Month: December 2021

Suicide affects us all. The suicide of a friend, family member or workmate can be devastating across the whole community and particularly at work. More than 3,000 Australians die from suicide each year; of these 75% are men. It’s a leading cause of death for people in the 25-39 age group. The pandemic has brought mental health issues into the forefront. Despite the devastating number of workers infected with COVID-19 in workplaces, Safe Work Australia has reported that nearly one in every five COVID-related workers’ compensation claims were generated on mental health grounds. In manufacturing, with many predominantly male or multicultural workers, there have been barriers to discussing mental health as openly as possible. Mates in Manufacturing has been set up to remedy the challenges of suicide ideation and mental health more generally. Bringing together employers and unions and drawing on the expertise of the Mates organisation, Mates in Manufacturing will deliver critical workplace training, building a peer-based program within workplaces and developing knowledge within the industry to address these problems. Funding has…

Industry is a perfect fit with my other responsibilities of Energy and Emissions Reduction. As Minister, I am building on the work of my predecessors to ensure we have a strong local manufacturing sector that is growing and creating more jobs. The Morrison Government’s $1.5bn Modern Manufacturing Strategy is at the heart of our efforts. It is helping to build manufacturing scale, strength and sovereign capabilities, while expanding market opportunities. It is a key part of our National Plan to rebuild the economy and create jobs as we recover from COVID-19. The nation’s manufacturing capability is already strong, but we want to make it much stronger in key areas where Australia has a comparative advantage. In particular our focus is on the six National Manufacturing Priority areas: resources technology and critical minerals processing; food and beverage; medical products; recycling and clean energy; defence; and space. Through an industry-led approach to manufacturing development, we are on track to be internationally recognised as a…

Formed in March 2017 by Mitchell Upton, the company has made remarkable growth and now employs 25 people in a smart precision-quality engineering shop, offering the full suite of services of a modern front-line engineering and fabrication company. Upton Engineering places a strong emphasis on embracing new technologies and processes towards Industry 4.0 manufacturing, specialising in high-tolerance precision components to set them apart. The company is continually investing in the latest precision equipment. “My parents were in the precision engineering business for many years and had retired when I commenced the business, so their expertise and assistance has been an enormous help to me, particularly in the early stages, and this is on-going,” says Mitchell. “Having operated on Okuma machines during my apprenticeship and early career, I purchased second-hand machines when starting out on my own, but I have just added to these with the purchase of my very first new Okuma machine, a GENOS L3000-eMYx1000 CNC lathe with OSP-P300LA-e,” advised…

Brigitte has been instrumental in guiding us through the past two years of her tenure. When she was first appointed to the role in December 2019, for those who can remember back then, we were in the middle of firestorms all around the country putting pressure on us as a nation to survive. Then we had the COVID Pandemic and the impact that had across all states, with lockdown after lockdown, the uncertainty of what the next Government regulation was and the impact these decisions would have. It has been difficult times trying to run a “services” business with member benefits almost non-existent during this time. We launched a new show, Australian Manufacturing Week, that replaced National Manufacturing Week and Austech as our premier Manufacturing show in the country, and subsequently have postponed it twice due to COVID. As President, Brigitte has worked with our team to manoeuvre through these minefields and get us back in a position…

Over the years Lang Technik has been responsible for numerous workholding innovations that reduce costly changeover time, reduce operator workload and maximise productivity. The New Lang Haubex Automation System carries on that lonstanding tradition. The Haubex transforms a tool magazine into a flexible and cost-effective automation solution for small batch production that can be adapted to almost any CNC machining centre. The heart of Haubex is a workholding hood, which serves as a carrier system for the latest development of Lang Technik’s renowned Makro-Grip five-axis vice. The clamped workpiece is exchanged from the tool magazine like an ordinary tool. By automatically changing the clamping device from the tool magazine, Haubex uses the existing capacities of the milling machine and manages the whole process completely, without an in-feed unit or robot. “The new Haubex system offers all CNC mill centre owners a simple,…

All activity indexes in the Australian PMI expanded or were stable in November, with the continued expansion of forward orders indicating further recovery is likely with the easing of remaining restrictions (readings above 50 points indicate expansion in activity, with higher results indicating a faster rate of expansion). All manufacturing sectors in the Australian PMI expanded in November with the exception of chemicals, which indicated stable conditions (down 6.4 points to 50.6). Food & beverages rose sharply into growth (up 19.9 points to 57.3), mostly offsetting a large fall the previous month, while metal products also saw a lift from contraction to expansion (up 7.8 points to 56.4). “The Australian manufacturing industry grew more decisively in November after a few flat months during which the south-east corner of the country was held back by the delta outbreaks and associated activity restrictions and while the states and territories tightened barriers to the movement of people,” said Ai Group Chief Executive…