July 9, 2020

Using human capital management software to reduce WHS compliance risk

The need for stringent workplace health & safety (WHS) compliance in the manufacturing sector is well justified. Manufacturing has one of the highest incidence of Australian workplace-related accidents, injuries and fatalities, accounting for 9% of all worker fatalities in 2018. Ensuring a manufacturing business is fully compliant with WHS regulations is therefore a hugely important commitment. Non-compliance carries huge financial and personal risk for employers and employees respectively. But many manufacturing employers find themselves burdened with the heavy administration of WHS compliance, and struggle to efficiently manage it. The current public health crisis has made occupational health & safety (OHS) compliance even more important. Not only must manufacturers deal with minimising risk associated with the day-to-day operations of a manufacturing business; they must also take up proactive risk management strategies to minimise the potential for COVID-19 transmission in their workplace. After all, manufacturers can’t work from home. When it comes to dealing with the workload of WHS…
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July 2, 2020

Sussex Taps – Home-grown success

The family-owned and operated business, which turns 25 next year, has been built upon inherently sustainable values, including local manufacturing, designing long-lasting products and a reuse-and-repurpose outlook on production. The Melbourne-based company owns and operates its own foundry, where brass is melted down and recycled into swarf, which forms the brass rods that eventually become tapware. This circular system is supported by Sussex’s manufacturing workshop, which recently underwent a multi-million-dollar expansion with plans to implement new technology to further improve its manufacturing capabilities. At the heart of Sussex’s business model is a commitment to retaining the artisanal aspects of its product output, where design and local manufacturing come first. Creative Director Vanessa Katsanevakis explains that this rubric is fundamental to Sussex’s operation as a sustainable design and manufacturing business and has set the business up to ask broader questions about the life cycle of the products it creates. “We operate under the mantra that good design is sustainable design,” says Katsanevakis. “To us, that really comes down to asking ourselves three core questions: How is the product designed? How…
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July 2, 2020

UTS ProtoSpace – Enabling access to additive technology

ProtoSpace is unique in offering access to both high-end equipment and technical advice and expertise beyond the reach of many manufacturing businesses. It encourages direct, hands-on experimentation, and offers training and consultation alongside access to AM capabilities supported by operational and engineering teams. “We want to collaborate with industry partners by providing access to cutting-edge expertise in 3D printing technology, software, engineering and design,” says Hervé Harvard, Director of both ProtoSpace and UTS’ Rapido facility. “We have assembled a highly advanced suite of printers, with eight individual AM machines on-site, and provide guidance on how AM technologies will best fit a business. And we can bring together multi-skilled teams from across UTS drawing on specific discipline areas including artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and automation to work closely with businesses to develop their best solution.” As AM has matured from design/prototyping and tooling, a new era in bespoke 3D printing promises great potential for further innovation, says…
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July 2, 2020

Changes to the Corporations Act: Protecting the economy

On 25 March, the Government effected changes to the Corporations Act to protect the economy from the stress of the ongoing pandemic. Understanding these changes and what hasn’t changed can help you protect against: Being held personally liable for Company debts incurred, and Losses from trading with insolvent customers and on Director / Shareholder Loans. What has changed? Relief from insolvent trading Relief has been provided to Directors who act in good faith from insolvent trading claims for the period of six months from 25 March 2020. Insolvent trading is the act of incurring debt whilst the company is insolvent, and this debt remains outstanding at the point of liquidation. A liquidator can bring an action against a Director personally for these debts. An example of how the relief will work in practice is: We have Jim who runs a chain-link fencing manufacturing business with expenses in the form of rent, wages and wire. Jim’s company becomes insolvent on 1 April 2020; however, he keeps trading until 31 December 2020 when his…
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July 2, 2020

Boral Logistics invests in MaxiTRANS AZMEB side tipper road trains

MaxiTRANS is one of Australia’s largest suppliers of truck and trailer parts to the road transport industry in Australia. It is also the largest supplier of locally manufactured, high-quality heavy road transport trailer solutions, including trailer repair and service, in Australia and New Zealand. The AZMEB Door Side Tipper AB-triple road train combination is the first of a number that are due to be delivered to Boral Logistics, with the first unit being put to work in the long-distance delivery of quarry material throughout Western Queensland from the Boral Wellcamp Quarry. Boral operates around 70 quarries, metropolitan and regional, throughout Australia. The Wellcamp Quarry, west of Toowoomba, extracts and processes a wide range of product, particularly highly specified road base aggregate. Wade Clark, Operations Manager of Boral Logistics Queensland, says Boral’s road train combinations play an important part of the transport logistics operation…
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July 1, 2020

Australian PMI: Manufacturing returns to growth in June

The June result comes in the wake of April’s largest ever monthly fall in the Australian PMI (readings above 50 points indicate expansion in activity, with higher results indicating a faster rate of expansion). However, while the result is the largest ever monthly rise, it was narrowly focused on some sub sectors and indicates an improvement from recent depths rather than a recovery to buoyant conditions. Almost all of the improvement reflected in June’s Australian PMI was concentrated in the large food & beverages sector, with new orders from food wholesale distributors improving with the relaxation of trading restrictions. Less positively, manufacturers who supply locally made metal products and building materials to the construction industry reported a sharp reduction in new orders. “Manufacturing performance edged ahead in June largely on the back of a solid lift in the large food & beverages sector as restrictions on cafes and restaurants were eased,” said Ai Group Chief Executive Innes Willox. “The machinery & equipment sector enjoyed a spike in sales associated with end-of-financial…
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June 25, 2020

