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New Zealand farmers and companies are starting to use Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, data analytics and automation to decrease impact on New Zealand rivers, a leading national tech expert says.
In countries, right across the world the IoT devices are being used to help clean up water, New Zealand IoT Alliance executive director Kriv Naicker says.
Irrigation is by far the largest use of water in New Zealand, making up 65.9 percent of water use between 2013 and 2014, the Ministry for the Environment says.
Places like Israel and California have had to learn how to manage their farms and use of water really well as they don’t have much of it available, Naicker says.
“In New Zealand, we have plenty of water so we haven’t paid as much attention to the impact of farming until recently. There is now a push to make all New Zealand’s waters and rivers swimmable again.
“Earlier this year the government set a new target to have 90 per cent of New Zealand's lakes and rivers reach swimmable water quality standards by 2040. Currently just 72 per cent meet the standard.
“New Zealand can quickly learn from other nations and use sensors to monitor water quality, water levels, nutrient flows and other metrics, analytics to quickly understand what is happening where on the farm and automation and robotics to adjust delivery of nutrients and water to reduce impact on waterways.”
Using soil moisture sensors, analytics and water automation systems, Californian avocado growers have been able to reduce water usage by 75 percent.
A water sensor that will allow people to check the health of waterways has recently been tested on the Manawatu River near Palmerston North. The sensor will allow communities to check the health and safety of their local waterways.
Naicker says the advantages of the ability to remotely track, IoT monitor and then report on the condition of a herd of cows or flock of sheep or quality of water introduces huge efficiencies for the modern farmer.
“They can be alerted to various scenarios in advance and save both time and money by not having to patrol and survey, using satellite technology to receive various information in a proactive fashion.”
“Some good examples of companies providing sensors for the quality of lakes and rivers includes Riverwatch Water Tester in the Wairarapa, Waterforce in Canterbury and KotahiNet in Wellington.
In addition, Spark, Vodafone, and Thinxtra and Kordia are rolling out IoT water management solutions,” he says.
For further information contact New Zealand IoT Alliance executive director Kriv Naicker on 021 8486367 or Make Lemonade NZ editor-in-chief Kip Brook on 025 030188.
| A MakeLemonade release || August 24, 2017 |||
One platform for each and everythingThe machinery belonging to the business area, which focuses on global materials distribution and processing services, is highly diverse: The machines perform a wide range of tasks, were made by various manufacturers and differ in age. Now toii makes it possible to connect bandsaws and bending machines, mobile objects like cranes and forklifts and even complex production facilities such as slitting and cut to length lines and sophisticated processing solutions through milling machines and laser systems digitally in line with the Industrial Internet of Things. The digital platform allows the machines to share data and communicate with one another and with the IT systems. Processes can be planned and coordinated optimally and flexibly – across locations, worldwide. As a further major benefit, the platform simplifies data analysis. Which product has been produced when and in what quantities? Which machine needs maintenance? What could be developing into a problem? What additional materials need to be delivered? The system answers all of these questions and many more by gathering and analyzing data. The results are just a mouse click away – clearly structured and easy to understand.
“We’ve created an end-to-end solution that is tailored specifically to our needs. It will enable us to accelerate the automation of our production operations and make our processes much more efficient,” says Hans-Josef Hoß from the board of thyssenkrupp Materials Services. “We are now taking the digital transformation to the core areas of our business: our production shops, our machinery and equipment, and our materials. Our customers will feel the benefit – and so will we.”
toii has already successfully proven its worth in several pilot projects. For example, at Materials Processing Europe in Mannheim, a new, highly complex cut to length line that cuts sheet from coil was fully connected with the platform. The result: toii transfers work orders directly and in real time from the SAP system to the machine and controls its settings from sizes and weights to volumes. The platform also automatically retrieves the machine information required by SAP. As a result, the status of production and the finished products can be viewed at any time. Other machines have also already been digitally connected and automated using toii, for example measuring the thickness of metal strips for effective quality control and automatic blanking. In the latter case, the platform even made it possible to fully integrate the blanking operation into a production line. In other areas, from high- bay storage to mobile construction machinery, toii is improving efficiency as well.The platform is an in-house development, highly scalable, and can integrate up to several hundred machines a year. An international Materials Services team of IT professionals from Germany, India and the USA worked together to develop toii. Alongside various projects in Germany, there are already plans to deploy the system in the UK and the USA. All data are currently hosted on a central server in Germany. But to be able to comply with all data protection law requirements, local servers will also be created in the UK and USA as part of the further roll-out.thyssenkrupp Materials Services is systematically driving the digital transformation of the business area throughout the entire value chain. In many areas, connected collaboration and interactive processes are already well established – from logistics, warehousing and line utilization to purchasing and administration. The focus is on customers and their individual requirements. The aim: to continuously develop and implement made-to-measure digital solutions that allow for smarter and more effective collaboration and open up completely new possibilities.About thyssenkrupp:thyssenkrupp is a diversified industrial group with traditional strengths in materials and a growing share of capital goods and service businesses. Over 156,000 employees in nearly 80 countries work with passion and technological know-how to develop high-quality products and intelligent industrial processes and services for sustainable progress. Their skills and commitment are the basis of our success. In fiscal year 2015/2016 thyssenkrupp generated sales of around €39 billion.
