Capital Light Assembly with Edison: Recent Episodes
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering
Focused on what it takes to thrive in low-volume, complex assembly operations.
Brought to you by Edison Manufacturing and Engineering - your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
The conversation discusses the effective, efficient, and reliable introduction and launch of a new product in a new market, focusing on five key tips. These tips include starting small, leveraging manufacturing best practices, determining what is 'good enough' for the new market, using the right suppliers, and maintaining tight communication and collaboration between product development, business, and manufacturing functions.Takeaways:- Starting small and validating the market before investing heavily in capital is crucial for a successful product launch.- Leveraging manufacturing best practices and determining the quality and reliability standards for the new market are essential for delivering a high-quality product.- Selecting the right suppliers for the application and maintaining tight communication and collaboration between key stakeholders are critical for an effective product launch.- Collaboration between design, business, and manufacturing functions is imperative.Keywordsproduct launch, new market, manufacturing best practices, market validation, supplier selection, communication and collaborationAbout Edison: Edison Manufacturing & Engineering is a niche contract manufacturer, focused on flexible and capital efficient assembly of complex mobility and mobility-adjacent products that are not well suited for highly automated production. Assembly, upfit, and retrofit for autonomous vehicles is one of Edison's core businesses, and is an area in which Edison has significant experience and expertise.Edison website: https://edison-mfg.com/Edison LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/70992427/Brandon Bartneck LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/
When launching a new product or version, it's important to balance speed, cost, and quality. Start with a strong and flexible foundation, understanding the unique requirements of your product. Turn the dials appropriately by finding the right balance between formal processes and speed. Be efficient with capital by starting with manual processes and introducing automation when necessary. Don't forget about in-process quality checks, but be intentional about when and where to implement them.
Takeaways:
- Start with a strong and flexible foundation for production
- Understand the unique requirements of your product
- Find the right balance between formal processes and speed
- Be efficient with capital by starting with manual processes
- Implement in-process quality checks strategically
Keywords
product launch, speed, cost, quality, strong foundation, unique requirements, formal processes, automation, in-process quality checks
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing & Engineering is a niche contract manufacturer, focused on flexible and capital efficient assembly of complex mobility and mobility-adjacent products that are not well suited for highly automated production. Assembly, upfit, and retrofit for autonomous vehicles is one of Edison's core businesses, and is an area in which Edison has significant experience and expertise.
Edison website: https://edison-mfg.com/
Edison LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/70992427/
Brandon Bartneck LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/
This video is part of a series focused on 7 Tips to Reliably Scale Autonomous Vehicle Production. The seventh tip is to understand that reliable production is critical for business success.
The following questions are addressed in this video:
- Why is manufacturing so important for an AV company?
- What role does production play?
- Why is trust so important in a relationship with a manufacturing partner?
Key themes include:
- AV production
- Operational efficiency
- Production performance
- Partnership
- Customer-centric manufacturing
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing & Engineering is a niche contract manufacturer, focused on flexible and capital efficient assembly of complex mobility and mobility-adjacent products that are not well suited for highly automated production. Assembly, upfit, and retrofit for autonomous vehicles is one of Edison's core businesses, and is an area in which Edison has significant experience and expertise.
Edison website: https://edison-mfg.com/
Edison LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/70992427/
Brandon Bartneck LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/
This video is part of a series focused on 7 Tips to Reliably Scale Autonomous Vehicle Production. The sixth tip is to choose the right things to optimize.
The following questions are addressed in this video:
- What variables should be optimized during prototype builds?
- What should be optimized for low volume production?
- Why is supplier delivery and quality so important?
Key themes include:
- Cost
- Manufacturing optimization
- Continuous improvement
- Production strategy
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing & Engineering is a niche contract manufacturer, focused on flexible and capital efficient assembly of complex mobility and mobility-adjacent products that are not well suited for highly automated production. Assembly, upfit, and retrofit for autonomous vehicles is one of Edison's core businesses, and is an area in which Edison has significant experience and expertise.
Edison website: https://edison-mfg.com/
Edison LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/70992427/
Brandon Bartneck LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/
This video is part of a series focused on 7 Tips to Reliably Scale Autonomous Vehicle Production. The fifth tip is to build and execute within a robust supply chain.
