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Before you buy AI: What manufacturers need to get right first

From NZ Manufacturer magazine – May issue By Sean Doherty, Manufacturing Commentator | NZ Industry Trends There is no doubt that AI will be a game changer for manufacturers, and early adoption will give many firms a competitive advantage because manufacturing is both data-rich and operationally complex. But beware: AI only creates value when it is applied to the right problems. Too many manufacturers get distracted by the demo and find out too late that their data is poor, the tool does not fit the workflow, or ownership of the outcome is unclear. In 2026, the manufacturers most likely to succeed with AI will be those that treat it like any other investment decision. Define the need, test the assumptions, manage the risks, and measure the potential return. Before buying any AI tool, there are four practical basics to get right: the problem, the data, governance, and the pilot. Start with the problem Start by defining the problem in plain language. A manufacturer should be able to say exactly what it wants to improve: machine uptime, planning speed, forecast accuracy, scrap rates, or quality checks. “We need AI” is not a business case. It is noise. Before speaking to vendors, define success. What metric needs to move, and by how much? If the goal is less downtime, what is the baseline, and what improvement would justify the investment? If the issue is quality, is the target fewer defects, faster inspection, or less rework? Clear objectives make it much easier to spot a valuable tool and avoid an expensive distraction. Mapping the current workflow also helps. Where are decisions slow, manual, repetitive, or error-prone? Where does information stall, and what information is needed to move things forward? A simple process map can quickly reveal whether the problem is poor process design, […]

LiberaGPT supports the largest and most intelligent AI model to run offline on an unmodified iPhone

Independent British software house 5N6 has unveiled a major update to LiberaGPT, its recently launched iPhone app, adding support for a record-breaking 24 billion-parameter large language model that runs entirely offline on the latest generation of iPhone devices, with complete privacy and no requirement for cloud data centres or additional hardware. Until recently, the idea of running a model of this size privately on a smartphone would have been regarded as technically out of reach for current flagship handsets. LiberaGPT now brings that capability to iPhone, ensuring that prompts and responses remain entirely on the device. The comparison with earlier generations of AI highlights the scale of that advance. OpenAI’s GPT-2, introduced in 2019, was widely recognised as a landmark model, yet it operated at 1.5 billion parameters and depended heavily on centralised infrastructure. Since then, major gains in efficiency and model design have reshaped expectations, allowing more powerful systems to operate without the same computational burden. Alongside the new 24 billion-parameter model, the latest LiberaGPT release also includes a range of smaller models for users who prefer faster performance and lower resource use. Together, these options give users the flexibility to choose the balance of speed and capability that suits them best, while keeping the entire experience private and on-device. What matters here is not only the size of the model, but the fact that it runs at all on consumer mobile hardware. Models in this class have usually belonged to server infrastructure or desktop systems. This small independent software house has brought that level of capability to the iPhone through careful optimisation and precise memory management. Capable local GPU processing gives users more privacy, faster response times, and the ability to use advanced AI models without dependence on a network connection or contribution to AI data centre infrastructure […]

New trade fair: Warehousing and logistics strategic drivers of productivity

From NZ Manufacturer magazine Momentum was on full display at a launch function celebrating the arrival of Logistics Automation New Zealand powered by CeMAT, where more than 100 industry professionals gathered to discuss the forces reshaping supply chain operations. The event brought together CEOs and decision‑makers; both automation and robotics suppliers and integrators together with key buyers of this technology. Organisations including Beckhoff, The Warehouse Group, Fonterra, Foodstuffs, Global Express, Briscoe Group and many more. The launch served as a forum for open discussion on the pressures accelerating automation adoption — labour shortages, rising volumes, increasing service expectations and the need for scalable, efficient operations. Automation in action: Real‑World tours underscore practical value Attendees were given a rare glimpse behind‑the‑scenes tour of two major automated facilities, reinforcing the real‑world application and impact of modern intralogistics systems. Bluebird Foods (PepsiCo) hosted a tour of its Automated Storage and Retrieval System (AS/RS) – backed by Dematic; demonstrating how automation boosts storage capacity, throughput and operational efficiency is achieved in a high‑volume production environment. DHL Supply Chain opened its new NZ$90 million Auckland life sciences and healthcare facility, showcasing the Geek+ robotic system deployed by Automate-X. The visit highlighted how robotics and intelligent software are improving speed, accuracy and reliability in highly regulated supply chains. Automation moves to mainstream The event featured a presentation from Stephen Lakey, Chair of the Australasian Supply Chain & Logistics Association (ASCLA), who noted the industry’s readiness to accelerate adoption. “The strong turnout and enthusiastic response highlight an industry ready to move. Events like Logistics Automation New Zealand, powered by CeMAT, are essential for helping organisations navigate the technologies, integration challenges and change management required for successful automation,” said Lakey. “ASCLA is proud to support initiatives that connect and educate supply chain professionals.” Keynote speaker Nick Becker, […]

