In this episode of Mind over Machine, managing editor Mike Santora introduces a conversation with Sean Petterson, CEO and co-founder of Supersede. Santora outlines the format of the discussion, asking Peterson to share a best practice or a specific example from his career where he developed an outside-the-box solution that would not typically come from AI.
The conversation is framed around real-world engineering challenges and practical problem-solving. Petterson responds by describing his current work bringing a new material into markets that rely on high-speed manufacturing, particularly with OEM customers. He explains how tightly scheduled production cycles leave little room for delays, requiring careful coordination with research and development timelines. To address this, his team focuses on being present on production floors to observe workflows and identify opportunities to improve operations while staying aligned with existing processes.
He then details a recent project involving the installation of dense boards into a chassis, where precision and speed are critical during assembly. After finding that no existing tool met their needs, the team designed and produced a custom drill guide mechanism within a week using metal 3D printing and SolidWorks. Petterson emphasizes the combination of rapid prototyping capabilities and hands-on engineering work to create a solution that supports production demands.
Below is a transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.
Mike Santora: Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Mind Over machine, the show where we have smart people giving us smart advice that you won’t get from Ai. I’m Mike Santora, managing editor for design world, and this segment starts now. Today. I am with Sean Peterson, CEO and co founder of super seed. Sean, thanks for being with us.
Sean Peterson: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
Mike Santora: Okay, So Sean, like I mentioned a moment ago, similar format, a little shorter, one question, can you give us some best practices? Or maybe one example from your career where you had to come up with an outside of the box solution that was not necessarily something that that you would have gotten from Ai,
Sean Petterson
Sean Peterson: Yeah, I think, I think I could give you a dozen of those. I think I’m living one right now! So I think in the vein of us bringing a new material into a new market, when we’re doing work like this, when our end customers are OEMs, we are dealing with really high-paced manufacturing. And so for us, what we found is that being a drop in replacement is one thing, but when you’re moving through production schedules, the smallest thing is going to is going to put any project at risk, or at least at risk of slowing it down. And that’s because we can’t skip a day, because we’re slotting our R&D cycles with these with these customers, into their model year production cycles. And so we need to make sure that absolutely everything is covered.
So whether it be in boat manufacturing or an RV manufacturing, in both aspects, we have started with the platform of being on the ground and observing production. And so what we’ve found is that there’s been a number of opportunities for us to, basically, find a balance of improving operations without, you know, stepping on anyone’s toes in the production world and also delivering outsized value. We have a project right now, for example, where we have a you a trying to describe without revealing too much, but we have to basically screw these boards into a chassis. And so these boards are are very dense, which means that you need to, you know, make sure your fasteners going in straight if you’re doing this at really high pace.
And so we’re talking every second you’re running a drill in by hand. And so we were able to spin up inside of a week, a drill guide mechanism that is was not available on the market. We scoured every single major manufacturer of both fasteners and drills etc, that didn’t exist. And so we were able to spin something up for this design constraint within a weekend. And so the mixture of, you know, metal 3D printing, which has just gotten super fast and and super convenient, and, you know, just some good old engineering know how, not using AI, and actually clicking through SolidWorks to get a print done, has made a really cool product for us that we were able to spin up. The goal there is that we need to keep up with the pace of production and being able to have the right tools to then make tools, I think, is the exciting, exciting part about that.
Mike Santora: Very cool, wonderful answer. Sean Petterson, of Supersede everybody. Sean, thank you again. We appreciate your time and insights today. Of course, thank you to all of you for tuning into this video that is a wrap for this edition of Mind Over machine. For more episodes like this and other content like it, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter, Engineers Edge at Design World online.com/sign, up for design world email newsletter, a little on the nose, but it’ll get you to where you need to go again. Sean, thank you for being with us, and we will see you all next time!
