Edited transcript:
There's something I like to call instant manufacturing, and it came up in a way that I had not imagined it would in this situation. It turns out that the needs of the public and of our customers have changed dramatically as we all change our lifestyles so rapidly. So this term, instant manufacturing, becomes more and more important than ever. So what does that mean? That means that you need something, you might need something brand new that you hadn't thought you'd need before and you need it now. You don't have time to develop it. You don't know where to manufacture it. You don't even know how to make a prototype, but you need it now and it's urgent. It's often a scary thing. It could be related to a virus challenge, a security challenge, or a cleanliness challenge that's very critical. The medical industry has it in spades right now.
Give you a little story. Some of the doctors that are in the Bay area often pull up short of resources. Sometimes it's masks, sometimes it's chemicals, sometimes it's equipment, sometimes it's a sterility challenge they've never had before and those show up at the time that you most need help and don't have it. So there's a lot of interesting emails usually through LinkedIn that fly around saying, "Hey, I don't have this. I need it, I need it now. I don't know where to go." So it turns out that a lot of those have landed with us and I try to push them to the best resource, but often it's something we have to create immediately. And we're actually doing that in three different cases right now. So I call it instant manufacturing and it's really instant prototype, mock up, try it kind of activity. So the way it usually happens is there's a new need that's urgent, driven by fear and often driven by the unknown. We get new knowledge every day on how things are evolving in this virus spreading situation.
The other thing that's really interesting, a lot of the stores and resources that we go to for equipment, support manufacturing, they're either closed or partially closed. I'll give you an example. We use tap plastics a lot for prototypes and we found out that tap plastics is now only open between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM and only for medically urgent cases. That is so different than the day before when it was open from 9:00 AM or 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM. So the rules change. So not only are the challenges instant and urgent, the resources are limited and specific. It creates for a dynamic and sometimes rather frustrating environment.
The key I think is finding near-term solutions with the people you know. So relationships become King in this situation. What I mean by that is, if you know someone who does medical regulatory support, you can call them very quickly because they're often stuck in their home and they can talk to you quickly. So understanding your resources, where they are and how available they are I think is a critical step in solving problems like we've seen lately. So I consider connections as a paramount solution for this situation.
I also like to leverage their support as well as provide them as much support as I can or we can as a business. And we're actually building prototypes for a number of medical applications that are very urgent. So we're instantly making things out of everyday materials that solve near-term problems might become long-term products with full official supply chain support. But today they just need to get the job done to save lives. So the need is for long-term products, but you can't get them instantly because there is no supply chain of significance. And you can't just set it up quickly because they're closed. So what do you do? You develop a quick, get it done prototype solution and maybe you make them by hand to get the solution down and save lives as quickly as you can if it's that urgent. So we have a number of projects in that category right now. It's rewarding and scary at the same time.
The other thing that I think is important, we use a couple of 3D printers in our business and we have a machine shop to make prototypes. We believe in quickly trying new ideas, and I call it failing fast, but it's also learning rapidly. So if you have an idea, instantly build it out of whatever materials you have and then try it and learn from it and then evolve. And the evolutionary process can happen extremely rapidly as long as you use your best communication skills and your best knowledge of what technology can offer with limited resources. So those are my favorite tips for what I call instant manufacturing. Now after the rush of this need disappears or diminishes, then you can go through a full effort in creating a product and a supply chain to support it. I hope this helps.
