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Earlier this month, our CEO Dr Cori Stewart visited advanced manufacturing hubs with university and industry collaborations similar to the ARM Hub in Germany and Belgium. In the following article she reflects on the tours as part of an Australian delegation to the region.

‘The ongoing work of catalysing Industry 4.0 digital transformation for individual businesses was a feature of these innovation hubs.

Flanders Make in Belgium is an impressive network of independent advanced manufacturing hubs that form a network of university and industry collaboration centres.

For a decade they have been tackling the requirements of Industry 4.0 digital transformation with local industry, creating solutions with individual businesses as well as creating a library of digital manufacturing tools for widespread use.

During our visit we saw teams creating augmented reality digital workstations with digital work instructions; robotic visions systems for quality control and picking and sorting in production-line processes; robotics stations designed for agile and flexible manufacturing production; and a semi-trailer full of tech demonstrations that goes to industry and events to educate and inspire. This network of hubs has ensured local manufacturing is relevant, connected, globally competitive and has access to the latest equipment, research and talent.

The Australian delegation spent several days with Germany’s Fraunhofer Institutes and local manufacturers in Stuttgart, the manufacturing heartland of the nation and home to Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Bosch, Festo, Trumpf were among the industrial companies and research institutions.

Fraunhofer had systematised Germany’s success at Industry 4.0 implementation into business assessment tools.

In 2016, Australia’s Innovative Manufacturing CRC collaborated with Fraunhofer to translate and share this work with Australian companies. Now the Fraunhofer are building on this work with added focus on advanced product development and green manufacturing.

This development is of interest to ARM Hub given it is relevant to our high-value bespoke or mass customised manufacturing, including robotics manufacture. If you are similarly interested and want to connect with ARM Hub and Fraunhofer around these capabilities please do reach out.

Our time in Germany culminated in the formal event, the Fraunhofer Science and Innovation Day Australia in Augsburg.

The day did result in new and expanded partnerships with the Fraunhofer Institutes and the message to share is that there are well established programmes and funding pathways for Australians and Germans researchers and companies to leverage investment for collaborative projects.

There is also a dedicated program for Queenslanders managed through the Queensland Investment and Trade office in Frankfurt.’

The ARM Hub has begun its Technology Accelerator Roadmap for Female Founders.

This exciting accelerator goes beyond exploring your business goals — it identifies the technology companies need to grow their business, expand revenue opportunities, and increase readiness for investment.

We are thrilled to have six fantastic women participating in this program.

Meet our female founders

Stephanie Bofinger, CEO and Founder of Fempro Armour
Fempro Armour is a cutting-edge, women-focused technology company that specializes in creating innovative and high-quality protective gear for women. Our mission is to provide protective gear for fall prevention, so we all can live in a world where people are safe when they fall. With a strong emphasis on research and development, Fempro Armour has developed a range of products that cater to the unique safety needs of women in impact sports, healthcare and high-risk frontline personnel.

Abby Walsh, Director at Stomping Elephants
At Stomping Elephants our passion is to help people to experience the joy of expressing their personality. We are the home of a huge range of fun, unique and affordable quality Australian made earrings which are available online and at markets/stores across Australia. All of our earrings are designed and manufactured in house by our amazing team at Stomping HQ in Mackay, Queensland. Our ever-changing range includes over 2,500 different styles, ensuring there is something for everyone. Our manufacturing process utilises multiple machines, predominantly UV printers and Laser cutter/engravers to produce the various styles, with the assembly being done by hand.

Umar Nguyen, Director at Platinum Provedore | The Fish Girl
My agency operates as a beacon of innovation and growth for Australian primary producers in the seafood sector. We specialise in sales and marketing, driving the creation of unique solutions and the development of new markets. Our strategy is distinctive – we engage directly with chefs nationwide, ensuring pull-through via enhanced brand awareness and education. With our extensive knowledge of market trends and our expansive network, we promote local and sustainable producers, offerings them a platform to shine and flourish.

Sheree Lamont, Business Manager at Minecorp Australia
Minecorp is an Australian manufacturer of automotive components and a modifier of fleet vehicles with complex requirements. Based in Acacia Ridge, Minecorp was founded in 2007 during a time where minesite compliance and vehicle safety engineering was a at the forefront driver protection. We manufacture steel and aluminum accessories such as trays, toolboxes, and supporting components as well as purpose built trailers for industry. Minecorp also support the defence industry with sovereign capability to produce build to print components. We modify vehicles that are required to withstand harsh environments and have significant site requirements such as mining, utilities, rental and government. We are very passionate about providing solutions for large corporate fleets where uptime and mobile work is critical to the success of clients. We are an agile business who understands our own capability and what we can deliver both internally or through partnerships with our suppliers. Our goal is to be the leader in the automotive fleet modification sector with technology driving efficiency and repeatability whilst delivering the best financial outcomes for our clients.

