Philip Smart | Adelaide
Australian and German industry will work together to advance the manufacturing sectors of both countries, after the Australian Prime Minister’s Industry 4.0 Taskforce and its German Platform Industrie 4.0 equivalent signed a cooperation agreement in Germany this week.
The signing was part of a week-long Australian Innovation Delegation visit to Germany, with senior Australian manufacturing industy leaders attending innovation forums with German industry as well as the renowned Hannover Messe advanced manufacturing exhibition.
“The agreement has a strong focus on supporting SMEs in both countries to seize the opportunities offered by Industry 4.0”
Platform Industrie 4.0 (Germany) and the Prime Minister’s Industry 4.0 Taskforce (Australia) will cooperate across five work streams, representing key challenges in the transition to Industry 4.0:
- reference architectures, standards and norms;
- support for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs);
- Industry 4.0-Testlabs;
- security of networked systems; and
- work, education and training.
The agreement fulfils a recommendation by the Australia-Germany Advisory Group relating to collaboration to increase leadership on digital transformation, including the development of global Industry 4.0 standards. The agreement also forms part of the broader cooperation between Australia and Germany on science and innovation.
Australian Federal Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science Arthur Sinodinos said the cooperative work under the agreement would be supported by government, industry, and standards and research organisations within both countries.
“I am particularly pleased that the agreement has a strong focus on supporting SMEs in both countries to seize the opportunities offered by Industry 4.0 including through access to a network of test labs,” he said.
Speaking at the Australia Now innovation forum in Berlin on Monday, Australia’s Chief Scientist and delegation leader Dr. Alan Finkel used Queensland University start up company Tritium and its electric car charging system as an example of how nurtured innovation can produce a world-class product.
“Start with a group of engineering students at a university in Queensland,” he said.
“Set them a challenge: build a solar car to race across the Australian desert, all the way from Darwin to Alice Springs. Nurture their ideas in hubs for cutting-edge science and research. Challenge them to do things they haven’t done before.
“Take their technology through proof-of-concept, in collaboration with established firms. Support them through the Valley of Death with public seed funding, and government support for market-scale demonstration projects.
“Then watch them sell their technology across the world: with a gold-standard product for the global market; and a business model proven to work. The name of this particular Australian company is Tritium. It’s exhibiting at the Hannover industrial fair this week.
“And its product will soon be very familiar on European roads. Tritium is now the supplier of choice to the German company E-WALD, with its network of charging stations across the country.”
Industry 4.0 Taskforce chair and Siemens Pacific CEO Jeff Connolly said digital transformation would help ensure the future of Australian manufacturing.
“For Australia to have a role in exporting any product to the world, we have to be engineering capable,” he said. “That’s what this whole Industry 4.0 is actually preparing us for.”