Innovation thrives on a strong ecosystem Sharna Glover, Imvelo
T
he digital age is upon us and the Queensland resources industry is well-placed to take advantage of it - and we’ll use this opportunity to apply innovations that move our people out of the line of fire.
Over the last few years there has been an increasing rallying cry for business to integrate social impact into their day-to-day activities and long-term strategies. Social impacts are reshaping businesses for the better, and digital technologies are a key enabler of the transition to real-time transparency of business performance for all stakeholders.
are for this negative productivity trend to further deteriorate as Australia’s economic investment intensity slows. This outlook is sobering and reminds us that innovation leadership and speed of adoption within the Queensland resources sector is critical.
The digital age has brought industries together like never before with technology platforms common across mining, oil and gas, agriculture and forestry. This presents an amazing opportunity for Queensland to leverage innovation and capability across its full suite of industries. Due to the scale of its mining and agriculture, Queensland is best placed to be the world leader in industrial field robotics. We must seize this opportunity with both hands, obtain global recognition, and seek export opportunities. Alongside this, however, we must acknowledge that our efforts need acceleration by orders of magnitude. Australian productivity is lagging OECD countries, particularly labour productivity, as leading countries embrace digital and automation capabilities more quickly. As an example, Australia has 83 robots per 10,000 employees while South Korea has 631. The forecasts 78
BBMC Yearbook 2019
Table 1: The Industrial Revolution 4.0
Our ability to build and sustain technology partnerships across a diverse innovation ecosystem will be the defining approach by which we disrupt the status quo and redefine the future for Queensland resources.
