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Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (IMCRC) - future-proofing Australian manufacturing SMEs with futuremap®
The IMCRC team at Sleep Corp's new facility.
Work by the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (IMCRC) is helping to future-proof Australian small to medium (SME) manufacturers as they embrace the next phase of digitisation of the manufacturing sector.
The IMCRC was awarded an Australian Government CRC Program Grant of $40 million over 7 years from July 2015 to December 2022 to accelerate Australia’s rapid transition into high value, high knowledge-based manufacturing.
As part of its Industrial Transformation Program, the IMCRC designed futuremap®. futuremap® is a business diagnostic and education platform specifically developed for Australian manufacturing SMEs that focuses on:
- digital and data driven manufacturing innovation
- leadership development, and
- accelerating the uptake of Industry 4.0.
Industry 4.0 is the name used for the emerging ’fourth industrial revolution’ and refers to the digitalisation of manufacturing industry technologies and processes. futuremap® helps participating manufacturers to map the current state of their business through either one-on-one structured discussions or as part of interactive group workshops. Participating manufacturers can identify where they can lift their awareness, competitiveness and build resilience against key areas of industrial and advanced manufacturing competitiveness.
How futuremap® has helped shape the manufacturing future of Sleep Corp
One of the big awakening moments for me was provided through futuremap®. While completing IMCRC’s business assessment, I realised that if we want to go into the future, we have to align and incorporate Industry 4.0 in every aspect of our business.
Since 2019, Melbourne-based textile and top-of-bed manufacturer Sleep Corp has been working with IMCRC to overhaul its production processes and develop a sustainable vision for the future. Valuing resilience, wholeheartedness and interdependence, the business has been on a three-year long transformative journey. The journey started with the IMCRC’s futuremap® business assessment to set out the strategic priorities for the company.
“We knew we needed to think long term and to put Industry 4.0 and continuous improvement at the core of the next phase of our business journey,” said Sleep Corp Managing Director and CEO David Kaplan. “As a business we wanted to be more self-reliant, while looking for ways to bring down costs and improve efficiencies, but it was difficult to know where to start.
According to Kaplan, it was at this stage that Sleep Corp was introduced to IMCRC.
futuremap® was a critical first step in identifying how we would achieve our vision, and better reflect Industry 4.0 in our business throughout the value chain.
With the Industry 4.0 strategy outlined, the Sleep Corp team partnered with Swinburne University of Technology (Swinburne) to design and set up a novel Virtual Manufacturing System (VMS).
“The VMS connects robotics-based machinery to a digital twin allowing for a faster and more flexible manufacturing approach to address changing customer requirements while maintaining cost competitiveness for its range of products,” said Kaplan.
Originally looking to retrofit this innovative capability within its existing facility, it quickly became evident to Sleep Corp that more space was required. The company moved its operations to a greenfield site in November 2021.
Ryland Joyce, Sleep Corp’s Operations Manager, oversaw the delivery of the project and the setup of the new factory. Joyce pointed out that IMCRC and futuremap® helped shape Sleep Corp’s manufacturing future in more ways than one. "futuremap® made us aware of other technologies and how they could be implemented to benefit the organisation. Warehousing is a classic example. As a result we also implemented an AMR - Autonomous Mobile Robot – system to complement the new manufacturing operation."
"Together with the consciousness of Industry 4.0, futuremap® helped us recognise the possibility of doing things differently,” Joyce added.
David Kaplan added that they were very deliberate and careful in their transformation and building a manufacturing future versus becoming a net importer of product. “We now have space to house current and future manufacturing and wholesaling needs, which has not just modernised our processes, but also our culture.”
The project has had numerous other business benefits, including firming up Sleep Corp’s supply chain stability and helping improve its environmental footprint.
Hampered by a series of ongoing COVID-19 lockdowns which led to delays, the team is thankful for the support and counsel provided by IMCRC throughout the project.
Following our transformation, we’re proud to be considered as a business at the cutting edge of Australian manufacturing and we couldn’t have felt more supported by IMCRC. The team was there for us throughout the entire process which was invaluable to the project’s success.
The impact of futuremap® to Australian manufacturing
Reflecting on the impact of futuremap® to Australian manufacturing, IMCRC CEO and Managing Director, David Chuter has said “In collaboration with our deployment partners, we have helped over 1,000 manufacturers, particularly SMEs, on their digital transformation journey by demonstrating how Industry 4.0 can improve productivity and create opportunities.”
In July 2022, IMCRC commissioned the Centre for Transformative Innovation at Swinburne to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of futuremap®. The evaluation revealed that manufacturing businesses that engaged in a futuremap® workshop or one-on-one assessment were found to be growing faster and innovating more than their closest peers, reporting an average increase of 15.5% in sales, 21.5% in wages and 6.6% in staff.
Now that the IMCRC has completed its operations, the Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) has been selected as the ongoing custodian of futuremap® to guarantee the long-term success of the platform.