SWUG Day one: Seriously, there’s a lot we can learn from each other

Mar 30, 2012 at 10:52 pm by Staff


In the Sunday morning lull after the Queensland elections, Single Width Users Group president Bob Lockley is rousing conference delegates who have been out celebrating anything but the decimation of state Labor (writes Peter Coleman).

The previous day’s wisdom is a good starting point: Lessons from Ruby, the dog that didn’t wait until her stick had landed; from chicken processor Ingham which now recycles or reuses 90 per cent of waste which would have gone into landfill; from Dubbo print centre manager Charlie Fletcher on the dangers of oral lamb-marking (hold your breath); from Gold Coast Publications’ Mike Molloy – “an ex-comp so he must be good” – and Ormiston plant manager Mark Dibble, with his recollections of “sex drugs and rock’n roll”.

And that Travis O’Donnell from Mildura, last year’s top SWUG apprentice, who turned out to be a star speaker. But where is he? Not in the room… doesn’t he know better than to risk being caught playing truant?

But Lockley is in his element. as he was the previous evening, when 200 or so delegates climbed over the Goss Uniliner 80 press at his company’s Ormiston print plant.

The two-day event is all about learning and sharing, and 200 delegates from 32 print sites – “I didn’t think we’d get that many,” he says – are at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre for the conference.

Lockley’s day job is as printing and logistics chief executive for Fairfax Media, and it’s clear that the programme is heavily dependent on the connection: Fourteen of the 20 speakers either work for Fairfax or are suppliers to it. So do more than half of user delegates.

One (Noel Brennan, now with Queensland Newspapers) seems to have escaped, and Lockley debates “whether we’d have him back… probably would,” he concludes.

 

Such is the nature of the event which has become the most significant in Australia’s newspaper production calendar: It’s serious, but a lighthearted approach doesn’t hurt.

Speakers put over a serious message with as much lightness as possible.

DIC Australia chief executive Ian Johns talks about the accident his Staffordshire bull terrier had while chasing a stick, and jokes about the day a tank cover flew off at the ink maker’s Auburn factory: “people thought it was just another drive-by shooting,” he says.

Underlying is a serious message about occupational health and safety, and the comprehensive audit the company has undertaken with the help of Fairfax’s work safety specialists.

A different risk is implicit when Dubbo plant manager Charlie Fletcher recalls growing up in rural Coonamble, and the risks implicit in lamb-marking (by mouth and without the use of rubber rings). So much, in fact, that the following day Norske Skog Albury technical product support manager Stephen Cox is moved to present him with a graphically evocative souvenir he found in the markets.

He outlines a colourful career, and counsels believing in yourself: “Learn from your mistakes, and master patience.”

Part of the SWUG message is about personal development, and it encourages printers from an early age with awards for top apprentices and promising management.

There’s O’Donnell from the ‘Sunraysia Daily’ in Mildura, whose SWUG prize delivered the opportunity to see a variety of different eastern states print sites. The Herald & Weekly Times and catalogue printer Franklin Web in Melbourne, Fairfax sites in Ballarat and Wodonga, and the Norske Skog newsprint mill, all impressed in different ways. In Sydney, O’Donnell visited News Limited’s Chullora site, the familiarly single-width Torch Publishing plant and Fairfax’s Rural Press North Richmond plant.

Visiting New Zealand SWUG apprentice of the year Jamie Melgren told how he had spent time with press engineering company Webco before joining APN Print.

Mike Molloy, print centre manager of News Limited’s Gold Coast Publications told how he got a taste of newspapers with an inserting job at Bowen Hills, before joining the ‘Brisbane Telegraph’ as an apprentice compositor in 1978. He moved back to Queensland Newspapers in 1986 as a platemaker, and progressed to the new mailroom at Murarrie where he became publishing manager in 2007, before moving to the new Gold Coast site.

And before welcoming delegates to the Ormiston print site, its 55-year-old manager Mark Dibble introduced a different side of himself – as a member of 1970s pop group Maxwell, which once supported iconic pop group Sherbert at the Festival Hall.

