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Hasemer announces new battery-powered excavator for confined spaces

Leading materials handling firm, Hasemer, has announced the arrival of the Track-O Minidozer. The purpose-built excavator has been designed for use in confined spaces and is perfect for cleaning up under conveyor belts in almost any application as well as around industrial and manufacturing plants, drainage systems, pumping stations, irrigation and construction projects, council sites and many more. The low profile and narrow width of the Track-O Minidozer ensures the vehicle can easily move in tight places to pick up and transport materials. Operated using a wireless remote-control device, the battery-powered Track-O Minidozer provides you with a running time of nearly 10 hours, more than enough for one work shift. What’s more, it features an external charger and an interchangeable battery for continuous work. Designed with safety in mind, the vehicle is battery rather than diesel powered so as to protect workers from breathing in fumes and toxic gasses while working in confined spaces. Plus, the Track-O Minidozer emits minimum radiation and noise. Very cost-effective to operate thanks to its electric drive system, the vehicle also requires little maintenance. Easy to handle and manoeuvre, the Track-O Minidozer will help you boost productivity and improve safety. The Track-O Minidozer is available in two models, the M-27 and the M-48. Both models can be fitted with a range of optional accessories to meet your needs including cameras and hose trunks. Designed and built in Canada, the Track-O Minidozer is tough, robust and durable. For further information call Hasemer on (02) 9771 9848 or email sales@hasemer.com.au

Smart technologies can improve safety in the oil and gas industry

By Gaurav Sharma, Head of Industries Business, ANZ, Cognizant Employee safety remains a key concern within the oil and gas sector. The nature of tasks and activities makes it a riskier industry than others. Workers’ fatigue is another factor increasing that risk. However, the oil and gas industry is in a prime position to take advantage of technologies such as robotics, wearables, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning (ML) to minimise some of the risks, as well as drive innovation. The risks of fatigue Fatigue is a major contributor to safety incidents in the oil and gas industry. An oil and gas worker’s job includes inherently risky routine and physically demanding tasks such as positioning heavy equipment, climbing on scaffolds, and physical inspections and maintenance. Characteristics specific to the oil and gas industry are also factors increasing that risk, such as fly-in fly-out and shift work conditions, dealing with time zone changes and 24/7 operations, handling hazardous chemicals or working in extreme weather conditions. Research indicates that the injury rate of Australian shift workers is two times higher than other workers, due to fatigue-related factors such as insufficient sleep, disrupted sleep patterns, and extended working hours. Using digital technologies to predict fatigue risk There is an increasing awareness across risky industries that digital technologies have an important role to play in improving work safety. Leading oil and gas providers are now looking to improve their current standards even further through data collection, monitoring, and automation. However, there is still a long way to go to full adoption, as estimates suggest that just one percent of the data currently captured by operators is being used for improvement purposes. These technologies can provide companies with better control on workplace hazards and better training, while improving onsite communications and overall workforce and business […]

AI challenges revealed in book

The Future Computed: AI and Manufacturing is an in-depth look at the challenges and opportunities of AI and how it’s transforming the manufacturing sector. Interviews with customers, policymakers, labor representatives and Microsoft experts shed light on how AI is driving efficiencies, enabling products and services, and allowing for safer workspaces. The book also offers a timely look at how society can respond to some of the challenges this new technology creates, and the need to develop new laws and regulations to address workforce disruption and develop AI in an ethical and responsible manner. A free download of the book is available at The Future Computed microsite, where you can also find other interesting content from the book (e.g. customer videos, case studies, and executive summary).

There’s still time to enter the Premier’s Sustainability Awards

Entries in the 2019 Premier’s Sustainability Awards close at 5pm on Thursday 13 June. Finalists will be announced mid-August. All finalists are invited to attend the awards’ ceremony on Thursday 10 October – a night of celebrating sustainability leadership, creativity and innovation across 11 categories. 2018 finalist in the Awards’ education category was Albert Park Pre-School for their program, Keeping our Promise to Bunjil, a creator deity, to take care of the children and the land. Jenny Whelan, Administration Director, from Albert Park Pre-School said, “Attending the Awards dinner provided a wonderful opportunity to pause and celebrate as a team. To listen and learn from the stories of others and share time with people dedicated to caring for our world inspired us to dream big.” Finalists and winners are provided with media releases, photos and social media graphics to help promote their involvement with their staff, their customers and their communities. Now in its 17th year, the Premier’s Sustainability Awards continue to grow and reflect action happening across industry, business and community from regional to metropolitan Victoria. So, what are you waiting for? Get the team together, see category criteria and profiles of previous entrants, then lodge your entry at www.sustainabilityawards.vic.gov.au.

