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“ It is fantastic to have a bespoke facility designed especially for our needs. For example, we created very long production line links and can ensure our engineers are close to the lines,” adds Oliver Lukeis, Commercial Director.
The new manufacturing facility also mirrors Walkinshaw’ s sustainability credentials, by delivering net-zero energy through a rooftop solar installation.“ This is very important to us, and we’ re quite proud of it,” adds Ryan.
In fact, Walkinshaw regards the right technology and equipment as a unique selling point.“ If we bring a customer in here on a tour, they say,‘ wow, you’ re just a smaller version of us.’ For them, it makes it an easy decision to choose us as their partner,” says Oliver. The investment in solutions is ongoing.“ We’ re now starting to introduce a bit of AI in our facility as well. As we’ re importing vehicles from various global locations, they go through many hands before they get to us. So, we’ re adapting AI camera inspection systems, which can capture any damage on the vehicle on arrival, generate automatic reports and send those straight to our OEM customers so they know the status of the vehicle when we receive it.”
Another valuable element of the consolidation has been the cultural effect. While the business was already dedicated to building culture across its previous 13 sites, Ryan notes that having everyone together under one roof delivers small wins that are going to be valuable in the long run.
He also shares that from the employees’ perspective, Walkinshaw stands as Australia’ s only real opportunity to work in automotive manufacturing.“ That makes us very attractive, and it’ s something that has allowed us to grow,” he elaborates. The availability of skilled staff also contributed to the chosen location of the new facility.“ We stayed in Melbourne because of the large, skilled automotive workforce available here. This allows us to leverage our traditional strengths while continuing to grow.”
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