Team Journal

A fantastic result in Shizuoka at the Worldskills International competition, with Joshua, Samuel and Matthew coming in at fourth place and received a Medallion of Excellence. Congratulations to the team! (Jack Dusseldorp, Chairman, Dusseldorp Skills Forum)

From the competitors

The Results.

Well the Shizuoka competition is now over and Australia just failed to get a medal but the Australian MTC team were awarded ‘Medallions for Excellence’ to acknowledge their performance during the competition.

The competition results were as follows:

Korea — 532 marks — GOLD
Japan — 527 marks — SILVER
Brazil — 512 marks — BRONZE
Finland — 510 marks — BRONZE
Australia — 509 marks — Medallion for Excellence
France — 462 marks
Chinese Taipei — 448 marks

As you can see from the results, Australia missed out on a bronze medal by just 1 mark, it was that close. Australia built the best wind generator unit with an incredible score of 44.86 marks out of a possible 45 marks, and we did not lose any marks on our documentation but we did lose marks on the surprise project which eventually decided the medals.

Preparing for the Competition.
I arrived in Shizuoka on Thursday morning, the 8th November, and after settling into our accommodation we went for a walking tour of Shizuoka. On the Friday, all Chief Experts met up with their Deputy Chief Experts and Jury Presidents to form their Skill Management teams. After a briefing we worked on our skill management plan, and met all the MTC experts at a welcome ceremony on a very wet Friday night.

On Saturday afternoon all MTC experts started the competition preparation as a group or jury. We had to consider OH&S checks, clarification of assessment and assessment procedures, selection of a surprise project, allocate duties for experts. This is a critical time for the competition if the competition is to run with minimal problems.

We welcomed all the MTC teams on site on Tuesday morning and it was great to see the Australian team – all arrived bright and bubbly and ready for action. They were surprised to see how much equipment some of the teams bought to the competition. Australia packed our tools and materials into a toolbox 1.4m x 0.5m x 0.4m and weighing less than 100kgs while one team had a shipping crate with their tools and materials, about 2m x 2m x 2m and weighing 500kgs. We always reckoned size does not matter!!!

After unpacking their tools and setting up their competition site, familiarisation sessions were conducted on all workshop equipment and all competitors then had an opportunity to practice with the equipment. At 7:00pm the surprise project was released to all the teams and a period of 30 minutes was given for them to examine the project. All documentation was then collected and teams left for their accommodation.

The opening ceremony was held on Wednesday, at ‘Grandship’ which was about a 2 hour bus trip south. Because of the traveling time it was decided that no competitors would come to the competition site on this day. The Opening Ceremony always is an emotional but patriotic time, when we all get dressed in our dress uniform, Just to see the Australian team in their uniforms, march into the hall behind the Aussie flag and waving Aussie flags, certainly brings a lump in the throat, and makes one really proud being an Aussie.

Experts are not permitted to talk with their competitors unless supervised by another expert except on competition days when 2 periods each of 30 minutes for expert and competitor communication was permitted. There were strict regulations of these sessions and must be done in full view of other experts.

The competition started at 9:00am on Thursday and it was just hectic, with all competitors really focusing on their projects and working really hard. I was really impressed by the work the Australian team completed during the day and appeared to be following their ‘game plan’.

There were many highlights of the competition including a visit to the MTC competition site by His Imperial Highness Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan on the Friday. The Crown Prince selected only 5 sites to visit and MTC was one of these. He arrived at our site, accompanied by the entourage of bodyguards and media. After meeting him, Teruhiko, our workshop supervisor explained the MTC competition. It was indeed an honour to meet Japanese royalty.

Saturday is the last day of competition for MTC as we spend the Sunday assessing all the projects. There was a fair amount of pressure applied to some of the Australian team members to get their projects completed within time. We would have liked to have more time on the CNC machines but other teams also booked these machines, restricting our machine time.

After the competition finished, the experts worked into the night assessing some of the projects. It was a late night but was required if we were to complete marking and the recording of marks by Sunday night.

