What Would You Buy "Made/Manufactured in Australia" ?

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      sv123 on 21/06/2017 - 15:26

      I see your point about bull bars - another thing to consider with bullbars (and I'm not sure if its law) but airbag compatibility. Towbar recovery hitches is a good idea and probably simple to manufacture - given that its a solid tube of steel with a shackle on the end. I'd love to be a beta-tester for one! But I have to be honest, I don't do extreme 4wding and/or recoveries so I wouldn't want you thinking that I or anyone else has given it some sort of safety tick of approval :)

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  ausmechkeyboards on 20/06/2017 - 11:08

  Firearms, bullets

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  onionbobo on 20/06/2017 - 12:25

  +1

  People are greedy, so are you, everyone want more money in their pocket, that's why you want to charge more money for local Australian made. At the end of the day , no one gives a damn as long as quality is good and price is cheap. You are dreaming for getting more money just for Aussie made label only.

  Today, many Chinese made products are very high quality, because their industry is relatively new, many of their machines are German or Japanese latest models and many Australian company still using decade or even half a centuries old machineries.

  The only way to make money for Australian made product are:
  1) Highly regulated product/service
  2) Highly customised /expensive shipping/perishable product in relation to 1)
  3) Commercial product rather than consumer
  4) Establish your own brand
  5) Focus on one thing

  What does it means?

  Eg: I know it's not related directly, but for example, architecture, each state is highly regulated and you need to have a local state license to operate, so if you want to design a house in Vic, you can't hire a architect from NSW unless they have Vic license. So find something similar in products.

  2) Related to 1), for example, truck trailers, each state has their own road regulation and each truck might be unique, e.g.: for horse, for stock, for refrigerated item, frozen meat, live sheep, etc. the customisation make it very difficult for overseas to do it right and the cost to rectify any issue is extremely high. Eg: you are not going to send a truck body back to China if a bar is missing or too wide and does not meet vicroad regulation. Find something that need high customisation and difficult to amend, that most customer prefer someone local to do it.

  3) customer in commercial product has more money and care more about time, level of service, reliability, adapt to changes/regulation, and for large item, could be shipping/storage cost. Many of these factors are benefits of being locally made/serviced but they are not so critical for consumers. Eg: I don't care if my door mat to arrive in 2 weeks rather and 2 days, I prefer for 50% saving.

  4) Branding is very important, make sure you do lot of that, spend a large chunk of your money in brand/marketing once you've decided what to do.

  5) Do one thing only as you have limited capacity. Someone that does one thing all the time is always better than doing 5 things at the same time. You'll be faster, material will be cheaper due to economy of scale. Eg: if you decided to to timber related, don't do metal work at the same time. You could however branch out to other timber stuff for reasonable economy of scope.

  Hope it helps, good luck.

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    100000000A0000000001 on 21/06/2017 - 05:20

    +1

    When i open my own shop,If i can make 20K a year,i'll be a happy bloke.. IF i work for a company today,i will get paid more than 60K. The only reason i reject working for other companies is due to their greedy and unethical approach. They do not care about environment,not care about the impacts,not care about economical as well as social. So, will work long hours,do a lot of hard-work , will get less money and you point me as greedy just to place people's lives good quality products in this country? I wish you'd read my posts and comment the first offensive paragraph. This topic is a pure proof that there are people who gives a damn about good quality and affordable stuff,not cheap but affordable. Also, if it is not for Made in AU Label Only it is for the whole environment and people who still believe that things can be manufactured outside the box,such as custom designs.

    Many products made in there still lacks the standards but not all of them. It seems you didn't involved directly with manufacturing with factories directly there. Even describing correct printing colours can be nightmare. Correct that,Australian companies using old machinery but what is the big problem with that if the manufacturing volume is low? If you want to manufacture 10,you do it in manual lathe,if you need 10.000, you go on with a CNC.

    Liked the truck body example. Similar like someone suggested manufacturing heavy and bulky stuff . Trailer manufacturing was an idea i had before it took off,now way too many people doing it and it requires a lot of space,i got limited space available. So maximum size would be big dinner tables(Counting the storage as well).

    I already planned and made(logo,motto,spreading etc) a lot of progress the only thing left is what would you buy, would you buy a bilge pump or bird house or metal fire place..The topic&thanks to many,i got good answer/s.

    I don't agree with one thing all the time stuff(if you are talking about speciality that is different), the reason is if you look to the manufacturing industry, the only way to survive is to adapt into changing conditions. Sooner or later, someone or something will push you out of market or work. Example; if you concentrate only on timber-work if you have a fire or damage to your timber stock you'll need to obtain new stock which will be very hard.If too many people gets on timber-work,you will have bigger competition etc etc. If you talk about speciality,such as woodworker but only manufactures violins which are very hard to manufacture and takes skills years to learn,i have full respect on that but as i stated,it takes years to learn the skills and more than that a grand-master to teach. The world is changing and i believe a company can only survive with Jack of all trades and master in many.

    Thanks a lot for the support.

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      onionbobo on 22/06/2017 - 10:14

      I've actually erased a long reply lol, that sound like a retirement hobby plan, thought you were serious, my apologies. All I can say is good luck. BTW, being a mechanical engineer for decades in Australia, manufacturing client from multinational corp to backyard shed, seen plenty of success and failures.

      Do check out ETSY like others suggested, very very good platform.

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  OzzyOzbourne on 20/06/2017 - 13:11

  Nothing except food perhaps.

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  Bunnyburger on 21/06/2017 - 00:38

  I've seen some Australians make good raw denim. Don't wanna shill tho =X

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  Some Human on 21/06/2017 - 12:12

  Ugg Boots.

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  Ctn on 21/06/2017 - 12:49

  I would always buy Australian Steak.

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  Hawkie on 21/06/2017 - 13:44

  Hi,

  I'm going to be in the market for some sensible furniture in the next few months.

  Please get in touch, I'd be very keen to see what's out there. ETSY was a good place to have a look at what others are doing.

  Cheers,

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