October 2020
Australia's manufacturing future may be linked to a new technology revolution: Industry 4.0.
Manufacturing was once a major contributor to our economy. According to a recent report by the Australian Industry Group, in the early 60's the sector accounted for just under 30% of Australian gross domestic product (GDP).
The sector is still a major exporter of goods, at a value of around $117 billion in 2018, but its glorious times have long gone.
Over the decades, the share of manufacturing in Australia's economy dropped to now just around 6%, while the current Covid -19 crisis laid bare the nation's reliance on global supply chains.
It's now in the public's eye, which makes it a political issue, but in 2016, a report by the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work already warned that in terms of manufacturing jobs as a share of total employment, Australia ranked last among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations.
And recently, another report by the centre showed that Australia’s manufacturing self-sufficiency was also the lowest in the OECD. Only around two thirds of the $565 billion worth of the manufacturing output the nation uses each year is Australian-made.
Having overseen the demise of car manufacturing in Australia, the government is now trying to boost domestic output. In a speech to the National Press Club, Prime Minister Scott Morrison foreshadowed a $1.5 billion strategy to strengthen the sector and its supply chains.
However, the lack of a highly skilled workforce could turn into a major bottleneck for a digitally-driven Fourth Industrial Revolution that is expected to drive competitive future industries.
One of the recent initiates to address this is a pilot of an new apprenticeship model, which the Australian Industry Group, Swinburne University of Technology and technology firm Siemens commenced in 2017. The project, which combines on-the-job vocational and university-based education, was initially funded under the Australian Government’s Stream Two of the Apprenticeships Training - alternative delivery pilots initiative.
In September, Education Minister Dan Tehan announced $7.2 million for an extension of the award winning initiative. The Advanced Apprenticeship-style Digital Technologies (Industry 4.0) pilot now involves six universities across the country (RMIT, Swinburne University of Technology, University of Tasmania, University of Western Australia, and the University of Queensland.)
The program is aligned within a national network of Industry 4.0 test labs, in which Siemens is also a key industry partner providing industrial software grants for its product lifecycle management software, at a commercial value of around $1 billion.
The test lab network provides a training platform for students, and a capability for industry to engage with new technologies and processes.
The pilot was implemented in 2019, initially funded with Australian Government grants of up to $1 million for each of six test labs, with the funding matched by the participating universities (University of Queensland, University of Technology Sydney, University of South Australia, University of Western Australia, University of Tasmania, and Swinburne University of Technology.)
Most recently, RMIT also joined up, establishing an 'Industrial Digital Innovation Hub', again with the help of a grant from Siemens.
The new Industrial Digital Innovation Hub will be based at the RMIT’s Advanced Manufacturing Precinct, as part of a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the university, and the Australian subsidiaries of Siemens and Festo.
According to Professor Aleksandar Subic, over the next three years the hub could provide 10,000 RMIT students across range of disciplines with access to Siemens' advanced industrial software.The new hub will be the cornerstone of a number of initiatives targeting education and training, here and across the Australasian region.
“I believe this will be the first time an Australian dual sector university in partnership with a global industry leader has considered the international implications by connecting Australian campuses and industry to those in Vietnam and the region," Subic said.
In a statement, the university’s deputy vice-chancellor of the College of Science, Engineering and Health, and vice president for Digital Innovation, Professor Aleksandar Subic, said the grants from Siemens and the Federal Government would enable RMIT to lead industry clustering in Industry 4.0 and develop and rollout workforce transformation pilot programs across VET and Higher Education programs.
Previously deputy vice-chancellor (R&D) at Swinburne, Subic has been a key driver of the government’s industry 4.0 initiatives, including as chair of the Industry 4.0 Testlabs Workstream of the Prime Minister’s Industry 4.0 Taskforce.
“We need to think big with Industry 4.0. An industrial revolution doesn’t discriminate – it impacts every sector and therefore requires a multi-disciplinary approach with a holistic view across the entire continuum of education and training from TAFE through to Higher Education,” he said.
The model is provided in Germany’s Plattform Industrie 4.0, where industry, staff associations, research, unions and government together drive the digital transformation of the German manufacturing industry.
The initiative has formed a number of international alliances, including with Australia, which signed a cooperative agreement in 2017.