Testing during the Sunday was a very frustrating day for me, as I was trying to keep the assessment to a timetable but could have had more assistance by some of my fellow experts. We finished at about 7:30pm after concluding assessment and all competitors packing up their toolkits ready for shipment back to their country. Experts then finalized all the assessment sheets and results were entered into the computer, but not all results were signed off.

On Monday, we finalized the assessment with several problems with an uncooperative expert. Competitors were not to be told of any of their results until at the medals ceremony.

The MTC technical description was edited, and elections Chief Expert and Deputy Chief Expert for Calgary 2009 were held, and initial preparations were discussed. I did not intend to stand and Shizuoka 2007 would be my last international competition. Anderson Scalassara from Brazil was elected the Chief Expert and Taha Benchiguer from France as the Deputy Chief Expert. I wish them all the best when organizing the next competition.

The medal ceremony was held on Wednesday and it was a really cold day when several of the Australian experts and supporters gathered around a kerosene heater trying to keep warm.

It was really disappointing for the Australian MTC team to miss out on a medal by the one mark, but I am just so proud of the Australian MTC team. They were disappointed but after the competition has finished, is not the time to ask ‘what if’s’ or blame others for their result – it is a team event and team members must accept their results as a collective team.

They competed in the true Aussie spirit and really worked hard over the 12 months preparing for the competition and then during the competition. To be a part of the best performing Australian team ever, coming 5th in the world was an incredible and outstanding performance and the MTC team contributed to this.

A result I wanted from the MTC team was the result of their effort and the Australian MTC team gave us well over 200% of effort – congratulations to Matt, Sam and Joshua, you made me proud to have been involved with each of you – you all gave your best – you are incredibly talented young men, and Australia should be rightly proud of you.

Geoffrey Ball, MTC Expert

October 2007

Workshop Session – 26th, 27th and 28th October

This workshop was the last workshop session for the Australian MTC team before departing for Shizuoka. The next time the team will meet will be in Hobart for the Excellence Awards on 8th November and then they will depart for Shizuoka on 10th November.

On Friday the MTC team gave a short presentation to the DSF Board Meeting outlining the concepts of the Manufacturing Team Challenge competition and each team member gave a short address about their preparation and how MTC and Worldskills have changed their lives. It was a pleasure to be able to introduce the team to a fabulous supporter of the Australian MTC team.

Our toolbox has been sent to Japan, so it was intended to conduct tests during the weekend on our prototype unit and to test and finalise some of the assessment criteria.

The remaining part of Friday was spent completing the maintenance and operating manuals. Originally the preparation of these manuals was to be done during the competition, but with restrictions of word processing software being only in English language, it was voted to complete these manuals before the competition. Samuel and Joshua photographed parts of the prototype unit and completed most of the text. Matthew worked on developing the electrical control circuit.

On Saturday we improved and finalised some of the simple little features of the unit such as the outlet and the filter. A simple but efficient filter was developed and it works very well as it was intended – it even became dirty when testing with tap water. A rubber filter to simulate a completely blocked filter was made and tested to indicate when the filter was blocked.

Matthew’s developed a problem with his circuit and John Znidersic came in to discuss a few troubleshooting techniques. They resolved the issue in a very short time. Better to have the problem now rather than have the problem in Shizuoka.

SkillsOne filmed during the afternoon of some of the unit testing. Timed tests were rehearsed and some practice times were reduced to what we believe a very competitive level. Using the assessment aspects, we tested as many of the aspects as possible and are reasonably satisfied with our unit.

On Sunday we tested the complete unit with timed pumping operation. Matthew will need to modify and tune the pumping cycle times but overall the unit functions well. John Znidersic again spent the morning with us, providing valuable assistance and advice. Matthew is the only person in the team with any electronic skills so unfortunately the other team members are very limited in providing any technical assistance or support, so John’s assistance is invaluable.

