CUSTOMER-DRIVEN MANUFACTURING

The basic tasks of a business are straightforward - getting and keepin g customers and making profits, both set within the context of the sho rt and long term. Explicit in these is not only a need for marketing a nd manufacturing to work well in themselves but to work well together. Companies, however, typically fail in this provision. To move to a mo re competitive response in today's difficult markets requires more tha n co-existence, it requires a shared partnership between the core part s of the firm. Shared understanding of marketing and manufacturing's a pproach is the starting point. The other is building on a shared under standing of the market itself. In such a way, a move to being customer -driven starts to take shape.