Factory Dynamix | Production Readiness Consulting

Who this is for

Four signals it's time to call.

Factory Dynamix works with a small number of hardware companies each year. If any of these sound familiar, it's probably time to talk.

Signal 01

You have a rate commitment and no production infrastructure

The window to build it right is now — before the floor gets improvised under pressure.

Signal 02

You're scaling from pilot to volume

Units 1–10 came together on tribal knowledge and heroics. Getting to 50/month requires a system, not just more people.

Signal 03

You're signing a lease on a facility

Layout decisions made at lease signing are nearly impossible to undo — you need to know how the floor flows before you commit to the square footage.

Signal 04

Your ops hire starts in 90 days

The engagement defines what they walk into — and can scope the role itself, including the JD.

Not sure if the timing is right? That's what the 20-minute call is for. No commitment, no pitch — just a direct conversation.

Cost of inaction

What waiting costs.

These costs show up after the decision window has already closed. Most are locked in the moment production planning gets deferred.

Cost 01

Re-laying out a leased facility

A floor that doesn't flow is a six- to seven-figure rework — plus weeks of production lost to downtime. A lease signed against the wrong layout is a sunk cost the day it's signed.

Cost 02

A missed rate commitment

Defense and aerospace contracts have rate clauses. Missing them triggers cure periods, milestone clawbacks, and customer quality assessments that follow a program for years.

Cost 03

The senior ops hire who quits

A manufacturing engineer joining a floor designed against them doesn't stay long. Replacement is six figures and six months — and the best candidates won't take the role twice.

Cost 04

Runway burned to a 60% floor

Payroll runs at 100% whether the line does or not. Months of cash disappear before the floor is identified as the constraint.

Results

Numbers from the programs behind the framework.

The FDX framework

The factory before the factory.

A production system — not a slide deck. Six integrated modules, applied to your build, your rate targets, and your constraints. The work that has to happen before the floor goes live.

FDX Production Framework

6 modules · built across defense, space & medtech programs

FDX·01

Flow & Layout

Factory layout options, workstation design, and material flow mapped to your build sequence and rate target. Eliminates the guesswork from floor planning.

FDX·02

Capacity Model

Takt time, cycle time analysis, and constraint mapping — a live model showing exactly where your bottlenecks are and what it costs to clear them.

FDX·03

Headcount Plan

Right people, right roles, right time. Headcount modeled by rate phase and skill category — tied directly to the capacity model, not built in a vacuum.

FDX·04

Ramp Architecture

A structured ramp from current state to target rate with milestones and decision triggers — built to execute, not to present to investors and shelve.

FDX·05

Quality Foundation

Gap analysis against AS9100D, ISO 9001, or ISO 13485 — identifying what must be in place before you scale, not after your first nonconformance.

FDX·06

Investor Deliverables

Five board-ready documents your ops, finance, and investor teams can use immediately. Not a summary of conversations — a working production foundation.

The FDX framework was built in the field over ten years — production systems stood up from scratch, programs where the hardware had to work, organizations scaled from zero to rate. Engagements can also cover ERP, MES, and PLM system selection, and audit preparation across AS9100D, ISO 9001, and ISO 13485. It's what you get when you engage Factory Dynamix — not a template, not a tool.

How it fits

Where Factory Dynamix fits.

Most companies are weighing this against a senior ops hire or a consulting engagement. Here's the honest comparison.

Option A

Director of Manufacturing hire

~$250–350k all-in. Three to six months to find. Six more months to ramp before they can architect anything. Long-term overhead whether the program needs it or not.

Best when: you have a permanent ops function to build

Option B

Large consulting engagement

$200–500k+ for a twelve-week engagement. Methodology retrofitted from automotive or consumer goods. Senior partners on the masthead, junior staff doing the work. Output ends at the slide deck.

Best when: you need a brand-name deck for the board

Option C · Factory Dynamix

Production readiness, fixed scope

$12–55k. Two to six weeks. Hardware-native methodology built on defense, space, and medtech programs. Single operator with ten years on the floor. The output is the foundation, not the presentation.

