[throwaway9870]

> I have a product with an addressable market of something like 300 to 500 units per year. That puts me in the Defense/Aerospace/Medical area, where unit economics are completely insane.

I have manufactured in that area and while you are not going to be in the mass volume pricing levels, you don't have to be in the defense level either. You just have to build the product with the right trade-offs and design the appropriate manufacturing processes. Few seem to know how to do this.

Edit: let me expand. Don't injection mold if you can avoid it. Do resin castings or thermo-forming, neither require as expensive of tooling. 3D print parts with a good material like PC CF. Metal fabrication is easy and cheap these days. You can get a shop to laser cut, form, insert PEMs and powder coat for very reasonable prices. We are starting to get a lot of machined parts from China. You can source wire harnesses from China also. Do assembly with a small team. Use as much off-the-shelf electronics as possible, but don't be afraid to make small and simple PCBs if it makes your product cheaper and simpler. Leave the complex boards to a vendor initially because while they might seem simple to design, they can be complex to debug and production test properly.

[Robotbeat]

Xometry or 3D hubs, try the different processes. Also, try to make it out of sheet metal and use those companies or Sendcutsend.

[anymouse123456]

Lol Xometry.

I've burned tens of thousands of dollars with them. They have tons of sales, little to no support. They have zero ability to stick with a vendor who does good work. They're a total crap shoot on quality and no responsibility when it fails.

[Robotbeat]

Absolutely. If that’s what you want, you need to go directly to the machine shop.