NEPEAN: An Innovative Culture Breeds Success

OPENING ITS DOORS IN 1974, NEPEAN ENGINEERING & INNOVATION IS ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S LARGEST PRIVATELY OWNED ENGINEERING SERVICE PROVIDERS. WITH AN ELITE DESIGN AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT TEAM THAT UNDERSTANDS THE DIVERSE NATURE OF ENGINEERING, NEPEAN PRODUCES GOODS LOCALLY FROM THEIR STATE-OFTHE-ART FACILITIES IN SOUTH-WEST SYDNEY AND DELIVERS TO CUSTOMERS ALL OVER AUSTRALIA AND GLOBALLY.

Over 45 years in operation, NEPEAN has maintained a culture that recognises and respects the importance of all participants in the business, focused on building lasting relationships with employees, as well as customers.

According to NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation General Manager, Peter Buckley, “The organisation was founded in 1974 by David Fuller. With humble beginnings, it grew from a small engineering company into a highly successful and respected integrated engineering business. Today, NEPEAN employs over 1,400 people across 12 countries worldwide, and is led by CEO Miles Fuller, son of David. NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation employs over 120 employees at our site in Narellan.”

AN INNOVATIVE CULTURE

NEPEAN takes an innovative approach to people and team culture.

As Buckley explained, “Our success is aligned with our customers’ success. To ensure we can deliver successful outcomes to all our customers, we employ and train the best. To continually develop our organisation and deliver quality project outcomes, it is vital to invest in our people.”

“Team members resourced to each job are hand-picked according to specific project requirements in terms of experience, specialist skills and problem-solving capabilities. We are proud of the deep relationships with our employees, with many engineers, project managers and tradespeople employed with our company for over 25 years,” said Buckley.

"We recognise the importance of innovative training and thoughtleadership in our people. A few years ago, we had only one apprentice; now we have 12. We are focused on employing people who are enthusiastic, who want to learn and grow within our sector."

"We also get really granular on each of our projects. Every job that goes through an Australian fabrication workshop has a limited number of hours, and a limited volume of resources. We do everything we can to achieve client targets in terms of hours and resources, while maintaining the highest quality focus possible."

"In order to achieve this quality standard, we felt that we needed to get granular around planning and scheduling. So, we employed a production manager. We also installed TV screens throughout the entire workshop. So the production manager can access all of the machines through a single computer interface. NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation has approximately 600 live jobs every month across the company. Keeping track of every individual job and process was something we had to get innovative about. Otherwise, the time and cost blowout would be problematic for us as an organisation."

"In terms of other innovation, NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation has achieved certification to AS 5131 CC3, as well as AS/NZS ISO 3834. These were huge milestones for the company. We are only one of seven companies in New South Wales that have both certifications. The process was very much driven by our customers' needs: they were telling us that they wanted to award work to us, but couldn't because we didn't have the certification," said Buckley.

MAJOR CLIENTS AND INNOVATIVE PROJECTS

NEPEAN has worked on some of Australia's most iconic projects like

NorthConnex and 60 Martin Place. “We’ve always worked with the best customers, providing the highest quality products for some of the most complex projects. We regularly work with industry experts like Lendlease and Hutchinson Builders on projects requiring upwards of 2,000 tonnes of steel,” said Buckley.

As part of the NorthConnex project— designed to link the M1 Pacific Motorway at Wahroonga to the Hills M2 Motorway at West Pennant Hills—integration work was essential along the Hills M2 Motorway. NEPEAN was awarded the subcontract for structural steel works through the head contractor, the Lendlease Bouygues Joint Venture. With the project requiring approximately 300 tonnes of steel, NEPEAN met all project logistics and design development requirements, as well as tight scheduling, to deliver a highly successful project.

In 2020, NEPEAN Engineering and Innovation implemented a Site Services division to help diversify the services of the business. The team has grown to 5 members in the last 2 years and is consistently delivering innovative solutions to large customers such as BlueScope Steel, Manildra and Ixom. ‘We’ve always worked with the best customers, providing the highest quality services and solutions for some of the most complex projects’, said Buckley.

NEPEAN recently completed work on the Castle Residence project with Hutchinson Builders, supplying mega cantilever trusses that typically hold over 20 floors of the residences. The trusses vary in size from 5.8m to 7.1m wide and a height of 10.8m, with an average weight of 19 tonne for one assembled truss. "As part of our work in the Defence industry, we are consistently providing high quality projects to valued Defence customers", said Buckley. NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation deliver prototypes, large production batch runs, special purpose machines, steel structures, blast doors, armoured vehicle components and associated metal products to several customers in the industry.

ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING AND MEDICAL DEVICES

NEPEAN recently expanded its capabilities into additive manufacturing. As a result, they are now able to offer customers in the medical industry an extremely short turnaround for bespoke implants required for local patients.

Having gained certification to ISO 13485 Medical devices — Quality management systems — Requirements for regulatory purposes, NEPEAN recently collaborated with Osseointegration International to develop a bespoke medical grade titanium implant for a patient.

"We've recently gone down the path of additive and medical devices. Now that we have certification to ISO 13485, this sector is set to become an innovative and growing part of our business. We have manufactured hip replacements and titanium rods for implants that are already improving patients' lives," said Buckley.

"We can achieve tremendous results— whether it's 2,000 tonnes of structural steel, or an additive manufactured hip joint. With over 600 very different jobs running through our workshop every month, we need to continually evolve— you cannot be focused on just one sector or just one process within the manufacturing industry."

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT NEPEAN ENGINEERING & INNOVATION AND THEIR CAPABILITIES >>> “ We recognise the importance of innovative training and thought-leadership in our people. We are focused on employing people who are enthusiastic, who want to learn and grow within our sector."

IMAGES

Far Left: NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation undertook detailing, supply, fabrication and installation of the HS01 Substation and Southern Vent Facility for the NorthConnex project.

Left: A welder working at NEPEAN’s facilities in south-west Sydney.

Above (Left): NEPEAN Engineering & Innovation is providing structural steelworks for the Castle residencies project with Hutchinson Builders.