Best when: you need it right, and you need it now

Services

The Production Readiness Package

Fixed scope. Fixed price. No open-ended retainers. You know exactly what you're getting, what it costs, and when you'll have it.

Lite

$12k

fixed · ~2 weeks

→Capacity, headcount, and ramp modules

→Takt time, cycle times, constraint map

→Headcount model by rate and phase

→Ramp plan to target rate

Pre-facility, early NPI, or investor prep before a production milestone.

Most common

Standard

$28k

fixed · ~3–4 weeks

→Full FDX Framework — all 6 modules

→Factory layout + material flow design

→Workstation design and tooling recommendations

→Quality system gap analysis (AS9100 / ISO 9001 / ISO 13485)

→5 named deliverables: Layout Package, Rate Model, Headcount Roadmap, Ramp Plan, Quality Gap Report

Funded startup preparing for facility build-out or LRIP transition.

Full

$55k

fixed · ~4–6 weeks

→Full FDX Framework + implementation support

→2 weeks on-site or embedded

→Implementation kickoff with your team

→Hiring plan + 3 Manufacturing Engineering JD drafts

Companies that need a hand-off, not just a report. The ME JDs are written by someone who has hired dozens of engineers — not a recruiter working from a generic template.

What you receive

Five documents. One working production foundation.

Every Standard and Full engagement delivers these five named documents — calibrated to your build, ready to execute against.

Factory Layout Package

Floor plan options, workstation specs, material flow diagram, and tooling/fixture recommendations.

Rate & Capacity Model

Live takt and cycle time model with constraint analysis — updated to your inputs, not a generic template.

Headcount Roadmap

Staffing plan by phase, role, and rate target — tied directly to the capacity model.

Ramp Architecture Plan

Milestone-driven ramp from current state to target rate, with decision triggers and go/no-go criteria.

Quality Gap Report

AS9100D, ISO 9001, or ISO 13485 gap analysis with prioritized action items — what you need before you scale, in order.

How it works

Three phases. No surprises.

Week 1 · Discovery

Deep dive into your program

2–3 hours on your hardware, current production state, rate targets, and constraints. Remote or on-site. Every FDX model and deliverable is calibrated to this session — no time wasted on questions that don't matter.

Remote or on-site

Weeks 2–3 · Build

Models, layout, and ramp plan

The FDX framework runs against your inputs. Async work with structured check-ins when assumptions need validation. You stay focused on your program; questions surface when they matter, not on a daily status call.

Async + check-ins

Week 4 · Handoff

Review, refine, and execute

Present all deliverables, walk through assumptions, answer questions, and refine. You leave with a production system your team can build to — not a slide deck that gets filed away after the meeting.

Live presentation

Common questions

Straight answers.

Do I need a full-time ops hire before engaging?

No — this is often the work that defines what that hire should look like and what they walk into. Most clients use the engagement to scope the role, then hire against the foundation.

Can you work with companies that aren't yet funded?

Yes. The Lite package is designed for this — modeling production to support a fundraise or a first customer commitment is one of the most common use cases. If runway is a real constraint, let's talk.

Is this remote or on-site?

Both. Discovery and handoff are structured video sessions. Build work is async with structured check-ins. On-site is available and included in the Full tier — and can be added to Standard if the program warrants it.

We already have an ops person. Is there still value here?

Often yes. Internal ops teams are usually heads-down executing — the FDX framework brings structure and outside perspective they may not have time to build from scratch. Many engagements run alongside existing ops staff, not instead of them.

How do you handle NDAs and ITAR-controlled programs?

Standard. Mutual NDA before discovery, US-person status confirmed in writing, and ITAR-controlled work handled to controlled-environment standards — discovery and review on-site, no controlled technical data leaves the facility. Defense and aerospace programs are the original use case, not the exception.

We're already mid-build. Too late to engage?

