Sustainable Manufacturing in the Far East Countries

We ask the head of GIA's Manufacturing and Industrial practice and presenter of the webinar on January 25, 2011, Peter Davey, for his thoughts on sustainable manufacturing in Asia.

Have manufacturers in Asia embraced sustainable manufacturing practices?

"We find that more and more manufacturers in Asia are embracing the concept. We see the growing adoption of renewable energy sources or use of gas-capture and starch extraction procedures.

While financial costs and lack of education have played a part, the main dilemma faced by the largest players has been whether to wait for better environmental data before acting, or to act now using less trusted data, with the risk that their efforts will ultimately be found to be inappropriate or unnecessary. More companies are beginning to act now.

As a reference, 50% of the 20 Asian manufacturers polled in a recent GIA industry survey said that "conservation of finite resources in terms of power and water" and "reducing carbon footprint" are top priorities for 2011-2012. So hopefully we will start to see even more interest in Sustainable manufacturing.

In the webinar, where we provide an overview of sustainable manufacturing in South East Asia, Greater China, Japan and South Korea, we will also showcase three Asian businesses implementing sustainable manufacturing practices."

What are the three Asian companies we will showcase in the webinar?

"We will showcase Bia Thanh Hoa from Vietnam, Jiangsu Farun Group from China and Chokeyoenyong Industries in Thailand.

Bia Thanh Hoa is a brewery in Vietnam that has implemented waste heat recovery practices and thermodynamic enhancements.

Jiangsu Farun Group, a global glass producer that is headquartered in Jiangsu Province in China, is one example of how to reduce dependency on fossil fuel for electricity generation and improve plant energy efficiency.

For Chokeyoenyong Industries, we look at how its starch production plant operates a methane capture system to harvest methane."

What can we learn from the upcoming webinar on "Sustainable Manufacturing in the Far East Countries"?    

"We will discuss the views and drivers behind Sustainable Manufacturing in South East Asia, Greater China, Japan and South Korea, and provide the outlook for Sustainable Manufacturing in the region."

Author: Peter Read, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific, Global Intelligence Alliance

This article and others from GIA's Asia Pacific practice can be found at Global Intelligence Alliance Insights and Analysis

About the Author

Global Intelligence Alliance (GIA) is a strategic market intelligence and advisory group. GIA was formed in 1995 when a team of market intelligence specialists, management consultants, industry analysts and technology experts came together to build a powerful suite of customized solutions ranging from outsourced market monitoring services and software, to strategic analysis and advisory.

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Building a High-Impact Market Intelligence Product Portfolio

You spend large amounts of time to collate research data, survey questionnaires, stakeholder interviews, news alerts and social media information. How can you ensure that your key messages don't get lost in the deliverables?

We ask Hans Hedin, GIA Webinar presenter in Building a High-Impact Market Intelligence Product Portfolio, for some suggestions.

Should intelligence deliverables be branded?

"Yes, branding is most important.

Organizations often suffer from information overload and it might then be difficult to distinguish between internally developed and other reports. Internally developed market intelligence reports typically are of higher quality and consider the organization's perspective fully. If properly branded, such market intelligence deliverables will "stand out" and get identified quickly. This will of course, save time and improve decision-making capability.

On another practical point, branding deliverables means you can track them and hopefully, prevent people from copying and distributing them freely without acknowledging the source.

It also helps to promote your "products" and raise awareness of the market intelligence function.

You can brand both the deliverables and the people who worked on the deliverables. If you illustrate your role within an organization chart, you can also show the rest of the organization who you are and who you work for. This may help build internal authority and credibility. Just make sure you brand the deliverables consistently."

What is the best way to package market intelligence deliverables?

"The market intelligence team needs to develop a comprehensive portfolio of deliverables. This may consist of several levels.

The first level might be "Self Service", where managers obtain off-the-shelf reports regarding specific competitive issues. The second level could then be "Specific Reports", consisting of market, competitor or technology profiles, for example. The third level would be a more "Tailored Market Intelligence" approach, where management has a specific question that the market intelligence team needs to help find the answers to. The final level would be "strategic projects" which consist of sophisticated and in-depth deliverables.

For all three levels, you need to first ensure that you know your audience. Take the initiative to engage your internal customers in a continuous dialogue. It is useful to scope out what will or will not help them, and what you are realistically able to offer in your portfolio of deliverables. Some companies use surveys and benchmarking for this purpose.

Do ask them what questions they are trying to answer. What decisions do they need to make? What do they really need, versus what they would like to have? How much time do they realistically have to review the deliverables? What formats will be most helpful? Do they have any special requirements? For example, adapt your presentations and charts for someone who is visually color challenged. Some companies are even beginning to use videos as delivery tools."

How can deliverables be communicated with credence?

"The person delivering the market intelligence messages must first have the proper authority within the company in order to be able to make the message trustworthy. It might be necessary to develop the competence of the market intelligence professionals so that they become more like management consultants rather than information professionals.

It is helpful that they also present intelligence messages from the recipients' perspective. What are the recommendations and actionable items? What is the impact?

It helps to have a senior executive or board member as a champion, so that more recommendations can be acted upon. For this to happen, you need to make sure you have a seat at leadership forums or meetings."

What can we learn from the GIA webinar on Building a High-Impact Market Intelligence Product Portfolio?

"First, the listeners will get to understand why it is critical to have a complete market intelligence deliverables portfolio, and the competence level needed to produce various types of intelligence deliverables. Next, you will also learn how to create an intelligence portfolio and listen to how Best Buy have successfully developed and extended their market intelligence deliverables.

