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We are launching the second iteration of our Australia's 50 most innovative manufacturers campaign, or "the 50 most innovative" in its shorthand form.

Just like last time around, we're seeking to identify and celebrate the country's most innovative manufacturers, learn about how they understand and go about innovating, and hopefully pick up some lessons we can use along the way.

This time around we're going with the theme “it’s for everybody”. Because innovation something every manufacturer does.

Special thanks go to returning lead sponsor MYOB.

This episode is a podcast version of the event's launch webinar, published on November 29. It features: 

- Martin Ripple, CEO at ANCA Machine Tools;
- Ian Lowrey, co-founder of Wireman; and
- Bruce Minty, Senior Product Manager at MYOB.

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In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, we hear from Xavier Orr, co-founder and co-CEO of Advanced Navigation.

Episode Guide

0.25 – Neural network-based navigation systems based on PhD research.
1:35 – Deciding on a stream at university while studying mechatronics and computer science.
2:12 – The big idea: a neural network-based alternative to the Kalman filter. 
3:40 – Starting the company with co-founder Chris Shaw.
4:56 – Why they chose the co-CEO model. “You can cover double the territory” but it requires a deep level of trust.
5:51 – The first product, landing their breakthrough customer – Bombardier – about half a year after getting started, and what was behind getting acceptance by the market.
7:44 – Bootstrapping the company with loans and credit cards and getting their first major investor – Our Innovation Fund – about five years in. 
8:55 – Taking “a little bit of an unusual path” in not relying on mentors when getting started.
9:50 – The secret to their healthy-sized venture funding rounds.
10:50 – Different sites: two facilities in Sydney, photonics in Canberra, radio research in Newcastle, UAV research facility in Brisbane and Perth underwater research and manufacturing facility.
11:28 – Size and capacity of the company.
12:10 – The benefits of shared infrastructure at UTS Tech Lab.
13:40 – The major projects Advanced Navigation is working on now.
15:35 – Moon mission
16:26 – Dealing with radiation and vacuum in developing lidav for space.
17:22 – Only four companies in the world can make strategic-grade fibre optic gyroscopes.
18:46 – Supply chain considerations.
20:26 – What steers R&D and how.
22:20 – Why their collaborations with universities have been successful. Where have things fallen over in other instances, what’s different for Advanced Navigation, and what was the role of IP arrangements.
24:02 – The talent shortage and how they’ve addressed this.
24:50 – What their workforce looks like.
25:30 – High-tech is the key for re-growing manufacturing here.

Relevant links
Advanced Navigation's website
Advanced Navigation opens Sydney robotics facility
Advanced Navigation, Quantx Labs among seven defence grant recipients
Advanced Navigation unveils subsea robotics centre
Advanced Navigation to ensure safe Australian moon landing
Advanced Navigation aims to be first Australian to the Moon

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In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, we hear from  PhD scholar Kathryn Anderson. Anderson won the University of South Australia Three Minute Thesis (3MT) this year with her presentation on innovation districts, a topic she has a little more time to expand on in this episode.

Episode guide

0:50 – Personal background and how she ended up studying innovation districts.

6:12 – How do innovation districts create economically valuable proximity?

6:50 – Understanding clusters, a subject influenced by Michael Porter.

8:05 – Alfred Marshall and “industrial atmosphere”.

9:12 – Innovation districts: “a bit of a new beast”. What is distinct about them? 

10:55 – Looking at Technology Park Adelaide and Tonsley Innovation District.

14:04 – International case studies. Why 22@Barcelona is an exemplar when it comes to innovation districts.

16:10 – The amenity factor of places in modern life.

17:35 – “People stand up and take note when you say ‘Silicon Valley.’” Why it captures the imagination.

18:50 – Why it’s unreasonable to want to have another Silicon Valley.

20:10 – The sometimes-overlooked role of government in SV.

21:31 – Some important ingredients that have emerged.

22:57 – It’s not just the ingredients, but the intersection of the ingredients that matters.

