[dilemma]

Process as competitive advantage is an ace point. Most companies fail from mismanagement.

Competitor teardowns is another good one, but what information do you use for that? How do you determine who their suppliers are?

[dylandrop]

It depends what you're manufacturing, but the obvious answer is probably either

• visit their website

• buying their product and looking it up the parts online

• talk to your vendors

For the last one, this is particularly relevant if you're buying in a market with few suppliers.

[johnnybowman]

agreed and also trade shows. Simply asking "who are you a supplier for in Industry X" is surprisingly fruitful.

[esm5]

I was part of the founding team of a power electronics startup. We constantly tore down our competitors' products to estimate their costs, to see how they corrected design flaws between releases, and also to understand which component suppliers they chose to include (this is a proxy for passing their reliability testing).