|
Christened
Morris Elmes, better known as Mick, he is primarily a mechanical engineer.
An apprenticeship in a maritime (on-shore and floating) maintenance workshop
came first for Mick, then he went on to the toolmaking facility at a domestic appliance
manufacturer. During that time, he attained NZCE (Mechanical) and became a heavy engineering estimator.
After a few years, Mick Elmes started a business with a partner Don Mosely, mass producing low cost, domestic
outbuildings called Ideal Garages Ltd.
Firstly as a hobby, Mick learned to design keel yachts and then built them
for a living. It seemed like a good thing to do, and it was…for about 15 years
anyhow. But a peculiarly draconian piece of legislative short-sightedness, called a
Luxury Tax brought that little enterprise,
and a lot of the New Zealand boat building industry to a sudden halt.
Ironically, when this was written, it was the year 2000, New Zealand had just become
the first country outside of the United States, to successfully defend the
America's Cup. It was thrilling for many kiwis...and educational, to witness some
of the attendant affluence ...times change.
When the yacht building business disappeared Mick returned to engineering.
He had a family to support.
For the latter years, he enjoyed a business development role,
in the stainless steel
fabrication industry, with a particular focus on export sales and
marketing.
During this time and because there was no appropriate, existing software, Mick developed some Excel spreadsheets to combine the basic design and the quoting of
custom built stainless steel
tanks, spanning a range of sizes and configurations. Tank-Genii
is now one of his interests. He maintains and makes it available to fabricators, design
engineers, project managers and the end-user industries.
Formulae
that analyse production manhours and material costs, when integrated with the financial
arithmetic of business and presented through a meaningful interface, make very powerful management tools. They give an instantaneous overview
and simplify what-if scenarios. So Mick also does this for other
manufacturing businesses. Please check out the Services
page.
But Mick Elmes likes designing houses too. He designed and built the only houses
he has ever
lived in, although says that 'er-in-doors had a few complaints about the architect
from time to time.
A rather varied career path? Well...not really a career path, a
career path suggests planning. It was more
like heeling to the winds at the time. |
More
about Mick Elmes.....
