Why don't we have Amazon scale gigafactory warehouses full of CNC machines? •Don't do anything fancy. •Don't invent any new technology. •Don't over automate. •Don't start with 5 axis aerospace, do 2 and 3 axis commodity level parts. •Just execute insanely well on the operational side of things and use scale. As much as I love them, the mom-and-pop businesses would be so easy to crush for a few simple reasons. Utilization of equipment. Run three shifts. Most shops are running 10-12hr a day at best. Run 24hr a day. Own your freight network. The cost of moving material around is a significant percentage of your profit.  Consider that most 3 axis CNC work is coming in at 7x-10x the material cost, and materials are averaging $4-$6/lb for nonferrous. Access to cheap capital. Leverage your massive free cash flow to block buy production from top machine manufacturers in exchange for large discounts. That combined with the fact that many small shops are operating on machinery loans of prime plus 4-5%. Administrative support. Take advantage of your phenomenal inventory/tracking/accounting backend software that has been battle tested by billions of orders. It's going to crush the one person accounting department operating with QuickBooks. Massive deal flow. Offer deterministic pricing/lead times in exchange for being the default go-to vendor. You can operate at a loss for the first few years to achieve market share. At the end of the day, the engineers crave predictability and reliability. We're addicted to prime 2 day in our personal lives, just imagine having 4 day turn times filled by your shop with 99% reliability. It's not a fully formed thought, just something that has been in the back of my mind for a few years. For the last decade, I've been a consumer of manufacturing services. •I want to see on-shoring/reindustrialization/whatever the new term happens to be. •I want Mcmaster levels of speed/excellence applied to my custom manufactured goods. • I want them made in America. •I want instant pricing / deterministic lead times •I want consistent quality. Doesn't have to be the best, just reliable.