The Cost of Absence — What Happens When Manufacturers Don’t Have a Seat at the Table
When manufacturers disengage from standards-setting and regulatory conversations, they often assume they are avoiding risk. In reality, absence creates a different set of risks—ones that can be more damaging than participation.
Here’s what tends to happen when manufacturers aren’t present:
Regulations get written without technical feasibility
Rules get drafted by parties without factory experience or without understanding product mechanics. The outcome is compliance requirements that are impossible, expensive, or irrelevant.
Standards are designed by third parties who don’t carry the operational burden
When standards are built without manufacturing voices, they often ignore how small and mid-sized companies operate. They can accidentally become a tool that only large corporations can meet.
Unintended bans on critical materials
When regulators or committees don’t understand why certain materials are used—or what substitutes do to product performance—restrictions can remove essential components without providing workable alternatives.
One-size-fits-all rules that destroy small manufacturers
The industry becomes consolidated not because small manufacturers are unsafe, but because they cannot afford compliance frameworks designed for unrelated industries.
Insurance denial and liability escalation
Insurers respond to uncertainty by tightening coverage, increasing premiums, or excluding categories. Manufacturers without defensible documentation lose leverage.
Supply chain bottlenecks
If requirements are built without considering supply realities, manufacturers face shortages, delays, and compliance failures beyond their control.
Participation prevents these outcomes. It doesn’t eliminate oversight—it improves it. Manufacturers who contribute practical standards help ensure that safety expectations align with real production and real use.
That is the difference between regulation that protects public health and regulation that unintentionally collapses responsible manufacturing.