Australia's largest circulating manufacturing magazine
Industry Update
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Issue 76 February $12.00 83 April 20152014 $12.00 INC.GSTINC.GST
Manufacturing Magazine
A CUT ABOVE
‘BACKWARDS INTEGRATION’ SETS COURSE FOR GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS Australian companies are using innovation and global resources to succeed in a tough, cost-down environment. Aggressive competition is a familiar problem for successful Australian businesses that have become market leaders. A prime example is Ansell, an Australian industrial icon whose sales of protective gloves are three times that of its nearest global competitor. Ansell manufactures more than 10 billion gloves per year and provides protective solutions to more than 10
million workers every day across 25 specific industries around the world. “In today’s competitive environment, no one can command a premium price based on brand reputation alone,” said Scott Corriveau, President and General Manager, Industrial Business Unit. “The days are long gone where strong brands can expect to command a premium. Price competitiveness is extremely important, particularly in the current negative economic climate where cost-down pressures are intense in key industries such as
manufacturing and mining,” he said. Innovation has been a cornerstone of the Ansell business throughout its one hundred year history to ensure it delivers quality and performance that translates into real value for customers. Its focus on innovation has come to the fore again through a strategy to own as much of the value chain as possible, committing to a process of “backwards integration” that includes research and development, manufacturing processes and associated engineering and material
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IN COMFORT & STYLE •
calling all women... workboot comfort has arrived PAGE 35
NEW PB49 BOOTS. Calling all women! The struggle to find comfortable work shoes is finally over. Oliver’s new women’s footwear range is a triumph of safety, comfort and style. www.oliver.com.au Love your feet more
INDUSTRY UPDATE EXCLUSIVE
NEW VACULEX VACUUM LIFTER RAISES THE BAR Materials Handling, Australia's largest distributor of manual handling equipment, reports huge interest in an innovative, ergonomic order picker now being developed in Australia. The cutting edge, ergonomic vacuum lifting device, has been designed for maximum comfort, efficiency, safety and ease of use, especially in the workplace when handling items in warehouses and distribution centres. There are many organisations wanting to safely and easily retrieve or handle individual, loose, products from pallets situated on the floor in pallet racks. So Materials Handling has developed a Continued page 47
Continued page 9
NMW SPECIAL PREVIEW STARTS PAGE 12
WORLD’S FIRST WAVE-ENERGY FARM STARTS PAGE 38
APPLIED MACHINERY UNVEILS CUTTING-EDGE EQUIPMENT PAGE 20
A•
REVOLUTION
WORLDS FIRST WIRELESS BLUETOOTH TRANSDUCER PAGE 54
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