Woolworks engaged GCT to support their business growth and automation-driven production plant by implementing monitoring systems, fixing issues before they impacted the business, and preempting when things may go wrong.
Woolworks is New Zealand’s only wool scouring provider and the largest wool scouring facility in the world. They produce the brightest, cleanest wool from happy New Zealand sheep, processing it on behalf of their clients. Their sustainability focus demonstrates operating in an environmentally friendly way doesn’t compromise product quality.
Sector: Manufacturing
Employees: 154
GCT customer from: 2012
Customer problem: IT redundancy for automation-driven, 24/7 production plant
GCT keeps our operation going and keeps us supported. They’ve initiated redundancies so if something goes wrong in the middle of the night - as it typically does - there is a fall back and our operations are unlikely to stop.
Experiencing business growth, Woolworks undertook automation improvements to their production plant to keep up with demand. A positive move for the business to improve efficiencies, however, adding automation increased the potential risk of production areas failing, stopping their 24 hours a day, 7 days a week operation.
Critical to Woolworks operation is real-time network communications monitoring and tracking the wool scouring process and notifying the production team. For instance, every bale of wool must be tested for moisture parameters, colour and specifications detailed by the end client, this information is collected via automation and electronically distributed to key personnel and ultimately customers. IT infrastructure, cyber security and managed IT resiliency ensure the network has maximum uptime and therefore the business is never non-operational.
Woolworks Head office in Awatoto was flooded in cyclone Gabrielle with their server racks completely submerged and unrecoverable. GCT restored their systems from their regular backups to the GCT Data Centre and supported their staff to work remotely.
I think cyber security is getting more and more important and businesses need protecting. We’ve got to manage our risk. GCT has helped us understand what we need to protect.
Woolworks operate their automation-driven, 24/7 production plant with the assurance they have gold-standard IT infrastructure, IT security and IT resiliency in place. They have the support of the GCT team for day-to-day IT management.
The important thing is our partnership with GCT. It’s critical in giving us the reassurance that we have the right infrastructure in place. I have a lot of faith that GCT recommends good outcomes for us, especially around redundancies.
