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24 Changes to electricity grid rules open opportunities for manufacturers

26 The story of how one project overcame barriers to collaboration

38 A special feature on the latest in IIoT

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Much has been made of the increase in Australia’s defence spending since 2016. The numbers themselves are enormous. $195 billion over the next decade in total, $5.2b on the Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle (CRV), $35b on the Hunter-class frigate, $50b on the Attack-class submarines. Along with these big ticket acquisitions, there are also the purchase and sustainment of platforms including the F-35s, new offshore patrol vessels, and investment in unmanned aerial systems.

While the program is huge, the more significant change is the way in which these purchases are conducted, with the directive to maximise local content in each. This presents an unprecedented opportunity for the

Australian manufacturing sector. In the largest build-up of Australia’s military capability since World War II, local manufacturers are the preferred supplier.

In this issue, Manufacturers’ Monthly explores what this means for manufacturers. We speak with an array of defence industry specialists, including representatives from Lockheed Martin, the Australian Defence Industry Network, SMEs, and the Australian Defence Alliance – Victoria. Their message? It’s time for manufacturers to step up and demonstrate their unique capabilities in ways previously unheard of.

Whether that’s cyber security systems, new relationships and networks, or finding that point of distinction.

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24 Changes to electricity grid rules open opportunities for manufacturers

26 The story of how one project overcame barriers to collaboration

38 A special feature on the latest in IIoT

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 5

Comment

SYED SHAH – Managing Editor, Manufacturers’ Monthly

IIoT and the productivity puzzle

A

T a recent forum on manufacturing and Industry 4.0, held at CEBIT 2019, manufacturers and those involved with manufacturing from around NSW were present.

Two manufacturers were based in Western Sydney, one researcher from UTS, working to develop next generation technologies and processes, is based in the heart of Sydney, and one was from the Shoalhaven region, on the South Coast of NSW. The products and services these manufacturers offered were diverse.

One, Romar Engineering, works on a contract basis for other manufacturers to produce products and designs.

Another, Quickstep Holdings, is producing advanced composites that are being used in F-35s. Phyco Health is working out how to grow seaweed and turn this eco-friendly agricultural system into a product for food, pharmaceuticals, and the beauty industry. Finally, Matthias Guertler, the researcher from UTS, is looking at how universities such as his can support the manufacturers arrayed on the panel.

Although geographically dispersed and sitting within their

6 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

individual sectors, all on this panel were involved with the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). In this issue of Manufacturers’ Monthly, we showcase the range of businesses and products that are part of the IIoT. While each of these have their individual applications, the IIoT field as a whole is as diverse as the manufacturing sector, and, potentially, as important.

Today, the manufacturing industry is confronting the new reality of its structure as a “sociotechnical system”. Although this term has been around since the mid20th century, its importance has reemerged as manufacturers grapple with the human and technological aspects of the interconnected IIoT. Managing both sides of this wave of technology means understanding how humans and machines fit together, and this does not just involve a user-friendly HMI. An existential issue confronting the industrialised world is the lack of growth in productivity, and Australia is no exception.

Productivity growth in Australia, once at a healthy 2 per cent a year, fell to 0.2 per cent according to the Productivity Commission’s 2019

bulletin. In many aspects, the IIoT has some promise of increasing this number. With support from emerging technologies, such as AI, the IIoT has the potential to rapidly increase the value that manufacturers are able to extract from their assets.

The panellists at CEBIT were all looking at this challenge in some way through the prism of IIoT. For Phyco Health, led by Pia Winberg, its implementation of IIoT will involve sensors in the growth and manufacturing of seaweed products, allowing for tracking down to the molecule, to improve traceability.

At Romar, Steve Milanoski, who previously worked for Space X in the US, is using a hybrid additive manufacturing machines to 3D print and machine parts. For Quickstep, their IIoT experience centred on the automation of production capabilities at Milperra plant. While each manufacturer was at a different stage of their IIoT project, once implemented, there is potential for gains – in efficiency, precision, and ultimately value.

What could make or break each project, however, are the people that are involved. For Quickstep, as Jacque Courtney-

Pitman acknowledged, the shifting workforce is placing their business in a complex position. With over half of their workforce over 55 and adept in craft skills, rather than digital skills, the transition to automation could be tricky.

Indeed, for IIoT to be successful, the human side of the sociotechnical workforce needs to be integrated with the technical.

As the OECD found, “digital technologies can have considerable impacts on productivity growth, but only when investments in ICT are combined with investments in complementary assets, such as skills, organisational changes and process innovations, i.e. knowledge-based capital.”

For manufacturers, this means investing in their workforce alongside capital investment in technology; however, for the manufacturing sector, this means having governments and policymakers support the implementation of IIoT. For that, manufacturers can continue to promote the value of a growing, innovative, and globally connected sector, that benefits the wider society.

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Comment

CAMERON DICK – Queensland Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning

Advanced manufacturing is advancing Queensland

D

URING October, the Palaszczuk government celebrated its “Month of Manufacturing”, highlighting the great things that our manufacturing firms are achieving all year.

The industry is thriving in Queensland. We continue to be one of Australia’s leading manufacturing states because our businesses are innovative, adaptable, and eager to extend their reach and secure new markets.

As Queensland’s first Manufacturing Minister for many years, I’m proud of our government’s work in helping businesses transition to advanced manufacturing practices.

This is driven by our Advanced Manufacturing 10-Year Roadmap and Action Plan – a framework to reshape and grow the sector in our state – and through initiatives like the successful $46 million Made in Queensland (MiQ) grants program, where we help businesses adopt cutting-edge equipment so they can expand and employ.

Queensland businesses are renowned for their market-leading products, manufacturing everything from bush tucker foods, motorsport vehicle parts, and robotic-painted coffins to mining industry equipment, craft beers, and more.

Increasingly, we’re seeing Queensland products reaching global markets, with our manufacturers exporting their highquality products and innovations around the world.

As a government, our number one focus is creating jobs for Queenslanders. It’s a big reason why we’re so invested in manufacturing – because we know our investment will generate employment.

Manufacturing contributes around $20 billion to the economy annually and is a major employer across the state. About 30 per cent of our manufacturing occurs in regional areas.

We recognise, however, that many of our manufacturers are at different stages on their journey to advanced manmonthly.com.au

Advanced manufacturing is an opportunity for Queensland.

manufacturing. Some have already found great success transitioning to Industry 4.0, while others are still making formative steps towards a new manufacturing future.

To support this transformation to advanced manufacturing, our government is committed to ensuring our state’s manufacturing workforce have the skills and opportunities to thrive.

In July this year, I announced the Palaszczuk Government would be investing more than $7.7m over the next four years to establish Australia’s first Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Hub on Brisbane’s northside.

With additional investment from Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Urban Art Projects (UAP) and other partners, an $18m facility will emerge that will support and grow advanced manufacturing jobs right across Queensland.

The ARM Hub will enhance the adoption of robotics and autonomous systems by Queensland manufacturers. It will leverage Queensland’s existing capabilities in the research, manufacturing, and development of robotics capability and provide a real-life production environment.

The ARM Hub will be a place where our manufacturing workers can come to learn, upskill, create, and develop new skills by honing advanced techniques. It will also link closely to the government’s

$30m regional manufacturing hubs in Cairns, Townsville, and Rockhampton.

UAP has told me that for every new robot they acquire, five additional jobs are created.

That’s an incredible employment outcome and something we want to see replicated in more of our manufacturing businesses.

That’s why we’ll be making ARM Hub services available to businesses working in sectors as diverse as aerospace, biomedical, mining, equipment, technology, and services (METS), defence, rail manufacturing, and beef and food processing – because real progress is only made when opportunity is available to everyone.

Our government sees the ARM Hub as an anchor point to truly establish Queensland as a worldleader when it comes to robotics and automation in manufacturing.

Meanwhile, around 40 kilometres south-west, another facility is being built that’s going to help our state reach its full manufacturing potential – Rheinmetall Defence Australia’s $170m Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence (MILVEHCOE).

Last year Queensland won a battle of the states when we secured the Australian Army’s $5.2b LAND 400 Phase 2 project.

The deal will see 186 Boxer combat reconnaissance vehicles and 12 modules built in Redbank, Ipswich, from early 2021, with

around 450 Queensland jobs expected to be supported by this defence manufacturing work.

The Palaszczuk Government is also supporting Rheinmetall’s push to secure Phase 3 of LAND 400, which would bring $10-15b of additional advanced manufacturing work to Queensland and further shore up our sector.

Rheinmetall Defence Australia has been shortlisted for the tender and invited to progress through to the next round of evaluation. If they’re successful, up to 400 Lynx KF41 infantry fighting vehicles will be manufactured at the MILVEHCOE, creating more local manufacturing jobs.

The recent progress Queensland has made in the defence space has only been possible because we’ve set the right policies and programs in place.

This is directed by the Queensland Defence Industries 10Year Roadmap and Action Plan and promoted through initiatives like Defence Jobs Queensland.

We are also keen to replicate success in another advanced manufacturing sector, space, which Deloitte estimates could be worth $1.7b to the Queensland economy and create 6,000 local jobs by 2036.

Currently those figures sit at around $760m and 2,000 jobs respectively, however, our state is naturally blessed with many elements advantageous to the ongoing space race, including our long coastline, large interior and our proximity to the equator.

More importantly, Queensland is now home to more than 50 businesses with capabilities valuable to the space sector, from earth observation and data analytics to manufacturing, robotics, and automation.

When it comes to advanced manufacturing in Queensland, the opportunity is huge, it’s real, and it’s there for our taking.

Because the sun always rises in the Sunshine State, and our brightest days still lie ahead of us.

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 7

Comment

GEOFF CRITTENDEN – CEO, Weld Australia

Focus on compliance a benefit to manufacturers

I

N late October, the New South Wales state government introduced the Design and Building Practitioners Bill 2019 to parliament. If passed, this Bill will see much-needed and longanticipated reforms made to the state’s building industry.

The reforms could see the

creation of a new registration system for the building industry, enforced compliance with “declared” building designs that must adhere to the Building Code of Australia, and the introduction of a means by which to pursue damages once the existing statutory six-year warranty for major defects

has expired.

NSW Minister for Better Regulation and Innovation, Kevin Anderson said, “The Bill lays the foundations for major reforms within the building sector. The Bill will deliver stronger accountability in the building industry and help deliver confidence back in the

industry. The fundamental objective of these reforms is to improve the transparency, accountability and quality of work within the sector”.

The reforms come in the wake of several major incidents, with multiple buildings requiring evacuation due to construction issues. The Mascot Towers complex in Sydney’s south was evacuated in June 2019 after engineers spotted cracking in the primary support structure. This was just six months after the evacuation of Opal Tower in Sydney’s west on Christmas Eve in 2018 for similar structural problems.

The introduction of apparently quite strict regulations for the building industry in NSW marks a significant U-turn by government in relation to the removal of compliance legislation across Australia. The promised penalties and regulations will be designed to ensure that those operating within the construction industry meet the requirements of Australian Standards.

The impact on Australian manufacturing

Major incidents have refocussed regulators’ attention on building codes.

8 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

If passed, the Design and Building Practitioners Bill 2019 will impact manufacturing industry. Those people involved in fabricating componentry for the construction industry will be required to not only comply with, but obtain certification to: AS/NZS 5131 Structural steelwork - Fabrication and erection; AS/NZS ISO 3834 Quality requirements for fusion welding of metallic materials; and AS/NZS ISO 9606 Qualification testing of welders - Fusion welding.

For those manufacturers not operating within the construction industry, now is not the time to become complacent. The faults found in the construction industry, and the devastating impact they’ve had on the general public – particularly apartment owners – marks the beginning of a tightening of regulation and compliance that will be felt right across the manufacturing sector. manmonthly.com.au

The fundamental objective of these reforms is to improve the transparency, accountability and quality of work within the sector.

Being compliant with international standards will lead to manufacturers being ready to export.

The examples cited above of apartment buildings with structural faults really are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the problems that exist. Over the past 12 months, I have been shocked at the number of unsafe steel structures reported by industry. There have been unsafe pedestrian bridges, light poles, and gantries, as well as a major sporting

stadium built with non-compliant steelwork.

Similar concerns exist around the caravan and trailer industry.

Caravan and trailer manufacturers who are not compliant with, or certified to, AS/NZS ISO 3834 can expect drastic changes to the industry over the next two to three years. For these manufacturers,

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now is the time to consider implementing rigorous quality controls and certification programs.

A major win for the manufacturing industry Weld Australia firmly believes that the introduction of tighter regulatory controls throughout the construction industry is a major win

for Australian manufacturers. It will force Australian manufacturers to be compliant with internationally recognised Standards, ensuring that Australia is internationally competitive.

Perhaps, at long last, we have finally reach the day where prime contractors will no longer tell their sub-contractors that they are not willing to pay for quality and certification; they are simply looking for the cheapest price possible.

Weld Australia is urging all state governments and the federal government to review their own legislation, compare to it that of the New South Wales Design and Building Practitioners Bill 2019, and make the necessary amendments to mandate compliance to Australian Standards.

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Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 9

Comment

DAVID CHUTER – CEO and managing director, IMCRC

Effective industry and research collaboration: Cultivating the right culture

I

N today’s world of global competition and digital disruption, Australian manufacturers are becoming acutely aware of the need to do things differently.

The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) has brought with it a range of new technologies that have enabled manufacturers to disrupt and transform traditional manufacturing.

But it is not just about technology.

To compete in today’s global economy, manufacturers must establish new ways of working – with collaboration central to success – to improve productivity, stimulate innovation, and adapt to changing

business environments.

At IMCRC, we facilitate collaborative R&D projects between manufacturing companies and research organisations across several primary industry sectors, ranging from mining to the arts.

While the individuals working on these projects invariably have different skill sets, cultures, and goals, the most successful collaborations have all been built on a foundation of trust, respect, aligned goals, effective working relationships, and a focus on outcomes.

In the first of a three-part series on cultivating successful industry and research partnerships, we look at

four ways to establish and maintain the right culture for collaboration.

“I think collaborating to innovate is key. No one company can do it all on their own. No one company has all that knowledge in-house, and it’s the relationships, not only with universities but other companies together. Collaboration will help us to become the next generation manufacturer.”

Jess Madden, former CEO of Mineral Technologies

1. Ensure committed and supportive leadership First and foremost, successful R&D

collaborations require buy-in from senior leaders on both the research and industry side.

As a business leader, it might seem sensible to provide your team with a budget and a mandate for innovative projects. But without your approval and involvement, the team may not feel comfortable embarking on a collaboration with a university or other research organisation.

Equally important is for both leaders – research and industry – to be aligned on their goals for the project. Each side will usually have a different priority; for the research partner, it might be exposure and acclaim, while for the industry

Successful partnerships between industry and research require a sense of mutual understanding.

10 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

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Making room for the unexpected can lead to innovative outcomes. partner, it might be growth and sales.

If leaders understand each other’s priorities and are committed to achieving the same overarching goals, a project will have a much higher chance of success.

2. Build an empowered network Collaborative R&D projects generally involve combining the diverse skills, backgrounds, and expertise of industry and research participants. Partnerships that bring in parties from different walks of life tend to succeed when there is mutual respect, open communication, and transparency across team lines.

An excellent example we have seen is the collaboration between UAP (Urban Art Projects), the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and RMIT University. manmonthly.com.au

Together, as part of their research collaboration with IMCRC, they have established the Design Robotics Open Innovation Network, which shares research outcomes on using robots and vision systems for design-led manufacturing and helps facilitate collaboration across industry for the benefit of the wider Australian manufacturing sector. When you visit the project site in Brisbane, the cultural fit is so strong it’s impossible to tell who is from what organisation. This has led to the establishment of a new $18m Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Hub, to be based at UAP in collaboration with QUT, CSIRO, and others.

3. Foster curiosity and have the courage to fail While the R&D projects that we

support have a strong focus on commercialisation and return on investment, it’s also important for participants to have enough academic freedom and encouragement to explore new ideas throughout the collaboration – that’s what allows them to innovate.

Just as research participants must understand and value the commercial elements of the project, industry participants must be comfortable with the complex, cyclical, and somewhat long-term nature of R&D, as well as the possibility of failure.

To create a culture where participants are not afraid to fail, there also needs to be a system of accountability and justifiable risk tolerance. Participants need to set aligned goals, focus on the problems, increase transparency, and incorporate effective feedback loops into their projects.

4. Connect with the right catalyst Ultimately, Industry 4.0 is all about innovation and finding new ways of doing things. For an effective collaboration between researchers and industry participants, there must be a culture in which both sides can do what they do best.

At IMCRC, it is our mission to help catalyse the transformation of Australian manufacturing through collaborative investment, research impact and innovation. We do this not only by co-funding collaborative R&D projects but also by creating an ecosystem for industry and researchers to work successfully together. Through our projects and by providing practical guidance, we help participants to cultivate a culture that allows them to thrive and take innovative new projects through to commercialisation.

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 11

News@MM Albanese outlines plan for a “manufacturing boom”

The Labor leader outlined a vision for the manufacturing sector.

Acknowledging that Australia is in the midst of a technological transformation, federal Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, outlined in the first vision statement how the Labor party seeks to ensure Australia will have a manufacturing boom.

Delivered in Perth, at the Committee for Economic

Development of Australia (CEDA), Albanese set the tone for the way that the federal Labor party will approach industrial and national policy.

“With the right planning and vision, Australia can not only continue to be an energy exporting superpower, we can also enjoy a

new manufacturing boom,” said Albanese.

Citing the development of LNG for export, and the potential of hydrogen to play a similar role in the future, Albanese said that through investing in the development of a hydrogen export industry and a 50 per cent renewable energy industry locally, Australia would create 87,000 jobs.

“Working towards a low-carbon future provides the opportunity to revitalise the Australian manufacturing sector,” he said.

“In the century that’s before us, the nations that will transform into manufacturing powerhouses are those that can harness the cheapest renewable energy resources.”

Using solar, wind, and wave energy could lead to metal manufacturing and other energy intensive manufacturing industries having a competitive advantage in Australia, said the Labor leader.

Albanese also highlighted how Australia’s mineral resources could spur a local manufacturing sector. Noting that Australia is the

second largest producer of rare earth elements, as well as holding the greatest reserves of iron and titanium, Albanese highlighted how using these resources locally and using them to create added value products, as is occurring in Western Australia with lithium.

