Month: December 2019

If you are looking at rolling out a Continuous Improvement Program or would like to know more about the benefits of Lean Six Sigma, Vative, a member of AMTIL, is running a 1 Day Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Program on Wednesday 12th Feb 2020. Vative is offering 5 AMTIL members one free entry to the Program on a first come first serve basis. All AMTIL members also get a special discounted price of $350 + GST for the Program, which normally is priced at $490 + GST. The Vative Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Program will be run at Bosch and will also include a Factory Tour to see how Lean Six Sigma methodology and tools are practically applied in a real manufacturing environment. Lean and Six Sigma that originated in manufacturing is now applied in many industries to reduce process waste and variation with the aim of ultimately improving value to external and the internal customers. The Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt Program by Vative delivers a foundational knowledge of Lean Six Sigma that covers: The purpose of Lean Six Sigma and its benefits The DMAIC problem solving and project management model Understanding customer value…

Walking the factory floor at Sutton Tools’ headquarters in Thomastown, Victoria, defies what many would expect of a firm that each year produces some 20 million drills, taps, milling cutters and specialist tools for industries, ranging from medical and mining to aerospace and automotive. It’s clean. Really clean. “We used to be a far more manual operation up to the 2000s, with an environment not as clean as it is now, and more moving parts on the loading mechanisms” says Sutton’s Engineering Manager Tim Schurmann. “Our first robot was about 15 years ago, a Drake thread grinder that had one robot fitted to it. “We decided this was a pretty good idea, so we purchased some more robots and we started to install them ourselves. But we soon found we needed help from somebody to integrate them to the control system on the CNC machines, so we got Pat in to do that work.” By “Pat”, he means Pat Green,…

In addition to designing and producing trailers for general freight, temperature-controlled freight and bulk transport, MaxiTRANS manufactures rigid truck bodies, and supplies parts and consumables through its MaxiPARTS division. As such, it is a longtime user of SolidWorks and has been utilising SolidWorks PDM to assist in product management for almost a decade. Over this time an ongoing relationship was established with Central Innovation – whose development team was able to assist with custom-built tools to help expedite data delivery of Excel files into its production department. This laid the groundwork for Central Innovation’s in-depth involvement in ‘Project Transform’, which MaxiTRANS initiated in 2014 to replace 13 legacy IT systems and its now-unsupported core IT system with a new JD Edwards ERP system and other integrated systems across its business. The aim was to improve operational efficiencies by streamlining its business processes and practices while reducing operational…

While the global population continues to grow and age, the gradual urbanisation of our civilisation is creating a plethora of new health risks. The United Nations expects that an ageing global population will precipitate significant social changes – changes for which Tornos has been prepared for many years, especially in the medical and dental sectors. The Swiss machine tool manufacturer has such expertise in the field that it knows it can anticipate the needs of this booming market and meet those demands by providing innovative customised high-performance solutions. Growth and ageing of the population The global population is forecast to grow 16% by 2030. In the same period, the global population will also be ageing. The number of people aged 60 years and older is increasing faster than that of younger age groups and it is expected to double by 2050, and even triple or more by 2100. This demographic trend of ageing opens up new prospects with regards…

In falling to 48.1, the Australian PMI slipped below the 50-point threshold separating expansion from contraction for only the third month since July 2015 (readings below 50 points indicate contraction in activity, with the distance from 50 indicating the strength of the contraction). An increasing pace of contraction in new orders suggested a weak Christmas period may be ahead for Australian manufacturers. The weaker manufacturing sector in November was driven by contraction in employment and new orders and sales and production were barely steady. The overall weakness was not evident in the large food & beverages sector, which reported a further strengthening of performance. Both the machinery & equipment and the chemicals sectors also continued to expand in November, with weakness concentrated in the metal products, building products and TCF & printing groups. “A decline in performance across the diverse manufacturing sector had been telegraphed by the weakness in new orders in recent months,” said Ai Group Chief…