LOCAL MANUFACTURING AND IT’S BENEFITS
“There is hardly anything in the world that cannot be made a little worse and sold a little cheaper, and those who consider price alone are that man’s lawful prey. It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money – that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot – it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”
John Ruskin (1819-1900) is often credited with this statement. Whether this is correctly attributed or not, it remains very true and relevant to our current market climate. Local manufacturing has long been under threat from imported items, that are also more often than not of inferior quality to what can be locally sourced. The effects of outsourcing production to other countries are vast. In opposition, let us explore the many benefits to supporting local manufacturing.
Every company deals with deadlines. We have all heard the “I need it yesterday” line. Local manufacturing is the best option for faster, shorter delivery lead times. In many instances, a product can be designed, approved, manufactured and delivered in a shorter time frame than an imported product can even be manufactured, with sea shipping taking anywhere from 20 to 45 days or longer. Shorter lead times allow you to make a profit sooner.
Local manufacturing has an often-forgotten benefit too – reduction in carbon emissions and carbon footprint. Cutting out the long-distance freight forwarding of products will go a long way to assisting local companies in meeting their climate obligations. For carbon emissions to be reduced even further, would require major upgrades to the local rail industry (as an example) to assist in more effective medium and long-distance transport of finished goods. The final cost of an item can also be greatly reduced when factoring in the massive reduction in transportation costs.
Quality control of manufactured items is essential to ensure that you provide the best possible end product to your customer. Consistency of quality is also key to ensure long term business continuity. These things are much easier to control and keep tabs on when dealing with a supplier that is within driving distance. Imported products may start out as replicas of a prototype, but often suffer from gradual reduction in quality over time, and to ship these back across the ocean is neither feasible nor advised.
Another consideration must be the language barrier. This alone can lead to unnecessarily long lead times and incorrect products being manufactured due to a difficulty in communicating accurate information timeously. Some suppliers may even conveniently lose the ability to speak English when questioned on sub-standard delivered product mentioned above. South Africa is also well regarded worldwide as having excellent workers’ rights, as well as closely monitored SHEQ policies. The same cannot be said for most “cheap” manufacturing countries.
The socio-economic impact of supporting local manufacturers is somewhat more difficult to measure as a direct influence for the individual. However, the negative effects of losing production capacity to other countries has seen a massive increase in unemployment and drastic increases in food and other manufactured products. When local manufacturing is supported in greater numbers, the short- and long-term effects will become evident in the country as a whole.
Increased local manufacturing will lead to increased local employment. Though the numbers may be small to start with, they will grow exponentially as the market starts to grow. Stable, long term job creation will also lead to more stable, and better financed households, which in turn can help to lower certain brackets of social crimes. The knock-on effect will be further felt in reinvestment of these earnings into their own local community through purchasing at retail outlets, stores, spaza shops and the like.
The prosperity of one, will very soon become the prosperity of two and so forth. As the market grows, so will the overall prosperity in the broader social context. Whole communities will start to benefit from increased cash flows through their villages, towns or cities. Increased local manufacturing will also necessitate skills development to not only meet the immediate need, but to also cater to the potential future growth in manufacturing. All of this growth will lead to greater stability within the local community surrounding our industrial zones.
If the trade deficit were to continue growing and South African manufacturing is further reduced to chase the “cheap sale”, then price will eventually become of zero consequence. Imagine if all manufactured products in a country were imported. The unemployment rate would be even higher than the record levels we are seeing now and the average Joe would have no money to spend. It would not matter how cheap you could import a product for, if the average shopper has no money to afford it. It is the responsibility of both the buyer and consumer to ensure the long-term prosperity of this country.
To quote John Ruskin again – “Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort”. We should all make the effort to support quality, locally manufactured goods to ensure our future and that of our children.
Grinding Techniques is a proudly local manufacturer and supplier of premium quality abrasive products, and employer of the local community. Contact one of our experienced product specialists today and let us assist your company turn the corner and return to profitable local manufacturing.
Partner with us today and keep your business at the cutting edge of technology.
For more on our product range, contact us +27 11 271 6400| info@grindtech.com| www.grindtech
About The Author