Together with our customers we develop competitive solutions for current and future challenges in their respective industries. With our engineering expertise we enable our customers to gain an edge in the global market and manufacture innovative products in a cost- and resource-friendly way. Our technologies and innovations are the key to meeting diverse customer and market requirements around the world, growing on the markets of the future, and generating strong and stable earnings, cash flows and value growth.
About thyssenkrupp Materials Services: With around 480 locations in over 40 countries, the Materials Services business area specializes in materials distribution, logistics and services, the provision of technical services as well as services for industrial plants and steel mills. In addition to rolled steel, stainless steel, tubes and pipes, nonferrous metals, specialty materials and plastics, Materials Services also offers services from processing and logistics to warehouse and inventory management through to supply chain and project management.
| A Thyssenkrupp Materials release || August 21, 2017 |||
It appears Japanese factories, companies are looking beyond the IOT and or IOE; aiming to connect a variety of assets, e.g., machines, data, technologies, people, and organizations, as well as the existing industries and digital technologies, thereby bringing about the creation of new added value and the solutions to societal problems, bringing “Connected Industries” to fruition.
Industrial sensors,data and communications are becoming the core topic among factories, companies that foresee themselves in advanced industrial automation. IOT, smart solutions are at surge for individual customer; where as for factories it seems the challenges are more especially getting the machines to communicate in safer environment.
No wonder Japan introduced “Just in time Manufacturing” , Kaizen ,TQM, TQC concepts in the past; In response to fierce international competition resulting from increased globalization, as well as labor shortages and a reduced number of skilled workers due to falling birthrates and aging populations, the companies in Japan have come up with new concept called as “Flexible Factory Partner Alliance” .
The formation of this alliance or this concept is pretty simple and straightforward, utilizing advanced automation technologies of ICT in manufacturing to improve productivity and to tackle to seamless communications among machines, factories , plants in an secured wireless network.
Japanese companies always stressed upon ‘visualization’ in production equipment and production status is the stepping stone to moving forward for improving productivity, and as product development cycles have shortened in recent years, there has been a demand for greater flexibility in the configuration of production facilities equipment and in modifying the production line construction. As a means of achieving greater flexibility, there are rising expectations for wireless communications among machines, different plants and factories.
A major issue in wireless communications in factories where various wireless systems coexist is communication instability due to interference between wireless systems and the impact that has on equipment operation. There had previously been few efforts, however, to resolve this sort of wireless communication issues in manufacturing facilities; To find solutions Alliance of 7 companies in Japan have been formed .
OMRON, ATR, Sanritz, NICT, NEC, Fujitsu, and Murata Machinery have been conducting trials of wireless communications and evaluating the wireless environment in factories. These companies and organizations have at academic conferences and other venues broadly proposed coordination control technology that would enable stability in communications. This would work by controlling independent wireless systems for each piece of equipment, with specific use cases in actual manufacturing facilities.
These companies have come together to form the Flexible Factory Partner Alliance to promote the formulation of standards for coordination control technology. This will thereby ensure stable communications in an environment where various wireless systems coexist, as well as promote their use and further accelerate the adoption of wireless systems in manufacturing facilities.
Through the initiatives of this alliance, the partners will work to meet expectations for a new industrial revolution 4.0; 5.0; accompanying the spread of the use of IoT in manufacturing facilities. Sensors, Data and Communication in safer Wireless communications in manufacturing factories that are expected to accelerate wireless-connected devices to increase productivity, and disseminate the standards.
Few companies were working on trial specifications; last month the first set of 7 companies announced the first alliance . OMRON Corporation, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), Sanritz Automation Co., Ltd., National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), NEC Corporation, Fujitsu Limited, and Murata Machinery, Ltd., while Professor Andreas Dengel of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)) is appointed as Chairperson.
