Mines, quarries, and other businesses in the heavy industry sector are set to reap the benefits of Motion Australia consolidating all its subsidiary businesses into one entity. According to National Sales Manager, Grant Gray, the company arrived at this full circle solution after engaging in important conversations with key suppliers and customers.
“Customers were saying to us: ‘Look, we love dealing with you, but is there any way we can deal with you as one entity?’ This prompted us to begin exploring ways that we could mature our business and drive home our desire to streamline our services and foster an ease of doing business,” enthuses Grant.
“This is a very exciting time for us as a business and for our customers in the mines and quarries industries – in fact we are already having conversations about how this broader offering under the one business group will be of benefit to them,” he elaborates. “For example, if a customer is looking for bearings and transmission solutions at one of our BSC or CBC locations, they can now also inquire about more advanced industrial solutions such as fluid transfer, hose fittings and connections through our other businesses like Hardy Spicer, CRAM and AIP.”
These iconic brands have come together under Motion Australia to create a wholly owned general parts company. Customers in Australian mining and quarrying sectors now have unmatched coverage of products and services, with access to over 600,000 unique parts from more than 2,300 world-class suppliers around the globe.
“From a mining and quarrying perspective, we are often dealing with critical deadlines, expensive pieces of machinery and remote harsh conditions,” says Grant.
“Particularly on younger mining and quarrying operations, we are looking to understand what their critical parts are by looking at ways that we can extend the life of these components and support them in their needs surrounding stock, inventory, supply chain, and logistics in the current market climate.”
“With the transition to ‘One Motion’, we want to harness our mechanical and hydraulic engineering expertise by ensuring we have accredited in-house capabilities, which include rigging, hydraulic sealing, hose manufacturing, seal refurbishments and fully equipped workshops for manufacturing, repairs, welding, fabrication, and design.”
“We have a fantastic offering as a larger entity, and we back it up with a very strong workforce,” says Grant. “And likewise, we want to align ourselves with other businesses that have a fantastic footprint by focusing on three key criteria: maintaining the largest stock holding, the largest national footprint, and the largest technical workforce in the country.”
Whilst Australian mining operations are considered highly efficient, the cost of production and variable commodity prices still present unique challenges to the market, according to Ross Lee, Technical Manager of Strategic Partnerships for Motion Australia.
“Mining applications present the most punishing operating conditions for products in Motion Australia’s scope such as bearings, shaft seals, power transmission drive units, fluid power systems, hydraulic cylinders seals, hoses, and driveshaft assemblies,” says Ross. “As we continue to expand our capabilities in these products and services— including both manufacturing capability and repair services— we are also focussing on more advanced ways to avert downtime and maximise production continuity, crucial to our customers’ bottom- line results.”
A few of these ways, according to Ross, are an increased focus on predictive maintenance and remote condition monitoring of machine health; application of best and safest practices for maintenance procedures; and utilising the latest in machinery component technologies.
“Beyond supporting the supply of quality industrial products, Motion Australia’s service scope looks to address the unsatisfactory service life of equipment components by employing countermeasures such as improved part capability, engineering design analysis, and best practices for mounting, installation and adjustment,” explains Ross.
“This also encompasses optimising lubrication procedures and providing front line sealing protection for machinery modules exposed to harsh operating environments. Plus of course rapid response services in the event of equipment breakdown,” he adds.
Every year, Motion is consulted on a wide range of mining and quarrying equipment operating issues, which continuously adds to their application problem knowledge base for utilisation across their nationwide technical support network. On-site—as well as off-site— maintenance support services represent a key aspect of the company’s expanding level of front-line support to mining and quarrying industries.
“The challenges we are seeing now in these industries are uncertainty surrounding supply chain, transport and logistics, as well as demands around inventory,” says Grant. “We are still currently seeing some shortages globally, so our aim is to help supply align with demands in production right now.”
“We will achieve this by offering more comprehensive programs and increased efficiencies; ranging from cost savings to automated inventory management solutions, to asset management,” he explains. “This will happen by leveraging our technology, expertise and the established processes we bring to the table as a larger organisation.”
“If you look at the multitude of businesses out there, it’s all about ensuring that you have the bandwidth of offerings and we are pleased to be able to say that we do,” says Grant. “These industries are not new to us, and our businesses are not new to our customers. Many of our businesses are long-term entrenched companies that have been doing what they do for more than 100 years. So, you know, this is not our first rodeo!”
Motion employs over 60 expert level engineers around Australia, each with their own specific skill set and offering in their own field. “Our team has extensive practical experience and knowledge, and they truly excel out on site talking directly with end users to understand every individual application and how to achieve the best outcomes for each one,” he enthuses.
In summary, the changes customers can expect to see as these internal industrial solutions businesses transition to a single entity under Motion Australia are many and varied. But there is one key area of growth that is certain: customer relationships.
“Now we can approach the customers that we have built up a level of trust and transparency with over a long period of time and start to have a dialogue about what other offerings we have as a company,” says Grant. “Already having these relationships established lays the groundwork for us and makes the job a little bit easier—but above all else, we want our customers to feel comfortable to come and talk to us about what’s next.”
