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Why Should Every Manufacturer Buy the Same Tools?

i know that this is super expensive for small manufacturers to buy. i know how expensive design/simulation software can get.

manufacturing software is absurdly overpriced. 18 lakh inr for a single seat per year is not just unsustainable, it’s exclusionary. most manufacturing companies don’t need 24/7 access to such tools; they just need high-quality design work done at specific stages.

this is exactly what i’d do.

i’ll get a group of manufacturing companies to form an association/work with a highly active association. with all of them together, you form a section 8 non-profit.

so instead of every company bleeding money on redundant licenses and underutilized software, what stops them from coming together and building a shared design resource under a section 8 non-profit?

the current model forces every company to individually buy the same license, hire the same kind of talent (this is super important since good talent is very tough to find and retain), and repeat the same inefficiencies over and over again.

instead of this fragmented waste, manufacturers can form a shared, neutral design consortium under a section 8 non-profit structure. all participating companies contribute funds to this non-profit, which then:

purchases the required commercial software licenses (legally, in its own name),
hires a centralized design and simulation team,
provides design services back to the members at cost or subsidized rates.

the section 8 company is sustainable, profitable and since it cannot redistribute profits, by design it’ll invest back every amount to expand and improve it.

no one is pirating anything. no license is being resold. no license is being transferred. the tools are being used by the entity that purchased them - the section 8 company. in-house, by its employees, to deliver design services. exactly how any external design firm works.

the only difference? this one is owned by the manufacturers themselves, and reinvests every rupee back into building better tooling, hiring better talent, and expanding access.

legally, it’s clean. operationally, it’s efficient. economically, it’s powerful.

instead of every company spending lakhs per year for tools they barely use, they can access world-class capabilities for a fraction of the cost and actually get better results, because the design team is specialized.

this model also allows for tiered pricing. msmes can pay less, larger firms can contribute more. everyone benefits from the same shared infrastructure. newer smaller startups joining the association with a small membership fee can access it and over time, this can grow into more than just a design hub.

it can become a center for:

tooling r&d,
shared prototyping labs,
custom automation development,
open-source alternatives and internal ip libraries.

and if you scale this right, you can do it regionally. each industrial cluster (pondy, coimbatore, chennai etc.) can have its own version. you don’t need some giant government tender or big vc fund to do it. just a group of companies willing to stop bleeding individually and start investing collectively.

what would i do if i am writing government policies or in charge of them?

local governments, sidcs (like tidco, gidc, midc), and even central ministries (msme, dpiit) could easily fund the initial setup of such non-profits. the structure already exists. section 8 companies are clean, auditable, and well-defined. the government can seed-fund it, hand over operations to an independent board of professionals, and let it run like a utility for the entire manufacturing base.

please lmk if anyone is already doing it.

the impact? a massive boost to local manufacturing competitiveness, job creation in high-skill design, and an actual dent in the stranglehold that overpriced foreign software vendors have on indian industry.

this is exactly what ‘build in india’ is.