2. Manufacturing Industry Innovation CRC- Research Project Summaries Page 1
Strictly private and confidential
Program 2: Agile Manufacturing
Objective & Benefit
To improve the competitiveness and sustainability of partner
organisations through an integrated applied research program
aimed at:
•Increasing productivity, safety and adaptability of future
workforces through virtual and assistive automation technologies
•Building industry knowledge that enables broad adoption of
additive and flexible manufacturing technologies
•Assessing agile business systems to enable firms to maximise
competitiveness from adopting new technological advances
•Developing platforms to model optimum production solutions
through advanced simulation technologies
The Agile Manufacturing program is an integral pillar to the MIICRC and
when combined with the other three programs will assist partner
companies in transforming their agility, absorptive capacity, speed to
market and investment capabilities.
3. Manufacturing Industry Innovation CRC- Research Project Summaries Page 2
Strictly private and confidential
The High Performance Worker
To enhance the productivity and safety of workers through augmentation with a suite of
light weight assistive and virtual guidance/support technologies
Description Year 1
(2015)
Year 2
(2016)
Year 3
(2017)
Year 4
(2018)
Year 5
(2019)
Year 6
(2020)
Year 7
(2021)
Research
Outputs
Research outputs build in complexity and integration of the seven years. Technology off ramps to
provide industry with a pipeline of opportunities to imbed outputs into their businesses:
(i) Assistive Technologies
Automation platforms that provide real time, intuitive, reconfigurable physical supports capable of
navigating in dynamic unstructured environments
(ii) Situational Awareness Technologies
Sensor network and software platforms enabling safe close cooperation between the assistive
technologies and the human workers
(iii) Augmented Capabilities
User centric distributed collaboration technologies that enable virtual assistance for remote guidance
Participants
4. Manufacturing Industry Innovation CRC- Research Project Summaries Page 3
Strictly private and confidential
Agile Production Systems
Accelerated diffusion of additive and flexible manufacturing processes
through state-of-the-art knowledge bases, principles and tools.
Description Year 1
(2015)
Year 2
(2016)
Year 3
(2017)
Year 4
(2018)
Year 5
(2019)
Year 6
(2020)
Year 7
(2021)
Research
Outputs
Research outputs delivered in parallel across the CRC life time
(i) Design Rules:
Development of fundamental principles and predictive models underpinning the formation of design
rules for producing products through new agile manufacturing process technologies.
(ii) Knowledge Data Bases:
Compilation of Material – process – performance relationships across different additive
manufacturing platforms and material systems aimed at de-risking industry uptake
(iii) On-line Analytics:
Development of real time in-situ analytical techniques with active feedback loops to validate quality
and traceability, fast track compliance and reduce rejection across different agile platforms
(iv) Opportunity Assessment:
Investigate the techno-economic opportunity of additive and other agile manufacturing technologies
in different supply chains and conduct research into best implementation methods
Participants
5. Manufacturing Industry Innovation CRC- Research Project Summaries Page 4
Strictly private and confidential
Virtual Factories and Supply Chains
To develop simulation frameworks and tools for a new generation of smart manufacturing
enterprises comprising plant operations to the supply chain and products throughout their entire
product life-cycle.
Description Year 1
(2015)
Year 2
(2016)
Year 3
(2017)
Year 4
(2018)
Year 5
(2019)
Year 6
(2020)
Year 7
(2021)
Research
Outputs (i) Optimised Product Life-cycle:
Develop an open-source collaborative platform for a seamless integration of Design, Product
simulation, manufacturing and distribution, connecting the design of the product with end-users
feedbacks.
(ii)Factory Decision Support Systems:
Develop decision support systems and multi-objective optimisation tools for factory spaces, material
and resource use, manufacturing processes
(iii) Real-time Product Management:
Develop open-source platform software to simulate, integrate and transfer data across the supply
chain (data sharing systems and standards, common reference architectures)
Participants
6. Manufacturing Industry Innovation CRC- Research Project Summaries Page 5
Strictly private and confidential
Example Scenario: Assembly and Remote
Assistance
Lightweight Robotics | Alberto Elfes | Page <#>
Assisted Human Worker
Autonomous
Navigation
“Lightweight” Robot
Assistant
Remote Instruction +
Augmented Reality
Remote Expert
