Adelaide could get Australia’s largest ‘factory of the future‘ at Tonsley in Labor election promise

Australia’s largest “factory of the future” would be established at Tonsley, in Adelaide’s southern suburbs, under a $20 million Labor Party promise.

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Australia’s largest “factory of the future” would be established at Tonsley, in Adelaide’s southern suburbs, under a $20 million Labor Party promise.

Labor’s innovation, industry, science and research spokesman Kim Carr told The Advertiser that, if elected, Labor would commit $20 million towards the establishment of the Australian Centre for Innovative Manufacturing at Flinders University.

Flinders University Director of the Australian Industrial Transformation Institute John Spoehr said such a facility was the holy grail for researchers working in the advanced manufacturing field.

He said the factory would be “highly modular” and could be easily changed for different applications.

An artist’s impression of a future factory, such as the one proposed for Tonsley.

“One day you might make a motorbike and the other day you might make a bicycle,” Professor Spoehr said. “You are able to rapidly change the factory to respond to needs.”

He said the factory would allow researchers and students to work alongside industry so that they can “mass customise” high value products instead of the traditional mass production model.

“A facility like this actually makes the products, which is the holy grail of advanced manufacturing, research and development. It is a much more sustainable model for Australia.”

The centre would aim to capitalise on Australia’s first innovation hub at Tonsley, by helping to link industry with research collaboration and skills development.

Thee centre would aim to capitalise on Australia’s first innovation hub at Tonsley.

It would focus on advanced manufacturing in a raft of industries but prioritise defence and aerospace, construction, medical devices/assistive technologies, wine and food, minerals and energy.

“This investment will bring together leading researchers, industry, government and unions to modernise and transform South Australian manufacturing,” Mr Carr said.

He said the centre would create a “factory of the future”, using adaptive technologies that allowed it to be reconfigured for multiple products.

Mr Carr said the centre would employ 20 researchers and technical personnel, 200 academics and would be capable of hosting up to 50 personnel working collaboratively on multiple projects.