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In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, Simran Gill speaks to Dr Ian Mann, CTO of semiconductor business BluGlass, about why deep tech companies must prepare for scale from day one and embrace long development timelines.

Further reading

BluGlass raises $5.3 million in SPP

BluGlass secures $2.9 million sub-contract through US microelectronics hub

BluGlass to provide chips for blue ocean LiDAR project

BluGlass completes GaNWorks acquisition

BluGlass launches laser diode range at US industry event

BluGlass demonstrates working laser diodes

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In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, John Broadbent tells us about the worrying prevalence of fully-depreciated equipment in Australia's industry, explains why a smart factory he helped build in 2011 has only become more productive in the years since, and more.

@AuManufacturing is a media partner for Industrial Transformation Australia 2025, which Broadbent will be a speaker at. You can find more information about this free event – to be held July 22-24 at The Dome, Sydney Olympic Park – at here.

Episode guide

0:56 – An introduction. Approaching a 50th anniversary in the industry.

3:28 – Industrial Transformation Australia and his message on practical transformation and not getting stuck in “pilot purgatory”.

4:15 – Why organisations need bottom-up and top-down buy-in and get to “proof of value”.

6:16 – A lack of understanding from many companies on what Industry 4 is.

7:10 – Poor level of industrial sophistication in Australia.

8:10 – A remarkable number of factories not on a stable network that can mine data in real time, plus an anecdote about inefficient operations at one company.

9:58 – The need for investment and, again, strategy.

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When a critical medication that protects Australia's most vulnerable communities runs short, who pays the price? A new investigation reveals the shocking gaps in our pharmaceutical sovereignty.

In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, Simran Gill learns about Australia's pharmaceutical manufacturing challenges and the experts' detailed proposals for sovereign medicine production.

Featuring

- Dr Rosemary Wyber, Senior Research Fellow, The Kids Research Institute Australia;

- Associate Professor Glenn Pearson, Director of First Nations Strategy at The Kids Research Institute Australia; and

- Associate Professor Laurens Manning from The University of Western Australia.

Further reading

Call for homegrown medicine production as penicillin imports dry up

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Spotlight on Scaling Up is an event by @AuManufacturing and sponsored by BDO, the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre, and the Australian Business Growth Fund. Join us at UTS Building 8, 14–28 Ultimo Road to learn the importance of the issue at an economy-wide level, how world-class local enterprises have grown out of the small business category and beyond, and how you can apply their lessons to your business. TICKETS AND INFO HERE

here: https://events.humanitix.com/spotlight-on-scaling-up

In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, we hear from Paul Childers, Partner in BDO's Deal Advisory team in Sydney. He tells about some of the things that private equity investors will stress test in a manufacturer, how you can command a higher multiple, and more.

Episode guide

0:53 – An introduction to Childers and his work.

1:58 – The issue of scale’s importance in manufacturing at a macro and micro level.

4:15 – How to get the best valuation when fronting potential investors

6:02 – What a bank is looking for vs an investor

7:02 – Articulating a clear value proposition

8:15 – The importance of investor materials and what these should include

9:28 – There are different kinds of investors, and it’s important to look at a number of them.

10:55 – Spotlight on Scaling Up and Childers’ presentation, which will look at what makes a manufacturing company valuable through an investor’s lens.

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In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, Rachel Reilly from Ethical Clothing Australia tells us about the shape of the Australian TCF sector and its workforce, the importance of government procurement, what international trade issues could mean, and more.

You can find out about the Ethically Made In Australia Week Pop-Up Event here. It runs Thursday June 26 – Sunday June 29, 2025, at 306-308 Brunswick St, Fitzroy VIC

Episode guide

0:30 – Career path

1:50 – What Ethical Clothing Australia does

3:54 – The TCF industry in Australia in terms of its economic value

5:10 – Data on the industry’s size and some of the shortcomings of these figures

6:03 – Most businesses are on the smaller side.

7:10 – The workforce and some of the difficulties in properly accounting for it.

8:24 – The highly-feminised nature of the workforce

9:55 – A large proportion of the workforce is born overseas

10:54 – The market for what’s made here. It tends to be geared towards quality and an ethically-conscious consumer.

11:55 – The importance of government procurement to the sector

13:02 – Regarding trade uncertainties and what they mean for this industry.

15:25 – A maturing workforce, skills shortages, and the ability to ramp up production if needed.

17:41 – Ethically Made In Australia popup from June 25th to June 29 in Fitzroy

19:16 – Ethical Clothing Week in October

20:25 – Where listeners can find out more

Further reading

Ethical Clothing Australia's website

Rediscovering our ability to spin a yarn

TCF’s commitment to ethical local manufacturing and jobs

Andrews says buying locally important “now more than ever”

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Welcome to this special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, which is part of our annual Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers campaign.

It's been made possible through the support of Australia Wide Engineering Recruitment, TXM Lean Solutions, the Industry Capability Network, Bonfiglioli Australia, the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre and the SmartCrete CRC.

In this episode, Simran Gill speaks to David Smirk, who explains how a vindictive equipment operator's act of sabotage in 1989 led to an internationally significant breakthrough in mining waste management.

Phibion was a Top 10 Gold Award winner at the recent Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers awards.

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In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, Simran Gill speaks to Dr Joe Berry and Dr Peter Sherrell, from the University of Melbourne and RMIT University respectively, who have discovered that water generates an electrical charge up to 10 times greater than previously understood when it moves across a surface.

The pair reveal their groundbreaking "stick-slip" motion research and what it means for manufacturing, fuel safety, and energy storage.

Further reading

Scientists shocked by water’s hidden electrical power

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Welcome to this special episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, which is part of our annual Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers campaign.

It's been made possible through the support of Australia Wide Engineering Recruitment, TXM Lean Solutions, the Industry Capability Network, Bonfiglioli Australia, the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre and the SmartCrete CRC.

Be sure to join us on May 7 at the Crown Melbourne for our awards event and the unveiling of this year's 50 Most Innovative list.

In this episode we hear from Medsalv founder and CEO Oliver Hunt, whose Trans-Tasman company has its roots in Hunt's Master of Engineering Management research at University of Canterbury. He tells us about making healthcare more sustainable and more efficient, setting up in Australia last year, and growing a range of products that can be given a second life and beyond.

Episode guide

1:10 – Introduction to Hunt and his company, which is focussed on the remanufacture of single-use medical devices.

2:20 – Origin story.

3:20 – Surgeon uncle suggests a business idea sterilising expired products for sale and use.

4:33 – The importance of customer engagement.

6:01 – The size of the company and its spread across ANZ and its impact so far.

7:20 – How they deal with customers (about 120 hospitals across ANZ.)

7:55 – The types of products “not super-low-cost, but they’re also not high-high cost either.”

8:50 – More on products (about 50 so far) that the company deals with.

9:50 – More on essential principles on medical devices.

11:05 – Quality Management Systems and how they relate to this work.

11:40 – The processes Medsalv goes through for remanufacture.

14:26 – Seems like a great idea. How hard is it to copy?

15:56 – The foundation to innovating properly is a shared vision of what creates value for the customer and the company.

17:15 – The impact of job creation is overlooked when it comes to procurement.

Further reading

Manufacturing news briefs — stories you might have missed

Victoria gets federal funding boost for plastic recycling and remanufacturing

Things come around for Original Engines Co