The strategic development of manufacturing: Market analysis for investment priorities

The UK government promoted a 'manufacturing, planning and implementation' (MPI) scheme between 1991 and 1994. Its aim was to support the strategic development of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) in participating companies. For such AMT developments to be strategic required the companies first to undertake a market review to establish what precisely was required to win orders in its target markets. Consultants hired by companies under the scheme were required therefore to conduct an analysis of market needs sufficiently thorough to permit the appropriate manufacturing developments to be made. This article by Terry Hill and Roy Westbrook examines seven such projects, and demonstrates various types of weakness in the method and outcomes of these market analyses. The methods include customer surveys, internal surveys, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analyses, and broad reviews. These are shown to have been conducted in such a way that only general statements, rather than indepth analysis, are produced. The weaknesses of these statements are analysed in terms of coverage, verification, segmentation, and definition. It is suggested that a good market analysis must employ a rigorous approach using multiple methods to eliminate these four types of error.