Why do so many manufacturers struggle to attract younger workers while companies with strong apprenticeship programs have candidates lining up?

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, Lisa Ryan sits down with Sarah Morgan, Toolmaking Apprentice at R&D Leverage (an Adler Company) and the 2026 Apprentice of the Year recognized by the Mold Technologies Division.

Sarah shares how a high school manufacturing tour changed the direction of her career, why apprenticeships are one of manufacturing's strongest recruiting tools, and what employers can do differently to attract, train, and retain the next generation of skilled trades professionals.

Whether you're a manufacturing executive, HR leader, plant manager, educator, or parent exploring career options, this conversation offers practical insights into workforce development, mentorship, and succession planning.

In This Episode You'll Learn* Why high school manufacturing tours influence career decisions * How apprenticeship programs help solve the skilled labor shortage * What Gen Z employees look for in manufacturing employers * Why visibility and outreach matter more than ever for recruiting * The importance of mentorship and knowledge transfer before experienced employees retire * How reverse mentoring strengthens relationships between experienced workers and younger employees * Why manufacturing careers offer multiple career paths without requiring a traditional four-year degree * How tuition reimbursement and continuous learning improve employee retention * Ways manufacturers can partner with local schools to build future talent pipelines

Key Topics Discussed* Manufacturing apprenticeships * Workforce development * Skilled trades careers * Toolmaking * Plastic injection mold manufacturing * Manufacturing career pathways * Employee development * Succession planning * Knowledge transfer * Reverse mentoring * High school career exploration * Manufacturing education * Recruiting younger workers * Gen Z workforce * Manufacturing leadership * Employee retention * Manufacturing workforce shortages

Memorable Quotes

"We'll teach you if you don't know."

"Recognition doesn't have to be a big thing. People notice when you care."

"There are so many different jobs in manufacturing. You can find your niche."

"I'm learning something new every day."

Why This Conversation MattersManufacturing companies across North America are facing an aging workforce, increasing retirements, and a growing shortage of skilled workers. Sarah's story demonstrates that attracting younger talent isn't simply about higher wages or better technology. It's about visibility, mentorship, career pathways, and creating opportunities for people who may never have considered manufacturing.

Her experience also highlights the importance of structured apprenticeship programs, partnerships with schools, and transferring critical institutional knowledge before experienced employees retire.

About Sarah MorganSarah Morgan is a Toolmaking Apprentice at R&D Leverage, an Adler Company, and the recipient of the 2026 Apprentice of the Year Award from the Mold Technologies Division. She is currently completing her Toolmaking degree while working full-time and serves on her local ITEC advisory board, helping strengthen partnerships between manufacturers and schools.

ConnectLearn more about R&D Leverage:

https://www.rdleverage.com

Connect with Lisa Ryan:

https://www.LisaRyanSpeaks.com

Learn more about Smart Plant: Aligning AI, Automation, and People

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2FVPZZ5

Listen to more episodes of The Manufacturers Network Podcast:

https://www.manufacturers-network.com/

Recommended For* Manufacturing CEOs * Plant Managers * HR Professionals * Operations Leaders * Manufacturing Executives * Workforce Development Professionals * Technical Education Leaders * Career and Technical Education (CTE) Instructors * Apprenticeship Coordinators * Manufacturing Association Leaders * Students exploring manufacturing careers * Parents and educators

View Details

AI pilots look great in a controlled environment. Then they hit the real shop floor and quietly fall apart. In this episode, Lisa Ryan talks with Russell Halper, founder and managing director of Insight Kitchen, about why so many manufacturing AI initiatives stall after deployment and what leaders can do differently before they ever write the first prompt.

Russell's path here is unusual. He started a PhD in mathematics under a founder of chaos theory, moved into operations research (one of the earliest forms of data science), worked at UPS, then went in-house as an internal consultant for a major consumer goods manufacturer. From there, he spent eight years at a boutique Palo Alto consulting firm, helped grow it from 16 to 100 people, saw it acquired by a large global consultancy, and ran its West Coast Generative AI practice. Two years ago, he left to found Insight Kitchen, a boutique data science and AI consultancy focused on operational AI in manufacturing and supply chain.

Key Takeaways for Manufacturing LeadersA pilot is not a proof point; it is a rehearsal for scale. Most organizations design pilots to prove AI works in a controlled setting. Russell argues the real work is designing the pilot to surface the change management, data, and complexity issues that will show up at full scale, before you ever roll it out plant-wide.

A 95 percent solution can be a catastrophic failure. In operational environments, the last few percentage points of accuracy often carry the most real-world risk. Before adopting an AI tool, define what "good enough" actually means for that specific decision, because the threshold changes by use case.

Watch for compounding error, not just error rate. If an AI model is 99 percent as good as your best people but making decisions much faster, small errors can compound quickly. Ask whether faster, slightly less accurate decisions are actually creating value or just creating a bigger mess sooner.

Usage is your earliest warning sign. If the people on the floor are not acting on the AI's recommendations, you already have your answer. A model nobody trusts is not a decision-making tool, no matter how sophisticated it is.

Your senior operators know things your data never captured. A 40-year machine operator who says "something's off with this machine" is picking up on signals that never made it into a sensor feed. When leadership overrides that instinct because "the dashboard is green," they lose the tribal knowledge as retiring workers walk out the door.

"Clean data first" can be a stall tactic. Russell has seen organizations spend endless cycles perfecting data before doing anything with it. His advice: work the actual business problem and pull the data along with you. You will often learn more about your data by using it than by polishing it in isolation.

Start with the business problem, not the technology. The mechanics of building a financial case for an AI project look almost identical to the case for any other software investment. Start with the outcome you want (efficiency, reduced reject rate, faster throughput) and work backward to whether AI is the right tool, not the other way around.

Mid-market manufacturers may have a real speed advantage right now. Fewer legacy systems, more focused operations, and lower internal liability friction mean mid-sized manufacturers can often move faster on AI adoption than large enterprises, which are weighed down by legacy tech and internal politics.

As AI gets better, ask whether your business is getting better with it. Russell's framework: track whether your organization's capability is compounding alongside the technology, or whether you are just layering new tools onto the same old process.

Discussion Questions for Your Leadership Team* Where are we chasing a "bright, shiny" AI tool instead of a defined business outcome? * What does our frontline team know that never makes it into our systems, and how are we capturing it before they retire? * If usage of a tool dropped to zero tomorrow, would we notice, and would it matter?

About Russell HalperRussell Halper is the founder and managing director of Insight Kitchen, a boutique data science and AI consultancy that embeds AI directly into the processes that run supply chain, manufacturing, and revenue management operations. He holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics and brings over 20 years of experience at the intersection of applied mathematics, operations research, and AI, having advised startups, private equity-backed SaaS companies, and Fortune 500 organizations across retail, consumer goods, manufacturing, high-tech, and logistics. Before founding Insight Kitchen, Russell was a partner at End-to-End Analytics (acquired by Accenture) and later led Accenture's West Coast Generative AI practice as Managing Director.

Connect with Russell:

Insight Kitchen: insightkitchen.ai
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/russellhalper

About the HostLisa Ryan, CSP, MBA, is the founder of Grategy® and Chief Appreciation Strategist. She hosts the Manufacturers Network Podcast and speaks to manufacturing, industrial, skilled trades, and healthcare audiences on employee retention, workplace culture, and the human side of AI and automation. Her newest book, Smart Plant: Aligning AI, Automation, and People, explores how manufacturers can adopt AI without losing the judgment and tribal knowledge their people bring to the floor.

Book Lisa Ryan for your next event, conference, or leadership training on AI, culture, and workforce retention:

Website: LisaRyanSpeaks.com
Email: lisa@grategy.com

Connect and Subscribe Listen to more episodes of the Manufacturers Network Podcast * Learn more about Grategy at LisaRyanSpeaks.com * Get Smart Plant: Aligning AI, Automation, and People*: amazon.com/dp/B0GZMFBVZ2

View Details

Lisa Ryan sits down with Michelle Kozin, an organizational strategist who uses behavioral science to help manufacturers connect people strategy with business strategy. Michelle's background in change management started with large-scale ERP implementations, where she learned that the technology was never the hard part. The people were.

In this conversation, Michelle and Lisa unpack why the same recognition can motivate one employee and completely miss the mark with another, why pay is rarely the real reason a skilled tradesperson walks out the door, and why role clarity might matter more than personality type when it comes to unlocking performance. They also look ahead to a shift already underway on plant floors: leaders who will soon manage AI agents alongside human teams, and what that means for trust, communication, and job design.

What You'll Learn* Why change triggers fear of loss, not fear of change itself, and what that means for how leaders communicate * The difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivators, and why money is rarely the true reason someone starts job hunting * How to recognize employees according to how they're wired, not how you'd want to be recognized yourself * Why treating everyone "the same" often reads as unfair, and what real fairness looks like instead * The difference between behavioral assessments and job assessments, and why role clarity solves more retention problems than personality typing does * How AI and automation are reshaping job expectations the same way ERP implementations did two decades ago * One question every plant manager can ask before their next one-on-one to build more trust this week

Key QuotesMichelle Kozin on why people resist change: people aren't afraid of change itself, they're afraid of what they might lose, whether that's control, influence, or relationships.

Michelle on recognition: a gift lands based on the person opening it, not the person giving it, and that means leaders need to know how each team member is wired before deciding how to show appreciation.

Michelle on fairness: real fairness means matching your approach to the person in front of you, using the same standard of communication but a different path to get there.

Lisa Ryan on AI and human judgment: machines will be right the vast majority of the time, but the small percentage where human judgment matters is exactly where tribal knowledge and critical thinking need to be protected and passed down.

Actionable Takeaways for Plant and Operations Leaders1. Before your next one-on-one, ask yourself one question. How does this person want to be led, similarly to you or differently? Let the answer shape how you open the conversation. 2. Audit your recognition approach by employee, not by policy. Some people want public praise. Others want a quiet handshake and a private word. Find out before you plan the next round of engineering week gifts or service awards. 3. Separate role clarity from personality typing. Before investing in another behavioral assessment, make sure every person on your team can answer this: what does success in my role actually look like right now? 4. Over-communicate during any transformation, especially the uncomfortable parts. Sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly builds more trust than protecting people from bad news ever will. 5. Get ahead of AI-driven job redesign the way you'd handle any major system change. As AI takes on more tasks, job descriptions and expectations will shift. Name that shift out loud instead of letting people guess at what their role now requires. 6. Watch for the quiet quitters. Most people disengage long before they resign. Treat consistent, values-aligned recognition as a retention tool, not an afterthought.

About Michelle KozinMichelle Kozin is an organizational strategist who helps companies and leaders connect people strategy with business strategy using behavioral science. She has spent 20 years using the Predictive Index methodology to help organizations improve hiring, define roles, and unlock performance through better leadership. Her work centers on how trust and connection form under pressure, particularly during periods of organizational change like digital transformation, technology implementation, and now the rise of AI in the workplace.

Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn or visit predictiveadvisors.com.

About the HostLisa Ryan, CSP, MBA, is the founder of Grategy® and host of the Manufacturers Network Podcast. She works with manufacturing, industrial, and skilled trades organizations on employee retention, workplace culture, and the human side of AI and automation. Her newest book, Smart Plant: Aligning AI, Automation, and People, is available now on Amazon.

Connect Explore more episodes of the Manufacturers Network Podcast * Learn more about Grategy at LisaRyanSpeaks.com * Get Smart Plant: Aligning AI, Automation, and People*: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GZMFBVZ2

View Details

Brian Kaufman is co-founder and chief product officer at Strudel, an AI startup that gives technical support teams real-time context when issues hit and detects error patterns before they become customer-facing problems. His background is in software product development and healthcare technology, but the problems he solves map directly onto what manufacturing companies face every day: institutional knowledge that lives in people's heads instead of in systems, and support teams solving the same problems over and over from scratch.

Brian and Lisa dig into what it actually costs when undocumented knowledge walks out the door, how AI can serve as a partner to experienced technicians without replacing their judgment, and what a realistic starting point looks like for manufacturers considering AI-assisted support.

Key Takeaways for Manufacturing Leaders

The information exists. It just isn't findable. Most organizations aren't starting from zero. The knowledge is in old tickets, emails, PDFs, and people's heads. The first step is figuring out where it lives, not waiting until it's gone to wish you'd captured it.

Start before someone gives notice. The best time to document institutional knowledge is before retirement is on the horizon. If the person with 30 years of experience is leaving in two months, you're already behind. Build the habit now.

Ask the question nobody's asked. One of the most powerful knowledge-capture prompts: "What do you know that nobody's ever asked you about?" Experienced technicians have built sensory libraries over decades, knowing what a machine sounds like, feels like, and smells like when something's about to go wrong. That knowledge doesn't survive a standard exit interview.

AI should be an investigator, not an oracle. Strudel presents troubleshooting suggestions as hypotheses grounded in real historic tickets, not confident declarations. When a technician is standing at a machine, that distinction matters. Build trust by showing your work, not by pretending to be certain.

Machine context cuts investigation time dramatically. Knowing the model, firmware version, and configuration immediately narrows the problem space. A known defect affecting machines shipped between two specific dates becomes a one-step fix rather than a multi-hour troubleshooting process.

Don't use LLMs for everything. Strudel uses traditional statistical analysis and machine learning for the heavy lifting, reserving large language models for last-mile summarization. The result is fewer hallucinations and answers that are easier to monitor and evaluate for quality.

Your most skeptical expert is your most important early win. Find the team member with deep expertise who doubts new tools and figure out what task they hate doing most. Solve that one problem well, and you've turned your biggest skeptic into your biggest advocate.

Start small, find wins, then expand. Don't try to solve everything at once. Pick one product line, one process, one team. Get good at that before scaling. Build in an early checkpoint to evaluate and adjust.

Involve your people before you buy anything. Coming back from a trade show with a shiny new system your team had no input on is a reliable way to end up with a system nobody uses. Ask what's causing the most pain. Start there.

Working top of license matters on the shop floor too. When your most experienced technician is answering the same question for the fifth time, that's a waste. Free those people up for novel problems, mentoring, and process improvement.

About Strudel

Strudel embeds directly into existing support ticketing systems and generates troubleshooting steps within 15 to 20 seconds of a ticket coming in, drawing on historical tickets and documentation specific to the machine, software version, and configuration in question. As more tickets are resolved, that knowledge becomes part of the system, making new staff onboarding faster and institutional knowledge more durable.

Connect with Brian Kaufman

Email: brian@strudel.io Website: www.strudel.io

The Manufacturers Network Podcast features long-form conversations with leaders, practitioners, and experts across manufacturing, the skilled trades, and industrial sectors. Host Lisa Ryan, CSP, MBA, is a keynote speaker, author of 13 books, and founder of Grategy.

View Details

Samantha Kaye Harris spent 27+ years in structural maintenance leadership at JFK Airport, managing teams of 100+ people in one of the most male-dominated environments in the trades. She started as a general maintainer, learned paving, roofing, sheet rock, and concrete work from the ground up, and earned her way into leadership one job at a time.

Today she helps women in manufacturing, the trades, and industrial environments own their voice, stay in the room, and get paid for the value they bring.

Lisa and Samantha dig into what it actually costs when women go silent on the shop floor, why psychological safety and physical safety are directly connected, and what plant managers and operations leaders can do right now to change the dynamic on their teams.

Key Takeaways for Manufacturing Leaders

Retention starts with safety, not perks. Women don't leave because the pay is bad. They leave because they don't feel safe speaking up, asking for what they need, or being heard without having their competence questioned. Fix the environment before you worry about the benefits package.

The fear cycle is a real retention risk. Samantha describes a predictable pattern: a woman arrives, over-performs to prove herself, gets worn down by constant testing and second-guessing, goes silent, starts hiding, and eventually leaves. Recognizing where someone is in that cycle is the first step to stopping it.

"Are you sure?" is a red flag phrase. Asking a leader whether she's sure, or checking her answer with another supervisor, sends a clear message about whose judgment is trusted. Leaders need to monitor this in their own behavior and in their teams.

PPE that doesn't fit is a safety and morale issue. One-size-fits-all gear made for male bodies signals that women weren't considered when the workplace was designed. Getting the right fit is a practical step that communicates respect.

Psychological safety connects directly to physical safety. When a woman is spending mental energy calculating how to avoid being dismissed, she's not focused on the work. In an environment with heavy equipment and real hazards, that's not just a morale problem.

Don't send the complaint back to the floor. When a woman raises a concern and leadership takes it straight back to the crew, her colleagues often figure out exactly who said what. That's when isolation and retaliation start. Handle issues with confidentiality and intention.

One woman in a safety or HR-adjacent role changes things. Having someone on staff who has actually done the work, who gets the environment, gives women a place to raise issues without fear of being laughed off or ignored.

Community is a retention strategy. Women's groups, networking events, and peer connections within associations are growing fast because they work. If your industry association doesn't have a women's group, it's worth asking why not.

Training boxes don't change behavior. Computer-based compliance training may satisfy HR requirements, but it doesn't change what happens on the shop floor. Real culture change takes conversation, modeling, and accountability.

When women stop hiding, companies win. Samantha is direct about this: when a woman feels safe enough to fully show up, use her voice, and go after advancement, productivity goes up, teams communicate better, and the company starts attracting more skilled talent. The ROI is real.

Samantha's Truth Methodology

Samantha works with women one-on-one and through 30-day intensives to help them understand the internal patterns holding them back, learn where those patterns came from, and build the self-trust to use their voice, ask for what they want, and step fully into their power.

Connect with Samantha Kaye Harris

Email: info@samanthakayeharris.com (Note: Kaye is spelled K-A-Y-E)

The Manufacturers Network Podcast features long-form conversations with leaders, practitioners, and experts across manufacturing, the skilled trades, and industrial sectors. Host Lisa Ryan, CSP, MBA is a keynote speaker, author of 13 books, and founder of Grategy.

View Details

If your sales team keeps losing deals on price, the problem might not be your pricing. It might be your story. Lauren Kwedar Cockerell, founder and president of Kwedar & Co., a strategic communications firm based in Fort Worth, joins Lisa to talk about why so many manufacturers struggle to articulate what makes them genuinely different, and what to do about it.

Lauren has spent 23 years in public relations working with B2B companies, with deep roots in manufacturing and industrial sectors. Her firm helps companies excavate what's already there, that unique thread hiding in plain sight, and turn it into messaging that resonates with customers, prospects, and the talent they're trying to attract.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Why "our people" and "our quality" aren't differentiators. Every competitor is saying the same thing. Lauren explains why surface-level answers won't cut it and how to dig multiple levels deeper to find what's actually distinctive about your operation.

The "yeah, duh" trap. The things your team dismisses as obvious are often the most compelling to your buyers. The challenge is that it's hard to read the label from inside the bottle.

The Thread: Lauren's four-stage methodology

Excavate. Deep discovery through conversations, competitive review, and a close look at everything you've built
Surface. Finding that through line, the offhand comment you almost threw away that turns out to be the whole thing
Articulate. Translating the story into language that resonates across every channel and audience
Activate. Putting it out into the world on your website, in media, in sales conversations, and in internal communications

Where AI fits and where it falls short. AI can help you iterate content once you have a strong narrative, but it cannot create one for you. Without a distinctive source document, you are just replicating what already exists and creating volume no one is listening to.

The new visibility equation. Trade journals, podcasts, and consistent digital content are not just good marketing. They are signals that AI-powered search uses to determine relevancy and authority. If your messaging is inconsistent or generic, the LLMs cannot distinguish you from a competitor either.

Signs your messaging problem is costing you real money. You are losing deals on price alone, your salespeople are delivering inconsistent pitches, you are attracting candidates who do not fit, and the marketing firms you have hired just cannot seem to nail it.

The first thing to do this week. Pull up your website headline, take away your logo, and ask: could this apply to any other industry? If the answer is yes, you have work to do.

Connect with Lauren

Website: KwedarCo.com LinkedIn: Lauren Kwedar Cockerell

The Manufacturers Network Podcast is hosted by Lisa Ryan, CSP, founder of Grategy and Chief Appreciation Strategist. Lisa helps manufacturing and industrial organizations build cultures where people want to stay.

View Details

In this episode of the Manufacturers Network Podcast, Lisa Ryan sits down with JC Carr, Territory Account Manager at World Emblem and founder of Whips Miami, to talk about the future of manufacturing leadership, supply chain resilience, automation, and workforce culture.

JC shares his unconventional path from launching an exotic car brokerage during COVID to becoming a rising voice in manufacturing with a growing social media following focused on the human side of industry.

The conversation explores what manufacturing leaders are getting right and wrong about automation, digital transformation, workforce engagement, and operational growth. JC also shares lessons learned from working inside large-scale supply chain environments, including Amazon, and why community involvement, leadership accountability, and employee connection still matter in highly automated operations.

If you’re a manufacturing executive, plant manager, HR leader, or operations professional trying to balance technology with people, this episode offers practical insight grounded in real-world experience.

In This Episode:* How JC Carr built a business during COVID selling exotic car lease deals * What manufacturing can learn from Amazon’s supply chain systems * Why automation should eliminate frustration, not human value * The difference between digital transformation and culture transformation * How manufacturing leaders can improve workforce retention and engagement * Why simple tools often outperform expensive technology investments * What manufacturers should consider during mergers, acquisitions, and consolidation * The hidden risks of fragmented supply chains * How community involvement strengthens leadership and workforce loyalty * Why younger workers want purpose, connection, and impact from employers

About JC CarrJC Carr is a Territory Account Manager at World Emblem, one of North America’s largest emblem and embroidery manufacturers. Having worked across nearly every department in the company, he brings a full-spectrum understanding of manufacturing operations and customer experience.

He is also the founder of Whips Miami, an exotic car brokerage launched during college, and has built a social media following of more than 120,000 people by highlighting the human side of manufacturing, leadership, and modern industry.

Connect with JC CarrLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jc-carr/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jc.carr/

Company: https://www.worldemblem.com/

Key TakeawayTechnology can improve efficiency. But manufacturing still runs on people.

The companies that win long-term will be the ones that use automation to support human judgment, strengthen culture, and create workplaces where employees feel valued and connected.

View Details

Leadership development is not about creating people who can follow instructions.

It’s about creating people who can think.

In this episode of the Manufacturers Network Podcast, Lisa Ryan talks with Scott Burgmeyer about leadership growth, succession planning, emotional intelligence, and why so many organizations struggle to develop future leaders before it’s too late.

With more than 30 years of experience in manufacturing, operations, consulting, and organizational development, Scott shares practical lessons from working with companies ranging from small manufacturers to organizations like Google, Procter & Gamble, and Bridgestone.

The conversation explores:

Why leaders struggle to let go and delegate
How to transfer knowledge before experienced employees retire
The difference between managing people and developing leaders
Why employees need permission to think and make decisions
The hidden cost of constantly answering every question yourself
How emotional intelligence impacts operational performance
Why strategic plans fail after the meeting ends
The danger of confusing activity with results
Succession planning mistakes that create tension and chaos
How personal growth directly affects company culture and retention

Scott also explains why leadership teams must stop focusing only on technical performance and start investing in the growth of people at every level of the organization.

One of the biggest takeaways from this episode:

Organizations rarely outperform the growth level of their leaders.

Actionable Ideas from This Episode* Ask more questions instead of immediately giving answers * Create low-risk opportunities for employees to make decisions * Focus on outcomes, not just activity * Build leadership systems that continue beyond one generation * Evaluate whether your strategic plan is actually moving key metrics * Develop future leaders before you urgently need them * Make professional and personal growth part of your leadership expectations * Use feedback early instead of waiting until problems grow

Scott’s “Growth Questions”When trying something new, ask:

What worked?
What didn’t work?
What do I need to do differently?

Connect with Scott BurgmeyerWebsite: Become More Group

LinkedIn: Scott Burgmeyer on LinkedIn

Connect with Lisa RyanWebsite: Lisa Ryan, CSP / Grategy

If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a manufacturing leader, operations executive, HR professional, or business owner working to strengthen culture, retention, and leadership development inside their organization.

View Details

Manufacturing companies don’t usually fail because of bad products. They fail because growth exposes leadership gaps nobody wanted to deal with.

In this episode of the Manufacturers Network Podcast, Lisa Ryan talks with leadership advisor and Trajectify founder Mike Krupit about what really happens when organizations grow faster than their people, systems, and communication.

Mike shares lessons from decades in Silicon Valley startups and explains why retention problems are often clarity problems, leadership problems, and culture problems disguised as “people issues.”

The conversation covers:

Why companies outgrow key employees and founders
How poor communication quietly destroys trust
The difference between employees who “get it, want it, and are capable”
Why psychological safety matters on the shop floor
What leaders miss when they blame workers for disengagement
How to manage up when leadership refuses to change
Why “this is how we’ve always done it” is dangerous in manufacturing
The connection between AI, workforce change, and leadership adaptability
Practical ways manufacturers can rethink scheduling, culture, and retention

One of the biggest takeaways from this episode:

You cannot build a future-ready company with leadership habits designed for the past.

Mike also shares actionable ideas leaders can use immediately to evaluate whether they truly have the right people in the right seats before growth turns into chaos.

Actionable Questions from This Episode* What assumptions are we making that may no longer be true? * Are we measuring outputs clearly enough for people to succeed? * Do employees feel safe trying new ideas or making mistakes? * Are leaders communicating enough, especially across shifts and teams? * Is the organization growing faster than the people leading it? * What is one thing leadership could change tomorrow?

Connect with Mike KrupitLinkedIn: Mike Krupit on LinkedIn

Website: Trajectify

Connect with Lisa RyanWebsite: Grategy / Lisa Ryan, CSP

If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a manufacturing leader, HR professional, or operations executive who’s trying to build a stronger workplace culture while navigating growth and change.

View Details

E-commerce looks easy… right up until it isn’t. More orders. More customers. More growth. And then everything starts to crack.

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, I sit down with Ethan Giffin to talk about what really happens when e-commerce businesses try to scale. Not the highlight reel. The operational reality behind it.

We get into fulfillment pressure, inventory accuracy, customer expectations, and why so many companies focus on growth before they’ve built the foundation to support it.

Because here’s the truth…You don’t rise to the level of your marketing. You fall to the level of your operations.

What You’ll Learn* Why scaling e-commerce creates operational challenges most teams underestimate * The pressure fulfillment puts on systems, people, and decision-making * Where inventory accuracy becomes a make-or-break issue * How customer expectations are reshaping operations * Why growth exposes weaknesses instead of fixing them * The role your team plays when systems fall short * What leaders need to get right before pushing for scale

The ConversationEthan Giffin brings a practical lens to e-commerce. No hype. Just how things actually work when volume increases.

What stood out in this conversation is how quickly things get complicated.

At low volume, you can get away with inefficiencies.

At scale, those same issues turn into daily problems.

Orders increase.

Returns increase.

Customer expectations tighten.

And suddenly, your operation isn’t just fulfilling orders… it’s reacting all day long.

Even with automation in place, the reality doesn’t change. When something breaks, it’s your people stepping in to fix it.

That’s where a lot of companies get surprised.

They invest in systems… but forget to build the operational discipline behind them.

Key TakeawaysE-commerce is an operations business

Marketing brings the orders in. Operations decides whether customers come back.

Speed raises the stakes

The faster you promise delivery, the less room you have for error.

Inventory accuracy drives everything

If your numbers are off, every decision downstream gets harder.

Growth magnifies what’s already broken

What works at 100 orders a day rarely works at 1,000.

People are still the safety net

When systems fail, your team is the one holding it together.

Moments Worth Replaying* The realities of fulfillment as order volume increases * Where inventory issues start and how they impact everything else * The pressure created by faster delivery expectations * How small operational gaps turn into major customer problems

About Ethan GiffinEthan Giffin works in the e-commerce space, focused on helping businesses navigate the operational side of growth, from fulfillment to inventory management to scaling systems that actually hold up under pressure.

He brings a straightforward, practical perspective to challenges that are easy to underestimate and hard to fix once they show up.

Final ThoughtSelling online is the easy part.

Delivering on that promise… consistently… under pressure… is where most companies struggle.

And when things go wrong, they don’t get fixed by software.

They get fixed by people.

Gratitude is a strategy.

View Details

Here’s what nobody says out loud. You can automate a facility, install the dashboards, optimize the flow… and still lose the people who make it all work.

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, I sit down with Rylan Pyciak to talk about what’s really happening inside modern supply chains. Not the polished version. The real one.

We get into the tension between automation and human judgment, why most leaders are spending money in the wrong places, and how culture quietly becomes the difference between a system that scales and one that stalls.

Because the truth is simple. If your people don’t feel ownership, your systems don’t matter.

What You’ll Learn* Why “fully automated” operations still depend heavily on people * The difference between scale, speed, and true orchestration * How to build accountability into your operation without micromanaging * Where most manufacturers waste money on technology * Why culture is the #1 failure point in M&A activity * How community involvement impacts retention more than most leaders realize * What leaders miss when trying to modernize legacy industries

The ConversationRylan’s background spans everything from large-scale fulfillment environments to third-party logistics and fragmented legacy industries. That perspective shows up fast.

He breaks down what it actually takes to scale operations without losing control. And more importantly, without losing your people.

One thing that stood out right away… Even in highly automated environments, you’re still managing thousands of employees across multiple shifts. That creates a different challenge. Not just operations. Consistency, communication, and culture across a 24/7 workforce.

And that’s where most leaders underestimate the work.

Key TakeawaysAccountability beats intelligence

You don’t need a room full of geniuses. You need a team that owns results, learns from mistakes, and adjusts quickly.

Start simple before you get fancy

Some of the best operational insights still come from a whiteboard on the floor. Not a screen. Not a dashboard. Just people talking about what broke and why.

Automation should remove frustration

If you want buy-in, start with the work people hate doing. That’s where automation earns trust.

Culture is not optional in M&A

Too many leaders treat people integration like a detail. It’s not. It’s the difference between success and failure.

Top-down vision. Bottom-up execution

Leaders define where you’re going. The people closest to the work figure out how to get there. Skip that and everything slows down.

Community drives retention

When companies invest outside their walls, employees feel it. And they stay longer because of it.

Moments Worth Replaying* The reality behind large-scale automated facilities and workforce demands * Why expensive tech often replaces simple, effective communication tools * The mindset shift from “spend money” to “solve the right problem” * What actually happens after an acquisition when culture is ignored

About Rylan PyciakRylan Pyciak is a supply chain and operations leader focused on building scalable, resilient systems across complex environments. His work spans automation, logistics networks, and integrating fragmented industries into high-performing operations.

He brings a practical, no-nonsense approach to solving problems most leaders overcomplicate.

Final ThoughtYou can build the smartest system in the world.

But if you’ve designed it without your people in mind, it’s fragile. You just don’t see it yet.

Gratitude is a strategy.

And in a world that’s moving faster every day, it might be the one thing that keeps your people grounded enough to stay.

View Details

Lisa Ryan welcomes Paul Sippil, forensic 401K consultant and self-described 401K vigilante. Over 17 years, Paul has analyzed thousands of public retirement plan filings and documented more than 1,300 cases of apparent excessive fees. His central argument is simple and uncomfortable: most American employers, including manufacturers, have never seen the true cost of their 401K plan, and the structure of the industry is specifically designed to keep it that way.

From Recovering CPA to 401K Vigilante

Paul describes himself as a recovering CPA who knew from his very first day as an auditor that the path wasn't right for him. His career shifted into financial advising focused on estate and succession planning for business owners until a conversation with a colleague revealed that retirement plan tax forms were publicly available online. That discovery changed everything.

When Paul began calling business owners to alert them to the fees he was seeing in their own public filings, he expected to be a hero. Instead, he got a response that told him everything he needed to know about the industry: I'm not paying anything and my friend handles that. The disconnect between what employers believed and reality was so profound that Paul realized he could build an entire career consulting in just this one area and he did.

The Invisible Fee Problem

The reason most employers have no idea what their 401K plan actually costs is simple: there is no invoice. Fees don't arrive as a bill. They flow silently through the structure of the plan itself: embedded in mutual fund management fees, deducted directly from participant accounts, or buried in arrangements between advisors and record keepers that employers never see or negotiate.

The major fee categories Paul walks through include:

Mutual fund fees: unavoidable, but can be minimized by choosing index or passively managed funds
Record-keeping and administration fees: charged by providers like Principal, Voya, Fidelity, John Hancock, Paychex, and ADP, often as a percentage of total plan assets
Financial advisory fees: either embedded as broker commissions within fund costs, or charged as a separate percentage of assets by registered investment advisors
Custodial fees: charged by institutions like Charles Schwab that hold the assets

The compounding problem: because fees are typically percentage-based, they grow automatically as the plan grows — with no increase in services provided.

The Case That Says It All

Paul shares a story that captures everything wrong with this industry in one example. A company with just three employees paid out over $49,000 in broker commissions between 2019 and 2024, to an advisor they didn't even know they had. When the HR director called to find out who the broker was, a quick Google search revealed the broker had been dead since 2014.

When Paul raised this publicly, an industry administrator pushed back saying "everybody's gotta get paid." Paul's response: you first have to be living. The story isn't just an anomaly, it's a window into an industry structurally incentivized for advisors to do nothing, stay invisible, and hope clients never think to ask questions.

What Manufacturers Are Leaving on the Table

The financial stakes for manufacturers are significant, particularly for business owners who often hold the largest account balances within their own plans. Paul walks through several practical opportunities most plan sponsors don't know they have:

Negotiate record-keeping fees. Simply asking, no financial sophistication required, can reduce percentage-based fees that providers don't automatically lower as plan assets grow. On a $3 million plan, reducing the fee by 0.1% saves $3,000 every year, permanently.
Negotiate or eliminate advisory fees. In many cases, advisors aren't performing active management; they're waiting for participant phone calls. Participants direct their own investments from a list of fund choices. The advisor isn't making buy-sell decisions for anyone.
Demand dollar-denominated answers. Fee disclosures required since 2012 exist, but they're often expressed as percentages, buried in documents few people know to look for, and disconnected from any real-time cost experience. Asking "how much have you made off our plan in actual dollars, for each of the last three years?" is a question every plan sponsor should ask every provider.
Consider paying fees at the employer level. Employers can choose to pay plan fees directly rather than passing them to participants. The benefit: employer-paid fees are tax-deductible business expenses, and the business owner, who typically holds the largest share of the plan balance, stops paying non-deductible fees out of a tax-advantaged account.

The Department of Labor has published research showing that an extra 1% in annual fees costs a 35-year-old participant with a $25,000 balance approximately $64,000 over 30 years; roughly 28% of their ending balance. For participants with larger balances, the damage is proportionally greater.

Why the Industry Doesn't Change on Its Own

Paul draws a sharp distinction between price transparency - being able to see fees - and price literacy, having enough context to know whether what you're seeing is reasonable. Even when fees are disclosed, there's no easy way to comparison-shop the way you would for a car or a cell phone. Providers don't make their pricing easy to compare. RFP processes often result in manufacturers switching from one expensive provider to another without meaningfully reducing costs.

The root cause, as Paul frames it, echoes economist Milton Friedman's four ways to spend money: the people making purchasing decisions about the plan often hold a small fraction of the assets, while the people whose money is actually at stake — participants and business owners — have little or no say. That misalignment is what keeps the market from behaving like a competitive one.

Paul is actively working with the Department of Labor to push for guidance — not mandates — that would require providers to send actual invoices reflecting fees in plain dollar terms. His view: if employers received invoices the way they receive bills from attorneys or accountants, the industry would change overnight.

Actionable Takeaways for Listeners

Find out the name of every provider involved in your plan. Record keeper, administrator, advisor, custodian — list them all. More people may be getting paid than you realize.
Ask every provider the same question in plain English: How much money have you made from our plan, in dollars, for each of the last three years?
Don't accept a percentage as an answer. Push for actual dollar amounts. Fee disclosure documents exist but are often deliberately opaque.
Negotiate. You don't need a financial background to pick up the phone and ask your record keeper to reduce your percentage fee. The worst they can say is no.
Ask your advisor how many hours they've spent servicing your account, who they spoke to, and what they discussed. If the answer is vague, the fee is worth questioning.
Consider whether you need an advisor at all. In participant-directed plans, advisors often aren't making any investment decisions. If services aren't being provided, fees shouldn't be either.
Look into flat-fee providers. Companies like Ascensus and Employee Fiduciary offer low-cost, transparent, flat-fee structures that are often comparable in service quality to far more expensive alternatives.
Think about paying plan fees at the employer level. It creates cost sensitivity, generates a tax deduction, and protects the tax-advantaged growth inside participant accounts.

Connect with Paul Sippil: paulsippil.com : resources, contact info, and more 📧 psippil@paulsippil.com

View Details

Lisa Ryan welcomes Friddy Hoegner, founder of Scope Recruiting and a former procurement and supply chain leader. Friddy helps manufacturing and supply chain companies build the teams that actually keep operations moving and he does it from a perspective most recruiters simply don't have: he's lived the job himself.

From Global Supply Chain to the Recruiting Desk

Friddy's career began in Germany with ABB in a global rotational supply chain program, where he eventually became a global commodity manager following ABB's acquisition of Thomas & Betts. He later moved into a supply chain manager role with a furniture manufacturer in North Carolina before co-founding Scope Recruiting in 2017 with his wife, who had already identified a critical gap in the market: recruiting firms that specialized in supply chain were staffed almost entirely by people with HR backgrounds, not supply chain experience.

That insight became Scope's founding principle. Rather than teaching supply chain professionals how to recruit, Friddy and his wife hired people with supply chain backgrounds and taught them the recruiting side of the business. The result is a firm that clients and candidates alike describe as refreshingly different, because the recruiters actually understand what the job requires.

The Hiring Mistake That's Killing Retention

Friddy's most consistent finding across years of working with manufacturers is that retention problems almost always start with the hiring process; specifically, with a failure to define who you're actually looking for before you start looking.

The pattern is predictable: a hiring manager submits a generic job description, different stakeholders have entirely different ideas about what the role should accomplish, and the organization moves forward without alignment. The hiring manager wants procurement expertise. The director of operations wants logistics. No one compared notes. The wrong person gets hired. And months later, the company wonders why they have a turnover problem.

Friddy's solution is to work with all stakeholders upfront to build an ideal candidate profile; a detailed picture of the skills, experience, and behaviors the role actually requires, along with a clear definition of what success looks like at 6 months and 12 months. From that profile comes a scorecard, submitted with every candidate, that creates a consistent and less biased basis for evaluation.

Why ChatGPT Can't Save a Bad Interview Process

Candidates today can walk into any interview with a ChatGPT-prepared answer to every standard question. Friddy argues this makes the ideal candidate profile and structured interview process more important than ever, not less. When you know the job deeply, you can ask follow-up questions that no AI can prepare someone for. The first answer is rehearsed. The second and third follow-up questions reveal whether someone actually knows what they're talking about.

This is precisely where Scope's supply chain background pays off. Generic recruiters can be fooled by a polished surface. Recruiters who've done the job can dig into the weeds and expose the gap between what someone says and what they actually know how to do.

Hiring for an AI-Disrupted Future

As automation and AI reshape manufacturing operations, Friddy cautions against hiring for narrow, specific skill sets that may be obsolete in two to three years. The manufacturers best positioned for the future aren't hiring for what they need today; they're hiring for adaptability, mental aptitude, and a demonstrated willingness to embrace change.

Friddy points to a striking example from his time at ABB: a football field-sized factory in Germany producing miniature circuit breakers at the same cost as factories in Indonesia and Argentina, because there were almost no people on the floor. A handful of engineers and maintenance staff. That future, he argues, is closer than most manufacturers realize, which means the people you hire now need to be able to pivot as the environment shifts around them.

Competing for Talent When You Can't Win on Salary

The majority of Scope's clients are mid-market and family-owned manufacturers who will never outspend a Fortune 500 company on compensation or benefits. Friddy's advice: stop trying to compete on salary and start competing on impact.

The candidates most valuable to smaller manufacturers are often the ones who've grown frustrated with corporate bureaucracy: the pace, the layers of approval, the distance from real decision-making. Smaller companies can offer something larger ones genuinely cannot: the ability to talk directly to the owner, change something meaningful in a day, and actually see the results of your work. That's a powerful draw for the right candidates, and it costs nothing to offer.

Why the Best Candidates Aren't on Job Boards

Friddy is direct about the limits of posting and praying. The top 10% of talent in any field are rarely browsing job boards. Many have never applied for a job in their lives; they get recruited from one role to the next. Reaching them requires dedicated outreach to passive candidates: contacting 100, hearing back from 15 to 20, submitting 3 to 4. It's time-intensive, unglamorous work — but it's how you find the people who are genuinely performing in their current roles rather than actively looking to leave.

Red Flags That Signal the Wrong Hire

Two interview warning signs Friddy's team watches for consistently:

The "my way or the highway" attitude. Candidates who are so confident in how they've done things before that they can't adapt to a new environment. You can hear it in interviews: an overconfidence that signals they'll push their previous playbook regardless of context, without the sensitivity required to build buy-in.
The inability to get specific. Candidates who speak in broad strokes about what "we" accomplished but struggle to articulate their own role, the steps they took, or the details of how it actually worked. Behavior-based questions that require specifics will surface this every time.

Friddy's Mic-Drop Closing Tip

When you've done the work of defining your ideal candidate profile and you find someone who checks every box, don't hesitate. Don't manufacture reasons to interview three more candidates. The right people are rare, and the hiring process itself can cost you them.

Actionable Takeaways for Listeners

Align all stakeholders before you write a job description. Disconnected expectations between hiring managers and leadership are one of the most common and costly hiring mistakes in manufacturing.
Build an ideal candidate profile, not just a job posting. Define what success looks like at 6 and 12 months before you evaluate a single resume.
Use a scorecard for every candidate. Consistency reduces bias and helps you make better decisions — especially when interviews are spread over days or weeks.
Ask behavior-based questions and follow up twice. The first answer is rehearsed. The follow-up questions reveal whether the knowledge is real.
Hire for adaptability, not just current skills. In a rapidly automating environment, the ability to pivot matters more than a narrow set of technical expertise.
Lead with impact, not salary, when competing against larger companies. Speed of decision-making, access to leadership, and the ability to drive real change are advantages small manufacturers genuinely have.
When you find the right person — move.

Connect with Friddy Hoegner: scoperecruiting.com: hiring resources, candidate scorecards, and contact info

View Details

Lisa Ryan welcomes Rick Elmore, founder and CEO of Simply Noted, a 100% bootstrapped, handwritten mail automation company powered by patented robotics and AI-driven personalization. A former NFL athlete turned 9-patent tech founder, Rick scaled Simply Noted to $10 million-plus in revenue by combining manufacturing, automation, and disciplined sales systems, all without a single dollar of outside investment.

From the NFL to the Factory Floor

Rick's path to building a robotics company is anything but conventional. Drafted to the Green Bay Packers in 2011, he played for six teams in three years before facing what he describes as an identity crisis at 25. He took the transferable skills of an elite athlete: grit, discipline, competitiveness, and the willingness to embrace a process, and applied them first to corporate sales, where he became a consistent top 1% performer, and then to entrepreneurship.

The spark came during his MBA program when a marketing professor closed a three-hour lecture with a simple observation: handwritten notes get opened 99% of the time and the mailbox is empty. Rick tested the idea with a pen plotter, 500 targeted prospects, and sold $300,000 in six weeks on a $50,000 quota. The entrepreneurial seizure, as he calls it, had arrived.

Building What Didn't Exist

What followed was eight years of over-engineering everything. Because no off-the-shelf solution existed, Rick had to build it from scratch: robots, software, algorithms, and all. Key milestones include:

Going through 14 engineering firms over more than a year, using each proposal to sharpen the next, before committing to a single partner
Spending three years building the technology in chunks, funded entirely by customer revenue, with Thursday-night engineering sessions running from 2 PM to 10 PM
Developing intelligent handwriting algorithms that understand context — an "E" at the start of a word is drawn differently than an "E" in the middle or at the end
Building 220 custom handwriting robots in a 10,000 square foot facility, holding real pens, replaced twice a day by human attendants
Earning 9 patents along the way — and openly sharing why he now thinks they may not have been worth it

Personalization at Scale: What Simply Noted Actually Does

Simply Noted has made handwritten mail as automatable and trackable as email. Clients can start simple: a spreadsheet with first name, last name, and address. or go deep with full CRM integration, LLM-powered personalized messaging, QR code tracking, delivery notifications, and trigger-based workflows. Examples include:

A lead moving to "closed" in Salesforce automatically triggers a personalized handwritten thank-you note
A complaint in a ticketing system pulls the complaint data, drafts a custom apology via an LLM, and sends a pen-written note to keep bad reviews offline
E-commerce brands sending anniversary notes on the date of a customer's first purchase — completely automated
QR codes on notes that, when scanned, automatically alert a sales rep via text message to follow up in real time

Why the Mailbox Is the Last Uncluttered Channel

Ads are ignored. Inboxes are buried. Social feeds are sponsored noise. But the physical mailbox is nearly empty, and something that looks genuinely handwritten stops people cold. Rick shares how a single handwritten note from a window contractor led Lisa's family to refer over $100,000 in business. That story, he says, is exactly why relationship-based businesses: real estate, home services, financial services, nonprofits, e-commerce see the strongest results.

The Athlete Mindset Applied to Entrepreneurship

Rick draws a direct line between fifteen years of athletic training and his ability to build slowly, stay disciplined, and not quit when things got hard. He pushes back against the social media myth of overnight success, pointing out that most "overnight" stories hide decades of accumulated domain expertise. Compounding success over time, he argues, is as fundamental in business as it is in sport.

Actionable Takeaways for Listeners

Start with a crawl-walk-run approach. Request a sample kit, test a simple send, then integrate; don't try to fully automate on day one.
Relationship building works best consistently over time. A one-time campaign won't move the needle. The businesses getting the most value from Simply Noted are using it month after month, year after year.
The mailbox is your competitive advantage. If everyone you compete with is fighting for inbox and ad space, stepping into a nearly empty channel is an asymmetric opportunity.
Personalization doesn't require complexity. Even a simple mail merge with first names on a templated message outperforms nearly any digital equivalent in open rates and memorability.
Patents are lawsuit coupons. Protect your business by being so difficult to copy that competitors exhaust themselves trying — not by relying on legal protection alone.

Connect with Rick Elmore: LinkedIn: Rick Elmore simplynoted.com to request a free sample kit directly from the homepage

View Details

In this insightful and practical episode, Lisa Ryan welcomes Sebastian Chedal, founder of Fountain City and co-founder of TestFox.ai. Sebastian helps executives implement AI strategies that actually work, focusing on one critical question: How do you join the 20% of AI initiatives that succeed instead of the 80% that fail? With 60% of his work in manufacturing and industrial sectors, Sebastian brings a grounded, practical perspective where implementation matters more than hype.

A Journey Through Digital TransformationSebastian's journey began in 1998 when he started Fountain City in the Netherlands. Over more than two decades, his work has evolved through network security, website and app development, creative projects, and ultimately into digital transformation with a focus on AI implementation—predominantly in manufacturing.

As a self-described generalist at heart with diverse interests, Sebastian has founded five businesses total (two non-profits that didn't make it), giving him an entrepreneurial track record that includes both successes and failures. This real-world experience informs his practical, results-oriented approach to AI implementation. Fountain City has been the anchor and core of his professional life, adapting and evolving as technology has transformed over the past 26 years.

The Catalytic Moment: Why AI Is Different NowSebastian draws a powerful parallel between today's AI landscape and the mid-1990s internet era, when people would ask, "What's a website? I don't need a website. Why would I need a website?" People didn't understand the benefits, how it worked, or how much effort it would take to implement.

Like many technological innovations, AI has finally reached a threshold catalytic point where it becomes truly useful, effective, and mainstream. The real breakthrough with large language models (LLMs)—what most people refer to when discussing AI today—is the ability to create qualitative automations, not just deterministic ones.

The Fundamental DifferenceDeterministic automation (traditional): If this number is above this number, do this thing—straightforward logic gates we've had for decades.

Qualitative automation (AI-powered): Integration of nuanced, context-dependent decisions into automation processes, opening entirely new categories of automation.

This capability works at multiple levels:

Workflow automation: Eliminating time-consuming, mundane work like data transformation and entry that used to require hours or intern labor
Strategic support: Brainstorming, strategic planning, code planning, and design patterns
Knowledge work: Tasks requiring judgment, context, and understanding rather than simple calculations

The last year in particular has brought proposals and curiosity from people wanting to understand what it actually takes to put these systems in place—but the hype also leads to overestimation of capabilities and underestimation of implementation effort.

Becoming AI-Ready: The Foundation for SuccessSebastian outlines several critical dimensions of AI readiness that organizations must address:

Management and Strategic VisionThe wrong approach: "We need to make sure 30% of our processes are run by AI by the end of the year."

This mandate isn't inspiring and doesn't give teams something meaningful to rally behind, even if it's the directive from stakeholders or management.

The right approach: Transform mandates into meaningful vision:

"We're bringing in AI to help you do less of the time-consuming work that distracts you from the real work you want to be doing"
"We're implementing AI to help with knowledge retention and dissemination so the experts' answers reach more people's hands"
Focus on removing bottlenecks and freeing up people's time
Clear Long-Term Goals with Measurable Steps1. Define what you're trying to achieve with AI long-term
Break it down into concrete steps with measurable ROI
Ensure each step has an actual, achievable outcome
Keep the focus as narrow as possible—projects that try to do too many things with AI often fail
Data InfrastructureStart before you even have a project: Capture as much data as possible everywhere you can:
Record calls
Transcribe videos and podcasts
Store blogs and written content
Organize existing documentation

Without good data, you end up with generic inputs for AI systems. With rich data, you can plug services directly into it and create genuinely useful, customized solutions. Data can be organized, synthesized, or analyzed—but you must have it first.

Process Documentation and FormalizationThis is especially critical in manufacturing, where Sebastian frequently sees companies with ambitious AI project ideas but:
Processes exist only in someone's head
The CRM system is "Bob's phone with all his contacts"
Sales approaches vary completely by individual with no standardization
No formal documentation of workflows or decision trees

The three-tiered AI implementation process:

Tier 1 - Data: Identify what data is needed and ensure it's being captured

Tier 2 - Process: Document, create, and formalize processes (healthy for business regardless, supporting legacy, growth, and consistency)

Tier 3 - AI Integration: Once processes are well-defined (ideally as flowcharts or UML diagrams showing logic trees), integrate the actual LLM components

Critical insight: Don't just throw AI everywhere. Use traditional automation for deterministic tasks and AI only where you need qualitative assessment. Using AI for math or deterministic systems can lead to significant issues.

Solving the Knowledge Retention CrisisOne of the most popular AI applications Sebastian sees in manufacturing is knowledge retention and dissemination. When you have people who've been with the organization for 20, 30, or 40 years with critical knowledge in their heads—or in "Mikey's CRM on his phone"—losing them creates devastating gaps.

Knowledge Capture StrategiesThe right approach depends on where the data currently exists:

Email archives: One manufacturing client is leveraging 20-25 years of email conversations, using AI to analyze and create a knowledge springboard

Data synthesis: Use AI with structured inputs to generate data, then have subject matter experts review, correct, and essentially train the system on what's accurate

Existing documentation: Documentation may already contain answers but be inaccessible or unsearchable—AI can make it queryable and useful

Structured interviews:

Formal interviews recorded on calls
Self-guided prompts where the expert records video or voice responses on their own schedule
Adapt the method to how each person thinks and works best—make the process as smooth as possible

The key mindset shift: AI isn't here to replace jobs—it's here to ensure that the work someone has been doing for 30 years can continue for the next 30 years, preserving institutional knowledge and expertise.

Addressing AI Fear and ResistanceSebastian has studied resistance extensively and emphasizes that education is the most important antidote to fear.

The less people understand about how AI works and what it does, the more they glorify it and see it as a threat. The more they understand it, the more they realize how to control and use it as a tool—just like a calculator helps a scientist do faster math equations.

The Self-Fulfilling ProphecyThe dangerous pattern: People who refuse to learn AI out of fear are actually at the biggest risk of replacement. If you didn't want to use computers when they were being invented because you feared job loss, but then jobs required computer skills, you couldn't get hired—and the thing you feared came true because you created it.

The reality: Jobs of the future will be influenced and affected by AI. There is a need to adapt, learn, and shift in certain domains. But understanding AI greatly reduces the risk of flat-out replacement.

The people honestly at biggest threat are those who are afraid and don't want to learn.

Keys to AI Project SuccessProject Sizing and ScopeTimeframe: Something between 3 months to 1 year is ideal for AI sub-projects. Rarely do projects over 2 years make sense in the current AI landscape.

Breaking down big goals: You might have a long-term vision (like creating a virtual sales engineer who knows everything about your B2B products and can speed up customized quotes), but break it into achievable steps:

Step 1 (3 months): System answers Q&A emails after webinars. Initially, humans answer while training the knowledge base.

Step 2 (3 months): Launch internal/external product replacement lookup tool for specifications—could be conversational or simple search.

Step 3 (6 months): Expand to training new engineers with best practices and accumulated knowledge.

Step 4 (1 year): Eventually reach the goal of quote assistance for customized solutions supervised by engineers.

Each step has a concrete outcome and measurable value, building toward the ultimate vision.

The Scaffolding PrincipleSebastian emphasizes that scaffolding is crucial whether you're writing code or improving sales and marketing processes. Think of it like painting:

First: Fill the canvas with broad strokes and broad fields of color Then: Work on the detail

Many projects fail because teams focus intensely on detail execution without doing the scaffolding first. Define the logic flow and overall structure before diving into specifics.

Important AI characteristic: AI is a "pleasing system"—it always wants to please you in the way it thinks will please you. If you ask it to criticize your work, it will criticize because it thinks that's what you want. You must have the right methodology and approach in both project planning and implementation steps to work effectively with AI systems.

Unexpected Risks and ChallengesAI GovernanceThe zero-tolerance trap: Some companies have zero AI tolerance, telling teams they can't use AI due to legal risks, copyright concerns, IP protection, or process concerns.

Why it's dangerous: People bypass the restrictions anyway—using different browsers, personal laptops, or working from home. The water flows around your barriers.

The solution: Establish at minimum a governance policy framework:

How should people use AI?
How can they use it safely?
What's allowed and not allowed?

Create control without being so tight that people work around you. Balance protection with practicality.

Change ManagementAI projects are fundamentally transformation projects, which means they're change management projects. Several dynamics emerge:

Underlying issues surface: An AI project might be "the straw that breaks the camel's back" where a department that's felt ignored for two years suddenly expresses frustration—which has nothing to do with AI but is triggered by another major change.

Education and experience gaps: The difference in AI familiarity between upper management and the floor can create challenges. Sometimes upper management hasn't used AI yet (though they may be shy to admit it), while certain departments or individuals race ahead.

Assessment needs: Understanding where your business sits on the AI maturity spectrum is critical:

Pre-AI with no idea how it works?
Casual familiarity?
Advanced users in some departments?

The Weakest Link PrincipleSebastian recommends an AI readiness self-assessment where you rank yourself against different areas. Following the principle that "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link":

If your team has tremendous AI hunger and passion, racing ahead with learning and implementation, but you have zero governance in place—governance is your weakest link. Address it to catch up with where you're steaming ahead in other areas.

Critical insight: Even if you don't immediately address disparities, knowing they exist is valuable. You know what you don't know, instead of not knowing what you don't know—which is usually where projects fail.

Most project failures over 20+ years happen because someone didn't realize something they didn't know they needed to know.

Real-World Success PatternsSebastian emphasizes that 2025 saw knowledge retention as a particularly popular application, with multiple manufacturing companies working to:

Capture expertise before retirements
Distribute knowledge more widely for training
Remove bottlenecks created by having all answers in one person's head
Create systems that preserve institutional memory

The correlation Sebastian draws to social media adoption is instructive: companies initially had either zero tolerance or wild-west approaches until they developed policies and governance. Now it's part of the standard business lexicon. AI will follow a similar trajectory.

Getting Started: Sebastian's RecommendationIf you're at the very beginning: Focus on learning, awareness, and discussion. Recognize AI's importance and that it's not going away. Make time for this—it matters.

If you're further along: Conduct an AI readiness assessment to understand where you stand across all dimensions.

If you're ready to implement: Create a roadmap with proper planning, breaking projects into those 3-month to 1-year achievable milestones with clear outcomes.

Step one for everyone: Figure out where you're at, then have a good overview assessment of your business across all AI readiness dimensions.

Actionable Takeaways for Listeners1. Start Capturing Data Everywhere Now 2. Before you even have an AI project, begin recording calls, transcribing videos, storing blogs, and organizing documentation. Data is the foundation—without it, you only get generic AI outputs. 3. Transform Mandates into Meaningful Vision 4. Don't just say "30% of processes must use AI by year-end." Frame it as "freeing you from time-consuming work" or "getting expert knowledge into everyone's hands." 5. Document Your Processes First 6. If your processes exist only in people's heads or vary by individual, formalize them before attempting AI implementation. Create flowcharts showing logic trees and workflows. 7. Keep Projects Narrow and Time-Bound 8. Target 3 months to 1 year for AI sub-projects. Break big visions into concrete, measurable steps with clear ROI. Avoid projects trying to do too many things at once. 9. Focus on Scaffolding Before Details 10. Like painting with broad strokes before adding detail, establish your overall structure and logic flow before diving into execution specifics. 11. Combat Fear with Education 12. The less people understand AI, the more they fear it. The more they understand, the more they see it as a controllable tool. Make education a priority across all levels. 13. Use AI Only Where You Need Qualitative Assessment 14. Don't throw AI everywhere. Use traditional automation for deterministic tasks (math, simple logic gates). Reserve AI for contexts requiring judgment, nuance, and qualitative decisions. 15. Establish AI Governance Early 16. Create clear policies on...

View Details

In this energetic and information-packed episode, Lisa Ryan welcomes Tony Gunn, who leads global operations at his new venture TGM Global Services after a successful five-year run with MTD CNC. Tony has spent two decades on shop floors and in boardrooms around the world, traveling approximately 300 days a year to over 60 countries, giving him an unparalleled front-row seat to the technologies, trends, and people shaping modern manufacturing.

Tony shares his remarkable journey from mopping floors on weekends for minimum wage and learning to use basic presses, to mastering CNC machining through the mentorship of industry veterans who taught him line-by-line programming. His story exemplifies the power of workplace mentorship and the importance of taking skilled workers under your wing—lessons that continue to guide his mission today.

The Smartest Person in the RoomTony lives by a powerful principle: "If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room." He thrives on being the "dumbest person in the room," learning from experts across the manufacturing spectrum—from garage shops with three or four machines to CEOs of the world's largest manufacturing companies. This humility and hunger for knowledge informs everything he does in media and content creation.

His approach to sharing stories and technology stems from remembering his own starting point—when he was just learning to turn raw material into something of value. He's passionate about explaining concepts at a level that empowers everyone, avoiding the industry jargon and acronyms that can leave people behind. He never forgets the experts who gave their time to an amateur, and now pays that forward by putting others under his wing.

The Technology Challenge: Keeping Up When It's Your JobTony candidly admits that even though it's his full-time job to know as much about the manufacturing industry as possible and share it with as many people as he can, he still can't keep up with how fast everything is moving. He can only imagine how difficult it must be for shop owners and operators whose day-to-day activities involve actually running their businesses.

From a global perspective, Tony sees shops still running machines that are 15, 20, 30, even 40 years old—machines that run good parts but can't complete a part on one machine, requiring five machines and much longer cycle times compared to modern technology. He draws a powerful contrast from his visit to the American Precision Museum in Vermont: 200 years ago, they were making micron parts, but it took two weeks. Today, it takes two minutes.

The Labor Shortage and Automation ImperativeThe conversation centers on what manufacturers are most hungry to understand and solve right now. Tony identifies the labor shortage as a critical issue that companies are trying to address through multiple strategies:

Inspiring the next generation through STEM - While crucial, this is years in the making and can't be the only solution

Adapting technology in the midterm - Companies must figure out which technologies are most affordable and provide the best ROI to minimize labor shortages while competing globally

Various forms of automation - From traditional robots and cobots to pallet systems and bar feeds, companies are finding ways to have one machinist run 10 machines instead of one, with processes running 24/7

Digital transformation - Tools like Datanomics and Fulcrum that take traditionally tribal knowledge and display it on screens, giving operators and management real-time visibility into what's actually happening on the shop floor—eliminating the need for all-day meetings filled with 80% truths and 20% fabrication

Tony emphasizes that knowing actual uptime, real capabilities, bottlenecks, and opportunities for improvement allows companies to create better platforms for making quality products cost-effectively in a globally competitive market. While there's conversation about reshoring and nearshoring, manufacturing will always be global, and U.S. manufacturers must figure out how to compete with regions that can mass-produce with millions or billions of people ready to work.

The ROI Question: Starting a Shop TodayWhen asked about the smartest ROI for shops just getting started, Tony acknowledges this is complex because every situation is different—whether you're an expert machinist starting your own shop or someone still learning, whether you're doing production runs or one-off jobs, what parts you're making, and your size constraints all matter.

However, he shares powerful insights from his friends at EBITDA Growth Systems about "wizards on the machine"—highly skilled machinists who get frustrated feeling underpaid or undervalued, quit to start their own shops, and discover they can make any part imaginable but struggle with the front end and back end of business.

The front end challenge: Understanding how to quote properly. Many new shop owners underquote to win more bids, working 100-hour weeks without making profit because they're selling themselves short.

The back end challenge: Communication, customer service, and lead times. You can make a mistake on a part if you communicate two or three days in advance—that communication keeps clients. But calling the day of delivery saying you're a week behind will lose clients fast.

Tony's theoretical approach if he were starting a shop today? Go completely automated with one or two people, where machines essentially run themselves—even automated tool loading/unloading and part removal. Take on the debt believing in yourself, invest in the quickest ROI (keeping machines running and chips flying), and either sell what you need to sell or create your own proprietary part to avoid constant bidding. Keep those spindles turning to create profitability.

Culture: More Than Just MoneyWhen discussing how to create a culture where machinists don't want to leave, Tony delivers a nuanced and honest perspective. If you poll disgruntled employees about why they're unhappy, you'll get 10% in dozens of different categories—it's not one simple answer.

While most people say "pay them more," Tony has been paid more and wasn't happy, so money isn't everything. Yes, most machinists deserve more money. Yes, the gap between shop floor workers and CEOs has increased dramatically. But at the end of the day, Tony believes most people are happiest when they:

Feel they have purpose in their lives
Feel wanted and desired in their company
Know what they bring to the table is valued
Feel appreciated when they go to work

These things honor the human soul more than just money. Money and materialistic things come and go—money doesn't buy happiness, though it can buy things that make us happy. But in the end, those are still just things.

Tony suggests bringing back elements like:

Offering respect and appreciation
Competitive pay that allows people to care for families
Retirement benefits and partnerships that many companies have dropped
Clean air and proper filtration in shops
Reasonable break times
Purpose and meaning in daily work

Every person wants something different—some just want breathable air and a good lunch sometimes. But the easiest common denominators are having purpose in life and having enough money to live comfortably.

Global Practices: What the U.S. Should AdoptHaving visited more than 60 countries, Tony has powerful insights into what U.S. manufacturers should be paying attention to globally.

Brazil's SENAI SystemTony recently visited Brazil and was blown away by SENAI, a company in business since 1942 that has trained over 80 million students (putting through about 2.8 million per year). They have 60-80 locations throughout the country, and for rural areas, they send buses and boats to provide 6-9 month trainings.

The game-changing aspect: It's machine shop funded. One percent of the profit that every shop in the country makes goes toward the education system, so students get free manufacturing education. They have facilities of 500,000 square meters with hundreds of the best machines available.

Location specialization: Many locations are designated based on what's being made in that area. Brazil is known for aerospace, so certain areas of São Paulo focus completely on training kids for aerospace parts. Other sections focus on mold and die, plastic injection, or medical devices—similar to Switzerland's regional specialization in watches, medical devices, etc.

The result: No labor shortage. No skills gap.

Modern Technology in EducationTony emphasizes a critical difference between many U.S. trade schools and international programs: while manual machining has value for understanding machine vibration and what can/can't be programmed, many U.S. schools limit students because of fear they might crash expensive equipment.

Students often don't get exposure to 5-axis machines, 8-axis machines, or turning centers with 4 turrets and 2 spindles. They learn remedial processes, so when they enter a shop, they can do remedial work but can't immediately help make the complex parts that need to be made.

In contrast, places like Brazil and Switzerland have students working on the technology of today in their trade schools. When they graduate, they can immediately drive impact and make good parts on complicated machines. In Switzerland, 300,000 students aged 11-18 attend an exhibition dedicated to helping them select careers, and by age 20, they have a degree and are productive in the workforce.

China's Automation LeadershipWhile China is known as the "king of reverse engineering," Tony points out they've also started improving on that engineering and now have genuinely great technology. More significantly, they've purchased more automation than any other country in the world, allowing them to automate high productivity in machine shops better than anyone else right now.

The U.S. got left behind in automation adoption over the last 20 years. American manufacturers need to look to countries that have adopted automation far more quickly and successfully.

Elevating the Invisible IndustryTony's passion for putting machinists on camera and sharing their stories stems from two powerful motivations:

Authentic Information TransferWhen a machinist gets on camera and shares their somewhat unbiased or agnostic view about how technology is working for them, it's the best way for viewers to receive information without feeling like they're being sold something. While salespeople should know their technology better than anyone (and there's value in learning from them), everyone knows they're being sold something.

