National Database of Availability (Manufacturing Thought)

Factories each fill out a profile that describes the various technical capabilities, capacity, shipping requirements and all the other important pieces of information that matter in teh true manufacturing process. This information is uploaded into a database.

People who have a desire for a product do the same thing, but with complimentary information, and dump their data into the same database. Price points are cross referenced, variables taken into consideration, and splot, right in front of you a check box and some pretty pictures with receipts. You send specs and maybe fly over there once or twice. Shake hands. Kick the equipment. And then take off for a two day local vacation.

In reality this could probably be applied a lot more liberally to many industries...the kicker would be to somehow tie that system in directly to the machines that do the work so the automation can be just one touch higher.