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Recent key developments in MAKE│NZ
• Have we lost our competitive spirit over the holidays? Last week’s GuessMaster® question, the first of 2025, has had no answers sent in!
We’ll try again this week, and remember- this is your chance to get your name on the Champions Board!
This weeks GuessMaster® question is:
In Q2 last year, and before the well-publicised winter spike, wholesale electricity prices averaged around $350/MWh…
What was the price of electricity for industrial users across all sectors in 1985, the year before ‘electricity industry reforms’ started, in today’s dollars?
Yesterday’s Fireside Chat event focused on innovation- what it can look like in different types of manufacturing, and how it can be supported. Stefanie Gutschmidt, the new Head of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Canterbury, spoke to us about the connections between students and industry. The university is wanting to encourage collaboration with industry, for the benefits of students and manufacturers. In that context, we encourage you to consider hosting a Mechanical Engineering student for a project in your company. Time for that is running out fast, so please act now if you can and find out information here.
Phil Benson, Operations Director for AW Fraser, was our second speaker, who talked on their approach to innovation and how collaborating with a key academic at UC has played an important role in some of their innovation projects. AW Fraser have supported a number of student and masters projects, taking advantage of the tools and knowledge available at UC, while also getting a look at some of the students who are about to enter the job market shortly.
Pat Fogarty, Managing Director of Shamrock Industries, was the next in line. As a contract manufacturer, innovation is a part of problem solving and working with the client, but it isn’t always seen that way. As a smaller manufacturer it can also be tricky to track things like “innovation” in a quantifiable way, but Pat found that it can be of value to readjust your views on what counts as innovation or not, as you can wind up surprising yourself.
Overall, the takeaway could be that innovation isn’t always big and shiny, sometimes it’s just changing things in small but important increments for the benefit of your own operations, or those of your client. And it definitely pays to look around – you may find more resources to help you than you might expect.
Recent key developments in New Zealand
• Among recent developments coming out of Wellington, the latest consultation document issued by the Ministry of Education under the Minister of Vocational Education, the Hon. Penny Simmonds, is – or should be – of interest to manufacturers (https://web-assets.education.govt.nz/s3fs-public/2025-01/Work-based%20Learning%20consultation%20document.pdf ).
The consultation is a follow up on an earlier round of consultation about the future structure of New Zealand’s vocational education system after the current government decided to unwind (roll back) the Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE) introduced by its predecessor.
The current round specifically deals with the future of work-based learning (apprenticeships) and proposes two alternative structures as outlined in this table taken from the consultation document:
In both of the proposed structures Industry Skills Boards [ISBs] would take on part of the functions currently sitting with the Workforce development Councils [WDCs] – Hanga-Aro-Rau in our case – but at reduced funding levels. Providers can in theory mean any Private Training Establishment [PTE], but in reality: “The Government would not intend to see a return to the industry training environment of the early 2000s, where there were a large number of small providers of uncertain viability. It would instead expect to agree to a transition of up to eight industry divisions as standalone entities, corresponding largely to the current work-based learning divisions in Te Pūkenga.” – in our case Competenz. There is an interesting sidenote in the paper indicating that – in theory – New Zealand’s universities could also act as providers in future. Note also that under both models “Barriers to introducing industry levies are reduced.”
In our submission in response to the consultation document, we shall point out that:
– We do not support the ‘Collaborative Model’ proposed above. A separation of education and pastoral care would be inefficient and introduce unnecessary complexity
– We cannot envision how – in that model – ISBs would be resourced to provide pastoral care beyond a token or ‘virtual’ level, given that their funding is expected to be reduced from the levels WDCs are currently funded at – unless they would charge employers exorbitant fees for their services
– We can see merit in a discussion about an Apprenticeship Levy along the lines of what was introduced in the UK a few years ago to address the ‘free-rider’ problem. However, we are totally opposed to a levy imposed on those who train, and those who don’t, alike. That would further drive up the cost of providing apprenticeships and act as a deterrent for the latter
– Our main concern, however, is not addressed by either of the models offered. Like RoVE before it, the current changes are all about redistributing responsibilities for existing functions and processes. Nowhere do they even claim to address that fact that many of the processes within our state-funded vocational education system are no longer fit for purpose
– Evidence in New Zealand and overseas shows future vocational training and education in manufacturing needs to be delivered in small, stackable units, tightly integrated with work in terms of content and delivery, and able to be adjusted quickly and frequently to reflect rapid changes in technology. The introduction of micro-credentials was the right first step in that direction conceptually, but quickly became bogged down in painfully slow, outdated processes – as we found out to our detriment, and that of industry, with the two digital-upskilling micro-credentials that we funded and developed, but which still aren’t available for delivery years after they were developed.
