ISSUE 3 – JULY 2012
Editorial
The big event this month was the arrival of the long awaited Carbon Tax. The tax which is regarded by many as highly divisive is also linked to a household compensation package and a revision of personal tax thresholds. Whatever your personal views on the need and level of this tax, it is clear that it does not come at the best time for the Australian manufacturing industry as it faces further contraction. With the Coalition vowing to repeal the tax immediate upon taking power at the next election; this can only add further uncertainty to many sectors of the economy, which may also be further threatened by economic slowdowns in our largest export trading partner – China.
Trawling the news this month produced two Australian manufacturing success stories (see below) and an interesting article on the visit of NZ Prime Minister John Key. Key’s was in Australia to take local manufacturing back home to NZ says the AFR 6/7. Fresh from winding back the carbon tax, cutting the top rate of income tax to 33% and kicking off partial privatisations he said Government is a practical business; making a series of sensible decisions which build on each other. During questions he was asked from the audience; “Prime Minister, I’m not sure what you are doing next week but the question is; Australian business would like you to run the country”!
On July 1 the government’s long awaited Carbon Tax finally came into being. The tax will tax all companies that emit more than 25,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year. It will apply to about 60% of the country’s emissions with carbon units at a initial price of $23 rising in the next two years. Companies can lower their tax bill by claiming carbon credits for emissions from a number of activities including transport and domestic aviation. In addition, a clean energy finance corporation has been set up with an investment of $10 billion over 5 years to lend money and invest in clean energy companies.
Australia’s manufacturing sector contracted for its fourth straight month in June, a private sector survey shows. The Australian Industry Group/Price Waterhouse Coopers Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) remained below the key level of 50 points in June, indicating the sector continued to contract. However, the index rose 4.8 points to 47.2 points, indicating the sector contracted at a slower pace compared to the previous month. The index, released on Monday, showed eight of the 12 manufacturing sub-sectors – including wood products and furniture, food and beverages textiles and chemicals – recorded decreases in June.
(By AAP 02/07/2012 – www.thebull.com.au)
Manufacturing activity in China hit a seven-month low in June; a private survey has shown, due to a slide in exports and weak domestic demand. HSBC’s preliminary purchasing managers’ index (PMI), which gauges the manufacturing sector, fell to 48.1 in June from 48.4 in May marking the 8th consecutive month of contraction..
Analysts said the results suggest China will move again to boost its slowing economy, after cutting interest rates earlier this month for the first time in three years and encouraging more government investment. A spokesman said China is facing weak demand in key export markets such as the US and Europe. The government has reduced its economic growth target for this year to 7.5 per cent, down from growth of 9.2 per cent last year and 10.4 per cent in 2010. (ABC news.net.au)
National kitchen designer and manufacturer Australian Kitchen Industries has gone into voluntary administration, a victim of tough economic conditions for manufacturers and last year’s floods in Queensland. The company has 20 stores across the nation, which operates under the brands Kitchen Connection, Wallspan Kitchen Connections and Impala Kitchen Connection, and it employs around 200 staff. There are stores in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane, although Impala Kitchens in states other than Victoria is not part of the AKI group and is not affected by the administration. (www.smartcompany.com.au)
The Horsham foundry of failed car parts maker CMI Industrial will be closed next month after receivers failed to find a buyer for the business. The company is a major parts supplier to Ford but it went into liquidation earlier this year. Twenty-nine employees will be made redundant and the factory is expected close by July 6 after the receivers who initially believed the foundry could stay open for another 6 months admitted they could not find a buyer for the foundry business. (www.abcnews.net.au)
And now a couple of success stories:
Bartco a traffic management business, started an off shoot manufacturing their own road signs has grown to become a multi-million dollar operation and has just secured a $2 million contract to deliver traffic management signs for the London Olympics. So we decided to build them ourselves, basically. We put the specifications together, contracted out the manufacturing, and then started building up things with LED technology. We put them on the road, and to cut a long story short, people started noticing them and wanted to buy them off us. Using new technology, solar powered and LEDs and subcontracting manufacture they started building a technology company, investing substantially in R&D to keep ahead of the competition. The contract for the Olympics came out of a new type of sign using new colour LED’s and solving power consumption by use of solar.
Barry Thomas’s Brisbane-based company, Cook Medical, is at the forefront of manufacture in the medical device field. Cook Medical Australia reported $164 million in revenue in 2011. This included $76 million in export sales of product manufactured locally in Australia, $8 million in sales of locally manufactured product into the Australian market and $78 million in sales of imported product from other Cook companies outside of APAC.
