*4.2. Contextual Analysis*

This is the starting point to make a critical assessment of all those external things that affect the design or implementation of the project. In the case study, it was divided into 2 phases. First, the analysis of the shoe industry in Mexico and, second, the analysis of the company's main competitors in the state of Hidalgo.

#### 4.2.1. Shoe Industry in Mexico

The manufacture of Mexican footwear is an important commercial activity in our country, which generates a highly competitive supply chain. According to the Ministry of Economy in Mexico [27], the following information is available.


#### 4.2.2. Company Competitors

At the time of the study, there were four companies dedicated to the manufacture of industrial footwear in the state of Hidalgo: KARTEK, TEMO, Tempac, and the "X" company. Competitor research is conducted because a reengineering tool is referencing (Benchmarking) [1,2], which means searching for companies that are doing something optimally and finding out how they do it to emulate them. The analysis was performed by considering four factors: antiquity, personnel, strategic planning, and products. We realized that the four companies offer a wide variety of industrial footwear models offering quality. Two of the companies have the continuous improvement in their products and services as their mission. In the third aspect, they define their mission based on technology and the last one considers the client's requirements. Only TEMO has the vision of being an internationally recognized company. KARTEK raises its vision as being the leading shoe producer nationwide. The study company sets its goals with a higher percentage of customer satisfaction and delivery of its products on time, while KARTEK is based on customer satisfaction and being a profitable company. The Official Mexican Standard NOM-113-STPS (1994) governed all four and only two are certified (ISO 9001-2008). An advantage of the study company is that it is certified, but in order to achieve its objective of delivering products on time, workers must stay out of their work shift with Line 1 of Decorating being the problem area. With contextual analysis, the information accomplished was that competitors use similar technologies and have similar certifications. It was also found that the industry in Mexico is growing and it is necessary to organize the resources to have a better response to the customers.
