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Build Better Handbook: Table of Contents
  •   

    Start Here

    • Introduction to the Build Better Handbook

    • Manufacturing Term Glossary

  •   

    Getting Culture Right

    • Jeff Lutz: Team Culture Drives Product Performancepopular

    • Scrappy Ways to Execute Like Applepopular

    • Building a Culture of Quality

      • Building the World's Most Reliable Products: Insights from Medical and Defense Leaders
      • Fear Management
  •   

    NPI: A How To Guide for Engineers & Their Leaders

    • Leading from the Front

      • Marcel Tremblay: The Olympic Mindset & Engineering Leadershippopular
      • Anurag Gupta: Framework to Accelerate NPI
      • Kyle Wiens on Why Design Repairability is Good for Business
      • Nathan Ackerman on NPI: Do The Hard Thing First
      • JDM Operational Excellence in NPI
    • Building the Team

      • Quality is Set in Development & Maintained in Production
      • 3 Lessons from Tesla’s Former NPI Leader
      • Maik Duwensee: The Future of Hardware Integrity & Reliability
      • Reject Fake NPI Schedules to Ship on Time
      • Leadership Guidance for Failure to Meet Exit Criteria
    • Screws & Glue: Getting Stuff Done

      • Choosing the best CAD software for product design
      • Screws vs Glues in Design, Assembly, & Repair
      • Best Practices for Glue in Electronics
      • A Practical Guide to Magnets
      • Inspection 101: Measurements
      • A Primer on Color Matching
      • OK2Fly Checklists
      • Developing Your Reliability Test Suite
      • Guide to DOEs (Design of Experiments)
      • Ten Chinese phrases for your next build
    • NPI Processes & Workflows

      • EVT, DVT, PVT Stage Gate Definitions
      • Hardware Schedules are Driven by Iteration
      • The Shedletsky Test: 12 Requirements for NPI Programs
      • 4 Best Practices for Generational Knowledge Building
  •   

    Production: A Primer for Operations, Quality, & Their Leaders

    • Behind the Pins: How We Built a Smarter Way to Inspect Connectors

    • Former Apple Executive Bryan Roos on Leading Teams in China and Managing Up

    • Leading for Scale

      • Navigating Factory Moves and Scaling Production in an Era of Uncertainty with PRG's Wayne Miller
      • Steven Nickel on How Google Designs for Repair
      • Petcube’s Alex Neskin Embraces Imperfection to Deliver Innovation
      • Proven Strategies for Collaborating with Contract Manufacturers
      • Greg Reichow’s Manufacturing Process Performance Quadrants
      • 8D Problem Solving: Sam Bowen Describes the Power of Stopping
      • Cut Costs by Getting Your Engineers in the Field
      • Garrett Bastable on Building Your Own Factory
      • Oracle Supply Chain Leader Mitigates Risk with Better Relationships
      • Brendan Green on Working with Manufacturers
      • Surviving Disaster: A Lesson in Quality from Marcy Alstott
    • Ship It!

      • Serialization for Electronics Manufacturing
      • Tactics to Derisk Ramp
      • E-Commerce Ratings Make Product Quality a Competitive Edge
    • Production Processes & Workflows

      • Failure Analysis Methods for Product Design Engineers: Finding Sources of Error
      • Failure Analysis Methods for Product Design Engineers: Tools and Techniques
      • How to Improve First Pass Yield with Instrumental
      • How to Identify Dark Yield
      • JDM Operational Excellence in Production
  •   

    Thinking Ahead: How to Evaluate New Technologies

    • How to Buy Software (for Hardware Leaders who Usually Don’t)

    • Adopting AI in the Aerospace and Defense Electronics Space

    • Build vs Buy: A Guide to Implementing Smart Manufacturing Technology

    • Leonel Leal on How Engineers Should Frame a Business Case for Innovation

    • Saw through the Buzzwords

      • Managed Cloud vs Self-Hosted Cloud vs On-Premises for Manufacturing Data
      • AOI, Smart AOI, & Beyond: Keyence vs Cognex vs Instrumentalpopular
      • Visual Inspection AI: AWS Lookout, Landing AI, & Instrumental
      • Manual Inspection vs. AI Inspection with Instrumentalpopular
      • Electronics Assembly Automation Tipping Points
      • CTO of ASUS: Systems Integrators for Manufacturing Automation Don't Scale
    • ROI-Driven Business Cases & Realized Value

      • Building a Buying Committee
      • How to Buy Software (for Those Who Usually Don't)
  •   

    Webinars and Live Event Recordings

    • Get Me Outta Here! Racing to Full Production Somewhere Else

    • Tariff Talk for Electronics Brands: Policies Reactions, Reciprocal Tariffs, and more.

