During my studies in production engineering in the 1980’s, we were shown video recordings of the latest ‘pick & place’ robotics technology from Japan. Fully computer controlled, these robots were quickly replacing the ‘numerically’ controlled (magnetic tape & optical) first generation programmables, as used in the ‘70s for automotive assembly.
This technological jump really heralded the start of modern computer aided manufacturing, and is commonplace now.
At the same time, Governments were removing our international economic barriers across the Western World. Australia came under huge pressure to revise its Manufacturing sector, and proceeded to do so. But of course, nothing stands still, and the Political openings have allowed those Countries with the labour cost advantages (Asia etc) to take control of a huge percentage of world FMCG manufacture.
Today, I believe Australian Manufacturing is entering a new stage of growth, that of full internationalisation, where to survive as a business means taking on the same challenges and resulting advantages as those held by western international competition. Money is being spent by Australian Businesses on technological hardware without reservation, and Multinational corporations are setting up their bases for the Asia-Pacific region here – We're English speaking & our Western lifestyle is to our advantage in this regard.
This industrial progress is great and we're doing well in our acceptance of the challenges, but it is at the cost of Human lifestyle at best, & social welfare at worst..
There is, and has been for a few years now in Australia, a revision of the Australian work/lifestyle ethic forced upon us. Traditionally, we have valued a ‘balanced’ lifestyle – and we have been pretty good at maintaining this – but now all is changing, and fast. People from all sectors, not just manufacturing, are either working their proverbial asses off, working sporadic, demanding casual/shift hours or simply not working at all..
This social problem is sometimes the result of the shift to lean manufacturing methods, and a reluctance, to say the least, for employers to value properly the contribution of the employee. Lean Manufacturing, when implemented correctly, is a good thing for all except those people ‘shed’ in the process. When implemented poorly, it is set to use a reduction of employee numbers to drive efficiency without proper expenditure & investment, and believe me, this doesn’t fucking work..
Management must have a full plan & budget for hardware improvements, be prepared to make difficult decisions & be able to identify valuable people objectively – not simply try to protect their own asses during the disruption which is part of the reorganisation.
We (Australia) tend to follow Britain & the US in a lot of our ‘Human resource’ policies, this often extending into our law enforcement & political policies, an overall social issue. An increasingly common feature of the employment landscape is the ‘full medical’ including drug & alcohol testing – discrimination is not supposed to happen here, but discrimination all-round is on the increase. People are being scrutinised & probed much more than ever before in the workplace. Privacy is almost a thing of the past.. This is all, understandably, in an effort to have the best people on board, but the ‘best’ people must be also making these critical ‘who do we hire’ decisions, and providing the right conditions in the workplace to allow for best performance. This, often, does not apply..
So to summarise this I’ll say that we have the intention, we have the money and we have the technology to create an international Australian manufacturing sector – but we don’t seem to have the understanding of how significant a social change all this is. It is up to both the Government & the Business sector to be much more transparent about their objectives, & ‘humanist’ in their dealings with the average worker. The stress is just that little too much right now..
