MM Aug 2019

manmonthly.com.au

MANAGEMENT >> TECHNOLOGY >> SOLUTIONS

AUGUST 2019

Protect lives. Protect workers.

Comprehensive solutions to improve safety in construction Construction work is physically demanding and one of the highest risk industries facing fatalities and injuries from falls, slips and trips, body stressing and exposure to hazardous materials or environments. Personal protective equipment (PPE) such as hardhats, safety glasses, steel-capped boots and respirators, as well as personal air monitoring devices such as portable gas detectors and air/dust samplers. Ensure your employees are effectively protected by technologies that make the invisible visible.

Honeywell BW ™ Solo gas detector

Casella personal air sampling pumps

Honeywell PPE

Find out more at thermofisher.com.au/construction For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures. Š 2019 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. All rights reserved.

Trademarks used are owned as indicated on thermofisher.com.au/trademarks and thermofisher.co.nz/trademarks. 1563154068

Reach your new height Engineered testing solutions for Aerospace Proven and efficient solutions for flight testing and aerospace applications. Our elite products perform with high accuracy, stability and reliability under difficult environmental conditions. Thermo Fisher Scientific offers NATA accredited testing and on-site calibration providing our customers a true “one-stop� service experience.

ACS testing chambers for space research

DataTaker DT80 for testing data collection and analysis

Portable barometric standard

Find out more at thermofisher.com.au/aerospace For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures. Š 2019 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. All rights reserved.

Trademarks used are owned as indicated on thermofisher.com.au/trademarks and thermofisher.co.nz/trademarks. 1563154068

manmonthly.com.au

MANAGEMENT >> TECHNOLOGY >> SOLUTIONS

AUGUST 2019

AUSTRALIA REACHES FOR THE STARS

Official Industry Partners

INSIDE >>

Print Post Approved PP100007882

>>

24 Preparing for tomorrow’s manufacturing

32 All there is to know about the National Manufacturing Summit 2019

34 Integrating smart sensors for Industry 4.0

manmonthly.com.au twitter.com/Manmonthly facebook.com/Manmonthly

Inside­­ AUGUST 2019

For daily news visit manmonthly.com.au

linkedin.com/showcase/manufacturer’s-monthly/

Managing Director: John Murphy

30

Publisher: Christine Clancy Group Managing Editor (Northern): Syed Shah syed.shah@primecreative.com.au Journalist: Connor Pearce connor.pearce@primecreative.com.au Production Coordinator: Michelle Weston michelle.weston@primecreative.com.au Art Director: Blake Storey Design: Kerry Pert, Madeline McCarty Sales/Advertising: Danilo Cortucci

40

Ph: 0434 419 663 danilo.cortucci@primecreative.com.au Subscriptions Published 11 times a year Subscriptions $140.00 per annum (inc GST) Overseas prices apply Ph: (03) 9690 8766

Copyright Manufacturers’ Monthly is owned by Prime Creative Media and

18 6 Editor’s Comment

30 Welding

45 Product Innovation

8 Comment

34 Sensors

46 Compressors

10 News@MM

37 Skills & Training

47 Lifting Solutions

18 Industry Focus

40 Finance

49 Software & Systems

24 Issues & Insights

43 Women in Industry

50 What’s New

28 Manufacturing Strategies

44 Automation

54 Last Word

published by John Murphy. All material in Manufacturers’ Monthly is copyright and no part may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means (graphic, electronic or mechanical including information and retrieval systems) without written permission of the publisher. The Editor welcomes contributions but reserves the right to accept or reject any material. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information, Prime Creative Media will not accept responsibility for errors or omissions or for any consequences arising from reliance on information published.

The opinions expressed in Manufacturers’ Monthly are not necessarily the opinions of, or endorsed by the publisher unless otherwise stated. © Copyright Prime Creative Media, 2019 Articles All articles submitted for publication become the property of the

Behind the cover

manmonthly.com.au

AUGUST 2019

publisher. The Editor reserves the right to adjust any article to conform

Head Office 11-15 Buckhurst St South Melbourne VIC 3205 P: +61 3 9690 8766 enquiries@primecreative.com.au www.primecreative.com.au Sydney Office Suite 3.06, 1-9 Chandos Street Saint Leonards NSW 2065, Australia P: +61 2 9439 7227

Printed by: Manark Printing 28 Dingley Ave Dandenong VIC 3175

New frontiers for Australian manufacturing continue to open up.

With the founding of the Australian Space Agency all eyes have turned to the skies, as Australia’s dynamic space industry is once again the centre of attention, after too long being overshadowed by international counterparts. But, it’s not what’s old is new again. New ways of working in space, with low cost launches, miniature satellites and in-orbit manufacturing are summed up in “Space 2.0”. Now, the government, researchers, and industry leaders are seeing this domain of operations as an exciting

prospect for advanced manufacturing in the production and monitoring of space-bound devices. Once that occurs, the potential of space manufacturing is only limited by our imaginations. Whether low-cost satellite data is utilised by internet of things-enabled devices in industries such as mining and agriculture, or new advanced materials designed for space are applied on Earth, future applications are being created day by day. For this month’s Manufacturers’ Monthly, we spoke to government, researchers and industry representatives who are on the edge of this new environment.

AUSTRALIA REACHES FOR THE STARS

Official Industry Partners

INSIDE >> >>

Print Post Approved PP100007882

with the magazine format.

MANAGEMENT >> TECHNOLOGY >> SOLUTIONS

24 Preparing for tomorrow’s manufacturing

32 All there is to know about the National Manufacturing Summit 2019

34 Integrating smart sensors for Industry 4.0

Ph: (03) 9794 8337

4 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

manmonthly.com.au

5.56

B

CO CONTACT CLEANER PRODUCT CODE

2016B

WITH

E E R F R O F E R O 20% M WE’RE

5005 PRODUCT CODE

STRALIA U A N I R A R 50TH YE U O G N I T A CELEBR PRODUCTS E T I R U O V A F OUR F ON FOUR O

BRAKLEEN PRODUCT CODE

5089B

ZINC IT

85B

20 PRODUCT CODE

!

WWW.CRCIND.COM.AU

13 73 23 / blackwoods.com.au

Comment

SYED SHAH – Managing Editor, Manufacturers’ Monthly

Space, a not so distant frontier

A

CCORDING to “Global Space Industry Dynamics”, a research paper for the Australian government, Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, the global space economy was worth an estimated US$345 billion ($491.6 billion) in 2016. There were about 50 nations then, who were involved in the space industry in some capacity. Some had budgets over a billion dollars, while the majority had budgets under $100 million.

Australia falls in the latter category.

The paper outlined the markets in the space economy that our country should be considering, and these included (among others) space mining, smallsat manufacturing, navigation devices and application, satellite radio, as well as earth observation-driven data analytics.

The Australian Space Agency has been hard at work for the past year setting itself goals to increase the size of the local space industry

6 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

to be worth $10-$12 billion by 2030. It is already working with various states and agencies across the country to ensure that growth happens. Within a few months, the CSIRO launched its report “Space: A Roadmap for Unlocking Future Growth Opportunities for Australia” at the Australian Space Research Conference in the Gold Coast.

Science and Technology Minister, Karen Andrews, said the report outlined the business opportunities that a growing space industry would create in the country, and the potential expansion of jobs that could be the result of it. Andrews said that the space sector could create 20,000 new jobs and also increase the importance of studying STEM and understanding the opportunities it can lead to.

South Australia, at the moment, is set to be the home for the Agency.

Historically, the state has been at the forefront in supporting the

growth of the development of space technology, holding the 2017 leg of the International Astronautical Congress. Although it is set to have 20 full time staff dedicated to it, statistics from the Agency have indicated that in 2018 alone, about 10,000 Australians are employed within the sector.

While Australia does not operate in the capacity of larger space players like the US or China in terms of possessing launch pads, or the building of rockets or space shuttles for space exploration, we can look at other areas such as the miniaturisation of satellites. In doing so, the door to a large number of manufacturing suppliers for the components opens up. In this issue, we spoke to the deputy head of the Australian Space Agency, Anthony Murfett; Lloyd Damp, chief executive of Southern Launch, a company that is working on a launch facility at the Eyre Peninsula;

Roger Franzen, a member of Engineer’s Australia’s National Committee on Space Engineering; and Adam Gilmour, CEO of Gilmour Space Technologies, about these possibilities.

From an Australian perspective, it is best to be cautious as well, despite all the excitement about sending objects (and people, hopefully) into space. The space industry needs both talent and experience. However, at this point, the local space industry is still in at its infancy. Local candidates may have already taken their talents to more mature industries overseas. For the space scene to work, talent has to be retained locally and acquired internationally.

There needs to be a critical mass of experienced talent to adequately transfer a certain amount of skills to the next generation of talents.

Read more to find out how the industry can make this happen.

manmonthly.com.au

Atlas Copco: Optimising your Compressed Air System

Atlas Copco Optimisation products help you save energy by maximizing your efficiency. We have devised a simple three-step process where we analyse, optimize and monitor to help you accomplish real energy savings.

We also offer: * Optimizer 4.0, our newest central controller, links all compressors and dryers and lowers your overall pressure band. * AIRScan™ - Compressed air Audit with total solution for improving utilisation of compressed air in generation, distribution and application. * Smartlink - a compressor monitoring programme providing you a complete data insight and energy reporting of the compressed air production at your site. When needed it sends you warnings by e-mail or text message. * Leak Detection YouTube Atlas Copco Optimiser 4.0 or Atlas Copco Smartlink now!

www.atlascopco.com or 1800 023 469

Comment

GEOFF CRITTENDEN – CEO, Weld Australia

Finding and retaining skilled workers is front of mind for manufacturing industry business owners and operators.

A critical constraint: Manufacturing workforce capability and availability

T

HERE is widespread evidence that Australia’s manufacturing sector is growing. According to the Australian Industry Group’s (Ai Group) Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index (Australian PMI), the sector experienced a 26-month long run of uninterrupted expansion from 2016 to 2018.

More recently, the Australian PMI rose by 3.8 points to 54.8 in April, indicating even faster growth across the manufacturing sector, with production, sales, exports and new orders all gaining ground.

However, industry participants continue to cite a critical constraint – workforce capability and availability. Finding and retaining skilled workers is front of mind for manufacturing industry business owners and operators, as is the maintaining currency of skills and knowledge.

Australia requires a significant increase in skilled, qualified trades 8 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

workers to meet future demand on major projects in industries as diverse as defence, shipbuilding, aerospace, infrastructure, rolling stock, and resources.

According to a recent employment outlook survey in Australia conducted by the ManpowerGroup, skilled trades workers (such as electricians and welders), engineers (electrical, civil and mechanical) and technicians are scarce. In fact, 34 per cent of Australian employers admit that filling job vacancies is increasingly difficult, mainly due to lack of applicants (25 per cent), lack of skills (21 per cent), and lack of experience (19 per cent). This is further compounded by the fact that approximately 30 per cent of Australia’s existing welding workforce is aged over 45 years. This heavy proportion of older skilled trade workers, particularly welders, puts into focus the looming issues that

industrial sectors are likely to face when baby boomers finally reach retirement age – welding positions will simply become impossible to fill, particularly given the projected increased demand.

Our lack of skilled workers combined with an aging workforce

demographic is exacerbated by strong employment growth.

Recent labour force data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) indicates that employment growth among manufacturers surged by 86,000 over the past 12 months – the highest growth rate of any

According to a recent employment outlook survey, skilled trades workers, engineers, and technicians are scarce.

manmonthly.com.au

Australian industry. This is closely followed by both the mining and construction industries. There is also further projected employment growth over the next five years for structural steel and welding trade workers.

This employment growth rate is not surprising given some of the major projects on the horizon, from the federal government’s $90 billion Naval Shipbuilding Program, through to major infrastructure projects such as the $12 billion Sydney Metro project, and the $5 billion Melbourne Airport Rail Link.

The skills shortage for these growing sectors is clearly reaching breaking point in Australia.

Having an appropriately sized, skilled, readily-available workforce at the right time is key to delivering these major projects. Developing this workforce presents a complex and long-term challenge – it requires a significant amount of individual training and company up-

manmonthly.com.au

Developing a skilled workforce presents a complex and long-term challenge. skilling to meet global standards.

Perhaps more importantly, it requires a shift in thinking and a focus on the skills that will be essential to the manufacturing industry of the future, such as automation, robotics, and advanced manufacturing processes.

Government, industry, and education providers all play a role in solving this complex, long-term challenge, and in attracting, skilling, and retaining workers.

This critical constraint of workforce capability and availability is the basis of the 2019 National

Manufacturing Summit’s theme: “Skills for the Future”. Hosted by Weld Australia, the Summit will be held at The Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne on 21 and 22 August 2019.

The Summit gathers leading representatives from all major Australian manufacturing stakeholders – business, unions, universities, finance, suppliers, and government – to discuss the sector’s prospects, and identify promising, pragmatic policy measures designed to support an industrial turnaround.

The 2019 Summit program will focus on how business, governments, industry bodies and the education system can work together to deliver actionable, practical solutions.

The Summit is a must-attend event for anyone with a vested interest in manufacturing, skills, training and apprenticeships.

For further information about the event, visit: https:// manufacturingsummit.com.au/

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 9

News@MM IMCRC, UTS, 3D printing research partnership hits one-year milestone A research partnership between the Innovative Manufacturing CRC (IMCRC), the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Downer’s Mineral Technologies has reached its one-year anniversary.

The project aims to develop custom 3D printed technologies for precision-engineered mineral separation and mining equipment.

The idea of the project is to create mineral separation spirals, which can be produced with a 3D printer after individual models are created

by Mineral Technologies.

Once up and running, the project hopes to print on site and as required, to save costs and reduce lead-time.

According to Alex de Andrade, UTS associate professor and global manager, sales, equipment and technology for Mineral Technologies, the past 12 months have set the project up for further development.

“In the first year, we designed a small printer and machinery code as well as printed a scaled

The collaboration will create 3D printed technologies for the mining sector.

version of our selected spiral model. We are now into the cost and wear testing comparisons and in parallel we are building the fullscale bespoke prototype printer,” said de Andrade.

Working out of UTS’s Rapido, an advanced technology development unit, the project has all the

core components of innovative manufacturing, according to UTS Rapido director Hervé Harvard.

“The project is a worldclass innovation in the area of Industry 4.0, particularly additive manufacturing and internet of things (IoT) sensing, specific to what the project has achieved.

Working with such an innovative team at Mineral Technologies is refreshing and shows that Australia can be a leader in adopting Industry 4.0 principles for global impact,” said Harvard.

One outcome that the team have already achieved is applying for a patent for IoT connectivity, which goes towards the project’s Industry 4.0 goals.

With IMCRC facilitating the project, the leadership of the program has been a collaboration between industry and the university, something that David Chuter, CEO and managing director of IMCRC, welcomed.

“This exceptional project takes industry-led research collaboration to the next level.

Within a year we have seen Mineral Technologies and UTS form a team that ‘collaborates to innovate’ and deliver on milestones.

Seeing a 3D printed version of their selected spiral model puts it into perspective,” said Chuter.

UNSW students push the potential for vacuum travel Students from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have been selected to compete in the 2019 Hyperloop Pod Competition.

A subsidiary of SpaceX, Hyperloop attempts to create a new method of long-distance travel where people travel through vacuum tubes in pressurised pods, at speeds similar to aircraft.

The competition, held on July 21, judges participants by one criteria, maximum speed, including a successful deceleration to finish within 30m of the end of the milelong vacuum tube.

The team from UNSW had to condense their engineering process from the normal 18 months down to six, while competing against top

10 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

universities around the world. In February the team were invited to go to the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

Last year’s winner, the Technical University of Munich, achieved a top speed of 467km/h.

In developing the project, the components used are largely off-the-shelf products, according to technical manager Francis McDonald.

“It’s such a simple idea, pretty much the best team is the one that goes fastest, but it’s also very complex, we’re dealing with vacuums, so we have to seal all our systems and that’s very interesting to play around with,” said McDonald.

The team’s design connects the internal machinery to a chassis which is enclosed within an aerodynamic shell.

“While we want this to be aerodynamic, it has to be also aesthetic and can conform to the regular engineering requirements that you would need for a Hyperloop pod,” said UNSW Hyperloop structures lead Yasmin Zaman.

In addition to the ability to test their engineering skills, the competition provides an opportunity for the students to connect with engineers from other countries and students who have similarly attempted to create a pod that can innovate

The winners will be decided on one criteria, speed. travel around the world.

“The people who do compete and make it through the multiple rounds of elimination are quite revered in engineering around the world,” said Zaman.

manmonthly.com.au

News@MM Swinburne researchers train robots to relieve chronic pain Researchers at Swinburne University, in conjunction with Infrared Robotics (IR), have developed a collaborative robot system that automatically treats soft tissue injuries in the neck, back, and head.

Based on an analysis of the patient through a thermal camera, the system uses a collaborative robot to apply targeted laser therapy to identified pain, known as “hot spots”.

“Unlike conventional industrial robots that operate in a cage, collaborative robots are designed to work alongside people,” said Dr Matt Isaksson, senior lecturer and project leader at Swinburne.

“They are power and speed limited so they can collide with people without causing harm.”

Dr Isaksson’s aimed to develop an automatic solution for safe robotic

examination and treatment of patients experiencing chronic pain.

“Using the same technology used in cricket to show whether the ball has made contact with the bat, a thermal camera scans the patient and locates injuries and inflammation through identifying hot spots in a thermal image,” Dr Isaksson said.

“The locations of the hot spot are then sent to the collaborative robot that moves a low-level infrared laser into contact with the patient to perform treatment.”

