Finding Your True Competitive Edge: A Guide for Manufacturers
Adam Sharman, CEO LMAC Group, APAC Throughout 2024 we have heard the mantra ‘survive to ‘25’ across a number of businesses and sub-sectors of our industry. In challenging economic times, manufacturing businesses face unique pressures from all directions – supply chain disruptions, decreased demand, and tightening credit markets. However, history shows that companies taking decisive action during downturns often emerge stronger when the economy recovers. In these times, organisation must be clear on what it is that sets them apart, in order to prioritise investment of time and resources in those activities that will accelerate their competitive advantage as markets recover. But how many truly understand what sets them apart? A genuine competitive advantage isn’t just about being better—it’s about being different in ways that matter to customers and are difficult for competitors to replicate. Looking Beyond the Obvious Traditional thinking often leads manufacturers to focus on standard metrics like price, quality, or delivery times. While these factors matter, they rarely constitute a sustainable competitive advantage. Every serious player in manufacturing strives to optimise these elements, making them table stakes rather than differentiators. The key lies in identifying unique combinations of capabilities that create lasting value. Consider Toyota’s revolutionary production system—it wasn’t just about efficiency, but rather a holistic approach combining worker empowerment, continuous improvement, and waste reduction that took decades for competitors to understand, let alone replicate. The Three-Step Analysis Framework Customer Value Mapping Start by mapping your customers’ entire value chain, not just their immediate needs. What challenges do they face upstream and downstream? A manufacturer of industrial fasteners discovered their true advantage wasn’t in the products themselves, but in their ability to provide engineering support that helped customers optimise their entire assembly process. Document every customer touchpoint and gather data on: Problems customers face that they haven’t […]