Currently, the unprecedented changes in the world are accelerating, and the global economic landscape is undergoing profound adjustments. Building a manufacturing powerhouse is an inevitable choice for China. In the context of the new era, enhancing the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry is an important goal for building a manufacturing powerhouse, and digital and intelligent transformation is the key path to achieving this goal. Based on the CSMAR database, iFinD database, Qichacha database, China Customs Trade Database, China Statistical Yearbook, Provincial (District and Municipal) Statistical Yearbook, and China Financial Yearbook, this paper selects manufacturing enterprises listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A - shares from 2011 to 2023 as the research objects. Referring to the method of Zhang Xiu’e et al. (2025), the text analysis method is used to obtain the measurement indicators of enterprises’ digital and intelligent transformation. Combined with the entropy weight method, an evaluation index system for the competitiveness of manufacturing enterprises is constructed from three dimensions: motivation, efficiency, and quality. The research findings are as follows: First, digital and intelligent transformation significantly enhances the competitiveness of manufacturing enterprises. After a series of robustness tests and endogeneity tests, a consistent conclusion can still be drawn. Second, digital and intelligent transformation enhances the competitiveness of manufacturing enterprises through the industrial chain division effect, supply chain configuration effect, and value chain embedding effect. Third, digital and intelligent transformation significantly enhances the competitiveness of manufacturing enterprises in the maturity stage, high-competition industries, and regions with a better business environment. In addition, only when the digital and intelligent transformation is in an accelerating state can it significantly promote the improvement of enterprises’ competitiveness in all dimensions. Compared with previous literature, the possible innovations of this paper are as follows: Firstly, focusing on quality transformation, efficiency transformation, and power transformation, a multi-dimensional and quantifiable evaluation system for the competitiveness of manufacturing enterprises is constructed. This provides a new perspective for measuring competitiveness and enhances the scientific validity and explanatory power of empirical tests. Secondly, it expands the research field of the digital economy and the construction of a manufacturing powerhouse. Specifically, it places digital and intelligent transformation and enterprise competitiveness within the same framework, examines whether digital and intelligent transformation can enhance the competitiveness of manufacturing enterprises, and explores the impacts exerted by industrial chain division of labor, supply chain configuration, and value chain embedding. Thirdly, the study examines the varying impact effects of digital and intelligent transformation on different dimensions of manufacturing enterprises’ competitiveness under different speed conditions. This reveals the boundary conditions of the influence of enterprises’ digital and intelligent transformation. The topic discussed in this paper holds significant research value and importance. Theoretically, it elucidates how digital and intelligent transformation boosts the competitiveness of manufacturing enterprises by empowering the industrial chain, supply chain, and value chain. This provides a reference for understanding the transmission path between digital transformation and competitiveness enhancement. Practically, it investigates the differential impacts of digital and intelligent transformation on the competitiveness of manufacturing enterprises across different life cycles, competition levels, and business environments. This helps to guide the improvement of competitiveness in a location-specific manner and broadens the policy thinking for building a strong manufacturing sector.