The following questions are addressed in this video:
- What is the biggest risk posed to AV manufacturing operations?
- Why is supplier selection and supplier quality so important?
- What elements are most critical when establishing a supply chain?
- What activities are required following goods receipt to assure that materials and components are available when and where they are needed?
Key themes include:
- Supply chain optimization
- Supplier quality
- Material planning and logistics
- Inventory management
- Supply chain strategy
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing & Engineering is a niche contract manufacturer, focused on flexible and capital efficient assembly of complex mobility and mobility-adjacent products that are not well suited for highly automated production. Assembly, upfit, and retrofit for autonomous vehicles is one of Edison's core businesses, and is an area in which Edison has significant experience and expertise.
Edison website: https://edison-mfg.com/
Edison LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/70992427/
Brandon Bartneck LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/
This video is part of a series focused on 7 Tips to Reliably Scale Autonomous Vehicle Production. The fourth tip is to optimize for human-centric production processes.
The following questions are addressed in this video:
- Why will AV upfits and retrofits be a manual-heavy process?
- How should automation be applied for AV assembly?
- What are the most important considerations for controlling quality for manual processes?
Key themes include:
- Poka-yoke
- Production process
- Operator work instructions
- Repeatability
- Operator screening and selection
- Operator training
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing & Engineering is a niche contract manufacturer, focused on flexible and capital efficient assembly of complex mobility and mobility-adjacent products that are not well suited for highly automated production. Assembly, upfit, and retrofit for autonomous vehicles is one of Edison's core businesses, and is an area in which Edison has significant experience and expertise.
Edison website: https://edison-mfg.com/
Edison LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/70992427/
Brandon Bartneck LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/
This video is part of a series focused on 7 Tips to Reliably Scale Autonomous Vehicle Production. The third tip is to plan for traceability in manufacturing processes.
The following questions are addressed in this video:
- How can AV companies assure quality throughout production
- How does the APQP process apply to AV assembly?
- What role does traceability play for AV production?
- How should product genealogy be handled?
Key themes include:
- Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP)
- Design Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (DFMEA)
- Process Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (PFMEA)
- Quality planning
- Data capture
- Manufacturing traceability
- Quality control
- Quality plans
- Quality Management System (QMS)
- ISO9001
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing & Engineering is a niche contract manufacturer, focused on flexible and capital efficient assembly of complex mobility and mobility-adjacent products that are not well suited for highly automated production. Assembly, upfit, and retrofit for autonomous vehicles is one of Edison's core businesses, and is an area in which Edison has significant experience and expertise.
Edison website: https://edison-mfg.com/
Edison LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/70992427/
Brandon Bartneck LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/
This video is part of a series focused on 7 Tips to Reliably Scale Autonomous Vehicle Production. The second tip is to optimize your manufacturing strategy for flexibility.
The following questions are addressed in this video:
- How can volatility be overcome in the autonomous vehicle market?
- How can manufacturing systems be designed for flexibility?
- Why is capital efficiency so important?
- How should engineering changes be managed?
Key themes include:
- Change management
- Flexible manufacturing
- Agile production management
- Agile planning
- Capital efficiency
- Flexible production
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing & Engineering is a niche contract manufacturer, focused on flexible and capital efficient assembly of complex mobility and mobility-adjacent products that are not well suited for highly automated production. Assembly, upfit, and retrofit for autonomous vehicles is one of Edison's core businesses, and is an area in which Edison has significant experience and expertise.
Edison website: https://edison-mfg.com/
Edison LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/70992427/
Brandon Bartneck LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/
This video is part of a series focused on 7 Tips to Reliably Scale Autonomous Vehicle Production. The first tip is to Begin the Production Planning Process Early.The following questions are addressed in this video:- When should production planning begin?- What should be considered during early production planning?- What aspects should an initial manufacturing strategy include?- How does the APQP process apply to production planning?- Why is early production planning crucial?Key themes include:- Design for Manufacturing- Design for Assembly- Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP)- Production Planning- Production Capacity PlanningAbout Edison: Edison Manufacturing & Engineering is a niche contract manufacturer, focused on flexible and capital efficient assembly of complex mobility and mobility-adjacent products that are not well suited for highly automated production. Assembly, upfit, and retrofit for autonomous vehicles is one of Edison's core businesses, and is an area in which Edison has significant experience and expertise.Edison website: https://edison-mfg.com/Edison LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/70992427/Brandon Bartneck LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/
Autonomous vehicles are generally software forward products that rely on a physical hardware product to bring their software to the world. As such, effective manufacturing and production is critical for an company looking to scale in the autonomous vehicle space.This series aims to answer some of the following questions:
- How can autonomous vehicles be built at-scale?
