Smart Manufacturing

By Peter Hern, Country Manager, Oceania, Universal Robots Since 2016, the Australian manufacturing industry has experienced ongoing public scrutiny for the closure and offshoring of manufacturing, especially within the automotive sector, due to the high costs of labour. However, there is now opportunity for Australia to revive this industry. This requires a period of substantial change with the implementation of new, autonomous technologies. With these technologies, companies can be more efficient in countries where labour is expensive. Disruptive technologies and advanced automation, such as collaborative robots, or cobots, can help regenerate the dwindled manufacturing industry in Australia.  This would allow Australia to compete on a global scale and contribute to global supply chains. A recent report by Bain and Company, Labour 2030: The Collision of Demographics, Automation and Inequality¸ has forecast that automation will create an economic boom over the next decade, offsetting a slowing in labour growth, something Australia needs to ensure it is a part of. Competing on a global scale Deloitte’s Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index revealed that as the digital and physical worlds of manufacturing converge, advanced technologies are becoming ever more important at company level and in global competitiveness. Technology-intensive sectors are dominating the global manufacturing landscape in advanced economies and allow a strong path to achieve or sustain competiveness. However, even while being an advanced economy, Australia is ranking at 21st on this index. Germany is at the forefront of advanced automation, with industry 4.0 being a whole-of-country strategy to strengthen the economy through manufacturing. At this current time, Australian manufacturers are falling behind their global counterparts in the adoption of industry 4.0, and as a nation, must embrace the digital transformation of manufacturing to compete as a player in global supply chains. Bringing back jobs Between November 2016 and November 2017 the manufacturing industry […]

Researchers in South Korea have developed extremely fast information processing technologies that can help usher in the next generation of the Internet. Researchers at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in South Korea have developed technology capable of sending packets of digital information at 25 Gb/s (giga-bit per second) – 10 times faster than currently available speeds. The technology, named TIC-TOC, is a critical component of the future Tactile Internet, in which information is sent and received at speeds on par with human perception. The technology operates at a speed fast enough to download a 3 GB movie within one second. Furthermore, the TIC-TOC system enables more urgent data to jump ahead of other information packets and be transferred in one milli-second (1/1000 of a second), the same speed at which the human sense of touch works. TIC-TOC stands for “Time Controlled Tactile Optical Access” and is designed to work on 5G networks. The researchers anticipate the TIC-TOC technology will help advance virtual reality and augmented reality in all sorts of sectors, from education and healthcare, to entertainment and public safety. For example, it could be possible to deploy and operate robots in dangerous or disaster areas with instant sight and feel communication between human controllers and machines. When the machine sees something, the humans sees it, and when the human remotely controls the robot’s hand or head, the motion will happen immediately. The same could be true for telesurgery, with a doctor remotely controlling a robot performing the surgery, but the doctor feels as if she were in the operating room because the response is instantaneous. “The Tactile Internet is expected to be the fourth industrial revolution,” said HwanSeok Chung, a project leader at ETRI. “We will see robots, cars and all other machines connected to the Internet […]

A Tasmanian engineering innovation in strawberry and other hydroponic food production is set to be adopted by major berry producers in the UK and Europe. Rod Marshall, Managing Director of Marshall Machinery in Launceston, has returned from meetings in the UK and Europe, in response to expressions of interest from international berry producers. At these meetings, Mr Marshall demonstrated and promoted the unique “COIR-RX” hydroponic substrate processing machine, which has been entirely researched, developed and manufactured by his company in Tasmania. Worldwide, crops such as strawberries, tomatoes and capsicums are planted within plastic substrate bags containing coir, rock-wool, or other materials, then disposed of at the end of each growing cycle. Until now, the process to separate the plastic from substrate and plant material, then package materials for recycling, has been a massive, mainly manual process for growers, or simply dumped into landfill. The COIR-RX processing machine replaces this manual process with a mobile platform that travels along the ends of strawberry rows to feed in the materials, separate them, then automatically capture, compress and wrap the plastic for recycling. The machine also ejects the organic material which becomes an effective mulch. A single COIR-RX machine can process up to 2000 one-metre long substrate bags per hour. This takes less than 5% of the time and half the cost of the current laborious process of removing, transporting, picking through materials, manually sorting and bagging. The system is also vastly more discriminating while sorting, ensuring a much purer separation result for both plants and plastic. Mr Marshall said, “After years of research and development, we now have a functional machine that is proving itself in actual field use.” “Marshall Machinery is now ready to respond to expressions of interest it has received from major berry producers in the UK, who have […]

