Australian Manufacturing Week energising a much-needed industry

Australian Manufacturing Week was a huge show physically due to the size of the machinery and also as it housed 346 exhibitor stands and welcomed more than 15,500 visitors.

The four-day event ran from 9-12 May at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, the next event will be held in Sydney as it alternates between the two cities.

The Hon Ben Carroll MP, Victorian Minister for Industry and Innovation opened AMW2023.

Apart from the huge range of machinery on display that covers just about everything done in manufacturing from Peddinghaus with their massive rotating, welding carriage for long product steel girders, one of the largest in the country to the nano-projects undertaken by the crew at Microscopy. Many of the machines on display at the event are sold off the floor.

Some of Europe’s largest companies are now making moves to establish Australian headquarters. They have renewed confidence in the market which bodes well for engineers, these companies include Schunk, Trumpf, Bonfiglioli and Trotec, ASA, SWI Engineering, and others.

Names well known to VTE readers were also on display at the event such as SAVIC electric motorcycles, Applied EV and Altair Software.

Unsurprisingly the show held a large area for robots with robots that weld, robots that bend metal, robots that sort components, and more.

AMW’s seven zones included the latest in automation technology, 3D metal and carbon fibre printers, laser cutting and press brake machines, as well as plastics developments.

AMW aims to appeal to a broad audience especially through its Future Solutions Speaker Sessions where on the Tuesday of the show the theme was additive manufacturing, Wednesday it was women in manufacturing and then Friday the future of manufacturing in Australia.

On the first day of the show the very first presentation for the Future Solutions Speaker Program was Neil Matthews, the Head of Engineering at Titomic who detailed Titomic’s cold spray AM process and fed into research being done to the coating process for the aerospace, defence, transport and other manufacturing areas. Dedicating an entire day to women in manufacturing is proof of the need for more women to consider this area as well as companies to offer more enticing opportunities. In a sample size of 300 manufacturers across Australia, only one of third of employees were female and on average only 20 percent of executive teams were female. However, the majority of manufacturers have diversity targets in place and over half are confident of meeting them.

CEO of SEMMA (South East Melbourne Manufacturing Association) introduced two women working and succeeding in the field of manufacturing, one an Apprentice of the Year. Their stories both spoke of breaking through not-conscious sexism and finding confidence in themselves.

At the end of Wednesday’s show, the organisers staged the Women in Manufacturing Networking Event, sponsored by the Queensland Government with Bernadette Zerba, Queensland’s Deputy Director General.

Queensland manufacturer, Elexon Electronics, was at the show demonstrating new capabilities to attract international customers. The company is based in Brendale and in 2019 received a Made in Queensland grant of $890,000 to increase production capacity, reduce manufacturing costs, and creating new job opportunities.

Since then, Elexon has doubled its manufacturing capacity, implemented aerospace quality standards and started supplying to defence customers.

David Taylor a consultant at BAMS, the Bosch Manufacturing Solutions presented at the Future Solutions Speaker Sessions at the show as did Lucas Halle Global Manager of Marketing for ANCA – both companies that we were invited to visit as part of this event.

Mr Taylor’s presentation cut through some stories of the planning overruns and showed how when seen as a whole, through the right workflow software, how the manufacturing process could be superpowered. Today those pressures, especially from a Bosch standpoint, are global in nature.

Mr Hale discussed the fourth industrial revolution, also known as Industry 4.0, which is rapidly transforming the manufacturing landscape globally and presents an opportunity to revive Australia’s sovereign manufacturing capabilities.

“While the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of resilience and self-reliance in global supply chains, there is a renewed focus on rebuilding Australia’s sovereign capabilities,” said Mr Hale. “Industry 4.0 presents new opportunities to revive Australia’s manufacturing sector.” Mr Hale also provided figures about where automation could take us, “contributing between $1.1T and $4T to the Australian economy over the next 15 years”.

At the heart of Industry 4.0 is smart automation, which utilises advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to automate and optimise production processes, improving cost competitiveness, productivity, and quality. Automating manufacturing is not about replacing people but transforming the existing workforce to perform more critical and complex tasks, while simultaneously helping contribute to wage growth and addressing the growing skills shortage. Industry 4.0 can help Australia build its sovereign capability, enhance its resilience to future crises, and create new opportunities for economic growth and job creation. However, if Australia capitalised on the opportunity presented by Industry 4.0, it will require a concerted effort by government, industry, and academia to invest in infrastructure, skills, and innovation.

One thing is certain that engineers of all types can find interesting products and ideas at the show, and even more importantly make solid business contacts.