• We have a Prime Minster who has recently taken to a mantra-like referral to the importance of growing New Zealand’s economy. We’d love to see that newly-found attention to include resourcing our vocational education system to a level where it can actually contribute to growing our economy. No doubt the Prime Minister will be aware that we won’t grow our economy without raising skills levels in our workforce across sectors, but first and foremost in manufacturing.
We’d love to hear from you if you have any specific points – in addition to the above – that you’d like to see us include in our submission. Please send me an email (dieter@makenz.org ); the deadline for the submission is Friday, Feb. 21st.
Recent key developments in the World
• After years of growth, as illustrated in the snapshot below, the market share of plant-based milk alternatives in the US appears to have come to a halt in 2024. Plant milk sales dopped by 4.4%, while sales of whole milk rose by 3.2%, and sales of raw milk grew by 17.6 %, albeit off a low basis. What’s driving that?
The decline in milk consumption, especially over the past 15 years, has been accompanied by rising levels of self-diagnosed lactose maldigestion, lactose intolerance and milk allergy, especially in non-Asian ethnic populations.
Historically, self-reported lactose intolerance was likely lower due to underreporting or lack of awareness at the time. In the 1970s, studies estimated that about 15% of Caucasians in the U.S. reported lactose maldigestion, based on diagnostic tests using large doses of lactose.
Recent data suggests that self-diagnosed lactose intolerance is more prevalent today, with estimates ranging from 20% to 40% among the general population, depending on the study and methodology used. This increase may be attributed to greater awareness of lactose intolerance, dietary trends, and misinterpretation of symptoms caused by other conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome. However, self-diagnosis often leads to false positives, as studies show a significant discrepancy between self-reported cases and confirmed diagnoses using objective tests like hydrogen breath testing.
Recent rapid rises in raw milk consumption can be traced back to social media promotions of its claimed superior health-promoting properties compared to pasteurised milk, and probably also to the support from the yet-to-be-confirmed US Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
• In another milk story, in November last year Arla Foods UK, Britain’s largest dairy co-op, announced the start of a trial on 30 dairy farms, adding Bovaer to the cows’ fodder. Bovaer is an enzyme inhibitor that suppresses the formation of methane in the cow’s rumen and reduces enteric methane emissions by around 30%. It is commercially available in 68 countries and has been given regulatory approval in the US and the UK. Bovaer is fully metabolised by the animal, meaning no parts of it leaks into milk or meat. And yet, Arla’s announcement has been met with an orchestrated campaign of ‘consumer backlash’, largely organised on social media, jeopardising the roll-out of what is demonstrably a safe and effective method to reduce emissions of methane, a contributor to climate change, from dairy farming.
• What does all of that have to do with non-food manufacturing in New Zealand? It goes to show that:
– More than ever, manufactured products are subject to rapidly changing consumer trends. Sometimes these changes are rather predictable, sometimes they are not
– Humans have always attributed and been interested in properties of objects that aren’t closely related to the core functionality of the product in question – status symbols from faster horses to Swiss watches that cost in excess of €100,000. Not to mention Ferraris … What is new is that, increasingly, non-functional attributes are associated with an ever-larger range of every-day products that, in the past, were only judged by form and (core) function: Air Jordans, anyone?
– Assigning non-functional attributes to products is strongly driven by social media campaigns, can happen in days
and may not be supported by, or even contradicting, factual evidence: wellness influencers claiming that consuming raw milk for a week will ‘cleanse’ their body from plant-based milks …
– Not only does social media drive the assignment of non-functional attributes to products, they also drive trends that assign virtue or vice to the possession or use of such products: In New Zealand, Crocs used to be no-go, now they are hot (for the time being). Sales of Tesla cars in Germany have tanked by 60% recently after Elon Musk has come out and repeatedly promoted a right-wing party in the current German election campaign.
• Still, the question remains – what’s that got to do with us?! It is correct that New Zealand non-food manufacturers, most of whom are not in the FMCG business and many of whom are manufacturing capital goods or components thereof, are quite sheltered from the stormy seas of FMCG markets. It would be imprudent, however, to believe “it can’t happen to us”.
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