The project has delivered a fully working prototype for automated photobiomodulation (PBM) therapy for chronic pain. This is a form of therapy that applies low-level lasers or LED lights emitting diodes to the surface of the body to stimulate and heal soft tissue.

Using cobots and thermal cameras to treat pain.

“Studies have shown PBM therapy to have positive effects on chronic pain symptoms,” said Dr Mark Rogers, a co-founder of IR Robotics and one of the Australian pioneers of PBM therapy.

“Introducing collaborative robots

to deliver treatment has the potential to improve the precision of the therapy in addition to reducing costs involved.

Building on Industry 4.0 technologies and big data analysis, the derived platform can self-adapt to provide individually optimal treatment.”

BAC Modular Workplace & Drawer Storage Systems Made and designed in Australia to Perfection

Order now the latest BAC Catalogue online!

www.bacsystems.com.au

193-195 Power Street GLENDENNING NSW 2761 Tel: (02) 9832 2777 Fax: (02) 9832 3899 manmonthly.com.au

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 11

News@MM Graphene extracted from eucalyptus trees An international collaboration between researchers from RMIT University and the National Institute of Technology, Warangal (India) has led to the development of a new way to extract graphene.

The method derives graphene from eucalyptus bark and is cheaper and more sustainable than current synthesis methods, according to a statement from RMIT. While the current cost of production stands at US$100 ($142.95) per gram of graphene, this new method could potentially reduce the cost to US$0.5 per gram. With such a lowered cost, new applications and industry uses could be developed for the material, without significant investment in research and development.

“Eucalyptus bark extract has never been used to synthesise graphene sheets before and we are thrilled to find that it not only works,

it’s in fact a superior method, both in terms of safety and overall cost,” said lead researcher Suresh Bhargava.

Currently, graphene is renowned for its conductive abilities, with the material able to conduct heat and electricity 10 times better than copper. While being flexible and transparent, graphene is the thinnest and strongest material known to humans.

The new extractive method opens up the use of graphene for applications as diverse as flexible electronics, water filters, and bio-sensors.

An additional benefit of the eucalyptus extraction method is the lack of its reliance on toxic reagents, making it an example of “green” chemistry, according to professor Vishnu Shanker from the National Institute of Technology, Warangal.

The graphene extracted from eucalyptus was tested in the

Eucalyptus bark provides a cheap source of graphene. application of a super-capacitor and matched the quality and performance characteristics of graphene extracted in other methods, which rely on harmful reducing agents.

With eucalyptus trees abundant in Australia, as well as around the world, while also being one of the ten quickest trees to grow, graphene

could be created with ease.

“Graphene is a remarkable material with great potential in many applications due to its chemical and physical properties and there’s a growing demand for economical and environmentally friendly large-scale production,” said Bhargava.

Researchers look for ways forward in advanced materials A two-day workshop at the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM) focussed on the future of opportunities in materials science.

The use of quantum mechanics has the potential to enable the fabrication of new materials and devices, according to a statement released at the end of the workshop.

Held by the Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM) at the University of Wollongong’s Innovation Campus, the meeting was entitled “Workshop on Surface Science and Technology” and brought together researchers from fields that contribute to current advances in material sciences, including physics, chemistry, photonics, and biology.

Currently, ISEM researches how to create batteries used for electric vehicles and energy storage, 12 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

superconductivity for electrical and medical devices, and nanostructured materials.

The event highlighted the opportunities that research in this area could create, noted associate professor Yi Du. “These workshops are an invaluable opportunity to exchange ideas and seek broad collaborations as we look for ways to solve fundamental challenges that will enable a new generation of electronic devices that are more efficient, smarter, and more compatible with our lives,” said Du. One of the areas canvassed were new quantum materials for lowenergy quantum electronics. While existing electronic technologies in this field are unable to be adopted broadly because of their high cost, new materials that bypass current limitations could allow

Researchers gathered at the Australian Institute for Innovative Materials.

for the integration of large-scale super performance electronics in emerging quantum computers and devices.

“All of these new devices will require not only revolutionary materials to laws of physics and chemistry, but new ways to make those materials that is also cost effective and scalable,” said Du. A statement on the workshop

described how a critical part of the discussion was how theoretical or experimental research in this area could be applied in a commercial setting.

ISEM is one of a handful of multifunctional materials facilities that can create the processes and devices needed to scale-up labbased findings to allowed them to be applied commercially. manmonthly.com.au

News@MM Textile coating technology takes the next step Representatives of Deakin University, textile technology company Xefco, and Proficiency Contracting have agreed upon a joint project for advanced coating technologies that will improve durability for textile coatings while reducing energy, water, and chemical consumption.

The $3.4 million project will be supported by the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (IMCRC) and was developed, tested, and manufactured in Australia with the assistance of a local network of manufacturers.

The atmospheric plasma coating system developed by Deakin’s Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) and Xefco reduces the costs and complexities of current coating equipment. The project announced this week will allow for the technology to emerge

from the lab to a point at which it is commercially viable.

The coating will help make textiles resistant to water, absorbent, flame retardant, or odour free, according to IFM senior research fellow in plasma Dr Weiwei Lei. “Thanks to support from our partners and IMCRC, we will now aim to improve and optimise the functional coating process to get this lab-scale technology ready for production testing at a textile mill and global commercial use by 2021,” said Lei. While textile coating has been a less sustainable part of the production of textiles in the past, this technology reduces the environmental footprint of the process.

Created through a collaboration of research institutions and industry, the application of this

Coatings that improve durability are being developed. technology has the potential to expand Australia’s capability in the manufacture of textiles, said CEO and managing director at IMCRC, David Chuter.

“The next decade will be about innovative textile manufacturing

technologies and processes that are environmentally friendly and resource-efficient. The novel atmospheric plasma system that Xefco and IFM are developing will set the path for the future viability of the industry,” said Chuter.

OPEN UP YOUR WORLD Uncover untapped PhD theory and discover knowledge that can see your business innovate further and expose new possibilities.

See how a project with APR.Intern can expand the world you work in and influence the future.

aprintern.org.au

manmonthly.com.au

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 13

News@MM Federal government agency steps up support for medical manufacturing The Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) is seeking to showcase the potential of medical manufacturing in Australia to encourage international investment.

Launching a new digital health website, Austrade highlights Australia’s attractiveness as a location for developing, testing, and launching new medical technologies.

Denise Eaton, senior advisor at Austrade noted that Australia is inherently primed for success in medical innovation.

“Our background – in terms of vast distances, remote settlements,

and a multicultural society – means we have a tradition of having to innovate,” said Eaton.

According to Austrade, its site has listings, case studies and data on subsectors such as telemedicine, precision medicine and genomics, big data and artificial intelligence, digital records, and virtual reality.

Support for the development of new pharmaceuticals will be channelled through the $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).

The MRFF augments Australia’s existing role in the production of new

medicines, which includes 50 clinical research networks and bio labs which conduct 1,300 clinical trials a year.

The production of new medicines in Australia draws upon Australia’s creative IT sector and the nation’s history of producing Nobel laureates and devices like the cochlear implant.

Eaton pointed out that there is an encouraging increase in outlay on medical manufacturing.

“Investment from venture capitalists more than doubled between 2016 and 2017. What’s more, we’re seeing a significant increase in interest from Asian investors

– especially in medical science technology,” said Eaton.

Medical manufacturing in Australia in the past has led to the development of live-video equipment for real-time remote examination and diagnostics, integrated into electronic health records. Eaton noted the example of Visionflex, which has pioneered this technology.

The new website also highlights the medical manufacturer Anatomics, which uses 3D printing to help surgeons create customised implants and has in the past built a 3D printed titanium sternum and partial rib cage.

CSIRO designs algorithm vaccination technique In a paper accepted to the 2019 International Conference on machine Learning (ICML), CSIRO researchers have presented a new method of preventing attacks on algorithms and machine learning systems.

Similar in principle to a vaccine, the innovation is designed to limit the effectiveness of hackers who target algorithms that could drive cars, identify spam emails, or diagnose diseases.

For manufacturers who are wary of adopting algorithms due to the risks associated with a system infiltration, whether it leads to the copying of proprietary information or a malicious shutdown, this technique from the CSIRO will help to ensure peace of mind.

CSIRO points out that with any new technology, securing it from outside interference is core to its effectiveness, and manufacturing software is no different. In 2017, Italian researchers in collaboration with cybersecurity firm, Trend Micro, found that factory robots can be easily hacked due to lax safety practices.

The work by CSIRO attempts 14 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

The algorithm will vaccinate systems against cyber attacks.

to counter hacking attempts that confuse an algorithm via adversarial attacks which trick machine learning models by inserting a layer of noise over an image.

Hacking attempts in this style cause algorithms to misidentify the image, with potentially devastating effects.

“Adversarial attacks have proven capable of tricking a machine learning model into incorrectly labelling a traffic stop sign as speed sign, which could have disastrous effects in the real world,” said Dr

Richard Nock, machine learning group leader at CSIRO’s Data61, the data and digital specialist arm of the national science agency.

By preparing the machine learning algorithm by layering a weak version of a hacking attack over an image, the algorithm is able to learn from this minor layer of interference and respond to hacking attacks that introduce more complex disruptions.

According to CSIRO, while algorithms applied to the

manufacturing sector promise great improvements in productivity and returns on investment, their benefits depend upon safety and security. With this innovation

by CSIRO, there would be a safer future for AI. “The new techniques against adversarial attacks developed at Data61 will spark a new line of machine learning research and ensure the positive use of transformative AI technologies,” said Adrian Turner, CEO of Data61. manmonthly.com.au

News@MM G20 puts forth agenda for energy transition and sustainable growth Energy and environment ministers of G20 nations have adopted a statement outlining that the potential to transition to clean energy and sustainable environments depends upon improving business environments to encourage innovation and change.

The G20 is made up of 19 countries and the EU. Countries include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK and the US. Held in the Japanese city of Karuizawa on the sidelines of the current G20 Summit in Osaka, the communiqué, published on June 15-16, identifies that in order to have a clean energy future, developed

nations must collaborate to leverage competitive advantages.

The announcement demonstrates how in global policy-making arenas, innovation in clean energy technologies and energy efficient solutions are included as part of the solution to the challenges of climate change. Developing climate-resilient infrastructure will also be a priority, and the statement provides room for manufacturing enterprises to capitalise on this emerging need.

The statement also outlines how governments globally will be looking to invest in and adopt new technologies that will enable them to meet their energy reduction targets. In particular, investment in technologies that will encourage the uptake of renewable energy, such as energy storage, smart grid technology,

Encouraging innovation is key to sustainability.

electric vehicles ,and demand side management are encouraged, presenting opportunities for manufacturing businesses involved in these areas.

The statement identifies the role of the private sector in working alongside government bodies to lead

the transformation to a resilient, inclusive and sustainable future.

Governments, including Australia, are exhorted to improve resource efficiency, with the statement noting that “economic growth and environment protection can and should go hand-in-hand”.

NATIONAL MANUFACTURING SUMMIT 2019 SKILLS FOR THE FUTURE

REGISTER NOW 22 AUGUST 2019

THE AUSTRALIAN SYNCHROTRON MELBOURNE Do you struggle to fill vacant positions? Concerned about the future of Australian manufacturing? Want to upskill your workforce with global-standard training?

With the theme of Skills for the Future, the National Manufacturing Summit gathers leading representatives from all major Australian manufacturing stakeholders—to identify promising, pragmatic policy measures designed to support an industrial turnaround.

REGISTER Register now: NOW: https://manufacturingsummit.com.au https://manufacturingsummit.com.au manmonthly.com.au

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 15

News @MM Australian metal 3D printer expands worldwide Australian 3D metal printing company Spee3D has developed the first metal 3D printer, called Lightspee3D, that can leverage supersonic 3D deposition technology.

Lightspee3D’s technology aims to manufacturing grade printing at production speeds. It also allows operators to print industrial quality metal parts in minutes.

“Typically, 3D printers of this size and complexity require up to two weeks to install and set up, however Speed3D printers can be installed in a matter of hours. We’ve had machines delivered at 9am and printing parts by lunch time,” said Byron Kennedy, co-founder of Spee3D. In three weeks, Speed3D installed five industrial printers internationally, including at Australian National Manufacturing Week in Melbourne, Swinburne University, Fit Print Bureau in Germany, Rapid in Detroit, and the University of Delaware.

“The LightSpee3D printer we had installed is running great. It’s also easy to operate, Spee3D trained one of our staff who was then able

Spee3D machine at National Manufacturing Week. to train other operators. The team are now using the machine every day,” said Larry Holmes, assistant director of Digital Design and Additive Manufacturing.

To encourage others to take on the challenge of quickly printing metal parts and components, Spee3D announced the “Supersonic 3D Printing Design Challenge”.

The competition is open to 3D printing enthusiasts and communities worldwide and judges the best application designs that use Spee3D’s technology.

The federal government creates innovation lab for building industry Australia’s manufacturing, building, and construction sectors will receive up to $2 million as part of the federal government’s Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC) to establish a collaborative innovation lab.

The new lab will help manufacturers design new prefabricated buildings that are ecofriendly, affordable, and can reduce construction time.

Karen Andrews, Minister for Industry, Science, and Technology, said the new lab will support a wide range of buildings, including 16 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

tiny houses and larger homes while strengthening Australia’s position in the global building market.

“This sector is starting to build significant momentum and currently represents three to five per cent of Australia’s $150 billion construction industry,” Andrews said.

“This share could grow to 15 per cent by 2025, creating 20,000 jobs and adding $30b to our economy.”

The prefabricated building industry includes modular houses and offices created in a factory setting and then transported directly to site.

The innovation lab will support the prefabricated building industry.

manmonthly.com.au

ULTIMATE LIGHT-WEIGHT & COMPACT SIZE, METICULOUS DEDICATED DESIGN

KITO EQ ELECTRIC CHAIN HOIST LEADERS IN CUSTOM LIFTING SOLUTIONS

1300 792 262 | www.pwbanchor.com.au HEAD OFFICE & MANUFACTURING PLANT Address: 441 Grimshaw Street, Bundoora, VIC 3083 Tel: 1300 792 262 Fax: 03 9467 7290

QLD OFFICE Address: 1/119 Bandarra Street, Richlands, QLD 4077 Tel: 07 3375 1288 Fax: 07 3375 8241

NSW OFFICE Address: 98 Forrester Road, St Marys, NSW 2760 Tel: 02 8886 5200 Fax: 02 9673 8117

WA OFFICE Address: 13 Tacoma Circuit, Canning Vale, WA 6155 Tel: 08 9256 2499 Fax: 08 9256 1621

IndustryFocus Australia looks towards the stars After a hiatus, Australia is once again looking to be involved in space, with benefits for manufacturers on ground and in orbit. Connor Pearce reports.

J

ULY 21, this year, marked 50 years since Neil Armstrong uttered his famous line as he stepped on the moon – relayed to the world through radars located near Canberra. The remaining two-hour broadcast was shared to the rest of humanity via the Parkes telescope in western NSW. In the intervening half a century,

Australia’s participation in the space economy was limited in its growth since this initial milestone.

The nation’s contribution to space activities has been largely limited to the processing of data collected by satellites built and launched by other nations, according to Roger Franzen, a member of Engineer’s Australia’s

National Committee on Space Engineering, who has been active in the space industry for over 30 years.

“We’ve been an extraordinarily accomplished nation for processing other people’s data for our needs without generating our own data and putting that learning back into the assets that are orbiting the earth,” Franzen

told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

Professor Andrew Dempster, at UNSW’s School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, has a similar outlook to Franzen. He noted that although Australia’s processing of the data is exceptional, the country’s commitment to space has not progressed beyond this point.

Gilmour Space Technologies is one of a wave of small manufacturers leveraging the benefits of Space 2.0.

18 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

manmonthly.com.au

IndustryFocus “Australia had always been very strong in the downstream sector, which is processing of the remote sensor data,” highlighted Dempster. “The Bureau of Meteorology, [for example], are very good at what they do, but I’ve always said the space industry must have upstream layouts. In other words, you’ve got to have things in space.” Recently however, Australia has once again turned its eye towards the skies, with the intention of placing an Australianmade and launched satellite among the many devices that now support life and progress on earth from orbit.

manmonthly.com.au

The new space race In 2017, the first concerted efforts were made in this sector

by Dempster and his team at UNSW’s Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research.

They launched one of three CubeSats, along with teams from the University of Sydney, the Australian National University and the University of South Australia.

Weighing just 1.3kg and roughly the size of a shoebox, this new type of satellite opened up the possibility of Australia getting into space.

“They were the first Australian built satellites to be built in 15 years,” recalled Dempster. “So, that was a bit of a game changer because it meant that although the rest of the world had already cottoned on to this, it was now obvious in Australia that universities and other people with not a lot of money could get access to space.”

While these advances were being made in universities, governments and private enterprises around Australia were starting to take note.

In response to this efflorescence, in 2017 Senator Simon Birmingham – representing then Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Arthur Sinodinos – announced that the Federal government would found and fund the Australian Space Agency, to an audience of global space experts at the International Astronautical Congress. Coalescing the disparate Australian space sector around one agency represented a shift from practices of the past, according to Dempster.

“This time around is the first time when it’s looked quite serious and that there is a groundswell of growth within the sector that justifies confidence that it’s going to keep going,” said Dempster.

In this respect, Australia’s space sector has made some in-roads. In 2016, the Expert Reference Group found that Australia’s space industry was worth almost $4 billion. Initially, the funding for the Australian Space Agency totalled $47.7 million. While this may seem small compared to the budgets of other agencies such as NASA, which has over $20b to spend, the Agency is operating

With more launch sites set up around Australia, satellite technology is becoming more accessible to those on the ground.

under a new model, as deputy head of the Australian Space Agency, Anthony Murfett, highlighted.

