K E Brown's new manufacturing facility in SmithfieldK E Brown, Australia's leading privately-owned switchboard manufacturer, has opened a new manufacturing facility in Smithfield, in Sydney's western suburbs, to better service the growing requirements of its customers.
Now with two modern manufacturing facilities, K E Brown is one of the few switchboard manufacturers capable of producing both custom-built and modular units as well as providing a full maintenance & service capability for its many customers.
The Smithfield facility specialises in producing both custom-built and modular switchboards for light and power, and motor control centres. It is equipped with modern CNC busbar bending equipment, as well as electric cabling and switchgear assembly areas.
The new 1650 square metre facility is ideally situated for reliable transportation of its finished switchboards, with its close proximity to both Sydney's M4 and M7 freeways.
"The plant has been designed and laid out to minimise waste in time and materials with OH&S also a major contributor to the layout of equipment and work stations," says K E Brown General Manager Mr Bob Day.
"The new modern premises will allow us to meet the growing demand for the company's wide range of products, with increased manufacturing efficiencies and reduced waste.
"The new premises also offer us the opportunity to expand our production capabilities within the complex when needed.
"The Lean Manufacturing process will focus our production team on eliminating waste thus enhancing our competitiveness and the inherent value for money that K E Brown customers have come to expect," Mr Day said.
"For example, the Smithfield factory has been designed to optimise the flow of material through the production processes at the plant.
"In our old plant we estimated the material moved 150 to 200 metres through the plant, even though it was half this size. It was poorly optimised.
"Now as the heavy material comes in the door, it's unpacked into racks, it moves maybe half a metre to be cut and punched and then it can be distributed to the boards," Mr Day explained.
"We have taken all the unnecessary movements out, with material travel down by more than two thirds."
He said the time and cost of a person moving a piece of copper through the production process has now been greatly reduced.
"What that means is less risk to the employees in terms of OH&S, with less lifting and movement.
"It also means that employees can concentrate on the value add portion of their work, which is the conversion of the copper to busbars, and to its installation, instead of spending non-value add time moving it," he said.
As well as improving the movement of the material through the plant, Mr Day focused on the value add part of the manufacturing process.
"We now have dedicated areas of the plant to optimise the assembly of distribution boards.
"We have taken control of that process, so customers now have the same highly skilled engineering team who designed the main switchboard, designing the distribution boards, with highly skilled K E Brown tradesmen completing the manufacture, assembly and testing of the switchboards.
"Rather than getting a K E Brown badge over the top, our customers are getting a full K E Brown built switchboard, the same as they would with the main switchboard, meaning guaranteed quality of product," Mr Day said.
"With the cost of electricity rising rapidly and energy management becoming increasingly important for our customers, we are readying ourselves for further growth in the future.
"With the adoption of Lean Manufacturing, we have reduced our cost of manufacturing, and improved the quality of the products we produce, making us even more competitive in the marketplace."
