Competitive landscape analysis for the manufacturing industry
The European manufacturing industry is witnessing a phase of tremendous disruption due to the increasing need to embrace automation, become more sustainable, and address the skill shortages. To keep up with the industry transformations, major companies in the manufacturing industry are capitalizing on new opportunities, employing risk mitigation strategies, and mitigating challenges along the supply chain. However, before making huge investments into new market opportunities and investing in technologies, it is vital for manufacturing companies to assess the competitive landscape in the market and make changes in their strategies accordingly.
Business Challenges Faced
The client is a manufacturing company based out of Europe. With leading players in the manufacturing industry taking initiatives in confronting uncertainties in the market and meeting the market demands, the client was losing their market share to their competitors. Also, the client’s inability to address the skill shortages and employ risk mitigation strategies further impacted the company’s overall sales rate. Consequently, the company witnessed a dip in their profit margins by 17%. The client, therefore, approached the experts at Infiniti Research to leverage their expertise in offering competitive landscape analysis.
With Infiniti’s competitive landscape analysis, the client wanted to tackle challenges such as:
Supply chain issues
The inability of an efficient inventory management process resulted in a huge mismatch in the supply and demand. As a result, the company failed to meet their customers’ demands, and this subsequently resulted in lower sales. With Infiniti’s competitive landscape analysis, the client wanted to closely analyze their direct and indirect competitors’ inventory management processes and make changes in their plans accordingly to efficiently meet the market demand.
Need for sustainability
The increasing pressure from government and public for greener operations put the company under the pressure to become more sustainable. Therefore, with Infiniti’s competitive landscape analysis, the client wanted to understand the strategies adopted by top industry players to tackle this challenge.
Need to address skill shortages
Although automation and robotics are filling the labor gap in the manufacturing industry, there are still requirements of human capabilities in manufacturing companies. The client, therefore, wanted to overcome the workforce management challenges.
Data protection
With cyberthreats increasing in the manufacturing industry, investment in data security is becoming imperative for manufacturing companies. Hence, with Infiniti’s competitive landscape analysis, the client wanted to analyze the risk mitigation strategies leveraged by their key competitors.
Investing in new technologies
With the advent of technologies such automation, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), cloud computing, and robotics in the manufacturing industry, major companies have started embracing these technologies and delivering the best quality product at a faster pace. As such, with Infiniti’s competitive landscape analysis, the client wanted to monitor their competitors’ investment in new technologies and processes.
Solutions Offered
To help the client tackle the industry challenges and analyze their direct and indirect competitors, the experts at Infiniti Research employed competitive landscape research.
The initial stage of the competitive landscape analysis engagement involved conducting competitive benchmarking analysis. This phase of the competitive landscape analysis engagement helped the client to gain an independent perspective of how well their company performed compared to their competitors. Also, the client was able to drill down into their performance gaps to identify areas of improvement. The client was also able to identify the sustainable manufacturing practices adopted by their key competitors to minimize negative environmental impact. Furthermore, this phase of the competitive landscape analysis engagement also enabled the client to monitor their competitors’ initiatives in employing new technologies and processes.
As a part of the competitive landscape analysis engagement, the experts also conducted demand management and risk assessment process. This phase of the competitive landscape analysis engagement helped the client to efficiently forecast the demand for their products in advance and minimize supply and demand mismatch. This further helped the client in managing their production process and enhancing efficiency.
Also, the risk assessment process conducted as a part of the competitive landscape analysis engagement helped the client to identify cyber risks in the manufacturing industry and employ cybersecurity initiatives to mitigate them before they impact their business operations. Furthermore, with Infiniti’s competitive landscape analysis, the client was able to estimate the viability of their new products and evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing strategy compared to their competitors.
Results Obtained
The insights obtained from Infiniti’s competitive landscape analysis engagement helped the client to identify gaps in their product and service offerings compared to their competitors. Also, with Infiniti’s competitive landscape analysis engagement, the client was able to keep pace with their competitors’ business strategies and make changes in their business plans when required. Within one year, the client was able to achieve a huge increase in their sales. This subsequently helped the client to enhance process agility and reduce operating cost by 33%.
