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

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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.