With the rapid transformation that we’ve seen in the space sector, it’s moved from the realm of government and to where we’re seeing small, medium and large businesses engaging and creating their own opportunities, it means the role of government is changing to that of a partner and facilitator.” said Murfett.

In 2018, the Australian Space Agency estimated that 10,000 Australians were employed in the space sector. Just as Dempster and the tertiary sector were able to get involved due to the miniaturisation of satellites and the reduced cost of launching them with private launchers competing with government-funded agencies, so too has the wider industrial sector turned their attention to space.

“You need to have space ports, rocket launchers, satellite builders, satellite component builders, mission designers, mission controllers, ground signalling controllers – all of these different services – and miraculously there are multiple entities in all of those sectors [in Australia],” noted Dempster.

Murfett likened operating in the space industry to working in the aviation or maritime sectors. He

cited cabinetry makers who supply to the naval industry could adapt to supporting the building of space vehicles. Franzen concurs with this assessment of the industry.

“The space industry is like any other peak manufacturing entity. It is like the car industry in that there’s a massive pyramid of suppliers underneath the peak integrators. So, to have a space industry, a similar pyramid of suppliers is needed,” said Franzen.

In contributing to those agencies or enterprises, manufacturers who work in adjacent industries could adapt their processes to supply to space projects. Lloyd Damp, chief executive of Southern Launch, a company that is working towards operating a launch facility at the southern tip of the Eyre Peninsula, highlights that the new space industry, sometimes called Space 2.0, will enable a broad swathe of enterprises to be involved in the industry.

“The key thing with the next generation of space investment or space utilisation is all around using translatable technologies into space,” said Damp. “If there’s a set of valves that we can borrow from the oil and gas industry, for example, and if they can get signed off by the appropriate authorities, then that’s a good example of a product that new space Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 19

IndustryFocus would try and make use of.”

Murfett already sees areas of competitive advantage for Australian companies in areas such as robotics and automation, quantum mechanics and optical communications.

In addition, metal 3D printing, advanced composite materials, and the area of artificial intelligence (AI) have existing direct applications, both terrestrially and in orbit.

More broadly, Murfett noted that, “space actually touches and transforms all parts of the economy, which opens up additional opportunities for applying manufacturing technologies”.

NASA will launch sounding rockets from ELA’s launch facility in the Northern Territory.

Franzen knows from experience the need for a wide network of contributors to any space mission.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Franzen was involved with the Endeavour space telescope, which flew in the Discovery and Endeavour space shuttles. The $5m contract produced two dustbin-sized canisters and involved 115 sub-contractors.

“Many of those subcontractors had to be convinced they were able to do what we needed,” recalled Franzen. “It was an exercise in looking at what we needed, going to the marketplace to see who was manufacturing that or something similar, and saying to them, ‘This is what you do here. Can you stretch that a little bit further to do this?’”

Gilmour Space Technologies, a rocket manufacturer based in Queensland, is developing low-cost hybrid rockets and is similarly reliant upon the broader manufacturing sector, according to CEO Adam Gilmour.

“We’re taking the view that instead of trying to make everything ourselves, we’re going to try and reach out to as many as we can in the local industry. We figured that we should be going to companies that have a deep adjacent experience and then say, ‘Here’s what we know about how it works in a rocket. How do we then make what you know into what we need?’”

Gilmour has turned to local manufacturers partly due to the 20 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Image credit: NASA

Preparing for launch

need for short-turnaround times.

While specialised components such as avionics and bearings for payload vehicle had to be sourced overseas, Gilmour has sought out local manufacturers to reduce the time that their components spend in transit and the time it takes to get materials through customs.

Drawing on a local filament winding shop for the construction of the nose cone, Gilmour has also adapted carbon fibre tubes that are produced for the mining and chemical industries for its space activities.

“We have been using a lot of the local computer numerical control (CNC) shops to do a lot of the manufacturing of the separate components,” added Gilmour.

Overall, he is enthused about the capability of the local manufacturing sector to supply Australia’s space sector as it grows.

“I’ve been surprised in the last six months at the talent and capability of adjacent industries to the space industry and the willingness of these industries to come and work with the space industry and I think it bodes

well for the future,” said Gilmour.

At the north-eastern tip of Arnhem Land, at the end of the Gove Peninsula, Equatorial Launch Australia is building Australia’s first space-port, termed the Arnhem Space Centre. Carley Scott, CEO of Equatorial Launch Australia, highlighted the construction of a space port, which by nature has to be located away from major urban centres, requires the development of advanced manufacturing capabilities, not only for power generation, but the on-site 3D printing of the specific and precise parts needed for construction and maintenance.

Equatorial Launch Australia recently gained national prominence when it announced that NASA would launch low-orbit vehicles from its site by 2020. In preparing for this eventuality, Equatorial Launch Australia has turned to manufacturers across Australia.

“We talk to the vehicle manufacturers in Queensland and South Australia has a number of really strong payload manufacturers as well,” said Scott.

Looking at the capabilities

of the Australian economy as a whole, Murfett and the Australian Space Agency are seeking to link manufacturers to space enterprises.

“What we are now doing is identifying exactly where the capabilities are across Australia and how we can support the growth of the sector,” said Murfett.

Already, international aerospace corporations are said to be looking to invest in Australia to support their supply chains. According to Murfett, the Agency has engaged with a range of companies including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Airbus and others looking to support the space sector in Australia. There are also a range of SMEs looking to invest in space activities.

Reaching altitudes through shifting attitudes For all this enthusiasm, those involved in the space industry recognise that making the leap into space requires a shift for manufacturing from terrestrial to orbital operations. While in-orbit manufacturing is a possibility, getting it right first time is manmonthly.com.au

IndustryFocus essential for space.

“Once we get there, we’ve got to make sure it’s right. One of the differences you see from terrestrial to space [manufacturing] is that we need to make sure that what goes to space not just works, but it works well. This is because repair and retrieving the objects becomes very hard,” said Murfett.

Franzen noted that not only are the logistics difficult, but space is the next step from the harshest environments on earth.

“Space is a vacuum, it has high temperatures, it has low temperatures, it has radiation and PVC plastic, for example, something that we use routinely on earth for many, many applications will evaporate totally in the vacuum of space,” said Franzen.

For Scott, from a launch perspective this means that working towards space missions requires a step-by-step process, beginning with the low orbit rockets before moving to the larger vehicles, a measured process that is not always highlighted in breathless discussions of the potential for space.

“It is important to say, ‘Well, how do we develop this industry?’ and how do we take the steps along that quite exciting journey instead of just ‘We’ll be at the top end of it in no time,’” said Scott.

Frazen sees a shift in attitudes also needing to take place. Ensuring that each component or instrument sent into space works as intended requires a focus on professionalism in the industry.

“We seem to pride ourselves on being able to build a jet fighter out of a Meccano set in the back shed, [but] that is not what the rest of the world expects to see. They expect to see white rooms, lab coats, clean processes.”

Next steps By 2030, the Australian Space Agency forecasts that the Australian space sector will support 30,000 jobs and be worth a total of $12b. Along the way, many benefits are expected to spill out to other segments of industry. Already, Gilmour Space Technologies are developing new propulsion systems and seeing innovations in insulation materials, fuels and support structures for the rockets that they are developing.

These kinds of unexpected benefits are part of the motivation for why the Australian government is investing in space and promoting the sector’s development, as Murfett highlighted.

“One of the reasons the government has invested in the space sector is in recognition that space itself is going to be a

Develop the leaders your business needs

large part of the economy going forward and will impact on all our lives. Importantly, it can both spin in technologies from other parts of the economy and you can get applications working in space coming back out into other parts of the economy,” said Murfett, who gave the example of advances in fire retardant materials that were developed via their application in space.

Scott sees investment in space leading to the further development of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), as tools and technologies are developed, particularly for use within the agricultural and mining sectors that utilise more readily available commercial satellite data.

“Once you have satellites in play, they are impacting the industries that are already strong industries in Australia, and they’re looking to evolve, using GPS tracking, for example,” said Scott.

Gilmour said, however, it would be presumptuous to define exactly what benefits space will have to the wider economy, because he feels there are potential applications that we are not even aware of.

“The attitude to space is now a little bit now like the internet around 2000, where there was technology available and people just had to think of the application

for it. Back then, no one had figured out Facebook or Twitter yet,” said Gilmour.

Scott agrees, and highlights that the dynamism of the Australian manufacturing sector means that describing future applications now is not possible.

“That’s the exciting thing for manufacturers in Australia. It doesn’t mean that I need to give an answer to manufacturers now, because they are so innovative, and they know their customers so well. If they have an understanding of how these sorts of technologies are developing in the space sector, they’ll come up with new innovations that can potentially work well in Australia and overseas,” said Scott.

Observers have watched the Australian space sector go through fits and starts, as government offices were set up, closed or amalgamated within other departments. Today, the energy and support behind the Australian Space Agency and the wider ecosystem is cause for optimism, as Dempster, who has been working to get support for an Australian space sector off the ground for 30 years, reflects.

“There’s no question this is the best time that I can remember to work in space in Australia,” said Dempster.

Contact us now to get your program underway

Ai Group’s Leadership Course Creator enables you to focus on your specific business needs by allowing you to build your own in-house leadership training program from an extensive range of topics – all delivered onsite at your workplace.

1300 55 66 77 training@aigroup.com go.aigroup.com.au/coursebuilder

manmonthly.com.au

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 21

IndustryFocus Getting ready for launch How are businesses and government finding the funding and talent to get into space?

Connor Pearce reports.

22 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Carley Scott (ELA CEO), Djawa Yunupingu (Board, Gumatj Corporation) and Blake Nikolic (Black Sky Aerospace CEO). and create 20,000 jobs by 2030, the Agency has utilised its connections with other national agencies, signing memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with counterpart agencies in the UK, Canada, France and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). These agreements hope to deliver overseas investment opportunities for local manufacturers, partly shepherded through the Agency’s International Space Investment initiative.

Already, Australian space businesses are utilising their advantages to garner international investment. Lloyd Damp, chief executive of Southern Launch, said that, “Because space is a global market, it doesn’t matter where you launch from. It’s how you get to space that becomes the real driver for an international customer to come to Australia.”

Carley Scott, of Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA), highlights how a confluence of three factors made Australia attractive for ELA in wishing to set up launch facilities.

“Australia is an excellent location for launch for a number of reasons.

At a national setting, we have really strong international trade relations.

For our site, being so close to the equator, – if you’re about 15 degrees either side of the equator you get a tremendous boost from the rotational velocity of the earth – that will throw your rocket off more quickly. A very low risk profile allows us to achieve any orbit and a range of different trajectories quite safely,” said Scott.

Scott noted that the low population density in east Arnhem Land, and high-quality infrastructure – partly a legacy of mining in the region – as well as quiet airspace, makes the site on the Gove Peninsula attractive to international investors.

Sourcing funding from commercial sources for space start-ups, such as ELA and Gilmour Space Technologies, has been another focus of the efforts of the founders. Funding for new space ventures, such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, has come through venture capitalists. With the venture capital

Credit: LJM Photography.

T

HE cost of launching a small satellite into space, today, can be between $25-150 million per rocket, according to Adam Gilmour of Gilmour Space Technologies. Although cheaper than previous generations of launches, which could cost billions of dollars, the cost of space operations is a significant barrier to entry, even if the promised rewards of a share in the $350 billion industry are high. To fund these space missions, Australian space enterprises are using a combination of methods to build their launch sites and get their devices into space.

Historically, the first source of funding for space has been government, since the initial explorations were made during the Cold War. In Australia, the role of state funding is not comparable to other established agencies such as the European Space Agency or NASA. With a more limited pool of funding, the Australian Space Agency has targeted its funding towards projects that may not be otherwise funded through commercial sources, according to deputy head of the Australian Space Agency, Anthony Murfett.

“For an Australian industry to participate in the global space economy, there are infrastructural requirements that are needed to help businesses to participate,” said Murfett.

These requirements are being funded through the $19.5 million Space Infrastructure Fund, announced as part of the 20192020 federal budget. This fund will support facilities that will allow manufacturers and space enterprises to test their products for space applications. This structural role sits in addition to the Agency’s remit to set the regulations and standards for the local space industry.

Acting as a facilitator for the local space industry, and with a mandate to triple the size of the space economy

market smaller in Australia than the United States, space enterprises have had mixed results in this field, with Scott having to look further abroad.

“The Australian investment community can tend to be quite conservative and also not practiced at new technology investment, which means that conversation for us takes place both in Australia and overseas,” said Scott.

CEO and founder of Gilmour Space Technologies, Adam Gilmour, added that the commercial proposition has to be water-tight for local investors to come on board.

“The trick has not been about getting the venture capital to understand how valuable space is, it’s been getting them to understand that you’ve got something different, and you’ve got something that’s going to work, and going to make a lot of money,” said Gilmour.

With these enterprises being the first to compete from Australia on the new international market of Space 2.0, Damp sees initial success leading manmonthly.com.au

IndustryFocus to a further catalysation of benefits around the first crop of successful start-ups.

“A launch site becomes a centre of gravity that actually starts to suck in, for example, rocket manufacturers who no longer want to design or develop their rocket systems internationally and pay to transport them here. That means you start to develop a whole new industry around one critical piece of infrastructure,” said Damp.

However, such funding can only be garnered if those seeking it are supported by experienced and talented engineers, scientists and project managers. The lack of a significant space industry in Australia in the past has led to a brain-drain. Skilled graduates have moved overseas where opportunities in aerospace were richer. For those looking to set up in Australia now, this means that talent has to be acquired internationally and locally.

“You’ve got this fantastic area with highly skilled and educated workers who really could run a lot of the construction and maintenance processes that we

have, but also, there are some skills where residents outside of Australia currently have stronger skills. In some instances, Australians do have very specific space-related skills, but they’re working overseas, because that’s where the opportunities have been historically riper, until now” said Scott.

Finding a base of talent that has applied experience has been a challenge that Gilmour is still working on.

“We’ve found that the graduates in the system are fantastic, but there’s just nobody with 10 to 20 years of actual space experience in this country.

We’ve had to hire people from overseas who have been working on rockets for the last two decades,” said Gilmour. “What we’re trying to do is bring these people in at the top, and then train all the junior people who are coming out of Australian universities. Then, in three to five years’ time, we have a whole cadre of people with legitimate, hands-on experience building rockets.”

Just as manufacturers who

may be making products for terrestrial applications can transfer their processes to the space industry, Damp sees a similar potential for acquiring the skills needed for a space industry.

“Australia actually has a large group of people who have skill sets that are transferrable into the space domain,” said Damp.

Beyond the requirements for those who are building the rockets and launch sites, Damp highlights that there are fundamentals, which although not covered in standard training programs, exist for space enterprises.

“Regardless of what the business is, you still need project management. For us in space, it means we need someone who is willing to get outside of their comfort zone and take on the challenge of understanding how their particular skill-set could benefit the delivery of a particular outcome,” said Damp. “Within space more generally, it’s a requirement for people to go, ‘Actually, I’m going to have a go’.”

Oil injected screw compressors

NEW series-4 oil injected screw compressors

Oil free scroll compressors

Desiccant dryer

For sales and service support contact your nearest BOGE partner www.boge.net or (03) 5940 3266

Government and industry are building the physical and human infrastructure Australia needs.

manmonthly.com.au

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 23

Issues&Insights

Artificial intelligence, robotics, and the workforce of the future The spread of advanced automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence is transforming the way manufacturers work. Manufacturers’ Monthly explores how these developments are impacting the workforce.

I

N the manufacturing sector, technological change and transformations in production processes are pointing towards changes in business models. In particular, developments in advanced automation, robotics artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, sensor technology, data analytics, and 3D printing are altering the way in which operations are carried out. That there will be impacts upon the makeup of the workforce is obvious; but the precise nature of the long-term changes to work in the manufacturing sector is debated.

The factors leading to the intensification of industrial automation in recent years, including the growth of AI, are expansions in the capacity for data storage and advances in data analytics, computational power and internet connectivity. Along with these, improvements in transferring digital instructions to the physical world, such as robotics and 3D printing are, according to some experts, on the precipice of 24 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

transforming the world of work.

According a recent report by Oxford Economics, “How Robots Change the World”, while the everfaster adoption of robots will lead to greater productivity and economic growth, and create jobs in hitherto non-existent roles and industries, business models across a variety of sectors will be disrupted, with tens of millions of jobs lost as human workers are displaced by machines.

“The number of robots in use worldwide multiplied three-fold over the past two decades, to 2.25 million,” said Oxford Economics’ CEO and chief economist Adrian Cooper. “Trends suggest the global stock of robots will multiply even faster in the next 20 years, reaching as many as 20 million by 2030, with 14 million in China alone. The implications are immense, and the emerging challenges for governments and policymakers are equally daunting their scale.”

In the manufacturing sector alone, the report states, worldwide job losses are set to reach 20 million.

This figure is 8.5 per cent of the global manufacturing workforce.

The jobs most at risk are those in low-skill areas and those with lower productivity. According to economic modelling by Oxford Economics, recent improvements in New South Wales’ manufacturing productivity mean that the impact of future robot densification in the state will be more or less muted. South Australia, on the other hand, is much more vulnerable. The state is Australia’s most intensive in terms of manufacturing, but it also has low levels of manufacturing productivity.