When you hear from the person on the floor working the equipment every single day—someone who's had the trials, mistakes, and failures, and has worked to create success—that has unique value. People want to receive information from someone running the parts daily.

Giving Machinists the Respect They DeserveManufacturing has been an invisible industry for far too long. Tony's company slogan is "We machine the unseen that moves the world." People are happy to have their phones, cars, and planes, enjoying all the things made through manufacturing, welding, and trades—yet these industries don't get respect.

Manufacturing was demonized as the second opportunity if you couldn't get into university. It was considered for misfits, losers, dropouts, and GED educations. That's simply not the case.

As AI starts taking more simplistic jobs of people sitting at computers coding in cubicles, it currently cannot replace people working with their hands. Plumbers, electricians, and machinists represent the future for anyone who wants a good, stable career for a lifetime.

Tony wants to give these professionals a voice and opportunity to share their stories because he's tired of them not being respected. He was tired of not being respected himself, but he has a "big freaking mouth" and keeps talking about it until hopefully earning that respect. You can't demand or force respect—you earn it. In doing so, he tries to give others the confidence to do the same and let them know how important they are.

Looking Ahead: The ResurgenceTony is tremendously excited about his new transition to TGM Global Services, which gives him more opportunity, flexibility, and creativity to do what he's always wanted. His YouTube channel is approaching 400,000 subscribers (aiming for a million within the year), LinkedIn is thriving, and Instagram is growing in markets like Brazil and India.

The partnerships he's forming for 2026 involve great people and products, with opportunities to showcase technology the world has never seen before—like one of only three fourth-generation systems in the world (the others being in France and Sweden) that can even help fight cancer.

Beyond personal excitement, Tony sees a resurgence in the industry. Respect is starting to come back. He has friends who've quit their day-to-day jobs to pursue inspiring the next generation—traveling to middle schools and high schools, giving keynotes, conveying messages not just to students but to parents (because you have to convince parents this is a good idea, not just students).

As a perpetual optimist (sometimes annoyingly so), Tony is hopeful and grateful to play a small part in this amazing industry that's given him so much over the last 25-plus years.

Actionable Takeaways for Listeners1. Embrace the "Dumbest Person in the Room" Mindset 2. Surround yourself with experts and admit when you don't know something. The best learning happens when you're comfortable saying "I don't know that answer, thank you for teaching me." 3. Remember Your Starting Point 4. When explaining technology or processes, consider those who are just learning. Avoid overwhelming people with acronyms and jargon—empower them with clear, accessible information. 5. Prioritize Digital Transformation for Real Visibility 6. Implement systems like machine monitoring and shop management software even if you only have one or two machines. Knowing the real truth about uptime, capabilities, and bottlenecks is invaluable for growth. 7. Master the Front End and Back End of Business 8. Being a wizard on the machine isn't enough. Learn to quote properly (don't undersell yourself), communicate proactively with customers, and manage lead times transparently to retain clients. 9. Start with Strategic Automation 10. If starting today, consider taking on debt to invest in automation that keeps machines running 24/7. The quickest ROI comes from keeping spindles turning and chips flying with minimal labor requirements. 11. Build Culture Beyond Compensation 12. While competitive pay matters, focus equally on creating purpose, appreciation, and respect in your workplace. People stay where they feel valued and know their contributions matter. 13. Invest in Modern Training Equipment 14. Don't limit your team or apprentices to outdated manual equipment out of fear. Exposure to 5-axis machines, turning centers, and modern automation prepares people to create immediate value. 15. Learn from Global Best Practices 16. Study how countries like Brazil fund education through shop contributions (1% of profits), how they align training with regional specializations, and how China has embraced automation at scale. 17. Adopt Automation to Compete Globally 18. The U.S. got left behind in automation over the last 20 years. Look to countries that have adopted it more successfully and implement proven solutions to remain competitive. 19. Give Your Team a Voice 20. Share your machinists' stories and perspectives. Let them showcase their expertise on video, social media, or industry platforms. Their authentic experiences are more valuable than any sales pitch. 21. Pay Attention to Technology Even When You Can't Keep Up 22. Even experts struggle to keep pace with technological change. Make time to follow industry media, attend trade shows, and stay connected with your network to avoid falling behind. 23. Mentor the Next Generation 24. Remember the people who took you under their wing and pay it forward. Take time to teach, support, and encourage those just starting their manufacturing journeys—they'll never forget it.

Connect with Tony GunnWant to continue the conversation or follow Tony's global manufacturing adventures? Connect with him on:

LinkedIn: For business updates and day-to-day activities (Tony respects LinkedIn as a business platform and keeps content...

View Details

In this thought-provoking episode, Lisa Ryan welcomes Bruce Vojak, a leading authority on strategic innovation with a unique combination of deep and broad experience. As a business advisor, board member, senior fellow with The Conference Board, and author of two highly regarded books on innovation published by Stanford University Press, Bruce helps mature companies in mature industries survive and thrive in an increasingly volatile, complex, and ambiguous world.

Bruce shares his journey from engineer and techie to innovation strategist, sparked by his fascination with remarkable innovators—not their processes or cultures, but the people themselves. This curiosity led him to decades of research exploring the question: "How do they know what to do?" His work focuses specifically on mature manufacturing companies, making his insights particularly relevant for today's industrial leaders.

What Is Innovation?Bruce clarifies a common misconception: innovation isn't just creativity or something new—it must have financial impact and marketplace value. While many manufacturers focus on lean implementations, Six Sigma, or equipment upgrades, true innovation changes the basis of competition in an industry. It creates advantages or protects against disadvantages in transformative ways.

He illustrates this with compelling examples:

The Carrot Evolution: From knife peeling to safety peelers, then to Oxo's ergonomic design and finally pre-peeled baby carrots that increased overall consumption
Moneyball: How the Oakland Athletics revolutionized baseball team optimization using sabermetrics instead of gut feelings

The lesson? Innovation exists in every industry, you just need to start looking for it by asking questions you didn't think you needed to ask.

The Greatest Risk: Not InnovatingFor manufacturers at the maturity stage of their lifecycle, the biggest danger is retreating to familiar ways of doing things without questioning unarticulated assumptions. Bruce emphasizes that the real risk isn't making big innovation investments—it's failing to ask the right questions at all.

He frames innovation investment through two financial lenses:

Insurance: Protection against being blindsided by market changes
Options: Opportunities for future growth beyond the "bond-like" steady returns of optimized manufacturing operations

Both require relatively small initial investments, often just time and attention, but provide critical protection and opportunity.

Navigating Rapid Technological ChangeWith AI and other technologies transforming business at lightning speed, Bruce advises companies to focus on three critical elements:

Internal Alignment: Both strategic and tactical
Strategic: Are we really going to invest in innovation?
Tactical: What about this specific idea or problem?
Alignment failures can derail innovation even at individual contributor levels
Simple Processes: Especially for small and mid-sized companies
Don't need elaborate systems
Focus on incremental, poker-like bets
Emphasize learning cycles over "failing fast"
Innovation Exemplars: People who see patterns before others
Not just idea generators, but individuals who navigate organizations to get buy-in
Examples include Tom Osborne at Procter & Gamble (feminine hygiene products) and Nancy Doss (Oil of Olay transformation)
Often "the most important people you've never heard of"—not always the CEO or owner

Creating Innovation-Friendly CultureBruce and Lisa explore the tension between fear of change and the need for psychological safety. Key insights include:

Learning Over Failing: Reframe "fail fast" as "learn quickly"—small bets teach you about applications and opportunities you'd never consider
Bridging Generations: Combine the "tradition" of experienced workers with the "tradition" of digital-native younger employees to unlock discovery potential
Managing Resistance: Sometimes alignment requires marginalizing those who simply won't get on board, but winning people over winsomely should always be the first approach

The conversation emphasizes that even in an automated, technology-driven world, people and culture remain at the heart of successful innovation.

Real-World Innovation ExamplesBruce shares powerful examples of innovation exemplars in action:

West Tech Automation Solutions: A mid-sized manufacturer that accepted a radical request to collaborate with competitors in a virtual room, creating new business models and ongoing revenue streams
Steve Jobs and Apple: Taking off-the-shelf technology and transforming it through design perspective and deep understanding of human needs

These examples prove that you don't need to be a Silicon Valley entrepreneur to innovate—mature manufacturers can achieve remarkable results by putting their minds to it.

Getting Started with InnovationBruce's approach begins with assessment:

Start with informal confidential conversations to discuss your situation
Conduct formal assessments with leadership teams or functional groups to identify hangups and efficiencies
Work through workshops and ongoing advisory relationships
Focus on both owners/presidents and the innovation exemplars within the organization

His guarantee? You'll learn whether there's something to act on or defend against—delivering both the "option" for growth and "insurance" against disruption.

Actionable Takeaways for Listeners1. Redefine Innovation for Your Organization 2. Move beyond incremental improvements like lean and Six Sigma. Ask: What could change the basis of competition in our industry? What advantages can we create or disadvantages can we avoid? 3. Question Your Assumptions 4. Identify and challenge your unarticulated assumptions. Ask questions you didn't think you needed to ask—that's where breakthrough opportunities hide. 5. Start with Small Bets 6. Don't make massive innovation investments. Use incremental, poker-like bets that minimize risk while maximizing learning opportunities. 7. Find Your Innovation Exemplars 8. Identify the people in your organization who see patterns before others and can navigate the company to get ideas implemented. They're often not in the C-suite. 9. Secure Strategic and Tactical Alignment 10. Get clear organizational commitment at two levels: (a) Will we invest in innovation at all? and (b) What about this specific idea? Address misalignment quickly and directly. 11. Create Learning Cycles, Not Failure Cycles 12. Replace "fail fast" with "learn quickly." Each small experiment should teach you something valuable, even if the original hypothesis doesn't pan out. 13. Bridge Generational Traditions 14. Combine the wisdom and experience of long-tenured employees with the fresh perspectives and technological fluency of younger workers to unlock discovery potential. 15. Build Psychological Safety 16. Create an environment where people can experiment without fear of being thrown under the bus. Focus on learning lessons and moving forward together. 17. Think of Innovation as Insurance and Options 18. View innovation investments as (a) insurance against market disruption and (b) financial options for future growth—both are critical for long-term sustainability. 19. Start with an Assessment 20. Begin your innovation journey with an honest assessment of your current capabilities, hangups, and opportunities. Reach out for expert guidance to identify where to focus first.

Connect with Bruce VojakReady to explore how innovation can transform your manufacturing business? Connect with Bruce on LinkedIn at Bruce Vojak or visit his website at Breakthrough Innovation Advisors to schedule a confidential consultation.

Bruce is also the author of two highly regarded books on innovation published by Stanford University Press, offering deep insights into the people and practices that drive transformative change in mature industries.

For more episodes, insights, and actionable strategies for manufacturers, stay tuned to the Manufacturers Network Podcast with Lisa Ryan.

View Details

In this insightful episode, Lisa Ryan welcomes Dr. Joshua Tarbutton—Chairman and Chief Innovator at Bravo Team, an engineering firm specializing in custom automation solutions for manufacturers facing tough challenges. The conversation tracks Joshua Tarbutton's journey from childhood curiosity with Light Brights and exposure to structural engineering via his father, through military service, academia, and ultimately into entrepreneurship and innovation in manufacturing.

The episode tackles the urgent push for automation in manufacturing, driven by rising costs, supply chain instability, and workforce challenges. Joshua Tarbutton reflects on how fear and control can impede leadership decisions, and points out the importance of moving beyond blame and understanding the deeper social and economic forces at play.

A major theme is reskilling the workforce in response to automation. Joshua Tarbutton highlights the pressures at the lower end of the labor pool—jobs that are tough to automate and have high turnover—and notes the necessity of upskilling those in roles most likely to be displaced by technology. He emphasizes a need for earlier cultivation of manufacturing interest and skills in young people, advocating for more proactive outreach beyond "manufacturing month."

For companies lacking robust R&D departments, Joshua Tarbutton suggests an experiment-focused, risk-decreasing approach—start small, test hypotheses, and find the right experts to guide implementation. He cautions leaders to seek out genuinely knowledgeable advisors rather than relying solely on titles.

AI and large language models are discussed as powerful tools for manufacturers at every scale. Joshua Tarbutton sees AI as both a knowledge accelerator and a supportive "smart friend," especially for leadership looking to execute better and maintain margins.

Both speakers explore workplace culture, emphasizing that even in an automated world, people and teams remain the heart of innovation. Creating environments where it's safe to fail and learn, and supporting open, honest communication across teams and departments, are crucial for successful transformation.

Joshua Tarbutton closes by outlining Bravo Team's approach: solving tough, high-value problems for clients through clever engineering and collaboration, supporting innovation from machine design to full product development.

Actionable Takeaways for Listeners1. Automate Strategically: 2. Don't rush into automation out of fear—carefully assess timing, ROI, and reskill your workforce to maximize benefit and minimize disruption. 3. Invest in People Early: 4. Start cultivating interest and skill in manufacturing at a young age. Partner with schools and programs for real hands-on exposure beyond industry holidays. 5. De-Risk Innovation: 6. Before committing big budgets, run small, targeted experiments to prove out new ideas. This minimizes financial and technical risk in automation and R&D projects. 7. Find the Right Experts: 8. The right solutions depend on the right people, not just credentials. Seek out advisors and partners who prioritize transparency and a proven track record. 9. Leverage AI for Competitive Edge: 10. Use AI and language models to access knowledge, troubleshoot challenges, and support leadership decisions. Treat AI as a resource for innovation and execution. 11. Prioritize Workplace Culture: 12. Foster psychological safety for your teams to test, fail, and learn. Support open communication between financial and technical roles to keep projects aligned and teams motivated. 13. Ownership and Honest Conversations: 14. Break down silos and create space for honest dialogue around budgets, strategy, and goals—even if this means rethinking how information is shared across your organization. 15. Maintain Clarity in Project Management: 16. Set clear definitions of success and checkpoints for teams. Celebrate progress and create regular "vistas" so employees feel recognized and motivated.

Connect with Bravo TeamWant to learn more or see if Bravo Team can help your business tackle tough challenges? Visit Bravo Team Tech for videos and case studies, check out Joshua Tarbutton's personal website, or explore innovations like BravoWalk, the team's engineered dog collar solution.

For more episodes, insights, and actionable strategies, stay tuned to the Manufacturers Network Podcast with Lisa Ryan.

View Details

Manufacturing’s next big leap won’t come from machines, it’ll come from mindset. In this episode of The Manufacturers Network, Lisa Ryan talks with Vince Sassano, President of Strategic Performance Company and creator of Proto Track, about how manufacturers can build trust in data, connect generations, and drive meaningful change on the shop floor.

With more than 30 years at the intersection of technology and operations, Vince explains how AI, automation, and analytics only work when people do. He shares what happens when leaders stop treating digital transformation like a software install and start treating it like a human one.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why the real barrier to AI adoption isn’t tech—it’s fear of losing control.
How generational mindsets shape how fast teams adapt to change.
What it takes to move from a 10% gain in productivity to 30%—and why that leap starts with culture.
The difference between data and trusted data, and why both matter.
How to connect culture to hard metrics like throughput, retention, and profit.
Why turnover is now a more critical KPI than margin.

Action Steps for Manufacturers:

Lead with people. Culture drives capability; tech follows.
Clarify KPIs. Make sure everyone—from operators to execs—knows what success looks like.
Build trust in data. Transparency beats dashboards.
Invest in cross-training. Multi-skilled teams adapt faster than machines.
Reframe “productivity.” Faster isn’t better unless it’s smarter.

Listen now to learn why the future of manufacturing belongs to leaders who combine data discipline with human courage.

View Details

In this episode, Lisa Ryan sits down with Moustafa Moursy, founder of Push Analytics and a top-tier HubSpot agency partner, to break down what’s really holding manufacturers back from operational excellence, and how to fix it. Drawing on his hands-on manufacturing background and expertise in sales and project management, Moustafa Moursy reveals the most common process traps, why data-driven operations matter, and how aligning tools with culture can give your business a serious edge.

Key Topics Covered:

Why manufacturing companies must treat their business processes like their product lines—with clear inputs, outputs, and controls
The real culprit behind ineffective sales processes (hint: it’s not just paperwork or CRM overload!)
How to strike the perfect balance between over-complicating and under-complicating systems, especially for sales teams
The importance of stakeholder involvement when designing or revamping business processes
Ways successful manufacturers build robust supply and value chain relationships
The most overlooked opportunities for digital transformation in manufacturing
How manufacturers routinely leave money on the table—and simple strategies to capture it
Why culture, not just technology, is crucial for real transformation

Actionable Takeaways:

Map Your Processes First: Don’t jump straight to adopting new tools; start by zooming out and mapping your current workflows, obstacles, and business goals.
Engage Key Stakeholders: Involve the people actually using the system, especially sales reps, in the design and refinement of your processes to drive buy-in and better results.
Find Your CRM Sweet Spot: Focus on the CRM features that directly support your goals—instead of chasing 100% utilization, identify the tools your team really needs.
Follow Up Relentlessly: Make quoting and order follow-up a non-negotiable habit; most revenue leaks happen because opportunities fall between the cracks.
Build Process-Centric Culture: Remember, the best technology won’t help unless your team is trained, supported, and committed to continuous process improvement.
Connect Sales and Production: Create seamless handoffs between sales and post-sales/project management to prevent friction and ensure great customer experiences.

Resources & Contact:

To learn more or connect with Moustafa Moursy

Resources & Contact:

To learn more or connect with Moustafa Moursy and the Push Analytics team, email hello@pushanalytics.com and mention The Manufacturers Network Podcast.

Tune in and discover how process alignment and smart technology adoption can drive your manufacturing business forward—one actionable step at a time!and the Push Analytics team, email hello@pushanalytics.com and mention The Manufacturers Network Podcast.

View Details

On this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan welcomes Joe Bockerstette, the leader behind Business Enterprise Mapping, a Phoenix-based consultancy renowned for helping manufacturers rapidly document workflows, identify bottlenecks, and implement impactful change. With four decades of experience in operations and supply chain management—including senior roles at PwC and private equity—Joe shares the proven strategies that separate good manufacturers from great ones.

Key Topics Covered:

What Sets High-Performers Apart: Discover why synchronizing supply to demand and aligning internal processes with customer needs is the foundation of manufacturing excellence.
Red Clouds vs. Quick Wins: Learn how to identify operational bottlenecks (“red clouds”), categorize them for action, and prioritize quick wins that can be solved in less than 90 days.
Process Mapping for Impact: Understand how process mapping can directly enhance customer value and streamline departmental workflows through a unique, education-driven methodology.
Getting Buy-In From Teams: Strategies for engaging even the most change-resistant employees and fostering effective workshops where frontline teams contribute real solutions.
Mistakes to Avoid in Lean Initiatives: Why managers often miss the mark by zooming in on details without looking at the whole system, and how to refocus efforts for greater impact.
Tech’s True Role: Insights into how automation and data tools help—and when they complicate—workflow improvement.
One Metric Manufacturers Ignore: Why measuring the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness (“ACT”) of key deliverables can drive results where it matters most.
Balancing Efficiency With Culture: Practical advice on maintaining a strong company culture while driving performance and staying compliant.

Actionable Takeaways:

Map the Process, Not Just the Issues: Start improvement efforts by mapping your workflows holistically. Focus on how each process delivers value to the customer and supports upstream/downstream requirements.
Prioritize Quick Wins to Build Momentum: Identify red clouds that can be solved without senior-level approval or major budget and tackle these first to show rapid progress.
Involve Frontline Teams Early: Use workshops and collaborative sessions, not just interviews, to engage your staff and source powerful insights and buy-in from day one.
Don’t Automate Before Simplifying: Clean up your foundational processes before introducing new tech—automation only amplifies existing problems when processes aren’t robust.
Measure What Matters: Use the ACT metric (Accurate, Complete, Timely) to assess non-product deliverables like specs and handoffs—they’re critical to smooth operations and customer satisfaction.
Balance Efficiency and Responsibility: Pursue both operational excellence and a supportive culture; treat people well, ensure compliance, and leverage your assets wisely.

Connect with Joe Bockerstette:

Website: businessmapping.com
Email: joe@businessmapping.com
LinkedIn: Joe Bockerstette

Ready to drive performance and customer value in your manufacturing operation? Tune in and get the tools and strategies to make your next workflow transformation a success!

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, Lisa Ryan sits down with Chris Hallberg, a veteran entrepreneur, business coach, and the original "Business Sergeant." As one of Colorado's first EOS Implementers, Chris has helped more than a hundred companies transform chaotic teams into aligned, accountable, and energized organizations. Together, they unpack the secrets behind building a powerful culture and resilient performance—whether on the shop floor or in the boardroom.

What You’ll Learn:

What EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) is and how to use it as the “operating system for your business”
How to identify when leadership, not the market, is your biggest roadblock
The “Business Sergeant” approach—combining military discipline and team accountability with entrepreneurial creativity
Tactical steps to boost engagement and select unicorn team members by design, not accident
Why selection and intentional hiring are more important than trying to “fix” team members
Building processes that reduce daily interruptions and make onboarding (and execution) seamless
How to leverage AI as a low-risk, high-return way to enhance your team’s effectiveness
Tips for doubling down on accountability—celebrating top performers and addressing underperformance head-on

Actionable Takeaways:

Clarify and Cascade Your Vision:

Create a simple, two-page business plan (like the Vision Traction Organizer) that answers: Who are we? Why do we exist? What makes us unique? Use it to align every employee or help them self-select out if they don’t fit.

Get the Right People in the Right Seats:

Focus your recruitment on people who want the job, get the job, and have the capacity to do the job. Use intentional selection processes (including pre-interview personality assessments) to build an all-in team.

3.Make Engagem ent Measurable:

Implement clear performance metrics and create an environment where great contributors are recognized—and those who aren’t, are held accountable.

Borrow Military-Level Discipline, Not Rigidity:

Foster personal responsibility and a team-first mindset, but keep space for initiative, creativity, and individual strengths.

Operationalize Processes with AI:

Use AI-powered platforms to centralize SOPs, policies, and team knowledge so everyone gets instant, accurate answers—freeing leaders from repetitive interruptions.

Commit to Continuous Improvement:

Set quarterly rocks (major priorities) and get everyone in a “90-day world” rhythm to maintain focus and momentum.

Invest in Unicorn Retention:

Put real effort—and budget—towards keeping and rewarding your all-star performers. Retention happens in the same place accountability lives.

Connect with Chris Hallberg:

Email: chris@goexpand.com
Online Course & Resources: Business Sergeant
LinkedIn: (Make sure to connect there as mentioned in the episode!)

Favorite Quote: “Great doesn’t happen on accident. Be intentional, commit to finding, onboarding, and developing the best humans—and create a system where greatness can thrive.” — Chris Hallberg

View Details

Building a Legacy of Quality and Creativity in Manufacturing with David Socha

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan chats with David Socha, CEO of Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company. David shares how he built a family business focused on creativity, ethics, and global adaptability in the world of plush toys. Whether you're a manufacturing leader, entrepreneur, or curious about business culture, this episode is full of practical advice and actionable steps.

Key Takeaways You Can Use:

Consistency Is Key
David credits showing up every day and looking beyond daily setbacks as crucial to long-term success in manufacturing. If you’re managing a team or a business, build routines that keep you and your employees focused on the bigger picture, not just the day-to-day challenges.
Focus on Quality Over Quantity
For manufacturers in crowded markets, David’s advice is simple: Make great, unique products. Don’t just copy trends; put effort into improving your product and set higher standards. Customers and employees notice the difference.
Legacy Through Family Culture
David involves his family at every stage of the business—from warehouse work to creative brainstorming. He believes exposing children to the business early increases the chance of generational succession. For other family-owned companies: get your kids involved in small, meaningful ways.
Ethical Manufacturing Matters
David’s company visits every manufacturing site, builds long-term relationships, and chooses partners who share their values. If you outsource, audit your suppliers and don’t compromise on ethics for lower costs.
Global Adaptability
Trends in toys (and other products) now travel fast worldwide. Manufacturers must track global influences and adapt quickly. David’s team keeps a close watch on rising trends from places like Asia and pivots accordingly.
Employee Engagement and Purpose
Today’s workforce wants to be part of something meaningful—they’re not interested in making throwaway goods. If you want to attract and retain talent, communicate your business’s larger purpose and invest in product improvements that employees can be proud of.
Resilience in the Face of Challenges
From supply chain disruptions to market shifts, David explains how deep, long-term partnerships with suppliers help weather storms. Invest time in building trusted relationships with your vendors and partners—find allies who share your long-term vision.

Action Steps for Listeners:

Audit your supplier relationships and visit their facilities where possible.
Review your product line—where can you raise the standard or add unique value?
Bring team members or family into business brainstorming sessions; fresh perspectives spark innovation.
Develop a “bigger purpose” message for your employees to help foster pride and retention.
Track rising trends, especially from international markets, and stay agile in your planning.

Connect with David Socha:

Email: david@plush.com
LinkedIn: Search “David Socha Toy Company”
Website: https://plush.com

Listen, learn, and start building a legacy of quality and ethics in your manufacturing business.

View Details

Quick question, when's the last time your team truly celebrated a win? Not the "pizza in the breakroom" celebration. I mean real, meaningful recognition that made people feel proud and inspired them to keep going.

Here's the truth: celebrating wins isn't just nice-to-have, it's fuel for your culture. When you do it right, your applause doesn't just pat people on the back. It keeps them engaged, loyal, and striving for excellence.

This episode is brought to you byGrategy, where we help manufacturing leaders create cultures people want to work in and nobody wants to leave. Through the Six Gears of Grategy®, we give leaders practical tools to strengthen their teams and drive results, from onboarding to recognition strategies that actually stick. Learn more at LisaRyanSpeaks.com.

We celebrate the big wins, major milestones, huge contracts, and completed projects. And we definitely talk about problems when things go wrong. But what about the middle ground? The day-to-day excellence when people are quietly doing great work? That usually goes unnoticed.

Here's what we're missing: countless moments worth celebrating. Catching a problem before it becomes a crisis. Finding a better way to do something. Consistently hitting deadlines. These small victories deserve recognition too.

When you celebrate these moments, you're not just making someone feel good. You're reinforcing the behaviors you want to see more of. You're connecting employees back to the mission and reminding them why their work matters. That's what fuels pride, loyalty, and ongoing engagement.

Busting the Myths:

Myth #1:

Recognition means big, formal programs

Truth: Awards dinners and plaques have their place, but if that's the only time people hear"thank you," you're missing the most powerful driver of engagement: recognition in the moment.

The best applause happens organically. When someone calls out a coworker during a shiftmeeting for jumping in to help. When a team lead thanks an operator right on the line for catching an error. These moments are specific, sincere, and tied directly to behaviors you want to see again.

And recognition doesn't have to come from leadership alone. Peer-to-peer recognition is often more powerful because it comes from people who work alongside you every day and know exactly what it takes to do the job well.

Myth #2: If people are doing their job, they don't need applause

Truth: There's a huge difference between doing your job and doing it well. If leaders only speak up when something goes wrong, employees start feeling like their best efforts don't matter.

Recognition isn't coddling, it's reinforcing right behaviors, building morale, and keeping people motivated to give their best. And here's the kicker: it doesn't matter what generation someone belongs to. Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, everyone wants to feel valued for their work.

Four Strategies That Work

Strategy 1: Be Specific, Not Generic

A quick "good job" is fine, but it's vague. Instead, call out exactly what the person did and why it mattered. "You caught that defect before it left the plant, which saved us from a costly recall." Now they know their actions had real impact.

Quick Action: In your next conversation, name the specific behavior and the result it created.

Strategy 2: Make It Timely

Recognition loses its punch when it comes weeks later. I remember a colleague who won a trip to Hawaii. Her manager took three weeks to congratulate her. After she went on the trip, she left the company.

Quick Action: Recognize someone within 24 hours of their achievement. Even a quick hallway conversation matters when the timing is right.

Strategy 3: Celebrate Small Wins Daily

Not every victory has to be monumental. Often, it's the everyday wins that keep teams motivated, hitting daily production goals, solving stubborn maintenance problems, and finding safer ways to complete processes.

I worked with one company that created a simple "Win Wall" in their breakroom. Anytime someone accomplished something, they wrote it on a sticky note. Some were huge client wins. Others were as simple as "We finally fixed the forklift charger!" That wall became a daily reminder of progress and teamwork.

Quick Action: End your next shift meeting by sharing one "win of the day" and inviting others to share theirs.

Strategy 4: Make It Inclusive

Recognition shouldn't only go to the loudest, most visible employees. Your most valuable contributions often come from people working quietly in the background, keeping things running smoothly.

Track your recognition. Keep a simple list of employees' names and mark each time you acknowledge someone. You'll spot patterns and realize there are people you haven't recognized in weeks or months.

Quick Action: Create a recognition log and use it for 30 days. Watch how your awareness of everyone's contributions increases.

Recognition isn't just about making people feel good, though it does that. It's about creating a culture where excellence becomes the norm, where people feel seen and valued, and where your best performers want to stay and grow.

When you make recognition a daily habit, something remarkable happens. Your team doesn't just work harder; they work with purpose. They don't just show up; they show up engaged. And they don't just stay because they have to, they stay because they want to be part of something bigger.

That's the kind of culture that doesn't just survive in today's competitive market; it thrives.

This show is for you, so tell me your biggest workforce challenge. Message me on LinkedIn or email me at Lisa@Grategy.com, and I may feature your question in a future episode.

Thanks for joining me for this episode of The Manufacturers Network. I'm Lisa Ryan, reminding you that culture is not a perk; it's your strongest competitive advantage. See you next time.

View Details

Welcome to The Manufacturers Network Podcast! In this insightful episode, Lisa Ryan sits down with Jason Rolland, Senior Vice President of Materials at Carbon Inc., to explore the rapidly evolving impact of additive manufacturing on how products are designed, produced, and scaled. Jason offers an insider’s view informed by years of expertise in polymer chemistry, entrepreneurship, and industrial material science.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

How Additive Manufacturing Evolved

Jason Rolland traces how 3D printing moved beyond prototyping, now enabling the production of finished parts with improved speed, precision, and material properties.

-Key Innovations Driving Production Viability

Discover the breakthroughs in materials science, hardware speed, and software that allow for faster print times, better mechanical properties, and digital-driven production processes.

Breaking Down the Technology

Not sure about acronyms like FDM or SLA? Jason explains the main categories of 3D printing in clear, simple language and describes their pros and cons.

Where Additive Manufacturing Makes the Biggest Impact

From footwear and sports equipment to medical devices and dental models, Jason shares real-world examples where 3D printing offers a competitive edge—especially for customized parts and foam replacements.

Barriers to Adoption & How to Overcome Them

Find out why manufacturers hesitate to adopt new technologies, and how issues of cost, awareness, and application fit can be addressed.

Evaluating If Additive Manufacturing Is Right for Your Business

Get practical advice on the types of products best suited for 3D printing and the factors manufacturers should consider before making the transition.

Sustainability and Flexibility Benefits

Learn how additive manufacturing supports supply chain resilience, reshoring, reduction in carbon footprint, and new approaches for cleaning, recycling, and using bio-based materials.

Getting Started Without Overinvesting

Jason outlines Carbon’s partnership model, emphasizing collaboration over upfront equipment sales so manufacturers can test applications risk-free.

Tangible Takeaways

Focus on Product Application:

Evaluate whether additive manufacturing will improve your product’s performance or unlock new design possibilities—don’t just jump in for the technology’s sake.

Consider Customization and Complexity:

Additive manufacturing thrives in producing complex, customized, or low-volume parts—especially when traditional tooling is cost-prohibitive or slow to adapt.

Factor in Speed, Cost, and Flexibility:

Digital production allows rapid switching between product types, making it ideal for nimble, local, and scalable manufacturing operations.

Think Sustainability:

Local production and material efficiency can lower the carbon footprint. Explore innovations in part cleaning and bio-based resins for further environmental benefits.

Start with Collaboration:

Instead of investing heavily upfront, partner with experienced additive manufacturers like Carbon to test the fit for your specific application.

Ready to explore additive manufacturing for your business?**

Reach out through Carbon’s website contact form to start a conversation with Jason and his team.

Tune in next time on The Manufacturers Network Podcast for more insights, strategies, and manufacturing success stories!

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, Lisa Ryan talks with Dag Calafell, a 25-year technology veteran helping global manufacturers modernize through Microsoft solutions. Dag shares how his early days as a developer at Parker Hannifin led him to his current role at MCA Connect, where he works with manufacturers to turn digital transformation into practical results.

They dig into where AI and automation actually move the needle in manufacturing, the hesitation many leaders still feel about new technology, and how companies can connect plant-floor data with back-office systems. Dag and Lisa explore everything from AI-powered cost tracking and maintenance insights to how internal hackathons can fuel innovation and upskill teams.

Key Takeaways:

A strong data foundation is critical for any AI or automation success.
AI and automation can ease workforce shortages and improve agility.
How manufacturers are using AI for production costing, defect detection, and predictive maintenance.
Treating AI initiatives like continuous improvement projects rather than one-time fixes.
The power of cross-functional collaboration and shared learning in tech adoption.
Why ROI timing matters more than having the newest technology.

Memorable Moment: “AI doesn’t have to replace people, it can make the work we already do smarter. The key is treating it like continuous improvement, not a one-time project.” — Dag Calafell

Connect with Dag Calafell: MCAConnect.com

Connect with Lisa Ryan: LisaRyanSpeaks.com

👉 LinkedIn: Lisa Ryan, CSP

View Details

Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/asklisaryan

Here's something I know to be true: Employees don't just want to work for a Paycheck — they want to work for a purpose. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves.

And here's the good news: manufacturing companies are uniquely positioned to deliver exactly that. When you give back — to your employees, your community, and causes that align with your values — you're not just doing good in the world. You're building loyalty, pride, and a culture people fight to stay in.

Today, we're talking about Acts of Service That Build Loyalty — how purpose-driven companies create stronger teams by making the world a better place.

________________________________________

This episode is brought to you by Grategy — where we help manufacturing leaders create cultures people want to work in and nobody wants to leave. Through the Six Gears of Grategy®, we give leaders practical tools to strengthen their teams and drive results — from onboarding to leadership development to purpose-driven culture strategies that inspire loyalty. Learn more at LisaRyanSpeaks.com.

________________________________________

Why This Matters More Than Ever

Years ago, "giving back" was an afterthought; something you did with leftover time and budget. But today's workforce has fundamentally different expectations. They want to work for organizations that stand for something beyond profit margins.

I see this passion at every association meeting I keynote at. The event locations are full of people who are passionate about things that most people totally take for granted. They are also deeply committed to solving problems most of the world doesn't even know exist: technical challenges, industry innovations, breakthrough solutions. They're not just making products; they're making things that matter.

The pandemic proved this point powerfully. Almost overnight, companies pivoted to produce masks, face shields, ventilator parts, hand sanitizer, whatever was needed. It didn't matter if it fit their business model; they stepped up because it was right. And employees felt it. They knew they were part of the solution, contributing to something that truly mattered.

That sense of purpose stuck. And many employees are still looking for that feeling today.

As Simon Sinek says, "People don't care what you do, they care why you do what you do." Employees are asking: What does this company believe in? Does my work matter beyond the product we make? Are we using our influence to make a difference?

When the answer is yes, and when your actions match your words, that's when people feel a deep, emotional connection to your mission.

And that connection creates loyalty you simply can't buy.

________________________________________

Busting the Myths

Myth #1: Purpose-driven culture is only for non-profits

Manufacturing companies can have even more impact by tying their products, services, and profits to something meaningful. Take a packaging company. On the surface, it's boxes and pallets. But what if their mission includes using sustainable materials and helping customers hit environmental goals? Now they're not just "making boxes" — they're contributing to a cleaner planet.

Or consider a tool-and-die shop sponsoring scholarships for local students in skilled trades. They're not just filling a talent pipeline — they're changing lives and giving young people a future in manufacturing.

Manufacturing moves the needle because you're part of the infrastructure that keeps the world running.

Myth #2: Acts of service have to be massive initiatives

It's not about writing big checks or launching high-profile campaigns. It's about creating authentic opportunities for employees to get involved. One client sets up monthly volunteer days at a local food bank - on company time. Another keeps a "community board" where employees can post service projects, and coworkers can pitch in.

Sometimes it's even simpler: donating scrap materials to a vocational school for welding practice, or employees building a ramp for a coworker's family member.

These smaller, personal efforts often have the biggest emotional impact. They show that service isn't corporate speak, it's embeddedin how you operate every day.

________________________________________

How to Lead with Purpose

Strategy 1: Connect the Work to the Mission

People need to know their job means more than cranking out widgets or meeting quotas. Yes, we make "things," but those things solve problems, improve lives, and sometimes save lives. When people know the why, they work harder, care more, and stick around longer.

Quick Action: At your next team meeting, share a story about how your product made a real difference. Maybe it helped a customer hit a critical deadline or kept a community safe. Don't be afraid to inject personality: "We thought we were just shipping boxes, but it turns out we were shipping hope... in corrugated form."

Strategy 2: Give Employees Opportunities to Serve Together

Rolling up your sleeves next to a coworker in a non-work setting changes everything. Whether assembling care packages, reading to kids, or sorting cans at a food bank, people connect differently. Those connections stick when they return to work.

Quick Action: Organize at least one voluntary service day annually. Make it easy — clear schedules, arrange transportation, and feed people. More people show up when sandwiches are involved.

Strategy 3: Align Acts of Service with Company Values

Random giving is good. Strategic giving that aligns with your mission and values? That resonates deeply with employees and customers. It's the difference between "We donated to something" and "We donated to something that reflects exactly who we are."

Quick Action: Ask your team to nominate causes that connect with your company's values. Choose one or two to support together. When the cause comes from employees, you get instant buy-in.

Strategy 4: Lead from the Front

When the boss is stacking boxes at the food drive or swinging a hammer on a Habitat build, it changes everything. It sends a clear message: "This isn't PR. This is who we are." Be there for the work, not just the photo op. Employees spot a "selfie-only" leader from a mile away.

Quick Action: Show up ready to get your hands dirty at your next service event. Pro tip: don't wear your best shoes unless you want a permanent reminder of your service day.

________________________________________

Here's what I've learned after years of working with manufacturing leaders: Companies that lead with purpose don't just do well, they do good while doing well. They attract better talent, retain top performers longer, and create cultures that become magnetic.

Your employees are already proud of what they make. When you show them how their work connects to a bigger mission and give them opportunities to serve that mission together — that pride transforms into something deeper: loyalty, purpose, and a sense of belonging that no competitor can steal.

The world needs what you make. But more than that, it needs companies that make things AND make a difference. When you lead with purpose, you don't just build better products — you build better teams, stronger communities, and a legacy that matters.

That's how you create a culture people don't just work in, it's one they believe in.

Thanks for joining me for this episode of The Manufacturers Network. I’m Lisa Ryan, reminding you that culture is not a perk; it’s your strongest competitive advantage. We’ll see you next time.

View Details

In this episode, Lisa Ryan talks with Laura Phillips, Vice President of Engineering and Procurement at Pella Corporation, about what it really takes to sustain a century-old company while staying future-ready. Laura shares how Pella’s culture of caring boldly, where truth, accountability, and collaboration coexist, continues to drive innovation and inclusion across 21 manufacturing sites and 11,000 team members.

From her early doubts about fitting into a male-dominated field to leading large engineering and procurement teams, Laura traces her journey through mentorship, curiosity, and courage. She and Lisa dig into how manufacturers can modernize without losing their soul, create workplaces where people belong, and make manufacturing a career destination for the next generation.

Key Takeaways: Turn Fear into Fuel: Manufacturing isn’t the “dirty and dull” image from old textbooks—it’s bright, high-tech, and full of creativity and problem-solving. * Caring Boldly: Pella’s three culture pillars: care, learn, deliver results, show up in how teams challenge each other honestly while still supporting one another. * Innovation Through Listening: The award-winning SteadySet installation system was born from conversations with installers about safety, efficiency, and pride in their work. * Representation Matters: From hosting Girl Scouts to collaborating with universities, Laura shows how early exposure changes how young people, especially girls, see the trades. * Flexible Futures: Four-day workweeks, job sharing, and automation are reshaping what flexibility looks like on the factory floor. * Tech That Serves People: Automation at Pella is designed to reduce strain, prevent injury, and make jobs more ergonomic and rewarding. * People Before Process:* Laura’s bottom line: strategy fails without people. Listen first, engage early, and build every improvement together.

Memorable Quote: “No strategy is effective without the team. The people are the most important thing; make it about them.”

Connect with Laura Phillips:🔗 LinkedIn: Laura Phillips

About the Host:Lisa Ryan, CSP, is a keynote speaker, author, and Chief Appreciation Strategist at Grategy®, helping manufacturers and skilled-trades organizations keep their best employees from becoming someone else’s. Learn more at Grategy.com.

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, Lisa Ryan sits down with Ben Wynne, Chief Technology Officer of Intrepid Automation, to explore how additive manufacturing and automation are transforming modern production—without erasing the craftsmanship and knowledge that built it.

Ben shares how his team helps manufacturers digitize decades-old tooling, preserve tribal knowledge, and bridge the gap between traditional foundries and cutting-edge technology. Their approach proves that innovation doesn’t have to mean disruption, it can mean integration.

Together, they discuss:

Why the future of manufacturing depends on capturing legacy expertise before it’s lost
How additive manufacturing can strengthen, not replace, existing processes
The role of AI and automation in reshoring and reindustrialization
Practical ways smaller manufacturers can collaborate with tech partners
How to keep your workforce engaged (and unafraid) as technology evolves

Ben also offers a powerful reminder: the factory of the future isn’t built on robots alone, it’s built on memory.

Connect with Ben Wynne:

LinkedIn: Ben Wynne

Website: Intrepid Automation

Manufacturing #AdditiveManufacturing #Automation #Leadership #WorkforceDevelopment #Innovation #CrackingTheRetentionCode

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan talks with Sameer Narkar, Founder and CEO of Konnect Insights, a bootstrapped SaaS company that’s redefining how enterprises manage customer experience.

What started as a small team of engineers in India has grown into a platform used by 400+ global brands in 35+ countries, managing over a billion customer interactions every year. Konnect Insights helps businesses unify social listening, omni-channel ticketing, analytics, and publishing all in one place.

Sameer shares what it takes to grow a tech company without external funding, how AI can actually simplify work instead of overcomplicating it, and why passion and trust, not just technology, win customers and retain top talent.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

What “omni-channel” really means for customer experience (and why most companies get it wrong)
The difference between plug-and-play AI and purpose-built, “home-cooked” AI
How to scale globally using partnerships instead of massive ad budgets
Why emotional connection often lands your first five clients before product maturity does
How to navigate language, culture, and local regulations when expanding internationally
The three factors that keep core employees loyal for the long haul

Key Quote: “Your first customers don’t choose you because you’re the biggest or best; they choose you because they believe you’ll go the extra mile.” — Sameer Narkar

About Sameer Narkar: Sameer Narkar is the Founder and CEO of Konnect Insights, a unified customer experience management platform combining social listening, omni-channel ticketing, analytics, and publishing. Under his leadership, Konnect Insights has grown organically into a trusted enterprise solution for global brands across 20+ industries.

Connect with Sameer: LinkedIn: Sameer Narkar

Website: Konnect Insights

Connect with Lisa: Website: LisaRyanSpeaks.com

LinkedIn: Lisa Ryan, CSP

Listen now to learn how Sameer turned curiosity, persistence, and partnerships into a global success story and why staying human is still the smartest growth strategy of all.

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan sits down with Brent Hagan, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Lob, to explore what it really means to lead with impact: in business, in culture, and in community.

With experience at Amazon, Deliver, Eaton, and Lob, Brent brings a rare perspective on how to scale operations without losing the human connection. He shares stories from massive fulfillment centers to small-town manufacturing plants, where leadership goes far beyond efficiency metrics. From creating bus routes for workers to strengthening local schools, Brent’s approach shows that true supply chain success isn’t just operational, it’s personal.

What You’ll Learn:

How leaders can leave the communities they enter better than they found them
The balance between autonomy, accountability, and culture on the shop floor
Why technology should simplify, not replace, human problem-solving
The biggest mistakes companies make during mergers and acquisitions—and how to avoid them
How small and mid-sized manufacturers can use digital tools without losing their people-first approach
Why something as simple as a whiteboard can outperform high-tech dashboards

Key Quote: “You don’t need a building full of Harvard MBAs. You need people who say, ‘This is what we tried, here’s what we learned, and here’s what we’ll do next.’” — Brent Hagan

About Brent Hagan: Brent Hagan is the Chief Supply Chain Officer at Lob, where he leads logistics, supply chain, and operations strategy for a platform powering billions of personalized mail pieces. With leadership experience at Amazon, Deliver, and Eaton, Brent specializes in bridging traditional operations with technology-driven innovation—while keeping people and community at the heart of every strategy.

Connect with Brent:

LinkedIn: Brent Hagan

Connect with Lisa:

Website: LisaRyanSpeaks.com

LinkedIn: Lisa Ryan, CSP

Listen now to learn how to build a culture that scales and a company that leaves every place it touches better than before.

View Details

In this episode, host Lisa Ryan sits down with Eric Wick, founder of Safety Team Technologies. Drawing from over 15 years of experience in insurance and hands-on safety consulting, Eric shares his journey from the financial sector to creating innovative solutions for blue-collar safety and OSHA compliance.

Key Topics & Takeaways:

From Finance to the Shop Floor:
Eric recounts his early career pivot from finance to industrial sales and, eventually, risk management for blue-collar businesses. Learn how his dedication to supporting small business owners shaped his approach to safety and compliance.
The Pain Points of OSHA Compliance:
Discover the two sides of OSHA compliance—the written Injury Illness Prevention Program (IIPP), which is easier to create than ever before, and the real challenge: implementation and documentation of ongoing safety meetings and hazard assessments.
Insurance Premiums & Experience Mods Demystified:
Eric explains why manufacturers face higher workers compensation premiums and illustrates, with real-world examples, just how costly workplace injuries can be. He offers practical steps to reduce claims and improve your insurance rates.
The Power of Recurring Safety Training:
Consistency is key! Eric shares why regular, relevant safety trainings (especially with quizzes and gamification) not only reduce accidents but can translate into significant cost savings for businesses.
Leveraging Technology & Automation:
Eric provides actionable tips on using automated software for tracking safety meetings, hazard assessments, and employee attendance, making compliance less of a headache and more of a business asset.
Building a Safety-First Culture:
Eric and Lisa discuss the importance of showing employees that safety initiatives are about caring for their well-being—not just checking the OSHA compliance box.
Practical Tools & Resources:
Eric highlights a free OSHA compliance checklist available on the Safety Team Technologies website and explains how their automated platform can fit any manufacturer’s workflow and budget.

Who Should Listen:

Manufacturing leaders, HR professionals, safety managers, insurance brokers serving blue-collar industries, and anyone interested in practical strategies for safer, more compliant workplaces.

Resources Mentioned:

Download a Free OSHA Compliance Checklist: oursafetyteam.com
Schedule a no-pressure demo or enroll in automated safety training starting at just $5/employee/month

Connect with Eric Wick:

Discover how to simplify OSHA compliance and enhance your safety culture at oursafetyteam.com.

Don’t miss this episode if you want to streamline compliance, lower insurance premiums, and send your people home safer every day!

View Details

Are you accidentally sabotaging your best people? Even the most skilled, motivated employees can only perform as well as the tools, information, and support they’re given. When access is blocked—whether it’s equipment, training, or their leader, frustration rises, productivity drops, and great talent walks out the door.

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network, Lisa Ryan, CSP, breaks down how to remove everyday barriers and create Access That Empowers—so your team can do its best work and choose to stay.

You’ll learn:

Why the old “stay in your lane” hierarchy doesn’t work anymore
What today’s employees expect from leaders (approachability, trust, and real connection)
The hidden costs of limited access: bottlenecks, mistakes, and missed ideas

Four practical strategies to create access:

Ask before it’s a problem
Be human and approachable
Eliminate friction in tools, processes, and training
Open doors to growth (cross-training, shadowing, clear paths)

Key idea: When you make success easier for your people, they make success inevitable for you.

Brought to you by Grategy — helping manufacturing leaders create cultures people want to work in and nobody wants to leave. Learn more at LisaRyanSpeaks.com.

View Details

In this episode of the Manufacturer’s Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan welcomes Reeves Smith, Director of Sales at Leapfrog, to share his decades of IT experience helping manufacturers tackle cybersecurity, digital transformation, and the complexities of modernization. Reeves breaks down real-world challenges and actionable steps for manufacturing leaders ready to secure and streamline their operations.

Key Topics Covered:

Common Technology Struggles for Manufacturers
Reeves shares why so many small and midsize companies hit technology roadblocks as they try to scale up and modernize, and how the pace of tech change often outstrips internal IT skills and resources.
The Truth About Cyber Threats
Why being a smaller manufacturer doesn’t mean hackers will overlook you—attackers are often targeting your organization’s connections and customer networks. Hear a real story of a multi-million-dollar impersonation attack that almost put a business under.
The Evolving Cybersecurity Landscape
Threats are growing more sophisticated, and so are the entry points—from IoT devices to remote laptops. Reeves explains why old strategies won’t cut it for today’s manufacturing environments.
People: The Essential Security Layer
Most cybersecurity breaches start with people, not just failed technology. Reeves emphasizes the importance of workforce training, proactive testing, and building a culture of security awareness at every level.
How AI Is Changing the Game
From AI-powered phishing to deepfake scams that trick even top executives, manufacturers need to be vigilant. Plus, practical advice for manufacturers just starting to explore AI and automation—like making use of AI tools already embedded in their current platforms.
Laying the Foundation for Innovation
Before investing heavily in AI, Reeves explains why upgrading infrastructure, managing and integrating data, and moving applications to the cloud are critical first steps to success.
Smart Steps for Digital Transformation
Find out how to prioritize the right projects, avoid costly missteps with public AI tools, and get buy-in from the team, especially when introducing changes to legacy systems.
Navigating Change and Job Security Fears
Reeves addresses worries about AI taking jobs and offers a constructive way for employees to use technology as a tool for growth, not just efficiency.
Why Partnering with Experts Matters
With security and technology demands growing, Reeves highlights the benefits of working with an experienced IT partner for strategic advice and reliable protection.

Top Takeaways:

Don’t assume you’re too small to be a target—cybercrime affects manufacturers of all sizes.
Invest in workforce education; people are your first (and often weakest) cybersecurity layer.
Start with the infrastructure and data management before chasing advanced AI.
Use trusted IT partners to assess your situation and guide tailored solutions.
Consider security and productivity side by side—good cybersecurity shouldn’t slow down production.

Connect with Reeves Smith and Leapfrog:

Email: reeves.smith@leapfrogservices.com
Website: leapfrogservices.com

Ready to modernize your manufacturing security? Listen to this episode for an expert’s roadmap to resilient, future-ready operations!

View Details

In this episode of the Manufacturers Network Podcast, Lisa Ryan welcomes Grace Bilbrough, Director of Marketing for ProWood, a leading brand under UFP Industries. Grace shares her journey from event planning to becoming a key marketing strategist, and reflects on the pivotal role company culture played in ProWood’s successful rebrand and business transformation.

Grace and Lisa dive deeply into the importance of transparency, open communication, and recognizing employee contributions as cornerstones of Pro@ood’s culture. Grace reveals practical ways her team bridges cross-department silos, fosters entrepreneurial thinking, and keeps employees motivated, even throughout periods of change and growth. She offers insights into how initiatives like leaderboards, town halls, and regular updates keep competitive spirits high and teams aligned with company goals.

Learn how new ideas—like the launch of ProWood’s upcoming True Frame Joists—are sourced directly from employee feedback on the front lines, and how their culture of care extends from manufacturing lines to customer partnerships. Whether you’re navigating change in your own organization or looking for fresh ways to spark employee engagement, Grace shares actionable takeaways you can implement today.

Key Topics:

The value of transparency and honest communication through change
Encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship across a large organization
Practical strategies for employee recognition and alignment
Collaborating across marketing, sales, operations, and product teams
Translating internal culture into long-lasting customer relationships

Connect with Grace Bilbrough on LinkedIn or via email at GBilbrough@prowood.com to continue the conversation.

Tune in for actionable advice and inspiring stories about building a people-first culture in manufacturing!

View Details

Welcome to the Manufacturer’s Network Podcast! In this episode, host Lisa Ryan sits down with Ben Hansen, a 5-time Inc. 5000 entrepreneur, founder of an 8-figure staffing firm, and expert in maximizing profitability for $2M–$50M companies. Ben is the "Profit Doctor," helping businesses identify and eliminate “profit leaks” to significantly boost bottom-line results.

Key Topics Covered:

Ben’s Journey: From his early days at Dell and Microsoft to launching his own fast-growth company and eventually becoming the go-to expert for curing "profit-itis."
Understanding Profit-itis: Why having strong revenue doesn’t always mean healthy profits, and what profit-itis looks like in manufacturing companies.
Biggest Profit Myths Debunked: The dangers of focusing solely on revenue growth and why the popular “hockey playbook” doesn’t work for most businesses.
The 80/20 Rule & The 50/20 Formula: Ben explains how identifying and cutting the least profitable products, clients, and employees can fast-track margin improvement.
Profit Killers: How profit psychology, unprofitable products, toxic employees, and the myth that “more is always better” can undermine your success.
Simplifying Financials: Transforming complex P&Ls into actionable reports that help non-accountants make better decisions.
Accounting Blind Spots: Common mistakes in financial analysis, including underestimating the cost of difficult clients and the impact of soft costs.
Growing Without Growing: How many firms can substantially improve profits without adding a single dollar to revenue—sometimes by getting smaller and more focused.
Actionable Steps: Ben shares his Profit Accelerator and Profit CFO programs, designed to simplify your numbers and create massive gains.

Resources & Links:

Connect with Ben Hansen at https://www.profitdoctor.com
Find Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benhansenprofitdoctor
For CEOs looking to break the cycle of low profits, schedule a check-in with Ben

If you’re a business leader tired of working harder for less, this episode is packed with practical insights and real-world strategies you can put to work right away!

View Details

Too often in the workplace, recognition is either generic, forced, or inconsistent, and when that happens, it loses its power. But when done well, recognition is one of the most powerful tools you have to inspire loyalty, engagement, and long-term retention.

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network, Lisa Ryan, CSP, shares how to make recognition meaningful, personal, and consistent, without breaking the budget or making it awkward.

You’ll discover:

Why recognition is one of the most underutilized retention strategies
The biggest myths about recognition — and how to overcome them
How to make recognition specific, timely, and tied to your mission
Simple tools like peer-to-peer recognition and “All About Me” sheets
Four practical strategies you can implement right away to make recognition stick

When employees feel seen and valued for their everyday contributions, they don’t just stay, they thrive.

Brought to you by Grategy, helping manufacturing leaders create cultures people want to work in and nobody wants to leave. Learn more at LisaRyanSpeaks.com.

View Details

In this episode of the Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan sits down with Harish Chandramowli, co-founder of Flaire and an expert in software engineering and data management. Harish, bringing a fresh perspective from outside the traditional manufacturing space, discusses how technology and a data-driven approach can transform the way fashion brands operate, from production planning to supply chain management.

Discover why fashion manufacturing is vastly more complex than most industries due to SKUs, color variations, and the speed of trends. Harish explains how legacy processes relying on PDFs and emails hinder efficiency and highlights the revenue risks that come from lost or mismanaged data. He also shares real-life stories from working with emerging brands and the importance of adopting scalable, nimble workflow tools before investing in a full-fledged ERP.

Whether you're a small business wrestling with spreadsheets or looking to streamline operations with AI and automation, Harish's advice will help you harness the power of data from day one. He shares practical tips for getting started with affordable modern tools, maintaining data sanity, and adapting workflows as your brand grows.

Key Takeaways:

Why SKUs and data management are especially critical in fashion manufacturing
How delays and lost data translate to lost revenue in fast-moving industries
The surprising complexity of different manufacturing sectors
Strategies for improving data entry and usage even with limited resources
When (and when not) to invest in ERP software
How AI tools and spreadsheets can kickstart your data organization
A vision for the future of lightweight, customizable workflow platforms

Connect with Harish:

Reach out to Harish Chandramowli on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scharish/ for more insights on workflow automation, data-driven manufacturing, and a candid discussion about your business operations.

Tune in now to learn how you can revamp your production and supply chain strategies—with Harish Chandramowli!

View Details

In this episode of the Manufacturer’s Network, Lisa Ryan dives deep into one of the most critical and overlooked moments in any manufacturing employee’s journey: onboarding. She reveals why those first 90 days are the make-or-break window for retention and explores how traditional onboarding, centered on paperwork and compliance, is failing new hires. Lisa shares practical, high-impact strategies to shift onboarding from a box-checking task to a powerful tool for connection, engagement, and long-term retention.

You’ll learn:

The real reason employees leave in their first 90 days and how to prevent it
Why onboarding actually starts before Day One and what you can do during that “T-minus” period
Ways to make new hires feel welcome before they even walk in the door
The critical role leaders and peers (not just HR!) play in successful onboarding
Simple, actionable ideas: from welcome kits to buddy systems, that create belonging and boost morale
The importance of regular check-ins and personal touches to keep employees engaged from the start

Lisa also previews next week’s topic on recognition strategies that foster loyalty. Tune in for fresh insight and actionable tips you can put to work right away in your organization!

Links:

Learn more about Lisa’s work and resources: lisaryanspeaks.com
Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn or email her your questions for a chance to be featured in a future episode!

Remember:

Culture isn’t a perk—it’s your strongest competitive advantage. See you next time!

View Details

On this episode of the Manufacturers Network, host Lisa Ryan sits down with William Spengler, founder of Frederick Fox, a recruiting firm that’s helped over 700 companies hire standout finance professionals for manufacturing and beyond. William brings more than 15 years of agency recruiting experience and a background in cost accounting to this candid conversation about winning the race for manufacturing finance talent.

What You’ll Learn:

Why plant finance roles are some of the hardest jobs to fill in manufacturing today.
How proactive networking within a 25-mile radius gives CFOs an edge before hiring becomes urgent.
The post-pandemic shift: Why most manufacturers are moving finance talent back onsite, and how that impacts recruiting.
Creative strategies CFOs can use to stay salary-competitive without breaking the P&L.
How remote flexibility and company culture play into long-term talent retention.
The “human-first” approach that helps land highly specialized candidates—even when relocation is involved.
Insider tips for manufacturers scaling through organic growth or private equity: what to plan for in hiring and onboarding.
Why a magical first day (with swag!) and a thoughtful onboarding process make recruiters’ and candidates’ lives easier.

Key Moments:

William’s journey from cost accountant to recruiter, and why industry experience matters
The importance of trust and flexibility in today’s workplace culture
Real-world examples: moving high-value talent across states and crafting a personalized candidate experience
Unique perks companies are using to stand out—think HOA discounts and wellness benefits
How to have the right internal conversations before starting your next finance search

If you’re a manufacturing leader or CFO struggling to find—and keep—great finance people, this episode is packed with practical advice and fresh perspective.

Connect with William Spengler:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willspengler
Website: https://www.frederickfox.com

Listen in for the strategies and mindset you need to build a finance dream team in today’s market!

View Details

Welcome to a brand new chapter of the Manufacturers Network Podcast! In this high-impact solo episode, Lisa Ryan dives into the critical workplace culture shifts manufacturing leaders need to make NOW to attract and retain top talent into 2026.

Lisa breaks down the three essential culture shifts every manufacturing organization must implement:

Purpose Over Pay: Move beyond wages and help employees connect their work to a bigger mission.
Recognition as a Habit: Discover why daily, specific recognition is the secret sauce for boosting morale and driving results.
Acts of Service: Learn how removing small frustrations and truly listening to your people transforms your workplace.

Every culture shift comes with an actionable step you can implement this week; no fluff, just real-world strategies you can carry right onto the shop floor or into the boardroom.

Lisa also teases upcoming episodes focused on onboarding strategies that go beyond HR paperwork to make new hires feel valued (and stick around!).

Key Takeaways:

How to connect employees with purpose for stronger retention.
The power of intentional, frequent recognition.
Why small acts of service and problem solving matter more than grand gestures.
Simple action steps to build a culture people don’t want to leave.

If you’re ready to lead with purpose and build teams that last, this episode is for you!

Connect with Lisa Ryan:

LinkedIn: Lisa Ryan
Email: lisa@grategy.com
Learn more: lisaryanspeaks.com

Brought to you by Grategy: practical tools for manufacturing leaders to strengthen teams and boost retention.

Subscribe for upcoming episodes featuring expert guests and more practical strategies from Lisa!

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturer’s Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan sits down with David Blue, founder and CEO of Saltbox Mgmt. With over a decade of experience in digital strategy, Salesforce implementation, and enterprise sales, David shares candid insights into how manufacturers can modernize operations, enhance customer engagement, and thrive in a rapidly changing landscape.

What’s Inside:

David’s Journey: How the pandemic was the catalyst for starting Saltbox Mgmt and why manufacturers still have a long road ahead in digital transformation.
Changing Buyer Demographics: The shift in customer expectations—how younger, “born-online” buyers want more self-service and digital options.
Blending Old & New: Why it’s not about choosing between personal relationships or automation—but creating frictionless, blended experiences across multiple channels.
Practical Automation Wins: Real-world examples (like Shorr Packaging) of starting small—digital commerce, order intake, and ERP integration—to drive efficiency without disrupting value-added jobs.
The Human Element: How digital tools free up sales and service teams to focus on high-value activities, rather than replacing jobs outright.
Combatting Tariffs with Tech: Unpacking David’s Salesforce blog—how digital commerce and order management can help manufacturers defend their margins and adapt to global trade uncertainty.
Subscription Economy for Manufacturers: What it takes to successfully offer digital subscriptions and services alongside physical products—including why good data and systems integration are essential.
Data-Driven Decisions: The importance of clean, real-time data to enable self-service and support next-gen business models.
Where to Start: David’s #1 tip for manufacturing leaders—talk to your customers, prioritize high-value/low-effort wins, and remember: transformation is a journey, not a sprint.

Connect with David Blue: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-blue/

Saltbox Mgmt: https://saltboxmgmt.com

Key Quote:

“Listen to your customers. Build a roadmap around what they want and start with small, high-value wins to fuel your digital journey.”

View Details

Guests: Lynzie Nebel & Mercedes Landazeri, Co-Hosts of PlastChicks

Host: Lisa Ryan

Episode OverviewIn this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan sits down with Mercedes Landazuri and Lynzie Nebel, the vibrant duo behind the podcast “PlastChicks: The Voices of Resin.” These trailblazing women have been championing the plastics and manufacturing industry for over six years, using their platform to broadcast innovation, emerging trends, and workforce development while actively supporting the next generation through educational programs and scholarships.

Whether you're interested in the future of plastics, STEM career journeys, or seeking strategies for nurturing talent within the manufacturing industry, this episode delivers valuable insights, inspiration, and a great sense of humor.

Key Themes & Lessons Learned1. Non-Linear STEM Pathways Both Lynzie and Mercedes came to plastics and manufacturing from unexpected backgrounds—Lynzie from music and Mercedes from academia and languages—highlighting that a passion for STEM can develop later and through diverse experiences. * Lesson Learned:* There's no single or 'correct' path into manufacturing or STEM industries. Openness to new opportunities and leveraging transferable skills can lead to fulfilling careers.

The Power of Serendipity and Curiosity* Lynzie’s pivotal exposure to a tabletop injection molder in high school and Mercedes’ plunge into plastics through a recruiter demonstrate how chance encounters and curiosity can spark lifelong passions and careers.
Lesson Learned: Encourage curiosity and seize unexpected opportunities—they can lead to transformative career shifts.
Innovation and Trends in Plastics* The industry is rapidly evolving from traditional commodities to the integration of bio-based and sustainable materials.
Innovations in color technology, such as the development of brighter red pearlescent pigments for cars, showcase the intersection of science, design, and manufacturing.
Sustainability as a Talent Magnet* Today's workforce is purpose-driven; sustainability initiatives, such as reducing pellet loss and educational efforts on recycling, are essential for attracting and retaining new talent in the plastics manufacturing industry.
Lesson Learned: For manufacturers, backing up sustainability claims with real actions—not just lip service—is vital to engage and retain Gen Z and Millennial workers who value impact over income.
Empowering the Next Generation* Through the “PlastChicks” scholarship program, Lynzie and Mercedes prioritize commitment and passion over GPA, offering support to students regardless of major, as demonstrated by awarding a scholarship to a computer science student who championed plastics via software innovation.
Lesson Learned: Broadening the definition of “ideal candidate” for scholarships and hiring opens doors to underrepresented yet highly motivated individuals.
Industry Engagement and Breaking Barriers* Transparency, authenticity, and breaking down hierarchies between industry veterans and emerging professionals foster stronger engagement and a more robust future for the plastics manufacturing industry.
Lesson Learned: Leaders can retain talent by being approachable, honest about both opportunities and challenges, and by actively mentoring newcomers.

Fun Facts & Memorable Moments Name Creation: The show “PlastChicks” was nearly called “Good Morning Amorphous Material”—but Mercedes’s knack for creative language resulted in their now-iconic brand. * Shared Musical Roots: Both Lynzie and Mercedes are musicians, which they believe helps them both as natural mimics and communicators; a handy trait in STEM and transdisciplinary fields. * Favorite Episodes: Interviews with the Kender siblings, all plastics engineers at the same time, stand out; so does their glittery, Taylor Swift-themed presentation at the “Women Breaking the Mold” conference (so successful it got its own Plastics News article). * Unusual Filming Location: Not all interviews are conducted in glamorous settings—one memorable episode with Wendy Honey, a Plastics Hall of Fame inductee, was filmed in a dimly lit conference room reminiscent of an interrogation scene. * Expanding Education:* The PlastChicks’ upcoming “Plastics 101” educational video series aims to bridge the knowledge gap for those new to the plastics industry, especially those coming from non-plastics backgrounds.