Resilient firms and economies: Unlocking growth in emerging markets

Resilience is like a bridge spanning a turbulent river. The waters below may surge unpredictably, but the bridge’s strength lies in its design, maintenance, and ability to withstand. The Resilience Consortium brings together governments, businesses, and multilateral development banks (MDBs) to strengthen resilience in emerging markets. Drawing on insights from the 2025 Resilience Consortium Pulse Check Survey, completed by more than 270 executives, along with a quantitative follow-up analysis, structured interviews with community members and the Consortium’s leadership group, and global, high-level convenings held throughout the year, this year’s white paper explores resilience preparedness in emerging markets and outlines how companies, governments, and MDBs can collaborate to unlock growth. The importance of collective action: In an era of disruption, resilience has become a key driver of competitiveness and innovation. No single actor can mitigate systemic risks alone: Businesses contribute agility, innovation, and investment; governments enable progress through effective policy and infrastructure; and MDBs mobilise capital, derisk investment, and coordinate cross-sector efforts to address systematic risks. Together, these actors can build systems capable of withstanding and adapting to shocks. Focus on emerging markets: Emerging markets, which represent nearly 60 percent of global GDP, are vital to the resilience agenda. They face exposure to trade disruptions, commodity volatility, and climate risks, yet they hold the potential to drive global growth in the decade ahead. Strengthening resilience in these economies is critical not only for their own prosperity but also for safeguarding global stability. Resilience preparedness: Organisations are becoming more resilient, but progress remains uneven. Preparedness has improved by 13 percentage points since 2024, yet only one in four companies considers itself ready to withstand major disruptions across all resilience dimensions (e.g., financial, organisational, digital and technology resilience) and this share falls to one in five when assessing resilience capabilities (i.e., crisis response, foresight, disruption […]

Apple, The First 50 Years

David Pogue tells the iconic company’s entire life story: how Apple was born, nearly died, was born again under Steve Jobs, and became, under CEO Tim Cook, the most valuable company in the world. The book features full-color photos, new facts that correct the record and illuminate its subversive culture, and fresh interviews with the legendary figures who shaped Apple into what it is today. On April 1, 1976, two scruffy twentysomethings, both named Steve, founded a startup. Their goal: To bring the revolutionary power of computers to everyone. Over the next five decades, Apple reshaped the technology and cultural landscapes, introducing the public to breakthroughs like the mouse, laser printing, CD-ROM, WiFi, digital video, home networking, touchscreen phones, and tablets. Jobs’s obsessive eye for detail set the stage for products—Mac, iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad, AirPods, Apple Watch—that married advanced technology with beauty, simplicity, and fine design. Deeply researched and lavishly illustrated, Apple: The First 50 Years includes new interviews with 150 key people who made the journey, including Steve Wozniak, John Sculley, Jony Ive, and many current designers, engineers, and executives. The book busts long-held myths; goes backstage for both the titanic successes (450 million iPods, 700 million iPads, 2.2 billion iPhones) and the instructive failures (Lisa, Apple III, MobileMe); and assesses the forces that challenge Apple’s dominance as it enters its second half century. Bursting with tales of frenetic all-nighters, engineering genius, and creative rebellion, this book is a true testament to Apple’s unique and innovative vision, and a must read for anyone whose life Apple has touched.

