-commerce and product development in the Asia markets over the coming year.
“We are matching our products with markets which requires investment in product development, packaging and services.”
| An Alliance Group release || September 20, 2017 |||
Using connected technologies to gain business value
The recent Rockwell Automation TechED event in Melbourne attracted record numbers and revealed the latest techniques and technologies to help maximise manufacturing and production operations. With a focus on advancing industrial automation and solving business challenges, the event brought together the best in the industry including end users, system integrators, distributors, partners and machine builders.
“TechED has established a reputation as the industry’s only multi-day, hands-on event focusing on the latest technologies to help maximise assets and information across operations. The number of people attending TechED is growing year upon year because it not only focuses on the latest technologies to enable a Connected Enterprise, but demonstrates first-hand how companies can connect silos of information to extract real business value,” explained Matthew Treeby, commercial marketing manager, Rockwell Automation.
The event began with an informative keynote presentation by John Watts, marketing director, Rockwell Automation that highlighted the importance of investing in smart manufacturing and production to remain competitive on a global scale.
The growing middle class in emerging countries together with an aging workforce are key market drivers for smart manufacturing and production. As the consumer market grows and demands more choice, manufacturers need to embrace new technologies to address these changing requirements.
In light of these macro-trends, the Industrial IoT is estimated to have an economic impact of 4.6 trillion dollars by 2025 as new technologies including analytics, mobility, app platforms and the cloud, help securely connect plant information with enterprise systems.
In closing, Watts explained the importance of firstly understanding why you are taking the journey to smart manufacturing. “As a manufacturer, it’s important to have a clear understanding of the productivity and manufacturing issues you are working to solve. It is not all about the technology, think about the people and processes involved. Make sure you understand the business outcomes and why you are heading towards smart manufacturing.”
To help customers work towards increased productivity and profitability, he also shared a five-step guide to the Connected Enterprise; the first step being to identify desired business outcomes, then sourcing an outside perspective, assembling the team, starting small by implementing a pilot program and finally scaling for expansion to eventually enable The Connected Enterprise.
Michael Pantaleano, global business manager for analytics and cloud, Rockwell Automation, delivered the second keynote presentation focusing on how the company’s latest tools and technologies focus on scalable analytics to help customers meet production and operational goals.
Manufacturers rely on production data to solve challenges on the plant floor and across the enterprise. Scalable analytics, performed at the device, system or enterprise level, provide actionable information to the people who need it and a pathway to move data into higher-level systems.
Pantaleano emphasised the importance of running analytics where it makes sense, based on the real time nature and power required. For example, analysis of historical data and trends for future optimisation could and should take place in the cloud, whereas detection of device abnormalities requires a real time response and should be handled onsite.
The company’s new analytics solutions have the capability to scale from device through to enterprise. The devices that are in machines, lines and applications produce data. To run a connected enterprise, this data must be extracted and sent up to plant-wide and enterprise-wide information systems.
The new FactoryTalk Analytics for Devices provides information about the diagnostic health of devices, at the source. With plug-in appliances that automatically detect, digitise, analyse, and act on device data, real-time alerts on critical device and machine health are delivered at the device level.
Revealing insights into new and future products, Pantaleano explained that the focus of product development is on simplicity and experience so that devices are easier to use and deploy. In addition, collaboration and mobility requirements are met through the new FactoryTalk TeamONE app, helping to make customers more productive.
Another welcome addition to the company’s offering, Rockwell Automation ThinManager helps manage information and streamline workflows for a more connected production environment. ThinManager software allows centralised configuration and management of deliverable content to any combination of user, device or location.
Similarly, Studio 5000 Logix Designer has added new features to help improve productivity. It is clear that the company’s focus is on providing appliances that can begin delivering results quickly – products that already have analytics, are easy to use and deploy, readily integrated and scalable for future needs.
With more than 60 sessions on offer, attendees were able to experience the latest trends and technologies in the areas of scalable industrial analytics, operational data infrastructure and management, digital transformation, remote access and monitoring, and connected services and solutions.
The Process Solutions Users Group (PSUG) provided a unique perspective on how to optimise process applications and the opportunity to interact directly with the Rockwell Automation global process team. For process industries, PlantPAx embraces the cloud, mobility and virtualisation, providing an easy information flow and the flexibility to adapt to new technology.
