#067 - How to speed up your New Product Introduction - Production Line Tool, with Pete Staples of Blue Clover Devices, USA

The Hardware Entrepreneur

My podcast guest is Pete Staples, co-founder and president of Blue Clover Devices with locations in San Francisco, Hong Kong and of course, Shenzhen, the Silicon Valley of Hardware.

This is an episode on some important aspects of production lines and its challenges. Without a production line you have no mass manufacturing so if you want to play in that field, it’s good to know about some current issues.

Pete’s company is originally and even now an ODM company. In this episode he will talk about what they do as an ODM. You’ll also find out about typical waste in production lines and what can go wrong with Work Instructions or SOP, Standard Operating Procedures that are typically used in production lines. Pete’s team has a solution to make teams’ life easier. Their product is for automating testing, but not the usual way which can set you back by a few hundred thousand dollars.

We’ve talked about many many more topics, enjoy.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

• Why Blue Clover Devices are not afraid of competitors [3:25]
• The difference between ODM and CM and the benefits of using each of them [7:13]
• Why SOPs are good for consistency but becoming more and more obsolete for usage in Production Lines [9:53]
• A new level for remote work: “a teleporter” that automates the manufacturing and production process [15:40]
• How Blue Clovers Devices company applies the 10x improvement [22:00]
• If you could go back in time in your 20s, what notes would you give yourself? [27:45]
• If you had to name a book, which one had the biggest impact on your entrepreneurial career? [30:00]
• How staying fit during work time is good for both the employees and the company [32:07]
• How to keep the balance when shifting between two different cultural and business worlds [33:45]
• What is the best way to reach Pete? [37:40]