57: Mashed in the Gears
Tom Gerhardt and Dan Provost of Studio Neat discuss the assembly of the Apollo Pin, noting that hiring part-time help from a family nanny alleviated a bottleneck where manual assembly was stifling new product development. They detail the iterative design revisions to the mechanism and PVD finishes, which improved consistency and reduced reject rates compared to the original Mark One. Myke Hurley updates listeners on the Theme Journal System, explaining the stress of managing inventory, unexpected sell-outs, and supply chain delays caused by the Lunar New Year and coronavirus, while highlighting the unique challenges of scaling paper product manufacturing.