1. Tell me about your company – what industry you are in and what does your business do?
I am the CEO of Grant Transformers in WA and Director of Star Delta. I guess you could say I am in the Electrical Engineering space or manufacturing industry. I like to think of the businesses being in the industry of keeping the lights on!
The group of companies in Australia are focused on Design, Manufacture and Supply of bespoke electrical transformers encompassing Power transformers, Isolation transformers, Ferrite cores, DC Power Supplies, LC Sinewave filters, Auto transformers, Earthing transformers etc… our range covers from very low voltage to 133kV Power Distribution Voltage. We use ONAN (Oil Cooled) and KNAN (Biodegradable Oil), as well as Dry Type VPI or Cast Resin topologies. Integrated Kiosks with oil bunds or movable skids including protection and monitoring are all part of our bespoke offering.
2. Can you please provide some top level information about your organisation, such as size, number of staff, office locations or similar?
In total across the various businesses we employ over 40 people. With offices and factories in Malaga, Perth; Yenorra, NSW; Driehoek, Germiston. We have other contract factories in China and Turkey to support our manufacturing needs as well.
3. Why did you go through certification?
I was introduced to ISO9000 in 2002 a young and hungry learner in business. I found that ISO systems added structure to undefined processes and with professional support via an ISO consultant one could implement systems which staff could replicate over and over again. This tool was useful to me, being hungry to grow businesses whereby people and systems were integral to that ambition. When arriving in Perth in 2016, I joined a small business called Grant Transformers who had been around for 85 years and was small in size and turnover. My immediate thought was to unpack, review and write systems around a tried and tested company (strong bones were there, I just needed to add meat and muscle). That was a critical pathway for us and subsequently the company has grown 10 fold in size and revenue in the last 5 years. Once I was finished with Grant Transformers, the plan was to implement it across other businesses such as Star Delta, that has been a successful process too.
4. How did you find the process with Global-Mark?
Easy communications, well-grounded and thoughtful auditors with industry experience. I am looking for insights, and audits which help us grow and progress as a business.
5. What is your outcome e.g. are you happy with the outcome?
Yep, happy with Global-Mark and look forward to the next few years working with them.
6. Are there any other business benefits you experienced as a result of becoming certified?
Having used ISO for so long, the first thing I wanted to do was implement a cloud based, pictorial guide system with easy input for staff. If it’s hard and onerous, your staff will not execute or own their processes. We have a great consultant who happened to have specific set of skills aligned to my vision, its been blast since then, executing the plan.
Having ISO advantages as per below:
- Client process compliance
- Reporting structures
- Ease of accessing our documents
- More control
- Backwards and forwards reviewing.
For more information on Grant Transformers, click here.