25:02 – They are not set and forget. Tech Park, for example, has morphed over the years.

27:20 – Research on Geelong and its reinvention after Ford. What’s been important in this?

30:30 – A call to action regarding innovation districts.

Further reading

UniSA Business 3MT Winner - FWFC's Kathryn Anderson!

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Welcome to a special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, one which we’re running as part of our The New Reinventors series, sponsored by business solutions provider Fusion5.

Be sure to check out Fusion5’s free ebook – Manufacturing: The New Reinventors -- here.

Episode guide

0:50 – An introduction to Robotic Systems, a company with its beginnings in competitive engineering, and to Amos and Perkins.

2:13 – Beginning in a garage with a contract from Orica.

3:09 – Work in many industries, but with a focus on mining. 

4:22 – The importance of artistry in product design.

6:22 “There was no business strategy. There was no plan; it just kind of happened. And what that actually is a recipe for is pretty much a full-on disaster… The first seven or eight years were pretty much failures.”

8:37 – Reevaluating what they did and what the point was with the help of a “mountaintop acid” experience.

10:55 – How a customer’s idea is progressed, beginning with business case evaluation. “The tech is kind of secondary.”

12:44 – Final assembly, quality control and logistics for low-volume industrial equipment.

14:05 – The value of engineering competitions in creating new businesses.

15:55 – Winning competitive engineering competitions is not the point. It’s about gaining useful skills. If you’re thinking about getting involved, “there is no downside.” And they’re not just for students.

18:26 – The Build Assist Solution, an overhead camera system for quality control, which was part of the company’s nomination for our Australia’s 50 most innovative manufacturers campaign.

20:25 – Exports to nine countries for mining clients.

21:54 – Four patents awarded.

22:50 – The big vision for 2030: designing and building a satellite system that can work for 24 hours.

23:39 – The future of globally-competitive manufacture in Australia is small and specialised.

Relevant links

Robotic Systems's website
https://roboticsystems.com.au

Australia’s 50 most innovative manufacturers revealed

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Welcome to a special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, one which we’re running as part of our The New Reinventors series, sponsored by business solutions provider Fusion5.

Be sure to check out Fusion5’s free ebook – Manufacturing: The New Reinventors -- here.

Episode guide

0:50 – An introduction to Bernie Quinn, Premcar, and the company’s three manufacturing divisions. 

2:33 – Some company history and some changes brought on by the shrinking of the local car industry. 

4:40 – Quinn and two partners buy the company off its then-UK owner.

5:35 – “We are constantly reinventing ourselves. It’s not something that remains very stable for very long.”

7:44 – The importance of culture in reinvention.

8:45 – The personal touch is important, but it doesn’t scale perfectly when the company is growing rapidly. 

10:55 – Some thoughts on the pluses and minuses of operating an automotive business in Australia, and some ideas on how to increase manufacturing activity in that sector.

Relevant links

Premcar's website
https://premcar.au/

Premcar begins production of Nissan Patrol Warrior at new factory

Premcar develops chassis, suspension for reimagined classic Ford

Premcar expands its Australian new-car manufacturing

Premcar launches its latest modified Nissan Patrol Warrior – video

Australia’s 50 most innovative manufacturers revealed

The new reinventors: learn about manufacturers who’ve pivoted at this October 5 web event

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Welcome to a special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, one which we’re running as part of our The New Reinventors series, sponsored by business solutions provider Fusion5.

Be sure to check out Fusion5’s free ebook – Manufacturing: The New Reinventors -- here.

Episode guide

0:45 – Career path. Accounting and finance and a move into operations as well.

2:19 -- Previous role at Tritium.

3:03 - “There’s nothing more exciting than working for a business that is growing at that kind of rate.” 

4:02 – Current role as a Solution Architect and the huge range of possible outcomes when implementing ERP solutions.

5:10 – What manufacturers are seeking at the moment is agility.

6:10 – The challenges of setting up Tritium’s Tennessee factory.