Connect with PlastChicksYou can listen to PlastChicks on all major podcast platforms: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more. For additional content, check out the SPE YouTube channel or connect with Lynzie and Mercedes directly via LinkedIn or on Instagram (@plastchicks).

SEO-Friendly Keywords for This Episode* Plastics industry trends * Women in manufacturing * Sustainability in plastics * STEM careers * Color innovation in manufacturing * Workforce development in manufacturing * Plastics education and scholarships * Injection molding advancements * Next-generation manufacturing talent * PlastChicks podcast

View Details

Episode OverviewIn this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan sits down with Derek Krieger, an innovative leader in manufacturing technology and AI, to discuss how artificial intelligence transforms on-the-job training, knowledge sharing, and employee engagement in the manufacturing sector. Derek shares his personal journey, the inspiration behind Practical AI and PocketMentor, and the practical steps manufacturers can take to leverage AI while protecting their intellectual property and empowering frontline workers.

Key Themes & Lessons Learned1. Bridging the Skills Gap in Manufacturing

For over 30 years, the manufacturing industry has struggled with a shortage of skilled tradespeople. Derek, who rose from hands-on industrial work to engineering and educational development, highlights the perennial challenge: "We're always short on the shop floor of skilled trades." The knowledge gap—especially during off-hours—results in costly downtime when the right expertise isn’t immediately available.

2. Practical AI Implementation with PocketMentor

PocketMentor is a breakthrough AI-powered, voice-accessible tool that delivers real-time support, training, and troubleshooting on the shop floor—without requiring extra headcount or specialized hardware. Through a simple QR code scan, technicians can access conversational, hands-free guidance, eliminating the need to leaf through bulky manuals or carry tablets and laptops while working.

3. Meeting the Needs of a Changing Workforce

Younger workers, or "digital natives," are less likely to engage with traditional modes of knowledge transfer (like thick manuals or intimidating expert technicians). They embrace tech-enabled self-learning. PocketMentor offers this new generation an approachable, judgment-free way to ask questions and learn, helping to overcome generational communication barriers within teams.

4. Change Management: Easing the Adoption of New Technologies

Derek underscores the importance of effective change management and communication. Introducing AI solutions isn't just a technical switch: it requires setting clear expectations, top-to-bottom communication, and a bottom-up feedback loop. "It's about running a PR campaign," he notes, to foster buy-in and minimize resistance, especially among experienced workers wary of automation.

5. Protecting Intellectual Property with AI

Many manufacturers are concerned about data security and safeguarding trade secrets when using AI solutions. Practical AI addresses these concerns by implementing strict guardrails, syncing closely with IT departments, and keeping company-specific knowledge securely in-house.

6. Culture & Employee Wellbeing

Beyond technical support, Practical AI integrates features like Connections HR that provide anonymized, real-time feedback on employee morale and mental health, giving HR a clearer picture of workplace culture and enabling proactive adjustments.

7. Moving Forward: The Future of Real-Time Support in Manufacturing

Derek predicts that real-time, voice-enabled AI support will become the norm for manufacturers aiming to increase OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness), minimize downtime, and scale expertise efficiently without exhausting limited skilled trades.

Fun Facts Local Flavor: Derek and Lisa have ties to Cleveland and Indianapolis, and share some friendly NBA banter involving the Pacers and the Cavs! * Late-Diagnosed Neurodiversity: Derek discovered he is on the autism spectrum and has ADHD at age 50, a personal insight that fuels his inclusive, tech-driven approach to solving workplace challenges. * Kitten Cameo:* Lisa mentions her kittens when discussing "hallucinations" in AI, drawing a humorous analogy to unpredictable answers and the need for programming guardrails.

Keywords & SEO Highlights* Voice-enabled training tools for manufacturing * Reducing manufacturing downtime with AI * Real-time manufacturing support solutions * Practical AI implementation in manufacturing * Bridging generational gaps in skilled trades * Employee engagement and mental health in manufacturing * Manufacturing change management best practices * Industrial knowledge sharing and retention * Secure AI platforms for industry * PocketMentor review and user benefits

Memorable Quotes* “There's always going to be a knowledge gap from the best performer to the lowest performer, and it's magnified when we have fewer skilled trades.” * “PocketMentor is that voice in your ear ... It’s like calling up Jim or Janice at 2 AM on a Saturday and saying, ‘Hey, talk me through this repair’ without waking anyone up.” * “The only people who are going to be replaced are the ones who don’t use technology.”

Learn More and ConnectWant to experience PocketMentor or connect with Derek Krieger?

Visit practicalai.app for more info, demos, and to continue the conversation about revolutionizing manufacturing with practical, secure AI.

View Details

Are you looking to boost productivity, improve employee engagement, and align your manufacturing team's objectives with business goals? This episode dives deep into “gain sharing,” guided by 20+ year industry veteran Dr. Chuck DeBettignies. Discover key strategies, actionable lessons, and why so many companies see rapid improvements when adopting this proven system.

Key Themes & Takeaways1. What is Gain Sharing?

Gain sharing is a performance-based pay system in which employees receive bonuses linked directly to improvements in productivity and results, not just profits or effort. Unlike traditional profit sharing (often doled out at year-end), gain sharing provides frequent, transparent feedback—typically with monthly payouts and ongoing performance metrics. This creates a game-like environment where everyone is incentivized and aligned toward company goals.

2. From Car Races to Corporate Culture: Dr. Chuck’s Inspiration

Dr. Chuck shares a fun story about his childhood near the famous Indianapolis 500 racetrack, where he observed the determination and teamwork of race crews. The lesson? When people are passionate and feel purpose in their work, results soar—a philosophy he’s brought into the manufacturing world through gain sharing.

3. Gain Sharing vs. Profit Sharing

Profit sharing is retrospective and lacks actionable feedback for employees during the year. Gain sharing is proactive and immediate—employees see clear, frequent feedback tied to their daily and weekly work, allowing for real-time adjustments. This boosts performance and creates a culture of transparency and trust.

4. The Six Essentials of Effective Gain Sharing

80/20 Numbers: Use Pareto’s Principle to focus on the core drivers of profit and productivity—reward the efforts that matter most.
Incentives: Frequent, transparent bonuses based on real results.
Overall Plan: Define “what good looks like” company-wide, then cascade expectations to departments and individuals.
Feedback: Regular, actionable feedback at all levels so that adjustments can be made immediately.
Boots on the Ground Connection: Every worker knows their daily/weekly impact on the company’s results, ensuring engagement, inclusion, and accountability.
Fixes: Systematically identify and solve problems that hinder performance; eliminating recurring issues leads to measurable, lasting gains.

5. Fast Results & Retention

Companies often see productivity improvements of 5-10% quickly, sometimes even higher, in just 30-90 days. Gain sharing not only improves the bottom line, but it also becomes a powerful employee retention tool. When workers feel valued and are paid for performance, loyalty increases and turnover decreases, often leading to “boomerang employees” who leave and later return for the meaningful culture and rewards.

6. Real-World Results & Overcoming Skepticism

While some employees may initially be skeptical of new programs, tangible, consistent bonuses quickly win over even the loudest doubters. These early skeptics often become the system's biggest advocates.

Lessons Learned Goal Alignment is essential in manufacturing: Gain sharing unites company and employee goals, reducing the conflict between “time worked” and “results delivered.” * Transparency and feedback Loops build trust and real-time improvement, similar to the “Great Game of Business” model pioneered by Jack Stack. * Problem Solving Matters: Consistent plans and weekly debriefs (identifying and fixing issues) drive lasting gains. * Engagement is a Game Changer: Creating a game-like, competitive, supportive atmosphere keeps employees invested and motivated. * Trust in Numbers: When employees understand how their actions impact profit and loss, they perform better at work and often take those lessons home, improving their financial literacy and quality of life. * Retain Your Best Talent:* Employees who experience meaningful reward systems are less likely to leave—and often return after discovering the “grass isn’t greener” elsewhere.

Fun Facts & Memorable Moments Dr. Chuck’s journey began as a child mesmerized by the sights and sounds of the Indy 500, inspiring a lifelong fascination with teams that are truly engaged* in their work. * Even the largest manufacturing skeptics can become gain sharing’s biggest fans—especially after their first bonus checks! * Companies using gain sharing sometimes experience a remarkable 85% “boomerang rate,” with former employees returning after seeing the difference in culture and pay elsewhere.

About Dr. Chuck DeBettigniesDr. Chuck is not only a recognized gain sharing expert—having worked with over 300 corporations across the U.S. and Europe—but he’s also the author of the new book The Gain Sharing Revolution (available now on Amazon). He provides ongoing tips and industry insights at gainsharing.com and offers regular email updates geared toward manufacturing excellence.

Episode Resources Learn more about gain sharing: gainsharing.com * Book: The Gain Sharing Revolution by Dr. Chuck DeBettignies – on Amazon * Podcast Host:* Lisa Ryan

Keywords * Gain sharing in manufacturing * Gain sharing vs profit sharing * Manufacturing productivity improvement * Employee engagement in manufacturing * Performance-based pay systems * Workplace culture of trust in manufacturing * Dr. Chuck DeBettignies Gain Sharing Revolution * Employee retention strategies manufacturing * Production incentives and bonuses * Feedback loops in manufacturing teams

View Details

Connect with Clay Martin* LinkedIn: Clay Martin * Website: recruitingPuertoRico.com

In this insightful episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, Lisa Ryan chats with Clay Martin, founder of Isla Talent, to discuss innovative solutions for manufacturing workforce shortages by recruiting top-tier blue-collar talent from Puerto Rico—no visas, no red tape. Clay shares his journey from the Peace Corps to entrepreneurial success and dives deep into the motivations, processes, and key considerations for American manufacturers looking to tap into the Puerto Rican labor market.

Key Themes & Takeaways1. Solving Manufacturing Labor Shortages with Puerto Rican Talent

Clay Martin highlights the unique advantages of recruiting Puerto Rican workers for manufacturing roles in the U.S. Labor shortages have hit the sector hard. Puerto Rico presents a highly motivated, skilled workforce ready to relocate with minimal legal barriers.

2. Visa-Free, Hassle-Free Recruitment

A game-changing benefit: Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, so recruiting from the island involves no visa requirements or immigration red tape. Manufacturers can onboard 10–20 employees within 2–4 weeks.

3. Attracting Puerto Rican Workers—The Economic Motivator

Clay underscores how the significant pay gap between Puerto Rico and the mainland U.S. (manufacturing wages can be double on the mainland) incentivizes many Puerto Ricans to seek opportunities Stateside. Economic instability and past events like Hurricane Maria have further fueled this migration.

4. Best-Fit Industries & In-Demand Skills

Puerto Rican workers excel across various manufacturing sectors—food and beverage, metalwork, skilled trades like welding, carpentry, warehouse operations, and electrical work. Their flexibility and diverse skill sets make them an asset to various industries.

5. Building Trust, Not Just Filling Jobs

Recruitment success depends on relationship building, cultural understanding, and word-of-mouth reputation. Clay’s process includes on-site presence in Puerto Rico, culturally competent staff, and job fairs to foster trust.

6. Navigating Language & Onboarding Challenges

While many recruits speak conversational English, around 20–30% are fluent, and nearly all can get by with translation apps (aided by tools like Google Translate and DeepL). Customized onboarding, clear communication on pay and deductions (including tax differences), and thorough orientation sessions lead to better retention.

7. Practical Rollout & Retention Strategies

Successful placement involves coordinated logistics: furnished housing, transportation, transparent payroll deductions, and robust support post-placement. Retention incentives (e.g., bonuses after 4–6 months, wage increases, or unique perks like sports tickets) foster long-term commitment.

8. Pitfalls to Avoid

DIY recruiting can backfire without cultural sensitivity or adequate planning. Common mistakes include poor-quality housing, skipping proper training, or rushing the onboarding process in pursuit of production numbers.

Lessons Learned Patience and Flexibility pay dividends when integrating talent from new regions or backgrounds. Thorough onboarding and cultural support are critical. * Transparency is Key: Clear communication about pay, taxes, and expectations helps avoid misunderstandings. * Retention Incentives Matter: Creative bonuses and recognition encourage loyalty and reduce turnover, whether for Puerto Rican recruits or any workforce segment. * Cultural Understanding Drives Success:* Respectfully navigating regional differences and language barriers ensures a smoother transition for both recruits and employers.

Fun Facts & Noteworthy Insights No Visa Required: One of the biggest misconceptions—Puerto Rican workers ARE U.S. citizens. No visa is required, yet many companies wrongly assume otherwise. * Surprising Weather Adjustments: Recruits from tropical Puerto Rico have landed in snowy Michigan or Cleveland winters in just T-shirts—now, checklists and pre-move guidance include cold-weather prep! * Diverse Motivations: Some workers seek long-term relocation, while others are “seasonal nomads,” returning to Puerto Rico during the off-season and returning for work. * Word-of-Mouth Power: After over a decade in the field, much of Isla Talent’s recruiting happens through personal referrals and reputation in Puerto Rican communities. * Technology is a Bridge, Not a Barrier:* With modern translation tech, language is rarely a dealbreaker for effective manufacturing work.

Connect with Clay Martin LinkedIn: Clay Martin * Website:* recruitingPuertoRico.com

Final ThoughtsClay Martin’s approach reveals that looking beyond traditional hiring pools—and understanding the unique strengths and needs of Puerto Rican workers—can offer sustainable solutions to chronic labor shortages in U.S. manufacturing. If your company seeks reliable, skilled, and motivated employees, consider broadening your recruitment horizons and embracing cultural onboarding best practices.

View Details

Connect with Scott Peters: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottpeters74/

In this inspiring episode of The Manufacturers’ Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan sits down with Scott Peters, a third-generation plastics and mold making expert who has spent nearly five decades shaping not just molds, but mindsets. As the founder of Molded Marketing and a lifelong advocate for the skilled trades, Scott brings a blend of technical expertise, leadership insight, and heartfelt storytelling to the conversation. Together, Lisa and Scott explore the dramatic transformation of mold making—from the “dungeon days” of manual processes to today’s precision-driven world of CNC machines and wire EDM technology. Scott shares how innovations like EDM, once unimaginable, now define modern tooling—and how this shift opens the door for younger, tech-savvy professionals to see manufacturing as a rewarding, purpose-driven career.

Scott and Lisa discuss why the old narratives around manufacturing no longer serve us, and how reframing the industry as a force for good can help attract a more diverse and motivated workforce. Scott emphasizes that mission-driven messaging—how manufacturing saves lives, supports families, and powers everyday life—is far more effective than focusing on pay or promotions. He shares his passion for storytelling as a recruitment tool, highlighting how manufacturers can use impact-focused narratives to inspire students, parents, and career changers alike.

The episode also dives into gender equity and DEI in the trades. Scott talks about the growing presence and leadership of women in mold making and manufacturing, from apprentices on the shop floor to owners and executives. He points to the work being done through organizations like SPE’s “Women Making the Mold” series and the Women in Manufacturing association, encouraging listeners to create inclusive workplaces where respect, equal pay, and equal opportunity are non-negotiables.

Education and workforce development take center stage as well. Scott champions early engagement with vocational and technical schools, urging manufacturers to participate in curriculum design, mentorship programs, and plant tours. He highlights initiatives like the SPE Foundation’s PlastiVan program, which brings hands-on science and plastics education to students across the country. His message is clear: if you want great people, you have to grow them—and that means teaching the basics first. Foundational mechanical knowledge, strong work ethic, and curiosity must come before CAD/CAM and digital tools.

Lisa and Scott also explore how safety and communication are at the heart of great culture. From his global experiences—including lessons learned in Chinese manufacturing environments—Scott shares real-life examples of how leadership presence and proactive plant engagement can prevent accidents, build trust, and create safer, more connected teams. He advocates for peer-led safety walks and on-the-floor conversations as a powerful, low-cost strategy to build accountability and ownership across the team.

Finally, the conversation wraps with a focus on retention. Scott urges manufacturers to eliminate repetitive, mindless tasks and instead challenge team members to learn, grow, and contribute meaningfully. He explains why trainability and enthusiasm often outweigh experience alone—and how consistent, specific recognition can create a culture where people want to stay. One of the episode’s key messages: “If you want to keep your people, make them feel seen.”

This episode is a masterclass in modern manufacturing leadership—from tools and technology to culture and communication. Whether you’re a shop owner, HR leader, plant supervisor, or workforce educator, Scott’s wisdom and warmth offer practical, proven strategies to help you shape a more sustainable, inclusive, and energized future for manufacturing.

Resources Mentioned:

Molded Marketing: https://moldedmarketing.com
Contact Scott: scott.peters@moldedmarketing.com

View Details

In this enlightening episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan welcomes Dean Wegner, founder and CEO of Authentically American. Dean shares his journey from a West Point graduate and Army veteran to an entrepreneur passionate about creating American jobs through his 100% American-made apparel brand. Explore the strategic insights Dean gained from his corporate experiences at Procter & Gamble and Mars and how they shaped his mission-driven leadership approach today.

Key Themes and Lessons Learned:

Commitment to American Manufacturing and Job Creation:
Dean Wegner is on a mission to revitalize American manufacturing by producing high-quality apparel made entirely in the U.S. He aims to create jobs and support the American worker, moving away from the industry's reliance on cheap overseas labor.
Entrepreneurial Journey and Strategies:
Dean transitioned from an Army officer to a corporate executive at Fortune 500 companies before embarking on his entrepreneurial journey. He stresses the importance of understanding your industry and the power of branding and marketing.
Balancing Mission and Profitability:
Authentically American adheres to a direct-to-consumer business model, inspired by successful examples like Dell and Southwest. This approach helps maintain competitive pricing by cutting out the middleman, ensuring high-quality American-made products remain affordable.
Harnessing National Media for Brand Growth:
Dean shares how national media exposure catalyzes brand awareness and sales but emphasizes the need for sustained marketing efforts to maintain growth momentum.
Employee and Customer Engagement:
Authentically American boosts customer and employee loyalty by staying true to its values. Dean’s commitment to donating 10% of profits to veterans and first responders is a testament to the brand’s purpose-driven ethos.

Fun Fact:

Authentically American incorporates innovative designs, such as sweat-activated T-shirts, which reveal new messages as you perspire, a nod to their creativity and unique market appeal.

Connect with Dean Wegner:

Visit Authentically American's website at authenticallyamerican.us to learn more about Dean Wegner or explore its range of premium American-made apparel. You can also connect with Dean on LinkedIn to stay updated on his journey and insights into American manufacturing.

View Details

Connect with Ivan Madera on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-madera-b63b018/

In this episode, we dive deep into aerospace additive manufacturing with guest Ivan Madera. Ivan is a seasoned entrepreneur and expert in advanced manufacturing, boasting over 25 years of experience in the industry. Get ready to explore the key challenges, emerging technologies, and strategies that are shaping the future of manufacturing.

Key Themes:

Advanced Manufacturing and 3D Printing: Ivan Madera shares insights into the rapid evolution and growing interest in advanced manufacturing technologies, particularly focusing on the aerospace and defense sectors. Learn about the critical role of 3D printing in the industry and how it has progressed over the past decade.
AI and Robotics in Manufacturing: Discover how artificial intelligence and robotics transform manufacturing processes. Ivan discusses the impact of AI in augmenting human capabilities, providing recommendations, and optimizing efficiencies in production lines.
Onshoring and Nearshoring Strategies: Understand the current trends in onshoring and nearshoring and their significance in ensuring a resilient supply chain. Ivan highlights the shift from nearshore strategies to focus more on onshore manufacturing, emphasizing its importance for improving productivity and reducing dependency on foreign partners.
Bridging the Talent Gap: With a retiring workforce lacking skilled talent, Ivan addresses the vital need to upskill the new engineers. Listen to strategies for transferring decades of experience to younger employees and the importance of mentorship programs in retaining talent.
Technology Adoption Challenges: Ivan illuminates the barriers organizations face when adopting emerging technologies, including resistance to change and the necessity of strong leadership and clear communication to facilitate successful implementation.

Lessons Learned:

Integrating AI in manufacturing isn't about replacing jobs but enhancing productivity by allowing employees to focus on more critical tasks.
Creating a development path for young engineers can significantly increase employee retention and build a strong leadership pipeline.
Leveraging advanced technologies like AI can help traditional manufacturing enterprises modernize and boost efficiency.

Fun Facts:

Ivan describes AI-augmented engineers as "super engineers," equipped with years of industry knowledge through advanced data analysis.
The average tenure for employees at Ivan's previous company was an impressive three and a half years, showcasing the effectiveness of strong training and mentorship.

Thank you for tuning in! If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review and share it with your network. Stay connected with us for more exciting episodes exploring the world of manufacturing.

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan sits down with Meaghan Ziemba, an industrial tech writer, brand storyteller, and the dynamic force behind Mavens of Manufacturing. With a BA and MA in professional and technical writing, Meaghan shares her journey into the manufacturing industry and her passion for empowering women within this sector.

Key Themes:

Journey into Manufacturing:
Meaghan Ziemba discusses her unconventional path into the manufacturing sector, highlighted by her early challenges with college education and discovering her niche in professional and technical writing. Her experiences have shaped her career, leading her to become a prominent voice in promoting women in engineering and manufacturing.
Mavens of Manufacturing:
The inspiration and growth of Mavens of Manufacturing, a live video broadcast, is explored. Meaghan has interviewed over 90 women, from the shop floor to the C-suite, and even original Rosie the Riveters, bringing visibility to women's contributions in the field.
Challenges and Opportunities for Women in Manufacturing:
Meaghan highlights women's common obstacles, such as a lack of awareness and representation in STEM fields. She emphasizes the need for better education and outreach to young women, parents, and community leaders about the diverse opportunities available in manufacturing.
Mentorship and Community Building:
The episode delves into the importance of mentorship and its crucial role in retaining women in the sector. Meaghan shares insights from the Men as Allies conference by Women in Manufacturing and discusses how men can effectively support and mentor women in these industries.
Innovative Programs and Initiatives:
The podcast examines programs promoting diversity and inclusivity, such as robotics teams and SkillsUSA. Meaghan also discusses companies' efforts to create flexible work environments and develop hybrid work models.
Future Aspirations:
Meaghan reveals her plans to write a book on manufacturing culture, targeting the dream gap and inspiring the younger generation to see manufacturing as a viable career path.

Lessons Learned:

The significance of diverse representation in manufacturing, and how bringing together varied perspectives can drive innovation.
It is important to educate all community stakeholders—including parents and guidance counselors—about the potential careers in manufacturing and engineering.
Flexible work schedules and inclusive company cultures can improve employee retention and satisfaction.

Fun Facts:

Meaghan's first assignment in technical writing was to write instructions for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, highlighting how different interpretations can arise from simple tasks.
Meaghan's community initiatives have led high school students to visit large trade shows like IMTS to promote young talent, sparking interest in manufacturing careers.

Keywords:

Women in Manufacturing
Manufacturing Careers
Mavens of Manufacturing
Industrial Tech Writing
STEM Education
Mentorship in Manufacturing
Diversity and Inclusion
Work-Life Balance in Manufacturing
Manufacturing Innovation

Join Lisa Ryan and Meaghan Ziemba for an engaging conversation that brings to light the critical role of women in manufacturing and the innovative paths forged in the industry. Don't miss out on valuable insights and actionable advice for enhancing diversity and innovation in manufacturing.

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan welcomes Dr. Amy Climer, an expert in fostering organizational creativity and innovation. Amy, author of "Deliberate Creative Teams," shares her research-backed strategies to help manufacturing companies enhance their creative processes. Dive into a discussion about incorporating creativity in manufacturing, the role of leadership in innovation, and practical techniques for fostering a creative environment on the shop floor.

Key Themes:

Defining Creativity in Manufacturing:
Amy defines creativity as "novelty that is valuable," emphasizing the importance of fresh, innovative ideas that bring tangible benefits to organizations.
Importance of Creativity in Manufacturing:
Amy discusses how creativity helps prevent stagnation, encourages innovation, and ensures manufacturers remain competitive in a rapidly changing market landscape.
Fostering Creativity:
Clear Shared Purpose:
Teams need a unified purpose to drive creative efforts towards meaningful goals.
Strong Team Dynamics:
Effective communication, trust, and balanced conflict are essential for fostering a creative team environment.
Creative Process Awareness:
Understanding and implementing a creative process, like the Creative Problem Solving methodology, is critical in generating and developing innovative ideas.
Lessons Learned from Real-World Examples:
Amy shares a manufacturing company case study that improved efficiency and spurred innovation by implementing structured creativity sessions, generating over a thousand ideas.
Role of Leadership in Innovation:
Leaders set the tone for creativity by role modeling, encouraging idea sharing, and creating a supportive environment for innovative thinking.
Implementing Creativity in Structured Environments:
Amy offers practical strategies for integrating creativity within daily operations, including regular ideation sessions and structured feedback mechanisms.

Fun Facts:

The term "Creative Abrasion," mentioned by Amy, originates from Jerry Hirschberg's work at Nissan in the 1980s, highlighting the productive clash of different cultural and creative perspectives.
Amy refers to the ingenious use of a 3D printer to maintain an obsolete machine as an example of creativity leading to unexpected problem-solving.

Lessons Learned:

Deliberate creativity requires an intentional and structured approach to be effectively harnessed within organizations.
Encouraging and valuing employee input can lead to significant cost savings and process improvements.

Connect with Dr. Amy Climer:

Website:
climerconsulting.com
LinkedIn:
Amy Climer on LinkedIn
Book: "Deliberate Creative Teams, How to Lead for Innovative Results" available on major book platforms.

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan is joined by Drew Allen, the President and CEO of Grace Technologies. Grace Technologies is renowned for its advancements in electrical safety and predictive maintenance. Under Drew's leadership, it has been recognized as one of Iowa's top workplaces for five consecutive years. Drew shares his rich family legacy of innovation and his experience leading a manufacturing company at the forefront of industrial technology. This episode is brimming with insights into workforce development, leadership strategies, advancements in manufacturing, and the future trends shaping the industry.

Key Themes & Lessons Learned:

Heritage of Innovation:
Drew Allen's family has a storied history in invention and innovation, tracing back to Samuel Morse, inventor of Morse code and the telegraph. This legacy of creativity and enterprise has significantly influenced Drew's career and his approach to leadership at Grace Technologies.
Leadership & Workplace Excellence:
Grace Technologies' success as a top workplace is rooted in genuine care for employees and a high-performance culture. Drew emphasizes creating an environment where team members feel valued and are encouraged to take the initiative, reflecting the philosophy that happy employees drive company success.
Workforce Development & Retention:
The importance of selection bias in hiring is highlighted; prioritizing quick action, innovation, and execution. Flexibility, cleanliness, and safety in the workplace are also pivotal in retaining skilled talent in a manufacturing setting.
Technological Advancements:
Advancements in IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) and AI are reshaping manufacturing environments. Despite the data influx, many industrial machines still lack adequate monitoring, and Drew sees significant potential in more facilities adopting sensors and analytic systems for operational efficiency.
Safety Innovations:
There's a shift from reactive safety measures to proactive strategies, including wearable technology to prevent electrical hazards. Designing safety into systems from the start enhances worker safety and symbolizes the company's commitment to employee well-being.
Maple Studios & Supporting Startups:
Maple Studios, founded by Drew, is dedicated to nurturing industrial startups by providing valuable resources and mentorship, promoting innovation and sustainability in manufacturing.
International Insights & Competition:
Drawing on his extensive international experience, Drew discusses how countries like China are leveraging automation and rapid iteration cycles, advocating for a quicker adaptation and innovation approach in U.S. manufacturing.
Future of Manufacturing:
Drew envisions a future driven by digital power control, enhancing efficiency and safety in power distribution systems. This shift and increasing automation pose new opportunities and challenges for the manufacturing sector.

Fun Facts:

Drew Allen's family legacy includes Samuel Morse, the inventor of Morse code, indicating a longstanding tradition of innovation.
Grace Technologies is the only manufacturer in the small business category to be recognized as one of Iowa's top workplaces five years in a row.
The company emphasizes a "high-performance team" culture over the "family" analogy to promote excellence and professional growth.

Connect with Drew Allen:

LinkedIn: Search for Drew Allen, Grace Technologies
Email: drewa@gracetechnologies.com

Listen to the full episode for more insights on how manufacturing leaders like Drew Allen are transforming the industry through innovation and leadership.

Keywords: Drew Allen, Grace Technologies, electrical safety, predictive maintenance, manufacturing innovation, workforce development, IIoT, AI in manufacturing, safety innovations, Maple Studios, international manufacturing trends.

View Details

Connect with Marshall on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marshalllebovits/

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan sits down with industry expert Marshall Lebovitz, President of Asset Based Funding Solutions. Marshall shares his wealth of knowledge gained from 35 years of experience in lending, offering valuable insights into how manufacturers can optimize their working capital.

Key Themes & Topics:

Understanding Working Capital:
Marshall defines working capital as a measure of a company's ability to meet its short-term obligations. He discusses the critical role of efficiently managing receivables and inventory in enhancing enterprise value.
Misconceptions in Business Financing:
Marshall addresses common misconceptions, emphasizing that options exist beyond traditional bank loans, such as SBA loans and USDA loans, and private credit options, such as asset-based lending.
Improving Cash Flow Strategies:
Key strategies include managing receivables and inventory regularly, maintaining strong credit and collections protocols, and leveraging real-time inventory reporting systems.
Choosing the Right Type of Funding:
Marshall lays out important considerations, including the purpose of the funding, the term (short vs. long-term), the company's credit profile, and ownership structure.
Common Mistakes in Seeking Financing:
Mistakes like delaying the search for funding, focusing only on the cheapest money, and not having accurate financial reports can hinder a company’s access to financing.
Building Relationships with Lenders:
Even if current needs are met, businesses should maintain open lines with potential new lenders to safeguard against changes in market conditions or lender appetites.
Economic Trends and Impacts:
With uncertainty in the current economic climate, businesses should be aware of trends in non-bank lending as a viable option amidst tightening bank credit.
Case Study: Leveraging Financing for Growth:
Marshall shares a success story of a beverage manufacturer that leveraged asset-based financing to grow significantly and diversify its lender base.
Practical Steps for Business Owners:
Business owners are advised to get their financial house in order, have forward-looking financial models, and thoroughly understand their financial standings.

Lessons Learned:

Effective cash flow management can propel a business’s growth without diluting ownership.
Exploring various financing options provides flexibility and security in challenging economic times.
Building strong relationships with multiple lenders can offer strategic advantages.

Fun Fact: Marshall playfully attributes his gray and thinning hair to his extensive 35-year career in lending, showcasing his seasoned experience in the industry.

Connect with Marshall Lebovitz:

LinkedIn:
Marshall Lebovitz
Email: marshall@funding911.com

For more episodes and insights, visit The Manufacturers Network Podcast and stay tuned for more expert discussions that help manufacturing businesses thrive.

View Details

Join host Lisa Ryan as she engages in a fascinating conversation with Jeff Borello, CEO and co-founder of Andromeda Technology Solutions. Jeff, with over thirty years of experience in the IT sector, delves into the journey of transforming Andromeda into a leading managed IT services provider specializing in the manufacturing industry. He shares expert insights on enhancing cybersecurity, overcoming IT challenges, and strategically leveraging IT to propel manufacturing businesses forward.

Key Themes:

Entrepreneurial Journey and Growth:
Jeff shares the story of how he and his co-founders transitioned from working hard at another company to establishing their own IT and networking business from scratch.
Emphasis on dedication and persistence in the early stages and the importance of gradual transition from full-time jobs to entrepreneurship.
Strategic Pivot to Specialization in Manufacturing:
Insights into the decision-making process that led Andromeda to focus specifically on the manufacturing sector.
Lessons learned from previously expanding into multiple business areas and then refocusing on core IT services.
Cybersecurity and IT Management:
The critical importance of implementing robust cybersecurity measures in the manufacturing industry.
Strategies for dealing with recurring IT challenges and the significance of addressing root causes to eliminate persistent issues.
Workplace Culture and Employee Engagement:
Strategies for developing a strong workplace culture that attracts and retains talent.
The role of continuous learning and adaptation in leadership and building a high-performing team.
The Role of IT as a Strategic Business Partner:
Viewing IT investments as strategic advantages rather than mere expenses.
Importance of long-term technological planning and finding the right IT partners to enhance manufacturing operations.

Lessons Learned:

Persistence and adaptability are crucial for entrepreneurial success.
Specializing in a specific niche can significantly enhance business growth and customer engagement.
Cybersecurity should be a primary consideration in any technological change or adoption.
Continuous learning and feedback are essential for building a dynamic and motivated workforce.
Effective IT management requires recognizing it as a strategic driver of business growth.

Fun Facts:

Jeff Borello once shared a table with Jack Stack, an influential figure in business strategy and transparency.
Andromeda Technology Solutions has achieved impressive client retention, with technicians having an average tenure of seven years, well above industry norms.

Connect with Jeff Borello:

LinkedIn:
Jeff Borello on LinkedIn
Website:
Andromeda Technology Solutions
Email: jeffb@wenetwork.com

Tune in to discover how strategic IT management and cybersecurity can elevate your manufacturing operation and secure your data in this ever-evolving digital landscape.

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan welcomes Doug Donovan, the founder and CEO of Interplay Learning, a pioneering career development platform for skilled trades. The conversation delves deep into the challenges and innovations in skilled trades training, mainly focusing on integrating advanced technologies like simulations and VR to bridge the skills gap and attract a younger, tech-savvy generation.

Key Themes:

The Origin and Mission of Interplay Learning:
Doug Donovan shares the inception story of Interplay Learning, highlighting its focus on leveraging simulation technology to enhance training in the skilled trades. Founded when technology was underutilized in trades education, the company saw an opportunity to implement simulations similar to those used in the military, medical, and aviation industries.
Simulation and 3D Learning:
The use of 3D simulations delivered on 2D devices is explored as a practical training solution. Although VR forms an exciting training component, most learning occurs via more accessible, everyday devices like laptops and tablets.
The Role of VR in Training:
The podcast discusses the potential and current limitations of VR in trades training. While VR offers high levels of engagement and retention due to its immersive nature, its current use remains secondary to 2D simulations due to logistical constraints.
Addressing the Skills Gap:
With many skilled trade jobs projected to go unfilled by 2030, Doug discusses the critical need for digital solutions in training programs to attract younger generations. The conversation emphasizes making these careers appealing by using digital methods to expose potential employees to the possibilities within the trades.
Interplay Learning’s Approach to Content Development:
Unlike traditional academic pathways, Interplay Learning develops its training materials by working with employers to address practical skills needed immediately in job settings rather than focusing solely on theoretical knowledge.
AI and the Future of Personalized Learning:
Doug highlights the potential for AI to revolutionize personalized training by rapidly identifying knowledge gaps and tailoring training to individual needs, ultimately enhancing the speed and efficiency of learning.

Lessons Learned:

Embracing technology is crucial for modernizing training programs in skilled trades, making them more attractive and accessible to younger generations.
Companies need to shift their recruiting strategies to digitally engage potential employees, especially as digital solutions continue to prove their effectiveness in training.
A blend of traditional and digital training methods, including simulations and VR, is essential to developing comprehensive training programs that enhance practical learning and retention.

Fun Facts:

Doug cited how traditional fields like welding can benefit immensely from VR training, evidenced by a personal anecdote from Lisa about quickly regaining her welding skills through a VR simulator.
Despite VR's sophisticated image, most trades training still predominantly occurs on the more ubiquitous 2D platforms, bridging the gap between high-tech and practicality.

Contact Information: To learn more about the innovative training solutions offered by Interplay Learning, visit their website at interplaylearning.com. For direct inquiries, reach out via sales@interplaylearning.com.

Doug Donovan provides a clear roadmap for the future of skilled trades training, emphasizing the significant role of digital transformation. Employers and educational institutions alike are encouraged to adopt these new methods to fill the looming skills gap and equip the next generation of tradespeople with the tools they need to succeed. Join us for this engaging discussion and explore how your company can leverage these advancements to thrive in the evolving manufacturing landscape.

View Details

Connect with Nelson on LinkedIn as "Nelson Bruton, manufacturing chats"

Visit a unique URL: manufacturingchats.com/themanufacturersnetwork - where you can download an ebook he wrote about this topic

On this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan sat down with Nelson Bruton, President of Manufacturing Chats. With over 20 years of experience, Nelson shared valuable insights into how live chat can revolutionize marketing and sales in the manufacturing sector. Let's delve into some key takeaways and actionable strategies from their conversation.

Key Takeaways1. The Evolution and Importance of Live Chat

Nelson described his journey from being fascinated with the early days of the Internet to founding Manufacturing Chats. His company has honed the value proposition of providing real human interaction through live chat on websites.
Live chat isn't just about immediate responses; it’s about creating meaningful customer interactions that foster trust and engagement, something AI bots often struggle with.
Acknowledgment and Empathy Make a Difference
According to Nelson, the two critical elements that distinguish human interactions from bots are acknowledgment and empathy. These qualities help foster a more satisfying customer experience, especially in the industrial space where relationships matter.
Adoption and Integration of AI
While the industrial sector shows reluctance toward fully automated solutions, there is an increasing acceptance of AI. Nelson and his team are developing a humanized AI solution that blends initial human interactions with gradually trained AI for a smoother transition and better customer acknowledgment.
Content and Storytelling are Key to Marketing
Manufacturing companies need to communicate their stories using content, particularly video content. This builds their brand and resonates with potential employees and customers who want to connect on a more personal level.
The Generational Shift in Tech Adoption
Nelson observed that younger generations are more likely to embrace new technologies. Companies integrating these younger workers into their culture will be better positioned to leverage AI and other advanced marketing tools.

Actionable Strategies1. Implement Live Chat on Your Website

If your website attracts at least 4,000 visitors per month, incorporating a live chat service can help you capture a section of visitors who prefer this mode of communication. Ensure real humans support the system to maintain quality interactions.
Train Your Team for Seamless Chat Integration
When introducing live chat, train your team and set clear expectations. Make sure everyone from your sales team to your technical support staff understands how to handle chat transcripts and customer inquiries effectively.
Leverage AI Strategically
Combine AI with human interactions in customer service for a balanced approach. Start with human-operated chats while training AI to take over routine inquiries gradually.
Focus on Video Content for Marketing
Create and share videos highlighting your manufacturing processes, showcase success stories, and introduce your team. Humanize your brand and make your content engaging to attract potential customers and employees.
Review and Enhance Your Website’s User Experience
Conduct a thorough walkthrough of your website from a user’s perspective. Make sure your contact forms work, phone numbers are correct, and navigation is intuitive. Consider enlisting someone unfamiliar with your site to provide candid feedback.
Promote Trade Show Exposure
Introduce young students and potential employees to the manufacturing world by taking them to industry trade shows. This exposure can spark interest and showcase the innovation and opportunities within the sector.
Stay Informed About Technological Trends
Encourage continuous learning and skill development within your team. Ensure they are familiar with the latest marketing tools and AI advancements to stay competitive.

Implementing live chat and a blended approach to AI can dramatically improve customer interaction in the manufacturing industry. Coupled with a strong focus on content creation and strategic marketing, these steps will ensure your company remains at the forefront of innovation and customer engagement. You can download Nelson's ebook on this topic for more detailed insights from Manufacturing Chats.

Stay connected with Lisa Ryan and The Manufacturers Network Podcast for more valuable discussions and industry insights.

View Details

Connect with Jennelle McGrath: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennellemcgrath/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marketveep/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/market-veep/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/market_veep
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/market_veep/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FindingBusinessHappyPodcast
Website: https://www.marketveep.com/

In this insightful episode of the Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan engages in a compelling conversation with Jennelle McGrath, the dynamic leader of Market Veep. Specializing in helping manufacturing companies grow their market share and enhance their sales and marketing efforts, Jennelle shares her rich experience and practical tips for navigating the evolving landscape of manufacturing marketing.

Key Themes and Lessons Learned

Entrepreneurial Journey and Personal Growth Early Business Ventures*
: Jennelle began her entrepreneurial journey at 18, managing a successful company for 15 years.
Pivot to Market Veep
: After realizing her passion for marketing and business strategy, Jennelle transitioned to consulting and eventually founded Market Veep.
Importance of Culture Fit
: Jennelle emphasizes the significance of finding the right cultural fit within the team to ensure growth and alignment.
Culture and Leadership Creating a Positive Workplace Culture*
: The realization that Jennelle was the main factor in her earlier frustrations led her to focus on building a strong workplace culture at Market Veep.
Patient Hiring Practices
: Jennelle advises being cautious and patient in hiring, ensuring the right cultural and personality fit.
Transparency and Communication
: Encouraging open communication within the team to foster a transparent and collaborative environment.
Sales and Marketing Trends in Manufacturing Impact of COVID-19*
: The pandemic forced many manufacturing companies to rethink traditional sales methods like trade shows and door-knocking, leading to a digital transformation.
Leadership Involvement
: There is a growing trend of organizational leaders taking a more active role in sales and marketing strategies.
Embracing Technology
Manufacturers leverage tools like HubSpot for better data integration and customer relationship management (CRM).
Marketing Strategies and Tools Know Your Market*
: Jennelle recommends comprehensively understanding your existing market before expanding to new audiences.
Consistency and Goals
: Maintaining a consistent marketing approach with clear goals is pivotal for meaningful engagement.
Leveraging CRM Systems
: Effective use of CRM systems like HubSpot can streamline processes and improve sales efficiency.
Storytelling
: Humanizing the brand through storytelling can help manufacturers connect more deeply with their audience.
Challenges and Misconceptions in Marketing Measurability and Effectiveness*
: Addressing the misconception that marketing efforts cannot be measured. Jennelle insists that the right tools and strategies can effectively track and optimize outcomes.
Balancing Quantity and Quality
: Striking the right balance between generating a high volume of leads and ensuring the quality of those leads.
Miscommunications Across Departments
: Highlighting the importance of open communication between departments to reduce friction and improve overall performance.
Future Opportunities and Trade Shows Trade Shows*
: Despite the rise in digital marketing, trade shows offer valuable face-to-face interaction. Jennelle discusses innovative ways to blend digital strategies with traditional events.
Adaptation Post-Pandemic
: The renewed focus on human interactions and the strategic use of trade shows to build lasting professional relationships.

Jennelle McGrath’s insights offer valuable lessons for manufacturers navigating the evolving marketing and sales landscape. Jennelle’s experiences and strategies provide a comprehensive roadmap for success, from creating a robust workplace culture to leveraging technology and storytelling.

View Details

Connect with Katie Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiesmithwildpath/

On this episode of the Manufacturers Network Podcast, Lisa dives into the evolving landscape of manufacturing marketing with Katie Smith, founder of "Follow the Wild Path" and seasoned fractional CMO. This episode dissects the intersection of AI technology, CRM systems, and strategic marketing within the manufacturing sector, providing invaluable insights for business leaders and marketing professionals.

Show Highlights:1. Importance of Targeted Content in Conferences:

Discover how
tailored marketing content
can significantly enhance engagement at industry conferences. Katie emphasizes the role of adaptive strategies that cater to specific audience segments.

2. Integration of AI and CRM in Marketing:

Explore the
cutting-edge integration
of AI with CRM tools to boost customer acquisition and streamline engagement processes. The conversation reveals how these technologies can simplify lead categorization and optimize workflow efficiency.

3. Strategic Marketing Insights:

Learn how data serves as a
map rather than a manipulator
, driving marketing strategies focused on conversion rates rather than mere traffic metrics. This approach ensures robust sales pipeline management and improved candidate qualification.

4. Balancing Long-term and Short-term Marketing Goals:

Katie discusses the
unique challenges
that manufacturing companies face, such as budget constraints. She shares actionable tips on identifying low-hanging fruits, implementing strategic reminders, and minimizing decision-making friction.

5. Resource Management and Lean Marketing Teams:

Gain insights into operating
lean marketing teams
effectively and strategically use external agencies to complement internal efforts.

6. Understanding Evolving Consumer Behavior and Trust:

Delve into trends such as
consumer skepticism
and the growing demand for transparency. Katie highlights the importance of building trust in an era where information is easily accessible, and competition is intense.

7. Role and Benefits of a Fractional CMO:

Discover the strategic role of a
fractional Chief Marketing Officer
aligning marketing with broader business goals, especially for small to medium-sized manufacturers. Their integration within the company offers flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

8. Digital Transformation in Manufacturing Marketing:

Analyze how the
shift to digital platforms
is influencing marketing strategies, underscoring the need for adaptable and customer-focused approaches to stay competitive.

9. AI's Role in Creative and Data-Driven Marketing:

Understand how AI is not only
streamlining processes
but also enhancing creativity by reducing biases and freeing up marketers for more strategic tasks. The episode stresses verifying AI-generated content to maintain its human-centric essence.

Lessons Learned:

Customizing marketing strategies and building customer personas centered on their needs and worries is important.
Aligning marketing strategies with long-term business goals for sustainable growth.
Leveraging AI and CRM for improved operational efficiency and enhanced customer experiences.

Fun Facts:

Katie Smith began her career as an outdoor guide, bringing a unique perspective to her marketing strategies.
The episode emphasizes the transformational role of marketing—not just as a support function but as a key player in driving innovation and business growth within the manufacturing sector.

To explore marketing dynamics in the manufacturing industry in-depth, tune in and learn how to harness AI's potential, manage resources efficiently, and forge authentic connections with your audience. Engage with Katie Smith through her website at followthewildpath.com or connect with her on LinkedIn to explore more exciting opportunities in the sector.

Keywords: Manufacturing Marketing, AI in Marketing, CRM Tools, Fractional CMO, Consumer Trust and Transparency, Data-Driven Marketing, Lean Marketing Team, Targeted Content, Digital Transformation, Conversion Rate Optimization.

View Details

Connect with Jason Kruger* LinkedIn: Jason Kruger at Citrin Cooperman * Email: jkruger@citrincooperman.com * Website: citrincooperman.com

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan sits down with Jason Kruger, a partner at Citrin Cooperman. Jason shares his expertise in empowering manufacturers with real-time financial insights to bolster profitability and streamline operations. The discussion dives deep into financial management, exploring the importance of accurate accounting, cash flow management, and leveraging outsourced financial services. Jason offers invaluable advice on navigating the financial complexities of the manufacturing industry, providing listeners with practical strategies to ensure long-term success.

Key Themes and Topics:

Importance of Real-Time Financial Insights:
Understanding the power of real-time financial data for making informed strategic decisions in manufacturing.
Outsourcing Financial Management:
Exploring how fractional CFOs and controllers can offer cost-effective, high-level financial expertise without the overheads of a full-time hire.
Cash Flow Management:
The critical role of managing cash flows, especially in inventory-heavy industries like manufacturing, is to avoid cash shortages.
Financial Metrics for Success:
Identifying the key financial metrics that manufacturers should focus on to ensure long-term growth and sustainability.
Navigating Growth Challenges:
How manufacturers can overcome the financial complexities of rapid growth, utilizing systems for accurate inventory tracking and financial reporting.

Lessons Learned:

Outsourcing as a Strategy:
Outsourced financial management can help manufacturers access top-tier financial expertise while managing costs.
Communication is Key:
Maintaining strong communication channels, especially with remote teams, is crucial for effective collaboration and achieving financial goals.
Proactive Cash Management:
Keeping a close eye on cash flows and inventory can prevent financial pitfalls and enable businesses to capitalize on growth opportunities.

Fun Facts:

Jason Kruger started a company during the 2008 financial crisis, which has since evolved into a key division within Citrin Cooperman, demonstrating resilience and adaptability.
Host Lisa Ryan compares manufacturing finance to the popular TV show Shark Tank, highlighting the crucial role of understanding financial metrics in pitching to any investor—even a shark!

Keywords: Manufacturers Network Podcast, Jason Kruger, financial insights for manufacturers, Citrin Cooperman, real-time financial data, outsourced financial management, cash flow in manufacturing, inventory management, manufacturing finance, financial metrics, fractional CFO, optimizing manufacturing profitability, manufacturing growth challenges, financial reporting systems.

Connect with Jason Kruger:

LinkedIn: Jason Kruger at Citrin Cooperman
Email: jkruger@citrincooperman.com
Website: citrincooperman.com

ManufacturersNetworkPodcast #JasonKruger #FinancialInsightsForManufacturers #CitrinCooperman #RealTimeFinancialData #OutsourcedFinancialManagement #CashFlowInManufacturing #InventoryManagement #ManufacturingFinance #FinancialMetrics #FractionalCFO #OptimizingProfitability #GrowthChallenges #FinancialReportingSystems

View Details

Connect with Adam Honig: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamhonig/

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan welcomes Adam Honig, the founder of Spiro AI, to discuss innovative approaches in the manufacturing sales process using AI-driven CRM solutions. Adam shares his journey of turning past failures into technological innovations that significantly benefit the manufacturing industry. He focuses on how Spiro AI is transforming traditional CRM practices, addressing common manufacturing challenges, and enhancing sales efficiency.

Key Themes:

Innovative CRM Solutions:
Adam Honig highlights the need for a transformation in the CRM industry, especially within manufacturing. He introduces Spiro AI as an "anti-CRM" solution that automates data entry and improves sales processes through AI technology.
AI and Sales Efficiency:
Discussing the implementation of AI, Adam explains how technology can help in analyzing sales data, generating insights, and reducing the time spent on non-customer-facing activities, ultimately allowing sales teams to focus more on customer interaction.
Manufacturing Challenges and Solutions:
The episode addresses common misconceptions manufacturers have about sales and technology investment. Adam points out that many businesses believe their products sell themselves and emphasize embracing modern sales strategies and technologies.
Cultural and Generational Shifts:
The conversation touches on the changes in manufacturing business culture, noting how AI and advanced technologies can attract younger talent and foster a more innovative work environment.
Data-Driven Decisions:
Adam emphasizes the role of data in making informed business decisions and how AI can provide valuable insights without manual data entry, ultimately aiding in better customer relationship management and forecasting.

Lessons Learned:

Embracing AI in CRM systems can significantly streamline sales processes and enhance customer relationships in the manufacturing sector.
Reducing internal administrative tasks through AI allows sales teams to focus more on their primary goal: increasing customer interactions and driving sales.
Understanding the value of the product line and effectively communicating it to customers can prevent lost sales opportunities.

Fun Facts:

Adam's venture into AI-focused CRM solutions was inspired by the movie "Her," where an AI assistant provided seamless support to the protagonist.
Despite some manufacturers' initial resistance to CRM, embracing an AI-driven system can lead to surprising and significant improvements in efficiency and growth.

View Details

Connect with Kerim Kfuri: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerimkfuri/

This episode features Karim Khafuri, the innovative CEO of the Atlas Network. Known for his strategic expertise in logistics and business strategies, Karim shares his journey from an entrepreneurial youth in a multicultural household to becoming a global supply chain solutions leader.

Key Highlights:

Entrepreneurial Mindset & Global Influence: From an early age, Karim's entrepreneurial spirit and multicultural background shaped his innovative business and supply chain management approach. Learn how his global experiences have influenced his career trajectory.
Alibaba's Influence on Atlas Network: Dive into how a trip to Asia and exposure to Alibaba's global trade model inspired Karim to launch the first US-based verified supplier on Alibaba. Understand the critical role of reliability improvements like control processes and sourcing protocols.
Supply Chain Challenges and Trends: Discover the uncontrollable factors facing modern supply chains, including pandemics and political shifts, and the importance of agility and contingency planning. Explore the advantages global sourcing offers in terms of resource access and cost benefits.
Karim Khafuri's Strategic Approach: A lesson in risk management and forward-thinking. Karim discusses the importance of overstocking as a strategy against shortfalls, training teams to anticipate factory issues, and treating each production cycle as a new venture to ensure quality and innovation.
Sustainable Packaging Innovations: Learn about the innovative technology of rightsizing and cubing in packaging, creating custom boxes on-demand to minimize waste and shipping costs and reduce the carbon footprint.
Key Insights from "Supply Chain Ups and Downs": Discover Karim's book, which offers 13 chapters on the supply chain industry's challenges and dynamics. Topics include AI, sustainability, and contemporary industry transformations, making it a must-read for students and professionals alike.
Role of Technology in Supply Chains: Technology is revolutionizing inventory and logistics with tools like AI and SaaS platforms, ensuring transparency and efficiency. Karim elaborates on how these advancements and 3D printing have optimized product development timelines.

Fun Facts:

Karim’s business journey was notably influenced by his visit to Asia and the then-nascent Alibaba platform.
Atlas Network became the first US-based verified supplier on Alibaba, paving the way for safer participation in global markets.
Karim speaks three languages fluently, reflecting his rich cultural background and contributing to his global business perspective.

Lessons Learned:

Adaptability Is Key:
Businesses must be prepared for unforeseen global events with flexible strategies.
Importance of Quality Control:
Always assume potential lapses in manufacturing quality, and stay proactive in safeguarding product integrity.
Balancing Cost, Quality, and Speed:
Effective supply chain management requires maintaining equilibrium among these critical factors to avoid compromising any aspect.
Leveraging Technology for Resilience:
Implementing advanced tools can significantly enhance supply chain reliability and efficiency.

For more expertise, connect with Karim Khafuri via his website at kerimkfuri.com or the Atlas Network at theatlasnetwork.com. Follow him on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

Tune in to gain valuable insights into the dynamic world of supply chains and learn how to navigate its complexities with foresight and resilience.

Keywords: Supply Chain Management, Risk Mitigation, Business Strategy, Logistics Solutions, Global Sourcing, Sustainability, Technology in Supply Chains, AI in Logistics, Packaging Innovations, Alibaba Verified Supplier, Multilingual Entrepreneur, Resilience Planning, Contingency Strategy, Modern Supply Chain Trends.

View Details

Connect with Mikhail Taver: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mtaver/

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan chats with Mikhail Taver, the founder and managing partner of Taver Capital. The Delaware-based international venture capital firm is renowned for its specialization in funding artificial intelligence companies across the globe. Mikhail shares his journey from a budding investor at a young age to an AI enthusiast and expert. He brings profound insights into how AI has evolved over the years and the transformative potential it holds for the manufacturing industry.

Key Themes and Topics:

AI's Evolution and Impact:
Mikhail's venture into AI, dating back to his university days at the University of Edinburgh where he encountered early AI concepts.
The impact of AI's growth from a niche interest to a ubiquitous technology likened to "new electricity."
AI in Manufacturing:
Current status and future potential of AI in the manufacturing sector.
Importance of adopting AI solutions in manufacturing to stay competitive.
AI Implementation Strategies:
Tips for manufacturers to prioritize AI adoption including starting small and involving the workforce for a smoother transition.
The role of AI in improving processes like mineral discovery using NASA's satellite data and enhancing worker safety through computer vision.
Challenges and Solutions:
Overcoming the reluctance within the workforce due to AI adoption fears.
Bridging the gap between startups and large corporations by employing interfaces or ambassadors.
Lessons Learned:
AI is a tool, not a universal solution; understanding its scope and limitations is crucial.
The need for corporations to align with venture funds or consultants to manage the inherent risks of working with startups.
Fun Facts:
Mikhail first drew a neural network with a pencil and paper in 1999.
He inadvertently pioneered AI's role in various industries after considering it a "mistake" to choose a niche that became mainstream.

Lessons Learned:

Manufacturers are urged to embrace AI not only as a tool for innovation but as a necessity to maintain competitiveness.
Effective communication and education within organizations can mitigate fears associated with AI replacing jobs.
Collaborations between startups and corporations require a shared understanding facilitated by informed liaisons or venture funds.

SEO Keywords: Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing, AI Implementation, Industrial AI, Venture Capital in AI, AI Solutions for Manufacturers, Manufacturing Process Transformation, Digital Twins, Predictive Maintenance, AI Workforce Management, Startup Collaboration.

Contact Information: For more insights from Mikhail Taver, connect with him on LinkedIn or reach out via email. Stay updated with the latest episodes of The Manufacturers Network Podcast by subscribing on your favorite podcast platform.

View Details

Connect with Zack Oliva: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachary-oliva/

Join Lisa Ryan, host of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, as she welcomes Zack Oliva, founder of Oliva Gibbs and Oliva Partners Management, LLC. Since 2013, Zack has been at the forefront of contract negotiations and asset transactions in the energy sector. He shares insights on navigating the complexities of the oil and gas industry, the importance of building sustainable relationships, and innovations in energy technology.

Key Themes:

Energy Sector Insight: Discover how Zack became involved in Ohio and Texas's oil and gas industry and his journey from law school to founding Oliva Gibbs.
Understanding Utica Shale: Learn about the significance of Utica Shale in Ohio's natural gas boom and why it's pivotal for the energy sector.
Fracking Explained: Zack demystifies hydraulic fracturing's role in extracting oil and gas and its evolution over the years in making drilling more economical.
Legal Challenges: Understand the legal complexities Zack's firm deals with, from micro to macro scales, and how players in the industry manage these challenges.
Relationships in Industry: Emphasis on the generational nature of the industry and how building and maintaining strong relationships can drive sustainable growth.
Associations and Networking: The podcast highlights the importance of industry associations like the AAPL and conferences such as NAPE Expo and OTC for industry collaboration.
Marketing and Communication: Zack provides insights into maintaining a consistent marketing strategy during industry fluctuations.

Lessons Learned:

The evolving oil and gas landscape requires staying ahead with technology and legal strategies.
Building long-term, trust-based relationships in the industry is instrumental for sustained success.
Legal foresight and pre-litigation strategies can mitigate risks and prevent costly disputes.
Aligning company culture is crucial, especially during mergers and acquisitions, to ensure seamless integration and avoid failures.
Renewable energy's intersection with traditional oil and gas operations exemplifies changing industry dynamics.

Fun Facts:

Zack moved to Houston to plunge into the energy hub despite never having been to Texas.
The technology used in modern fracking involves steering a drill bore horizontally, akin to handling a lunar rover.
Thousands of mineral owners can exist for a single plot of land, creating a complex web of negotiations for drilling rights.

SEO Keywords:

Energy sector, oil and gas, contract negotiations, shale boom, hydraulic fracturing, Utica Shale, Marcellus Shale, legal challenges, energy industry relationships, industry associations, renewable energy collaboration, marketing in the energy sector, corporate culture in mergers, oilfield services.

View Details

Connect with John Kevin Koehler at: https://www.kktool.net/

Join us in this episode of "The Manufacturers Network Podcast" as we delve into the intricacies of automation integration and generational transitions in manufacturing. Our guest, John Kevin Koehler of KK Tool Company, shares his extensive experience in production, quality control, and logistics, emphasizing the importance of preserving legacy while embracing technological advancements.

Key Themes and Lessons Learned:

Automation Impact on Manufacturing:
Discover how automation enhances consistency and quality rather than reducing cycle times.
Learn about transitioning from monotonous tasks to quality assurance, facilitating worker empowerment and upskilling.
Navigating Automation Adoption:
Insights into overcoming challenges in adopting new technology and convincing stakeholders of automation's benefits.
Emphasize a flexible approach to automation, viewing failures as learning opportunities and contributing to ROI.
Generational Knowledge Preservation:
Explore the impact of retiring baby boomers on industrial expertise and the importance of capturing "tribal knowledge."
Understand strategies to ensure knowledge transfer from experienced workers to the new generation.
Family Business Dynamics:
The balancing act of integrating technology with traditional methods in a family-run business.
Emphasis on creating a team-oriented workplace culture to manage diverse personalities and improve collaborations.
Future Prospects in Manufacturing:
Automation as a tool for addressing future production challenges and increasing competitiveness.
Adapting to industry shifts with manageable growth strategies and cooperative rather than competitive industry models.

Fun Facts:

KK Tool Company is a legacy family business founded by John Kevin Koehler's father and grandfather in the early 1970s.
John combines his educational background in computer science with his passion for manufacturing, creating innovative solutions like the "OnTrack" management system.

Business Tips for Navigating Challenges:

Foster a team environment over a "family" culture to harmonize diverse skill sets and manage conflict effectively.
Retain talented employees by ensuring fair compensation and cultivating a work environment where employees feel valued and integral to the business's success.

View Details

Connect with Karla Trotman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlatrotman/

In this insightful episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan is joined by Karla Trotman, President and CEO of Electrosoft, to discuss pivotal topics that are shaping the future of manufacturing. Karla shares her valuable insights on diversity and inclusion, generational wealth creation, and the evolving landscape of the manufacturing industry. Her journey from avoiding the family business to growing it into a successful venture inspires aspiring entrepreneurs. It highlights the role of small businesses in driving the economy.

Key Themes:

Hiring from Underrepresented Groups: Karla emphasizes the importance of actively recruiting Black, Brown, immigrant populations, and young women in manufacturing. She shares valuable strategies for reaching a diverse pool of candidates beyond traditional online job postings.
Transportation Challenges and Solutions: The episode delves into issues such as the "last mile" transportation barrier and the innovative solutions some companies are adopting, such as subsidies and daily cash payments, to assist workers without personal transportation.
Entrepreneurship and Generational Wealth: Karla advocates for entrepreneurship to achieve financial independence and generational wealth. The episode also explores opportunities to acquire businesses from retiring owners.
Embracing Gen Z Workforce: A discussion on adapting to the unique work ethics and technological engagement of Gen Z employees, including the perception of their work habits and their positive impact on the workplace.
Cultural Inclusion in the Workplace: Karla discusses the significance of allowing employees to express individuality through their personal style, fostering a relaxed and authentic company culture that leads to employee loyalty.
Promoting Manufacturing Careers: Strategies to change perceptions about manufacturing as a career choice, especially among young adults and diverse communities, are explored. The conversation includes the role of marketing campaigns that reflect diversity.

Lessons Learned:

Building relationships with community organizations and schools is essential for effectively recruiting diverse job candidates.
Flexibility in work hours and innovative transportation solutions can help overcome barriers for city dwellers.
Future manufacturing leaders will reflect diversity, including more women, people of color, and immigrants.
Engaging with younger generations in the workplace involves understanding their unique perspectives and leveraging their tech-savvy nature.

Fun Facts:

Karla's intriguing journey with Electrosoft began when her father started building cables at the kitchen table. The business has now celebrated its 38th anniversary.
Her book, "Dark, Dirty, Dangerous," explores the future of manufacturing and is available on major retail platforms.
The show touches on common misconceptions about U.S. electronics manufacturing and highlights how specific manufacturing processes remain domestic.

View Details

In the latest episode of the Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan engages with Jason Vanzin, the founder and CEO of Right Hand Technology Group. Renowned as a top-managed service provider globally, Right Hand Technology Group focuses on cybersecurity and compliance, specifically targeted at manufacturers. This episode dives deep into cybersecurity, revealing the challenges and solutions pertinent to the manufacturing industry.

Jason Vanzin’s JourneyJason Vanzin’s enthralling journey into IT began in his teens when he purchased his first computer. Driven by a passion for technology, he pursued a degree in information systems management, eventually finding his niche in cybersecurity. His career spanned roles in large corporations like UPS and Nortel Networks to smaller IT companies, where he developed a passion for working directly with clients and small businesses. This path eventually led him to establish Right Hand Technology Group, focusing on delivering cybersecurity solutions to small and medium-sized manufacturers.

The Dichotomy of IT and CybersecurityA critical topic discussed in the podcast is the distinct roles and responsibilities of IT and cybersecurity departments. Jason elucidates that while IT is centered around productivity and problem-solving, cybersecurity focuses on minimizing risk—sometimes at the cost of productivity. “It’s about risk management,” he explains, highlighting the often conflicting goals between IT and cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity Challenges in ManufacturingThe misunderstanding of cybersecurity at the executive level and the assumption that IT will cover all cybersecurity needs are significant challenges in the manufacturing sector. Jason stresses that cybersecurity must be approached holistically through systematic frameworks like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework and the Department of Defense’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). These frameworks help organizations assess and mitigate risks methodically.

The Battle Against CybercrimeThe conversation shifts to cybercriminals' evolving tactics and the perpetual cat-and-mouse game between hackers and cybersecurity professionals. Vanzin underscores that cybersecurity frameworks force organizations to think systematically and constantly stay ahead of potential threats. “Cybersecurity isn’t about a single solution; it’s about continuous vigilance and education,” he asserts.

Protecting the Supply ChainAn essential aspect of cybersecurity in manufacturing is safeguarding the supply chain. Jason emphasizes the importance of identifying critical suppliers and ensuring they adhere to robust cybersecurity standards. This can involve certifications like ISO 27001 or SOC 2 compliance, providing a benchmark for secure practices. He advises manufacturers to thoroughly evaluate their suppliers’ cybersecurity posture to ensure a secure supply chain.

Training: The Frontline DefenseTraining employees is a cornerstone of any cybersecurity strategy. However, Vanzin notes that frequent and consistent training is crucial. Companies should implement regular phishing tests and cybersecurity training programs to keep employees vigilant. Despite the inclination to minimize disruptions, he advocates for a higher frequency of training exercises to prepare employees for real-world threats better.

Best Practices for Responding to BreachesPreparation is key when responding to a cybersecurity breach. Jason stresses the importance of having an incident response plan and conducting regular tests to ensure readiness. Involving cyber insurance companies early in the event of a breach can also mitigate potential repercussions by establishing attorney-client privilege and ensuring a coordinated response.

