Industry News

At 10.45 on the morning of Friday 20 October, a VFII Commodore Redline rolled off the production line at GM Holden’s Elizabeth plant in north Adelaide. A private ceremony was held to commemorate Holden’s manufacturing history and pay tribute to the employees past and present who had helped build the company. And then the factory closed its doors for good. “Today is about paying tribute to the generations of men and women across Holden and our supply network who have given so much to our company,” said Holden Chairman and Managing Director, Mark Bernhard. “Holden is the icon it is today only because of these passionate people. On behalf of everyone at Holden, I thank you for your service from the bottom of my heart.” The shuttering of the Elizabeth site followed close on the heels of Toyota Australia closing its Altona plant on 3 October, with a ceremony attended by approximately 3,000…

‘From the idea to the finished product’ is the mission statement for Fetzer Medical, a medium-sized company established in 2008 by Peter Fetzer. The family business has a longstanding background in the development and manufacture of surgical instruments and medical devices. To build on this, Peter set the company a target: to operate exclusively as an independent OEM, establishing all the necessary human and technical resources to that end. Fetzer Medical launched an extensive capital investment, qualification and certification programme, beginning its five-axis machining in 2008. This was rolled out with the stated aim of offering a flexible and swift approach to delivery for varying product and batch sizes. All relevant materials, including titanium, are machined and Fetzer Medical supplies its customers with ready-to-use products – from prototypes/individual parts to large production runs and complete systems. The business currently employs 45 highly-qualified employees and state-of-the-art equipment. Roughly 75% of the work involves complex milling/drilling operations, which have been performed at Fetzer…

The five-year ‘Just-in-time implants’ project brings together the Australian Government, RMIT University, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and global medical technology firm Stryker. Worth more than $12.1m in research effort, the work is funded by Stryker with co-funding from the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (IMCRC), which is contributing $2.36m in cash. RMIT’s Professor Milan Brandt and the project team will combine 3D printing, robotic surgery and advanced manufacturing to create tailored implants for patients with bone cancer. “Our aim is to bring the technology to the theatre,” said Brandt. “While patients are having their cancer removed in the operating theatre, in the next room, we are custom printing an implant to precisely fill the space left after removal of the diseased bone.” St Vincent’s Professor Peter Choong said just-in-time implants will transform the delivery of care for people with bone cancer: “By combining specialised imaging techniques, 3D printing and the accuracy of robotic assisted surgery, we are aiming to deliver a personalised implant…

Australian Advanced Manufacturing was launched in October and will continue to produce Bauselite componentry for luxury watches. The components will be made at Flinders University campuses in Adelaide, more than 15,000km from Switzerland where the majority of luxury watch componentry is made. Bauselite is a very strong, very light ceramic material developed by Dr Jonathan Campbell and colleagues from the Flinders Centre for NanoScale Science & Technology. It was used to create Bausele’s Terra Australis watch, released in 2015, which became the first watch from Australia to be accepted for showing at Baselworld, the world’s largest watch and jewellery trade fair. “The new material and method of production solved a number of issues specific to using ceramics in watches,” Dr Campbell said. “It’s a significant accomplishment that watch components are being produced here, signalling a major step forward and a powerful statement about Flinders’ delivery of elite engineering.” Bausele CEO Christophe Hoppe said Australian Advanced Manufacturing aimed to expand its production of high quality watch components. “Controlling manufacturing is really important and…

All seven activity sub-indexes in the Australian PMI improved in November and all indicated expansion in the month. New orders (up 5.3 points to 60.4 points) and exports (up 8.9 points to 57.6 points) were especially strong, which bodes well for growth in 2018 (readings above 50 indicate expansion in activity, with the distance from 50 indicating the strength of the increase). “The manufacturing sector lifted strongly in November, building on an uninterrupted growth phase that began in October 2016,” said Ai Group Chief Executive, Innes Willox. “Sales, production and employment all jumped ahead in November and the strong rise in new orders points to further good news as we head to Christmas. The resumption of growth in exports is particularly encouraging after a slight easing in momentum in recent months. Five of the eight manufacturing sub-sectors expanded in November (according to trend data), led by the very large food & beverages sub-sector (up 0.8 points to 59.7…

Implementing a successful growth-generating digital strategy comes down to vision and top-down leadership. Without these, imagining the future and thinking big become stuck in short-term budgetary concerns. The reality is: it’s about spending money to make money as the manufacturing industry digitises. Embracing digital services directly impacts business growth. Increased financial investment in manufacturing digitisation allows businesses the opportunity to see the big picture and adapt appropriately to demand volatility. Evidence shows that globally, investment in digital initiatives has increased manufacturing costs by 1%. Much of this is due to the investment, training and skills needed to use and operate cutting-edge technologies, but this increase in costs is not in vain, as manufacturers are already beginning to see growth from investment in digital strategies. For certain manufacturers, digital is estimated to have added 5.4% to total revenue between 2015 and 2016. This is a worthwhile…

