Facing the southern Atlantic Ocean from the home port of Cape Town, South Africa, Gemini Inflatables were first created in 1979 under some of the toughest weather and seafaring conditions in the world. Twenty years later, Mike Orsmond joined his other business partners in Australia and established a separate Australian Gemini Inflatables at Currumbin on the Gold Coast. Today, the GEMINI range is regarded as the most innovative range of bespoke inflatables and RIBs (Rigid Inflatable Boats).

With humble beginnings and basic operations from a shed, the work was shared between 3 people. After a short time of wholesaling the boats, Orsmond and his partners decided to expand into integrated repairs and production of boats for retail. Production began on a tin-bottom boat with inflatable tubing and Gemini had found their niche market. In a few short years Gemini has sold boats in over 35 different countries worldwide.

Gemini's core business is the design and construction of military, commercial and rescue inflatable craft.  Recreational models are based on the same demanding specifications and construction methodology as the specialised military and rescue craft, allowing the ordinary boater to get the advantage of Gemini's inherent industrial and military strength technology.

The design and development team has extraordinary experience to call on, with each member of the Gemini development team having a defence force background drawn from the UK Forces, South African Military and the Australian Navy. This equates to a combined 42 years of manufacturing knowledge and experience.

Gemini bespoke Inflatables and RIBs are used for a multitude of applications. Gemini has RIBs in service all over the world by military, commercial, defense and rescue services. These include Surf Life Saving Australia, WA Police, Victorian Police, The Namibian Police, NSW Police, UK Police Forces, DERA, various petroleum companies, Royal Australian Navy and Army, sail training support companies and the United Nations. 

They have built many RIBs for commercial sectors as well, including craft for harbour support, offshore rescue duties and water taxis. The boats see regular service all over the world. Again through its unique position of being able to supply a boat to fit every application suited to a RIB, Gemini has also produced a range of safety boats. Oil freighters, ferries and ships over 20 metres in length are required to carry one or more SOLAS lifeboats and Gemini has commissioned many of these types of crafts to suit vary specific safety requirements.

A most popular model that Gemini manufacture is called the Reef Rider – an alloy-bottom tender. The hulls are manufactured at the Gemini workshop and fitted with imported tubing. Gemini can make the tubes for special and customised orders, but generally it is more efficient and cost-effective to import the tubing. The other popular model is a fiberglass boat called the 'Status', whose hull and tubing is manufactured on site.

When Gemini began manufacturing in Australia there was very little knowledge or skill base for inflatable boat manufacture; Gemini had to start from scratch in training their team while also educating the public on their product.

One of Gemini's biggest challenges is that their core market is constantly changing to meet demands. Through necessity as a small business, Gemini has had to keep their range deliberately diverse and remain flexible enough to change production to suit that ever-changing market and ensuing orders. While their current emphasis is on expanding into the military and rescue market they are still locally dependent on the big boat builders - as Gemini supply and rely on them to sell boats. Gemini is also developing several other business areas and as that happens, their focus changes depending on contracts or orders that they are trying to fulfill.

Gemini's first contact with QMI Solutions was in 2003 when a Manufacturing Microscope was conducted on the business. Initially the partners at Gemini had attended a workshop at the Department of State Development and Innovation and were subsequently referred to QMI Solutions for more succinct manufacturing know-how.  Eighteen months later, Gemini put three of their core team through the Pro-Edge Manufacturing Excellence program.

"What gives us the edge is that a lot of companies will sit back and wait for someone to come and help them. At Gemini, we decided to go out and find the help we needed," explains Gemini's Mike Orsmond.

"Because we're absolute rank beginners, the Manufacturing Microscope illustrated many things within the business that needed changing or refining. For us, it could have been very easy to get completely absorbed in fixing various areas of the business but neglecting the actual production. For a small business, it's important to remember to set priorities on what you'd like to improve, and then take everything in bite-sized chunks without losing focus."

The major opportunities, threats and challenges faced by the business included:

• Significant demand in the market place and a need for rapid growth in both repairs and production.
• Critical shortage of appropriately skilled staff.
• Need for improved standards and systems.
• Long lead times on the supply of some key components.

"We knew we had a problem and what QMI found only reinforced that we needed to look at those areas. But they also gave us the tools and training to go and work on finding solutions," continues Orsmond. "The work we did with QMI concentrated on the various production areas, but we've been able to replicate the same principles in other areas of the business to see enhancements. The repair area is one such example.

"It basically came down to steering the whole ship in a better direction by being able to fix all the small problems in manageable chunks. It allowed us to continually keep improving and sustain those improvements while also growing the business in other ways."

One of the improvements that QMI suggested was a redesign of the factory and retail space at Coomera. After several years of operating out of the same facilities, where areas had been added or reorganised as necessary, it was high time for a logical reorganisation. A mezzanine was constructed to provide a private administration area and free up ground floor space for a retail showroom. Eventually a second facility was also taken in the marine park so manufacturing and production could expand. These mezzanine additions QMI advised saved Gemini in the order of $150,000 each year.

Other recommendations from QMI that were implemented were an introduction of simplified standard job documents such as order entry forms, component ordering forms and job cards.

Standard Operating Procedures were also developed and continue to be written so as to improve work methods and assist in training staff.  Visual factory principles have also been successfully introduced to simplify and clarify requirements of production staff and in particular, visual inventory management and job prioritisation in the repairs area has kept the unit much more organised.

Gemini had already identified a need to roll out 5S to all parts of the business and QMI further assisted in this process. There was excellent progress in the 5S implementation in the production area, but far less adherence and commitment to the process in the repairs area. In conjunction with the visual factory principles, a 5S program was put in place in the repairs area, greatly enhancing their coordination, organisation and ability to employ value-adding activities such as inventory management. Instead of using software to forecast requirements or time consuming stock taking to count material on hand and compare to preferred holding levels, a 5S process and visual system uses a coloured level bar to quickly show when a component or material has fallen below the desired holding quantity. Coloured bars are placed on the wall behind stocked components or materials and the simple visual measures trigger action from operators once they reach predetermined levels. The revision of work stations and stock racks resulted in a further savings in productivity and inventory of $60,000 per year.

The Reef Rider model, which may have taken 2 to 3 days to assemble in the past, can now be completed in approximately one day. This greatly assists in being able to guarantee order quantities for wholesale and export distribution and with a 50-66% increase in productivity for this model, a saving of approximately $800 per boat is achieved.

A pickup in production and sales has meant that Gemini have also been able to double their staff numbers, expanding from 6 to 13 staff in the last two years.

Their next challenging is trying to further increase production and sales to a point where whole containers can be exported to combat rising fuel and transportation costs.

"By attending the courses at QMI we've also been able to meet other businesses and make significant contacts in the marine industry," enthuses Orsmond. "It's allowed us to form some important relationships."

"At the end of the day QMI taught us to examine the business from an all-encompassing perspective – not to just look at one aspect. But having said that, we learnt to take everything in manageable bites," explains Orsmond.

"When we mastered and solved each problem area, we moved on to the next. For us it was invaluable having an external party come in and look at our business, because I think it's very difficult for a busy small business to see its own faults."