Advanced Manufacturing Bulletin Issue 4

27 Nov 07

ManufactureLink Advanced Manufacturing Bulletin, Issue 4

ManufactureLink’s System Changes and Upcoming New Features

Since our last bulletin ManufactureLink has undergone a lot of changes. At Austech this year we introduced a change of direction for our online systems due to the overwhelming feedback we were receiving from buyers. Despite the speed and efficiency the online RFQ system offers, a lot of buyers asked for a directory of our suppliers they could search. So we delivered the directory structure and a search tool and this has now been in operation for some time. The Australian manufacturing directory has quickly become the most popular feature with the more than 65,000 visitors to the site every month. ManufactureLink will be continuing to develop the supplier showrooms and search tools to add more power to this feature.

Recently ManufactureLink has begun working more closely with other industry associations such as Ausbiotech, the Medical Technology Association of Australia and the Science Industry Association of Australia. The members of these organisations often require assistance finding the Australian manufacturer they need. ManufactureLink has been kept pretty busy giving personal attention to putting manufacturers from the science and medical industries in touch with ManufactureLink suppliers who have the expertise they need. This is one area of the industry where we are seeing an increase in demand.

A bunch of new software changes have just been uploaded. There are new changes to the subscription system for manufacturers. The new subscription system will simplify the process of maintaining supplier subscriptions. We are soon adding a third set of main categories we are calling ‘technology’ to cater for the needs of the science and medical industries. Most of the remaining items in this upload are fine tuning and bug fixes which all users will appreciate. All current suppliers will have received an email explaining the new invoicing changes in more detail.

The work we put in on our search engine optimisation over 6 months ago is now coming to fruition. ManufactureLink is now ranking highly for almost every key phrase we have targeted both locally and globally. This is also having a bonus affect in that we are now seeing more visitors coming from overseas which has lead to a number of export opportunity enquiries. So ManufactureLink subscribing suppliers are now enjoying some excellent global exposure.

George Pofandt, Managing Director

AMTIL’s Lynx Project Wins Government Funding

AMTIL have recently been advised that the application for funding for their LYNX Project has been approved.
Recently announced by Minister Ian Macfarlane, AMTIL have been awarded $2,383,344, to be matched by industry contributions from their consortia partners, AMTIL themselves, and their membership, to carry out the LYNX Project activities between January 2008 and December 2010. AMTIL would like to thank all their members, and in particular their consortia partners, for their support during this process.

The LYNX Project will connect individual manufacturing companies to the latest world leading technologies, methodologies and techniques to encourage the early adoption of these innovations. It will be done through a series of exhibitions, demonstrations, workshops, web based seminars, consulting and other activities over the next three years.

AMTIL would like to encourage the Australian Advanced Manufacturing Industry to take an active interest in this initiative as it is being run for your benefit. ManufactureLink also encourages all manufacturers to use this initiative to make improvements to you business practices, find out how you compare to other, successful, global manufacturing businesses and to make improvements to your business to better compete in the global marketplace.

This announcement further emphasizes AMTIL’s standing as the leading industry association in the Advanced Manufacturing sector and highlights their commitment to educating and supporting their members to build a stronger advanced manufacturing industry. ManufactureLink applauds the effort put in by AMTIL, their staff, particularly Greg Chalker, and their consultants Michael Barker and Deloitte, to achieve this terrific announcement.
If you would like to know more about the Lynx project or would like to become involved, contact either Greg Chalker or Michael Barker at AMTIL on (03) 9800 3666.

Global Opportunities Program – What’s it all About?

The Honorable Ian Macfarlane recently announced the launch of the Global Opportunities Program which has $241 million allocated over 10 years to assist manufacturing and service companies to seek opportunities from major projects around the world, or enter global supply chains. Since the launch there has been a hive of industry activity as many organizations, including ManufactureLink are preparing their project submissions. So just what is Global Opportunities all about?

To put it briefly, Global Opportunities is a program designed to assist clusters of manufacturers or service industry companies form an Industry Capability Team (ICT) to collectively seek opportunities to supply to major international projects, or enter major global supply chains. The program is intended to operate similar to the very successful Joint Strike Fighter Project (JSF) in which the Australian ICT would not have secured as many opportunities as they did unless they worked together as a team. The ICT for JSF included Government departments and government divisions working hand-in-hand with the manufacturers to open up manufacturing opportunities for the Australian Airforce’s acquisition of F-35 strike fighters.

