In speaking with manufacturing executives at National Manufacturing Week in Chicago in March, I found optimism on the rise. By most accounts, the recession is seemingly fading into history, sales are increasing, and profits will likely follow. There are even speculative plans to increase hiring in a number of sectors. Distributors should take note because their best suppliers may now be on the verge of asserting new strategies and seeking new relationships with their supply chain partners.

To be sure, manufacturers are still struggling. Many executives echoed the consensus view that U.S.-based manufacturing starts off its day with a built-in disadvantage of at least 22 points. Moreover, other familiar problems still threaten manufacturer competitiveness, such as China, rising health care costs, a shrinking base of qualified employees to draw upon, and intellectual property rights, to name a few. Also lurking in the background is tort reform, which is elusive and of particular worry to manufacturers who consider themselves targets in the inevitable next round of asbestos litigation.

However, there is a belief that many manufacturers emerged from the recession stronger than before, and that lean manufacturing was given much of the credit. The fat has been trimmed to the bone and productivity has increased. The principles and managing processes that are now in place will carry forward, and the gains will not be reversed. As sales continue to grow, profits will drop to the bottom line, and soon new investments and hiring will be necessary to sustain momentum.

I also discovered an emerging and still unanswered question: Is there life after lean? Lean manufacturing helped manufacturers survive and morph into more competitive business models, but aside from the grail of increasing exports and international trade, many executives are looking for a next frontier to cross. A few offered a glimpse of the future.

Some executives are attempting to extend their newfound competitiveness to the way they take their products to market, through the supply chain and ultimately to the customer. Often, this means an extension of lean initiatives. Lean is now more than an initiative—it's a way of doing business.

With supply chain partners and distributors, lean manufacturers are seeking to build partnerships based on finding common ground for mutually reducing costs and increasing productivity. With customers, the goal is to reduce their cost of acquiring products, and ultimately, improve the efficiency of their business. If successful, these companies will transform lean initiatives into a market positioning, a force for driving competitive results and distancing themselves from long-term rivals.

U.S. manufacturing executives are looking for "life after lean." These companies are looking to the customer and seeking to deliver new value-added, differentiation and innovation. Far from seeking to be merely customer-driven, market leaders will also seek to redefine and upgrade the customers' total experience. This new focus includes the traditional realm of manufacturers, namely the products they produce and the results that can be delivered. But, they also go further.

The emerging mantra seems to be that the strength of a company's brand is not only defined by product experience of consumers and users, but also by the activities and excellence of the supply chain that delivers it. Manufacturers can no longer be successful by floating their products in the supply chain and hoping for distributors, mass merchandisers, specialty retailers and logistics companies to land it safely on the customer's distant shore.

Manufacturers must seek ways to influence, upgrade and control the channel's value add. Brands go lacking when the customers' shopping, buying, fulfillment and after-the-sale experiences are less than exemplary. In today's competitive world, bad experiences stick to a brand, detracting from its equity and negating a potentially powerful force for the manufacturer.

In my client experience, I find leading manufacturers are now rationalizing, unbundling, and restructuring their distributor supply chains. Others are seeking to create and even franchise new dealer, contractor or aftermarket service models that can upgrade the customer experience and effectively represent the manufacturer's products.

Still others are expanding the role of supply chain service companies to include pick, pack and ship, order fulfillment, and post-sales support. These initiatives all share a common theme of extending the manufacturer's influence downstream, directing and redefining the supply chain for efficiency and effectiveness.

What does the future hold for distributors? It's not clear if a "next new thing" will emerge to replace lean manufacturing initiatives at leading manufacturers. Distributors should stick close to their most innovative and creative manufacturers. But, distributors also can go farther and establish new opportunities for partnering with suppliers.

In some cases, distributor innovation may lead to full, two-way sharing of data and information. CRM technologies provide a starting point, and RFID technology may allow further gains. The goal is to replace today's buy, hold, markup and sell model with a lightning-quick supply chain that builds, ships and delivers directly to customer orders.

Other distributors may find opportunities by suggesting new channel pricing models to replace the current discount and rebate practices. From the manufacturer's viewpoint, discounts and rebates are compensation—that is, a method for motivating distributors to sell and support their products. However, these mechanisms are at best indirect and, increasingly, destructive as power distributors negotiate increased compensation without commensurate gains or results for suppliers. Fee-for-service models are one potential solution to this problem.

In any event, in a "life after lean" environment, savvy distributors must seek to help support and sustain manufacturer competitiveness. Distributors and manufacturers are partners, and the partnership is strongest when both sides enjoy good fortune. If today's cautious optimism turns to excitement in the manufacturing sector, distributors will want to make sure they go along for the ride.