The surprise project was discussed in some depth with a couple of different scenarios, if the surprise project is centred around various skills. It was considered that Joshua will now need to focus on his CNC and CAM skills and, depending on the selected surprise project, may need to offload a lot of his present tasks for the wind generator to Samuel. Samuel should be able to pick up these without too much trouble. Matthew will have a fair bit to do with the electronics and also the CAD and so we hope that the surprise project does not impact too much on Matthew.

If the team can build a wind generator similar to the prototype and have all drawings completed to specifications, we should be reasonably confident of doing well. The surprise project is still the big unknown, but with the wide skills within the team we should be able to confidently cover most tasks.

We finished the workshop with an informal motivational chat and explained what may happen in Shizuoka. The team must not be distracted from or deviate from their game plan, but focus on what they are doing. Do not take short cuts but keep the quality and everything will work out. Do not focus on build costs or working hours costs, but focus on making everything work.

I have warned the team that I will be a different person in Shizuoka and that they will be unable to just chat with me unless within the specified competitor/expert communication sessions.

We dropped Matthew and Samuel off at the airport for their flights home. The next time I will see them will be in Shizuoka when they arrive on site for the familiarization on Tuesday 13th October.

As we complete our training for Shizuoka, it would be appropriate to thank a few people who have assisted with our preparation and training.

All team members’ employers have supported us with allowing the team to attend the workshops – many thanks for your support and assistance.

• TAFENSW – Sydney Institute for permitting us to use the fitting and machining workshops for training, and in particular to Bruce Blackshaw for his continual support.
• TAFE NSW Sydney Institute security staff who assisted with allowing us access to the workshops and closed up after the many unplanned late nights.
• John Znidersic for his assistance with Matthew’s training and assistance in developing the electronic control system – John spent many hours of his weekends working with us.
• FJ Precision from Caringbah who provided training for Joshua on their pressbrake.
• John Stathakis from Chullora TAFE College for some intensive MasterCam training for Joshua.
• Paul Nolan for mentoring Matthew. It is very difficult with team members from Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne, so mentoring role is important.
• Mori Seiki Australia for some training with the Duravertical CNC machine.
• Heather Knights for organizing the flights for the team to travel to the training workshops.
• John Cox, for providing assistance and support to me and also assisting in the development of the Australian surprise project proposal.
  
  Let the Competition begin!!!!!

September 2007

Workshop Session – 14th, 15th and 16th September

The goal for this workshop was to document completely the manufacturing of every component required for our wind generator unit, test our unit and to pack our toolbox.

On the Friday we had the company of Dave Arnold and John Rudge who were also at Sydney Institute undertaking some training. Was good for the MTC team to meet up with John as we have been training in a bit of isolation from the other Skillaroos, and we did not attend the mock competition in Newcastle.

We had a visit from Steve Hornery who dropped in the meet up with the MTC team and John Rudge. It was great seeing Steve and the team value his interest.

During the afternoon we also had a visit from Pam Christie, Director, and Peter Roberts, Associate Director of TAFENSW Sydney Institute. I think it is important to all competitors to know that people are fully supportive of their tasks ahead. Both Pam and Peter are fascinated by the concept of what we are undertaking and it must be satisfying for them to recognize the skills excellence with our competitors.

We had a late night and left at about 7:30pm, worn out but reasonably satisfied.

John Znidersic, a student of mine at Sydney Institute and electrical engineer, came in to discuss some of the control circuit design with Matthew. John spent the afternoon talking electronics and came up with a solution for the pump level control circuit. Some extra components were required and John arrived on the Saturday with his car full of plastic containers of electronic components. He spent the entire Saturday and was successful in coming up with a simple method. It was great to have John able to talk to Matthew at their level as I am the first to admit my knowledge of electronics is virtually non-existent. John has also lent some equipment for Matthew to take to Japan so we really appreciate his time and involvement.

Joshua and Samuel worked on documenting each component’s manufacturing plan, and if possible discussing any methods of simplifying manufacture.

On the Saturday afternoon, we started production with Samuel timing all his work making all the machined parts. I think Samuel has the machining tasks covered very well.

