Global strategic benchmarking, critical capabilities and performance of aerospace subcontractors

The aerospace industry faces fierce and rapidly changing competition worldwide which exercises a considerable amount of strain on its manufacturing subcontractors. In this context, it becomes essential to gain a better understanding of what constitute the most critical capabilities of the world-class subcontractors. Drawing heavily on the concepts of benchmarking and of fit as profile deviation, this paper allows for the identification of the most critical capabilities of the best performing firms. Results are derived from an international comparison of 384 subcontracting firms operating in the USA, the UK and Canada. A very distinct profile emerges from the best subcontractors in terms of their acquired technological and managerial capabilities. The mast critical capabilities which are common to subcontractors of all three countries are either intangible, difficult to imitate or not easily transferable. This lends us to believe that the best subcontractors hold a particular competitive advantage which will be difficult for others to replicate, at least in the short term. This is not, however, the case for the less performing subcontractors who could well be subjected in the not too distant future to competitive pressures arising from the new industrializing countries. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.