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Resilient firms and economies: Unlocking growth in emerging markets

Resilience is like a bridge spanning a turbulent river. The waters below may surge unpredictably, but the bridge’s strength lies in its design, maintenance, and ability to withstand. The Resilience Consortium brings together governments, businesses, and multilateral development banks (MDBs) to strengthen resilience in emerging markets. Drawing on insights from the 2025 Resilience Consortium Pulse Check Survey, completed by more than 270 executives, along with a quantitative follow-up analysis, structured interviews with community members and the Consortium’s leadership group, and global, high-level convenings held throughout the year. The importance of collective action: In an era of disruption, resilience has become a key driver of competitiveness and innovation. No single actor can mitigate systemic risks alone: Businesses contribute agility, innovation, and investment; governments enable progress through effective policy and infrastructure; and MDBs mobilise capital, derisk investment, and coordinate cross-sector efforts to address systematic risks. Together, these actors can build systems capable of withstanding and adapting to shocks. Focus on emerging markets: Emerging markets, which represent nearly 60 percent of global GDP, are vital to the resilience agenda. They face exposure to trade disruptions, commodity volatility, and climate risks, yet they hold the potential to drive global growth in the decade ahead. Strengthening resilience in these economies is critical not only for their own prosperity but also for safeguarding global stability. Resilience preparedness: Organisations are becoming more resilient, but progress remains uneven. Preparedness has improved by 13 percentage points since 2024, yet only one in four companies considers itself ready to withstand major disruptions across all resilience dimensions (e.g., financial, organizational, digital and technology resilience) and this share falls to one in five when assessing resilience capabilities (i.e., crisis response, foresight, disruption preparation, and strategic re-orientation). Financial resilience remains the strongest dimension, with 40 percent of firms reporting readiness, while digital and technological […]

Ruled by engineers: how China gets things done, leaving the US in the dust

Mark Beeson, Adjunct Professor, Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney. In modern times, the world’s most powerful and influential states have also had the largest economies. When the United States overtook Britain in the early 20th century, it was only a question of time before it assumed international political leadership too. Indeed, the failure to assume this role is widely thought to explain the duration of the Great Depression and the turmoil of the period between the two world wars. At a time when American hegemony seems to be in terminal decline and China might overtake the US economically, plausible and original explanations of their relative fates are welcome. Dan Wang’s Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future, succeeds on both counts. At the heart of this very readable book is Wang’s argument that there is a profound difference between the two rivals: the US is run by lawyers and China is ruled by engineers. Wang is perfectly placed to unpack this deceptively simple idea, having been born in China and spent large chunks of his relatively short life there and in the US. He is a keen and shrewd observer of both societies, and the book is sprinkled with personal anecdotes and illustrations of his key claims. Consequently, it’s not a conventional “academic” account, but that may come as a relief to many prospective readers. Lawyers versus engineers The biggest difference between China and the US today, according to Wang, is not the sort of ideological differences that distinguished America’s competition with the Soviet Union, but their respective abilities to get things done. “The greatest trick that the Communist Party ever pulled off is masquerading as leftist,” Wang argues. “China is an engineering state, which can’t stop itself from building, facing off against America’s lawyerly society, which blocks everything it can.” There […]

European researchers develop energy-efficient machine vision inspired by human eyesight and the brain