Joshua finished off the transport enclosure ready for testing on Sunday. As we have a pressbrake for our use in Japan Joshua had organized some training at F.J. Precision Pty Ltd, in Caringbah. They stopped production and spent several hours with Joshua, so we recognize their support.

During the Saturday afternoon Joshua’s employers Dave McFarlane and Tony Atkins came in to show support and to see what progress had been made.

We still have problems with simplifying the manufacture of the fan blades, but with some jigs we should be able to consistently produce a suitable blade.

Matthew built his design of the complete electrical control circuit and tested it including the float level control. This exercise was timed so we can then input this time into our manufacturing schedule. We will leave all electrical wiring and mounting of any electrical components to Matthew during the competition.

Joshua will now need to focus on his CNC and CAM skills and depending on the surprise project, may need to offload a lot of his present tasks for the wind generator to Samuel. Samuel should be able to pick up these without too much trouble. Matthew will have a fair bit to do with the electronics and also the CAD and hope that the surprise project does not impact too much on Matthew.

On Sunday we packed our toolbox and identified a few extra things we need to add, while deleting some others. We need to replenish materials and do a final packing ready for shipping. If Matthew or Samuel need to add anything to the toolbox they will need to ship these things to me in the next fortnight. Anything we think of later than this will need to be transported as their personal luggage.

On 1st October I will take the toolbox to Joshua’s workplace and Schnecker will pick the toolbox up from there. It is always a problem with finding the place to pick things up at a large campus such as Sydney Institute.

Our next workshop is scheduled for 26th, 27th and 28th October. One the Friday the team has been invited to the DSF board meeting which is certainly an honour, and it will give the team an opportunity to try our uniforms out.

We will still have a wind generator unit and although our toolbox will have left we can practice with this unit for some of the timed tests, and to finalize some of the manuals we require writing before the competition.

Both Samuel and Matthew now have their uniforms and Joshua and I will pick ours up next Thursday. Receiving their uniforms has certainly made both Sam and Matt focus and realize what they are letting themselves in for and I expect Joshua will also be fired up after Thursday night.

The MTC team is now increasing the intensity of training and all team members are really focusing on their tasks.

Geoff Ball, MTC Expert

August 2007

Workshop Session – 17th, 18th and 19th August

Leilah and Emma from SkillsOne visited us on the Friday to video our workshop sessions. They videoed our team briefing and then conducted interviews with all team members. SkillsOne will also be filming in Japan during the competition so it should make an interesting video to see the preparation and how Team Australia handle the competition. We needed to be very cautious about any vision of the final unit as if this vision was made available to our competitors it could enable them to see our solutions.

Samuel has been working on the portfolio and the poster design. A section of the portfolio can be completed before the competition but some items need to be completed during the competition. Samuel has developed the layout of the posters and we hope to have these printed by Sydney Institute Promotions Unit.
 
The goal for this workshop was to break down the individual components of the wind generator and pump unit and to investigate whether the manufacture could be improved. Manufacturing procedures are then detailed and written down including any tool or equipment required. New hand sketches of all components are required for Matthew to practice his CAD skills.
 
Even though the basic design of the pump was unaltered the construction methods were investigated and simpler and quicker methods were tried. Special lathe tools were made and the production procedures documented.
 
We can manufacture the filling tank before the competition but we needed to develop a mounting system for the pump that could enable rigidity, but ease of removal of the pump, but be quick and easy to manufacture.  Joshua used these simpler manufacturing techniques with success. All manufacture steps were considered and if an improvement on previous methods, this improved procedure would now be implemented.
 
The newly modified pump was tested and we are confident that the capacity of water required per hour will be able to be achieved.
 
Matthew built his design of the complete electrical control circuit and tested it. A different production strategy is required to ensure that the circuit is able to be built with minimal errors or malfunctions. Devices of testing the water level and to control pump operation were also built and tested well.
 
The connections between the generator unit and the battery to enable the generator to aim towards the testing fan were also altered for ease of manufacture. Different materials will be needed to prevent some electrical arcing, but basic design was accepted.
 
