Manufacturing In Australia Research Articles

Comparison of the Analysis of Respirable Crystalline Silica in Workplace Air by Direct-on-Filter Methods using X-ray Diffraction and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy.

A comparison of the analysis of respirable crystalline silica direct-on-filter methods using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy was undertaken using 253 real workplace air samples from road construction and tunnelling, coal mining, and kitchen benchtop manufacturing in Australia. Using pure α-quartz standards, XRD and FT-IR direct-on-filter analyses produced identical test results, however, the real workplace samples showed a clear discrepancy between FT-IR and XRD results with on average a 9% positive bias of the FT-IR results. The cause of the positive bias was due to matrix interferences which was confirmed by using synthetic mixture air samples. Approximately a third of the data by direct-on-filter method using FT-IR was assessed to be invalid based on the peak height ratio criterion due to excessive interferences and weight overload limitations. The XRD method showed better results due to less interference from the common matrices. XRD could handle up to twice the sample loading and at higher loadings up to 7 mg when a correction was applied. It was also able to achieve a lower limit of detection of 2 µg filter−1 when a slower scan condition was utilized.

Knowing thyself: an audit of cell therapy manufacturing in Australia and New Zealand

Background & Aim We conducted a survey to assess cell therapy manufacturing capacity in Australia and New Zealand. We examined the number and types of cell therapy manufacturing facilities; the number of projects, parallel processes and clinical trials; the types of products; and manufacturing and quality staffing levels. We identified participant cell therapy manufacturing facilities by contacting individuals working in the field of cell therapy in Australia and New Zealand and inviting submissions on a one per cell manufacturing facility basis. Methods, Results & Conclusion The overall response rate was 59% (23 of 38 eligible facilities). Of the 23 responding facilities, 21 are in Australia and 2 are in New Zealand. Eighteen are run by public organisations and five by private organisations and a diverse range of accreditations were represented. There were 43 GMP laboratories across 14 of 22 facilities that reported on this parameter and approximately 4.6 manufacturing staff and 1.7 quality staff per facility. Products included hematopoietic progenitor cells, mononuclear cells, T-cells, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, CD34+ cells, mesenchymal stem cells and chimeric antigen receptor T-cells, therapeutic T-cell subsets, cell banks, autologous serum eye drops, keratinocytes, human amnion epithelial cells, pancreatic islets, dendritic cells and chondrocytes. Research interests were processing and storage optimization; the effect of methodologies on engraftment; gene and cell therapy; the biology of manufactured cell types; cell tracking and imaging; cell culture platforms; bioscaffolds; 3-D bioprinting; transplantation and the diseases treated. Reported collaborations included within Australia and with groups in Basel, Busan, Boston, Cambridge MA, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Montreal, Nagoya, New York, Philadelphia, Stockholm and Toronto. Other national manufacturing-relevant assets are the Centre of Research Excellence in MedTech in New Zealand, the Cooperative Research Centre for Cell Therapy Manufacturing in Australia, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Centre and Advanced Health Research and Translation Centres and Therapeutic Innovation Australia. Australian and New Zealand provide a platform for cell therapy manufacturing, infrastructure and capacity building. These form the foundation to enable both countries to meet the growing need for cell and gene therapy and regenerative medicine in our region.

A Review of Manufacturing in Australia

Manufacturing as a share of Australia’s gross domestic product has constantly declined since 1960. In 2016 manufacturing activity accounted for less than 10% of gross domestic product and employed less Australians than ever before. The paper intends to review the history of manufacturing in Australia and evaluate the condition of the sector in 2016. After this evaluation; recommendations are made on how both governments and businesses can reform to rejuvenate growth. An extensive analysis of the literature in conjunction with interviews with different Australian manufacturing businesses was used to execute the analysis. The literature emphasised tariff removal, a high Australian dollar and an increasingly globalised world as the primary causes of manufacturing’s decline. Businesses highlighted the geographical isolation of the nation, the low population, high labour costs and the high Australian dollar as some of the barriers to growth of the sector. Focusing on new advanced manufacturing technologies, reducing corporate tax and improving public infrastructure are some of the recommendations made to help the sector reverse the negative trend. The evaluation of the sector with these recommendations is significant to both governments and businesses as it provides avenues for growth and investment relevant to the post mining boom economy.

