Crietee at Origin Africa: operational excellence not enough in demanding market

IAF member Actif Africa, a unique federation with association members in over 20 African countries, organized its Origin Africa conference and fair in Mauritius on September 25th-29th. IAF’s Matthijs Crietee held a presentation on production outsourcing trends. Key message of the presentation was that for (African) manufacturers to succeed in the current demanding market, a focus on production excellence, although important, is not sufficient. Manufacturers must invest in upstream knowledge (fabrics, raw materials) and in many markets they must learn to compete on speed and supply chain efficiency, invest in flexibility and in communication, to develop more environmentally sustainable ways to produce. Finally it would be wise for them to diversify their markets. For the associations uniting these companies this means that they should increase and enhance their role in promoting, guiding and organizing knowledge transfer to companies. Please see MC September 2017 trends and figures Origin Africa def (full IAF presentation).