Small parts, big opportunity

MCCALLUM Industries is celebrating a new partnership with road transport manufacturer MaxiTRANS that’s opening up opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in a dynamic work environment.

Eight supported employees, with two supervisors, will continue to work two days a week in six-hour shifts, dealing with small parts and completing small component tasks.

McCallum Chief Executive Officer, Tyrone McCuskey is simply “delighted” with the program’s launch.

“MaxiTRANS enables them to learn new skills, gain confidence in new environments and experience new and exciting tasks,” he said.

“It’s much more diverse than what we provide.

We can employ more individuals to come down and have supported employment in a different work space.”

Chris Liston, the Continuous Improvement Team Leader in Industrial Engineering, said the small parts department at the Wendouree site has been a “logistical nightmare” in the past.

Mr Liston said Cycle times have improved with the McCallum group and the department is more efficient.

“It’s meaningful work. They want to come here and they love coming here.”

Small parts worker, Joel Pratt and his peers, had their factory site induction at MaxiTRANS in October and have started their ongoing work this month.

Mr Pratt loves the feeling he gets arriving at the factory.

“When you walk into MaxiTRANS, every time it’s great,” he said.

“I really enjoy it here and it makes me real happy. It’s the one thing I’ve been working towards.”

Mr McCuskey is pleased with the workers’ transition into the new workspace.

“They’ve been welcomed into this environment. It’s hard to measure how good that is because that social inclusion is critical to their self-esteem,” he said. “It’s wonderful.”