Experts say "Based on the traditional concepts safe manufacturing concepts; Japanese companies aims at IoE (Internet of Everything)" that connects people as well as machines and things; smart factory is one main part where people /humans take leading role.The use and communication of on-site data, ideas of people seamlessly are important.The data utilization evolves and impacts equipment and factory facilities, Many companies are working towards a thorough process Specifically, Connecting objects (connecting), Connect information (visualize), Improve (Collect and analyze information, create value) and Expanding the scope (sharing data).
Although the Implementation and utilization of IoT in many Japanese factories has been existing for many years now ; or being started, it is merely an extension of the traditional Kaizen effort for the purpose of "productivity improvement" to the last step of product manufacturing.
Few of the Japanese factories feel that to understand the magnitude of change that can be brought by connecting machines, factories and various things in manufacturing plant and to understand the ROI for the given product , line and market these things can not be taken only at the manufacturing site.
While Private companies are working at group factories alliances program; Recently, Japan Ministry for Economy, Trade and Industry [METI] proposed a Policy Concept Titled “Connected Industries” as a Goal that Japanese Industries Should Aim for an ideal approach that Japanese industries should strive for.
As one of the efforts for promoting the Connected Industries policy concept, a goal to create value through connecting a variety of industries,last month the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) held the first symposium for this policy concept, bringing together approximately 600 stakeholders.
It appears Japanese factories, companies are looking beyond the IOT and or IOE; aiming to connect a variety of assets, e.g., machines, data, technologies, people, and organizations, as well as the existing industries and digital technologies, thereby bringing about the creation of new added value and the solutions to societal problems, bringing “Connected Industries” to fruition. To this end, the Japanese government is advancing a wide variety of policy initiatives in cooperation with private sector parties.
| A Manufacturing Tomorrow release || August 16, 2017 |||
Machine tool giant Mazak has passed another milestone in its embrace of “smart manufacturing” with full digitization of its manufacturing plant at Oguchi, Japan. The manufacturer emphasizes data analysis and machine connectivity in its designs — specifically using the MTConnect® open communications protocol and customized data-collection technology — and applies these in its own machine tool production processes, too.
“There is little doubt in the industry that MTConnect will soon be the standard worldwide and the foundation of tomorrow’s digitized manufacturing operations,” stated chairman Brian Papke. “At Mazak, we’ve experienced double-digit increases in productivity and machine utilization in each facility immediately after the implementation of digital process monitoring through MTConnect and our SmartBox technology.”
SmartBox is a network device that collects data from and supplies information to individual machines, and communicates with a wider network via the open protocol.
Oguchi is one of five Mazak plants in Japan, its headquarters location and the site of its R&D operations. The plant manufactures a range of horizontal and multi-tasking machines. A new plant Mazak is building at Inabe City, southwest of Tokyo, is designed according to the "iSMART Factory" concept and will begin producing machine tools in 2019.
Mazak’s first iSMART Factory is its plant in Florence, Ky., which manufactures the complete line of Mazak machine tools. The plant is organized as a series of advanced manufacturing cells and production systems in order to maximize productivity and flexibility. The MTConnect protocol links the machines, work cells, individual devices, and discrete processes, collecting process and product data from each one.
The iSMART Factory concept achieves “free-flow data sharing,” to optimize manufacturing by coordinating all available technology, information, and resources, in line with the theories projected as the industrial Internet of Things (IoT).
In addition to its two ISMART Factories and the one in development, Mazak indicated it would report further details in September.
