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Modern Manufacturing Commissioner visits The Coast

Photo: Lisa Emerson standing in front of the biggest mechanical press in Australia( 2500 tonnes) at Performance Engineering Berkley Vale.

On Friday 24th March CCIC had the privilege of hosting Lisa Emerson, the NSW Modern Manufacturing Commissioner for the day. Lisa was joined by Alix Wright, Associate Director Modern Manufacturing and Acting Deputy Director Regional Development Hunter & Central Coast Marcus Hucker. It was an excellent day in the field, not having to travel more that two streets to give Lisa a great snapshot of Central Coast Manufacturing.

The day started at Mars Food Australia, where Ian Hemphill, CCIC Chair, welcomed Lisa and then handed over to Frank Sammut Executive Director who gave an overview of Central Coast Manufacturing and CCIC. There was great conversation around the importance of manufacturing to the region and the opportunities that could be had.

Following on from this Bill Heague General Manager of Mars Food Australia provided an overview of the Mars business, its ownership and values and a brief history of the Berkley Vale site. This was all put into context with the site tour which showcased various technologies at play.

We then crossed the road to TrendPac where Executive Chair Steven Hyde and CEO Wayne Dicks presented the TrendPac story. Here we discussed some of the challenges of the business which are common across the region, supply chain costs, skilled labour shortages and energy costs. Lisa was impressed by the range of cleaning products made by TrendPac  and in particular the extrusion capability they possess.

After lunch we walked next door to Performance Engineering where GM Glenn Andrews showed us around his large engineering shop which featured a range of equipment including a 2500 tonne mechanical press and a recently purchased laser Cutter and folding equipment.

We then went into the next street where we met Jessica Loughlin and her Husband Robert Loughlin of Loughlin Furniture and saw how their quality furniture was made and discussed their future plans. An impressive young couple who have grown their business focused on quality and simplicity of design.

Finally, we met the team at Star Scientific who gave us a demonstration of their HERO® Technology and a site tour of their labs and workshop capability. We discussed the opportunities with the technology and received an update on the pilot project with Mars Foods.

Through the course of the day, we learnt about her vision. She spoke about “creating a better environment for manufacturers to make products for NSW, Australia and the world” By listening to the sector she is understanding the issues and roadblocks that stops us from achieving this goal.

Her focus is to implement the findings of the Modern Manufacturing Taskforce  report

A range of things were discussed with Lisa from pain points in business to opportunities for collaboration and innovation. A fantastic day and we are looking forward to supporting Lisa in delivering against the NSW manufacturing Strategy.

 

Photos Below: 1)Lisa and the Star Scientific Team. 2) Lisa with Jessica & Robert Loughlin at Loughlin Furniture . All photos also include Marcus Hucker, NSW Regional Development, Ian Hemphill, Chair CCIC and Frank Sammut ED CCIC.

 

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