“Right here in WA, we are seeing the emergence of an industry adding upstream value to a resource – creating new processing and manufacturing industries and, crucially, creating regional and metropolitan jobs,” he said.

“Labor’s vision for Australia will always be one of a country that continues to make things.”

For this to occur, Albanese argued that the federal government could bring forward infrastructure investment to drive business investment. In addition, Albanese promoted the idea of the establishment of a National Centre of AI Excellence to manage the technological transition underway, as well as a national project to repair the VET sector, Jobs and Skills Australia.

CSIRO launches solar EV charging module CSIRO has announced new technology which will support electric vehicle (EV) charging, throughout peak demand periods during the summer months.

The charging stations will use renewable energy and avoid placing stress on charge drawn from the grid.

With hot days increasing temperature stressors on electrical systems, the Australian-designed chargers have taken these conditions into account, as lead researcher from CSIRO’s Centre for Hybrid Energy Systems, Dr Christopher Munnings.

“A normal household battery system is typically not powerful 12 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

The partnership brought together industry, researchers, and government. enough to charge a car on a hot day as it can overheat and slow down,” Munnings said.

“We’ve devised a way to manage the temperature of the battery, minimising the amount of power required from the grid.”

The system was supported

with funding from the Victorian Government, and collaboration with Delta Electronics and Nissan Australia. CSIRO researchers then tested the systems locally.

The system incorporates solar PV, battery storage, and the domestic grid to charge an EV. “This means the cars charge as quickly as possible, using as much sun as possible, without the need to upgrade grid connection. This technology could accelerate the widespread rollout of EVs across the country,” said Munnings.

Solar charging modules are now installed at Nissan’s Australian headquarters in Dandenong, Victoria.

Using Australian technology, the partners hope to increase the uptake of EVs in Australia, as Nissan Australia managing director, Stephen Lester, pointed out.

“A study of this nature will enable greater EV adoption both here and around the world reducing impact on the grid,” said Lester.

Victorian Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Lily D’Ambrosio, said these chargers make the consumer experience better.

“This battery smart storage platform means electric vehicle drivers can travel more confidently and enjoy the drive,” D’Ambrosio said. manmonthly.com.au

News@MM Aerotropolis draws Japanese conglomerate Japanese conglomerate Hitachi will be the first tenant at Western Sydney’s Aerotropolis.

The multinational company will build a collaboration and research centre, based on its Kyoso-no-mori facility in Tokyo, which Hitachi describes as a “new research initiative to accelerate innovation through open collaborative creation”.

In Western Sydney, the facility will enable the cross-pollination of ideas between business, academics, and government, with the creation of 85 advanced technology jobs, according to the NSW government.

“Hitachi have been on board with our government’s ambitious Aerotropolis vision from the start. It is exciting that Hitachi is exploring advanced manufacturing and digital research and development in the Western Parkland City,”

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said Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism and Western Sydney, Stuart Ayres.

Norihiro Suzuki, vice president and executive officer, CTO at Hitachi, outlined how the site will boost job growth in advanced manufacturing.

“It means we can attract the brightest minds and the best

in business to the region: a great opportunity for economic development and job creation into the future.”

“Hitachi looks forward to being a founding tenant of the new smart city and will continue to work with the Western City & Aerotropolis Authority to contribute to the planning and design of the

The facility will focus on research and collaboration.

Advanced Manufacturing and Research Precinct,” said Suzuki.

Part of the design of the Kyoso facility in Japan is a focus on social outcomes of technology. The Western Sydney site will be no different, said Suzuki.

“By drawing on vast experience and technology in social infrastructure and information technology, Hitachi works to provide the best outcomes and help improve customers’ economic, social and environmental value. Hitachi hopes to accelerate Kyoso-style collaborative creation in Western Sydney,” he said.

Construction will begin on the site in late 2022. The Hitachi announcement follows MoUs between the NSW government and 17 national and international foundation partners who will populate the Aerotropolis.

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 13

News@MM Catamaran sets shipbuilder record Australian shipbuilder Austal announced on October 25 it would build its largest ferry by volume to date.

The order for the 115 metre catamaran comes from Danish ferry operator Molslinjen. Austal chief executive, David Singleton, outlined how the ferry would be delivered.

“To be designed in Henderson over a 12 month period and then built at our state-of-the-art shipbuilding facility in Balamban in the Philippines, the catamaran will feature Austal’s signature raked-bow and optimised hull form, and an LNG-capable medium-speed power plant that offers a powerful, yet economical and environmentallyfriendly solution,” Singleton said.

Named Express 5, the Auto Express 115 follows from Austal’s agreement to deliver a 109 metre

The catamaran will operate between Ystad and Rønne in Denmark.

high-speed catamaran to Molslinjen, which was acquired by the company in January 2019.

Construction on Express 5 will begin in the third quarter of 2020, and the vessel will be handed over to Molslinjen in 2022.

“With this new order, Austal has once again demonstrated a clear capability to offer the best, most advanced high speed ferries, cost competitively, reliably and to the highest quality,” said Singleton.

The vessel has the capacity for

1,610 passengers, 450 cars and can operate at almost 37 knots.

Inside, the vessel will house a full bistro and bar, children’s play area and leather appointed reclining seats with USB ports and Wi-Fi connectivity. The ferry will operate on the Bornholm route between Ystad and Rønne.

The engines on the vessel can be upgraded to LNG if required in the future, to reduce the environmental footprint of the vessel. The construction of the vessels will commence at Austal’s shipbuilding facility in the Philippines once the second Fred Olsen trimaran is completed.

“Express 5 will provide Molslinjen with a truly exciting high speed craft that will deliver a unique customer experience,” said Singleton.

Motorsport park puts the gas into advanced manufacturing Advanced manufacturing could have a new home at the Sydney Motorsport Park, with a vision for the transformation of the motorsports precinct into a hub for advanced manufacturing outlined on October 24.

Located in Western Sydney, in the Blacktown region, the area is an economic “powerhouse” according to Mayor of the City of Blacktown, Tony Bleasedale. Five per cent of all businesses in the local government area are in manufacturing.

The vision of the Australian Racing Drivers’ Club (ARDC), which manages the race track, was outlined by Peter Larum, general manager marketing and commercial at the ARDC. Larum highlighted that with investments made by the NSW state government, such as the permanent circuit lighting, will enable the capacity of the facility to increase, opening up space for motorsportadjacent manufacturing.

The idea is modelled off the 14 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Silverstone Circuit in the UK, which now sits at the centre of the Silverstone Technology Cluster, which provides a hub for precision engineering and manufacturing.

“Motorsports remains one of the largest accelerator of technology there is,” said Larum.

The Western Sydney racetrack will in future be home to the Motorsport Centre of Excellence, as well as the headquarters of supercar raceteams. The easy access to the facilities of a professional race-track, including the Brabham Circuit, will allow rapid testing and prototyping of designs, said Larum.

One of those businesses which is looking to the capabilities offered by the precinct already is motoDNA, which as Mark McVeigh, founder and director outlined, is transitioning from a motorcycle rider school to a manufacturer of advanced safety equipment, in partnership with Yamaha. McVeigh and motoDNA are developing technology similar

to an airplane’s black box, which can provide real-time information to motorcyclists on their riding to prevent injury and accidents.

The future advanced manufacturing hub will sit within a region where manufacturing is already prominent, with other local businesses, such as Vitex

Pharmaceuticals, the largest manufacturer of complimentary medicines in Australia. Having begun selling pharmaceuticals to the Middle East market, Vitex now operates as a contract manufacturer to large health supplement companies which sell to China and Southeast Asia.

Providing immediate testing facilities on track could enable the growth of precision engineering.

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News@MM CSIRO opens flow chemistry centre A new centre designed to grow future industries in Australia has opened in Clayton, Melbourne.

The FloWorks Centre for Industrial Flow Chemistry, part of the wider manufacturing and materials precinct in Clayton, will be run by CSIRO and provide services for the chemical manufacturing industry.

Using the flow process, a process whereby chemical reactions are run in a continuously flowing stream rather than in batches, the facility will provide cleaner, smarter, and more efficient manufacturing processes. According to Christian Hornung, director of the centre and senior research scientist at CSIRO, the method allows for reduced reaction times, plant space, energy cost, and waste.

“FloWorks develops scalable and safe chemical processes using an emerging technology called continuous flow chemistry,” said Hornung.

The flow process will improve the speed and sustainability of chemical manufacturing.

“The centre provides a collaborative space at the cuttingedge of modern chemistry, where we can work with Australian businesses to improve their processes, cut costs and reduce waste.”

Opened by Australia’s chief scientist, Alan Finkel, the centre could be part of a major shift in energy and chemistry.

“One of our greatest challenges is to move to a decarbonised economy,

and hydrogen has the potential to play an important role in this transition,” said Finkel.

“Maximising the efficiency in both production and use of hydrogen is crucially important.

Improvements depend largely on the efficiency of the catalysis.

Flow chemistry could be used to improve efficiency, and FloWorks has developed its own catalysis processes in pursuit of this goal.”

The research conducted at the centre will be put to work for the benefit of industry, and is open to businesses of all sizes. One current business that has used techniques previously developed through CSIRO’s research into flow chemistry is Boron Molecular. According to director of business development at Boron, Oliver Hutt, the process is central to their operations.

“We use our unit to develop a number of processes or convert them from batch to flow,” said Hutt.

“Examples of the types of technologies we’ve commercialised using flow chemistry include polyaniline (PANI), a high-performance electroactive polymer used in coating applications, and a suite of Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs), next generation high-surface area, porous materials used for applications like gas storage and water treatment,” said Hutt.

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Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 15

News @MM Australian manufacturer unveils new drone jet engine Jet Engines Australia launched a new turbojet engine design for unmanned systems at PACIFIC 2019.

The TB400-700 turbojet engine can produce 700lb and 315kg of thrust and incorporates 3D printing into its design and construction.

These features allow the engine to stand out in the unmanned market, according to Philippe Bonnet, chief operating office of Jet Engines Australia.

“The TB400 engines provide for a range of thrust that is not currently available at the right price point for manufacturers of unmanned aerial systems,” said Bonnet to Manufacturers’ Monthly.

Designed to support unmanned

cargo delivery systems, as well as surveillance drones and highperformance targets, the engines can power a drone to between 0.9 and 1.5 times the speed of sound.

“The TB400 series of engines are designed to be customised to

the end user’s application through varying operating parameters such as temperatures and materials used.

This way the life of the engine and cost may be tailored,” said Bonnet.

Producing a drone engine of this calibre required development on

The engines could be used in cargo, target, and surveillance drones.

the part of Jet Engines Australia, seen in the use of advanced manufacturing techniques.

“The engine development involved re-configuration of the highest performing, low complex existing technology in an innovative way to achieve a superior product,” said Bonnet.

Jet Engines Australia has combined off-the-shelf parts with optimisation of the architecture of the engine, as well as further innovation in the oil and fuel systems to reduce complexity.

Overall, this has allowed for better reliability and reduced overall costs as the manufaturer looks to defence and civil customers.

Geofabrics grows local manufacturing capabilities Geofabrics Australasia, a manufacturer of geosynthetics used in infrastructure building, will grow its manufacturing capabilities in Albury with $322,000 in co-investment from the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC).

The geosynthetics manufacturers

by Geofabrics provide ground stabilisation and drainage capabilities

in civil engineering projects.

The current funding will enable a collaborative project with RMIT and two other engineering firms to develop an automated line for thermally bonded laminated geocomposite products. These products are today only available through import, and provide an opportunity for Geofabrics to market their products

Co-funded with the AMGC, the project will be the first manufacturing facility of its kind in Australia.

16 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

both in Australia and overseas, as managing director of the AMGC, Jens Goennemann highlighted.

“This joint project allows Geofabrics to fully transform its operations by introducing automation and robotics, and to seize the opportunity from increased global demand for geocomposites technology,” he said.

“Importantly, Geofabrics is showing that other regional manufacturers can grow their revenues and employment by focussing on value-added activities in areas of R&D, advanced processes and collaboration, rather than trying to compete on cost.”

According to director of Geofabrics, Dennis Grech, the collaborative project will allow the manufacturer to be distinct from its international competitors.

“The co-funded project with AMGC gives us the ability to manufacture bonded products with vastly superior strength and drainage properties, and produce to specific project requirements, like bespoke lengths and bespoke widths, as well as at a more competitive cost than currently available.”

Geofabrics will use the project to continue to have its manufacturing in the regional centre of Albury.

“We do see opportunities for growth as a result of this product. But we also, and most importantly, see this as being another opportunity to cement our manufacturing presence in our Albury plant,” said Grech. manmonthly.com.au

News @MM Wheel manufacturer to spin into new market Victorian carbon fibre wheel manufacturer, Carbon Revolution, has entered into a new supplier contract with a new OEM customer.

The contract will see Carbon Revolution supplying its products for the first time into the SUV market.

As part of the agreement, Carbon

Revolution will supply one-piece carbon fibre wheels designed to order for a yet to be named global automotive company.

Carbon Revolution has previously supplied wheels to brands including Ferrari, Ford, and Renault, however the nature of this contract marks a The announcement marks the first foray for the manufacturer into the SUV market.

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turning point, said CEO, Jake Dingle.

“This is a new customer for Carbon Revolution, meaning we now have five globally-recognised automotive manufacturers who have placed faith in our product.”

With the finalisation of the agreement, Carbon Revolution will continue to grow its manufacturing facilities near Geelong.

“With this new programme, we now have nine OEM programmes and are seeing manufacturing efficiency and precision benefits from the recent process and equipment upgrades at our Waurn Ponds factory. We continue to look at additional opportunities for our market-leading carbon fibre wheels and invest in research and development,” said Dingle.

Carbon Revolution’s wheels have been used in high performance vehicles as well as street cars. The most recent agreement extends the

range of applications of the wheels.

“SUVs represent a very important new segment of the market for Carbon Revolution, broadening our horizons as we build the business. We have been working on applications for this segment for a number of years leading up to this award, so this is a very important milestone for the team,” said Dingle.

The wheels that Carbon Revolution have designed have been used to set new lap records at motorsport venues such as the Nürburgring. The qualities of carbon fibre as a material reduce weight while also increasing performance. These are realised through a reduction in unsprung rotational mass, which contributes to better steering feel and traction, as well as improving accelerating and braking response. In contrast to aluminium wheels, carbon fibre wheels have lower inertia.

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 17

News @MM Royalty arrangement to drive lithium manufacturing A new royalty arrangement could see the flourishing of a new field of manufacturing in Western Australia.

The Western Australian government will use royalties to spur the growth of the downstream processing and manufacturing of lithium in the state.

“Updating the royalty arrangements provides a fairer system for all lithium producers and will enable Western Australia to move up the battery value chain beyond mining and processing,” said WA Mines and Petroleum Minister, Bill Johnston.

The government will introduce, as soon as possible, a five per cent feedstock royalty rate for lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate, when those are the first products sold and the feedstock is spodumene concentrate.

The change to lithium royalty rules comes as part of the WA government’s “Future Battery Industry Strategy”, that has been developed in consultation with industry.

“This will create more jobs and encourage innovation in meeting the needs of the growing demand for electric vehicles and battery storage systems,” said Johnston.

In 2017, global total worth of lithium sales stood at $35 billion,

As demand for electric vehicles rises, local lithium manufacturing could grow.

and lithium is used for batteries for everything from home appliances, to vehicles and more recently, utility energy storage. However, with a rising glut of raw lithium supply, the value of lithium in its initial form may fall from current 20 per cent annual growth.

In WA, lithium hydroxide refineries are operated by Chinese company Tianqi Lithium and UScompany Albermale.

“Western Australia is increasingly becoming an internationally attractive destination for downstream processing and manufacturing of

lithium and other battery minerals,” said Johnston.

Taking the next step from lithium hydroxide to a useable battery has the potential to grow the value of the raw product 10 times and contribute to a wider manufacturing resurgence.

Victorian-made electric buses ready to run The first Victorian-made electric bus is about to enter service on the 246 route in Melbourne, between Elsternwick and Clifton Hill, via St Kilda.

The zero-emissions bus is powered The buses have been manufactured at Volgren’s facility in Dandenong.

18 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

by a 324 kWH lithium phosphate battery, which allows the bus to run for 300 kilometres.

Body construction and fit out was done in Dandenong by Volgren, and features a low floor, early detection collision avoidance, USB charging ports.

The zero-emissions fuel makes the bus one of the cleanest commercial vehicles on Australian streets, according to the Victorian government.

“We’re modernising, expanding and upgrading our bus fleet, while improving the passenger experience

and trialing new technology with the aim of reducing the impact on the environment,” said Minister for Public Transport, Melissa Horne.

The bus will operate from Transdev’s North Fitzroy depot, where charging facilities are available.

The roll out of this first bus is part of a trial to determine whether full electric buses can be utilised by transport authorities across Victoria.

The trial will run until January 2021.

As CEO of Transdev Australasia, Luke Agati, highlighted, the success of this electric bus trial

will determine what shape further zero-emissions transport programs will take.

“As the leading operator of zeroemission mobility solutions globally, we’re delighted to partner with the Victorian Government to bring this technology to Melbourne,” said Agati.

“We believe electric buses will play an important role in Melbourne’s future public transport network and we’re looking forward to hearing from our customers about what they think of Melbourne’s first locally built, fully electric bus.” manmonthly.com.au

News @MM Lockheed Martin signs $37m contract to bring systems design to Australia Lockheed Martin has selected Australia-based Safran Electronics & Defense Australasia to provide the designs for the optronics search and attack mast, navigation radar, and navigation data distribution components.

These designs and components will be part of Australia’s Future Submarine Program, a $50 billion project to construction and deliver the Attack-class submarine until 2050.

Specifically, this contract will involve the delivery of prototypes and interface simulators to allow Lockheed Martin Australia to test and validate the integrated performance of the combat system.

Although limited to the initial phase of development activities, Safran has announced that as part of the contract it will set up the

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capability for the build, integration, and ongoing sustainment of the components at a new facility in Botany, NSW. This will see Safran establish a sovereign industrial capability for the delivery of the components, said Safran CEO, Alexis de Pelleport.

“The contract with Lockheed Martin Australia and the Department of Defence will allow us to meet our shared objective of supporting local employment and developing Australian expertise at our Botany facility and through our local partners,” he said.

