A specialised warehousing system is helping Hydraulic Steels Australia provide top level service to its parts customers
Hydraulic Steels Australia already boasts the largest range of hydraulic steels in the country, but the grand opening of its new head- quarters in Brisbane is set to catapult the business to even bigger heights.
While the new facility has been operating since late 2020, it was formally christened on October 14 this year, opening its doors to valued customers and business partners.
The company specialises in supplying the hydraulic cylinder repair and hydraulic cylinder manufacturing industries. Steels used are suitable for most types of hydraulic applications and are compatible with most original equipment manufacturer (OEM) machines in sectors including earthmoving, construction, mining and agriculture.
The new facility, located on Ashover Road, Rocklea, in Brisbane’s south, features over 4,000 square metres of warehousing, 12 bandsaws and, in founder and managing director Stephen Holt’s words: “15 of the most wonderful hardworking and resilient staff members.
“The move to Ashover Road was a real team shift but it has now become a large operation. And here we are today with operations both in Brisbane and Melbourne.
“It has certainly been a steep climb, but it has also been extremely rewarding.”
The warehouse at Hydraulic Steels features a large range of chrome plated steel bars for the hydraulic sector, including medium to high tensile and induction hardened steel. A range of honed and unhoned cylinder tubes, CDS line tubes and special hydraulic steels are also available including a range of hollow bar, bright bar and 4140HT.
Hydraulic Steels is the exclusive distributor for Cromax bars and tubes in Australia and New Zealand, which are developed by European steel manufacturer Ovako.
The vision for Hydraulic Steels began in 2007 when Mr Holt – then working for a different local metals company – envisaged a landscape where a specialised company could offer chrome bar and precision steel tubes businesses operating particularly with hydraulics.
“The response at the time was ‘why would you do that… that will make you go broke’,” he says.
But Mr Holt held to his beliefs, he and his wife Terea brought the dream to life after trading various steels in the early 2010s enough capital was raised for the idea of stocking chrome bar and chrome tubing, and it slowly began coming to fruition.
Hydraulic Steels’ formative years were confined to a corner of a warehouse belonging to another local business where Mr Holt stocked one rack of hardened chrome. While small in stature, the business began supplying local customers with specialised chrome bars for hydraulics.
The coming years saw Hydraulic Steels continue to grow, with more sizes in the stock range and an upgrade to its warehouse facility, which had moved to Randolph St in Rocklea. The facility featured 2,200 square metres of warehouse, four new bandsaws and a truck.
In 2019, the brand opened its first interstate facility, located in Dandenong South in Victoria.
“The goal was to service customers in the southern and western states of Australia quicker,” Mr Holt recalls.
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| Warehouse staff utilise Zebra scanner guns to locate and dispatch chrome bars quickly |
Brains of the business
To minimise time between receiving and shipping orders, Hydraulic Steels has developed a specialised system that underpins much of the business’ recent success.
The RTP system makes it easier for customers to order chrome, tube and special other hydraulic steels, and easier for the workforce at Hydraulic Steels to source, cut and ship orders as required.
To do so, Hydraulic Steels has partnered with transportation and logistics solutions specialist Zebra to implement a fleet of scanning guns used by staff in the warehouse. The guns are capable of scanning QR codes, which are added to each bar of steel that passes through the warehouse.
“If you scan the code, we can know every item that is in each particular location in the warehouse. Behind that though, there is a lot of information as well,” developer Jeremy Ferrett says.
“We can see the purchase order it came in on, the certificates that are attached to it. You can also do a lot of inventory management with these devices as well.
“It’s a good way of being able to make sure that we keep track of stock, know exactly where it is, and contributes to being able to fulfill orders and get stock out the door quickly.”
The RTP system was developed after Mr Holt and Mr Ferrett discussed implementing better digitations methods for the company and optimise business turnaround.
“We wanted to work out how we would deliver customer outcomes that were fast, accurate and with all of the traceability information that was required,” Mr Ferrett says.
“To meet the requirements of quick dispatch and fulfilment of orders, you’ve got to know where things are. Each of the users out in the warehouse have their own individual ID cards and PIN numbers, so we also know who has executed each task.”
Hydraulic Steels general manager Brock Nason, who joined the business in March 2020 and oversees the day-to-day operations, says the RTP system has helped improved the speed of order fulfillment.
“Improving our systems was a big focus for us – customer orders, purchasing, procurement, inventory, ordering, fulfilment, dispatch – and we want to provide real time feedback to our customers and give our team proper inventory data which they have access to,” Mr Nason says.
“We have the ability to access this data 24 hours a day because it’s a cloud-based system. If a customer has internet access and a phone or a tablet, we can take an order.
“I believe it’s lifting Hydraulic Steels to new heights with this technology. It’s customised to our requirements and it’s an advantage over our competitors.”
As the business heads into the future, Mr Ferrett outlined greater business-to-business integration through a customer portal and a more streamlined supplier integration portal as two ways forward.
For more information on the range of chrome bars and other hydraulic steel, including Cromax, visit hydraulicsteels.com.au.