Leveraging Ethical HackersThe concept of 'ethical hackers, ' or professionals who test the security of an organization’s systems by attempting to breach them, is also discussed. These experts can identify vulnerabilities before malicious actors exploit them, providing invaluable insights and reinforcing cybersecurity defenses.

The Role of AI in CybersecurityArtificial Intelligence (AI) has both augmented and challenged the cybersecurity landscape. While AI tools can enhance productivity and threat detection, they empower cybercriminals to craft more sophisticated attacks. Vanzin points out that defeating AI-driven threats will require innovative countermeasures and continuous adaptation by cybersecurity professionals.

The Future of Cybersecurity and ComplianceAs the manufacturing industry advances, compliance standards like CMMC will become increasingly critical. Jason predicts these standards will extend beyond defense contracts, influencing the broader supply chain. Proactively adopting high cybersecurity standards can offer a competitive edge and demonstrate a commitment to security.

The podcast concludes with Vanzin encouraging manufacturers to view cybersecurity as a necessity and strategic advantage. Companies looking to secure their operations can benefit from consulting with experts like those at Right Hand Technology Group, who offer tailored solutions that fit each business's unique needs. For more information, visit Right Hand Technology Group’s website or contact Jason Vanzin on LinkedIn.

In today’s interconnected world, cybersecurity is an ever-evolving challenge that requires constant vigilance and adaptation. Manufacturers who stay ahead of the curve in cybersecurity can protect their operations and gain a competitive advantage in an increasingly digital marketplace.

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers' Network Podcast, Lisa Ryan interviews Lee Rector, a seasoned expert with nearly 25 years of experience in supply chain and warehousing across 40 countries. Lee is currently leading Embassy Data Logistics, pioneering innovations with Warehouse Command, a universal labor planning tool designed to make advanced metrics accessible to operations of all sizes.

Key Takeaways:

Lee’s Journey in Supply Chain and Warehousing: Lee shares insights into his extensive career, working with a wide range of companies, from Fortune 100s to family-run businesses. His desire to address operational technology inefficiencies led him to create more affordable and applicable solutions, including the Warehouse Command Labor Cost and Productivity Calculator.

Challenges in the Industry: Lee emphasizes the current labor shortage in North America, which affects both skilled and unskilled roles. Due to automation and AI integration, warehousing is seeing a shift from being labeled as unskilled labor to requiring technological and operational expertise.
The Experience Gap: One of the most critical challenges identified is the widening gap in experience between executives with over 25 years in the industry and the next level of management, which averages less than eight years of experience. Lee discusses how this affects operational efficiency, decision-making, and the growing reliance on technology.
The Role of Technology and Automation: The warehousing industry is evolving, with automation and AI playing pivotal roles. However, Lee points out that despite the buzz around automation, only 2% of North American warehouses currently use it. Automation is far more widespread in Europe, where labor and space costs are significantly higher. He also touches on the debate between assisted and assertive AI, predicting it will shape the future of warehousing.
Labor Shortages and Workforce Retention: Creativity is essential for retaining warehouse workers. Lee discusses various strategies companies use, including offering flexible work schedules, paid lunches, and clear paths for advancement. He highlights the importance of peer-to-peer recognition to maintain motivation and accountability, which can also help minimize the negative effects of favoritism and disengagement.

Productivity vs. Activity: Lee explores the distinction between activity and productivity in the warehouse environment. Many organizations measure activity (units handled) but fail to track true productivity (the efficiency of labor against standardized benchmarks). He introduces the Warehouse Command Calculator as a tool to bridge this gap, offering a simple yet powerful way to measure operational efficiency.

The Importance of Planning for the Future: With a forecasted labor shortage of 4 million workers in warehousing and manufacturing by 2030, companies must adapt now to avoid operational disruptions. Lee discusses the need for strategic labor management, cost control, and the role of automation in filling the labor gap.
The Next Generation of Warehouse Professionals: As the warehousing industry evolves, Lee believes the next generation of professionals must balance their tech-savvy with a deep understanding of operations. He highlights that technology alone isn’t enough—knowing the fundamentals of warehousing operations is crucial to making technology work effectively.

Final Thoughts:

Lee stresses that companies must act now to address labor shortages, leverage automation, and build a sustainable operational strategy. His insights into the future of warehousing and supply chain management provide valuable lessons for any business looking to improve efficiency and stay ahead in this rapidly evolving industry.

For more insights from Lee, visit: (https://embassy.com). Embassy University offers free educational resources to help businesses improve operations without significant capital investments.

Thank you for listening! Subscribe to The Manufacturers' Network Podcast for expert insights and strategies to improve your business operations.

View Details

Connect with John Gardner: johngauthor@gmail.com

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan interviews John Gardner, a seasoned expert in American manufacturing and the author of Manufacture Local: How to Make America the Manufacturing Superpower of the World. With over two decades of experience, John shares his unique journey, which began in his father's manufacturing shop in Ohio and eventually led him to launch a cutting tool business. His path included an unexpected detour into Hollywood, but he ultimately returned to the manufacturing world, where he now advocates for rebuilding America’s industrial strength.

Throughout the conversation, John highlights the challenges facing American manufacturing today, emphasizing the risks of overreliance on foreign production. He draws on historical and modern examples to illustrate how a weakened domestic industrial base poses significant national security threats. John also discusses how manufacturing once provided a clear path to the middle class and argues that the decline in industrial jobs has contributed to the widening economic gap. He passionately advocates for reintroducing manufacturing and trade education in high schools, which would inspire a new generation of industrial leaders and entrepreneurs.

John also explores the importance of reshoring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S., a trend that gained momentum after recent global events exposed vulnerabilities in the supply chain. He explains how protective tariffs can support domestic industries and drive economic growth. John offers practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, emphasizing the value of hands-on experience, direct communication with clients, and identifying market needs through immersion in the industry.

Throughout the episode, John stresses the importance of recognizing America’s manufacturing heritage and the need to preserve it for future generations. He shares insightful stories from his own experiences. He outlines the strategic steps necessary to rebuild the country's industrial base, including the role of innovation, investment, and policy changes like the COOL Act (Country of Origin Online Labeling Act). For those looking to learn more, John’s book, Manufacture Local, is available on major platforms such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

To wrap up the episode, John shares how listeners can connect with him and get a copy of his book. He leaves the audience with a powerful reminder: the future of American manufacturing lies in the hands of those willing to embrace innovation, advocate for change, and inspire the next generation to engage with this vital industry.

View Details

On the latest episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan had an insightful conversation with Jonathan Hugley, partner and patent attorney at the Chicago-based intellectual property law firm Marshall Gerstein. With a background in both mechanical engineering and law, Jonathan offers a unique perspective on the critical role of intellectual property (IP) in manufacturing.

Jonathan’s journey into patent law began with his fascination for understanding and improving how things work. After earning a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he gained firsthand experience through internships with industrial equipment manufacturers. However, he soon realized that engineering wasn’t his ultimate path. Inspired by his sister, who was in law school, Jonathan discovered patent law as the perfect combination of his engineering expertise and passion for innovation. Today, as a partner at Marshall Gerstein and chair of the firm’s industrial and mechanical technologies practice group, he continues to protect the innovative advancements of manufacturers.

During the episode, Lisa and Jonathan explored the importance of a solid IP strategy in today’s highly competitive global market. Jonathan explained that IP covers patents, copyrights, and trademarks, each offering different types of protection for intellectual assets. In manufacturing, securing these assets early on can prevent competitors from infringing on your innovations and create a foundation for sustained growth. Jonathan stressed the importance of protecting even minor improvements, as they can significantly impact a company’s market position, particularly with the rapid pace of advancements like artificial intelligence (AI).

Key Insights from the Episode

Understanding Intellectual Property (IP): Jonathan explains the different types of IP, including patents, copyrights, and trademarks, and their importance in protecting innovations.

Patents* protect new inventions or processes.
Copyrights* safeguard original artistic works like books, movies, and songs.
Trademarks* protect distinctive words, phrases, and designs that identify goods or services.
The Importance of an IP Strategy: Jonathan emphasized that a robust IP strategy is crucial for manufacturers to maintain a competitive edge in the global market. Early protection of products, processes, and designs can ensure secure market entry and long-term success.

IP as a Sound Investment: Jonathan likened IP protection to investing in the stock market. Companies should protect multiple ideas early, as it's hard to predict which innovations will succeed. Doing so creates a "security blanket" for future growth.

Encouraging Innovation through IP: Jonathan discussed how IP protection fosters innovation within companies, especially large firms. Regular brainstorming sessions, cross-departmental collaboration, and reward-based incentives can drive a culture of innovation and increase patent filings.
Early Engagement in the IP Process: Jonathan highlighted the importance of engaging IP professionals early in the invention process to ensure thorough patent applications. Strategic advice from attorneys can help inventors navigate their innovations' potential market needs and technical feasibility.

Tune in to this enlightening conversation for valuable insights on how manufacturers can safeguard their innovations and create long-term success through intellectual property strategies.

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, Lisa Ryan chats with Dave MacDonald, the owner of Better Together Group. Dave dives into what he calls the "3 i's"—intensity, integrity, and intentionality—and explains how these principles can transform your hiring process. Think of it like maintaining a furnace or an HVAC system in your home: you need the right elements working together to create a comfortable environment.

Lisa raises a common worry about the time it takes to hire properly, but Dave makes a strong case that rushing the process can lead to a bad work culture. Investing time and effort into hiring the right people helps build a sustainable business. Dave knows what he's talking about, given his extensive experience in hiring truck drivers and blue-collar workers, and he emphasizes the importance of partnering with companies that truly respect their employees.

One of the big takeaways from this episode is the importance of aligning potential hires with your company's values. Dave shares his personal philosophy—WTF, which stands for work hard, tell the truth, and finish the job. This approach stems from his own life experiences and has shaped the culture at Better Together Group.

Dave also touches on the role of technology in hiring. While tech can boost productivity, he believes personal interaction is crucial for truly understanding candidates. He prefers working with family-owned, mid-sized enterprises, which he finds more adaptable and good at building personal relationships.

We also discuss soft skills, particularly emotional intelligence and the ability to maintain relationships in a diverse manufacturing environment. Dave argues that these skills are just as crucial as technical know-how.

All in all, Dave MacDonald provides invaluable insights about the importance of taking a personal and empathetic approach to hiring. For more tips and free hiring guides, visit the Better Together Group's website.

View Details

In this episode of the Manufacturers' Network podcast, I spoke with Alex Ladd, the CEO of Mindstream Analytics. With over 15 years of experience in financial software systems and a successful track record that includes more than 50 implementations for industry giants like Verizon, Bayer Corporation, and Time Warner Cable, Alex brings a wealth of knowledge in technology innovation and change management to the table.

Alex Ladd begins by sharing his unique journey into the world of technology. Interestingly, Alex was a history major with no formal background in computers or programming. A spontaneous job offer in his early career led him to a role that involved building a computer simulation to help businesses understand reporting and analytics around KPIs. This opportunity served as Alex's introduction to the world of technology, and this role ignited his passion and expertise in the field.

Ladd then discusses the importance of data in manufacturing, specifically focusing on JD Edwards, a historically significant enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. While JD Edwards is adept at managing production schedules and general ledgers, it falls short on analytics. Alex explains how modern tools and EPM (Enterprise Performance Management) solutions can complement ERP systems by offering deeper insights through advanced data analytics.

One key takeaway from the episode is the importance of integrating various systems and fostering collaboration between different departments within a manufacturing organization. Alex highlights the need for synchronization between production planning, sales planning, procurement, and other departments to ensure that data is cohesive and comprehensive.

Alex identifies common pitfalls that manufacturers face in their data management strategies. One significant issue is the lack of integration between production and sales data, often resulting in inefficiencies and misaligned objectives. Additionally, Alex discusses the importance of master data management and the need to ensure that everyone uses consistent data definitions.

Regarding improving production planning and analysis, Alex advocates for using EPM solutions, which can aggregate and analyze data across various facets of an organization. He also touches upon the growing role of AI and machine learning in streamlining operations and enhancing data accuracy. Though still in its early stages, AI has the potential to impact data analysis and operational efficiency in manufacturing significantly.

Lessons Learned

Unconventional Paths Can Lead to Success: Alex Ladd’s transition from a history major to a tech leader emphasizes that career paths need not be linear. A combination of opportunity, curiosity, and willingness to learn can lead to a successful career in unexpected fields.
Integration is Crucial: The episode underscores the importance of integrating different data systems within an organization. Ensuring that sales, production, procurement, and other departments use cohesive data sets can drive better decision-making and operational efficiency.
The Evolution of ERP Systems: While ERP systems like JD Edwards are foundational, they need to be complemented by advanced analytics tools to unlock the full potential of data in manufacturing.
Involvement Leads to Success: One standout point from Alex is that organizations actively involved in their data projects tend to see better results. Engagement and collaboration between consultants and in-house teams are critical for successful data management.
Future of AI in Manufacturing: AI and machine learning are emerging as powerful tools for data analysis and operational efficiency in the manufacturing sector. Keeping abreast of these technologies can offer competitive advantages.

Alex Ladd’s insights on data management, integration, and the role of modern tools in enhancing manufacturing efficiency offer invaluable lessons for industry professionals. By breaking down departmental silos and leveraging advanced analytics and AI, manufacturers can unlock the full potential of their data to drive better decision-making and operational efficiencies.

Contact Information

If you wish to continue the conversation with Alex Ladd, you can reach him via email at aladd@mindstreamanalytics.com or connect with him on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandermladd).

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan talks with Patrick Stroth, the national practice leader for mergers and acquisitions at Liberty Company Insurance Brokers. Patrick, based in the bustling heart of Silicon Valley, shares his vast knowledge and expertise in securing clean exits for owners and founders of lower-middle-market companies who are looking to sell their businesses.

Patrick shares his career journey, explaining how his passion for mergers and acquisitions grew from his background as a lifelong insurance professional. He discusses why mergers and acquisitions are both exhilarating for the business world and profoundly life-changing for business owners, often marking the pinnacle of their professional careers. Patrick emphasizes that a solid and efficient exit strategy can facilitate smoother transitions, quicker sales, and happier outcomes for sellers.

One of the foremost topics discussed revolves around "Representations and Warranties" and their critical role in selling manufacturing businesses. Patrick enlightens listeners on how these disclosures are prepared by sellers and verified by buyers during the due diligence process. He elucidates the potential risks when breaches in these reps and warranties occur, explaining how the traditional indemnification clauses can be a source of stress and possible financial clawbacks for sellers.

In an innovative turn, Patrick introduces an emerging solution tailored for the lower middle-market segment: Transaction Liability Private Enterprise (TLPE) insurance. This insurance product provides the necessary protection for deals between $1 million and $30 million. He breaks down how this insurance policy allows sellers to cover any possible breaches, thus alleviating buyers' concerns and negating the need for large escrow holds.

Patrick shares real-world examples, like a metals fabrication company that faced a post-transaction issue with a key supplier renegotiating terms due to an oversight in the original contract. Such scenarios, which might have posed significant financial risks to the sellers, were mitigated through the protection offered by the TLPE policy, proving its efficacy and value.

In actionable takeaways for listeners considering selling their manufacturing business, Patrick advises securing an attorney specializing in mergers and acquisitions to effectively navigate the complex waters of business transitions. He highlights that specialized M&A attorneys add invaluable expertise, ensure smoother transactions, and reduce stress.

For those interested in exploring the benefits of TLPE further or seeking personalized advice, Patrick offers his contact information and encourages reaching out via email or LinkedIn.

Key Takeaways:

Understanding Representations and Warranties: Grasp the significance of reps and warranties in the sale process and the risks associated with potential breaches.
Transaction Liability Private Enterprise (TLPE) Insurance: Consider TLPE insurance for deals between $1 million and $30 million to safeguard against financial risks from reps and warranty breaches.
Specialized Legal Advice: Engage an attorney specializing in mergers and acquisitions to ensure a smoother and more secure transaction.
Real-life Applications: Learn from examples of how TLPE insurance provided crucial coverage and peace of mind to both buyers and sellers.

Actionable Strategies:

Start Early: Begin planning your exit strategy well before you intend to sell your business to ensure all disclosures and financial statements are in order.
Consider TLPE Insurance: Evaluate if TLPE insurance is a good fit for your transaction to reduce escrow holds and ensure a cleaner exit.
Hire Specialists: Engage professionals specializing in M&A to help navigate and mitigate potential risks effectively.

Contact Information:

Patrick Stroth on LinkedIn: Patrick Stroth
Email: pstroth@libertycompany.com

View Details

In this episode of the Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan introduces Stephen Gold, the President and CEO of the Manufacturers Alliance since 2001. Stephen, who has transformed the Alliance into a leading network for manufacturing leadership, shares insights from his diverse career and the challenges facing the manufacturing sector today. Stephen started his career in government relations, communications, and law before moving into manufacturing associations in 2000 and joining the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) in 2001. Recognizing the essential role of manufacturing in the economy, he joined the Manufacturers Alliance in 2011.

Stephen highlights the top challenges for manufacturing leaders, including finding skilled workers, technological advancements, cybersecurity threats, supply chain complexity, and global market volatility. The workforce challenge is paramount, as finding workers with the right skills for modern, technologically advanced factories is difficult. Technological changes such as digitalization, robotics, cloud computing, and AI rapidly evolve, and manufacturers struggle to integrate these technologies into legacy systems. Cybersecurity is another significant concern, with manufacturers being a primary target for cybercriminals due to the potential for extorting money by shutting down production lines.

Stephen explains that manufacturers are collaborating with high schools and technical schools to build a skilled workforce, though it's a piecemeal and long-term approach. Additionally, manufacturers are leveraging new technologies to create more transparent supply chains and adapt to disruptions caused by global and political shifts. He also emphasizes the increasing importance of peer-to-peer networking in solving industry challenges, with the Manufacturers Alliance facilitating these connections through meetings, benchmarking surveys, webinars, and online discussion boards.

Lisa and Stephen also discuss the evolving role of manufacturing CEOs. The new generation of leaders is expanding their leadership capacities, focusing on self-awareness, relatability, and adaptability, and seeking guidance from board members and senior leadership teams. Finally, Stephen encourages listeners to visit the Manufacturers Alliance website for a wealth of research and insights, noting that anyone can contact him directly via email for further information.

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan and guest Ron Crabtree, Founder and CEO of Meta Ops and Meta Experts, talked about the critical topic of shaping organizational culture and talent management strategies for manufacturers.

Ron Crabtree emphasized the importance of shaping organizational culture as leaders, focusing on creating an attractive workplace and a safe work environment, encompassing both physical and emotional safety. The discussion also shed light on addressing mental health challenges in the workplace and the need for employees to feel safe to speak up.

The decreasing importance of pay and increasing significance of access and openness within the C suite were highlighted, as well as the rising trend of digitization in the workforce. Ron Crabtree stressed the pivotal role of leveraging computers and lean practices to drive continual improvement and eliminate waste in processes within an organization. The importance of understanding processes before embarking on digital transformation and utilizing techniques such as value stream mapping for process improvement was also discussed.

Lisa Ryan raised the concern about employees' comfort levels and familiarity with technology, inquiring about how companies are addressing skill development and buy-in for digital transformation and AI adoption. The conversation concluded with a focus on workforce development strategy, the significance of self-driven employee development programs, and the value of engaging employees in visualizing the future state of work.

Key Takeaways:

Shaping Organizational Culture: Leaders need to focus on creating a safe, attractive workplace and fostering open communication to address mental health challenges and alleviate employee disengagement.
Digital Transformation and Lean Practices: The trend of digitization in the workforce calls for leveraging computers and implementing lean practices to drive continuous improvement and eliminate waste in processes within an organization.
Workforce Development Strategy: Planning for future work requirements, self-driven employee development programs, and engaging employees in visualizing the future state of work are vital for preparing employees for future skills and job requirements.

Actionable Ideas:

Implement value stream mapping to deeply understand processes and identify areas for improvement while considering the impact of IT systems on workflow.
Encourage employees to recognize and acquire new skills, create a safe environment for change, and incentivize their involvement in workforce development.
Provide avenues for contact with experts like Ron Crabtree through LinkedIn or email for further discussion and information on shaping organizational culture and talent management strategies for manufacturers.

View Details

In this episode, host Lisa Ryan welcomes Marilyn Rosa-Green, an executive coach and strategist specializing in food and beverage manufacturing, to discuss the essential role of empathy in leadership within the manufacturing industry.

Lessons Learned:

The Importance of Reframing and Nurturing Oneself: Marilyn emphasizes the importance of reframing and nurturing oneself to live a more fulfilling life, highlighting the different relationships with mental health. She shares her personal experience of caring for a brother with severe brain injury and the impact on emotional management.
Investing in Well-Being and Resisting Change: Marilyn underlines the significance of investing in well-being and resisting change, both for oneself and the team, to address challenges in manufacturing environments.
Fostering Better Communication and Relationships: Key themes for fostering better communication and relationships within the team include self-awareness, understanding core values and motivation, consistent and constant communication, and being visible and collaborative.
Self-Compassion and Reenergizing: Marilyn emphasizes self-compassion and reenergizing as better ways to approach employee self-care, shedding light on the importance of training and self-care for leaders and employees in the manufacturing industry.

Actionable Ideas for Leaders:

Actively provide resources and education for mental health discussions in the workplace.
Offer proactive measures and support for employees' mental well-being.
Demonstrate empathy and support employees in emotional situations such as bereavement or family reasons.
Incorporate empathy in leadership styles to better support frontline workers' mental health and well-being.
Leverage empathy effectively to increase productivity and build employee loyalty.

This conversation illuminates the imperative need for empathy in manufacturing leadership. Through personal experiences, expert insights, and actionable strategies, leaders in the manufacturing industry can foster a culture of empathy, ultimately creating more supportive, productive, and successful teams.

Remember to connect with Marilyn Rosa-Green on LinkedIn for further discussions and insights on cultivating empathy in manufacturing leadership.

View Details

In this episode, Jeremy Parker, the co-founder and CEO of swag.com, shared some fascinating insights into the world of promotional products and swag. He mentioned that his background as a documentary filmmaker led him to the realization that he wanted to pursue a different career. This ultimately led him to start a T-shirt company, which served as a valuable learning experience in manufacturing, marketing, PR, branding, and e-commerce.

Parker shared how swag.com was born out of his observations of the changing promotional products industry. He noticed that the industry was growing, but the buyers were getting younger, and they desired a more efficient and streamlined experience for purchasing promotional products. This led him to envision and build the next-generation promotional product company, where the front-end experience was highly automated, while the back-end operations involved a lot of manufacturing and coordination.

An interesting highlight was when Parker described the launch of SwagSpace, a division under custom ink. They provided the technology developed over nine years at swag.com for free to allow anyone to sell swag to their audience. This initiative aimed to simplify swag sales and open a new revenue stream for various businesses, such as screen printers, event planners, and designers.

The conversation delved into how Swag.com monetized the free technology it provided to partners, leveraging its buying power and dynamic pricing to maintain margins while increasing sales for its partner distributors.

Another key highlight was Parker's discussion on integrating AI into their systems. He detailed their upcoming AI helper tool, allowing the system to curate offerings, automatically create mock-ups, and interact with clients to streamline the entire product selection and design process, making it faster and more efficient.

The dialogue also touched on the importance of quality and the significance of swag that people actually want to keep, emphasizing the impact of meaningful and practical swag on enhancing brand connection.

Additionally, Parker shared anecdotes of unique and unconventional swag requests, such as the case where a company wanted to customize high-quality backpacks for employees, with the logo subtly placed on the inside lining, creating an exclusive, personal connection to the brand.

Overall, the episode provided valuable insights into the evolving world of promotional products and swag, the role of technology, and the importance of connecting with an audience through thoughtful and purposeful swag.

To get in touch with Jeremy, you can visit swag.com or swag.place. Use swag.com. If you want to buy swag or if you're a manufacturer and want to work them. Use wwag.space if you want to start selling swag to your audience. Jeremy's email is jeremy@swag.com.

View Details

In this episode, I'm joined by Kerrie Jordan, the Group Vice President of Product Management at Epicor and host of the Manufacturing the Future podcast. With her extensive software technology and manufacturing background, Kerrie provides valuable insights into the trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the manufacturing industry.

The key theme of this episode is the vital importance of upskilling for organizations to remain competitive and retain top talent. Kerrie emphasizes the need to invest in employees' training and development, highlighting the alarming decline in the commitment to upskilling, as revealed by The Voice of the Manufacturing Worker report. She underlines the significance of empowering frontline workers with technology, predicting a shift towards technologies that enhance shop floor operations, particularly generative AI. Moreover, she stresses the increasing emphasis on sustainability and upskilling in the manufacturing sector.

Lessons learned from Kerrie Jordan’s expertise include the need for leaders to tie technology investments to clear outcomes and pragmatic value, reignite interest, and effectively integrate new technologies. Furthermore, the podcast delves into the importance of engaging with younger generations in the workforce, seeking their perspectives on new technology, and leveraging their insights to drive higher retention and engagement.

As a special takeaway from this episode, managers are encouraged to actively seek and act on younger or newer employees' suggestions, as they often bring fresh perspectives and innovative ideas that can drive organizational growth and success.

To connect with Kerrie Jordan and tap into her knowledge, visit epicor.com or find her on LinkedIn at Kiejordan. Don’t forget to check out her Manufacturing the Future podcast for even more valuable insights and discussions on the evolving landscape of manufacturing technology.

In conclusion, this episode has shed light on vital strategies for boosting workplace morale, the growing significance of technology in manufacturing, and the imperative need for upskilling and sustainability initiatives. With the actionable insights provided by Kerrie Jordan, organizations can navigate the evolving manufacturing landscape with confidence and drive tangible benefits for their workforce and operations.

Tune in to The Manufacturers Network Podcast for more engaging discussions and expert insights from industry leaders like Kerrie Jordan as we continue to explore the future of manufacturing technology and its impact on businesses worldwide.

View Details

Contact Micki Vandeloo: micki@lakeviewconsulting.net

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, Micki Vandeloo and I discussed the challenges manufacturers face in accessing grants, specifically regarding limited representation from state economic development organizations and the difficulty in finding comprehensive grant information on their websites. These challenges are compounded by the complex application process, which varies in complexity based on the size of the grant.

Micki Vandeloo is President of Lakesview Consulting, and she shared invaluable expertise in helping manufacturers secure grants, drawing from his 25 years of experience in manufacturing and grant writing. Through Lakesview, Micki and her team have successfully obtained over $100,000,000 in grant funding for manufacturing clients, shedding light on the crucial role of consulting services in navigating the intricacies of grant applications.

The podcast also highlighted the significance of grants in various areas such as workforce and training, high technology equipment purchases, facilities and capital, energy efficiency, proof of concept, exporting, and recycling. The discussion shed light on the importance of fostering interest in manufacturing careers early on, as exemplified by initiatives like the STEM Goes Red for Girls program and summer camp programs introducing students to manufacturing careers.

Lessons Learned:

Grant Application Complexity: The grant size corresponds to the level of detail and documentation required. Manufacturers must pay careful attention to specific application requirements, such as word count, font size, and inclusion of relevant information, to avoid rejection.
Importance of Consulting Services: Professional grant consulting services, like those offered by Lakesview, play a vital role in helping manufacturers navigate the grant application process, increasing their chances of securing funding.
Early Career Exploration: Initiatives focusing on engaging students in manufacturing and STEM fields from a young age can significantly influence career paths and address the talent gap in these industries.

Key Themes:

Manufacturers' Challenges: Accessing grants can be challenging due to limited representation from economic development organizations and the complexity of the application process.
Professional Assistance: Grant consulting services are crucial for manufacturers to successfully obtain grants, allowing them to fund initiatives and drive success.
Early Engagement: Initiatives targeting middle and high school students aim to spark interest in manufacturing and STEM fields, tackling the talent gap at its roots.

This episode underscores the significance of grant funding for manufacturing and STEM education, providing valuable insights for manufacturers and industry professionals seeking to secure grants and develop talent pipelines. For more information and to access consulting services, visit their website or reach out via email at micki@lakeviewconsulting.net

View Details

In this episode of the Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan chats with John Conafay, co-founder and CEO of Integrate, about leveraging digital platforms to enhance collaboration, streamline processes, and drive efficiency in manufacturing. John shares insights from his background in the space industry and how it led to the creation of Integrate, emphasizing the importance of effective communication and context in the hardware engineering landscape.

You can contact John Conafay personally on LinkedIn. Alternatively, you can visit the Integrate website at integrate.co and sign up for a free trial. During the trial, you will have access to online training, an onboarding process, and live demos to learn more about the platform.

Key Themes:

Collaboration in Hardware Engineering: John highlights the crucial role of collaboration in building ambitious machinery and the challenges posed by existing software tools designed primarily for software engineering.
Digital Platform Benefits: The discussion revolves around the impact of digital platforms in improving communication and project management and reducing risks associated with fragmented systems and lack of context.
Real-world Case Studies: John shares a compelling case study demonstrating how implementing a digital platform streamlined communication between customers and manufacturing engineers, enhancing efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Integration Solutions: The conversation delves into integrating disparate systems, how they benefit organizations, and the importance of considering scalability in choosing a digital platform.

Lessons Learned:

The significance of context and effective communication in manufacturing processes.
Recognizing signs of operational inefficiencies due to fragmented systems.
Considerations for integrating digital platforms and the impact on production speed, accuracy, and cost efficiency.
Leveraging technology, such as cloud computing and AI, for simulation, security, and institutional knowledge retrieval.

Fun Fact:

John Conafay's background includes a diverse journey from the US Air Force to the space industry, highlighting his unique perspective on integrating software solutions in hardware engineering.

ManufacturingEfficiency #DigitalPlatforms #CollaborationInEngineering #HardwareEngineering #CloudComputing #AIInManufacturing #IntegratedSystems #OperationalEfficiency #BusinessOptimization #InnovationInProduction

View Details

The episode features guest Jason Anthoine, a leading expert in internal communications and culture change with over 35 years of experience. Jason started by sharing his background and the motivations that have led him to his current role.

Lessons Learned and Key Themes:

Understanding Employee Experience: Jason recounts his upbringing and how his fascination with work led him to delve into internal and employee communications fields. His insights emphasize the importance of creating a work environment where employees feel valued and recognized for their contributions.
Challenges of Engaging Manufacturing Employees: Jason highlights the challenges manufacturing companies face in reaching employees who are not digitally connected throughout their workday. He emphasizes the significance of face-to-face communication and its impact on frontline employees.
Reimagining Organizations to Attract and Retain Talent: Jason challenges the common misconception that turnover in organizations, particularly in manufacturing, depends solely on external factors like higher-paying job offers. He discusses the importance of helping employees understand their contributions to the organization's larger purpose, building engagement and pride in their work.
Advantages and Lessons for Companies of Different Sizes: Jason draws comparisons between large and small manufacturing companies, highlighting the advantages each possesses in employee engagement. He emphasizes the need for smaller companies to adapt strategies from larger organizations to create impactful internal communication practices.
Employee Engagement vs. Trust: Jason offers a unique take on employee engagement, questioning its common understanding and measurement. He emphasizes the significance of fostering trust within organizations and the impact of genuine, open communication in building and maintaining it.
Creating an Open Dialogue Around Culture: Jason stresses the importance of involving employees in shaping the organizational culture. He discusses the importance of initiating conversations with employees to understand their aspirations for the company's culture, emphasizing the significance of collective input and dialogue.

Contact Information for Jason:

Website: Jason Anthoine, https://www.jasonanthoine.com
LinkedIn: Jason Anthoine on LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonanthoine/
Podcast: Riding Shotgun with Jason Anthoine

This episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast offers valuable insights into the significance of trust, open dialogue, and employee involvement in shaping a positive workplace culture.

View Details

In this episode of the Manufacturers Network podcast, Alex Kinderknecht provides valuable insights into enhancing gas analysis and emissions monitoring products, which are crucial for industries such as steel and refineries. He shares his journey from manufacturing analyzers in Germany to his role in research and development, technical support, and eventually becoming the president of the American office.

Alex discusses some common mistakes consumers make, such as neglecting regular maintenance of gas analyzers. He emphasizes the importance of understanding regulatory changes and the need for continuous monitoring and maintenance of emissions. Further, he talks about the growing regulations on emissions monitoring and the need for companies to adapt rapidly.

He delves into new advancements in gas analyzer technology, emphasizing the development of wireless data communication capabilities to analyze data and provide a comprehensive diagnostic feature for preventive maintenance. He also highlights the importance of customer service and strong after-sales support in optimizing the industry's processes.

The significant role of gas analyzers in promoting environmental sustainability becomes evident in Alex's explanations of how the raw data provided by their products can help companies optimize their processes and reduce their environmental impact. Examples of how their products have helped clients optimize their processes and comply with regulatory standards showcase the impact of their work.

The conversation offers valuable lessons about the evolving regulatory landscape, the need for continuous monitoring and maintenance of emissions, and the crucial role of gas analyzers in promoting environmental sustainability. Additionally, Alex's emphasis on customer service as a key component of their offerings highlights the importance of strong after-sales support for industrial products.

Key themes include the crucial role of gas analyzers in ensuring compliance with regulatory standards, the evolving regulatory landscape in emissions monitoring, and the importance of customer service and support in optimizing industry processes for environmental sustainability.

You can contact Alex Kinderknecht on LinkedIn to learn about gas analysis and emissions monitoring. Additionally, you can reach out through their website at mruinstruments.com for inquiries about MRU Instruments' products and services. Alex actively monitors customer feedback to ensure that everyone is well-served, and he is always ready to assist with any inquiries or support needs.

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, Lisa Ryan interviews Berk Birand, the CEO of Fero Labs, about the intersection of manufacturing and explainable AI. Berk shares his background as an engineer and his journey from developing algorithms for telecommunications to co-founding Fero, where the focus is on sustainability in the manufacturing industry.

Key takeaways from our conversation with Berk Birand:

The Importance of Sustainability in Manufacturing: Sustainability is a significant concern for manufacturing companies, and many are working hard to reduce their emissions and improve efficiency. Berk explains how Fero's mission is to help companies achieve both profitability and sustainability through the use of AI and data.
Efficiency and Sustainability: Berk describes how Fero's AI-driven approach helps reduce waste and improve efficiency in manufacturing, citing examples within the steel and chemicals sectors. Companies can use AI to optimize processes to enhance their profitability while reducing their carbon footprint.
Understanding AI in Manufacturing: Berk demystifies AI, explaining that it is a tool for extracting complex patterns from large datasets. He emphasizes the role of machine learning in deciphering intricate manufacturing data and providing valuable insights for optimization.
Continuous Learning in AI: AI models in the industrial sector need continuous retraining to adapt to production, raw materials, and asset degradation changes. This ongoing learning process ensures that the AI's predictions remain accurate and valuable for manufacturers.
Challenges and Opportunities in AI Adoption: Convincing the manufacturing industry to adopt AI technologies requires building trust through explainable, white-box machine learning models. Berk emphasizes the need for AI to be a reliable and transparent tool that supports, rather than replaces, the expertise of engineers and operators.

Actionable ideas for listeners:

Start from the Problem: Identify specific challenges in manufacturing processes, such as quality issues, and assess the potential for leveraging explainable AI to complement existing tools.
Data Assessment Verify the availability of reliable data that can drive AI solutions, ensuring that the quality of input data aligns with the desired accuracy of AI predictions.
Exploring AI Solutions: Consider contacting experts and conducting feasibility studies to understand how AI technologies, like Fero's, can be tailored to specific production needs.

Fun facts:

Fero Labs focuses on a wide range of industries, including steel, chemicals, and general process industries, showcasing the broad applicability of AI in diverse manufacturing sectors.
Berk highlights the potential for AI to assist in knowledge transfer within the manufacturing industry, leveraging the expertise of experienced workers and aiding in the training of new engineers.

Engage with Fero Labs:

If you're interested in exploring AI solutions for your manufacturing processes, contact Fero Labs via their website at ferolabs.com. Their team is ready to discuss the feasibility of integrating AI into your production environment.

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, guest Mary Cecile Neville (MC) joins host Lisa Ryan to discuss manufacturing best practices, focusing on collecting data and workforce development. They delve into the importance of emotional intelligence in the industry and highlight cultural aspects such as collaboration, empathy, and inclusivity. The conversation touches on emerging trends in manufacturing, digital transformation, and the significance of passion in attracting and retaining employees. Additionally, MC Neville and Lisa Ryan share personal interests and reflections on the rapid advancement of technology in the industry. Stay tuned to hear more about the impact of manufacturing technology and the passion driving this crucial industry forward.

Lesson Learned:

The conversation underscores the significance of creating a workplace culture that values collaboration, empathy, fun, passion, emotional intelligence, flexibility, and inclusivity. Listeners gain valuable insights into these elements' vital role in driving organizational success and nurturing a robust and motivated workforce.

Key Themes:

The rapid advancement of technology in the manufacturing industry
Balancing productivity, stress, and humor in the workplace
The pivotal role of passion in attracting and retaining employees
Recognizing the significance of seemingly mundane industries
The value of in-person events and the need for empathy and emotional intelligence in the workplace

Fun Facts:

2024 marks the 10th anniversary of the first 3D-printed car, the Strati, built at IMTS in 2014.

An exhibit at INTS and a student summit with speakers and exhibitors, including NASA and Boston Dynamics, are on the horizon.
MC Neville's background in ski and snowboard organizations has greatly influenced her approach to leadership and workplace culture.

The IMTS, the largest manufacturing technology show in the Western Hemisphere, is held in Chicago every two years. It showcases diverse industry sectors and emerging technology.

Manufacturing best practices, Workforce data collection, Cultural aspects in manufacturing, Emerging trends in manufacturing, Digital transformation, Workplace culture, Emotional intelligence in the workplace, 3D printing technology, Chicago manufacturing technology show, Employee retention, Organizational success

View Details

This week's guest is Dan Shea, Managing Director at Objective, who will discuss mergers and acquisitions in the manufacturing sector. With over 30 years of success in M&A, particularly in manufacturing businesses, Dan shares expert insights into the key factors driving value in manufacturing businesses, preparing companies for potential sales, and the current state of the M&A market.

Key Themes:

Factors Driving Value in Manufacturing Businesses:
Proprietary Aspects: Dan emphasizes the importance of uniqueness in manufacturing businesses, including intellectual property, manufacturing know-how, technology, brand recognition, and strong customer relationships.
Operational Efficiency: Buyers seek companies that operate efficiently, generate ample profits, and demonstrate a competitive edge in manufacturing their products.
Reasons for Selling Manufacturing Businesses:
Succession Planning: Many business owners consider selling when there is no clear succession plan or next-generation leadership to take over the company.
Baby Boomer Transitions: With many baby boomer business owners reaching retirement age, selling businesses becomes a natural transition.
Preparing for a Successful Sale:
Strategic and Administrative Preparation: Dan discusses the importance of strategic planning, investment in facilities and equipment, workforce management, diversification, and compliance with safety and environmental standards.
Ensuring a Smooth Transition:
Confidential Nature: Dan emphasizes confidentiality during a potential sale to prevent undue worry and uncertainty among employees, customers, and suppliers.
Employee and Customer Considerations: Dan highlights the importance of maintaining employee and customer trust during the transition by ensuring their well-being and minimizing potential disruption.

Lessons Learned:

Mergers and acquisitions in the manufacturing sector require intricate planning, strategizing, and a meticulous understanding of the business's value drivers and market dynamics.
Securing trustworthy advisors, including lawyers and investment bankers, is crucial for navigating the sale process and maximizing the value realized from the transaction.

Fun Facts:

Dan shares an anecdote about a client's surprise at receiving an unexpectedly high number of offers for their business while highlighting the potential for success in the sale process.
The impact of nearshoring on manufacturing businesses is illustrated through a real-world example of a Mexican company benefiting from transferring volumes to their Mexican operations due to customer proximity.

Keywords:

Manufacturing businesses, Mergers and Acquisitions, Manufacturing sector, Business value, Strategic planning, Succession planning, Baby boomer transitions, Business sale preparation, Confidentiality, Business transition, Investment advisors

View Details

In this episode, Lisa Ryan is joined by special guest Tom Geiss, the founder of GD&T Basics and a certified senior-level ASME Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing professional. Tom shares his journey from being an engineer in the automotive world to creating GD&T Basics, a resource that has empowered countless professionals in the engineering industry. He delves into the importance of standardizing communication and the practical use of GD&T, shedding light on the critical role of GD&T in revolutionizing the manufacturing industry's efficiency and standardization.*

Lessons Learned:

Standardizing communication is crucial in preventing costly manufacturing issues and ensuring clear and confident communication in the engineering industry.
GD&T is not just jargon; it is a language of precision that simplifies complex geometric requirements and provides a standardized way of defining functional geometric requirements.

Key Themes:

Impact of Standardization: Tom discusses the impact of specializing in niche areas and its benefits to individuals and companies. He highlights the significance of standardizing communication through GD&T in the engineering and manufacturing industry.
Real-World Simplification: The approach of GD&T Basics in simplifying GD&T through a real-world 80-20 training approach. It focuses on relating GD&T concepts to how professionals engage with them daily, making the learning process more accessible.
Remote Team and Company Culture: Tom emphasizes hiring for culture fit and self-motivation in a remote work environment. He discusses how virtual meetings, regular check-ins, and in-person meetups contribute to maintaining a cohesive company culture.

Fun Facts:

Tom Geiss and his team at GD&T Basics have developed an outstanding culture of self-motivated individuals who work cohesively in a remote environment.
The GD&T Basics team is a small yet powerful group of nine individuals who have successfully worked with many companies, from small machine shops to major global entities like Honeywell, SpaceX, and Disney Imagineering.

In this engaging episode, Tom Geiss shares his profound insights into the world of engineering and manufacturing and the human side of building a successful company and team. If you want to learn more about geometric dimensioning and tolerancing or want to connect with Tom Geiss, visit gdandtbasics.com or find him on LinkedIn!

View Details

In the latest episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, Lisa Ryan dives into the world of roofing and construction with an expert in the field, Heidi Ellsworth, the president of Roofers Coffee Shop. With over 30 years of experience in the industry, Heidi shares invaluable insights, addressing crucial topics such as inclusivity and diversity, safety, and the roofing industry's future. Join us as we explore the key takeaways from this enlightening conversation.

Key Themes:

Inclusivity and Diversity:

The roofing industry recognizes the importance of inclusivity and diversity in retaining employees. Understanding different cultures and providing inclusiveness through bilingual efforts and translators is crucial for fostering a supportive work environment.

Lesson Learned: Companies are investing in English as a second language training, leadership training in Spanish, and utilizing technology for effective communication, emphasizing the value of understanding and catering to diverse workforce needs.

Safety and Employee Retention:

Safety is a significant concern, especially for immigrant workers. Companies are actively promoting a culture of safety through education and involving employees' families in safety discussions. This approach not only ensures a safe work environment but also contributes to enhanced employee retention.

Lesson Learned: Efforts to prioritize safety and involve employees in safety protocols are pivotal for creating a positive and long-lasting work culture.

Attracting Young Talent:

Initiatives such as SkillsUSA incorporating roofing competitions and curriculum into trade schools aim to make the roofing industry a viable career option for younger generations. The industry is actively working to attract young talent by showcasing the opportunities and potential for growth within roofing and construction.

Lesson Learned: By investing in programs that appeal to younger generations, companies can proactively contribute to building a skilled workforce for the future.

Technology Advancements:

he roofing industry is undergoing a technological transformation. From adopting project management software and drones for roof inspections to incorporating AI for instant quotes and upcoming robotics for shingling roofs, technology is revolutionizing the way business is conducted within the industry.

Lesson Learned: Embracing technological advancements is essential for staying competitive and efficient in a rapidly evolving industry.

Work Flexibility and Gratitude:

Flexibility in work schedules, remote work policies, and a culture of intentional gratitude and appreciation for employees have been key factors in improving business and industry involvement. The focus on work-life balance and gratitude has positively impacted employee morale and productivity.

Lesson Learned: Prioritizing work flexibility and expressing gratitude towards employees can significantly enhance individual and organizational well-being.

Fun Facts:

Heidi Ellsworth's commitment to the roofing industry stems from its family-oriented nature and her passion for sharing the stories of the people and families within it.

Contractors in the roofing industry stand up for their crews and promote a culture of respect and care for their workers.

The Roofing Alliance works with construction management schools across the country and holds a student competition in which undergrad or graduate construction management students compete as if they own their own roofing company.

Gen Z students are encouraged to consider roofing careers due to high earning potential and entrepreneurial opportunities.

Heidi Ellsworth's insightful conversation illuminates the importance of inclusivity, safety, technological advancements, and employee well-being in roofing and construction. As the industry evolves, companies must embrace diversity, prioritize safety, leverage technology, and foster a culture of gratitude and flexibility to thrive in a competitive landscape. Tune in to The Manufacturers Network Podcast for more engaging discussions and expert insights on the dynamics of various industries.

View Details

Connect with Ann Franz: Ann.Franz@nwtc.edu

In this episode of the Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan welcomes guest Ann Franz, the executive director of the Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance. Ann has been instrumental in spearheading initiatives to promote and elevate the manufacturing sector in Northeast Wisconsin since 2006.

Key themes:

Importance of Changing the Image of Manufacturing: Ann shares how she and her team work tirelessly to change the negative perception of the manufacturing industry, ensuring that younger generations are aware of the clean, bright, and innovative nature of modern manufacturing facilities.
Collaborating with Educational Institutions: Ann describes the challenges and successes of building relationships with educational systems to expose students to the world of manufacturing. She shares initiatives like the Get Real Math program to demonstrate the real-world applications of math in manufacturing.
Addressing Industry Challenges: Ann discusses the need for a skilled workforce in manufacturing and describes the efforts made to address this, such as investing in technology and productivity gains through Industry 4.0 initiatives. Additionally, she highlights the importance of soft skills and employability skill training for students.

Lessons Learned:

Engaging industry leaders is key to driving change in the manufacturing sector, and it's essential to have individuals dedicated to implementing the vision and ideas generated by industry stakeholders.
Starting small and executing 1-2 initiatives masterfully can lead to further stakeholder excitement and engagement.

Fun Facts:

Ann Franz's journey in promoting manufacturing began with her first job as a receptionist in a manufacturing company during high school.
The Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance has given over half a million dollars in college scholarships and has seen significant enrollment increases in manufacturing-related programs in educational institutions.

Ann Franz's dedication to promoting manufacturing in Northeast Wisconsin has led to tangible changes in perceptions, growth in educational programs, and increased engagement from industry players. Through her collaborative efforts with academic institutions and industry leaders, she continues to drive positive change in the manufacturing sector.

For more insights into advancing the manufacturing industry and promoting partnerships between industry and education, visit the Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance's website or contact Ann Franz at ann.franz@nwtc.edu.

Tune in to the Manufacturers Network Podcast for more inspiring stories and valuable insights from industry leaders.

View Details

In this episode, Lisa Ryan interviews Gareth Evans, the CEO and founder of VECKTA, a platform and team of experts that accelerates and simplifies the deployment of on-site energy solutions for businesses globally. With 20 years of experience in the energy and resources sectors, Gareth shares valuable insights into the energy transition, clean energy alternatives, and the future of sustainable energy solutions in this captivating discussion.

Key Themes and Takeaways

Gareth’s Unique Journey: Gareth shares his unexpected and diverse journey, from aspiring to be a fast jet pilot in the Air Force to becoming an expert in the energy and resources sectors.
The Birth of VECKTA: Inspired by his experience supporting ExxonMobil and others after the 2nd Gulf War, Gareth’s mission was to provide clean, reliable, and affordable power, leading to the establishment of VECKTA in 2019.
What VECKTA Stands For: Gareth breaks down the meaning of VECKTA, derived from the word “vector.” VECKTA symbolizes providing magnitude, direction, and scale to the energy transition, focusing on creating sustainable solutions.
Energy Transition and Business Impact: Gareth explains that businesses must produce more products, more reliably, at lower costs, and in a cleaner way to win or retain contracts despite increasing energy costs and decreasing reliability in the aging power grid.
Role of Government Policies: Gareth discusses the impact of government policies and regulations, highlighting incentives and mechanisms that support businesses in transitioning to distributed on-site energy assets.
Digital Technologies and Data: The rise of digital technologies, data, and analytics transforms how businesses manage and optimize their energy use, enabling businesses to make informed decisions to reduce energy costs.
Energy Efficiency Priorities: Gareth emphasizes the importance of energy efficiency, ranging from behavioral changes to technological solutions, and highlights opportunities for businesses to reduce energy consumption and costs through various strategies.
Clean Energy and The Role of Gas: Gareth dispels common misconceptions about clean energy, emphasizing the importance of tailoring energy solutions to a business’s specific needs, even if that includes transitional fuel solutions such as gas, which can be cleaner and more cost-effective.
Lessons Learned and Opportunities: The episode concludes with a powerful message from Gareth, encouraging businesses to embrace the energy transition as a massive opportunity to differentiate themselves, drive operational and cost efficiencies, and contribute to sustainability.

Lessons Learned

Business leaders are being expected to produce more products reliably, cost-effectively, and sustainably, necessitating a shift towards cheaper, more reliable, and sustainable energy outcomes.
Embracing energy transition presents a unique opportunity for businesses to stand out by optimizing energy solutions, reducing costs, increasing resilience, and proactively meeting sustainability goals.

Fun Facts

Gareth shares how solar systems are being deployed even in unexpected regions with low sunlight, highlighting the surprising potential for solar energy generation.
Businesses can take advantage of energy as a service contract, where an entity will finance, build, operate, and maintain energy solutions, offering a hassle-free pathway to securing sustainable energy at a fixed cost.

To learn more about VECTA and energy transformation, visit www.veckta.com and the Renewable Rides podcast for more exciting information about sustainable energy solutions.

Tap into Gareth Evans’ expertise and stay connected on LinkedIn for the latest insights and updates.

View Details

In this episode, Lisa Ryan is joined by Andrew Lane and Abby Wurzbach to discuss the creation and mission of the Young Manufacturers Network. Abby shares how the network was established and its goals in providing a space for young professionals to connect, develop skills, and adapt to new technologies in the manufacturing industry. Andrew emphasizes the importance of encouraging collaboration and preparing young manufacturers for future challenges.

Abby's career transition from education to business and her impactful experience at ManTec led to the founding of the Young Manufacturers Network. The network seeks to help small and medium-sized manufacturers grow and stay competitive through resources and networking opportunities. It offers a platform for sharing innovative ideas, professional development, mentorship, and community building.
The hosts delve into the importance of OSHA and safety training, mentorship, and communication between different generations in the manufacturing industry. They highlight the development of a mentoring program to pair younger manufacturers with industry veterans for knowledge transfer and address the communication gap between digital native younger employees and legacy employees with technological knowledge.

Fun Facts

Abby Wurzbach transitioned from education to joining her father's manufacturing company as a sales and marketing intern, eventually founding the Young Manufacturers Network.
Andrew Lane transitioned from working as a correction officer to the staffing industry, focusing on office professional and manufacturing positions, before joining ManTech to support small and medium-sized manufacturers.

Lessons Learned

Building the Young Manufacturers Network involved gathering feedback from industry veterans, friends, and young people and shaping the network's direction through a focus group.

Valuable elements from existing associations were identified and adapted to groom and grow young manufacturers within the network.

Key Themes

The Young Manufacturers Network aims to provide a sense of belonging and a networking platform for professionals aged 21 to 40.
Mentorship, skill development, communication across generations, time management, and community building are vital components of the network's offerings.
Collaboration with local Manufacturing Extension Partnerships (MEPs) and the encouragement of buy-in from organizations play pivotal roles in the network's success and the thriving of the manufacturing industry.

View Details

In this episode of the Manufacturers' Network Podcast, Glenn Akramoff sheds light on the need for more accountability, fairness, and consistency in the workplace, emphasizing the importance of assessing and improving workplace culture, structure, systems, and processes. He shares examples and practical insights on creating human-centered workplace cultures in the manufacturing industry. The conversation touches on strategies for fostering a winning team, the impact of generational diversity in the workplace, purpose-driven leadership, and the significance of putting humans at the center of every organization. The hosts emphasize the importance of recognizing signs of a dysfunctional environment and share personal anecdotes and examples to illustrate key points.

Lessons Learned:

Accountability, fairness, and consistency are essential elements of a positive workplace culture.
Leaders must actively assess and improve workplace culture, structure, and processes to create a cohesive and motivated team.
Recognizing the impact of generational diversity in the workplace is crucial for adapting leadership and motivation strategies.
Purpose-driven leadership and human-centered cultures positively influence decision-making, product quality, customer experience, and overall organizational success.
Recognizing signs of a dysfunctional environment, such as high turnover and communication issues, is crucial for addressing workplace culture and building strong relationships in the organization.

Key Themes:

Creating a human-centered workplace culture
Strategies for fostering a winning team
Generational diversity in the workplace
Purpose-driven leadership
Importance of personal growth and support for leaders
Recognizing signs of a dysfunctional environment

View Details

In this episode of the Manufacturers' Network Podcast, Tom Geraghty shares his journey from a diverse background in technology, healthcare, aviation, and government to becoming a passionate advocate for creating high-performing teams through psychological safety.

The concept of psychological safety is about creating an environment where individuals feel safe to speak up, share concerns, and make mistakes without fear of retribution.
Tom emphasizes the universal applicability of psychological safety across different domains, such as aviation, healthcare, tech, and manufacturing, highlighting the fundamental human dynamics underlying it.

Lesson Learned:

The importance of creating conditions in which people and teams can thrive, recognizing that high-performing teams require a foundation of psychological safety.
The impact of disruptive events such as the Tenerife air disaster and the Challenger disaster on the development and implementation of safety programs, promoting the critical role of psychological safety in safety-critical domains.

Fun Facts:

Tom shares examples of how organizations use creative approaches such as "failure walls" and "f-up Fridays" to normalize failure, encourage candid discussions, and promote a culture of psychological safety.
Reframing work as experiments and learning opportunities, rather than merely delivering a product, highlights the process-oriented nature of work and the potential for continuous improvement through psychological safety.

Key Takeaways:

The need for leaders to model the behavior of psychological safety, prioritize learning from failures, and create mechanisms for open communication and feedback.
The potential for psychological safety to drive improvements not only in safety and quality but also in employee retention, inclusivity, and diversity.
The reassurance that there is no limit to psychological safety, and it is essential to address underlying problematic beliefs or attitudes that may surface in a safe environment.

Overall, the episode provides a compelling perspective on the transformative power of psychological safety and its potential to foster safe and innovative work environments in manufacturing and other industries.

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network podcast, host Lisa Ryan interviews Scott Mackenzie, managing partner and founder of Industrial Talk Media. Scott is a passionate industry educator who shares his journey into the industrial sector and discusses his role in shaping the future of manufacturing and construction industries through technological advancements.

Scott Mackenzie is the founder of a successful maintenance company, but he realized that he needed to find new opportunities to open doors for his business. After brainstorming and noodling on ideas, he recognized that maintenance wasn't a high passion topic for people. However, during a drive back from a client, he was listening to a podcast and had a lightbulb moment. This led him to pivot his business focus and pursue new opportunities and pathways for growth.

Key Themes and Lessons Learned:

Scott's background in maintenance and the realization that nobody wanted to talk about maintenance led him to the idea of starting a podcast.
He emphasizes the importance of continuous learning to keep up with the rapidly changing industrial landscape and adapt to technological advancements.
The significance of partnerships and collaboration in navigating the fast-paced changes in industry, and the pivotal role of people in driving future innovations and solutions.
The critical need for industrial leaders to step out of their comfort zones and embrace marketing and storytelling to attract younger generations and showcase the value of working in the industry.
Scott's memorable podcast conversations with industry professionals who have pioneered terms like "use case," "digital twin," and innovations in augmented reality, offering a deeper understanding of technological advancements in the industrial sector.

Fun Facts and Actionable Ideas:

Scott shares his discovery channel dream of sharing knowledge and expertise with the industrial community through his learning management system, offering practical courses on topics like Google Ads and marketing strategies.
He encourages industry professionals to embrace digital transformation and online learning portals to stay informed about latest industry trends and advancements.
Scott's practical approach resonates with his personal experience and learning, making his marketing superpower a valuable resource for manufacturers as they navigate through the evolving landscape of industry marketing and sales.

These show notes capture Scott Mackenzie's insights on technological advancements, future challenges, and the importance of continuous learning and collaboration within the industrial sector, providing actionable ideas for industry professionals to embrace and adapt to changes in the industry landscape.

Key words: industrial talk, industrial media, manufacturing, construction, industry educator, technology, innovation, automation, maintenance, podcast, trailblazers, out of the box thinkers, future of manufacturing, digital twin, augmented reality, learning management system, marketing, sales, education, collaboration, innovation, leadership, maintenance company, supply chain management, human element, industrial workforce, leadership, digital transformation, industrial processes, industrial sector

View Details

Connect with Eknauth Persaud:

Phone: 817-210 4042

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eknauth/

Website: ayokasystems.com/

Welcome to the Manufacturers Network Podcast! In this episode, our host, Lisa Ryan, is joined by Eknauth Persaud, the CEO of Ioka Systems, a renowned expert in utilizing AI for manufacturing. Eknauth offers valuable insights into the potential of AI to revolutionize decision-making in the manufacturing industry, emphasizing its role in preserving best practices and guiding newer employees. He shares real-life examples of AI's impact on processes and discusses the careful considerations and potential risks of integrating AI into manufacturing operations. The episode delves into the benefits of AI in improving quality, consistency, and employee satisfaction while also addressing the need for data protection and intellectual property security. Don't miss out on this engaging conversation about the power of AI in manufacturing and the strategic use of technology to drive efficiency and innovation.

Here are some key takeaways from our conversation:

AI as a Decision-Making Tool: Eknauth highlighted the missed opportunity for manufacturers to leverage AI to fill the middle ground of decision-making, emphasizing its potential to emulate the decision-making of experienced employees and offer guidance for consistent decision-making.
Preserving Expertise: He discussed the opportunity for manufacturers to incorporate the legacy and expertise of long-time employees into AI, guiding newer employees and preserving best practices. Eknauth shared a real-life example of using software to capture procedures and processes, guide newer employees, and evaluate performance relative to forecasts.
Ethical Considerations: Eknauth discussed the importance of data protection and caution when utilizing AI for generating code, underscoring the importance of preserving intellectual property and safeguarding data.
Sustainable Manufacturing: Host Lisa Ryan highlighted the importance of sustainability in manufacturing and the need to attract younger generations while raising concerns about misunderstandings of digital transformation among manufacturing leaders.
Protecting Intellectual Property: Eknauth emphasized the need to keep AI systems within the company's network to protect data and intellectual property, contrasting publicly available AI models with internally-driven AI models used in manufacturing.

The episode comprehensively explored the potential benefits and pitfalls of integrating AI into manufacturing processes. Eknauth's expert insights shed light on the transformative power of AI in guiding decision-making and optimizing processes.

If you want to explore the possibilities of AI in manufacturing or have questions, feel free to reach out to Eknauth Persaud. You can connect with him at 817-210 4042. He expressed his willingness to share his thoughts and help others navigate the integration of AI within manufacturing processes.

View Details

Contact Joe Ricci: jricci@trsa.org

LInkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-ricci-trsa/

TRSA.org

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan sits down with Joe Ricci, President and CEO of the Textile Rental Services Association of America. Joe shares insights into North America's $50 billion textile services industry, touching on its economic impact, sustainability efforts, and future trends. From the importance of cleanliness and sustainability to the challenges and opportunities within the industry, Joe provides an in-depth look at the textile services landscape and sheds light on its vital role in everyday life. Tune in to learn more about the industry's commitment to sustainability, technological advancements, and the efforts to attract and retain a skilled workforce.

Key takeaways from the episode:

Sustainable Practices: The textile industry is focused on sustainability, from reducing water and chemical usage to embracing the circular economy and recycling textiles back into raw fabrics.
Safety and Innovation: Embracing technology has transformed the industry, improving safety, productivity, and reduced turnover while also addressing challenges such as PFAS and microplastics.
Workforce Development: Industry members are implementing creative strategies to attract, train, and retain talent, demonstrating a commitment to the workforce and addressing the ongoing labor shortage.

Listen to the full episode for in-depth insights on the important role played by the textile services industry in healthcare, hospitality, and manufacturing, as well as its impact on sustainability and the economy.

ManufacturersNetwork #Podcast #TextileIndustry #Sustainability #Innovation #WorkforceDevelopment

View Details

Connect with Roger Atkins: ratkins@ntma.org

In this episode, our guest, Roger Atkins, President of the National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA), shares invaluable insights into the evolving landscape of the manufacturing industry. Roger's lifelong involvement in manufacturing, shaped by his family's influence and experience in the field, has fueled his dedication to sustaining and enhancing the industry. Throughout the episode, he delves into many critical topics, ranging from the impact of government regulations on small and medium-sized manufacturers to the essential role of automation and modernization in staying competitive globally. He underscores the significance of reshoring operations and the pressing need to attract and train a skilled workforce, particularly drawing younger individuals into the manufacturing sector. By the end of this episode, you will gain a deeper understanding of the driving forces shaping the industry's future and the crucial initiatives led by NTMA.

Throughout the episode, Roger Atkins, the guest, discusses key points:

How younger individuals are entering careers in manufacturing without college debt due to financing from those who need it.
The harmful impact of government regulations on small to medium-sized manufacturers, such as taxes and regulatory restrictions.
The uncertainty of elections affecting the manufacturing industry and reshoring becoming a trend due to the challenges faced during the pandemic.
Manufacturers must reduce costs and adopt automation and robotics to stay competitive globally.
The introduction of an exclusive tooling program by the National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA) to help members reduce costs without affecting prices, protect their profits, and help them stay in business.

Throughout the discussion, Roger Atkins shares his insights and expertise based on his extensive experience as the president of NTMA. By highlighting the hardships and opportunities within the manufacturing sector, he underscores the importance of sustaining and enhancing the industry's vitality.

The Importance of Mentorship in Business: "My dad went to his grave telling would tell anybody that it was his intimate friends and colleagues that taught him how to run a business."

— Roger Atkins [00:04:22 → 00:04:29]

The Power of Unity in Manufacturing: "When those little shops bind together, all of a sudden, we find out we're not the little guy in the game, that we play a huge role of of US manufacturing."

— Roger Atkins [00:09:11 → 00:10:01]

The Importance of Manufacturing in Space Exploration: "Nothing you touch, anything you touch, there was a manufacturer involved at some point in the process. Regardless of what it is."

— Roger Atkins [00:12:22 → 00:12:30]

The Importance of Manufacturing Careers: "But that one of the big challenges is that the other thing that really we fight against all the time are government regulations that really harms small to medium-sized factors."

— Roger Atkins [00:16:27 → 00:16:36]

The Impact of Regulations on Small Businesses: "And it stopped a couple of years ago, and they've used this as a political football where both sides agree it's great and small business needs it, But we're gonna use it as a political football to get something else we need."

— Roger Atkins [00:17:04 → 00:17:16]

The impact of presidential election years on small to medium-sized manufacturers: "Being our customers, they maybe we're going to have administration change. We don't. All that so everybody's in limbo in an election year, and I think that does affect small, medium, Small to medium-sized manufacturers until a decision's made as to what direction we're going to go as a nation politically."

— Roger Atkins [00:18:06 → 00:18:22]

Reshoring Opportunities in Manufacturing: "I think you're going to see a continued reshowing opportunity that comes our way. I think you, manufacturing at large, the demand will continue, and it will be up to us if we can handle it or not."

— Roger Atkins [00:21:21 → 00:21:34]

The Future of Manufacturing: "You're either gonna change or die."

— Roger Atkins [00:22:43 → 00:23:50]

"Benefits of NTMA's Exclusive Tooling Program": "It's about reducing the cost of your company, which allows you then to reduce your price, and it does, and it protects your profits Because you can't be in business without profits, and to lower your price only takes out of your profit. So our goal at NTMA is to help people reduce their costs."

— Roger Atkins [00:23:50 → 00:24:47]

NTMA and Manufacturing Community: "After Google, NTM is your answer."

— Roger Atkins [00:30:24 → 00:30:26]

View Details

Connect with David Klotz: dklotz@pma.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/klotzdavid/

In this episode, you'll meet David Klotz, the president of the Precision Metal Forming Association (PMA). David brings a wealth of experience in manufacturing, sales, and leadership, making him a valuable voice in the industry. Join us as we explore David's background, manufacturing journey, and impactful work with PMA.

Key Themes:

Family Background and Early Exposure to Manufacturing: David Klotz shared how his family's involvement in manufacturing, starting with his father's tool and die company, led to his early exposure to the industry. From working at the family business during high school to engaging in various roles within the company, Klotz gained invaluable experience from a young age.
Transition to Software Sales and Role at PMA: After the family business was sold in 2006, Klotz ventured into software sales and later took on the role of President at the Precision Metal Forming Association (PMA). He discussed his journey and how his professional experiences have shaped his understanding of sales and leadership in the manufacturing sector.
The Value of Membership Associations: Klotz emphasized the significance of being involved with industry associations and the value it brings to companies and individuals. He particularly highlighted the unique culture at PMA, where members support and learn from each other, distinguishing it from other association models.
Developing Future Leaders in Manufacturing: Klotz talked about initiatives to strengthen the next generation of leaders in manufacturing within PMA. He discussed the success and impact of the Management Development Academy (MDA) and shared how younger members are increasingly becoming involved with PMA's districts and leadership groups.
The Importance of Personalized Connection: Klotz emphasized the importance of personally engaging with members and its positive impact on creating a strong, supportive manufacturing community. He shared anecdotes from his plant visits, showcasing the enthusiasm and pride of members in showcasing their operations.

