In modern manufacturing, industrial buyers now expect to receive the same seamless experience as consumers: personalised products, transparent pricing, and reliable lifecycle services. As industries shift from mass production to personalisation, standing out from competitors is essential and relies on putting the buyer at the centre of decision making.
To ensure delivery amidst such demanding expectations, manufacturers must bring every function – engineering, sales and fulfilment – into alignment around a single connected framework that prioritizes consistency and clarity from opportunity to execution. In other terms, one single source of truth. When all stakeholders operate from shared, real-time insights, collaboration strengthens decisions and execution speed, and the buyer’s confidence in the process grows exponentially.
As B2B buying shifts to digital channels, today’s buyers increasingly prefer to avoid sales reps – 61 per cent favour a rep-free experience, according to a 2025 Gartner survey. Yet many manufacturers still rely on siloed systems and traditional sales teams that lack visibility into product customisation.
To meet rising expectations for transparency and clear product insights, manufacturers must rethink how they communicate internally and externally. But this is challenging: legacy systems, disconnected teams, and limited data continue to hinder the creation of a truly buyer-centric experience.
In a buyer-centric model, every decision from first conversation to equipment delivery revolves around what creates the best experience for the customer. When manufacturers align their operations with this mindset, they build trust through clear communication and predictable outcomes. Behind the scenes, streamlined processes and automation translate into fewer errors and faster fulfilment, giving buyers confidence that what they order is exactly what they’ll receive and when they’ll receive it.
Buyer-centric processes are the future, enabling a system that ensures the entire value chain of a product operates from a single, viable source of truth. In an authentic buyer-centric scenario, engineering centralises rules for valid configurations, ensuring consistent product logic across PLM, ERP, and other systems.
Engineering updates connect automatically to sales, mitigating errors and prioritising margins, while fulfilment receives automated manufacturing BOMs, accessible scheduling, and order management. The result is a logical value chain, where profitability is safeguarded end to end – limiting rework and avoiding costly delays that affect margins.
However, what action points can manufacturers take now to adapt to these shifting expectations and embrace a buyer-centric manufacturing model – carving out long-term value creation through trusted processes?
At Tacton, we call this shift the ‘Buyer-Centric Smart Factory,’ where engineering, sales and fulfilment revolve around a key source of truth: what the buyer truly needs.
This is an exciting new framework for complex manufacturers, aiming to shift the relationship between both buyer and manufacturer through end-to-end product support and visibility from the outset.
The Goal Posts for Buyer-Centric Manufacturing
Product customisation is no longer viewed as a premium by customers, but rather a core expectation. For example, whether it's the fit of a component, a pressure rating or carbon footprint, buyers expect tailored solutions to be delivered with the same speed as mass or ‘off-the-shelf’ orders.
To meet this shift in mindset, manufacturers are leveraging digital twins, advanced analytics and modular production systems that allow for rapid personalisation without sacrificing efficiency. For manufacturers to exist alongside this landscape, agility in design and production is just as crucial for quality and cost competitiveness.
Moreover, transparency is just as essential for modern customer relationships. As buyers demand visibility into pricing, order status, sustainability impact, and service availability, leading manufacturers will employ tools that enable real-time equipment performance tracking systems and digital customer portals to provide end-to-end transparency and trust.
Crucially, the relationship shouldn’t end when a product is shipped. Treating delivery as the finish line means missing key opportunities for value creation. Today, aftermarket services, upgrades, and compliance support have become powerful drivers of profitability and differentiation.
By connecting all their data and establishing a single source of truth about what’s been built and delivered, manufacturers gain a complete view of customer engagement and their installed base. With this digital foundation, they can anticipate service or maintenance needs, create more customer value, and optimise the entire product lifecycle.
When manufacturers stay engaged throughout a product’s lifespan, they boost reliability, minimise downtime, and open new revenue opportunities. Lifecycle service turns customer satisfaction into lasting partnership-fuelling long-term success.
A Singular System for Manufacturing Buyers
Manufacturers that embrace these foundational pillars are transforming how they operate – bringing engineering, sales, and production together around the buyer rather than the product.
With Smart Factories enabling connected operations, real-time insights and intelligent automation, these organisations can deliver the same seamless experiences consumers now take for granted. The payoff: deeper, longer-lasting relationships that extend far beyond the point of sale.
