Giving the community of manufacturers an even better chance to experience their largest manufacturing show in Australia.
Day Three of AMW2023 showcases a range of manufacturing successes and advances happening here at home, some of these exporting out into the world market. Today, the show floor is pumping, chock-full of immense displays of machine tooling outfits, CNC cutting tools, and grinders. From where I stand, I see sales managers, CEOs, and business managers meeting as many people as possible. What an incredible, active industry.
Some of the bigger companies from Europe are now making their moves to establish Australian headquarters. They have the confidence of a big market here. Schunk, Trumpf, Bonfiglioli and Trotec, ASA, SWI Engineering, and others, are all-powerful suppliers of many international tool brands.
This year, AMW has a lot of enticing displays with extra focus. The SAVIC electric motorcycle is here. The Applied EV Blanc robot vehicle is also here, which makes me happy. Altair Software and Applied EV got together and made this entirely new sector of transport a future possibility.
The Future Solutions Speaker program, proudly supported by Autodesk, spans the wide brown land of Australian Manufacturing. David Taylor is a consultant at BAMS, the Bosch Manufacturing Solutions outfit down in Clayton. His presentation cut through some stories of the planning overruns and showed how when seen as a whole, through the right workflow software, the process could be superpowered. Manufacturers have always been under pressure. Time pressures. Resource pressures. Cost pressures.
Today, those pressures can often be Global in nature. While our modern world offers an incredible range of new technology aimed at manufacturers, finding time and skills to plan out which technology is applicable seems increasingly difficult. Manufacturing departments wear many hats. Keep production going. Resolve OH&S challenges. Solve shortages. Fix quality spills.
Lucas Hale, the Global Manager of Marketing at ANCA said the fourth industrial revolution, also known as Industry 4.0, 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 Hale. “Industry 4.0 presents new opportunities to revive Australia’s manufacturing sector.” Hale also gave some 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 is capitalise 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.
The VIP Networking event on Thursday night was sponsored by Moreton Bay Regional Council. The talk was positive, predictive, and even creative. But what is even more important, is that we are all doing this together, through strengthened connections after events like AMW2023.
At the time of writing, Friday morning is the last chance to come down to the MCEC halls by the Yarra here in Melbourne before we roll the machines away again. Register and get on our transport and experience this incredible show before it closes.