Items filtered by date: Tuesday, 02 December 2014

To be forewarned is to be forearmed -  I don’t wish to sound as if this is an overreaction, but from information I received just a few days ago in a Google health and safety (H&S) alert via stuff.co.nz, the following is a wakeup call for all NZ businesses.

The reported breach this week of a health and safety injury in a public amenity certainly highlights the need to not brush an incident or an accident aside.

Gordon Anderson ponders - are the insurance company underwriters "The Silent Regulators" of H&S? The new Health and safety looks like it will be passed into law at the end of this week regardless of the attempts by a number of lobby groups trying to have it watered down.

The price you pay writes Gordon Anderson . . .  A boy stood on a burning deck his pocket full of crackers . . . I'm sure you can finish this verse but it leads me into a story of a young lad who was given a job in an engineering workshop.

Space and Ad Rates . . .

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A new nationwide set of environmental rules for managing New Zealand’s 1.7 million hectares of plantation forestry will better protect the environment and deliver significant savings in compliance costs, Minister for the Environment Dr Nick Smith and Associate Minister for Primary Industries Louise Upston say.

“Forestry is New Zealand’s third largest primary industry but its efficiency is hampered by the confusing mix of planning rules across New Zealand’s 86 councils. The strength of this national approach is that it will better protect the environment while also improving the productivity of the forestry sector by applying consistent environmental standards to reduce operational costs,” Dr Smith says.

“A major change with these new regulations is the development of three new tools for managing the environmental impacts from forestry, covering the issues of erosion, wilding pines and fish spawning.

“The benefit of these tools is that the restrictions on forestry activities are related to the environmental risk rather than which council area a forestry operation is in. This change is particularly important as 80 per cent of forest owners manage forests in multiple council areas.

“This new national forestry standard is part of the Government’s broader Resource Management Act reforms, facilitated by amendments passed in May this year. It follows other national regulations covering telecommunications, electricity transmission, waste tyre management, water metering and drinking water, contaminated soils and aquaculture.”

Ms Upston says the forestry industry will benefit from having a set of consistent regulations to operate under.

“Planning rules at local government level are subject to regular reviews and there could be as many as three sets of regional or district plan rules. Some large forests also cross local government boundaries, resulting in different rules for the same forest.”

“Removing this uncertainty will encourage greater investment in a significant contributor to our economy, especially at regional level. Forestry employs more than 26,000 people and exports total more than $5 billion a year,” Ms Upston says.

“The National Environmental Standard for Plantation Forestry covers eight core plantation forestry activities: afforestation, pruning and thinning to waste, earthworks, river crossings, forestry quarrying, harvesting, mechanical land preparation and replanting. Councils may apply stricter rules in special circumstances where local conditions require a more restrictive approach.”

The standard, which comes into force on 1 May, 2018, was developed jointly by the Ministry for Primary Industries and the Ministry for the Environment. Support and guidance will be provided to councils, foresters and key stakeholders to ensure an effective rollout.

Related DocumentsPlantation Forestry NES - Overview of Regulations.pdf (pdf 1.89 MB)

| A Beehive release  ||  August 8,  2017   |||

Christchurch’s Davinia Sutton and New Plymouth’s Glen Johns were the Supreme winners at the New Zealand’s kitchen and bathroom Excellence in Design Awards in Sydney tonight.

Johns won the National Kitchen and Bathroom Association (NKBA) best kitchen award and Sutton won best bathroom. The pair have led with outstanding NKBA awards between them in recent years.

Judges said Johns kitchen design offered sophisticated space with a juxtaposition of the warm wood and metal. They said the lighting provided an intimate feel and offered clever use of modern technology.

Johns says kitchens are such an integral part of the household, that it makes sense to also ensure they are a critical part of the architecture. Johns is renowned for his architectural approach to kitchen design.

He has been involved in the kitchen industry for 26 years. His company, Kitchens by Glen Johns, combines skills, passion and creativity of innovative design creating quality award winning kitchens, bathrooms, laundries and all other forms of cabinetry within a wide spectrum of briefs.

Supreme bathroom design winner Sutton found judges saying her design profiled ‘’a lovely composition of colours’’. They said her design was simple and stylish, minimal yet warm and comfortable. The design provided great storage and the detailing “is beautiful and elegant”.

Sutton, who won the same award last year, says she is passionate about interior architecture, from traditional to modern in style, my approach to each design is well thought out and highly considered.

Her company Detail by Davinia Sutton is a boutique design practice with a combined experience of over 25 years designing interiors, including kitchens, bathrooms, laundries, wardrobing, furniture, media rooms, storage solutions and outside living/BBQ zones.

In addition to the supreme kitchen and bathroom winners, there are over 30 other awards presented including regional awards and a student design award.

Winners came from Christchurch, Auckland, Wellington, Southland, Otago, Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay.

Last year’s supreme kitchen design award winner Auckland designer Morgan Cronin was a judge this year. The awards are being held off shore for the first time so designers can attend the 2017 Sydney Indesign event this weekend.

