In spite of the significant progress made by a wide range of manufacturing companies over the past decade, few senior executives in U.S. firms would point to manufacturing as a significant source of competitive advantage. This paper seeks to explore some of the basic reasons for this. It begins by providing a framework for manufacturing competitiveness. It then outlines a handful of characteristics that seem to have been pervasive in a wide range of manufacturing competitiveness programs over the past decade. In contrast to those characteristics, it uses three quite different organizations to illustrate a very different mode for pursuing manufacturing competitiveness. Finally, the paper concludes by outlining three elements that appear to be essential in the successful pursuit of manufacturing advantage.
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