Involved in the design and delivery are two local companies, Acacia Systems, who will handle the software, and Thomas Global Systems, who will manufacture the hardware. The local component is a key part of Lockheed’s presence in Australia, according to

The components will go into Australia’s future submarine program.

Lockheed Martin Australia and New Zealand chief executive, Joe North.

“Lockheed Martin Australia, in concert with the Department of Defence, is committed to maximising opportunities for Australian industry involvement through all phases of the Future Submarine Program,” said North.

The development of a local industrial capacity is a key outcome of

the major defence contracts that are currently underway in Australia, and this partnership is an example of this, highlighted North.

“Safran represents the international benchmark in submarine optronics and navigation systems, and we are honoured to welcome the company and its partners to our Australian combat system team,” he said.

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 19

Defence Building a sovereign industrial capability The volume of work predicted in the Australian defence industry needs no overstating, but how can manufacturing SMEs be involved? Connor Pearce reports.

F

ROM October 8 to 10, 2019, the four lower exhibition floors of the ICC Sydney were filled with 21,241 attendees and 657 exhibitors from 22 countries, the largest number ever for the event.

Suspended from the ceiling were unmanned aerial systems, planted on the ground were cannons, and up the back was a full size, next-generation, tactical watercraft.

What had drawn this array of projects was a wholesale shift in the way that defence and industry in Australia interact as geopolitical relationships shift. Kerryn Smith, CEO of the Australian Industry Defence Network – Northern Territory, has championed defence suppliers 25 years, and sees the current landscape as a result of global dynamics.

“We have seen that the world is no longer a safe place and, in particular, across the Indo-Pacific region we’ve got lots of movement with some of those big countries starting to contest over who’s going to have the major power in that region.”

Australia sits at the crossroads of these two regions, as traditional alliances unravel, and new power emerge.

“We now need to consider how we’re going to look after our own defence and national security and really start to step up in terms of our ability to increase our technology and our warfighting efforts so that we can play a role in not just keeping our own nation safe but keeping the IndoPacific region safe,” said Smith.

Structuring Australia’s approach to these geopolitical changes is the 2016

20 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Defence White Paper, which began a new relationship between Australia’s industrial sector and its defence sector. In addition, the White Paper set out how Australia will place itself as global defence spending rises.

“In many respects we’re moving from a fourth-generation warfighting platform to fifth generation,” said Smith. “What that means is a significant increase in technology and expertise to be able to improve or increase our warfighting efforts alongside our allies.”

In this area, Australia already has significant industrial capabilities.

While some have been developed within the defence industry sector, others have come from other

industrial sectors. Chris Hess, head of industrial development at the Office of Australian Industrial Participation, Lockheed Martin.

“In the manufacturing space, advanced materials manufacturing, machined parts, heat treatment, and composites are areas that Australia has tremendous capability in. We’re also looking to the future to how AI, machine learning and Industry 4.0 concepts can help educate and help lift the manufacturing industry for that next generation of challenges.”

Hess lists other areas including data analytics, display technology, quantum computing, signals processing, and sensors as areas where Australia has a competitive

advantage.

While these areas are already in demand, the next stage of Australia’s military capabilities will require a step-change in the interaction between Department of Defence and the defence industry, outlines Smith.

“We now have the beginnings of an industrial revolution in shipbuilding within our nation. What that’s going to take is every available resource nationally. At the heart of that are SMEs that need to work out how they can work together and collaborate, collectively showcase and promote their technical capabilities and capacity to service these bigger opportunities,” said Smith.

The end goal of this build-up of capability will be something new for Australia, the kind of which has not been experienced since World War II, when Australia had to design, build, and sustain its military capabilities.

“We’re headed down the track to eventually becoming a sovereign industrial nation,” said Smith “We’re going to design build and maintain our own platforms but we’re a long way from there.”

Hess’s job is to find world-class the Australian manufacturers who can support Lockheed Martin technology solutions as it bids for contracts around the world. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, C-130J Super Hercules and MH-60R Romeo helicopter are all current cases in point, with Australian companies contributing to the respective global

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Defence projects along with aerospace and land systems projects are creating a vast array of opportunities for many SMEs, particularly for manufacturers,” said Farrell.

Although these platforms are still being built, with the vessels not expected to enter service until the late 2020s, the incorporation of SMEs will continue well beyond the prototype and build stage, highlights Smith.

“These platforms will be forwardbased around the nation, in the NT, Queensland, NSW, and WA. What the Navy is starting to think about is the next phase, which is maintenance, service, support, and supply phase and that’s where we’re talking about long term support for platforms which will go on for many years to come.”

Chris Hess, from Lockheed Martin’s Office of Australian Industrial Participation, says manufacturers need to articulate their point of distinction. supply chains for each platform.

In fact, every fifth-generation F-35 ever produced will include parts manufactured in Australia.

“We are seeing the depth and breadth of Australian industry, ranging from ‘low technology readiness’ level university concepts that researchers are wanting to find partners for and commercialise with, right through to the off the shelf, manufactured parts that we can utilise immediately once we’ve found an opportunity.”

Within this diversity, Hess and Lockheed Martin see a great potential for Australian industry to provide the capabilities needed as Australia goes through its largest recapitalisation since World War II. “We might find a great nugget of capability in Australia, but they mightn’t be ready for export or they mightn’t be ready to work with defence just yet, so how can we work with them, how can we work with our partners across the local and state government, our Commonwealth customer and industry associations? How can we get together to help these companies be the best company that they can be and get ready for the world stage and the defence industry space?” manmonthly.com.au

While the headline contracts may still be held by the likes of Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, and Rheinmetall, the commitment that Hess, and his counterparts at the other Defence prime contractors have to local SMEs is new, according to Sean Farrell, CEO of Australian Defence Alliance – Victoria.

“To give an indication of the type of expansion that the Australian defence industry is undertaking, the Future Submarine program is worth $60 billion, and opportunities exist for small and medium sized business who can provide niche capabilities such as precision tooling and engineering to items as simple as personal protective equipment and exit signs on vessels.

“A key feature of this recapitalisation is creating a degree of sovereignty where there is less reliance on primes utilising foreign supply chains to provide their products, and rather a shift of focus to a reliance on local business to fill in gaps where necessary. Primes, guided by federal policy, now actively seek to engage and collaborate with local multi-purpose SMEs in Australia.

“The Royal Australian Navy’s SEA 1000 Future Submarine Program and SEA 5000 Future Frigate Program

A new operating landscape While the opportunities are there, connecting Australia’s manufacturing SMEs to global defence contractors involves an operating landscape that can be unfamiliar for SMEs used to working the civil sector. The relationship between governments, primes, and contractors is one area where relationships are key, as Smith points out.

“Defence rarely works directly with the SMEs, they’ll work through the primes, but they still need to be engaged with SMEs to identify what’s required. SMEs should be able to spell out from their own rationale why they do what they do and knowing what the end user wants provides a better connection between primes and suppliers throughout the supply chain.”

Rather than thinking about procurement as a linear supply chain, Smith encourages SMEs to see themselves as part of a wider network of relationships.

“Suppliers within the supply chain have got to move from this headset of being in a supply chain to being in a value chain. They need to be thinking about everything from relationships, to the business models that they have, and how they execute on them.”

How this works in practice is something that Hess is directly involved in. Lockheed Martin has run roadshows where technical,

procurement and engineering executives will travel around Australia looking for capable suppliers to meet a key opportunity that Lockheed has, either in Australia or in its overseas operations.

“They are executives who, for example, might have a real pain point in their supply chain and they’re looking for some solutions to that. Or it might be an early developmental program looking for supply chain partners, but these roadshows always occur around real opportunities. Once we’ve identified an opportunity and the procurement team has engaged and qualified the company then, if the capability is truly competitive, then a contract is awarded. The process for SMEs from beginning to end can be hard and complex, but it’s only hard and complex because it’s important” While this may appear to be a very quick process, behind the face-to-face meeting is established relationships between Lockheed and a network of manufacturing SMEs. With this in mind, Smith highlights that for SMEs wishing to engage in the defence space, success is about much more than technical capabilities.

“Knowing your own capability and capacity, and then knowing how to promote yourself as a supplier is essential, because you have to be able to step in at the right time and contest a great opportunity,” she said.

In some cases, a prime such as Lockheed Martin may identify a company with potential, and work with that company, without a contract in place, to develop their capacity to compete in the defence marketplace.

“A really good example is a company called ClearBox Systems,” said Hess. “They are the first participant in a program called the Mentor Protégé program which is where we provide training in an effort to help them become a better company and more competitive.”

These programs span HR processes, to ethics, product management, business development, proposal costing, and marketing. One area that is becoming increasingly important, however, is a business’s cyber security readiness. Due to the sensitivity of defence contracts, Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 21

Defence manufacturing SMEs which seek to engage with Defence and primes will be required to have stringent protocols in place regarding the security of information.

“Among the threats that we’ll be increasingly susceptible to are cyber-attacks. SMEs have to be good at securing their data and the things that are required within the digital arena, and for some businesses that’s a whole new thing,” said Smith.

industrial business had waned and therefore in 2002 a new strategy to grow in other markets emerged, including Defence and Aerospace.”

This shift brought some success for the company and in 2012, the company outgrew its original site.

Not only was size a factor, however, the business also knew that it had to streamline to compete in the defence sector.

“The new facility encompasses

is in need. Defence markets require not only a series of approvals and accreditations but have needs that go beyond the normal timeframe for delivery. Some key certifications include ISO9001, ISO9100, ISO9002 and compliance with a number of security requirements, including cyber security are also necessary.”

These requirements require a different attitude to a business, as Smith points out.

“Working with the primes does take a lot of energy, resources, and commitment but if you have strong relationship building skills and you stick at it and you keep in contact with us and provide quarterly check-ins; for example, ‘Here’s what we’ve done recently or here’s a new product, technology upgrade, or piece of equipment that we’ve purchased, and this is how we think it’ll help Lockheed’. That’s all part of that relationship building.”

“The ticket to the dance”

AIDN has run events where manufacturers can connect with defence prime contractors.

Finding a path to growth For those companies that are able to navigate these requirements, however, there is great opportunity for growth and expansion.

Bryan O’Connor, managing director of Moog Australia, explains how the company grew from its foundation in 1979, in Mulgrave, Victoria, to becoming selected to provide sustainment services for the F-35 program.

“Moog Australia was originally established to support the significant industrial economy that Australia had at the time.

While Moog Australia progressively grew over the years, mainly in the industrial business, the shift in the Australian economy meant that the 22 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

offices, research and development labs, machining, assembly and test (A&T), 5T overhead crane, warehouse and training facilities complete with defence grade security, video surveillance and access control system,” said O’Connor.

These changes, and the latest announcement of work on the F-35 program will allow Moog to double its workforce and invest in its own supply chains.

Navigating the demands of the defence sector requires not only advanced technical capabilities, but a different attitude to business, as Farrell highlights.

“Civil markets – particularly in regard to manufacturing - are open to any company with a capability that

“Historically, businesses will focus on their products and services and the way that they sell what they’ve already got. What we have been doing with our local suppliers in the NT region is saying it’s not about that, it’s about what does the customer want and how do you be more focussed on the customer and be more design led in what they’re looking for. Businesses need to think about defence from a completely different perspective and tailor their products, services, or technologies to meet with the customer’s requirement.”

From Hess’s perspective, the nature of defence contracting requires a commitment to relationships, unlike the transactional relationships that might be expected in other sectors.

Still, highlights Hess, the core capabilities required in defence are similar to those in any other sector.

“The classic cheaper, faster, lighter, stronger, they’re all discriminators.

If a company can put metrics around that, if they can tell us they’re 10 per cent cheaper than their competitors or their product is 5 percent lighter or 20 per cent stronger, then that goes a long way to helping us when we are talking to our program and our capture teams about Australian companies,” he said.

Hess calls this distinction a company’s “ticket to the dance”, and whether that is these metrics or qualifications such as AS9100 for the aerospace industry, a company’s ability to demonstrate its commitment will enable it to stand out as the defence marketplace only continues to grow.

“What is it that makes you special?

What is it that makes you world class? Companies need the ability to articulate with metrics those things that discriminate them from their competitors,” said Hess. “Because again, a competitor is not just a local company in Australia, it is someone in India, the US or Canada, as it’s a global supply chain, that we are drawing from.”

Being up-to-date and engaged with the latest in defence procurement is also one way that a company can distinguish themselves. As Smith articulates, due to the size and complexity of projects, companies should be thinking about how they can communicate with collaborators.

“No longer will people physically sit in a room and walk around and hand a file from one desk to another, they’ll be linked on a digital system manmonthly.com.au

Defence Australian manufacturers have contributed to the next generation of technologies, such as the F-35.

where they’ll be transferring their data to and from each other.”

Part of this requirement is the ability to be flexible, one aspect that is involved in the nebulous term of “value for money”, as Hess outlines.

“There’s a great manufacturing company that we’ve been talking to for many years with our space business and it will potentially be the first Australian manufactured part on Lockheed Martin space product. Their discriminator was cheaper, lighter, faster, stronger and their product was value for money. That encompasses a range of things, but also includes their ability to undertake work moving into a prototype stage quite rapidly.”

This agility is one area where Hess believes that Australia’s manufacturing sector stands apart from its global competitors.

“One of the niche strengths of Australian industry is that small volume space, a lot of Australian companies are very good at fitting into that rapid turnaround for small volume prototyping.”

Coupling this capability with an manmonthly.com.au

awareness of what a prime may be looking for, along with the ability to identify what makes a business distinct, and you have the recipe for success. To get there, however, there is support out there. And one of the first people to turn to may be similar SMEs or other manufacturers, says Smith.

“We need to learn how to be able to coordinate ourselves in a very complex environment from a project perspective,” she said.

Hess concurs, pointing out that with the volume of work coming, what is required will be bigger than what any one business can provide.

“There is a perception that it is very difficult to get a direct contract with a prime and that may well be the case, but under each direct contract there can be 5, 10, up to 30 SMEs that are involved in that supply chain as a result of that direct contract. So, part of my job is to not just tell companies how they can be part of the Lockheed Martin supply chain but also help identify complimentary capabilities in Australia where there might be

opportunities for partnership or collaboration.”

To enable this networking, there exist organisations in each state which can help SMEs meet the requirements set out by defence prime contractors.

These have been formalised in the Defence Industry Capability policy, which includes the Centre for Defence Industry Capability.

“The CDIC will give general advice on how defence works,” said Smith. “Then, they work in conjunction with industry associations like AIDN, the Defence Teaming Network in South Australia, the Australian Defence Alliances in Victoria, the Henderson alliance in WA, and the HunterNet in NSW.” Farrell, in his role at the Australian Defence Alliance Victoria provides this kind of support to manufacturers.

“ADA-Vic provide member companies, including manufacturers, with insights, mentoring, information sharing networking opportunities and advocacy in order to assist them in securing work in the Defence supply chain.”

For Smith, who coordinates AIDN in the Northern Territory, in addition to her national advocacy role, highlights how these networks are working towards being able to spread the benefit of Australian defence spending.

“We need these support mechanisms to be thinking about more about how they can collaborate around the nation to build an ecosystem that can support our local suppliers in every region to be able to take a role,” she said.

Indeed, the ingredients for a sovereign industrial capability may already be there, but it will take a rethink on the part of all participants to deliver the pipeline of work that is coming.

“We need to be encouraging those connections between the primes and suppliers,” said Smith.

“To use those suppliers as agile nimble support mechanisms to support maintenance and service, as well as the design, manufacture, and build process and thinking about the role that SMEs can play.”

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 23

Energy Powerful demands A change to the national electricity market proposes that large electricity users could be paid for cutting their energy use. Connor Pearce reports on how this will affect manufacturers.

O

VER the past five years, Australia has experienced a revolution, almost unlike anything the country has seen before.

As Australia’s fleet of coal-fired power stations reach the end of their life, and the cost of solar has dramatically dropped, Australia has switched from an energy sector powered by fossil fuels, to one where renewables will produce 50 per cent of electricity in Australia by 2024, and 100 per cent by 2032, according to the Lowy Institute.

During this period of transition, which was largely unplanned at a government level and driven by electricity generators and individual households and businesses, electricity prices have been volatile, particularly during the unplanned closure of Hazelwood Power station.

For manufacturers who consume large amounts of electricity – not to mention gas – this has been a significant source of pain, as David Headberry, public officer of the Major Energy Users group points out.

“Australia used to have electricity prices that were the envy of the world, and now we don’t. There are lots of reasons behind that, but the fact is that big electricity users are saying we can’t afford electricity today.”

Headberry’s organisation includes manufacturers such as BlueScope, Norske Skog, Northern Cement, Orica Australia, and BOC Australia. One solution to the issue of high prices that these companies have instituted is known as demand response, which Headberry summarises as, “if giving up the ability to use electricity for 20, 30, 40, hours a year gives us a much lower price for our electricity that we have to buy, then we’ll do it”.

While larger manufacturers – 24 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

who buy electricity on the wholesale market via agreements with retailers to purchase at the spot price – have been able to respond to high prices by shutting down electricity-intensive processes, the technology has been out of reach for smaller manufacturers. Now, the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC), the body which makes and changes rules for the National Electricity Market, is proposing to expand the potential of demand response.

The proposed change, which will be decided on December 5, is known as the wholesale demand response mechanism, and will enable a new type of energy market participant, demand response service providers, otherwise known as aggregators. These aggregators will be able to sell the estimated load of large energy users, including manufacturers, as equivalent to generation.

Nathaniel Galindo, general manager of engineering at Flow Power, an energy retailer that provides demand response services via spot price pass through, explains how this proposed change would further enable demand response.

“Currently there is no bidding mechanism that would accept a load reduction in the same form as what a generator would bid to supply energy. A market mechanism does not exist that would allow a user to reduce their load and be paid for it.”

If implemented, the change could allow manufacturers to reduce their energy costs, or be paid for shutting down processes at times of high energy costs. Galindo noted that current savings can be significant.

“Savings can be as low as five per cent on your more stable, quieter months, and as high as potentially 30 to 40 per cent on your more volatile, peakier months during the

summer,” said Galindo.

The proposed mechanism would still allow the current processes to occur, highlights Suzanne Falvi, executive general manager, security and reliability at the AEMC. “The mechanism doesn’t do anything to alter the demand response that is already happening.

