Yoke Har Lee: Right people get automatic results

While rml's Larry Green says it is 'waiting for the world to start again', it is already working on $20 million worth of enquiries. Photo / Sarah Ivey

A Waikato company is showing just how big a boost a business can get from hiring the right people.

That's why Larry Green, managing director and co-owner of automation specialist rml, says the greatest threat to the company's ongoing success is "not being able to attract enough quality people".

"The company has leaped ahead because of the input of people who work for the company. The culture of the place is very positive and we have a feeling we can take on anything," he says.

Rml, based in Te Rapa, just out of Hamilton, began life in the 1980s as a manufacturer of low-cost components for the dairy industry. A major transformation has since seen it become a world-class automation engineering company.

This happened after Green and Peter Botting bought a stake of more than 50 per cent in 2003.

The two aspired to establish a culture that was inclusive. "I have found that if you tell someone what to do, they do what they think you want," says Green. "If you include people and ask for their input, you normally get a lot more than you expect."

In 2005 Green read Stephen Covey's The 8th Habit - From Effectiveness to Greatness, a book about creating greatness. What followed was a major change in the company's makeup.

It also helped that many key people joined rml just after 2000. Among its staff are dairy industry old hand Ross Townshend, director of automation Daryl Joyce, Keith McCracken (ex Tetrapak), and R&D champion Tim Parker, who was once a mechanic for Kiwi motorcycle racing star Hugh Anderson.

Rml has divisions dealing with machinery, project management, automation, and design and service. Over the past four years the company has changed its business to one focused on innovation.

One of its showpieces is a laboratory automation system for SAITL Dairy Laboratories in Te Rapa, which handles and tests some 20,000 vials of milk a day.

Rml designed automation solutions to help SAITL handle the many vials that had to be opened and closed; loaded and unloaded. Part of the project involved designing a high-speed robot mounted on an overhead gantry rail that helps cut the manual labour needed to sort the vials.

SAITL's general manager, Margaret Malloch, says she was impressed by the team she worked with at rml, describing them as being open to suggestion, attentive, innovative and technically capable.

She says the system designed by rml has helped SAITL solve various issues, including occupational health risks for its workers.

The SAITL robot has caught global attention. Green says ABB, the international power and automation company, was so intrigued by the creation that its Shanghai personnel came to New Zealand to have a look.

Green is banking on the robotic system being sold to places where laboratories have to cope with testing huge volumes of liquids. "We see a lot of opportunities in China for milk testing," he says.

The company plans to increase turnover to $30 million by 2011, up from $13 million for the financial year ended this March, and $8 million in 2008.

Although turnover growth was robust last year, by December the company was forced to cut staff numbers from 60 to 44.

While there has been a shakeup in the market, which might mean less competition, rml faces the constant challenge of a strong New Zealand dollar.

"There will always be the threat of cheaper machinery from other parts of the world," says Green. "We want to aim at the high end of the automation market where our solution is more important than the price of the machinery because of the value we have added to the business.

"We are now waiting for the world to start again. We are working on our next lot of orders. The level of inquiries is strong," he says.

Rml is working on $20 million worth of inquiries, with interest coming from Britain, Korea, Australia, the United States, Europe and China.

Reflecting on what it takes to crack new markets, Green says it took nearly four years for rml to succeed in Australia. "In Australia, people would rather buy Aussie unless you can prove you are better."

Having raised the level of its automation expertise dramatically in the past two years, rml now feels it can take on the world. Not having debts is also a big plus; an aborted acquisition of another company has given rml time to consolidate.

Says Green: "We believe we have got the ability to provide the best solution - close enough to develop exactly what the client wants and not just an off-the-shelf solution."