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As of the second half of the past century, operations areas began to be acknowledged as strategic areas for organizational competitiveness, whether the firms were industrial companies or service companies. A fundamental question arose from that acknowledgement, "Is the operations area really supporting the company in meeting its objectives?" For manufacturing companies, present-day competitive pressures demand multi-factor performance and developing a manufacturing strategy that is coherent with the business strategy becomes a must. This paper presents a general procedure for evaluating the structural coherence of the manufacturing strategy, taking three main elements into consideration: competitive priorities, production systems, and manufacturing gearing. This procedure was given to a set of thirteen companies in the metalwork industry for them to apply. It revealed some structural gaps. That was particularly concerning in cases where the company sought to attend highly demanding export markets. The paper suggests future actions related to searching for new market niches that can be immediately attended and simultaneously undertaking projects to strengthen these companies' competitive capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]