Ask any business owner or board-level executive involved in manufacturing about the demands of growing a business, and they would probably readily agree that it’s tough. Apart from juggling various elements to keep the business on a growth trajectory, there are the endless administration tasks. Regularly producing reports, quotes, estimates, proposals, plans and invoices can be daunting, and may even negatively impact on productivity. However, the challenge no longer needs to be overwhelming thanks to technology. Speech recognition is now more accurate, more powerful, and more usable than ever before, and it can help facilitate the growth of a business. Adopting a desktop speech recognition solution – like Nuance Dragon Professional Individual for the PC – can improve a business’s everyday performance and productivity. Save time producing documents Dragon does the typing for you as you speak and, as we talk three times faster than we can type, the productivity implications are considerable. Dragon quickly and accurately turns your spoken words into text. It lets you put your voice to work to easily dictate and edit documents, proposals, reports and more. With Dragon you spend less time producing documents, and more time on activities that boost the bottom line. Plus, as Dragon works with all Microsoft Office applications, you can also create spreadsheets and presentations by simply using your voice. The solution also lets you speak to send emails, and as it’s compatible with popular web browsers, you can also deploy Dragon to search the web and use social media with unparalleled speed, ease and comfort. Dragon rewards the user by helping you gain precious time. Work that may have taken hours – typing a large document or clearing your inbox – can now be achieved faster and without the need to type, and the time saved can be allocated […]

Global engineering and infrastructure advisory company Aurecon has announced the appointment of Managing Director Australia and New Zealand William Cox as its new Global Chief Executive Officer to lead the organisation’s rapid growth and continuing diversification across Digital, Advisory and Asia. Effective from 1 February 2019, William will be based in Sydney. His appointment marks the end of current Aurecon CEO Giam Swiegers’ successful fixed four-year term, which saw the company more than double its profits since 2015. William said: “This is a terrific opportunity to steer Aurecon during a time of significant growth and change for our industry. Incredible technologies are helping us plan and build infrastructure in a way never seen before, truly changing the way we engineer, design and advise. “My focus areas for the immediate future are to consolidate and continue the growth trajectory in Digital, Advisory, and in Asia where we see immense potential in transport infrastructure, the built environment and fast-growing data centre sector.” As Aurecon Managing Director – Australia and New Zealand, William has a proven track record in building a financially successful, high performance culture with strong client engagement. William is a civil engineer with over 30 years’ experience in transport, aviation and infrastructure across Australia and the UK. William is also Aurecon’s Pay Equity Ambassador for the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) and Aurecon’s representative for the Consult Australia Male Champions of Change. Under William’s leadership, Aurecon implemented female representation targets in Australia. In 2016, there was 26 per cent female representation and a target of 30 per cent was set for 2020. That target was reached in early 2018 and now the aim is 40 per cent by 2020. As a member of Aurecon’s Executive Committee, William has contributed to the company’s strategic direction, reporting directly to Giam Swiegers.  

Leveraging HP’s Multi Jet Fusion technology, GoProto will be able to meet industries needs for precise and functional prototyping or end-use production at its new facility in Melbourne.  GoProto, Inc., a leader in advanced 3D prototyping and short run manufacturing, today announced expansion into the Asia Pacific region, with the launch of a new 3D printing and additive manufacturing facility in Melbourne, Australia. The facility will house the HP Jet Fusion 4210 printer, which is 10-times faster than existing rapid prototyping and 3D printing systems. Jesse Lea, President, of US operations says, “current technologies like SLS or SLA lack the combined precision, speed and function that’s demanded to push printed parts into mainstream manufacturing.  HP’s Multi Jet Fusion technology will accomplish high-end, functional prototyping and final part production to industries in search of short run manufacturing needs.”   Added Robert Mesaros, Vice President & Head of 3D Printing for Asia Pacific & Japan, HP Inc., “Our ambition is to reinvent the way the world designs and manufactures. This expansion is testament to how HP is working with partners like GoProto to accelerate this transformation, enabling them to shorten and localise the design and manufacturing cycle for their customers.” General Manager, Leon Gairns, will run GoProto’s (ANZ) extensive portfolio of prototyping and manufacturing services, including CNC machining, cast urethane, sheet metal and injection moulding.  For more information visit www.goproto.com.au