Both of these are suggestions and requests and I am not sure if they can be done.
First, Can you switch the order of operation around in the soldier transformations so that Clone function takes place before turn into item? Doing this way you could have a soldier cloned and then turn the clone into an item. I would allow you to have something like a soldier engineer. And he steps away from active duty to create an item.
Second, Can you put in a option to have a manufacturing take an item but not consume it? Is it even possible coding it? If you can it would allow you to mimic a bunch of stuff, such as a Unique item required in the creation, alien giving birth or slave/other employee involved in the manufacturing process. Sometime those processes don't require a dedicated room. Yes, I do know you can mimic this with produce same item but then in the report is lists a huge number when you used them.
Edit: Made a few corrections
