BERG
Brisbane
What's Been Happening
In the past 12 months, a lot has occurred in Brisbane both that can be easily seen daily and what has been occurring in the background in preparation to facilitate further changes.
MCR-2 was decommissioned and replaced with a new fully encapsulated version. This will not only see additional improvements to safety with its fully enclosed design enrapturing the swarf and coolant, the increased spindle speed that comes with a modern machine is expected to deliver an increase in productivity of 15-20%. This was seen in our ability to machine 480 aluminum plates that was previously subcontracted due to us not being competitive within this space. Increased machine efficiency leads to more work in house.
We have been on a 3 month drive to clean up the facility and dispose of any and all non-usable material and equipment. This will generate the additional space needed for further equipment moves and purchases whilst also making this a better place for us all to work. The next step in this staged approach will see a focus on each machine and its associated workzone bringing it to a presetable state we can all be proud of.
Historically there has been government incentives to fund tools and equipment provided to apprentices. At some point this has ceased, and was replaced with an interest free loan offer from the government. The original intention of this incentive was to ensure apprentices could afford to acquire the tools they needed during the course of their apprenticeship and we do not believe an offer of loan does this adequately. We do not hide the fact that we want Berg to be an employer of choice, and renowned within industry as THE place to do an apprenticeship, part of this vision is to ensure we provide our apprentices with the best training and equipment we can. So moving forward all apprentices joining the team will be issued with a full toolkit specific to their discipline upon starting their apprenticeship, and you will see our existing apprentices receive their tools in the coming weeks. (This incentive has been rolled out company wide)
We have seen highs and lows in workflow through Brisbane in the last 12 months not so dissimilar to periods we have gone through historically, with certain sections very busy while others are going through phases of low work. We have been and will continue to address this through:
- Cross skilling to allow moving of the worksforce to sections where the workload is highest.
- Sharing of labour between Brisbane and Gladstone, whilst it is not the most cost effective means for the business it provides exposure to other parts of our business and where possible prevents the need for leave. The most recent execution of this both from Gladstone to Brisbane, and Brisbane to Gladstone have been some of the most successful to date.
The next 3 months will see us continue the clean up and organization of Brisbane so its a place we are all proud to come into and happy to present to industry. Continue the plan and mapping of Brisbane for machine moves and upgrades which will be put forward to every team member for input and comment once we have it in a presentable format.
Brisbane is transitioning and going through a fundamental change, of which is starting to become visible now around site, the focus is continue that and ensure everyone is brought along for the journey as we bring this business into its new form.
