This study explores Industry 4.0 in the Australian context, where manufacturing is dominated by smaller firms servicing the domestic market. We interviewed 20 advanced Australian manufacturers from diverse fields, capturing detailed descriptions of the Industry 4.0 implementation process. We compared the themes that emerged from their descriptions with the factors typically assessed in Industry 4.0 frameworks to draw out differences in emphasis. Consistent with these frameworks, Australian manufacturers were focused on using Industry 4.0 technologies to automate the capture, integration and analysis of data. To enable this activity, they were reorganising workforce roles and developing new skill sets. Knowledge sharing and collaborations within and across the organisation were seen to be especially important for small Australian manufacturers (with limited funding for technology investment and research and development) to maintain global competitiveness. However, while most Industry 4.0 frameworks describe supply chain applications, the development of smart products and services, and the need to adopt a strategy-led approach, relatively few participants spoke about these opportunities. Even fewer addressed the need for improved governance, standards and data security in the context of Industry 4.0. We argue that these gaps are best addressed through government policy and investment focusing beyond manufacturers, to support Industry 4.0 uplift across key domestic supply chains.

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The concept of firms exchanging materials, energy, water, and/or by-products in a collective approach to competitive advantage is called Industrial Symbiosis (IS). It was first described by Frosch and Gallopoulos in 1989, and in the same year, scientists uncovered an extensively intertwined network of companies from different industries in Kalundborg, Denmark that was a realisation of Frosch and Gallopoulos' ideas. In IS, an unresolved research question relates to whether IS can be designed "ground up" into an industrial system (such as via planned eco-parks), or whether it can only occur "organically" through more serendipitous business interactions. Given data on a defined set of businesses, quantified amounts of input and raw materials, and material transformation opportunities, our interest is on the use of computation and optimisation techniques in order uncover the potential for IS amongst firms, and to suggest for a single business which potential partners the business should target in order to build a network that could realise this potential. The transformation opportunities are modelled as processes in which a business, consortium, or external agent (such as a local authority) could invest, to enable materials to be transformed from lower to higher value. Examples might include (re-)manufacturing processes, a shared space for materials aggregation, or compressing and baling machinery that could increase waste density and so reduce storage and transportation costs for a material. To formulate the problem, we consider the potential material flows between businesses and processes, using a linear distance model to describe transportation costs; market values to describe materials that are desirable inputs, and additional sourcing and sinking costs to obtain materials from outside of the network or dispose of surplus materials to landfill. The model is for a single time span, and as such we need to ensure that process investments do not lead to an amplification effect from the total investment cost not being amortized in the considered period. Results are then presented for each participating business in terms of the origins, destinations and investments that describe the subgraph of material flows that maximises their financial return. For the proposed overall network to be commercially viable, each participant must show a positive return; as such we can demonstrate the difference between the set of local optima and the potential global optimal decisions, thereby uncovering the ideal opportunities for social or government investment.