Curious about what our industry cared about the most in 2019? Join us as we sum up our top read articles across our platforms, and why we’ve made the important shift to better communicate to you all.

2019 was a massive year for HERA! We had a huge shift in strategy that put emphasis on us better connecting and inspiring our members so that together we could build a tribe of metal heads and an industry that Aotearoa cared about.

Looking back, we made some massive commitments to achieving this!

  • launching our podcast Stirring the Pot featuring 24 episodes with industry influencers, inernational experts and more,
  • tweeting 533 times,
  • sharing 230 project images from our membership on Instagram, and
  • releasing a massive 74 original articles from our team and guest bloggers on our website.

They’re milestones we’re proud of. And what better way to celebrate… but to highlight the top five stories across HERA’s key teams.

HERA CEO

1.

Ranked #3: Our search is over! Sarah Lewis is our successful Whanake Scholarship recipient – announcing our inaugural recipient of our newly launched Whanake Scholarship which is designed to improve maori engagement in our industry.

2.

Ranked #10: What’s the strategy for 2020? – the release of HERA’s new strategy developed by our Executive Board and lead team based on key issues and trends impacting our industry.

3.

Ranked #11: Am I a charismatic leader? – a fantastic self reflection thought piece from our CEO Troy Coyle on the need to shift from charismatic leadership to authentic leadership so we can better attract and retain top staff in our industry.

4.

Ranked #13: Our NZ metals industry is the first to assess ourselves against Treasury’s Living Standards Framework – sharing key findings of HERA’s commissioned report by BERL which showed our NZ metals industry is a strong contributor to the NZ economy and the living standards of New Zealanders.

5.

Ranked #21: Romancing the steel – we’re on a mission to build a tribe by sharing our history and story! – acknowledging that up until now the history of HERA has been recorded in typical factual style. And, signalling the engagement of a writer with an intent to re-look at our history and tell the story better through the eyes of the very people involved in establishing the successful industry that we have now.

Welding Centre

1.

Ranked #2: How to improve your fabrication business productivity by 20% – a chat with world renowned Bottleneck Analysis expert Arrie van Niekerk.

2.

Ranked #4: Update – Establishing new brittle fracture provisions for the Australasian steel structure standards – research that has led to the development of a new procedure to select steel grades manufactured to Australian and New Zealand standards in collaboration with the University of Wilhelmshaven and University of Sydney.

3.

Ranked #7: HERA’s qualification, training and certification services successfully achieve the highest standards in a recent IIW audit – a summary of the major outcomes of an audit performed on HERA which confirmed that our services deliver the highest standard of training and certification to our NZ metals industry.

4.

Ranked #15: Meet Volkan Yakut – the latest team member to join our Welding Centre team – announcing our new Senior Welding Engineer who brings over 15 years’ global experience to the table as a Mechanical Engineer and International Welding Engineer.

5.

Ranked #16: Notice – Welding consumable levy increase due to come into effect 1 February 2019 – a pivotal change which through industry consultation acknowledges our contribution to our industry’s future and inspires us to keep pushing for the benefit of you all.

Structural Systems

1.

Ranked #1: General Manager Structural Systems Stephen HIcks moving on to exciting new role – marking the 11 years of contribution Stephen delivered on behalf of HERA.

2.

Ranked #6: Panel project delivers software to design composite columns to AS/NZS 2327 – announcing the exciting and exclusive availability of new software to assist our members in the design of composite columns using concreted filled tubes.

3.

Ranked #20: Call for information – Request for steel floor deck data for new composite beam design software – asking for industry contributions to help simplify the design process through the use of electronic tools and guides.

4.

Ranked #25: Solving the housing crisis with a sustainable light steel framing multi-storey building option – covering our Structural Systems team innovative research on a light steel framing (LSF) multi-storey building solution. An approach that answers the Auckland Unitary Plan’s calls to action to house a growing population.

5.

Ranked #27: Meet Jing Cao – a Structural Engineer driven to solve problems from a young age – profiling of Jing’s work at HERA splashed with a little bit of insight into his personal life and his true passion for solving problems.

Marketing and Communications – on behalf of industry

1.

Ranked #5: Meet Gretta Stephens – NZ Steels new Chief Executive – a video interview with Gretta to discuss how she was finding her role so far, why she loves working in the NZ metals industry, NZ Steels strategic focuses moving forward and key challenges they’ll need to overcome.

2.

Ranked #12: The metals take on the circular economy – guest commentary from Sustainable Steel Council’s Nick Collins on how metal provides an established pathway through the circular economy and why our industry must seize this advantage in the wake of increased attention around the living standards framework, climate change, zero emissions targets and our positioning in relation to competitor materials such as timber.

3.

Ranked #14: Russley Road SH1 Upgrade – Part of the Western Corridor | McConnell Dowell Downer JV – guest profiling of our members McConnell Dowell Downer Joint Venture to deliver cost effective value engineering initiatives ahead of schedule for their client New Zealand Transport Agency.

4.

Ranked #17: #INWED19 – Meet Tectonus Marketing Manager, Anya Valyashko – guest profiling of one of our newly joined members Tectonus as part of our efforts to support International Women in Engineering Day. Anya was one of 13 females profiled within this campaign.

5.

Ranked #18: Flashback project: the beauty of steel at Te Rewa Rewa – Novare Design | Fitzroy Engineering – guest profiling of our members Novare Design and Fitzroy Engineering which saw the creation of an iconic bridge design and development in New Plymouth.

Innovation Centre

1.

Ranked #9: General Manager Boaz Habib on an exciting career journey – covering off the contributions of Boaz to our HERA industry development initiatives over the past eight years.

2.

Ranked #22: Innovators get set and going! – summarising the achievements of our first Innovation READY cohort to pass through our bespoke innovation workshop. It was all about developing an innovation mindset in work practices to commercialise products, improve productivity and processes or increase customer services for greater return.

3.

Ranked #23: Innovation Centre build – announcing the development of our exciting new purpose-built Innovation Centre which will kick off in February 2020. It’s focused squarely on the metals industry, and it’s goal to secure tomorrow’s industry by innovating today and how members can help us create this legacy together.

4.

Ranked #24: R&D on expert design tool now complete via Scholarship Recipient Shoulong Dong – celebrating the completion of Shoulong’s HERA Foundation scholarship to develop an online engineering framework to aid engineers and researchs in carrying out preliminary design exercises and performance evaluation.

5.

Ranked #28: Disruption – the engine of prosperity – a thought piece which explores what happens if we stop paying attention and no longer thrive to be the disruptor, and examples of this very notion throughout history.

Membership Services and Support

1.

Ranked #8: HERA’s Future Forum 2020 – a pivotal launch of our very first HERA Future Forum conference – 20/20 VISION which is focused on visualising the future for our New Zealand metals industry.

2.

Ranked #19: HERA’s online library has improved user features – updating our members on the latest software improvements available to them so they can access our extensive industry catalogue with greater efficiency and ease.

3.

Ranked #26: Farewell to Peter Hayward: a HERA luminary – celebrating the long history of our longest serving employee who retired in 2018 and sadly passed away in April 2019.

4.

Ranked #29: Meet Raewyn Porter – our multitasking Administrator – staff profiling which highlights the importance of valuing your administration team as your first customer touch points to your business.

5.

Ranked #30: Be the disruptor, not the disrupted – a thought piece from our Manager Membership Services and Support Brian Low on how the third industrial revolution changed the way previous generations worked – and very soon, how the the fourth industrial revolution will do the same again for us.