In manufacturing, the quanitity of scale is damn near one to one. I have become amazed as I’ve learned more in the past year about how incredibly efficient manaufacturing in the Auto Industry is (as a process). Our production engineers know what 1 foot of forklift traffic costs us between point A and point B.
But, you mentioned the largest obstacle to Engineering Start ups. The capital for the software, hardware and talent. Generating business in the engineering field is very challenging. You need some breaks, a lot of hard work and enough bankroll to introduce and sell your credntialed talent. The latest technology in engineering is the various 3D modeling designs. Its very cool and makes design and assembly/construction coordination much more efficient. But you have to by the licenses (thousands per year) per each individual. You also need top of the line computers and servers to run the sofware, not to mention colored plotters etc. Finally, you need E&O insurance and that’s tough to get for a start up, not to mention, very expensive depending on what you are designing. And when one client puts in an E&O claim, frivolous or not, it can break a start up in a hurry. The good side of the software licenses is that as long as you stay with the same providers, the licenses usually include upgrades year to year.
Great discussion here by the way. It’s fun to ponder ideas of grandiuer and success.
Now I'm sure I can get a small start-up up to $100M in size in no time. LOL.