Clothes manufacturing in the UK has seen a striking revival since 2007. Not only have new business models come onto the scene, particularly with the growth of online retailers, their actual manufacture…
Steps on the ladder.
United Nations Development Programme in Europe and CIS
Engineering has been a British success story. But its future is in doubt unless the country can educate, recruit and retain many more female engineers. The sector has survived, even thrived, by importing…
Australian companies still face highly competitive and complex markets in China despite the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement.
Lukas Coch/AAP
During the APEC meeting in Beijing, President Xi Jinping announced China will spend US$10 trillion on imports over the next five years and US$1.25 trillion in foreign investment over the next ten years…
A new culture is required for Australian manufacturing to be reinvented.
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With major employers heading offshore and employment numbers decimated, what will emerge from the ashes of Australia’s manufacturing industry? And what role should manufacturing play in the federal government’s…
Building an innovation ecosystem can take years of government nurturing.
Shutterstock
Our lives are surrounded by the ideas and creations of thousands of people. The magic of flight, or computers, or vaccines, inventions and innovations we take for granted, have advanced from one idea to…
Australian manufacturing outliers demonstrate the need to invest in technology and management.
www.shutterstock.com
Australia’s manufacturing industry is in decline. Yet some businesses are managing to buck the trend. The question is what do these “outliers” do differently from their competitors? And what does each…
A set of simple management practices can help manufacturing companies outperform.
WorldSkills/Flickr
With major employers heading offshore and employment numbers decimated, what will emerge from the ashes of Australia’s manufacturing industry? And what role should manufacturing play in the federal government’s…
The Abbott government is preparing to lay out its plan to support Australian industries to compete globally.
Ben Macmahon/AAP
With major employers heading offshore and employment numbers decimated, what will emerge from the ashes of Australia’s manufacturing industry? And what role should manufacturing play in the federal government’s…
The automotive industry may have moved on, but Australian manufacturing continues to represent a core source of economic prosperity for Australia.
Julian Smith/AAP
With major employers heading offshore and employment numbers decimated, what will emerge from the ashes of Australia’s manufacturing industry? And what role should manufacturing play in the federal government’s…
The Tangshanpeng Wind Farm in China.
Flickr/Land Rover Our Planet
With the failure of international agreements to fight climate change, the way is open to viewing the role of renewables as more than agents for reducing carbon emissions. Indeed is it possible for countries…
Australia leads the world in water accounting standards, but this is at risk.
Flickr/Chris Morin
As part of its budget cuts, the federal government plans to disband the Water Accounting Standards Board, which looks after water accounting. But is this leaving business high and dry? Water accounting…
Australia has improved its global innovation ranking - but future budget could put this progress at risk.
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This year’s news on Australia’s global innovation ranking could be a lot worse, and probably will be in the future if the Federal Government gets its way with proposed budget cuts to our already inadequate…
Canada faces similar pressures on its car industry, but its approach has been opposite to that of Australia.
AAP/Paul Osborne
As Australian prime minister Tony Abbott arrives in Canada to talk investment and trade, both countries are facing similar challenges to their respective manufacturing bases, particularly in the automotive…
In China, there has been a shift away from traditional textile and clothing to computers and communications.
AAP/EPA/SHEPHERD ZHOU CHINA OUT
As Australia laments the decline of its manufacturing sector, China is actively taking steps to accelerate its move up the value chain. Historically a low-cost operating environment, China was once an…
If China is the world’s factory, then one of its core production lines is playing up. Last month, mass protests kicked off in the southern manufacturing city of Dongguan. Some 40,000 workers went on strike…
Tasmania’s alkaloid poppy industry was an Australian innovation success story - until it moved overseas.
Glenn Schultes/Flickr
Australian innovation has stagnated in the past 50 years, and could be reinvigorated by focusing on key areas, according to Donald Hector, President of the Royal Society of New South Wales in an interview…
Peter Doherty: Thinking in terms of Australia’s future, how important is it for us to expand activity in the innovation/high technology sector? Donald Hector: It’s critically important. If you look at…
Business has agitated for change, but is now wary of the negative impact of a tough budget.
In the lead up to the budget, the story of crisis has been hammered home, but there’s more to a country than its structural deficit. So how is Australia doing overall? In this special series, ten writers…
A year has now passed since an 8-storey building in Dhaka known as Rana Plaza collapsed killing 1,134 workers in just an hour. Much of the commentary since has focused on the need for Western brands to…
Twelve months after the devastating factory collapse in Bangladesh, safety regulations are still not up to scratch.
EPA/Abir Abdullah
One year ago on the 24th of April 2013, the horrific Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh claimed at least 1,129 lives and galvanised industry and government into action. Worldwide condemnation for lax safety…
Incoming Director of the Australian Institute of Business and Economics at UQ, and Professor of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, Macquarie University