Features
Textile Testing Division Occupies New Laboratory
The AWTA Textile Testing Division provides a testing service to a wide range of clients from the wool, textile, apparel, building products, automotive and many other industries. In 1976 when the current Melbourne Raw Wool Laboratory was opened at 24 Robertson Street in Kensington, the Textile Testing Division occupied about 200 square metres of this building. Over the intervening years the Division grew from this small laboratory to a testing complex occupying approximately 1200 square metres on this site. However, its laboratories were scattered over three buildings and on three levels.
A large segment of the Division (200 square metres) was also located at 26 Robertson Street, the oldest building on the site. This building was becoming increasingly structurally unsuitable for the Divisions purposes, requiring constant expensive maintenance. It became clear that at some stage in the future the building would need to be replaced, and at the same time much of the testing infrastructure, such as conditioned atmosphere rooms, were aging and also needing constant maintenance.
In 1998 the Division, as part of its regular strategic planning, conducted a study of its space requirements. This study concluded that a single level laboratory of adequate size, which consolidated the areas occupied, would improve labour productivity by about 10%. It was expected that this improvement would be achieved through better utilisation of existing staff and the benefits of cross training in a highly variable set of testing requirements by the Divisions customers. In addition, in 1998 it was recognised that further growth in the types of testing conducted by the Division would be difficult due to the severe overcrowding of the existing facilities. This had already been demonstrated, with newest equipment purchased by the Division to support its growth in automotive component testing having to be installed in a remote section of the Raw Wool Laboratory. In short, space constraints were limiting the growth of the Division.
AWTA Ltd’s Corporate Plans during the 1990’s had included growth for the Division. These growth targets were largely met, averaging approximately 5% per annum compounded over 5 years. By necessity, given the shrinkage of the textile industry in Australia, growth has only been possible by seeking new markets for the Division’s services and expanding the range of services provided. Predominately, this growth has been in the automotive and ancillary industries where some existing textile testing services were required. This growth required capital investment in new equipment specific to the automotive industry, all of which required additional floor space (see AWTA Ltd Annual Review 2002/2003, AWTA Ltd Newsletter October 2002 “AWTA Textiles Testing Purchases an Environmental Chamber”, AWTA Ltd Newsletter July 2003 “Testing in a New Environment”, AWTA Ltd Newsletter December 2003 “AWTA Textile Testing”).
In 2004 a suitable property, meeting all the requirements for the relocation of the Division became available in Kensington on 191 Racecourse Road. The location of a new laboratory on the existing Robertson Street site would have been preferable but given the constraints of this site it was not possible. A location in Kensington was considered highly desirable for a number of reasons:
- Proximity to AWTA Ltd Head Office and Melbourne Raw Wool Laboratory and their infrastructure, enables the support staff currently assisting the Division to continue to do so with minimum extra cost.
- The proximity to the Melbourne Raw Wool Laboratory maintained the Division’s capability to efficiently provide testing services to raw wool clients, from where many of the samples tested by the Division are generated, from the new site.
- The new site is centrally located for all the Division’s major Victorian markets with ready access to all major transportation routes and conveniently located for interstate and international clients using air freight.
A recommendation for purchasing this property was approved by the AWTA Ltd Board in November 2003. This purchase was successful and the Division was successfully relocated by the end of 2004, with minimum disruption of services to its customers.
The new building consists of two floors. The Division is currently occupying the top floor of the building, providing space of approximately 2000 square metres. Space on the ground floor is leased to other companies.
Facing north, pedestrian access to the building is provided from the south side of Racecourse Road. One of the benefits of the building is that the top floor is designed to take significant loads, reflecting its initial use as a car park for leased vehicles; hence the availability of this mode of access. Vehicle access for deliveries etc is available via a ramp entrance off Lambeth Street on the west of the building.
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The design of the new laboratory maintains a warehouse area to the rear of the building, which can be accessed by vehicles entering from Lambeth Street. In this area laboratory services (compressed air etc) are also located, together with equipment for flammability testing, fastness to light testing, the wet testing laboratory and much of the automotive component testing equipment.
In the centre section the Textile Testing Laboratories and the Chemical Laboratory are located either side of a wide corridor which provides ready access to all these facilities.
The administrative offices, and other facilities such as a lunchroom and a conference room are located at the front section of the building.
The location of the building conveniently allows for line of site electronic communication between the Division and the AWTA Ltd Head Office. The advantage of this technology is that it maintains the situation that previously existed, where voice and data communications were contained internally thereby minimising telecommunications costs.
Over the next two years Textile Testing will continue to develop the automotive testing segment of the business while settling into the new premises. Significant growth is expected to come from expansion of services with existing clients and from new clients as Textile Testing’s reputation for its range of testing continues to grow. It has been the aim of Textile Testing to become the primary source for the testing of materials for the automotive industry. This now appears to be an increasing reality. |
 Rear enterance off Lambeth Street
 Bob Miller Textile Technologist
 Textiles customers with Bob Doyle Textile Testing Divisional Manager, viewing flammability testing
 Flammability Testing
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Textile Testing is also looking at other product testing areas, outside automotive testing that again make use of the range of equipment that Textile Testing has recently acquired. Further targeted capital purchases will be made to facilitate this growth.
All this now becomes possible because of the additional space provided by the relocation to the new laboratory.