How can an Australian Company Gain a Competitive Edge?

‘Pioneers get scalped. Settlers get rich’. This ex­pres­sion per­son­i­fies the concerns of business when ‘trav­el­ling the road less travelled’. Rev­o­lu­tion­ary ideas carry the promise of uncharted wealth, however the reality is more sobering. Recent studies have confirmed the problems of new product com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion, with newly launched products suffering from no­to­ri­ous­ly high failure rates, often reaching 50% or greater. So how can an Aus­tralian man­u­fac­tur­er retain a com­pet­i­tive advantage and lower risk? One way is to evolve existing products, using ‘real world’ end user feedback. The au­to­mo­tive market has used this model for decades to ensure they recoup the expense of initial R&D.
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This model can be applied to existing products (big or small) to improve customer ac­cep­tance, with one of the latest tech­niques being Lean Man­u­fac­tur­ing. Another suc­cess­ful approach is JIT (Just In Time) man­u­fac­tur­ing. JIT helps companies retain lower stock levels, lib­er­at­ing cash flow and creates op­por­tu­ni­ties for range ex­ten­sions and range evo­lu­tions. In recent times, many top Aus­tralian companies have exported their man­u­fac­tur­ing, to reduce costs. This may be an effective way to lower the cost of a pair of jeans but it is not nec­es­sar­i­ly the smartest option with other man­u­fac­tur­ing, where niche marketing is a more efficient way of lower risk and building market share.
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JIT and Lean man­u­fac­tur­ing are just two ways in which local man­u­fac­tur­ers are helping clever Aus­tralian companies launch new products, evolve existing products and improve ROI. Before you pick up the phone and punch in that in­ter­na­tion­al dial code, ask yourself this question, ‘if my com­peti­tors are already es­tab­lished offshore man­u­fac­tur­ers, what advantage is there for me to follow suit?’ Maybe the com­pet­i­tive advantage you’ve been looking for can be found in your own back yard.