Lessons Learned:

Early exposure to a family business can instill valuable experience and passion for an industry.
Transitioning roles within a career can bring new insights and contribute to professional growth.
Association membership can create a unique, supportive environment for industry professionals to learn and grow together.
Investing in developing future leaders and engaging with them creates a strong foundation for industry growth and continuity.

Fun Facts:

Klotz's early exposure to the family business involved various tasks, from working in the tool and die area to sweeping floors and painting.
There is a "301 Club" within PMA, named after the experience of several members achieving a perfect bowling score or getting a hole-in-one in golf, showcasing the camaraderie and unique connections within the organization.

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan speaks with President and CEO of the International Sign Association, Lori Anderson. Lori shares her journey in association management and her passion for serving the sign graphics industry, emphasizing the industry's impact on communities and the unique craftsmanship involved in sign-making. They discuss the technological advancements in the sign industry, workforce challenges, and initiatives to attract younger generations. Lori also gives a sneak peek into the upcoming International Sign Expo in Orlando and highlights the association's advocacy work in local communities. Stay tuned for a deep dive into the behind-the-scenes work that shapes the sign industry and the exciting events at the upcoming trade show.

Key Themes:

Passion and Creativity: The sign industry is fueled by passionate individuals who view their work as a craft, taking pride in creating custom signs that serve businesses and communities. The industry's commitment to craftsmanship and creativity sets it apart.
Technological Advancements: Digitalization has revolutionized the sign industry, transforming printing, electronic signage, and lighting technologies. The podcast highlights the industry's ability to adapt to digital advancements and stay at the forefront of innovation.
Workforce and Education: Lori discusses the challenges of attracting and retaining workers in the industry, emphasizing the importance of initiatives like Sign Manufacturing Day to introduce young people to potential careers in the sign industry.
Safety and Sustainability: Safety is a critical focus in the sign industry, especially given the complexities of installation and maintenance, while sustainability efforts are increasingly being integrated into operations.

Fun Facts:

The sign industry is often referred to as the "most visible invisible industry" due to its ubiquitous presence in everyday life.
The ISA's Sign Expo, a major industry event, offers attendees the opportunity to experience the latest technological advancements, network, and engage in various educational initiatives.

Lessons Learned:

The importance of showcasing industries to young people to attract future workers.
The value of creating inclusive initiatives in the industry, such as the Women Leading Industry event, to encourage diversity and provide opportunities for women and allies to learn and connect.

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan welcomes Guitze Messina, the executive director of Hardy LatAm, to discuss sales, industry trends, and the importance of understanding customer needs in the HVACR industry. The conversation explores the impact of AI on sales, the significance of sustainability practices, attracting new talent to the industry, and the emerging shift from sales as an art to a science.

Key Points and Lessons Learned:

Understanding Current Customers: Guitze Messina emphasizes the importance of understanding current customers before seeking new ones. Salespeople should focus on what percentage of products customers buy and what they like buying from the competition. It's essential to ask open-ended questions without being defensive to gather valuable information.
Implementing Sales Systems: The discussion also delves into the implementation of systems to increase sales and provide more value to customers. Follow-up and understanding if salespeople are in control or if customers are driving the sales process are vital components.
The Impact of AI: Guitze Messina and Lisa Ryan touch on the impact of AI in the industry, highlighting its potential to analyze customer buying patterns and facilitate more personalized interactions. The use of AI in writing emails and texts to make interactions more effective and humane is also emphasized.
Industry Trends and Sustainability: The conversation expands to historical examples of technological advancements affecting job markets and the industry's focus on energy efficiency and sustainability. Guitze Messina notes the importance of attracting new talent, especially women, into the industry for diverse perspectives and strength.
Understanding HVACR Business Aspects: Guitze Messina stresses the need for manufacturers to understand the financial aspects and challenges faced by distributors and contractors in the HVACR industry, highlighting the need for recurring sales strategies and dealer programs.
Guitze's Book "Money Call": The episode concludes with Guitze providing a segue to discuss his book "Money Call," which focuses on sales techniques specific to the HVACR industry.

Key Themes:

Customer Understanding and Sales Strategies
AI Impact on Sales and Interactions
Industry Trends and Sustainability
Attracting New Talent and Diversity
Understanding HVACR Business Aspects

Fun Facts:

Guitze Messina's expertise in the HVACR industry in Latin America and his role as the executive director of Hardy LatAm.
The shifting focus of sales from an art to a science, incorporating statistical and data-driven approaches.
The growing adoption of best practices from the US HVACR industry in Latin America.
Guitze Messina's book "Money Call," tailored to sales techniques specific to the HVACR industry.

View Details

Darrin Mitchell has spent the last 25 years owning a global manufacturing business. After the business was sold, he recognized the frustration of always searching for guidance and excellence in growing his business. This led him to create the Manufacturing Masters Platform, where listeners can find practical advice and guidance for their leadership roles in the manufacturing industry. This platform aims to provide short, concise, and meaningful content for leaders in the industry.

On this episode of the Manufacturers Network podcast, Lisa Ryan welcomes back Darrin Mitchell, President of Mitchell Industries and Chief Marketing Officer of the Manufacturing Masters platform. Darrin specializes in developing learning platforms that cater to the immediate needs of manufacturing teams, providing them with essential knowledge and advice to move their businesses forward. Manufacturing Masters is a platform with battle-tested industry experts who deliver concise, actionable insights to manufacturers within 5 minutes, addressing specific challenges and sharing best practices.

Darrin reflects on the data collected by the platform, showcasing the key trends in the consumption of information by manufacturers. He emphasizes the importance of meeting manufacturers where they are and providing them with the information they need when they need it. Darrin also provides insightful predictions for 2024, highlighting the expected emphasis on digital transformation and the continuing focus on continuous improvement, people skills, and business leadership.

The conversation also delves into the growing significance of mental health and well-being in the manufacturing industry, emphasizing the need for meaningful employee support and resources. As the podcast ends, Darrin provides contact details for Manufacturing Masters, encouraging listeners to explore the platform for their training and development needs in 2024 and beyond.

This episode offers valuable insights for manufacturers, showcasing the evolving landscape of training and development in the industry and the shifting focus on important issues such as mental health and digital transformation.

View Details

Connect with Addison Adams:

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, Lisa Ryan is joined by M&A specialist Addison Adams, who shares valuable insights into the world of mergers and acquisitions within the manufacturing industry.

Addison Adams is a seasoned lawyer turned corporate deal maker specializing in mergers and acquisitions for small and mid-size businesses. After starting his career in litigation, he transitioned to .com investor financings and found his passion in bringing parties together to close deals with mutual satisfaction. With a keen eye for deal structuring and a knack for navigating complex negotiations, Addison has become a trusted advisor in the corporate world. Addison's expertise and focus on creating win-win situations have made him a valuable asset in the business world, from buying and selling businesses to forming joint ventures.

Key Theme:

Addison sheds light on the intricacies of selling a manufacturing company, emphasizing the importance of preparation, expertise, and strategic decision-making to navigate the process successfully.

Lessons Learned:

The Value of Investment Bankers and Business Brokers: Addison highlights the value brought by these professionals in casting a wide net for potential buyers, aiding in negotiations, and driving up sale prices through engaging in auctions.
Confidentiality in Sales: The significance of maintaining confidentiality during the sale process is to prevent disruptions within the company and avoid potential risks associated with employees and customers becoming aware of the potential sale.
Compliance with Employment Law: It is important to ensure all employment laws are meticulously adhered to, minimizing risks for the buyer in the sale process.
The Role of Attorneys in M&A Deals: The benefits of partnering with specialist attorneys experienced in closing M&A deals for a faster, smoother, and more cost-effective process with better results.

Fun Facts:

Addison Adams transitioned from a career in litigation to specialization in M&A within the manufacturing industry, driven by the positive energy of successful deals.
His firm represents companies outside California, exemplified by their current deal in Wisconsin.

Actionable Ideas:

Manufacturers should get organized, understand the value of their business, and be well-versed in their business's worth before a sale.
Prepare for a sale by considering specialized employees, customer lists, facilities, supplier relationships, and proprietary processes.
Engage a specialist attorney experienced in closing M&A deals to navigate the sale process effectively and efficiently.
Understand sales' legal and financial implications, including the importance of due diligence and compliance with employment and other laws.

In this episode, Addison Adams provides invaluable insights that manufacturers looking to sell their businesses can leverage to make informed decisions and navigate the complexities of the sales process effectively.

Listen to the full episode for more detailed information, including specific examples and resources.

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan interviews Lisa Sanderson, the Vice President of Marketing and Strategy at Gleicher Manufacturing. Gleicher Manufacturing provides bonding, sealing, and fastening solutions for global clients, servicing industries such as the US military, aerospace, electronics, and medical devices. Lisa Sanderson shares her journey of returning to the family-owned business and her experiences implementing changes to transition from a family business to a business run by a family.

Key Themes:

Family Business Dynamics: Lisa Sanderson recounts her early exposure to the family business and the unexpected path that led her back to the company. The complexities and challenges of employing family members in a business, particularly in succession planning, are explored.
Change Management: The discussion delves into the intricacies of implementing organizational changes in a long-standing company. Lisa Sanderson emphasizes the importance of understanding the workforce's resistance to change and the need to balance tradition with evolution.
Training and Development: The importance of investing in employee training and development to adapt to modern manufacturing practices is highlighted. The conversation explores strategies for training, capturing employee knowledge, and transitioning towards digital practices.

Lessons Learned:

There is a need to convince individuals of the necessity for change before expecting their willingness to adapt.
Regular and inclusive communication's significance in fostering employee buy-in amidst organizational changes.
Balancing tradition with the demand for innovation in a long-established family business requires patience and strategic planning.

Fun Facts:

Lisa Sanderson discusses her diverse career journey, from being a product manager for consumer packaged goods to becoming a holistic health coach and author.
The conversation reflects on the challenges and humor in introducing modern technology and practices to longtime employees, highlighting the generational diversity within the workforce.

Connect with Lisa Sanderson:

Email: lisa.s@gleicher.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisajoysanderson/

Manufacturing #FamilyBusiness #ChangeManagement #SuccessionPlanning #TrainingAndDevelopment #Innovation #PodcastInterview #LeadershipDevelopment #OrganizationalChange

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, Lisa Ryan interviews Brent Kedzierski, a renowned leader in connected worker ecosystems at Hexagon, delving into the complexities of human-centric design in manufacturing. Kedzierski draws from his extensive background in industrial psychology, military aviation training, and global HR strategy at Shell to highlight the pressing issue of talent retention in the manufacturing industry. He details how the workforce is rapidly evolving and shares insights on how companies can adapt to meet employees' evolving needs.

Key Themes:

High-quality, digitized content is needed to engage employees in the manufacturing industry and facilitate efficient learning processes.
The importance of a human-centered approach to design in manufacturing companies and the challenges and failure rates associated with digital transformation efforts.
The impact of automation and AI in manufacturing, including the necessity to automate mundane tasks and encourage employee creativity.
The evolving workforce, which seeks purpose, connection, and pride in their work, and the shift towards prioritizing the whole person in employee development.
The future of work, where cognitive thinking, creativity, and collaboration will be prioritized, necessitating the development of new intellectual and creative skills.

Lessons Learned:

Companies in the manufacturing industry must prioritize personalized experiences, connect with employees on a deeper level, and invest in employee development to retain talent in a rapidly changing workforce.
Digitization and content curation are vital for efficient learning and human-centered design in manufacturing.
The workforce is evolving, emphasizing purpose, connection, and personal development, necessitating a shift in company strategies to address these changing needs.

Fun Facts:

Brent Kedzierski's extensive background includes military aviation training, industrial psychology, and a 25-year stint at Shell as a global HR strategist.
Lisa Ryan and Brent Kedzierski engage in a dynamic discussion about the future of work, dispelling myths about younger generations being disinterested in work and emphasizing the importance of creativity and collaboration in the workforce.

For more information and to connect with Brent Kedzierski, you can contact him on LinkedIn.

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan engages in a powerful conversation with retired Air Force veteran Kathy Gallowitz. Gallowitz shares her expertise in supporting veterans' transition into the civilian workforce, particularly focusing on their integration within the manufacturing industry.

Key Themes:

Challenges of Transition: Kathy Gallowitz underscores the challenges veterans face when transitioning to civilian life, such as identity loss, unstructured environments, and a lack of understanding of their strengths and aptitudes. She emphasizes the need for employers to act as advocates, not just architects, for veterans, outlining a strategic plan to help veterans succeed in the workforce.
Best Practices: Best practices for attracting, hiring, and retaining veteran talent in the manufacturing sector are discussed, including the use of military skills translators, the involvement of current veteran employees in the hiring process, and the importance of building a veteran voice committee or employee resource group.
Military Culture Training: Employers are encouraged to invest in military culture training to understand the unique needs and experiences of military personnel. Building a veteran-friendly workplace, offering career ladders, and providing clear pathways for advancement are vital factors in becoming a veteran-ready employer.

Lessons Learned:

The episode sheds light on the importance of recognizing the unique skills and value that veterans bring to the manufacturing sector, including safety focus, leadership capabilities, operational discipline, and technical proficiencies.
Gallowitz's journey, from growing up as a navy kid to becoming a career Air Force veteran, is not just inspiring but also provides valuable insights into understanding the challenges veterans face during their transition to civilian life and the workforce.

For more information:

Vanguard Veteran Overview: https://vanguardveteran.start.page

Veteran Talent Academy: https://vanguardveteran.com/veteran-champion-consulting-training/

Complimentary Veteran-Ready assessment: https://vanguardveteran.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/may-2021_-vr-employer-assessment.pdf

Vanguard Veteran's Employer Consulting and Training: https://vanguardveteran.com/veteran-champion-consulting-training/

Invite Vanguard Veteran to Speak: https://vanguardveteran.com/invite-me-to-speak/

View Details

Host: Lisa Ryan

Guest: Nicole Morgan**

Contact Nicole Morgan through Resolute PR's website. www.resolutepr.com/workforce-recruitment

Lisa Ryan welcomes Nicole Morgan to the Manufacturers Network podcast. Nicole Morgan is a PR and marketing expert and founder of Resolute PR. She has an innovative approach to addressing changing workforce behavior.

Background and Work at Resolute PR

Nicole shares her journey, having worked in PR and marketing for nearly 20 years and founded Resolute PR about ten years ago.
Resolute PR takes a holistic approach to addressing client issues by understanding their goals and struggles, with a recent focus on assisting HR departments in marketing open positions.

Addressing Workforce Recruitment Challenges

HR departments often faced challenges in attracting employees as they primarily targeted those actively seeking jobs, neglecting potential employees who may not be actively looking.
Employers must focus on branding themselves as an employer, emphasizing work culture and value for potential employees.

Employer Marketing and Employee Recruitment

Employers should focus on marketing job positions through clear job descriptions, regular performance reviews, and transparent employee growth paths.
Encouraging positive employee feedback and addressing negative feedback on platforms like Glassdoor can influence job seekers' perceptions.

Trends in Workforce Marketing

Trends are shifting towards retention campaigns rather than labor shortage solutions, emphasizing the importance of employee communication and transparency.

Women in Traditionally Male Positions

Nicole addresses the importance of accommodating women in traditionally male-dominated industries, such as ensuring the availability of women's restrooms and fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce.

Contact Information

To learn more about Resolute PR's workforce recruitment study and services, visit resolutepr.com/workforce-recruitment.
Contact Nicole Morgan through the website's contact form.

Key Themes

Workforce Recruitment Challenges: Understanding the changing hiring landscape and the need to market job positions effectively to attract potential employees.
Employee Retention: Shifting trends towards retaining top talent through effective communication and transparent growth paths.
Women in the Workforce: Recognizing the importance of accommodating and inclusivity for women in traditionally male-dominated industries.

Lessons Learned

Employers need to adapt their recruitment strategies to appeal to actively seeking and passive job seekers.
Clear job descriptions and transparent growth paths are key for attracting and retaining employees.
Creating a diverse and inclusive workplace is essential for accommodating women in traditionally male-dominated industries.

Fun Facts

Manufacturing and industrial sectors are adapting to workforce demands by offering flexible scheduling and on-site childcare facilities.
Employers need to prioritize employee communication and transparency, aiming to retain top talent as the employment landscape evolves.

View Details

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan welcomes Jarid Beck, Risk Management Advisors's managing director and co-founder. Jarid offers valuable insights into risk management and insurance strategies in manufacturing, particularly focusing on self-insurance and captives for reducing the costs of providing group health benefits.

Jarid Beck begins by sharing his career journey, transitioning from financial planning to focusing on captive insurance companies due to their multifaceted benefits for business owners. He provides a comprehensive explanation of captives, highlighting how they are beneficial for manufacturers in managing risks by providing personalized, cost-effective insurance options tailored to specific business needs.

The conversation delves into the concept of self-insurance and its distinction from traditional insurance models. Jarid emphasizes the financial efficiency and flexibility of captive insurance compared to traditional insurance, shedding light on how it empowers businesses to take control of their insurance expenses and stabilize cash flow.

Additionally, the discussion touches on the challenges manufacturers face when implementing self-insurance and captive insurance strategies, particularly the need for early education and effective communication with stakeholders.

Key Lessons Learned:

Captive insurance companies offer personalized, cost-effective insurance solutions tailored to specific business needs.
Self-insurance, when approached formally through captives, provides financial efficiency and allows businesses to retain profits and stabilize cash flow.
Effective education and communication are essential when implementing self-insurance and captive insurance strategies.

Ideas for Manufacturers to Implement:

Explore off-cycle self-insurance and captive insurance strategies to educate and prepare for potential transitions.
Assemble a team of knowledgeable advisors to guide the exploration and implementation of self-insurance and captive insurance options.

Fun Facts:

Did you know that captive insurance companies provide manufacturers with more control over their insurance expenses, potentially leading to cost savings and a stabilized cash flow?

If you want to learn more about self-insurance and captive insurance in manufacturing, connect with Jarid Beck and his team at Risk Management Advisors through their website at www.riskmgmtadvisors.com or explore their informative content on their YouTube channel and LinkedIn.

Join us in the next episode for more insightful discussions on navigating the world of manufacturing.

View Details

Welcome to The Manufacturers Network podcast with your host, Lisa Ryan. In this episode, Lisa interviews Mona Shum, owner and principal industrial hygienist at AURA Health and Safety. Mona's extensive experience in exposure assessment, indoor air quality investigations, and environmental public health brings valuable insights into occupational health and safety within the manufacturing sector.

Mona shares her journey into occupational hygiene, highlighting the importance of understanding workplace exposures to chemicals, biological hazards, and physical hazards such as noise and radiation. She emphasizes the need to assess and control these exposures, ensuring the well-being of workers in various industries.

During the conversation, Mona discusses the most common challenges in manufacturing related to air quality and exposure control, citing examples from food-related facilities experiencing dust and chemical hazards. The impact of climate change, including heat stress and wildfire smoke, on occupational settings is highlighted, shedding light on the broader implications for business operations and worker safety.

Lessons Learned:

Refusal of Unsafe Work: Workers hold the power to refuse unsafe work, creating a platform for change and improved safety standards within organizations.
Proactive Planning for Exposures: Proactive planning, utilizing resources, and creating exposure control plans are vital for reducing risks associated with heat stress and wildfire smoke.
Digital Technology in Industrial Hygiene: The incorporation of digital technology, such as user-friendly apps, is shaping the field of industrial hygiene, enabling more individuals to assess and address occupational health risks.

Key Themes:

Occupational Health and Safety
Workplace Exposure Assessment
Impact of Climate Change on Manufacturing
Proactive Safety Planning
Digital Technology in Industrial Hygiene

Fun Fact:

Mona Shum discusses the development of an app tailored for the film industry, designed to assess the risk of heat stress based on relative humidity and temperature, showcasing the integration of modern digital solutions in addressing occupational health concerns.

To learn more about AURA or continue the conversation with Mona Shum, visit www.aurahealthsafety.com.

Thank you for tuning in to The Manufacturers Network podcast. Join us next time for more insights into the world of manufacturing.

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Mike Bowers. Mike is the chief architect at Faircom, with over 35 years of experience in software development and architecture. His knowledge extends to the database revolution, manufacturing 4.0, the industrial internet of things, Edge computing, and data integration. So Mike, welcome to the show.

Mike Bowers: Oh, I'm glad to be here, Lisa.

Lisa Ryan: Please share your background and what led you to work with Faircom.

Mike Bowers: I've been presenting at conferences on the database revolution for decades. Faircom is a database company that has been selling database software for the last 40 years. You may not have heard of Faircom because it's an embedded database, probably embedded in your phone, satellites, and networks. For example, every phone call you make on Verizon goes through the database, but they don't.

We never did. We were an engineering company, and we never advertised. I never knew much about Faircom, but they saw me at conferences discussing a new database technology that has yet to be implemented. They liked and wanted to implement the ideas, so they recruited me to build that technology into Faircom.

When I got to Faircom, we started building that in. They also realized that since we're an embedded database, the manufacturing world needs to capture data, and they need to capture it in the equipment. They need to capture it on the manufacturing floor. Unlike IT, which tries to go to the cloud and stick everything servers up in distant data centers, manufacturing must capture data on the factory floor.

Manufacturing doesn't want to do that because you can't afford the downtime if the cloud goes down if your network connection to the cloud goes down, if it becomes intermittent, you can stop your manufacturing floor, you can stop processes dead, and you can't afford that. So you need to run locally. And that's where the Faircom database is good. Before my being hired by Faircom, they started selling the product to manufacturers as a database platform. I have an extensive background in manufacturing. I worked in the silicon industry. I wore bunny suits and Intel commercials, and so I've been done all that.

I worked in the automotive industry at Freightliner, which automates vehicles. The Sprinter van is there- a computer runs the whole van. You push on the gas, but it doesn't physically cause the fuel to be injected. It tells the computer you want to inject fuel and does all the injections. So that whole computer system.

I wrote the compiler, the language, everything that programs that van. So I'm proud of that one. It was a lot of fun. I worked in the agriculture industry with extensive, huge farm equipment that picks up one-ton bales, compresses them, and you push a button, and it does all the work.

It's robotics and automation. I spent a lot of my career in manufacturing, and then I spent a lot of my career in the database industry and software development. I wrote a book on HTML and CSS that's still published out there. So I've done a lot of different things. Vericom hired me for the database, but we realized Faircom was trying to enter manufacturing. And because we have a perfect product for that, from a database perspective, I've done all this integration work in factories, and I realized factories struggle with integration costs. It's so expensive to hire people like me, which is what I did, is to go into a factory and automate the factory, and to go to the proprietary protocols on this machine, write the drivers to extract the data, to put them into your manufacturing execution system or your SCADA systems or your ERP systems. All that's a point-to-point development work. And I had spent a lot of time in my career building integration systems that were more generic. So, when Ferricom hired me, I realized there was an opportunity to solve two problems at once. Build this new revolutionary database technology and Make it an integration platform at the same time because I've been working on both problems my entire career.

Coming to Faircom turned out to be even better than I thought. I was excited to work on the database side, but then I realized, wow, I get to work on this other integration solution I've worked on for several decades. My last job was at a large multi-billion dollar international corporation.

I was the head data architect for that organization with thousands of developers. They needed integration for everything. As I said, thousands of developers were integrating data, so I designed a new integration platform because we had nothing that would work out of the box. We bought everything. We had products from IBM and Oracle, and you name the big companies, Microsoft. We had them all, but none could integrate in all the needed ways. So, when I came to Faircom, I started building a new platform for Faircom. We call it the IoT platform.

It's an integration hub. The idea is to integrate data from factory machines and bring it into a standard format. JSON is the standard format, and the JSON is what the factory needs to shape the data the way it needs it. So it's plug-and-play and leverages technologies like MQTT and OPC UA as universal protocols in the factory.

And then, get the data- into JSON from all of these protocols, whether Modbus, OBC, MQTT, Siemens S7, or Alan Bradley's Ethernet IP. You name it. There are hundreds of protocols, right? You must get data out of those protocols into a standard universal format.

Some people call it a universal or a uniform namespace. The idea is a standard format. And once you get your data into a standard format like JSON, you shape the data in a standard way so that you can plug and play your equipment. Then, you can dramatically introduce your manufacturing costs.

You can extract the data from the equipment, and it can become a point-click operation. However, instead of hiring someone like me and paying me exorbitant fees, which I was okay with as a developer, the factory didn't like it. Thus, you spent millions of dollars to grab this data from the equipment.

You're limited to whatever the developer gave you. Later, you say, " I've got a new version of the equipment. Can you get this extra data? " Oh, sure, for an excellent hefty price tag: 100,000 or 50,000, depending on what you're doing. So you're limited in getting the data out of the equipment, and then you're limited.

I'll write a custom code to get it into my manufacturing execution system. And I write unique code to do that. And it's a point-to-point solution. But I need it to go somewhere else now. I want it to go to the cloud. I want it to go to the SCADA system. I want it to go over here to this operation software we just purchased.

And then you're like, that's more custom software development work. So manufacturers are stuck in this quagmire of proprietary protocols and customized software development work, which limits them from getting the data they need to improve their manufacturing processes. Some people say data is the new currency.

And that's true. Data is like money. And if you can't get the money or data out of your equipment, you're limited in the value or money you get from it. So that was what I came to Faircharm to do: build a new database technology.

I've also built a whole new integration platform. You point and click, and data flows in these universal formats. So you can have a plug-and-play factory.

Lisa Ryan: So, for people who aren't, who don't understand all of these different acronyms, the integration field understands. So you have all of these various programs that are in manufacturing, and how do you get them to talk to each other to put them on this point and click, like in the very basic of terms, how does it work that Yeah, that it speeds up the process for what you were doing before as a consultant to what you can do now getting all of these different programs to talk to each other.

Mike Bowers: Oh, that's the perfect question because if they're all proprietary protocols, as manufacturing companies often do, they'll invest in one primary vendor like Siemens or Allen Bradley. If they buy everything from that one vendor and use all their solutions, which is very expensive, they might be able to have a plug-and-play factory.

But the reality is that they need to buy equipment that does the job to make whatever they're making. And that equipment has all these. Proprietary protocols are binary low-level protocols where you have to say this little bit means this bit means that, and this bit means there's an alert, this bit means the machine's stopping, and this bit means it's starting. Then, you have to gather all those bits and convert them.

It's super expensive and proprietary. How do you get that into a standard way? What we do is on our product is we get, we create drivers that can talk to the Siemens protocols or the Allen Bradley protocols, and then the industry knows that this is a real problem with all these proprietary protocols that lock you into a vendor that make it complicated and expensive to get data out.

Several protocols are more open-ended. Modbus is a pretty open-ended protocol. It's still down at the bit level where you're tweaking this bit, which means this number represents the other thing. But it's not proprietary. So that was the first step. And then Vintner said now we need to be more self-describing.

Let's use a protocol like OBCUA to ask the machine what data it has. It will come back with a list. I have temperature, air pressure, and the stamper frequency numbers. Then you say, " Okay, I'm interested in stamper frequency. How often are you stamping? "

I want to see how productive my equipment is. I want to know if it's producing at a high rate, slowing down, or getting old. And so, I like the stamper frequency number. With OBC UA, you say, " Okay, give me the stamper frequency. " It'll send it over, or you can pull it and say every 10 minutes, you can get the number every two seconds, whatever you need to do.

So, the industry has evolved from these proprietary protocols to more generic ones like Modbus. Open ones like OPC UA that tag the data, and you can ask it questions, but OPC UA is good as it is. It's costly because it is so cool. And vendors who it takes, it's tough to implement an OPC UA feature into your product if you're selling a piece of equipment to implement that in is super expensive.

So they pass that onto the factory and say you'll pay more for OPC UA. Faircom provides drivers that allow you to connect to your native protocols, so you don't have to buy the expensive OPC UA solution if you don't already have it. But we also connect to OPC UA when you do have it.

Some equipment is now evolving to produce MQTT messages. MQTT is a new protocol that is transforming the whole manufacturing world because it's open source, it's standard, and it's not proprietary. It uses Canada's. It's flexible, and most people send JSON messages over it. JSON is a simple way of human-readable messages that you can format and say the temperature is 71 degrees.

You can just, and humans and machines can read it so that we can troubleshoot it in the factory. You can also push messages around. It's like email. Or Twitter: you publish a message, and anyone who wants that topic can subscribe and get it, just like a podcast.

If you want the podcast, you subscribe. If you don't, you don't get it. That's what MQTT does. That model is game-changing for manufacturing. Some equipment is starting to support MQTT as well. And MQTT is taking over the industry. So, we built an MQTT broker right into our product.

We have built-in drivers for all these proprietary protocols. So you go into our product and say, " Okay, connect to that device using this protocol. " We automatically gather the data, convert it to JSON, and deliver that data to any other protocol. So, we have this universal translator.

That gathers data from any protocol and sends it to another one. So it's, and we use techniques that no one else can do because we have our embedded database inside. After all, we have a, we're a database company. So when it

Lisa Ryan: Would this be a low-code platform then? You had mentioned something before about low code. So, what is that in the scheme of things?

Mike Bowers: As I said before, I spent it on high code. If you hired me to convert data from a machine, I would have to write a lot of code. I had to use a programming language, and it would take a ton of code, and that's why it's so expensive. Low code means all the heavy lifting has been done for you. Faircom has done the heavy lifting. We've once written all the hard code in these drivers, converting it to a universal communication format like JSON and standard structures.

We've done all that hard work, so now it's just a matter of putting a user interface on it, and you point and click. Low-code means point and click, so you can point and click and say, " Okay, connect to this. " For example, I have a temperature sensor. I want to connect to it.

It talks about Modbus. Okay. So I'll point, click, and say, " Connect to this sensor using Modbus. " I'm interested in the temperature. Now convert that from Celsius to Fahrenheit, point and click, point and click, point and click, and then send it over to MQTT so that somebody can subscribe to the topic of temperature on my temperature sensor.

So, point and click, point and click, and you've got that whole thing configured in minutes instead of paying someone like me $ 30,000,000 to write all that code to make a point. Use a point-to-point solution to get it in your MES and bring it into our hub. From our hub, it can go anywhere in a universal format.

We've built a universal translator, and all these protocols, drivers, and technologies, like MQTT and OPC UA, are built in, along with a database. We even have an application server built there to support web applications. So you can do point-and-click. So it's easy.

Lisa Ryan: You've mentioned a couple, but what protocols can this manufacturing integration platform support?

Mike Bowers: Yeah, the ones we support today are MQTT, OPC UA, Modbus, Allen Bradley, Ethernet IP, and Siemens S7. We also support SQL for the IT folks, the JSON protocols over HTTP, and all your RESTful stuff.

We also support pushing data to the REST endpoint. The IT world also needs all this data stuck in manufacturing. We have the three number one technologies IT needs to get data out SQL, REST, and MQTT. They use all three techniques. So we have that, and then we have ThemeWorks integration as well.

And we're building more protocols all the time.

Lisa Ryan: So if you're working with a manufacturer and talking to them about using an integration platform because they can reduce their integration costs four times and all of that, and they, and basically, you go in speaking the language of it, which is terrifying to most manufacturers.

So, how do you put it in? Simplified terms that people would understand.

Mike Bowers: We've been spending a lot of money on this and want to reduce our integration costs. This sounds like a good idea, but how would we get started? And more importantly, how would we take the fear out of all this technology stuff that nobody except IT people understands?

First off, we could connect to your equipment. Whatever protocols you have, we usually have a protocol that supports most equipment. There are even hardware devices you can plug into equipment that convert protocols. If we don't support the exact protocol you have- and there are hundreds of protocols that equipment has- you can plug in these little hardware dongles that convert it to OPC UA, MQTT, or Modbus.

It's very easy to get the data. We just say, " plug, plug. " We'll plug into your equipment, get the equipment out, and don't even worry about IT because we talk their language. Our universal translator, our hub, automatically gets it to IT. You don't even have to worry about IT. It, they, in fact, here's the key point.

It's been begging you for data forever. We have the solution. You don't even have to worry about IT. You say we've got a hub that auto-translates what we understand in the manufacturing world to all that IT stuff. And the IT stuff- those guys- they know how to talk IT stuff. They can come to our equipment and product and go, " Oh, you've got SQL. "

Awesome. I know how to use that. Oh, you've got the best. Oh, I know how to use that. You got MQTT. Oh, I know how to use that. So they don't even need help. They can see the data sitting there in our products, and they come and get it and love it. Finally, we freed the data, and that's the key point here.

Instead of hiring people like me to get to a point- and now you're locked in, we free the data out. We bring it into our hub, and anyone can get it. We can push the data anywhere we need to push it. So yeah, you can forget about IT. And the other part is you don't need IT to make this work.

So that's one of the critical things about Faircom. We've been in business for 40 years, building lights-out systems that work—high-performance, high-volume, no maintenance, plug it in, and it works. Some of our customers have a big complaint that it's worked for so long, they forget and get scared- what if something happens?

How do I fix it? It's been working for seven years, and I've never touched it. If you think about it, that's scary because if it goes wrong, what do we do? We have no one. It's a good thing that Faircom knows how it works, and if you have any support, we support you beautifully and fix it.

And that's not an issue. But that's how we roll, so IT doesn't need to come in and install our product. It installs itself. You unzip and run it. It's just- it just works. You unzip, run, point, and click, and it's all doing the job for you. So it's super easy to install and maintain, and you can do it in your factory without IT. But then IT can come to get the data.

Lisa Ryan: So what about security? I know there are dangers to the cloud with ransomware and cybercriminals knowing what the cloud is and being able to break into it. If you have an integration platform that's easy to use, plug and play. Does that make it more susceptible so criminals can't get to it?

Mike Bowers: Awesome question. You're right. If you put all your data in one place, that's one place for a hacker to go and steal the data. So you have to secure it. And so what we do by default is everything is secure.

We have built-in encryption. All the data we collect in our database is encrypted on disk. So if they were to steal the machine it...

View Details

Connect with Heather:

Website: www.pureingenium.com

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Heather Johnson. Heather is the CEO of Ingenium and has over 25 years of experience in hazardous waste management. Her innovative sustainability and waste management approach has positioned Ingenium as an industry leader in waste-to-energy programs and zero-waste initiatives.

Lisa Ryan: Heather, welcome to the show.

Heather Johnson: Thank you, Lisa. I'm excited to be here today.

Lisa Ryan: Share a little bit about your background and what led you to do what you're doing.

Heather Johnson: You named it over 25 years of experience. Back in my college days, I was answering phones in this industry. Along the way, I started doing some marketing and sales and ultimately ended up 27 years in the industry. I never look back on anything, finding anything in this and carrying it forward.

Lisa Ryan: Yeah. Right now, many companies are aspiring to achieve a zero-waste status. What are some of the steps and strategies businesses can take to embark on this journey?

Heather Johnson: So zero waste is a journey, as you mentioned, and there are several steps. The first step for a business is to determine that they want to move forward. And in that, the first step is looking at what they're generating in terms of waste, what's going into the trash cans at the cubicle level, what's going into the trash cans in their kitchens or cafeterias throughout the facilities that all end up in a dumpster typically and where we start is at the dumpster level.

For lack of a better term, we call it a dumpster dive, but dig in the trash and look at what are these guys producing that might have some value and be removed from the waste world and used elsewhere. From there, we provide data. So it's data collection and then reporting out to the business.

Hey, here's what you guys are doing. Are you aware? And most of the time, they are not aware to any significant extent of what types of things are making it into the trash. But it starts with the conversation at that point: okay, here's what's happening. What are you willing to do as a business to reduce the waste going into the trash?

From there, we talk about strategies that can be deployed within the business, ways to minimize waste, and ways to reuse materials in lieu of creating waste. And continue to track the progress of the efforts and provide more data to show reduction over time. Ultimately, the objective would be to achieve this zero waste certification, with a certain percentage milestone to remove waste from the landfill.

Lisa Ryan: So when it comes to zero waste certification, I think about zero waste, just in my own house, and what goes out into the trash every week. What is that percentage? How much are people reducing their waste to get that certification? What does that look like?

Heather Johnson: I believe it's 90 percent on average, which sounds extremely challenging, and it is. Don't get me wrong again. A business has to have a concerted effort. It doesn't just include leadership behind it; everybody in the organization takes pride in reducing waste.

Lisa Ryan: Yeah, I know your company is known for its innovative waste-to-energy programs, but how can these green solutions work as a viable option for manufacturers?

Heather Johnson: Believe it or not, manufacturers produce a lot of waste. There's a lot of opportunity. Manufacturers use solvents as an example, and we can reuse those materials and repurpose them for another business that can continue the use as opposed to a manufacturer having to send out the material as waste.

Many different items are used in manufacturing, resulting in a beneficial reuse opportunity that minimizes what goes into the track. There are a lot of opportunities in manufacturing. In the event we can't do something better with the material, then make it a waste or call it a waste, then waste to energy comes into play as a viable technology that's greener than putting something into a landfill or incinerating it.

Lisa Ryan: So when you're reusing, like you said, solvents, would that manufacturer who was using the solvents be able to use them again? Or would another manufacturer or another company buy that?

Heather Johnson: Yeah, both. The answer is both.Some manufacturers will continue to use a solvent until it's so dirty. They cannot do anything further with it. Some manufacturers have quality control. These procedures allow using a material only once, and it's still clean enough for someone else to use. They don't allow it in their process.

We can pass that along to another manufacturer or company using that material. Additionally, when a solvent gets dirty, we can do something called distillation, which cleans it up and creates a renewable product, the solvent. Without whatever was contaminating it, those manufacturers can rebuy it because it does have a cost associated with it, but it's less expensive than buying a new solvent.

Heather Johnson: The ultimate goal is to minimize what is wasted. If you can prolong the use, the longer you do that, instead of using a new product, you're doing the environment a favor every time.

Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. Discuss hazardous risk because assessing and managing hazardous waste is crucial in industrial operations. So what can businesses do to mitigate their hazardous waste risks so that they're in compliance and safe?

Heather Johnson: Call ingenium? No, calling a company like Ingenium can help them understand both from a compliance standpoint. What are you required to do based on what you're generating? What are your hazardous processes? And then what are the requirements and regulatory risks around what you're doing? It's a whole world that most people don't think about regarding tracking and managing.

If you have a chemical, for example, that you're using, only when you say you no longer have a use for it, and there is no longer a use for it, then it's a waste. So once you determine something is a waste, new regulations kick in. And. A lot of businesses don't necessarily understand what the requirements are around managing hazardous waste, so they can bring in a consultant who does understand that, or bigger businesses, often, will have a full-time environmental health and safety manager who is responsible for the hazardous waste and the tracking and management of it.

Either way, from a safety standpoint, a lot of training goes into place so that people know what they're handling. And then, from a regulatory requirement standpoint, there are holding time issues. There are manifest paperwork-type issues. There's also something called cradle to grave, which means once you have a waste, it's yours until you know it's been managed to the end.

So you must know what's happening to the waste. And you're using a company that's properly disposing of it at the end of the day. And there's a paperwork trail on that. And there's a time requirement for that. So, if you understand all of the needs, you should be good to go, but if you don't, I highly encourage you to have a consultant on board to help you with everything because there is a lot.

Lisa Ryan: Yeah, it sounds like it. And I think about this when we're looking at attracting younger people into manufacturing and the industry. Sustainability is a huge topic because they want to protect the planet in whatever they do, or at least not cause additional harm.

What are some things businesses are doing to use eco-friendly practices, or are there specific success stories or examples you can share?

Heather Johnson: Yeah. And you're right. As it pertains to younger people in any industry, they want to work for a company that is environmentally friendly and conscious and doing something if they can to better protect the environment.

Many businesses that can make a difference are pushing back on their suppliers to use greener materials, whether shipping materials or things that can be recycled or reused. That's a big one I'm seeing because many businesses we work with receive chemicals in styrofoam, for example.

And the styrofoam is it's voluminous. If you will, it's lightweight. It's got a recycle value, but It's costly to move it unless you can condense it. And so I've seen companies pushing back on people that use styrofoam to take it back and use it again, for example, instead of the stuff going into the landfill because it takes up a lot of space and doesn't break down easily.

Additionally, they should look at more environmentally friendly products they can use in their processes instead of highly toxic chemicals if there's a way that they can introduce something more environmentally friendly. They're doing that and then ultimately downstream on the wayside. How can they reduce or reuse materials before they become a waste, prolonging the use of something?

Lisa Ryan: Yeah, one of the arguments you hear from people is that the more environmentally friendly products don't. They don't believe they work as well. As the horrifically hazardous materials that they've been using forever. What are you seeing as far as the advances in technology, or is that still true?

Heather Johnson: Yes. And no, I totally know what you're talking about. I know. We also work with a lot of research and development. And they use mercury thermometers. And I remember when they made a play to use cause mercury is highly toxic.

And so, what else can we use in lieu of that? And it took a long time, but they've come out now with a good alternative to the mercury. But there are several products that people will argue are nothing better than radiation isotopes in some cases. However, it's become more challenging to manage that stuff, so people have almost been forced to move away in many situations, but over the last 25 years, I've seen a lot of movement in that area.

Lisa Ryan: Yeah, that's a good thing. Then, we also look at things like community service and corporate responsibility, which you are big on in your organization. How do you tie in what you're doing with sustainability goals regarding focusing on the corporate responsibility efforts of the companies you work with?

Heather Johnson: We have a big push in innovation. On top of what exists today, we're always looking for what is coming in the future that we can leverage and introduce to people. We are the experts in the technology as it presents itself. We don't own any technology, nor do we create any technology. Still, we understand what other people are doing and how it can benefit our customers - from manufacturing businesses to pharma and any industry that uses chemicals and produces hazardous waste. There's more and more technology that's greener to manage this stuff in the future. Historically, it's gone for landfill or incineration, and we want to minimize what goes to the landfill.

More and more, there are conversations about that. But if it's not going to landfill, where is it going? What can we do? And so, more and more, you're seeing new technologies present themselves that minimize the need to send things to the landfill.

Lisa Ryan: What are you seeing regarding some of those new technologies that you've been the most impressed with, or have changed the game in waste management or your zero waste initiatives?

Heather Johnson: I've seen more people figuring out how to prolong the life of things. If you have to dispose of it, there's something called fuel blending, where you can use hazardous waste as a secondary fuel in a cement kiln. So, a lot of hazardous waste qualifies instead of using natural resources.

To make cement as an example, I'm also seeing people clean up waste reuse. It can't say clean up waste because once it's waste, you have a different right to prolong the use of a chemical. We have something called an orphan chemical program. For example, a large manufacturer with quality controls can't use products past their shelf life, but that doesn't mean that a smaller business with fewer funds can't use those chemicals in their research.

We can take them from the large manufacturer to the small startup, and they can continue using them without buying new chemicals. It may end up as waste in the future as well.

Lisa Ryan: How did they find out about you? I mean you because you're, we talked earlier about the companies reusing themselves, or it goes to other companies.

How does that whole process work? How would somebody even find out what you have in the list of products that you have that you can make available to people?

Heather Johnson: Right now, that program is Largely amongst our current customer base because we haven't figured out how to leverage AI, which I think would be our next play.

But right now, we have a list of all our customers who are interested in being potential recipients of chemicals. So when a customer wants to donate, there's the donor and the recipient. Let's call it: the big manufacturer has a list of chemicals they no longer need, but there are still good chemicals, right?

They're not crystallizing around the caps or inherently waistline. They will go out as waste unless we find a home for them. So we'll take their inventory of chemicals, and we'll send it to our customer base of recipients. And then those guys will look at it and say, okay, I'd like to have the following chemicals, and then we will arrange.

The transportation from point A to point B of those materials and the way they find us when they find us is frequently a Google search for hazardous waste recycling because more and more people want to be sustainable. And so it's more complex than hazardous waste disposal, which we'd still come up with in a search for that, but it's word of mouth or Google search.

Lisa Ryan: How does a company know they need to talk to somebody like you? What is the first clue that making the call to Ingenium is a good option?

Heather Johnson: If they're generating hazardous waste and they understand they can't throw it in the trash, that's the first clue.

And then, what type of business do they want to work with? I would say the majority of business. Businesses today have gotten on board with sustainability. When we started Ingenium 17 years ago, sustainability was not a big deal to people. It was. I don't even know if it was a word used in our industry.

And then, when the markets crashed in 08. We saw a huge influx of chemicals that had to go for disposal because businesses were shutting down. These would be chemicals that had never been opened, but the business is closing, and part of the closure process is that all of the chemicals have to go out as hazardous waste.

And it was crazy for us to see just how much good material was being wasted. So, we started to promote sustainability back in 2008. However, it comes at a cost, so traditional disposal is less expensive than some screener opportunities. And early on, businesses weren't willing to take on additional costs to do that today.

Fast forward 15 years later, and it's a big initiative at the leadership level for many of these businesses. In addition to just having hazardous waste and saying, Hey, I need to dispose of this, many people managing it know they also want to try something greener. So they'll be looking for companies who have these innovations.

Lisa Ryan: So what's the process? They call you for the first time because they have some waste or want to look at more sustainability. What happens next?

Heather Johnson: We send somebody out to their facility and talk to them about what they're doing. We want to understand what they're doing and why they're doing it because if there are things they can change upstream, and we can help consult with them on that to reduce the amount of waste or use less toxic materials, all kinds of those things that I spoke to earlier.

And then, in that conversation, what are their goals? Again, most companies will tell you that they have some sustainability goals. Some will say we want the lowest cost. Based on what they're trying to accomplish, we will tailor a program for them that meets those needs.

Lisa Ryan: And are you cleaning up the chemicals and stuff? Do you have a pro, so you have a whole processing facility?

Heather Johnson: We don't have a processing facility, but we have the trucks and the people. So, we will go to the manufacturer and ensure everything's properly labeled and packaged so that it can go on a truck for safe transport to the disposal facility or wherever the material will ultimately end up.

Lisa Ryan: Is there anything I haven't asked you about that you think is important for people listening to? No,

Heather Johnson: I think you touched on it, but ultimately, what I believe is the most important for people to know if they are not aware and understand is the cradle-to-the-grave element of the waste generation that they, it's crucial that they're working with a dependable company like Ingenium, because, again, if you're working with somebody you're getting a cheap price or, these people aren't on the up and up.

If your waste ends up somewhere it shouldn't, you're going to pay for cleanup a second time, and possibly, if other companies have waste in that area and are out of business, you're going to be paying for other people's waste as well. So it's most crucial that. You know that you're working with a reliable vendor.

Lisa Ryan: If somebody wanted to continue the conversation or learn more about how Ingenium can help them and you, what would be the best way to contact you?

Heather Johnson: The best way to contact me and learn about Ingenium services is to visit our website, www.pureingenium.com, and that's P U R E I N G E N I U M dot com slash podcast. This podcast will be listed there with others, and they'll be able to get all of our other information on the website from there.

Lisa Ryan: Heather, having you on the show has been a pleasure today. Thank you so much for joining me.

Heather Johnson: Thank you for having me, Lisa.

Lisa Ryan: I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. We'll see you next time.

View Details

Connect with James Fair

Website: executech.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesmfair/

Lisa Ryan: Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. Our guest today is James Fair. James is an IT and cybersecurity veteran with 35 years of experience. He's held every role from entry-level tech to senior VP, and now he's working in cybersecurity. James, welcome to the show.

James Fair: Thanks, Lisa. It's an honor to be here. I'm very excited.

Lisa Ryan: Great. Please share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing in those 35-plus years.

James Fair: Yeah. I've been doing this since computers were around; I'm an old-school guy. What started for me was a passion for technology. At age 13, I got my first real PC. At age 16, I would deep dive into that, and no one would see me for two years. When I came out, I would know everything about it. It's always been a passion of mine to dive into technology. I've been doing technology for a long time, but part of that has always been cybersecurity because back when I was doing it, there was no separate role for cybersecurity. Now you did everything.

No one realized there was a separate need for that, and there wasn't because there wasn't much going on out there, or at least we weren't aware of it anyway. Over time, I have developed a passion for helping organizations stay protected, prevent attacks, or deal with them when and hopefully if they ever happen. Hopefully, they never happen to anybody; if they do, I want everyone to be prepared.

We do not wait until the cyber stuff hits the fan before deciding to take action. Now, we'll make a plan. They're like, Ooh, what? What do we do in this situation? Let's get ahead of that. That's what I'm after. Let's help organizations be protected and respond better when something does happen.

Lisa Ryan: Yeah, and it's scary stuff with all the ransomware and everything else that you're, I've had friends that have gone through that and without proper backup or thankfully they had outside backup, it didn't cost them as much time or money as it could have, but it was a pain to deal with. So, what are some common cybersecurity threats you see in manufacturing?

James Fair: We see some similarities across all industries, but mainly manufacturing is, first of all, the common one, ransomware, right? As you mentioned, I want to caution your listeners for organizations and home users; please have backups. You can recover from about anything: fire, flood, theft, ransomware if you have good backups. And I've had tough conversations with people to say, Hey, this lady called me up, just, it was awful. She said, my grandmother passed away last month, and I have all the pictures of her, and they're on my computer, and now there's this ransom note on my computer.

What should I do? And that is not a conversation I ever want to have with anybody. Please make sure you're backing up. I don't care what product you use; I'm not selling anything, but please ensure you're backing up your home machines and organizations. Okay, back to your original question.

Lisa Ryan: Since we're talking about that, what do you think of cloud backup? I've been using Carbonite for years, but is there something about it going into the cloud, like a product like Carbonite, or should it be a physical backup as well? Or is there? It doesn't matter. Like, where does that fall for? Yeah, home and business.

James Fair: The cloud is perfectly acceptable for home and always works. Business may be different in that you may need to recover the data quickly or a lot of data very quickly. And if it's all in the cloud, you have to download it.

What's your internet speed like? Because now the rate at which you can recover is based on your internet speeds. We want to have that conversation with each business or organization to see how long they can deal with an outage; let's say ransomware hits, and everything's cleaned up.

Now, we're doing the recovery process. How long can they take? Can we prioritize files first? It depends; it is not a great answer. But it depends on the organization that we're working with. Whether they can do both in many cases for larger organizations, we certainly encourage both.

Have a copy locally that you can recover quickly. Have a copy on the cloud in case someone gets ahold attackers get ahold of that backup. We worked with one organization that got hit by ransomware, and the attackers had gone in and formatted the hard drives they used for backups. Like they wanted to make sure they could not recover from them.

Remember, when attackers are going after organizations, particularly larger ones, they're going to do everything they can to ensure that you cannot recover from that, including one thing we haven't mentioned yet: an exfiltration of data. Nowadays, we're seeing a lot of this: I'm also going to steal your HR data or intellectual property.

So, when I come to you and say, Hey, will you pay this ransom? And you say, Nope, I got good backups. I'll go okay, but I have this information. You don't; you do not want to release it to the public. Now, that's being held over people's heads as well.

Lisa Ryan: What is X infiltration? What? What is that term?

James Fair: I'm sorry—x filtration of data, meaning, okay. I'm going to take information on your servers that you don't want out there in the public, and I will grab that first. Then I will say, Hey, I will sell this unless you pay me.

Lisa Ryan: Oh, wow. Yeah. Is there honor among thieves? When you pay the ransomware, will you get your data back, and then you're going to fix it, or will they keep coming after you? That's why it's such a crooked business.

James Fair: It is. Yeah. And how do you have any trust in here? To give it a no, I don't want to put a positive spin on this. There is nothing positive about this, however. The attackers want credibility because if, for any reason, you believed that they would not come through on their side of it, people would stop paying.

So, they have a vested interest in proving that they will recover your files. Now, I've only done this twice, but in my experience, two times at least. Yes, they got almost all the files back. A couple of corrupted ones couldn't be recovered, but in general, yes. If you pay, you get the files back. Statistically, I've heard something closer to 80% of the time. But in my experience, I'm two for two. Yeah, because the attackers have a vested interest in ensuring their reputation stays good; otherwise, no one would pay these ransoms, and they would no longer be in business.

Lisa Ryan: When I also think about phishing, when the CEO is going out of town, and supposedly that person calls the secretary or sends them an email, Hey, I need this kind of cash. And they don't even think, because it's oh no, the CEO's calling me. How would you educate your staff? Because the phishing emails are getting better than Holy cow. I always check the return address and email address to ensure it's something instead of XYZ@GmT@yahoo.com or something.

James Fair: Yeah. That is, that is a great question. The most effective technique we see is doing an internal phishing campaign. Some organizations like that feel "big brother" to attack our own people. But I have a different perspective. It's meant to raise awareness. It's intended to get people to look at the reply email because we are humans first. We make mistakes.

We get busy. We respond emotionally before we respond logically. If you've ever been cut off in traffic, you may have experienced this. That's what the attackers are leveraging. All these great tools that we put in place, the anti-ransomware, the antivirus, firewalls, everything else, are programmatic, and they're much more challenging to get what you want.

But humans, conversely, can manipulate them to some degree. Internal phishing campaigns to raise awareness are probably the most effective tool. And again, it's not meant to get someone; it's meant to look like, hey, here's a quick training for you. In five minutes, you'll know how to quickly check to ensure you're not clicking on something you don't want to.

And you'd rather have us, the white hat folks, doing it than find out that someone sent credentials out that they shouldn't have via phishing email.

Lisa Ryan: So do they know if management hires a company like you to white hats to send the phishing emails, or do employees know that they may be coming, or do they have training before and then, afterward, to see how much they learn? How, what does that look like?

James Fair: Some organizations will dictate what that is for us. Our engagement looks like a very, and yes, they will come to us saying, hey, we have been phished before. We don't want it to happen again. What should we do? And we proffer this suggestion, and they buy off on it.

Then we'll do a very easy-to-catch one. Very few people may get caught in that first one to create a baseline that we can do more difficult ones to see how we're improving, where we're, maybe there's a particular group or a few members who need more training than others.

And then maybe we come in and do an hour-long security awareness training. I do a lot of those. I'll go into an organization and spend an hour talking about what we're seeing out in the wild. Best practices for security, those kinds of things. These days, you need all those great security and IT tools in place, but you've also had to train the users because we are humans, make mistakes, and are busy.

Lisa Ryan: Yeah. On your list of topics here, ransomware was one of them, but you also said breaches through third parties. Is that the same as ransomware, or what would that mean?

James Fair: If you consider, I don't know if you recall the target breach from long ago. Target wasn't directly attacked. Someone got in through their HVAC system. The H V A C folks had put a computer in their network that they could connect to do work on the system, which unfortunately had been connected to the rest of the network's backbone. The attackers could break into that H V A C system and then into the rest of the network.

So, was that a direct attack on Target? No, not necessarily. It was through a third party. We want to ensure we're careful about engaging with third parties and that they have the proper security tools in place. Because you may have all the best ones in the world, but if the person you're working with doesn't, that can be a challenge.

So it's not about us having them; it's also about the people we work with, having those in place.

Lisa Ryan: You think about how interconnected everything in manufacturing is with the H V A sys C systems, the production lines, accounting, HR, finance, and everything woven together. So yeah, that would be quite the danger.

James Fair: Yeah, it's a challenge. Best practices, and I don't want to get too technical here, is to segment those pieces off that you can't talk to each other except by. Pre-designed paths that any new path can't suddenly show up and start connecting through there.

But I want to touch on something because if there's a relevant story, that applies here quite a bit. It was a manufacturing company. They were working with a large vendor of theirs, and there was an email exchange going back and forth between someone in finance and on both sides. And no one knew that the vendor side's email had been infiltrated.

Now, many times, we think, all right, someone gets ahold of my credentials, they're going to jump in and start doing stuff immediately. But we've found that's not the case. Often, we see it hanging out; maybe we'll call it. They're watching, seeing what's going on. They're learning; they see who you talk to, who speaks to you, who you report to, and who reports to you.

Who are you doing business with? What kind of language do you use? What's your signature? They're learning as we go. They stayed in the system for, we do not know how long because it was into somebody else's organization. This email transaction went back and forth, and they finally agreed to a $150,000 invoice.

Immediately, the attackers jumped in and did a reply to all. They had all the previous email transactions in the email, and they said, Here's the link to pay the $150,000 and the email domain, as they got even trickier. You caught that. It was not the actual domain it was coming from. They got tricky.

They bought a domain; they figured it was worth trying. The company had a W in the name. They bought a domain with two Vs. Right next to each other. It looked like a W if your brain wasn't paying attention, and unfortunately, someone clicked the link and paid $150,000; that company was out 150,000 and still owed the vendor $150,000.

Wow. Phishing is a big deal, and account compromises are a big deal these days; we must watch out. I cannot stress enough the value, and it's not a hundred percent; it's not a silver bullet. Nothing is, but the value of multifactor authentication or two-factor authentication or MFA or, however, you want to call it, having some additional level besides your login and password that you have to enter, that's a huge difference in security for a very minimal impact in efficiency for people.

Lisa Ryan: Wow. And I think about two, and this isn't totally with manufacturing because you do have to be at the plant, obviously, but there's still a lot of people working from home. My husband works for a manufacturer but is in accounting; he gets to work from home a couple of days a week. When you look at that rise in remote work and all the interconnected supply chains, What are some things that manufacturers can do to ensure that the remote work isn't potentially causing any problems?

James Fair: Yeah, the organization is mature enough. We can start looking at some sophisticated tools. For instance, internally, we use a product from Microsoft called Intune. Intune is designed for a remote workforce, allowing us to set the same parameters. On devices that we would if they were in the office.

So it has to have a screen timeout, and it has to have these specific password parameters, and it has to, it has to have antivirus. We can list a whole series of things a computer must adhere to before being allowed to connect and access company data. I encourage people to look at ways to lock down those devices only to have access if certain criteria are being met.

Lisa Ryan: And then we're also looking at things like, you want to be efficient, but you also want to be safe. How would manufacturers balance the productivity they need to make money and the cybersecurity that keeps all their efforts safe?

James Fair: That is a great question, and as much as it pains me to say it, security and ease of use tend to be at opposite ends of the spectrum.

The most secure computer in the world is the one unplugged, sitting in the middle of the room. It's not very effective that way. And the easiest one to use is the one that doesn't require a password, but we want to be somewhere in between, right? It is about finding a good balancing act.

The idea is for a security team to come in and say, you have to do this and this and make your work difficult. That's not the idea. That's never what, certainly what we want to present, right? We want to come in and add some security that works with the business model and the businesspeople.

And yeah, we'll add a little bit of MFA, right? We will add a bit of overhead to what we're doing in return for a lot of return insecurity nowadays. We want to base everything on risk. A lot of organizations are playing whack-a-mole, whatever's in the news.

That's what they're working on that day to try to block it from happening. They're playing whack-a-mole all the time. And while what they're doing is busy working, it's progressing, and they're making the environment more secure. We want to encourage people to consider the most significant risk to the organization.

So, let's make a spreadsheet. We call it a risk register. Let's make a spreadsheet and list all the things we can think of. Other people can think of imaginary scenarios. Who knew we were going to have a nationwide epidemic, right? But list all these things that could occur, their likelihood, and how significant the impact is if it does happen. And then, based on that, let's give it a risk factor. Then let's sort by the risk. And we start working on the things that are the highest risk to the organization first. And we're not playing that whack-a-mole with our time.

Lisa Ryan: Wow. That's something. It's funny when you talked about passwords; I don't think a day goes by that I do not utter the sentence. I hate passwords because I forget them all the time. I use one of those password keepers, but it only has some. Yeah. Right, there is that. That maintains that security and does not frustrate your employees.

James Fair: Better solutions are coming, and better tech is coming. If you think of it on your laptop, the windows, hello. You open it up; it recognizes your face and logs you in. You didn't have to touch a thing, didn't have to our password, right? Phones are the same thing. Passwordless tech is coming more and more. Hopefully, that's a pain that will soon be a thing of the past for you.

Lisa Ryan: And the funny thing is because I like crime shows, I think about the number of where they have the criminal, and they're trying to get into his phone, and they hold the phone up to his face and unlock it.

James Fair: Exactly. I thought the same thing. Why do you put a ping on it? Otherwise, put our finger on it, right? Cut your finger off. In the worst case, this is horrible. That's a possibility.

Lisa Ryan: Exactly. And it wouldn't be on television if it didn't happen at some point. Yeah. I know that you've worked with a lot of these different cases; what would be, and of course, you're not going into the minute details of it, but what would be a real-world case where you worked with a manufacturer and maybe this is a tale to warn what, what could happen if they're not careful?

James Fair: Yeah. We worked with 500 users. The organization here in Utah that had been hit by ransomware multiple times. And they brought us on, unfortunately, before we could get everything solidified. They got hit one more time. It was through one of...

View Details

Connect with Casey Barka:

Website: www.striketax.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseybarka/

Lisa Ryan:: Hey. It's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the manufacturer's network podcast. I'm here today with Casey Barker. Casey is an R&D tax credit expert with 20 years of industry knowledge and nine years of proven experience calculating R&D tax credits for major accounting and financial service firms. Before co-founding Strike, Casey spent eight years in the petrochemical industry in Houston, Texas. His distinguished knowledge of the dynamic properties of polyethylene polypropylene and styrene-butadiene copolymer resins drove significant department improvement. I'm glad I got all those out. And, Casey, welcome to the show.

Casey Barka::: Thank you very much, Lisa. Glad to be here.

Lisa Ryan:: share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing.

Casey Barka:: I hail from the great state of Wisconsin originally. My bachelor's is actually in biochemistry and molecular biology. I had hopes and aspirations of going into the medical field. And as life hands you lemons, I went to the army and traveled the world for a few years. Happy to have served my country there. And after that, I found my way to Houston, Texas, an oil and gas hub. It was a very natural landing place for me. I spent 8 to ten years with various large Chevron Total big names in the industry, primarily focused on plastics and polymers; as you mentioned, I got my MBA as I worked up the corporate ladder. I just happened upon a job posting for research and development Credit Consulting, and it hurt my interest. And as the story goes, here we are ten years later. I co-founded Strike Tax Advisory, headquartered in Boise, Idaho. I am leading part of a team here in Houston. And, yeah, really excited to talk to your group about how R&D tax credits can benefit the manufacturing industry.

Lisa Ryan:: Let's start at the very beginning. What is an R&D tax credit? And how does it relate to manufacturing? Why do we care?

Casey Barka:: Okay. Good question. For those of you that may not be familiar, the research and development tax credit, its common name, officially, is the credit for increasing research activities. This is section 41 of the Art of the tax code. It's been around since the early eighties. That's a Ronald Reagan-era credit. It was meant to incentivize US-based companies to keep those high-tech, high-paying jobs here in the US as opposed to being offshored to that was the primary driver. It's technically a glorified jobs credit if you want to get down to it. Over the last 40-plus years, there have been many changes to the tax code itself.

There's been a lot of judicial precedent that has been established that goes into what is R&D and what is not R&D. That's primarily our job is to help our clients determine what expenses they are incurring on what we consider to be an R&D project. That can be anything from a product. It can be a process. It can be a formulation, invention, or technique. It can be it's an extensive bird. Not only to the manufacturing industry but also applies to many food and beverage architecture, engineering, medical, and pharmaceutical software; we work with many different industries. Manufacturing is the number 2 or 3 industry we work with here at Stripe. And as you're getting into manufacturing itself, there are many sub-industries that we work with. Everything from agriculture to apparel and textiles, Oil And Gas is there. Robotics, tool and die manufacturers, and semiconductors. The list goes on, and we work with these R&D tax credits.

Lisa Ryan: [00:04:12]:

So you mentioned that I thought about what R&D is and

View Details

Connect with Allison DeFord:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisondeford/

Email: allison@feltmarketing.com

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Allison DeFord. Allison is the founder and trailblazer at felt marketing for manufacturers, and also an expert on the manufacturing MA Masters platform and the overly caffeinated host of the Manufacturing Masters podcast.

She lives to rid the manufacturing world of the web. We syndrome and guide manufacturers to being seen, heard, and felt by their ideal customers. Allison, welcome to the show.

Allison DeFord is Excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

Lisa Ryan: Share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing with manufacturers.

Allison DeFord, it's mostly the fact that they are makers, and that's always fascinated me. They make something from nothing. And for me, it's the people, the stories. Many companies we work with, granddad or grandma, bootstrapped had two nickels rubbed together, but they solved a problem.

They created something that didn't exist to solve a problem. And I think the coolest thing about manufacturing is making something from nothing again. And I love its technology side and its evolution over the years. It used to be considered blue-collar, grungy, dark, whatever. It's the complete opposite today. And I just find that very exciting, watching the transformation, and yeah, I live to help people communicate better, and that's the reason that we are called Felt. The most beloved and successful manufacturers are not just seen and heard.

But they're felt and connected to the heart of their customers, and that's not an easy task. And we're good at helping them do that, especially small to mid-size manufacturers. That's just my absolute favorite to work with.

Lisa Ryan: Yeah. Awesome. And it reminds me of when I was in the welding industry, and it was literally at that time it was everything your mother ever warned you about the same thing, dark, dirty, dangerous.

You'd walk in; everything was gross. Now I walk into these plants, and they're bright, shiny, and automated, and as you said, the technology is just amazing, and you start bringing in robots. It's also a recruiting tool because a candidate is walking in. They're like, that's the coolest thing ever. I want to work on that.

Allison DeFord And good point, too, because there's all that talk of the robots taking our jobs. No. They're there to take over the repetitive stuff so that you can elevate the talented people that work with you.