Thomas, who received a 2012 Australian Export Heroes award from the Australian Institute of Export, has some simple advice. Watch your input costs, keep management structures flat, make sure you are either making money out of the dollar or hedging yourself and, most importantly, look after your employees. It’s about making sure the people you have on board are the right fit, and then taking care of them so that they stay. “It’s about having a workforce that’s working with you to maintain manufacturing,’’ Thomas says. Cook Medical now employs about 600 people in Australia. It has a low turnover of staff because it works almost as a family company.
That doesn’t mean the company can’t cut staff when it has to. But it needs to be strategic in the way it goes about it, he says.
Engineering & Manufacturing Influence News – Issue 3 July 2012
/by wp624127ISSUE 3 – JULY 2012
Editorial
The big event this month was the arrival of the long awaited Carbon Tax. The tax which is regarded by many as highly divisive is also linked to a household compensation package and a revision of personal tax thresholds. Whatever your personal views on the need and level of this tax, it is clear that it does not come at the best time for the Australian manufacturing industry as it faces further contraction. With the Coalition vowing to repeal the tax immediate upon taking power at the next election; this can only add further uncertainty to many sectors of the economy, which may also be further threatened by economic slowdowns in our largest export trading partner – China.
Trawling the news this month produced two Australian manufacturing success stories (see below) and an interesting article on the visit of NZ Prime Minister John Key. Key’s was in Australia to take local manufacturing back home to NZ says the AFR 6/7. Fresh from winding back the carbon tax, cutting the top rate of income tax to 33% and kicking off partial privatisations he said Government is a practical business; making a series of sensible decisions which build on each other. During questions he was asked from the audience; “Prime Minister, I’m not sure what you are doing next week but the question is; Australian business would like you to run the country”!
On July 1 the government’s long awaited Carbon Tax finally came into being. The tax will tax all companies that emit more than 25,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year. It will apply to about 60% of the country’s emissions with carbon units at a initial price of $23 rising in the next two years. Companies can lower their tax bill by claiming carbon credits for emissions from a number of activities including transport and domestic aviation. In addition, a clean energy finance corporation has been set up with an investment of $10 billion over 5 years to lend money and invest in clean energy companies.
Australia’s manufacturing sector contracted for its fourth straight month in June, a private sector survey shows. The Australian Industry Group/Price Waterhouse Coopers Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) remained below the key level of 50 points in June, indicating the sector continued to contract. However, the index rose 4.8 points to 47.2 points, indicating the sector contracted at a slower pace compared to the previous month. The index, released on Monday, showed eight of the 12 manufacturing sub-sectors – including wood products and furniture, food and beverages textiles and chemicals – recorded decreases in June.
(By AAP 02/07/2012 – www.thebull.com.au)
Manufacturing activity in China hit a seven-month low in June; a private survey has shown, due to a slide in exports and weak domestic demand. HSBC’s preliminary purchasing managers’ index (PMI), which gauges the manufacturing sector, fell to 48.1 in June from 48.4 in May marking the 8th consecutive month of contraction..
Analysts said the results suggest China will move again to boost its slowing economy, after cutting interest rates earlier this month for the first time in three years and encouraging more government investment. A spokesman said China is facing weak demand in key export markets such as the US and Europe. The government has reduced its economic growth target for this year to 7.5 per cent, down from growth of 9.2 per cent last year and 10.4 per cent in 2010. (ABC news.net.au)
National kitchen designer and manufacturer Australian Kitchen Industries has gone into voluntary administration, a victim of tough economic conditions for manufacturers and last year’s floods in Queensland. The company has 20 stores across the nation, which operates under the brands Kitchen Connection, Wallspan Kitchen Connections and Impala Kitchen Connection, and it employs around 200 staff. There are stores in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane, although Impala Kitchens in states other than Victoria is not part of the AKI group and is not affected by the administration. (www.smartcompany.com.au)
The Horsham foundry of failed car parts maker CMI Industrial will be closed next month after receivers failed to find a buyer for the business. The company is a major parts supplier to Ford but it went into liquidation earlier this year. Twenty-nine employees will be made redundant and the factory is expected close by July 6 after the receivers who initially believed the foundry could stay open for another 6 months admitted they could not find a buyer for the foundry business. (www.abcnews.net.au)
And now a couple of success stories:
Bartco a traffic management business, started an off shoot manufacturing their own road signs has grown to become a multi-million dollar operation and has just secured a $2 million contract to deliver traffic management signs for the London Olympics. So we decided to build them ourselves, basically. We put the specifications together, contracted out the manufacturing, and then started building up things with LED technology. We put them on the road, and to cut a long story short, people started noticing them and wanted to buy them off us. Using new technology, solar powered and LEDs and subcontracting manufacture they started building a technology company, investing substantially in R&D to keep ahead of the competition. The contract for the Olympics came out of a new type of sign using new colour LED’s and solving power consumption by use of solar.
