“TO FIGHT FOR AUSTRALIAN MANUFACTURING”
The Society’s guest speaker was Albert Goller the Chairman of META. Albert was the Chairman and Managing Director of Siemens Ltd in Australia and New Zealand from 2002 to 2012 but now leads META, a federally funded organisation whose aim is to combine manufacturing businesses through collaborative projects to create business opportunities on a global level.
Albert gave one of the most passionate and frank presentations on the need to ensure manufacturing continues to thrive and provide a significant proportion of the nation’s economic output. His core message is that after the mining boom must come the manufacturing boom! It is a false assumption to assume that because we are losing the Australian automotive industry we will automatically lose our manufacturing industry but as Albert said it must be a different form of manufacturing, away from the traditional mass production because our cost structures are too high and besides that we do not compete on a level playing field as many countries and governments around the world see the crucial importance of having a thriving manufacturing sector. But to paraphrase Mark Twain; “rumours of manufacturing’s demise are greatly exaggerated” and META are determined to play a key part in ensuring this does not happen. Their main focus is to form a number of manufacturing precincts or clusters for key industry sectors where the businesses who together in a collaborative approach to address new markets and new opportunities looking right across the value chain from design to delivery. However Albert acknowledged, endorsing exactly what Vernier’s recent audit of manufacturing companies including Vernier Member companies themselves concluded, that collaboration is not in Australian companies DNA and so META’s challenge is to change this position.
In the 18 months they have been operating they have formed a database of over 3400 companies including over 40 universities and learning establishments and are now putting together clusters or hubs to look at such new collaborative opportunities as portable housing, carbon fibre, Australian clothing and sports technology, which he pointed out is a $300b industry worldwide. The organisation has a goal of 80 different collaboration hubs over 10 industry sectors. Albert sighted the example of the strength of Germany’s SME’s who have a long history of collaboration far different from Australia, who despite being the 13th largest economy in the world seems to have an adversity to collaborating and not yet quite appreciating we now have to compete in a globalised world.
Under the message
of the “Art of Manufacturing” Australian companies now have to use innovation, sustainability, speed and mass customisation to really compete in the intensive world of the future. In the question and answer section after the presentation, Albert was asked about the role of government, and in particular this government, in supporting their cause. This is a particularly pertinent point as META was originally set up under the previous government with a 5 year brief but unfortunately the current government have chose to only fund this extensive program until the end of 2014; although META are now exploring self funding options. In a passionate answer that may have surprised some of the audience, the message it is not going to be achieved by relying on governments of either persuasion, it has to come from those in the industry, and organisations like Vernier, demanding manufacturing is given its rightful place in the economy – manufacturing and its organisations and institutions must become a stronger voice on the political stage. When asked about the hope for areas like Geelong who has lost so many manufacturing jobs recently again Albert’s answer was frank having good news and bad. The bad is that many who have lost their jobs will struggle because the current message is one of retraining but training is currently focused on past skills; the future skills needs have not even yet been identified. But the good news is that the region is already fighting back and there are quite a number of new and innovative projects being developed in the region.
Overall it was an excellent and what should be a thought provoking message for all who passionately care about manufacturing. So the question for the Vernier members is how we can help because we certainly should!
[fancy_title style=”1″ align=”left” heading_style=”h1″ title_color=”#999″ title_lines_color=”#eee”]Event Details[/fancy_title]
Our speaker for July is Albert Goller from META. July 10th 2014 from 12:30. Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club, 489 Glenferrie Road Kooyong.
META a membership organisation made up of Manufacturers and Researchers who collaborate together to reinvigorate Manufacturing and build an agile, innovative and collaborative manufacturing industry.
Another speaker who is right on message from a Victorian Vernier Society perspective.
Mr Albert Goller is the former Chairman and Managing Director of Siemens Ltd in Australia and New Zealand from 2002 to 2012.
Commencing his career as an electronics engineer with Siemens in Germany in 1973, Albert has held a number of senior executive positions throughout the world including President and CEO of Siemens Canada Ltd in Toronto and Head of the Corporate Office for E-business in Munich, Germany.
