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Research & Development at New Age Caravans – Working With Walkinshaw - YouTube
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I'm currently running R&D,
[26]
which is research and development,
[28]
and I also oversee the drafting area.
[30]
So they're responsible
for processing all of
[32]
the customer plans that come in,
[34]
and preparing them for production
[36]
so the guys in the factory
can build according to spec.
[39]
R&D, it's a very
important process put bluntly.
[44]
All of our new innovations and
products start with R&D.
[48]
They go through, you
know, a rigorous process
[51]
whereby both of our design
teams engineering and R&D
[56]
get together, come
up with the concepts,
[58]
come up with the prototyping,
[60]
come up with the part building,
[62]
any necessary trial or testing,
[65]
and then obviously tying
into the marketing launch
[68]
with the other departments to make sure
[70]
that it's delivered to the consumers
[73]
in the best possible fashion.
[75]
We've got a design and engineering team
[77]
that spans across New Age and
[79]
our new alies in Walkinshaw.
[83]
We have an enormous amount of talent
[86]
and engineering experience
across those two faculties.
[92]
If you're familiar with Walkinshaw,
[93]
they're great at designing
the automotive side of things,
[96]
they have been for a long time.
[97]
So we're taking a lot of their experience
[99]
and bringing that into caravans now.
[101]
So Walkinshaw bring an enormous amount
[103]
of engineering experience.
[105]
They've got the capability
on their premises in Clayton
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to do testing that no other
caravan company can replicate.
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We've got the seven post rig,
[116]
we've got a full styling studio
[119]
where they do full clay
foam modeling CNCing,
[123]
the sky's the limit.
[125]
We've got not only
[128]
the machinery over there,
[129]
but we've also got the brains over there.
[132]
They're such technically minded people.
[133]
They've got processes
that the caravan industry
[137]
has never seen before.
[139]
It'll probably put us in
great stead for the future.
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I mean it's just another string to our bow
[144]
that no one else is going to have.
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Really impressive piece of technology,
[189]
a seven post rig.
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I stand to be corrected,
but I'm pretty sure
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we're the only caravan company
in Australia that has one.
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It wouldn't surprise me if it was the world,
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but let's stick to
Australia for now.
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That's obviously
complements of Walkinshaw.
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You know, they're involved with
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that sort of engineering
capability over there
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and we're just blessed
to be able to use it.
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It's quite amazing what it can do.
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To give you an example, we can program
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the entire Gibb River Road
through sensors in a caravan,
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we did that recently
with one of our XU products,
[228]
and then taking that data, I'm probably
[230]
not explaining this as well
as the engineers would,
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but taking that data,
we can then replicate
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that track within our own factory,
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without having go to the Gibb River Road
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and do that
300 kilometers again.
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And we can use that data then,
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to see what falls apart on that van,
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see how it handles, see where
it fails, more importantly.
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That's what it's all about,
trying to break it, you know.
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And that data's invaluable to
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an R&D or an engineering team.
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I mean to try and find
that data in the real world
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would take you years.
[265]
And you may never know
the route cause of it,
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'cause it could just be so ad-hoc,
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you don't know what's
actually created the problem.
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I stood inside
the XU on the test recently
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when we did the simulation,
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and it's just amazing how much
vibration is in a caravan.
[285]
You'd be blown away if you saw
how much vibration was in it
[291]
and it's amazing that
they don't fall apart.
[292]
So that was pretty reassuring to be honest–
[295]
to see that our product
held together so well.
[297]
It was quite intense.
[300]
I was bouncing up and down,
no word of a lie.
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