Episode 86 -- Mark Henry from Solidteknics

Welcome to this special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, one which we're running as part of our quest to identify Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers.

The 50 Most Innovative is an annual campaign by @AuManufacturing. This time around it has been made possible through the generous support of MYOB, CSIRO, the NSW government’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Facility, and the Commonwealth Bank.

In this episode Mark Henry, Managing Director and founder at Solidteknics, tells us about designing products that will be passed down across generations, whose responsibility it is to re-grow manufacturing skills that have become harder to find over time, why there's no point making a product that isn't a world-first, and more.

Episode guide

1:02 – Started as a kid curious about how things worked, got inspired by a grandfather who was an old-school backyard inventor, studied a trade then mechanical engineering.

3:10 – Launched first company while at uni in 1996: Furitechnics. 

4:22 – The special feeling of seeing products with longevity out there and being used.

6:15 – A world-first in mechanising wrought iron production.

7:33 – Getting rid of unnecessary complexity with one-piece products. Rivets, plastics, gaps just add points of failure.

8:20 – Honours thesis on knife materials and cutting edges and the value of this.

10:48 – Why the choices were made for wrought iron and nickel-free stainless steel in most of the company's cookware.

12:25 – No stainless steels made in Australia, so had to look to a mill in Finland.

14:58 – Key contractor is a family business in Sydney. 

16:38 – Designing products to become classics that can be made for decades after release.

18:53 – All the Australian cookware has gone. If anything remains it’s made offshore. Those skills were lost.

20:56 – Henry’s predictions on what the rise of the robots will do to manufacturing, and why artisan skills will still be important. 

24:02 – Innovation needs novelty, but that’s just the starting point.

25:36 – The use of Kickstarter after operating in a more traditional way. It helps with cashflow.

29:35 – Exclusive launches through their closed Facebook group.

30:40 – As Popeye used to say: “I is what I is.”

31:46 – Some more thoughts on designing products to be used across generations. 

35:20 – Estimates that 1.2 million non-stick pans go into Australian landfill each year. They’re designed to be disposable.

37:05 – How the company plans to celebrate their decade anniversary this year.

39:40 – A goal in the next few years is to show more people on how you can manufacture successfully here.

Further reading

Solidteknics' website

Do you think you belong on @AuManufacturing’s list of Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers? Apply to be recognised in this exclusive group here.