Comparing the manufacturing strategies of Australian firms with their European counterparts

Australia has strong European traditions, rooted in its history of the past 200 years. On the other hand, Australia differs from many European countries in a number of important respects, including geography, population density and aspects of government economic policy. This paper uses data from the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (1996-98) to examine how these similarities and differences may have impacted on the manufacturing strategies adopted by firms in the two regions. Whilst Australian and European manufacturers seem similar in many respects, in that they are listening to their customers, adopting quality strategies and utilizing technology, there are important differences in the speed of adoption of some aspects of these approaches. In particular, European manufacturers introduced a number of manufacturing technologies earlier and are using them more extensively than their Australian counterparts, whilst health, environmental and safety activities seem to be more prominent among Australian firms.