He has a Masters Degree in Information and Telecommunications from Paderborn University in Germany and has been nominated as one of Australia’s most influential engineers by Engineers Australia magazine consecutively from 2004 – 2010.
Albert took up the position of Chair of the Australian Government’s Industry Innovation Precinct initiative for Manufacturing last year, and has recently formed the organisation representing the Manufacturing Precinct – called META. Albert is a passionate advocate of manufacturing and is convinced a national approach to Australian manufacturing, through the establishment of META, can generate new thinking and action within the sector.
The AME and Professor Samson identify innovation as the “Ultimate competitive Advantage”
/by wp624127The Vernier Society was represented last night at a dinner hosted by the ‘Association of Manufacturing Excellence (AME) Australia’; an organisation, albeit somewhat larger, with the same passion for the sustained future of Australian manufacturing as the Vernier Society.
The excellent evening was held in Port Melbourne where the guest speaker was Professor Danny Samson of Melbourne University who gave an insightful speech into his current research on Innovation across Australia. Professor Samson’s (“just call me Danny”) research has covered 2000 companies who completed a 150 question survey to determine how the companies approach innovation; not just in the traditional product development function but across the whole organisation. Danny and his team are now analysing the mass of data collected and he gave the AME a snap shot of the first results, demonstrating that when innovation is successfully applied across the whole organisation, it can result in up to 30% improvement in bottom line performance.
Danny’s work identified a matrix of 9 areas of performance that benefit from a more innovative approach:
By analysing the data into the top 25% of companies who lead in innovation against the bottom 25% of respondents who lag in innovation, Danny articulated to the audience through a series of graphs how this volume of data can be mined to identify gems of learning that justify the shibboleth of “Innovation as the Ultimate Competitive Advantage”. The presentation and the Q&A session that followed clearly demonstrated that there is a lot to be understood and learned from Danny’s work and so it was not surprising that most of the guests left their business cards to get a copy of the initial report, which is sure to be a tempter to a whole series of learning reports.
The evening was concluded with an informal networking session and left the guests appreciating the work of the Victorian Chapter of the AME in setting up this fine evening at the equally fine Mardos Restaurant, but most importantly the need to continue the fight for manufacturing leadership in this country and the important role that the AME, the Vernier Society and Innovation must play in this mission.
Sept 11th 2014 – Matthew Pinczes – W. Granowski
/by wp624127Starting in manufacturing when I was 16, I spent my holidays working in a repetition engineering factory operating milling machines and lathes making production parts to pay for my schooling to become a mechanical engineer.
Now, 33 years later, I have worked in all areas of manufacturing from concept to after sales service and from shop floor to senior management. I have been involved in a number of different industries including Aerospace, Automotive, Bio-Medical, Foundry, Glass, Healthcare, Waste, and Building Products.
A “lean” convert, I have been involved with the High Performance Consortium since its inception to promote and instil best practice in manufacturing principles and I won the inaugural Toyota Australia Supplier Kaizen Marathon in 2006. I have given a number of papers promoting manufacturing on topics ranging from Design for Manufacture to how to develop staff and engage employees.
An avowed manufacturing tragic, I believe that innovation holds the key to success and that any company can be successful if they can develop better products or processes than their competitors and maintain their success through continuous improvement.
[promobox type=”style3″]Click here to view the slides from Matthew’s Presentation[/promobox]
[fancy_title style=”1″ align=”left” heading_style=”h1″ title_color=”#999″ title_lines_color=”#eee”]Event Details[/fancy_title]
When: September 11th 2014 from 12:30 for a 1pm start. Finishing at 3pm
Where: Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club, 489 Glenferrie Road Kooyong
Aug 14th 2014 – Peter Farley
/by wp624127Well known entrepreneurial engineer and member of the Vernier Society, Peter Farley, gave a fascinating presentation to the Society at the August meeting on “Australia’s energy policy”.