Workforce Adaptation to the Cessation of Motor Vehicle Manufacturing in Australia

Over 2016 and 2017, the last of Australia's motor vehicle manufacturing plants will close their doors, retrenching several thousand workers. Agility, the solution to our economic woes, will be the key to recovery. Just how agile will workers need to be? This paper describes a scenario in which there is no “damage” in terms of increased unemployment, facilitated by flexibility in both occupation‐specific real wages and willingness of workers to transition to new occupations and new regions. The scenario identifies occupations and regions into which displaced workers may transition, based on an economy‐wide view of regional industry demands for labour and the skill profiles of the displaced workers.

Path dependence, policy learning and Australian manufacturing since the 1970s

ABSTRACTThe impending demise of passenger motor vehicle manufacturing in Australia provides a good opportunity to view the trajectory of industry policy since the Whitlam government commenced the process of tariff cuts in 1973. It is argued that industry policy over this period demonstrates the effects of path dependence and a lack of policy learning. In the industry policy context, the path dependence perspective suggests three key factors in explaining policy effects: the importance of initial conditions; the role of cumulative causation in the interaction between policy settings, actors and firms; and the shaping role of networks. While political or electoral factors could, on occasion, generate support for threatened industries, overall, neo-liberal policy ideas guided decision-making. An examination of Australian defence industry, and a comparison of the Australian and New Zealand dairy and milk processing industries reinforces the importance of institutionally shaped path dependency.

Who Killed the Australian Automotive Industry: The Employers, Government or Trade Unions?

The decision by the three multinational automotive manufacturers – Ford, General Motors and Toyota – to cease production in Australia followed a long period of decline in the local industry. This paper examines the factors potentially contributing to these decisions including reductions in government assistance to the industry, the volatility in exchange rates, global strategic decisions by the parent companies to shift production to expanding markets in Asia, and the role of industrial relations and trade unions. Despite the attention given in public discourse to industrial relations arrangements in supposedly hastening the demise of local automotive manufacturing, we find that this factor made no identifiable difference to the final decisions of the parent companies in Tokyo and Detroit to cease production in Australia, which can be attributed to an unfavourable conjuncture of factors. The paper concludes by considering possible options for retaining some aspects of automotive manufacturing in Australia in the future.

Jobs for creatives outside the creative industries: a study of creatives working in the Australian manufacturing industry

More creatives work outside the creative industries than inside them. Recent Australian Census data show that 52 per cent of creatives work outside of the core creative industries. These embedded creatives make up 2 per cent of manufacturing industry employees. There is little qualitative research into embedded creatives. This paper aims to address this by exploring the contribution of creative skills to manufacturing in Australia. Through four case studies of designers and marketing staff in lighting and car seat manufacturing companies, this paper demonstrates some of the work that embedded creatives undertake in the manufacturing industry and some of the ways that they contribute to innovation. The paper also considers perspectives embedded creatives bring to manufacturing and challenges involved in being a creative worker in a non-creative industry. This research is important to economic development issues, demonstrating some of the roles of key innovators in an important industry. This work also informs the education of creative industries students who will go on to contribute in a variety of industries. Furthermore, this research exemplifies one industry where employment is available to creatives outside of the creative industries.

De-industrialisation, financialisation and Australia's macro-economic trap

The seemingly inexorable decline of manufacturing in Australia is typically explained by firm-level competitiveness, especially labour costs, the challenges posed by a peripheral location, and the (Dutch disease) effects of Australia’s mining boom. We argue that such explanations are insufficient, and look instead to the way that processes of financialisation and the policy settings of other countries combine to inflate the value of the Australian currency and render trade exposed industries uncompetitive. We conclude that Australia is locked into a macroeconomic trap through which the global financial crisis is being exported to peripheral economies.

