Dr. Yuqian Lu from our group gave a talk for Tech Tuesday Forum for Innovative Manufacturers this week. The topic is Manufacturing Smarter After the Pandemic. The public presentation video is now available online.

As we progress through our time in lockdown, COVID-19 continues to teach governments, businesses and wider society lessons about resilience, leadership and the nature and value of our work. For Dr Yuqian Lu, there are tangible changes that New Zealand, as a country of SMEs, can adopt for building a more resilient and robust manufacturing industry:

  • Transformation towards high-value-added engineering products with artificial intelligence and big data analytics
  • Automation of business and manufacturing processes for high-mix-low-volume manufacturing
  • Flexible working via remote monitoring and control of production

Drawing from his extensive industry experience and academic expertise in smart manufacturing, Dr Lu will illuminate these perspectives with examples and stories of local businesses that have found success through process improvement, more predictable revenue generation and disruptive technologies.