Drawing inspiration from human eyesight, a European research project led by VTT has developed machine vision mimicking the cooperation of the eye and nervous system, implemented as edge-computing circuits. Edge computing means processing data where it is generated and where the results of computing are needed. This enables, for instance, intelligent robots and drones that can operate independently in a rescue mission after an earthquake without constant network connections or bulky batteries. Launched in 2021, the MISEL project (Multispectral Intelligent Vision System with Embedded Low-Power Neural Computing) is now nearing completion. Coordinated by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, the project has combined neuromorphic computing—which mimics the way the brain processes information—with semiconductor technologies. “Our goal is to build truly smart devices that can make observations and decisions on their own, without sending data to supercomputers or the cloud. Neuromorphic computing can be hundreds or even thousands of times more energy-efficient than conventional digital processing,” explains Jacek Flak, Research Team Leader at VTT, who coordinates the project. The MISEL project received nearly EUR 5 million in funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. Alongside VTT, partners include the universities of Łódź, Lund, Santiago de Compostela, and Wuppertal, the Fraunhofer Institute, France’s LNE national research institute, and the companies Kovilta Oy (Finland) and AMO GmbH (Germany). The consortium unites expertise across disciplines, including materials science, electronics, and algorithm design. Smarter mobile devices without constant connectivity Artificial intelligence typically requires either good network connectivity to cloud services or substantial local computing power. However, the MISEL project brings intelligence to the edge—directly into the devices themselves. This approach allows battery-powered systems to process and interpret sensory data quickly and with low power consumption, while also reducing cybersecurity privacy risks. “Imagine a drone searching for survivors after an earthquake through smoke, dust, and debris. It needs to interpret […]

Could a ‘grey swan’ event bring down the AI revolution?

Cameron Shackwell, Sessional Academic, School of Information Systems, Queensland University of Technology The term “black swan” refers to a shocking event on nobody’s radar until it actually happens. This has become a byword in risk analysis since a book called The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb was published in 2007. A frequently cited example is the 9/11 attacks. Fewer people have heard of “grey swans”. Derived from Taleb’s work, grey swans are rare but more foreseeable events. That is, things we know could have a massive impact, but we don’t (or won’t) adequately prepare for. COVID was a good example: precedents for a global pandemic existed, but the world was caught off guard anyway. Although he sometimes uses the term, Taleb doesn’t appear to be a big fan of grey swans. He’s previously expressed frustration that his concepts are often misused, which can lead to sloppy thinking about the deeper issues of truly unforeseeable risks. But it’s hard to deny there is a spectrum of predictability, and it’s easier to see some major shocks coming. Perhaps nowhere is this more obvious than in the world of artificial intelligence (AI). Putting our eggs in one basket Increasingly, the future of the global economy and human thriving has become tied to a single technological story: the AI revolution. It has turned philosophical questions about risk into a multitrillion-dollar dilemma about how we align ourselves with possible futures. US tech company Nvidia, which dominates the market for AI chips, recently surpassed US$5 trillion (about A$7.7 trillion) in market value. The “Magnificent Seven” US tech stocks – Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla – now make up about 40% of the S&P 500 stock index. The impact of a collapse for these companies – and a stock market bust – would be devastating at a global level, not just financially but also in terms of dashed hopes for […]

Top tips for securing the investment your manufacturing business needs to grow

-Andrew Mamonitis, Vice President – APAC, Manufacturing Division, ECI Software Solutions It pays to optimise your processes and practices before expanding or bringing an external investor on board. Despite challenging conditions, manufacturing businesses are looking for ways to grow their share of the domestic market and pursue potentially lucrative export opportunities. A low Australian dollar, coupled with our country’s reputation for quality and reliability, is making it easier for some manufacturers, particularly those in the agri-business sector, to get an ‘in’ to new markets, in Asia Pacific and further afield. Seeking funding for growth Taking advantage of an opportunity to diversify your range or expand your customer base generally means upfront investment is required. You may need to acquire new equipment or additional inventory, for example, take on extra staff, or run marketing and business development campaigns. Unless your business has a sizeable sum stashed away, that means borrowing from the bank or bringing an external investor on board. But before writing a cheque, or approving a loan, any potential backer will want to see evidence that your sales are strong, your business is profitable and you’re running a tight ship. If you’re not able to demonstrate you have efficient systems and processes in place, and a solid pipeline of work, you may find it tricky to secure the funds you need to grow. Show me the money Presenting your business in the best possible light starts with showing you’re on top of your finances. Up-to-date accounts, accurate forecasting, rigorous revenue management and a strong understanding of your cash flow are all essential. So is visibility into your customer base. Being able to identify your largest and most profitable accounts and supply a detailed picture of their buying behaviours builds credibility, as does knowing which of your customers […]

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