- How can AV companies bring their hardware products to the market?
- How can common manufacturing mistakes be avoided?
- How does automotive know-how and experience apply in the AV space?
Applications include last mile delivery, middle mile logistics, long haul trucks, fork lifts, warehouse robotics, yard trucks, shuttles, mining, construction, agriculture, sidewalk robotics, and more.About Edison:Edison Manufacturing & Engineering is a niche contract manufacturer, focused on flexible and capital efficient assembly of complex mobility and mobility-adjacent products that are not well suited for highly automated production. Assembly, upfit, and retrofit for autonomous vehicles is one of Edison's core businesses, and is an area in which Edison has significant experience and expertise.
Edison website: https://edison-mfg.com/Edison LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/70992427/Brandon Bartneck LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/
Brandon Bartneck is Vice President & General Manager of Edison. Solo episode this week, in which Brandon talks about the five most important factors that enable a manufacturing entity to be truly product-centric and customer-centric while executing low volume production in the electrification and autonomy spaces.
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
https://www.edison-mfg.com/
Frank Webb is Director of Engineering at Edison, leading both engineering and program management functions. Frank joins this discussion to explore the strategic approaches to minimize costs during low volume, complex assembly activities.
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
https://www.edison-mfg.com/
Chris Timmons is vice president of engineering at Group14 Technologies, the world's leading commercial manufacturer and supplier of advanced silicon battery technology. Chris joins to explore Group14's approach to manufacturing, and how they've approached their product and business to assure that they can scale effectively and efficiently.
Company Description:
Founded to enable the coming electrification of everything, Group14 Technologies is the world's leading commercial manufacturer and supplier of advanced silicon battery technology. Group14 currently operates a commercial-scale Battery Active Materials factory (BAM-1) in Woodinville, Washington (U.S.), with two additional forthcoming commercial factories: a joint venture factory with SK, Inc. in South Korea and a second U.S. factory (BAM-2) in Moses Lake, Washington, slated to be the world's largest factory for advanced silicon battery materials. To date, Group14 has raised $650 million in funding from notable investors and customers such as Porsche AG, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, OMERS Capital Markets, Decarbonization Partners, BASF, Showa Denko and SK Inc.
About Chris:
Chris Timmons is vice president of engineering at Group14 Technologies. With two decades of experience in clean energy manufacturing, Chris drives new innovations for the development and commercial implementation of manufacturing processes. After spearheading the buildout of Group14’s first commercial manufacturing factory in Woodinville, WA, Chris is now leading the development of Group14’s second U.S. Battery Active Materials factory in Moses Lake (BAM-2). Prior to joining Group14, Chris served as engineering manager at EnerG2 and was instrumental in the company’s success, which led to its acquisition by BASF.
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
https://www.edison-mfg.com/
Michael Robinet is Executive Director of Consulting for S&P Global. Michael joined the Capital Light Assembly Podcast to explore the impact of the technology shifts in the automotive space, and the decisions legacy suppliers must make as they seek to build and sustain a viable business
About Michael:
Michael Robinet is the Executive Director of Consulting for S&P Global, serving as a valued source for forecasts, industrial transition strategies, and market dynamics. He has more than 35 years of experience in automotive market analysis, forecasting, and supplier strategy functions.
Prior to his time at IHS Markit/S&P Global, Robinet was a forecaster with two other automotive research houses as well as being active in finance at a major Tier 1 supplier. His key career milestones include contributions to the 2009 Chrysler and GM bankruptcy agreements in Canada, groundbreaking work in measuring vehicle production capacity, and ongoing supply base strategies surrounding ICE to BEV transitions.