The contents of the toolbox list were considered and some items were added and others removed.
 
All team members were impressed by the toolboxes. The toolboxes were painted by the Car Painting section at Sydney Institute and the Adam Lucas from Sydney Institute Signcraft section did an impressive job with signwriting the boxes. We will certainly have one of the brightest toolboxes in Shizuoka – pity they will not be in the same condition when they return from Shizuoka.
 
Before Shizuoka, a team member would need to be elected for a team leader. It was decided that the team itself should select this person without any external input and Matthew was selected. Matthew will be involved with any briefing sessions during the competition.

At the next workshop is scheduled for 14th, 15th and 16th September, and this will be a full competition rehearsal and will be the last opportunity to fine tune the contents of our toolbox.
 
The MTC team is now increasing the intensity of training and all team members are really focusing on their tasks.

Geoff Ball, MTC Expert

April 2007

20th to 22nd April MTC Workshop Report

The MTC team traveled to Sydney Institute for our second workshop over the weekend 20th to 22nd April. Robert Peel and Brent Butler, from the 2005 MTC team, also attended this workshop and offered some very constructive suggestions. It was great to meet up with them again and to have their valuable input.

The focus for this workshop was the wind generator. Initially we tested several possible motor and generators by spinning them in a lathe and documenting their performance characteristics. Some generators were eliminated after these tests and with the surviving ones we knew what speed these would need to be rotating at to achieve our required output.

Both Joshua and Samuel had made several different turbine and propeller prototypes to test. These were tested and modified, some very extensively modified, using tinsnips and hammers, and some designs which we thought would be most suitable were eliminated.

Finding possible solutions for the turbine has proven to be an immense problem – we just couldn’t get sufficient speed from the pedestal fan to produce the required power output- and searching the Internet for solutions was not providing any real answers.

We have decided on the best design but even this design needs a lot more development and testing before we would be satisfied. Each team member will be building a generator and will test these extensively to try and improve output.

At the next workshop, we intend to focus on how the complete unit will look and to build a few prototypes and test these extensively.

Geoff Ball, MTC Expert

March 2007

Workshop 2nd — 3rd March

As this was the first time the team members had been together since January and also being the first opportunity to work practically rather than talk about our project, there was much to discuss.

Initially, we discussed our individual progress on pump designs; both Samuel and Joshua had actually made some prototype pumps. It was fantastic that we would be able to start testing and comparing these prototype pumps rather than spend time making them and this enabled us to focus on testing rather than manufacture. Matthew had done some research on the control circuit but was not able to finalise any circuit until the pump motor itself was chosen.

Several designs were covered, with various drive motors. In total, about 15 impellers and pump designs were made and tested, with mixed results. These results were mapped directly against power required. Eventually, four specific designs were chosen and fully tested under identical test conditions and procedures. The performance of each was compared and with consideration to manufacturing requirements a design was selected. We also examined the specifications of the wind generator until to get a visual concept of how our end product could look, which is our next focus.

Overall a very productive weekend, where all team members worked well with each other and team dynamics started to develop. The pump motor, design and voltage were decided and all team members now have a similar pump to that selected, to test individually before our next workshop in April.

Geoff Ball, MTC Expert

February 2007

The Australian team is selected from individual category national champions, and then the team develops team skills and dynamics. Most other countries select their team from a national MTC competition.

The challenge for Australia is to get the team together and to develop their team skills as Mathew comes from Adelaide, Samuel from Melbourne and Joshua from Sydney.

A skills audit revealed a few skill shortages, so all team members have enroled for additional TAFE training courses.

The Australian team will have several workshop sessions and these will be at Sydney Institute. The MTC project has been divided into several sections and the team will focus on solving each section, before combining all these sections into the final solution.

The first 3 team workshops will be held at Sydney Institute on:

Another 4 workshops through the year are planned when full simulated competitions will be undertaken.

Geoff Ball, MTC Expert