Barry Thomas’s Brisbane-based company, Cook Medical, is at the forefront of manufacture in the medical device field. Cook Medical Australia reported $164 million in revenue in 2011. This included $76 million in export sales of product manufactured locally in Australia, $8 million in sales of locally manufactured product into the Australian market and $78 million in sales of imported product from other Cook companies outside of APAC.
Thomas, who received a 2012 Australian Export Heroes award from the Australian Institute of Export, has some simple advice. Watch your input costs, keep management structures flat, make sure you are either making money out of the dollar or hedging yourself and, most importantly, look after your employees. It’s about making sure the people you have on board are the right fit, and then taking care of them so that they stay. “It’s about having a workforce that’s working with you to maintain manufacturing,’’ Thomas says. Cook Medical now employs about 600 people in Australia. It has a low turnover of staff because it works almost as a family company.
That doesn’t mean the company can’t cut staff when it has to. But it needs to be strategic in the way it goes about it, he says.
July 2012 – John Robert from MEO Australia
/by wp624127An Innovative Large Manufacturing Project: Methanol
John’s presentation will provide an introduction to an example of value-added manufacturing in the gas conversion industry. Large offshore natural gas resources containing high levels of carbon dioxide may not be viable to produce for pipeline gas supply or for LNG export. The production of methanol from such gas can be the basis of a viable manufacturing business. Methanol is an important ‘chemical building block’ and fuel component with a very broad range of applications. An innovative approach has been adopted to develop a project concept which can make an valuable export business.
John is a Chemical Engineer and industrial economist with a broad background in petrochemicals manufacturing, export promotion, business development and consulting. He is currently Project Development Advisor with MEO Australia Limited.
Further details can be found at:
http://www.meoaustralia.com.au/icms_docs/46166_Greenhouse_Gas_to_Liquid_Asset.pdf
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July 12th 2012
12:00pm
Venue: The Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club at 489 Glenferrie Rd Kooyong VIC 3142
June 2012 – Kate Oaten – Personal Property Security
/by wp624127Andrew Blogg and Kate Oaten from Aitken Lawyers & Advisors: Personal Property Security:
On 30 January 2012 the Personal Property Securities (‘PPS’) regime came into effect. The reform has had, and will continue to have, a significant impact on manufacturers and suppliers, who commonly sell their products on a part-payment basis. Manufacturers and suppliers will need to register their security interest on the PPS Register to ensure that all their security arrangements remain effective. Businesses that fail to take into account the new regime risk losing property, including property to which they have title, should a company with which they have dealings enter into liquidation. It is essential, therefore, that you or your professional advisor conduct a review of the risks to you and your company and your terms of trade.
There will be a cameo appearance by Jock Forbes, an agronomist, who will talk about a Smart Water Grant project to treat reclaimed water used to irrigate playing fields at Werribee. The soil on which the ovals are built was once sea floor and it contains Sodium and the irrigation water is quite salty. The net result is that the ground becomes waterlogged and the grass does not flourish. Jock will explain why and what can be done to alleviate this problem. He will also describe the construction of a new treatment process and the results it has achieved.
June 14th 2012
12:00pm
Venue: The Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club at 489 Glenferrie Rd Kooyong VIC 3142
May 2012 – Dr. Michael Myers – Re-Engineering Australia Foundation
/by wp624127Michael will talk to us about young people in engineering. Dr Myers is a businessman, entrepreneur and passionate Australian.
REA’s revolutionary programs link schools, industry, TAFE, Universities and parents in a collaborative environment focused on changing the metaphor of the education process. More than 45,000 students are mentored each year by REA with another 300,000 benefiting from the outcomes. REA’s goal is to equip these children with the skills and knowledge to allow them to take on the world.