Peter’s presentation was packed with facts, figures and analysis that demonstrated his great research knowledge on a subject that he obviously feels passionate about but also the wealth of knowledge and capability that exists with Vernier members. Peter’s main message was that Australia has not got a sustaining energy policy that is in line with some of the latest self sufficiency thinking worldwide. Peter’s message was not based on the political view of climate change needing to drive change in our carbon footprint with all the ensuing taxation ramifications, rather that we are just wasting money that could be reused in the economy. His opening slide set out the message for Australia:
[promobox type=”style3″]Click here to view the slides from Peter’s Presentation[/promobox]
Peter not only gave a rich panoply of facts but showed where the potential savings for the future can occur but they need a complete change of government driven policies and admitted that the political will is not currently there and may never be so it is up to the individual in a bottom up approach to drive change. He identified a number of major areas for the Victorian State and in particular highlight a need for revised thinking on transportation as our thirst for petrol guzzling vehicles currently consumes about 35% of household energy usage. As expected Peter was a passionate believer in alternative renewable energy sources giving a number of remarkable facts about what is happening worldwide:
The Vernier audience were left with a great message about how each and everyone one of us must do our bit to reduce energy usage, not just because the government will not take a long term and inter –party view to the issue but that it is essential for the future of the planet!
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Our speaker for August was Peter Farley with a talk on ‘A Sensible Energy Policy for Australia.
Peter Farley is from a farming and small business family, the first in his family to go to university where he studied engineering and later economics. His first job was in Williamstown Naval Dockyard in Maintenance and Production Engineering. He moved from there to CIG where with ANCA they developed Australia’s first CNC plate cutting machines. After a number of other roles he founded Farley Manufacturing which developed world leading CNC cutting machines, 70% of which were exported at prices up to 40% above the leading Japanese and German machines. At its peak sales were over $20m per year. Eventually the company was taken over by a Chinese firm and most of the operation is now in China.
For the last 14 years Peter has run his own consultancy business with the majority of the work overseas. The major current activity is designing a range of machines for the world’s largest fabrication equipment company FICEP in Italy.
Peter has won a number of awards including machine tool of the year from the British Machine Tool Show, Prince Philip design award, Michel medal from Engineers Australia. He is now on the board of the Inner Melbourne VET cluster which co-ordinates vocational training in and out of school for thousands of Victorian students and is a Victorian Committee member for the Institution of Engineers.
Springing from his training as a mechanical engineer and time as manufacturing manager in a large electrical transformer business and his economics studies, Peter has always had a strong interest in energy efficiency and energy policy. He feels that there are huge opportunities for Australia to reduce energy costs while also improving living standards and health outcomes while enhancing Australia’s energy and economic security.
When: August 14th 2014 from 12:30 for a 1pm start. Finishing at 3pm
Where: Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club, 489 Glenferrie Road Kooyong
July 10th 2014 – Albert Goller – META
/by wp624127“TO FIGHT FOR AUSTRALIAN MANUFACTURING”
The Society’s guest speaker was Albert Goller the Chairman of META. Albert was the Chairman and Managing Director of Siemens Ltd in Australia and New Zealand from 2002 to 2012 but now leads META, a federally funded organisation whose aim is to combine manufacturing businesses through collaborative projects to create business opportunities on a global level.
Albert gave one of the most passionate and frank presentations on the need to ensure manufacturing continues to thrive and provide a significant proportion of the nation’s economic output. His core message is that after the mining boom must come the manufacturing boom! It is a false assumption to assume that because we are losing the Australian automotive industry we will automatically lose our manufacturing industry but as Albert said it must be a different form of manufacturing, away from the traditional mass production because our cost structures are too high and besides that we do not compete on a level playing field as many countries and governments around the world see the crucial importance of having a thriving manufacturing sector. But to paraphrase Mark Twain; “rumours of manufacturing’s demise are greatly exaggerated” and META are determined to play a key part in ensuring this does not happen. Their main focus is to form a number of manufacturing precincts or clusters for key industry sectors where the businesses who together in a collaborative approach to address new markets and new opportunities looking right across the value chain from design to delivery. However Albert acknowledged, endorsing exactly what Vernier’s recent audit of manufacturing companies including Vernier Member companies themselves concluded, that collaboration is not in Australian companies DNA and so META’s challenge is to change this position.
