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Possibly. This is certainly a pattern that works in other industries. I am aware of a local glass company with about 50 years of operation under its belt. They

Possibly. This is certainly a pattern that works in other industries. I am aware of a local glass company with about 50 years of operation under its belt. They have tooling, but the process is heavily manual; no aspect of it is end-to-end automated. Their primary customers are those requiring high precision for industrial applications (electrical, aeronautics). They are forever capacity-capped because their model doesn't scale; the benefits of adding labor are sub-linear, so there's a "healthy size" for them and they leave money on the table if they scale in either direction from it. But they have their niche, they fit it nicely, and they continue to operate.

deebosong 4y ago
This might be a bad comparison. But I feel like Marvel movies (and TV shows) tried to scale, and lost it. And that there was a sweet-spot, where less was more. It's way to oversimplified, but I think they tried to churn out hits from a factory after a build-up in some home runs, but then took on too much and have diluted their films & shows, where it's all a bit flat and underdelivering what audiences expected. I like this glass company, though. Seems like they know what's up.
- shadowgovt 4y ago
  There is one thing that's killing them, where they could stand to automate. Their sales and purchase-order process is also still manual; people answering emails by hand and filling out (literal carbon paper) triplicate work orders. But their aerospace customers have gone to zero-inventory kanban-style resource management, and that's a system that assumes a certain level of automation. We're talking companies placing orders by machine that then auto-generates the emails, where an email at 9AM says they need 400 of a widget by next month, an order update at 1PM says to cancel 200 of those, another update at 3PM says add an additional 500, and a final update at 6PM says cancel-whole-order, some planes just got delayed, we'll pay the $100 cancellation penalty. None of that scales. It just runs the sales team ragged (literally; they're literally running out to the factory floor to find the third carbon copy and yank it from the production queue by thumbing through the queue).
  - deebosong 4y ago
    Dang I guess some legacy stuff that should have gone by the wayside for everyone's benefit has managed to sink it's claws in and stay on for the ride! Hhahaah that sounds hilarious (and painful). Hope they can eventually see the light while maintaining their overall vision/ ethos/ gameplan.
ChuckNorris89 4y ago
>They are forever capacity-capped because their model doesn't scale; the benefits of adding labor are sub-linear, so there's a "healthy size" for them and they leave money on the table if they scale in either direction from it. But they have their niche, they fit it nicely, and they continue to operate. That's basically most German mittlestand companies. They have their niche that doesn't scale.
gavinhoward 4y ago
Yes, exactly. I don't want a business to make me filthy rich. I want a business that will feed my wife and me.
- shadowgovt 4y ago
  The asymmetry that, it seems, has crept into modern life is that the business you describe will not attract investors, and (because the Internet has flattened the marketplace geographically) the heavy investor-backed company doing what you do 90% as well at 300% the convenience will eventually put you out of business.
  - gavinhoward 4y ago
    Sure, if they have 300% the convenience. But I am pretty sure I will have more convenience. I'll have a Matrix server and website where customers, including their employees, can ask me questions. I'm pretty sure it will be maximally convenient for senior developers or a CTO helping to make the purchase if interns never ask them questions about my software.
    - shadowgovt 4y ago
      It sounds like you're in the right place. I'm thinking more about local retailers getting curb-stomped by Amazon because they barely have a website while Amazon has same-day delivery requestable via a phone app (and at the end of the day, the local retailer's only differentiation is local-market knowledge; the same trucks that deliver to their storefronts deliver to the warehouse that Amazon routes product to front porches from). The market has proven more than willing to lose "Joe, of Joe & Sons Seed, already knows my order and has it waiting on the table for when I stop by on the first Tuesday of April" in favor of "It takes like three clicks to put my order in the online basket and I don't even have to walk to the car to get it; it's dropped on my porch."
      - gavinhoward 4y ago
        I agree with you 100% here. This kind of convenience matters, and I acknowledge that as someone who drives to the local bank for a lot of my bank stuff; convenience may not matter to me personally, but I would be stupid if I didn't acknowledge that it matters most too most people.

deebosong 4y ago

This might be a bad comparison. But I feel like Marvel movies (and TV shows) tried to scale, and lost it. And that there was a sweet-spot, where less was more. It's way to oversimplified, but I think they tried to churn out hits from a factory after a build-up in some home runs, but then took on too much and have diluted their films & shows, where it's all a bit flat and underdelivering what audiences expected. I like this glass company, though. Seems like they know what's up.

shadowgovt 4y ago
There is one thing that's killing them, where they could stand to automate. Their sales and purchase-order process is also still manual; people answering emails by hand and filling out (literal carbon paper) triplicate work orders. But their aerospace customers have gone to zero-inventory kanban-style resource management, and that's a system that assumes a certain level of automation. We're talking companies placing orders by machine that then auto-generates the emails, where an email at 9AM says they need 400 of a widget by next month, an order update at 1PM says to cancel 200 of those, another update at 3PM says add an additional 500, and a final update at 6PM says cancel-whole-order, some planes just got delayed, we'll pay the $100 cancellation penalty. None of that scales. It just runs the sales team ragged (literally; they're literally running out to the factory floor to find the third carbon copy and yank it from the production queue by thumbing through the queue).
- deebosong 4y ago
  Dang I guess some legacy stuff that should have gone by the wayside for everyone's benefit has managed to sink it's claws in and stay on for the ride! Hhahaah that sounds hilarious (and painful). Hope they can eventually see the light while maintaining their overall vision/ ethos/ gameplan.

ChuckNorris89 4y ago

>They are forever capacity-capped because their model doesn't scale; the benefits of adding labor are sub-linear, so there's a "healthy size" for them and they leave money on the table if they scale in either direction from it. But they have their niche, they fit it nicely, and they continue to operate. That's basically most German mittlestand companies. They have their niche that doesn't scale.

gavinhoward 4y ago

Yes, exactly. I don't want a business to make me filthy rich. I want a business that will feed my wife and me.

shadowgovt 4y ago
The asymmetry that, it seems, has crept into modern life is that the business you describe will not attract investors, and (because the Internet has flattened the marketplace geographically) the heavy investor-backed company doing what you do 90% as well at 300% the convenience will eventually put you out of business.
- gavinhoward 4y ago
  Sure, if they have 300% the convenience. But I am pretty sure I will have more convenience. I'll have a Matrix server and website where customers, including their employees, can ask me questions. I'm pretty sure it will be maximally convenient for senior developers or a CTO helping to make the purchase if interns never ask them questions about my software.
  - shadowgovt 4y ago
    It sounds like you're in the right place. I'm thinking more about local retailers getting curb-stomped by Amazon because they barely have a website while Amazon has same-day delivery requestable via a phone app (and at the end of the day, the local retailer's only differentiation is local-market knowledge; the same trucks that deliver to their storefronts deliver to the warehouse that Amazon routes product to front porches from). The market has proven more than willing to lose "Joe, of Joe & Sons Seed, already knows my order and has it waiting on the table for when I stop by on the first Tuesday of April" in favor of "It takes like three clicks to put my order in the online basket and I don't even have to walk to the car to get it; it's dropped on my porch."
    - gavinhoward 4y ago
      I agree with you 100% here. This kind of convenience matters, and I acknowledge that as someone who drives to the local bank for a lot of my bank stuff; convenience may not matter to me personally, but I would be stupid if I didn't acknowledge that it matters most too most people.