This webinar is part of a series that we are hosting on the Key Success Factors for World Class Market intelligence, trademarked by GIA. The other webinars coming up will cover market intelligence tools, organization, culture and processes. It is a webinar series we have developed targeted specially at those who are responsible for setting up and running international market intelligence functions."

Author: Hans Hedin, Vice President, Business Development, Global Intelligence Alliance

This article and others from GIA's World Class Market Intelligence practice can be found at Global Intelligence Alliance Insights and Analysis

About the Author

Global Intelligence Alliance (GIA) is a strategic market intelligence and advisory group. GIA was formed in 1995 when a team of market intelligence specialists, management consultants, industry analysts and technology experts came together to build a powerful suite of customized solutions ranging from outsourced market monitoring services and software, to strategic analysis and advisory.

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Emerging Market Manufacturers Show Greater Interest in Resource Conservation

Demand for technologies aimed at bringing about resource efficiency will be on the rise in 2011-12 as businesses focus on reducing their carbon footprint. Key strategies involve using new materials, conserving existing resources and reducing waste and pollution, all of which will help to reduce overall input costs and increase competitiveness.

In an industry poll amongst 95 manufacturing companies by Global Intelligence Alliance (GIA) in late 2010, North American/European respondents said they see reducing carbon footprint, recovery in US/European markets and growing interest in safety and standards as the top three areas of growth over the next two years. In contrast, emerging market manufacturers from Asia and Latin America said that conservation of resources is their top area of growth. (Respondents included manufacturers of steel, testing and measurement equipment and agriculture and construction products).

(Chart: see http://www.globalintelligence.com/insights-analysis/bulletins/emerging-market-manufacturers-show-greater-interes)

European businesses in particular are bullish in the area of improving resource efficiency, with almost 70% of Europe-based companies citing this as a top priority. Core environmental industries in the EU, in the fields of pollution management and control, waste collection and treatment, renewable energy and recycling have a combined turnover of over 300 billion euro and have global market shares of 30%-40%. This sector is growing at over 8% per annum and is offering many new green jobs. A resource efficient Europe is a key component of the EU's growth strategy, which is centred around being a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy under the Europe 2020 programme.

Recovery at home key focus for American and European manufacturers

Over 60% of North American companies (compared with 43% of European based companies) cited this as a key opportunity area for 2011-2012. According to the latest IMF update of the World Economic Outlook, GDP growth in the US in 2011 is expected to be 3%, followed by 2.7% in 2012, whereas the Euro zone is forecast to grow at a more tepid rates of 1.5% and 1.7% respectively.

Government and banking leaders at the recent annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in 2011, warned that growth in the US/Europe could no longer rely on public sector stimulus and policy makers are urging the private sector – which is seen to be sitting on large profits – to start spending and investing. While governments in developed countries, especially in Europe, focus on fiscal debt restructuring, the impetus for investing in innovation, creating jobs at home and increasing export competitiveness needs to come from the corporate sector.

Meanwhile emerging and developing economies are projected to continue on a strong recovery path, with China and India leading the way at 9.6% and 8.4% GDP growth for 2011. As a result, businesses in Asia Pacific and Latin America are less concerned with growth in the developed world and believe that conserving existing resources is the biggest opportunity area for them in 2011, in line with the overall global trend towards higher resource efficiency.

(Chart: see http://www.globalintelligence.com/insights-analysis/bulletins/emerging-market-manufacturers-show-greater-interes)

Skills a key source of worry    

Slightly over 50% of European manufacturers believe that the lack of skilled manpower is a key challenge, while most North American businesses (nearly 60%) cited the retirement of skilled workers to be a key detriment to business growth. Businesses in Latin America and Asia-Pacific cite lack of creativity among workforce and lack of skilled manpower (62% for each) as the top two challenges.

According to leading workforce solutions provider, Manpower Inc's most recent Talent Shortage Survey, covering 35,000 employers across 36 countries, over 30% of businesses surveyed are struggling to fill key jobs critical for organisational success. Similar concerns are highlighted in a recent study by the American Society for Training and Development which states that by 2015, 60% of the new jobs created in the US will require critical STEM skills (science, technology, engineering and math) which only 20% of the workforce will possess. Talent is indeed becoming a scarce resource and companies need to become more agile in attracting, retaining and developing their employees.

Contract logistics drives growth for emerging market manufacturers

On average, 46% of all the manufacturing companies in the poll believe that growth in contract logistics will drive growth in their business of up to 10%.

About half the European and North American based manufacturers polled were more conservative regarding the impact of contract logistics and predict that consequent benefits will be less than 10% business growth.

Firms in Asia-Pacific and Latin America are more bullish, with nearly 60% predicting that the upturn in the contract logistics industry can lead to an incremental growth in their businesses by at least 10%.

(Chart: see http://www.globalintelligence.com/insights-analysis/bulletins/emerging-market-manufacturers-show-greater-interes)

In summary, the world's global manufacturer plan to drive business growth further over the next two years by improving resource efficiency, leveraging contract logistics and attracting, training and retaining workforce talent.

Author: Peter Read, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific, Global Intelligence Alliance

This article and others from GIA's Asia Pacific practice can be found at Global Intelligence Alliance Insights and Analysis

About the Author

Global Intelligence Alliance (GIA) is a strategic market intelligence and advisory group. GIA was formed in 1995 when a team of market intelligence specialists, management consultants, industry analysts and technology experts came together to build a powerful suite of customized solutions ranging from outsourced market monitoring services and software, to strategic analysis and advisory.

Visit Global Intelligence Alliance