PROGRESS 2050: Toward a prosperous future for all Australians
Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre Chair Andrew Stevens looks at why we are still using the old "manufacturing rule book" when these rules no longer apply as manufacturing enters the world of robotics, machine learning and big data.
In sport, we wouldn’t try to win a premiership today using a game plan from the 1970s or 1990s – so why are we doing this in our manufacturing sector?
The truth is that the old manufacturing rule book no longer applies to the rapidly – and dramatically – changing field of making things, and if Australia wishes to remain globally competitive, we must adapt our manufacturing plan to win.
Game-changing advances in technology, big data and analytics, machine learning and robotics are not futuristic fantasies of what may come – they have arrived and play a large role in the success of manufacturing facilities around the globe. The familiar view of the traditional assembly lines of identical, finished goods is not the reality any more, and manufacturing is no longer simply about production.
As part of this revolution, international purchasers and consumers – Australia’s export customers – now expect their goods and services to be tailored to meet their distinct business needs or tastes. They want to be able to choose between products and solutions with different service attributes.
The question is, how can Australia win at this new frontier of globally smart manufacturing?
In short, we need a new game plan. A plan that introduces strategies that take advantage of our strengths and align with a competitive frontier that is quickly evolving.
The Advance Manufacturing Growth Centre has developed a vision for Australian manufacturing as part of a year-long investigation that we believe will accelerate our sector’s distinct competitive advantage.
These insights are contained in the recently released Sector Competitiveness Plan, which calls for a massive mindset shift in Australian manufacturing.
In the plan, we introduce a competitiveness and innovation framework that recommends our manufacturers follow a 21st century strategy of “value differentiation”. That is, to offer global customers a unique point of difference with a good or service that is exceptional in its technical leadership and value-added services.
Value differentiation may mean contributing new intellectual property, either pre- or post-production, and may include research and design, planning, engineering, innovative packaging and ongoing services in maintenance and customer engagement.
For example, Laing O’Rourke recently launched the world’s biggest 3D printer that will despatch wax moulds for concrete components from NSW to any construction site in the world. As its director told us, at a time when buildings are still being made in the same way the Pyramids were erected, Australia has the power to be a disrupter.
Manufacturers – and arguably all companies – need to continually invest in technical improvements to achieve superior performance and a unique value proposition to compete on value differentiation.>
Read CEDA's 2014 research, Advanced Manufacturing: Beyond the product line.
The Optus data breach and Australia’s recent lacklustre cyber security placing of 31 (out of 63 countries) in the latest World Digital Competitiveness Ranking (WDCR), highlights that we cannot afford to be complacent about cyber security. Aided by cyber hack toolkits obtained from the dark web, there is a rising tide of bad actors who constantly re-invent ways to obtain corporate, industrial and government data, which is then sold on the dark web and used to commit further crimes, writes David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics and CyberSecurity at Griffith University's School of Information & Communication Technology.
Read more Opinion article March 25, 2022In 2019 Prime Minister Scott Morrison established a Digital Technology Taskforce designed to propel Australia towards becoming a leading digital nation by 2030. In a speech just this month, he reiterated that aim. Yet Australia’s digital capabilities still lag our international competitors with recent Treasury research showing that the gap between the global technology frontier and Australian companies continues to grow.
Swinburne University of Technology, Centre for Transformative Innovation Director and Pro Vice Chancellor for Research Impact and Policy, Professor Beth Webster, says that the Federal Government's recently launched Modern Manufacturing Strategy shows a great deal of promise, but it will need to be implemented in a collaborative and research-backed way that takes lessons from the mistakes of the past.
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