Feature

Yarn’n, an Australian First Nations-owned company, has rolled out its 100 per cent recycled toilet tissue sourced exclusively from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified forests.

In 2020, Kyocera AVX, a US-based global manufacturer of advanced electronic components, spearheaded a plan to globalise all the systems across its manufacturing facilities located around the globe. 

The Australian manufacturing sector is navigating increasingly rapid changes in industry dynamics as more technological advancements are adopted worldwide. 

As the Australian manufacturing sector faces the challenges and transformations that come with rapid globalisation, the role of digital technology within the industry has never been more critical. 

The manufacturing and distribution sectors have traditionally been slow to adopt business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, but this drastically changed in the wake of the pandemic. 

Smart factories are the future of Australian manufacturing. Characterised by digital technology, real-time data-driven systems, automation and artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), the modern smart factory is an achievable goal for manufacturers of all sizes, across all industries.

While there is no doubt the current health pandemic has had an impact on many Australian manufacturers, the inaugural CommBank Manufacturing Insights report suggests the sector is on the precipice of a new growth phase.

Outdated assumptions and stereotypes surrounding manual labour have meant manufacturing has always been one of the most male-dominated industries in Australia. In 1998, the Australian Government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency reported that just 25.9% of its workforce was female.

Digital transformation technologies are experiencing a gold rush in the manufacturing industry, not just in Australia but beyond. However, amid this surge in cutting-edge tech and automation processes, a fundamental element remains crucial: trust.

Indeed, the effective collection, analysis and application of data is at the heart of any smart factory’s strategy and operations. And if the data is the heart of the smart factory, then the data architecture is its lungs.