Innovative manufacturing in Australia’s emerging regenerative medicine industry: centralised factories to decentralised facilities

Regenerative medicine therapies are showing great clinical promise in providing cures to life-threatening diseases such as cancer and diabetes. However, little emphasis has been placed on the industrialisation of these therapies for commercial purposes. The inability to scale production up and out to meet pending demand is of increasing concern to both regulators and funding agencies. Using an open innovation theoretic lens, this paper explores the importance of involving commercial partners within the lengthy research and development phases. We adopt a case study method to show that laboratory processes that incorporate innovative manufacturing techniques produce significant reduction in cost of quality (errors) and improved scalability, while satisfying regulatory requirements. We demonstrate that this approach enables faster industrialisation, and improves the funding efficiency of clinical trial outcomes in terms of quality, cost and commercial success of therapies.

Policy Learning, Path Dependence and Australian Manufacturing, 197442014

The imminent demise of passenger motor vehicle manufacturing in Australia provides a good opportunity to view the trajectory of industry policy over the past 40 years (since the Whitlam government commenced the process of tariff cuts in 1973). With the exception of plans for restructuring a number of industries, the policy paradigm of economic rationalism has guided decision-making throughout that period. This way of framing policy has precluded both policy learning (because alternative viewpoints have been marginalised) and the formation of networks through which learning can occur. The paper argues that the growth and development of industry sectors is both path dependent, and vulnerable to tipping points. An essentially laissez-faire policy has hollowed-out, not only labour-intensive but also capital-intensive industries (such as food processing) that were once considered to offer significant opportunities for exports. Path dependence also directs our attention to ‘what might have been’. Of particular concern has been the failure to support new investment in science- and technology-based industries, and to link these activities with trade initiatives, and with the activities of state and territory governments. More broadly, the prolonged resources boom has resulted in Australian policy torpor in relation to manufacturing and associated services. The case of New Zealand, which has combined economic rationalism with real policy innovation and ‘attack’, demonstrates the importance both of incentives and focus in successful policy-making in this field.

Drivers, constraints and the future of offsite manufacture in Australia

PurposeMuch has been written on offsite manufacture (OSM) in construction, particularly regarding the perceived benefits and barriers to implementation. However, very little understanding of the state of OSM in the Australian construction industry exists. A “scoping study” was recently conducted to determine the “state‐of‐the‐art” of OSM in Australia. The purpose of this paper is to report on the overall findings of the study.Design/methodology/approachThe study took a broad qualitative survey‐based approach. This involved three industry workshops, several interviews and seven case studies across four major states of Australia. The study surveyed a range of suppliers across the construction supply‐chain, incorporating the civil, commercial and housing segments of the market.FindingsThe study revealed that skills shortages and lack of adequate OSM knowledge are generally the greatest issues facing OSM in Australia. OSM uptake into the future is dependent on many factors, not least of which is a better understanding of the construction process and its associated costs. Unlike the USA and UK, the Australian construction industry faces unique challenges in how it transforms construction into a modern and efficient industry.Originality/valueThis is the first work undertaken to determine the benefits and barriers to OSM in the Australian construction industry.

Heroin–gel capsule cocktails and groin injecting practices among ethnic Vietnamese in Melbourne, Australia

Background Evidence of harms associated with temazepam gel capsule injecting among injecting drug users in Australia led to its withdrawal from manufacture in Australia. Subsequently, diphenhydramine gel capsule injecting was identified among a subset of ethnic Vietnamese injecting drug users. Methods Observational fieldwork around an active street-based illicit drug marketplace together with targeted purposive sampling enabled 66 ethnic Vietnamese injecting drug users to be recruited for in-depth interview. Results Data revealed that the injection of gel capsules increases exposure to non-viral infections. Analysis of participant interviews show how participants have established their own ways of reducing these harms including thinning the drug solution by jacking regularly during injection. Controversially, femoral vein administration of diphenhydramine–heroin cocktails was also seen as a harm reduction strategy by participants. Discussion Health education campaigns to address the potentially negative consequences of gel capsule groin injection will not be successful unless health workers and policy makers work with drug users and incorporate local understandings and meanings of risk in health promotion activities.

