A high demand for its products and eager plans to drastically reduce lead-times led Australia’s largest bus manufacturer – Volgren – to invest in a Australian-built CNC router from Brisbane-based Advanced Robotic Technology (ART) – the 16000SX. The new router will be used to pre-drill the holes to further decrease lead-times and has proved to be cutting at four times the speed as the previous one. The company is so impressed they are thinking of purchasing a third. Unlike many other manufacturers during these times, Volgren is experiencing an upturn of 42% in sales this financial year and plans to manufacture as many as 630 buses. Bruce Hobbs, GM, comments that Volgren’s buses are unique. They have an aluminium body and bolted together rather than fabricated and welded, so therefore not as many jigs and fixtures are needed. Over 20,000 buses manufactured worldwide and all using box truck lease tech to help power the automotive standard.
Published AMT magazine May 2009
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