We Speak to Laser 3D

Laser 3D have been in the automotive industry for many years. They have 4 laser cells in Victoria, and over 3 in South Australia and now 1 in Queensland. They manufacture anything from large earth moving equipment, automotive body panels, through to small intricate work. Directors are Martin Bonavita and Brian Finn.

About Laser 3D

They have two factory locations, one in Victoria (25 employees) and one in South Australia (23 employees). They also have a sales office in Sydney of two people.

They manufacture and process just about any type of material with their 2 axis, 5 axis and rotary cutting capabilities, metal fabrication and laser engraving.

They invest in the best equipment and are able to adjust to 24-hour production in less than four hours to meet tight deadlines for their customers. Early on they introduced the MRP system in to their workshop, which automates their production processes and also helps them respond quickly to customer demands.

Why Laser 3D is Different

When we recently had a chat to Bruce Thomas, CEO of Laser 3D, it became evident that the way Bruce helps manage the business is based upon the simple philosophy of working on the business, rather than getting weighed down by the day-to-day running of the business.  He spoke about the key ways he sees the business has grown over the years to be the key player that it is today.

Industry experience – they have been in the industry for many years, Bruce Thomas, CEO, has been in the industry for over 30 years and combines his love of the industry as well as his savvy business knowledge to keep the organisation on its next wave of growth. ‘We jokingly use the phrase around here, “we are not clever, just old, there is a lot of experience in this company and combined it really makes a difference”, he says.

Working closely with suppliers – ‘A lot of companies think that shopping around for the best deals continually is the cheapest way to do business. But what actually happens is you end up getting what you pay for. Instead, we like to work closely with our suppliers to get the quality right and response times, and naturally the overall cost of doing business reduces in the process.

‘We also choose to work with Headland and invest in technology that they supply, such as TRUMPF. TRUMPF is simply the best machinery on the market without question, we work exclusively with TRUMPF and Headland to meet the high quality and turnaround times our industry demands.

‘Overall, we are in partnership with our suppliers, we are not in business on our own, if they are successful, we are successful’, says Thomas.

People – ‘We also work closely with our people to ensure they enjoy their jobs and get the right training. We find that by overseeing their career path, we can guide them before they outgrow their current positions, we have them trained-up and moving on to bigger and better things. We also find that a lot of good employees come through referrals from our existing employees, good people attract good people.

‘Additionally, in recent years we have sponsored students from Monash University, Melbourne and RMIT in their quest to design and assemble super cars. We teach them how to program and use our equipment to create the frames for the cars. It’s a great opportunity for them to put theory in to practice and we love being part of the process and seeing future engineers develop.

Systems – ‘As a company we strongly believe in setting processes, not making decisions. If you have the right processes in place, then you only have to decide once what the correct course of action is. From then on, the process should ensure work is consistent.

‘We also try to ensure our equipment is working to its highest capacity. If something needs fixing, we get the right service person out here, for the required amount of time to fix it. We don’t try and fix it ourselves which can be very costly. We get the experts out here’, Bruce comments.

Laser 3D are passionate about working with a few good suppliers and believe this is the core strength of the company.

Read more about Laser 3D at www.laser3d.com.au