Another area where Rockwell Automation has made significant advances is security. As manufacturing and production facilities connect the plant floor with business systems, a comprehensive approach to industrial security is required.
Securing the Connected Enterprise requires a holistic defense-in-depth approach. TechED provided the forum to learn about developing standards and regulations around security and the Rockwell Automation approach for building security into their products.
TechED demonstrated the importance of investing in smart manufacturing and production; and the costly danger of missed opportunities. The industrial automation market in Australia and New Zealand is expected to grow consistently over the coming years, making now the right time to reap the rewards of using analytics to transform data from smart, connected industrial assets into meaningful insights.
About Rockwell Automation
Rockwell Automation Australia and Rockwell Automation New Zealand are subsidiaries of Rockwell Automation, Inc.—a leading global provider of industrial automation and information solutions that helps manufacturers achieve a competitive advantage in their businesses. The company brings together leading global brands in industrial automation which include Allen-Bradley® controls and services and Rockwell Software® factory management software. Its broad product mix includes control logic systems, sensors, human-machine interfaces, drive controllers, power devices, and software.
Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE:ROK), the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and information, makes its customers more productive and the world more sustainable. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., Rockwell Automation employs approximately 22,000 people serving customers in more than 80 countries.
Robots endangering workers has been the driving force behind a German startup writes Oliver Sachgau for Bloomberg and publiashed recently by Industry Week. Increased safety would mean robots could work more efficiently and at a faster pace when near humans
Two years ago, a robot crushed a 22-year-old man to death at a Volkswagen AG factory in Germany after the maintenance worker became trapped in an area usually off-bound to humans. While this type of tragedy is still relatively rare, efforts to improve safety are intensifying as factories around the world become increasingly automated.
Now, in a development that’s drawn interest from car makers including Volkswagen, entrepreneurs Roman Weitschat and Hannes Hoeppner, working at the German Aerospace Center outside of Munich, say they have designed a way to better safeguard interactions between humans and robots with the aim of allowing them to work more closely.
Their newly-created company, Cobotect GmbH, is using the decades-old concept of airbags to cushion potentially dangerous automated parts and prevent workers from getting hurt. Increased safety would mean robots could work more efficiently and at a faster pace when near humans, according to the researchers.
Continue to read the full article on Industry Week here . . .
| An Industry Week release || September 18, 2017 |||
Beginning today, Monday 18 September 2017, CADPRO System's Matthew Weake will be running their Autodesk workshops starting with Tauranga today, Invercagill on Tuesday, New Plymouth on Wednesday and Napier on Thursday. Then next week it's Christchurch's turn on Monday, Hamilton on Tuesday and finally Auckland on Wednesday the 27th.
A busy time for the CADPRO team for sure which includes Peter Crawley, Scott Moyse, Gavin Bath and Matthew. You can register and access the details for each workshop via this link.
The purpose of these events is to highlight the changes made to Inventor, Nastran-InCAD, HSM and Vault over the last few years that users should consider using. They are considered ‘nuture’ events to help customers realise the value of tools they have available to them and get the chance to meet a couple of the people that they ask for support at CADPRO.
CADPRO have been using, supporting, implementing and training these products since they became available – for Inventor that was 1999! Matthew started with Solidworks 97+, he then moved to Mechanical Desktop 2 (AutoCAD R14 based) and then to Inventor. He then took a short break to go dairy farming and came back suitably refreshed to help CADPRO consolidate the company as a leading force in Australasia in the design sector.
CADPRO took on HSMWorks as the Master Reseller for Australasia and for the last 3 years and have been supporting it through all the progress to Inventor HSM, Fusion 360 and now to the Product Design and Manufacturing Collection and when Autodesk bought NEi Nastran have been working with the product as it matured into Nastran-InCAD.
For all of us involved in the manufacturing space, our clients are probably sick of us promoting data management, Matthew has been known to say! But in reality he is being a little harsh on himself, data management is often overlooked as a task that needs to be managed and there are there are really good reasons for every client to be using Vault in its various forms.
Look forward to catching up with you all over the next couple of weeks. You can register right here
Regards
Matthew Weake
Mob: +64 274 820 845
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
