The US manufacturing base is shrinking and countries outside the US now encompass the largest and fastest growing segment of manufacturing. The regional Thomas Registers list 207,000 manufacturing firms in Europe and 30,000 in India. AsiaNet lists 350,000 suppliers. It's difficult to obtain complete worldwide statistics, and directories don't by any means form a complete census. But simply adding these numbers together and making a conservative allowance for missing entries and geographic areas, indicates that there are likely more than a million manufacturing firms worldwide.

Certainly small manufacturers will be excellent prospects for RM. Today they're limited in their methods of fabrication by the cost of tooling which must typically be amortized over a small number of parts. Suppose these companies were able to make operational plastic parts without the use of injection molding machines or tools? It's likely this fact alone would provide an economic impetus for many of them to become involved with RM.

Large manufacturers may actually comprise the largest and nearest-term market for RM, however. Many high-value products made by large companies are actually made in small volume or require adaptations for each customer or application. The ability to provide such modifications, as well as the availability of tool-less fabrication can be expected to influence both the design and the number of such products offered by large firms.

The products that can be sold to manufacturing companies by RM technology providers include specialized manufacturing systems and software, services and materials. In fact, the early interest of materials suppliers in actively fostering the development of RP may finally be economically justified as volume requirements increase well beyond specialty chemical levels. Indeed, if the US can retain a semblance of technical and marketing leadership in materials, there's a very long-term prospect to reverse at least some of the outflow of manufacturing jobs and profit through rapid manufacturing.

While assembly jobs have been leaving the US for years at an ever-increasing rate, the US is still an important supplier of raw materials such as thermoplastics, and is especially proficient at supplying advanced materials. If RM makes it possible to fabricate some products as complete assemblies, reducing labor content to zero or to an insignificant amount, it may no longer make economic sense to export manufacturing jobs. It may then be the most economical solution to fabricate these products nearest to the point of use. It will be very helpful if the source of the raw materials utilized also remains close by to keep shipping costs low.

Additional opportunities can be expected to arise for small companies and individuals to act as intermediaries in the design process, as described above, and also to adapt and combine technologies to solve specific applications problems.