Australian Government - Royal Australian Mint

Annual Report 2005-06

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Operations

Engineering Services

There was a significant increase in activity in the Engineering Services Section (ESS) during the year, particularly in Tooling Production where circulating coin die production increased by 77 per cent over the previous year. Master tool production was also high due to an increased number of coin designs. As a result of the ageing plant and equipment there was also a high level of preventative maintenance work undertaken in order to keep break-downs to a minimum.

The ESS which comprises Tooling Production, Mechanical and Electrical Maintenance, employs the largest number of trades personnel. The increased production activity during the year placed heavy demand on engineering services requiring the recruitment of additional staff.

The Mint was also affected by an industry shortage of qualified trades-people making the recruitment of such personnel difficult. However, several trades-people were recruited and trained in the use of Mint machinery to overcome an immediate staff shortage.

As a long-term solution, the apprentice training programme was further enhanced by adding four training placements during the year, bringing the total current apprentice numbers to 10. The mature age apprenticeship programme which commenced the previous year has proven to be popular. More than half the apprentices are now of mature age. The programme has provided an opportunity for semi-skilled employees to learn a trade.

The multi-skilling programme which was introduced several years ago has progressed further and the majority of the trades-people are now competent in more than five major trade skills required by the Mint. About 80 per cent of the planned training for the year was completed, with most of the training conducted in-house on the basis of a mutual skill transfer programme.

As part of the capital replacement programme the Mint acquired a new multifunctional Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) lathe replacing an obsolete machine. The acquisition of the new CNC lathe produced very good results in terms of quality of product. As a result a second CNC Engraving machine was purchased during the year which has increased the master tool production capacity.