By 
The world has changed with Covid, not only the conditions and environment many live and work in, but also it has had a very significant impact on businesses and industry in how they operate given both current and future challenges faced. I myself am very passionate about the greater competitiveness of industry and feel quite strongly that a great opportunity to drive greater competitiveness exists right now through automation.
A great illustration of this right here in our back yard is what some might know as Project Med-Con.
At the outset of Covid, with severe disruption to the global supply chain of PPE especially masks, a key defence against the virus particularly for front line workers, called for a significant increase in local manufacture to support demand. The sole local manufacturer of masks, a small company Med-Con in Shepparton, soon realised with only 2 of 3 of their 40 year old machines operational this wouldn’t get them there. It took considerable effort from Med-con, the Australian Government, the ADF, Foodmach and partners like Rockwell Automation to rebuild, automate and build more machines. A key aspect was in the modernisation with latest controls and automation for what are now smart machines taking Med-con’s production capability from some 2 million masks to 160 million masks a year!
These kind of possibilities exist for industry with automation, industrial automation is progressing at a furious pace with not only what is increasingly possible but available in options, to support business appetite for greater capability, better productivity and further improvements in safety, quality and cost.
While all these prospects can be quite exciting, it is not without considerable effort and it also brings with it some challenges as outlined on Foodmach’s webpage in relation to project medcon that needed to be managed,
https://foodmach.com/project-med-con
It is particularly challenging for those in Automation roles, not only in the integrating and interfacing between all these systems, but also into what legacy systems exist and to match business expectations and including various change aspects. These systems can also tend to throw up concerns for cybersecurity and also how parts, knowledge, training, support and obsolescence are managed often requiring a strategic approach.
To support industry with Automation, SIRF has the following event running:
15th Oct, SIRF’s Industrial Maintenance Roundtable | Automation with Expert Presenters – 1 day on line conference
SIRF has 5 Excellent expert presenters as per below + Roundtable discussion;
- John Broadbent, Realise Potential - The Technology Debt in Industrial Automation
- Peter Brouwer, Saputo Dairy - Integrating automation in a plant setting
- Craig Pentecost, Scott Automation - Non-typical applications of automation
- Alec Schwartz, AVS Consulting - Managing automation projects
- Gavin Alder, Foodmach - Remote programming, commissioning and training(in covid)
There is no cost (for SIRF Members) to attend these, they are via video conferencing. As an online Automation Roundtable, you can join for the whole session or only for presentations that take interest, you can come and go as you please to meet your other commitments!
This roundtable is a chance to learn and share on Automation. A chance to share best practice with others and also learn from others on aspects related to Automation including technologies involved, and challenges around implementing, managing and supporting these. Only 2 weeks to go and we have 32 companies part of this so far from across Australia and New Zealand. Encourage to book on those interested as it is booking up fast.
Alain LeBon, IMRt State Manager for Victoria and Tasmania