‘The Assembly Line and Cars Come First’: Labor Relations and the Demise of Nissan Car Manufacturing in Australia

This article examines the fate of Nissan's plant in Melbourne, Australia, which the company closed in 1992. Studies of Japanese car plants that were set up in overseas markets have generally been positive, outlining how these firms were able to thrive by setting up flexible or lean production methods. In Australia, however, the company was unable to establish lean production and executives complained bitterly about union resistance to non-traditional production methods. The plant was also dogged by poor worker morale and high turnover. This is the first study of Nissan's Australian plant and it shows that not all Japanese transplants were successful.

Three Little Companies — the Birth of a Major Australian Scientific Instrument Industry

The atomic absorption spectrometer revolutionized chemical analysis in the 1960s. Invented by Alan Walsh of the CSIRO Division of Chemical Physics, its manufacture in Australia began with three small Melbourne companies making the necessary optical, mechanical and electronic components. Subsequently, one of these companies, Techtron Pty Ltd, made a complete instrument and became a major supplier to the international market. Techtron expanded rapidly and in 1967 was sold to a large US company, Varian Associates Inc., which still operates as Varian Australia Pty Ltd and manufactures atomic absorption spectrometers and other scientific instruments at Mulgrave, Victoria.

Business Growth and Performance and the FinancialReporting Practices of Australian Manufacturing SMEs

This article describes an explanatory study of the impact of financial reporting practices upon business growth and performance outcomes amongst small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged in manufacturing in Australia. The study is able to establish some statistically significant bivariate associations between the extent and frequency of financial reporting undertaken and certain measures of SME growth and performance. However, the state of financial reporting practices becomes subsumed by other important influences in multivariate analysis. Management is a complex activity affected by a myriad of interacting internal and external factors, and must inevitably be undertaken in an holistic manner in SMEs. Particular practices make a contribution to the whole task without necessarily standing out as all‐embracing solutions to problems generally encountered. Thus, it is argued that improved financial reporting should be realistically viewed as simply part of a broader competence in financial management which, taken together with other functional capabilities, is likely to lead to more effective and efficient management of SMEs and significantly improve their prospects.

The development of atomic absorption spectrometer manufacture in Australia

The development of atomic absorption spectrometer manufacture in Australia

Developing agile manufacturing in Australia

Traces the development of agile manufacturing in Australia from the early 1980s to the present day. Looks at relevant projects and studies in the field such as the JITVIC program which focused on just‐in‐time manufacturing during 1985 and major studies carried out by the Australian Manufacturing Council in the early 1990s. Notes that a foundation for the development of agile manufacturing has been laid in Australia and that progress has been made by large companies. Points out, however, that smaller companies still require an initial push.

Modelling the Extent of Financial Reporting Practices amongst Australian Manufacturing SMEs

This paper describes an exploratory study of financial reporting practices amongst small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged in manufacturing in Australia. Non-linear principal components analysis is employed in empirical derivation of an overall measure of the comprehensiveness of financial reporting practices undertaken in the SMEs investigated. Non-linear principal components analysis is also used in empirically capturing the business context in terms of enterprise and financial management characteristics. Polytomous logistic regression modelling reveals development orientation, extent of owner-management, technological complexity, degree of reliance upon external financial advice, and the financial reporting climate to be the most significant influences on the extent of financial reporting practices in the SMEs under study. Of the business context factors identified, development orientation and financial reporting climate seem to have greatest impact. The study appears to reinforce the impression that SME growth is a key driver towards more sophisticated financial reporting practices. Alternately, better financial reporting may be viewed as an important enabling factor in realising the growth aspirations of such concerns.

Financial Reporting Practices of Australian Manufacturing SMEs

The purpose of this paper is to present new empirical evidence on the financial reporting practices of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged in manufacturing in Australia. The primary concern is with preparation and use of general purpose financial reports for financial management purposes within the cooperating SMEs. Financial systems and their review, financial audit, internal and external financial advice, financial decision-making, historical and future-oriented financial reporting practices, and historical financial statement analysis practices are all considered. The findings suggest that, compared to other Australian SME research, financial reporting practices amongst the collaborating businesses are evidently of a high standard, and must be seen as very encouraging from a financial management viewpoint.

The foundation of aircraft manufacturing in Australia: political resolve or changed industrial conditions?

The foundation of aircraft manufacturing in Australia: political resolve or changed industrial conditions?