In the 18 months they have been operating they have formed a database of over 3400 companies including over 40 universities and learning establishments and are now putting together clusters or hubs to look at such new collaborative opportunities as portable housing, carbon fibre, Australian clothing and sports technology, which he pointed out is a $300b industry worldwide. The organisation has a goal of 80 different collaboration hubs over 10 industry sectors. Albert sighted the example of the strength of Germany’s SME’s who have a long history of collaboration far different from Australia, who despite being the 13th largest economy in the world seems to have an adversity to collaborating and not yet quite appreciating we now have to compete in a globalised world.
Under the message
of the “Art of Manufacturing” Australian companies now have to use innovation, sustainability, speed and mass customisation to really compete in the intensive world of the future. In the question and answer section after the presentation, Albert was asked about the role of government, and in particular this government, in supporting their cause. This is a particularly pertinent point as META was originally set up under the previous government with a 5 year brief but unfortunately the current government have chose to only fund this extensive program until the end of 2014; although META are now exploring self funding options. In a passionate answer that may have surprised some of the audience, the message it is not going to be achieved by relying on governments of either persuasion, it has to come from those in the industry, and organisations like Vernier, demanding manufacturing is given its rightful place in the economy – manufacturing and its organisations and institutions must become a stronger voice on the political stage. When asked about the hope for areas like Geelong who has lost so many manufacturing jobs recently again Albert’s answer was frank having good news and bad. The bad is that many who have lost their jobs will struggle because the current message is one of retraining but training is currently focused on past skills; the future skills needs have not even yet been identified. But the good news is that the region is already fighting back and there are quite a number of new and innovative projects being developed in the region.
Overall it was an excellent and what should be a thought provoking message for all who passionately care about manufacturing. So the question for the Vernier members is how we can help because we certainly should!
[fancy_title style=”1″ align=”left” heading_style=”h1″ title_color=”#999″ title_lines_color=”#eee”]Event Details[/fancy_title]
Our speaker for July is Albert Goller from META. July 10th 2014 from 12:30. Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club, 489 Glenferrie Road Kooyong.
META a membership organisation made up of Manufacturers and Researchers who collaborate together to reinvigorate Manufacturing and build an agile, innovative and collaborative manufacturing industry.
Another speaker who is right on message from a Victorian Vernier Society perspective.
Mr Albert Goller is the former Chairman and Managing Director of Siemens Ltd in Australia and New Zealand from 2002 to 2012.
Commencing his career as an electronics engineer with Siemens in Germany in 1973, Albert has held a number of senior executive positions throughout the world including President and CEO of Siemens Canada Ltd in Toronto and Head of the Corporate Office for E-business in Munich, Germany.
He has a Masters Degree in Information and Telecommunications from Paderborn University in Germany and has been nominated as one of Australia’s most influential engineers by Engineers Australia magazine consecutively from 2004 – 2010.
Albert took up the position of Chair of the Australian Government’s Industry Innovation Precinct initiative for Manufacturing last year, and has recently formed the organisation representing the Manufacturing Precinct – called META. Albert is a passionate advocate of manufacturing and is convinced a national approach to Australian manufacturing, through the establishment of META, can generate new thinking and action within the sector.
May 8th 2014 – Alan Evans – Dyno Dynamics
/by wp624127The Vernier Society speaker for May was Alan Evans who is the owner of Dyno Dynamics, based in Lilydale Victoria; Dyno Dynamics is Australia’s leading manufacturer of chassis and engine dynamometers distributing their premier products worldwide. After originally training as an engineer Alan, after realising deskbound engineering was not for him, retrained in Law and Economics leading to a successful career in the public service in a variety of roles. His professional roles were mirrored by a long standing enthusiasm for motor sport, which ultimately led him and his family to purchase Dyno Dynamics in 2009. What started as a passive investment turned into a very active involvement and a complete makeover of the product range in order to stay both relevant and competitive in the world marketplace.
Alan gave a passionate and enthusiastic talk about the early recognition of needing to radically change the price point of the product in the marketplace through a radical redesign of the product to reduce manufacturing and material costs. By re-patching the price while maintaining or even improving the product performance, Alan and his team (of which he describes himself as the conductor) were able to widen the product’s attractiveness to a much larger potential market. In addition, Alan reorganised the company structures giving much more functionality to the key engineering groups. This process took 2 years with the first sale of the new product at a 2011 trade show, which surprisingly resulted in not just the first but the first twenty sales. Today the new design has sold over 300 worldwide and has allowed the company to rebuild its presence in the USA, a major market.
