Thales showcases our sovereign Advanced Manufacturing Capability in Australia at industry Town Hall

The country’s manufacturing leaders and suppliers convened at Sydney Olympic Park’s Waterview Conference Centre on Wednesday 30 March to participate in Australia’s first ever Modern Manufacturing Town Hall. The one-day event followed a Town Hall format where Thales Australia’s Acoustics Centre of Excellence Director Peter Goodwin, General Manager Technical and Engineering, Integrated Weapons and Sensors, Sarah Sharp and Business Improvement Manager David Forbes joined various speakers from the New South Wales (NSW) manufacturing sector to share examples and lessons learned from the implementation of modern manufacturing practices within their respective businesses.

Organised by the University of Sydney in partnership with the International Exhibition & Conference Group, the Modern Manufacturing Town Hall was attended by key decision makers and management eager to learn best practice in advanced manufacturing from industry leaders and power up their traditional operations using the latest automation and technologies.

The Hon. Stuart Ayres MP, Minister for Enterprise, Investment and Trade opened the event via video link and highlighted how Advanced manufacturing has been identified as one of six areas of focus for the NSW Government in the Premier’s COVID-19 Recovery Plan. 

The NSW manufacturing industry is vital to the Australian economy and produces almost one third of the nation’s total manufacturing output, generating around $33 billion in industry value. It also employs almost one third of all jobs in the sector nationwide. To support growing capability, the Federal Government’s Modern Manufacturing Strategy outlines an action plan to help local manufacturing scale up and become more resilient in the global market.

Over the course of the day the program’s diverse speakers collectively explored the latest developments in digital & smart factories, green/sustainable manufacturing, warehouse automation, digital Lean models, additive & advanced manufacturing and production automation equipment. 

“There has never been such an exciting time for new manufacturing technologies or such a need for them with the increase in performances they can provide. Whether it is increasing our supply capacity to respond to current events or increasing efficiencies to meet sustainability goals or enabling autonomous or remote control of manufacturing operations to cope with COVID Pandemic. The Modern Manufacturing event showed us how some of the latest technologies are being implemented and the lessons they have learned in the process by leaders in the industry,”

Sarah Sharp, General Manager Technical and Engineering, Integrated Weapons and Sensors, Thales Australia.

Thales’ presentation by Peter, Sarah and David offered insights into the latest developments for advanced manufacturing at Thales site for Small Arms manufacture at Lithgow as well as Acoustic sensor manufacture at Rydalmere. They drew on a wealth of experience gained through Thales Australia’s heavy investment in building advanced in-country manufacturing capability to support the Australian Defence Force. In addition to their experiences and lessons learned in the implementation of Lean Manufacturing, they explored opportunities for Industry 4.0 and 5.0 modernisation. 

Other presenters on the day included Steve Milanoski, Head of Advanced Manufacturing at Romar Engineering, Philip Crealy, Founder & Director of Equinox Orthopaedics and Conor Kelleher, Manager New Product Introduction from Stryker Additive. All three speakers discussed how technology advancements and innovative operational practices changed the way they manufacture. Christian Ruberg, Future Digital Manufacturing Lead at CSIRO and Michael Sharpe, National Director of Industry, Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre also shared their perspectives on how the industry can transform to become more advanced.

The day offered the chance to connect with other key players embarking on a similar digital transformation journey to boost their competitiveness and effectiveness. 

Fundamental to the event’s success was the support received from the University of Sydney’s Sydney Manufacturing Hub – a new core research facility dedicated to additive manufacturing and advanced materials processing. The university conducted months of research, discussions and collaboration with government, education, regulators and key organisations to ensure the day emphasised how the adoption of intelligent products, resources and technology will support a strong and sustainable manufacturing sector in Australia over the next five years. 

To learn more, visit the event website: modernmanufacturingexpo.com/town-hall-expo/