Manufacturing & COVID-19 (part two): Bosch Australia

AMT: Firstly, tell us about Bosch Australia and the business’ activities. Gavin Smith: Bosch Australia is the representative subsidiary for the Bosch group in Australia and New Zealand. The company here has been around in one form or another trading since the early 1900s. The company’s grown in different directions, but it literally does a little bit of that which Bosch does everywhere. We operate across four sectors: mobility solutions, consumer goods, industrial goods, and building & energy technologies. Some of our businesses are the leaders in their field and large in scale, others are small and relatively new to our portfolio. But we have a team of about 1,300 people across Australia and New Zealand. Our turnover is just under a billion Australian dollars this year. And we are still a significant manufacturing and engineering location for the Bosch group in the areas of vehicle safety and comfort electronics, and we import and trade the…
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June 25, 2020

Coregas completes major fabrication industry installation

With over 40 years’ industry experience, Genis Steel manages all aspects of steel fabrication from on-site measuring, in-house drafting, fabrication, through to full site installation. With extensive in-house capabilities and state-of-the-art facilities in both Melbourne and Adelaide, Genis Steel is able to provide a range of steel construction components for domestic dwellings, architecturally designed projects and multi-level apartments right through to industrial, commercial and government projects. Genis Steel recently expanded into South Australia, opening a state-of-the-art fabrication facility at the Lionsgate Business Park in Elizabeth South. This large facility, which was once home to Holden’s press shops, boasts over 15m clear heights and a 100-tonne lifting capacity. Combined with Genis Steel’s technical capabilities, workmanship and reputation for quality fabrication, the scale of the facility will enable the company to handle an almost unlimited scope of work. Coregas worked closely with Genis…
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June 25, 2020

No set-up, no downtime for Smart Factories

With the use of network communication, new digital technologies combine physical manufacturing systems with virtual worlds of knowledge and 3D modelling. The target is significantly increased output, but as manufacturing systems considerably improve their intellectual features and decision-making capabilities, they necessarily become more complicated and more expensive. Minimising the downtime of such systems is a ‘must’ for the development of every system component such as machine tools, workholding devices or cutting tools. Cutting tools can not only cut metal but also cut downtime, depending on their design concept. Assembled cutting tools with exchangeable cutting heads from cemented carbides are very common in metalworking today. Two decades ago, there were very few systems built on an exchangeable head principle. Now, practically every leading cutting tool manufacturer has this type of system in its product range. Advances in tool grinding and resharpening machines have…
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June 25, 2020

William Buck relaunches Financial Reporting Accounting and Advisory service

While William Buck’s FRAA division has been operational for some time, it is significant to a wider range of businesses in the current environment given the regulatory changes, tax breaks, and widespread restructuring resulting from the global pandemic. FRAA advisors are available to assist CFOs and financial controllers to listed public, unlisted public and private companies on the proper implementation of Australian Accounting Standards (AASB) and the Australian equivalents to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). FRAA will also assist with complex accounting matters such as impairment testing, business combinations and share-based payments. The service line can also assist with the preparation of general-purpose financial reports for public interest entities to allow CFO’s and financial controllers to concentrate on operational matters rather than annual compliance. With 13 years’ experience and strong insights across a broad range of industries and markets, William Buck’s Director Alan Finnis leads the FRAA division. Finnis said the FRAA team assists companies to understand the ‘real-life’ implications…
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June 25, 2020

If innovation requires a crisis – is there a bigger issue?

Profit of course is a most simple metric for business outcomes, indeed the very reason the business exists. There is a simple metric for managing growth and increased staff numbers: Profit divided by Headcount (P/H). A new hire initially costs money, so expect a short-term dip in the P/H result, but in the longer term this number should in fact be bigger than the pre-hire number. If that’s not the case, then the new person is in fact costing you money. This of course disregards any lifestyle choice you may make in sacrificing a higher P/H to enable yourself more leisure time. A laudable choice, of course. In larger organisations we often see headcount grow for no good reason. In good times new people are hired with scant regard for the return on the investment they deliver. This is even more prevalent in Government, where a simple profit metric may not…
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June 25, 2020

Enmin vibratory equipment a key ingredient in Whittaker’s continued growth

With nearly 200 staff at its factory in Porirua, Wellington, Whittaker’s produces the highest-quality chocolate products for both the domestic and export markets. During the 1950s Whittaker’s developed the Peanut Slab. It has since become an iconic product and the recipe has never changed. In the 1990s the company started to make its first chocolate blocks, which are now New Zealand’s favourite blocks. Whittaker’s is a ‘beans to bar’ company, controlling the whole process from roasting the beans to the final product. This is to ensure only chocolates of the highest quality are produced. With a philosophy of purity and environmental consideration, the company does not use palm oil or genetically modified ingredients in the manufacturing process. Evidence of Whittaker’s popularity and recognition in New Zealand is reflected in numerous awards. This includes being voted New Zealand’s most trusted brand in the Reader’s Digest annual…
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June 18, 2020

One on One – Warren Jansen

AMT: Tell us firstly about the Industry Capability Network Limited and its activities. Warren Jansen: The Industry Capability Network Limited (ICNL) is a national entity that co-ordinates activities for the Industry Capability Network (ICN) offices across the country. There is a presence of ICN offices in most states, and ICNL acts as the national office and primarily develops and manages our IT platform, ICN Gateway, which bring suppliers and buyers together on-line. We bring businesses together. We’ve got local suppliers who look for work, and there are buyers – we call them proponents – who handle large-scale projects. The projects might be based in the mining sector, the oil & gas industry, infrastructure, construction, defence and so on. And we act as an intermediary to bring those buyers and suppliers together. We ensure that supply chains function adequately to service these projects. There’s a whole raft of different industries that we cater to, and our platform services all these buyers and suppliers, and helps drive Australian industry through this matchmaking process. In recent times however, we have…
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