Made in Europe: Small Companies

This is the third report on the ‘Made in Europe’ research programme. Earlier reports concentrated on the maturity of implementation of ‘best practice’ in both the design and manufacturing processes of larger European companies. Here, the authors shift the focus to small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) particularly in Britain and Italy. While few SMEs are in the world‐class category, small company practices are customer‐oriented, responsiveness‐focused and concerned with new products. SMEs’ competitive edge typically comes from speed, responsiveness and closeness to customers. SMEs exhibit a greater level of confidence than larger companies in their ability to make change, but neglect training and education. Within the SME sector there are sharp differences between micro (5–20 employees), small (21–50) and medium‐sized (51–200) companies while those which are subsidiaries of larger companies have significantly higher levels of best practice. There are differences between countries and regions.