There are lots of large users who, through their retailers or themselves, already work out how to change their electricity consumption in response to prices.”

“What this mechanism does is open up competition in this space.

Currently, unless you’re doing demand response yourself, you do it through a retailer. What we want to do through this mechanism is open this up to someone other than a retailer who can help manufacturers offer their demand response into the wholesale market.”

As Headberry points out, the current market rules require users to have a level of sophistication that is out of reach to smaller manufacturers without the resources to manage their energy usage.

“Why this current change is so important is that while some end users were actually taking spot price pass through and managing their demand against price, this takes a lot of management to be able to do and you need to be really switched on. The rule change has been put up has introduced the concept of the aggregator, and their prime business will be going around and collecting end users that are prepared to load shed.”

Until now, in Australia, these aggregators or demand response service providers have not existed, and thus Falvi expects that new business models of providing electricity at lower costs to manufacturers will emerge, if this change is approved. manmonthly.com.au

Energy “It should be clever service providers who will look at a manufacturer’s business and say, ‘Actually, you know, we could save you this amount of money if you can shut down production line C, given how we expect the wholesale market to work’.

“Your demand reduction is going to have value and either save you money or make you money.”

While the technical ability to implement such a change has existed for some time, according to Falvi, recent technological developments have enabled demand response to be done more accurately

As all industries grapple with the energy transition, demand response could be a way for manufacturers to offset their costs.

and affordably.

“As technology has evolved, there has been a keener interest in wholesale demand response and there has also been a change in attitude to people wanting to do more of it,” said Falvi.

How this mechanism would work is manufacturers, in accordance with an aggregator, would set a baseline of power use. Demand which does not reach this baseline would be then sold in the market as a substitute for generation.

“The baseline is a very intentional design feature,” said Falvi. “All the demand response that is being offered is on the supply side as opposed to the demand side.”

One criticism of the scheme is the potential for this baseline to be misrepresented to enable demand response service providers to sell extra unmet demand that would not have been used anyway, as Galindo highlighted.

“There is the possibility for service providers or even individual customers to manipulate the market by being able to adjust their baseload and adjust their demand responses in order to maximise the potential gain,” he said.

“This new mechanism is manmonthly.com.au

introducing a whole lot of other service providers and entrants who will potentially take advantage of what the wholesale demand response mechanism can do and look at it from a monetising perspective.”

Falvi counters that the design of the mechanism and the safeguards that are in place will prevent this happening.

“We’ve set out a very comprehensive framework for how baselines will be developed, approved, and tested. They’ll be set by the system operator and the framework will actually outline what are the acceptable thresholds for accuracy and freedom from bias, as determined by the system operator.

“The regulator will have a compliance role in how the mechanism works.”

The current demand response rule change is part of wider changes to the electricity market in Australia, as users, regulators, and generators work out how to manage the dynamic supply and demand of an energy market with a greater proportion of renewables, and increasingly flexible use.

For some, there is potential

for what is known as a “two-sided market” whereby electricity users, particularly larger, energy intensive manufacturers, will become even more significant players in the market.

“At its theoretical best, a two-sided market effectively presupposes that a retailer knows exactly what energy is being used at what time,” said Falvi.

Headberry, however, remains sceptical that a two-sided market is what will ultimately work best for manufacturers.

“If you’ve got to use electricity to make your steel products, you can’t easily avoid not using electricity.

If they don’t make steel they don’t make any profits. They could probably forego it for relatively short periods of time, but a normal operation says you’ve got to have an availability factor at your facility of 95 to 98 per cent make your products competitive.”

As these debates continue to occur, manufacturers will be hoping that with Australia’s large potential assets of solar energy, hydrogen, and other forms of renewable energy, the country will once again return to being an energy superpower, in a low-carbon future.

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 25

Manufacturing Strategies A winning combination Overcoming what could seem to be an impossible task may involve one key Industry 4.0 skill. Connor Pearce speaks with one company that made the leap.

Ray Keefe, fourth from left, accepts the 2019 Casey Cardinia manufacturing award.

I

N July 2017, the team at Successful Endeavours received an order for 65 trial units from a company, IND Technology, that had recently been spun out of research conducted at RMIT. As a manufacturer of specialist electronic devices, based in Narre Warren, south-east Melbourne, this was not an altogether unusual event for Successful Endeavours, except when you take into account the fact that the order was for a product not yet designed, with features still to be confirmed. Schedule for final delivery? November 2017, less than 16 weeks away.

In the end, the product, a solarpowered device that detects faults in rural power lines to prevent bushfires was delivered on time, to specifications. According to Ray Keefe, managing director of 26 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Successful Endeavours, what made all of this possible was one thing that is missing from many manufacturers in Australia; collaboration.

In this case, to deliver each element of the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem that enabled the device to work, a consortium of local, Australian businesses came together. In the end, everything from the enclosure and mounting, to software, hardware, and electronics manufacturing occurred in Australia.

Each of the businesses that Successful Endeavours collaborated with on this project brought their own expertise, as Keefe noted in the case of Maries Production Services, which designed the sheet metal parts for assemblies, as well as logistics.

“One of the things that made them a good fit for this project is that they’re a smaller, leaner operation.

They’re fairly agile in being able to turn around work and they have established supplier relationships in Australia,” said Keefe. “They look at the job and decide where it’s best to be done. They already had all of the required relationships within the Melbourne supply network.”

Like Maries, another collaborator, Precision Electronics Technology, which carried out the contract electronics manufacturing, had particular qualities that ensured that the project could be pulled off.

“Precision Electronics Technology were selected because we know they can do relatively fast turnarounds and, although you pay a small premium for it, it’s an affordable premium. We also know that they’ve got very good quality standards and if something doesn’t go right they’ll fix it,” said Keefe.

While Precision and Maries had an established relationship with Keefe and Successful Endeavours, another business, Connect Electronics, which delivered the looms and cable assemblies, was unknown to the team until the project began.

“Connect Electronics were coming into it cold,” said Keefe.

“Steve Nicholas, manager at Connect Electronics, dropped in to us for a cold call while we were wondering who will we get to do connectors. We sat down around a table, we had a bit of a talk to him about their business ethos, how they operated, and he was prepared to be quite open and transparent with us.”

A shared understanding With the team coming together under Successful Endeavours as manmonthly.com.au

Manufacturing Strategies the systems integrator, among other roles, each of the members had to be prepared to take a risk on the project. The nature of the project required a level of trust between each business.

“Nobody started with formal signed contracts in place, because the work couldn’t be categorised that clearly,” described Keefe. “One of the things that was required for this was a good deal of belief and trust in each other, to actually take the journey and to be reasonable about pricing.”

While the project had to have a commercial basis to it, in working together under these parameters, there needed to be a greater level of understanding than in other business relationships.

“Collaboration has to be nontransactional,” stated Keefe. “It can’t just be, ‘Yeah we’ll make you a bracket, the brackets will be this much. When we get an order from you and the upfront deposit we’ll start and once we’ve got that underway we’ll look at the next one.’

It has to be quite a bit more, ‘We’re on the same team pulling together, we’re all doing our own bits’.”

In the delivery of the devices for IND Technology, the nature of the contract meant that the commercial partners had to wear the risk and financial cost of the partnership.

“IND Technology had staged payments, so they didn’t get any cash in until they’d met certain criteria because there was government funding associated with the project.

The government funding is always trailing funding, which means that the commercial partners have to fund everything up to that point,” said Keefe.

“We’re all looking after each other from a cashflow perspective IND are paying what they can, Successful Endeavours are covering some of it, and suppliers are being generous on payment terms to make the opportunity possible.”

Of course, not every business is willing or able to work under these conditions, and Keefe highlights how finding the right partners was as much about finding businesses with matching values, as being able to deliver the technological manmonthly.com.au

requirements. Keefe listed the values required as contribution, ownership of the outcome, generosity, transparency, trust, and finally a desire for excellence.

“So, it is not just meeting your contractual obligations, but doing something really amazing that will knock your socks off.’”

Finding purpose As these requirements go beyond simply the financial side of business, projects that have this level of collaboration need have a goal that

Saturday bushfires in Victoria, where 180 people died, was that greater purpose. However, in other projects completed by Successful Endeavours, which also required a similar level of investment on behalf of the business, there was also a greater purpose.

“A number of years ago someone came to us needing a product that would stop plumbers being electrocuted,” recalled Keefe. “They couldn’t buy a suitable product on the market and they’d been asked to find this product by a water utility who had three plumbers die in the

The precision engineering of electrical components can be done in Australia, with the right attitude. goes beyond making money, even if that is a step along the way.

“You’ve got to paint the picture of what the opportunity is and why it’s worth doing because businesses don’t just exist to make money – businesses need to make money or they go away – but business are primarily about partnering together to do something of substance.”

In this case, stopping bushfires, including those similar to the Black

same week.

“We put together a rough prototype to show them that what they wanted to do was possible. Then, they got that assessed by Sydney Water and everyone decided that was good. We put together a budget for doing the R&D, the production set up and unit costs. They came back to us and said, ‘No one’s paying for any R&D or set up, you’ll have to wear that yourself.’”

Coming up with a solution here required a different approach from Successful Endeavours, one that was in part possible because of a belief in the project and the business case.

“We sat down with them and asked them, ‘How many units do you believe you’ll be able to sell?’

They estimated 300, so we then went through the process of working out a business case for that, so we would have a break even on 300 units and went ahead,” said Keefe.

“We’re at nearly serial number 4000 on that product now.”

Keefe highlighted that, in his experience, successfully completing projects such as this has to be part of a business’s DNA. “One of the things that I’ve deliberately done with Successful Endeavours as a business is that we’ve built an inherently collaborative environment. We look for people who understand that. It’s quite difficult to shift, culturally, in the middle of a delivery schedule.

We’ve been practicing collaboration for a long time and building up those trusting relationships.”

In a report conducted by PwC on behalf of Swinburne University, titled, Transforming Australian Manufacturing: Preparing businesses and workplaces for Industry 4.0, the first finding was the need for businesses to become skilled collaborators in the Industry 4.0 environment. With the scale and transformative potential of the technology and systems of Industry 4.0 on the horizon, Australia’s manufacturing SMEs must collaborate, found the report – a finding Keefe echoes.

“What we’re seeing with Industry 4.0 is there are lots of opportunities where if you’re agile and you can pivot, you can pick up pieces of business that other people can’t go after. That means that this week you can doing 100 IND Technology units and then next week 200 plumber guarding units, the week after that you can be doing something else, and your production line can pivot around all those opportunities relatively quickly,” said Keefe.

In any of these opportunities, the secret sauce is collaboration.

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 27

Compressors A global brand commits to the Australian market Bringing its unique approach to air compressors to Australia, ELGi equipment continues a history of local service and expertise. Manufacturers’ Monthly explains.

A

IR compressors have been a staple of industrial processes since the 19th century. In the past two centuries, the technology behind compressed air has come a long way, yet there is potential for improvement, especially as the manufacturing industry shifts to becoming ever more precise and hygienic.

Global air compressor manufacturer, ELGi, is looking to the future when it comes to air

compressors. Tom Fyfe, president of ELGi Australia, described how the company has come to prominence both in Australia and overseas.

“In 2012, ELGi purchased a company in the US called Pattons, and that started their global expansion,” he said.

While this may have been a major public foray, according to Fyfe the Indian-headquartered ELGi has been spending a lot of time getting the product right. Looking to the Asia

Pacific market, ELGi chose to begin somewhere that was familiar to them.

“Australia is one of the strongest markets in the Asia Pacific and ELGi know quite a bit about the Australian market,” said Fyfe. “Having been distributed in Australia for eight years, there was a real opportunity through acquisition to grow the business.”

At that time, Fyfe was managing director of Pulford Air & Gas, an Australian compressed air distributor

The company’s business in Australia builds off almost 100 years of local expertise.

with a deep history in the local market. Ultimately, just as ELGi acquired Pattons, the same decision was made in Australia with Pulford Air & Gas. While the ownerships structure may have changed, the core of the business, the people and the expertise, remained in place.

“Pulford has been around since 1925. With almost 100 years of experience, the benefit that ELGi gained in the combination of two companies is they have gained a lot of technical experience in the local market,” said Fyfe. “We have many long-term staff that have been with us for up to 35 years.”

Although the ownership may have changed, ELGi have retained the Pulford and Advanced Air Compressors (AAC) engineers, and sales and support staff that have been under the Pulford brand. In addition, the national network of distributors has local expertise to turn to when working with ELGi. “Over the years, Pulford went from $3.5 million to almost $20 million in turnover and in doing that we’ve got the experience to help the other distributors and dealers to grow as we did,” said Fyfe. “When you’re talking to the other distributors, you know exactly what they’re going through, what challenges they face and the support they need. We know how we can help them grow their business.”

Together, ELGi Australia has combined the history, heritage, and local knowledge of Pulford Air & Gas and AAC with a global company that is seeking to constantly improve its product. In essence, this leads to a compressor built to Australian conditions.

A company committed to innovation Since its founding in 1960, ELGi has acquired a reputation of a compressed air manufacturer that is willing to go beyond what is expected. Founded in 28 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

manmonthly.com.au

Compressors

Through producing its own components, ELGi hope to make its oil-free compressors at the same price as oil injected machines.

India, the company has acquired air compressor manufacturers not only in Australia and the US, but in Italy as well, as it bought Rotair in 2012.

In the meantime, the company has improved its manufacturing facilities in India to be able to compete with some of the best-known compressed air brands.

“One of the things ELGi has been very conscious of is the quality and unlike a lot of other companies who tend to buy from component manufacturers, ELGi looked at how they could make the air-ends better,” said Fyfe.

As the core of an air compressor, the air-end is one of the most complicated and expensive components in an air compressor.

At ELGi’s manufacturing facility, opened in 2014, the company has been investing in manufacturing its own air-ends.

“Instead of purchasing a cutting manmonthly.com.au

machine, they made their own,” said Fyfe. “They get better quality parts out of the machine that they built, and they built that machine for a quarter of the cost. By doing that, they’ve cut down the cost of the air-end, and they made the air-end better.”

Investing in manufacturing its own components, in a facility that is ISO 9001:2015 certified, has allowed the company to offer a lifetime warranty in the US and a 10-year warranty in Australia.

“By vertically integrating their manufacturing, ELGi compressors are better quality and better reliability, and that’s why they offer lifetime warranty on the air-end,” said Fyfe.

“Because they do all their own cutting and grinding of the air-end, they’re very confident in the tolerances and the quality of the product.”

While the company continues to invest in the manufacture of critical components such as air-ends, ELGi is

looking to other areas where it can improve the standard air compressor.

One area is finding an oil that can last up to 20,000 hours, instead of the current 8,000 hours.

Ultimately, noted Fyfe, the company is looking to dramatically reduce the cost of ownership of an air compressor, without sacrificing quality.

“ELGi’s global philosophy is that they want to try and have oil-free compressors at the same price as oil-injected machines,” said Fyfe.

“ELGi is going to go right from five kilowatts to 110 kilowatts, with their water-injected range, and by having that range go all the way down, for customers who’ve currently got oil injected machines or very expensive oil free machines, there’s a huge saving for them in many respects.”

These kinds of innovations are about keeping ELGi globally and in Australia at the forefront of a

manufacturing industry that is looking for precision-engineered products that meet the highest standards. With such an investment in Australian manufacturing, Fyfe sees ELGi’s commitment to the local market as a mark of confidence.

“They’re very buoyant about the Australian economy. A lot of people are buoyant about the Australian economy because of mining and resources, but ELGi are more focussed on – particularly with the new water-injected range – those key areas of food and beverage and pharmaceuticals,” said Fyfe.

“They’re very bullish about the Australian market. There’s lot of other areas around the world that are forecasting a downturn but ELGi still see Australia as a growth market for them.”

ELGi Australia recently launched their new website. You can view it here: www.elgi.com.au/ Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 29

Power Distribution Bringing the best on board.

A new distribution board from APS Industrial puts into practice the company’s commitment to bringing the world’s best to Australian manufacturing. Manufacturers’ Monthly explains.

B

ORN just 18 months ago, it has not taken APS Industrial long to establish themselves as a key industry player. In a move that underlines this point, they have recently announced their first independent product launch, a distribution board which brings together the elite capabilities of APS Industrial’s global manufacturing partners, while being custom designed to meet the demands of Australian industry.

As David Read, director of

Boards can be designed to the specific needs of each customer.

30 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

products and marketing at the company highlighted when speaking with Manufacturers’ Monthly, this collaboration and commitment to local industry that APS Industrial share with its manufacturing partners has been the foundation for the product launch.

“In March 2018, APS Industrial brought Siemens under one roof to service its customers in Australia, and also complemented that with access to key brands like Rittal, KATKO, and Weidmüller. We’re building our whole

value proposition around being able to provide industry with a new choice, and this product launch is really exciting for us because we can now extend that promise to distribution boards,” said Read.

As Read described, APS Industrial goes beyond the traditional distributor model, to work hand-in-hand with its manufacturing partners.

“First and foremost we’re a distributor of industrial electrical and automation products, and for us to do that, we’ve established national distribution agreements with these brands. Traditional distributional models might stop there – let’s sign an agreement and let’s distribute the product – but what the leaders of our business have set out to do is actively work and engage with these manufacturing partners to firmly focus on Australian industry and work out where we can provide more choice or where we can provide more technology capability.”

An area where APS Industrial saw a chance to offer both to local industry is electrical distribution boards and, according to Read, having the strong relationships with brands such as Siemens, KATKO, Rittal, and Weidmüller, enabled the company to create something new and powerful.

“The APS Industrial distribution board portfolio will offer unparalleled flexibility and feature the best the market has to offer in technology and components. What we have done is really looked at best practices of distribution boards that are in the market and added innovative features and functions that will matter,” said Read.

An example of this is the unique, removable gear tray assembly that comes as standard with the DB Ultimate – the first board to be released within what will become a

The distribution boards use APS partner manufacturers. complete family of APS Industrial distribution boards. Designed and manufactured by the company in partnership with German enclosure manufacturer Rittal, the removeable gear tray allows for the option to mount the enclosure itself, while the componentry of the board is still being designed and assembled to fit a customer’s requirements.

“This feature offers a number of benefits,” said Read. “While many will opt for traditional assembly and installation, this feature provides the added option of mounting the empty enclosure on the wall in any industrial complex or building independently of the internal gear tray that houses all of the components. This gear tray can then be inserted later once it’s all wired and assembled, that allows for easier installation as well as quicker assembly and wiring because it’s done out of the enclosure.”

