Business Management

**This story originally appeared in the April 2026 edition of AMT Magazine** Manufacturers tend to see their biggest financial calls as separate moments—a research and development (R&D) application here, a capital expenditure decision there, a restructure when succession becomes unavoidable. But for William Buck business advisory principal Jeremy Raniti and R&D Tax Incentives & Grants principal Berrin Daricili, these choices should not be made in isolation. Ahead of the Australian Manufacturing Week workshop entitled “Manufacturing Growth Engine: Funding, Forecasting & Future Wealth”, which they will host alongside William Buck wealth advisory partner Scott Montefiore, the principals say they aim to help businesses structure themselves for the long term. “We're not just focusing on the present moment – there's so much happening, and the economy is dynamic, the landscape is always changing,” Raniti says. “Whether businesses are in that startup phase, in growth, or they're mature – at each of those steps, there's a different set of support and…

**This story originally appeared in the April 2026 edition of AMT Magazine** With changes to the Corporations Act enforcing mandatory sustainability reporting coming into effect last year, the question for many is how to build a report that stands up to stakeholder scrutiny and actually improves the business. That’s the focus of William Buck principal, business advisory, Samantha Zebrowski, who will lead a session at Australian Manufacturing Week session titled Navigating Mandatory Climate Reporting and Your First Sustainability Report. The rollout of the new sustainability reporting framework began on January 1, 2025, affecting companies with two of three of either a consolidated revenue of $500 million, consolidated gross assets of over $1 billion or over 500 employees. The second stage of the rollout – to companies with two of three of either $200 million in revenue, $500 million in assets or 250+ employees – is set to start from 1 July this year. A third group, earning $50 million or more, with assets of $25 million or…

**This story originally appeared in the April 2026 edition of AMT Magazine** Australian manufacturing is a sector built for this moment. The challenges are real, the pressures are well documented, but so is the opportunity, and it is bigger than many people recognise. Let’s start with the fundamentals. Australian manufacturing is our sixth-largest industry, contributing $137 billion in value-added output and employing 930,000 people. It generates 12.4% of our exports and accounts for 7.9% of national capital expenditure – outsized contributions for a sector representing just 5.1% of GDP. Critically, it is also Australia's most R&D-intensive industry, reinvesting 4.1% of value-added back into research and development. These are the numbers of a sector with genuine strength, deep capability, and a proven capacity to innovate. Yes, 2024 was a difficult year. After a strong post-pandemic rebound, conditions tightened as a sluggish domestic economy weighed on demand and global supply chains normalised. But the sector has navigated far harder periods than this, and the transformation underway is one we…

**This story originally appeared in the February 2026 edition of AMT Magazine** In Australia’s dynamic manufacturing landscape, financial resilience is not just a strategic advantage, it’s a necessity. With fluctuating demand, rising input costs and global supply chain disruptions, manufacturers face increasing pressure to maintain operational stability while pursuing growth. At the heart of this challenge lies two indispensable financial tools: effective cash flow management and three-way forecasting. Forecasting isn’t just a process of putting numbers in a spreadsheet hoping they’ll predict the future. It’s an opportunity for business owners to work alongside their finance departments and advisors to take a deep dive into the drivers of a business and really understand the cause and effect of change that can move the dial. Cash flow, the movement of money in and out of a business, is the lifeblood of any manufacturing operation. Unlike profitability, which is often measured on paper, cash flow reflects the real-time ability of a business to meet its obligations, pay suppliers, invest in equipment and fund expansion. In short, cash flow management enables manufacturers to…

**This story originally appeared in the February 2026 edition of AMT Magazine** Amiga Engineering RFP program manager Dee Bourchier jokes that she decided to hire Jourdan Webb once he brought his own engine components to his interview. “I always tell people, if you’ve made something you’re really proud of, you’re welcome to bring it in… so when he’d brought in miniature engine components that he’d machined up outside of school… we were just like – ‘these are really good… when do you want to start?’” she says. Webb is one of two apprentices named as Manufacturing Apprentice of the Year at the 2025 Victorian Manufacturing Hall of Fame Awards, having recently entered the fourth year of his apprenticeship as a fitter and turner. But it was a career that almost came to a premature end when his first employer, which he describes as “an old-school valve shop,” closed shortly after he’d completed his first year as an apprentice. “I decided straight away I’d have to look…

**This story originally appeared in the February 2026 edition of AMT Magazine** Daikin Australia has opened a new factory in the Sydney suburb of Chipping Norton which it says will help put local designs and skills at the centre. The new $28.2 million Factory 2 expands Daikin’s capability to produce customised Air Handling Units and Rooftop Packaged Air Conditioners for Australian buyers. Daikin Australia manufacturing general manager Nick McDonald explains the company’s Australian-made ducted units were engineered from the ground up for local clients. “They are designed to suit the Australian home… they have geometry such that they fit inside an Australian roof space, so they’re easy to install. They are designed so they come apart into several pieces, so they can be easily manhandled up into the roof space by our dealer group.” That Australian focus extends to performance in harsh conditions: “If you go to South Australia, the roofs are very hot. The temperature inside the roof cavity can be well in excess of 60 degrees, for example. So our equipment has…

