Oxide and Friends Scaling Manufacturing
16 snips
Sep 19, 2025 Kirstin Neira, a procurement and supply-chain specialist at Oxide, shares her insights on overcoming supplier challenges while scaling production. She discusses navigating regulatory hurdles and the impact of tariffs on sourcing components. Engineering lead Aaron Hartwig dives into the importance of test fixtures like Medusa and Reverso, highlighting how moving testing upstream can catch issues early in the manufacturing process. Together, they explore teamwork and the strategic advantages of partnering with contract manufacturers for efficient production.
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Foundation Before Fast Ramp
- Oxide built operational muscle over years to prepare for volume ramp instead of reacting to demand spikes.
- That foundation across BOM, procurement, and relationships made a 10x volume goal feasible.
Use A CM That Does NPI And Volume
- Use a contract manufacturer to leverage specialized capital, SMT lines, and assembly expertise.
- Partner with a CM that can handle both NPI and production to provide a path from prototypes to volume.
Fragile Cables Forced A Cartridge Redesign
- Early Gimlet builds chewed through fragile backplane cables and required redesign of the cable cartridges.
- Doug and the mechanical team reduced cable damage and assembly rework by redesigning mounts and handling.