Manufacturing is already an intensely automated sector, currently accounting for around 86 per cent of the total global operational stock of robots according to the International Federation of Robotics. The Oxford Economics report suggests that there are three main drivers behind the adoption of robotics in manufacturing: price, innovative applications, and consumer demand. The continued exponential growth in the processing power

of microchips and the increased capacity of networks mean that the per-unit cost of many technological components has been dropping. And, with developments in AI, robots and machines are making more informed decisions from the data that is, in ever greater volumes, gathered and stored across industrial sectors and systems. It is these developments, too, that are helping drive the adoption of robotics and automation across a broader swathe of manufacturing sectors.

In recent years, collaborative robots, or cobots, enabled by AI and cloud technologies, have begun to emerge, bridging the divide between manual assembly performed by skilled human workers and automated production. This has the potential to deeply transform the way work is performed in the manufacturing sector. Speaking earlier this year at AUSPACK 2019 in Melbourne, Universal Robots’ Peter Hern made the case that collaborative robots were, in fact, enabling production to be focussed manmonthly.com.au

Issues&Insights back towards the human workforce.

“When we talk about robots, a lot of people ask, ‘Are we losing our jobs to robots?’ Absolutely not. In fact, what we find is that the human robot collaboration is actually 85 per cent more productive that humans or robots alone,” he said.

“It enables companies to reposition their staff, their workers, from dull, dangerous, and mundane roles into more productive roles and higher value roles.”

The Oxford Economics report itself states that it would be “simplistic” to characterise robotisation and the adoption of advanced automation as merely a “destroyer” of jobs. It will instead lead to a “robotics dividend”, characterised by lower prices for manufactures, higher real incomes, and higher tax revenues. A one per cent increase in the stock of robots per worker in the manufacturing sector leads to a 0.1 per cent growth in output per worker.

“This confirms our hypothesis,” the report’s authors state. “[By] displacing automatable jobs in manufacturing, robots free up many workers to contribute productively elsewhere in the economy, as they meet the demands generated by lower prices for manufactured goods.”

A July talk at Deloitte Australia in Sydney on the future of the workforce saw the consulting company’s chief data scientist Gavin Whyte attempting to calm fears, propelled by the media, that the adoption of AI would lead to the disappearance of jobs. “Yes, AI will impact business, permeate industry and affect your roles, but in a good manner,” Whyte said.

According to Whyte, as AI continues to permeate the economy, it will transform the way work is carried out – not by displacing the workforce, but by freeing workers from mundane tasks and activities to carry out higher-order tasks.

Drawing attention to the way the internet has transformed economic activity since 1995, Whyte said that as the adoption of computers and the internet intensified, the cost of search and of digital transfers manmonthly.com.au

dropped dramatically. Similarly, as the processing power of computers expands, the cost of what Whyte calls “arithmetic” – algorithmic processing – drops. “And what happens when the cost of an item drops? We use more of it. The cost of search has dropped drastically, so we use more of it – we use Google search for so many of our activities today – and the cost of arithmetic has dropped tremendously, so we use more of it in areas like demand forecasting, and in using computers to record and transfer ever-larger volumes of data.”

Moving more directly on to the topic of AI, Whyte said that the AI the cost of prediction had dropped dramatically in recent years. “It has plummeted to a point where prediction is now cheaper, quicker, faster. And, when something becomes cheaper – like the internet, like arithmetic – we start using more of it for a whole range of purposes,” he said. Prediction is essentially the use of information to generate information that you don’t currently have. If you start applying AI to prediction problems, you get a

better outcome with the resulting information, and we can start utilising the power of prediction in areas that have, historically, not been problems of prediction at all.”

And, according to Whyte, that means AI is making our jobs, and our lives, more convenient. “We require convenience. And convenience comes at a cost.” If we use AI to make life and work more convenient, said Whyte, it will impact some roles; but as with every other industrial revolution, where more advanced techniques boosted productivity and opened up new roles in production, the development of AI will open up the potential for new roles along with the means of helping and improving workers in their existing roles.

“The idea pushed in the media today is that ‘AI is going to come and automate your roles and thousands are going to lose their jobs’. But if you really look into the heart of the matter, this is not the case,” he said.

According to Whyte, as the cost of machine prediction drops, enabling more and greater volumes of data to be processed, it also enables better

predictions, better insights, and, further, better human judgement.

“A machine makes predictions.

But who is going to use those predictions? Humans. We need to make judgements from them,” he said. Whyte argued that the speed, quality, volume, soundness and accuracy of human judgement would increase as machine prediction is applied to more spheres of work, making AI a complement to human workplace roles. “AI is not going to replace you – AI is going to improve your judgement and improve outcomes.”

Getting on board with the AI revolution, however, will require training that prepares the workforce for jobs of the future. In September last year, the Australian Industry (Ai) Group released a report on its survey of 300 businesses, 75 per cent of which reported skills shortages. Among the most serious gaps were in skills utilising data, automation and AI. Federal industry, science and technology minister Karen Andrews recently attended G20 meetings

The adoption of robotics in the manufacturing sector is leading to gains in productivity.

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 25

Issues&Insights

In Australia, among the most serious skill gaps in the manufacturing sector are the use and knowledge of data, automation, and AI. in Japan regarding the spread and adoption of AI. Speaking about the meetings, Andrews said that AI was increasingly seen as the “petroleum of the twenty-first century”, with all member countries regarding AI as a critical issue for the future.

“I think it’s fair to say that the impact of AI will make a significant difference to the way we work and the way we live, and it’s important that we make sure that we get the policy settings right,” Andrews said.

The adoption and development of machine learning and AI by industry is being encouraged via the federal government’s Taking Local Businesses Global initiative, $29.9 million will support Australian businesses and workers to develop artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities. This includes co-funding for Cooperative Research Centre grants for industry-led research.

Andrews said that is important that workers’ fears and concerns that AI adoption will lead to a reduction in job opportunities, or even make them redundant, be taken into account in the development of policy, which 26 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

should focus on training people to help them transition to other jobs.

In a submission to the federal government’s Senate Select Committee on the Future of Work and Workers last year, University of Adelaide researchers indicated that over the period of increasing automation, unemployment has not been correlated with the increase, while worker productivity, their corresponding income and the broader gross domestic product has risen sharply over the same period.

“While automation reduces the need for some occupations, it creates the need for new ones, which are often higher paid,” the submission states. “The car industry uses the largest number of industrial robots in the world. But there was little correlation between automation and the change in labour share in the car industry between 2004 and 2014.”

While AI has the potential to increase Australia’s productivity, the submission indicated that, currently, two thirds of Australian organisations are having difficulties in finding suitable staff to lead AI technology

integration and 75 per cent of IT decision makers feel that the executive team in their organisation needs formal training on the implications of AI technologies.

The researchers said that Australia is peculiarly well placed to capitalise on the current situation, but, also, that it needs to do so quickly, as other countries are investing heavily in these areas.

“As AI-driven automation lowers the cost of production, Australia could once again become competitive in manufacturing goods that are currently produced cheaply elsewhere because of low wages in other countries,” the submission states.

“But we will need to encourage investment in new-generation automation to take advantage of this new trade opportunity, and ensure we have the education, training and research in place to capitalise.”

CSIRO’s data innovation group Data61 is currently leading the development of an AI roadmap and ethics framework on behalf of the federal government.

Chief executive of CSIRO,

Dr Larry Marshall, in a presentation last year at the AFR Innovation Summit, said that AI was going to transform the future of work, and that staying ahead in AI investment, research and training would ensure Australia stays at the forefront of job creation in new industries, predicting and preparing for them before they emerge.

“To ensure a long and prosperous future for Australian industries, we need to ensure Australia grows its pipeline of AI-literacy – which is really STEM literacy,” Marshall said.

“I’ve heard people say that coding is all kids will need to know in the future, but I disagree. What is most important is to instil our children with the ability to learn how to learn. That is the beauty of science. It teaches you how to tackle problems and gives you a toolkit to approach any problem.

“The most important thing to remember, in the face of all of the hype, is that for machine learning technology to work well, it needs to ‘learn’, and it is our role to help give this technology real intelligence.” manmonthly.com.au

, D E E N U T. O Y E R R E ER N. V E F O T N A O H IS H W D IT RC A N I E F ES TH

RELY ON AUSTRALIA’S MANUFACTURING, MINING AND INDUSTRIAL HUB 70,000 monthly users can’t be wrong. Find what you’re looking for with over 12,000 business listings and 8,000 specific product listings. Access relevant information and resources, empowering you to make a qualified purchase decision. You can always rely on your industry hub.

FERRET GROUP OF WEBSITES

F E R R E T.C O M . AU

ManufacturingStrategies Well-being at work Hidden among the many technological parts of a plant, the precision engineered components, and the weight of stock are the elements of a manufacturing enterprise that make the entire place work: the people. Marcia Ryan explains the value of people to Manufacturers’ Monthly.

A

S automation makes its way along the production line of manufacturing businesses, it absorbs a greater number of more complex tasks, and plants are structured around the needs of its machines. However, creating an environment that also invests in its people to ensure they are motivated and able to collaborate effectively ensures that the entire system functions smoothly. Investment in human capital is an investment that creates returns.

The Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) is committed to achieving operational excellence across all aspects of a manufacturing enterprise. While also engaged in the principles of lean manufacturing and Industry 4.0, the AME has incorporated the workings of positive psychology into its training and workshops for leaders in the manufacturing sector. Marcia Ryan, of consultancy Wellbeing Works, has led these sessions at AME’s conference and standalone workshop

days. Ryan approaches teaching leaders and teams from the field of positive psychology.

“My background is the learning and development of employees in organisations. So, helping people build their confidence, competence and their capability to not only do their job well, but to feel more engaged at work and to enjoy their work,” said Ryan.

While many hours are spent on learning applied skills and competencies, without a positive environment in which to apply these skills, the value of this knowledge can be lost.

“Developing staff to do their job well might not just be the technical capability to do your job well, it’s the way you turn up to work and have conversations with people. It’s also the way you collaborate with others, how open you are to new ideas and innovation,” said Ryan.

The sessions which Ryan and AME run, the next of which will occur on Friday, August 2, can be for

Strategies for well-being can be designed for small teams and large organisations.

28 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

individuals at the leadership level, teams, or an entire organisation.

When focussed towards leaders of an organisation, however, Ryan gives participants skills that can then be taken back to the workplace.

“Leaders are in particular looking for ideas of how to create an environment that will help individuals and teams perform at their peak and remain resilient,” said Ryan.

In applying the principles of positive psychology, a field developed

by US psychologist Martin Seligman, Ryan seeks to take what she calls a “strength-based” approach to help organisations shift from fixing problems and weaknesses to building strengths and identifying opportunities to leverage them.

“Quite often, we use a deficit model; what’s going wrong at work and what we need to fix: We may focus on people’s weaknesses and say ‘Well, these things are going ok, but these are the areas you need to focus on working on and improving’,” said Ryan. “It’s important to manage weaknesses and also identify ways to leverage talents. What would be a bigger bang for your buck would be if you identified what you’re naturally talented at, what you find enjoyable and engaging. If we harness those strengths at work and we look at finding ways for you to apply them in the workforce and to amplify them, then you will reach your peak a lot faster than if you just focus on fixing your weaknesses.”

Ryan breaks this down into six parts, taking Seligman’s original Positivity, Engaged, Relationships, Meaning, Achievement (PERMA) framework and adding a “H”, to acknowledge the role that physical health plays in promoting a positive workplace.

Marcia Ryan adopts a positive psychology approach to team well-being.

The first step is to tackle the “P”, the positive emotions that make work enjoyable. By way of example, Ryan highlights how breaking apart a stressful work day can increase one’s enjoyment of a tricky or complex process.

“If you work on something that’s really difficult and challenging, find an opportunity in your day to make a call to someone that gives you a positive lift or do something fun over lunch time. It could be as simple as going for a walk outside and getting some fresh air, or it could be talking to your neighbour about your dogs because that’s what you’ve got in common and that gives you a little spark of joy in your day,” said Ryan.

The next step, encapsulated under “E”, is to find a tactic to remain engaged throughout the day, finding what you find interesting and satisfying at work.

For “R”, Ryan cites the importance of cohesive relationships at work between colleagues.

Particularly for manufacturing enterprises where team-work is critical to the successful creation manmonthly.com.au

ManufacturingStrategies or application of a product, relationships are the core of the communication that ensure a success.

Ryan notes that, however, this benefit does not come instantaneously.

“I teach that you do that one interaction at a time. When you’re in teams that are very agile or organisations where maybe you’re in virtual teams, what’s a way that you can better connect and build relationships in brief moments during your working day? Find ways to help other people in your team, whether that’s by sharing information or by giving them five-minute favours,” said Ryan.

The “M” in PERMAH stands for making work meaningful. According to Ryan, this can be identifying one person’s contribution to the entire organisation’s functioning, or finding a way for teams to give back to their community which sustains them, both at work and outside of it. The outcomes of such a focus can be increased workplace satisfaction.

“If you find that your work is

purposeful and meaningful, then you’re more likely to dig in deep and put the extra effort in because you’ll see the bigger picture. You’re more likely to overcome hurdles and challenges along the way,” said Ryan.

While engaged in work, Ryan highlights that it is important to mark out when a team or individual has a significant achievement, and this is where the “A” in the framework comes in. Stopping to acknowledge wins allows individuals to reflect on the effort that went into achieving that milestone, positively reinforcing that value.

The final component of the PERMAH framework is health. As Ryan takes a holistic approach to workplace well-being, understanding how one’s motivation or enjoyment of being at work comes partly down to their physical well-being is a significant part of the overall goal.

“A lot of people don’t have this element of health in place very well, and yet, they’re wanting to perform well, have great cognitive functioning

and energy to do really difficult, challenging, complex tasks; still, they’re not sleeping well or they’re not eating well,” said Ryan.

The benefits of positive psychology have been studied and quantified since Seligman announced his research into the field in 1998.

More recently, studies have looked into the connection between wellbeing, the outcome of successful positive psychology practices and workplace outcomes. Ryan highlighted that higher levels of wellbeing are leading to more creative workplaces, greater job satisfaction and higher amounts of engagement.

From her experience with manufacturing enterprises, Ryan found that safety was a key outcome of greater workplace engagement.

“Employees that have high levels of well-being are more likely to take action and seek help earlier. From a cognitive point of view, they’re not fully focussed, so when you turn up to work and you’re not feeling great, you become distracted or make poor

decisions, so there’s an increased risk of safety risks occurring,” said Ryan.

These strength-based strategies will result in different solutions depending upon the needs of the business.

“Once you understand the framework, then it is really important to contextualise it,” said Ryan.

Working with each company, Ryan identifies techniques for each individual. These techniques focus on the well-being of the team as a whole. Individuals learn ways to proactively manage their wellbeing, and leaders are able to create an environment that supports teams to cope, connect and create positive change. This produces a workplace where collaboration is cultivated.

Ryan will be presenting the Workplace Wellbeing & Resilience workshop on Friday, August 2 for AME. For more information on AME Australia membership and events visit www.ame.org.au or call 1300 AME AUS or email ame@ame.org.au.

Designing content distribution platforms for industrial applications As manufacturing systems become more sensitive, intricate and widely distributed, having a software system that easily and accurately allows the visualisation of processes is essential. NHP and Rockwell Automation introduce ThinManager®, designed to simplify complex production pathways.

At its core, ThinManager® is a content distribution software. From a central server, the program collates inputs from any number of access feeds and then disperses the right information to the right device at the right location for the right person.

What differentiates ThinManager® from other enterprise software?

Visit nhp.com.au/more/thinmanager

115642_Manufacturers Monthly_HP_AD_v2.indd 1

manmonthly.com.au

8/7/2019 9:11:57 AM

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 29

Welding Back to the front: Getting the best out of welding gases After many years, Air Liquide returned to National Manufacturing Week (NMW) in 2019.

Manufacturers’ Monthly speaks to Arnaud Voisin, marketing manager of Air Liquide Australia, about the buzz around its booth.

Air Liquide wanted to demonstrate the simplicity of the installation by bringing their 3000 litre Skid Tank to the show.

2

019 has been significant for Air Liquide in Australia because they have decided to announce their return to centre stage with a large booth at the recent NMW 2019 in May. The company decided that the timing was right to come back to the fore.

This is because they believed that it was the right time and platform to let Australian manufacturers know of its innovations and products which can save their operations time and money. In addition, showcasing at NMW is a great opportunity to discuss with field workers, listen to its customers’ pain points and get feedback on its product and service offerings. It was also a great time for 30 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Air Liquide’s experts to demonstrate their value and discuss about the company’s latest innovations used by manufacturers worldwide.

The differentiating factor Air Liquide sees the shielding gases for arc welding differently. In the 1990s, the company launched ARCAL, its premium innovative gas product line for arc welding.

The aim was to achieve for “Quality in Every Dimension” through improvement of productivity, quality of the finished product, while prioritising the environment and welder working conditions.

Over the years, ARCAL has gained the trust of welders and now, in a market featuring a multitude

of similar products, Air Liquide aims at going further by helping its customers with a smarter offer.

The company believes that this “smarter” offer does not have to be complex, according to Arnaud Voisin, marketing manager of Air Liquide Australia.

“Actually, simple is a lot smarter.

It’s only then that our customers can concentrate on the issues that truly count to their welding operations. This includes ensuring the confidence that comes with a gas solution that’s reliable, simple and always high performing,” Voisin told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

In this respect, Voisin points out that Air Liquide offers four high-performing argon/ CO2 mixtures: Prime, Chrome, Speed and Force – these fulfil all TIG, MIG, MAG and Plasma welding needs on carbon steel, stainless steel and light alloys.

These four ready-to-weld argon mixtures cover practically any welding situation or circumstance.

Each one is designed to be reliable, simple and high-performing each and every time, no matter when, where or how much is needed.

