The need for diversification
In the face of declining sales of Australian-made vehicles, Ford Australia wanted to support their component suppliers by offering a Supplier Diversification Program, which would help their key suppliers to diversify and find additional sources of revenue.
Ford Australia has been successfully manufacturing great motor vehicles in Australia since 1928 but in recent years found that declining demand for Australian-made cars was putting the company’s manufacturing – and its suppliers – under stress. Ford obtained financial assistance from the Australian Government through the Automotive Supply Chain Development Program and sought qualified consultants to deliver a program to assist the company’s suppliers to develop new streams of business outside OEM automotive.
In a competitive bidding process against some very capable rivals, Roaring Success won the assignment to create and deliver the Ford Supplier Diversification Program.
Our Role in the Supplier Diversification Program
Our role in this assignment was to create and deliver a program that would strengthen suppliers in the Ford supply-chain through:
- A classroom-based workshop program to guide the thinking and build the capability of those suppliers who were new to the concept of diversification.
- An advanced program of on-site consultation, customised to the needs of each participant, which aimed to accelerate the progress of selected suppliers who were already well progressed with their diversification plans.
Outcome
- Fourteen companies participated in phases in the program over an 18 month period.
- The type of projects completed for the advanced program included
- Feasibility study for establishing a SE Asian manufacturing facility to service that market.
- Planning to adapt a successful overseas business for launch into the Australian market.
- Market research and business development strategy to launch a product-range imported from a multi-national parent, with the prospect of manufacturing these products locally if sales were successful.
- Helping a number of auto supply companies to identify diversification opportunities in adjacent or emerging markets within Australia; and to develop strategies for market entry.
- Participants in the workshop program reported increased confidence as they gained the knowledge, process and tools to tackle something they knew was essential but which had previously seemed insurmountable.
- Some participant companies reported winning new business in new markets worth millions of dollars; whilst others have accelerated the rate at which they are implementing diversification plans.
