Oman Manufacturing Group looks for success stories

Ibtisam Al Faruji, Marketing Director, Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE) and organizer of the Oman Manufacturing Group (OMG) said, "Local manufacturers are understandably worried about possible fall-out from the credit squeeze, but output has remained healthy, and so far few firms are finding that access to finance is hampering prospects for output or investment. Nevertheless, there are some signs that the pace of demand and output growth may edge lower in the coming months."

Manufacturing is not immune to the impact of sudden changes in economic dynamics and it is important for all manufacturers more than ever to have a strategy to maximize output levels and reduce rising costs.

For example, what are manufacturers doing to counter the rising cost of raw materials? How are they reducing energy consumption levels? Where are they innovating? And how are they cutting bottom line costs to improve efficiency? "It's these critical business issues that the 2009 OMG seminar program will be looking at," remarks Hamida Al Balushi, Origin Oman Campaign Co-ordinator.

The first OMG seminar is scheduled to be held 7:30pm, Monday 9 February at the Grand Hyatt Hotel and the topic for discussion is Oman's Manufacturing Success: Learning from Your Neighbour.

According to Al Faruji, "The global economy has meant that labour intensive manufacturing is a tough place to be in Oman if there's no design, innovative, production or marketing edge. But there are Omani manufacturers with innovative manufacturing processes which compete with the best in a very competitive and difficult global market place."

The line-up of panelists for the free-of-charge 9 February OMG seminar includes: S. Gopalan, CEO, Reem Batteries; Yousuf Ahmed, CEO, Oman Textiles; Anwar Ali Sultan, Director, W.J. Towell; and Dr. Bhaskar Dutta, CEO, Jazeera Steel Product Company. The moderator for the evening is former Shell Oman Marketing, Managing Director, Nick Pattison.

"The purpose of the 9 February OMG seminar is to gain insights into how Omani manufacturers have developed their respective product, service or process innovations, where the ideas came from, how setbacks were overcome and how creativity and innovation are fostered within their businesses. The intention is to offer ideas and inspiration to local businesses by learning from the experiences of successful locally-based business innovation leaders," comments Al Balushi.

A recent report shows that manufacturers are broadening their range of service offerings through maintenance contracts, functionality upgrades and design services. These additional offerings may have started as a way of competing, but now they are helping manufacturers tackle the current economic challenge.

In addition, manufacturers are increasingly competing globally on knowledge as well as quality and this is a trend that will certainly continue into 2009 and beyond. Indeed, many Oman-based manufacturers are now niche players as they have adapted to years of intense global competition.

"The current global economic climate is certainly worrying, although many of our local manufacturers have seen crises come and go, and will have the experience and nous to weather this period of economic instability," suggests PEIE's Marketing Director.