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5.4 Contribution of universities and research organisations

In the current manufacturing environment, there is a growing trend for companies to work more closely with universities and public research organisations in collaborative and cooperative research and development (Howard 2004a). This is reflected in industry–university research centres and institutes, including centres of excellence and cooperative research centres. A number of state governments have made significant investments in research facilities that support academic–industry research collaboration [10] .

ICT is a key factor in many of these collaborative efforts. For example, the research programs of Australian Government funded cooperative research centres (CRCs) in the manufacturing sector provide a high level of commitment to applicable research relating to photonic and digital sensors and signalling, and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies. CRCs in agriculture, the environment and mining also have research programs that have ICT–related outcomes. The development and application of software is a major aspect of innovation oriented projects and ventures in cooperative and collaborative research.

Bluescope Steel

Bluescopes’s Seamguard™ technology was developed in collaboration with the CRC for Welded Structures at the University of Wollongong. The Seamguard™ technology detects faulty welds as soon as they are made. The technology prevents potentially costly weld breaks in the production line. Operators are forewarned that a weld is faulty, allowing defective welds to be cut out. 

The technology, through in-line monitoring, allows independent assessment of welds – that is, independent of operator, maintenance or calibration. When work on the project first commenced there was an average of 19 breaks per year. Current performance now stands at four.

Overall, in 2002-03 the Australian and state governments contributed $60m directly to a total of $200m for manufacturing related research undertaken in higher education institutions. Governments also contributed $184m of a total of $233m in manufacturing research undertaken in public research organisations. A substantial proportion of this research is ICT related (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2004a, 2004b).

The CSIRO, through the Division of Manufacturing & Infrastructure Technology, has assisted and supported a number of companies with ICT enabled process and product improvement [11] . Zuster Furniture is one such company. 

Zuster Furniture

Zuster Furniture has been working with CSIRO in a project to use ICT as a basis for shifting from a craft-based manufacturing model to an ICT-influenced model that still retains the best elements of craft production. This involves changing the ways in which the existing production process is used rather than the technologies and tools in the production process itself. In this skilled craft-based environment, ICT is used to collect data on the status of all the jobs under production in order to drive team-based productivity improvement efforts. Simply by identifying what is going right and wrong, team-based efforts are able to address these problems.

 

 

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  • Last modified: 5 February 2008, 10:32am