Rebecca McIntosh, Director and Co-Founder of CHRYSALIS PROJECTS
The core of my life’s work is connecting community through conversation and meaningful experiences. I am an artist and a creative entrepreneur and have founded three businesses LOVE TV, POPSART arts media and Chrysalis Project creative Place Makers which are all ultimately focused on making cities great! I believe in the power of art and creativity to do this by uniting communities, revitalising their public spaces, and helping us understand better who we are as people.

Melissa Nguyen, Co-Founder of Subarashii Seats
We use your existing seat base and modify it just for you and your riding preferences. Rest assured as your seat gets reupholstered with superior grade foam and with comfort in mind. Whether you’re a short person in need of a lower seat or a long distance rider in need of a supportive seat. Anything you need, we can modify to suit you.

The accelerator is a joint initiative between Advance Queensland and VenturePro.

ARM Hub CEO and Founder Dr Cori Stewart summarises her opening remarks for the Australian Governnment’s recent House Standing Committee inquiry in Brisbane this month.

I raised three factors critical to manufacturing in Australia at the House Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Resources for Developing Advanced Manufacturing in Australia.

1. Australia’s population decline

Our declining population demands we innovate to drive new productivity into manufacturing and make the most value out of our working population. Technology must be a force multiplier here.

Australia’s birth-rate is 1.6, and a nation needs 2.1 to maintain its population. It means we will have about 2.5 people in 2050 of working age (15-64) for every older Australian.

These statistics have Australia on a trajectory of hard-to-reverse population decline often described as the “Japan Dilemma”.

Australia needs a strong technology sector to do the jobs we don’t or cannot do. We need to use our human labour in more valuable and rewarding working roles if we want to secure a manufacturing workforce at all.

We need a strong robotics, automation and artificial intelligence capability. We know that robots creates jobs, they don’t take jobs.

Australia is 30th of all countries in its ratio of robotics to the human workforce, which is poor given at the same time we are globally recognised as leaders in robotics research and robotics innovation more widely. Australia also has the lowest manufacturing capability of all OECD countries.

Incremental change, uncoordinated policy efforts, and unstable or uncertain investment environments will hamper our ability to be a modern competitive manufacturing nation.

2. Australia is poor at scaling enterprises

This includes scaling manufacturing as well as the technology businesses like robotics that underpin our manufacturing ability.

Recently, the Tech Council of Australia released its Shots on Goal report saying:

‘Australia needs a lot more scale’up capital to match the United States on a per capita basis. While we do meet comparative investment environment to the US for Series A funding and we not too bad at Series B funding, for Series C and D – the scale-up stage characterised as when you employ a large workforce and export to the globe – Australia will need to increase funding by five times above BAU growth to match the United States by 2030 on a per capita basis. At our current rate Australia will face an expected gap in scaleup funding of $53b by 2030.’

The Australian Government’s National Reconstruction Fund and the Industry Growth Program are critically important in this space and will need to invest in ‘intangibles’ such as software, which is the smart part of manufacturing.

It is critical we scale-up manufacturing, which means accessible investment. It is the only way we can realise a net gain from cooperative trade policy settings with the U.S. (e.g. the Inflation Reduction Act, the proposed Defence Production Act, and the Climate, Critical Minerals and Clean Energy Transformation Compact).

3. Coordinated national approach to industry policy

We strongly believe a coordinated national approach to industry policy would coalease Australia’s efforts and resources, making us more competitive.

I would like to build on the idea of Australia’s network of Factories of the Future to facilitate open innovation and collaboration in manufacturing, which enables investment in key sovereign capabilities to be translated across industry sectors.

We also recommend further investment in strategic programs for industry:

• technology accelerators
• global supply chain innovation programs
• workforce development programs
• manufacturing precincts of global renown.

Australia needs to set the foundation for a coherent and successful industrial transformation strategy.

A strong network of Factories of the Future will tackle Australia’s narrow trade and industrial structure and create the industries and jobs of the future.

Only manufacturing can provide the foundations for national reconstruction because it will deliver the innovation, productivity and competitiveness and jobs we need to ensure greater sovereign capability and economic complexity, including diversification of our export mix.