As the country's top kitchen and bathroom designers presented the best of their work in the annual awards, it offered a litmus test of the latest trends, NKBA president Annemarie Mains says.

“We have been so excited about the beautiful and creative kitchen and bathroom designs of the New Zealand designers this year. NKBA designers are world class with such a high standard and quality manufacturing,” Mains says.

The awards are the longest standing kitchen and bathroom design Awards in New Zealand. This year’s awards are the 33rd for the NKBA, with Fisher & Paykel as the 2017 principal sponsor.

NKBA designers are leaders in the industry with many working not only within New Zealand but overseas as well, Mains says.

| A MakeLemonade release  ||  August 11,  2017   |||

Five international airlines are expanding air access to Thailand with new flights from Beijing, Doha, Istanbul, Maldives, India’s Jaipur and Tiruchirappalli, and Singapore, strengthening the Kingdom’s status as a global aviation hub.

The new flights offer visitors greater convenience and more choice for point of entry when travelling to and from Thailand. The country’s aviation authorities continue to expand both flight frequency and international gateway destinations to handle growing traveller demand and the never-ending quest for new itineraries.

Mr. Yuthasak Supasorn, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) said, “Thailand has long been the key portal to Asia and global aviation hub. Steady passenger growth depends on more flights and finding new entry points to the country. These new flights provide visitors with more choice, flexibility and convenience when travelling or making connections to major cities around Thailand. We hope that the expanded air access boosts tourism arrivals.”

Scheduled flights to be added or recently started service during 2017 include:

Starting 27 March, this year, Thai Airways International has launched its ‘Phuket Express‘ service with four direct weekly Beijing to Phuket flights.

Since 1 June, this year, Qatar Airways has operated flights from Doha to Bangkok five days a week. The increased frequency, along with its double-daily Phuket flights and the five-month-old Krabi operations (four weekly flights), increase Qatar Airways departures from Thailand to Doha to 53 flights per week.

Turkish Airlines has launched the Istanbul to Phuket direct service on 17 July, 2017, starting with four weekly flights that will increase to daily during this coming winter. The airline started the Istanbul-Bangkok return service in 1989 and currently operates 14 flights per week.

Low-cost carrier Thai AirAsia will add daily Maldives flights from Bangkok to Male starting on 11 August, using Airbus A320 aircraft. The airline is also expanding its services to India with the Bangkok-Jaipur and Bangkok- Tiruchirappalli routes, each with four flights a week, starting on 29 September. The airline operates from Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport.

Another low-cost carrier Jetstar Asia will add four weekly flights from Singapore to Hat Yai return from 3 November, 2017, using 180-seat Airbus A320 aircraft. Bookings are currently available for purchase in Singapore.

Mr. Yuthasak added, “TAT has also signed a series of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with major international airlines aimed at strengthening tourism cooperation and boosting the number of visitor arrivals to Thailand.”

TAT recently inked MOUs with EVA Air to work on joint tourism promotion strategies for the US and Canada markets; with Etihad Airways to jointly promote travel to Thailand from the UAE, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Egypt, and Kuwait; with Qatar Airways for travellers from Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and Singapore Airlines’ important inbound markets including Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Read more at http://www.etbtravelnews.global

| An ETB/Tahi Airways release  ||  August 10,  2017   |||

Stephen Hooper, Autodesk’s senior director of Manufacturing Business Strategy and Marketing was on the phone writes Roopider Hara for Engineering.com.

Autodesk will be throwing simulation and CAM into Inventor—not just any simulation, but NASTRAN, which was previously trying to sell for $3,500. And Autodesk is not charging a penny more than what it was already charging for Inventor. HSMworks will also be included. 

From the speed of an online demo, it’s hard to tell how it will all work together but the potential of all this functionality in the box is enormous. The CAD, CAM and CAE, all working inside a single interface of Inventor, not only elevates the mainstream MCAD modeler Inventor back to star status at Autodesk, it raises it a level above ordinary MCAD from the competition. The mechanical designer or engineer is now empowered to do simulation and to send models to the CNC machine. They don’t have to purchase a CAM application, learn a whole new interface or be at the mercy of a machinist.

Don’t let on yet, Stephen says during the call last week. Autodesk is going to make a surprise announcement. And a surprise it will be. Many Inventor users have been bemoaning the lack of new capability in Inventor for a few years. Autodesk itself has been forecasting a cessation of the Inventor product line, with the idea that a tired desktop app would give way to cloud-based Fusion. They have been feeling left out and left behind, as a modern, cloud-based, mobile-device-friendly Fusion products have taken the spotlight.

This changes everything.

Pricing and Other Details

It's not a pricing story, says Stephen, but he still recognizes the importance of pricing.

Incredulous at what appears to be a grand giveaway, in which the products are included with an Inventor subscription, I have to press.

“Stephen, I can’t believe you are selling Inventor for the same price as ever, but, now, also adding NASTRAN and HSM. Really? No additional cost?”

“Believe it,” says Stephen.

Also announced is a change in the name of the “collections,” or what was previously called “product suites.”

Continue to read the full article here

|  An engineering.com release  ||  August 9,  2017   |||