The Rigid Factory Problem

Manufacturing processes today often face the rigid factory problem, where traditional factories are designed specifically for certain products and cannot easily adapt to changes. This rigidity requires manufacturers to make substantial investments in new factories and tooling whenever they want to introduce a new product or modify an existing one. For example, even an innovative company like SpaceX, which has developed advanced rockets, had to build entirely new facilities to accommodate different rocket designs due to fixed dimensions of the original products. This inflexibility limits innovation and responsiveness in manufacturing, emphasizing the need for more adaptive manufacturing technologies.