Toyota has announced it will shed up to 100 jobs at its Altona plant in response to a drop in export orders. The company says there will be no compulsory redundancies; expressions of interest will be open to all permanent manufacturing employees. [ + ]

A grit-blasting robot developed by UTS and the NSW RMS, which is used to clean the Sydney Harbour Bridge, has won two awards at the 2013 Engineers Australia Engineering Excellence Awards Sydney. [ + ]

ABB has retained the top worldwide market position in ARC Advisory Group’s Distributed Control Systems Worldwide Outlook study. [ + ]

The Productivity Commission is set to announce findings on the future of Australia’s car manufacturing industry by Christmas, Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane has said. [ + ]

Hunter Water has announced it will use Ventyx software solutions to enhance maintenance staff safety and increase the performance of its US$3.5 billion asset network. [ + ]

Orica has named Nick Bowen as Executive Global Head Mining Services, commencing on 11 November. Craig Elkington, the company's new CFO, has commenced a formal handover with outgoing CFO Noel Meehan. [ + ]

It’s not easy being a small business in the current manufacturing environment. The face of manufacturing is changing, and businesses are eager for technological advances that could give them a competitive advantage. Maybe 3D printing can help. [ + ]

Any future action on the auto industry will be guided by a Productivity Commission review that will consider issues of productivity and sustainability for the industry, Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane has said. [ + ]

Emerson has announced it will acquire Indian ball valve and automation system manufacturer Virgo Valves and Controls. Virgo's sales in 2012 - in more than 60 countries - were approximately $250 million. [ + ]

A call for papers has been issued for the inaugural ACI Connect conference and exhibition, to be held on 9 and 10 April 2014 in Melbourne. [ + ]

Chevron Corporation and Tohoku Electric Power Company have signed long-term sales and purchase agreements (SPAs) to supply LNG from the Wheatstone Project in Western Australia, which is operated by Chevron. [ + ]

Following an extraordinary general meeting (EGM), Metso Corporation has announced it will demerge Metso into two companies. [ + ]

The winner of the 2013 National Instruments (NI) Autonomous Robotics Competition is Victoria University of Wellington (VUW). [ + ]

Registrations for the 2013 National Instruments (NI) Technical Symposiums are now open. The free annual professional development conference series will be held in Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland from 29 October to 7 November 2013. [ + ]

Siemens has announced it will cut 15,000 jobs worldwide - representing 4% of its workforce - as part of its ‘Siemens 2014’ cost-cutting measures. One-third of the cuts will reportedly come from Germany. [ + ]