In 2018, Dr Ben Cheng's research practice with sensors and communications systems took a different turn when the Advanced Materials, Manufacturing and Fabrication Platform began to foster a more interdisciplinary practice and encouraged him to translate his research to industry contexts.
Working with colleagues from mechanical engineering, computer science, and information technology and with the support of several platform funding grants, Cheng has been working closely with local industries to understand their difficulties in establishing their own Industry 4.0 (I4.0) information systems. They have conducted site visits and interviews to better understand each company's needs and technological hurdles.
They then selected three industries from the participants to conduct a more in-depth study via different student projects, which involved more than 100 students from undergraduate to postgraduate levels across different schools. They designed sensing systems for collecting data from the factory floor for lean manufacturing, created interactive dashboards for synchronising staff throughout the organisation with consistent data, and used big data analytics and AI techniques to create new business cases for the data collected. Cheng relates, “the outcomes are highly satisfactory and have helped our industrial partners to kick start their 4.0 journeys.
“The projects have also served as models for the collaboration between universities and industries. The project is ongoing as we are developing workshops and training materials for local SMEs to establish their 4.0 Systems. These workshops became a hub for external talent to connect with university researchers. The platform also supported the development of a white paper to expand the reach and impact of this research, "Demystifying Industry 4.0 - Helping SMEs lay the tracks for Australia's digitalisation express train".
To provide Australia’s industries and next-generation engineers a better understanding and know-how in applying I4.0 technologies, Cheng’s team has been partnering with Siemens and FutureLearn to offer an online course “How to Implement Industry 4.0 Technologies” since 2022.
