Spoke in Brief: Australia, November

Welcome to the November edition of Spoke in Brief Australia. Featured this month are the following stories:

• Improved housekeeping drives efficiency at Whyalla
• Tahmoor’s Gabrielle Foodey leads the conversation on gender equality
• Family comes first with Strathpine’s communal veggie garden
• Visual management boards drive wins at Acacia Ridge
• Archery sees Gerry focus on his target on the range and at work
• InfraBuild Steel and Wire take out big wins at the Hunter Manufacturing Awards
• Sydney Steel Mill celebrates 25 years
• Join the conversation on Workplace
• Liberty Steel plans to merge into one global group, setting sights on carbon-neutral operations by 2030
• Sanjeev joins exclusive group

Improved housekeeping drives efficiency at Whyalla

The team at Liberty Primary Steel has created a video series promoting Continuous Improvement success stories – part one looks at the flow-on effects from improved housekeeping in Steelmaking. Check it out here and think about ways you can bring the principals to your business.

Tahmoor’s Gabrielle Foodey leads the conversation on gender equality

This week at the WIMnetSA’s Champions of Change event, Tahmoor’s Mechanical Engineering Manager, and the first female to gain competency in underground coal mining, Gabrielle Foodey shone the light on gender equality.

Sitting on a stellar panel hosted by SIMEC Mining’s People Development Specialist, Chris Ryan, Gabrielle spoke about her career in mining, and what it means to be the first and currently only female to gain the Mechanical Engineering Manager Certificate of Competency in Underground Coal. Gabrielle shared the spotlight with two high achieving Airforce women who shared the challenges they have faced in pursuing careers traditionally dominated by men.

Ashleigh Cass, Mining HR Business Partner who attended the event said: “It’s great to support Women in Mining and shine a light on gender equality for everyone! Big thanks to Dee Channon, Deb Hegarty and Phillipa Weltner for also coming along as well as Gavin Hobart for his ongoing WIMnetSA support.”

Gender equality starts with leaders who are willing to step up, work together, listen, learn and lead with action, so it’s great to see such support from Mining!

Family comes first with Strathpine’s communal veggie garden

The InfraBuild Constructions Solutions Strathpine branch is taking our value of family to the next level with their communal veggie patch which includes seeds and seedlings donated from the team including truck drivers.

Growing fresh tomatoes, capsicums, broccoli, herbs, berries and more, the whole site benefits from this amazing produce, with people either taking it home for dinner with their families or using it to prepare workplace celebration lunches.

Strathpine Branch Manager Tina Johns says, “The vegetable garden has proven to be a great way to ground the guys if they need a five-minute break and brings the team together, especially when we’re deciding what to plant next.”

Visual management boards drive wins at Acacia Ridge

Visual management boards are one of the key tools we’re driving across our businesses as part of our commitment to continuous improvement, and they are leading to wins at our Acacia Ridge Austube Mills site.

What is a visual management board?
Properly set-up and maintained visual management boards help drive team performance by bringing together carefully selected performance metrics on a clear and easily understood visual board. These metrics are then regularly reviewed so everyone stays on course and is accountable for their actions.

How are they helping Acacia Ridge?
Acacia Ridge Operations Manager Darren Newbegin says the site has been using visual boards for over ten years and they now operate like a well-oiled machine.

“Many improvements have been made to streamline the information and make them more targeted. The boards are visual easy to use and easy to talk to, and they help us manage our production and make effective decisions.”

“We’ve used the boards to improve our Mill/Production efficiency, and production yield through daily discipline, targeted projects and focused discussion,” Darren says.

Learn more about visual management boards and other continuous improvement techniques by joining the Continuous Improvement group on Workplace.

Archery sees Gerry focus on his target on the range and at work

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Gerry Middendorp’s return to Archery has seen him win countless medals, represent his state and place number one in the world – but it has also helped him keep focused at InfraBuild Recycling.

Gerry first picked up Archery as a kid, on the country Victoria property where he grew up. Gerry would traverse the property looking for the right flexible timber and string for his bow, before plucking a feather or two from the family’s ducks to fletch his arrows.

