Innovation at CMP Controls

Welcome to the Feature Series for Australian Manufacturing, where each month we will shine the focus on one particular Australian manufacturer and breakdown what really gives them the competitive advantage, in an otherwise difficult sector.

This month we’ve focused on CMP Controls, an Australian-based manufacturer of lighting control gear. This is the final week on CMP and we’ll be looking at Innovation, and how the company employs a Start-Up, Entrepreneurial approach, to the growth of the business. 

The traditional manufacturers who are set on one-way of doing things, are sure to find manufacturing in Australia, either at the moment, or in the very near future, extremely difficult.

As Advanced Manufacturing Council Chair, Goran Roos has claimed, Australian Manufacturing is moving from imitation to innovation, and Australian manufacturers who embrace this approach, are the entrepreneurs who are on the look out for new and better ways of doing things. While the others may be left behind.

The headlines in the manufacturing sector have been quite bleak in recent years, with very little signs of brightening up. The closure of the automotive sector, which is due to shut in 2017, is a massive blow for Australian Manufacturing, with the Productivity Commission (PC) predicting over 40,000 car sector job losses will hit when car making in Australia ends .

Last week, we asked the questions “What keeps an Australian manufacturer competitive when it’s a game of price is right?” The answer was quality. This is correct, but it also relies on one other very important component, Innovation. 

As a start-up in its own right, CMP commenced operation out of a one shop premise, barely 400 sqm in size, making only very simple, basic plastic components, such as lids, jars and buckets. However, basic manufacturing isn’t what kept the business going, it was a drive to continuously evolve and diversify. Moving away from components that were easily produced, which they couldn’t possibly compete with against China, and moving towards high-end engineering plastics, before diversifying into other sectors, employing innovation, rather than imitation.

Embracing a start-up culture across all its manufacturing divisions, helps CMP stay ahead of a constantly evolving manufacturing landscape and always on the look out for new markets, and better ways of manufacturing.