Gemcell Australia

Growing a business in a sparsely populated region requires dedication, passion for excellence, hard work and most of all, resilience and persistence. Despite the tyranny of distance and climatic extremes, ISAS has won several supplier excellence awards and is the preferred supplier for many key players in industry and commerce.

According to Ric Innes, a "can do" approach is the primary requisite for doing business in Darwin, a city renowned for many things but not least for surviving not only Japanese bombs in World War 2 but more recently, the ravages of Cyclone Tracy. An iconic business in the Northern Territory, ISAS has earned its enviable status by overcoming the day-to-day problems of geographic isolation and getting the product to its customers come-what-may. “It’s all part of the challenge and the satisfaction" said Ric, who has been Sales Manager at ISAS since the business first began trading.

While it now employs 75 people, primarily in Darwin and Perth, ISAS was originally established with a small team of 5; Tony Pearce, director, Ric Innes, Sales Manager, a storeman, an admin officer and an apprentice. Three of the original staff team are still with ISAS today! This in itself is quite an achievement, as the Territory is notorious for high levels of staff turnover with many businesses turning over 80% of their staff in a 2 year period. ISAS Director, Tony Pearce, explained that this is also one of ISAS's greatest strengths. "We have worked hard to build a really knowledgeable and committed team and to ensure that they enjoy the working environment so there is a high level of staff retention. Long term staff keep building their knowledge through experience, training and product awareness and can provide the best possible service to customers.”

Located on a corner facing the Stuart Highway (locally known as the "Track" but in fact Darwin's busiest road) ISAS services key players in the mining and resource sector at locations as far flung as Alice Springs, Groote Eylandt, Nhulunbuy and Jabiru. “Our primary markets include medium to heavy industry and commercial projects” said Ric, “however servicing the many smaller customers, many of whom have been with us since the beginning, is of no less importance. ISAS customers span water and wastewater, mechanical services, HVAC, pumping and irrigation, mining, process industries and automation” added Ric.

ISAS is also committed to the development of long term relationships with key clients rather than purely transactional relationships. For more than 10 years, ISAS has operated supply contracts to the Nhulunbuy Bauxite Mine (operated by Alcan Gove (now Rio Tinto Alcan). Over that period there have been many events that have demonstrated the strength and capability of the ISAS supply chain. In one instance a fire in a switch room resulted in a shutdown of most of the mine’s export plant. The closure of this particular plant is extremely costly and any extended shutdown would have resulted in considerable expense and loss to the mine operators. The ISAS team worked closely together with site personnel to establish an interim solution that would enable the plant to resume operation.

Transport to the plant is generally by barge due to the absence of an all weather road and the distance involved. In this case ISAS was able to supply new busbars, insulators, replacement switchgear and cables and arrange urgent air transport in order to get the plant operational again within 48 hours. "Logistically and operationally it was an enormous challenge to source, supply and deliver the products in a crisis situation, but we achieved an excellent result for the client" said Andy Cruse, Major Client Manager, who managed the supply chain.

Another example was the key role ISAS played in the logistics of the $3B Alcan G3 expansion project in 2005. The project involved the overseas manufacture of various pre fabricated plant modules, some weighing over 1500T and three stories in height. As the principle supplier of all electrical commodities, ISAS shipped goods from Darwin to various countries where the modules were being constructed.

“There's never a dull moment but that's what keeps us going. We thrive on the challenge”.

"We were constantly shipping items to places such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and locations throughout Australia. Many shipments required making sure that the skids' packaging dimensions would clear the aircraft cargo doors. Due to the extremely short construction times, shipment destinations could be redirected four or more times in any one week" said Andy, who headed up the G3 logistics team from Gove.

The project’s logistic constraints included road freight timeframes of 7 to 10 days to Darwin, followed by a 10 day sea freight timeframe to site and a further two days to offload. As the only road to Gove was dirt, not suitable for large road freight trains and more often cut off by the wet season, sea freight was the only option. The barge only departed once a week, so coordinating deliveries was paramount to the success of the project. A delay could have resulted in up to 300 electricians sitting around on site waiting for gear! The G3 project team and ISAS worked closely together to ensure continuous supply under demanding circumstances. In many cases this meant liaising with area site supervisors to forecast requirements for up to 8 weeks in accordance with the design teams’ usage estimates.

ISAS personnel have an important technical and commercial advantage that is recognised by their customers. "We can generally provide solutions on a range of enquiries by drawing on in-house knowledge. This may vary from selecting the best PLC Automation platform and communications network to a motor starting application" said director Tony Pearce. A recent example of the high confidence and good relationships that ISAS has established was a supply order for six 1Mw medium voltage variable speed drives. Ordinarily, such orders – due to their high level of complexity – would be placed by the end user or its consultants directly with the manufacturer. However the high technical capability of the ISAS team allowed them to add significant value to the process for all parties involved.

"It's been a lot of hard work and I've certainly accumulated some grey hairs over the years, but I'm really proud of the ISAS team and the expertise and reputation that we have achieved for our exhaustive efforts and excellent service” Tony added. “There's never a dull moment but that's what keeps us going. We thrive on the challenge”.