Valuing giving back to the industry and community, Robinet is a Director for the Automotive Hall of Fame, a Trustee for the SAE Foundation, and a Board Member for the Canada-US Business Association. Additionally, Robinet pens a monthly column for the SAE Automotive Magazine.
Robinet earned his Bachelor of Social Science in Economics and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Windsor.
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
https://www.edison-mfg.com/
Burak Cendek, partner at Autotech Ventures, joins this episode to discuss innovations in supply chain, logistics, and automation technology for manufacturing.
About Autotech Ventures:
Autotech Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm with more than $500M under management to date and a mission to solve the world’s ground transport challenges with technology, realizing the next frontier in mobility. We are a team of experienced entrepreneurs, operators and technologists and investors with a world-class transport community and decades of ground transport experience. With our founder-first philosophy, we invest globally in Seed through series C startups solving ground transport challenges related to connectivity, autonomy, shared-use, electrification, and digitization of enterprise. We're excited about deep-tech, autonomous, AI, and semiconductors, and business model innovations in marketplaces, fintech and SaaS, among other things. When we find the right opportunity, we’re willing to make an initial investment of $1-$8M as a lead or follow-on investor, and we generally prefer capital-light businesses.
Burak's Bio:
Burak brings to Autotech a never-ending passion for helping founders combined with broad business and technical experience. Having worked with more than 200 entrepreneurs, he is considered an expert on growth strategies, financial/business modeling and fundraising.
Burak previously was a junior partner at Revo Capital, investing primarily in B2B SaaS businesses in Europe. Before joining Revo Capital, he was the COO of Sente in Chicago where he launched and ran start-up accelerator programs across the globe. Prior to Sente, Burak was a consultant at ZS Associates, a global marketing sales consulting firm, for 7 years. Burak began his career as a project manager at GM EMD. Burak also launched two start-ups: a home-services marketplace and a meal-kit delivery platform.
Burak earned a BS in Electrical Engineering at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and an MBA at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago.
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
https://www.edison-mfg.com/
Tracey Fletcher is Chief People Officer for Wallbank Industrial, which includes Edison as well as Edison's sister company, PJ Wallbank Springs. The discussion this week focuses on how to operationalize core values. Essentially, how to transform core values from an academic exercise into something that makes a meaningful impact on our people, our customers, and our business.
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
https://www.edison-mfg.com/
Brandon Bartneck is Vice President & General Manager of Edison. The episode this week focuses on the importance of crafting a production solution for the specific situation at hand. There are no "one size fits all" solutions when executing low volume, complex assemblies.
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
https://www.edison-mfg.com/
Nic England leads Supply Chain and Operations at Edison. The discussion this week focuses on the importance of effective warehouse management and capacity planning to assure that production builds can be executed on-time and with a high degree of reliability.
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
https://www.edison-mfg.com/
Gabriel is the Director of Innovation for Elemental Excelerator, a Hawaii-based climatetech accelerator founded in 2009. He leads the mobility and energy portfolio and is responsible for pipeline development, cohort management, policy guidance and support, and partnership development.
Gabriel joins this episode to explore topics including:
- How start-ups should think about manufacturing strategy
- What it takes for a contract manufacturer to be a great partner for a growing start-up
- Elemental Excelerator's work and why Gabriel is so excited about climate tech right now
Prior to his work at Elemental Excelerator, Gabriel was on the founding team of Lime, the leading dockless smart shared mobility company. As the first government relations hire for the company, he developed state and local go-to-market strategies for much of the United States and Canada. He helped grow the company from zero markets to more than 130 cities across more than 20 countries. He also served as Senior Director of Data Policy and Strategic Partnerships, responsible for leading the company’s approach to data policy/data sharing, managing and developing relationships with transit agencies and related industry organizations as well as third-party stakeholders, and coordinating and prioritizing GovTech initiatives with the product and engineering teams.
Before joining Lime Gabriel worked as Senior Strategist and frogVentures Partner at frog. Gabriel has founded numerous initiatives, some of which succeeded. Highlights include Seattle Greendrinks, a 4000+ member social network designed to connect and grow Seattle’s environmental community; Agent Green, a company focused on leveraging the power of the crowd to catalyze energy efficiency retrofits for small businesses; and Re-Vision Labs, a social innovation consultancy whose clients included government agencies and global non-profits and corporations.
