The Factory Is the Product

• Capacity is capability: Military advantage depends on more than fielding sophisticated weapons. It requires the ability to replenish, adapt, and manufacture at scale, making the means of production a strategic asset in their own right.

• From products to production capacity: The authors propose a Capacity-as-a-Service model that would reward manufacturers for maintaining flexible production capability over time, rather than paying only for one-time runs of hardware. The result is an industrial base designed to grow, adapt, and surge as requirements change.

• Factories that compound: Treating capacity as the product changes the economics of manufacturing itself. Instead of optimizing factories around short production runs, manufacturers can invest in scalable processes, advanced tooling, and automation that continuously lower costs, increase throughput, and make production more adaptable over time.

Source: “The Factory Is the Product”