INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS: your manufacturer is solving for their problems, not yours

The manufacturer comes back with changes. They're looking to make production easier, lower costs, and improve yield. These are reasonable goals. Except their changes destroy the product's positioning.

The added detail that really differentiated it? Gone, it complicated their tooling. What about that beautiful material that created value? Swapped for cheaper stock. And the premium finish? Replaced with their "good enough" standard one.

They optimized for their margin. When the product needed optimization for the customer.

Manufacturers see parts, not products. Tooling cost and cycle time. Not brand strategy, differentiation, or why someone picks this over the competitor.

Most people don't push back when the manufacturer says this is how it has to be. They assume the factory knows better. Design gets compromised one decision at a time.

Someone needs to optimize for the brand, the customer, and the market. That's not the manufacturer's job, that's industrial design.

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