However, if that little bit extra is required, especially when the circumstance demands a product ready for particular high-end specifications, Air Liquide has its technical line of products, which includes specific shielding mixtures designed for refined needs and performance. These are of course, recommended after technical discussion with the company’s welding experts.

“During the show, we proudly partnered with Kemppi. They used our ARCAL Chrome to perform on-stand welding demos with their

welding equipment. We are also very proud to be able to subsequently show to our visitors the resulting clean and bright weld with good wetting thanks to carefully selected CO2 content and low H2O and N2 impurities,” said Voisin.

Safety, savings and other highlights at NMW Voisin said that many visitors were intrigued by Air Liquide’s Skid Tank, which was displayed on site.

“It is quite unusual to display a tank of this size. We wanted to demonstrate the simplicity of the installation by bringing our 3,000 litre Skid Tank to the show,” said Voisin.

The Skid Tank is a cryogenic vessel with an integrated ambient vaporiser, which is ready to install with a skid serving as foundation.

It is featured with Air Liquide’s new real-time solar-powered DALIA telemetry system, which ensures automatic re-ordering, real-time

Saving time and working safely with the ALTOP’s quick connect.

manmonthly.com.au

Welding consumption and level checking anywhere and at any time.

Voisin explained that this supply mode is particularly adequate for large volume consumption of pure nitrogen or oxygen during laser cutting operations to replace cylinder packs – something that can be costly.

“Large workshops should also consider this supply mode for welding, not only when using pure argon shielding gas, but also for argon mixtures which can be supplied by mixing onsite pure argon and CO2 with our Dynamic Onsite Mixer. The typical consumption that the Skid Tank can be an economical solution for is between 400 and 4,000 Nm3/month.

However, this has to be assessed on a case-by-case basis,” said Voisin.

Air Liquide also received many questions from visitors about their displayed SMARTOP and ALTOP cylinder tops. Their onsite experts took this opportunity to discuss safety with visiting welders.

Although most workers know that safety is paramount during welding and oxy-fuel cutting operations, the risks related to pressurised gases are usually underestimated.

“Unfortunately, it is still common to see unstrapped cylinders in operations or cylinders being moved without gloves.

This event (NMW 2019) was an occasion for us to remind our visitors of the risks related to highpressure. Argon may be an inert gas, but a 200-bar cylinder becomes a rocket when it is falling and breaking,” said Voisin.

To ensure safety and efficiency, Air Liquide has decided to equip all its ARCAL cylinders with the SMARTOP valve. This is an on-off lever replacing the manual rotating valve to quickly shut down the flow in case of accidental release. It features a permanent content gauge and an ergonomic cap protecting the valve in case of a fall.

There were also a number of existing customers who came by to tell Air Liquide how much time they had saved by using the ALTOP, which is the integrated regulator premium top. manmonthly.com.au

ARCAL Speed and ARCAL Force: two complementary solutions for MAG welding of carbon steel.

“I remember this particular existing customer of ours, the manager of a welding workshop near Melbourne, telling me ‘You can’t imagine how much time I have gained in my welding workshop thanks to this feature! There is no need to constantly unscrew and screw back regulators and, with the quick connect inlet, it is so simple!’ It was very rewarding for us to know that we can bring this type of efficiency to a customer,” said Voisin.

At the booth, visiting tradies and home welders were also interested to know more about ALbee, which is Air Liquide’s “Buy your own” cylinder offer.

“There are numerous companies which offer small businesses to buy their own cylinders of argon, oxygen or acetylene, but with standard manual valves. Air Liquide, on the other hand, provides peace of mind and ready-to-operate cylinders equipped with our MINITOP and its integrated regulator and quick-connect features,” said Voisin.

The takeaway from NMW 2019?

Voisin said that throughout the duration of the event, there was non-stop traffic through the booth and that Air Liquide had

generated nearly a hundred business opportunities together with countless inspiring interactions with welders, workshop managers, engineers, and tradies.

“It was also such a pleasure for our teams to network and exchange with other exhibitors. Finally, we received visits from many university students eager to understand

more about the physics of the Skid Tank or the role of gases in additive manufacturing,” said Voisin.

“So, it was not only a successful presentation of our solutions to manufacturers, but we may also have triggered one or two callings to come and work at Air Liquide as graduate engineers. In other words, it was a great success!”

Air Liquide had a wide range of products and services that visiting tradies and welders were very interested to find out more about.

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 31

Events National Manufacturing Summit: Skills for the Future

The summit will discuss strategies for growing a skilled workforce.

What to expect from the upcoming National Manufacturing summit.

W

ELD Australia is pleased to announce that it will once again host the National Manufacturing Summit. The 2019 National Manufacturing Summit will see a diverse group of industry stakeholders assemble in Melbourne to tackle key issues facing the Australian manufacturing industry. The Summit will be held on Thursday, 22 August at the Australian Synchrotron.

With the theme of “Skills for the Future”, The National

Manufacturing Summit gathers leading representatives from all the major stakeholders in Australia’s manufacturing sector— business, unions, universities, the financial sector, suppliers, and government—to discuss the sector’s prospects, and identify key actions to leverage the opportunities currently available in the manufacturing sector.

The Summit is designed as an event for anyone with a vested interest in manufacturing, skills, training and apprenticeships.

Manufacturing skills are in demand in industries that are experiencing heavy investment.

32 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Theme: “Skills for the Future” Australia requires a significant increase in skilled, qualified trades workers to meet future demand on major projects in industries as diverse as defence, shipbuilding, aerospace, infrastructure, rolling stock, and resources.

The manufacturing sector is experiencing a period of sustained growth, and industry participants continue to cite workforce capability as an ongoing challenge. Finding and retaining skilled workers is front of mind, as is maintaining currency of skills and knowledge.

At the same time, a decade of state and federal government policies has diminished the role of the vocational education and training (VET) sector and, in particular, TAFE. Having an appropriately sized, skilled, readily-available workforce at the right time is key to delivering the major projects on the horizon.

Developing this workforce presents a complex and long-term challenge—it requires a significant amount of individual training and company up-skilling to meet global standards.

A targeted strategy for workforce development is crucial and will

require the manufacturing industry and the VET sector to work together to ensure its success.

Delivering the right training and education and ensuring that the right pathways are available for people to transition from training into work are vital. Industry input can lead to more strategic and targeted interventions to align the training system with industry needs. As such, the manufacturing industry can help facilitate information sharing and collaboration between government, employers, and training providers.

According to Geoff Crittenden, CEO of Weld Australia, this is certainly the case throughout the Australian welding industry.

“One of the biggest challenges the Australian fabrication industry is facing is a shortage of qualified welders certified as ‘gate ready’ for ship, submarine and land vehicle manufacture.

This is compounded by a lack of appropriate Australian Standards and a framework for qualification and certification of welders.” manmonthly.com.au

Events “Welder training in Australia is outdated and underfunded. The TAFE welding course and curriculum was last amended in 1995 and bears no relation to what is actually required by industry. In fact, in terms of welder training, nothing much has changed in over 130 years,” said Crittenden.

Perhaps most importantly, technical training requires a shift in thinking and a focus on the skills that will be essential to the manufacturing industry of the future, such as automation, robotics, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing processes.

The technological change throughout the manufacturing industry is progressing rapidly, necessitating the acquisition of complex, high order technical knowledge and skills. This suggests a need for robust, deep and transferrable qualifications that provide a strong base for life-long learning and skill development.

Equally, a strong culture of training and development in Australian manufacturing workplaces is essential.

Government, industry and education all play a role in solving this complex, long-term challenge, and in attracting, skilling, and retaining workers.

The Summit will explore the theme “Skills for the Future” and will highlight the importance of a skilled

workforce capable of competing at an international level. Delegates will hear from leading experts from the manufacturing, training and skills sectors on what they can do now to future proof their organisations, as well as themselves.

The Summit will discuss the needs for skills adapted for the future of manufacturing.

Program Highlights The 2019 Summit speaker program is being developed with the intent of facilitating a progressive, constructive, and forward-looking discussion on key issues relating to skills and training that affects the manufacturing industry in Australia right now. The focus will be on how industry and the skills and training sector can work together with governments, industry bodies and other stakeholders to deliver actionable, practical solutions.

The speakers already confirmed include: • The Hon. Gayle Tierney (Victorian Minister for Training and Skills, Minister for Higher Education) • Chris Brugeaud (CEO, SSS Manufacturing) • Geoff Crittenden (CEO, Weld Australia) • Dr Jens Goennemann (Managing Director, Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC)) • Jim Stanford (Director, Centre for Future Work) • Craig Robertson (CEO, TAFE Directors Australia)

• A drian Boden (Executive Director, SEMMA) • Professor Michelle Gee (Director, Sir Lawrence Wackett Centre)

Venue: The Australian Synchrotron The Australian Synchrotron is a major research facility located in Clayton—a technology and innovation hub of southeast Melbourne. It is one of Australia’s most significant pieces of scientific infrastructure.

The Australian Synchrotron produces powerful beams of light that are used at individual experimental facilities to examine the molecular and atomic details of a wide range of materials. The advanced techniques

are applied to research in many important areas including health and medical, food, environment, biotechnology, nanotechnology, energy, mining, agriculture, advanced materials and cultural heritage.

Delegates will have the opportunity to tour the facilities at The Australian Synchrotron as part of the Summit program of events.

The Summit will begin with a welcome dinner on Wednesday, August 21 before a full day’s program of events on August 22. The Summit is co-sponsored by the AMCG, the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work, TAFE Directors Australia, Australian Super and Innovation & Business Skills Australia.

AS INDIVIDUAL AS YOUR REQUIREMENTS THE 8150 SERIES OF LOCAL CONTROL STATIONS You have exact requirements, we have the exact solution. With its modular system, it adapts itself perfect for all applications and requirements - worldwide, of course. Certified for all climate zones.

Discover more at r-stahl.com/localcontrolstations or email sales@stahl.com.au

manmonthly.com.au

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 33

Sensors Sensors the key to maximising production and efficiency Sensor technology has shifted to a new level that gives manufacturers more knowledge of how their systems are coping. Manufacturers’ Monthly explains.

T

HE integration of smart systems across the manufacturing sector has the potential to dramatically increase efficiencies in all aspects of industry. What drives the success of these systems is the intelligent incorporation of sensors, so ifm has partnered with manufactures to use sensors to increase production and efficiency. ifm has developed sensors that can provide a variety of data points.

For example, sensors can identify errors and failures in the machinery being monitored, when systems reach their tolerance level or fall out of calibration before these faults cause a machine shut down.

National product and brand manager at ifm, Glenn Thornton, sees a great potential for systems driven by the new generation of smart sensor technology.

“Everything that’s out there is going to have some sort of smart sensor or smart device incorporated. If not it should have something smart incorporated,” said Thornton.

While previous sensor technologies were able to give a

reading of a value at a localised point, sensors that are able to provide multiple values are driving innovation by enabling more precise monitoring and predicting machine failure. For example, a pressure sensor, developed by ifm, can not only read the pressure and provide a measurement, but also relay data on the health of the sensor, the machinery that is maintaining the pressure and where the sensor is within an overall production process. This information is then fed into an integrated system that goes beyond machine control and up to the level of an enterprise resource platform (ERP), software technologies such as SAP. With this integration and depth of data, its potential uses are greatly expanded.

“Once data is captured you can really do what you like with it. You can have it constantly recording and reporting what the functionality is,” said Thornton.

In many cases, when plant machinery reaches an initial error threshold, a local alarm can be set up to alert a plant supervisor.

With “plug and play” technology, installation is kept simple.

34 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Precision is a key component of ifm’s projects.

We will work directly with the customers to make sure that we can get the right connectivity from all our sensing technology, through our communications platform [and] into their systems. There is always a way to find solutions with productivity improvements.

If a higher threshold is reached, an electronic text or email can be sent to a senior supervisor. The predictive analytics produced by this level of sensor technology enables solutions that reduce plant down time or product loss.

“We can automatically put a work order in. The sensor may order parts or send the work order down to the maintenance department, or make the production supervisor aware of it, so they can put in maintenance schedules around the pending failure,” said Thornton.

Having sensors that can detect and predict when a piece of plant machinery is reaching the end of its life cycle not only enables greater efficiency but allows companies

to more effectively participate in competitive markets.

Thornton gives the example of temperature sensors in food and beverage manufacturing. Instead of allowing machinery to reach the end of its productive life and cause a failure, having sensors in place that produce alerts prior to a shutdown avoids what could be a significant cost to a business. Monitoring the temperature of dairy products such as yoghurt and milk is critical for a food and beverage manufacturer to minimise loss and maintain quality assurance.

“When you run to failure, your machine shuts down and you’ve got operators standing around with nothing to do. You end up with thousands of dollars’ worth manmonthly.com.au

Sensors ifm’s sensors are designed for a wide range of applications.

Smart sensors can reduce downtime and increase productivity. of product which needs to be cleaned out and thrown away,” said Thornton. ifm’s products are developed in partnership with their customers to ensure each unique requirement is met. The range of sensors that ifm has developed are designed to be able to slot into existing legacy systems and provide solutions that are tailored to each particular situation.

“We have solutions to improve the existing connectivity and improve current processes,” said Thornton.

While technology-dependant solutions could make legacy

operations redundant, ifm’s approach helps customers improve the efficiency and reliability of their existing plant.

“We will work directly with the customers to make sure that we can get the right connectivity from all our sensing technology, through our communications platform [and] into their systems.

There is always a way to find solutions with productivity improvements,” said Thornton. ifm’s products operate on a “plug and play” philosophy, which reduces the number of terminations to near zero and avoids the need for extensive

Japanese quality

manmonthly.com.au

Vibrant colours

tooling. Limiting labour intensive installation processes eases the steps required to introduce customers to connected systems.

Simultaneously, ifm’s products are sold at a competitive price point and instead of suggesting the overhaul of a plant, ifm finds valueadding solutions within existing infrastructure. These technologies are also backed by a five-year warranty supported by local technicians and staff.

“Rather than just being sales people, we go in as consultants.

First, we will identify the base agenda, what is going on, and we really work hard at discovering

24hr cap off life

Fade resistant

Multi surface

what the problem is, what the issues are, what the pain points for customers are. Once we can work out what [the problem] is we will work out what the solution will be to satisfy the needs, to fix or to improve,” said Thornton.

What this comes down to is not just building a smarter plant, but producing a better result.

Approaching the relationship between the sensor provider and the end user as a collaboration results in an outcome-focussed connection.

“Since we’re in partnership, we want to not just provide you sensing technology, we want to provide you solution technology.”

pilotpen.com.au/permanent-marker

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 35

S UP P O RT I N G S P O N S O R S

EXHIBITION SPACE NOW ON SALE 1ST - 3RD AP R I L 2 02 0

ME LBO U R N E CO N V ENT I O N & E XHI BI T I O N C ENT RE ASSOC IATION PA RTN ERS

Skills &Training Leadership: power to your people Investing in leadership training can help businesses overcome barriers to innovation and improve competitiveness. Ai Group explains.

M

AJOR management research undertaken in 2016 by the Centre for Workplace Leadership revealed that Australian organisations should be concerned about the state of leadership and management capability in this country – and the verdict came from sources including Australian managers themselves.

Surveying almost 8,000 individuals, from baseline employees up to CEOs, The Study of Australian Leadership represented the largest study of its kind ever undertaken in Australia.

It was also the first in more than 20 years to ask whether Australia had the capabilities to meet future challenges and remain competitive.

Placing a big question mark over the capabilities of our leaders, the findings of the study highlighted seven gaps and weaknesses: 1. Many Australian workplaces are underperforming – More than 40 per cent are not meeting performance targets and one third underperform against their sales targets.

2. Many Australian organisations do not get the basics right – Many leaders and managers fail to master basic management fundamentals such as performance monitoring, target setting and the appropriate use of incentives.

3. Few Australian organisations report high levels of innovation – Only 18 per cent of private sector organisations report high levels of innovation. Without high levels of innovation, growth and productivity are impeded.

4. Many Australian leaders are not well trained for the job – One in four senior leaders in the private sector have no qualifications beyond secondary school. Formal education is not the only path to successful management and leadership, but it remains an important foundation for a manmonthly.com.au

diverse range of skills.

5. T oo many organisations underinvest in leadership development, especially at the frontline – The study revealed that investing in leadership development is positively correlated with workplace performance and innovation.

Yet the findings reveal that many workplaces are investing little or not at all in leadership development. For those that do invest, it is often in the wrong areas.

Recent evidence for the AsiaPacific region shows that for every $10 spent on senior leaders, only $1 is spent on frontline leaders.

6. L eadership in Australian organisations does not reflect wider social diversity – Diversity is associated with greater creativity and innovation, improved productivity, and higher employee engagement and commitment.

Leadership in Australian organisations is dominated by older males from English speaking backgrounds. Women, younger leaders, and leaders from a nonEnglish speaking background are underrepresented.

7. Many senior leaders do not draw on strategic advice in making decisions about the future – Few leaders seek advice from external sources such as associations, consultants, experts, or other senior leaders in their industry or elsewhere. In the current environment marked with disruption and uncertainty, this leaves organisations vulnerable to poor strategic insight and decision making.

The study paints a concerning picture about the current state of leadership in Australia and mirrors much of the discussion in Ai Group’s own research, outlined in our policy paper, Addressing Enterprise Leadership in Australia. On an

international scale, Australia’s ranking in leadership and management efficacy has been falling against a number of measures over recent years.

So how can Australia lift its leadership capabilities in order to enhance innovation, productivity and sustainability?

The positive relationship between investing in leadership development and improved workplace performance, employee engagement and ability to meet KPIs has been well documented.

