Hardware Podcasts

S2 E9: Global Supply Chain Strategy with Ying Liu

The Builder Circle · 19 Mar 2024 · 1h 17m

What this episode covers

Ying Liu, CEO of BlueLake Packaging and former Apple supply chain leader, explains how to navigate outsourcing versus insourcing by evaluating company stage, product complexity, and team skills. She details the critical metrics for selecting global suppliers, including project management capability, willingness to handle engineering change requests, and quality culture, while warning against IP risks with turnkey vendors. Liu shares her experience scaling Apple’s China operations from zero to high volume, emphasizing that quality must be designed in from day one and that startups must budget for hardware iteration errors and leave runway for changes.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies and companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
BlueLake Packaging, Apple

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