Yeah. Yeah. And when I've had people on the line on the show talking about automation, a good place to start I've found they have found is, what is the task your employees hate doing the most?

And automate that because, again, you're showing them that you're listening to them and you're giving them other things to do that is a better use of their talent than whatever that manual labor task that a robot could do easier and cheaper and not call in sick. .if you could be marketing for any industry, why did you, why else did you choose manufacturing?

Lisa Ryan: Why do you specialize in that?

Allison DeFord We looked at this model years ago with our own business. We're the test dummy; I don't serve you something I haven't tried myself. And we figured out that distributors, for example, are looking to the manufacturer. For the marketing literature and the support and training, the dealers are looking to the

View Details

Connect with Ed Delia: edelia@delianet.com

Website: Delianet.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eddelia/

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers Network podcast. I'm here today with Ed Delia. Ed is president of Delia Associates, a B2B brand growth firm based in White House, New Jersey. As a second generation of the firm founded by his father, Ed and his team of 12 serve a broad range of manufacturers in various market sectors, helping them use brand power to accentuate growth. Delia Associates has received over 50 industry awards for B2B brand marketing effectiveness in the last four years alone. Ed, welcome to the show.

Ed Delia: Thanks much for having me, Lisa. Great to be here.

Lisa Ryan: share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing with Delia.

Ed Delia: Sure. Delia Associates was founded in 1964 by my father. Being part of a family and a family business, you grew up around it. I was always. And involved in the family business but never see it as a future occupation. Until shortly after college, I was all set to take a job outside of Philadelphia, and Dad and I had one of those heart-to-heart talks, and he said what do you think about coming into the business?

Learning it from the ground up, and you buy me out and take it over? And it took a weekend to think about it. And said, wow, I'm about to pass up on business ownership. I don't think I should do that hastily. I said, yes, let's do this. And when you're in a good place, when time kind of flies, I looked up, and a year passed by, and I blinked.

I'm like, wow, okay. Things are moving fast. I'm learning a lot. I'm doing a lot. This must be a good fit for me. That's where it all started. And. A few years later, we executed the buyout process, and then some years later, my dad retired, and the ship was mine. It started as a traditional business-to-business advertising and PR firm.

And I always had a real keen interest and passion for brands. After taking over, I started to explore and immerse myself in the power of the brand. I realized at the time there was an unmet need where there were a lot of manufacturers who were our clients. Historically, They've been clients in manufacturing, engineering, processing technologies, and automation.

There was no real clear sensibility of brand the power of a brand. It became my mission to bring that to them and to bring that to that audience and help them understand how powerful a brand could be when its marketing programs were enriched with a brand strategy and intent. So that became my life's work to date.

Lisa Ryan: Okay. And you think of manufacturing, you think of brands with the large manufacturers out there, but when it comes to your small and medium, mid-sized manufacturers, how important is your brand to near and long-term success and growth of the organization, no matter your size?

Ed Delia: It's critical even for the small manufacturers because they all compete. They're competing with companies of the same size, of smaller sizes. And often, they're trying to compete with much bigger entities. For them to have a voice in the mix, they can use brand power to accentuate their reason for being their mission, the value that they bring to we often say to our clients because some of them are small and mid-sized manufacturers, it's not about being the biggest, it's about being positioned as the best.

Because when a buyer sees you as the best possible option, and they have that emotional connection through your brand, they're going to say, we're going to go with this firm. They're the best;...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. Our guest today is Nick Foy. Nick is the founder, CEO, and Chief Evangelist of Silverdale Technology, which provides access to world-class processes, systems, and change management methods, regardless of the size or budget. Democratizing ERP, he has over 30 years of experience in business and technology consulting and leadership positions, focusing on logistics and supply chain. Nick, welcome to the show.

Nick Foy: Thanks, Lisa. It's great to be here.

Lisa Ryan: Share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing with Silverdale.

Nick Foy: Yeah, like you said in the introduction, I usually say it's been 30 years, but I probably should increase that a little now. I've been saying that for a couple of years now. It's time I revised that number. But my background I started on the manufacturing line. That was my first job in the manufacturing line, producing video recorders.

And I'm guessing some of your listeners aren't going to know what the hell I'm talking about. Whatever the hell is a video recorder, and why would you make one? That was my first job. I probably got sacked from there after three months for being a disruptive influence on the production line, and I'm pleased to say after 30-plus years in the industry, I'm still doing the same thing.

Lisa Ryan: Is that disrupting things?

Nick Foy: Absolutely. Asking questions, pointing things out, and making changes is what I do. As I said, I started on a video recorder production line. I then moved into what every good Scotsman does - I ended up working at a whiskey company and worked a lot in production and logistics in that in that business for six years, and then went down into third-party logistics and which was a great experience., and then, found myself in consulting. I worked for some great clients, such as Kellogg's, doing manufacturing and lean manufacturing with them all over Europe. I eventually ended up at Amazon and spent five years at Amazon doing some great projects there.

Three and a half years ago, I founded my own company here at Silverdale, which is about bringing together the 30-plus years of experience that I have and helping companies that I've seen over the years, just like those, get into ERPs and systems and helping companies with process design and implementation.

Lisa Ryan: Can you explain what ERP is and why it's crucial for businesses?

Nick Foy: ERP is such a horrible phrase. Anyone who's not in the ERP industry doesn't call it that. It's a ridiculous phrase that we use internally. And when we say ERP, it stands for enterprise resource Planning.

Now, that doesn't mean anything, either. We all know what those three words mean individually, just not in that order. What we're talking about is we're talking about a set of tools within a system that helps you to manage workflow to help give you a single view of the customer, a single view of your business, where all your data is connected, regardless of whether it's customer or product, bills, and material, whatever those things might be.

Having it all in one place so you can make better, faster, smarter decisions. That's what an ERP is. And it's designed to replace a whole myriad of different systems out there that many companies are using if you get it right.

Lisa Ryan: Regarding manufacturing, which is the show's focus? What should leaders in a manufacturing company look for to implement an ERP system?

Nick Foy: If I were a manufacturer, some of our clients are very much into light manufacturing but also very heavy manufacturing. I recommend that you don't look at it in isolation from a manufacturing

View Details

Connect with Vince:

Website: https://3dspc.com/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/prodotrak/

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Vince Sassano. Vince is the CEO of Strategic Performance Company, SPC. A leading provider of software and consulting services that enable manufacturers to increase throughput, grow profitability, and permanently improve workplace culture. One of my very favorite things to talk about. Vince, welcome to the show.

Vince Sassano: Thank you for having me on.

Lisa Ryan: Share with us about your background and what led you to do what you do with SPC.

Vince Sassano: I am a degreed computer engineer and have been involved in manufacturing and consulting for over 30 years. Much of my experience with manufacturers came with installing and maintaining ERP systems. I owned a business with my partners on that. I subsequently sold that business and focused specifically on the plant floor because there was a tremendous need and an area where technology could help.

This would've been back in the nineties when I did this. When I made that shift, I could utilize my technological talents in a lot better fashion, in conjunction with my consulting talents, and that's how it all started.

Lisa Ryan: When it comes to workplace culture in manufacturing. Quality is a big thing, and we have to make sure that we're delivering on time supply chain, but workplace culture is the thing that makes it all happen. What do you think are some things manufacturers should do to improve their organizational culture?

Vince Sassano: One of the first things they should do is review their organizational structure and see if they're just simply talking about the same issues over and over and not changing or are in a place where they can foster good communication from the frontline up to the front office.

Lisa Ryan: How would they get started? If or how would they know that there's a problem?

Vince Sassano: The simple answer there is data. You must have some information about what's happening; numbers are the best place to do it. I come from a culture long ago where the best way was what we used to call M B W A, which is management by walking around. The plant manager and the supervisors would walk out on the floor and look and see if they had a good or bad day based on stacks and piles and where they thought they ought to be. Then, at the end of the day, they would use just a gut feeling. Yeah, we had a good day. Yeah, we had a bad day. How do you know? How do you know unless you're performing some form of empirical measurement of what's happening?

Lisa Ryan: Data, of course, is essential, but by walking around and seeing not only the piles but and looking at your employee's faces? Are they hiding from you when you're walking through the plant? Are they smiling and greeting you? So when it comes to workplace culture, that's still, even though we don't officially talk about it as much as we used to with the M B W A, it's still a critical component of assessing a company's workplace culture.

Vince Sassano: I agree 100%. First and foremost, the people on the frontline want to matter, and they want to know that they matter. And if you have a culture that fosters that, then you have a better opportunity of not having that be a hindrance when it comes to performance. And you can see that when you are out on the floor, you can see it.

I was told once by a management consultant when I read one of his books, and he said the best sign of a well-run plant is everybody walking around calmly. Because everybody's doing what they are supposed to be doing, and nobody's running around with their hair on fire. The best indication of a poorly run plant is everybody's running around like a chicken with their head cut off. They go from crisis to crisis. You can see your employee's faces. You can see if they're struggling. You can see if they're in crisis mode, and that will give you an indication of the fact that there's an issue there.

But then you'll need to bring the data in to determine why this is happening and what we can do about it. Do we need more labor on the line? Do we need to change some machinery out? Is there a piece of machinery that's a real struggle? For example, from experience on the back end of the line, if there's a problem with the case taper or the case packer, which is usually the end of the line in many of the companies I work with, that's a struggle.

That's just because that's the last thing they need working before they can palletize it and ship it off. And they are starting at the back end of the line and moving forward, looking at the employees and their actions. So that will be a significant indication of what's going on.

Lisa Ryan: Also, make sure that you have current data. Because, as I like to say in my programs, we are staying in the good old days of 2019. After the pandemic, our priorities have changed, and that level of connection has changed. Everything has changed, and there's an expectation for things that in manufacturing we would've never thought about before - flexibility, shortened workdays, having shifts like the mom shift from 10 to two, and just making sure that you realize that data needs to be accurate and constantly talking to your employees to find out where they are and what resources they need. And I like that analogy of starting at the back of the line and working backward. Yeah.

Vince Sassano: I can share with you that when it comes to cross-training, it was never more critical than during the Covid days. Having multifaceted people, you can move them around from line to line and from different parts of the line. And we have one of our customers who has a compensation program where one of the components is, "Are you useful and trained on multiple machines? Do you want to learn how to run this machine and run that machine?" That's the way the employees can then help control their destiny when it comes to that. If you think about it, manufacturing was the only industry with Covid that you can't mail in. How can you make your products remotely?

Lisa Ryan: Exactly. You can't, no. And when it comes to cross-training, too, you think that you may have your employees in one part of the plant or an employee in one part of the plant, and when you cross-train that person in another plant, it lights them up. We discover that, hey, we have the right person on board, but maybe they're in the wrong seat on the bus, and it allows us to cater to that employee to find out what they're best at, what they like doing because we have a much better chance of keeping them that way.

Vince Sassano: Yeah. And one of the big things we have as a corporate ethos and will never drop if I'm sitting in this chair is that people matter. People matter, and unless you have a fully automated line where stem to stern, it's a hundred percent robotics, your quality, and your efficiency, and everything is all computer generated. If you don't have that, then people will always matter. And quite frankly, that's the type of people we excel with and work best with because that's where the culture matters most. Because there is no culture with a machine, culture is people. And it's how people work together and interact.

Lisa Ryan: What are you seeing regarding some of the triggers from manufacturers when they need to consider a change or continuous improvement for their workplace culture?

Vince Sassano: They're obviously feeling some pain, and they've had some event happen – a financial hiccup, loss of a key customer, some turnover, something has happened. That has given them a little bit of a kick in the pants. I can tell you a story about a prospect we were working with. They made all of the leather seats for John Deere. They had the exclusive, but it wasn't an exclusive contract. It was we've been working with these people for 35 years, and it turns out they had a problem with the machine and they had a problem with the operator. So through a series of events, they missed some shipments, which greatly affected John Deere.

They said, listen, I hate to do this to you, but we cannot have you as our only supplier anymore. So we're going to have to take you out for bid. And boy, was that a wake-up call for them because they had been doing good for decades. And then, all of a sudden, they had a problem. They didn't have any backup provisions and ended up losing a significant portion of the business because, from John Deere's perspective, they could not afford that liability.

Many people, especially in the manufacturing industry, don't necessarily think about what they will do if something goes wrong. But, especially when something has always gone right, that's not the case; contingencies are increasing, especially with the Covid situation. Contingencies are becoming increasingly important, so it's usually some event that happens.

Lisa Ryan: We pay attention to things when it's either going well or something terrible has happened. But when things are just going along swimmingly and the day-to-day, we take that for granted instead of continuing to have those conversations and recognizing and acknowledging people for doing their job, doing it well, and keeping things running smoothly. When we get away from that, where it sounds like with that particular company, maybe they got a little lax or a little complacent because they'd had the business for so long that they assumed. They would have it forever, which only happens if you pay attention.

Vince Sassano: They would've had it forever without a problem. Nothing would've changed. One of our customers does something that I like when it comes to this. This concept of weaving culture and technology and data and people, they always set on an annual and a quarterly basis, two things. One, they set a goal. For their productivity, they set a stretch goal, okay? And they say, okay, here's what we want you to hit. But if you hit that, here's what we want you to hit. And it helps combat complacency. And that's what you're talking about. You get stuck in the same old, same hole, and everything's running fine, and there's no incentive for what if we tweak the machine up a little bit?

What if we get it going faster? What if we kick it up one bag a minute? Is everything going to blow up, or will we see any problems that come up? And having that stretch goal has encouraged me—the culture to continue to expand on an incremental basis. You're not trying to double your productivity in one day, but you are trying to say, okay, we've hit our goal for the quarter, the first four weeks in a row. What do we do now? Let's look at the stretch call. And I must commend the VP of management and the president of that company for coming up with that concept of being able to do that. Because then it gets you to know what your organization's limits are.

Lisa Ryan: And then, how are they getting the buy-in from the people on the line? Because obviously, you want to meet your goals, and then there are the stretch goals, but there's got to be some reward for the employees or getting their input or doing something so that they still feel valued. So they are willing to put in that extra effort that we hear so much about the quiet quitters that don't. So what is this management team doing to get their employees excited about these stretch goals and meeting the regular goals?

Vince Sassano: There are three different components to it. It's not every department. Most departments have a stretch goal, but for some, the first thing you do is educate. They educate the people on the front line about what management is trying to accomplish and how they're trying to accomplish it concerning meeting a particular goal. And then the second thing that they do is they give them access to information and data about how well they're doing. And what could they do to improve; what are the primary issues that are presenting or hindering them from being more productive?

There's a communication that goes on there, so the employees feel part of the process because they're part of it. Then the third thing is they've implemented a pay-for-performance model in some areas of their company where the employee can see a direct benefit to wanting to reach the stretch goal. So, for example, reaching 85% efficiency on their line puts them at a level two employee with this particular pay scale. If they get to 90%, that might bump them up to level three. Okay? Now, productivity is not the only component. There's quality, safety, and cross-training; there are so many other components that they've added to that paper for the performance model.

But still, the employee understands. What the important the importance of efficiency is and productivity to themselves? They get it. After all, they've bought into the system because they understand that education is the first step.

Lisa Ryan: When they reach the goals, is a celebration a part of it? And how do they do that?

Vince Sassano: Yes, the celebration happens on a shift by shift in a day by day and week-by-week basis. Because what they do is they take their information and they post it on the board. There you go. It's right there where all the employees walk into the locker room, and they can see all the productivity, efficiencies, downtimes, issues, and charts going up and down and sideways and all that kind of stuff.

They make it very visible to the employees. In the meetings that they have, the daily production meetings, the weekly production meetings, and the monthly trend meetings, they talk about. The stuff that they post and what's going on. And it's in those meetings where the employees, and the dissemination of that information, feel part of the team; even if they're not in the meeting, they know their boss is in it. And then the boss says, hey, I just met with the shift supervisor or the plant manager, and he's happy about what we've been able to do on these lines with these products and let's keep it up. Good job. And by the way, here are some of the struggles that we've had, but here's what we're going to do about it. So it's a lot of open communication. But this communication can only happen because they're speaking a common language. And they must speak a common language.

Lisa Ryan: That level of transparency you shared is so important because some companies think I want to keep my employees manageable. Or if things aren't going well, I don't want to scare them or whatever it is. But if they know that you are laying everything out and being transparent, good times, bad times, everything in between. Because if you go through a good time, things start getting bad. Your employees are much more likely to say what if we try this? What if we try this? Because it's like they know their jobs better than their managers know their jobs. When managers are transparent, it trickles down that employees are much more willing to share.

Vince Sassano: Absolutely. When you've got people on the frontline daily, they know what's happening better than anybody else because they're there for their entire shift doing whatever task. And it's imperative that they feel that they matter and that information trickles down in that transparency. I agree a hundred percent is significant. I don't think information dissemination is not done because they're worried about overwhelming the employees. They can take on a lot more than people think they can. And you shouldn't limit somebody's capability based on the position that they're in. You should limit their capability based on what they're capable of.

It's that stick factor that's more of an issue because the managers are afraid to share the information because they think the employees are going to feel they're going to get beat up with that information. So they don't share it. Or the employees are afraid that if they say what's going on, it will be a stick and that they will get beat up by it. That is a hurdle, but it can be overcome. Overcome, and you overcome that hurdle through education, but not just educating on the what? Educating on the why. Why are we doing this? What is it that we're trying to accomplish here? It's that type of transparency. That is a tremendous booster culture.

Lisa Ryan: That's one way to ensure you are keeping your more tenured employees relevant. Because they understand the history, they understand the why, and it's up to them to share that passion with the newer people coming in that don't have that same level of history and background so that they can more fully understand the why. They have that same level of passion and passion that your more tenured employees have.

Vince Sassano: I agree. And when the tenured employees are at their position, walking around, or in the lunchroom, they carry themselves differently because they know that they have achieved and earned a certain amount of status. They garner respect from management because they're instrumental, and they garner respect from their peers and the people that work on the line with them because these people know that this guy's been around in a while and he knows what he's doing. Exactly. That's where cross-training and information dissemination are essential.

I'll tell you a short story. One of our customers had a problem with a can labeler, and they noticed through their information that it consistently ran better on the first shift than on the second. The first shift was 85, 90%. The second shift was down in the seventies. And I pointed that out on some of the reports, and I was like, why is that? I went to the guy on the line. And he was like, oh yeah, I developed this little technique that the machine sticks, and if I have a little bit of a ruler and when it sticks, I just poke it keeps things running smooth. The second shift guy needed to learn of that. I went to the manager, and I told him that, and the manager said that's an easy fix.

I'll have the first shift guy stay late and the second shift guy comes early, and he can show him what he's doing. And that happened the next day. And when he showed what he was doing, the second chief guy said, " Oh my gosh, thank you so much. I have this problem all the time. I didn't know what to do. So it's those little nuggets of information that unless you have that culture that encourages that type of cross-communication or you have a reporting system that can point that stuff out where you can ask why that's when things can pay dividends.

Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. I know you have a background in technology, so what are you seeing as far as using technology with change management to improve the organization's culture?

Vince Sassano: What I'm seeing is that the more you can interweave technology with people, Not the opposite, which would be people with technology, the more

View Details

Connect with Peter Mann

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-mann/

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Peter Mann. Peter Mann is the CEO & Founder of Virginia-based Oransi, a leading air purification company known for its efficient, intuitive, and reliable products for consumers, schools, organizations, and businesses. He is the Chair of the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers' Air Cleaner Council. Peter is late diagnosed autistic and now advocates for autism awareness in the workplace. Peter, welcome to the show.

Peter Mann: Yeah, thanks, Lisa. I am excited to be here.

Lisa Ryan: share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing with Oransi.

Peter Mann: Sure. Yeah. I grew up in Syracuse, New York, and attended college in Rochester nearby. I didn't know what I wanted to do. So I took a Navy ROTC scholarship which effectively paid for my college. Then I was in the Navy for four years, which was interesting and unexpected since the first Gulf War started. We got sent over to the Middle East and didn't anticipate that.

After four years, I got out; I got a job at a company called Tech Data in Clearwater, Florida. They're a large computer distributor. I was there for seven years. It was exciting because this was in the nineties, was the computer industry started to take off. We went from Fortune 500 to Fortune 100, and I moved up from an individual contributor to director of Marketing Operations.

In 2000, Dell recruited me. I moved to Austin, Texas, and did some development work for dell.com, and then I moved to a marketing role where I was a marketing leader with the Dell printer launch, managed pricing strategy, and a few other things. That's when the.com bubble burst.

I was at Dell for about three years, which pushed me to start something on my own. So I co-founded an e-commerce business with another guy in Austin. I sold my part in 2009 and used those proceeds to create Oransi, focusing on indoor air quality and, specifically, air purifiers. My interest in that was because my son suffered from asthma as a child. It was rough, especially in my younger years in elementary and middle school. So I've always been interested in trying to help him and others like him who suffered from respiratory issues.

Lisa Ryan: It seems you do one thing, and suddenly, you join the military, and you're in the Gulf War. You go into the dot com industry, and the bubble bursts. You're on all these trends; air purification hits and a pandemic.

Peter Mann: Yeah. Who knew? The pandemic was incredible because there was more demand in supply. What's been interesting is that many brands entered the market. It was more of a niche market before Covid; now, the market's gone back to more or less pre covid levels. But now there are two or three times as many brands as before. So it's going to be interesting. I would add that, during Covid, we merged with an electric motor company in Virginia that has a proprietary motor technology, which will allow us to restore manufacturing; that's where our focus is now.

What's exciting about that is we can latch onto the next trend, electrification and moving away from fossil fuels now that we have this electric motor base. We're starting with air purifiers since that's what we know, but we could make anything with an electric motor in our facility. For me, that's pretty exciting since the air purifier market, as much as it is, it's painful to say, it's become more of a commodity since there are too many brands in the space for the market size currently.

Lisa Ryan: You mentioned before the show that you were actively bringing this reshoring back from China to the United States because you can do that almost as cheaply as it was before with China. Talk a little about why that is happening and what restoring a business is like.

Peter Mann: Yeah, I have to keep relearning this lesson because it always takes longer and costs more than you, you would think. From a cost standpoint, though, on the product, what we've realized is if you're buying components or raw materials, the cost is similar here versus in China; the difference is in labor. So we've been focused on how to take labor out of the manufacturing assembly of the products. Because if you can take the labor out and make it much more efficient, you can close the gap from a cost standpoint and may make it lower cost than you can from China.

The other thing that's happening is these tariffs have been coming on, coming off. They're 25%, which is more significant than ocean freight. We got crazy expensive during Covid. So it's back to where it was pre covid. But that's another variable risk regarding sourcing from China in the longer term. We've talked to several companies, and there's interest in wanting to restore and not rely on manufacturing anything in China.

Lisa Ryan: It sounds too that you're focusing on going from fossil fu fuels to more electricity and with that clean energy mission. Talk a little bit about that. Why is that important to you?

Peter Mann: It's the right thing to do. It's the moment in time. I remember the nineties, and the computer industry was like that's all the momentum was. If you look at the government and where they're putting the funds in terms of chips, batteries, investments, several other efforts, and import tariffs. The focus is on how we make stuff here and how we make it here competitively. And you can fight it. But that's where all the momentum and the market's future are. Clean energy will be similar to what the computer industry was like in the nineties and early two-thousands.

Lisa Ryan: I'd like to spend some time talking about your journey with autism. First, finding out, you said that you were late-stage diagnosed; what were some of the signs, first of all? Then I'd like to lead the conversation regarding potentially hiring workers with autism. We look at the fact that in the labor market, we need more people, particularly in manufacturing. We have a lot of people that can do a great job, but maybe due to fear or myths, or not knowing or not being educated as far as this group of people who may make great employees if you can share from diagnosis to what you've discovered and what you're sharing now.

Peter Mann: This was something that figured out during Covid. My wife was watching a C B S morning show, and they did a profile on a woman that maybe worked for NASA, and she was describing her traits. It was a profile of her as an autistic person being successful in the workplace. When she told me her traits, it was exactly how I was. My wife watched it. She's, oh my gosh, you need to watch this. If I had gone back a couple of weeks before that, we would have had a conversation where she was upset about something that poured out her heart to me. I wasn't feeling great, and I had no response.

It went from her being upset to What was wrong with you? You don't have human emotions. I have no words, as I had, my brain was empty, and you know, when she saw the C B S Morning show, you're like, oh, that explains a lot, okay. Yeah. I watched it, and I'm like, holy cow. That's right, I went online and took an online screening tool. What's pretty interesting is that one of the leading authorities in doing these kinds of assessments or research into autism is the disguise, Simon Baron Cohen. He's a cousin to Sasha Baron Cohen. He's a Cambridge professor anyways; he has these 50 questions, and in the assessment, you get a score from zero to 50. Most people score a 16, in the 18 kinds of range; autistic folks tend to score above 30. I took it, and I scored 43 out of 50. Then I took several others, and they were all consistent. I'm like, holy cow, I want to. Get an official diagnosis. I didn't want to be like, feel like a poser, like I was then. I didn't know I was autistic, and I didn't even know a lot about autism.

I started calling the local autistic clinics or centers in this area. They're all geared towards children; then there's one. I live right by Virginia Tech, and there's one that is part of the campus, and they could do it, but they wouldn't be able to see me for a year and a half. I eventually found someone that did it via telehealth, and she's in Oregon. She did it because her husband was autistic, and she wanted to provide the service to other autistic folks, particularly underdiagnosed women. I worked with her for some months and officially got the diagnosis. Since then, I've been reading a lot and educating myself on what autism is. Even if it's not what most people think, it's a different way of thinking, perceiving, and communicating.

Some co-occurring conditions may or may not be present, such as speech, cognition, A D H D, and a whole slew of other things. So there's essential autism, and then there are co-occurring conditions, which most people think of a lot of co-occurring conditions when they think of autism. That's not the core of what autism is. But you may have those conditions as well.

Lisa Ryan: For somebody unfamiliar with it, what would be a good definition or examples or something they may need to know a little bit more about, be comfortable with what it is. Because we all have our ideas of what we think it is, but according to you, it's probably a lot different than what we believe.

Peter Mann: A lot of it is having awareness for what's going on with the autistic person. It's that our brains are wired differently. I don't view it as it's been stigmatized as a defective person. It's more like a left-handed versus right-handed person. Your brain works differently. It's not that it's a bad thing. It's different than the way 98% of the people are wired. You're in the; you're in the 2% group. That routine is essential. But you have a routine because it helps you manage anxiety. People need to stick to routines to be simple. It's a way of being your best self.

Another one that is widely prevalent with not understood is sensory sensitivity. We can discover disabling if you think of the senses, which most people find annoying. It's a level of intensity. If I go into a loud restaurant, I can hear all and none of the conversations. They're all like, if you think of Charlie Brown's teacher went to the wah wah wah. It's like they turned the volume up what allowed restaurants like me, and it becomes exhausting over a while of trying to hear conversations.

It's like when you plug all the appliances in and blow the circuit breaker, and nothing's working, then why isn't Peter joining in the conversation? And you have no idea how hard this is in this situation. The environment drives a lot of it. When I talk to other people, they're like, nobody likes that. We speak louder it's because I don't have that natural ability. There are certain filters that people have that you could filter out, like other tables that are talking and listening to the person at your table.

I don't have all those filters. I'm hearing our table's conversation two tables over, and they're all; it's like having people talking over each other is what it's like. It's exhausting. Do you tend not to put yourself in those situations to cope? That's another difference.

The other thing I have, which is helpful in the workplace, is hyper-focus; they call it a state of flow. I can, get focused on something, block out everything around me, and have all these positive chemicals going. That's served me well in the workplace because I can sit for hours on something. I know sitting for that long is not healthy, but I can get completely lost in something and shift to a higher gear that I intuitively know most people don't have.

Lisa Ryan: When you're in a loud restaurant, all the words are there, and you hear everything. But when you're in flow, you hear nothing because you're focused. Is that something that you can turn on and turn off? How do you get to flow at work and not in a restaurant?

Peter Mann: Because at work, it's something, it's a singular thing that I'm interested in. I can focus on it and then, naturally, block everything out. The problem is if somebody comes and knocks on my door and says something, it's jarring. To come out of that state is a sleep state, but it's like you're being startled.

When that happens and you can't, like in a restaurant, I can't get in a state of flow. Because I walk in, and it's woah. I can see the volume going up, and it's overwhelming. I've talked to people, and they're like, can't you get used to it? Or can't you and I'm like, to me, it's like touching a hot stove. It doesn't matter how often you feel it; it will burn. It's like there's no way around that. There's nothing anyone can do to help me in that situation other than not get into that situation. Don't touch the hot stove. My hand's not ever going to get used to it.

Lisa Ryan: From a manufacturing standpoint, because on one side, some manufacturing plants are loud, and things are going on, you could get in that routine. Where are good jobs? If you're thinking of a manufacturer, in your experience in manufacturing, where would be some good places for manufacturers to consider hiring people with your skillset?

Peter Mann: I guess what I would add is, I'm one person, and I described my experience, but it's like when they say autism, there's a massive spectrum of abilities. Some people have ADHD that I find are super creative in design—coming up with new things. Others have hyperfocus, but they can get distracted a little bit. Like me, I don't have a d c at all. I'm like all in on focus. So for me, it's like a process. If you look at Silicon Valley, they have a high percentage of autistic folks because computer programming is, you dialed in on the computer coding, and you get lost in that.

You can have someone on the assembly line that's doing specific tasks. You can get focused. I can do things other people find boring if I'm interested. That's the key. It is an engineering, but if you look at the arts, creative people like David Byrne from Talking Heads are pretty open about being autistic.

And it's different from the engineering computer traditional guy like I'm a math person. I'm like an autistic person. But other folks have different talents. It spans almost any job accounting. There isn't a limit to what folks can do. The challenge is most autistic people can't get through the interview process because if you come in, you don't make eye contact. It's like, this person's not trustworthy, or you get asked a question you have yet to think of. So we tend to be more bottom-up thinkers versus most people being top-down thinkers.

When you ask a question, if it's something we haven't thought of before, we're going through all these options and details, then it's there can be like, I do this myself with some people, like an awkward pause because I'm thinking through like, how do I best answer that? And the other people, are you there?

I get inward and have a lot going on internally, but my face shows nothing, and in an interview, it does. It could translate better. You're like, this guy's or girl is weird. I can't see them being part of our team, and it's unfortunate because these are some of the most like, hardworking, loyal people desperate to work. It's like the Ph.D. that's working at minimum wage. The unemployment numbers are crazy high, up to 80%. I don't know what the actual number is, but most autistic folks are average to above-average intelligence. The other thing is, I'm Gen X and grew up in the seventies and eighties.

When I was in elementary school, one in 2,500 was diagnosed as being autistic. Now it's more than 2% more than as high as one in 36. It's not like autistic people didn't exist before; we weren't diagnosed. Unless you have very high support needs, anyone that is a later millennial will be late diagnosed autistic. Almost none of us were diagnosed. You think of how many hundreds of millions have gone through the public school system, trying to get jobs or being diagnosed with other things and not understanding that you're autistic. I don't think there's anything wrong with anyone that's autistic or different. It's, it's when you have most people one way, and it's this is the right way to be, and then you have a small group of people who are a different way. It's, oh no, you're. Yeah, you guys are wrong.

Lisa Ryan: When it comes to workplace culture because again, there are many interesting points because we want people to get along, and we have this, this friendship, this relationship building, which is difficult for people who are on the spectrum because of what you said about not knowing how to get to those emotions or asking the question, having to spend more time processing questions that you've ever that you haven't heard before.

One of my side hustles is teaching HR law on virtual programs about the ADA; in the interview process, it's not like you can have that conversation; do you have a disability? Because, of course, that would go against ADA. How could a manufacturer craft an interview? Is it sending out the questions before time? Is it give some ideas because, as you said, if I have somebody come in and I'm interviewing, and I don't know about autism, and you're not making eye contact, and you're staring off into space when I'm asking questions, I'm going to do that.

Hey, this guy's going to be a bad fit. But if I have an awareness of that. He may, he or me, she may be an excellent employee and can do exactly what I want them to do. So we have to not only have an awareness from my standpoint but to share this with the rest of the people so that we can make those I don't even want to use the word accommodations, but that level of understanding that because this person is different doesn't mean that he's any less than anybody else on there.

Peter Mann: Yeah, I would say, you know this, I don't know who said this, but I agree with it, is that autistic folks are more like the canary and the coal mine, and changes that you make to the benefit of the autistic person helps everyone if you're doing an interview what I've seen, which when I've talked with autistic people, they're blown away by, this is It's about setting expectations and having an understanding for what to expect.

If there's an interview, give someone a document saying this is where you go. This is what time, this is who you're meeting, this is who they are, this is what you wear. These are the questions we're going to ask you. This is how your day will go for two hours. So someone can mentally prepare for that and see the questions relevant to the job they can think through, like, how do I best answer this? Because the person doing the interview wants to do the best job, but it's, The interview process is primarily set up for social extroverts, which is traditional, right?

There's this invisible hierarchy. Autistic folks tend to be at the bottom of the social order. This levels the playing field. If you go to a meeting or something and you're like, this is the agenda or a meeting, and this is what to expect.

For me, elementary school was a nightmare. Then when I got to sixth grade, I had a schedule. I knew where...

View Details

Connect with Renan Devillieres

Website: https://www.oss.ventures/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/renan-devillieres/

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network Podcast. Our guest today is Renan Devillieres. Renan is the visionary Founder and CEO of OSS Ventures, who is dedicated to shaping the future of the manufacturing sector through startups and innovative solutions. With substantial operations, SaaS, and venture capital background, Renan is an inspiring leader committed to driving sustainability and fostering adaptability in the ever-evolving industrial landscape. Renan, welcome to the show.

Renan Devillieres: Thank you for having me.

Lisa Ryan: Please share your background and what led you to do what you're doing with OSS Ventures.

Renan Devillieres: Sure. I'm 36, and I started my career as an operations guy. I was working in factories. I was a factory director and supply chain director. Then, I became the assistant director of Richmond Co., a luxury company. And I got to see the incredible world that produces physical things, and I loved it. And then, as I was always a geek, I started coding something in my bedroom and ended up creating a good tech company, leaving my job and ending up in San Francisco, setting my startup to Google, and having a lot of traction there.

I discovered the world of tech. And when I sold my company and my shares in the company, I told myself the World of Tech is just incredible. I love operations. Let's bring those two worlds together. And as I had a bit of money, I chose the investor slash venture builder path.

What we do at O US Ventures has been three years and a half. We either create or invest in startups technological startups that are exclusively helping the physical world, operations, retail, and those kinds of things. So we've been doing that for three years and a half. We are based in Paris, but we are all around the world. We created 15 companies. We live in a little over 1000 factories worldwide, and 350 people are working for all those awesome tech solutions for the manufacturing world.

Lisa Ryan: You started by saying that you were 36 years old, and I know that in manufacturing, changing the conversation to attract younger people to it. What originally made you consider manufacturing an option and something you became passionate about?

Renan Devillieres: It's a funny story. I come from a background where people need to learn what even a company is. And I was good at math. So I did the math, then opened Google, and I put a company most well-known for being good at doing business, and the number one result was McKinsey Company. So I applied to McKinsey Company, not knowing what it was, and I was recruited there. I'm very grateful because they taught me a lot about business. On my first day, they told us to choose orientations, and I ended up selecting operations because it sounded cool, and I wanted to do things with the physical world.

I did not know what a factory was. I was just a fresh graduate knowing nothing, and I learned my job there. So the first time I went to a factory, I saw that incredibly complex web of people working and incredible speed-changing matter, and I said, okay, this is the dream. This is where I want to work for a lot of time because when you're a geek like me, and you like systems, and you're interested in those kinds of things, It's paradise to me.

The two most interesting things you can think of, and work on are either a tech company or a factory because those two systems are incredibly complex, beautiful, and interesting.

Lisa Ryan: It's nice to see with such an emphasis on tech, and I know we're going to be talking about AI and all of the new things that are coming into manufacturing, but just to be able to marry those two worlds. Because, again, it's changing that conversation to find people passionate about the physical world and the intricacies that go on with that. In your life, how do you see the future of manufacturing evolving? Particularly when looking at integrating new technologies and increasing automation in factories.

Renan Devillieres: It's very interesting to see. I think manufacturing is just the result of two basic passes. First, what do people want, and what does society want? And the second is which technologies are available. And to those two questions, I answer very simply. People want a different social model. People do not want their products to be made by slaves in Bangladesh or China anymore. That has changed, and people would like to leave. Unbelievable planet. People want local things that are more respectful of the environment. Energy prices are high, everything. That's the forces.

What is new in technology is that the steam engine and the electrical power automated everything manually and moving beats around. Now, we will automate everything repetitive and intellectual with computers and AI. And what I think is going to happen is that our production model, our factories will be different. They're going to be more local, more green, and more respect for the workers and more automation. So that's a big part of what operations are going to be. And there will be all new infrastructures, giga factories such as massive infrastructure models with billions and billions of capital.

It's going to be taking all over manufacturing. And let me take two examples. When I was in California, I went to visit Tesla Freeman. In Tesla Freeman, you have nerds younger than me running around wearing t-shirts and programming machines with their Macintosh laptops. That is the future.

Another glimpse of the future of manufacturing operations is a company that stopped sourcing in China. What they do is, as a customer, you pay every month, and you get clothes for your baby. And when your baby has grown, you give back the clothes, and they give you clothes of the right size. What they do is they repair all kinds of clothes, and it is very automated. It is very different. And they don't use materials anymore. They just repaired it. And it's very different as a system, but it's very green and profitable.

Lisa Ryan: Wow, I never even heard of that. And we're going to talk a lot about startups and helping them scale, but if you have a legacy manufacturing plant doing things and all of this, you're speaking a foreign language to them; what do you mean? Mail ordering clothes, repairing them, and walking around in t-shirts and programming machines. So is there hope for legacy manufacturers, or is it best to start with a clean slate and have a startup?

Renan Devillieres: Yes, there is hope, and I like to take an example, a very simple one: 30, 40 years ago, a little Japanese car company named Toyota invented a new way of organizing factories. They invented Lin, which was ridiculously different from everything everyone did then. Radically different, but it was 20 to 30 points better. And everybody started doing Lin. When you look at a high-level picture of what happens, it took 20 years. 25% of all the factories died because they were not competitive and could not transform themselves. But 75% made it on the other end. And with varying degrees of success, you can only go to a factory with a continuous improvement arm.

And they do things, and they do daily meetings. It's going to be the same with tech. Tesla F is the new Toyota. That's the new blueprint, but there are 20 years in the future, and there is to, there is going to be a catch-up movement. It's going to take time. Some companies will die, but some will make it, and it will take time, not because of the tech but because of the people in the future.

Lisa Ryan: Such a good point of just realizing that everything is changing and looking at asking questions that you may have never had to ask yourself before. Because business is changing, and as you said, there's going to be a certain percentage of those businesses that, if they don't change, will die.

If they want to keep up that, then to explore when you're talking about your approach to identifying and supporting innovative manufacturing startups, you have the small company. So how do you help them scale?

Renan Devillieres: We have a very particular method of doing that. First, you need to address a widely available pain point to scale. So I have a 20% team each week. My team visits three and four factories all over Europe, and they ask people like, what are your pain points? What needs to be sold? How much money do you have to solve it? Is it in your top three? And we only work on what we call a burning platform.

Like burning hair issues, nice-to-haves are not candidates. That's the first part of the answer. The second part of the answer is that we don't invest in startups or create startups where implementation time is more than two weeks per factory. This rules out 90% of the startups that we are seeing.

Of course, you can create a company with six-month or 12 months implementation cycles. Yes, can you scale That? It seems too hard for me. And we only invest in startups that are doing that. So the third thing that we do to help them scale is very simple. We created a platform, and that platform shares technical components to be able to connect to the top 15 ERPs in factories instantly.

And that platform shares the contacts of all the innovation-friendly European factories and us. And when you enter the USS community as a startup, you get access to roughly 250 companies—accounting for 1000 factories already deployed on the SS network. And by combining those three factors, our startups achieve consistent 300-person growth year, the average in Repository.

Lisa Ryan: I think the lesson that anybody listening to this show can take from you is going around and asking employees about their pain points and acting. On the most critical, those burning issues because there are many times that we think we know what the employees are doing, where they know their job better than we know their job.

And when employees see that you're listening to them, there's a much better chance that they will be engaged and committed and help in the process. So true. You mentioned this several times regarding the importance of caring for the planet. What are some of the key strategies that companies can implement to become more environmentally responsible?

Renan Devillieres: I can tell you what I've seen starting to get a lot of traction. It's an ongoing issue. Everybody's speaking about it. We'll see. It's a continuous development, but we've seen first improving processes and improving your footprints on the planet. A consistent thing we have seen is that leaders in being positive for the planet are leaders in performance. There is no anti-correlation. That's the first. The second thing that we have seen is that focusing on the value that you can bring to your customer and then trying to perform that value in a very lean way in terms of the effort and the materials, and the footprint that you have on the planet can lead to incredible results.

Let me take an example. One of our customers is Michelin, the tire maker; I love it. I love them. I love all my clients, Michelin. They have a factory producing 40% fewer tires and making 40% more money. And they do that by putting a chip in the tire and selling kilometers or miles for you, us people, to their clients.

And they say, I, this is a price per mile. You only pay for the miles that you do. By doing that, they can start improving the lifetime of the tire. They're incentivized. To do less and fewer tires, and they'll get more and more money by producing fewer and fewer tires. And their engineers started working not on improving processes to do more tires per hour, but more kilometers per euro, which is different because you're not optimizing for the same thing.

It can help you optimize for the right thing, which is the value, not the object. And what we see a lot of shifts from optimizing for the objects you're producing, which is sub-efficient. You stop doing that, and you optimize the value you create for your clients. And you can reduce the items, increase the value, and take more money.

Lisa Ryan: Yeah, that gets into that quality versus quantity conversation. And it's also; you're making fewer tires, you're going to have less waste because you're getting more kilometers/miles for each product sold. So what an interesting way of looking at the things we know are the right thing to do, but when you put dollars behind it, it makes a little bit easier conversation.

Renan Devillieres: Of course. Let me take another example. We are working with some of the suppliers of Apple. Apple created the machine. The machine's name is Julia, and what is the machine doing? You can take any iPhone and put it in the machine, and the machine can take any iPhone apart, change components, and put them in little boxes. You can reuse those components for the next generation of iPhones. Their goal for the next generation of iPhones is to have at least 50% of all the value reused in the following phones. When you do that, you reuse the stress on the planets per iPhone and increase the dollars per iPhone.

Lisa Ryan: Wow. And people feel better about buying iPhones because they know they are getting products made of 50% recycled material and have less of a negative impact on the planet.

Renan Devillieres: Precisely. And for the listeners, if you want to put on YouTube, you put on YouTube Apple Machine, iPhones, and you'll get a video of the machine. It's incredible.

Lisa Ryan: We spoke about a little bit, but what do you think about artificial intelligence and machine learning regarding the future of manufacturing? And if you still need to get there, how can companies prepare for these advancements in both?

Renan Devillieres: artificial intelligence is both over-hyped and under-hyped. We are overhyping what it will do in the short term and under hyping what it'll do five to 10 years from now. Five to 10 years from now, I'm a former artificial intelligence researcher, and 30 to 40% of all intellectual jobs we're doing will be automated.

By AI, if it's intellectual and it's repetitive, it can be automated that will happen. And for example, in manufacturing, and designing new parts, there is already a lot of generative AI and putting a new program in a robot. It's very repetitive. And there is already there is a Stanford startup that is coming from you. Just type a sentence, take the red thing, do a quarter rotation, and put it in the box, and the robot does it.

This is going to happen for sure. And it'll take time. And you ask the question, as a manufacturer, what can I do for it? In the artificial intelligence age, your edge is your data and ability to implement fast. With the new technologies on those two fronts, manufacturers are historically bad. 70% of all the data in ERPs and systems are not usable for artificial intelligence because of the data structure, bad data, and because they need more data. As a manufacturer, having good data hygiene and having some nodes and data scientists is an excellent first step. And then the second, when you look, Tesla or SpaceX, or B Y D be your dream is the number one car, an electric car manufacturer in the world. It's a Chinese company. They have data scientists who change the production process every three or six months. Having agility helps you as a manufacturer use the new technologies because if you change your process every six years, then at best, you'll be three years outdated. When technology paces of change go from five to 10 years to one to two years, your frequency of changing your processes has to go down. You have to be more agile, and this is something that manufacturers have historically been bad ads. Let me take basics as an example.

SpaceX is launching a new rocket every three to four months. And each rocket is a new version. Building upon the learnings of the last rocket today, no space company could have the path. The best space company's path was one to two years between each launch; they're bringing that down to freaking four months. The versioning of the cars is once every six months. And increasing the pace of change to embed those learnings and those new technologies is essential to surviving that next normal.

Lisa Ryan: That is undoubtedly one of the significant challenges that are facing manufacturing today. What would you say would be other significant challenges that manufacturers are dealing with, and how do you think startups can help address these issues?

Renan Devillieres: Number one, talent for sure, like number one. If you look at another vertical, another market, retail. Retail. When Amazon came, they were bad at the internet. They were bad at marketplaces. They were terrible at all—that new stuff. And there was a first wave where they said, ah, it's not going to happen. Denial manufacturers a lot of manufacturers are in denial right now. Still, in retail, after that, Amazon became dominant, and when Amazon became dominant, they morphed, and they had to hire talents from startups from the tech world.

From those new companies to increase the pace of change, change the culture, and modify the systems. And in manufacturing today, for example, decathlon, an excellent sportswear brand, they are new. C e o comes from Google. Wow, it's a freaking manufacturing textile company. Steel is from that new layer of talent, bringing a new set of crypto technology processes; the pace will change the manufacturing world. But the challenge is getting them on board, retaining them, and giving them the keys to change the crypto. But that's going to happen out of all of this.

Lisa Ryan: As we end our time together, what would be your best tip to a manufacturer listening today? And let's say that they are not necessarily a startup but want to make some of these changes. What would you advise?

Renan Devillieres: A very simple thing. Get your hands dirty in one big issue that you have at your factory, and be open and say, okay, what if I could solve this with tech and start small, have big ambitions and scale fast for that problem, and then do one another, and then do another, and then do another and exponential change comes from rapid scaling of good local solutions, gone global.

Lisa Ryan: And how do you work with your clients? How would somebody listening today know they should schedule a conversation with you? How can you help?

Renan Devillieres: Two things that we do. The first thing is if any manufacturer in the world has an issue or something they want to talk about, they can book a call with someone from my team, and they will say either, look, we have our database, 100 manufacturers like you. They all had the same issue, and here is how they dealt with it.

That's the first type, the second type of answer; we have more than thousands of...

View Details

Connect with Tom Pierce:

Email: Tom@i2s.us

Website: https://i2s.us/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-pierce-6799b356/

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce today's guest, Tom Pierce. Tom is the President of Integrated Information Systems with decades of experience; Tom brings a unique perspective to solving complex problems in integrated business planning, cost and schedule analysis, and cross-functional collaboration.

His ability to combine human intelligence with innovative software solutions makes him an invaluable resource for those in the manufacturing sector seeking to improve efficiency, streamline operations, and drive sustainable growth. So Tom, welcome to the show.

Tom Pierce: Thank you so much, Lisa. It's a pleasure to be with you.

Lisa Ryan: Share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing now with integrated information systems.

Tom Pierce: Certainly. I'll cover the mountain peaks. I took my one and only one computer course in seventh grade. That would've been about 1972. After that, I never took another course. I was self-taught and was fascinated with how computers and technology can help solve problems. It was a side interest for a very long time. Then, I went to college on an Army ROTC scholarship. On my first day of reporting for duty, they plucked me out, seeing my math major, knowing that I loved computers.

I was on an analysis team and did simulation modeling for the Army missile maintenance, ammunition, and logistics. After I left the Army, I started working for a defense contractor, developing logistics models for the Army. From there, they put me in with a defense manufacturing facility in Louisville, where I help install an MRP system.

That was over 30 years ago, and I'm still helping maintain that MRP system through all its variations and improvements. Seven years in, I quit working for the defense contractor and went out on my own Because I didn't like how my employer treated my people or clients. So I hung my shingle, and we've been in business and will have our 30th anniversary this summer. We have loved supporting everything about the manufacturing and finance piece within the defense industry and a significant client, a major defense contractor. I've been blessed to fall in with many subject matter experts that have guided my career. I was a programmer/analyst. I live on the slash. I am naturally an analyst who knows how to program, so I got bilingual that way. It is a huge opportunity to be embedded with the people who use the software I've written and some of the software I analyze and critique.

Lisa Ryan: Right off the bat, you brought up an interesting point. You left one employer because of how they treated you and your people. You don't have to go into immense detail, but what were some of the biggest mistakes they made that caused you to leave? And then how are you turning that around for your employees to create a workplace culture that keeps them?

Tom Pierce: Thank you for asking that. That's one of the most important things about what it means to be in business for me. Anecdotally, during one of the most critical demonstrations we had been developing for two years, we fried a computer getting ready to do a demonstration for a room full of 300 Army generals.

One of my newest employees came to work for me from Toys-R-US. He was brilliant but could have made a better impression. He volunteered his brand new 486. Another one of my employees drove it down for five hours so we could use it, and we could use it, but we fried his monitor.

The employer refused to reimburse him for the monitor we fried. Later on, I was denied a request to give my employees raises. I was denied permission to throw them a Christmas party; a stellar recommendation would produce a 2% raise that the bonuses were in the range of, maybe enough to buy a new suit. The words and deeds didn't match. The final straw was when it was time to renew the contract with our Navy customer. They raised their rates tremendously because they knew the Navy had become dependent on us in that area, creating a tremendous amount of stress, budget, personnel, all that kind of stress that I didn't need to deal with.

So I undercut them by 40% and won that contract away from them. As a result, I retained many critical people, and employee retention, family, and team building have been a massive part of our success.

Lisa Ryan: It sounds like they were, picking up pennies and leaping over dollars because a little bit bigger raises the price of replacing that monitor or the monitor. It's not like they even had to give 20% raises. But how much money did they lose to make employees feel valued because they didn't do these little things well? And in a market where it's so important to find people and then treat them well enough so that they stay. People need to realize that it's not all about the money. Money plays a part in it, and sometimes you've got to spend a little money to save a lot.

Tom Pierce: One of the most authentic expressions of appreciation; put your money where your mouth is. But there are undoubtedly many ways; they need to be consistent. The money, words, and behavior must match your value to the people doing the work.

Lisa Ryan: You and I were talking a before the show. Not only do you have military experience, but you talked about, but you have a pastoral ministry, then you have the application software. How have these experiences shaped your approach to solving complex problems that the manufacturing industry is dealing with?

Tom Pierce: I used to think I suffered from a dissociative identity disorder or something like that. I have a hat rack with many different hats, but in recent years, they've emerged more. I've started to see how even the seminary education, I'm only half joking when I tell people that what I learned in seminary is more applicable to business than it ever was to church ministry. The problems are not dissimilar. The difficulties of trying to get people to work together well, whether they're volunteer or paid, whether they're clients or employees - the human dynamics. I understand you have a bit of background or emotional intelligence yourself.

There's a full range of human experience, whether you are talking about a military commander leading men into battle, men and women into battle, or a manufacturing facility, trying to go cross-functional skill sets and make sure everybody's collaborating or building a small business and keeping the team together, the human dynamics of understanding the value that each person brings to the table and how to pair them up. There's even a little bit of musical background. I was also a choir director, so getting the tenors, the basses, the sopranos, the altos, the drummers, and the guitars to all come in at the right time, and it's not unison, right?

It's the harmony that you're seeking. That's been a huge part of my experience. And lo and behold, it turns out computers have the same problem. Getting computers to communicate well with each other and to feed helpful information, manufacturing is an incredibly complex endeavor. Even the most straightforward small firms get all the functions, even speaking the same language. Here's a small anecdote. While I was pastoring at one time, I was pastoring three different churches simultaneously, three different denominations. The old saying of trying to get everybody singing out of the same hymnal was a real logistical challenge for me. It's not the dark red one; it's the right one, red today.

The human and computers, that true integration of shared information, shared intelligence and shared understanding applies to humans and computers equally well.

Lisa Ryan: It gives you the background because I often don't want to make a broad statement in IT and to work with computers, but it's not a position that screams human connection. Bring that combination of realizing that using your pastoral background to connect with people. See them as human beings and acknowledge their excellent work, making them want to work harder for you.

Tom Pierce: Absolutely. There's a surprising amount of overlap between counseling and consulting. You're advising people, seeking truth, and sharing wisdom in every way possible. It's a very similar field.

Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. In your experience, what are some of the most common challenges faced by operations and supply chain managers in the manufacturing sector?

Tom Pierce: I hate to oversimplify it, but to start with, I'll use the simple word gap. There are enormous gaps that are naturally forming, like an entropy thing. People are incentivized to make their bosses happy. If you're in a stove pipe organization, your supply chain people will be focused on what the vice president of the supply chain wants. Your operations people are going to be, and if there are good relationships or good collaboration at the highest levels, you end up with an entirely cohesive organizational structure. Sometimes they lean too heavily on software to solve other problems. We can get everybody to use the same software system. That'll solve all our problems. It doesn't be because they don't understand each other's language.

They don't develop trust, and the digital insertion in communication between humans makes trust more difficult to establish. It's harder to develop a trusting relationship with somebody you know only through email, Twitter, Facebook, or whatever than it is to sit in a room, talk, and collaborate. Some of the most valuable conversations in a business happen in the parking lots and in the hallways when people are reading body language, expressing full life implications of decisions, and collaborating holistically with each other. So you've got massive gaps between finance and production.

There's even a war between what you used in the introduction, the integrated business planning. Wait a minute, is that the same thing as sales and operations planning, or one led by finance? One led by production. Oh, do we need both? And supply and operations often fight with each other. Why don't we have the parts we need? Because you needed to order them sooner. You didn't give the specs. Quality lives on its island many times, so trying to get functional people incentivized to collaborate. People don't typically get bonuses. The results show good relationships with the other functions at the team level.

Lisa Ryan: If a person listening to this realizes that their communication strategies aren't that good and they need to integrate more collaboration between departments or people, what would be an excellent way to get the conversation started?

Tom Pierce: One of the simplest things that my son, who's worked for me for 15 years, Alex, added an innovation that I undervalued first and came to appreciate later. He started putting collaboration notes in every report. So if somebody from the supply chain gets a report, they can comment on it and save it. And that same note gets replicated to anybody looking for information about that appeal in line.

And he has expanded the use of collaboration notes, which has, in turn, sparked more phone calls and more text messages. We'll be in conference room settings and workshops, not reporting the status of an issue. But seeing what somebody has written in the notes, picking up the phone, writing an email, or setting up a side meeting immediately solves the problem before it has to be reported on getting that rhythm.

Most organizations are not set up to solve problems; they're set up to report them. And if you can get the momentum moving in the other direction where the purpose of the meeting is to solve problems, then you don't have to worry about the plan of action and milestones and whether the due date was met; solve it so that genuine working relationship.

Lisa Ryan: Are these collaboration notes a part of the software? Like when you were talking, I was thinking like people using Google Docs where everybody can go in and do the same, see the same notes when people are editing it.

Tom Pierce: That's the same basic idea, but Alex incorporated that, and pretty much every report and Excel is very commonly used, even for the people that hate Excel. He figured out the technology and the techniques to embed the collaboration notes in the Excel report. So you may be reading a report, but you can go in and type in save the note. The following person who opens the report sees the note saved in a shared database, but all the reports are integrated. You know the name of the company. We integrate the information systems so that the information is shared, and it's not meant to replace human face-to-face voice sharing. It's intended to facilitate it. I see here that you made this note. Can you tell me more?

Lisa Ryan: What are some other best practices for successfully implementing ERP systems in manufacturing businesses to help them to streamline their operations and improve efficiency?

Tom Pierce: Similar answer but a completely different angle on it. I've been a part of multiple ERP implementations, one at the beginning of my career and several SAP implementations. The classic approach is, by nature, fragmented. Let's get all the supply chain people over here. Let's get all the production control people over here, all the finance people over here. And to try to speed up the process, they think what they're doing is dividing and conquering. But in any organization, some essential lynchpin kinds of people function as translators between those functional areas, and those people can't be in both meetings. So you need to add your schedules to allow the people focused on a particular functional area to talk to each other. Have somebody from procurement in there. When talking to quality people, have somebody from protection in there. When you're talking to the finance people because they, the fragmentation of large organizations is one of the biggest rings. It is a sink of efficiency, motivation, and morale. It's a communication breakdown from the GetGo to the implementation process itself. They tend to fragment people. So try to get everybody involved at the same time. It might slow your schedule, but it pays off in the long term.

There are no surprises when everybody brings out their little separate hymnals. They're talking to each other, and they're pro potentially building relationships, which leads to friendships, which leads to them not leaving the organization willingly. One of the astounding, I can't quote the exact number, but there's an astounding number of people that leave the company; I remember I was like 30%. In a typical ERP implementation, 30% of the people will leave. Wow. Because the implementation process itself is so exhausting and straining on relationships, time and budget pressure, and everything else. And the people who leave first are the people that find the next job easiest, which tend to be your best people.

Lisa Ryan: Especially in the last three years, we've seen that people are making different choices with the pandemic. If they are miserable at their job, they're like, you know what it is? Life is way too short to stay somewhere I'm miserable. So that's how we start losing, keep losing our people.

Tom Pierce: Exactly. And the work-from-home phenomenon opened that door. I can sit here at my desk, and I've got a client in Mississippi that I'll be supporting for the next three weeks. I don't have to go; I used to drive to Mississippi once every month for ten years. I don't have to drive anymore. I can do everything from here that I could do Then, which opens the door for employees. It's more of an employee's market now.

Lisa Ryan. That leads us to the role of technology evolving in the manufacturing industry. How do you see that working in automation, data analysis, and integration with legacy systems?

Tom Pierce: Absolutely. I love the way you asked that because when I first started my business and chose the name, the problem was this new thing that appeared called a pc. Everybody wanted to use their PC, Windows, and Word Perfect document to create work instructions, but their PC couldn't talk to the MRP system's mainframe. One of the first innovations we built was the communication between the PC and the mainframe. The legacy system, integrating with the new technology, was the reason I called my company what I did 30 years ago. I thought it was temporary until Windows took over; I was wrong. Getting the computers to talk to each other has an equal emphasis on the people working together.

They go hand in hand. I've been fascinated with this latest surge of interest in AI, the chat GBT and everything. I see instructions advising people how to talk to your AI here. Here's a set of prompts you can use, and it reminds me of what it's like I've got six grandchildren, and so they're all four and under. You learn how to talk to your grandchild, and your grandchild learns how to communicate with you in two different ways. Dynamic, and it's funny. My four-year-old Christopher did not speak at a very young age, but he managed to express himself and communicate with body language and to point, and the first word he used commonly when we were out for a walk was way, yeah, I want to go that way, and he would point.

We teach each other how to communicate. We've got the same problem with people when Google was new. People had to learn how to talk to Google. How do I ask my questions to get the answers I want? That will continue to happen, but it will explode if you don't know how to talk to, communicate with, and convey what you want to this automated device. I joke with people that I'll believe AI is here for good when Alexa knows I'm mad at her. And she doesn't; she annoys me sometimes and doesn't pick up on the signal that I'm annoyed. But what I'm worried about is what happens when Alexa gets mad at me. That's a different problem, but emotional intelligence will find its way into our relationship with technology. You probably need to be older to remember, but it wasn't long after the PC boom that people threw their computers out the window in sheer frustration. It was the blue screens of death from the old days. They keep changing what happens when the computer freezes. But all of us get frustrated in working with technology. Technology is great when it works. We're going to have to interact with it more and more.

We're going to have to develop the soft skills of interacting. And if you are okay with me elaborating, one more stretch on that. I used to think of it as a humorous point; I'm not treating it more seriously. I'm a huge fan of automation. I hate asking people to do tedious work that the computer can do. So you'd come up with this whole flow chart of how this process feeds that process while you're asleep, and then people started saying, wait a...

View Details

Connect with Jonathan:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanpporter/

Website: https://www.porterlogic.com/

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Jonathan Porter. Jonathan Porter, a renowned supply chain professional, is the founder and CEO of PorterLogic, the supply chain stack for ambitious brands. As a Georgia Tech alumnus, Jonathan's warehouse management and industrial engineering expertise allow him to help businesses navigate supply chain and inventory complexities and achieve their full potential. Jonathan, welcome to the show.

Jonathan Porter: Thanks so much. I'm excited to be here.

Lisa Ryan: Share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing with Porter Logic.

Jonathan Porter: Sure. I started my career at Manhattan Associates, which is probably the top w m s provider in warehouse software. I spent five or six years implementing warehouse management systems, so I got immersed in detail with supply chain and warehousing. But I just found it fascinating. Honestly, warehouses are some of the coolest things.

So many processes must come together for that box you ordered online to show up at your door. And so many people need to understand how much goes into modern e-commerce. So yeah, I saw a lot of opportunities for efficiency improvements and ways to improve things.

I started the company coming up on about three years ago. But I came from a super entrepreneurial background and knew I would always do something. Of course, I had side businesses in high school and all that. But yeah, the timing was right, and the market opportunity was there, and we are excited to be doing what you're, what we're doing.

Lisa Ryan: It is fascinating. From a consumer standpoint, I drive by some of these huge Amazon warehouses in my area and wonder. How do they find the coffee I order can be there within a couple of hours if I order within the next 31 minutes?

Jonathan Porter: Yeah. It sometimes floors me what folks like Amazon and others are doing. Yeah, you can order in the morning and get it delivered a couple of hours later, which we used to think two-day delivery was remarkable. But no, now they're, like I said, Amazon and others, but many people are pushing the bar even higher.

Lisa Ryan: It was interesting, too, of the subject, but I was in the car with an Uber driver the other day. And Amazon has an Uber-type app for their drivers for delivery. We are seeing so many changes that even a couple of years ago, we would've never in a million years thought about using people in their cars instead of our beautiful company trucks to deliver products and get them there that quickly.

Jonathan Porter: Yeah, no, it's fantastic to see, but simultaneously, it's incredible that the technology is powering much of this, right? You could only do this with a lot of the underlying technology that's powering somebody to log onto an app and receive a task to do a delivery. And it just routes them directly to where to pick it up and where to put it out.

And that all has to seamlessly integrate with the warehouse management system and your order management. And it's just this orchestration of a lot of data moving back and forth that then is powering this consumer experience that, most people I've just mentioned, like most people, don't realize what's going on.

You order something, you click to buy, and you're mad. Now if it shows up two days later, you expect one day. But yeah. And. The number of people has ended up touching that box. It must go from a warehouse to a truck, train, or ship to another warehouse.

It is a; it's amazing what's going on in the background, and in a lot of ways, we now see the pandemic has shown us just how critical the supply chain is. Everybody realized very concretely we couldn't get toilet paper; we couldn't get proteins in the grocery store. And it's now.

Very much in the limelight or very much in the foreground. The supply chain is critical, and the technology is critical.

Lisa Ryan: Oh. How do you see the role of digital transformation in advanced technologies like IoT and AI impacting the supply chain?

Jonathan Porter: Sure. I'll be the first to say that I was a naysayer on AI until ChatGPT, as much as I hate to say that I'm a technology person. I've coded most of our products, and even I was saying, oh, AI's way overhyped. So, yes, there's maybe something there, but I. We've seen it happen with several technologies in the past where people say they're going to change the world. Blockchain's a great example. And then, there are some interesting use cases around blockchain. Don't, no doubt. But it has yet to have this profound impact outside of crypto and that industry. But AI and things that are happening with generative AI are transforming the way that we do business.

A lot of, even our marketing materials, right? We're using chat g p T to at least write a draft. There's still usually a human layer that interacts, but it's just. It's enabling things to happen much quicker and much faster. And then, especially, you layer that into the supply chain. There are just so many untold efficiencies that are coming out of automating things that people previously did.

IOT's also interesting when you get into the supply chain on the transportation and warehousing sides. Things like temperature sensors have been around for a long time. Companies are now starting to make those enabled to communicate with other systems. That's interesting.

But also things like pallet tracking, so in specifically in a warehouse, having digitally enabled pallets that know where they're moving, instead of people having to go and scan a pallet off, tell the system it's in a particular rack location, or instead of a conveyor having to constantly scan goods as they go around.

You can now have connected pallets and connected chips that go onto pallets so that you know where those are at all times. A plethora of use cases have started emerging because of things like 5G that's enabling connectivity in places we didn't have before.

So it's several factors that are coming together. AI is one of the most exciting. Flashy ones come to the front, but it's taking multiple technologies all coming up simultaneously to work in concert. That's then empowering some of these new digital transformation initiatives.

Lisa Ryan: And just the speed of technology. I remember when Google started coming out, and we're like, oh my God. Ask a question, and we can find the answer. And then when one of my friends got G Ps for his car, the time and the car was talking to us, and now that, just within the last couple months with chat G P T. One of my friends was like let's ask it to write this, whatever it is. And yeah, we have the human to it, but you're no longer; you no longer have to look at a blank piece of paper. So yeah, you can have something that gives you that head start. And so the user-friendliness of technology is what's helping people to get over their fears and try things that, even a couple of years ago, we would've never, ever thought that we could do as much as we're doing.

Jonathan Porter: Yeah, it's outstanding you say that. I was reading an article recently from somebody at OpenAI. It might have been Sam Altman. They're like c e o, but somebody was talking about how they had the actual model and underlying technology for a long time, but then they had to put a lot of forethought into the user interface.

