For more than a century, the biggest advantage of large manufacturers was scale. They had the giant factories, expensive machinery, technical knowledge and distribution networks. Ordinary people had no choice but to buy whatever they produced.

That advantage is beginning to disappear.

China is showing the world what happens when technology becomes cheap, accessible and modular. The country's electric vehicle revolution is perhaps the best example. Companies that only a few years ago made smartphones, batteries, drones, consumer electronics and software are now manufacturing electric cars. The barriers that once protected traditional automobile giants have fallen dramatically. Never before has the world seen such an explosion of new vehicle manufacturers entering one industry in such a short period.

If this can happen to one of the world's most complex products, why not many others?

China is making industrial equipment smaller, cheaper and more capable every year. At the same time, artificial intelligence is becoming the world's greatest teacher. Soon, anyone will be able to ask AI how to produce almost anything safely and efficiently, then buy compact machines that once belonged only in factories.

Today it may sound unrealistic. Tomorrow it may become normal.

Imagine a household flour mill that produces fresh flour exactly the way your family likes it. A countertop brewer that makes beer with your preferred taste. A machine that mixes soap without unnecessary chemicals. Toothpaste designed specifically for your sensitive teeth. Protein drinks, cooking oil, sauces and cosmetics all produced in small batches at home or in neighbourhood micro-factories.

Consumers are increasingly demanding personalisation rather than standardisation.

The winners may no longer be those with the biggest factories, but those with the best recipes, software, AI models and trusted ingredients.

This should worry every large FMCG company.

When manufacturing knowledge becomes almost free, and equipment becomes affordable, the barriers to entry collapse. Instead of competing against five multinational companies, a brand may compete against fifty thousand small producers serving local communities.

Large companies will still have advantages in quality assurance, branding, research, logistics and regulation. They will not disappear overnight. But their dominance could steadily erode as consumers discover they can make products that are fresher, more customised and sometimes cheaper.

The real value will shift from manufacturing to innovation. Companies may increasingly earn more from selling proprietary formulations, AI production software, ingredient cartridges, quality certification and subscription services than from operating massive factories.

This transformation could be even bigger than the internet. The internet changed how we buy products. AI, robotics and low-cost manufacturing could change who makes them.

Countries like Ghana should pay close attention. Instead of spending decades trying to build giant factories that struggle to compete with global manufacturers, we should also prepare for an economy built around millions of skilled micro-producers using intelligent machines.

The next industrial revolution may not happen inside enormous industrial parks.

It may begin in a garage, a village workshop, a neighbourhood cooperative or even on a kitchen countertop.