211: Establishing Product Manufacturing Operations

Jan 28, 2024

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Nikhil Joshi is the founder of SNic Solutions, a company he has run for 17 years helping scale product manufacturing operations. He has worked with almost 150 factories across 12 countries. Today Nikhil will share valuable knowledge for inventors, startups, and small manufacturers on how manufacturing has changed, the opportunities that exist, and how to ensure you properly plan for complex manufacturing as a hardware startup.

Here are the key takeaways from the episode:

The manufacturing process is drastically different now than it was even 30 years ago.
Modern consumers seek custom-tailored products that are designed very specifically for them.
The goal is to try to produce a smaller variety of items in the manufacturing process, but it is integral to be more efficient in order to accomplish this.
Try not to customize and scale at the same time unless you can adopt a business model that can support that level of customization.
Talk directly to your end customers, even if you are selling through middle players!
Be agile and flexible, and give the end customer what they want, but at a good price.
Agility, speed, and efficiency are key! Smaller companies will often push these demands to contract manufacturing.
Go from working in silos to developing your own web of information and technology - from ideation through to industrial product design - then begin manufacturing, and then place your focus back on the customer.
You can reduce the time it takes to get to the manufacturing stage when you start considering manufacturing at the design level.
Spearheading comprehensive design, then engineering, then manufacturing is the most logical progression!

Nikhil Joshi Links:

LinkedIn | SNic Solutions

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

https://www.ProductStartup.com/

MAKO Design + Invent Links:

https://www.makodesign.com/

Kevin Mako Links:

Instagram | LinkedIn | Quora | Facebook | Twitter

Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to the above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.