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) technology is gaining momentum, but the level of adoption is still quite low compared with traditional subtractive metalworking methods. In 2016, only 957 metal AM machines were sold worldwide, compared with hundreds of thousands of CNC subtractive machine tools. Part of the reason for the low adoption level may be the misconception that metal AM technology can only be used to 3D print new parts, which limits its potential use. This may be due to the fact that the most commonly used metal AM technology, powder bed fusion (PBF), can only 3D print new parts built-up on flat two-dimensional plates. However, metal AM technologies, such as powder-fed directed energy deposition (DED), can not only 3D print new metal parts, but can also add materials to existing components, enabling a broader range of applications such as repair, surface modification, and hybrid manufacturing (which combines…

Call it innovation, call it redeployment, there is no doubt that creating something new from the same stuff is the current challenge facing the Australian manufacturing industry – looking for new markets, new opportunities, new products, new uses for old equipment. If you listen to predictions of the future of work you’d be forgiven for being a bit anxious; the majority of the jobs that our young kids will do have not even been ‘invented’ yet. One thing is certain, continuing to do things the same way and having the same expectations of your workforce will mean you keep getting the same results and the same frustrations. Unfortunately, you can’t innovate when you do things the same way, and you won’t get anything different from your workforce if you keep treating…

“Our business has been built on tackling the most challenging demands for tools, and the aerospace sector is a prime example of an industry that constantly demands sophisticated solutions,” says Jeff Boyd, Export Manager at Sutton. “However, it’s a tough market where there is a lot of competition and success is based on the ability to prove productivity gains.” Several aerospace component producers in France had been buying a competitor’s brand, leading Sutton Tools’s European office to identify an opportunity to manufacture a superior performing solution, and in doing so, win some new business by delivering a productivity gain of 20% for the customer. The continual demand to reduce costs by increasing productivity is a key issue for the aviation and aerospace industries, with customers emphasising the need for reliance on tool stability so that they can confidently forecast their production schedules and reduce machine downtime. “We recognised that development…

Held at Leonda by the Yarra in Hawthorn, the one-day conference was focused on the ways in which emerging digital technologies are revolutionising manufacturing the world over, and explored the opportunities this created for the industry here in Australia. With a line-up of speakers that encompassed manufacturing companies, technology suppliers, research bodies and industry groups, the Conference offered a comprehensive, in-depth perspective of what the future holds. The event also featured 10 exhibitor stands from companies such as SICK, Lightwave Technologies and evok3D, the Innovative Manufacturing CRC (IMCRC), and the Conference’s sponsor - William Buck. Following a welcoming address from AMTIL Board Member Brigitte Stavar, the first presentation came from keynote speaker Brad Howarth. Drawing on two decades as a journalist covering technology’s impact on organisations, society and individuals, Howarth’s presentation offered a wide-ranging view on the impact digital innovations are having on the world of business and wider society. “Wealth is generally generated by those who drive change,” said Howarth. “So at some stage…

The term ‘servitisation’ was defined in the late 1980s in the European Management Journal, but the concept of bundling service packages with products to add value goes back to the 1960s and the innovative ‘power-by-the-hour’ concept of Bristol Siddeley, a British aero-engine manufacturer later acquired by Rolls-Royce. It offered a complete engine and accessory service that enabled operators to forecast service and replacement costs more accurately and eliminated the need for stocks of engines and spares. Drivers behind servitisation’s curent revival include growing local and global competition and the commoditisation of products. Instead of accepting the received wisdom that competitiveness can only be achieved by offering cheaper, faster or better products, manufacturers are increasingly seeing themselves as service providers, offering total solutions rather than just products. For example, instead of asking its customers what they want (aero engines), Rolls-Royce asks what they want to achieve (maximise flying time). So Rolls-Royce offers TotalCare, enabling customers to purchase the power of an engine while Rolls-Royce…

The Factory of the Future is networked, organised, and can self-optimise over long distances – provided, of course, that the machines, tools and systems supply the necessary data. To begin with, however, the data collected is not much more than “raw material”. Using it to create the kind of added value that goes above and beyond optimising a customer’s production process is the job of a team of digitalisation experts working at the Walter Technology Center in Tübingen, Germany. “The work our technology experts are doing is increasingly reaping rewards,” explains Florian Böpple, a digital manufacturing expert at Walter. The Walter Technology Center officially opened its doors in October 2016 and, just a few weeks later, Walter joined forces with its software partner Comara – both with the mutually agreed aim of making digital transformation central to the company. Mirko Merlo, President of Walter, describes the company’s long-standing relationship with Comara as “an important strategic step in expanding our digital portfolio and further developing our company with Industry 4.0 in mind.” Walter has now acquired 100%…

Kilner’s Engineering – Delivering quality Once dominated by shipbuilding and associated industries, Bulimba – in Brisbane’s inner-eastern suburbs – has changed significantly over the years, to the point where today where most local manufacturers have moved on. The last in the area is Kilner’s Engineering, a fixture since 1974. Barney Kilner founded the business in the mid-1940s with his two brothers at Salisbury under the name ‘Kilner Brothers’. In the early 1970s the brothers split the business and Barney’s son Geoff came on-board as the business moved to Bulimba. He is now stepping back and handing over to a third generation, with his sons Scott and Brad Kilner taking over the running of the business. Scott explains how Kilner’s has changed since the early days, when it was a full repetition workshop with punches, presses and furnaces producing items such as blades for the agricultural industry and truck components. “We used to do that in a lot of volume,” he said. “I think we had…