The sooner we see
it as an overall
business tool, rather
than a productivity
tool, that’s when we
are ready to start
to see the benefits.”
working with legacy equipment. How
do you bring machinery from one era
into another without losing out?
“As the saying goes, you eat an
elephant one bite at a time,” she
says. “A step at a time. We talk to
companies about the potential to
make a start on just one machine. It
may be as simple as using a sensor
to track the wear and tear. Soon
we’ll be rolling out a nationwide I4.0
demonstration network which will
show people how real businesses
are integrating I4.0 tools into their
operations.”
Having a clear idea of what you want
to achieve can help she says.
“You can improve productivity and
you can achieve quality. The big
challenges are around what it is you
are driving towards. What is the
ultimate goal? And how do you
start it?”
Having worked in places such as
Silicon Valley, Bluett knows some
of the challenges international
companies face, that New Zealand
companies do not. She believes our
size can work to our favour.
“New Zealand is like a big village.
You talk to people at BBQ’s and
it’s amazing who knows who. In
Silicon Valley you’ve got food tech
companies but with food customers
on the other side of the country. You
can’t just pop into their offices to
talk or go into their factory and try
something.
“New Zealand has that physical
proximity and that close network. A
lot of people have amazing access
to production facilities where they
can try things and co-collaborate
on new solutions which doesn’t
happen elsewhere, and we take
that for granted. There is a big
opportunity for frontier start-ups
to co-innovate with established
industry players to test things out
and build their capability on both
ends. We complain about being
at the end of the world, but it has
its advantages.”She says I4.0 can
unlock the chance to reconsider how
a business operates.
“Sometimes we look at these tools
Collecting and analysing food
profiles can produce a wealth
of quality and traceability data
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