Small Company, Big Expertise

08 August 2004

Morson Engineering specialises in the production of customized steel pipe

With projects such as the Anzac Bridge, and the A$123 million Karuah Bypass under its belt, it's no wonder that local Wyong business, Morson Engineering, has a reputation for quality work and efficient service.

A family owned business, Morson Engineering was founded in 1945 by Jock Morson. It's currently owned and run by Jock's son, John Morson, Managing Director and by his two sons, Rhett Morson, the General Manager, and Trent Morson, the Production Manager.

With ten employees working from its 2,000 square metre workshop in Wyong, Morson Engineering specialises in the production of customised steel pipe, predominantly for the piling, construction, mining and irrigation industries. It also undertakes cutting and profiling work for its customers.

"The main thing that sets us apart from the competition is the agility and flexibility of our business," says Rhett Morson. "We specialise in the fabrication of non standard pipe lengths and diameters, and we offer a very quick turnaround time. We can manufacture any type of pipe at all, we are not restricted to standard sizes."

"This means we can tailor a solution to meet a customer's specific needs, producing custom made pipe to their exact requirements, in the same time it would take to produce standard sized pipe."

The process is simple, says Rhett. Steel plate is cut into sections, rolled into barrels and circumferentially welded to other sections to produce the required length. "The advantage is that our customers don't have to pay for what they don't use," says Rhett. "Instead of buying a standard length pipe and having to cut it themselves and discarding the waste, we produce the pipe specifically for them, whether it is 12 metres long, or 14.75 metres long!"

"Attentive and individualised customer service is one of our key values," adds Rhett. "We try to fit our products to the client, not the other way around. We work with our customers to find better, cheaper, more efficient ways of doing things. And we can do this because we are a relatively small, agile, flexible company."

"We have a quality assurance system in place that we developed ourselves, which is built from the ground up and based on our customers particular requirements. We produce comprehensive quality documentation for every single job we do, regardless of whether the client has asked for it. This ensures consistency of our processes and our products."

"We are also committed to research and development, we are always finding new and innovative ways to improve our processes, reduce costs, and increase productivity."

Morson Engineering uses XLERPLATE®, a brand of high quality hot rolled steel plate from BlueScope Steel, exclusively on its jobs. "We use predominantly AS/NZS 3678 - 250 XLERPLATE® for our work, as well as some AS/NZS 3678 - 350 XLERPLATE®. We have capacity for about 5000 tonnes of XLERPLATE® annually."

"The main reason we use XLERPLATE® is that we like to offer our customers a fully Australian made product, and that means using Australian steel. As an Australian business, we like to support local industry," he adds.

According to Rhett, flexibility and lead times are another good reason to choose XLERPLATE®. "We've always had a good relationship with BlueScope Steel. They are able to give us the flexibility that we need from a supplier. Lead times are excellent; in fact, I would say that lead times have been one of BlueScope Steel's biggest achievements, as a supplier, in the last decade."