IntelliDesign is a design, engineering and manufacturing company based in Brisbane Australia that works with progressive organisations to create game changing technology products. The company combines creative design innovation with an end-to-end capability for multidisciplinary design development, systems engineering and fully traceable electronic product manufacture.
IntelliDesign has been established for more than 30 years with more than 135 staff. There are 35 in the design and engineering team including Industrial Designers, Mechanical Engineers, Electronics Engineers and Software developers. There is also about 80 team members in production that ship 1000’s of products each month to customers.
Interview with Glenn Bevan, Business Development Manager at IntelliDesign.
What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Glenn Bevan: We have long-term partnerships with clients from the medical, industrial, mining, defence and aerospace industries. We specialise in the design and manufacturing of electronic products for technically challenging, mission critical and physically demanding environments, including mine safety equipment and satellite technology.
What’s the news about new products/services?
G.B: We are the only company in Australia that is certified to AS9100D for aerospace design and manufacture and also certified for ISO13485 for medical device design and manufacture. Our in-house IntelliDesign Management System (IMS) has been developed over the last 20 years to manage the fully traceable product development and manufacturing system. We have the capability for end to end traceability to track every component from purchase all the way through to placement on boards, assembly into enclosures, testing procedures, packaging and logistics to the customer. We have this data for every product we have manufactured for the last 15 years.
What are the ranges of products/services?
G.B: IntelliDesign has unique capability for full service product development from concept design through to the fully engineered and manufactured product delivered to the customer, backed up with full lifecycle management for maintenance and repairs. There are very few companies in Australia that can compete with this service offering including manufacturing and ongoing service.
We see this as a significant point of difference as we truly understand design for manufacture and take this part of the development process very seriously. When you have a design and engineering team co-located with the production facility it is very important that there is seamless integration. It also makes problem solving and issue resolution much easier when the engineering team can quickly make changes to improve efficiency in the production environment. Our full lifecycle service offering allows us to witness what happens to our products when they have been installed in harsh environments for many years and learn from this experience to make our designs more robust.
What is the state of the market where you are currently active?
G.B: We are mainly active in Australia but we have some international clients and a large proportion of what we manufacture is exported. The market for design and engineering services in Australia is very active with a lot of innovation coming from our research institutions. We have very good capability for manufacturing in our facility in Brisbane but cheap imports from Asia are difficult to compete with, so we prefer to focus on high value projects where quality and reliability are valued or complex products that are designed for highly regulated markets.
What can you tell us about market trends?
G.B: Australia is very good at Mine safety technology and the adoption of technology to enhance traditional Agricultural practice. We also have a very active Medtech sector that is commercialising new medical devices. There is a lot of capability in Australia for defence innovation and manufacturing competence, but there is a lack of real projects to keep this sector moving, so our focus needs to be on other markets that can sustain our business through the long decision-making cycles for defence projects.
What are the most innovative products/services marketed?
G.B: One of the many products that we have designed and manufactured is a Collision Avoidance System (CAS) for Wabtec to improve mine safety. This product is the most advanced technology driven solution on the market to protect workers and stakeholders on mine sites towards zero harm. We have supplied this product to Wabtec for many years, and they have installed this system on mining vehicles at sites all over the world.
What estimations do you have for the second half of 2025?
G.B: We estimate that our Design and Engineering teams will be very busy in the second half of 2025 with a number of very important projects including Agtech devices to implant embryos in cattle, medical devices for neuro stimulation, defence innovations for drone detection and the next generation satellite technology. Many of these will be manufactured in our production facility.
