Building competitive advantage on manufacturing resources

Today's dynamic and global competitive forces require new thinking about the implications of manufacturing for achieving superiority in the marketplace. This article suggests that a resource-based perspective offers an innovative approach to thinking about and developing a manufacturing strategy. According to this approach, a company's manufacturing strategy must capitalize on, and add to, its resources and capabilities. To show how executives can use the resource-based approach, categories of manufacturing resources are defined. The next section of the article discusses the important attributes of manufacturing resources, their relationship with distinctive competence, and their impact on competitive advantage. Finally, the article explains how manufacturing strategy can effectively leverage these resource attributes to obtain an enduring competitive advantage that leads to high performance.