In light of this, it is imperative that organisations direct their attention to longer-term value creation and understand how best to develop effective leadership capabilities at all levels. The overarching message of the study is that investing in leadership capability pays.

Ai Group is committed to improving Australia’s leadership capabilities and works with organisations to link business strategy and key drivers with a sound leadership strategy and associated development needs.

Leadership training benefits everyone throughout the business, trickling down from the top level of management to the supervisors, managers and team leaders below.

When management is strong at the top level, these positive effects will have a flow-on effect to all employees.

Excellent operators often have to learn a whole new set of skills when they rise to management level. They need help in their transition to the mindset of being a leader. Effective leadership training allows them to learn to lead and motivate a team successfully. Developing leadership skills can not only provide important business competence and support professional development, but it also helps develop interpersonal skills.

Additionally, leadership training teaches participants to encourage feedback from their team, creating a collaborative group which promotes a cohesive and cooperative working

Ai Group offers flexible, tailored leadership programs. environment that fosters creativity and initiative.

Ai Group’s leadership and management topics – covered in a Leadership Course Creator which allows an organisation to shape a leadership program specific to its own needs – are designed to establish and make clear the essential skills required to succeed in a leadership and management role. You can choose from any of the 37 topics available to put together your own training course.

Each topic runs for about 2.5 hours and typically three topics can be covered in a day. This is not to say you have to run a full day of training. The Leadership Course Creator is totally flexible so you can run one topic or 15 topics over whatever period suits you.

Australia’s future, its level of innovation uptake and its ongoing competitiveness and sustainability will largely depend on the capability of our leadership and the changes we make now. The same outlook can be applied at the enterprise level.

There is no better time than the present to ask – has your organisation identified a gap in leadership skills?

And have you developed a response to address the problem?

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 37

Skills&Training

Internship program connects innovation with business

Collaboration can ease the adoption of Industry 4.0 practices.

Putting research to work requires industry collaboration with education providers.

Manufacturers’ Monthly reports.

I

N 2017, the Office of Innovation and Science Australia released a review of innovation in Australia. Despite finding that Australia’s knowledge creation scored an A, the nation’s grades for applying this research to industry were significantly lower: knowledge transfer received a C, while knowledge application got a F. Attempting to raise these scores, including in the cross-over between university research and the manufacturing sector, is the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute’s national all sector, all discipline PhD internship program, Australian Postgraduate Research (APR).Intern. Providing a pathway between industry and academia, the program is also putting focus on equity in STEM with engagement of women, Indigenous Australians and disadvantaged PhD students essential to ensure skill supply.

38 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Thanks to a recent partnership with the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (IMCRC), APR.Intern’s impact on the manufacturing sector is set to deepen. Under this agreement, the program will place 23 PhD students with matched manufacturing SMEs and large corporations to confront the contemporary challenges of the manufacturing sector.

APR.Intern national business development manager, Rachel Geddes, said PhD students brought unique talents to a manufacturing workplace.

“A PhD in itself brings a set of problem solving and analytical skills, which don’t necessarily come through at an undergraduate level, so interns have the capability to see things a little differently,” said Geddes.

The partnership between APR. Intern and the IMCRC is designed to help manufacturing businesses

adopt Industry 4.0 practices currently being tested and trialled in tertiary STEM faculties.

Since the partnership began at the end of March, a student has already been placed with metal 3D printing company Spee3D. As seen in the report by the Office of Innovation and Science Australia, manufacturing businesses in Australia and research institutions have historically struggled to build bridges between their respective worlds. In occupying the middleground between the two sectors, APR. Intern hopes this partnership will enable deeper research relationships to come to fruition.

“The program is leveraging off the IMCRC to show that there are stepping stones for a business to advance their innovation in the sector,” said Geddes.

While cost pressures and established ways of working can limit

the uptake of research interns with SMEs in Australia, IMCRC funding of up to $13,000 and a 50 per cent rebate supported by the Australian Government Department of Education, through the “Supporting more women in STEM careers: Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) – National Research Internships Program (NRIP)”, means the expense borne by businesses in bringing in a researcher is heavily reduced.

In addition, the researchers are supported by their respective university with an academic mentor, allowing for further collaboration between higher education providers and industry in the future.

“The placement allows the business to build a collaboration with the university, gain exposure to the research field and tap into the greater academic world,” said Geddes. manmonthly.com.au

Skills&Training In designing the collaboration between industry and researcher, APR.Intern takes a problem or challenge that an industry partner is facing and finds a suitable researcher who has expertise in that area.

Geddes said, however, that potential challenges could be encountered at any point in a business, not only in production but in transportation or somewhere else that the business has not yet considered.

“For businesses, the first step is for them to call us. Often, we’ve worked in the same context and can provide examples of projects that might be very relevant to them but may not fit within the mainstream of their business,” said Geddes.

So far, across the entire APR. Intern program, placements have led to new opportunities for both the researcher and the business.

Thirty five per cent of PhDs that have completed the program with NRIP funding have gone on to find employment with the business they were placed with. Eighteen per cent of these jobs were newly created roles as well, highlighting how the program has the potential to grow a business.

“It demonstrates that businesses, who may not have had that kind of skill set within their remit, are seeing the value of a researcher and they’re actually forming a position for that student after they’ve had them inhouse for five months working on a

APR.Intern national business development manager, Rachel Geddes. research project,” said Geddes.

Established in 2007, APR.Intern now works with a network of 31 universities across the country, aiming to lift Australia’s grades when it comes to putting research into practice in industry. Today, these efforts are paying off, and while most placements are organised by APR.Intern, some businesses are beginning to come to the program

INVEST IN COLLIE with up to

with partnerships already finalised, leaving it to play facilitator, a situation which Geddes describes as fantastic.

“We have seen a bit more of a change in terms of having businesses and academics come forward and say, ‘I’ve already got someone I’d like to go ahead with’,” said Geddes.

APR.Intern’s equity focus is also paying dividends as skill

demand soars, accelerating women, Indigenous Australians and disadvantaged students into manufacturing innovation.

This in turn is having a positive impact on confidence of female STEM candidates.

“There’s endless research showing that women will often self-doubt their own capabilities if they don’t tick all the boxes on a potential opportunity; they won’t put their hands up compared to males. There’s a number of inhibitors or barriers that would otherwise limit females, particularly STEM researchers, from engaging in the industry space,” said Geddes.

To counteract this, APR.Intern has conducted awareness campaigns and shared stories of previous alumni who have gone on to great success.

“Seeing someone else who has gone through that process often encourages others to take that leap and put their hand up,” said Geddes.

Despite women only accounting for 16 per cent of the STEM workforce, female participation over the life of the NRIP Program sits at 41.2 per cent.

As the manufacturing industry adapts to the innovations that comprise Industry 4.0, establishing collaborative relationships with researchers through programs such as APR.Intern’s partnership with the IMCRC can allow businesses of all sizes to be at the leading edge of industrial innovation.

Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development

$2m in assistance

Are you considering setting up a new business or expanding industry

per job-creating project

Collie Futures Industry Development Fund

operations? Here’s your chance to make Up to $2 million in matched funding per industry-led project.

Collie Futures Small Grants Program it a reality in Collie, Western Australia.

APPLY NOW

Collie

Grants of up to $100,000 are available to start-ups, businesses and not-for-profit organisations.

www.swdc.wa.gov.au manmonthly.com.au

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 39

Finance The local area is known for its natural beauty.

Collie determined to make manufacturing part of its future A coal-mining and power generating town in south-west Western Australia is looking to manufacturing to brighten its future.

Manufacturers’ Monthly reports.

T

HE south-west of Western Australia is known for its natural beauty and enviable lifestyle opportunities. The dense deposits of natural resources, such as coal, along with the power stations located in the south-west town of Collie mean the same picturesque region also powers the state. Now, Collie is opening its doors to new industry – and there are millions of dollars in funding incentives being offered to start-ups, businesses and companies to set up in town.

With Collie on the search for new industries, the Western Australian Government has created the Collie Futures Fund to encourage manufacturers to make the move to this part of the country.

The first part of this fund, the Collie Futures Industry Development Fund, offers up to $2 million per industry-led project out of a pool of $18 million in funding.

The second, the Collie Futures 40 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Small Grants Program, provides seed funding for job-creating, economy-boosting projects of up to $100,000.

Both funding sources are ideal for manufacturers who are seeking to set up a base of operations in Western Australia, Member for Collie-Preston, Mick Murray said.

“We’re looking for something that’s pretty solid and has a longterm future,” said Murray.

One of the requirements for the Industry Development Fund is for applications to demonstrate matched funding from the proponent or other sources.

In addition to the funding on offer, Collie offers a developed base from which to build a manufacturing operation. The legacy of the coalmining and power-generating region means that there is already infrastructure in place that can be adapted to the requirements of manufacturers.

The Collie Power Station, Muja

The Collie lifestyle makes the region attractive to those from all over WA.

manmonthly.com.au

Finance Power Station and Bluewaters Power Station are all located within the immediate vicinity.

The roads, rail lines and nearby port in Bunbury offer easy access to markets for products and smooth supply lines.

Importantly, manufacturers who require consistent and reliable power for energyintensive projects are wellsupported here.

“Collie’s been the centre of energy production for about 100 years, so we do have the infrastructure already in place, the heavy voltage, the lines and so on,” said Murray.

Murray encourages potential enterprises to see the region’s existing economy as the foundation for any number of manufacturing processes.

“We’ve had people out, looking for contacts with the iron ore industry and smelting.

We do have a large aluminium base in the south-west, so minerals do not have to be transported far to valueadd,” said Murray.

Adding to the potential of Collie and the south-west region is the human capital based there. According to Murray, there is a base of employable

Collie’s been the centre of energy production for about 100 years, so we do have the infrastructure already in place, the heavy voltage, the lines and so on. individuals, whose skills and education make them ready to jump into manufacturing plants and processes.

“There’s about 3,000 workers there already and we’d like to make sure that they’ve got a future,” said Murray.

Those businesses wishing to make use of the twin Collie Futures Fund are encouraged to utilise the local workforce in building their presence in the region.

The south-west region is known for its natural beauty and active lifestyle, with water-skiing on the natural and man-made lakes in the region popular for locals and visitors.

Funding has gone towards creating a network of trails for bushwalking and mountain biking. These qualities further enhance

the attractiveness of the region, even for those who live outside of the immediate area, according to Murray.

“With the job downturn across the state, there’s plenty of people around the state that would locate here if the jobs were here,” said Murray.

Having lived in the area since he was a child, and represented the region since 2001, Murray is a fierce advocate for the region, and one that knows its assets well.

“It’s a pretty good place to live, the south-west of Western Australia. It is close to beaches, close to surfing and fishing, and very peaceful and a bit laid back,” said Murray.

Murray sums up the region’s attitude to manufacturing’s future in Collie.

“We’re open for business,” he said.

The town of Collie offers attractive investment opportunities for manufacturers.

manmonthly.com.au

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 41

Australasia’s largest dedicated bulk handling conference & exhibition

Exhibition space

NOW ON SALE MELBOURNE

IN CONJUNCTION WITH

1-3 APRIL 2020 Scan the code to get more details about exhibiting opportunities.

Supporting Sponsor

Media Partners AUSTRALIA

Platinum Sponsor

AUSTRALIA

REVIEW

Association Partner

REVIEW

& INFRASTRUCTURE

bulkhandlingexpo.com.au

Women in Industry Taking a chance: The changing face of manufacturing

Winner Profile: Excellence in Manufacturing

Putting the customer at the centre of manufacturing processes has been a change that Amber Burdett-Dow has been happy to lead.

Manufacturers’ Monthly reports.

R

EFLECTING back on a career in customer service for gas and welding equipment firm BOC, Amber Burdett-Dow remembered her initial confrontation with the stereotypes and assumptions that she and her friends had about the industry.

“It might not be known as the most modern and innovative business out there,” recalled Burdett-Dow. But having a bit of inside knowledge of the organisation, having worked for a recruiting company contracted by chemical and gas supplier BOC, BurdettDow decided to take the leap from the corporate world into manufacturing. Today, after 15 years with the organisation, BurdettDow knows that her experience has exceeded those initial expectations and encouraged others to be open to making the same shift.

“Take a chance. You don’t know what it’s like until you actually jump in and really have a go,” recommended Burdett-Dow. When Burdett-Dow joined BOC in the position of resourcing specialist, she was struck by the camaraderie of the employees.

“Although the organisation was very large and a manufacturing company it had a great culture and it really valued its people and I think that’s what appealed to me at the time.”

At the time, during the mid 2000s, the company was an established part of the Australian manufacturing landscape, before the forces of deregulation and global supply chains led to Australian enterprises to rapidly adapt to a new operating environment. Moving from resourcing to customer service manmonthly.com.au

meant that Burdett-Dow was at the forefront of adapting the company to this new operating environment.

“BOC has really had to take a 180 degree approach to what we do in manufacturing to remain competitive, to maintain a strong reputation,” she said. “Typically, these days, we’re not competing with other gas organisations, we’re competing with the experiences that our customers have as consumers,” said BurdettDow, comparing the customer experience at BOC to that when a consumer interacts with utilities, services or sophisticated online businesses.

In her role at BOC, BurdettDow has been part of the push to simplify customer process and pursue digital communication platforms so that customers can access information in real time about their orders, accounts and further information regarding the applications of the product.

“One project that we’re working on is to provide customers with proactive communication around what’s going on with their accounts and what’s the latest information about cylinders and gas. It’s much more of a proactive approach with how we communicate and interact with customers,” said Burdett-Dow. Previously, these communications were handled by a specific team or individual, Burdett-Dow is now finding that customers are interested in having a relationship with the entire organisation, and this means that communication within the organisation must be seamless and coherent.

Pursuing this aim within BOC has led to Burdett-Dow adopting a

whole of organisation approach to customer service, particularly as she moved from managing BOC’s call centres to taking the lead role for customer service in the AsiaPacific for BOC. Instead of putting the obligation for customer service only on the sales representative or customer service role, BurdettDow has pushed for customer service to be front-of-mind for all BOC employees.

“In some of these roles, it’s difficult for people to see how they can improve the customer experience. But, as you start to work with non-customer facing teams and join the dots between the outputs within their role and the needs, wants and expectations of customers it becomes clear. We all have a part to play in creating a great customer experience” explained Burdett-Dow. Taking this new philosophy of customer service management to a large organisation such as BOC required Burdett-Dow to draw on all the skills she had developed over the past decade with BOC adopting a cross-functional approach to managing improvement projects.

“These days, within manufacturing companies, you can’t operate in silos; you have to operate cross-functionally to make the experience a great one for our customers but also for our employees as well,” said Burdett-Dow. These efforts were recognised in June this year at the Women in Industry Awards 2019, where Burdett-Dow was nominated for and then won the Excellence in Manufacturing award, sponsored by CSR. For Burdett-Dow, receiving this award is a sign that the

Amber Burdett-Dow is updating the customer experience in manufacturing. changes she has been driving have had an impact.

“It is not only the people that I work with today that are recognising my efforts in the customer experience space – it’s also the people that I’ve worked with at BOC and beyond for twenty-odd years that have reached out and said that what I do is making a difference,” she said.

Burdett-Dow said that working within an organisation such as BOC has allowed her to find a community that supports the work that she has done. Thinking back to when she first began with the company, BudettDow described how she had initially observed that the company highly values its employees, and that this approach had continued to supported her throughout her employment.

“I come to work to make a difference for our customers and to work with the amazing people within our organisation,” said Burdett-Dow. “We’re all very passionate about moving things forward and making BOC an even better business for the future, whatever gets thrown our way.”

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 43

Automation Safety systems ensure productive workplaces for humans and robots With the adoption of working practices that bring humans and robots into ever closer collaboration, making these practices safe remains of paramount importance.

I

N workplaces, robots are now being configured to work alongside humans and can lead to savings in costs and increases in productivity. This is apparent not only in service applications, but industrial processes that are accustomed to working with robotic systems, having used them for half a century. Unlike previous robotic applications, collaborative robots (cobots) cannot be confined to cages, and require the development of new safety procedures.

The connection between robots and humans is growing closer, as humans are required to direct robots in increasingly complex applications that depend upon a close working environment. Rob Stevenson, national sales and marketing manager at Pilz Australia, an automation technology company, noted that the use of robots in environments not separate from humans is an emerging area for the manufacturing industry.

“The traditional robot applications still need to be protected – and we’re always looking at better ways to achieve that – but then you’ve got the evolution of collaborative robots in the industry as well. That area is still new and most of the industry is coming to terms with where the collaborative robot fits and how best to safeguard it,” said Stevenson.

At the same time, robots are also operating autonomously from human command. While this has freed up employees to complete more cognitively complex tasks or those that require greater levels of oversight, autonomous robots in the workplace pose safety issues as they exist side by side to humans, without direct supervision.

Pilz provides a number of engineered solutions to allow humans and robots to work safely together 44 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

that are implemented by robot integrators in an application-based approach. Products include the newly launched PSENscan safety laser scanner, which helps to ensure a robotics-augmented workplace can be safe for the humans that work alongside automated processes.

Designed to be utilised in workplaces that have incorporated an advanced robotic system into the production line, the PSENscan can allow for the productive and safe interaction between machine and human.

“It’s easy to make something safe by putting a big fence around it, but it doesn’t make it very practical, and that’s where things like scanners come in,” said Stevenson. “Depending on what the risk assessment determines, scanners can make the operation between man and machine more practical, more user friendly, more productive but also safe.”

Finding the sweet spot between the benefits of robot-augmented workplaces and the need for human safety requires an approach that recognises the benefits as well as the complications that come with automated systems.

