Few are growing and expanding at the rate of Flocon, with its new manufacturing facility now open in Pakenham. Director Rory Knight explains the reasoning behind the facilities development.
Flocon has grown exponentially since its foundation in 1975, with high-quality machinery and family ownership acting as the key pillars to the company’s recent success.
The specialised road maintenance equipment manufacturer designs and builds machinery such as aggregate spreaders, sprayers, sealers and multi-purpose units in-house, having established itself as one of the industry’s pioneers in the space.
The opening of Flocon’s new factory in Pakenham, Melbourne in November 2023 is just another achievement in this long journey.
Company Director Rory Knight says the new facility is an “extremely exciting” milestone for the company, which is on an upwards trajectory in the market.
“We’ve outgrown where we are at the moment, so we were looking to expand to also cater for the influx of orders that we’ve been getting to keep up with supply and demand,” Knight says.
“We tried to increase our power supply to our current headquarters in Hallam, but we had already exceeded it. A new factory would allow us to build what we wanted thanks to a larger power supply.”
This power supply was crucial, for two main reasons. The first being the implementation of new technology and manufacturing equipment. The second, to increase the efficiency and speed of production for each individual unit, in particular, Flocon’s larger trucks.
Knight says the team recognised that the construction of each heavy unit would previously slow down the production process across the entire facility. The new facility is the ideal solution to this conundrum.
“Thanks to the larger power supply we’re now able to run an array laser cutting machine, so we can speed up our process instead of waiting for components to come in,” Knight says. “This will allow us to do a lot more in our own ‘backyard’. We have also installed a crane with a larger capacity to aid in the manufacturing process of the larger Flocon units.
“Our largest trucks take the longest to construct, but now we’re going to be able to get through them a lot quicker. That’s one of the most exciting aspects of the new factory, being able to relieve some of that pressure.”
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This will also include the use of CNC (Computer Numerical Control) technology, providing greater automation and precision during production.
The larger units, including the company’s 12-tonne, forward spreaders and lime spreader options, will be constructed at the new facility.
The design and manufacture of smaller units will be shared across the main Hallam site and the new site in Pakenham, with just a 15-minute drive between the two.
Having the new factory will also allow the company to ‘flatpack’ components to be sent across to the Hallam site, again boosting production efficiency.
Leading up to the opening of the new factory, Flocon Engineering conducted training for its existing and most recent team members in preparation for the use of new Flocon manufacturing equipment and processes.
“We planned ahead to make sure we could have builds underway straight away. All we had to do was literally walk in and switch everything on.”
The new Pakenham factory will also act as a base for the production and distribution of spare parts for the machinery.
“We already have our representatives in each state. This factory will take some of the pressure off with being able to supply parts a lot quicker. Our customers won’t be waiting as long for those parts,” Knight says.
The facility opening was celebrated with both staff and long-term suppliers. But as per the typical Flocon Engineering way, Knight says the “low-key” celebrations were a reminder to continue to scale the mountain, rather than glorify the trip to the top.
Long-term planning has already commenced on a centralised site for all production, in what will be a significant size increase over the other sites.
“We’re already in talks with property developers, looking at a five-to-ten-year plan to combine the two sites together. That’s already in motion,” Knight says.
“We’re focusing on expanding and getting quicker. That’s one of our biggest objectives at the moment.”
This article was originally published in the December edition of our magazine. To read the magazine, click here.