Until the first lockdown, United Machinists owners Alex and Sarah Ramsay had been the drivers of their own change. “Our immediate thoughts were, ‘we’re done for now’,” Sarah says. “We’d launched a multimillion-dollar facility to double our production. That demand dropped to zero, and based on customer forecasts was going to stay below 50% for the indefinite future.”
But once they picked themselves up off the floor, they saw an opportunity. They launched a nationwide market research campaign, aiming to talk to New Zealand manufacturers that contract manufactured offshore. “The common message was that while New Zealand quality was excellent, service - particularly the ability to communicate and meet delivery expectations - was poor,” Sarah says.
On the back of this feedback, they developed real-time customer schedules, which as far as they know remains the only example of a CNC machine shop doing so in Australasia. Sarah also dusted off her writing skills and started penning opinion pieces on LinkedIn and the company’s email newsletter. These not only promoted United but advocated for industry.
While existing customer demand was down through 2020 and into 2021, United attracted new customers to off-set the drop - particularly within the medical and aerospace sectors. In 2021 a previous customer returned to full production volumes, putting capacity, particularly in quality inspection, under pressure.
United hired a graduate from Victoria University, with help from Callaghan Innovation’s Student Experience Grant. “That was the catalyst for a culture change from CNC Machine Shop to advanced manufacturer,” Alex explains.
These are entirely new roles which drive the process innovation in the company. Over summer, United also had two full-time interns. Canterbury University mechanical engineering student Hayden Elliot worked on a 3D printing and engraving project for aerospace, while Otago University Computer Science student Daniel West worked on automating several data entry processes.
Non-traditional approaches to traditional problems are the theme of the company’s latest venture, anodizing. “Anodizing is a huge problem for us and many in New Zealand. There’s a real shortage of capacity and it is the very final process on a high value component. Currently we package up all our aluminum work, send it to the central North Island, and have them send it back once it’s coated, we inspect it, and then invariably send it Northwards again for final delivery to the customer”.
It’s an inefficient, risky, and slow process – with potential for damage to parts through handling, not to mention being heavy on transport carbon emissions.
United hasn’t just gone for any ordinary anodizing tank solution. They have had an advanced anodizing line with full digital controls and monitoring designed and built by United States company Technic. Manufacturing Process Engineer Callum Scott will be working on a project to fully automate the line.
“This hasn’t been done in New Zealand before. We know of multi-million-dollar operations overseas, but for such a low-cost low volume service that’s just not feasible. If we have the best gear, a controlled environment and get our data right, there’s no reason we can’t automate the process entirely”, explains Callum.
As for what’s next, Sarah says that once the anodizing is up and running they’ll be looking at how to commercialise the concept further.
They also plan on doing their aerospace AS90:100 accreditation this year, to raise their accreditations to suit their growing Australian and hopefully USA Aerospace clients.
15-23 Thomas Burns Street, Dunedin
+64 03 477 3043