The partnership interactions between a firm and its customers (as represented by the ability of customer partner to provide input to, and cooperate on various initiatives and share information with the manufacturer, and the ability of the firm to elicit input, cooperate on various initiatives and share information with the customer partner) were found to be directly and significantly related to the manufacturing firm’s manufacturing performance. This relationship was found to be significant with a t-value of 2.193, indicating a statistically significant and good relationship between the two.”