| Clusterkraft
e-Newsletter (Vol.4)
News
from clusters
International
Poor job quality in Indian clusters: ILO SIDBI
to get $120 million from World Bank for Cluster Development 20
handicraft Clusters to boost exports. A
handbook on forming Self-help groups for developing Cluster economy. Up
gradation for the development of handloom Clusters. Testing
and training grounds for SME Clusters. 40
crore to be invested in 20 handloom Clusters. Investing
in SSI Clusters can improve Maharashtra’s Economy Central
Government plans to invest in the handloom Cluster scheme ICICI
joins Ministry for healthcare in handloom Cluster. Madurai,
a hub for the RMG Clusters: CII. RBI
tells banks to focus on SME Cluster development. Lack
of infrastructure input affects the growth of SME Clusters.
International
Move to strengthen Bangladeshi Textile Clusters. The
Rio Pardo Valley tobacco Cluster in Brazil. Cluster
approach for economic rehabilitation in Ethiopia & Kazakhstan.
Italy
talks to boost cluster plan. Event National
Convention on Cluster Development ARTICLE The Kerala Cluster development programme The Kerala Cluster development programme is one of the most successful in the country. There is a whole array of artisanal clusters throughout the state manufacturing a wide range of products, ranging cane and bamboo products, silk fabric, wooden products, bakery and food based products, leather and rexin bags, garments, ayurvedic products, bell metal artifacts, gold ornaments and footwear, to name a few. Apart from these the development programme also takes its pride in implementing major initiative to set up a rice bran oil extraction unit. There are about 30 SSI units exclusively in the Fruit processing sector. Majority of these units are concentrated at Vazhakulam in Muvattupuzha Taluk of Ernakulam district. They are in the process of registering the consortium as a Private limited company. Members of tile industry based at Thrissur district have formed a consortium as ‘Tera Tile Consortium (P) Ltd'. They are in the process of setting up a Common Facility Center for Technology & Skill up gradation, expanding marketing linkages and for new product development. There are also certain Small Scale Industrial units that are engaged in the printing sector thus forming their own consortium.
Strengthening Competitiveness Through Production Networks: AITPL
Cluster. Research is still too fragmented in Europe, including in the ICT for enterprise networking domain. Therefore, the European Commission is promoting a structural approach aimed at integrating collaborative relevant RTD at a pan-European level, thus contributing to the creation of a genuine and powerful European Research Area (ERA). One way to achieve this has been the clustering of research projects, intended to promote exchange between projects working in related topics, allowing their individual partners to come together and to share their knowledge and experiences for mutual benefit. Project clusters also provide a common basis for dissemination among and interaction with people interested in the domain. It is an initiative of the “Ambient Intelligence Technologies for the Product Lifecycle” (AITPL) cluster and an instrument to widely disseminate recent results obtained by projects from this cluster and by other projects in the ICT for Enterprise Networking domain.. Such innovations include integrated enterprise modelling for supply business processes,’ Build-to-Order’ strategies for vehicle design in the automotive industry and co-operative SME networks. The AITPL cluster starts from the conviction that future products and services will be designed to offer customers more value and enable manufacturers to respond faster and in a flexible manner to changing market demands especially the increasing customers demands. To satisfy this demand for differentiated and customized products at competitive prices, companies with different expertise must collaborate. But they need to do so in ways which ensure that the value chain remains flexible, so as to realize the full benefits of rapid product innovation and open competition. In addition, manufacturers are looking to make their products “smarter” by designing in added-value services as part of the customer offering. This “extended product” approach combines a product with services and enhancements that improve marketability. Enhancements can incorporate tangible features that make the product more intelligent, customized or user-friendly, including embedded features like maintenance. Secondly, the cluster believes that the strength of the European economy is increasingly based on relationships between many enterprises, which form agile networks in order to enable reacting to market demands in shortest time. These networks (sometimes developed as a virtual enterprise for a specific product) are still competing successfully on a global scale with enterprises from distant countries, with important labour cost advantages. This success can only be retained, if the networks establish and maintain smooth transaction and interaction throughout the complete life cycle of the product.
As the papers in the AITPL publication demonstrate, any supply chain
strategy should address key themes, such as the growing gap between
the financial performance of companies with disciplined supply chain
management and the financial performance of those with ‘ad hoc’
supply chain management. Strategies should also focus on the development
of end-to-end processes (rather than local/functional processes) and
their integration beyond organizational boundaries to realize the benefits
of vertical integration without integrating. Finally the management
of uncertainty needs to be improved, through various techniques of forecasting
(‘range forecasting’) and risk pooling (to build flexibility),
and the capability of supply chains to evolve as business conditions
change must be enhanced.
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