Thirty-seven years between the lathe and the board paper

Mandate

Make every instruction reaching a machine or welder traceable to an approved revision, protect the plant's systems and choose automation the workforce can sustain.

Outcomes

• Isolated nineteen older CNC machines behind a controlled program server at A$1.9 million
• Cut revision-related defence nonconformances from 41 to six a year
• Introduced a qualified robotic welding cell programmed by experienced welders
• Built a costed register of about 140 controllers for board reporting

Decisions in context

The chief technology officer role was created when our board wanted one executive accountable for engineering systems, plant technology and security together. Before 2019 those responsibilities sat with three managers who met mainly when something had gone wrong. I lead five managers covering design, manufacturing engineering, automation, information technology and operational-technology security. The board decides capital and risk appetite; I recommend, explain the trade-offs and report what has changed. My most useful reports have been the dull ones: a controller register with dates and costs, a list of open security findings and their owners, a record of revision errors by product. The three cases on this site all began with a cheaper or faster proposal from a capable colleague. My contribution was to put the traceability, security and workforce consequences beside the price.

Reason for the move

Remains in post; a first non-executive committee seat would sit alongside this role only with Kestwater's written agreement.

Mandate

Bring CNC programming, welding engineering and planning under one discipline as defence work grew.

Outcomes

• Combined three engineering groups under common revision and release rules
• Qualified eleven new weld procedures for naval structures
• Introduced a program release process for the Edinburgh machining hall

Decisions in context

Kestwater hired me as defence work began to outgrow its commercial habits. Programmers, welding engineers and planners each kept good records, but in three different ways, and a model revision could reach one group days before another. I combined them under shared release rules and a single change register, which sounds administrative and was the hardest cultural work I have led. I also learnt the defence obligations that shape a supplier's systems, often from our security officer, who was patient with an automotive engineer's assumptions. Eleven weld procedures qualified in those years taught me how slow and necessary qualification is. When the board decided to combine engineering, plant technology and security under one executive, I applied for the role, having seen how often the gaps between them caused our problems. The chief operating officer supported the change.

Reason for the move

Appointed chief technology officer when the board combined engineering, plant technology and security under one executive.

Mandate

Keep high-volume pressing and robotic welding lines running to a vehicle assembler's schedule.

Outcomes

• Raised robotic spot-welding line availability through structured maintenance and spares
• Documented controls knowledge held by a few senior technicians
• Supported colleagues' transition after the assembler's closure announcement

Decisions in context

Hollandby taught me what high-volume automation demands and what it hides. Our robotic spot-welding lines ran the same programs for years, and their reliability depended on spares, preventive maintenance and a handful of technicians who understood every cell. I led forty engineers and technicians across press tooling, robotics and controls, reporting to the plant general manager. Much of my time went into making knowledge less personal: program backups, fault guides and shadowing for younger technicians. When the assembler announced in late 2013 that it would stop building vehicles locally, the plant's future became uncertain. I stayed several months to help document our lines and to write references for colleagues seeking work. That period still shapes how I think about automation: a plant can be efficient and fragile at the same time.

Reason for the move

The vehicle assembler announced in late 2013 that it would end local production, limiting the plant's future.

Mandate

Improve process capability and keep the plant's control systems supportable.

Outcomes

• Created the plant's first register of controllers, software and spares
• Reduced honing rework through revised process settings
• Standardised program backups across three integrators' systems

Decisions in context

Varnfield gave me my first serious exposure to plant control systems. Machining, honing, painting and pressure testing had been automated in stages by three integrators, each with different conventions and none still on site. I led a small team of engineers and technicians reporting to the operations manager. When equipment failed at night, we often depended on a contractor interstate. I built a register of every controller, its software version, its backup and its spare parts, and agreed a common backup routine with maintenance. The work was unglamorous and paid for itself when a failed power supply stopped the main test station and we restored it within a shift. I also improved honing settings that had caused repeated rework. I returned to Adelaide in 2007 for family reasons and to take a broader management role.

Reason for the move

Returned to Adelaide for family reasons and a broader engineering management role.

Mandate

Prepare reliable CNC programs and later improve setup and process control across the machine shop.

Outcomes

• Introduced revision labels linking each program to its drawing issue
• Cut average setup time on repeat parts through standard fixtures
• Completed a part-time mechanical engineering degree

Decisions in context

At Strathquill I learnt that most machining errors begin before the spindle turns. Programs travelled to machines on floppy disk, and the dangerous mistake was a perfectly good program for an earlier revision of the part. I began labelling every program with its drawing issue and keeping superseded versions out of the shop, a small habit that became the foundation of my later work on traceability. As production engineer I led three setters and introduced standard fixtures for repeat parts, which shortened setups without asking anyone to rush. I studied part time throughout and completed my engineering degree in November 2000. By then I wanted to understand processes across a whole plant rather than one machine shop, which led me to a larger manufacturer in Victoria. The labelling habit travelled with me.

Reason for the move

Moved to a larger manufacturer to work on plant-wide process engineering.

Mandate

Learn the trade and machine rebuild parts to approved repair cards.

Outcomes

• Completed a fitting and machining apprenticeship
• Machined shafts, sleeves and impeller fits for pump rebuilds
• Began part-time engineering study while working as a tradesman

Decisions in context

Pellarby rebuilt pumps for water, mining and process customers, and I began there as an apprentice fitter and machinist. The foreman expected every part to match its repair card, and he expected us to stop and ask when it did not. That discipline was my first lesson in traceability, though nobody used the word. I completed my trade certificate in 1993 and worked as a tradesman while starting part-time engineering study. Manual machining also gave me lasting respect for the judgement of skilled hands: how a good machinist hears a cut going wrong before any instrument shows it. When I later argued for keeping experienced welders at the centre of automation decisions, I was drawing on those years. I moved to CNC programming in 1994 to join that trade knowledge to the engineering I was studying.

Reason for the move

Moved into CNC programming to combine trade experience with engineering study.