Ammann Australia expands
Solid growth has led Ammann Australia to relocate its headquarters, warehouse and training centre to better serve its customers in the region.
The facility was moved from Narangba to a new location about 10 km north in Caboolture. The move took place in January 2018.
“This move is a reflection of Ammann’s growth in the region, and our commitment to serving customers through training, service, and product and parts availability,” said Hans-Christian Schneider, CEO of Ammann. “We have grown and become a leader in that market, and this investment reflects that.”
The new facility includes:
- A warehouse that is 40 percent larger
- An 50 percent increase in office space
- A new and improved training centre
The training centre is a key improvement that will benefit customers. It is a dedicated area with classrooms and space for hands-on lessons as well.
Training aids include:
- Interactive 3-D modelling
- Access to purpose-built animations
- Plant component availability for maintenance demonstrations
- A fully functioning as1 Control System simulator
“The training centre concept incorporates shared learning and exchange of best practices in the plant industry,” said Scott Rickards, After Sales and Product Support Manager for Ammann Australia. “This new centre is a continuation of what we started a few years ago. We developed an innovative training program, and the response has been so strong that we opted for the new facility.”
Many customers have sought a standardised solution to customer training, which Ammann first provided in Australia in 2014.
“Prior to that, there were limited training opportunities for people working around asphalt plants,” said Rickards, who also is a key trainer. “The status quo commonly saw training handed down from operator to operator, or companies investing to send staff internationally abroad to gain detailed knowledge.”
The training now is closer to the customers to improve access and reduce travel time and costs. The convenience also ensures more operators can participate.
The simulator is a particularly popular training tool. “This simulator allows the student to gain valuable operational experience in a safe and controlled classroom environment, without the stress and pressure of having to learn during real production,” said Paul Vandersluis, Managing Director of Ammann Australia. “Ammann’s highly experienced training staff can remotely provoke plant faults and errors on the control system during the simulator training, so the trainers can gauge how the student reacts and deals with such a problem in a real-life situation. Now employers have another avenue to train their staff, without the possibility of wasting product or having unnecessary plant downtime.”
The interactive courses range from basic introductory content to advanced, detailed explanations of asphalt plant processes and functions.
The Level 1 course is predominantly aimed at new employees or those new to the asphalt production environment. It provides students with an introduction to the production process and plant safety, identification of parts of the plant and their functions, basic maintenance tasks and correct operation of the plant.
The Level 2 course is aimed at more experienced operators and gives them a detailed overview of plant operation and parameter settings, maintenance tasks, optimization of the plant through maximising efficiencies and plant throughput, and utilizing reporting functions built into the control system.
The Level 3 course is aimed at the experienced Ammann plant operator to become a real expert in the plant functionality, specialised maintenance tasks and analysis of energy consumption and production quality.
The Production Manager course enables senior production staff (including production supervisors/managers) to retrieve and analyse valuable production protocol data and statistics to gain the optimum performance from their plants and minimize operating costs.