“We try and look for that combination, that right balance between productivity, safety and economy,” said Stevenson.

The PSENscan can be configured to have an initial warning zone of up to 40m from the sensor, allowing a worker or supervisor to be notified, via an audible signal, for example, that they are entering a risk zone.

Alternatively, a machine can be decelerated when individuals move into the safety zone. Moving closer to the sensor, a protected field range of between three and five-and-a-half metres can be established at which a robotic process can be halted.

As robots are increasingly used in mobile applications, for example automated transfer vehicles (ATVs), techniques to prevent a collision must be implemented. The PSENscan can be mounted onto a robotic vehicle and send a signal to decelerate a vehicle if it approaches a human worker or stop the vehicle if the worker is in the safety zone.

“Depending on what the requirements may be for that ATV, the scanner or radar system can presence sense in a particular zone and be able to either provide an indication if people approach that zone or actually stop the equipment to keep it safe,” said Stevenson.

A PSENscan system can also be installed in an exclusion area that is permeable for human workers. This allows for what were once segregated cages to be made accessible to maintenance workers or line workers while reducing the risk of a human-robot interaction that leads to a safety hazard.

The PSENscan device has been configured so that it can distinguish between different types of materials that enter the safety or warning zones. So that false alarms are not set off, the system is calibrated to only trigger an alert if an identified safety risk is present, which avoids it being set off by dust.

The PSENscan from the German company Pilz, is built to protection standard IP65, which means that it is impervious to dust and can be used in an environment that is regularly washed down with water. This makes the PSENscan useful not only in automotive or metal-manufacturing, but also food and beverage processes where hygiene is a concern and regular washdowns are part of the daily routine.

Being aware that every situation where robots may be used is

The PSENscan is one of a number of safety solutions that Pilz offers.

different, Stevenson highlights that in Pilz’s approach to safety in automated workplaces, the starting point is a risk assessment that determines what the hazards are, and then the company works from there.

“We never go in with a productbased approach, saying ‘We’ve got a scanner and this is the application for it’. We always look at the application and the requirements for the operation of the machine and then we apply the appropriate measures that we have in our portfolio, or indeed for a larger engineered solution, the broader portfolio in the marketplace to rectify that,” said Stevenson.

Stevenson further highlights that ultimately a robot’s value to a company comes from its safety.

“You might have a machine that is unsafe yet very productive until the moment that somebody is injured and it costs the company a fortune.”

PSENscan provides a solution for industrial companies that understand the need for safety systems that respond to the dynamic environment of contemporary robotaugmented workplaces. manmonthly.com.au

ProductInnovation Leaving a mark A new range of resistant markers draw on Pilot’s history of innovation to last in the toughest conditions.

T

HE humble swish and block logo of the Pilot Pen corporation probably sits quietly upon one of many pens in a jar or box at home. Being makers of durable and reliable pens for 100 years, the company is a ubiquitous presence in stationary drawers and pencil cases around the world.

The need for quick and efficient communication does not only exist in homes and offices – manufacturing enterprises require tools that can clearly and reliably communicate a message or provide an indicator.

Even in the age of smart factories and automated manufacturing, markers still have a role to play in industrial processes.

Knowing this, Pilot set out to make a pen that could be used in the most demanding of environments. From their headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, the designers of what has become the ever-present household item, the Pilot pen, decided to create a marker that would be just as universal in industrial settings.

As John Johnston, marketing manager at Pilot Pen Australia, describes, the process of developing the new range of permanent markers, the SCA-400 and the SCA-100, began by identifying what users in manufacturing settings would require.

“Pilot sat down to say, ‘How can we deliver a superior product at a very good price to attack the commercial end of the market?’ and they went through all the problems that people have, from surface adhesion to cap off life, to being visible, to wearing out, and they tried to address all of those and deliver a superior product at a much cheaper price.”

The resulting product stays true to Pilot’s core brand values and history as a company that seeks to innovate and provide an unrivalled solution.

Established in 1918 by Ryosuke Namiki, a professor at a Japanese naval college, the company is in its manmonthly.com.au

Pilot’s long history has led to the development of new solutions.

100th year and the occasion has encouraged the company to return to what makes their brand distinct.

“It’s our 100th year, so, we’re making a big statement about technology. In the past, I think we undersold what we’ve done. Then, we just focussed on our pens without talking about the great technology that’s inside and what really makes them very special; the inks and the technology,” said Johnston.

The company’s previous innovations with ink include the development of Frixion erasable ink. Used by Toshiba in their photocopy machines, Frixion ink is thermo-sensitive and allows a piece of paper to be printed and erased up to 10 times. The amount of thought and innovation that has gone into producing inks has always meant that the qualities contained within each pen are unique In designing the permanent markers, all of the technological advances that Pilot has made in the past 100 years were distilled into the pen. Demonstrating the company’s competency in developing new inks, the SCA-100 and SCA-400 both write with the company’s controlled surface properties (CSP) ink.

A new type of ink developed by Pilot, the CSP ink is resistant to the elements and can be applied in areas

where other inks wouldn’t stick.

“There’s a lot of technology around the ink, and for Pilot, it’s all about what is inside that counts,” said Johnston.

The ink inside the SCA-100 and SCA-400 is particularly exceptional because it will not dry out, even if the cap is left off a marker for 24 hours.

Allowing users to get on with the job and not worry about replacing a minor tool such as a pen, the 24-hour cap off life was especially designed for industrial customers, noted Johnston.

“You can use it all day – typically in a manufacturing environment or as a tradie out on the road – and if you leave the cap off you can keep writing with it.”

The adhesive qualities of the ink are also what make the SCA-100 and SCA-400 stand apart. The pen can write on surfaces that may have a slick covering of oil or grease and, due to the vibrancy of the ink’s colour, the marker’s writing can be read even in low light conditions and from a significant distance.

The combination of all of these qualities in the one pen comes down to Pilot’s commitment to end user satisfaction. The company invested $100 million to automate its four factories in Japan. Opened in 2016, Johnston described these new facilities

as being essential to the production of the new range of permanent markers.

“We had a commitment to grow in the industrial area, to create a really good quality product and deliver it at a very attractive price. And automating our production facilities allows us to do that as well as ensure the product meets consumers’ expectations,” said Johnston.

Across the four production facilities that Pilot runs in Japan, the company is implementing innovations such as reusing waste stock and fabricating with recycled materials such as plastics from bottles.

“We’re about end user satisfaction,” said Johnston. “With 100 years of history behind us, we believe that in another 100 years, we will still be here and still be creating great products.”

The pen comes with a 24 hour cap off life.

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 45

Compressors BOGE Compressors expands The company’s success has led to growth and acknowledgement.

BOGE’s new site allows for an expanded product range.

B

OGE Compressors Australia is defined by their motto, “first-class engineering, made in Germany”. This approach has led to the local expansion of the business and its recognition as being a manufacturer of excellence.

Expanding their footprint at their Pakenham facilities in Victoria, BOGE Compressors Australia has relocated to a significantly larger facility. This expansion is due to the continued growth of the business and the wide acceptance of the product by Australian manufacturers. The new facility, located in the same industrial estate as their present warehouse, will provide a much larger office space to cater for more staff as well as more than double the previous warehouse space.

BOGE has significantly grown its external yard facilities for receiving and despatching goods and truck drivers are already expressing their appreciation for the ease of access. Canopies over receiving and despatching doors mean containers can be unloaded out of the weather and most goods despatched can be loaded under cover. Due to the large volumes of machines being received and despatched, this new facility is critical to the on-going 46 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

success of the business.

With the increase in demand for compressors, the company now keeps a large range of machines in stock ready for delivery. This includes oil-injected screw compressors from 5.5hp up to 220hp, oil-free scroll compressors from 4kW to 22kW, a large range of medical and desiccant dryers, refrigerated air dryers to over 2,000cfm, 40bar boosters, and a huge range of spare parts.

Aluminium pipes and fittings are now also supplied by BOGE and are also in increased demand.

In addition to BOGE’s current product range, the new C-2 series will be available in Australia from Q4 this year. These new models, ranging from 11kW to 22kW, have been re-designed and will be available in more variations.

These will include tank mounted units, VSD options as well as the possibility of integrated air dryers.

This will mean customers can select the most cost-effective solution that best meets their needs.

BOGE Compressors Australia has also been recently acknowledged by the Australian government as a manufacturer of excellence.

Recognised as an Australian Trusted Trader (ATT), BOGE was presented with this recognition at a gala

BOGE’s has added more compressors to its line. function sponsored by the Australian Border Force. Jason Wood, Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs and Justine Wood, the acting commissioner for the Australian Border Force presented the certification.

According to ATT operations superintendent, Martin Mosely, it is a great achievement for a company to be able to comply with the stringent processes required to be admitted to the ATT program. While the program has benefits for the participants, companies such as BOGE can also be very proud of their contribution to

Australia’s border security and biosecurity protection.

BOGE Compressors is one of very few compressor companies trading in Australia that comply with the stringent ATT requirements and that have been recognised and listed as a Trusted Trader. While the ATT program is expected to continue to expand, there are less than 500 Australian companies that presently comply.

Ensuring that BOGE continues to be well-regarded across the sector, training seminars are also a feature of the BOGE strategy to support their selected distributor network and in July this year BOGE Germany will provide a product expert to conduct such training locally. These seminars are always free of charge to the distributor and are part of the on-going commitment that BOGE have to train and support their sales and service partners.

Jim Rohner, managing director of BOGE Australia, highlighted how BOGE’s recent announcements are of benefit to customers.

“The continued growth of the BOGE brand enables us to keep increasing our product offering. This ensures customers can trust BOGE to provide a cost-efficient solution to meet their needs.” manmonthly.com.au

LiftingSolutions Quality and innovation keeps chain manufacturing on shore The local manufacture of chains and distribution of hoists depends on unique solutions and ongoing investment. Manufacturers’ Monthly reports.

W

ITH 95 years of heritage in producing chains and hoists in Australia, KITO PWB’s recent history has been about ensuring that its reputation for manufacturing quality can continue into the future.

In 2016, the purchase of PWB Anchor by Japanese hoist manufacturer KITO deepened the already strong relationship between the two companies. Having distributed KITO’s products for 38 years, the last three years have seen KITO PWB extend its capabilities in Australia.

KITO PWB supplies products that have a lifting capacity anywhere from 250kg to 20t and can increase up to 50t if required. After the hoists from KITO arrive in Australia, KITO PWB modifies them so they suit the specific requirements of each customer, thus developing a tailored solution.

“We have the facilities here to modify those hoists depending on the customer’s application,” said Andrew Betts, export and marketing executive at KITO PWB. “The majority of the time, the hoists arrive from Japan without any chain on them,” said Betts. “We then chain them up in our dedicated assembly shop to our customer’s specific requirements.”

KITO PWB determines the correct solution based on what lifting capacity is required, the maximum weight that the device will bear, and how high the lift can extend. This can vary from half a metre in the context of a processing plant, or 70 metres high in the construction of a wind tower.

“We need to know how far they’re going to lift to know how much of the load chain we’re going to be putting on the unit here in our facility,” clarified Betts.

Other factors to consider for KITO PWB are whether the hoist will be stationary or move along a H beam. To cover this scenario, manmonthly.com.au

KITO PWB is the only chain and hoist manufacturer in Australia. there are the options of using the hoist in conjunction with a manual or motorised trolley.

With these variables being so core to the successful partnership between KITO PWB and their client, the company has invested in developing new solutions to meet the requirements of chain and hoist manufacture and installation. This led to the development of the SlingMate app, a collaboration between KITO PWB’s own engineers and sales representatives with an external software consultant.

“The SlingMate program is based around the Australian standards that require certain type of chain, certain capacity of chain, certain type of hook and a certain type of master link,” said Betts. “All the requirements of the standard are written into SingMate, so someone can’t make up an incorrect sling.”

Turning to an engineered software-based solution has enabled a simplification of the channels of communication between KITO PWB and customers.

“The client would put in the capacity required and the configuration of what they’re lifting; it might have two location points, it

might have four location points. That then varies the number of legs of the slings, for example,” said Betts.

Building in safety stop-gap measures to an app such as SlingMate allows for savings both for KITO PWB and the customer, according to Betts.

“It really helps accelerate the customer’s time in choosing because otherwise they’d have to consult with the standards themselves and consult with an application engineer. That takes a lot of that leg work out of it, because all of those requirements are built in to the program itself. If the configuration they choose is not suited to the capacity they’re trying to lift, then you just simply can’t build it,” said Betts.

Ensuring that the chains and hoists meet these standards and requirements is fundamental to KITO PWB as one step within their overall safety program. Going well above the Australian standard in the manufacture and testing of the chains and testing of the hoists, KITO PWB tests their chains to two and a half times the standard requirement, which is one of the most demanding testing regimes of chain manufacturers in the world, according to Betts.

“We test every single link of every single chain, which is very rigorous quality assurance (QA) testing on our range of chains.”

Developing innovative solutions such as SlingMate is one of the qualities that makes KITO PWB distinct and is part of what keeps the company stable as the only chain manufacturer remaining in Australia.

A similar approach to investing in technologies that further put KITO PWB at the forefront of industry was the installation of 885 solar panels on the roof of its Victorian plant in Bundoora.

“The chain manufacturing machines use a lot of power, so for us installing the solar panels was about trying to save some of our power costs, but it’s also equally important in giving us a bit more of a green foot print,” said Betts. “It’s sending a message out to the marketplace that the last chain manufacturer in Australia is here for the long haul.”

In building their chains, KITO PWB use steel from Liberty OneSteel, a steel manufacturer based in Newcastle, which sources iron ore from Australian mines. Investing in the future of KITO PWB and the wider ecosystem of Australian manufacturing is important, not only for the local staff, but has been enabled through the support of the Japanese owners.

“On top of the $500,000 dollars they’ve allocated for us to spend on the solar panels, there’s another halfa-million to put in a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to increase our efficiency throughout the administration area, the plant and the warehouse,” said Betts.

“They’re spending a lot of money on this site to keep us running and to keep us manufacturing chains in Australia and the assembler of KITO hoists for many years to come.”

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 47

OCTOBER 2019 – INDUSTRIAL LUBRICANTS & BEARINGS As a highly used consumable, having the right industrial lubricant is critical to a manufacturing operation.

Meanwhile, bearings present another high cost to maintaining an operation with so many moving parts.

In October 2019, we will speak with companies providing these solutions in that are helping manufacturers maximise uptime.

Xxx

In every edition of Manufacturers’ Monthly, we’re proud to work with our commercial partners on content that helps connect you with your future customers.

Booking deadline: 27 august 2019

To book contact DANILO CORTUCCI now danilo.cortucci@primecreative.com.au | 0434 419 663

Software&Systems Designing content distribution platforms for industrial applications Secure and mobile software can allow employees to access visualisation processes tailored to each device and at each stage of production. Manufacturers’ Monthly reports.

A

S manufacturing systems become more sensitive, intricate and widely distributed, having a software system that easily and accurately allows the visualisation of processes is essential. ThinManager,

by Rockwell Automation and exclusively distributed in Australia

by NHP Electrical Engineering Products, is designed to simplify complex production pathways.

At its core, ThinManager is a content distribution software.

From a central server, the program collates inputs from any number of access feeds and then disperses this information to specified locations.

What differentiates ThinManager from other enterprise software is that content can be sent to any device, whether it be a tablet, desktop PC or mobile device. These devices are known as thin clients.

This functionality removes the need for individually calibrated PCs with individual harddrives, operating systems, and other moving parts. Adarsh Emmanuel, product marketing manager at NHP, highlighted how the content distribution software can give manufacturers an advantage against competitors.

“ThinManager improves productivity. You don’t have to worry about logging onto your PC stations at different locations. It saves tonnes of time in terms of maintenance repairs and looking after your infrastructure in general,” said Emmanuel.

As each PC and device has a limited lifespan, a device failure in a traditionally organised system could lead to down-time on the factory floor as a new device is installed and calibrated with the requisite software. A system structured around ThinManager manmonthly.com.au

ThinManager provides a secure and adaptable system for the manufacturing industry. can instantly connect devices, as each thin client is a platform for the visualisation of content sent from a central server. This further removes the need for IT expertise in getting a new device connected to an engineered system – an Ethernet and power connection is all that is needed to get up and running.

Being device neutral also enables greater mobility. Users can move between various locations across a plant and receive information based on their proximity to a Bluetooth beacon. This allows the use of mobile devices such as tablets and smartphone, without the need for static PC stations.

“If you’re visualising a plant on a PC station we can send that exact same content via ThinManager to any location, any device,” said Emmanuel.

Emmanuel went on to emphasise how this functionality is currently unique to ThinManager within the industrial computing environment.

“Your device will automatically show the correct data for that location, so the user doesn’t need to look at any PC station; they can look on their phone, tablet, anything really. That’s not easily achievable on any other industrial software environment at the moment,” said Emmanuel.

A second key feature of ThinManager is its software agnostic approach to content distribution. As the platform purely distributes content, the software package that is used by each client can continue, fitting within ThinManager’s overall architecture.

Designed specifically for industrial applications, the product’s software agnostic approach allows for the complexity and individuality of each enterprise’s software arrangement, crafted for their specific business.

The combination of these features allows for a computing environment that is more secure

than previous arrangements.

While each client can be removed, all proprietary information is kept on the primary server, and can be limited in its distribution to locations inside a premises.

A device taken out of this environment would essentially be a brick, without any way of connection to the home server. While standard safety precautions should still be taken in securing the server, users can be assured that each device is not going to take with it the information that is managed

by ThinManager.