This unique gear tray assembly feature complements the individual performance of the components, that manmonthly.com.au

Power Distribution are sourced from APS Industrial’s manufacturing partners, which, according to Read, are world leading in each of their fields.

“We are the only national distributor for all of our manufacturing partners here in Australia and we’ve worked exclusively with them to make sure that we have the best offering for the DB portfolio. The APS DB portfolio has been specifically designed to incorporate circuit breaker, metering and communications technology from Siemens, surge protection from Weidmüller and main switch isolation from KATKO,” said Read.

APS Industrial has not just selected the best components available but have brought together a range of products that until now have not been available to distribution board customers. This is the case of the circuit breaker technology from Siemens, as well as the enclosures from Rittal.

“To make a Rittal enclosure available to the distribution board market is unique and it’s something that we really wanted to do because they are a world leader in enclosure technology. It’s a coup for us to be able to adapt their enclosures for distribution boards,” said Read.

“The Rittal enclosure technology is globally recognised as a market leader and to be able to translate this into the distribution board market is not only an Australian first, but also a global first, which represents real opportunity and competitive advantage for the local industry”.

Taking this approach of leveraging and amplifying global manufacturers has allowed APS Industrial to release a board that can withstand the harshest environments in Australian industry. The DB Ultimate is designed to be able to be mounted indoors and outdoors, with the enclosure from Rittal ensuring that the precise componentry within is not affected by heat, dust or moisture. The DB Ultimate is rated to Ingress Protection IP66, which rates the degree of protection provided by electrical enclosures. This high rating ensures that the DB Ultimate is dust tight and protected from jets of water. This makes the range suitable for use in manmonthly.com.au

APS Industrial’s distribution boards are built with the best componentry on the market. food and beverage manufacturing facilities as well as environments where dust is present, such as mining.

Further offerings will be targeted towards lighter industry, and construction markets and while the enclosure rating may be altered to

match the requirements of those industries, the componentry inside remains the same.

These components include a compact lockable KATKO Main Switch, which can be swapped for a Siemens MCCB, as well as components

from Weidmüller and Siemens. For APS Industrial, the choice to create a distribution board with this quality of componentry is about service to the industries they supply.

“It’s our obligation and privilege to bring these brands to the Australian market and help our local industry experience the quality of these products,” said Read.

“We firmly believe that these products are some of the best the world has to offer, and as uptake within local industry grows, so too will performance and potential, which is very exciting”.

Indeed, as global technology continues to develop, customers are assured that these improvements will naturally be built into the range of APS DB’s with manufacturers such as Siemens leading global industrial innovation.

“These brands are at the forefront of industrial digitalisation and all of that expertise and knowledge is embedded in the distribution boards,” said Read.

The DB Ultimate is designed to withstand the harsh environmental requirements of Australian industry.

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 31

Skills & Training Future skills for innovative industry Rachael Wilkinson, policy officer, at the Ai Group outlines how to innovate to develop the skills needed for future industry.

T

While the needs of the future are still unknown, being prepared means developing T-shaped graduates.

32 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

ECHNOLOGY is driving a business environment that is becoming all about adapting – and in the future we’ll need to innovate continuously to stay ahead of an ever-changing environment.

Considering all of this change, we are often asked what young people will need in the future world of work – this constantly changing environment – and the simple answer is we can’t possibly know.

That might not seem helpful, but the good news is that we do know enough about increasingly rapid technological advancements and the way they’re changing skills and work organisation to provide some insight as to what young people will need.

A CSIRO report on megatrends for Australia’s future workforce in the next 20 years highlights the need for a shift of mindsets for workers, employers, the education sector, and governments to accommodate for the predicted jobs of the future.

While there may be a focus on the types of technology that produce jobs where specialised skills will be valuable, an underlying message is that foundational skills and broad new capabilities will become more important than ever. And sound foundational skills no longer just mean language, literacy, and numeracy. They mean analytics, applications, network management, security, and privacy, as well as stuff like creativity, problem solving, advanced reasoning, complex judgement, social interaction, and emotional intelligence.

These will become highly important in professional roles of the future. In terms of the types of work we are likely to be doing, the OECD has reported that the share of highskill jobs is significantly increasing while the share of low-skilled jobs is decreasing. Companies now require a workforce which not only has manmonthly.com.au

Skills & Training expertise in particular disciplines and technologies, but also has a handle on team building capacity, emotional intelligence, strategic visioning, market analysis, and cultural sensitivity.

Finally, contemporary industry requires working with highly technical and complex processes that give individual workers more autonomy and significantly more responsibility.

We used to have models of leadership focussed on rigid hierarchies of managers passing questions up and decisions down.

As data collection and analysis tools improve through technology, less hierarchy is required. Individual professionals will have increased decision-making responsibility which challenges our concept of management – leadership will have to come from anyone, regardless of title.

It’s clear the jobs experiencing growth require workers with high level thought and judgement, as was stressed in the International Electrotechnical Commission’s Factory of the Future Report, which says that a company can generate enormous amounts of data, but ultimately it must rely on people to make decisions.

Funnily enough, in a future that looks like a science fiction movie, human capital will be more important than ever. For their part, workers must recognise that it’s not the largest company, it’s not the most successful

AUGMENTED REALITY

Future industry skills needs will be met by students who can adapt as work changes.

company, it’s not even the strongest company that will benefit the most from these changes – it’s the most adaptable companies.

There’s a message there for the future workforce too – the most adaptable employees will likely be the most successful. A need for adaptable workers with broad skills has already begun to surface in Australian industry.

For the last few years, Ai Group’s own employer surveys have shown that the greatest dissatisfaction businesses have with the employability skills of graduates is in self-management, problem solving, and teamwork. Education and training have been identified

INTERNET OF THINGS

as among the most critical factors shaping workforce outcomes in the future.

David Guest’s 1991 article in The Independent ‘The hunt is on for the Renaissance Man of computing’ was the first to use the concept of a T-shaped graduate. He was talking about someone who has vertical skills – in-depth disciplines or knowledge specific to their area of activity – and who also develops horizontal skills and abilities that are not specific to one area and help make organisations work. These include deep listening capabilities, an entrepreneurial spirit, and being able to communicate well.

Though 1991 was a long time ago, David Guest’s summary of the

SIMULATION

DIGITAL TWIN

ideal graduate is still pretty much spot on. In 10-20 years time when everybody’s job will have changed to some degree, the characteristics of agility, resilience, and flexibility in professional graduates, as in all employees, will be the key to their success in organisations.

This will allow organisations to be adaptable, innovative, and thrive in complex, unpredictable digital environments.

As stated at the outset, we can’t possibly know what skills are needed for the future. It’s a tough ask, and no one has a crystal ball.

No one has all the answers. And we should be sceptical of anyone who suggests they do.

That said, we do know enough to see that being adaptable and developing a diverse set of skills is likely to be the best way forward for anyone, regardless of age.

It used to be the norm to have one skillset and even one job for life. Let’s face it – that’s not our future. Change is the new normal.

Upskill your staff and keep abreast of changes in the workplace and assist their professional development. See the Ai Group Training Calendar for 2020 for a great range of courses available at various Ai Group locations next year.

Find the calendar here: https://www. aigroup.com.au/workforce-development/ training/calendar/. All courses are also available onsite. Call 1300 55 66 77 for a quote or more information.

PRODUCT LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT

INDUSTRY 4.0

Are you ready for the next INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION? Learn more at www.leapaust.com.au/i4/

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manmonthly.com.au

1300 88 22 40 - info@leapaust.com.au

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 33

Instrumentation Smart connected lighting and the IoT IoT opens the door for smart, connected lighting systems. Paul Golata, senior technical content specialist, for Mouser Electronics, notes the latest in this field.

S

EASONS come and seasons go. Writing this article, located from my position in the Northern Hemisphere, I am experiencing the time of the December solstice. The winter solstice is that day of the year when I will receive the least amount of sunlight – as measured from sunrise to sunset.

Shortly, spring will appear. The days will lengthen, and the amount of sunlight will increase. I enjoy this lengthening of days with its increasing amount of sunlight. It always seems to make my moods feel better. I can take advantage and make the most of the remaining daylight after work, often riding my mountain bike through the woods, over the roots, and down and up the ravines. This changing season’s length of sunshine goes on automatically, without any need for my input or control.

Humanity has created devices that provide ourselves with light.

In cities, towns, and villages throughout the world, humans harness their illumination devices to gleam light into the recesses of the darkness. Civilised society, a connected social order advancing cultural creation, employs these lighting devices in order to chase away the darkness and pave the way for a brighter future.

At one time, this source of light was through items like wax candles.

What a mess! It must have taken great efforts and pains to illuminate a large location and keep it well lit.

However, the technological reality of the Internet of Things (IoT) now empowers smart connected lighting within a coordinated system. Hardwired and wireless systems allow secured data to connect lighting systems through a coordinated and intelligent approach. This article articulates 34 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

how smart connected lighting is enabling a bright future.

Smart connected lighting A season of change is underway.

The IoT is dawning today as a revolution in technology. Smart sensor technology and radiofrequency (RF) wireless connectivity have combined to produce new methods to sense and collect data and get it onto the Internet. IoT is enabling building automation utilised for industrial and personal use. Automation within buildings and cities is taking advantage of human intelligence. Specifically, it is aiming to program electronic systems in a coordinated and integrated fashion to mimic or improve upon this human intelligence, thus providing an automated system with a level of smartness. In this case, smartness means the ability to meet and perform to an acceptable level of a desired aim or goal. The goal of these efforts is to produce more intelligent and robust systems, which will improve people’s living conditions while lowering costs and decreasing negative environmental impacts.

Connected lighting systems consist of three key ingredients: • A light source such as a light bulb or LED; • A light fixture and electromechanical assembly to connect and secure the light source to its location; and • A light switch or controller.

The past several years have seen a rapid movement from traditional lighting sources to light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The success of LED lighting adoption is a natural pathway for software-controlled, smart, digital, connected lighting systems. Where previously simple up/ down or push-button on/off switches were employed, today IoT coupled with electronically controlled

lighting products are enabling smart, connected lighting applications.

Smart connected lighting, deployed in smart buildings, takes advantage of multiple electronic systems and platforms including motion sensors, integrating them with a variety of lighting control methods to provide solutions to suit virtually any lighting-control setting.

Connected by means of the IoT and employing open and configurable infrastructures, data can be collected and utilised for intelligent decisionmaking and effective operations.

Software’s great flexibility and the simplicity of digital design and control provide advantages for smart lighting platforms. Leading electronic component vendors are presently developing LEDs, LED drivers, sensors, power electronics, and various electronic control devices for smart lighting products.

It is a discernible trend that these manufacturers are working to ensure that their products successfully integrate with or within designs in the building automation industry.

Automated lighting systems set

up in this manner are called smart lighting. In the future, businesses and homeowners will increasingly take advantage of the leverage provided by connected lighting and the IoT. Smart lighting allows for autonomous and programmed control of illumination levels and colours and simultaneously identifies when traffic or building occupancy activities warrant adjustments, providing for a more optimised experience for users and owners.

Regardless of whether it involves illumination lighting in offices, in homes, or in street lights and lamps for traffic or pedestrians, automated smart lighting is found across the modern urban landscape.

Smart lighting is fast becoming the mainstay of intelligent automated buildings in smart cities.

Wired and wireless Smart and intelligent control of lighting systems requires solid and reliable connections. There are two primary networking methodologies that bring together smart connected lighting and IoT: wired and wireless.

Using data-driven insights can assist against blackouts and power failures.

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Instrumentation In addition, these two primary networking methodologies may be employed in various cooperating combinations, employing various communication methods and protocols such as Bluetooth mesh networking, and be limited only by the requirements of the application and the engineer’s creativity.

A wired network relies on direct physical electrical connections between points in the network.

A wireless network requires no physical connection between devices, providing freedom from hard wiring. Wireless networks make it possible for devices within the network to roam untethered. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. A smart design engineer will consider what is best for an entire application and may design a solution that takes advantage of both networking methodologies’ respective strengths while mitigating against their respective deficiencies.

Smart connected lighting within the IoT requires an engineer who understands acceptable system design, speed, bandwidth, and lowlatency connection specifications.

Hardwired systems offer top performance in these specific specification parameters yet require switches to be hardwired to lighting fixtures, thereby decreasing flexibility. The incorporation of wireless designs may sacrifice some of these specifications but provide configuration control and management options that cannot be accomplished within the limitations of hardwired designs. However, ongoing and dramatic improvements in RF wireless technology performance are providing wireless design options previously not conceivable or available.

Smart lighting controls and IoT often employ wireless mesh topologies, where there are redundant interconnections between network nodes. These so-called “many-to-many” topologies offer exciting potential for smart lighting control: Primarily because their redundant interconnections protect against single point node failures while simultaneously offering low manmonthly.com.au

latency, high speeds, and excellent efficiency. Zigbee and Bluetooth mesh are two popular protocols.

Zigbee and Bluetooth mesh Low-powered and standards-based wireless sensor network (WSN) products may be incorporated to meet the demands of smart connected lighting applications.

Mesh enabling systems are deployed worldwide, securely connecting a variety of smart devices to applications, delivering smarter,

(introduced in July 2017) is a protocol based upon Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) that finds application in smart connected lighting and IoT. It employs a Bluetooth radio that can operate over a physical distance of approximately 100 to 1000 metres. Being new to the scene, it is still seeking to demonstrate successful large-scale deployments, efficiency, and effectiveness. A large assortment of talented persons and companies are working steadily to make improvements.

Automation in lighting can enable smart, connected applications.

greener, more efficient solutions.

Zigbee, like Bluetooth, is a specification for communications in wireless personal area networks (WPANs). Designed to be low cost, low power, and low duty cycle, Zigbee technology is ideal for WSNs and other low-power networks that span potentially large distances. Zigbee builds upon the IEEE 802.15.4 standard but adds the mesh networking capability with multi-hop functionality and a routing protocol. Star as well as peer-to-peer (e.g., mesh and cluster tree) networks are supported, making Zigbee dynamic, scalable, and decentralised. Zigbee technology is not meant to compete with technologies such as Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11) or Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15.1). Rather, Zigbee is designed for applications where the data transfer rate is much less important than power efficiency, network size, and ad hoc routing capacity.

Bluetooth mesh networking

Data Socrates (470–399 BC) stated that virtue is knowledge. Francis Bacon (1561–1626) declared that with knowledge comes power. In the IoT applications of tomorrow, the collection, storage, and analysis of data will drive knowledge. The IoT will harness data-driven insights, which will assist business and personal decision-making. This trend will provide a host of new ways to perform and utilise smart connected lighting, including protecting and monitoring against power failures and blackouts as well as assisting with scheduling regular upkeep and maintaining the highest level of overall operational effectiveness. The demand for low-latency, real-time decision-making and response, which is imperceptible to humans (<0.05s), will incite the incorporation of more sensors to collect data. This data will undergo analysis and processing in the “smart” edge, providing new and greater insights and increasing

the opportunity for new markets and value creation. Smart connected lighting works to bring data-based decision-making to reality.

Security Data transmissions must remain under safeguards against adverse contingencies and situations.

Reliable and secure connections are a must. Wired systems can be cut or tapped, and wireless systems might experience interference, droppage, or access by suspect or nefarious methods. Smart connected lighting systems and the IoT use a multilayered approach for protection, applying safeguards at several different points throughout the system.

Key steps in this multilayered approach might include creating proper credentials and access authorisation passwords in an appropriately compliant and protected operating system (OS).

Employment of appropriate protocols will empower the connection of devices while providing strong and robust performance and security under a wide variety of operating conditions. Every connected device should be monitored and be compliant with the appropriate firmware and software revisions to take advantage of up-to-the-moment protections and safeguards. Collected IoT data should be ingested and validated prior to consuming and processing it at lowerlevel stages and prior to higher-level processing to prevent ingress errors at the cloud or at higher-level dataprocessing sources.

Future The seasons change and so does technology. The IoT opens the door for smart lighting to be connected in a coordinated system. Hardwired and wireless systems allow secured data to connect lighting systems through a coordinated and intelligent approach.

This smart connected lighting and the IoT are the technologies of our next and brighter season. Just think how far we have advanced since the days of fire, candlelight, and Edison’s light bulb.

Reprinted with permission from Mouser Electronics: www.mouser.com.

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 35

Sensors The missing link Making communication easy between a series of devices is part of this next generation solution.

Manufacturers’ Monthly finds out why one company has turned to ifm.

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ETTING to the core of Industry 4.0, beyond the hype of individual technologies and high-level systems, requires understanding what language are needed to connect devices for flexible and adaptive manufacturing.

One method of doing this is finding a standard operating protocol that allows for easy communication between devices and the straightforward representation of data. IO-Link, described by Joachim Uffelmann, Peter Wienzek and Myriam Jahn as “the DNA of Industry 4.0”, is a communication system used to connect sensors and actuators to an automation system. ifm, a provider of sensors, controllers, software, and systems for industrial automation and digitalisation, manufacturers a range of IO-Link devices, that can be calibrated to suit the needs of manufacturers.

The protocol builds upon analogue or binary sensors by enabling the transfer of several process values of a device at once via one standard cable. For Alex Baeck, automation engineer at MPSC Australia, the ease of interoperability is what makes ifm devices which communicate via IOLink protocols stand out.

“Up until now, we’ve done everything with digital inputs and outputs, 4-20 milliamp (mA) analogue inputs and outputs, which is a very reliable system. But where IO-Link from ifm has enabled us to really step forward is that we can install a device without having anybody on site to configure it,” said Baeck.

36 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

MPSC’s devices utilise IO-Link enabled devices from ifm.

Up until now, we’ve done everything with digital inputs and outputs, 4-20 milliamp (mA) analogue inputs and outputs, which is a very reliable system. But where IO-Link from ifm has enabled us to really step forward is that we can install a device without having anybody on site to configure it.

For MPSC, the accurate reading of sensors is a fundamental part of their business. MPSC provides meat processing facilities with a technology called Rinse & Chill, an enhanced bleeding methodology in animal harvesting, which removes residual blood out of a carcass while modulating muscle temperature and pH. Rinse & Chill, delivers safer, cleaner meat, in addition to improved shelf life and eating quality. The efficacy and reliability of the technology is largely built upon the sensors installed.

