By Dr Troy Coyle, HERA CEO

Recently, HERA visited Australia with Manufacturing Minister Hon Andrew Bayly and heavy engineering industry representatives to better understand how Australia is responding to the “Industry 4.0” revolution.  

This visit included a tour of both the University of Wollongong’s Facility for Intelligent Fabrication (FIF) and the $81 million Australian Composite Manufacturing Co-operative Research Centre (ACM CRC). Gaining access to these impressive facilities demonstrated how the use of cutting-edge technology is revolutionising manufacturing in Australia and its potential to do the same in Aotearoa.

It was also clear that long-term funding (in the case of the CRC program, which is ten-year funding) and industry-led research are key to successful industry transformation through the adoption of these technologies.

We were also proud to see HERA acknowledged as a key partner in several of the ACM CRC’s projects, including the application of AI to quality systems, circular design of composite materials, technical and scientific barriers for robotics and automation in composite manufacturing, and waste management in the composite industry.

Industry 4.0 – also referred to as the fourth Industrial Revolution, is a broad term for new technologies and data such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence.  

The future of manufacturing will require widespread adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies to transform how goods are made by optimising processes and driving the potential for unprecedented efficiency and productivity gains.

These advances have been a core focus for HERA to understand in order to drive the transformation of Aotearoa New Zealand’s manufacturing sector and its future readiness.

We want to see our sector at the cutting edge of these developments, so we have been focused on developing our facilities and supporting research and services to help our manufacturing and construction sectors understand the potential for uptake.

Knowing how to incorporate these new technologies into business models can be difficult and requires a financial commitment that is not often achievable for businesses with no innovation strategies in play.

In driving the adoption of Industry 4.0, it is not so much about focusing on the underlying technologies (although this is very important), but more so, helping our industry understand how these technologies can support their businesses. Having industry come along on this trip as part of the delegation was a great way to achieve this.

I would like to take the time to acknowledge everyone who made this trip a success, including Hon Andrew Bayly; Paul Stocks; Will McKenzie and our members who joined us: Craig Stevenson (Aurecon); Dave Anderson (John Jones Steel); Moore (Grayson Engineering); Gareth Evans (Farra Engineering); Matthew Cross (TE Group Engineering + Design);  and Wayne Carson (D&H Steel Construction).

I also give special thanks to all of those who hosted us including the University of Wollongong’s A/Prof Stephen van Duin, Prof Chris Cook, Prof Paul Di Pietro and team; and the ACM CRC’s CEO Dr Steven Gower, as well as Prof Gangadhara Prusty Prof Anna Paradowska and team and the Chair of the ACM CRC, Dr Abby Bloom.