About Elemental Excelerator:
Elemental Excelerator is a nonprofit investor focused on scaling climate solutions and social impact for all communities. Elemental fills two gaps fundamental to addressing climate change: funding first-of-a-kind projects for climate technologies in real communities, and embedding equity and access into climate solutions. Elemental has invested in over 150+ growth-stage companies and celebrated more than 25 exits, funded 115+ technology projects and built a platform for scaling equitable, market-driven solutions to climate change.
Apply here to be considered for their next round of funding opportunities:
https://elementalexcelerator.com/applicants/
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
https://www.edison-mfg.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/edison-manufacturing-and-engineering/
Chris Wallbank is CEO of Edison, as well as our sister company, PJ Wallbank Springs. Chris joins to discuss the genesis of Edison, our sister company, PJ Wallbank Springs, and the importance of impact for both organizations.
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
https://www.edison-mfg.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/edison-manufacturing-and-engineering/
Frank Webb is Director of Engineering at Edison, leading both engineering and program management functions. Frank joins this discussion to explore the challenges associated with meeting critical delivery timelines in a fluid build environment, who holds ultimate responsibility for delivery, and best practices for assuring that a program can follow the defined delivery schedule.
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
https://www.edison-mfg.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/edison-manufacturing-and-engineering/
Erik Gildemeister is Director of Finance for Wallbank Industrial, which includes Edison as well as our sister company, PJ Wallbank Springs. This episode talks about the financial impacts of a capital light approach to production, incorporating Erik's experience as a controller at a global automotive Tier 1 supplier, as well as what he has learned as Edison has provided value for our customers.
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
https://www.edison-mfg.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/edison-manufacturing-and-engineering/
Alex Mitchell is a Senior Advisor at LACI (Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator). In this episode, Alex talks about the historical use of contract manufacturing in the automotive space, how that is changing, and where he sees the greatest opportunities for contract manufacturing to provide value moving forward.
Before his current role, as SVP Alex led all of LACI's founder-facing work, including startup recruitment, startup programs, and the LACI Impact (venture capital) Fund and LACI Debt Fund. Alex joined LACI from Groupe PSA in Paris where he was VP of Corporate Strategy, co-leading the company’s acquisition of Opel from General Motors and leading the company’s work on autonomous mobility. He previously headed an automotive industry vertical at the World Economic Forum, with a focus on autonomous mobility. Alex has also served as the VP of retail sales at an LA-based EV startup Coda Automotive and worked at Toyota Europe and McKinsey.
He is the author of a bi-weekly newsletter called Su$tainable Mobility, which aims to separate the signal from the noise for making money in all things sustainable transportation.
You can subscribe here: https://alexmitchell.substack.com/
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
https://www.edison-mfg.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/edison-manufacturing-and-engineering/
Brandon Bartneck is Vice President and General Manager of Edison. This solo episode talks about the "why" behind Edison's approach to manufacturing, highlighting the importance of flexibility, quality, and capital preservation while ramping up from proof of concepts and engineering builds into low volume production.
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
https://www.edison-mfg.com/
Tracey Fletcher is Chief People Officer for Wallbank Industrial, which includes Edison as well as Edison's sister company, PJ Wallbank Springs. The discussion this week focuses on the importance of culture when building an organization to best serve our customers' needs and the foundational values on which Edison's culture has been built.
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
https://www.edison-mfg.com/
Nic England leads Supply Chain and Operations at Edison. The discussion this week focuses on the importance of supply chain management and operational execution for assuring a high-quality product, and what these functions should do to help maximize quality.
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
https://www.edison-mfg.com/
Frank Webb leads Engineering and Program Management at Edison. The discussion this week focuses on the importance of engineering and program management for assuring a high-quality product, and what these functions should do to help maximize quality.
About Edison:
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production.
https://www.edison-mfg.com/
Learn from the experts. Hear what it takes to thrive while executing low-volume, complex assembly operations.
Coming soon, the Edison team will share thoughts, experiences, and stories about how an organization can excel while building complex and obscure products in volumes that fall below industry standards.