It is these orders that low road and lean commodity shops compete away from them. As many of the high road shops stagnate, shrink, or fail, the U.S. economy changes. With a dwindling base of modern, distinctive suppliers, more large manufacturers are encouraged to treat all purchased inputs as commodities, and therefore to seek six, eight, even ten quotes for each job they subcontract. But they do so, by and large, under a set of incentives the need to show that many shops were served and that they paid market rates for service that orients them to smaller, quick-hit projects that are easy to package and sell. This orientation has the effect of inducing centers to offer a mix of services that appeals to low road shops, since such shops dominate the population.
Many shops line up to get such certification to keep from being dropped by their customers.
It would require targeting centers efforts to helping high-road shops get more systematic, and lean commodity shops to get more modern and distinctive. They have already demonstrated success at getting companies to take actions associated with becoming more systematic, so part of the reorientation would simply require brining those services to a different, and admittedly smaller, audience. Getting lean commodity shops to bet the store on the high road would be a more daunting challenge. Field staff would need to be both technically strong able to match technologies to applications and strategically sophisticated. It requires cost accounting and investment justification expertise, familiarity with product design and engineering, and intimate knowledge of the markets available to the client shop.