Ever wonder why every item we purchase these days seems to have one of those “made in China” tags?

Rapid changes in consumer preferences, technology, and the drive for customization make it increasingly unaffordable to manufacture items. Consequently, the cost of trying to save products that have decreased in popularity has prompted many American businesses to move their manufacturing operations overseas.

So, what kind of options does an entrepreneur have when the parts for your car or favorite blue jean button begins to cost more to make than it does to discontinue the item?

When “something new and better” comes along, how much more should an organization continue to invest into the production of an item? But more importantly, how many resource and energy expenditures factor into the decision to finally cut the cord?

American entrepreneur Drura Parrish, CEO and founder of MakeTime may have just found a way to revolutionize the way American manufacturers manage their supply chain so they don’t have to worry about those kinds of concerns anymore.

By creating an online marketplace in which manufacturers can buy and sell unused machine time on cnc machines like lathes, mills, routers, and plasma cutters, MakeTime has created a way for manufacturers to create – and even save – some of your favorite brands.

MakeTime’s innovative new platform allows manufacturers to monetize their idle machine time and to manage their supply chain within a flexible, transparent network of vendors in a way that minimizes waste and unnecessary production expenses.

By creating ways for machines to generate revenue once a product is no longer popular, companies can also reduce advertising costs associated with discounting products once the production on those items begins to decline.

This “sharing economy” of the manufacturing sector also creates more opportunities for small businesses access to a network of over 400 pre-qualified suppliers who have already have the equipment, skilled staff, and legal protocols in place needed to provide literally the same level of quality assurance and credibility as a more established brand.

By helping established manufacturers generate revenue on equipment that would have lost revenue in the late stages of production, Drura’s model enables small businesses to ensure a better quality of control while simultaneously eliminating capital expenditure, excess inventory, utility costs, and risks through the symbiotic relationship. The platform creates an elegant solution to the accounting questions associated with idle machines and unused supply versus entrepreneurs’ limited resources and growing demands.

Drura’s platform could be incredibly useful for start up organizations, fab labs, solar powered manufacturing plants, and makers who may need to contract smaller quantities or custom parts on-demand.

Parrish has positioned his data driven model to serve as a powerful alternative to the traditional RFQ-based transaction model.

Drura Parrish launched the MakeTime site in 2014 in order to encourage manufacturers to reuse their manufacturing equipment and empower them to expand their production capabilities at a more flexible scale.

Parrish has an award winning background in digital fabrication, object-based economics, and design.

Despite the disruptive implications of his business model, Drura’s maturity and dynamic focus comes across as very down to earth.

Parrish formerly taught Architecture at Columbia, UCLA, Southern California Institute of Architecture, University of Kentucky, at Lund University in Sweden.

It’s very apparent when meeting Parrish that he definitely loves his work.

Drura shares how his professional background and desire to help other innovators meet an unmet need, shaped his path as an entrepreneur.

“I love this. If you look at the market network of Architecture which is a huge project, twenty five million other projects, like materials, shipping, etc. I wanted to surround the project and be good at the things that architects need so I can position myself. That brought me back into manufacturing. I grew up in a manufacturing family. I was a bit of a shop rat if you will.

“I worked as a senior vice president of a 3d printing company. It was the largest in the nation and my whole job was business development.

“I kind of got tired of the whole corporate thing and started running into a narrative where in America there is this belief in a certain value system and a certain economic outcome if you put enough labor into it, you will succeed, but it wasn’t panning out.

“I would go into shop after shop and see a capital investment of 15 million dollars, but none of the machines were on. So that just meant that somebody was carrying debt and making somebody rich, but nobody was making money.

“Instead of just dealing with it, I would say, hey let me buy all your machine time, on this one machine that’s dead, for the entire month. Tell me how much it is, (I’ll pay) cost plus ten percent and I would buy it. Then I would run around and grab artists, designers and whoever and say ‘use this machine, you may never have a chance to use it again’ and then kind of activated it.

“I took this pain point for designers and artists, people who don’t have access to stuff, and I took this idle machine time and brought them together. All the love that I had for architecture started to dissolve into this abstract business concept which was basically one thing.

“People love to make things and use things. It’s implicit in our drive as humans, and there has to be a way to do these things, but these things don’t always line up.

“So then I started working in boutique fabrication, which I laid out for 10 years while I was teaching.

“An investment banker saw what I was doing and saw that this was a repeatable model and we put it on the web. So now you have MakeTime.”