For further security, the system enables server administrators to specify what information is sent to each person. Either at the level of parts of software or pages within a visualisation app, ThinManager enables the individualised distribution of content.

Currently, the system is distributed by NHP through its partner system integrators.

The software platform is designed to be engineered for enterprises’ individual needs.

NHP and Rockwell Automation are providing ThinManager certification training to system integrators across Australia and New Zealand. Interested parties are encouraged to contact their local NHP representative for further information. Having local staff in each state ensures that clients can access tailored support, in addition to support contracts purchased directly from Rockwell Automation.

For those looking to take the next step in the integration and sophistication of their plant visualisation platforms, ThinManager offers a mobile and low-maintenance solution.

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 49

What’sNew Express Air clamping system Punch changeovers on a traditional clamp can cause considerable down time, leading to decreased productivity. The Express Air clamping system for European-style press brake tooling seats and clamps in seconds with the push of a button. It offers front and back clamping so set-ups and changeovers are faster than ever.

The Express Air clamping system is a sectionalised punch clamp powered by standard shop air. Each section seats and clamps punches securely to the front and back of the beam, either remotely with the touch of a button or manually with the flip of a switch.

Clamp sections are hardened with Nitrex surface treatment to 70 HRC for increased strength and durability. Sectionalised clamping offers maximum flexibility as sections can be pushed together for a solid beam or separated with gaps for box bending.

Clamps are interchangeable with most original equipment manufacturer (OEM) holders for gradual transition to air power using several holders or all at once with holders for the entire length of the beam.

Adding a clamping system to your press brake can reduce setup and changeover time.

Company: Sheetmetal Tooling Tech Phone: (02) 8004 7027 Web: www.tooltech.com.au

A new embedded computer for high intensity applications Backplane Systems Technology is excited to present the new POC-500 series of ultra-compact embedded computers with 4x PoE+, 4x USB 3.0, and MezIO interface.

The POC-500 series models are a set of next-generation ultra-compact embedded controllers offering performances never before seen in this kind of form factor.

Featuring an AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 4-core/ 8-thread processor, the POC-500 delivers up to three times the CPU performance of prior POC-series models. As for GPU performance, it delivers 3.6 TFLOPS in FP16 for an ultra-compact form factor embedded controller. Additionally, it manages to incorporate an M.2 2280 NVMe SSD to support four times the disk read/write speed of typical 2.5 inch (6.35cm) SATA SSDs. This new series continues the ingenious DIN-rail mounting mechanical design trend of previous POC-series models and offers a wealth of front-accessible I/O. Measuring just 63 x 176 x 116mm, it has 4x PoE+ ports, 4x USB 3.0 ports, and 4x COM ports.

Best of all, all data ports come with a screw-lock mechanism so you can rest assured that cables are always secured. The POC-500 series models are available in two CPU variants: the V1807B (45W) variant is for high computing power demand, while the V1605B (15W) variant is designed for rugged fan-less operation.

The arrival of the POC-500 series signals a new breed of ultra-compact embedded controller with better I/O design, extraordinary ruggedness, and significantly more CPU/GPU oomph for versatile applications.

Company: Backplane Systems Phone: (02) 9457 6400 Web: www.backplane.com.au

50 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

manmonthly.com.au

Brought to you by

High bandwidth operational amplifier Mouser Electronics now stocks Texas Instruments’ (TI) OPA855 8-GHz Operational Amplifier.

The decompensated amplifier is designed as a wideband, low-noise, bipolarinput operational amplifier. The amplifier is appropriate for use in high bandwidth transimpedance and voltage amplifier applications. With eight GHz of gainbandwidth product, the OPA855 allows for high-gain configurations while ensuring wide closed-loop bandwidth.

Minimising the total circuit input capacitance and enabling higherspeed designs is the low input capacitance of the OPA855, at 0.8pF for transimpedance amplifier (TIA) applications.Minimising noise contribution is the low input-voltage noise of 0.98 nV/√Hz of the amplifier. Additionally, the high slew rate of 2750 V/µs permits wide output voltage swings.

The OPA855 utilises a package pinout which simplifies the layout of the feedback network while at the same time isolating pin-to-pin capacitance between the input and feedback connections. The unique design reduces the parasitic capacitance surrounding the amplifier’s feedback network, which enables highgain TIA designs for achieving wide bandwidth.

Applications of the OPA855 could include optical time-of-flight systems, involving a time-to-digital converter, or the OPA855 can be utilised to drive a highspeed analogue-to-digital converted in high-resolution LIDAR systems, when augmented with a differential output amplifier.

Company: Mouser Electronics Phone: +852 3756-4700 Web: www.mouser.com

A non-invasive gas measurement solution The KATflow 180 clamp-on flowmeter for gases is now available through AMS Instrumentation & Calibration. The ATEX-approved KATflow 180 is a non-invasive, clamp-on measurement device with the ability to measure gaseous flow at low pressures and even in metal pipes.

Clamp-on measurement of gas has, typically, been limited to high pressures, plastic pipes and “ideal” installations. The KATflow 180 gives excellent results right down to atmospheric pressure. Not only that, but Katronic’s “Lamb wave” technology makes accurate measurement possible even in metal pipes, including steel.

A gaseous medium dampens an ultrasonic signal far more than a liquid, making non-invasive flow measurement of gases far more difficult. The effect reduces as pressure increases, hence the five bar lower pressure limit at which conventional transit time measurements using shear waves can be made. Katronic’s “Lamb wave” transducers are excited at the resonant frequency of the pipe material, making the pipe wall act as both emitter and receiver of the ultrasonic pulses, multiplying the effective transducer area for a higher signal strength and a better signal to noise ratio.

A stronger signal means that the KATflow 180 is better able to compensate for the attenuation of the gas, and Katronic have developed advanced signal processing techniques to analyse the measured data and deliver an accurate measurement.

The KATflow 180 is able to measure in pipes from 25mm to 1.5m in diameter, with flow rates of 0.1 m/s to 75 m/s and pressures of 1 bar and up, with an unlimited maximum. It is designed to be capable of being mounted permanently in an ATEX Zone 1 or 2 hazardous area, with a robust housing and non-intrusive programming.

manmonthly.com.au

Company: AMS Instrumentation & Calibration Phone: (03) 9017 822 Web: www.ams-ic.com.au

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 51

What’sNew Skate Dock – loading and unloading solutions from ICA A dock is utilised for the quick and efficient loading/unloading of product to and from trailer or container units.

Automated dock loading and unloading systems are materials handling solutions that load or unload trucks and trailers automatically by using different kinds of conveyors, rollers, skates, docks, and drives. Automated dock loading and unloading usually requires two systems: a system in the trailer and a system inside the dock. When the trailer is positioned at the dock, the entire load is loaded or unloaded automatically.

These systems are an essential component of a smooth and profitable logistics system and can be integrated into warehouse management systems, automated guided vehicles, and production lines.

Skate Dock from ICA: • Associated with profiled floors in trailers and containers.

• Removes the need for equipment associated with the logistics (trailer/ container) component.

• Can be configured with both chain and slat arrangements for association with delivery/receivable conveyors.

• Generally, associate with a hydraulically activated levelling unit.

• The skate is essentially a finger which is extended/retracted into/out of a container/trailer and has airbags to raise or lower for integration within a profiled floor.

Company: ICA Phone: (03) 5440 5100 Web: icaust.com.au

MSA Magswitch no-touch tools MSA Magnetics provide a wide range of tools to improve the safety, efficiency, and productivity of industrial operations in the metal fabrication, lifting, and woodworking industries. MSA Magnetics is the Australian distributor of the Magswitch range which have many advantages, such as safety through to down time. These switchable magnets have durability and speed on their side.

More and more companies are looking to reduce hand injuries by prohibiting employees and contractors from using their hands to guide loads around their factory’s and trucks. As this “No-Touch” Policy has become mainstream, MSA Magnetics have been approached my many companies to supply No-Touch Tools for guiding steel objects under load.

The No-Touch Tools allow the performer to work safer and more productive as the tools help save hand and back injuries. The line-up consists of: • Magswitch Extenda-Lifts: Allowing users to pick up and move hot, sharp, and dirty steel without bending over and using your hands.

• Magswitch Hand Lifters: Ideal for small steel handling, dragging sheet, picking, placing and pulling parts out of burn table or handling scrap, without using your hands.

• Magswitch MagDolly: This product has large solid rubber wheels and is suited to lift and carry sheet, pipe or any steel object over a greater distance. Again, no need to bend over or use your hands.

The range does not end there. We are the industrial magnet experts. If your requirements have anything to do with magnets, we can provide the solution that works.

52 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Company: MSA Magnetics Phone: (02) 4272 8180 Web: www.magnetsalesaust.com.au

manmonthly.com.au

Brought to you by

Industry 4.0 calls for flexible operator stations for remote access with automatic reconnection and change-over to redundant server ensure failsafe operation. It should only be possible to call up applications of third party providers – such as browsers, those allowing the integration of camera images or Citrix – securely in Kiosk mode. In addition to the features mentioned above, the systems must be easily and ergonomically configurable.

Classic workstations and server units are increasingly giving way to virtualised solutions that provide connected, intelligent, and swift computing and storage capacities, allowing companies to transition to Industry 4.0. These new solutions are far more easily scalable with lower costs and maintenance requirements. Distributed control systems and cloud applications, that can handle rapid increases in data, running on virtual machines enable flexible remote access to a wide range of systems – from process automation to condition monitoring, and maintenance programs through to tracking and management systems. As far as operating systems are concerned, conventional kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) systems have reached their limits here. Modern thin clients optimised for industry, such as those from R. Stahl, are replacing them.

Classic variants with connection problems The classic variant of the fixed connection of an explosion-protected humanmachine interface (HMI) system with a workstation in safe areas is still a common sight in the process industry. This comprises a remote terminal that is connected to a KVM box via a copper or fibre optic (FO) cable. The KVM box, in turn, is connected to the keyboard, video, and mouse interfaces of a PC workstation in order to transfer screen data to the remote terminal and the inputs made via the keyboard and mouse to the computer. With optic cables, this means that long transmission paths of up to 2 km can be covered. Current USB standards such as USB 3.0 or 3.1 are difficult to fulfil in such concepts since the connected USB devices such as keyboard, mouse or touchscreen fail due to interferences in the industrial environment and may make it necessary to restart the host. In addition, the systems lack the flexibility to be integrated seamlessly into higher network levels.

The thin clients from R. Stahl have been specially developed for the process industry with the above specifications and are universally acceptable. They are available both in versions for standard industry use and in explosion-protected device variants certified according to ATEX and IECEx. Variants in a hygienic design that are suitable for clean rooms are also available. The “industrial grade” Remote HMI V5 firmware, based on the Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB operating system, enables rights management with tiered access rights to programs and applications stored centrally or in the cloud. The clearly structured user-friendly operating interface with virtual keyboard and touchfriendly operation offers variable display options for multi-session and dual-screen display. The Remote HMI V5 firmware supports process visualisation and system operation via remote control on PC workstations, virtual server structures and cloud-based applications. To do this, the firmware controls all common remote protocols – including the latest RDP version 10.2 and VNC 5.3 – and thus ensures flexible access by any HMI station to virtual or real workstations in a network. Using KVM-over-IP technology, older PCs or required KVM connections can be incorporated into the network architecture.

In addition to the Windows-based operating system, Linux-compatible versions can also be supplied with ThinManager via PXE Boot or IGEL OS. Thin clients: a contemporary system Conventional KVM systems can no longer cope with the expansion of automation, electronics and information and communications technology.

Thin clients have therefore become the contemporary solution for flexible and secure access to distributed control systems and applications via servers, virtual machines or cloud services. The Exicom 500 Series from R. Stahl provides streamlined, future-proof systems for field operation in the hazardous and non-hazardous areas, which interact with a wide range of control systems and network architectures and ensure optimum availability and system integrity.

Company: R. Stahl Phone: (02) 4254 4777 Web: www.stahl.com.au

To connect operating and monitoring systems in the field closely to the process control technology and higher network levels, operator stations are therefore needed which are capable of connecting to a wide range of server architectures, including virtual machines and automation in the cloud.

Future-proof Industry 4.0 solution Thin clients provide a compact, energy efficient, and low maintenance solution for operation in the process industry, from the control centre to the field.

The most important requirement is IT security. Thin clients should therefore be closed, tamper-proof systems that can only be parameterised using passcodes. Security features such as the Unified Write Filter and HORM (Hibernate Once / Resume Many) increase system stability and provide higher fail-safe functionality in industrial environments. Redundant Ethernet interfaces

manmonthly.com.au

Manufacturers’ Monthly AUGUST 2019 53

The Last Word IoT value untapped while cyber security threats grow Australian businesses are beginning to adopt Industry 4.0 technologies, yet cyber threats remain an impediment. Innes Willox explains. companies from a range of industries who have decided to take the lead to invest in and implement these technologies.

Our report also reflects on how industry has progressed in its digitalisation journey, as well as the underlying technological landscape, drawing from a range of sources, including recent Ai Group surveys.

There are two significant findings that we would like to share ahead of the publication of our report.

Ai Group’s Innes Willox.

A

USTRALIAN industry is currently in a state of transition to the Fourth Industrial Revolution – or Industry 4.0. It is fair to say that substantial progress in embracing Industry 4.0 has so far been confined to a relatively small number of leading firms – both multinational and domestically-based. Embracing Industry 4.0 has stretched the gap between these leaders and the majority of businesses.

There are certainly public policy actions that can help respond to these challenges, especially to develop our businesses – small to large, in new or traditional sectors – and to equip them to raise their horizons and competitiveness. In a soon-to-be-released Ai Group report, we will outline key policy priority areas where government and industry can work together to tackle these types of challenges.

But, irrespective of these challenges, there are examples where companies in Australia are punching above their weight and doing amazing things with new technology and leading the way for others. For our report, Ai Group interviewed several innovative 54 AUGUST 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

IoT value yet to be tapped Despite positive expectations that greater cost efficiency would drive adoption of the internet of things (IoT), challenges still remain in promoting its business value.

According to the latest ABS data on business use of IT, more than 60 per cent and 80 per cent of businesses did not see any value in IoT and radio frequency identification devices (RFID), respectively.

IoT was more likely to be valued by larger businesses (rated as “major value” by less than 20 per cent) and in industries such as mining, retail trade, transport, postal and warehousing, and information media and telecommunications. However, just over 10 per cent of these industries saw major value in IoT. Similar to IoT, RFID was more likely to be highly valued by larger businesses, however this still fell short of 10 per cent. Transport and postal and warehousing placed the greatest value on RFID (major value at 10 per cent).

Growing cyber security threats Cyber security threats continue to be a growing and evolving risk management issue for

many businesses.

Almost 30 per cent of all businesses surveyed by Ai Group reported they had experienced a cyber security incident of some kind. This is a relatively high number, highlighting that businesses in Australia are susceptible to such incidents and are not isolated from an increasingly connected world.

Given that there may be undetected incidents that are unknown and therefore not reported, the numbers could be higher.

The most common incidents arose from phishing attacks, followed by hacking in some shape or form, and malware. Compounding this, some businesses experienced multiple incidents including virus infections, hacking, malware, phishing, and denial of service.

By way of contrast, ABS surveys reported that over 10 per cent of businesses experienced a cyber security incident in 2017-18, while almost 20 per cent did not know.

Notably, wholesale trade and manufacturing were the ABS’s top two industries that reported cyber security incidents.

Not surprisingly, over 90 per cent of businesses who responded to our survey and experienced cyber security incidents also invested in mitigation measures. Beyond these businesses, more than 60 per cent proactively invested in cyber security measures in 2018. This is in stark contrast to the almost 80 per cent of respondents in our previous survey who reported that they did not use cyber security technology, with barely 10 per cent seeing cyber security as an inhibiting factor for their business.

While our latest survey did not explore other drivers for cyber security investment, the higher

proportion of businesses investing in cyber security (especially proactively) compared to our previous survey suggests a dramatic shift in industry attitudes.

The ABS data was less optimistic than Ai Group’s findings – almost half of businesses did not see any value at all in cyber security measures. Certainly, whatever their differences, both surveys indicate that a proportion of businesses did not invest or value the importance of cyber security technology or other measures.

Akin to safety, cyber security is an ongoing risk management consideration for any business.

Lack of business investment suggests that either more work could be done to improve cyber security posture, or that some businesses feel they already have adequate levels of protection.

These figures coincide with the commencement of various data privacy legislations in 2018, including the Australian Notifiable Data Breach (NDB) Scheme in February 2018 and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May 2018.

By the end of March 2019, there were over 1,000 data breaches reported to the Office of the Australian Information Commission since the NDB Scheme commenced.

Over this period, almost 60 per cent were due to malicious or criminal attacks, and over a third due to human error.

Despite relative improvements in our findings on increased business cyber security investment, causes for these data breaches point to the need for cyber security hygiene within organisations, as well as more general improvements in internal management of personal data to minimise human errors. manmonthly.com.au

Safety laser laser scanner scanner PSENscan: PSENscan: Safety Safe area. area. Strong Strong solution. solution. Best Best prospect. prospect.

Safe

u Large opening angle of 275 degrees u Always the right operating range: unit types with protected field ranges of up to 5.5 metres u Integrated operator display for receiving information directly u High availability as it is resistant to dust u Simple assembly and alignment of scanner with the appropriate accessories u Up to three separate zones can be monitored simultaneously with just one scanner u Series connection of up to four scanners according to the master-slave principle u Exchangeable memory for transferring the configuration Melbourne • Sydney • Brisbane • Auckland

Ph: 1300 723 334

Ph: 03 9560 0621 Fax: 03 9574 9035 www.pilz.com.au safety@pilz.com.au