Bendigo-based steel casting manufacturer Keech Australia has placed 7th in the prestigious BRW Top 50 Innovative Companies List, ahead of some of Australia’s largest organisations such as Coles, Telstra and Coca-Cola Amatil.
Keech Australia CEO Herbert Hermens says the company is thrilled with the ranking.
“Innovation is not just a word at Keech – it’s the philosophy of our entire organisation,” he says.
“We have invested millions of dollars into innovative solutions to ensure Keech is at the forefront of manufacturing for the global mining and industrial sectors.”
Early last year Keech opened an Innovation and Quality Centre that acts as a central hub where metallurgists, scientists, innovators, patternmakers and QA specialists work together.
The Centre develops new products to address issues experienced by Keech customers in the field and to continuously improve the existing products and processes.
“We invest over 7 per cent of sales revenue every year on research and development and will continue to build on this investment by bringing new, unique and innovative products to market as quickly as possible,” Hermens adds.
Among Keech’s latest innovations is a tool-less method of installing digging attachments on mining buckets.
Inspired by the fast assembly of flat pack furniture, Keech’s KeeLock can be installed in an instant and removed in less than 40 seconds.
On top of the KeeLock, Keech Australia also manufactures a wide range of Ground Engaging Tools (G.E.T) for construction and mining, expander pivot systems and mining buckets.
Keech says its high quality steel castings caters to the mining, construction, excavating, rail transport, defence and agricultural industries in Australia.