What would it look like for a person to interact with this technology? And that's part of why chatGPT has explicitly catapulted. There are a number of these AI projects going on. Several generative ai or companies are doing AI art and all kind of stuff, but that person and where the person interacts with the software and the technology is critical. And it's also part of why so many people fear AI taking over the world. And I don't think it will take over in many ways people expect because there will always need to be some human input.

That point at which humans interact may change. As a result, we may have to learn how to work with technology differently or in a different capacity. But at the same time, it will take a while for an AI to fully replace that human decision-making or input.

Lisa Ryan: What are some of the strategies that you see that manufacturers can implement to ensure seamless end-to-end visibility throughout their supply chain?

Jonathan Porter: Great question. Visibility is interesting, especially over the last few years, because visibility first meant knowing what was in your warehouse. That was step one, right? Or knowing what was in your supply chain. We saw, though, over the last couple of years what happens when there are disruptions farther upstream. And now, the conversation is about tier two and three supplier visibility. Not only just seeing what you have, but what your suppliers have, what have they, and what their demand even look like, right?

Will they be able to fulfill your demand given everything else they have going on? You see some interesting things happening with predictive. Say you have a supplier in an area of the world where an earthquake just hit, and some systems can monitor things like news outputs and start giving you predictive alerts around.

If a supplier is going offline soon, you should redirect some of your demand. And it's, it all comes back to visibility, though. And what we mean there is just pulling data into one place. It's as simple as that. So you need something that's going to pull that together.

You'll hear words like control tower specific; it's talking specifically. A control tower is often a system that will sit on top of your and other systems to pull data together. You can build control towers with tools like Power BI or Tableau; that's just a system to pull data together and do some aggregation.

So then you can see whether it's in a dashboard or something visual. Okay, here's all my inventory; here's inventory that's in other places. Here's inventory that's on the water, right? You may be pulling in container data or something to see what's on a vessel, what's at a port.

Being able to paint that whole picture is an important piece of it. You can see everything you have on order, what you have in transit, and what's shipped, but you must get to your customers. So a piece that's flourished is pulling all that data together in one place, whether a control tower or another reporting tool.

There's a part about data. Of course, we need data to figure out all this stuff, but on the other hand, it's almost overwhelming as far as what data is the right data to have and how you determine that. So what are some examples of how Porter Logic has helped manufacturers optimize their operations and data collection for inventory management?

Yeah, that's a major piece of what we do. We are a warehouse and inventory management system and a native integration layer to pull data from other systems. Specifically, we have a customer that is a retailer. And they have 12 different fulfillment partners.

So they're not doing any of their warehousing or fulfillment. They're relying on third parties three, pls. And they needed a way to pull all this data across company lines into one place. So that's where talking about tier-two supplier visibility or The challenge; it's the cross-company lines.

How do you do that exchange of data? And you had technologies like EDI, which unfortunately are still around. They're antiquated at this point. But it is being able to pull all that data from various sources. So doing things like APIs, we read APIs from a couple of different systems, but also being able to pick up emails like, I know that's crazy and simple.

It could pull an automated email or receive an email with an attachment we could process. That's something that our technology can do. And that allows us to pull in data from all kinds of sources. For that particular customer I was referencing, all of their three, please send inventory data into Porter Logic.

And then, they can log their inventory system again into Porter Logic and see all their inventory in one place. The other major component of our platform is a low-code UI builder or a user interface, a screen builder so that you can then build grids, charts, dashboards, and interactive screens to tell the system some data. It can be making decisions on that.

For this particular customer, we built them a network-wide and then a buy warehouse view. And then, they have views into their kits and their finished goods. And so once you get the data in, you can slice it in many different ways. You can interact with it. We do things like, push Slack reports to their marketing team so that their marketing team gets visibility into inventory, but they can have partial access to the system.

They need primary inventory data to run promotions and things like that. So we send preemptive alerts around low inventory, and we do threshold checks to make sure if they are running low on particular items, that maybe they have that in a different warehouse, and they didn't know that.

And so we're correlating a lot of that in the background. Then we're presenting this concept of managed by exception. Your users don't have to look at everything. It's what we're calling out; here are the five things you must focus on today. And that allows companies to repurpose a lot of the time previously spent, combining over data spent all in Excel sheets and just trying to wrangle all this together.

Now you can do value-added work. So here are my five problem areas, where I should focus, and where I should be putting my time. And yeah, it allows for all kinds of efficiency gains and just improvements in operations.

Lisa Ryan: When it comes to this, if you have a manufacturer that's been around for a long time and may need to have all the bells and whistles and technology that they need, how would they even know where to get started?

Jonathan Porter: Yeah, that's a great question. And much of the advice we give to companies we're talking about is to start small and hacky. Start in a spreadsheet. Start with something simple, quick, and dirty because you need to validate or try something new to see if that will even work.

For example, say you're a manufacturer and do you have a legacy ERP or some legacy system you know may not. Exactly optimal. But yeah, you're at that point of how you even get started, right? It's this behemoth of a project. Our advice often is to find a painful tiny sliver.

It could be the processing of your return or your food waste if you're like a food manufacturer or something. But pick one very painful but contained section to dive into and then try things in ways that might not scale. That's one of the things that you learn as a startup.

But more prominent companies and more established companies can take advantage of is do some things that aren't going to scale Initially. Experiment and try some things and do it in Excel, do it in Slack, do it in just basic systems. And from there, if you find something that works okay, it's time to automate it and find a system.

But initially, many companies spin their wheels by saying, okay, we know returns are a problem, so we need to find a returns management system. And they spend months pouring through every RMS out there and trialing and proof of concept. Then, when their problem may be something completely different, that's manifesting itself in return.

But they'd done a lot of experimenting and trying. In that case, they might have identified that the problem was they needed a system that they needed a customer experience system to manage the customer side of it, less the warehousing side of it. In any case, just an example of where you can click in on one area, do a lot of trialing and experimenting to find out what the actual root cause is, and end up saving probably a lot of time than just trying to layer on and integrate some other system that you don't know if that's solving your actual problem.

Lisa Ryan: Wow. How would you recommend that manufacturers approach demand forecasting and capacity planning so that they could manage some of those fluctuations in production?

Jonathan Porter: Sure. Yeah. Demand planning is an exciting topic because, historically, the vast majority of demand planning and forecasting was based on sales and previous sales data, right? So we would look at the last couple of years, and we would run an average or a median, and you would add some growth multiple, but that was heavily predicated on what your sales were over the last couple of years.

That doesn't work right now because of Covid, and the pandemic demand has been everywhere. And supply chain disruptions have caused demand patterns that don't accurately reflect consumer demand. So your sales data may be low, but that might be because you were out of inventory for six months.

And you can only rely on a few historical models to do accurate demand forecasting. So the gist is you have to figure out a way to. Accurately figure out what that true consumer demand is. And so one of the tips that I give people is to look at competitors. For example, say you're trying to launch a new blue T-shirt and want to figure out how much or how much you should order now, given that you're calling six months later.

That's another piece you constantly have to factor in lead time. You always have a factor in manufacturing time. So from that point, look at a competitor also selling a similar blue shirt and extrapolate how much they are selling. How much and what is their demand for it to give you some of the true consumer demand right now?

There's another try. Things you can try throwing up a fake product on your website like that also sounds crazy, but if you want to sell a new blue shirt, Go ahead and put it on your website and see what kind of demand you get in. You can always cut it off after a hundred orders.

But see what time it takes you to get a hundred orders of this new product, and that can help you gain what the genuine demand is right now because that is what you should be planning on. So I advise companies that if you're still trying to use historic sales, some industries could have been more effective that would still work. But, still, most industries have been through some upheaval throughout the last couple of years, which makes your sales data less accurate right now.

So yeah, get creative, but look for that true consumer demand number, and that's what you should be planning and forecasting around.

Lisa Ryan: But it's something that just when you were talking about that, it just reminds me of in my industry speaking in the training of how many times we develop this fantastic training program and finds people don't necessarily see it as fantastic we do. And so just coming up with an I, I've come up with a title and a paragraph about something, and then it's, oh yeah, people are buying this. Okay, I should create it now. So it's the same type of mentality that until...

View Details

Connect with Arno Ham:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnoham/

Website: https://www.sana-commerce.com/

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network Podcast. Our guest today is Arno Ham. Arno is the Chief Product Officer of Sana Commerce. Sana helps manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers succeed by fostering lasting relationships with customers who depend on them and making their SAP or Microsoft Dynamics ERP and eCommerce work as one. He studied computer science and has been a driven eCommerce manager for years for big (retail) accounts such as Heineken, AkzoNobel, and Michelin. In his free time, Arno enjoys maintaining the webshop for the band and music society he plays in. So Arno, welcome to the show.

Arno Ham: thank you. Thank you, Lisa, for having me. I'm excited.

Lisa Ryan: So, share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing.

Arno Ham: Everything is with technology. I am a nerd. I started computer science. I started working here at a company that was an agency digital agency. We built many web store websites back then, mainly for these big weak retailers. But at some point, we came across businesses with other needs. B2B companies - and it was already more than 10, 15 years ago.

By helping them, we realized how we could help B2B companies, manufacturing companies, or wholesalers to do business online. , you need to do something differently. We can talk more about it later today. But the funny thing is that was the moment when Sana was born because we said, Hey, guess what? You talked in the intro about the long-lasting relationships that our customers want with their customers. In B2B, that's important. If you do, if you're shopping online as a consumer, you may buy something that you wear at the lowest price or where you can get the quickest shipment.

But in B2B, if you need to have supplies every day or multiple times a day. It needs to be good, and you have trustworthy partners, et cetera. And to make that happen, to transform that, to put that from, let's say, all those business processes before, let's say, non-digital with or by phone or by fax or by email to make the digital.

A lot of complexity is involved, and Sana was born. We were making that complexity easy by making ERP and e-commerce work as one because in that ERP, these systems that these companies are driving on, I would say where all your customers are, your order details, your transactions, your inventory, all that logic around it that makes you unique.

You need to open that up to the world to ensure you can automate things. We are key players here in what we also call a digital transformation. We have around 1500 customers worldwide running SAP or Microsoft Dynamics as their ERP. We are helping them create a B2B eCommerce environment with which they can serve their customers.

With B2B, it's just the beginning. Not all companies are doing digital commerce yet. They're starting with it. We are right on that wave. That was the shortest version I could give you, Lisa, but we could take it from here.

Lisa Ryan: And when you talk about, back in the day, you had more of that personal connection, talking to people on the phone and maybe seeing them in person. Now we're bringing in that whole element of technology and digitalization. How do you continue to work with your customers and keep that personal presence when everything is so technology-based, so you're not just another button on a keyboard?

Arno Ham: I love that question. There is a lot of complexity involved in making that relationship, let's say, more or less the same. But to give you a couple of examples or share a couple of customer stories, The important thing is that if you are a B2B buyer, as we call it, somebody needs to purchase something to do their job.

So let's say you are a gardener or a contractor and need to work at some house; you require equipment, building materials, etc. You could call or go to a store and get your supplies. And you get that personal touch that you say, Hey, you had this pricing. We have agreements about that. You are a customer that is here every week. So, we have these agreements. But if you go online, you want to have that same experience. You want to give discounts, for example, or trade agreements. And you need to bring that online.

And that is that example of the complexity we are solving, but it's so important. It sounds so stupid or simple that you must solve these things, but making that happen in your world is complex. And that's what we are solving. So that's one.

It's about real-time pricing, inventory, product information, and selection. So all these things you need to have transparency and with whatever channel your B2B buyer is, reaching you as a company, as a manufacturing company, if it is over the phone or via the web store or another, or in the store itself, you want to have that same price, the same inventory levels, and the same product description.

Because otherwise, you get an issue. You gain if the price is different online than in the store, then you harm the relationship, and you say, Hey, what's going on here? If I want to place an online order, the price is different. It's not what we agreed upon, harming the relationship.

So that's why we are all targeting that or not a relationship. It should be as convenient as if somebody's talking about it. But you need to translate that whole relationship into a digital world. And we are solving many of these complex things and making them simple.

And that's just one aspect of it. But we can also talk about, let's say, all the problems that manufacturing companies are struggling with. Still, I think this is where we see companies succeed in adopting their digital platform in this area, making sure that you supply total custom convenience as we say it. The features are that you can place these complex orders every moment of the day, 24/7 per day, seven days a week and that you have reliability without any compromise, which means it's real-time. The inventory is accurate. So, if you, that's not that you, if you're ordering something and then the salesperson or support person is calling you and saying, no, sorry, you just placed the order. But we have yet to get it in stock. That's, that is a pain, of course. So we are solving that and that you can. If you are also placing an order that the company is directly processing, it's a whole process to bring it online. So we are helping our customers with that. And it's a complex thing. But if you have done that, there are a lot of benefits for you as a manufacturing organization.

Lisa Ryan: Timing is such a crucial aspect of it because we expect that immediate gratification when we want to find something and get it online. And often, the person who receives the order is the first to respond to the request for a quote. Yes. The first one they reach is that they can do it quickly, as you said. To see what's in stock to get the correct pricing and place the order versus waiting for a couple of days or even a couple of hours for the sales rep to call him back and then go through the quote process, and it's lengthy all that stuff. Digitization has sped that up and it's an expectation now.

Arno Ham: Correct. Especially on the newer generations. They are used to living on their phones, to do everything from there. So if you are not opening that channel for them, you will have a missed opportunity, or you will, in the end, you will miss business, and the competition will take it for sure.

Lisa Ryan: We talk about some of the good things that are going on, and then, of course, in manufacturing, there are all kinds of issues. In inventory management and supply chain, we saw a lot of disruption issues because of the pandemic. And then the war in Ukraine. What's your take on this, and what's the role of digital and e-commerce in inventory management?

Arno Ham: Yeah, so for inventory management, all the things you just mentioned, it has been a couple of hectic years. And we are still in these in this period where we have a lot of manufacturing companies in our customer base. And when talking to them, they all struggle with the same kind of issues that they say. So we do not know at some point in time if we had something in stock or when we will get it back in, or that we get our inventory levels where we want to have it, or if the price of a product was differentiating all the time because the production cost the raw materials, the pricing for that was changing a lot because of the situation we had in the world.

And what is so essential if you have these kinds of changes or need to adapt your business has. So, for example, if something is unavailable in stock because you cannot produce it, or is there something else? There is just a high month; they must ensure how to deal with it.

Are you going to prioritize it for a specific customer group? Are you saying, hey, these customers need it more than others, or are you showing the real-time values and informing your customers to give that transparency, saying, Hey, sorry, it is not available, but it will be there in a month or so? So all that information exchange and transparency contribute to keeping these relationships in good shape.

Because if you need to do that over the phone, you will be burning in on calls, and so on. But on the other end, if you do not have accurate numbers, you also will, once again, people will start ordering, and they will get issues because you cannot deliver. After all, you have problems with the production lines or something like that. So we have a lot of companies that have struggled with that and with the help of commerce. By giving transparency and intelligence in the platform, you can say, okay, this is not available anymore. Still, we have an alternative product that can help solve your problem.

These are all things that we are helping. That's helping a lot of manufacturing through these challenging times. By doing so, they can reduce costs on one hand. They can keep the relationships, on the other hand. Some of them even become much better out of this situation because they took the opportunity to do it correctly.

Lisa Ryan: That brings up a good point regarding the relationships because if there is a limited number of items. You have to prioritize which customers get those items, it's probably going to be the customers you like the most and you have the best relationships with versus those that come in and out.

So it's a good reminder that people are on both sides of the equation. Keeping those relationships strong gives us a better chance of getting the needed products.

Arno Ham: Correct. And that's what we have. We are solving that problem with technology, but it's mainly about the people in their sense, and technology supports that. But its effects on these companies, both the B2B buyer side and the manufacturing companies we support, are amazing. Another pain or another interesting sample, Lisa, is, for example, the complexity manufacturers face in going online.

You already mentioned the lengthy quotation processes. That is something we also see; there's a lot of back and forth, generally over the phone or via email. But you can solve it in a digital way or in a platform that you can with the product selection process that you guide the customer what they need with information or with small wizards or product selection mechanisms.

We also sometimes call that configured price quote. So that is all something we are doing, and it is, especially with manufacturing in the B2B space; sometimes, it can be highly complex. For example, ordering a new television or a piece of clothing is super easy in terms of complexity. But if you're purchasing a new truck or machine worth a couple hundred thousand dollars, you can imagine that it needs to be more easily transferred to a digital space to come to that selection process. So we have all kinds of partners we work together with to make that magic happen that you can say, okay, nicely configure a machine, or what spare parts do you need, et cetera, to bring that selection process or that lengthy quota process digital and that the B2B buyer can do that in their own time and their convenience and much faster than when to wait to on interaction from sales support. But still, the sales supporter, the people, was an important factor because they can step in when it's necessary when they can add that added value.

Lisa Ryan: And you're looking at people that may hesitate to go digital because of the complexity of the product that they have, that a hundred thousand dollars truck or piece of equipment or machine. So, when it comes to the efficiency of it, how do you balance that?

What would you suggest when somebody's. At that precipice that they don't know, is this something that I should keep doing the old way, or do I pay a small price for higher, a lot higher efficiency down the line? Where does that decision come into for them to decide?

Arno Ham: Yeah. That is one of the most complex struggles or the questions they are asking us a lot or that they are struggling with themselves. Most of the time, we can have investments in B2B e-commerce can be severe to solve the complexity, and so on.

So, will you get a return on investment at the end of the light? Looking at the 1500 customers that we have, many of them succeed and can reduce so many costs by chasing a better opportunity by automating or digitizing things.

Let me give you an example. We had a European company that was a supplier of cleaning equipment, chemicals, and so on in the B2B space - for hotels, restaurants, etc. You need to keep these things clean, and before, they didn't have any digital channels, so they had salespeople on the road every week, every month, just taking in these orders.

On the one hand, that was quite time-consuming because these people were driving around all those hotels checking, okay, how much do we need from this? How much do we need from that? And it needed to be automated or digitized. But, on the other hand, when Corona hit Europe, they could not physically visit these locations anymore, so they needed to do it differently. So what they did was they started with Sana, they digitized everything, and salespeople were not driving in cars anymore to all those hotels every weekday to get the orders.

No, they were just online to say, Hey, place these repeatable orders or these orders on a day-to-day basis in the digital platform via the mobile app. And when I'm coming by, I will talk about more strategic topics of explaining new product times, really spending the time of you enhancing that relationship. And guess what? These salespeople now also have more time because they were not. So they could have this meaningful conversation by taking all these repetitive tasks they were not spending time on. They could also explore new markets or businesses because they have more time, and that's how you can expand your business.

Lisa Ryan: I've heard that a lot because the pandemic taught us that a salesperson can call on smaller customers. Some accounts could be seen by salespeople who wouldn't jump on a plane and go to some tiny machine shop or something because it wasn't worth their time. But now being able to digitize that, being able to do it online, Not only does that give you access to customers that you may not have ever paid any attention to before, but as you said, now there's more of a strategic opportunity to work with the customers and personalize the attention and build stronger relationships by digitizing.

Arno Ham: There is always a way, Lisa. This is about saving costs or chasing an opportunity by getting the boring stuff out of the way so the salesforce can do more valuable work there. But another attractive area is where we see a lot of success with struggling manufacturing companies, saying, Hey, how do we start, or the investment is considerable.

There is always a way to start in a specific area. For example, if the machines are still lengthy, complex, and very hard to digitize, you can start with the after-sales or spare parts. That can also be a big part of your business, and you can have the opportunity there to digitize it.

We have many manufacturing companies that are just focusing on, in the first years or in the first phases on that area, so that they say, Hey, this whole machine selling that is still, let's say, more or less a human process. All the after-sales and the spare parts that are fully digitized and the same values about the relationship are still there because the nature of our solution is that sense or the importance there is that all that information on what machines you have as a customer. You want to know that information to order the correct spare parts. You're not looking around for hours to ensure you have the right tools because you want to fix your machines quickly.

That is what we solve with our solution. This integration we have with systems like SAP or Microsoft Dynamics is because all the logic is most of the time, and the data is already there. We are just bringing that to the surveys and helping the B2B buyers have this convenient place where you can, with a couple of clicks, say, Hey, these are my machines. I know this machine is broken. I need a new wheel. I have to correct one order and have it delivered as soon as possible to fix it.

Lisa Ryan: So, when discussing manufacturers wanting to start the process and sell their spare parts online, where would you suggest they start? What are some of the things that they need to look at? Do you have any examples of a situation that began with spare parts that led to that same company's ability to do much more digitization by starting small and getting those results?

Arno Ham: Exactly. So have for most of the manufacturing start indeed with spare parts. Another customer is Diversity, a prominent supplier of cleaning equipment, chemicals for hospitals, tools, et cetera, et cetera. It's a huge company; they do a couple of billion a year. Also, in the US and where there, we started with all these consumables, not only spare parts but also the chemicals to use in the machines because they're selling these cleaning machines and so on.

That is step one. And later on, it went from region to region. They started first with one a couple of countries in Europe. And they have gone to another store, into another store. And now we are also talking about, hey, now we have all these consumable products for many different regions. What if you also digitize the machines' sales process, for example? We have C P Q tooling that you can do that's a selection process also for more complicated stuff like a machine, and you have all those questions and selections you need to do. And that is the next step to take another example I have, which is interesting for you to share. We had a company called Pinger, a global player in the world that is doing. It's a supplier of lifting equipment. Every truck needs a lift most of the time or a crane. Nine out of ten times, it's from Pinger. It's an Austrian company, but it's a world player there.

And we are also starting here with spare parts. So as such a...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan, and welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, John Abplanalp. John is the president and founder of Tight Lines Advisors consultancy, which focuses on optimizing manufacturing performance. So John, welcome to the show,

John Abplanalp: Lisa. Thank you very much. I'm delighted to be here.

Lisa Ryan: Please share a little about your background and what led you to focus on manufacturing with tight lines.

John Abplanalp: I will try to give you the quickest version possible. I was involved with a family business, a precision valve corporation. My father invented the aerosol valve. I'm looking at the patent copy in front of me right now.

He received the patent on March 17th, 1949. He is Swiss, but St. Patrick's Day was a celebration for my father that afternoon. He started their business. We ended up with 22 locations worldwide, serving most of the major customers, the SE Johnsons, the Unilevers, the record, Ben Keer, the who's who of, who's in the consumer packaging goods.

A lot of the products they had were in aerosol form. He passed away 20 years ago at the end of August 2003. If I drop some numbers, we made about 250 million in sales. We get some family dynamics - a sister and brother-in-law that didn't necessarily buy into what we were doing, where we were going, confidence about myself, et cetera. It's not a complaint about it. Everybody has a right to, so we made the deal of evaluation and allocation assets, et cetera, and got that behind us in 2006 and continued.

In 2008 we went from 250 to the end of our fiscal year 2008. We got to 343 million, and I'm proud of myself and the team for what we were able to do. That was the fiscal year of May 31st, 2008. You may remember a little turbulence in 2008, 2009. We went from 343 million in sales leverage from 343 to 290 million. It nearly killed us. From that, we brought the guys in to do the restructuring. We brought partners in the private equity world, and through you, watch it. I understand it. It's receivables. It's payables. It's inventories. It's what are we going to cut? What are we going to cut? What are we going to cut? As we went through it, we were two or three years into this process and had an opportunity to visit our South Carolina plant.

Customer service was an issue, so we raised inventories, and cash was the issue. So we're driving inventories down again. The organization was just getting pulled back and forth again. I fully realized I was tapped into the ship at the time that created the change. But I had the opportunity to go down to our plant in South Carolina. It was a great group of people and still is. What we decided to do was focus on productivity. We started looking at the obstacles of productivity, material losses, health, and safety issues, downtime, and quality issues. We did it in various part series. We did it in a parade and went after the biggest issues first.

We found that we made some mold changes without putting capital or throwing real capital investment into it. We did some, while leadership at the time was talking about we didn't have enough capacity. We had to spend $440,000 for a mold in a machine that was $20,000. We were getting the changes in a mold that we made. A mold that was 30 or 40 years old, and my father was getting about 50% output out of it.

It took us eight hours to set up. Within 30 seconds, the mold was running at a hundred percent capacity. It was a phenomenal turnaround. We said that if we continued the path we were going, and what we could do, get all these changes, and the next ones on our list would reduce the cost of goods by 10 to 12% in one year alone with a lot more work to do.

That would allow us to get more output in fewer hours. So you'd reduce your amount of labor hours. The other part was that productivity was greater, your lead time was reduced, and your on-time delivery was more consistent.

Also, we were going after qualitative problems, and as a manufacturer, if something happens internally, it will eventually get. But we were able to reduce the number of qualitative issues that we had internally, and therefore the external failure rate dropped. So, our competitive position was enhanced along with greater profitability. At the time, if we were going back in and looking to sell, which I understand was part of the deal when we brought in our rescuers in the private equity world.

But now we had a real chance to show to whoever was coming on. So here's your path out. Here's how you can drive profitability. If the gross margin improves, gross margin improvement, especially when you get a competitive position, is the greatest thing you can do to drive value in a company that drops right to the EBITA.

You show it's consistent, the multiple improvements, the valuation takes off exponentially. So we continued down that path. The company eventually ended. Being sold, whether the ideas were adopted or not. I honestly don't know. Part of the reason we couldn't share those in the selling process.

It was reflective, look, reflective on current management, but that's someone else's issue. But we sat there and said, Hey, this is viable. This is a hundred percent viable, and it's a real passion because the coolest part of the whole thing was not necessarily the dollar. But we had them when you watch people on the floor that were finally a part of this. We had the machine maintenance guys.

We had the machine, the operators. We had the assembly mechanics. We had the assembly operators all have a partner say in it. Because they're the ones working around the problems and the issues daily. We gave them our support. You had guys high-fiving each other on the floor.

When you started seeing the turnaround, there was one woman that was in charge of an assembly machine, and this one machine, we had to run Three shifts, seven days a week, and import goods from one of our sister companies to meet our demand in the two months. So by the time we were done, it was down to running two shifts a day, four days a week, and she wouldn't let anyone else near her machine.

And it started when we first started doing that work. She came in with a bag of rejects, put it on the table before me, and said, we need a new machine. I said trust us. Let's go down this process for two months; I'll be completely behind you if we do. By the time she was done, there was no way you were getting rid of her machine.

And to watch that turnaround, and to see the involvement, and the enthusiasm of the people, and don't get me wrong, everybody wants to make a. But, to watch what these people achieved with the appropriate guidance, I still need to come up with the solutions. They weren't my ideas.

These were solutions running around our floors and machines for 30 years. So was, it is fantastic to do it, and that's the genesis of tight lines. The best way I could tell you is driving this profitability and value for a company with an organization that's upside down to the traditional triangle.

My job is to support everybody else down there so they can be most effective as they can, and the last thing, and I swear I'll shut up and let you ask a question with it, but the last part of that is part of, the, one of the tenants of what the tight lines advisor says. So as we go through this process, we get that gain in the competitive position, the revenue line, and, most specifically, the cost of goods, which drives valuation.

You take that gain in the cost of goods every year that the organization has been supportive of. Then, put it on the new valuation, a company, and give that value back to the employees appropriate on the appropriate percentages in either real or synthetic equity. Because yes, they will be working fewer hours, but you give them back because you can only achieve this with their input.

So that's that, that's where the dynamic is. So now you've got partners with you that are all focused on the same aspect of what you're doing, getting the obstacles of productivity out of the way.

Lisa Ryan: So that's such an important lesson right off the bat when owners and leaders of companies consider their hourly employees Because they know their job better than you know their job.

And when they feel that they are a part of the greater mission, that they're able to make a difference, they are willing to give you so much more, and as you said, you also realize that there's an expectation of a return. So if employees are helping you to be more profitable, of course, they share in the profits, but when things don't turn, you know when things aren't going well.

At least the employees know. So there's that level of transparency and accountability. You built in that feeling of ownership with your people, who were the lowest in the organization and the most important.

John Abplanalp: How well did that come home to us during the pandemic? In the manufacturing op, it was guys. They came there every day when everyone else could afford to work from home in manufacturing. We saw it with the police officers, the supermarket guys, and the rest. They were the ones, they were the, right there facing the operations.

This was this idea, and these concepts were formed before that. But okay. Someone said okay, I wouldn't have a hundred percent of the value. Yep. You won't get anywhere near the value, increase, or continual increase if you don't have their ideas. As you said, they're closest to what's going on.

They're the ones that are dealing with the decisions the guys in the corner make on equipment. They have. Our brilliant ideas, and I'm not disparaging the guys in the corner office, don't get me wrong about that. But there are so many different things that are going on plants, and it's, a lot of it is legacy stuff that, that they were given either poor design, et cetera, that we made them run.

Lisa Ryan: And it, when it looks like it, you had your first downturn, of course, in 2008, and now we're facing some different challenges when it comes to the economic headwinds that currently exist. So what are you seeing regarding some of the biggest roadblocks to productivity and growth that manufacturers face today? And how would you recommend they overcome them?

John Abplanalp: My biggest issue is the pervasiveness of the success of the private equity world. That is not so much, and I don't want to paint them all with that same brush. You're familiar. You see how private equity works. They come back in cost, ripped out, et cetera.

Decisions are made in a corner office, the same thing we're discussing on the floor. So you've got companies like Nusteel or Danaher even, productivity-based, et cetera., and they perform well. But my, my, my biggest headwind is not even so much it's an operation.

It's the operating philosophy. There's a line. If I can say it this way, go back to you. You probably needed to be older to remember a gentleman named William E. Simon. Bill Simon was a treasury secretary under Gerald Ford and the energy secretary under Richard Nixon. But as treasury Secretary, ironically, he also made his fortune as the LBO of a company called Gibson Greeting Cards, which was the progenitor of the whole private equity world.

But his view, and his quote, which I think is phenomenal, and I wish I had under, I had known it while I was still operating before, before tight lines in his as a country, he was speaking of the United States, the productivity, and the growth of productivity should be the first to economic considerations at all times.

It is through those two things innovation, jobs, and wealth. If you can bear with me as I describe it this way, I'm using my two fingers. But if you can get more and more consistent output for fewer units of input. That's your gross margin line. So in between those two, that spread gets better.

That's what drops to the bottom line. That's where the company's value has been created over the last 20 years. But unfortunately, it's one of the things I only have my subscription to the Wall Street Journal for this quarterly productivity report.

Covid Aside, you can see over the last 17 or 18 years that while productivity is improving, the rate of productivity improvement is in decline. And to me, that is because what has happened was everybody started chasing As they got more competitive, they started losing productivity. China opened up, and Mexico opened up.

Everybody was chasing cheap labor and not going after the productivity side of it. I'll say this. It could sound sarcastic or sincere, but when the previous glorious leader was down in Washington, the one that was just recently in New York yesterday. He put the tariffs in to support manufacturing in the United States.

I'm not a big tariff guy. I am a, yes. I understand it would help the US manufacturers think it's artificial at some point. Cause you know it, it puts the barrier on the incident, which allows people not in the productivity to razor priThek the biggest hit in the face was when we had the supply chain issues, and we started realizing our dependence on.

There's no cost to import from Mexico, China, or these other locations. There's the manufacturing there. There's a freight. Some logistics have to be baked into it. But I think in the US manufacturers, as they come back in, and onshore if they're coming from a lower labor rate area to a higher labor rate area, where we are right now, a lot of guys are resistant to doing that because it's going to reflect poorly on their financials.

The only way out is through productivity. If I might add, the other aspect is that I guess the most significant headwind is changing our thinking even more than economic aspects Going on. The other thing that was going on, that was after World War II, had three advantages. One was we had a growing population.

We had a population that was getting older, so you know, what we were buying was, increasing. We had more people coming in, but we also dramatically improved our productivity rates. So we are getting older, but it's almost running at a decline right now. Population wise. We're certainly not adding to the population.

The only way we're out of we can get out of this thing now is productivity. One last part is to think of the huge amount of debt that the US has right now because of what was necessary in most cases in CO through Covid, and all the rest of us through Covid, and all the rest, not the covid. So the only way we get out of this is to become a net exporter.

Nobody will buy from us just because we're the United States. We have to compete on price service. You know, the innovation side of the only way we can do that. Remember, we started before you went after productivity, lead times reduced on-time deliveries, and more competitive external quality. Is there a reduction or improvement in your gross margin line?

Therefore, you can reduce your pricing. We have to. The only way we can do that is to be competitive in what we're doing. We can only do that through productivity, innovation, and the innovation that'll give us.

Lisa Ryan: When you look at some of these things, you're talking about tariffs, and China, and supply chain, and the national debt, and some of those, sometimes it just feels so overwhelming as we think as an individual manufacturer or organization that's not something that we have any control.

So when you're looking at the things that you know manufacturers themselves can control, that over time will benefit that big picture. But what does it take for an organization to do in its culture to generate that productivity at all levels of the organization?

John Abplanalp: First, you have to go in e even before collecting the data. As we discussed before, the people in New York have to go in with an intrinsic belief in the human spirit. You have to figure out there are some dirtbags out in this world. We all know, but you have to believe that most people coming in to try to provide an income for themselves and their family is there for the right reasons.

And they want to be part of something even bigger than themselves, that they feel good about it. So if you've got that, then we use the system called the DMA system. I'm not, the guy Nick Demus now passed away in South Carolina, but it was a great way to keep track of it.

I recommend it for anyone to keep track of all the negatives. I like looking at the negatives because the positives to me, what your output was only the positive output result in any daily production or what was there was only because of the absence of the negatives if I can. So the more you can measure these negatives, and go after it, and organize your people, and in such a way to go after the biggest issues first.

And it was non-financial. It was the number of pieces lost, in that series, the number of pounds, lost amount, it all translated to. By the way, we're patenting this tight line system the way it all rolls back into it. You can come back and take how it affects the financials, but that's what I would do.

Believe in your people. Start organizing a data collection so you can go back in and start looking at what the negatives are, again, health, and safety issues, material losses, downtime, and qualitative issues, and then start organizing your key or best employees that you think could help out to begin with, and start working on the buy-in.

Lisa Ryan: It comes down to company culture and what you do to connect those employees with the mission. One of the techniques you stress as crucial for creating sustainable value is your inside-out approach. So talk about that. How does it work, and what are some of the benefits that result from it?

John Abplanalp: We've talked a lot about that and what we're doing. It's the guys on the floor. It's getting the data from the inner side of it, being able to put it we have yet to use. Terms like lean or six, whatever the appropriate methodologies are, you want to go back in and organize the people so they can do it.

But you know what we're doing is collecting the internal and external data that is there, bringing that back into the organization, letting them have it, and having it reflect both internally, financially, and externally on the., and your competitive position. One of the things you mentioned sustainable growth.

Sustainability is different. We hear a lot about the pros and cons of ESG - environmental, social, and governance. But you've listened to what we're talking about now. Are you in an environment where we can get more and more consistent output for fewer units of input material?

That works for the ESG. The social aspect is now we're bringing our employees in. Not only by the way, not only are we compensating them on this side of it, but the other thing that we're doing is

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Brian DeBois. Bryan is the Director of Industrial AI at RoviSys, a leading global system integrator for manufacturing and industrial clients. With 20+ years of expertise in manufacturing software and Level 3 information solutions, Bryan excels in implementing AI, data infrastructure, and advanced analytics to boost productivity in the sector. So Brian, welcome to the show.

Brian DeBois: Thanks, Lisa.

Lisa Ryan: Please share your background and what led you to do what you're doing at RoviSys.

Brian DeBois: I started at RoviSys right out of college, so, for 23 years at RoviSys, which you don't see a lot nowadays, folks sticking around for that kind of longevity.

I've worn a lot of different hats at RoviSys. First, I started programming software for manufacturers. RoviSys' focus is entirely on manufacturing and industrial customers. So I started out writing software. We wrote things like manufacturing execution systems or MES. We didn't call it that because it still needed to be named.

But what we were effectively was building custom MES for customers. We did many different things and worked a lot with historians, which I'm sure we'll talk about today. And then, 2019 RoviSys had our 30th anniversary in 2019. The conversation was, what should we be doing next?

What should we be looking at next? And the decision was made to create a new division, an industrial AI division. I was appointed the director of it. And the message was, we know we should be doing this. Figure it out. Figure out what's state of the art. What kind of a team do you need to make this successful? Then find customers, talk to customers, and make it a reality.

And I've been doing that for almost four years and having a great time doing it.

Lisa Ryan: Wow. This was an excellent time for this conversation because we can only look at something online, on the radio, or on television with somebody talking about AI and how the technology is exploding. What do you think are some of the most significant challenges as well as opportunities for manufacturers in this AI space?

Brian DeBois: Yeah, one of the things we see with early adopters of AI and manufacturing is those big productivity boosts they're looking for. We're seeing the one, 2%, double-digit percent improvements in throughput, reduction, and scrap. In specific processes, that's multimillion dollars right there. These are often 20 or 30 years old processes already pretty optimized. The opportunities are that AI will give you those stepwise improvements that we're looking for in some of the existing equipment.

We've squeezed all the productivity out of some of these existing lines, so now we can leverage AI to give that big boost. The challenges are not really that different. I've spent my whole career doing these technology projects with manufacturers, so the challenges are similar. One is organizational change management, which you'll hear me discuss today. Ensure you've got buy-in from the top down to the operators on the line, ensuring those operators have a seat at the table right from the beginning with these projects.

The typical issues you have with companies who get excited about technology, and I love that I don't want to go into these meetings and just put a bucket of cold water on their dreams around technology. But I always try to bring the conversation back to use cases.

These types of projects are only successful if you start with use cases. So first, you need to consider the ROI and the benefits the technology can bring. Then we'll start applying the technology to it. But if you go into technology first and say, here's this Whizzbang technology, where can we fit it in, or where can we plug it in? That's typically different from where you'll find a lot of success.

Lisa Ryan: So, give us an example of how to get started. How would a manufacturer discover that first process or decide that they are bringing the process first and then looking for ways to use the technology versus like you said, the technology first?

Brian DeBois: How do you get to those use cases? And it's a question I get a lot from customers. They'll even say, okay, we want to do digital transformation, or I'll get a call from a director of the transformation, digital transformation, or VP of Industrial 4.0. They're like, where do we even start? So typically, the place that we start with them is to sit down and do a workshop with them. Typically, it's about a half-day workshop. The workshop aims to generate use cases because we believe so strongly that these projects must start with use cases first.

So by the end of that, we've generated, and it's not us generating it. We try to get in that meeting across the section of operations and engineering and maintenance and quality and management. We work with them to generate these use cases. Part of that is identifying whether these are low-hanging fruit. Are they high-impact and low-cost? Those are typically the types of use cases you want to start with. And now, we can generate 30, 40, and 50 use cases from that workshop. And so, the question becomes, where do you want to start?

Then, we typically do an assessment that will put some meat on the bone. The use case at this point is a couple of sentences. So, we picked one or two of those. We're going to do an assessment that's going to put the meat on the bone. We're going to go in, and we're going to talk to all the people that the use case would impact.

We will examine their available data to make that use case a reality. Then we will give them an estimate of what a project like that would cost. And now you've got an actual executable project. You can put it in your budget for a given fiscal year.

And now we can start. But starting small, building ROI, let that snowball into the next project. In the next project, walk before you run. It's unique in our industry because what we hear instead is you have the big IT consulting companies who come in, and they say, give us 20 million, and we'll solve all your problems, or we'll give you digital transformation.

It doesn't work. We've gone into many of those customers where they've spent a couple of years on a couple of million dollars and only have a little to show for it. And this is a much more bottom-up approach. It is a much more practical approach to get to the digital transformation future they're trying to get to.

Lisa Ryan: I like the bottom-up approach because if you walk in, there are so many people working in manufacturing, your hourly employees that are terrified of this type of transformation because it's immediately going to lead to them losing their jobs, is what they're thinking, so, getting their ideas, their processes, and doing the slow, "okay. Let's show you how this works. Now we can move to the next one." But when you're starting to have those conversations with employees who will be impacted somehow, how do you build the trust? How do you get them involved in the discussion?

Brian DeBois: Being the director of industrial ai, one of the most common questions I get is, are you putting people out of work?

And the reality of it is that I've been at this now for over 20 years. This is the first time I've seen one of our projects lead to a labor reduction. Lisa, these companies need more people to work. They're desperate for people. The last thing they will do is lay people off because of a technology project.

They're going to reallocate those people to higher-value tasks. And honestly, those folks don't want to be doing this. I talk to people all the time who spend four or eight hours a week building Excel reports, and that's different from their job. They don't want to be doing that. That's not fulfilling work by any stretch of the imagination.

So if we can automate that and I can pull that data from some of those systems, I can automatically generate some of those reports that free up four to eight hours a week for that person to do higher value tasks. And that's how these always go. So you do have to build some trust.

But one of the things we're going to talk about is some of the more advanced AI that we're doing. Part of it is that you must extract some of the skills and strategies from your best 10- and 15-year operators and engineers. You must extract those strategies from them; they're excited to discuss this.

Let's say you've got Bill, and he's a 15-year operator and has spent his 15 years being able to run that line. He's as good as anyone, the better, the best in the business, and he can run that line as well as possible. So who's he going to talk to about that? He's, if he goes to the bar after a shift, his buddies don't want to hear anything about it. If he goes home, I can guarantee his wife doesn't want to hear anything more about how he will squeeze in a little more productivity. But I sit down with him with humility, right?

And I sit down with Bill and tell me everything about how you got so good at running this line, and he's excited to talk to me about that. He's thrilled. Getting people to buy into this is more accessible than people think. And to get excited. I've also had situations where folks were close to retirement.

This happened with a pipeline customer, and they were the best production scheduler that the pipeline had. And we were going to build an AI system to try to build production schedules, and this person. And they saw this as their legacy like this was a way for them to pass on their work.

This is what they've spent their whole life getting good at. And they saw this as an opportunity to pass that on before they retired. It is not as complicated as people think, and no, it does not lead to massive layoffs or anything like that,

Lisa Ryan: I love that legacy language because people want to be a part of something bigger than they are. We realize that people, at some point, will age out of what they're doing. We lose so much of that company history of that expertise as our tenured employees walk out the door. What great language to use, and like you said, to be able to talk to employees who are excited about what they do and nobody else on the planet understands it.

So you've mentioned a couple of times industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution. What exactly is that? What does that mean?

Brian DeBois: We can go through the whole history of it, but in terms of Industry 4.0, this is the marriage of digitalization to the existing technology, approaches, and equipment we've had. Part of the challenge with defining Industry four's point is that we still live it. It's hard to say where this is going to end up now. In my role, I've got a narrow focus on AI. When we're done with this industry 4.0 era, we'll find that the destination is artificial intelligence. The goal was all the work we're doing now regarding data, digital transformation, collecting that data, and correlating it. I believe in an AI future because that's the only thing. We can manage that data and get some great insights and analytics from it. Still, until you can get those big wins and those big stepwise improvements that we've seen with the transition of every other industrial revolution, that's where AI will end up being the outcome of this one.

Lisa Ryan: In your experience, what are some of the best practices for integrating a new data pipeline into somebody with an existing infrastructure so that they can avoid causing a lot of disruption in their operations?

Brian DeBois: Yeah. And every customer's different, but we have a playbook we go by. One of the first things is that we implement historians. As I'm sure you know, historians and time series databases use it on the plant floor to collect data. And it uses lossy compression to store massive amounts of process data. So that's typically one of our first plays. So if a customer needs a historian, we're going in and we're saying you have got to start there because if you're not collecting the data, you can't do anything else—all the ideas and visions you have in your head of analytics and AI and all that. You can't do any of that if you don't have the data, so we have got to collect the data first, and historians are the most efficient way to do that.

Suppose they have process historians, of which most of our customers at least have a couple. Now we're talking about an enterprise historian. We will pull all that data into one single time series database. Often nowadays, it's living in the cloud. That's fine. That's no problem.

And then, finally, we're going to marry that process data to the transactional and relational data coming up off the plant floor. That's the panacea. That's what customers want they want to see. So, if this transaction happened in Miami's system, what's the process data associated with it at that moment?

And now we can start to do some interesting. Everything I just described causes zero downtime. None of that would cause any disruption within a plant. We can hook up a historian without having to stop the line. Because it's a passive data read, it's not impacting anything happening on the line.

So we do those types of projects all the time. And again, it's one of those things: that data infrastructure. I often end up being the bearer of bad news in these meetings because the customer brings me in, and they want to talk AI, and I want to talk AI. So we start talking about all that, and then we get to the point, and I ask them what your data infrastructure is.

We've got a bunch of disconnected skids and a little data logger on each one, but nothing's really networked. So I'm like, oh boy, Okay, guys. Uhhuh. Let's pivot now because we have to talk about a data infrastructure project to pull all this data together because the AI can't go out and know where any of that data is.

It doesn't have any idea. One of the challenges with getting over the hype of AI with folks is showing them that these AI algorithms are dumb. They need everything spoon-fed to them. They need hundreds of thousands to millions of rows of clean correlated data.

If it gets to the hundred thousandth row and there's a date missing, it just bails on the whole thing, and you have got to start all over again. So there's a lot of care and feeding that it takes to even get to that point. But yeah, again, those data infrastructure projects are zero disruption, and we can get those done relatively quickly.

Lisa Ryan: How long, how much history would you have to? Collect before starting on the process?

Brian DeBois: So it's a good question, and it depends on the problem you're trying to solve. But I know that one of the challenges I face is going up against these vendors in this space. So we're a system integrator.

We don't have any products of our own. We integrate other vendors' products. We're independent, so we are not married to any one platform. But one of the challenges we face is we're up against these vendors who are going into these meetings with the customer and getting them excited. So there's a lot of hand-waving around that question. Oh no, you'll be fine. You'll be fine. And particularly for things like predictive maintenance. Unless you've had that specific failure in the historical record, it's almost impossible to teach this system to predict when that type of failure will happen.

You need a lot of data, and you need, and again, depending on the project and the problem you're trying to solve. If it's predictive maintenance, you need those failures to be in the historical record. And you can build a predictive maintenance system that can know, so let's say you've had three major failures, and different things caused them all. You can build a predictive maintenance system to predict those three things. But you've got no way to predict the fourth one you didn't anticipate and that you've never seen before. So there are definite limitations to that.

And it's actually why we don't lead as RoviSys. We don't lead with predictive maintenance as the primary driver for these projects. Instead, we like to focus on predictive quality and autonomous AI. And autonomous ai. That's the future. That's the real stuff.

Lisa Ryan: And what does that mean?

Brian DeBois: So autonomous AI is it incorporates deep reinforcement learning. Deep reinforcement learning came onto the scene in 2016. It came out of Deep Mind, a Google spinoff, and they created a novel way of doing machine learning. And they created this algorithm that could learn by doing. They started by making Alpha Go, and then they went on to beat our best grand Master at Go. A guy named Lisa Doll beat him, Alpha. Beat him four to one. And then, they went on to create Alpha Zero, a chess program. It beat all our chess Grand Masters and our best chess software.

Then they made Alpha Star, which beat our best StarCraft players, so they were onto something here. And it learns instead of by data, Hundreds of thousands, millions of rows of data, like the traditional supervised learning approach. It learns by doing. And so we're building simulators of certain parts of their process for customers, and then we let this autonomous AI loose on it. It learns, it plays, and it learns to get better and better. And so it'll run for hours, but by the time it's done, it's like a 50 or a hundred-year operator. And it knows all the ins and outs, and then we feed it. We call it lessons. So we're providing scenarios like, okay, what happens if this equipment goes down?

What happens if this piece of equipment is not running at it? It's full throughput. What happens if you've got a hot batch from a customer, your biggest customer that comes in, and you have got to prioritize that over everything else? So it's learning all these crazy edge scenarios and things and becoming like a human operator.

And so autonomous AI, we've got several customers implementing this now. And what we're seeing is this is the big step change improvement. This is where the whole industry is.

Lisa Ryan: Obviously, there are so many advantages of ai from everything we've discussed. On the other hand, it can also be extraordinarily scary. So what are some of the things that manufacturers need to really look out for and prepare for on the dark side of AI?

Brian DeBois: Yeah, there are only two kinds of ai, at least the RoviSys gets involved in. It's supervised learning, predicting a value, predictive quality, and predictive maintenance. That's where you give it a bunch of data, and it will indicate a value. And all it can ever do is predict one value. Here's the number of days until that piece of...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Vinny Maurici. Vinny heads up the data engineering practice at ObjectEdge, a digital consultancy based in the Bay Area of California. He brings over 15 years of experience launching data programs for Enterprise and Fortune 500 B2B manufacturers and distributors. Vinny, welcome to the show.

Vinny Maurici: Thanks for having me.

Lisa Ryan: Share your background and what led you to do what you do at ObjectEdge.

Vinny Maurici: As you just mentioned, I've been in the data world for about 15 years, and for me specifically, my brain has always worked in a way where I've seen data as more than just a means to an end. I like to build tangibility around how data can affect businesses. It's fallen into more of the consulting world, and it's been an excellent opportunity to work with our customers over the years to say, Hey, let's take this thing called fluffy data. You go to conferences all the time, and they say data are the new oil, and you need to turn data into an asset for an organization, and nobody knows what that means.

It's such a big, wide-open topic, and for my team, we pride ourselves in saying, Hey, let's turn the intangible into a tangible. Let's create steps, order of operation, and actual outcomes and benefits for why data is essential to an organization. And it's been such a great time trying to build all these models for our customers.

Lisa Ryan: With data just expanding at the rate it is. Before the show, we were talking about how AI is transforming everything, and data can be used for good and can also be used for evil, and it goes the whole spectrum in ways that we would've never thought about before.

So specifically, though, when it comes to manufacturers, what are some of the data challenges that manufacturers are facing today?

Vinny Maurici: There are some very unique challenges that manufacturers are seeing. If I take a step back, for example, and I look at even the distribution side of things like B2B distribution, they're all pushing to be more digital. MSC Industrial, for example, is a major MRO distributor that just came out last year in fiscal 2022 saying, Hey, We now do 2.28 billion in digital revenue alone, and they're growing at 17% year over year. So that's at a distribution level. So, what does that mean for manufacturers? It means that all their customers, whether a distributor or a retailer, are pushing to increase the channel presence. This means that the amount of data that these manufacturers, many of them are mom-and-pop, is more significant. They now need to support all these digital transformations that their distribution network their customer network is going through.

It can be difficult because I have to manage more than I used to. And so I, as a manufacturer with a lot of unstructured data or data that I'm just used to, have supply chain information. So I want to send my products efficiently, not necessarily for people to use a digital network to make a purchasing decision.

So how do I do that without hiring an army of employees or utilizing my current employees without burning them out? Because there's so much more now than there was. That's a difficult thing to solve as it creates a foundation of a problem even though they know that there is revenue and their success on the other side of the equation because all of their customers and digital partners are distribution partners and are doing great in that.

Lisa Ryan: Can you give some examples of what you're talking about when talking about digital data and monetizing it? I'm wrapping my head around what that looks like, especially in a mom-and-pop shop or somebody that didn't necessarily have the technology, but they have all of this data. Yeah, just putting it in simple terms, what does that mean?

Vinny Maurici: Yeah, that's a great question. So the way that it has been working for decades is that I, as a manufacturer, I'm going to go and I'm going to make something, some widget, and that thing will go through a lot of engineering and requirements and drawings that I'm going to have to build that thing. And then I'm going to go and sell it. And I usually sell it to distributors or wholesalers or whoever will take my product. In the old days, I would need an E R P, and the E R P would manage a couple of important facts about my product. For example, how much does it weigh? How many go into a box, how many boxes go onto a pallet, and what's the weight of everything so I can send it across?

It's only a couple of pieces of information, and then your distributor goes out and sells it to their customers. And if it's B2B, they're picking up the phone, talking with their sales rep, and then placing an order. Now everything has changed. If I go back to an example of a distributor, these are complex parts.

They're trying to make it so that their customers are no longer picking up the phone. They want to make it so that a buyer, an inventory manager, is going onto their site and finding the exact products they want, which leads to, Hey, I've got forty attributes across a job or drill bit, which might be a very simplistic product or an indexable cutting tool or welding equipment that I would typically have not needed to provide as a manufacturer, that type of information to my customers.

So now they must go back to their engineering documents. They have to go back to see how they're utilizing that information and figuring out how to structure it. That's not a simple task, especially when much of this lives in PDFs or unstructured databases. So that is a significant hurdle for these organizations pulling out their hair, saying, I want to support my distributors. Still, I need the wherewithal. I need to have the data organized. I don't have it in a place that's easy to. We call it syndicate, syndicate downstream to my network of customers.

Lisa Ryan: When looking at some of these, what are some of the other unique challenges you will encounter when you have this direct-to-consumer manufacturer?

Vinny Maurici: Direct-to-consumer is a fascinating topic because, for a while, direct-to-consumer was this significant initiative or forefront for a lot of organizations because when we look at the advancements of cookies and adaptability of searching and a customer going out and asking for what they want, you could then grab that search result or grab those cookies and quickly serve them ads. I, as a manufacturer, don't need to rely on Amazon, or I don't need to rely on distributors.

I can go and serve products directly to consumers and then not have to pay that in between the margin hit of getting it to a wholesaler and distributor. The problem is, last year, what did Apple do? Apple created this opt-in era where they said, " Hey, on default, we're going to turn off cookies, and you have to opt-in as a customer to serve those types of ads.

All of a sudden, and there are many case studies about this, direct-to-consumer manufacturers started nose-diving in terms of their revenue because they couldn't find their customers very well. The whole point of this process was it was a very cheap way of customer acquisition. So now they have to differentiate themselves through good product data better.

They can't rely on something like cookies through the customer data they now own. But, hey, somebody just searched for TVs. So I will serve them as a TV manufacturer, some options because that whole model has been cut off. And now, I need to build out those data profiles by myself because I now need to trust that consumers will do research.

I need to bring my organic searches up through Google or Bing. And I have to create the best possible experience model so that people trust my site and make that purchasing decision. It has completely turned the way that folks are purchasing things on its head because they served up particular advertisements may be a thing of the past unless there's something new that some advertising agencies are trying to figure out.

Lisa Ryan: That's so interesting because, for so many years, you get used to accepting cookies and everything. Yeah. And as a consumer, I would look at one ad on Macy's, and then for the next three months. I would just be getting this. And I never realized how that happened. It went to the extreme, and now it's being pulled back to protect the consumer from targeted advertising. So it's better for the consumer because we're not slapped upside down with 40,000 ads daily. But as you said, it makes it harder Yeah. For the manufacturers, because they don't own, you always want to own your list.

Vinny Maurici: Exactly. People who didn't own those cookies and didn't have access to that information anymore. And it has made a struggle for an organization that built up an employee base, revenue model, and supply driven off a specific customer acquisition dollar.

That customer acquisition dollar has been taken out of the equation, and they have to build a new equation now to figure it out. It's caused a lot of stress and anxiety with employees, with enterprises where we discuss things like the interest rates going up. These companies no longer have infinite cash, as they have free money from the banks.

So this anxiety has this direct to the consumer group. I call it an industry, even though it's filled with sub-industries trying to figure out their way. All because, in essence, Apple started the trend of Google's now talking about doing something similar, and you say it's for the sake of privacy. There are arguments on both sides of the equation. Now you almost have to funnel to significant distributors like Amazon, Wayfair, or Walmart, who have substantial inroads into being able to advertise cause they have the money to do that. These smaller organizations need more money to do it.

Lisa Ryan: This is new information for me. That was just the way that I saw it. Yeah. As far as all the trouble that Facebook got into for the privatization of data. That's the thing. Something good, we'll always find a way to use it for evil.

Vinny Maurici: Exactly. Unfortunately, that's always the case. I know.

Lisa Ryan: And it will be. Or else we'd never go to the movies because that's all the movies are about. So, when looking at good data and sound data practices, how would you define these when discussing an engineering lead for manufacturers?

Vinny Maurici: That's an excellent question because this is, in essence, the first aspect of recognizing and realizing there's a problem. When we talk about good data practices, the first thing I preach is, do you, as a manufacturer, have a center of excellence focused on data? I might have multiple business groups. For example, I might have various regions cause I'm a global company. And a lot of the time, what you find is everything is siloed. Oh, Europe works differently than the United States. That works differently than the Asia-Pacific region, which works differently than the Latin America region. in one regard, that might be fine.

Regulatory requirements will be different in various areas, but in the grand scheme of things, on how I manage data, I talked before about manufacturers. They have a lot of engineering documentation and tend to be in prints and in unstructured things, not in a way that's easily digestible or analytical to create business intelligence around.

The first step is to say, Hey, how do I have good data practices? I've built a center of excellence that goes above everything. It goes above the business unit. It goes above regionality and it. I want to ensure data is supported consistently and accurately as an organization.

I look at it like a library sciences methodology, right? If you look at the Dewey Decimal system, I know nobody uses the Dewey Decimal system anymore because we have computers in the library, but that is the fundamental of one of the very first taxonomies created or attributes created around how to find a book.

The same thing should be your mindset: how do I discover and find a product or widget I am building within my organization? How do I define my customers, and how do I determine my customers in a very efficient, concise, and consistent way? Globally. So that creates a way to build data stewardship that is first in your mind before you do anything else.

Remember, data should not be viewed as a means to an end. Oh, I have a new customer. I have to fill out pieces of information. I have to ship a product, fill out this information, and ship it. That's just a means to an end. I want to say, This customer is essential. They consistently buy X, Y, Z. Therefore, I can now upsell these other parts because they're related to these, and all of a sudden, I have all of this information at my fingertips to build a revenue pipeline and build out my customers in a much better and more meaningful way.

And we want to create win-win situations. It's not. Like, how can I make more money? It's how I can make my customers do a great thing for their end consumers and increase the data sets or SKUs that they will be selling to their customers.

Lisa Ryan: So how would for a large organization that's been focused on data for decades? Yeah, it's easier because they have a whole department. But if a smaller manufacturer, a mom-and-pop shop, who doesn't necessarily have the manpower and the knowledge to think about all the different things you just brought up. How do they even get started?

Vinny Maurici: Interestingly, you asked that because for a smaller or mid-sized organization, I always have this feeling that is building out good data practices, and I'll get to the way to get started in a second. They're more important than large enterprises. Large enterprise has enough money to live through the pain. They might be sending spreadsheets everywhere, massaging data, and trying to figure out business intelligence in every way to serve their customers better.

But they can do that because they're so large. So as a smaller, mid-size organization, the focus needs to be on, let's take a deep breath. We know this is essential to how we must go forward and serve our customers. And as I said before, we also can't just burn out our employees, and I don't have the money to hire many folks.

So how do I get our house in order? And so that's my first suggestion to any customer I'm working with asking me what the first step is. Let's get your house in order. Let's worry about analytics and trends and all these other areas. Second, let's first decide, hey, how do you build and structure your data today?

Because, more often than not, we'll hear an answer. Joe Schmo has this spreadsheet that they maintain, and there's this other spreadsheet, and we send emails back and forth, and the first step is just recognizing and writing down how data flows through your organization in a current state.

And then all of a sudden, eyes get wide because people don't realize how deep they are into it until you map out your data flow through an organization and then, You say, Hey, there's a lot of low-hanging fruit here. So, for example, if I were to build out an enterprise categorization structure or if I were to integrate attributes that are being held into a spreadsheet into a better purpose-built database or workflow engine, I'm going to save my team tons of time.

And then it's a win-win because the company will have all this better data to make more money. And then the employees who are in product management or who are in digital merchandising or who are in engineering or regulatory, they now have a much easier way of managing all this data as opposed to pulling out their head because they've probably been struggling with it just as long as anybody else.

Those are probably those who have been asking for change for a while. And now you get the enterprise to recognize how important this is.

Lisa Ryan: So you had mentioned employee burnout. On this show, we talk a lot about company culture. So how do you get your employees to buy into this and realize that all the little data points and all of the quote-unquote paperwork that they're doing that they're being forced to do now to collect this data at the beginning is going to pay off for them? What are the words to use or the things to put in place, or so we have a little bit of pain here to have much less pain in the future if we do this correctly?

Vinny Maurici: That's so important because change management is a part of anything we do for our customers. You can't just go in and say, Hey, you're doing this poorly, and I'm just going to plop down a new process, technology, and things that will change everybody's working life.

Because people are still people at the end of the day, right? They might be going through a cruddy process, but they might do it for 15 or 20 years. You don't know that. And so, any change they might view as a negative. And the critical aspect here is to ensure the business user is a part of the process from start to finish.

Suppose we will change technology or process to enable data to be an asset within an organization. In that case, the people managing that data must be at the forefront. So we cannot just say, Hey, C-Suite is mandating this exercise or C-suite is man mandating this initiative without having the folks who are going to be a part of that initiative or who are going to be the end consumers of managing and making sure that data is in there clean and consistent and accurate.

They need to be a part of this process from day one. They need to be giving their input into, in terms of what they do day to day and have knowledge into this is what we're going to do, and this is why we're going to do it, and this is why it's going to make your lives so much better. It's not going to be painless because change is always going to change.

You can go from a green screen to some UI-based system that will bring people to tighten up and say. I don't want this type of change. But if you flow with them through the process and allow them to be a part of any of these data initiatives. It becomes a lot easier, and it starts connecting and clicking, and then people start buying in.

And that's the key. It doesn't matter how much money you spend on technology; it doesn't matter how good a consulting firm is. We're the best consulting firm there is out there for data. If you don't get adoption by the people who will be doing it, it's all destined for failure.

People are important, and those working on data are essential to any data initiative and program.

Lisa Ryan: Just from the standpoint of showing your employees how valuable they are to the organization, and as you have your tenured employees that are, that have that whole history of the company and why you did everything, and then they start to feel that maybe they're going to be replaced by technology or by automation and just capturing what we're losing in the data that they naturally have in their mind to put into that process so that they feel they're valued and they also feel that they're contributing to a greater mission in the organization than maybe they felt before. Having that as part of the conversation

View Details

Connect with Brandon Bartneck:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today, Brandon Bartneck. Brandon is Vice President and General Manager at Edison Manufacturing, and Engineering, a low-volume contract manufacturing partner focused on capital-light assembly of complex mobility and energy products.

Brandon also hosts the Future of Mobility and Capital Light Assembly Podcast. So Brandon, welcome to the show.

Brandon Bartneck: Thanks, Lisa. Great to be here.

Lisa Ryan: So, share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing at Edison Manufacturing.

Brandon Bartneck: Sure. I'm a mechanical engineer by background. I started my career at Boeing in process engineering and production engineering. Then, I entered the engineering services space and transitioned into business development and marketing for a large German engineering services company called FEV. FEV works to help companies create next-generation products that are helping to transform the mobility industry with improved internal combustion engines, drive trains, electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells, autonomous vehicles, and all those types of things.

I then transitioned to Edison, where I was leading this organization last year. We'll talk about what we do and why we do it in this capital-light manufacturing manner—through my work at FEV, working with the companies trying to transform this dynamic mobility ecosystem. I saw that low-volume production was a challenge for a wide range of companies, from startups to some of the biggest companies in the world.

And that transition from developing new technology and creating prototypes and proof of concepts to scaling that into production in a commercially viable manner is a filter that takes a lot of companies out. However, it is also a key enabler in making that technology and enabling it to make the impact intended by the companies producing it.

So I saw this company, Edison, which culture fit very nicely with what I wanted to do. The service we're providing fits well with the things that are important to me., and that's how I got where I am.

Lisa Ryan: What are the complex mobility and energy products you guys are doing?

Brandon Bartneck: It's a wide range. Much of the work is in the new technology transforming the transportation ecosystem. It supports companies that are developing electric vehicles is a lot of it, so building battery packs and things that go along with battery packs or electric drives.

Also, the integration of electrified propulsion systems into vehicles. We're working in hydrogen fuel cells for mobility, energy storage, and the challenges of introducing these lower-emission vehicles Into the marketplace. But, again, we see infrastructure is a huge question, and the ability to supply the energy that can be used to charge these new vehicles where and when you need them.

We're supporting the building of microgrids, battery storage, and hydrogen fuel high-voltage storage areas. But, then, the third main area we're supporting currently in this new technology space is autonomous vehicles. So the shift as automated driving is taking off, there's a need to transform conventional vehicles with new sensors, computing power, and communication pathways on the vehicle. So we're supporting our customers to build those vehicles so that they can deploy them in the marketplace.

Lisa Ryan: So, how common are they? You see them delivering pizzas and stuff, but other than that, where are we in that process of having self-driving vehicles?

Brandon Bartneck: It's still early. There are a few different flavors. So the last-mile delivery you're alluding to here is taking off in certain areas. You're also seeing robo taxis growing in popularity in particular geographic regions like the southern US and Arizona, where it's more accessible and not as challenging of weather, but it's small pilot programs.

The areas we primarily support are more in the commercial logistics space and middle mile long haul delivery. A few vehicles are on the road right now, a few dozen. That's part of the reason it's small-scale right now. Everyone thinks it's going to scale up.

The volumes and timeframe are uncertain. It's unclear whether this is 6, 12, or 18 months. Probably not, but it's a few years or the end of the decade before autonomous vehicles roll out at scale. So that's why these companies that are trying to deploy this technology, the approach that we take capital light assembly approach is important because it allows them to build the product that they need to without deploying a ton of capital upfront, and giving them, digging themselves in such a financial hole that they depend on a very clear volume, and the timeline for getting these products on the road, which there isn't that level of certainty in the market right now.