7:50 – A recent client example of a drastic pivot.

8:45 – Changed inventory management and sourcing post-Covid.

9:50 – What companies should be focussing on in case they need to change course. “The system is everything.”

12:20 – Some particular challenges that Australian businesses are facing versus their overseas competitors.

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In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, we hea from Joseph Kenrick, Program Manager  at  Lunar Outpost Oceania. He tells us about the EPE & Lunar Outpost Oceania Consortium, which is up against the AROSE consortium in a bid to build an Australian rover for the Trailblazer program. The winner's semi-autonomous rover could be on the moon as soon as 2026, where it will collect regolith and deliver it to a NASA payload, which will attempt to extract oxygen from the sample.

Episode guide

0:29 – Career path. Engineering for the petroleum industry, then a career shift.

1:29 – Earth has been a closed-loop system for 4.5 billion years.”Biological history tells us: any time we’ve seen a dominant species in a finite ecosystem consuming a limited amount of resources, that species collapses. It’s only a matter of time. Naturally, this thinking led me to the field of space resources.”

2:00 – Joining Lunar Outpost about two years ago.

2:32 – Moving to Melbourne from Colorado in May.

3:28 – Nowadays there are many pathways into the space industry, “and really anyone can be involved.”

4:28 – Big Dipper and Little Dipper challenges around the excavation subsystems.

5:08 – Early observations on Australia’s space sector, its strengths, and the challenges it will face in this Trailblazer mission.

7:02 – The partnership co-leading the Trailblazer team with EPE.

8:18 – What Lunar Outpost does and some of its current projects, including lunar rovers that are headed to the Lunar South Pole and Reiner Gamma regions on the moon. 

10:08 - Existing spaceflight heritage on the Perseverance rover on mars.

11:10 – Some of the challenges to building a robotic system for the moon, including extreme temperature swings, jagged regolith, and no GPS.

13:40 – Potential commercial spinoffs from this R&D.

14:48 – Competition to name Australia’s lunar rover.

15:50 – The two consortia vying to build Australia’s rover.

17:15 – Some of the partners on the team. including Vipack, RMIT, Titomic, Inovor, One Giant Leap and others.

Useful links

The Lunar Outpost Oceania website
https://www.lunaroutpost.com.au/

AROSE lunar rover to test Australian technology capabilities

Australians invited to name upcoming locally-made lunar rover

AROSE and EPE to design lunar rovers following grant awards

Applications open for up to $4 m grant funding to help design an Australian lunar rover

Australia is putting a rover on the Moon in 2024 to search for water

Australia to develop small Moon rover – video

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In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, we hear from Dr Paul Falzon, General Manager at Advanced Composite Structures Australia, in a lost-then-found recording made during our Australia's 50 most innovative manufacturers campaign earlier in the year.

Falzon, whose company was part of the top 50, tells us about the ACS-A's work at the pinnacle of composites engineering and manufacturing in Australia, which has recently moved into high-temperature ceramics and filament winding for pressure vessels.

Episode guide

0:26 – A brief company history

2:38 – A brief personal history

4:40 – The skillsets present at the company, including aerospace engineering, material science, boat builders, simulation and structural analysis.

5:55 – Emphasising the “advanced” in advanced composites.

6:54 – High-temperature work and what it requires in terms of materials.

7:43 – Recent work in structures for wave energy generation with Carnegie Clean Energy

9:00 – Projects in ultra-high temperature composites over the last three years. Green body and pyrolysis processes.

10:13 – A first step into hydrogen storage. Where a new filament winder could be used.

11:20 – What innovation means at the company.

12:24 – The new Lorimer Composites program and its role in company culture and staff satisfaction.

15:20 – Supply chain issues in composites and the reliance on overseas suppliers for ultra-high temperature inputs.

16:45 – How the skills shortage is affecting ACS-A.

