Opinion

Priorities in the supply chain are expanding, moving away from cost as the main driver behind purchasing decisions. Now, sustainability and ethical sourcing are grabbing a portion of the spotlight.

Australian consumers value safety and reliability. When they buy a product, whether it’s food, appliances, vehicles, or hardware, they expect it to perform as promised and meet acceptable quality standards. 

Across today’s ever-changing manufacturing landscape, automation is no longer a luxury — it’s a necessity. The field of additive manufacturing (AM) is no exception.

As we enter 2025, warehouse automation and intralogistics continue to be shaped by technological innovation, evolving consumer demands, labour challenges and space scarcity, and a continued drive to optimise performance and efficiency.

Industries like mining and manufacturing may often be perceived as traditional, but they are rapidly evolving thanks to groundbreaking technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing.

Australians are familiar with natural disasters like heatwaves, bushfires, droughts, floods, severe storms, and tropical cyclones. According to the Climate Council, 84 per cent of Australians have been directly affected by at least one climate-fuelled disaster since 2019(1).

The industrial machinery and heavy equipment manufacturing sector is critical not only for its direct outputs, machines, and equipment that pave the way for construction, agriculture and manufacturing but also for its crucial role in economic development and innovation. 

In the past year, artificial intelligence (AI) has surged forward like a digital renaissance, echoing the rapid and transformative rise of the Internet in the late 1990s. It has revolutionised industries and redefined our daily lives with extraordinary speed – and its impact is set to grow even more substantially in the coming years.

In the past year, artificial intelligence (AI) has surged forward like a digital renaissance, echoing the rapid and transformative rise of the Internet in the late 1990s.

The Australian manufacturing sector is in a state of emergency. Insolvencies have tripled in two years since 2022, and the industry is battling a perfect storm of labor shortages, supply chain disruption, and skyrocketing inflation.