East West Manufacturing Blog

Have you ever heard the phrase "driveway moments"? The term was coined by NPR to describe those stories you can't leave. You pull into the driveway, put the car in park and just sit there until the story is over — it's that compelling. 

A few stories that I read the past few weeks fall into that category. If I was listening to the radio and got...

Show of hands...Who likes waiting? Standing in line? Being put on hold?

No one.

Want a simple way to potentially save on production costs?

Take a look at your tolerances. 

Want to make a great product? Make a great tool! (If only it was that easy!)

Tooling is a crucial and expensive item on the manufacturing to-do list. Think about it this way: Each decision you make about the tool is a decision you’re making about your product. But how well do you understand the process of making a tool?

Let’s take a quick look at...

There are a host of decisions that need to be made when you're designing a new product. One of the first, and biggest, is the question of material selection. 

Can you guess the topic of the questions we’re most frequently asked?

Product development can be an arduous process, with more twists and turns than San Francisco's famed Lombard Street. 

Photo by David Yu

[Editor's note: This blog post originally ran in January 2017.]

You’re a company with an air- or water-moving product looking for a contract manufacturer (CM) to help take your design from prototype to market. There are plenty of companies out there willing to help you. But how do you sort through them? What differentiators should you look for?

Let’s say you’re a sourcing manager for a manufacturer. The company’s part/product is in production and things are going well. In fact, they’re going great! Things are going so great that you’re starting to get a little concerned. What happens if one of your machines goes down, you run out of a key material or some disaster — natural or man-made —...

Last year I upgraded my phone. It’s a beautiful phone – sleek, champagne colored. I love the feel of it. Unfortunately, I rarely see what the phone actually looks like because after purchase I immediately encased it in a hard plastic, optic yellow case with a turquoise blue rubber overlay.

I did that because I know me. I will drop the phone and...