Former president of Apple Steel Rule Die Co. Jim Ippolite provides an interesting perspective on a number of topics. As a producer of dies for cutting medical products, gaskets, foam, thermoforming and labels, Jim believes firmly that success comes from fast turnaround times and that good diemakers are not necessarily good business people. One of the first diemaking companies to use autobenders and lasers, Apple’s 8 current diemakers put out 2.5 times more work than the previous 33 diemakers. Fighting against the commoditization of dies and diemaking overcapacity, Apple has installed a boxmaking machine that will change their business and improve their speed. Finding quality employees is a universal problem, perhaps to be solved by still-to-be-perfected robots. Transcript available here.