REA has received a great deal of recognition for its work including the Prime Minister’s Award for Skills Excellence, Engineers Australia Engineering Excellence Award, Engineers Australia National Presidents Award, Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Engineering, Association of Consulting Engineers Presidents Award for Outstanding Contribution to Consulting Engineering, the Smart State Science Award and Peter Doherty Science Award.
We will also be joined by Sallie Geary who will describe her recent education experience and the way her perception has changed by being exposed to a technical learning environment. Sallies experience is intended to encourage us to think about the work of our Vernier Foundation and it potential for influencing young people towards their involvement in technical work activities.
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May 10th 2012
12:00pm
Venue: The Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club at 489 Glenferrie Rd Kooyong VIC 3142
April 2012 – Bruno Bello – Enterprise Connect
/by wp624127Bruno has held technical, business development or leadership roles in industries such as FMCG, Electronics and Automotive in organisations that have ranged in turn over from $1m to $50M. Internationally Bruno has held positions as the director of operations for business units with a turnover of between $400M and $1bn which in all cases where keen to grow or change in a significant way which is when Bruno feels that rapid change and benefits can be achieved.
Beyond these permanent roles Bruno was engaged by Deloitte to help structure and run one of the largest reviews of the local automotive industry known as ASEA. He has also worked as a consultant for Argo inc. who specialise in assessing the potential of business and implementing initiatives to Starting up Biz-Map where he has assisted local organisations in Aerospace, Metal recycling, Plating, Metal cutting / forming, Electrical, and Community services with sales ranging between $1M and $50M
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12th April 2012
12:00pm
Venue: The Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club at 489 Glenferrie Rd Kooyong VIC 3142
March 2012 – Bruce McDonald – Engineering at Ford
/by wp624127Bruce commenced his career with Ford Motor Company as a Graduate Trainee in 1974. He retired from the company with his final positions of Vice President for a total of 9 years, heading Marketing and Sales and also Vice President, Ford Customer Service Division.
During his tenure at Ford, he was also fortunate to be awarded a coveted International Service Assignment to Detroit and New York.
Following his retirement in 2008 from Ford after 28 years’ service, Bruce was appointed CEO of DECA, the Driver Education Centre of Australia, a Victorian Government Business Enterprise. Bruce is now the Director of his own company, Advantage Point Business Advisors.
The media is full of negative stories about the auto industry and we look forward to hearing an auto executive who has an understanding of economics talk about the dilemma which the industry faces in Australia.
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8th March 2012
12:00pm
Venue: The Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club at 489 Glenferrie Rd Kooyong VIC 3142
December 2011 – Robyn Guymer – Bionic Vision
/by wp624127Professor Robyn Guymer, Program Leader, Clinical and Surgical Research, Bionic Vision Australia
A Retinal Specialist Professor Guymer is the Head of the Macular Research Unit at the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA). Prior to this, she undertook a two-year medical retinal fellowship at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London under Professor Alan Bird, for which she was awarded a Royal Australian College of Surgeons travelling fellowship. She is a practising clinician, appointed as a medical retinal consultant at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital (RVEEH).
In 2002, Professor Guymer was awarded the Amgen medical researcher award for her ability to translate basic science into clinical practice though her work in age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the genetic study of which she had initiated at CERA, establishing the McComas molecular genetics laboratory in 1997. She conducts clinical trials into AMD treatment and epidemiological studies into its risk factors and has been responsible for introducing new treatments and investigative tools to the RVEEH.
Research interests
Professor Guymer’s finely honed clinical skills and many years of research into AMD make her one of the most important figures in Australian AMD research, a matter that has been recognised by funding support from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Ophthalmic Research Institute of Australia.
Contribution to bionic eye project
Professor Guymer’s contribution to the bionic eye project is two-fold. Firstly, it is to establish clinical tests for appropriate selection of implant recipients, and assessing and monitoring eye health, visual performance and vision-related quality of life, pre- and post-implementation.
Secondly, Professor Guymer’s contribution is to develop safe and reproducible surgical procedures for implantation of the wide-view and high-acuity neurostimulators for animal and human studies and to lead surgical aspects of the first human tests of the wide-view neurostimulator at the RVEEH.
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8th December 2011
12:00pm
Venue: The Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club at 489 Glenferrie Rd Kooyong VIC 3142
November 2011 – Jon Faine – ABC radio 774
/by wp624127Our guest speaker will be Jon Faine from ABC radio 774.