The delivery of the Rinse & Chill solution must be managed precisely in terms of concentration, volume, pressure, flow rate, temperature and sterility, all in a sanitary

environment analogous with customary practices in other food and beverage sectors such as dairy.

MPSC has utilised sensors made by ifm to facilitate process automation and provide real time feedback.

“We have conductivity, we have temperature, we have flow, we have pressure,” said Baeck. “We need to know the conductivity because that’s what we use to make up our production specifications. We need to know the temperature to make sure that the production of fluids is the right temperature. We use the flow meters so that we know that we’ve got the correct flow, and we need to know the pressure so that we know we’re getting the right flows through each of the nozzles.”

“We don’t actually sell any of

the systems we build, but rather licence the use of the technology to our clients,” said Baeck. “We own the systems from the day they’re installed until the end of use. So it’s in our best interests to have good components out there that are reliable and that we can remotely configure. That’s where IO-Link has really provided us an opportunity because we can remotely configure the sensors, we can see all the parameters, and we know if there’s a fault with the device straight away.”

Having the devices communicate through IO-Link avoids issues of configuration, which faced MPSC when using sensors with analogue outputs, noted Baeck.

“If we just had a standard sensor that we had sent to site, we’d have to get a service technician or one of their maintenance guys to install that sensor, and then we’d have to step them through configuring it.”

To source and develop an IO-Link enabled solution, MPSC turned to ifm.

“Now we can place an order with ifm, we can send the component directly to site, and they plug it in,” said Baeck. “From the PLC, I send the configuration straight to the device and it flawlessly works.

Because it’s IO-Link, it either works or it doesn’t work, so we know manmonthly.com.au

Sensors immediately if the sensor is stable and reliable.”

In the latest iteration of Rinse & Chill, there are, in total, 108 sensors and associated devices across the sanitary mix room, chiller, and High-Speed Application Machine (HSAM). Communication is enabled through IO-Link back to one PLC. “There’s 89 IO-Link devices and an additional 19 inputs and outputs used on the IO-Link masters. There’s 19 IO-Link masters which is the most we’ve ever used, and there’s a lot of ethernet so it’s quite substantial step up for us,” said Baeck.

While this may seem to produce a mind-boggling array of data and values, utilising IO-Link has made the system more straight-forward than ever, according to Baeck.

“We rely heavily on ifm components – the whole system wouldn’t work without them – and yet IO-Link has enabled us to do our job easier and more reliably,”

We need to communicate production and quality assurance data to our clients on a daily basis though automated reporting. he said.

“We can configure it so we can see the feedback from every valve, we can see the temperature from the sensors, the flow, and the pressure from the valve. It just provides so much information so easily.”

Although the technical sophistication in such a machine is an outcome in itself, MPSC remain focussed on the service they provide.

“We need to communicate production and quality assurance data to our clients on a daily basis though automated reporting,” stated Baeck.

“System utilisation and all of the

data that is collected is stored each day and we send all of that data to the customer. The data needs to be true and accurate and the client’s daily report needs to reflect that.”

The development of this architecture between MPSC and ifm comes out of an existing partnership.

“We’ve run with ifm previously for many years now as an original 4-20 mA provider,” said Baeck.

“So, when we started learning about IO-Link it was just the natural evolution to say, ‘Ok, we’ve purchased non IO-Link devices from ifm so we can see how we will

go with IO Link.’ We’ve bought those components and just keep buying more of them. They’re quick and easy to get, they’re next day delivery, and it’s a very nice website – all the information is there. It’s just a really neat platform.”

From the start, representatives of ifm were part of the journey with MPSC. “We knew what we wanted to do, but we just didn’t know how to achieve it,” said Baeck. “At the early stages I spoke to Ronel Lal, senior sales engineer, and Freddie Coertze, systems solutions manager, and the two of them showed me how easy it is with ifm. I can quickly see from the IO-Link description on their website if it’s going to provide the information I need, and if it is I just add the part number to an order. It really is that easy.

“It provides the real information we need,” said Baeck. “It’s easy to do and it works.”

MPSC has collaborated with ifm to create its unique machinery.

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Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 37

IIoT Using data to drive sales As the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) becomes ubiquitous, manufacturers still need to drive business and process improvement, but will now compete on their use of connectivity to enable individualised service. Manufacturers’ Monthly speaks with Kyle Hanagarne, executive vice president of Simplus Australia.

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HE last wave of technological transformation to hit the manufacturing industry was driven by the ability to mass produce at scale.

“Manufacturers realised technology would bring efficiency to their internal operations,” said Kyle Hanagarne, executive vice president of Simplus Australia. “They would build a system to keep track of their production, administration or finances, streamlining those processes to enable scale.”

And while those systems, usually proprietary programs individually aligned with a company’s production processes, were fit-for-purpose 20 years ago, manufacturers’ needs have changed.

Industry 4.0 – the age of intelligence that has brought an explosion of connectivity and AI-enabled interaction – has changed customers’ expectations of engagement with businesses. The future of manufacturing still requires production at scale, but now that must be matched with the ability to flexibly shift between individualised products and orders.

“Research conducted by Salesforce in 2019 finds that 84 per cent of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services,” said Hanagarne. “And almost twothirds expect companies to tailor those experiences based on past interactions.”

Today, there are a number of software platforms that can give manufacturers the utility they had as well as the abilities they need to add.

And because they aren’t proprietary systems, they don’t carry the risk of redundancy – of investing in the creation and maintenance of another soon-to-be-legacy system as the pace 38 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Kyle Hanagarne has helped manufacturers around Australia update their software platforms.

of change increases.

“There’s a lot available on the market as far as software goes that can help manufacturers get off of their legacy systems and start running their systems with more modern tools,” said Hanagarne.

While older platforms were able to keep track of production processes or provide manufacturers a sense of how their business was performing internally, the latest generation connects those processes while interacting with a customer base.

Simplus is a global integration partner of one of the most wellknown of the new generation of platforms, cloud customer relationship management (CRM) company Salesforce. With local offices in Sydney and Melbourne, Simplus is providing a new way of connecting internal manufacturing processes to client relationship management.

“The new platforms make it easier to handle any process that you want, but the more important shift that we’re seeing is the purpose of the platform is changing. So as manufacturers upgrade their technology, they’re also going through a process of becoming more customer-focussed, instead of internally focussed,” Hanagarne said.

“In the past, we’ve seen a lot of rigour in the optimisation of internal operations, so whatever is manufactured costs less than it did before. Whether that was investing in robotics or large factories with assembly lines, a lot of time the customer was forgotten.”

Up until now, collecting data about a manufacturer’s internal operations was key, whether that was the resources spent to produce a product, or the amount of downtime on an assembly line. While Hanagarne notes that this is important, a distinct separate set of

data was going unrecorded.

“If you start getting an idea of which product lines you’re getting a spike of service requests about, when something’s breaking down, you can start understanding your products a bit more,” he explained. “You can say, ‘We started getting those calls 18 months after the product was released, we need to increase our quality of manufacturing so that they last for two-and-a-half years because that’s our guarantee’. You can start just by collecting data from businessas-usual interactions.”

Just collecting the data on its

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IIoT own is only step one. Understanding the data, without having to employ a data scientist to sift through terabytes of information, is where Salesforce comes in.

“Salesforce makes it really easy to capture that data and has strong analytics tools built in, so you can start gathering insights and creating actions based on all of that data,” said Hanagarne.

Simplus has worked with manufacturers in Australia to implement Salesforce for their operations, and Hanagarne sees the potential for manufacturers, in becoming more customer-centric, to set themselves apart.

“The question manufacturers should ask is, ‘How do I use my data to understand what customers need so I can acquire more customers?

What is my current customer base doing and how do I cater my next product or service to them?’”

With a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities

manufacturers are facing, Simplus can advise on how a platform such as Salesforce can link production processes to sales outcomes.

“Take a configure, price, quote (CPQ) process for example,” said Hanagarne. “The sales operations in a manufacturing company are unlike any other industry, because when you manufacture something that has a lot of components, it can be very difficult to price and get a viable quote out the door.

“You might sell something very technical with lots of parts and lots of specifications. What if the sales representative doesn’t know how to quickly configure what they’re selling in a way that can be engineered by an engineering team? What if it’s custom built and everything has to be priced perfectly?

“If the sales representative doesn’t have a tool that allows them to easily navigate their options, then it might result in a slow quotation

– a lost sale – or a pass-off to the engineering team that creates a very expensive machine that doesn’t fit the customer’s needs.”

Instead, by making what each member of the business does more visible at the point of interaction with a customer, or by ensuring that when an order is received an automated workflow follows that product through to completion, the customer’s needs can be met.

While this may sound simple in other industries, for precision manufacturing where individual pricing and configurations abound, having one system that communicates across a business, rather than siloed individual processes, can make all the difference.

“Salesforce is typically known as a customer relationship management (CRM) platform,” explained Hanagarne. “And a manufacturing company with 30 high-value customers might find it quite simple

The next generation of manufacturing will require platforms that connect production to customers.

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to keep those customers’ details in a spreadsheet. But if each of your 30 customers has its own contracted pricing for your components, and you have to manage to that granular level, that can be a very complex problem.”

Step one of solving this problem, Hanagarne outlined, is to ensure your team has the right tools.

“Then you can prioritise your greatest business needs,” said Hanagarne. “If your biggest pain point is your service area you can focus on service operations first and that can run independent of anything else that you’re doing; if you’re losing sales because of slow quotes and you’re ready for CPQ, you can do a CPQ project; if you need optimisation around order handling or logistics management you can do that.”

Implementing a single software system that covers an entire manufacturing business can set the foundations for everything else that will be enabled by Industry 4.0.

With Simplus on-side to navigate the potential of Salesforce, the process of upgrading a company’s software to a system such as Salesforce is smoothed out.

“We also offer change management services, which are really important for manufacturers especially if they haven’t had technology changes in a long time,” said Hanagarne. “If they are 20 years into a system and this is going to affect the majority of people who work in the company, it’s really important to understand those people, the jobs that they do, and how big of an impact the technology change is going to have on them.

“You can frame the new technology in a way that will help people understand how their job will change so that the investment that goes into these transformational projects isn’t wasted because nobody wants to use the new technology,” said Hanagarne.

Taking these steps ensures that the backbone of industrial transformation is in place.

“Getting to an updated platform that can scale through modular work is an important first step,” said Hanagarne.

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 39

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IIoT Technologies drive customer-centric innovation IIoT technologies not only improve a shop floor, but allow a greater level of service.

Manufacturers’ Monthly explains.

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S businesses across the manufacturing sector move towards the adoption of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) strategies, the plethora of methods that can fall under this umbrella becomes more apparent.

Ryan Briggs, manufacturing systems manager at BlueScope, highlights that the IIoT has reduced errors, found cost savings, and identified efficiency gains.

“We also see it as a way to improve our service offer to market,” said Briggs.

For a building products manufacturer such as BlueScope, the health of the construction market is directly tied to the health of the business. The latest Performance of Construction Index, fell to 42.6 points, so being able to stand out in a contracting market is key.

“IIoT is becoming more important as we’re starting to see a downturn in the building industry,” said Briggs.

“Industry 4.0 and IIoT are ways to gain an advantage in the market.”

What this has meant for Briggs and BlueScope is understanding where their customers are coming from and areas for differentiation.

“It’s a highly commoditised market where our competitors do the same thing and at a customer level, our customers’ competitors also do the same thing,” said Briggs.

With margins tight, there has not been a lot of room for companies like BlueScope to make major investments in machinery for marginal improvements.

“A lot of the machinery that is used now is the same as was used in the last 20, 30 years,” said Briggs. “The core capabilities of machinery really remain the same, and it’s not the most high margin business to be in. So, there’s not a lot of thirst to replace machines with others that are only slightly better.”

This has led BlueScope to focus manmonthly.com.au

on how its interactions with its customers could be an area where IIoT investment can pay dividends.

Digitally tracking processes in the production side of the company, allows BlueScope employees to be able to respond to customer queries quicker and with more accuracy.

“Instead of saying, ‘You’ve got to speak to this person and speak to that person,’ IIoT gives us the opportunity to put this data – that was out of reach before – in the hands of frontline staff. It empowers them to make more decisions, without having to speak to a whole lot of different people in the business,” said Briggs.

Customers can also see what is occurring to their order, meaning fewer delays and faster turnarounds from order to delivery to installation.

“In terms of communicating to our customers it means providing them more information, more quickly and more detailed than ever before,” said Briggs. “Providing them things like portals and collecting data helps us with proof-of-delivery information, and we can send out status updates as a product goes through our process from being scheduled to manufactured, right to being the next delivery and to being delivered.”

While this information was present in the company prior to the implementation of IIoT, it may have been collected manually, or stored in an inaccessible format. Having IIoT-enabled sensors throughout the company gives BlueScope and its

BlueScope has used edge devices in its factory to drive improvements.

Ryan Briggs, manufacturing systems manager at BlueScope, highlights that IIoT can make a business more competitive. customers that information.

“Investing in things that allow us to understand our capacity enables us to reduce our downtime or understand our business more so we can be more productive,” said Briggs.

Not only are the machines that BlueScope run themselves “smart”, workers use edge devices to track production, feeding this information via WiFi into a production management system in real time.

For Briggs, the outcome of this investment in the latest technology comes back to one of the oldest factors of business – reputation.

“We use these innovations, not just as a way of gaining new customers, but keeping existing customers. In our industry, the roofers and installers all talk to each other, so the best thing we can do is service the customers we have and have them notice

improvement in the service offer and then they talk about that at the pub,” said Briggs.

Briggs noted that as with any major change, managing the implementation of the IIoT is essential to getting buy in, both internally in BlueScope and across their client base. Communication and sharing an understanding that IIoT is a journey, rather than one step, is crucial.

“A big hurdle is people want everything to be perfect before they dive in. And that’s really hard because we really need people to come on the journey with you and live with things that aren’t perfect, but they’re better than where we started from,” said Briggs.

“If the customer can’t buy in to playing their part in this process then you’re not really setting yourself up for success, you’ve got to choose the right customers to partner with. Everyone says they want to do better and want more, but it’s whether they’re willing to put the effort in or in a position to put that effort in.”

For Briggs and his team at BlueScope, being open to changes in the IIoT trajectory has been a core feature of the process.

“Focus on what you can do now,” counsels Brings. “With things like 5G – 5G is not just 4G plus speed – and we haven’t even started dabbling in that yet.

“We are sometimes required to send our machinery to a site rather than produce in our factory and then delivering to site. The limitation we have from that is we take our machinery out of our site, which is nowhere near as connected as a machine in our factory floor. The potential of 5G unlocks that.”

Briggs will be speaking at the fourth annual Industrial Internet 4.0 Summit, which runs from February 25-27.

For more information about the event visit www.iiot-summit.com.au.

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 41

MARCH 2020 – INDUSTRIAL CLEANING PRODUCTS As a high volume consumable, many manufacturers aren’t properly informed of what industrial cleaning products are available on the market, and how these are affecting their factory floors – now and in the future.

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In March 2020 we speak with Industrial Cleaning providers about what managers need to consider in their selection of cleaning products.

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: 29 january 2020

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

IIoT How can SMEs get started and harness immediate benefits from Industrial IoT? The full potential of IIoT requires a match between business value, local expertise, and software capabilities. Manufacturers’ Monthly speaks with LEAP Australia, who have rolled out IIoT at local manufacturers, large and small.

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HE Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is now transforming industrial companies. Machines, software, sensors, and devices are all creating data that is now accessible in real time to better understand business and operational performance.

But without an infrastructure that connects between different pieces of equipment and that produces actionable insights, all this newly tapped data can slow down important decisions, instead of streamlining them. Allan Thompson, PTC technical manager at LEAP Australia, has seen this in many factories and shop floors around Australia and New Zealand.

“Manufacturers of modern equipment and devices are beginning to provide connectivity portals to monitor new equipment,” said Thompson. “They’re great but you then end up with multiple separate systems from different brands. For a complete view of your manufacturing operations, you want to be able to easily connect to lots of different sources of data, and have this presented in a single location.”

For the SMEs that LEAP works with, being able to interpret and collate this diverse data sourced from a variety of systems into a consolidated dashboard is the first important step in a manufacturer’s successful IIoT implementation. For Thompson, this is where PTC’s award winning IIoT platform, ThingWorx, comes into play.

“How do you find out what’s going on with your ‘dumb’ bits of equipment that don’t have any connectivity at all? People want to understand what’s happening across all of the factory. There are so many options available now to simply and cheaply add sensors to existing equipment and begin gathering data. Then ThingWorx manmonthly.com.au

manufacturers to look at how they can get longer lifespans with greater utilisation of their assets by performing maintenance based on measurable need, rather than arbitrary schedules.

Thompson sees growing demand for data insights using machine learning in ThingWorx to enable predictive maintenance, so manufacturers can anticipate and resolve potential issues before they happen.

Getting started with an IIoT solution that is the right fit for your needs both now and into the future. is designed to quickly give you a complete picture of what’s happening across your operations.”

Already adopted by all manner of manufacturing companies, from global household names down to a diverse mix of SMEs, ThingWorx is commercial off-the-shelf software that provides the security of using a proven, end-to-end IIoT platform.

So, how can SMEs realise business value from IIoT? Thompson advises manufacturers to define their business priorities upfront. In his experience, manufacturers most often want to measure and improve their operational performance using IoT-enabled machine and process monitoring. This simple first step can realise immediate benefits and provide a jumping-off point for the next steps in an IIoT journey.

For Elsum Engineering, a sheet metal fabricator based in Victoria, the ability to understand operational overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) was a key outcome of their implementation of ThingWorx, as Brett Mackieson, general manager, observes.

“Combining data from both our older and newer equipment, implementing ThingWorx has given us a live shop-floor ability to drill down into what’s actually happening with each of our lines,” he said.

“We chose ThingWorx because it allows us to get started quickly to monitor our OEE, but it also doesn’t cut any corners in terms of capabilities to fulfil our longer-term vision.”

Here are three immediate benefits that a typical SME will focus on: 1. Real-time performance monitoring An IIoT solution with real-time monitoring capabilities and customisable alerts provides greater transparency onto the factory floor and helps operations managers identify, prioritise, and respond to developing issues as they happen.