It was a fascinating talk targeting both the car and racing enthusiasts of which there are many in the society and the many who still believe, with the right innovative products for niche markets, passion and determination; Australian manufacturing companies can successfully compete in world markets and Dyno Dynamics is a clear example of this belief.
[fancy_title style=”1″ align=”left” heading_style=”h1″ title_color=”#999″ title_lines_color=”#eee”]Event Details[/fancy_title]
Our speaker this month is Alan Evans from Dyno Dynamics
May 8th 2014 from 12:30 Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club, 489 Glenferrie Road Kooyong
April 10th 2014 – Special Event Thursday – Professor Goran Roos
/by wp624127Goran Roos provides much food for thought!
Vernier’s special April meeting at Kooyong Tennis Centre lived up to expectation with guests outnumbering members to listen to an enthralling talk by Professor Goran Roos, who was recently named one of the 13 most influential people in Australia. Some of the many insights given by Goran were:
There was much to digest in the thought provoking and in many aspects, worrying depiction for the future of manufacturing in Australia. It stimulated the appetite for the passionate and prolonged networking session that followed. The many that stayed were not just nourished by the conversation but also by the usual high quality canapés and excellent service from the Kooyong staff.
Roos, G. & Kennedy, N. (eds.). (2014). Succeeding in a High Cost Operating Environment, IGI Global. Hershey. PA. In Press.
Roos, G. (2014). The constantly changing manufacturing context. Chapter 1 in Advanced Manufacturing – Beyond The Production Line. Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA). April, pp. 31-56.
To be launched in Melbourne on 30th April.
Roos, G. (2013). The innovation ecosystem. Section 3.2 in Australia Adjusting: Optimising national prosperity. Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA). November, pp. 107-122.
The full CEDA report can be accessed at this link: http://www.ceda.com.au/media/338287/cedaaustadjusting_web.pdf
To view the entire presentation follow the link below
[promobox type=”style3″] Click here to watch Professor Göran Roos speech [/promobox]
March 13th 2014 – Tim Modra
/by wp624127“Innovation and staying close to the customer is the key to success” was said in a presentation, worthy of the red carpet, given by Tim Modra, founder of Modra Technology; an export driven company that makes flexible, small scale carpet making machinery for designers and product development around the world.”
Coming all the way from Warragul to speak at the Vernier Society’s March meeting was Tim Modra, founder and owner of Modra Technology. The members were delighted he came as he weaved a colourful and very engaging story of the over 20 year journey of his manufacturing company’s development into the world niche provider it is today. While the news is piled high with stories on the decline of manufacturing and the difficulties of exporting, Modra Technology is another hidden success, carefully treading its way to export success as the world’s leader in the manufacture of carpet making machines specifically targeted at the design and product development area.
At the heart of Tim’s success is his mechanical engineering expertise, gained in his early days at Swinburne and through his work experience in a local company he showed his promise by being sent abroad to install product and then joining the company as a contractor. It was in the early 1990’s that Tim saw the opportunity for developing a small, very flexible carpet making machine because the only way carpet designers could get new design samples made was to take production time of the large high volume machines, which in times of full production was very ineffective. He produced his first Axminster sample machine in his back garden, selling it to a UK company and now has over 300 machines in 40 countries through 150 customers.
Modra Technology boomed through the early 2000’s and in a frank admission, thought that the boom would go on and on. He had a staff of 20 and revenues of over $6m when the recession struck and Tim, like many businesses, had to cut back and actually moved his desk back next to the engineers; a move that he suggests came him new insights into product diversification and gave further impetus to the important message he had employed right through his career – the key to success is talking and listening to customers and hearing would benefit them and their business. And then designing solutions! It is this passion for the customer that leads Tim to spend a great deal of time on aircraft reaching his major customers in the US and China. Somewhat surprisingly for a small company Modra prefers to make most mechanical parts in-house and explained that the cost of motion feedback systems is coming down all the time so constant innovation is now his theme. He has now produced a ‘tufted’ carpet sample machine and has code names for his developments like the ‘split’ and the ‘hedge’. Tim is enthusiastic about the maxim “If it can’t be done – there is money in it”.