    • Materials Planning: The Hidden Challenges of Factory Transitions

    • Build Better 2024 Sessions On Demand

      • Superpowers for Engineers: Leveraging AI to Accelerate NPI | Build Better 2024
      • The Motorola Way, the Apple Way, and the Next Way | Build Better 2024
      • The Future of Functional Test: Fast, Scalable, Simple | Build Better 2024
      • Build Better 2024 Keynote | The Next Way
      • Principles for a Modern Manufacturing Technology Stack for Defense | Build Better 2024
      • What's Next for America's Critical Supply Chains | Build Better 2024
      • Innovating in Refurbishment, Repair, and Remanufacturing | Build Better 2024
      • Leading from the Front: The Missing Chapter for Hardware Executives | Build Better 2024
      • The Next Way for Reducing NPI Cycles | Build Better 2024
      • Scaling Manufacturing: How Zero-to-One Lessons Unlock New Opportunities in Existing Operations | Build Better 2024
    • Build Better Fireside Chats

      • Aerospace and Defense: Headwinds & Tailwinds for Electronics Manufacturing in 2025
      • From Counterfeits to Sanctions: Securing Your Supply Chain in an Era of Conflict
      • Design for Instrumental - Simple Design Ideas for Engineers to Get the Most from AI in NPI
      • Webinar | Shining Light on the Shadow Factory
      • Tactics in Failure Analysis : A fireside chat with Dr. Steven Murray
    • Preparing for Tariffs in 2025: Resources for Electronics Manufacturers

      • How to Prepare for Tariffs in 2025: Leaders Share Lessons and Strategies
      • Tariff Talk for Electronics Brands
      • Talking Trade Compliance with Gabrielle Griffith
      • GUIDE: Moving Your Factory
  1. Build Better Handbook
  2. Webinars and Live Event Recordings
  3. Scaling Manufacturing: How Zero-to-One Lessons Unlock New Opportunities in Existing Operations | Build Better 2024

Scaling Manufacturing: How Zero-to-One Lessons Unlock New Opportunities in Existing Operations | Build Better 2024

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Watch the full session here. 

Focusing on operations and increased sales for restaurants, Toast is more than a simple point of sale and management system. When the company’s VP of Hardware Operations Sapana Talwalkar discusses about manufacturing, she brings unique perspective. With a history of building operations from the ground up at multiple companies, including industry powerhouse Square, she's noticed something surprising: the lessons from starting fresh often solve problems in established operations, too.

The Truth About Operations Leadership

Operations leaders typically arrive when a company is already moving - and moving fast. They step into a world of limited resources while simultaneously needing to prove their worth. "Usually by the time ops comes in, it's no longer zero to one," Sapana said, cutting straight to a reality many companies face.

The solution? Sapana learned to focus on two things: knowing exactly where to put those limited resources, and building the right team. "You need leaders who can make decisions," she emphasized, pointing out that hiring the right leadership early prevents having to repeatedly bring in higher-level executives as the company grows.

What Square Taught Us About Manufacturing Partners

During her seven years at Square, Sapana watched - and helped - the company transform from making a single product to managing multiple product lines across six markets. This growth revealed important lessons about working with manufacturers at different scales.

"We knew we wanted good manufacturing partners from day one," Sapana explained. The company specifically targeted tier-one manufacturers, skipping the smaller operations that might have seemed more accessible. Why? They knew they didn't have enough people to manage the extra challenges that come with tier-two and -three manufacturers.

But there was a catch. "The Apples and the Motorolas and the Googles were taking all of the Team A players," Sapana recalled. Square had to get creative about attracting top manufacturers when competing against tech giants. They leveraged their executives’ high profiles and cultivated relationships with manufacturers that treated them as true partners.

