#032 - Why manufacturing in USA vs China is becoming interesting, with Scott N. Miller of Dragon Innovation, USA

The Hardware Entrepreneur

My guest has recently been Scott N. Miller, co-founder and CEO of Dragon Innovation, a company based in the US helping hardware companies.

Scott has a pretty remarkable career behind him so far with at least two decades of experience in hardware field, so many of you have probably heard from him.

A few companies they have worked with are e.g. Pebble which was the topic of episode 8 of this podcast or Bose, the audio equipment company. We’ll discuss manufacturing in China vs in USA regarding salaries, unit numbers to work with, and also the future of manufacturing in China, as well as why the current trends can be beneficial to manufacturing in the US. Scott will elaborate also on their latest soon-to-be released software tool, and their latest announcement of a joint effort with Kickstarter. We have many more topics to cover so enjoy this episode.

Raw transcript is available at: https://www.thehardwareentrepreneur.com

Show highlights can be seen below:

• Differentiating factors between U.S. and China manufacturing in terms of quantity, wages and vertical integration - [3:42]
• China as seen through the manufacturing triangle - [6:09]
• Scott’s journey of learning how manufacturing works - [8:05]
• What does Dragon Innovation do? - [8:58]
• “A fishing guide” to help customers grow their business - [10:58]
• Benefits of using Product Planner and how it’s different from Dragon Standard BOM - [13:00]
• Launching an initiative in partnership with Kickstarter - [17:43]
• Things you need to know and do before starting a Kickstarter campaign, as seen through the manufacturing triangle - [18:36]
• What is the future role of robots in manufacturing? - [22:25]
• The trends millennials are setting are good news for startups - [24:38]
• “That which does not kill us makes us stronger” - [27:12]
• If you could time travel and go back in time, what notes would you give yourself? – [31:24]
• Which book had the biggest impact on his career? – [31:57]
• Scott’s creative [morning] habits – [33:01]
• Observations he made while working and living abroad about cultures and people – [34:05]
• What is the best way to reach Scott? – [36:00]