Automotive

According to reports, a major naval shipbuilding program in Australia has taken a significant step forward with the appointment of Danish company Odense Maritime Technologies (OMT) to redevelop shipyard facilities in South Australia. The move follows the announcement of French company DCNS as the preferred partner for the design of Australia’s $50 billion Future Submarine … Continue reading Major naval shipbuilding program gains momentum in SA →

A research consortium led by Bosch is developing a novel industrial manufacturing concept. The nine partners on the ReCaM project aim to create a highly versatile manufacturing system. Such systems are needed because production times in modern manufacturing are becoming ever shorter. In addition, demand for customized products is increasing, and the number of variants … Continue reading Bosch & Co retool manufacturing concepts →

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute SME Index (SME Index), which examines the economic health of Australian small and medium sized enterprises, has revealed a significant improvement in business confidence, shifting from 95.6 in Q3 2016 to 100.7 in Q4 2016. Westpac’s General Manager of SME Business Bank, Julie Rynski said, “The strong increase in business sentiment is … Continue reading Westpac finds SMEs are feeling optimistic about 2017 →

Whether or not this is down to the so-called ‘Trump Effect’, according to the Australian Financial Review (AFR), Foxconn Technology Group, the biggest assembler of Apple devices, is currently in discussions to expand the company’s US manufacturing operations. The news came only hours after an announcement by US President-elect Donald Trump and SoftBank Group’s Masayoshi … Continue reading Foxconn plants the seeds for US Apple manufacturing →

In June last year, it was announced that Australia’s manufacturing sector had achieved year on year expansion recording the longest unbroken period of growth in a decade. Although that sounds like good news, manufacturers now face another issue. How do they fill the open jobs with engaged workers who will drive the innovation required to … Continue reading Are millennials a manufacturing innovation opportunity? →

Pilz Australia launched its new website which incorporates a new E-Shop for its customers. E-Shop will allow customers to not only browse the company’s vast portfolio of products, it enables them to access the latest technical information, view product images, and download the most up-to- date technical data sheets. The new E-Shop covers the full … Continue reading Pilz launches new online presence →

Sounds like an object right out of a sci-fi movie but Seven Dreamers, CEO, Shin Sakane seems to have come up with the “perfect” solution to everyone’s weekend clothing chores. Bloomberg has reported that the Japanese inventor received six billion yen (A$71 million) from partners, including Panasonic, last month to advance what was coined “the … Continue reading Panasonic & partners to build laundry bot →

Australia’s innovations will grow into successful businesses with help from the CSIRO Innovation Fund, a $200 million fund to commercialise early stage innovations from CSIRO, universities and other publicly-funded research bodies. The CSIRO Innovation Fund, launched today, will support co-investment in new spin-out and start-up companies, and SMEs engaged in the translation of research generated … Continue reading CSIRO to spend $200m on Aussie innovation →

Senator Xenophon deserves a Christmas card from the nation’s steelmakers, after his negotiation with the government to deliver their Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) legislation. The deal saw significant changes made to government procurement rules. The changes require that companies bidding for government projects worth more than A$4 million and will need to outline in … Continue reading ABCC amended local content rules will help Australian steelmakers compete against low-quality imports →

According to reports, Downer Rail has sub-contracted all manufacturing duties of 24 double deck Sydney A or Waratah class trains to joint venture partner, China’s CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co, with Downer itself providing the maintenance support for a minimum of 25 years. The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union criticised the award of the contract, saying … Continue reading Sydney’s new trains to be made in China →

The Department of Defence (DoD) has announced a $232 million contract extension to expand GE’s support of jet engines for the Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF) fighter fleet until 2025. Under the contract, GE will provide engineering, supply and maintenance support for the 84 engines of Australia’s F/A-18F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler aircraft fleets. … Continue reading DoD extends GE engine contract for Super Hornet & Growler   →

According to a report in The Australian this morning, HSBC has become the latest Arrium lender to sell its debt in the company. This latest move comes as voluntary administrators KordaMentha and advisers Morgan Stanley prepare to sell the remainder of the Arrium business early next year after divesting Moly-Cop to American Industrial Partners for … Continue reading HSBC set to dump its Arrium debt →

According to a new report by Forbes Insights in association with Hitachi Data Systems, titled “How to Win at Digital Transformation: Insights from a Global Survey of Top Executives”, changing customer expectations are the biggest external driver of digital transformation (DX) in Australia, cited by 58 per cent of respondents compared with the 35 per … Continue reading Forbes report finds companies failing to unlock the potential of their own data   →

The HLF series fiber laser is the newest edition to the range of Yawei sheetmetal machinery to be available from Applied Machinery. Yawei is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of CNC press brakes, CNC turret punch presses and guillotines and their entrance into the laser cutting market is off the back of years of … Continue reading New laser machine set to launch in the Australian market →

As the lights were illuminated on this year’s Christmas tree at Windsor Castle, they sparkled in some very special baubles that were hand blown and adorned with various emblems, the stamps for which came from Kaeser Compressors. Coburg, the home of both Kaeser, and the English royal family shares a long history together. Prince Albert, … Continue reading Kaeser helps to decorate the royal Christmas tree →

South Australia has opened a new manufacturing technologies centre to help businesses grow by providing access to the state’s best researchers, financial institutions and global supply chains. The $1.2 million centre, situated in Adelaide’s northern suburbs at the University of South Australia’s Mawson Lakes campus, will help businesses identify methods by which they can adopt … Continue reading New tech hub opened in South Australia →

General Motors Holden has produced the last engine at its Port Melbourne plant, with 175 jobs finishing up ahead of the end of its Australian manufacturing operations in 2017.

Burleigh, Gold Coast-based Bustech hopes that a new grant to develop electric buses will see 100 jobs created over the next 18 months in South Australia.

Siemens and Mentor Graphics have announced that they have entered into a merger agreement under which Siemens will acquire Mentor for US$37.25 per share in cash, which represents an enterprise value of US$4.5 billion. This acquisition decisively extends Siemens’ leading Digital Enterprise Software portfolio with Mentor’s electronics IC and systems design, simulation and manufacturing solutions. … Continue reading Siemens acquires Mentor Graphics →

A new report from Forrester has identified and compared the top 11 IoT software platform providers for this quarter. According to the report, IBM, PTC, GE and Microsoft lead the pack, while  AWS, SAP and Cisco Jasper offer competitive options, and LogMeIn, Ayla Networks, Exosite and Zebra Technologies lag behind. Forrester evaluated vendors based on 25 … Continue reading The top IoT software platforms for 2016 →