Finding Your Niche in Manufacturing and Innovation
The announcement of the $1.5 billion Modern Manufacturing Strategy to revamp Australia’s manufacturing industry has made it clear that the government has shifted its focus. It now wants us to innovate and grow by our own means instead of relying on technology and expertise from overseas.
Huge amounts of funding have been set aside to support ventures that build scale, innovate, strengthen our supply chains, and ultimately grow our manufacturers - particularly the small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) in Australia. The manufacturing industry needs to react to this stimulus and respond by finding and exploiting niche areas in already established markets.
The government, in its Modern Manufacturing Strategy report, has identified 6 key areas as National Manufacturing Priorities that have the largest potential to deliver economic growth and employment. These include:
Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Processing
Food & Beverage
Medical Products
Recycling & Clean Energy
Defence
Space
These are the areas we need to focus on. There is immense untapped potential in these sectors which, if realized, can sprout a number of different niches for our manufacturers and benefit the country as a whole.
The case of Dresden Vision is a beacon of light that points towards the road we all need to take. The company set out to create high-quality affordable glasses manufactured from sustainable and recycled materials. It partnered up with industry members and the University of NSW’s Sustainable Materials Research & Technology (SMaRT) program to develop an injection method that has paved the way for cheap production of export-grade prescription glasses from recycled plastics.
This is a prime example of a company utilizing local R&D to find a manufacturing niche that brings value to people from all over the world through high-quality prescription glasses, and takes care of the environment via sustainable manufacturing processes.
The question is:
How do YOU find your niche?
After all, it is not a simple task. Go ask companies that have fallen into the Valley of Death, a (metaphorical, of course) place for research ventures that fail to commercialize and produce something consistent and profitable.
Here are the 4 important questions you must ask yourself (put together by Dr. Matthew Young) to find your niche in manufacturing and innovation in Australia:
What: Identify the specific problem that you think innovation can solve inside Australia’s manufacturing industry.
This does not necessarily have to be a problem. It can be a gap that is begging to be filled or an opportunity that will open the door for everyone to grow and scale up their operations. The idea is to have a bull’s eye to aim at. For example, you could aim to reduce the cost of processing sugarcane by redesigning the process based on the latest research.
Quite often it happens that a group of people sets out to solve a problem but somewhere along the way realizes that it derailed from its original goals and ended up in no man’s land.
This is why having a clearly and accurately defined objective is important. It will keep you focused on solving the problem at hand, and make sure everyone has the same expectations.
2. Why: How will solving this problem (or creating this opportunity) benefit your business or the industry in general? Why should you undertake this project?
It is not enough that you have identified a problem. You need to know what will come out of solving this problem. There is no point in spending huge amounts of money and effort in trying to solve a problem that only results in meager gains for your company.
You need to ask yourself: how will solving this problem increase the growth potential of my industry? How will it strengthen supply chains of the future by plugging the gaps and fixing the weaknesses exposed by COVID-19? What will be the return on investment? Will it increase access to global markets for the local industries?
You should only decide if you’re going to focus on a particular problem if you are sure that it will bring huge benefits for your industry or for Australians as a whole.
3. How: What approach, technologies, and collaborations will you use to solve this problem?
Once you have zeroed in on a problem, you need to make a thorough plan and outline the steps you will take to implement the solution. It’s not enough for you to just lay down a simple roadmap with milestones, you need to assess the risks associated with each step and decide mitigation measures. You don’t want to find your efforts laid to waste just because of a careless oversight in planning.
Moreover, your plan should have built-in flexibility that allows it to adapt in case you are faced with unforeseen (or worst-case) scenarios. Consider how digital transformation and technology can help you make the entire process easier and more efficient, and help you significantly improve your results.
Technologies like the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), AI, machine learning, and Big Data have allowed manufacturers to develop smart solutions that save millions of dollars. Take the example of Harley-Davidson which installed a network of sensors and smart devices across its motorcycle plant to monitor its machines and processes. Using the data it acquired, it was able to shrink its production lead time for new orders from 21-days down to just 6 hours, saving $200 million in operational costs in the process!
4. Who: Who will you recruit or collaborate with to work with you towards your goal?
This is perhaps the most important question you need to focus on. Without the right people working for you (or with you), you will not be able to achieve your objectives regardless of how much funding you have at your disposal.
Find people or companies that have skill sets, core competencies, and attitudes suitable for the kind of innovation you want to do. At times, this could also mean approaching your direct competitors and joining hands with them to scale up operations and clinch an export deal for your industry. Look for people who have a personal stake in what you are trying to accomplish. Recruit individuals and companies that will undergo significant personal or overall growth if you succeed in innovating and establishing a new niche in the industry.
To sum it all up, the key to surviving the Valley of Death is to find the right approach and the right people who are passionate about innovation and want to accomplish the goal as much as you want to. Find these people, empower them to take charge of what they’re good at, and you’ll see that innovating becomes a whole lot easier.
Finding your niche will demand a lot of work from you and your workforce. Why not focus on developing your strategy and let Segen take care of the who for you? We can deliver customized solutions that suit your exact needs, bringing you talent that is passionate about innovation and willing to play a role in making that innovation a reality.