Early Career Alumni of the Year

Andrew Micallef

Andrew moved to the city to study after living with very close-knit family and friends in a small country town. He sacrificed his desire to travel by working during the vacation periods while at uni instead of working during the year. This allowed him to fully concentrate on studying and achieving first class honours and dux of Materials Engineering rewarded his efforts. His academic awards include the IJ Polmear Award for dux of Materials Engineering, Commonwealth Education Costs Scholarship for students from a rural background with high motivation and commitment to tertiary studies, EssoMobil Award for the best student in Fracture Mechanics, BlueScope Steel Materials Engineering Scholarship, entrance to the Golden Key International Honour Society on the basis of outstanding academic achievement, recognised on the Esso and Mobil Honours list, awarded an internship with Gippsland Water. He completes three years of service this December and has astounded people by achieving so much in this time including a comprehensive technical understanding of the complex product range of MCL6 and the processes used. He has also been able to identify improvement initiatives (Coating Weight control, Galvanneal powdering improvements, NPFT reduction, Q1 and TS16949 Quality System compliance) and successfully implement these improvements. Substantial achievements include:

• Leading process control improvements to reduce coating metal usage on MCL6, saving $4.3M over two years.
• Co-ordinating Toyota powdering improvement activities that allowed MCL6 to regain 2000tpa of Galvanneal steel from imports and retain 3000tpa as BSL supply. o Playing a major roll in managing Cost of Product Loss on MCL6, saving $1.3M for 06/07.
• Completed major work on Galvanneal powdering improvement through process control which involved a literature review to first understand performance of other Galvanneal lines, Optical Microscopy using a novel technique developed inhouse to understand the performance of BlueScope Steel product and production trials to optimise performance.

He recently completed a three-month secondment as the Product Quality representative for Toyota, Ford, Sheet Metal Supplies and Tasmanian customers. He also mentors new materials engineering graduates and provides supervision for vacation and scholarship students. His list of further training is extensive and includes Advanced Galvanising Technology, Problem Solving and Decision Making, and Project Management among many others. He is a member of the Institute of Materials Engineering Australasia and Member of Engineers Australia and has a fantastic ability to balance work and life through rogaining, running, cycling and swimming. He also enjoys cooking, camping and fishing. His key strengths are his attention to detail, ability to learn quickly, interaction skills, dedication and willingness to learn, leadership, and drive for results and has been described by his managers as having “an excellent beginning to a very positive career” and “an excellent year and great results” in his performance reviews. He has recently purchased a house in Mornington and will be relocating to Port Kembla Steel Works at the end of October after being promoted to a new project team position.