Managers perception of competitive factors in manufacturing companies of capital goods make-to-order: an exploratory study

Abstract

The objective of this article is to evaluate the importance given by managers of manufacturing companies of capital goods make-to-order about to the following competitive factors: costs, quality, delivery speed, delivery reliability and flexibility. The empiric research was made through structured interviews where a group of ten managers of selected companies of that industry segment were submitted to questions, and these managers expressed their feeling, classifying the related characteristics of the competitive factors according to the following degrees of importance in the context of the atmosphere of the contest: order winners, qualifiers and little important. The results of the research indicate that these managers believe that the warranty of manufacturing the products according to the specifications of the customer at lower prices is the main characteristic to obtain more and more orders in the companies that deal with that kind of business. So the chief idea is that these companies fill the qualifying characteristics to join the contest.

Key words: competitiveness, competitive strategies, winner factors, qualifier factors.