In a lively Q&A session after; besides receiving plaudits from an admiring audience, Tim was asked about the use of government grants, an area close to the Society’s heart after the recent manufacturing audit and while he does try to maximise research tax concessions and took start up grants, he finds like many other companies that the audit process for approval takes too long. He will have designed, built and delivered the machine by the time the grant application process is completed!
Overall Modra Technology is a great story of innovation; seeing a need in the marketplace and having the ingenuity and determination to fill the need. It is also another example of the priority of every business to really servicing the customer. Understand what drives the customer and the way their business is developing is crucial to ongoing success. As the carpet industry worldwide slowly comes back, Tim has foreseen the need for further automation of the industry and is therefore looking at applying robotics to his machines; a real example of innovative thinking ahead of the curve. Modra Technology certainly demonstrated its hard wearing qualities and Tim’s presentation was worthy of the red carpet treatment!
[fancy_title style=”1″ align=”left” heading_style=”h3″ title_color=”#999″ title_lines_color=”#eee”]Event Details[/fancy_title]
Our speaker this month is Tim Modra who runs Modra Technology, a worldwide business from Warragul. Winner of the 2006 Export category of the Gippsland Business Awards.
13th March 2014 12:30pm for drinks. Lunch from 1pm – 3pm. The Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club at 489 Glenferrie Rd Kooyong VIC 3142
Will the baby be thrown out with the bath water?
/by wp624127Is there a real appreciation of how vital a “Make Things’ manufacturing industry is to Australia’s future prosperity?
The current thinking that we should leave the car industry devoid of support is only part of the issue.
As Futuris MD Mark De Wit quite correctly reported to the Productivity Commission “When the tide of the mining boom goes out, we could be in trouble as an economy as a whole without car manufacturing.” How do we get the wider populace to appreciate that a manufacturing industry is going to be more vital to Australia’s future than it is now?
Whether the bath water or the ebb tide has gone it is essential that a revitalised car industry and a vibrant and innovative manufacturing industry are still left.
How do we get this message through?
December 2013 – Brendan Nottle – Salvation Army
/by wp624127With all the proceeds of the day going to charity, the last Vernier meeting for 2013, saw a reasonably full house of members, new guests and old friends as the Society stepped away from its regular format with a special theme of “Charity and Fun at Christmas”.
Christmas is a special time of year for most Vernier members; a time of family and of giving but to others less fortunate, it can be a time of despair and helplessness. So we were especially privileged to have the recently appointed ‘Melbournian of the Year’, Major Brendan Nottle of the Salvation Army speak to us on the vital work they do with the homeless and the lonely, not just at Christmas but throughout the year. Speaking straight from the heart, Major Brendan told some moving stories of people who come under their care, endorsing to many members the understanding that “there but for fortune could go you or I”.
The ‘Fun’ part of the luncheon was provided by an amusing knowledge quiz that pitted each table against the other. With a Master of Ceremonies to keep things light hearted and prizes to create incentive, the audience were found sorely lacking on such things as historical dates from Australia’s past, the founders of some of the world’s leading companies and most disappointingly, the sayings of such great thinkers as Spike Milligan and Groucho Marx. One table, despite suggestions of drug use (later found to be prescription) and internet cheating romped to a resounding win. In true Vernier fashion the prizes, quality reds personally chosen by the President, were then auctioned back further swelling the Vernier donation and the generous table collections. In total $2500 was donated to the Salvation Army and the members left knowing, not only had they had a fun day, but they had all helped to bring a small amount of charity to those most in need at Christmas.
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Our guest speaker is Major Brendan Nottle of the Salvation Army who will talk to us about the vital work his organisation does with those less fortunate; homelessness, poverty and loneliness are still a blight on our society and we should all remember in the words of Don McLean “There but for fortune go you and I”. The proceeds of the day, plus a donation from the Society will go to support the Army’s excellent and necessary work and so the almoners will be busy throughout lunch.
