From the first Industrial Revolution to Industry 4.0

07/04/2022

While we may be 150 years young, our Maryborough Service Delivery Centre is continuing to move into the future with investment in Industry 4.0 technology

Since the 1860's, Downer’s iconic Maryborough site has been a lynchpin of the manufacturing industry in Queensland. We have built more than 1,000 rail cars and almost 1,000 locomotives at our Maryborough facility, progressing through technological advances such as steam to diesel to electric trains. 

In 2022, as we look to Industry 4.0, our workforce development and ensuring we are at the forefront of manufacturing in Queensland, our Maryborough site has invested in the latest welding technology.

Investing in the Kemppi welding solutions provides us with better quality assurance, more reliable data, and an uplift in our workforce’s capability

Using Internet of Things technology, the Kemmpi welding machines connect to wi-fi and are cloud based with two-way communication promoting the systematic setup of welding management process, live shop data and material data record (MDR) deliverables. 

The machine’s system allows for welding standards and customer requirements to be uploaded, providing a procedure and plan before the welding tasks even begin. Staff then use their own individual card to log into the machine, where their certificates are available, identifying if they’re qualified to undertake the task. During the welding process, all activity is live monitored where a dashboard can track progress and ensure parameters are met.

“In the past it was death by excel spreadsheet,” laughed Dean Terry, Welding Supervisor at Maryborough. “We would hold procedures and then track the activities done so we had a record for the customer on what we’d welded, ensuring it was aligned with their requirements. This ensures Quality Assurance, but is of course time consuming and a very manual process.

“Now with our investment in Industry 4.0, the machines automate so much of the reporting. We can log the requirements into the machine, we can scan barcodes on material drawings so we can build data, and if there’s an issue the system live monitors the task, so we can pick it up in the moment or we have data on the entire weld to go back and review,” he said.

Welding tasks on a train range from the bogies to the roof, and all the mounting plates in the car that hold items such as the seats or handrails into place. Downer’s investment in this technology not only upskills our workforce but adds further comfort and safety for the passengers of Queensland. 

“It’s been wonderful to roll this technology out to the team,” John Shelford, Operations Manager for Maryborough said.

“Not only is our quality assurance increased, which is great for the customer and passengers, but our production monitoring has increased. With so much data we now have more accurate resourcing allocations and timing and consumables, which just helps us to be a more transparent business. 

“By Downer continuing to invest into the future, and in particular in AI and Industry 4.0, we’re in a tremendous position to deliver for the people of Queensland”, he concluded.