Month: November 2017

The Australian Institute of Company Directors defines a business as solvent when its current assets equal its current liabilities, or when current assets, minus inventory, are at least half of current liabilities. Unfortunately, many businesses I visit sail very close to the wind, and some are in real trouble without fully understanding why. A shortage in working capital becomes apparent when it’s difficult to pay employees and suppliers on time, or even maintaining good supplier relationships to preserve raw material supply for the business. The key is to maintain proper and planned cash management where cash outlays are delayed up to the maximum possible duration. Concept: Cash Flow = Cash inflows – Cash outflows Cash flow simply means the amount of cash remaining after all outbound payments are made from monies received. Positive cash-flow means that the cash received from sales is more that spent on salaries, expenses, and materials. Negative cash-flow is the opposite and often indicates some underlying problem, or could be a temporary setback. Even profitable businesses can show…

AMT: Tell us about the role of Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman and its broad objectives. Kate Carnell: Sure, well, the legislation was passed through Parliament the year before last – with support from all sides, both major parties and all across benches – that produces an independent office to work for small business. The role is appointed by the Governor General, so it does not report to the government of the day. Small business is defined as businesses under 100 employees, so it’s really small-to-medium business. The legislation sets up two particular roles. One is an advocacy role, and under the advocacy part of what we do, we have input into Government regulation and legislation to ensure it’s small business-friendly. I give advice to the Minister or Ministers on small business issues, and we can hold enquiries: both self-generated enquiries, and also the government can ask us to do particular enquiries into small business issues. The legislation gives us what are pretty much Royal Commission powers. We can seek documents from Government,…

Today Engineered Components employs five personnel at its workshop in Loganholme, a half-hour drive south of Brisbane. Its founder and director Adrian De Villiers remembers clearly the day he first set up the business. “The tenth of October 1981 – I bought my first centre lathe,” he recalls. “I worked by myself for something like six years, then I employed somebody to assist me; he came in afternoons and we’d stay till about 10 oclock at night. I bought my first CNC lathe – a second-hand machine – and had that for about six years, then I bought another CNC lathe. The problem is every time you buy a machine you’ve got to employ another person. But we went on from there and kept on buying machines, expanding the customer base.” The company started off mainly producing earthmoving components. It also worked with a local firm that made overhead cranes, with Engineered Components making all the machined…

October marked the longest run of expansion since 2007, albeit at a slower rate than the previous six months (readings above 50 indicate expansion in activity, with the distance from 50 indicating the strength of the increase). Of the seven activity sub-indexes in the Australian PMI, three expanded, three contracted and one was stable in October. New orders (down 0.8 points to 55.1) and sales (down 0.4 points to 51.0) both expanded, but at marginally slower rates than in September. Six of the eight manufacturing sub-sectors expanded in October (according to trend data) led by the non-metallic mineral products sector, which stayed at a record high of 72.2 points in October off the back of strong demand for building-related products. Food and beverages also continued to perform well (up 0.9 points to 57.1 points). Ai Group Chief Executive, Innes Willox, said: “Manufacturing entered its second year of consecutive growth in October with sales, employment and forward orders expanding in the month despite some soft patches in exports and production.…

One of the major issues associated with Industry 4.0 is making work processes flexible. At the extreme end of the spectrum, this may involve manufacturing products in batch size 1 under industrial mass-production conditions – that is, manufacturing unique items on a conveyor belt. This type of smart factory – where products and production processes are one with state-of-the-art information and communication technology – is becoming home to machines that are increasingly intelligent, and increasingly autonomous as a result. Not only that, but interaction between humans and machines is also set to increase in industrial manufacturing. This is because combining the abilities of humans with those of robots results in production solutions that…

One of these products is the state-of-the-art Driven Broaching Unit, which offers economic manufacturing of oriented keyways and splines with CNC turning centres. The WTO Driven Broaching Unit can be used for both internal (ID) and external (OD) broaching, simply by rotating the insert holder by 180 degrees, and offers speeds of up to 1,000 strokes per minute. In an actual case history, a CNC machine shop based in Summerville, in the US state of South Carolina, needed to develop a process that would give the required cycle time and tool life to maintain the desired profitability. The task was to machine a high-volume component made from 8620 steel that was designed with a complex internal spline. The job shop owner initially purchased two lathes and a standard broaching system. Early in the project, however, it was observed that the broaching unit originally installed with the…

With the exit of mining and automotive component manufacturers from Australia, industry and government support have helped some firms evolve their advanced manufacturing skills and enter the medical technology market. Medical device production in Australia has grown by 1.3% annually since 2012 and is now valued at $3bn a year according to IBISWorld. South Australia is emerging as a hub for the medical devices industry and is home to the Tonsley Innovation Hub and the Adelaide BioMed City precinct, a $3bn tripartite health hub comprising a major hospital, research centres and educational institutions. The Tonsley hub is located on the site of a former Mitsubishi car manufacturing plant in Adelaide, and major tenants include medical device manufacturer Micro-X, Siemens and ZEN Energy. From automotive into medical The downturn in world commodity prices has forced South Australian company Plastico and Hackett Engineering to shift its focus from mineral analysis equipment development to components for orthopaedic implants. The company first dabbled in medical devices in 2014 but has now…

Raytheon invites SMEs to join LAND 19 Phase 7B program Raytheon Australia has launched a supplier portal for the LAND 19 Phase 7B program, and is calling on Australian small to medium enterprises (SMEs) to participate in the project. A successful local defence industry depends upon strong partnerships between businesses large and small. As the proposed prime system integrator for Army’s future Short Range Ground Based Air Defence capability under LAND 19 Phase 7B, Raytheon is dedicated to the identification of opportunities for Australian industry to participate in the project and enhance local industry capabilities. As part of this process, Raytheon has implemented an Australian Industry Capability (AIC) development plan to identify Australian suppliers who are able to support activities in areas such as component manufacture, assembly and test, systems integration and in-country sustainment for LAND 19 Ph 7B. To facilitate its engagement with Australian industry partners, Raytheon has implemented a supplier portal, as a secure online tool to allow Australian industry to register its interest and provide Raytheon with information about their capabilities. Registering an expression of interest via the supplier portal is the first step to identifying opportunities for industry participation in the LAND 19…