Author: Ray Keefe

  • iAwards 2014

    iAwards The iAwards are an annual celebration of Innovation in driving economic growth in Victoria. This year we were pleased to see one of our clients, Rectifier Technologies Pacific, nominate for an award. They were encouraged to do so and I was pleased that they followed through on that encouragement.…

  • Manufacturers’ Monthly Endeavour Awards 2014 Winners Announced

    Manufacturers’ Monthly Endeavour Awards 2014 Last night we attended the Manufacturers’ Monthly Endeavour Awards gala dinner at the Ivy Ballroom in Sydney as finalists in the Technology application of the Year category.   We didn’t win this year but we also didn’t know what each of our competitors had submitted…

  • Internet of Things

    Internet of Things The Internet of Things or IoT, has been around for a while now as a term. It refers to the ecosystem of smart and connected devices that provide access to remote information and also allow remote control and supervision. There is a lot of technology involved in…

  • Electronics Design: Technology Selection

    Technology Selection Before we look at how to choose a Technology, what does Technology mean? In very general terms, Technology is understanding how stuff works and how to get it to do what you want. There is lots of different stuff available. In the case of Electronics Design this stuff…

  • Electronics Design: Requirements Capture

    Requirements Capture Product Development is the core process your use when you have a great idea for a new product, or an improved version of an existing one. The very first step is to define what it is meant to do.   This first step is known as Requirements Capture.…

  • Electronics Design: Process

    Electronics Design The Electronics Design Process involves a number of steps. Unless what you are doing is a minor tweak to an existing product, you will use these steps. Over the next few weeks I will unpack what is involved in each step but this post is just going to…

  • Electricity Grid 2.0

    What if we could start again In the days when DC converters didn’t exist, it made sense to base our electrical distribution system on transformers and AC voltage level shifting. It still makes sense to distribute at high voltage where resistive losses in the wires are a smaller issue than…

  • Manufacturers’ Monthly Endeavour Awards Finalists 2014

    Manufacturers’ Monthly Endeavour Awards 2014 I recently spotlighted the Endeavour Awards which are held on the first evening of National Manufacturing Week. This is where we celebrate manufacturing success stories each year. What I didn’t mention at the time was that we had entered this year for the first time.…

  • Tetris: Big Time

    Tetris Tetris was the first Russian game exported to the USA. It is a geometric puzzle matching game where falling clusters of squares can be rotated before they hit the bottom. The aim is to form rows with no gaps. These disappear and the stack drops 1 level. The longer…

  • Practical Innovation

    Innovation Innovation is always a topic of interest to me. This post covers an approach to Innovation that I found helpful and was inspired by Frank Connolly of Think Quick. He is working with SEMMA as part of their Future of Manufacturing project which we are supporting.   The first…