Based in Croydon, Victoria, Hargo Engineering has been providing specialist precision and repetition engineering services since 1976. Hargo’s CEO Frank Gogol spoke about his company and its recent acquisition of a Nakamura-Tome WY 100II lathe supplied by Headland Machinery.
AMT: How long has Hargo been in business?
FG: My dad Heinz Gogol started the business in 1976. Dad came from a watchmaking background in Germany, and he started the business as an engineering shop specialising in small components. I joined in 1991 after I completed my apprenticeship in electrical fitting with Siemens, manufacturing high and low-voltage switchboards.
AMT: How has the business grown over the years?
FG: Like a lot of family businesses, Hargo has grown conservatively over the years. When I joined in 1991 Hargo employed around eight people including the family, and by 2015 we had grown to 20 staff. In 2015 Hargo established an advisory board to help with expansion and direction of the business and has since doubled in size, in both turnover and staff.
Up until 1995, Hargo’s machinery still consisted of sliding head cam autos. The purchase of our first CNC, a Start SR16, was made, the benefits were soon realised, and the transition to a modern CNC machine shop began. By 2005 Hargo had become purely CNC, retiring all of the cam autos.
AMT: What industries do you service?
FG: We cover a large range of industries; we currently make components for model trains right through to the Space X and Starlink programs, and everything in between. At the moment, our specialty is complex, high-quality components at production volumes, which we are supplying to automotive and second-tier aerospace and defence, both in Australia and the USA.
AMT: What are the keys to your company’s success?
FG: Not being scared of the difficult jobs, investing in the right technology and getting the technology to work for you, to its full capacity and capability, is key. We’re not afraid to try new things, and spend a lot of time developing tooling to get parts from the machine complete. We empower our people to think about the best, most efficient way to manufacture the component.
We also have a strong training program. I think getting the right people is a big struggle for many Australian manufacturers. We have focused heavily on overcoming this through our apprenticeship program. We get a new apprenticeship every year and we train all the way through. We select people based on their attitude and always select someone who is keen and open and willing to learn.
We also open our doors to schools and have lots of work placements, giving students the chance to experience engineering before they look for a job. We always have a new face starting. Everyone in the business has a responsibility to train – that way we share the knowledge from all the people in the business.
AMT: How you do remain ahead of the competition?
FG: We have a strong focus on our people and supply chain. Hargo currently exports up to 40% of sales and have had to become globally competitive. Hargo has had to develop a supply chain within Australia and the USA focusing on value and quality; it’s been hard work to find a supply chain that you can trust to deliver a high-end product that you export competitively. We have spent a lot of time visiting key suppliers in the USA to foster and develop those relationships early.
We are also looking to expand our footprint into the US market. But of course, this has all been put on hold for now. We are still looking to set up a small manufacturing plant over there. We already have a brand for ourselves over there which is fantastic – it gives us a foot in the door.
AMT: What are Hargo’s greatest strengths?
FG: Relationships – both customer and supplier relationships – are key for us. Working closely with our customers, as most of our work is repeat and doing it on-time and to high-quality standards is critical. We are also big communicators; we are actively communicating with the customers on how we can manufacture parts most efficiently. We help them to manufacture the part most cost-effectively and talk to them about how they make their parts. We don’t hide pricing and keep everything very open and transparent.
AMT: You recently purchased and installed a Nakamura WY 100II lathe. What problem were you trying to solve with this investment?
FG: We have been growing our export business consistently and needed a machine that would reduce our cycle times and maintain a high capability. We were focused on a particular range of material and size. We have experience with other brands, and the Nakamura became the obvious choice.
The key for us was getting the cycle time down on a complex part with many variations that are used by a number of customers that we have and are targeting. The very first mil spec housing we machined on the Nakamura had a 30% quicker cycle time, so we’ve definitely made the right decision. We are confident that future quoting reflecting this reduction will grow this business more.
The capability of the machine is most critical, but for us the level of service, support and training from Headland themselves was also an important factor. We have dealt with Headland in the past and have been comfortable with them – they are a good company to work with.
AMT: What’s the real value of the machinery you have in your factory?
FG: Cycle times and repeatability – this machine was more about our customer, some of our customers are using the Nakamura in their machine shops, and with our efficiencies we knew we could get cycle time down significantly and be competitive. We’re currently manufacturing shell blanks for the SpaceX program, which is highly competitive and demanding in quality standards. We’ve had Headland’s CNC programmer Gurav working on the installation and training on the software, and he’s been pretty flexible working around the restrictions of COVID adapting to our split shift no-contact policy.
AMT: What’s your view on the current state of manufacturing in Australia?
FG: I’m receiving mixed feedback from the market. While some sections of the industry seem to be doing quite well, and some manufacturing seems to be coming back on-shore, we need the whole end product to come back to Australia, for the industry to truly benefit.
AMT: What’s the outlook for Hargo Engineering going forward?
FG: I took over a great business from my dad. He was more conservative than me and we were in for slow, but sustained growth. I’m a bit more aggressive and we’ve doubled in size over the last five years. During COVID-19, I’m happy to say none of our staff have lost any hours and we have still hit all our budgets, putting us on track for our best year ever. However, we are very cautious in the next few months ahead to see what happens.
But overall, we’re remaining positive and pushing ahead. And no matter what, we’re always willing to have a crack, so I think that helps in times like these.