Ronstan investing in Australian manufacturing

by Brendan Maxwell on 12 Nov 2010 While around the world manufacturing is moving from the major industrial countries to Asia, one of the world leaders in the marine industry Ronstan, one of the largest sailing and architectural hardware manufacturers in the world, is in fact expanding manufacturing operations on its home turf.

The reason? Sophisticated technical products, 1,500 stock lines and an absolute commitment to quality.

Ronstan’s head office and major manufacturing facility is in Melbourne, Australia and the company has 175 employees worldwide. Ronstan has Australian offices in Sydney, Fremantle and Brisbane and offices in Florida Rhode Island and California USA as well as Southampton in the UK and Vejle in Denmark.

In addition to its manufacturing activities in Australia, Ronstan has been producing specialist sailing boat hardware in Denmark since purchasing Frederiksen Boat Fittings in 2001 and has now acquired Frederik Andersen Maskinfabrik, the Danish manufacturer best known for the high quality Andersen Winches.

Ronstan has just completed a multi-million dollar relocation from Sandringham, Melbourne to a new purpose built facility at Braeside, near Moorabbin airport.

What advantage does Ronstan have by manufacturing in Melbourne, Australia?

Tim Melville, Ronstan’s Operations manager, who oversees the entire Production facility, explained that Ronstan produces a sophisticated technical product with 1,500 stock lines and an absolute commitment to quality.

‘Ronstan looked hard at the overall operations before making this investment. Essentially we have a really good team of people here in Australia with longevity of knowledge and we really wanted to have a first class manufacturing business here, one that we can not only be proud of but can manufacture cost-competitively to compete on the world market.

‘It is precision manufacturing; complex parts that have tight-tolerances and because we are building components that go into other components it is very specialised - the tooling is quite detailed.

‘We have much greater flexibility than if manufacturing was offshore.

‘New product development - the R&D is key for us. We are exporting about 70% of what we manufacture so the export side is obviously absolutely critical.

‘To manufacture efficiently in the 21st century we needed a new plant and new equipment.

‘The old plant was about 5,400 sq. metres, including all the outbuildings and so forth. This one is a little bit smaller, it is about 5,100 sq. metres, but it is a much better layout that includes excellent and perimeter access to each area of manufacturing. An extensive undercover loading bay supports inwards and outwards goods.

Tim Melville continued. ‘Essentially production is on a straight line, through the processes into the assembly area and then straight into the warehouse. This layout has delivered greater efficiency.

‘We have re-engineered a lot of our production methods and we have made big gains - more automation, faster manufacturing - so the premium cost of manufacturing in Australia is substantially down per unit.

‘Because we are manufacturing locally we are able to keep very tight quality control and we have the flexibility to switch production so we can adapt very quickly to what the market needs.

‘We import some raw materials and standard components but most of the manufacturing and the assembly is done here. Again it is the quality issues that we want to look after as well as having that flexibility.

‘Ronstan has production engineers, design engineers and we have specialised teams for the CNC moulding area and machining areas. And on the shop floor we have flexibility in the workforce too.

‘We manufacture around 3,000 components producing about 1,500 finished parts in addition to products that we distribute

‘The facility is light, it’s bright and we have pushed very hard to maximise the amenity of the working environment in the plant.

‘Our relocation took into account our need to reduce our carbon footprint and costs. We have implemented rapid roller doors to control the factory temperature, a sophisticated variable speed compressor that enables exhaust heat to warm the factory, closed loop water chillers to save water and electrical running costs, lighting system with light sensor devices, together with effective heating and cooling equipment . We have installed three sizeable tanks for harvesting our water for use within our processes. Improved quality, improved safety, improved environmental outcomes are key outcomes from our relocation.

‘65 staff are in manufacturing, another 70 in design, sales etc. Our entire staff is around 175 people in total world wide.

‘28 nationalities are working for Ronstan around the world and we have a lot of people who are really proud to have their products go back to their own birth place.

‘Andersen products will be made in Denmark and our intention is to run that production out of Denmark for just the same reasons we are manufacturing in Australia.

‘Technical products needs tight manufacturing control and very high quality and that happens best where the home team goes sailing’ Melville smiled.