Argon & Co Launches 'MODE' with goal to unlock $3B for Australia's manufacturing industry

SYDNEY, Aug. 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Global management consultancy firm Argon & Co has launched its own work system for operations optimisation with the potential to create approximately $3 billion in productivity gains for Australia's struggling $47 billion manufacturing industry.

Paul Eastwood, Managing Partner at Argon & Co

"MODE" - an acronym that joins "Manufacturing Optimisation" and "Daily Execution" - combines a structured performance roadmap with coaching and real-time digital tools to improve execution of manufacturing lines at the coalface.

An early pilot achieved a staggering 100 percent increase in line productivity, with the vision to deliver between 2-5% EBIT improvements through direct cost improvements within 2 years of implementation.

MODE was launched in response to global supply chain uncertainty, rising labour costs, and weak capital investment that are currently negatively impacting productivity in Australian manufacturing.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data shows that Australia's Q1 2025 manufacturing share of GDP fell to just 5.1 percent, down from 8.9 percent two decades ago and from 15 percent in the mid-1970s.

Manufacturing production in Australia also decreased 2.5 percent in March of 2025 over the same month in 2024.

Argon & Co Managing Partner, Paul Eastwood, estimates that if MODE was implemented across Australia's entire manufacturing output and delivered a highly conservative improvement of just 10 percent productivity uplift and 2% improvement in other cost levers, this would translate to nearly $3 billion in bottom line benefits.

Spread across the economy, these gains would materially raise GDP, reshape industry competitiveness, and enhance inflation control and living standards, helping to ease pressure on wages and prices, according to Eastwood.

In an environment with such an urgent need for scalable, front-line solutions, MODE's approach of fast wins plus capability building could rapidly inject much-needed tangible productivity gains into Australian manufacturing, according to Argon & Co.

Paul Eastwood, Managing Partner at Argon & Co said: "Australian manufacturing has spent too long investing in solutions that don't stick. It's time to instead build long-term solutions that are appropriate for the realities of our factories today - tight margins, lean teams, and the need to show progress fast.

"Australian manufacturers desperately need to embed a system that drives performance every day, year after year, regardless of who's on shift or who's in charge."

MODE is designed to generate measurable improvements in months, not years, while built-in monitoring and capability enablement ensure the sustainability of these improvements over the long term.

"As a new and agile platform, we have very quickly adopted AI into our thinking, within the next months MODE users will have access to our MODE agent, who will provide insights and analytics to identify the right focus areas for improvement on an daily, weekly and monthly basis ensuring teams are focused on improvement not analysis." Eastwood said.

Its flexible, modular framework works across diverse sites and sectors, creating scalability and resistance, while supporting government goals for driving national productivity and inflation control.

For the frontline workers, achieving a certain level of capability in MODE can be maintained as they move from one business to the next, with our vision to create a benchmark for the industry when recruiting.

Argon & Co () is a global management consultancy that specialises in operations strategy and transformation. Its expertise spans supply chain planning, manufacturing, logistics, procurement, finance, and shared services, working together with clients to transform their businesses and generate real change.

Its people are engaging to work with and trusted by clients to get the job done.

Argon & Co has 17 offices across Europe, Australasia, America, Asia and the Middle East.