Jon Faine (ABC Local)
After seven years as a lawyer, Jon entered radio broadcasting in 1989 to produce and present Radio National’s Law Report. He then presented 3LO’s Morning and Afternoon programs, worked on ABC TV’s Investigators, First Edition and Wise UP and has been presenting the Morning program on 774 ABC Melbourne since 1997.
Known for his provocative and probing debate, quick wit and willingness to ask the stickiest of questions, Jon Faine delivers thought-provoking radio. Each weekday morning from 8.30am, be it politics, finance, health, law, arts or sport, Jon investigates the issues and stories affecting Melbourne with energy and vigour – all without taking life too seriously.
Faine is known for vigorous debate and fostering conversation on politics, law, arts or sport. Enjoying high ratings peaking in September 2002, he was found to be Victoria’s top talk-show host (AC Nielsen survey). In 2003 he received the ABC Local Radio ‘Broadcaster of the Year’ award. He has also worked on scripts for a number of TV and feature films. In 2005 he undertook study in mechanical engineering technology at NMIT to be able to machine parts for his hobby of working on old cars in his spare time.
Together with his son Jack (aged 19) he used his long service leave in 2008 to drive overland from Melbourne to London
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10th November 2011
12:00pm
Venue: The Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club at 489 Glenferrie Rd Kooyong VIC 3142
October 2011 – Heather Wardlaw – Engineers Teaching Children
/by wp624127Heather Wardlaw will talk about development of good engineering work practices in children.
The parallels between the work of Heather at ATC Williams and the Vernier Foundation are too great to be overlooked for anther moment and it will be valuable for us to learn how she has achieved such success and penetration of the Engineers Australia.
Heather Wardlaw moved from her Canberra birth place in 1980 to study Civil Engineering at the University of Melbourne.
Her aim of becoming a Geotechnical Engineer was achieved when she graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering in 1984 In 1985 she started work with what is now VicRoads and eventually went on to complete a Master of Engineering Science at Monash University in 1992. While completing her MEng Sc Heather worked as a full time tutor at Monash and then as a Geotechnical Engineer for Gutteridge Haskins and Davey.
ATC Williams, a local engineering consulting firm, with the support of Engineers Australia, Victoria Division is providing educational support for Sandringham Primary School.
Heather Wardlaw, a geotechnical engineer and long time employee at ATC Williams, has a keen interest in engineering and engineering education and has fostered the link between a new method of teaching introduced at Sandringham Primary School and the development of good engineering work practices in children.
ATC Williams, a company whose staff members spend most of their working days on dams and other civil projects, have indeed found a new meaning to their by-line “Grounded in Design”.
ATC Williams is proud to be able to support both the school and the engineering profession in its bid to develop a future generation of outstanding engineers. It is hoped this pioneer relationship between schools and the engineering profession will grow.
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13th October 2011
12:00pm
Venue: The Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club at 489 Glenferrie Rd Kooyong VIC 3142
September 2011 – The Techno Challenge
/by wp624127A super Vernier occasion is to be held on 8th September In attendance we will have:
This will be a remarkable Vernier occasion.
July 2011 – Roger La Salle – A Special Way of Thinking
/by wp624127Roger La Salle is professional engineer, a director of a number of companies and a successful business entrepreneur. Roger developed and documented his special way of thinking, now referred to as Matrix Thinking, in the four books he has now written based on this simple but effective approach.
Matrix Thinking is now licensed in more than 26 counties and to one of the world’s largest consulting firms and is delivered in this form as e-learning modules the world over. Not only does Roger talk on innovation and business building, Roger is also actively involved in business and over the years has created four companies based on his own ideas.
In 2004 Roger was and expert panelist on the ABC TV show the New Inventors and in 2005 was appointed as “Chair of Innovation” at the prestigious “The Queens University” in Belfast. He does guest lecture spots in universities the world over.
A stimulating, engaging and entertaining speaker, who walks and talks as he lays out the simple principles of thinking and business building – not a single overhead or PowerPoint for this fellow. You will be you spell bound as you see opportunities materialize before your very eyes as Roger speaks and draws on a white board.
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14th July 2011
12:00pm
Venue: The Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club at 489 Glenferrie Rd Kooyong VIC 3142
March 2011 – Visit Herald and Weekly Times Printing Press
/by wp624127This month Vernier Society members have the opportunity to tour the Herald and Weekly Times.Guests are welcome but numbers are extremely limited. For those who can stay on, lunch will be held at one of the restaurants in Port Melbourne.
RSVP: Denis George
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17th March 2011
Lunch in Port Melbourne