High-tech Manufacturing “booming” in Australia

The depreciation in the Australian dollar has seen manufacturing exports up sharply, led by high-value companies selling into global supply chains.

The Australian Financial Review reports recently that transport equipment exports and machinery & equipment categories have seen exports grow by 9.9 and 11 per cent in the last year.

"Perhaps traditional manufacturing is not doing so well, but high-tech, high-value manufacturing is booming,” the Australian Industry Group’s John O’Callaghan told The AFR, adding that the highest-value global supply chain was in defence and aerospace.

Companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Thales valued Australian SMEs as suppliers for their innovation, engineering and other sets of expertise, as well as the political stability of the market and its nearness to Asia. He cited suppliers to Thales for its Bushmaster, Quickstep and Marand Precision Engineering.

"These are Australian companies, building the most complex pieces of machinery in the world today. They employ hundreds of people and build skills capacity in this country," said O’Gallaghan.

To this one could also add Austal – now a major shipbuilder for the US military as well as some other countries with its specialised mostly aluminium vessels, made in Australia as well as overseas sites in the US and The Philippines.  There has also been some reports that Incat in Tasmania now has stronger overseas ship building orders also.

Maybe mass scale manufacturing is unwell, but there are some very smart smaller companies moving to fill the gap, many operating in highly competitive niche areas of hi tech manufacturing outside the defence and aerospace areas where they are thriving, albeit from a small base.  They tend to operate below the radar of the general public, but they really are very smart operators, even in areas such as agriculture and solar cells [Dyesol].  One could also add the computer software company Atlassian – but does it truly manufacture?  

Urban Agriculture - Concepts for 2050

While 2050 might be 40 years in the future, planning and development thinking has already been evolving about what agriculture might be like.

There have been options mulled over including : -

• agriculture and horticulture as part of green roofs on multi story buildings
• use of the vertical surfaces of building to have plants growing on the facades
• use of warehouses to convert to hydroponic production [ currently being done in some rundown city areas in the USA]
• local community gardens
• locally reprocessed and used organic wastes and water

and the most recent scenario is even more ambitious.

It is the integration of production, processing and sale of fresh produce including fish farming and potentially some animal production such as chickens and other poultry in an integrated manner in a single facility.

It also potentially offers urban recycling as presumably a facility might also require composts and recycled water.

The link is: -http://www.justmeans.com/Agropolis-Future-of-Urban-Agriculture/30772.html

It is an intriguing concept and it would have many advantages for many cool regions of the world.

It is reproduced below. Read and think........

Last week at the Nordic Exceptional Trendshop 2010, held in Denmark, one presentation took urban agriculture to the next level. A collaboration with NASA, you might even say it launched urban agriculture out of this world, and into the future.

The idea is called Agropolis, a combination grocery store, restaurant, and farm all in one building, employing the most advanced technologies in hydroponic, aeroponic, and aquaponic farming. As it stands, Agropolis is still just a mere idea, with little more than some cool graphics to back it up.

But regardless, Agropolis ushers forth a new wave of thinking about urban food systems.

The team behind the Agropolis concept proposes that this new generation of store would be an ecosystem unto itself, a finely tuned orchestra of parts in balance, that would not only be totally envrionmentally sustainably and friendly, but also just plain producing the freshest food around.

But what would all these innovative, NASA-inspired state of the art hydroponics and other high-tech solutions look like in practice? ............According to the vision of Agropolis, a customer would walk into a store that is covered in green. Vegetables growing on the walls as far as the eye can see. And below the floors one would see tilapia swimming, working in tandem with vegetables in an aquaponic system. You would buy a tomato that was literally just picked, from a plant that you can see in front of you. The store would bring a whole new meaning to local, and one-up the notion of hyper local, since all the food available to eat or buy would have traveled zero miles from the farm to the store. At most, just a few steps.

It all sounds grand, and more than a little space-age. But the challenge given to the team that came up with Agropolis wasn't entirely outside reality: Create a farm without relying on arable lad. As the Earth's healthy soil and other resources dwindle, it may not be out of the realm of possibility that a system like Agropolis be needed, particularly in urban areas.

And while urban agriculture has come a long way, incorporating all kinds of creative and innovative ideas and technologies, in order to make it work on a large and global scale it may be time for something as futuristic and high-tech as Agropolis. But imagine if, in fifty years, or some other future point, our grocery stores did include built in farms, how our relationship to food would change. For one thing, the variety of food we eat might change--are there some vegetables and fruits that can't be grown using these artificial systems? Would we only eat tilapia, and no other meat?

Other vertical and urban farm project proposals include a variety of "staple" crops and animals that all work seamlessly together. But is biting into a fresh, hydroponic, LED light feeding tomato really as good as getting one from your local organic farmer who's tomatoes ripen in the sun?

What will the foodies of this imagined future look like?

In this brave new world of urban agriculture, one this is certain: While Agropolis insists that the store/restaurant/farm will be a sort of ultimate consumer experience, it'll be a much different experience than what we have access to now.

A Sign of the Times??

Is this a sign of the times? Is the China tale over, with issues of quality and cost now rapidly appearing. Even Australian manufacturers such as Fisher and Paykel opted to use Thailand rather than China in recent times for off shore manufacturing.

Manufacturers bringing die casting back home
3 March 2009

A RECENT survey conducted in the US shows American manufacturers are turning their backs on Chinese die casters and bringing their work back home.

The North American Die Casting Association (NADCA) reports that a recent survey of its members reveals a significant majority, 78%, have evidence that buyers of their products are shifting to domestic sources for diecast components. The survey identifies three reasons for these shifts: buyers’ concerns about the product quality, supplier proximity, and overseas logistics.

Daniel L. Twarog offered examples from NADCA’s survey of diecasters’ indications that their businesses are benefiting from broad-scale changes in the industrial supply chain.

Milwaukee-based Stroh Die Casting sales manager Andy Stroh indicated to NADCA that OEMs want to locate domestic suppliers because they have trouble with the quality of imported diecastings. "One company has talked to us about bringing some parts back — particularly plated or painted parts," he said. "Poor packaging results in parts getting damaged during shipment." Stroh also confirms the observation that domestic manufacturers increasingly prefer nearby suppliers. "We are tooling up an aluminium diecast part for a company in Green Bay, WI, that was previously made in China," Stroh explained. "The customer had quality issues with the part and difficulties relaying part changes effectively. That's why we got the work -- because of our proximity to the customer, understanding of their needs and our willingness to build the new tool quickly."

Proximity to suppliers may be a determining factor for OEMs because delivery raises cost and production time. Together, these increases may eliminate any savings from offshore production.

Chicago White Metal Die Casting president and COO Eric Treiber confirmed both trends. He indicated to NADCA that his company was awarded some contracts both because of quality issues and proximity concerns with offshore diecasters. "We have, within the last year, produced castings that were previously sourced offshore," according to Treiber. "It is our understanding that two magnesium castings we produce, which were previously sourced offshore, were brought back to the U.S. for reasons of quality and proximity of the supply base."

Another diecaster revealed that his company is now producing an order for about 500,000 zinc components that had been manufactured in China.

The reason, "Metal costs fluctuated in China, and suppliers would not take orders at prices that had previously made them competitive. Adding increased transportation costs, you can see how the trend changed. At our plant, we remained tooled and had machine capacity at our U.S. plant to be able to absorb the work without any capital outlay."

While acknowledging that the diecasting industry “is facing its share of challenges during these economic times,” and that diecasters must take necessary steps “to maintain a profit and stay afloat,” NADCA president Twarog concluded from these and other examples that “good news seems to be on the horizon.”