Rarely. Mid-build is often where the framework adds the most value — capacity modeling against the floor you actually have, layout adjustments before the next phase commits, quality gap assessment before a first audit. Engagements are scoped to what's still changeable.

How is this different from a large consulting engagement?

Three things. Single operator, not a partner-plus-associates pyramid. Hardware-native methodology, not a framework retrofitted from automotive or consumer goods. Fixed scope and price, not staffed by the hour. The output is built to execute against — not presented and shelved.

What do you need from us to get started?

Less than most expect. Build sequence, BOM summary, current rate, target rate, timeline, and key constraints — that's the discovery input. No financials, no IP transfers, no proprietary disclosures required before the scope is signed. Full data exchange happens after, under NDA.

About

Ian Camblin.

Ten years scaling hardware from first article to full-rate production across defense, space, and medtech — including building a rocket factory from scratch. 14 production lines, programs spanning hundreds to over a thousand BOM line items, factory footprints up to 1M sq ft. At Relativity Space, joined as the first avionics ME and drove 3× production output in 18 months while scaling the team. At Anduril, owned production readiness across multiple defense programs with zero tolerance for failure. Earlier roles at L3Harris and Shimadzu spanned DoD EW systems, cleanroom assembly, and international technology transfer.

What sets this apart is genuine hardware fluency. Certified to IPC-A-610, IPC-620, and J-STD-001 — the full suite for flight-critical assembly — with hands-on depth across avionics, wire harness, PCBA, precision machined, fluid, structural, and composite systems. Vendor capacity modeled across harnessing, composites, and high-mix subcontract supply chains.

Engineering teams have been managed and built for the majority of this career — dozens of engineers hired across defense, space, and medtech. The FDX framework isn't built from theory. It's built from being on the floor, knowing the difference between a model that looks right and a production system that works. Factory Dynamix takes on a limited number of engagements each year — direct, single-operator, and built to the program in front of it.

The methodology works because discovery starts with the hardware, not the spreadsheet. Understanding the build sequence, the constraints, and the quality gates before a single model is built is what makes the outputs executable — not something that gets filed away after the presentation. Most production frameworks come from automotive or consumer goods backgrounds, where scale is the problem. The FDX framework was built for hardware that's complex, low-volume, and high-consequence — the kind where getting it wrong isn't a yield problem, it's a program problem.

Ian Camblin

Founder · Factory Dynamix

Certification

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt

Process excellence and variation reduction — applied across defense, space, and medtech production systems

Certification

SME Certified Manufacturing Engineer

CMfgE · Society of Manufacturing Engineers

Certification

AS9100D Lead Auditor

SAE International

Certifications

IPC-A-610 · IPC-620 · J-STD-001

Electronics Acceptability, Wire Harness & Cable Assembly, Soldering — the full suite for flight-critical hardware

Education

B.S., Applied Engineering

University of Texas at Tyler
Minor in Business Administration

Hardware depth

Defense · Space · Medtech

Avionics · EW · Launch Vehicles · PCBA · Wire Harness · Precision Machined · Fluids · Structural · Composites

Team building

Dozens of engineers hired

Manufacturing Engineering orgs built from zero across defense, space, and medtech — hiring, structuring, and scaling technical teams

We build production
systems for hardware
that cannot fail.

Four signals it's time to call.

What waiting costs.

Numbers from the programs behind the framework.

The factory before the factory.

Where Factory Dynamix fits.

The Production Readiness Package

Five documents. One working production foundation.

Three phases. No surprises.

Straight answers.

The factory before the factory. Let's talk before production becomes the crisis.

We build productionsystems for hardwarethat cannot fail.

Four signals it's time to call.

What waiting costs.

Numbers from the programs behind the framework.

The factory before the factory.

Where Factory Dynamix fits.

The Production Readiness Package

Five documents. One working production foundation.

Three phases. No surprises.

Straight answers.

The factory before the factory. Let's talk before production becomes the crisis.

We build production
systems for hardware
that cannot fail.