**This story originally appeared in the February 2026 edition of AMT Magazine** Terry Wohlers has provided technical and strategic advisory services on rapid product development, additive manufacturing (AM) and 3D printing for 38 years – to more than 280 organisations in 27 countries. As a principal author of industry-leading publication the Wohlers Report, he has an earned reputation as an industry leader. Here he discusses some of the trends emerging in AM and where Australia can make the most of new opportunities. Looking at AM on a global scale, where does Australia sit? The growth of AM globally has been historically strong. In the past 15 years, it has grown more than 22 per cent on average every year. This past year has not been as strong, but still a growth rate of 9.1 per cent. Of the US$21.9 billion of revenue the sector generated in 2024, about US$3.7 billion is tied to production applications – parts made for final use – a figure which grew by 12.1 per cent last year. Adoption…

**This story originally appeared in the February 2026 edition of AMT Magazine** “It’s really, really interesting seeing how things are made, and what it takes… Now I know and understand much of what was required to assemble things. It’s interesting seeing how things work.” Ten years ago, Melanie Kramer walked away from her retail job at a jeweller in inner-city Melbourne to help her sister Simone and Simone’s partner Brian at Boss Tooling, their year-old CNC machining company in Dandenong South. She’s still there today – running machines which today include two new Okuma 5-axis CNC mills and helping to refine designs on the factory floor to keep processes running smoothly. Both Melanie and Simone say they did a lot of learning on the job, with Simone initially learning management skills at Brian’s family company Cogley Enterprises before the couple branched out on their own. “I didn’t have any skills when I started – I got put in an office and didn’t even know what a purchase…

**This story originally appeared in the February 2026 edition of AMT Magazine** By Martin U. Ripple, Chief Executive Officer, ANCA Group For much of modern history, engineers have been expected to advance humanity and build the future without being invited to shape it. They are often portrayed as technically brilliant but socially awkward, more comfortable with machines than people. A familiar cartoon shows a mother taking her child to the doctor, only to be told, “Oh no, it’s worse than I feared. Your son is going to be an engineer. The joke implies a lifelong condition of logic over emotion and facts over conversation. Yet this stereotype obscures a deeper truth. Almost everything that defines contemporary life from our homes and transport systems to our food supply chains, energy networks, medical devices and digital infrastructure - exists because engineers designed, built, tested and continuously improved it. While others debate direction, engineers quietly turn ideas into reality. Why then does a profession so central to modern civilisation…

**This story originally appeared in the October 2025 edition of AMT Magazine** Imagine this scenario: Your team installs a new collaborative robot application on the production line to automate what was once a manual task and introduce collaborative interaction with workers. Because the system does not rely on physical distance barriers such as perimeter guarding, it promises flexibility, space savings and productivity gains. The robot has been designed to operate under a power and force limiting (PFL) safety function, but no risk assessment was carried out to identify the contact scenarios, nor has validation been performed using a pressure and/or force measuring device. As a result, when the robot moves into action, its force and power output exceed the biomechanical limits set out in ISO 10218-2:2025, putting operators at risk of injury. It’s a stark reminder that a thorough risk assessment might have flagged that hazard and prompted better safeguards. Risk assessments are a cornerstone of workplace…

Newly announced technology greatly expands capacity of AI Replicates real world physics to truncate lead time and simulate stress testing of products Rolling out to select partners imminently, with plans for broad availability this year At 3DEXPERIENCE World in Houston, a joint announcement from NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Dassault Systèmes CEO Pascal Daloz put “physical AI” and production‑grade virtual twins at the centre one of the largest engineering gatherings of the year. The message delivered to nearly ten thousand attendees was bold: a new class of industrial AI, grounded in physics rather than just language, could compress the distance between concept and reality in dramatic fashion. Whether or not this partnership ends up defining the next decade of manufacturing software, the idea of physical AI matters. It signals a shift that could reshape design, simulation, testing and factory optimisation for manufacturers of all sizes, including in Australia’s precision sector. “AI is just an engine — you…

**This story first appeared in the October 2025 edition of AMT Magazine** When it comes to medical innovation, Australia has much to be proud of – with world leading research institutions and great minds hard at work developing products for the greater good. But taking that success in innovation and transitioning it to success as a leader in advanced medical manufacturing is another challenge – with four panellists at a recent forum explaining their own reasons why. BioMelbourne Network’s BioForum, The Smart Health Revolution: Rewiring Care Pathways, held in late July, heard from three developers of new wearable technologies – Nutromics chief executive Peter Vranes, Kali Healthcare cofounder Fiona Brownfoot and Proton Intelligence co-founder Victor Cadarso – along with Madhu Bhaskaran, research director of the Discovery to Device medtech prototyping facility at RMIT University. In her role at RMIT University, Bhaskaran leads a team of electronic materials engineers, helping companies create technologies and better design medical products including care diagnostics – such as saliva-based tests - or which are either…

**This story first appeared in the October 2025 edition of AMT Magazine** In the world of advanced manufacturing, few Australian companies have achieved the global reach and reputation of ANCA. Founded in 1974 by Pat Boland and Pat McCluskey, ANCA has grown from a local startup to a world leader in CNC tool grinding machines, with a legacy of innovation and customers spanning the globe. As a leading manufacturer, ANCA co-founder Pat Boland knows that in a changing world some constants remain – the need for vision, adaptability and an ongoing focus on people. “The world is very different now, compared to what it was when we started – and possibly the biggest changes have been in communications,” he says. “When we started our exports the Telex was the top method of communication internationally – and then what a fantastic invention the photocopier and fax machines were.” Today, with the accessibility of the internet and new artificial intelligence, Boland says the concept of a “home market”, partially isolated from the rest…