Relevant links

Excellence in maritime manufacturing – material gains for maritime

MoorPower wave power project gets underway

Fibres and composites transforming industry: Composite repair and sustainment

Australia’s 50 most innovative manufacturers revealed

ACS delivers composite hydro-electric turbine blade

Composite creatures developed for theme parks

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In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, we hear from Dr Phil Fox and Lachlan McLaren, CTO of Eco Detection and Project Manager at Grey Innovation Group respectively.

Eco Detection, part of Grey Innovation Group, was a Gold Award winner in our recent Australia's 50 most innovative manufacturers  campaign.

Fox and McLaren tell us about the company's story, the many uses of electrophoresis, the need to connect manufacturers with design houses and other suppliers, and more. 

0:20 – Introduction to guests

2:24 – An explanation of electrophoresis 

3:10 – How the company got started.

5:26 – Going up the technology readiness levels, starting with understanding the market requirements.

6:50 – The period from engaging University of Tasmania to commercialising GreyScan and some of the things involved. “The capillary part was quite set, the electrophoresis, the CZE, that was quite set. It was all the infrastructure around that that took I think most of the development time.”

8:30 – What drove development of Eco Detection’s technology.

9:27 – Staff and what they do.

10:30 – Two iterations released so far.

12:20 – Where their customers are – environmental monitoring for rivers, compliance monitoring for discharge and wastewater.

14:27 – Ammonium monitoring and its use in wastewater treatment.

16:48 – The Linkage project with UTas.

18:20 – Nutrient runoff going into the Great Barrier Reef and the benefits of measuring them.

19:32 – Measuring inorganic carbon in seawater.

20:25 – How government procurement might drive new-to-market technologies.

21:18 – Why the National Reconstruction Fund needs to accept that some companies will fail, and to take risks.

22:50 – Lasting relationships from the notus ventilator project and why a better job is needed to connect manufacturers with design houses, contract manufacturers and others in Australia.

25:55 – Brokers have an important role in connecting manufacturers with suppliers.

Relevant links

Eco Detection's website
https://ecodetection.com/

Australia’s 50 most innovative manufacturers revealed

What did we learn from Australia’s 50 most innovative manufacturers?

$10.2 million in ARC Linkage grants announced for advanced manufacturing projects

Ventilator project lead wants to recreate ‘the model that changed the world’

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Welcome to a special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski, one which we’re running as part of our Spotlight on Scaleups editorial series, sponsored by business solutions provider Fusion5.

Be sure to check out Fusion5’s free ebook – Scale up your manufacturing business for success. 4 ways an ERP can help -- here.

In this episode we hear from Paul Hutchings, Industry Director – Manufacturing at Fusion5. He shares some observations from a long career in operations management, particularly some of the important things manufacturers should consider when they're in a rapid growth phase.

Episode guide 

0:44 – Current role and career path, with a focus on operations management in manufacturing.

2:34 – “A lot of people overcomplicate manufacturing. But it’s basically grabbing ahold of ingredients or resources and converting it into something else.”

4:04 – A difference between Australian and New Zealand manufacturers versus those in the United States.

4:34 – Current role.

6:36 – Trends in food and beverage manufacturing during and since Covid.

7:44 – Traditional industries are starting to look a little harder at and invest in technology including robotics at the moment.

8:34 – Trends among small to medium companies who are scaling up, double-shifting, diversifying and the role of ERP in this.

10:07 – What scaleups are doing to address the labour shortage issue, and the importance of culture in this.

12:02 – Continuing with company culture, and the need to bring employees along as technology is introduced and their jobs change.

13:32 – The horror stories I’ve seen are around change management.

14:20 – “What am I, and where do I want to be?”

15:58 – Companies are often happy to help each other and can be an invaluable source of advice for high-growth companies. As long as they’re not commercial rivals.

16:48 – What clients are saying about the National Reconstruction Fund at the moment.

18:04 – Why planning is such an important – and overlooked – issue.

Relevant links

Scale up your manufacturing business for success. 4 ways an ERP can help

Spotlight on scaleups: why more manufacturers need to grow up