English Abstract
Abstract:
In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, 4IR, manufacturing firms face more competitive environments, rapidly chang-ing information and communication technologies (ICTs), and customers’ preferences than ever before. This paper analyzes relevant literature and proposes a systemic customer-centric knowledge-based production value chain (KPVC) to leverage distinctive core competencies (DCCs) and create sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) in manufacturing contexts. The paper introduces an integrative customer-centric KPVC model that enables compa-nies to respond to environmental drivers, leverage DCCs, and create SCA. It adopts an exploratory approach to developing a unified and inherently interdisciplinary model based on a review of relevant scholarly literature. The KPVC integrated model comprises production value chain (PVC), knowledge management (KM) processes, and business process re-engineering (BPR) enabling activities. A successful move to KPVC requires a fully integrated and automated system allowing firms to define, track, and manage their work processes. Effective KPVC is a prin-cipal approach for leveraging DCCs in the quest for achieving SCA in today’s competitive business world and gen-erating better values for customers and companies.
