Through our collaboration with education providers, academics and innovative businesses, BAE Systems Australia is developing and refining manufacturing processes, systems and tools that are revolutionising shipbuilding.
At the Osborne Naval Shipyard in South Australia, where the Hunter class frigates are being built, the Federal Government’s investment in automation and robotics combined with BAE Systems’ advanced manufacturing know-how has enabled our highly-skilled workforce to generate consistency, repeatability, efficiency and cost savings in the shipbuilding processes. These benefits have helped propel the program forward at pace, with the quality of work unmatched across the world.
The big change for Hunter as distinct from previous ship-build programs is the digital design. Our engineers and shipbuilders aren’t sifting through thousands of 2D paper drawings – the Hunter class frigate design starts in a digital form, in a CAD system. From there we can take digital data and inject it straight into the plate-cutting line – where steel is prepared and cut – the panel line – where ship floors and ceilings are fabricated – and into the robotic welders.
Some work packs are still paper-based, but not for much longer. We are currently developing digital work packs, so all ship design drawings, work instructions, safety checks and procedures will become digitised. We are also capturing production data in our digital systems creating a digital thread that lives with the ship throughout its life, ensuring future maintenance and upgrades can be more efficiently delivered when the ships are in service.
Our approach to advanced manufacturing isn’t confined to the shipyard. At the Pilot Line Zero ‘Factory of the Future’ facility at Tonsley, in Adelaide’s south, we are collaborating with education providers, local industry and our supply chain to trial new manufacturing techniques and technologies. Within this highly collaborative environment, we are identifying and refining new methods and technologies, then adapting them to the shipyard where they are delivering quality, productivity, environmental and safety improvements.
We are realising the opportunity that investment in advanced manufacturing can bring to shipbuilding. Export opportunities are real – we are already exporting our know-how and know-why to the UK – while workforce training and upskilling is helping to build a local capability for the future.
In my recent submission to a Federal Parliamentary committee investigating advanced manufacturing in Australia, I outlined three key requirements to ensure Australia has the right future workforce to work on current and future defence programs.
The first is that the Federal Government continue to invest in advanced manufacturing techniques to firmly establish Australian shipbuilding as an export-rich sector, potentially creating thousands more jobs.
The second is to establish a national advanced manufacturing accelerator program, based on the Pilot Line Zero facility at Tonsley, which aims to create a local industry base that can compete globally.
The third is to encourage more uptake of advanced manufacturing as a career choice. This can be done by expanding programs such as the Defence Industry Pathways Program in WA, or the Diploma of Digital Technologies, Australia’s first digital shipbuilding course that is a collaboration between BAE Systems, Flinders University and TAFE. The award-winning Diploma is a game-changer for workers who want to upskill or reskill, and has already changed the lives of dozens of former shipbuilders. One former welder, who had never used a computer in his life, joined the course and when he graduated, joined the Hunter program’s 3D design team. He now produces the digital drawings that are needed to build the submarine-hunting warship.
Another important element of encouraging advanced manufacturing as a career is to amend the national school curriculum: we should be installing 3D printers, co-bots and smart benches into schools and providing meaningful career pathways – rewarding careers that offer longevity and security while at the same time delivering enduring capability for our nation.
I was involved in the automotive industry for 30 years. Since the closure of that industry in Australia there has been limited opportunity for large-scale local manufacturing, and the spin-off benefits to local suppliers and the economy that such an industry creates. That’s changing. Naval shipbuilding has scaled quickly at Osborne, with more than 1,200 people in Australia now employed on the Hunter program.
By the end of the year the program aims to hire an additional 600 people in various roles. The workforce on the Hunter program will deliver the world’s most advanced anti-submarine warfare frigate. Just as importantly – they’re an intrinsically vital part of the sovereign capability that underpins continuous naval shipbuilding for Australia’s future.