Despite the good times of “sex, drugs and rock’n roll”, he still needed a day job and joined what is now Harding Colour in Brisbane, making rubber stamps and later as a letterpress apprentice…. and got into newspapers in Gympie, helping run a flatbed newspaper press. He’s been at Ormiston since the Goss Community with its “big deal” tricolour unit was installed in 1987.

 

As for the industry itself, Lockley’s annual review of new installations isn’t as extensive as it has been on some occasions – the new 64pp KBA Comet at the ‘Northern Territory News’ in Darwin and completion of an upgrade at Fairfax’s Dubbo site rate mention – and there’s a review of the corporate changes and challenges among suppliers including Kodak and manroland, both of which are major sponsors of the event. Another supporter, Baldwin is debt-free after being taken over by a US investment company.

But if times are more subdued, there’s still cash to share around. Supporter GAMAA has a new sponsorship grant, for which delegates are urged to apply, and SWUG itself is later to up its $20,000 biannual leadership scholarship by 50 per cent to provide DRUPA travel for a ‘runner-up’ in this year’s award.

The group supports the Penrith printing museum – for which Lockley was able to secure an 1864 Albion press from a Fairfax contractor – and matched a $500 donation to the local surf club, one of the organisations helping with catering when delegates visited the company’s Ormiston print centre.

And money is being made in print: Goss regional sales vice president Peter Kirwan talked about the runaway success of free papers in Hong Kong, including customer Sing Tao, which has installed four of his company’s presses since launching ‘Headline Daily’ in 2007.

And although global orders for newspaper presses were down by a third last year, KBA sales director Guenther Noll pointed to areas in which print is doing well. Web volume was growing by three to five per cent globally, with directories among segments going against predictions.

The SWUG programme gives suppliers a platform to introduce new products it thinks may be worthwhile: Chiorino Australia’s new business manager James Hunter got to talk about new web-up tapes, including a magnetic system sourced from South Africa. Mark Harvey of giant waste management provider Transpac talked rubbish… or rather, how the recycling “harvest” could make waste management cost-neutral.

And delegates learned more about lubricants from Sean Thiele of Indisol. “People change oil to remove contaminants, but this isn’t always necessary,” he says. “At some Fairfax sites, we have oil which has been running for 18-19 years.”

With fewer new presses going in, the focus is on printing better and with less waste and cost, using the equipment you have.

Michael Gee, who runs Fairfax’s North Richmond print centre, brought a couple of colleagues on stage to demonstrate and explain communication and team motivation. A two-week project focussed on communication between shifts, set standard procedures and yielded paper savings worth $170,000 a year.

And continuous improvement coordinator at Queensland Newspapers Noel Brennan had a similar story, his role “challenging the status quo” at the 17-year-old News Limited plant. After attending a competitive manufacturing course, he initiated the installation of cameras at reelstands to understand what caused the 1607 web breaks a year.

Specifying marginally larger reels helped save 2.6 per cent of breaks, and further analysis of every break or potential break has now brought the total down to 579.

 

Occupational health and safety is a recurring topic at SWUG conferences, “an area where you’re either scaring people or depressing them,” according to recently-recruited Fairfax Media corporate lawyer Penny Karvouniaris.

That’s as well, when penalities now reach $3 million for corporations and $600,000 or five years’ jail for individuals.

Karvouniaris quoted Australian statistics of 128,735 workers compensation claims for serious work-related injuries or illness in 2008-2009, defined key terms and provided tips for staying out of trouble.

She urges practical steps such as updating health and safety procedures and allocating responsibilities. Establish safety committees (reporting upwards) and increase staff awareness of their obligations. There should be processes for hazard identification  and risk assessment; safety audits and contractor management procedures; an incident reporting and review process and channels for communication of health and safety concerns.

Are Worksafe officers always fair? Delegates were warned to take care over the possibility of ‘loaded’ questions and the way statements were drafted.

SWUG delegates agreed that attitudes varied: “They come in with guns blazing, but when they see what we have in place, they’re reasonable,” says Border Mail Printing’s Frank O’Grady.

Pictured: Bob Lockley (right) with DIC Australia managing director Ian Johns

See links:

SWUG Day two: How yer goin’ with that UV

Glittering prizes the star at SWUG's presentation night
Sections: Newsmedia industry

Comments

or Register to post a comment




ADVERTISEMENTS


ADVERTISEMENTS