The GO program recognizes that it can take a sustained effort over a long period of time to open doors to opportunities before manufacturers can even begin to win orders. Thus the program offers funding to assist the ICT to gather business intelligence on opportunities, promote Australian capability, develop a business plan to gain entry to the opportunity, develop capability directories (such as ManufactureLink’s), networking and meeting activities, and offers the resources of the Australian Government, Austrade, ICN and other Government departments to assist the ICT to win work from global sources.

This is an excellent initiative and ManufactureLink will be submitting a project to enter global supply chains for component manufacturing, as well as supporting several other projects being submitted from AMTIL, Ausbiotech and AIDN. More details on these projects will be released in the coming months.

ManufactureLink Master Class for Buyers: Using the Advanced Search Tools

How can you use ManufactureLink’s system to locate a supplier who must have a particular combination of capability you need to manufacture your product?

The answer is to use ManufactureLink’s advanced search tool available on your dashboard. For example, you are manufacturing an electro-mechanical medical device. The device has for example a titanium casing which is machined, a flexible PCB, it needs to be validated and manufactured by a supplier who has ISO: 13485 accreditation.

To find a supplier with this exact capability, simply use the advanced search tool by making a selection of titanium from the materials, 3 axis CNC machining and flexible PCB manufacturing from the processes, validation from services and finally select ISO: 13485 from the accreditations. Click search and you will be presented with a list of matching companies. Click on each company name to view their full profile and contact them.

AMTIL Members Discount

Membership of Australia’s leading manufacturing technology industry association AMTIL, now offers even better value for manufacturers. ManufactureLink now offers AMTIL members a 25% discount on supplier subscriptions. That’s a huge $200 off ManufactureLink’s regular price. As a member of AMTIL you pay only $599 per year to have full access to ManufactureLink’s full sourcing system and to list on the ManufactureLink directory.

Membership with AMTIL offers many other benefits. Click here to learn more about AMTIL and to visit their website.

ManufactureLink Master Class For Suppliers: Converting Profile Views to Sales Leads

Your statistics are showing that you are getting plenty of buyers viewing your profile, but for some reason you are not getting many calls. Why is this and what can be done to improve the number of sales leads?

The key to converting your profile views to sales leads is in understanding why buyers search for suppliers on ManufactureLink and what they are looking for. Many buyers are simply seeking a supplier with a particular expertise such as a steel fabricator. This basic criteria will bring them to view the suppliers listed in the steel fabrication section of the directory and they know all the companies listed will have the basic capability. So when a buyer start viewing profiles, they are looking to see what your specific experience is, try to get a feel for what type of company you are and what industries you service. For example, there is a vast difference between a steel fabricator who makes small components for agricultural applications, to one who fabricates 100 ton structures for major infrastructure projects. Likewise, a fabrication shop using the very latest in high technology equipment might may make a buyer looking to get a new wall bracket made for their air-conditioner feel that the price will be too high.

But, suppliers shouldn’t make the mistake of making their profile appeal to too broad an audience. If a profile is too broad, then you may miss out when a buyer comes along who is seeking manufacturing that fits what you consider your specialty area. Think about the specific buyers you want to target and what they will be looking for. Create a profile that makes buyers seeking this capability feel that you are the best company anywhere to use.

If you create a profile and it doesn’t appear to be working, then change it as many times as you need until you find a winning formula. Your supplier account comes with full editing tools to do this so the process is fast and simple. Also try altering your search engine optimization to target specific keywords buyers will use to find your business. Your account comes with tools to make adjustments for search engine optimization too.

Competing Against Low-Cost Nations for Tooling Manufacturing

Toolmakers in Australia and other developed countries are struggling against competition from low-cost manufacturing nations such as China and India offering cheap tools, often of questionable quality. All toolmakers are working hard to find ways to compete. Often you will here Australian toolmakers say that they can’t understand why a buyer will purchase a cheap tool from China when they know the quality will be poor or the tool will not last.

But as a toolmaker, how well are you communicating the benefits of using Australian made tools to the buyer? You know why what you are offering is better value overall than what your Asian competitor is offering, but are you getting this message across to your potential customers? Or do you simply submit a price and a lead time?

By submitting only a simple price, lead time and perhaps a company brochure, you are making the choice to compete on price alone. Why not shift the playing field to your territory by not just providing a price, but presenting a full business case to the buyer to outline why your higher price will deliver better value over the life of the product?

