Garrett Bastable on Building Your Own Factory

Garrett Bastable’s career has been anything but linear. Long before working at Density, Garrett was a naval officer leading anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia. After leaving the armed forces, he joined Apple, leading a strategic sourcing team responsible for every connector and cable that went into Apple’s products. His final program at Apple was the first generation Apple Watch, where he was in charge of the S1 SIP module, a first-of-its-kind motherboard-as-chip component.

In 2016, Garrett joined the founding team at Density, a startup dedicated to measuring how people move through and use their workspace, as Head of Operations. But it wasn’t long until Garrett’s team faced unique manufacturing challenges that would eventually inspire him to build a factory in his backyard.

A Unique Solution for a Unique Problem

Density was founded as a B2B SaaS solution for tracking how people move, wander, and linger in space. “We originally planned to buy existing people-counting hardware and focus our energies on our software products.” Density’s first obstacle came from their unique approach to data collection: they were designing a product that provided data anonymity at the source, but nobody manufactured hardware that could do that.

Garrett and his team approached three different hardware design and engineering firms to find someone who could design and manufacture their product. Still, they kept running into the same walls: factories needed Density to provide the engineering and design of the new people counters, and they were hesitant to produce it at the lower volume Garrett initially required. And while Density was able to eventually find a contract manufacturer in Plano, TX, who they temporarily leaned on, it quickly became apparent they already had all the capabilities they needed at Density.

“So we decided to in-house all our hardware engineering, operations, design work, and assembly. That turned out to be a breakthrough decision for us.”

Build a Top-Notch Facility at Bargain-Basement Prices

Density found space in a pre-existing building in Syracuse called The Tech Garden. “It was 5,000 square feet, plus or minus, and we had one full production line,” Garrett recalls. The cost of setting up this factory? About $60,000. “It blew my mind. My estimate was close to $1.25 million.” Though the factory had some high-cost components, like cameras and equipment required to qualify as an FDA self-certifying authority for their eye-safe lasers, the benches and other components were surprisingly reasonable. CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity subsidized the facility itself. “We can build thousands of units on this single production line. When you look at the cost of doing this and compare it to flying people out to Asia, the cost of hotels and travel alone, not to mention the MVA (manufacturing value add, the cost you pay to a manufacturer for assembly), would easily wipe away the cost of the initial line.”

Density can produce over ten thousand units per year on that line alone. Since replicating it, they boosted their annual production to fifty thousand, then expanded to a facility down the street with a capacity to manufacture 375,000 sensors a year.

Supercharge Quality by Investing in Your Team and Metrics

The decision to build locally was not only cheaper but also came with a surprising effect on quality. “Early on in our very first production line, we had some escapes, but even then, it was less than one percent,” Garrett said. And things have only gotten better: out of thousands of shipped products on one of their current production lines, Density has encountered two confirmed field failures. Two. “We have insanely good quality. It’s unbelievable to me.”

Garrett attributes much of it to Density’s employees. “The workers are full-time employees of our company. We give them the same benefits as everyone else. We’re one of the most attractive places to work [in the area], and as a result, people care deeply about the product.” Compared to employees in a contract factory who may not be incentivized to focus on quality, Density factory employees are very conscious of every device they built. Operators on the line are more proactive about quality issues, even discovering new ones and implementing fixes in real-time.

In addition to fostering a team passionate about working at Density, Garrett’s experience at Apple taught him to value manufacturing analytics and measuring quality metrics. “We decided to overinvest in our metrics. Instrumental and other metrics measuring tools are super valuable. You can track, maintain quality, and keep costs in check as you scale.” With the dedication of his employees and the defect detection that quality metrics can provide, Garrett produced a smooth-running line with a 99.9% yield.

Saving money and increasing quality? Talk about a win-win.

Forget About Automation Until You Can’t

Reducing headcount by automating processes may seem like every operation manager’s dream, but Garrett and his team took the opposite approach when building their factory. “We didn’t initially try to automate. We wanted to make sure our product worked.” Garrett would eventually consider implementing automation, but only as a surgical fix for the facility’s most time-consuming processes, like a 43-minute power check and range calibration test required to certify their lasers. “It was maybe 5 minutes of operator time, but it’s 43 minutes,” he recalls. His engineering team was able to design a solution that decreased the total time to under 4 minutes.

Keep Your Secrets Close

If cost savings and high quality weren’t enough to seal the deal, Garrett discovered other ancillary benefits to Destiny’s domestic factory. “We sell to the federal government, so being made in the USA is a big benefit.” The decision also allows Destiny to protect their proprietary calibration processes and other intellectual property. “We don’t have to risk sending our algorithms over to external partners and sharing our know-how,” he noted.

Should You Build Your Own Factory?

While Garrett sings the praises of building a domestic factory, he warns it’s not always the answer for every company. “If you have a relatively simple product at high volume, Asia is probably right for you. But I would advise you,” he cautioned, “to remember that early on many teams think they have a simple product and think they will hit a high volume out the gate. The reality is products are more complex than we perceive, and volume takes longer to get to.”

But when you press him to get into the brass tacks, he obliges. “If you’re building fifty thousand or less, in my view, it’s a no-brainer to build domestically.” Above one hundred thousand, Garrett argues that it’s a question of margin, but the math for every company is unique to them. “We’re a model that’s looking to bring the cost of the hardware down so we can ultimately give it away for free and focus on the data that’s being generated.”

Garrett also advises interested companies not to skimp on their people. “Hire excellent operations, engineering, and design team members. It’s critical. You cannot do this without those folks. Staff a high-quality manufacturing team. Invest in them because they will invest in your product.” And lastly, don’t forget the quality metrics: “Metrics are so important. You could screw this up if you don't track metrics.”