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A Short History of SIRF Roundtables

The Strategic Industry Research Foundation (SIRF) was an initiative of the State Government of Victoria which formed SIRF in conjunction with the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

SIRF worked as an innovation catalyst following its inception in 1988. For longer term goals SIRF sought to bridge the gap between the private sector and publicly-funded research organisations by initiating and managing industry-led R&D and innovation projects.

To address near term innovation needs SIRF set up a number of industry led, collaborative improvement networks in areas of industry considered important to Victoria's and Australia's future economic prosperity. These networks are called Roundtables. The first meeting of the Industrial Maintenance Roundtable was held on the 7th of December 1993.

By the year 2000 these networks involved more than 200 organisations in a range of R&D and innovation activities. Prior to 2000 there were Roundtables in the areas of Industrial Maintenance, Food and Beverage Manufacturing, and Manufacturing Excellence. It was found that the Roundtable approach provides a powerful approach for members to explore important business issues to common problems. The extent and intensity of activities led to the development of a new organisation "SIRF Roundtables" on the 1st of July 2000 to provide focused support for learning networks.

As well as supporting the industry networks SIRF Roundtables brought together an integrated suite of industry proven maintenance and reliability improvement activities which are made available to its members and to the broader community. Benchmarking of maintenance practices, training in Root Cause Analysis, operator / maintainer development through support of the Competitive Manufacturing Initiative and a variety of workshops and National Forums illustrate the cost effective, powerful improvement processes that are supported by SIRF Roundtables.