Gerry eventually lost touch with Archery and didn’t pick up a bow again until he was 59.

Now, as a master, Gerry has been ranked world number one in target and field, and more recently took home five gold and one silver medal at the Australian Masters’ competition held in Adelaide.

Gerry says that while technique and form are important for archery, your mindset is more important.
“Just pretend it’s a good day. Say, right, this is my space and I’m going to have a good time on the range, and you will do your best,” said Gerry, “If you tense up, your muscles will go all over the place.”

Gerry can see how this sort of mindset helps in his role as a Plant Operator at InfraBuild Recycling Laverton, where he has been for around 17 years.

“You can marry the two of them in together,” Gerry explained, “It’s all in the mind.”

InfraBuild Steel and Wire take out big wins at the Hunter Manufacturing Awards

Congratulations to the InfraBuild Steel Contistretch team and Megan Crowfoot, Profitability and Improvement Analyst at InfraBuild Wire for taking home top awards at the 2019 Hunter Manufacturing Awards.

The InfraBuild Steel Contistretch team won the Excellence in Manufacturing Process Award, recognising the team’s commitment to continuous improvement of the manufacturing process, and Megan Crowfoot took out the Rising Star Award, recognising her positive contribution to the manufacturing sector.

Of the awards, InfraBuild Wire Managing Director Greg Jones said, “Well done to all of those nominated. Special congratulations to Megan Crowfoot who was awarded the Rising Star award for 2019 and the team at Contistretch who won the award for Excellence in Manufacturing. Both deserving winners!”

NSW Operations Manager for InfraBuild Steel Stephen Elliott echoed this sentiment, “The 2019 Hunter Manufacturing Awards have just wrapped up in Newcastle and InfraBuild Steel Contistretch took out the Excellence in Manufacturing Process Award continuing a great record of recognition at these awards… Congratulations to both the Newcastle Rod Mill and Contistretch for being finalists in a number of categories.”

After the awards night, Megan was interviewed by ABC Newcastle about her career – listen to the interview here.

Sydney Steel Mill celebrates 25 years

To celebrate an impressive 25 years of operation, the Sydney Steel Mill hosted an open day for employees and their families on Sunday, 29 October. Take a look at some of the photos below!

Join the conversation on Workplace

It’s now been a month since we introduced our new communication platform, Workplace, to all Australian businesses.

More than 2,600 people have now joined and are sharing updates on their work, recognising the achievements of colleagues, sharing best practice and great ideas, posting ‘safety shares’ and connecting with workmates from all around Australia.

The GFG workplace community also learns first-hand about important business updates, including last week’s announcement about Liberty Steel Group and a video from Sanjeev.

To celebrate its launch, we’re running a team and individual competition. You can enter your team’s safety efforts to win $500 to put toward a team celebration as well as go in the running to be the GFG Alliance Workplace Australia Champion. Conditions apply, learn about the full details.

If you haven’t yet joined, look out in your email for invitations from Workplace to set up your account, follow the prompts, set up your profile and join the conversation! And you if you have joined and know someone’s who holding out – let them know what they’re missing out on.

For any questions, email gfgauscommunications@gfgalliance.com.

Liberty Steel plans to merge into one global group, setting sights on carbon-neutral operations by 2030

GFG Alliance’s metals arm Liberty Steel plans to merge into one global company called Liberty Steel Group, with an ambition to lead the industry towards a carbon-neutral future.

Liberty Steel Group will be the eighth largest steel producer outside China, with operations stretching from Australia to continental Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, and it will have annual sales of approximately $15 billion.

Learn more here.

Sanjeev joins exclusive group

Our Executive Chairman has added another accolade to his impressive achievements, joining the prestigious and invitation-only Wall Street Journal CEO Council last month.

The Council convenes leaders of more than 200 of the world’s largest and most influential companies to discuss issues shaping the future.

The council’s members – who collectively employ more than 8.7 million people, generate $2.6 trillion+ in annual revenue and represent 20 countries in a wide cross-section of industries – connect at a number of exclusive events each year to discuss and debate the most pressing issues facing business, technology and brands.