“If a device is running hotter than it should be, we could have an alert sent automatically to the operator as well as scheduling a service visit,” said Thompson.

2. Predictive maintenance Cost pressures are driving

3. Faster training and work instructions using AR Augmented Reality (AR) makes it easier for manufacturers to scale expertise to existing workers of all skill levels. Digital information from IIoT can be overlaid onto equipment, or step-by-step work instructions can guide workers through new tasks, reducing training time and harnessing knowledge transfer from more experienced workers.

So, where to get started with IIoT? Partnering with a proven, IIoT company helps you focus on the value IIoT will bring your business and develop a staged approach that reduces implementation risks. As PTC president and CEO, Jim Heppelmann says, “The goal for industrial companies is not to become a digital company. Instead, the goal should be for industrial companies to capitalise on digital technologies to advance their competitive advantage.”

“ThingWorx delivers benefits without getting bogged down in programming and IT, and offers a secure, platform that will grow with you,” said Thompson, who suggested getting started with IIoT via www.leapaust.com.au/i4/ Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 43

Components Putting together the puzzle Australia’s biggest distributor of industrial components is now partnered with the US’s largest. Manufacturers’ Monthly finds out how you can’t go wrong with Inenco Industrial Solutions.

T

HERE are not many businesses that can successfully grow from a family-owned operation into the leading company in its field.

But that is exactly what Inenco Group have done.

Founded in 1954 by father and son, JJ Martin-Weber and RJ MartinWeber, as Consolidated Bearing Company (CBC), the company has transformed over the past half a century into Australia’s largest distributor of components for industrial applications, as Naz Paine, General Manager Marketing at Inenco Industrial Solutions explains.

“CBC grew from being focussed on selling automotive, OEM, and mining bearings into the field of bearings and power transmission solutions. From the introduction of V-belts, chains, and sprockets, the Industrial Solutions brandmoved into providing industrial gearboxes, electric motors and drives.

We have diversified our market over the last 50 years to encompass lots of maintenance and repair operations, requirements that are needed for the industrial sector.”

Along the way, CBC acquired Bearing Service Pty Ltd (BSC) in 1984, and in 2003 transformed into the Inenco Group of businesses, acquiring driveline and hydraulic services business Hardy Spicer. These moves reflected the changes that the Australian industrial sector was experiencing, and Inenco adapted to remain the partner of choice.

“Once upon a time, an Australian business would have a supplier for bearings, a supplier for power transmission, and a supplier for consumables and more,” said Paine.

“As Australian businesses have morphed over time, they seek to consolidate supply lines, make life easier, and work with suppliers that can be that one stop shop for industrial solutions.”

Over the past 20 years, Inenco has also collaborated with Australian 44 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

More than just providing parts, Inenco are focussed on partnering for a solution.

industry as it becomes more globalised and connected with its neighbours.

“From 2000 to 2012 the company really accelerated in the world of acquisitions and diversification,” said Paine. “We had over 20 acquisitions, including the likes of Seaco Wilson in New Zealand, and we launched CBC PT in Indonesia and acquired Fenner Power Transmission Far East (Singapore) in 2014.”

The next milestone for the company came in July 2019, as US-based Genuine Parts Company acquired the Inenco Group. While these changes have led to a number of changes, at the customer level, the brands that they have come to know over the past 65 years remain, and are now connected by an ever-stronger support network.

“There are multiple businesses, but one powerful team,” said Paine.

In addition, the capabilities that

Inenco offers to its customers have shifted, to closely align with the particular requirements of Australian industry as these become more specialised.

“As the business evolves, it goes from distributing products, to being a business that then value-adds around that product. We now have over 60 engineers and three workshops who provide consultative, design, and remanufacture services.

“We are starting to diversify the business beyond just selling parts into bespoke services and manufacturing as required,” said Paine.

This change is a result of conditions on the ground in Australian industry, and how Inenco, with its decades of expertise, can best equip customers to tackle their next challenge.

“Lots of older plant and equipment that are in the Australian market may have been designed as a one-off or

small run application. We will have to go back and redesign components to make sure that they are functioning for the customer to the performance that they had or at an even a greater capacity,” said Paine. “We often improve the customer’s capacity and uptime to ensure that we’re taking the customer to that next level of productivity.”

Keeping Australia rolling While Inenco may not be a household name, it is more than likely that a product they have supplied is part of each Australian’s life. This fact is at the centre of Inenco’s Let’s Roll campaign. As Paine highlights, technologies such as bearings are fundamental to modern society.

“What we do as Inenco touches life for Australians almost every day. For example, food and beverage manufacturing, and rolling stock; manmonthly.com.au

Components if something turns or spins, it has a product that Inenco handles.”

In some cases, the products Inenco supply quite literally keep Australia moving.

“If you ride a tram in Melbourne, chances are Inenco has assisted with the product that keeps the system moving. Every day when something moves, there’s usually a product that may have been through our distribution network or reseller in Australia.”

Showcasing the range of products Inenco supplies, as well as the variety of applications and solutions will be the focus of a series of Let’s Roll magazines, starting with “Mines and Quarries” and continuing across “Paddock to Plate”, “Building Materials”, “Water and Wastewater”, and “Recycling Plants”. The magazines are produced in conjunction with their premium partners, Timken, Gates, Schaeffler, CRC, Henkel, NSK, NTN, Fenner, Gulf Western oils, Diamond, Carlisle, ITW Polymers & Fluids, Marlin, Alemlube, Flir Systems, and Bordo.

“The Let’s Roll campaign showcases what we are, what we are capable of, and our business as a whole. It’s to widen the customer’s appreciation of what is available through partnering with our Inenco brands, with our workshops, our engineering services capabilities, and the scale of the business that we have behind us as well,” said Paine.

While the core technologies which go into bearings, seals, and power transmission have remained stable, their applications continue to change.

Keeping abreast of where these products are required next is a core focus for Inenco.

Following how technology trends are playing out in the US, an as early adopter and an innovator when it comes to industrial applications, renewable energy technologies such as wind, and other industrial innovations allows Inenco to be ahead of the requirements of local, Australian industry.

Inenco is already working closely with its sister company in the US, Motion Industries, to bring the latest products and brands into Australia where there is a need that manmonthly.com.au

can be addressed.

“Being backed by a global partner gives us some scale with regard to the ability to add extra business units or extra service units, so we can continue to diversify our business. We can increase our scale much quicker to bring new services and solutions to Australia for our customers,” said Paine.

Another emerging front is the incorporation of digital technology into services such as bearings and power transmission. Using these technologies and associated software allows Inenco to focus on providing total plant reliability, instead of individual components.

“Where we see the market growing is around being able to provide uptime as a service, rather than just a product,” said Paine.

Local presence, global strength While mergers and acquisitions and the latest trends over the horizon are one thing, it is the application of these to the daily needs of industry that Inenco has focussed itself on.

In Australia alone, Inenco’s 1075 people are spread across 128 locations in every state and the Northern Territory. These include 650 Inenco Industrial Solutions (IIS) staff, and 78 IIS branches. This breadth goes towards what Paine describes as the core local value for Inenco.

“People are paramount within the business. Without people we can’t continue to operate, so we make sure our people are motivated, and can be relied upon to get our customers out of trouble.”

In many cases, the people that service Inenco’s customers have once been users of our products themselves, or have grown through the business and can now quickly understand the needs of a customer, and match this with Inenco’s capabilities.

“Our own staff believe in what the customer is doing and want to elevate the customer relationship beyond just selling the product,” said Paine. “They believe that we are true partners with the customer.”

Being spread out around Australia, not only in the capital cities, means

that Inenco personnel are committed to the local industries they work with.

“Many of our employees have an industry background, so when the customer calls, our staff understand what they’re talking about and understand the applications.

“We can be relied upon to put you in contact with someone that understands your plant or has been in a situation that you have had before as a customer.”

Being local also means that Inenco can provide services and support that cannot be found otherwise.

“Customers can go and talk to our local people. We will ask questions, and strive to find a better solution than what you’ve have in place, rather than just being a likefor-like replacement.”

Ensuring that a product that Inenco provides is the right fit does not just stop at the branch, the local staff are committed to finding a solution.

“Another core value for us is our ‘Yes, can-do’ attitude,” said Paine.

“It’s not unusual for us to have a local person that will travel 200-300 kilometres to meet a person driving from the other direction to get a part for you on same day if you’re plant is down.”

Each local person is then supported by Inenco’s now global network, the nature of which means that sometimes the true scale of the company is forgotten, as Paine recently found when a customer visited.

“We had some customers tour our Chullora, Sydney head office and distribution centre and it was a real eye opener. ‘We had no idea that this is what you really did or the size of your operations,’ they said.

“Customers see just that small part of the forward-facing business, BSC or CBC or WebsterBSC, and not all what is at hand from our wider group in Australia and beyond.”

Ultimately, growth for Inenco Industrial Solutions as it expands its distribution of over 600,000 products, and 100’s of brands across over 70 product categories from bearings, to power transmission, to industrial products, is about supporting Australian industry.

“We’re focussed on growing the customers’ business,” said Paine.

“Because if we can’t grow the customer’s business, we can’t grow our own.”

To find out more about Inenco’s capabilities, go to: www.lets-roll.com.au.

It’s more than likely that an Inenco product is a part of every Australian’s daily life.

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 45

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Bearings Timken Spherical Roller Bearing Solid-Block Housed Units (formerly known as Blue Brute) save time and money In heavy-duty applications such as abattoirs, it is vital to have a bearing that is designed to withstand the toughest of requirements. Manufacturers’ Monthly explains.

I

N many industrial operations, bearings are the lynchpin of a production line. In the context of a high-intensity operation such as an abattoir, a bearing must be designed to withstand an elevated level of requirements.

Mark Brocherie, business development manager at BSC Bearings & Power Transmission, recently worked to install the Timken Spherical Roller Bearing Solid-Block Housed Units in an abattoir. To gain an understanding of the role of bearings in an abattoir, Brocherie described the production line process.

“The process begins where the beast is securely fastened onto an overhanging chain. That overhanging chain goes all the way through the plant, so anyone who works on this beast or cuts up the beast is working on it from this overhanging chain.”

This chain is then supported by sprockets, which are held into place by the Timken Spherical Roller Bearing Solid-Block Housed Units.

“If one of these bearings fail, or if a housing is broken, it causes the The bearings come in a wide range of configurations.

manmonthly.com.au

line to stop, and if the line stops it causes costly downtime to the company. This downtime could range anywhere from 20 mins to 1 hour depending on the severity of the failure,” said Brocherie.

Abattoirs such as the one Brocherie described process over 1,000 head of cattle a day and require over 100 employees working on the floor. In this instance, any short period of down time has a significant cost to production. A bearing failure is a costly one, to be avoided wherever possible.

“If you’re a maintenance fitter on site, it’s important to get things back up and running as quickly as possible if there is a breakage,” said Brocherie. “Let’s say it takes them 20 minutes to fix, well, 100 people standing around waiting for 20 minutes is a lot of money lost in wages.”

Bearings serve a fundamental purpose in such a facility, and a successful product has to be one designed with the environment of an abattoir-like facility in mind.

Factories such as abattoirs need to be chemically cleaned on a daily

basis and equipment has to be able to withstand this.

“The chemical products that are applied by the cleaning staff at the end of each day do come in direct contact with the bearings,” said Brocherie. “These chemicals can potentially have a detrimental effect on the life of the bearings.”

Bearings must be able to withstand this process, highlighted Brocherie.

“The use of the chemicals, coupled with the application of hot water from the high-pressure hose mean that the bearings are subject to severe conditions, and that’s all come into calculation with the Timken Spherical Roller Bearing Solid-Block Housed Units.”

The Timken Spherical Roller Bearing Solid-Block Housed Units have built up a reputation in the meat processing industry and other heavy industrial sectors in their distinctive blue, cast steel housing, which comes preassembled as one singular product.

Unlike standard, SN bearings, which come with a split housing, the all-in-one steel housing avoids any outside contamination on the bearing itself. At the same time, this also prevents grease, which comes pre-filled in the bearing, from leaking out onto a production line.

In such a package, installation and repair is simplified, as Brocherie points out.

“It’s quick to fit and it’s quick to take apart. Time is money in an abattoir and when you get a breakdown, the last thing you need is things to take too long to fit and remove.”

Brocherie estimates, based on trials he has run of the product, that instead of needing to be changed once a year, Timken Spherical Roller Bearing Solid-Block Housed Units would only need to be replaced every two years, and take 10 minutes, rather than an hour, to fit and install.

“The overhanging chain support bearings are normally replaced in the plant every year – that also includes every seal, every adaptor sleeve, spacer ring – they’re pulling everything apart and fitting new bearings back in place,” said Brocherie.

The Timken Spherical Roller Bearing Solid-Block Housed Units avoid the need for this extensive setup, and do not require a fitter to use a feeler gauge to set the clearances.

“The industry in my eyes should be demanding a product like this,” said Brocherie. “Bearings have evolved and improved over recent years, and these benefits can be translated into immediate cost savings for the customer.”

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 47

Women in Industry Standing together 2020 SPONSOR

While flexible workplaces are often thought of as providing for more women to stay in more senior roles, for BAE Systems Australia, flexibility is part of a wider shift in attitudes to work. Manufacturers’ Monthly finds out.

I

NSTITUTING workplace policies that allow for flexibility is one thing, putting that into practice is the next step. In some instances, it may come down to an individual being the first to pioneer a new way of working in a particular role to show others that what’s on paper can be done.

Natalie Waldie began her career with BAE Systems Australia as a modelling engineer, as part of the company’s graduate recruitment program.

“I studied mechatronics,” recalled Waldie. “I did mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science, and I came into BAE Systems to do modelling and simulation on the Nulka hovering rocket decoy.

“I was able to come in and help with sensor selection, modelling of the performance of the system, and recommending how the customer should proceed with that upgrade.”

One of Australia’s most successful defence exports, Nulka is an Australian-designed hovering rocket decoy, utilised by the Royal Australian and US navies. Moving into the role of payload liaison engineer, Waldie followed the Nulka project around the world.

“I worked on Nulka for a couple of years, including a secondment to the US to work with LockheedMartin on the Nulka payload; the electronic warfare system of the product.”

During her time working on this project, Waldie was able to make the most of the flexible working practices that BAE Systems had begun to implement.

“When I was working on Nulka and I was first pregnant, my general manager came over to me and said, ‘Congratulations, you probably don’t know now exactly how you want to 48 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

Natalie Waldie has been part of the shift to more flexible working arrangements at BAE Systems.

come back to work but whatever it is, we will support you in your transition back to work in a way that works for you’.”

Such support enabled Waldie to come back into a technical position once she finished her maternity leave, however in a slightly altered capacity.

“I started off two days a week and once I’d gotten my daughter settled in childcare, I moved to three days a week,” said Waldie.

“I did that for another two and a half years until my second round of maternity leave.”

Returning to work this time, Waldie knew that she wanted to continue to grow as an engineer at

the company, and take on greater responsibilities. Combining this with her personal responsibilities was possible, based on the policies that BAE Systems had set out, yet remained unprecedented at the time.

“When I came back from the second round of maternity leave, I thought, ‘Let’s see how this all works.’ I previously had worked on Nulka, I’d gone into engineering management, I’d moved to work on a couple of other projects, and when I came back from maternity leave, I said to my general manager, ‘I would like to make a move to project management’.”

“We hadn’t had any part-time project managers at that point in time.”

Being the first in any situation can be difficult, however Waldie found that BAE Systems Australia was receptive to this change.

“The business was pretty frank.

They said, ‘We haven’t done this before. Will you work with us and give us the feedback on what works for you?’”

While Waldie encountered some scepticism as to whether the role of project manager could be filled by a part-time employee, she has grown in the position and moved into new roles up to her current position of program manager, technology development. Working in these positions part-time has even allowed Waldie and BAE Systems to better manmonthly.com.au

Women in Industry understand the work required for these roles.

“There are a lot more roles that can be done part time than you think, you just need the team in place around that role to provide support. I’ve now been five years part time and I’ve moved from project management into general management,” said Waldie.

Having gone through this experience, Waldie sees having a part-time manager as one way to grow the capabilities of the entire team sitting underneath that manager.

“It’s really empowering for your teams to have a manager work part time because there are a number of days a week where I’ll say to the team, ‘Your judgement call. If you can’t answer that question you pick up the phone and call me on my day off. But if you can, how about you do’.

It’s amazing how they can, and for them they come away thinking, ‘If my manager was in the office sitting next to me I would’ve turned around and asked but I’ve gone and solved it myself’. That’s a great feeling for your team.”

This approach has enabled Waldie to dedicate her working hours to the core capacities required of the role that she has been in. These learnings have then been passed back to BAE Systems.

“Delegate things to whoever’s going to be your successor or second in command. That gives them both great experience and it also allows you to focus on the bigger picture stuff, which is often what those leadership roles are all about,” said Waldie. “It’s amazing how much of those five days is filled with things that can be done by other people.”

While Waldie’s experience is just one example of what a flexible workplace could look like, for her it’s important to note that the change that she experienced is part of a wider shift of attitudes towards work culture that are enabled by flexible workplaces.

“One of the biggest changes at BAE Systems has been a lot of our male staff who have young families working four days a week so that they can have days at home with manmonthly.com.au

It’s really empowering for your teams to have a manager work part time because there are a number of days a week where I’ll say to the team, ‘Your judgement call. If you can’t answer that question you pick up the phone and call me on my day off. But if you can, how about you do’. their kids. That has really been a massive leveller in the organisation.”

In her teams, Waldie has also seen that when practices at work change it can make it easier for alternatives to open up. Waldie has encouraged her teams to adopt an “agile” approach at work, where there are no assigned desks, but rather team members work from laptops at a place of their choosing in the office, or at home. This has in turn broken down the difference between fulltime and part time.

“Changing to an agile workplace means people get really used to the fact that you can work from home and be effective,” said Waldie.

Although Waldie has utilised BAE Systems Australia’s policies as they stand, she acknowledges that for BAE Systems, as much as any other company, there is work still to be done.

“The organisation has been very good at taking initiatives, and we know we’ve still got a distance to go to make the playing field equal, to deal with unconscious bias, to continue look at structural issues that make it difficult for women to progress their careers,” said Waldie.

Confronting these issues has been the Lean-In Circles that Waldie has facilitated. These meetings have allowed women in the organisation to come together both to connect and to create change.