Your business case should promote the benefits of better quality products due to the superior accuracy and quality of your tools. The tool buyer will enjoy a perception of a better quality product from their end-users which can mean increased sales. A better quality tool can produce quality parts for longer and requires less maintenance and repairs. The costs of these repairs should be presented as part of your business case.

Ultimately, you know what the strengths of your offering are and why the buyer should choose your Australian made tools. To win work in the face of low-cost competition you need to communicate this to your potential customers.

Austech 2008 – Supplier Showcase Details

Austech 2008 will be held in Sydney at the Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour. Austech will run from May 27th to May 30th 2008.

As the premier event on the Australian manufacturing calendar, ManufactureLink will again be exhibiting our online sourcing services and promoting our suppliers capability.

As we have done at the last two exhibitions we have exhibited at, we will again be featuring our supplier showcase at our Austech booth. This is an outstanding opportunity for ManufactureLink suppliers to have a presence at Austech and promote their company to what is expected to be more than 15,000 visitors to the show. So it is worth preparing in advance for next years event.

The supplier showcase allows ManufactureLink subscribing suppliers to place their brochures on our stand at the show. Typically we require up to 200, A4 sized brochures for the show. These can be one-page fliers or multi-page brochures. We also recommend thinking about attaching additional promotional items like pens, magnets and stickers to encourage visitors to take your promotional material.

The Supplier Showcase we ran at Austech 2007 was a huge success, so be prepared to get your business onto the showcase next year. We will release more details and call for bookings closer to the event date.

ManufactureLink Supplier Showcase: AES Wiring

Sydney based manufacturer AES Wiring Pty. Ltd, is a value adding manufacturer and supplier of electrical wiring looms, harnesses and electronic sub-assemblies, and has expertise to provide cost effective solutions to the customers.

2006 Western Sydney Entrepreneur of the Year, Mr. Anil Panchal started AES Wiring as a one man business in 1995 under the name “Anil Electrical Services”. Anil’s attention to detail, quality workmanship and willingness to adapt his business to the needs of his customers, has seen his company grow to become AES Wiring Pty Ltd and establish an enviable reputation as a quality and reliable supplier to clients from the Defence, automotive, consumer appliance and medical industries.

AES Wiring have a strong, expert team with hands-on experience in design of products, electrical, electronics, mechanical, quality, regulatory, service, project management and allied fields to cater the needs for any type of customer from any industry.

AES Wiring has two factory premises side by side to cater for their rapidly expanding business. They have invested in quality capital equipment and are always keen to invest in new technology and branch out their business to meet the needs and manufacturing challenges of potential customers.

More recently, Anil has added to his company’s capability the NSW distribution for Tycab cables under the banner of AKS Distributions Pty Ltd. Click here to visit AES Wiring's supplier showroom.

Manufacturing Technology Spotlight: Brush Plating

Brush plating is an electrochemical process that uses systems to electroplate, anodize, and electropolish localized areas on both new components for imparting decorative, anti-corrosive or anti-wear properties, and parts that need coatings for repair and dimensional restoration.

Brush systems can be portable. Unlike their tank counterparts, brush plating systems use very small volumes of solution (usually only one or two litres) and hand-held tools to apply the deposits and coatings onto localized areas. These hand-held tools are covered with an absorbent material that is saturated with a solution and then brushed or rubbed against the part. Brush plating requires different hand-held tools for each different solution in the operation.

A portable power pack (rectifier) provides the direct current required for all the processes. The power pack has at least two leads. One is connected to the tool and the other is connected to the part. The direct current supplied by the power pack is used in a circuit that is completed when the tool is touching the work surface. Preparation and finishing are carried out using the same techniques as for other reclamation processes.

Brush plating is particularly useful for building up material on components to be repaired where the component or assembly is too large to fit into a tank, where the process of disassembling the entire machine is costly, or where the components are too expensive to risk full immersion in a plating tank.

Some brush plating suppliers offer this process as a mobile service and are able to carry out on-site plating for both decorative and component reclamation applications. Another novel application for brush plating is for selective repair of PCBs.

Metals that can be plated using brush plating include decorative metal coatings such as cadmium, gold, silver, and other precious metals, as well as base metals such as copper, zinc, nickel tin, lead and metal alloys. Hard anodizing can also be applied with the brush plating process.

Click here to locate ManufactureLink suppliers who offer the plating process.

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