Scale Up From One
= Personal-scale manufacturing machines ... enable small manufacturers to make one product at a time in response to customer demand, and scale up production as the product sells.
Introductory Citation
"Regular people and small manufacturing companies that lack investment capital will be able to set up low investment, “start small and scale up as it goes” businesses. Thanks to the low-cost Internet virtual storefronts, and the low cost of small-scale manufacturing for prototypes and custom goods, new companies can get started on a shoestring budget, yet sell their wares or services to niche, global marketplaces."
Discussion
Hod Lipson & Melba Kurman, in Factory@Home, p. 58+:
"The “scale up from one” aspect of personal manufacturing democratizes the world of manufacturing and retail by lowering the barriers to entry. Launching a new product today requires its maker to start large: industrial-scale manufacturing machines are not designed to make only one item at a time.
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Personal-scale manufacturing machines ... enable small manufacturers to make one product at a time in response to customer demand, and scale up production as the product sells.
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Future entrepreneurs will be able to experiment with new products and new business models with almost no upfront financial investment." (http://web.mae.cornell.edu/lipson/FactoryAtHome.pdf)