The traditional Western view of China as the ‘workshop of the world’ is rapidly melting into the mist. The consumer classes are buying more and – supported by their government – making less. Labour costs are rising at 20% a year:

“In this decade, China will be driven by consumers, not manufacturers”

– Anna Stupnytska, executive director of Goldman Sachs’ Investment Management division.

But this is not a one-way street, and China is not a blank cheque – we should see this more as the start of new ways of innovating, bringing products to market and the creation of new business relationships. At the recent ‘Retail Futures 2012’ event at the Future Laboratory, the developing economic, consumption and production picture was painted as much more nuanced, complex and multi-tonal than a set of crass ‘x’ and ‘y’ axes.

The buzzwords INDOVATION (pertaining to India) and SYNDOVATION (pertaining to China) refer to innovation and products Continue Reading

…Continued from Part 1 in the previous edition of Thoughtfeast’s ‘The Omnichannel Supply Chain’…

We now understand that there is no magic bullet in the shape of overseas production – where labour costs are no longer crushingly competitive, lead times are far too long and unpredictable; consumer inquisitiveness (“Where did this come from? Who made it? What’s the impact of this being made?”) is becoming more confident, vocal and insistent.  Consumers want to be involved in the conversation around the products that they spend their money on: when their purchasing decisions are no longer carefree and spontaneous but more thoughtful and drawn-out, consumers want a greater stake in the bargain.

But one of the biggest Continue Reading

Combining my love of northern things, old things and tasty things (I draw the line at tripe), I wallowed in the ‘Chatsworth’ documentary on TV last night.  The sections about the farm shop particularly appealed to my Omnichannel-addled brain, in drawing the threads between ultimate provenance, transparent supply chain and production techniques that are a winning feature for customers.  The zeal with which the producer – also the retailer – engaged with customers in constant conversation immediately went back into decisions on product development. Great for a farm shop (although it’s a Continue Reading

Maybe it’s the furtive geeky life I inhabit, but I’ve lost count of the number of friends and acquaintances who work in one of the digital industries – games, web hosting, data management – who started out as a snotty 10-year old with a humming, hot piece of plastic and an unfettered imagination. When kids got their hands on the first cheap PCs that came out of the 80s, who then could have envisioned that the world would change entirely because of – not just the products – but the change in the means and methods of production that came out of that time. Everyone reading this blog now, the way in which it is being read, and the critical thinking behind it, were born from that dusty explosion of zeroes and ones.

We are now about to enter another new age where our world, the techniques we use to manufacture that world, and our understanding of it, are about to change profoundly.

Thanks to a £22 credit-card sized programmable board – the Raspberry Pi –  kids can now learn Continue Reading

Lady Backup has taken a particular interest in manufacturing lately.  If you’ve been following my blogs, you know my childhood memories related to manufacturing . But I’m also keen on trends in the manufacturing industry because I think it’s an overlooked industry.  I hear often “There is no manufacturing in the UK.”  But then I read the business press and in fact manufacturing remains a key sector for the UK economy.

What I find so interesting is that the manufacturing industry is on the brink of a significant revolution – one fueled by IT transformation.  Traditionally manufacturers looked at process improvements as the key to their survival and perhaps even a competitive differentiation.   In this view, IT probably wasn’t all that improvement.  And reports generated give manufacturers a rear view mirror to what’s already happened.

Don’t get me wrong – process improvement is important.  But the next generation of manufacturer has the opportunity to go much farther with both IT and leveraging data.  Think about the masses of data collected by all of the various Continue Reading

In my first blog piece for Thoughtfeast, I wanted to point the way to some of the manufacturing issues that have caught my interest and shaken it around like a dog with a rabbit. I think these things are important and will have a massive effect on the way we manufacture, how we do business, the supply chain – pretty much the whole doughnut, and the hole in the middle. Here’s my two penn’orth (as we say in Lancashire) – I’d love to know what you think:

UK Manufacturing – The devastating recent floods in Thailand have exposed many of the risks and vulnerabilities of high volume offshore production, but they have also highlighted the forgotten (by some) advantages of UK production.  Are we about to see a renaissance in thinking about the benefits of keeping and instigating manufacturiung in the UK? I don’t buy the story that the UK doesn’t make anything anymore – this is lazy thinking. Look around at the amazing advances in biotech, production techniques, fabrication, composite materials. Perhaps we don’t make ships anymore – but look at what we do make. I am unashamed to be a massive cheerleader for UK manufacturing – I’ll be Continue Reading

Lady Backup took a brief journey to Manchester to attend the Manufacturer of the Year Awards Ceremony and Gala Dinner.  I was one of about 600 people gathered for a black tie event at the Lancashire County Cricket Club.

I won’t spoil the winners – you’ll have to see for yourself which UK manufacturers won top honors.   I really appreciated the intense pride that people demonstrated for their companies even at just being nominated for an award.  The other thing I really liked about the evening was the focus on young people who are getting started with their careers.  There was a “Young Manufacturer of the Year” award and the candidates were all extremely impressive, regardless of their age. It is very smart to both invest in and recognize younger workers.

The other thing fascinating thing that evening was to see a car go 1,000 mph.  Haven’t seen it?  Check out Continue Reading

Lady Backup grew up in the Boston area but spent a lot of time as a kid in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Brits and Europeans might not know where Pittsburgh is but it is a great city in the middle of the country.

Both my mom and dad were raised in Pittsburgh and their families all worked in the steel mills. At its height, the steel mills in Pittsburgh produced more than half of the American steel and as much as one-third of the world’s steel supply. It was an industry started in the late 1800s that employed tens of thousands of people either directly or indirectly – many of the workers were European immigrants as my family was.

I’m not looking to give a history lesson. What I am looking to do is raise the need for forward-looking thinking into today’s manufacturing environment. I first started thinking about this because of a webcast yesterday done by the analysts of the IDC Manufacturing Insight group. They reported findings from a survey Continue Reading