Grant Gray is feeling buoyant about the future of manufacturing and industrial business in Australia.
“It’s a great time to be in manufacturing in Australia,” the general manager of National Sales at Motion Australia said. “There is a momentum building in the market right now because people want to spend, and they want to buy local. There’s a strong sense of nationalism that’s permeating both the consumer and business to business markets when it comes to onshore manufacturing, sourcing Australian-made products and having localised support.”
According to Gray, this has translated to industrial businesses looking at ways they can improve processes and maintain quality by investing in capital expenditure.
“It’s pleasing to see this level of industrial optimism where you have businesses forecasting for the next five years – it’s a positive sign after a period of uncertainty – because it suggests that businesses have long-ranging confidence in their ongoing productivity and are prepared to spend significantly on CapEx,” Gray said.
“From a Motion Australia perspective, we want to see Australian industrial businesses thrive, and to go on that journey with them because you know what? There’s going to be some significant moments each year that suggest it’s time for a business to have an innovative upgrade. And to ensure they can meet upcoming demand and remain market competitive.”
Always an advocate for planning, Gray reiterates the importance for businesses to take stock and identify the critical parts of their operation.
“We’re going to see an ongoing dislocation in regards to parts supply for some time due to issues around production, shipping and handling delays in combination with exceptional demand for componentry,” he cautioned. “I urge all our existing or prospective customers to take stock of the last 12 to 24 months, and identify the parts that were so critical to the success of your business and have a conversation with us today about what’s available.”
Where Motion Australia can add considerable value is through site or plant audits and inventory management – tapping into the expertise of all the Motion Australia business arms. Gray cites an example where a mining customer recently engaged with Motion Australia to perform a full end to end site audit across their current sealing, gaskets, hydraulics, fluid power, bearings, and power transmission requirements. This enabled six Industrial specialists to visit at once and identify and provide outcomes as a team without the usual dislocation of competing business interests when dealing with non‑connected parties. One Motion enables this end to end solution to be possible.
“We’re in a fortunate position where we have subject experts from Sealing, Maintenance, Engineering, Drives, Power Transmission and able to provide a true top to tail service,” explained Gray. “They have a direct relationship with the manufacturers, whether it be local or overseas. And then we can understand from a shipping perspective, what does that ultimate delay from the placement of order to delivery look like?”
National business development manager, David Caramia, agreed that site surveys provide powerful insights and Motion Australia can work with customers closely to ensure their parts requirements are met.
“We’re able to work with our customers in regards to localising parts too, for example, if an OEM part has to come from overseas, it might be expensive and have a long lead time,” Caramia said. “We can identify if it’s a standard item that we currently stock and can swap that over and support them locally. Or we could reverse engineer a product to replace an OEM part which we do locally as well.”
Furthermore, Caramia points out that Motion Australia’s ability to provide a complete package of solutions, technical knowledge and engineering expertise differentiates the company from any other industrial parts provider in Australia.
“Our customers can come to us for a complete package – which is one our competitors just can’t offer in terms of the breadth of knowledge and engineering skills we have along with the range of products,” explained Caramia. “For example, we’re seeing a lot of interest from existing customers in our offerings around sealing, such as gaskets, where we have a good, local supply of gaskets, as well as local engineering capability to make or customise them, and the branch footprint to be able to distribute them nationwide.”
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