Time-to-market reigns as a must-follow metric for manufacturers these days. CEOs, product managers, and PR specialists sweat one new product launch after the next. Challenges abound: How quickly can we discover and develop the latest product? How soon can we create the associated supply chain, including securing production materials and establishing distribution channels and new ways of marketing and selling?

So many questions. Here’s mine: Do consumers really want it all? Our grocery shelves, for instance, bear the signs of excessive proliferation. Why settle for plain old orange juice when what you really want is calcium-infused, low-sugar, antioxidant-rich orange juice? And what about pudding? You think you like chocolate? Actually, what you really like is low-fat, sugar-free, swirl pudding with a SpongeBob toy inside.

Are manufacturers tapping new markets this way, or just fragmenting the old ones?

This product diversification also challenges the limits of lean manufacturing. The natural inclination for a company that expands its offerings is to increase complexity in the production cycle. More changeovers, more machinery, more configurations, and more cooks in the kitchen with varying loyalties.

I wonder if we’re using the market as a drawing board these days, speeding to store shelves whatever idea bubbles to the surface. It seems that we’re heading toward a lot size of one, a time when my orange juice will taste and look nothing like anyone else’s orange juice. Or are we? I, for one, see a backlash ahead. The overbearing insistence on new product development and shrunken time to market will hit a wall.

But that’s just me. Ultimately, the market will provide an answer. Consumers decide with their wallets which products succeed. For now I’ll stick to plain old juice.