Nevertheless, as these systems are installed by commodity producers to boost efficiencies and lower costs, they will coincidently find it possible to replicate complex, customized, and often intensely personal elements so critical in managing customer relationships today with less expensive, more accessible, and accurate systems that can be installed from scratch. Therein lies the threat to high-end specialty mills. My guess is steadily but not easily. The cultural barriers to yielding operating prerogatives to customer needs in commodity mills will die hard, but the opportunities for better margins will slowly erode them. Specialty mills will do well to endure the pain and cost of embracing e-commerce now as a means of enhancing customer relationships while they still have the advantage.
Evolution is risky enough.