Ai Group welcomes establishment of PM’s Industry 4.0 Taskforce

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Image credit: aamc.org.au

The Australian Industry Group has welcomed the establishment of the Prime Minister’s Industry 4.0 Taskforce and the appointment of its partner organisation, the Australian Advanced Manufacturing Council (AAMC), to help drive common standards for the industrial internet.

Image credit: aamc.org.au
Image credit: aamc.org.au

The PM’s Industry 4.0 Taskforce, which aims to support Australia’s transition to a new economy and connect the nation to the fourth industrial revolution, is led by Siemens Australia Chairman and CEO, Jeff Connolly.

The Taskforce will take part this week in important roundtable discussions at the world’s largest industrial exhibition, Hannover Messe, where it will connect Australia with the German Plattform Industrie 4.0 group and the US Industrial Internet Consortium.

“Australia’s involvement, through the Taskforce, in building cooperation on global standards for the Industrial Internet of Things is important,” said Ai Group’s Chief Executive, Innes Willox.

“We need to ensure technology choices are simplified, that they are broadly accessible, and that global interoperability is made easy for our predominantly small and medium sized companies.”

AAMC Chairman John Pollaers said supplying high value solutions to the world by using state of the art processes was pivotal for the future development of Australia.

“Australian companies must be globally competitive and actively engaged in multinational supply chains. And to do that we need to be at the forefront of developing and using cutting edge technologies,” Mr Pollaers added.

“The establishment of the PM’s Industry 4.0 Taskforce puts Australia at the head table – it crucially links us into the international collaboration on global standards for the industrial internet.”

Earlier this year, the German Plattform Industrie 4.0 group and the US Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) – two independent standards bodies for the industrial internet – announced collaboration to set global standards for the “Internet of Things”.

It is expected that the combined strengths of both IIC and Plattform Industrie 4.0 will pave the way for development of a digitalised economy for international businesses.