December 12th 2013 12:30pm for drinks. Lunch from 1pm – 3pm The Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club at 489 Glenferrie Rd Kooyong VIC 3142
November 2013 – Joe Isaac – Melbourne University
/by wp624127“Attendees to the Society’s November meeting were privileged to listen to Melbourne University’s Emeritus Professor Joe Isaac who gave his views on the background and current perspectives of the Industrial Relations landscape in Australia today. Despite his octogenarian years, Professor Isaac still demonstrated a keen and insightful intellect that has obviously underpinned his long and distinguished academic career. The Professor’s talk embraced four major areas of IR policy; the power of the trade unions, the perceived lack of flexibility in our system, its effect on productivity and areas for possible improvement.
Professor Isaacs opened his address by reminding the audience of part of the speech of Alfred Deakin to Parliament in 1904 that Australian law in this area was based on humanitarian principles and with words that are strangely still appropriate for today:
“It leaves to its opponents the creed, whose God is greed, whose devil in need and whose paradise lies in the cheapest market.”
The Professor posited in answer to the first two issues posed that unionism was declining and that the number of days lost to strikes has declined significantly since the 1970’s. He pointed out that today there are significantly more days lost to absenteeism than strike action.
With regard to flexibility, Professor Isaac pointed out that Australia in 2006 had the second highest figures for casual employment in the OECD but the down side of this flexibility in the labour market means that it does not provide opportunity for skill formation (Editor – or company loyalty) that is critical to productivity. The presentation also gave two other critical facts that must contribute to Australia’s productivity dilemma; that we are above the OECD average in our % of low skilled workers, and we have a higher average of hours worked per week that other OECD countries. (Editor – when this is considered against our cost of living which has risen significantly and is now much higher, not just against Asian competition but even against the USA and Germany today, it adds to our productivity challenge).
The Professor’s address also covered a number of questions pre-arranged from the audience and while his views on the questions posed could have been seen by some members as ‘left leaning’ he gave a reflective insight into one of the major issues of the Australian economy today as it adapts to face the global challenges of the 21st century.
Perhaps the lasting memory of Professor Isaac’s talk will be the knowledge and enthusiasm he still brings to his opinion. He really demonstrated that wisdom should be the valued commodity of old age.”
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Our speaker for November was the Emeritus Professor Joe Isaac from the Department of Management and Marketing, University of Melbourne.
“INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS”
Emeritus Professor Joe Isaac is a Professorial Fellow in the Department of Management, University of Melbourne, following his retirement from the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. He was Chair of the General Insurance Claims Review Panel from 1993 to 1998. He was invited by the ILO in May 2002 to advise on suitable research projects to be supported by the ILO in Indonesia. He has been back with further ILO consultancies for both Indonesia and Timor Leste. Together with Professor Stuart Macintyre, he was commissioned to edit a centenary history of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (and its antecedents) which was published in 2004. He continues his interest in the labour market and its institutions.
November 14th 2013 12:30pm. The Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club at 489 Glenferrie Rd Kooyong VIC 3142
October 2013 – Rolf Glenk – GM Holden Ltd’s Powertrain Engineering
/by wp624127Our October speaker, Rolf Glenk from Holden has over 25 years experience in the automotive industry with Nissan, Bosch, Tickford, Delphi and now GM for the last 10 years. Rolf offered a passionate overview of the complexity of the modern automotive. Based at GM’s Testing Grounds in Lang Lang approximately 90km south east of Melbourne, where since 1957, Holden has exhaustively tested its vehicles; Rolf’s talk gave an absorbing account of the extremely rigorous testing that goes into every new model and upgrade to ensure the car will perform across the vast range of environmental and climatic conditions, not just in Australia but across Holden’s global market.
Rolf first gave a scripted corporate presentation as an insight into the history of Holden in Australia. Originating in the 1860’s, Holden first made saddles in Adelaide SA but then as Holden and Frost made carriages in 1885 before producing their first automobile in 1910. The famous “Lion and Stone” was designed in 1928 and represented the legend of man’s invention of the wheel. Following the great recession of the late twenties and the massive drop in production, GM purchased the company, merging it with their North American Operation to become GM- Holden’s and the first GM car rolled off the production line in 1948. In 1978 the first of the very successful “Commodore” range was produced and in 2006, as a result of $1b investment, the first fully Australian designed Commodore was released. Today, GM worldwide produces over 45 different models from 2 architectures and 6 different body styles. The Australian facilities in SA and the Engine facility in Prot Melbourne produce the Full commodore range as well as the Cruze.
