If you are a manufacturer, the odds are that you are having to cut back or even stop production entirely due to the covid crisis, but so are your competitors.
So what is one thing you can do to make sure that you are a force to be reckoned with on the other side of the lock down?
Innovate, while others in your sector may be hibernating.
Some advice from Warren Buffet
In a time of worldwide economic shifting, it is helpful to absorb some insights from a sage in economic resilience. Warren Buffet.
Buffetism No.1
“We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”
It is no doubt that a valid response to ceased production is to tighten the belt financially and wait for production to restart to begin new projects. However, because this is a valid response, this is what many companies will be doing. It does not mean this will put you in the best position when the pandemic is over.
Stepping out of the boat and starting a new venture when others in your sector might be spending time fixing their fence panels could be the difference that causes you to speed past them when everything goes back to normal.
Buffetism No.2
“It's only when the tide goes out that you discover who's been swimming naked.”
Or in other words, some areas of improvement only become obvious when the going gets tough.
What would you have done differently if you had seen this coming a year ago? And what has this time revealed about your product range that could be valuable to address?
Is it possible to redesign your products to be manufactured in a more resilient or flexible way that would have allowed production to carry on during a crisis such as this. This is the perfect opportunity to take a step back and look at what can be improved, not only to add value to your products for the future, but also resilience to your business.
Less production - more capacity
Improving your product range now does not just give you a head start when life is back to normal, in some ways it is actually a better time than normal to start this exercise. Often, development projects that would add value do not get the best start because the people involved in them have to share their attention with facilitating manufacture of the current product range. For many, this distraction for the moment is removed, leaving at least more time for forward thinking innovation.
Resources
Maybe some of your design team is on furlough, or maybe you are busy pushing the business through this potentially difficult period, but you see the value of getting ahead with innovation.
AON product development is positioned and able to take on your new project during this time and allocate the resources that it needs to be a success.
Get in touch with us and we can talk your requirements through further.
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