Hi there, Aurora Community.
So, as I learn Aurora and watch my awesome senior let's-playing, some thing visited my mind. It's called - memory.
So, when ship design was ready, I was hoping to see prototype stage of it, as such mechanic I personally saw only in one 4x game (Sword of the Stars) and nowhere else (I played 'lot of 4x games. . . may be too much), and I'm sure it's still unique to them.
Mechanic is as follows: When design is prepared, it goes to manufacturers to prototype. While they do that, there's no possibility to mass produce design, as while prototype is being made, engineers learn and deal with many problems and situations while they create it. (And, yes, they usually even try to understand it, as sometimes, even super-mechanic don't quite get idea from first glance on everything in blueprints) Such prototype creation takes much longer time to finish final product. But when it's done, engineers are fit to share knowledge and optimize workflow for mass production of model. While they were conducting such process, there's no possible way to even start creating such models before prototype is finished. In SOTS it was really cool, as you'll think twice, before refitting your dreadnought, as small change could, actually, lead to long prototyping.
Thanks to my senior, I gathered my bravery to write idea for your judgment. There could be modifications to idea, like, test run for prototype before approve it for mass production. But I'll leave that to your judgment.
And thanks for awesome game! Still way too much to learn, but I have fun while doing it.