| An AmericanMachinist release || Jul28, 2017 |||
A new research study has identified agri-business as one of the best opportunities to use the internet of things (IoT) for economic advantage in New Zealand, mainly because of the contribution that agriculture already makes to the Kiwi economy. The research study was commissioned by the New Zealand IoT Alliance, an independent member funded group of tech firms, major corporates, startups, universities and government agencies. Alliance chair and NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says agriculture is an important part of the New Zealand economy producing 40 percent of the country’s merchandise exports so agricultural productivity is critical for the economic wellbeing of all New Zealanders. While New Zealand's agricultural productivity growth is still ahead of the world average of 1.7 percent a year, it has remained relatively low at 2.5 percent between 2008-2015. Increasing use of IoT technology is needed to lift productivity. Additionally, with increasing environmental and sustainability pressures, New Zealand's farmers are looking to technology to make their operations more compliant, Muller says. “Given the scale of the estimated productivity gains across the agri-sector through better use of IoT, farmers, farm suppliers, the tech industry and Government should resolve to accelerate its uptake. “While farmers are starting to use technology, including IoT, to increase productivity and reduce costs in the face of increased competition and compliance requirements, the uptake of IoT in agriculture is relatively low across the sector as a whole. “There is no dispute that using IoT systems to augment the intuition of the farmer will have a huge impact in terms of improving productivity on the farm and improving its environmental and sustainability performance. There is the ability to grow more while using less in a way that the community will find more acceptable. “For fruit and wine growers, frost conditions can decimate acres of fruit blossom in a single cold night. To mitigate the risk of loss, IoT solutions can predict and manage frost conditions. “Farmers and growers are value purchasers. Cost is less of an issue if the value is obvious. For example, a farmer might struggle to see the value in a $20 a month phone upgrade, but have no qualms buying a $130,000 tractor. “Farmers seek decision support for farming and automation for compliance. As technology makes its way onto the fields in the future, more farm management will be done from a desk or device instead of in the field. “New Zealand pack houses, such as A. S. Wilcox and Sons, are involved in the entire supply chain of fresh vegetables including growing, picking, processing, packing and transporting. Technology has become an integral part of their success. “The Wilcox pack house uses technology to integrate operations from the field to the customer and to ensure the best product is put in the best place. Instead of people, they can send drones to check crops for quality and growth. Sensors on machinery report how much harvesters are gathering.” Embracing IoT technology may be a big cultural shift for some in the farming community yet the potential benefits are enormous, with an estimated $448 million in net benefit to New Zealand over the next 10 years from better use of IoT for water management on dairy farms alone, Muller says. Industry needs to build its credibility within farming to encourage investment in technology. While a startup company may have a good IoT product, if they have no credibility with the farming community, it will struggle to sell. Meanwhile, the extended time frame to create credibility can simply be too long.
| An NZ IoT Alliance release || July 3, 2017 |||
Cities will become safer and more desirable to live in when the internet of things (IoT) takes hold a research study report says. The IoT research was commissioned by the New Zealand IoT Alliance, an independent member funded group of tech firms, major corporates, startups, universities and government agencies. Alliance chair and NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says by managing traffic flows to reduce congestion, deterring crime using intelligent lighting and cognitive CCTV, enhancing public transport and using adaptive city lighting both for aesthetics and safety, IoT can make a city a more desirable place to be. Data collected from IoT sensors can assist council to create evidence based policy. In Wellington, a safe cities programme uses cognitive CCTV and overlays data from police, social welfare, district health board and organisations such as City Mission.
City based IoT initiatives, often called smart cities, are designed to save on the costs of running a city, making it more efficient and providing a better experience for the citizens who inhabit, visit or work there. “The data is used operationally to help make the city safer and the Wellington council is also using it to inform its new policy on homelessness,” Muller says.
A city can also use IoT to start to understand the economic return on public events. Wellington city for example, is trialling stereoscopic cameras to count people at different choke points in the city. The system also uses wi-fi to understand the flow of pedestrians. This is enabling the council to better understand attendance at its free public events, from which an economic return on those events can be calculated. “Auckland Transport is utilising an IoT network to improve school safety by connecting school zone road signs to the network, a proof of concept solution developed by Massey University in conjunction with Auckland based industrial design company Motiv. “Auckland Transport is delivering a project that will see 40,000 individually addressable street lights deployed. The lights will be managed by an IoT central management system. “Connectivity is currently via the cellular network but Auckland Transport are moving from SIM to fixed connectivity for more assured capacity, speed and security reasons. They will retain SIM connectivity for hot standby. The driver for the project was the anticipated cost savings from a reduction in electricity consumption and reduced maintenance costs,” Muller says. City infrastructure maintenance will benefit from IoT. Tracking the structural health and use of highways, roads, tunnels, bridges and buildings reduces costs by optimising maintenance frequency. IoT can also reduce the time required to ascertain structural integrity of assets post-quake or other disaster event. For example, Wellington City Council are implementing a project to sense whether a building is safe to enter after a quake. The report says smart on-street car parking reduces congestion in the city, improves usage and occupancy of car parks and improves revenue collection from parking fees. It is estimated there is a potential $128 million net benefit to New Zealand, in present value terms, from the use of IoT in the management of city infrastructure over the next 10 years, and an extra $27 million net benefit from IoT use in managing on-street parking, in the three main cities alone.
| An NZ IoT Alliance release || July 3, 2017 |||
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
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