Businesses urged David Stevens Aust MN website

Businesses urged to switch to smart fibre

Leading Australian telco Netmode is urging businesses to begin the process of switching over to next-generation IP-based services or risk losing their telephone numbers when Telstra begins disconnecting traditional phone services later this year. Many business owners are unaware that from September 30, the old copper infrastructure that supports Australia’s traditional phone lines and the ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) will be removed, with the entire network expected to be decommissioned within a few years. National telco Netmode is facilitating the smooth transition for businesses switching from the old ISDN network to the latest technology for voice and data services. Netmode CEO David Stevens says the clock is ticking for businesses to implement a transition plan in time to migrate their all-important telephone numbers. “Businesses caught unprepared risk losing their voice service and phone numbers if they don’t start porting them to a reliable provider now, as it can take weeks for technicians to migrate phone numbers to a new network,” he said. “As the country transitions from the old technology infrastructure to new carrier-delivered fibre or even wireless delivery, now is the time for businesses to adopt modern voice technology. “We are alerting businesses that the deadline is looming to switch their phone service to Voice over IP (VoIP) because if businesses leave their run too late they could end up losing their phone numbers for good. “Companies that are still to establish a transition plan are being urged to do so now to avoid being caught in a communication ‘blackout’.” Netmode has been seamlessly transitioning businesses from copper-based services to the latest fibre and microwave technology available, through its own independent enterprise-grade core network and infrastructure. The ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) licensed Telco Carrier utilises a combination of business-grade fibre and microwave to provide a high level of internet connectivity and security […]

Why growing manufacturers should invest in customer service

By Matt Porta, APAC Product Leader – Service Cloud at Salesforce Australian manufacturing is growing rapidly, great news for the industry which also creates new challenges. The Australian Industry Group’s (Ai Group’s) Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) showed that production levels, sales, exports and employment within the industry improved at the fastest pace in the seven months to April 2019. This increased demand for product comes at a challenging time for Australia’s economy, as uncertainty in the world economy and a country-wide drought create greater complexity for manufacturers. As the manufacturing sector looks to continue its growth, industry leaders should consider an often unappreciated growth lever – customer service. Now is the time to streamlining processes and workflow and invest in new technology and training staff to fuel better customer outcomes. While some manufacturers may choose to focus investment in product, sales or marketing, it’s those who invest in delivering an outstanding service customer experience who will benefit most from the current growth cycle. Increasing customer expectations Combined with higher consumer expectations across the board, customer service within manufacturing is under more pressure than ever before. Customers’ expectations such as same day delivery services has led to audiences that expect goods faster, and of a higher quality, putting an extreme emphasis on customer service. According to the Salesforce State of Service report, more than four in five (82%) of decision makers in Australia and New Zealand service sector say their company’s customer service must transform in order to stay competitive while 67% of service teams saying that they are seeing higher case volume through digital channels. As well as increasing workload volume, the report found that the role of the customer service agent is shifting towards more complex tasks. Nearly three-quarters (71%) of agents view their jobs today as […]

Electric vehicles to recharge Australian manufacturing

An Australian company will begin assembling electric vehicles in Adelaide, South Australia for export. Bension Sieber An ACE-EV cargo electric vehicle. Australian Clean Energy Electric Vehicle Group (ACE-EV) has signed a deal to begin assembling carbon fibre composite and plastic electric vans at the Aldom manufacturing plant in Wingfield, north of Adelaide’s CBD, this year. ACE-EV managing director Greg McGarvie said he was determined to bring the electric vehicle industry to Australia for the sake of his grandchildren’s future. McGarvie said the company had orders for 100 electric delivery vans to be assembled at the plant, and hoped to scale up to 15,000 electric vehicles by 2025. He said ACE-EV would employ between 10 and 18 people in its first year and use about 3000 square metres of Aldom Motor Body Builders’ 12,000 sqm Wingfield site, where Aldom currently designs and manufactures custom commercial vehicles. “This state will be the first in Australia that will be manufacturing electric vehicles,” he said. “We’ve been working on this for four years. “It’s the right thing to be doing for my grandkids.” McGarvie said the vehicles would mainly sell on the export market and aim to use local suppliers, but that it had partnerships with companies in Germany and Taiwan. He told InDaily the South Australian Government had been the most “proactive” in seeking to attract his company to the state – but that politicians generally have been “gun-shy” to publicly support electric vehicles. He said the South Australian Marshall Government had helped his company by setting up important business contacts, and was offering more “help” – but McGarvie declined to say what other assistance was on the table. “It’s very encouraging what they’re offering to do to help,” he said. He said he was not actively seeking investment from government, but rather, “electric-vehicle friendly” policy from […]

