WoodTECH 2020 Webinar Programme
13-24 July 2020 | Six part series
9am (Australian EST), 11am (NZ Standard Time) and 4pm (Pacific Standard Time)
Webinar 1: Monday 13 July 2020 (60 mins)
Disruptive Technologies. From AI and computer vision to IoT and robotics, how innovative businesses are harnessing new technology to boost the operational performance of manufacturing operations.
How Industry 4.0 is Changing the Way Manufacturers are Doing Business
David Chuter, CEO & Managing Director, Innovative Manufacturing CRC, Australia
Here come the Cobots - Deploying robots into your manufacturing operation - Opportunities for wood producers
Nathan Allpress, Mechanical Engineer, Callaghan Innovation, New Zealand
Webinar 2: Wednesday 15 July 2020 (60 mins)
Practical Adoption of Robotics within Wood Manufacturing Operations – A First in Australia and NZ.
Using Seven In-line Robots. The world’s first fully automated timber sorting and packing production unit
David Spencer, Business Projects Manager, Hyne Timber, Australia
Innovative design to develop a new wood manufacturing operation using industry 4.0 principles - A NZ first
How robotics, automation, inter-connected sensors, artificial intelligence, data driven decision making and real time analytics have shaped this new wood manufacturing plant.
Shaun Bosson, Chief Executive Officer, Wood Engineering Technology, New Zealand
Webinar 4: Monday 20 July 2020 (60 mins)
Technology Innovations to Revolutionise Wood Manufacturing Operations.
Empowering the Worker Onsite with Augmented Reality Technology - How innovative manufacturers are using wearables and augmented reality to streamline productivity and address the skills gap
Dean Tresidder, Solution Architect Information Solutions, Rockwell Automation, Australia
Wearables and Worker Augmentation in the Field
Devices like RealWear HMT-1 and Hololens 2 are now ensuring greater safety at the computing-edge as workers doing physical tasks need their hands and situational awareness out on the manufacturing floor.
Lance Bauerfeind, Senior Consultant, Company-X, New Zealand
A Wearable Exoskeleton to Revolutionise Health, Safety and Performance in the Mill
The Suit-X exoskeleton has been in development for over 10 years and, on the back of recent NZ trials with meat processors, it is now ready for the wider workplace.
Greg Borman, Director, Biosymm, Australia
Webinar 5: Wednesday 22 July 2020 (90 mins)
Fine Tuning Your Timber Planing & Machining Operations
Joey Godwin, Mechanical Service Technician & Machinery Support, USNR, USA
Learn from an international industry wood manufacturing installation, training and troubleshooting specialist. Topics covered include;
- Diagnosing feeding problems on planers
- Planer alignment
- Planer preventive maintenance
- Pros and cons of gap feeding
- Electric drives vs. hydraulic
Webinar 6: Friday 24 July 2020 (60 mins)
Changing your Workplace Culture
Michael Kennedy, CEO, Founder, Kennedys Timbers and Dr Tony Watt, Principal Consultant, Managing Director, The Culture Doctor
In this webinar you’ll hear just how an Australian wood manufacturer has turned their business around by focussing on their business culture – and with outstanding results. Seven years ago, Brisbane based sustainable timber specialist Kennedy’s Timbers had stagnated, were facing issues on all fronts, in a tough competitive market and at a risk of closure. However, working with workplace culture specialist Dr Tony Watt and a commitment to creating a positive workplace environment has proven successful for Brisbane-based Kennedy’s Timbers in turning the business around and culminating in being named Queensland’s Small Employer of the Year at the Queensland Training Awards held in September last year.
Twice as profitable as other similar companies within the industry, Kennedy’s Timbers now has 600% lower staff turnover, three times lower staff absenteeism, fewer lost time injury days and one of the lowest Work Cover premiums in the Queensland manufacturing sector. The average length of service of staff has substantially increased from 1 to 6.7 years. Kennedy has also been able to expand and purchase competitors in Victoria and New South Wales and also establish distributors in Western Australia and New Zealand.
Webinar 3: Friday 24 July 2020 (60 mins) - New Date
Mini-Workshop: Creating Mill-wide Data-based Machine Data Dashboards to Drive Your Business
Tim Baron, Market and Product Manager, SICK Australia & Janak Gorana, Customer Project Manager, SICK Australia
This session highlights how you can turn the mountain of data collected from your network of sensors, cameras and systems into actions to improve the business. Dashboards provide a clear visualisation of what's happening within the mill and how to make better sense of machine data in a timely way. This includes:
- Machine monitoring and data capture
- A dashboard overview of individual and machine groups
- Digging deeper into the data
- Connecting to a cloud portal
