Models for modern manufacturing
by Vincent Ciccarello
While the international community is coming to grips with the impact of climate change on the environment, those economies that also anticipate its effects on manufacturing, will have a competitive advantage.
Switching SA manufacturers on to this concept is one of main themes of the new Mawson Institute for Advanced Manufacturing, according to Institute Director Professor Robert Short.
"One of the opportunities for SA manufacturing is to recognise that global manufacturing is changing in response to the fact that there is now an accepted awareness that the climate is being affected by human activity," Prof Short said.
The Mawson Institute also aims to tackle the implications for manufacturing of two other societal challenges – a population that is not only ageing, but ageing in an unhealthy way.
"The incidence of obesity and diabetes, for example, have escalated over the past 20 years," he said. "And there are all kinds of problems associated with these conditions: cardiovascular disease, blindness, organ failure.
"An ageing and unhealthy population presents a challenge for society and a challenge for manufacturing."
Prof Short, who comes to UniSA after 18 years at the University of Sheffield, most recently as Chair of Material and Biomaterial Chemistry in the Department of Engineering, said the Mawson Institute has been created at a time when the nature of manufacturing is changing globally.
"There are some very significant challenges for any regional country that is a traditional manufacturer with a developed economy. First, wages in Australia, as they are in Europe or the US, are higher than in the developing world. Second, a lot of profit drive is through cost reduction and off-shoring is a significant way to reduce costs."
While SA manufacturing – which relies on a handful of large companies and their suppliers – may be exposed to these challenges, Prof Short believes it also has oppor-tunities to respond by creating products with high added value that make use of new platform technologies.
"The SA Government has put a significant amount of money behind the Mawson Institute and they have a number of requirements – to create new jobs, to create export opportunities, and I think there would be an element also of safeguarding existing manufacturing jobs to offer the potential for manufacturers in SA to diversify their current product offerings," he said.
"Growth and jobs are going to come through high added value products and a high value-added product pipeline – by starting small companies, or by taking small companies and nurturing them until they can each take on a number of new employees."
Prof Short has a special interest in the commercialisation of technology and was responsible for the spin-out of two technology companies in the UK: CellTran and Plasso Technologies.
"CellTran, a vehicle for developing a bandage that carries cells to a wound bed, merged with Xcellentis, a division of Belgian multi-national Innogenetics. It employs just over 20 people and is at the exciting stage of significant ramp up in turnover and profitability. Its products are used in the United Kingdom, there are distribution deals for other markets, and clinics are being established associated with the technology.
"Plasso Technologies, which develops tools for life science research, was created purely through venture capital and after four years of significant internal growth was sold last month to US-based BD Biosciences," Prof Short said.
The Mawson Institute will be a launch pad for similar spin offs through its own research and through links with existing UniSA research activity.
"There’s a requirement for the Mawson Institute to create a new body of high quality, RQF-returnable research. I see that to satisfy this, the Mawson Institute has to concentrate on basic research and applied original research, and it has to develop fundamental understandings behind platform technologies," Prof Short said.
"There is the real potential here for the Mawson Institute to link together activities of the Advanced Computing Research Centre, the Centre for Advanced Manufacturing Research and the Ian Wark Research Institute."