Manufacturing's Global Shift

The days of "everything in China" are over. Companies have spent the last few years quietly reshaping their supply chains, moving operations to new regions. This shift has revealed something interesting: each region brings its own distinct capabilities and challenges.

For companies without massive hardware operations, Sapana suggested a practical approach: "It was very important for us to be on the coattails of some of the larger folks." By following bigger companies' leads rather than blazing new trails, smaller operations can benefit from established infrastructure while managing their limited resources.

Rethinking Inventory After COVID

COVID changed how companies think about inventory. The old "just-in-time" model doesn't feel as safe anymore. As Sapana noted, companies now keep more inventory on hand "to mitigate the disruptions we see."

And it’s not just COVID - political tensions, unusual weather, and ongoing shipping problems all push companies to rethink their inventory strategy. It's about balancing the cost of holding extra stock against the risk of running out - especially when, as in Toast's case, hardware enables broader revenue streams.

What Makes Operations Actually Work?

Sapana broke down operational excellence into clear terms:

  1. Match your company's goals: "You can't justify a million processes if that's just not what the company's out to do."
  2. Keep improving: Handle today's work while building for tomorrow.
  3. Stay flexible: Be ready to change as markets and technology shift.

Looking ahead, she sees AI playing a bigger role. "Supply chains are rich with data," she pointed out, suggesting better use of this information could transform how manufacturing works.

Straight Talk for Operations Leaders

Sapana offered clear advice for anyone leading operations:

  1. Know exactly what you're trying to fix: "Be very crisp about that."
  2. Build backup plans thoughtfully: Understand what your safety nets cost.
  3. Connect operations to business goals: Your strategy needs to support what the company actually wants to achieve.
  4. Get great people: "Hire really good people."

The Hidden Power of Being Present

While modern tools help bridge distances, Sapana emphasized something that hasn't changed: the value of being physically present. "There's nothing like walking a line," she said. "You find the most interesting issues."

But the days of constant travel are shifting. During the pandemic, Toast and other companies discovered that tools like Instrumental could provide crucial visibility into manufacturing operations. Still, Sapana stressed that relationship-building happens best in person: "The collaboration that happens when you can be in front of people that you have built relationships with, that you can solve problems very quickly."

Her solution? A balanced approach. While reducing constant travel, Toast maintains the ability to put boots on the ground when quality issues arise. Sometimes this means developing an Asia-based team, but other times it means sending people directly. The key is matching your strategy to your specific needs and resources.

When Hardware Enables Software

At Toast, hardware plays a unique role—it's an enabler product. This simple fact shapes every operational decision the company makes.

"If we don't have hardware available for somebody, it means that we miss out on larger revenue than just the hardware itself," Sapana explained. "We're missing out on payments revenue and SaaS revenue, which is a much bigger deal."

This reality drives crucial operational choices. Being out of stock isn't an option, even if that means holding more inventory and building more supply chain resilience than might seem optimal from a pure operations perspective. It's a perfect example of Sapana's advice to align operations with broader business goals.

Change Management: The Hidden Challenge

One of the hardest lessons Sapana learned was about managing change itself. "Change is not only hard, but bringing everybody along in that change is very difficult," she said. Even in smaller startups, teams can become entrenched in particular ways of working.

She found that positioning operations as an enabler for product and engineering teams offered the best results. "That's the way that proving that value is super important," Sapana noted. When operations teams get involved early in development cycles, they can dramatically improve outcomes. She shared an example where early operations involvement helped complete a full development cycle in less than nine months, from concept to launch.

By understanding component lead times and making strategic "risk buys" before designs were finalized, the operations team helped hit aggressive launch dates while maintaining quality standards. It's another example of how fresh operational thinking can transform established processes.

Moving Forward

Manufacturing keeps changing. New technology arrives, global business shifts, and companies' needs evolve. Success now means balancing solid operations with the ability to adapt quickly.

For companies scaling up their manufacturing, the basics still matter: choose partners carefully, hire smart people, stay flexible, and keep operations aligned with business goals.

As Sapana showed, sometimes the best way to improve existing operations is to look at them with the fresh eyes of someone starting from scratch. In manufacturing, as in many things, a new perspective often reveals better ways forward.

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