New hydraulic workshop layout streamlines workflow & team grows

It’s been almost three years since Jonel Hydraulics moved to our new purpose-built premises in Blackburn Road. In that time all our departments have experienced steady growth, boosted by the services of our business development manager. As always, our focus remains on our customers, and our growth strategy.

Our growth strategy includes a focus on lean & efficient service provision

As always, growth also creates challenges – by late 2016 we were simply running out of room.

Jonel’s ‘Industrial Tool’ team got together to nut out a strategy which would improve our hire area, stores and workshop layouts – and it had to work within the available space to better accommodate our growing team and workflow.

Using a computer model to redesign the workshop layout in detail made the process of re-designing our Hire, Stores and IT Service workshop layout much faster and straight-forward.

Jonel’s engineering team worked with our supply contractors to strip out and clean the original layout. New benches, tools, air-lines and power were installed in less than three days – not bad for a major project!

Our customers can only benefit from our new stores and workshop layout which makes for a more streamlined efficient process, whether it be collecting Hire tooling or dropping in a Pump and Jack for repairs.

Check out our new layout with Stores, Hire and Workshop – we think it is open, friendly and inviting – our staff are finding it great to work in. Come and see for yourself – you’re always welcome.

With thanks, Jonel IT Team.

New workshop layout:

Old workshop layout:

Hydraulic servicing team expands with new talent at Jonel Hydraulics

The Hydraulic Cylinder Service and Build team is full throttle as we head into 2017. With additional staff brought into the workshop last year, we’re prepped and ready to churn through some high spec precision cylinder repairs and builds.

“It’s great to see the workshop so busy and the hydraulic team so focused” said Dean Nadeem, Jonel Service Manager. “We are always excited by new challenges, and the variety of custom builds and repair works coming into Jonel is giving us lots of diverse projects.”

Our team had been working on small cylinders from Forklift Tilt, to multi-stage Palfingers, and larger 45T Komatsu WA450 Wheel Loaders. Some machinery requires new cylinders, others need new barrel and shafts.

The range of cylinders sizes the workshop handles varies widely said Dean ‘these are great examples’ plus our fast turnaround means very little down-time for operators, a typical  saying we often here is ‘if wheels aren’t turning its costing me money’

Our custom built premises and new workshop layout mean that cylinder size is no issue for us and our workflow is efficient to avoid double handling or cluttering of the workshop.

“We’ve seen an increase in the number of cylinder repairs including major re-builds through the hydraulic workshop,” says Nadeem, “we’re expecting similar numbers though the coming months.”

We’re also really pleased to see clients already scheduling their maintenance work for the slow season; this kind of planning ahead prevents big financial losses in the event of breakdowns, and minimises machine downtime.”

After a couple of years with almost no staff turn-over, we were unlucky to lose several members of our team late last year and had to go on a major recruitment drive. It has been a challenge keeping up with the workload and managing to meet our usual hi-speed turnaround that we are known for.

However we have now employed three experienced new tradesmen (Timoci, Jaswant and Freddie), two recent graduates from MIT and AUT (Ricknesh and Akshay), an Auckland based Business Development person (Toni) and an office assistant (Ainsley) to assist Esmay. Fingers crossed, we are now full steam ahead once more!

New assets to the Jonel Hydraulics Team

Akshay Govan Just finishing his Degree in Mechanical Engineering in Technology at AUT, Akshay likes to spend his spare time in sports and cars. He plays for Grafton Cricket Club and plays soccer with his mates.	Freddie Rautenbach Very friendly and energetic, Freddie has a fitting and machining back ground and specializes in hydraulics. Originally from SA, Freddie is very family orientated, and likes to cycle and hunt in his spare time.	Nalaka Wijesundara Living in NZ for almost 3.5 years, Nalaka enjoys living here. He is a qualified Mechanical Fitter originally from Sri Lanka, and spent time working in Saudi before moving to NZ. He enjoys travelling and hiking.
Shiraj Singh Young and enthusiastic, Shiraj has just finished his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering at MIT. He has joined us as a trainee but has found his niche in hydraulics. Based at our Christchurch branch, Shiraj loves to drive and explore beautiful NZ.	Tim (Timoci) Lalanabaravi Tim is a Mechanical fitter who has spent lots of time in ship-building industry in Fiji, and has a passion for welding. Tim is a keen rugby player and spends his spare time at the gym.

Jonel Hydraulics Focus on Lean Service Provision

Jonel Hydraulics systems and processes employ lean manufacturing principles throughout the business.

The management team cultivate a company-wide commitment to quality and efficiency. From cylinder repairs to onsite hydraulic servicing, each step of every job is time managed and quality checked, and every opportunity for improvement is identified and acted upon.

Staff training is a key focus and Jonel management work to understand each employee’s skill set and allocate work accordingly to maximise efficiency and the knowledge resource within the business.

As each hydraulic cylinder arrives for servicing or repairs, a job is opened in the system, the cylinder is tagged and steam cleaned to avoid any contamination.

Next, the cylinder is dismantled and test procedures carried out to determine the diagnosis, parts are cleaned and checked for wear and damage, and a report is written detailing necessary repairs.

On approval of the quote, the repairs are carried out as specified in the purpose built hydraulic workshop. The repairs can vary from extensive (new barrel, new rod/shaft, new parts, honing, new seals etc.) to simply changing seals kits only. Once the cylinders are assembled after repairs, they go through a mandatory testing and sign off procedure.

Finally, the cylinder is painted, and delivered to the client. Job done.