Snapshot

A leading marine products manufacturer turned to Proactive Worldwide to benchmark its production capabilities against a top competitor with similar products and capabilities. As a result of our deep-dive research, the client recognized that it would need to upgrade its facilities to avoid production backlogs and loss of market share.

Discovery

Proactive Worldwide conducted more than 35 interviews with sources within, outside, or formerly employed by the competitor to gain insight and validate – or disprove – the client’s decisions underlying its own operations and its assumptions about the competitor’s strategies and capabilities.

We uncovered key information that indicated the competitor had continually invested in its production capabilities over the years, thereby improving its bottom line related to the competitive product. We also identified two key factors that contributed to the competitor’s success:

• Automation: The competitor’s manufacturing operations were significantly more automated than our client’s operations, resulting in lower labor costs and faster production.
• Raw material: The competitor used a higher grade of raw material that reduced production costs for grinding and finishing the product, resulting in further production time savings.

Detailed Results

Proactive Worldwide gathered market data from every aspect of the competitor’s business related to the competitive product to create actionable insights, and also:

• Developed an updated financial P&L for the competitive product
• Benchmarked the competitor’s go-to-market strategy and market reputation
• Detailed the competitor’s cost structure, production capabilities and design costs
• Understood where the competitor was investing in R&D
• Mapped the production process and areas of cost saving for the competitive product

Words of Advice

Our client built a new state-of-the-art production facility to keep pace with the competition and prepare for its own new product launch. The new facility mitigated future production challenges and enabled our client to get out in front in the market.

“Proactive Worldwide’s work played a huge part in developing our overall manufacturing business strategy. It helped us realize we had fallen behind the competition and supported our decision to make a multi-million-dollar investment to build a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility to maintain our market leadership position. The new plant will support our growth for years to come.”
– General Manager