Led by EMA's H&S experts, this session explores good work design from two complementary perspectives — process and people — within a manufacturing context. EMA's Manager - Employment Relations and Safety Advocacy, Paul Jarvie (PJ) will open by stepping back to examine how the way work is designed across production environments has evolved over time. He will take a big-picture view of manufacturing systems, workflows, and the forces that shape them. From automation to shift production and global supply pressures, PJ will explore how current ways of working came to be and invite reflection on the impacts these designs are having on safety, productivity, and workforce wellbeing today. Building on this system-level perspective, EMA's Health and Safety Advisor, Rebekah Stephens will shift the focus to the individual within the manufacturing environment. Using a person-centred and co-design lens, she will explore how human needs, physical capacity, and lived experience intersect with organisational expectations, production targets, and real-world constraints on the factory floor. Rebekah will encourage participants to reflect on where the person sits within operational demands and environments, and what it means to design work that truly supports safe, sustainable, and effective manufacturing outcomes.

Join Ruth Nicholson from Laser Safety ANZ and Paul Jarvie from EMA to go over the six key components that all laser-related businesses should be familiar with and follow to ensure they meet the highest standards of laser safety in the industry. We'll walk through each step so you're well informed, know how to access helpful resources, and are aware of the differences in required training levels. This way, you can confidently make the right decision for your business, keep your workers safe, and ensure the PCBU (person in charge of the business or undertaking) is protected when owning or operating high-powered or hazardous lasers in the workplace. Suitable for all levels of operation, including contractors and those seeking to start using lasers or become mobile operators.

Manufacturers have heard the buzz around Artificial Intelligence (AI), but the real challenge now is understanding how ready their organisation is to adopt it. As AI rapidly advances, the focus is shifting from potential to preparation. This presentation explores why now is the ideal moment to assess your organisation’s AI readiness and establish the foundations needed for successful implementation. Sandy will demystify AI in manufacturing, highlight where it delivers the greatest operational impact, and outline the essential steps to prepare your infrastructure. Attendees will gain practical insights to ensure they can move quickly and confidently as AI opportunities emerge.

David Altena, recently re-interviewed by the National Business Review, will present an update to his 2023 productivity research. David completed his research into the failing productivity of New Zealand businesses, and identified a four part model for how undeveloped leadership, planning and execution disciplines are a major contributor to New Zealand falling behind. David is now changing the language from “productivity is a national issue” to “high performance is New Zealand’s greatest opportunity”. Business performance is built from what owners directly control — leadership, financial clarity, customers, people and execution. When enough businesses lift these foundations, entire regions lift. When regions lift, New Zealand lifts. That’s why collaboration around performance creates a regional and national ambition.

Kiwi manufacturers innovate every day, yet many are missing out on or underutilising the R&D Tax Incentive (RDTI). This session spotlights the RDTI from a manufacturer’s perspective, sharing real-world examples of businesses using the incentive to unlock funding to reinvest in growth.

Join Saraj Sethi from Invenio and see how additive manufacturing is reshaping supply chains, reducing costs, and enabling on-demand local production. Through case studies and lessons learned from Invenio 3D’s national network of Customer Reference Centres, Saraj will take you through how businesses can embrace digital transformation while maintaining operational efficiency and strategies for connecting education to real industry projects to prepare the next generation of engineers and technicians.

Dawn Aerospace is building spaceplanes and in-space propulsion systems from the South Island of New Zealand—but it didn’t start that way. In this keynote, Charlie North shares the journey from a humble backyard shed to global impact, reflecting on the deeper truths of manufacturing. It’s not about hype or heroics, but people, process, and purpose. This is a call to action for New Zealand industry: aim high, build well, and back ourselves.

Project plans and schedules are essential. But they do not resolve technical clashes, undocumented risks, vendor ambiguity, or design assumptions that fail under real-world conditions. On complex engineering projects, the greatest risk often sits at the interfaces between design and fabrication, procurement and installation, and mechanical and electrical scope. When no one with deep technical grounding owns those interfaces, problems surface late and cost more to fix. This session explores the role of the project engineer as embedded technical leadership, sharing practical case studies that demonstrate how early technical ownership reduces risk, accelerates decisions, and strengthens delivery outcomes.

Local manufacturers realise that innovation is essential to compete in the modern globalised economy. We present examples of companies who have successfully utilised digital transformation and digital threads to personalise customer experiences and deliver high-quality products, all while maintaining cost, regulation and compliance demands. To be successful in this approach, integration between strategic manufacturing support systems and overall business strategies is critical. This integration empowers Research and Development (R&D) and Manufacturing teams with real-time information and automation, enabling multidisciplinary teams to work more efficiently across departments and empowering frontline workers on the shopfloor with direct access to digital assets, helping optimise the flow of information through to manufacturing/operations.

Join CEO & Founder of Rush Digital + R/Visio, Danu Abeysuriya for a practical overview of how AI is evolving workplace health and safety and exploration of both opportunities and risks. Explore how organisations are leveraging AI for risk detection and data collection to create safer workplaces, using examples from businesses in New Zealand. Danu will highlight how software and computer vision AI can monitor the real-time movements of people and objects in New Zealand's manufacturing sector and beyond to provide insights into hazards that could lead to injury. This is your chance to know how and what to consider for ethical and inclusive AI deployment and strategic ideas for shaping culture, leadership and safety in an AI-enabled future.  

Panellist Jason Paris, CEO of One NZ, brings a compelling perspective on AI through an interactive Q&A session (moderated by Tom Maasland), drawing on One NZ’s journey to become the most AI enabled telco on the planet and exploring how digital infrastructure, connectivity and people are enabling an increasingly automated future for New Zealand businesses.

Thirty years’ experience driving operational performance across industries, Ian works with organisations from the shop floor to the boardroom to deliver high-impact, sustainable change. A Six Sigma Master Black Belt and founder of Intent Group (now part of Argon & Co), Ian specialises in business improvement programmes, lean manufacturing, supply chain optimisation, and best practice implementation—consistently delivering measurable bottom-line results.

Artificial intelligence is transforming additive manufacturing by making design, production, and quality control smarter and more efficient. AI can generate optimized designs, monitor prints in real time to prevent failures, and automate production workflows. It also enables predictive maintenance and smarter supply chains, allowing parts to be produced closer to where they are needed. By combining AI with 3D printing, manufacturing could become faster, more flexible, and highly customized, potentially reshaping how products are designed and produced in the future.