Holden exports cars mainly to the Middle East under the Chevrolet brand as well as America where the cars, according to Rolf, have been purchased for police work. According to the Holden website the company has now exported nearly three quarter of a million cars in five decades.
As Rolf enthusiastically explained the Lang Lang property was purchased in 1955 and comprises some 44km of sealed and unsealed roads designed for a range of performance and high speed testing as well as specific and general durability testing. The track which received a $1.2m facelift in 1992 provides a network of ride and handling roads, rough tracks, twists and ‘rattle and squeak’ tests as well as mud and water baths. In addition, there is a state of the art emissions laboratory to do the extensive testing now required for certification to Australian and international regulatory requirements.
As Rolf pointed out, the Lang Lang facilities, extensive though they are, cannot provide the range of tests required for a global supplier and so the grounds are complemented with GM testing facilities in Arizona, Michigan, Mexico and Brazil. Rolf’s talk gave a brief insight into the vast amount of testing that has to be done to the modern automobile to ensure that the GM car meets not just the needs of the ever more discerning customer but also the various regulatory requirements faced around the world. The complexity of today’s vehicles was perhaps best demonstrated by the interesting point that the electronic computer programs that controls today’s automobile has the manual equivalent of 15,700 knobs to adjust!
And while Holden’s future is uncertain in Australia it seems that the testing grounds are as busy as ever, endorsed by the fact that Rolf was first spotted trying to find a parking place in an unmarked left hand drive vehicle. The society wishes to thank Rolf and our Society member and father Dieter Glenk for arranging a very interesting talk.
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Rolf Glenk who is the Senior Calibration Engineer and Diagnostic Strategist in GM Holden Ltd’s Powertrain Engineering Department gave us an overview of the complexity of the modern automotive and the state of Australia’s car industry.
October 11th 2013 12:30pm at Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club
September 2013 – Gordon New – Ronson Gears
/by wp624127Ronson Gears was founded in 1954 by Gordon’s father Ron New, a past member of Vernier. Gordon a qualified mechanical engineer joined the family business in the mid 70’s along with his brother Terry who now between them still run this family business. Ronson now employs around 31 people over two shifts, in the high technology facility in Highett.
In 1990, Ronson Gears undertook their first Business Plan which identified a need to see what the Gear Industry was doing in other countries. Consequently, in 1993 Gordon went on his first international discovery tour. Gordon now travels extensively to stay abreast of the latest developments in the gear industry and, together with his brother Terry, has been successful in taking their family business from being a small job shop into the market leading company it is today, incorporating the latest in Gear manufacturing technology. As Gordon proudly explained his marketing efforts in the American market led him to membership of the AGMA – the American Gear Manufacturers Association, and Eurotrans, the European Committee of Power Transmission Engineering, Gordon regularly attends international meetings and events of the Gear Industry and has addressed World Gear Summit Meetings and conferences in China, Japan, Thailand, the USA and Europe. Such involvement resulted in him being invited to sit on the Board of Directors of the AGMA, from March 2009 until April 2013.
Ronson has invested significantly in the latest equipment for manufacturing and quality checking gear components that cover a range from 5mm to 900mm. Ronson, as Gordon explained prides itself in the quality of their design and the delivery of their overall service as is explained on their website by another of the New family, Gavin New of Sales and Marketing “As gear manufacturers, our service needs to be as reliable as our products. We are committed to delivering our customers the best of both.”
Like a number of other manufacturing skills in Australia the art of gear making is declining but Ronson through exposing themselves to overseas opportunities, particularly in America, are still supporting the proud tradition of quality manufacturing in Australia and this was appreciated by the society with their questions and the warm applause at the end of the presentation. Thanks to Gordon and Ronson Gears on behalf of the Vernier Society.
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Gordon New the Managing Director of Ronson Gears discussed the latest developments within his company.
September 25th 2013. 12:30pm at Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club