Why does every charity, pay TV provider, insurance company (and many, many others) choose to quantify how much their product is by equating it in coffee terms? How many times have we heard that by giving up a coffee a day, we can do something?
If we give up our daily coffee (which I consider an absolute daily must, not a luxury!) the first time, we can only give it up once. I can only give it up once to sponsor a child, get funeral insurance or buy a coffee - oh wait, not that last one.
A daily coffee is obviously a luxury that advertisers think we can do without. Do they dislike the poor coffee farmers the world over, not to mention our dairy farmers? Come to think of it, the cups are made in Australia, too.
Monday 29 August 2011
Friday 26 August 2011
Matching Output With Demand
Significant Australian steel manufacturer (and All Torque Transmissions customer), Bluescope, has recently announced 1000 job losses across its Australian manufacturing operations. As usual, the strength of the Australian dollar has made the price of exported product prohibitive.
This news comes fresh on the heels of manufacturing job losses at Heinz, SPC and Ford, where reaching a shutdown decision was made easier by the lack of international demand. All three are also All Torque customers.
Economists the world over sing the praises of an economy that expolits what it is good at, whilst less efficient industries shrivel up and die. In this sense, comparative advantage is a relative term, as Australia enjoys a virtual resource monopoly on much of what it has.
Economists are also quick to point out that consumers value variety and are willing to pay for it. As each Australian manufacturer becomes a 'former Australian manufacturer', that variety is being continually and quickly eroded.
Luckily, Australia's poor mining fraternity lobbied the Australian government for a lesser mining super profits tax, so the sharholders can sleep well at night.
This news comes fresh on the heels of manufacturing job losses at Heinz, SPC and Ford, where reaching a shutdown decision was made easier by the lack of international demand. All three are also All Torque customers.
Economists the world over sing the praises of an economy that expolits what it is good at, whilst less efficient industries shrivel up and die. In this sense, comparative advantage is a relative term, as Australia enjoys a virtual resource monopoly on much of what it has.
Economists are also quick to point out that consumers value variety and are willing to pay for it. As each Australian manufacturer becomes a 'former Australian manufacturer', that variety is being continually and quickly eroded.
Luckily, Australia's poor mining fraternity lobbied the Australian government for a lesser mining super profits tax, so the sharholders can sleep well at night.
Monday 8 August 2011
Check, Then Doublecheck Please
Last week I received a call from a customer whose newly-supplied gearbox was making a very large noise during operation. After getting it back to the workshop, we found that one of the gears was not secured properly and was actually floating on the shaft. Luckily, there was not too much damage to the internals.
Looking back on the original job sheet revealed that the gearbox was required extremely urgently. This can only mean that the unit was not test-run at the factory. I know that we didn't test it when it came through our place as we had to get it straight to the customer for fitment.
When stuff is rushed mistakes are made. Unfortunately, stuff is going to get rushed all the time and limiting mistakes is an ongoing business.
Looking back on the original job sheet revealed that the gearbox was required extremely urgently. This can only mean that the unit was not test-run at the factory. I know that we didn't test it when it came through our place as we had to get it straight to the customer for fitment.
When stuff is rushed mistakes are made. Unfortunately, stuff is going to get rushed all the time and limiting mistakes is an ongoing business.
Monday 1 August 2011
The Various Skills Requirements in Mechanical Power Transmission Supply
The mechanical power transmission industry is very specialised, to the point where there is not a lot of crossover from other industries when sales is the key outcome.
Traditional methodology in recruiting people for the PT supply industry saw businesses training youngsters from scratch; giving them a solid grounding in every aspect of the sales process and developing product knowledge all the while. This is, however, a rather costly and time-consuming exercise, especially when the individual is not able to make the transition to becoming an effective salesperson.
Another school of thought has been to recruit ex-tradespeople (or those with either an electrical or mechanical engineering degree). This has also proven to be a bit hit-or-miss, as many skills required to be an effective engineer have little bearing on becoming an effective supplier. There is also the added disincentive of having to match equivalent wages which are invariably quite high.
Product knowledge is always of prime importance (as it is in most industries) but simply knowing your own product range is not enough: a solid understanding of all available supply options to a specific problem is required. This sort of understanding takes at least ten years to develop to an acceptable state, with three to five years a bare minimum.
Understanding customer requirements is just as difficult as knowing how to fulfill them, at times. This also takes a long time to harness and is one of the areas that the degree-holders have an advantage.
Good salespeople are very thin on the ground in the mechanical power transmission industry. The WA and Queensland mining boom only continues to draw evermore human resources.
Traditional methodology in recruiting people for the PT supply industry saw businesses training youngsters from scratch; giving them a solid grounding in every aspect of the sales process and developing product knowledge all the while. This is, however, a rather costly and time-consuming exercise, especially when the individual is not able to make the transition to becoming an effective salesperson.
Another school of thought has been to recruit ex-tradespeople (or those with either an electrical or mechanical engineering degree). This has also proven to be a bit hit-or-miss, as many skills required to be an effective engineer have little bearing on becoming an effective supplier. There is also the added disincentive of having to match equivalent wages which are invariably quite high.
Product knowledge is always of prime importance (as it is in most industries) but simply knowing your own product range is not enough: a solid understanding of all available supply options to a specific problem is required. This sort of understanding takes at least ten years to develop to an acceptable state, with three to five years a bare minimum.
Understanding customer requirements is just as difficult as knowing how to fulfill them, at times. This also takes a long time to harness and is one of the areas that the degree-holders have an advantage.
Good salespeople are very thin on the ground in the mechanical power transmission industry. The WA and Queensland mining boom only continues to draw evermore human resources.
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