Hamilton automation specialist RML 'engineering the future'

As New Zealand manufacturers and food producers grapple with the push to lift export value, one message is becoming clear: advanced engineering will play an increasingly important role.

Hamilton-based automation specialist RML is helping businesses prepare for that future now, designing and building machinery that is ready for the next wave of technological change – even if customers are not yet asking for it.

VIDEO1

“We almost overcompensate on controllers and technology inside our machines so production lines can evolve rather than be replaced,” says chief executive of RML, Daryl Joyce.

 “We believe that in two to three years’ time customers will want to do more with them. If the infrastructure isn’t there, you simply can’t unlock that value later.”

Founded more than four decades ago in Hamilton, RML designs and builds industrial automation, robotics and production machinery used across food processing, manufacturing and agriculture.

Its equipment handles everything from robotic picking and packing to palletising, material movement and warehouse automation.

Joyce says many large New Zealand manufacturers now operate at least one piece of RML engineered equipment somewhere in their production lines.

While productivity gains are a clear benefit, Joyce says the primary driver for many customers is resilience.

“For a lot of manufacturers, the mandate now is simply to keep producing,” he says.

“We’re taking processes that are unsafe, repetitive or hard to staff and making them reliable, repeatable and safe over the long term.”

That long‑term view is shaping how RML approaches technology investment, particularly as digital systems, advanced controls and artificial intelligence continue to develop.

Joyce believes AI will be transformational for industrial automation – but not overnight.

“In an industrial sense, AI will take several years to really flow through,” he says.

“The biggest thing right now is making sure factories and machines have the foundations in place so they can leverage it when it does arrive.”

RML has spent the past five years investing heavily in both technology and people, building a young, highly skilled engineering team capable of working with increasingly complex systems.

Joyce says that investment is essential if New Zealand manufacturers are to lift value rather than volume.

“We’re a niche manufacturer as a country, but if we put effort into smarter automation and technology, we can grow the value of what we export over time.”

The company’s innovation‑led approach was recognised late last year when RML took out both the Supreme Award and Innovation Award at the Waikato Business Awards for its work in developing automated guided vehicles (pictured below).

IMAGE1

That momentum is now being supported by a growth plan backed by ANZ, which worked alongside RML when it recently relocated to a new purpose‑built facility in Hamilton.

Joyce says access to capital, and a banking partner willing to understand long‑term engineering investment, is critical.

“ANZ has been prepared to come in, understand what we’re doing and back a plan they can see is viable,” he says.

“That gives us the confidence to invest ahead of demand and support our customers over the long term.”

For Joyce, engineering for the future is as much about mindset as machinery. He believes New Zealand has the talent but needs greater urgency around investment.

“Future production lines will be a lot more mechanically and automation-based and they will need quality people to keep that running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” he says.

By helping customers design, install and maintain production environments that are built for continuous operation, RML expects its role to expand alongside theirs.

It is a future where technology does more of the heavy lifting, but dependable partners, and capable people, remain critical to keeping industries and the country’s exporter competitive.

RML is featured in the ANZ Waikato Regional Spotlight Report.