The game in manufacturing today is rapidly moving beyond just making a product, selling a product, and servicing a product. Now, it’s all about what else you can do for a customer.

Some call this idea value-added manufacturing. But what does it mean?

First, it means really understanding customer needs at a deep level. Today, manufacturers must understand a customer’s market dynamics — the chain of business processes, relationships, and connection points that weave together the various constituents of that customer’s business chain.

Clearly, this sort of understanding goes beyond intuition and traditional customer after-sales surveys. What we’re talking about here is a form of business intelligence enabled by the analysis of granular customer and market data. For many manufacturers, this means having business analysis competence in-house.

It can also mean opening up your company in ways you haven’t before. S&S Hinge, a Bloomingdale, IL, maker of continuous hinges, helps customers manage their supply chains by providing visibility into inventory and materials. “They have visibility into our raw materials and production levels,” says Richard B. Sade, vice president of S&S. “In addition. we can help customers manage the engineering side and steer them in the direction of a design that aligns with our system. This service alone has brought us a boatload of work.”

The supply chain visibility service, Sade says, has enabled S&S to command a 5% premium on sales.

It’s this kind of out-of-the-box thinking that enables manufacturers to forge ahead to a better future. And it’s happening in many different areas of manufacturing, all adding up to a profound transformation of the industry.