factory-direct -- is it an adverb? -- context: "a few products are supplied factory-direct, a few are made in-house..."

Question

An excerpt from a book on database technologies:

A few products are supplied factory-direct, a few are made in-house, and a few may have been bought in a warehouse sale. In other words, a product is not necessarily supplied by a vendor. Therefore, VENDOR is optional to PRODUCT.

It seems that no single dictionary out there has this word listed. A simple Google search has not revealed anything about the word and its usage. But, given the context, I assume this word is being used as an adverb and must mean that products are bought right from their manufactures without the help of a third-party organization such as a retailer or someone like that. Am I correct?

Answer 1

Certainly. the word factory-direct serves as an adverb in the sentence.

If you could not find 'factory-direct', you could have searched for 'in-house'. That two-word word is used in the same way!

WordWebOnline has an entry for in-house.

in-house (adverb) - Done within a business rather than contracted out.

Answer 2

I can't speak for the part of speech, I would say you are definitely correct as to the meaning. It means to bypass an intermediary reseller.

To qualify that, the more direct 'official' business term that you would find in a dictionary or business course in college would be 'disintermediation'. Which is the same concept, having a product delivered to a customer without the aid of a reseller. Such as, buying a car directly from a Honda manufacturing plant, rather than going to a dealership.