Gone are the days when Australia’s craft beer industry comprised beer lovers tinkering with home-brew kits and strange ingredients in their sheds. Today, there are more than 400 small, independent brewery businesses across Australia – doubled from 200 just six years ago, according to the Independent Brewers Association (IBA). The industry directly employs more than 2,100 […]
Back in 1931, Winston Churchill published an article where he imagined the world “Fifty Years Hence”. In the essay, he predicted lab-grown meat, or fake meat, would help feed the world. “We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a […]
2018 is almost over and what a year it was! We found needles in strawberries, saw a surge in food fraud and an outbreak in listeria from contaminated rock melons. We observed the rolling of another Australian prime minister, while the positive growth in Australian manufacturing continued. We watched Apple become the world’s first US$1 trillion business and blockchain start making waves […]
Fake honey, fake wine, fake cherries … if there’s one thing that shook the media in 2018 (strawberry crisis excluded), it was food fraud. So what is food fraud? Food fraud refers to the sale of an inferior product represented as a more valuable one. It might be substitution, dilution, tampering or misrepresentation of ingredients […]
Does your product barcode check out? Without a good quality, accurate and scannable barcode, you can’t sell your products, retailers can’t stock your products, and customers can’t buy your products. With many retailers becoming increasingly intolerant of products causing scanning errors, a problematic barcode could spell the end of a relationship. But that’s not all.Barcode […]
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” – Peter Drucker One of the most important quotes in business management couldn’t be more important for Australian manufacturers today. With the right metrics, you can understand what’s working in your production line, and what’s not. You can find weak spots and barriers to efficient production. […]
Have you noticed how recall notifications have soared recently? From listeria outbreaks to undeclared allergens and even faulty condoms, it seems barely a week goes by without Aussie news headlines warning about another major recall. Fact: Recalls are a risk for every manufacturer. Chances are the risk of a recall or withdrawal weighs on your mind […]
Why is OEE such a popular manufacturing-operation metric? The reason is simple: OEE can deliver accurate and actionable information to manufacturers for significant productivity improvement. First, a reminder of some OEE basics: OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) is a best-practice metric for measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of a manufacturing process.Calculated asthe product of three factors […]
Optimising your equipment’s efficiency is an essential element of continuous improvement for manufacturers. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a powerful way to achieve this. Get the implementation right, and OEE can be used to pinpoint problem areas on your line and, ultimately, help you make the necessary changes to improve production. However, there are some […]
By guest author Roland Thomas, CEO of OFS* There is significant chatter about Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution. All the analysis bodies – such as Capgemini, Fujitsu, Gartner and PWC – appear to have been researching and reporting on what Industry 4.0 is and what prize awaits us if we join the revolution. […]