“What I think the Lean-In Circle has been fabulous about is working with us as women to tackle why we sometimes sabotage our own careers by our own actions and insecurities and what steps we can take to empower ourselves, to take the opportunities that the organisation is actually offering us,” said Waldie.

In addition, the Lean-In Circles have collected examples of conscious and unconscious bias in the workplace, and then relayed that back to shift attitudes and cultures

to have networks like the Lean-In circles, that shared experience, and that feeling of camaraderie is very supportive. It’s really good when you find that other people have dealt with the same challenges and it’s a challenge we need to face together.”

At the same time, women thinking about entering manufacturing could see it as an opportunity, noted Waldie.

“Companies in this industry work extra hard to attract and retain our women in engineering and manufacturing, but the other part I’ve seen is how incredibly valued the diversity that women bring to a team is.”

For BAE Systems and other

Using feedback from Lean-In Circles, BAE Systems has confronted attitudes and cultures in the workforce. in the workforce.

Waldie highlights, however, that these issues do not just sit within the organisation itself but are one example of wider attitudes in the sector.

“The challenge is that the closer you get to manufacturing is the more blokey it can get. There’s not a lot of women there so particularly for us,

manufacturers to thrive, Waldie sees embracing diversity, whether in flexibility, agility, or visibility, as a must.

“The diversity that women bring is really important to have in manufacturing. By not having women in that space, organisations like BAE Systems could miss out on a potential competitive edge.”

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 49

What’sNew ARCHMI series APLEX realised that the global automation market needs a human-machine interface (HMI) which is highly expandable and customisable to satisfy a broad range of industries and applications. Designed for customers who need perfect integration, the ARCHMI series can be tailored to meet a wide range of end-user requirements. The ARCHMI series features IP65-rated flat panels, fanless enclosures, multi-touch capability, extensive expansion options, optional wide temperature support, optional sunlight readable anti-scratch screens, and optional optical bonding.

The ARCHMI series can be customised with a variety of I/O expansion modules and connectivity options. Eleven TB-528 series mini-PCIe expansion modules are available and providing support for LAN, USB, and COM ports, as well as POE and CANbus.

The ARCHMI series is available with 7 inch~32 inch TFT-LCD displays and supports both resistive or projected capacitive touchscreens. The optional optical bonding of the LCD screen minimises reflections, reduces condensation, and eliminates any dust between the layers to provide a longer service life with improved appearance. Constructed in a corrosion resistance aluminium heatsink style die-cast enclosure, the ARCHMI Series inherently provides very effective fanless thermal cooling. The design also allows easy access to the system’s internal hard disk or solid-state drive storage device.

With Intel processor support for Celeron N2930 and 6th Gen. Core i3/i5 with up to 16GB of memory the ARCHMI Series can be optimised to meet the computing requirements of any application. In addition, a wide range 9~36VDC input voltage allows the ARCHMI Series to be power from almost

any power source.

Industrial automation has evolved significantly in recent years and the ARCHMI Series has been designed to keep up with the challenges of Industry 4.0 and IoT. While the ARCHMI Series focusses on smart factory automation, it is equally at home in commercial environments including building control, transportation, retailing and education.

Company: Interworld Electronics and Computer Industries Phone: (03) 9593 7555 Web: www.ieci.com.au

iEi’snNew Mustang-MPCIE-MX2 computing accelerator card ICP Australia is proud to introduce iEi’s New Mustang-MPCIE-MX2 Computing Accelerator miniPCIe Card with two Intel Movidius Myriad X vision processing units (VPU), providing a flexible AI Inference Solution, designed to execute two topologies simultaneously.

The Mustang-MPCIE-MX2 card includes two Intel Movidius Myriad X VPU, providing a flexible AI inference solution for space limited and embedded systems.

VPUs can run AI faster, and are well suited for low power consumption applications such as surveillance, retail and transportation, as its power consumption is 7.5W. This highly flexible product supports Intel’s OpenVINO toolkit for the optimisation of pre-trained deep-learning models such as Caffe, MXNT, ONNX, and Tensorflow.

With the advantage of power efficiency and high performance to dedicated DNN topologies, it is perfect to be implemented in AI edge computing device to reduce total power usage, providing longer duty time for the rechargeable edge computing equipment.

Phone: (02) 9457 6011 Web: www.icp-australia.com.au

Key features: • miniPCIe form factor (30 x 50 mm); • 2 x Intel Movidius Myriad X VPU MA2485; • Power efficiency, approximately 7.5W; • Operating temperature 0°C~55°C (In TANK AIoT Dev. Kit); • Powered by Intel’s OpenVINO Toolkit.

Company: ICP Electronics Australia

50 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

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WJRUM-41-10 and WJRM-31-10 reduces friction by half In order to move doors, monitors, or even panels, users rely on lateral installation of the linear systems. To enable the linear guides to absorb these lateral forces better, igus has now developed a new hybrid linear system. Two hybrid bearings provide low-friction adjustment with polymer rollers and tribo-polymer slide elements.

Combined with an easily fit rail adapted to the new roller bearings, Treotham offers a cost-effective and visually appealing complete solution.

In the packaging industry, furniture technology, or even in machine tools: drylin linear guides can be found wherever movement is required. On tribologically optimised liners, the linear carriages slide on the rail, ensuring precise and longlasting adjustment. If a low driving force is required for manual adjustments, rollers are used in the bearing element. Especially for a lateral installation, the position of the rollers for the force absorption is crucial.

As a solution for such applications, igus has now developed two new hybrid roller bearings, which offer smooth adjustment with low drive forces and maximum support at the same time. The WJRM-41-10 has two offset polymer rollers with optimised alignment for better force absorption and easier rolling. The hybrid roller bearing WJRM-31-10 with single roller is in turn the matching, supporting bearing on the opposite side. By using the two roller bearings, the user can minimise the coefficient of friction by half and increase the service life of the application. In both bearings, in addition to the rollers, there are sliding elements made of the low-friction tribo-polymer iglidur J. The lubrication-free and maintenance-free material is characterised primarily by its low coefficient of friction in dry operation.

Both bearings can be positioned at the desired bearing clearance. These are very cost-effective if the bearings are produced in the zinc die-casting process.

Smooth adjustments with low-friction Using a top plate, the two new roller bearings from Treotham can be expanded to a linear carriage. To ensure that the bearings can also be used on the appropriate guide, igus has developed a low-profile hybrid roller rail. This has a special geometry optimised for the hybrid roller bearing. The rail has a simple design without visible holes and is able to attach from the back with sliding blocks. This makes the new rail in combination with the hybrid roller bearing ideal for lateral installation, for example in kitchen and furniture construction as well as in machine tools or in jig construction.

Company: Treotham Automation Pty Ltd Phone: 1300 65 75 64 Web: www.treotham.com.au

TI’s fully certified CC3235MODx dual-band wireless modules Mouser Electronics now stocks CC3235MODx SimpleLink dual-band wireless microcontroller modules from Texas Instruments (TI). Integrating a highperformance application processor, network processor, and crypto engine in a single chip with a rich set of peripherals, the CC, ISED/IC, ETSI/CE, and MIC-certified CC3235MODx modules are ideal for a wide range of Internet of Things (IoT), building automation, security, and health care applications.

TI’s CC3235MODx SimpleLink series modules, available from Mouser Electronics, integrate a 40-MHz crystal, 32.768-kHz RTC clock, SPI serial flash, RF filters, diplexer, and passive components, plus a network processor that runs all Wi-Fi and internet logical layers. The network processor subsystem completely offloads the host microcontroller and includes an 802.11a/b/g/n dual-band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio, baseband, and MAC with a powerful hardware cryptography engine.

The CC3235MODx devices feature new capabilities that simplify the connectivity of IoT applications. These features include 802.11a/n 5 GHz support, coexistence capabilities for radios in the 2.4 GHz band (such as Bluetooth Low Energy), antenna selection, enhanced security with FIPS 140-2 Level 1 certification, up to 16 concurrent secure TCP/IP sockets, and a certificate sign request (CSR).

The CC3235MODx modules are available in two variants: the CC3235MODS and CC3235MODSF. The CC3235MODS incorporates an Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller with 256 kb of application RAM, IoT networking security, and device identity/keys. The CC3235MODSF builds on the CC3235MODS and adds a user-dedicated 1 mb of executable flash in addition to the 256 kb of

manmonthly.com.au

RAM. Both variants offer microcontroller-level security features such as file system encryption, user IP (microcontroller image) encryption, secure boot, and debug security.

The CC3235MODx modules are supported by the TI CC3235MODSF LaunchPad development kit. The kit includes a CC3235MODSF module, and features onboard emulation using XDS-110, and a suite of sensors for a full out-of-the-box experience and rapid development. The board’s 40-pin LaunchPad pinout enables designers to incorporate add-on boards from the BoosterPack ecosystem. Engineers can connect the board directly to a PC for use with development tools such as Code Composer Studio integrated development environment (IDE) Cloud and IAR Embedded Workbench.

Company: Mouser Electronics Phone: +91 80 42650 000 Web: https://au.mouser.com/

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 51

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Large no drip internal mix atomizing nozzles conserve liquid Company: Compressed Air Australia Phone: 1300 787 688 Web: www.caasafety.com.au

EXAIR’s new 1/2 inch no drip internal mix atomizing spray nozzles work in the same way our standard atomising nozzles do, but with the added benefit of positively stopping liquid flow when compressed air is shut off. Internal mix atomizing spray nozzles mix liquid and air inside the nozzle and produce the finest atomisation of liquids up to 300 centipoise. The patented “No Drip” design requires no additional air line to control the “No Drip” feature.

When spraying any type of liquid, post-spray liquid flow can cause big problems. Unwanted drips can ruin product function on sealing or mating surfaces and ruin the appearance of painted or coated finishes. In addition, excess liquid flow wastes precious resources such as expensive coatings, chemicals or water. No drip atomizing nozzles are ideal where no post-spray drip is permissible. When the compressed air supply is shut off, the no drip nozzle positively seals off the flow of liquid eliminating the possibility of drips.

EXAIR’s 1/2 inch no drip internal mix atomizing nozzles are available in four patterns: narrow angle round, wide angle round, flat fan and 360° hollow circular pattern. They are for pressure fed applications that don’t require independent air and liquid control.

Available from Compressed Air Australia, the no drip atomizing nozzles are fully adjustable to minimise air and liquid consumption and have interchangeable liquid and air caps. Flow ranges from 0.5 Lph to 1147 Lph (0.14 Gph to 303 Gph). They are also available in 1/8 inch and 1/4 inch, and are CE compliant and conflict mineral free.

Schenck Process introduces ProFlex C100 Storage, filling and feeding – three processes for which Schenck Process can provide extensive process knowledge. Meet the newest addition to the ProFlex C family, the ProFlex C100.

With ProFlex C 500, 3000 and 6000, Schenck Process already offers three feeder sizes with a total of five extension hoppers. Now Schenck Process adds to their offering: • Fit for small extruders: The new ProFlex C100 is the smallest of the ProFlex C family and as such also fits on small extrudes. It comes in low weight. Up to five feeders can be grouped around an inlet of a lab or small size extruder.

• Makes the customer flexible: A quick change hopper option in the ProFlex line for fast and clean change over without disassembling of the feed screw. By keeping several hoppers including screw in stock, a wide range of additives and colour pigments can be provided for in a highly flexible manner.

• Ready for sticky powders: The asymmetric design prevents bridging and plugging of sticky material.

• As quick as the customer: The new ProFlex C100 is equipped with an integrated gearbox for turndown ratios of up to 1:120.

• Accuracy ensured: Flexible wall liner massaged at eight points, which allows a constant and accurate filling of the screw feed element.

• Prepared for the US market: It is NEMA drive ready for compounding and masterbatch, which is crucial for the US market.

The ProFlex C feeding system is used for the continuous feeding of bulk materials such as powder, granulates, pellets, or fibres. Optimised design, flexible hopper walls, and flexible installation options make the ProFlex C a tailored solution for the compound and masterbatch industries.

All of the Schenck Process ProFlex C loss-in-weight feeder family for the compound and masterbatch industry is characterised by: • Asymmetric design;

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• Easy change of discharge/drive side; • Eight point massage system; • Easy dismantling and cleaning; • Steep hopper walls; • LIW-critical cabeling encapsulated.

All of these features are of course carried on in the new ProFlex C100.

Our ability to design, size, sell, fabricate, and integrate other OEM processes as well as installing and providing ongoing support delivers full control. As the primary equipment manufacturer, we manage production schedules for faster lead times on highly-engineered, custom-built systems. The end result is a predictable, efficient, and effective material handling process solutions.

Company: Schenck Process Holding GmbH Phone: +49 (6151) 1531-0 Web: www.schenckprocess.com

Manufacturers’ Monthly DECEMBER 2019 53

The Last Word

LINDSAY LE COMPTE – General manager, Construction and Infrastructure, Ai Group

The need for a construction supply chain council Lindsay Le Compte, general manager, Construction and Infrastructure, at Ai Group outlines how the organisation is taking steps to prepare the industry for the infrastructure boom.

I

N August 2019, the Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) established the Construction Supply Chain Council (CSCC).

It brings together businesses in areas such as steel, concrete, cement, aggregate and bitumen, off-site manufacturing, electrical, mechanical and plumbing, ICT, and recyclables.

Why, you may ask, is this a necessary action and what will the CSCC be doing?

Australia is in the middle of an infrastructure boom with just the east coast states predicting expenditure of over $230 billion over the next four years.

Even the federal government is getting into the act by allocating expenditure of $100 billion over the next decade.

What we also know is that this boom is like no other because it is projected to continue well past the next decade. But one question that industry is asking itself is whether the industry’s supply chain has the capacity to provide all of the essential materials, products, and systems when the construction contractors need them.

Ensuring that clients are able to receive their completed projects on time and within budget will be a major test for the industry.

The size and longevity of the boom does give industry the opportunity to organise itself, but it needs to be coordinated and there must be significant collaboration between clients, contractors, and the supply chain.

The Australian Constructors Association (ACA), with the NSW and VIC governments, has established the Construction Industry Leadership Forum (CILF) to develop greater collaboration and coordination between the industry’s head contractors and government clients.

54 DECEMBER 2019 Manufacturers’ Monthly

The CILF is developing better practice notes for the way projects are developed and delivered and is also addressing industry and government capability and capacity to deliver projects as well as actions to change the culture of the industry itself. The critical missing link to this work is the role and function of the industry’s supply chain.

So, Ai Group has taken action to bring the supply chain together so that construction materials, products and systems businesses can obtain greater line of sight on project pipelines and be involved earlier in projects to ensure deliverability of contractor needs is able to be achieved.

Of course, a critical outcome for the CSCC will be to assist businesses to be sustainable into the longer term.

How will the CSCC operate?

The CSCC is intended to operate as a forum for the industry’s supply chain to discuss and recommend improvements to the means by which construction projects are developed and delivered. The CSCC will become the third leg of the chair that will support the work of the CILF and similar actions by governments across the country The aim is to achieve a more sustainable supply chain and, through collaboration with clients and contractors, improvements to project completions of community infrastructure and in the general commercial and residential sectors.

CSCC charter One of the first actions of the CSCC will be the development of a formal charter to guide CSCC operations.

The following criteria would be indicative of the functions of the CSCC: • Operate as a forum where the construction supply chain

may interact in an open and transparent manner to develop best practice supply chain delivery models for construction and infrastructure projects and general building projects.

• Contribute to a collaborative relationship between construction contractors and their public and private sector clients.

• Contribute to the development of industry skills to deliver improved productivity and performance demanded by the changing profile of investment and modern methods of construction.

• Encourage innovation and allow for earlier and integrated supply chain involvement in projects through input in the development of improved competition and procurement processes.

• Provide advice on: • new construction methods and products coming to market; • long term sustainability of key materials based on identified demand through government and industry pipelines of work; • opportunities for the use of recycled materials; and • opportunities to reduce the industry’s carbon footprint.

• Examine complementary opportunities for industry development initiatives.

• Undertake and contribute to quantitative and qualitative research to identify, develop and disseminate best practice in supply chain management, industry capability and capacity, and involvement in construction and infrastructure projects.

The benefits of membership of CSCC The CSCC will operate across all Australian jurisdictions and will thus represent the interests of businesses that are both national and/or state specific.

CSCC members will receive and exchange information, contribute to policy development and industry positions, and attend events and forums.

A National Leaders Group will develop and drive policy and operational activities based on input from general members.

The CSCC will meet at least twice each year and otherwise as required. Sub-groups will meet more regularly depending upon issues in the marketplace and strategic planning decisions.

Ai Group will provide executive administration, governance, and probity support, including the attendance of a probity officer at all meetings.

The CSCC will establish subgroups to ensure focus on specific and critical areas. Sub-groups will expand and contract as required.

Flexibility is key to success.

The following indicative sub-groups would meet at least quarterly and otherwise as required.

• Early involvement in the development of projects; • Reducing time and cost of tendering; • Optimising risk allocation between government and industry; • Harmonisation of critical contractual and commercial terms and definitions; • Building common understanding of capability and capacity gaps; and • Coordinated approach to addressing skill gaps in the sector (short, medium and long term).

The sub-groups will be supported from within the CSCC membership as well as from collaboration with industry stakeholders as determined.

For more information about joining the CSCC, contact Ai Group and Lindsay Le Compte, at lindsay. lecompte@aigroup.com.au or by phone (02) 9466 5522. manmonthly.com.au

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68% of companies see Industry 4.0 as a top strategic priority.

Why? Because when AI and connectivity meet the manufacturing cycle, the results are smarter, more efficient and productive factories.

HARNESS THE POWER OF INDUSTRY 4.0 Embracing new technology doesn’t have to be a daunting experience. At Simplus we exist to transform people, processes and technology.

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*McKinsey & Company – Capturing value at scale in discrete manufacturing with Industry 4.0.

(02) 9299 9001 simplus.com/au au-contactus@simplus.com Simplus Australia

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Shaping the future.

Together.

Two world leaders in industrial process fluids, Quaker Chemical and Houghton International, have come together as one company to keep our metalworking customers ahead in a changing world.

As Quaker Houghton, we are proud to partner with metalworking industries around the world that are driving a sustainable, more prosperous future. We work with your teams to deliver expertise, service, and advanced technology related to industrial process fluids.

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