HMC insights

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The question of whether Australia continues to be a country where we make things depends on a number of factors: the price of imports, the cost of labour and resources, the desire of Australians to buy locally-made goods and the quality and design of what we are making in this country. 

In manufacturing, everyone has access to pretty much the same equipment, similar materials, and finance structures. These do not change much from business to business. But employees can mean the difference in product quality, service, innovation, and agility.

It has become a business cliché that ‘our greatest asset is our people’, but if that is truly the case in Australian business, why do so many business leaders look askance when I tell them that I like to talk to our production team members?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a poorly understood technology. How else to explain the gulf between its fans who see AI improving how we do everything, and its detractors who see AI as dangerous and giving too much power to machines? 

The decision of the New South Wales government to axe the role of Commissioner of Modern Manufacturing last week, came as a shock to many Australian manufacturers.

The passing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the United States last year opened many Australians’ eyes, including mine, to where the world economy might be heading and what might be possible with domestic manufacturing.

Can we make alternatives to petroleum products that are carbon-neutral and biodegradable, and also as reliable as they need to be?