Workloads affect ability to connect with colleagues

Two years on from a world-first study into workplace psychological safety (1), results announced today by R U OK? show organisations can be doing more to ensure colleagues feel connected. The 2019 Australian Workplace Psychological Safety Survey (2) surveyed 1,093 Australian employees and found that just under a quarter (23%) do not currently do any activities to connect them with colleagues. One of the biggest barriers found was not having time due to workload. This is concerning considering leading suicidologist Dr Thomas Joiner’s work, which describes a lack of connection (or lack of belonging) as one of the three forces at play in someone at risk of suicide. Workplace mental wellness expert and R U OK? Board Member Graeme Cowan is calling on workplaces to address this, pointing to both the social and economic benefits to organisations when a workforce feels connected and psychologically safe. “A ‘psychologically safe’ workplace is characterised by a climate of interpersonal trust and mutual respect in which people feel comfortable being themselves and to ask for help,” says Cowan. “Organisational workload will always be a barrier, however those who create opportunities for employee connection such as morning teas or celebrations for birthdays foster a positive culture” “While there are benefits to individuals and a duty of care from organisations, psychologically safe teams have also been shown to be the most innovative – and in a worrying development, only 28% of respondents said they felt safe to take a risk in 2019 compared to 34% in 2017. “The results demonstrate more needs to be done to educate organisations on these benefits, to ensure all Australians are seeing the rewards of psychologically safe workplaces.” These results were announced at R U OK?’s annual Conversational Leadership event in Melbourne, which brought together 100 managers for a practical workshop on […]

Leopard Systems win Asia-Pacific awards for top performance

Leopard Systems, Australia’s leading enterprise mobility solution provider, received not one, but two esteemed awards at Zebra Technologies Corporation’s annual Channel Partner Summit held in China in May. Leading a field of over 150 major Asia-Pacific APAC resellers and partners, Leopard Systems was recognised as Zebra’s highest performing APAC Partner Of The Year and APAC Service Partner Of The Year. Ryan Goh, Vice President and General Manager of Sales at Zebra Technologies Asia Pacific, and Joe White, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Mobile Computing at Zebra Technologies Inc presented the awards to co-Managing Director of Leopard Systems, Robin Fowler, at a special ceremony at Guilin’s Shangri-La Hotel. The accolades honoured Leopard’s success in attaining major contracts within the APAC region, and providing superior service support to their Zebra hardware customers. “This year everything aligned for us. We were fortunate to secure multiple 1000+ Zebra device contracts with several major Australian and New Zealand customers that added up to around 14,000 units sold, helping put Leopard Systems well ahead in the regional channel,” said Robin. The coveted awards mark a prized achievement for Leopard Systems since revolutionising their support services in hardware fleet management and supply chain mobility over recent years. “We’ve really concentrated on better serving our large corporate customers. Supporting and cultivating these partnerships has resulted in a significant number of new contracts providing Zebra devices, as well as accompanying service warranties, being purchased,” said Robin. Further, recent changes to expand the Australia/New Zealand awards to include Asia and Pacific countries has substantially raised the bar for achieving industry recognition. Hence, receiving the APAC awards cements Leopard Systems’ strength and continuing focus to provide world-class end-to-end solutions. At the Summit, Zebra Technologies announced a future priority to build cloud data services that greatly enhance the ‘supportability’ […]

Your future co-workers could be a swarm of robots

In the future, swarms of robots could help us perform tasks from search and rescue to farming, researchers say. Imagine there’s a flock of aerial robots searching for a lost hiker, for example. They have to cover a large area of remote bush and a central commander won’t work because they’re so spread out. So, instead, the robots work cooperatively to calculate the best way to cover and search this large area accurately and speedily. This scenario is less Black Mirror than it sounds, and more about focusing on practical solutions for jobs that are difficult for humans to do, says Airlie Chapman from the Melbourne School of Engineering. Describing the focus of her research in mechatronic engineering, Chapman says “it centres on multi-vehicle robotics, or many robots working together to achieve a common goal”. Mechatronic engineers explore developments in automation and manufacturing—blending multiple disciplines of engineering. And it can involve creating smart machines that are aware of their surroundings and can make autonomous decisions. Chapman works specifically in the field of multi-vehicle, or swarm, robotics. Using a combination of mechanical, electrical, and software engineering to build the robots, Chapman then programs the vehicles using algorithms to react and think autonomously. Many bots are better than one “There are benefits to using many smaller unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in place of one large one, particularly for jobs like cleaning up an oil spill, environmental monitoring, or searching for survivors of a mine collapse,” says Chapman. Not only is there the element of redundancy with smaller vehicles—losing one small UAV out of a group is less of a problem than losing a single large UAV—but there are also the implementation benefits. For one thing, there’s the improved coverage capability and reduced cost. “A swarm of cheap small robots, each with little […]

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