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Manufacturing creativity and innovation
(Wakefield Press, 2013) Andrew, J.; Spoehr, J.; Spoehr, J.
Competing on cost is not an option for South Australian manufacturers in the Asian century. The challenge is to compete on quality and value using the most advanced manufacturing methods and skills available. Technology alone won’t deliver a secure future for manufacturers. Much of the competitive advantage needed to survive in a rapidly industrialising world will come from innovations in the way we work and the organisation of workplaces. While technological innovation is vital to improving performance, modernising our workplaces will be a key to future success. At the heart of the productivity and performance improvement agenda is the right combination of technology, enlightened leadership, an engaged workforce and a culture of creativity and innovation. This chapter examines recent policy trends in South Australia’s manufacturing sector and the tangle of academic and policy discourse that has informed South Australia’s current manufacturing policy and economic development strategies. Through the lens of creativity and its contribution to innovation we examine the holistic model of innovation that the South Australian Government’s Manufacturing Works strategy advocates and what it implies for the way that research and development are undertaken and how workplaces are organised.