MotorOne, Swinburne team up for Industrial IoT project

Automotive aftermarket company MotorOne Group is leading a six-month project that will digitalise manufacturing and quality assurance, assisted by a $63,000 grant from the Innovative Manufacturing CRC’s activate program.

The project links MotorOne with the IMCRC and Swinburne University. It will develop a system to capture factory floor data at the company’s Bayswater chemical manufacturing facility to improve production and real-time decision making. 

“The challenge we currently face is that our manual chemical mixing process results in significant variations in final product quality,” said Greg Lewis, CEO of MotorOne. 

“With this project, we are working towards a flexible IIoT solution to improve yield, reduce waste and subsequently bring a more positive environmental impact.”

Research lead Prem Prakash Jayaraman, an Associate Professor at Swinburne and Director of its Factory of the Future and Digital Innovation Lab, said that the three entities would work “hand in glove” on a solution seamlessly linking sensing, communication and data analytics. 

“By enabling machine-to-machine communication, designing interactive human-machine interfaces and integrating IIoT data with existing systems, MotorOne Group is embracing technological innovation and becoming an active part of Australia’s shift towards advanced manufacturing,” said Jayaraman.

The project will also incorporate the IMCRC futuremap program to assess MotorOne’s Industry 4.0 maturity and plan a matching strategy.

The IMCRC’s Industrial Transformation Director, Simon Dawson, added, “By pioneering the design of modular and agile technology, MotorOne Group has the potential to expand its offering and provide the solution to other manufacturing small to medium enterprises for adoption.”

According to its website, MotorOne is the nation’s “largest aftermarket car care provider and scratch & dent repairer”, combining 16 companies, including Shmick, AutoTech and Solartint.

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