Q1. Could you start by giving us a brief overview of your professional background, particularly focusing on your expertise in the industry?

I have been in the electronics industry for close to four decades, worked both in OEM and EMS space and played various roles in manufacturing. My main areas of expertise are NPA manufacturing, operations, and manufacturing engineering. 

I have spent close to two decades in mobile phone manufacturing, working on various brands, including Apple, iPhone, Xiaomi, Motorola, and Jio. I understand the complete mobile phone lifecycle and ecosystem well. 

Q2. Which site selection criteria balance cost vs. geopolitical risk—what diversified successfully, why, what single-location bets failed?

For appropriate site selection, one should consider the following points in the following order: priority goes to:
Logistics Proximity - All three points I put are the land, water, and connectivity. OK, basically it's the connectivity. 

• Favourable government policies
• Skilled labour availability 

These three criteria are very important for the site selection. So, instead of all three criteria, you go with only one. Let's say, for example, you choose only the favourable government policies and ignore the other two; there is a possibility that you may have issues either in terms of cost or in terms of time, so you'll end up in trouble. 

So that is why, you know, if you consider the current geopolitical situation, India is in a most favourable position in this regard. Coming next is Vietnam, followed by China. So, mainly because you know India plays a balanced role in the three areas mentioned.

Q3. Which cell-to-pack process frameworks consistently delivered 25%+ cost savings—what automation approaches scaled across high-volume production and why?

In high-volume production lines, it is crucial to produce consistently without errors. It's very important to keep product quality in mind, as any yield loss will heavily impact the bottom line. This is always hidden because the product's high-volume production is down, and it will be the error may not pop up clearly, which means the error will be hidden and will not be noticed very commonly. When creating an automation plan, it is imperative to include an FMEA at every step and maintain the control plan.

Q4. Which line bring-up protocols consistently reduced engineering build cycles by 30%+—what resource optimization techniques drove this acceleration, and why did they succeed, versus supply chain bottlenecks that repeatedly undermined velocity?

We do this line bring-up every time we start a new product. So based on that experience, I've given here. So, there are various steps in order, in line, bring up, mainly three.

Machine bring-up

For all the machines, whether new or old, we'll have to make them ready to work, run a dry run, and ensure all parameters are met as per spec.

Map the Process Flows

This means we know the process flow is in line and matches the cycle time to the sequences. 

Man Readiness

It is nothing but training them prior to bringing them to the line, which means they ought to clearly understand what they are supposed to do and make sure that they are trained well so that they don't make any mistakes and classify them under the categories like - skilled, semi-skilled, skilled, highly skilled,  so that we can put them in a right appropriate area.

If these three things are well taken care of, we can meet the engineering build criteria and, of course, reduce unnecessary engineering bills. So many times, engineering build repetition occurs when these three are not addressed, resulting in additional engineering bills.

Q5. Which supplier selection methods cut costs during production ramps—what made them successful, why, and what supplier issues caused delays?

Supply selection occurs when the prototype is made at that time. So when you're making the supply selection, it is very important to understand two major criteria. 

On time delivery

When our main line ramps up for the product, the vendor should have already ramped up and supplied the product ahead of time. Otherwise, we'll have problems like waiting for their supply, which comes in and out of time, and all those unwanted delays will happen. 

Quality of the product supplied

It is not only meeting the delivery schedule, but also the quality criteria. So when the product is supplied by the supplier, we should not have any quality issues. Otherwise, when we assemble the product and the component, and the product comes up, it can cause quality issues, which will have a major impact on our costs. 

Both these criteria are equally important for vendor selection, so that neither cost nor time will go out of control if we cannot manage both on-time delivery and quality.

Q7. If you were an investor looking at companies within the space, what critical question would you pose to their senior management?

What is the shortest possible time to get back my investment?