Lisa Ryan: So what exactly is capital light assembly, and what are some of its benefits of it?

Brandon Bartneck: Thinking about the alternative, some of the guests that you've talked to in the past, like the traditional manufacturing, is often what we call a capital-heavy approach, where if you picture in your mind a manufacturing plant, you're probably picturing a whole lot of heavy automation robotics.

That approach is excellent for a lot of things. For most items that are manufactured, you're able to move quickly and lower labor costs. You're able to have very fine-tuned quality control through the automation here. So it's excellent for building hundreds of thousands, 50,000, maybe a million of something yearly.

We serve on the other side of the equation. We look at these products in the autonomous vehicle space, that you're talking dozens, hundreds, low, thousands of something per year. You're talking about a high degree of uncertainty often, whether that's uncertainty in the design changing in the marketplace, as I spoke of in the autonomous vehicle space or otherwise in these areas where you need to move quickly and with agility.

The capital-light approach refers to a philosophy around manufacturing that minimizes upfront capital expenditure. Not that we're afraid of spending money there and investing in fixtures and automation as it makes sense, but wherever possible, we try to lean towards manually driven processes that are then tightly controlled and intentional, strategic deployment of technology, and what the result there is. It could be more efficient to produce on a unit basis. Still, we're allowing our customers to get into manufacturing with a much lower initial hurdle and much lower initial capital expenditure, allowing them to scale over time.

Once you start building, if you build a few hundred or something, you can learn more about what that product will be, what the market will be, and when it will take off. So that allows this milestone-based decision-making so they can deploy capital in a less risky manner and with more clarity.

That's the objective or the need for the support., and ultimately what goes into doing that well is the ability to design and execute a manually driven process that is very tightly controlled.

Lisa Ryan: Now, in the beginning, when you were of sharing your background, you mentioned that this was an area that was a passion for you. What lights you up about what you're doing?

Brandon Bartneck: Yeah. Ultimately, the Future Mobility Podcast I run is built around exploring safe, sustainable, effective, and accessible transportation. That's something that means a lot to me. It's the question of how we move people and goods sustainably on many levels. I'm talking from an environmental perspective, but also that we can build meaningful businesses around this and serve our people, and ultimately the goal isn't to. Introduce new and exciting technology that suits the needs of our community sustainably, and it's safe, and we're not injuring and killing people on the roads.

Pursuing to make the transportation ecosystem more effective personally means a lot to me. So I'll pair that with this end goal of what we're doing is very important. The how and why is even more critical in finding a workplace where I enjoy going and my employees want to come. I'm serving customers meaningfully, and we're providing value and serving our community.

It's those two things, the friendly tug of war of the product and what we're doing is a significant, safe, sustainable transportation ecosystem—but also doing it in an additive and fulfilling way for myself and our team. So those are the things that excite me.

Lisa Ryan: That's an essential part of the conversation for people listening to the podcast to pay attention to your organization's mission and be willing to make changes and fail if things don't work right. Because it's an exciting time, there's such a commitment to being part of something that, like you just said, you are still determining if it will be a couple of years or decades before we fully integrate with the new technology.

But it's always interesting to hear, you know what, what lights people up? People should pay attention to that because they want to be part of something bigger than they are, and transportation certainly is. So what are some situations where there are the greatest needs for this capital-light approach to production?

Brandon Bartneck: There are two main areas. One is startups introducing a whole host of technology startups trying to introduce new technology. As I mentioned, The ability to build these things is commercially viable. So it is critical if they're going to make the impact they're trying to make.

For the most part, our technology companies, not manufacturing companies, provide a ton of value coming in. Working with these companies to establish the manufacturing strategy and then ultimately execute that strategy as they scale intelligently so that they're deploying this limited capital whether it's venture cap, venture or venture-backed capital or otherwise in an intelligent matter. The other piece is something I didn't expect about a year ago, but established companies, and we're working with some of the biggest companies in the world, global automotive, OEM, and industrial companies. This shift into the following form of mobility and transportation will be critical for these companies to have strategic and financial success a decade from now.

For the most part, they could be more financially attractive right now. There is a small market for some EV types or electric vehicles. It's growing in some markets, but a lot of the markets are just, we're talking hundreds of if you're looking at like work trucks or like industrial vehicles, forklifts, or even some of these infrastructure products.

They're very low-scale right now, not the scale that these companies are typically built to execute on. An automotive OEM is used to making millions of vehicles per year, not hundreds or thousands. So we found that we are an enabler for these companies to go in, in a commercially viable way, and through these markets, try to grab market share while there's an opportunity and position themselves for.

Down the line without requiring that considerable capital expenditure. The flip side of that is they have other products. They have the cash cows that they need to continue to build. We're finding that as the volumes for that decline. They have highly automated production for certain products cause they're making a ton of them.

As those volumes decline, this capital-light, manually driven process becomes attractive on the backend and the life cycle maintenance for those products. ,

Lisa Ryan: But it would be easier to tweak these products if you only have a hundred versus 10,000 vehicles. You need to change the technology or one of the pieces or parts there to make it more effective. That would be more flexible as far as that goes too. Is that what they're finding? What does it take to execute successfully in this space?

Brandon Bartneck: So one of the big challenges is building quality into an approach like this? We've fortunately had experience in this space. Still, you have to be much more intentional about the design of the process and how you train and employ or deploy your people, which are the main resources to build these, so you're not replying, you're not relying on a very repeatable robotic arm to, to make many of these things. We're counting on humans to build this with, that is, training and buying into the system with clear instructions and manufacturing approaches. These approaches have quality built into those processes. One of the critical pieces is the ability to look at this design and intentional manufacturing process with process interlocks and things that don't allow manual errors to continue to grow throughout the process.

Lisa Ryan: For the people you're hiring, do they have to come in with a specific skill set regarding an engineering background, or do you sometimes look for a good cultural fit and then teach them the skills they need?

Brandon Bartneck: It's both. The cultural fit is critical across the board. That will continue as we execute the early builds for a program. It's a lot of engineering-minded individuals and experienced individuals who are leading that. But the magic is in the ability to transform that expertise into a process that can be executed by a skilled technician, someone familiar with executing builds in a repeatable way but might not be the expert on the product. The key enablers for us to execute in the space are the ability to put together work instructions and a manufacturing execution system that enables people who are less technically savvy on the technology itself to execute these builds in a repeatable way.

Lisa Ryan: Company culture is one thing that we talk a lot about on this show because I believe, and the numbers show it, that when you get the culture right, as long as you're paying a marketable wage, money is not the be all, end all that people a ascribe it to be. It's just something that you have to do to get the culture right.

You have done a great job over there at Edison regarding your culture and focus on living out your company's core values. So talk to us about that. What are your values? How did you develop them, and how does that focus turn out as far as your employees?

Brandon Bartneck: This goes even a layer beyond Edison. So we're not a standalone company. We have a sister company, PJ Walbank Springs, a transmission component supplier that's been around for 40 years and is part of a holding company. One of the things that drew me to Edison, in addition to what I mentioned before, was that there is a clear vision for this organization.

That starts with, we want to impact society in a certain way positively, and we want to serve our people, customers, and community in a certain way. So we have key practices and core values that have been defined for, okay, here's how we do it. Here's what we're looking for in our team and what's required.

And that's super powerful for me as a North Star, and I ensure our teams align. So this core values piece is part of the daily discussion of how we provide that. We're maintaining that as we grow and live out the value. The way our values have been defined, it's one, take ownership.

Two, either win or learn. Three: the golden rule - treat others as you'd like to be treated. Four, challenge the status quo. The type of work that we're doing is complex. We're agile. We are moving quickly. We're relying on our people to execute. That requires deep ownership of someone willing to come in, own what they're doing, take responsibility outside of the specific roles that have been undefined, buy into the team, and be part of this culture.

Always be challenging the status quo, looking for ways to improve things. Learning from every opportunity, and ultimately just being a good person, is how we think about this, and we've. One of the best proofs is telling this story and being clear about the values. One of our customers recently remarked that working with Edison, he said, yeah, it's great that you guys are sharing this because, from the other side of the customer, it's evident that the culture is on point and is doing what you guys expect to.

That means a ton because having a great alignment within our four walls is great. But the result here is that we're trying to serve our customers in the best way., and it's great when they can see that as well.

Lisa Ryan: When it comes to bringing on the right people, because for the culture that you have there, it sounds like it's a safe culture for people to take the initiative and either win or learn and then, giving people the opportunity to fail because you know that's not always going to be a, of breaking the rules. But what are some of the ways that you determine that somebody's a good fit for your organization?

Brandon Bartneck: Yeah, that's a great question. So we have traits we're looking for, and curiosity and humility's huge—a desire to continue learning. So we can define what we're looking for in these people with that.

And then how do you go about evaluating and figuring out where? That's where your question is, right? We're not quick to hire. We have a long relationship-built approach, for the most part, where we have prolonged discussions with individuals. So we're trying to walk through the history of what has happened and how people are processing, thinking about, and learning about their career experiences thus far.

Also, one of the things I hadn't been exposed to before is that we incorporate a test drive into our evaluation and decision-making process, which is what we're evaluating or defining. Real-world scenarios that this individual will experience in their role, and trying to discuss how they approach it and have them do the work of, hey, here's some of the work that's required, please, come out. We'll discuss, report, and present what goes into that, which serves both sides. So one, it allows the candidate to see, Hey, here's what the work looks like. Is this something that excites me, or does it seem like, yeah, that I dread doing? and it also allows us to see the competency, but also more than that kind of the way the individual thinks about and approaches a task like that. Whether it's something they're eager to go at and learn and dig into the things where. Have blind spots in their expertise; if not, maybe it's not the right fit.

Lisa Ryan: I looked at it when my husband joined this new company last year. It was like eight interviews and six hours of personality tests to ensure they brought the right people on. He's just so happy. Sometimes, people want to get a body in there to fill space when there's an open position. But as I say, in many of my programs and clients that I work with, you need to hire more slowly and fire more quickly.

Then it would help if you took the time to give them, show them parts of the job, and have those conversations. People will show their...

View Details

Connect with Tom Hatton and John Ballinger:

Tom Hatton: thatton@cleanvapor.com

John Ballinger: jballinger@cleanvapor.com

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to two guests on the show today, Tom Hatton and John Ballinger. Tom is the CEO of Clean Vapor, a radon and vapor intrusion mitigation company. He's worked in the environmental consulting and remediation industry for over 30 years.

John Ballinger is the COO at Clean Vapor. He also owns a risk management and leadership development company. He's been working with Clean Vapor over the last three years. So, John and Tom, welcome to the show.

Tom Hatton: Thank you for having us, Lisa.

John Ballinger: Thank you very much, Lisa.

Lisa Ryan: So, Tom, I will start with you. Share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing with Clean Vapor.

Tom Hatton: Sure. My background is, I was, I have a science background, which is chemistry and physics, and right out of school, I was fortunate enough to be on EPA's very first vapor intrusion site, which is vapor intrusion is where chemicals that are in the ground come up into buildings and they're harmful to people.

And I was able to develop a model that would predict how those papers would get into the building. And then, from there, I was drafted to be part of the first research team to figure out how radon is getting into houses in the United States. So we looked at a bunch of homes and buildings and came up with a flow chart for a logic pass for fixing these buildings.

So that's how I got into this business. And one thing led to another. So we started, and we were fortunate. The United States Park Service was our very first client. And then we grew the business out of that to where we're today.

Lisa Ryan: Awesome. And John, what about you?

John Ballinger: So, I was in aviation in the military and left the military like many military people do when they're retiring and trying to figure out what I will do with the next portion of my life?

And it was a natural progression to start a risk management company focused on planes, trains, and automobiles. And started that company and quickly saw that getting called in after the occurrence happened. It was people-driven more than it was process driven. There was a failure in someone following policy or procedure, or the leader in the organization needed to communicate more effectively.

So that risk management company led me to start a professional personal development program, especially when it comes to leadership of the executives down to middle management. And that's Tom and me. Tom and I intersected about four years ago through our work with two nonprofits in dire straits.

Lisa Ryan: So, before we dive into the culture that you have created at Clean Vapor, Let's talk a little bit about exactly what you do because we all have, or we're supposed to have, radon detectors in our house and stuff, but I don't know if people know what it is and why it's So, vital that you're doing what you're doing with it. What is radon, and why do you focus?

Tom Hatton: There are two elements of focus for the company. One is naturally occurring radon, and the other is man-made chemicals that are a carcinogen, which is at many of the manufacturing sites, and that's where the intersection is probably for this audience. Radon is naturally occurring.

It's of all soils worldwide, and it gets into your home based on the concentration in the soil below the home and how the home is constructed. Now, radon's hazardous because it's colorless, odorless, and you can't detect it. But it is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States.

There are about 21,000 deaths annually caused by radon, and it's probably the country's number one underplayed health crisis, mainly because mother nature is the culprit. There's no lobbying against Mother Nature. It's one of these hazards that just gets swept under the rug because there's no bad actor you can point to and say, let me litigate against you. And there's also a personal responsibility element where you, the homeowner, or you, the building owner, are responsible for doing the testing. So people tend to avoid looking at it.

And the third factor is out of all the harmful risks in the United States. The federal government only spends 7.9 million in education to tell people about radon.

And when we encounter people, usually after they've got lung cancer, the question is, why didn't somebody tell me about this? And we took on our mission to educate to the extent we can as a small company.

Lisa Ryan: That brings it back to why you started the company in the first place. Is that right?

Tom Hatton: Yeah. What happened was my wife Kristen and I were just married, and we realized that there was a family member who was suffering from cancer. We realized that there were probably less than 25 or 30 people in an entire country who knew how to diagnose buildings and correct them correctly. And we realized that we did if we did what we did in the science-based practices because what we did was a little bit different. We took a scientific approach to evaluate homes and buildings. When the government started collecting statistics on correcting these homes, we discovered we'd had the best results out of any company.

In other words, the lowest radon runs post-mitigation. And we decided that the thing to do is since we had a corner on this technology, is that we would use it to mitigate as many homes as we could and take people out of the risk of getting lung cancer. And that's a terrible death. I've met these people on oxygen, and essentially they suffocate. The death is terrible. And I'm very passionate that it was one of the country's saddest, most overlooked health crises.

Lisa Ryan: So, it sounds like you have a strong mission, which is important when you're coming to building a company culture. Let's start talking about that. First, what prompted you to look for someone else to help you develop and direct the company culture that led you to find John?

Tom Hatton: So, that came out of the other side of the business, which it's not the other side, it's just a different focus, which is the chemical vapor intrusion part. We had grown that business, and we had worked with Fortune 1000 companies, but as the word got out about Clean Vapor and there was a growing need in the large consulting engineering world, we started working for Fortune 100's, and we came it for 500's and the 100's.

And we were blessed enough to have an opportunity with a large aerospace manufacturer, and the company had grown at that point. And I'm very technically oriented and have one type of culture, which is based on respect and trust and the expectation if you ask somebody to do something that, they're going to carry it forward with the same level of commitment that you have now, that's not a reality. And as the company grew, I gave our clients A-plus technical support. But the other part of it, the installation part, the field services were developing their own cultures. So the company is almost like a farm without a farmer, with different segments, cows, and chickens doing whatever they want. And we acquired this client, and the person who made this all possible sat on the phone with me, and said time to saddle up. And I knew exactly what that meant: the entire company needed to get harmonized with one culture, a culture of excellence to match our technical services.

And John and I were working on the nonprofit at that point, which got lassoed into a bad corner. And John said you need me, right? And I said, yeah, but I don't know if I can afford you. And he wrote, I wrote a number and said, I'll do this for a year. And he wrote it on a sticky and turned it over.

And I'm like, yeah, we could do that. So, we looked at the company, and the company was running, It was producing products, but internally it was running like when you throw sneakers into your dryer, and they're all bouncing around. But we couldn't scale the company and have all this bouncing around because it would just get worse, and then we would lose the opportunity to serve a tremendous aerospace manufacturer. And that's when we evaluated the company and found out how out of balance it was. And that's where John started putting in plants. And he and I and Chris worked together very intently to figure out how we would fix this thing and give A-plus service to our clients worldwide.

Lisa Ryan: Awesome. So, John, when you came into the company, what did you find and do? How did you prioritize your starting point?

John Ballinger: Tom developed a system. I created a system I used before stepping inside the company by giving a series of tests.

And that first test would be the Myers-Briggs test, which gave me insight into who I was getting ready to talk to. And I have administered the test. So, I often don't even need to have a picture or meet the person. I can read the test results and walk into a room, and if there are ten people in a room with ten tests, I can tell you which test belongs to those ten people.

Everyone took the test. I went to the, I went to three different locations and walked in. We're talking to people and quickly realized through the process of the test and a risk assessment that I've developed over the last number of years that 50% of the people in companies, and this is a general statistic during the previous 17 years, are in positions they're not suited for. I call them. They're not wired for that position. They migrate to that position for one reason or another. Or, as most companies do, they just hire someone and put them in that position and hope they swim, but maybe they sink. Then they know they do not know what to do with them once they start sinking.

I went in with that personality profile test, with that risk assessment, gave it back to Tom and Kristen, and said, here's what we need to do, and here's how we need to start. And there were roughly 14 people when we started, and we shaved it down to three, which is tough because you're rebuilding.

And I talk about you remodeling the house while you're living in the house and growing too. And all that's difficult. And I tell the business owner, this will be very difficult because some of the relationships you've had with these employees are years and years long. But they don't meet the criteria we need to take it to the next level in this company.

We start narrowing it down and then rebuilding it. At the same time, we're removing personnel. Then we have to select people. Cause I take the word h i r e out of the equation and say we don't hire people; we select people that will be on our team, much like a professional team does.

Lisa Ryan: So, when you went from 14 to three, what was, what did those 11 people have, not have, or what were they missing as you saw the future growth of the company, and what did those other three have that you felt value enough to keep?

John Ballinger: The first was respect. One of the things that I learned early on doing this, you may not always agree with the owner. And you may have a voice to go to the owners and state your opinions, but by all means, always respect the owner.

And I saw a lack of respect in a lot of areas. And the three, even though they still need to be fine-tuned, there was still a level of respect they had that the others didn't. There were more blasé. We don't care, just give us our paycheck.

Tom Hatton: I want to add something to that too. What coincided with this was Covid. And suddenly, we were locked out of our work sense because of covid. And So, we decided to take that opportunity and implement personal and professional development. So, we selected courses, modules, and things for people to do, and the weirdest thing happened. We were paying for their time and the course, and people would just come up and resign one at a time, going, "this isn't for me," and I'm like, this is mind-blowing. If anybody allowed me to improve myself, and they paid for it, and my time, I would be all over it. But I found out that a specific type of employee wasn't interested in self-advancement, and they took themselves out of the equation one by one.

And then we were able because there are a lot of people idle at home because of Covid, we took our time and selected the next level employee as a replacement. And that's when things started coming together because we had, John was steering the culture. I was steering the technical side of things, and I wanted to get back to what the company was when it was small, where I was selecting people, and there was enough personal time that if the culture didn't work, it just wasn't going to work. And that's where the whole scaling thing came on. But there was a lot of intentionalities and how we went about that, how we were going to replace people, what the job tasks were.

We wanted people who had not just technical skills but good hearts as people. They like you care for the person you're working with. And I started hearing about these guys being over and their coworkers' houses for barbecue, helping each other put new brakes on their cars.

And this cohesiveness started developing within the company. And that's what, that is what helped separate us. And we get great feedback from our clients. They said, Hey, I'll work with your guys any time. So they work hard, go out for dinner, joke around, return to the hotel, and show up for work nice, sober, and inspired the next morning.

John Ballinger: Let me just put a little cherry on top of this for Tom and Kristen because it's tough to decide to remodel the house while it grows and builds. And they did that. And what happened even during Covid and the great resignation is that the company went from three, and it's standing at 34 right now.

Lisa Ryan: Wow. And what's occurring to me, and what my listeners are picking up on, is there are so many lessons here. Number one, you have a CEO who's running a successful company but realizes there's a part he's missing where he has good technical skills but not people skills.

So there's that awareness that sometimes the signs are there that we have to make those difficult decisions. And then you have 14 people that were probably good at what they did, but there needed to be a cohesive team. So, then we have to make the difficult decisions to get the people on the bus that are no longer fit or off the bus that is no longer fit for that bus, and then be willing to turn over what you are not good at to somebody good at it and start to make that whole thing. And then just what you just said with going from three people to now 34 people in this harmony and these relationships, that it's not a change that happened overnight, but because you were willing to do all the cleanup work beforehand, now you're starting to see the results of all the work that you put into it.

Tom Hatton: Yeah. There are two employees that I want to point out. These guys were tremendous people. I liked them a lot. They were good at what they did, but what we were doing was not their passion. And I knew that. And one of the guys, cause we fly to some of our job sites, was a pilot, but he also had a physics degree.

And he was good as a technical scientist out in the field. But he wanted to become a bush pilot in Alaska. And I had some connections there, and I knew of a job opening, and I called the director of that air transport company, and I said, Hey, I have a guy who works for me. He's a tremendous guy, but he's always wanted the pilot in Alaska.

Would you interview him? And I set that up. He left. There was another guy with a very similar situation, and these guys did leave Clean Vapor. I lost valuable employees. Right now, we have an office in Charlotte—one guy who went from being a bush pilot to an airline pilot.

And when he lays over here, Hey Tom, are you available? Can you run down to the airport? We can grab lunch or dinner. And we have a great relationship, and I actually feel happy about it. Because he's doing something that he's passionate about, and we only go through life once. And that's why it's important that we spend our best years seated in what we are crafted to do.

And that's what I want at Clean Vapor. I want you to be wired to do what we're doing and enjoy what you're doing.

Lisa Ryan: And paying attention to what that passion is in people So, that you're making sure that you have the right people on. And again, people might be saying that, oh, these employees, they want to come, and they just want to paycheck, and how are they going to be passionate about the thing that we're manufacturing?

But finding out that aspect of the mission they can be passionate about. So, let's, John, let's go back to you as far as some of the things that you have focused on with the culture there and how you found the rest of the people to join the team to get it up to the number you are now.

John Ballinger: One afternoon, I'm sitting watching, no, I'm not watching, I'm listening to the TV, and I hear the words as I'm working on my computer, "The San Francisco 49ers Select." It was the draft. I stopped typing. I stopped writing and I said if the professional athletes select and the college has recruiters that select.

Why aren't business owners using that same platform to spend time selecting someone, not just throwing out a job description on Indeed or LinkedIn? Why aren't we spending time selecting that person? And we have a three-stage process that we've developed where we take someone. We bring them in, we bring them in at the level that they would be working with.

So like the manager, the director does interviews until it gets done, and they take a series of tests. So, they're taking the emotional intelligence test. They're taking the working Genius test. They're taking a Myers Briggs test, and we're finding out who these people are and the job description we want them to accomplish and see, does that person match this job description? And it doesn't matter if they've been doing it at another job when they get to us.

I sit on an airplane next to a gentleman from New York to Atlanta. And I said, is Home Atlanta? And he said no. Home's getting ready to be Florida. I'm retiring. And I said, oh, that's great. I said, what did you do? And he said, I worked for the New York Transit Authority for 40 years. I said, man, did you love that? He said I hated every day of...

View Details

Connect with Steve Blue

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenblue/

Website: https://www.stevenlblue.com/

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Steve Blue. Steve is President and CEO of Miller Ingenuity, which is a high-tech company in the transportation space. He's also the bestselling author of five books and a speaker and consultant. Steve, welcome to the show.

Steve Blue: Thank you, Lisa. It's a pleasure to be here.

Lisa Ryan: Steve, share a bit about your background and what led you to do what you're doing.

Steve Blue: I've been in manufacturing for 45 years and in senior leadership in manufacturing for the last 40. In the last 25 years, I've been the CEO of a manufacturing company, so I know the landscape of manufacturers.

I have written five books. One of them became a bestseller. I'm a professional speaker. Just in the last year, I spoke at Harvard Business School, the United Nations, and Carnegie Hall, to name a few. Now and again, I'll do some consulting, but mostly it's professional speaking, authoring books, and then running my own company, which, as anybody in your audience will know, that's a full-time job in and of itself.

Lisa Ryan: Before the show started, you and I were talking about company culture, and you said that you'd created a killer company culture in your company. I want to dive deep into that because with the workforce, with workers so hard to find these days to begin with, it's critical to create the type of workplace culture that keeps the people once you have them. So, share your philosophy regarding company cultures and some specific things you did within your company.

Steve Blue: First of all, in my view, culture is everything. It is absolutely everything. It provides a foundation for profit, employee satisfaction, and shareholder satisfaction.

And if you don't have the right culture, I can give you examples of the wrong culture. If you've ever traveled on an airplane lately, you know exactly what a wrong culture looks like. It's always amazing to me to use that example, Lisa. You get on an airplane, and the flight attendants work for the same people. They all work for the same company. They have the same benefits, working conditions, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And one will be miserable, and the other will be absolutely delightful. So it's hard. It all comes down to culture. In my company, we have several tenants of culture that we believe in.

One of them is community. Another is ethics. Another is excellence. Most companies should have foundational cultures, and then your company might have a few different than mine, but people will resonate with the kind of culture you have in a company. Now, if it's a crappy culture, and if it's a culture of, we'll do what we have to, and no more than we have to get along, that's going to attract a certain kind of employee, and it'll resonate with a specific type of employee.

But if you have a high-performance culture, you know what I always say, Lisa, is every company should strive to have a Cirque Du Soleil culture. Have you ever seen Cirque du Soleil?

Lisa Ryan: Yes, several.

Steve Blue: There you go. And I'm, I bet you everybody in your audience has, and one thing you don't see in a Cirque du Soleil show is somebody going, Hey, that's not my job.

I'm not catching you today. I don't feel like catching you today. They never grumble. They always come to work every day, all jazzed up with a mission to do better today than they did yesterday. And I don't know why you wouldn't want a culture like a Cirque Du Soleil culture. So a lot of CEOs tell me we're manufacturing.

We're not a circus show. You can't compare us to that. Actually, you can. You can create an environment that will attract the Cirque du Soleil talent. Now you have to make sure that, to your point, once they get here, see what we do, Lisa, is we're very careful in our screening.

If you let somebody that has a bad attitude or doesn't believe in the kind of things that you're trying to do, your call. Don't ever let them in. Because then they start infecting the rest of the place. And so not only do the leaders interview people before they come to work for us, but the peers and people they would work with also interview them.

And so then we get a read, is this person going to work with this culture or not? And that's how we keep them on the outside. And so once they're on the inside, you must constantly promote and continually reinforce and support that culture. So I'll give you an example: our employees pick a particular value of our culture every quarter, and they vote for an employee that illustrates and exemplifies that value. And so they all collaborate on it, and we give an award every quarter to the person who won it. And they get a hundred dollars bill, and then we put a full-page, four-color ad with them getting the award in our daily local newspaper.

I can tell you that people love to see themselves in the paper, and then when they do, they brag to their neighbors and friends. Look at this. This is the kind of company that I work for. And as an example, I don't have any trouble recruiting talent at all. Because the world around us in our community knows we have a high-performance culture. They know we take care of our people. And when they see evidence of that, like that one example in the newspaper, it attracts the kind of people I want to attract.

Lisa Ryan: So, how many employees do you have, and what exactly does your manufacturing company do?

Steve Blue: We have about 200 people, and we make everything from low-tech products that go on the bottom of a locomotive, and the bottom of a rail car is an example in passenger and freight rail. And then we have everything from the top of that locomotive to the bottom. And then we move into the high-tech space with LED highway crossing signals, where the biggest manufacturer of those in the world and our newest flagship product called zone guard.

It's a very sophisticated device that protects roadway track workers from getting killed. Believe it or not, if you see these guys working on the side of the rail, they're grinding the rail. They're clearing brush, all kinds of the stuff. A bunch of those guys get killed every year because of the train, they don't know the train's coming, and it runs them down.

They have all kinds of procedures and policies, so that's not supposed to happen. So our product zone guard makes it virtually impossible for anybody to get killed on a track worker detail. So we're high tech to low tech, and everything is in.

Lisa Ryan: And it's interesting because, when I was, when we first started the conversation, I, in my mind, was trying to figure out how many employees you have because you make it sound like a small company, you know that you can do these things and create this Cirque du Soleil culture and pick this the person of the month based on the values.

But you have good size organization. So the challenge to people is, don't make excuses that my business is too big or we have too many people to do this because no matter what size your organization is, if you bring the right people on board, that you've already talked about that screening process, and that does work.

I've had a couple of different podcast interviews as well as just my clients that I've talked to about letting your employees get involved in the interview process because otherwise, you have this person come in. He's got an excellent pedigree on paper, but as a human being, he's just an idiot.

You bring him in, and your employees are like, I am not working with him. Versus, they get into the process, and before you even make the offer, your employers are like if you hire him, I'm leaving. And then, okay. Not the right fit.

Steve Blue: Everybody looks good on paper. You never see the warts until they're inside the organization.

So your point is well taken. The thing I want to say about an organization's too large to do well, every company has, they break down. A 10,000-employee company eventually breaks down to one leader with 20 people or one leader with 30 people. So don't tell me that you can't do it in a big company.

You have to ensure that your leaders are completely on board with the culture. And then you charge them with the responsibility of carrying that.

Lisa Ryan: And it really does have to come from the upper leadership and from the C-suite who sets the tone for the organization. If they're not buying into it, it will not happen.

No matter how much a manager or HR wants to change the culture, it's got to get that buy-in from above and all the leadership.

Steve Blue: I agree with this notion. Somebody wrote a book about it once. Leadership from the bottom. That's ridiculous. Yep. You can't leave from the bottom, for crying out loud.

And I, there's another book out I think it's called Leading When You Have No Authority, that's bunk too. You have to have authority, otherwise, you can't lead. If you want to lead credibly, you have to be a good leader, but you can't lead from the bottom up, and the top has to buy into it.

I'll give an example. I took over a company once that had a lot of problems. The culture was not what it needed to be, and it started with the guys at the top. So I brought them in a room, and I laid it off for them. Here's what we're going to do, here's what we need to do, and if any of you aren't on board with it, you need to leave.

Half of them weren't on board with it, even though they said, oh yeah, sure, boss, I got that. But then they in action, they, so I just fired him. And so when I did that, the other guy said, whoa, he's serious about this. And you start at the top, and if you got you, you train them, teach them, coach them, cajole them, encourage them, support them.

But if they don't do it, you have to get rid of them. Then it resonates with the whole organization. When people see that someone was asked to leave because they didn't follow a certain value or certain trait we want for the culture, they know the boss is serious about this. So I guess I should be too.

Lisa Ryan: And you think about the commitment and loyalty that builds from the individual contributors as they're looking, because the, a lot of them don't believe that management will ever fire anybody in management, no matter how terrible the manager is. So when they see a leadership team saying, we're going to change culture, and by the way, we just got rid of these five toxic leaders, it sends a very strong message to the rest of the team.

Steve Blue: It really does, Lisa, because you made a good point. A lot of times upper management thinks they're untouchable. They are what they are, and you can't do anything about it. And that's why companies can't change because they leave the change, the people at the top that aren't going to change and don't want to change them.

You have to take them out. You know what happens is people don't become toxic overnight, Lisa, so they become toxic over decades. Usually, you can't fix that. I've tried, trust me, I've tried to fix toxic people. I've thrown everything you can imagine at it, but it just never works. So now I don't waste any time if I encounter a toxic leader or person. I just say goodbye.

Lisa Ryan: Yeah, it's funny, I just had a program this morning, and one of the company leaders asked me how do you work with companies that have toxic leadership that want to hire you. And you've probably found the same thing, Steve, that most people don't hire us because they don't see the problem and don't want to fix it. So it's somebody else's thing to do. It's the companies that are already doing things well and want to do things better are the ones that focus on things like company culture and not just the bottom line and how we're going to make the next buck.

Steve Blue: Yeah. It used to be you talk culture to a CEO, and they give you that deer-in-the-headlights look. These days more CEOs are beginning to understand the power and the absolute necessity of having a high-performance culture. And so they work at it. I had a CEO once who wanted me to come in and do a little consulting, and he had a toxic team, I could tell.

And I said, look, I really don't want to do this, but I will, but only if you pay my fee up upfront before I even start. So he said why would you want that? And I said, because I know within two or three days of mean nosing are on your organization, your team's going to come to you and say, you got to take this guy out.

He's going to destroy this whole company because they don't want anybody to upset their nice cushy positions. So I don't bother with you. I won't bother with companies like that. I just No thank you.

Lisa Ryan: Yeah. I've had the same thing where you have to fire clients because they have the intention. Or they think it's something that they should do. They've heard that employees could make more money if they are engaged. So instead of looking at it from the heart of the matter, from the actual culture, and coming at it from that, it sounds woo woo, but that heart-centered approach. If you're looking at it as just dollar signs, you will fail.

But if you go in it with that heart-centered approach that I'm doing this because it's the best thing for my employees, it's the best thing for my leadership, it's the best thing for my customers, then you know what? You're going to be more profitable. You're going to be able to keep people and you're going to be more productive and all of the good things that go along with it. But we have to do the work.

Steve Blue: Yeah. Most CEOs don't have the guts for the. Because it's ugly and it's messy, at least in the beginning. Now, when you get an organization as I have, they run like a top. I'll give you an example. One Saturday morning I drove into the office to catch up with some work, and I saw a big U-Haul trailer and truck at our loading dock.

And that's weird because we always ship by commercial carrier and we don't ship on Saturdays. So my curiosity got the best of me. So, I walked over and into the shipping department, and there were some technicians, a couple of factory workers, and one warehouse worker.

They're unloading a bunch of stuff. I said, what are you guys doing? He said we were short a couple of parts to make this certain commitment to one of our customers, and we couldn't get it. So, we called all over the country until we found them and rented a U-Haul to get them and bring them back.

I'm thinking, who gave them permission to do that? The answer is they didn't need permission, and that's the kind of culture we have. They take it upon themselves and do what has to be done, but that's the end stage. Most CEOs don't have the guts to start it at the beginning, where you have to fire people.

I've had people threaten me. I've had threats to my family. I've had bricks thrown through my window. And all of that is part of the process of restructuring. I'd call it the heart and the soul of a company.

Lisa Ryan: What did the company look like? What were the specific things you did? You were walking into a culture that was not what you wanted. And so, how did you start? How did you cause that turnaround to happen?

Steve Blue: I'll give you a few examples of mechanics. Lisa, one example, you see how people behave is rooted in language, right? And so how they talk to each other largely determines whether they can work together or not and whether they can work productively or not.

When I first took over this company, the language they used with each other was just awful. It would make a sailor blush. It was really bad. And so the first thing I did was to call everybody in the factory and say, here's the deal. We will not tolerate that kind of language.

I said, I'm not talking about hell, and I'm not talking about, damn, you guys know what I'm talking about. I said, there are no second chances. It's zero tolerance. The first time you use that kind of language, you're going to get fired. We'll be no warnings. It didn't surprise me, because I've been around a long time, Lisa. Within hours, they were testing me, and I fired three or four people in the first afternoon.

Now people started to pay attention. You can't fire people for swearing. I sure can. And once I did that, and it took a couple of days for quite a few people to get fired, then the rest of the people said, wow, I guess we better not talk like that anymore. So I've always believed that the first place you have to start in a company if you want to build a superior culture is to examine how they talk with each other and how they behave.

So that was the first thing I did. And the second major, and this is of course, over a few years, you must first find out what kind of culture you have. Then you can decide okay because you may want to retain some parts of a culture. So we did surveys that brought in an industrial psychologist and surveyed every employee.

I didn't ask the managers because they'll tell you what they think you want to hear. I wanted to hear from everybody. So then we had a good sense of what our culture was like, and there were parts of it that were, yeah, this is worth keeping. And then, we made a conscious decision, and culture is rooted in values.

We made a conscious decision. Here are the company's values now—these values we don't want anymore. Here's why we don't want them, and here are the values we want. And in part, the employees told us the kind of values they wanted. Now the inmates can't run the asylum, but I, you'd be surprised that most times employees, when you say, what kind of values do you want?

They'll say ethics, honesty, excellence. They really do because most employees want to work hard if you're giving them the chance. So that's, that was the second major thing we did. And then we threw everything we had against it. If you exhibit our values, you get promoted. If you don't, you get fired.

If you exhibit our values, you get pay raises. If you don't get the pay raises. Everything an organization has, then you have to throw it toward the values and toward reinforcing your culture.

Lisa Ryan: If I were to walk through your plants and I asked your employees about your values, is that something that they know? Like the Ritz-Carlton knows their theme?

Steve Blue: Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of companies have their values...

View Details

Connect with Noah Graff:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-graff-b7169a1/

Website: https://todaysmachiningworld.com

Podcast: https://todaysmachiningworld.com/swarfcast/

Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Noah Graff. Noah is the host of SwarfCast, a podcast that helps professionals in precision machining excel in their careers. For more than ten years, he's been a used machine tool dealer, or treasure hunter, as he likes to call it, buying and selling used equipment worldwide.

He's also a blogger and editor for the website, Today's Machining World, directed at the Precision Machining Community. So, Noah, welcome to the show.

Noah Graff: Oh, thank you. It's fun to be interviewed rather than always doing the interviewing.

Lisa Ryan: So, share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing.

Noah Graff: One way you could put it would be nepotism. My grandfather, Leonard Graff, started Graff-Pinker, our used machine tool business, about 80 years ago. My father and my uncle went into the business. In school, I was a film and history major. My dad had started this blog. It was a print magazine called, Today's Machining World. Because he had a journalism masters in college, it had always been his dream. So he started this magazine about the precision machining industry, which is what we specialize in.

This was 2005, and he was trying to lure me in. He said, look, broadband is coming. We'll do video interviews, and he was right. He was about five years too early. But I went there and started working with the magazine, editing, writing, and then about 2011 or 12. Print was dying, so we decided we'd take the magazine online, and I would join the treasure-hunting business. We continued to blog, and then about four and a half, five years ago, we started SwarfCast, the podcast, which is an extension of Today's Machining World.

You might be wondering why we call it SwarfCast. The word swarf is a British word. It means the chips, grime, and oil in these machines' bellies. But, of course, we specialize in screw machines or other CNC machines. So usually, they'll have a chip conveyor at the bottom of the machine, or sometimes they call it swarf.

We had the magazine and then the blog. So we started calling it Swarf - Swarf was our column because it's getting down and dirty into what's happening behind the scenes and the belly of the machine.

Lisa Ryan: With all of this workaround precision machining, what are some of the topics you cover? You have a podcast and a magazine. Is there that much to talk about in precision machining?

Noah Graff: There's a lot to talk about. We've kept the podcast a little more niche. But with the blog, there's all kinds of stuff that our audiences would be interested in - everything from politics and economy to sports. My dad writes 50% of the blogs, and then I do a blog and a podcast every other week. But it's a springboard for things. But there are all kinds of things to talk about. Lately, the issues on people's minds are workforce development and people are always interested in technology.

People are interested in company culture, and we come at it with a different slant because we are selling used machines to all of our readers and listeners. We have ears in it. We're hearing what everybody is saying. It gives us an interesting viewpoint. We like to talk about dealer stuff - people we've done, done deals with, machinery types of things that people are buying now, and trends we're seeing. Today we published a blog about how we're helping certain companies buy and sell their companies when people have gotten older and they want to sell out. For

View Details

Connect with Jim Tincher:

Website: www.heartofthecustomer.com.

Email: Jim@heartofthecustomer.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimtincher/

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce you today to Jim Tincher. Jim sees the world through the eyes of the customers. He's a nationally recognized customer experience expert, keynote speaker, and the author of DO b2b: Drive growth through game-changing customer experience. His firm builds loyalty and B2B organizations and works with multiple global manufacturing organizations. Jim, welcome to the show.

Jim Tincher: Thanks, Lisa. It's great to be here.

Lisa Ryan: Jim, please share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing.

Jim Tincher: Sure. I've always been a customer and am very interested in that. In my first job out of college, I worked for a high-resolution laser printer manufacturing organization. During my first summer, I was going to visit my girlfriend, now wife, out in Connecticut. So I wanted to see a customer while I was there, just for whatever reason in part of it.

It's always been a customer focus, but over time I recognized that the field of customer experience is where I gravitate towards. I didn't connect to the business, and that was my case. Once, I worked with a B2B to C organization, and it was all about the customer. I noticed that my internal colleagues needed to be resonating with them because I only talked about customers.

I never connected it to the business. Since that time, 12 years ago, I've been focused on making that connection to how helping improve the customer experience creates a more substantial company. I'm especially intrigued with b2b, which is far more complex and richer than B2C. But nobody ever writes about it.

They all write about Amazon. They write about Best Buy, where I spend some time. But instead, they need to talk about how creating a better customer experience creates a healthier organization in a manufacturing environment. That's my passion, and my mission is to make that connection.

Lisa Ryan: One of the things when we look at engaging employees, the more engaged your employees are, the better they take care of your customers. So the better customer service you have, the better your business, which means the employees feel more connected to the organization. So it's this nice cycle that, again, in manufacturing, because they're often just making products that they don't see that result.

They need to be more focused on the customer experience, according to what you're saying in your brand-new baby book, congratulations. That is a huge part of the picture. We talked a little bit before the show about your four items and your unique experience with Dow Chemicals.

So why don't we start with Dow since everyone has heard of them? Then, you can share that story.

Jim Tincher: You bet. First, our research shows that most manufacturing programs have a customer experience program, and I don't know whether that's doing a more substantial business when done.

Your customer experience program should create an environment where customers want to buy more from you. They want to stay with you longer. They want to operate in less expensive ways for them and you, but only some programs can do that. Dow is an outlier in a very positive way. I first met the Dow team about four and a half years ago, and we were working on their complaints journey and had the opportunity to meet Dan Fedder, now their chief commercial officer.

At that point, he was the VP of CX, and we were working again on the complaints journey. So when I first met him, he said, Jim, my goal is to create an enjoyable complaints...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network Podcast. Our guest today is Julia Goldstein. Julia is an award-winning author and business owner on a mission to make manufacturing more environmentally responsible. Her company, J L F G Communications, helps manufacturers connect business environmental action and effective communication. Julia holds a Ph.D. in material science and began her career as an engineer in semiconductor packaging before migrating to writing and consulting. So, Julia, welcome to the show.

Julia Goldstein: Thanks, Lisa. I'm glad to be here.

Lisa Ryan: So, share a little about your background and what led you to do what you do.

Julia Goldstein: Yeah, it's quite the story. I started my semiconductor industry career, which made sense based on my education. I did a Ph.D. working on solder alloys, and so as said, it was a natural lead-in in working in semiconductor packaging. And then, I was always the engineer who wrote articles for publications, trade magazines, and reports for government contracts. And when I look back in college, we had this fantastic program called Engineering Clinic, where teams of students would work directly with a company on a project. It was my senior year; I was the team lead.

I was also the one who wrote most of the. And my other team members did most of the coding because I did one that involved software. After all, I wanted to get over my lack of interest in doing software. So I'm like, I'm going to make myself do it. I'm going to write some code. So they wrote most of the code. So we got lots of great people writing code.

That's not what I want to do. So I then ended up working for a trade publication. It was one of the ones I had written for when I was an engineer. So again, I did that for about a decade. Eventually, I started this version of the business I founded in 2011. I initially focused on content writing, white papers, blog posts, and articles for trade magazines because I've been on both sides, and I can understand what the magazines will want.

And I was then moving much more into consulting for companies and bringing that teaching background. So I've always wanted to do teaching.

Lisa Ryan: Okay. And how did your early experience in production control help you in your career?

Julia Goldstein: Yes. That was a job I got right out of high school. It was the company my dad worked for, so I had an in, it's who you know. But the following summer, they hired me back with a raise. So that was on me because of what I did. When I first became an engineer, I sometimes worked with the people in production control, and I understood their frustrations.

I understood that they had to do something on the back end when we would change something about a design. And so, it's helpful to work in different areas of the business and to understand what it looks like for people sitting in some of those other places in a company.

Lisa Ryan: And it's also where you are focusing right now on sustainability, which is huge for all industries, particularly in manufacturing. So talk a little bit about that. What you got, what got you interested in it, and why is it important for manufacturers to pay attention to?

Julia Goldstein: Thanks. I am a materials geek. Since I decided to pursue graduate education in material science, I have become fascinated with all these amazing materials that engineers could invent. You could tailor materials to have these particular properties. I became more concerned about these fascinating materials' health and environmental impact. It coalesced around when I decided to write my first book in early 2017. I said I wanted to be about materials because that's my interest, and I also want to make materials...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Jim Huebner. Jim is the founder and CEO of Huebner Integrated Marketing, a 33-year-old firm dedicated to helping companies become more relevant to their customers and more profitable. From the world's leading recreational and emergency vehicle manufacturers to specialty baked goods and high-end power equipment makers, the firm has guided dozens of companies to more meaningful positioning, messaging, and relevancy since 1989.

He recently published his first book, The Irrelevant Old Brand, about why businesses fail and how to avoid becoming irrelevant. So Jim, welcome to the show.

Jim Huebner: Thanks. It's an honor to be here.

Lisa Ryan: So, share with us a little bit about your background. I know you have an extensive manufacturing background, but how did you get to do what, doing what you're doing?

Jim Huebner: Yeah, that's a good question. I always wanted to have my own business. I discovered in college that marketing was going to be it. I had some marketing positions before I started my agency in 1989. And about six years into it, we worked with many local clients, banks, doctor's offices, and insurance companies.

But they're all local, and we had a large manufacturer in our town. So I got an opportunity to do some work for them. One of their divisions was an RV recreation vehicle division. So it was fun doing marketing for a company that, in a vertical market, was selling products all over the country, even around the world, as opposed to just doing some local things.

So that was fun for us and more challenging and exciting. And we ended up in the late nineties just focusing on manufacturers in vertical markets selling their products worldwide. And that's all we've done since then. And yeah, that's how we landed in manufacturing.

Almost all of our clients are manufacturers of some product, and they all have the exact needs. So that's to understand how they're most relevant in their marketplace and how they can be more appropriate. And we help guide them through that and then help them communicate that to the world.

Lisa Ryan: So, what are some of the biggest mistakes manufacturers make regarding their brand?

Jim Huebner: I don't want to overuse the word relevance too much, but everything in my book has some kind of connection somewhere.

They're not all the same industries and things, but they are from many of our real-life stories. But often, manufacturers will find they got a good foothold in the marketplace with a great product. Over time needs change society changes. There are all sorts of changes.

And unless there's this intentional methodology to determine how relevant you remain in that marketplace. They tend to drift a little bit. Sometimes it ends up just being a messaging issue.

They're just saying the wrong things about themselves. So instead, they must focus on what is most meaningful and relevant to their customers. That's a more straightforward fix than sometimes when a product becomes completely irrelevant. Think blockbuster, or there are many situations where our society changes so much that a product is no longer relevant.

But that's what tends to happen. They sometimes need to catch up on what their message should be or how their product works. There's some innovation with their type of product that they should have included. And they sometimes need to retool and figure out what else they could be doing differently that's more meaningful and relevant to the customers.

Lisa Ryan: What would be some signs they may need to address relevancy? How would they know that they have some updating to do?

Jim Huebner: Yeah, in the...

View Details

Connect with Tracy Wieder: Email: TWieder@med.miami.edu LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracy-wieder-a8a65a12a/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today, Tracy Wieder. Tracy has worked in the field of biomedical research for 30 years, starting as a lab technician, then moving into lab manager roles, lab director roles, and finally into her current role overseeing all research labs at the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. In addition, she's a recognized expert on disaster preparedness and safety. So, Tracy, welcome to the show. Tracy Wieder: Thank you so much, Lisa. I'm glad to be here. Lisa Ryan: Please share a little about your background and what led you to do what you do. Tracy Wieder: Absolutely. I started just in college, getting a biology degree and going into research laboratories as a laboratory technician. And I minded my own business until one day when I lived in Houston. We experienced a tropical storm in 2001 named Tropical Storm Allison, and it wreaked such havoc on the Houston metropolitan area that I saw it in the laboratory setting. I saw entire careers destroyed by this event, and I have now made it a passion of mine to help out. With disaster preparedness information in any setting that I can get my hands on to help people understand that really disaster planning applies to everybody no matter where. Lisa Ryan: So what caused them to lose their careers in that? Tracy Wieder: So, in this particular instance, because it was laboratory research, they have very valuable samples that are irreplaceable. They're intellectual property, and they store these samples in liquid nitrogen. So at a freezing temperature. Around a hundred and minus 190 degrees Celsius. So even colder, it sounds even colder in Fahrenheit temperatures. And because of this disaster, we couldn't get the samples, and all of the power was out. The backup generators were out, so the elevators didn't work. And we couldn't get the liquid nitrogen supply up to the laboratories, so their liquid nitrogen evaporated off, and all of their samples were lost because of that. And on top of it, there was no power. There was no air conditioning. And in that particular event, we also had the morgue down in the basement of that building. And so there were that had not yet been embalmed that were also part of that there was a large flood, which made the area biohazardous so nobody could reenter for about three weeks when they let us go in to remove some samples. But we were out of the lab for about three months while they were trying to clean up the biohazard zone and dry things. Lisa Ryan: Wow. And I can't think of a time in our history over the last couple of years and actually, the last couple weeks with the hurricanes coming through that disaster preparedness is such a vital issue. But first, we're dealing with all the shutdowns and turnarounds from a worldwide pandemic that we haven't seen since 1918. And it was interesting to see how some companies could turn on a dime and go from manufacturing metal stampings to making masks, and they're making Yes of respirators and stuff. Tracy Wieder: So some companies were able to turn around. Others just weren't. Lisa Ryan: And then, of course, with Ian Hurricane Ian going through in the last couple weeks, you know, that devastation. But I also think that with the hurricane, not the people in Florida are used to hurricanes, but it would seem their disaster preparedness would be a little better than most because, I don't want to say they're used to that, but they get it more than we do in Cleveland. So talk about a few different types of preparedness when you have something unexpected like a pandemic and expected like a hurricane. Tracy Wieder: Exactly. I'll use this opportunity to mention the different types of...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan, and welcome to the Manufacturer's Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Jason Azevedo. Jason has had the heart of business development since an early age, starting a very successful apparel company that grew from humble garage beginnings to annual gross billings of over a million dollars at age 15. By age 18, Jason was doing millions in business with Starbucks, Nike, Disney, Marvel, Volkswagen, Audi, Lucas Films, Dodgers, and countless NBA teams. Jason, welcome to the show. Jason Azevedo: Awesome. Thanks for having me, Lisa. Lisa Ryan: So, I know you had an early start, so share a little about your background and what led you to do what you've done. Jason Azevedo: Yeah. I'll tell you a story about what it is. First, I've got to set the stage. It was February of 2007 when we started our first company. I'm 15, my brother's 20, and we came from a household where our father worked in a factory, where he worked the graveyard shift for 28 and 29 years for the same company. In the last six or seven years of working there, he got laid off about that many times because there were so many changes in ownership. My brother and I were watching what the most profitable plant in the country for these companies was. That's why they're able to keep on selling the plant. But they had messed up the relationship between the management and the employees so badly that the plant was almost impossible to own. So we got to see it from the employee side and what that does to a family. There's a person's dynamic when there's all that turmoil going on within manufacturing. So we launched our first company at 15, believing we could do something special for the people. And really, it didn't have to be that toxic environment in a manufacturing plant. We started with t-shirts of all things. And because it was February of 2007 when the market crashed, about a year later. So we took a left turn, went with the most complicated production possible, and got ourselves onto the cutting edge of that industry. What ends up happening is a ton of clients are available because companies are going out of business left and right. So it left very strong clients that needed cutting-edge work to stand out in a tough market, which launched. Lisa Ryan: Besides t-shirts, what exactly, what were you doing when you saw the economy taken a dump, and all these companies were looking for help? What were you doing for them? Jason Azevedo: We started in t-shirts, and that, frankly, that great of a business. As I said, the market fell out, and at that time, a lot of what we were doing was for a 15-year-old kid, and it was family reunion shirts or giveaway shirts. All those budgets disappeared, whether it be on the personal side or the corporate side. We cut and sewed the shirts, doing the craziest things possible. Also, there was a massive push to switch to more environmentally friendly inks. We were helping develop those with the ink companies on how to use them worldwide. It became a movement into the current apparel cycle, and we even got into doing cup sleeves for coffees made from denim. So just making anything based on apparel or textile and trying to develop it in a more modern, more cutting-edge way throughout the product's life cycle. Lisa Ryan: What were you doing with Nike, Disney, Marvel, and all of these? So just so talk a little bit about this. Why did they reach out to a 15, or maybe by this age, 18-year-old kid to do this for them? Jason Azevedo: So interesting things happen when markets crash. Prominent players will start having cash flow issues, which we saw happen in 2008. A company servicing Disney, Nike, and Adidas will typically be this massive conglomerate in the space. Those guys started having problems and couldn't keep the doors open because of cash flow. Suddenly, a company like Disney of the world or a large organization like that they don't have a place...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today, Jonathan Klane. Jonathan is senior safety Editor for Lab Manager Magazine and has been in the field of environmental health, safety, and risk for 35 years in many roles. He's also a Ph.D. candidate in human and social dimensions of science and technology, where he studies in two large areas risk perceptions, cognitive biases, decision making, and storytelling, how it affects how we see risks, and its many other valuable benefits. Jonathan, welcome to the show. Jonathan Klane: Thanks, Lisa. It's an absolute pleasure to be here. Lisa Ryan: Please share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing. Jonathan Klane: I started in Maine as an environmental geologist and an industrial hygienist. My undergrad is in geology. I got hired to do industrial hygiene, which is just exposure science. Your listeners in manufacturing would know processes generate vapors, fumes, et cetera, and someone has to know how to measure that and figure it all out. So I did that and gradually ended up doing training. Then taught college for several years and enjoyed that, exposing me to different clients. And from there, I got back into consulting on my own. I did that for a few years before finally migrating to Arizona, where I worked for Arizona State University as a safety director. On my card, it said bald-headed Safety guy. That was my title. People would say, How did you get that on the cards? And I would always say, Oh, I figured out how to hack the system. But it was that no one cared. So it was a nice joke. I did that for ten years and a couple of different colleges of engineering. And then that eventually took me to this wonderful role I'm in, where I finally write for a living, which I enjoy doing for a lab manager magazine. It's a great place, Wonderful people. And we write about all sorts of stuff dealing with labs, Senior safety editor. So I write primarily about lab safety, about risk. And, of course, as part of the Ph.D. program, I write a little bit about storytelling, or I engage in storytelling as part of it. Lisa Ryan: Both are important to the manufacturing office audience because the risk is inherent in working in a plant environment. And what you said earlier with the fumes, you want to ensure that you're keeping your workers as safe as possible. But that also brings us to storytelling, where you can convey to your employees the importance of what they do and how you care for them. What is the reasoning behind why what they do is so important? So let's start with risk. That's what you want to avoid the most in manufacturing. How would you describe risk and some? What are some of our perceptions as far as risk goes? Jonathan Klane: Risk is a much better concept than just safety. In safety. We always say you're safe or not safe, and it's such a binary concept that it's not usually helpful. There are so many nuances to it, but risks. I'm sure a lot of your audience is familiar with this. You can look at it as two factors or three factors. So, the two in particular to start. What is the probability of something happening? Basically, what are the odds, right? And then, of course, how bad will it be? What's the severity of the consequence, right? And so, besides processes that generate vapors and fumes and dust and all of that stuff, or maybe it creates dust that collects. And then the worst thing that could happen is they could have a combustible dust explosion. That has occurred across many industries. It could be guarding issues, so the worst is someone can get devastatingly injured or even killed if they bypass the guards, if the machinery doesn't have the proper guards, or if someone starts up equipment, et cetera. So, we can analyze things by severity and probability. The third factor that I like to use, and others don't, is exposure....

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network Podcast. I'm here today with mark Lilly. Mark is president and CEO of Lilly Works, and he helps manufacturers to solve the late problem. I'm going to let Mark explain a little bit more about that. In the meantime, Mark, welcome to the show. Mark Lilly: Thanks very much, Lisa. Appreciate you inviting me on. Lisa Ryan: Please share a little about your background and what led you to work with manufacturers and create Lilly Works. Mark Lilly: Sure. We've been doing this for a long time and referred to the team behind Lilly Works. It's a family endeavor. My dad started several manufacturing E R P systems, including one in the 1980s called Profit Key. Another called Visual Manufacturing in the nineties is currently owned by Inform. They're both designed for make-to-order high mix-manufacturing types of companies used by thousands of manufacturers. And they both also had very strong, traditional finite scheduling embedded in them. However, despite this great functionality in either of these products and what we've since learned, any E R P system has this traditional approach to scheduling and managing production that most manufacturers struggle with for several reasons. So a few years ago, the team got together in the 2014-15 timeframe, and we started a third manufacturing ERP system up in the cloud. And as we were designing it, recognizing that while that scheduling functionality was good and the previous folks struggled with it, we said, what can we do differently? We came up with an entirely different approach to managing production. So, from a material and a scheduling standpoint, we called this approach, or the software part protected flow manufacturing. The process is the dynamic production method. And we would go out into the marketplace and show folks the E R P liked this approach to managing production, but they didn't necessarily want to replace their E R P right now. So that's because that's so much work. So we extracted that part of the software. We made it its own product offering called protected flow manufacturing that ties into any E R P system, whatever you're using today. So what's nice about that is we can go into a company and help them in very short order. We're talking six to eight weeks and solving the late problem, right? Give them visibility and production of their true priorities of when and if the material is here or not to execute the prior. And so everybody can see and know what they should be working on for future visibility. So that is when my customer will be able to get their order based on my capacity and material availability. Lisa Ryan: So what exactly is the late problem, and what is the extent of the problem you're seeing? Mark Lilly: Sure. Many companies are struggling with this today, and very simply, it's not being able to get their orders out on time when they want to. I did a presentation at IMTS in Chicago last week, and I pulled together some macro data. In reality, there are over a trillion dollars in unfill fulfilled orders across American manufacturing in July. That was the latest statistics that came out of basically the fed. And that's about half of the entire manufacturing GDP. To put that into context, the manufacturing GDP is approximately just over 10% of the national GDP. So there's a tremendous amount of opportunity. And I think anyone who works in a manufacturing company realizes an experience is this, whether it's for material or the supply chain issues we're having. Internationally, whether it's the workforce or not being able to find people, most companies are struggling because they would be able to ship if they had the capacity. If they had better management of what's happening in their production environment and better visibility of what's happening. Lisa Ryan: Sure. I think about this, the late problem, and the first thing that came...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Jim Ver Woert. Jim is an enterprise solutions executive with tooling-U SME, a Society of Manufacturing Engineers division. Jim travels the country and collaborates with world-class manufacturers to develop workforce performance and training solutions. Jim, welcome to the show. Jim Ver Woert: Thanks so much, Lisa. It's a pleasure to be here. So share a little bit about your background and what ultimately led you to Tooling-U SME. Jim Ver Woert: Sure. I began my career in manufacturing, working for a very small industrial distributor out of Moline, Illinois. Unfortunately, they're no longer in business. They've been acquired like many industrial distributors have in the past. The company was called Deion Thompson, and my territory was central and Western Iowa. So the John Deeres, the Vermeer, and the Scour Dan Fosse, Dan FSEs of the world in my territory, and we supplied metal cutting tools and metalworking fluids to our customers. And it was interesting because this is, coming up 15 years ago, I would get the questions like, "Hey, Jim, do you know any good lathe operators? Do you know any good mill operators? Do you know any good welders?" And my answer was always the same back then, "I do know some of those people, but they already have a job." So even back then, I saw a significant need for a skilled workforce because help was hard to find. So along comes at the time Tooling University. As a workforce training and development tool, our company's management connected us with Tooling University. And that was one of them. I called bullets in my holster. It was one of the lines we represented, and it was a great marriage because of that tremendous need I kept seeing. Fast forward to about six and a half years ago. ToolingU SME had since been acquired by SME, this Society of Manufacturing Engineers. About six and a half years ago, they gave me a phone call, and here I am today and happy to do it because that need is as prevalent as it was 10, 15 years ago out in the middle of the cornfield of Iowa. I see it everywhere. I go coast to coast and border to border. Lisa Ryan: Yeah. And that's, it's such a huge aspect right now because you look at not only have we had the pandemic for the last, two and a half - 10 years is what it feels like. We had lots of baby boomers retiring beforehand. But now, there's even more of a mass exodus as we reassess our priorities. People are thinking, do I really want to end my career, or keep doing what I'm doing, or do I want to go and play with my grandkids and enjoy the rest of my life? So I'm sure you see that from both a training and an employee attraction standpoint, but let's talk first about how you see manufacturers retain that brilliance - the industry knowledge, the expertise, the skills that are walking out the door so that the next generation of workers can get a jumpstart. Jim Ver Woert: Great question. They are doing everything they can to retain them. But like you said to the worker, that's been, on the floor or in the office, 25, 30, 35 years. They're ready to play with their grandson and go fishing off into the sunset of retirement. Some of those employers don't retain them completely, but they will have them come back on a part-time basis as consultants. So they will retire yet have a gentleman's agreement, if you will, that, Hey, if we get in a pickle on the floor, and Bill was the only one that knew how to finish this part or to run this machine or to fix this machine when it went down, please be on call, and you'll agree to come in and help us out. Lisa Ryan: When we look at the flexibility, that is an expectation of employees too. We look at flexibility from younger workers coming in. That sounds like such a great way to take advantage of our more tenured employees, our skilled employees still keeping them...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network Podcast. Our guest today is Mark Gilham. Mark is a rebate expert, director, and evangelist at Enable, a SAS solution for B2B rebate management used by manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers across 50 states. Mark started his career at a major financial institution and progressed to senior finance roles in the construction industry, where he witnessed firsthand the strategic value of rebates. Mark, welcome to the show. Mark Gilham: Hi, Lisa. Thank you for having me on. Lisa Ryan: Please share a little about your background and what led you to be an evangelist for rebates. Mark Gilham: Sure. It's quite a job title. I started nearly a decade ago after moving out to the financial industry. And I went into the construction industry, where I went to an organization with hundreds of millions of pounds of rebates. And what they realized was they needed financial controls. So, for example, a bank would have to manage all this money because this rebate was multiple their profit. So I was brought in and worked with them for many years optimizing the administration side. And as we optimized that, we moved into how to enhance the management and laterally into how we add strategic value with our rebates and look at how they're used commercially. And yeah, it's been, as I said, a big journey, and then more recently, I transitioned over to Enable. as you mentioned, they provide software that manages rebates. We were inclined to use Enable throughout this whole time. And what's been great is that they're coming over to help the industry rather than just the company I was working for. So for me, it's not about the software. This is more about how we strategically use rebates to add commercial value. Lisa Ryan: And when you're talking about rebates, I know in the past they have had a bad reputation where people have used them to either mask pricing or come up with these complicated schemes that made it almost impossible for you to get your money back. What's changed? And how is it benefiting manufacturers? Mark Gilham: One of the biggest challenges I see now is this reputation in the past about rebates. When I started at Grafton, you could see that they were not used for mutual growth. There were a lot of schemes there that were benefiting one side more than the other. And there were almost seen as a necessary evil in business relationships. And what's changed is that companies have become more digitally aware and mature. So I think that the whole business relationship has changed. In the old days, I believe businesses were not as collaborative as they are today and didn't recognize back then the importance of working together for mutual benefits because of that shift. That's how trading deals are structured to benefit everybody. And rebates are part of that shift. By making them more transparent and bringing them out into the open, everybody can see their influence on a business starting to take them into place. I want them to be a strategic tool, but for mutual benefit. Lisa Ryan: Can you give examples of what a manufacturer would use a rebate for? How do they work? Mark Gilham: There are many use-case scenarios, but if we go to a simplistic scenario, let's say you manufacture two product ranges. You've got one product range, which is your staple product which you sell high volumes of. But that's not where your margin is. That's not your highest margin range. Then you have a second range in which the lower volume, the higher margin you could offer your customer. A rebate that says, if you buy in this particular ratio of the two ranges from us, 25% of your sales are in that, in the higher margin range, I will provide you with a rebate across whether it be just that range or all your buying. So you're trying to subtly have the customer buy both ranges from you and not just press on the low margin...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today. Scott Hanton. Scott is a Ph.D. chemist with over 30 years of experience in the lab who has recently changed careers to media. He is now the group editorial director at lab manager, responsible for the editorial team for four science-based brands. So Scott, welcome to the show. Scott Hanton: Thank you, Lisa. I'm happy to be here. Lisa Ryan: Scott, please share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing. Scott Hanton: It's an interesting story. I was a good student. I liked math and science. So I got a Ph.D. in science, and I thought my path was clear until one day, my boss came to me and said he wanted me to be a supervisor. And then he wanted me to be a group manager - and that's not what science is. But he saw things that I didn't see in myself. So it's been a great journey being a lab manager for a long time. And then, more recently, taking this knowledge into the media, working for some magazines where my goal is to share my experience as a longtime scientist and lab manager with people who are in those careers or who wish to be in those careers. My goal is to help them prevent the scrapes, bumps, and scars I have from learning it on the job, and maybe I can facilitate a little learning and make their journey a little more pleasant. Lisa Ryan: One of the things that you just said about your manager seeing more in you than you saw in yourself. That's a mark of what makes up a good manager because they are not always the easiest people we report to, but for some reason, they see bigger things than we see in ourselves. See, what happens is that people get it. I was one of them. I was so focused on the tactical work that needed to be done that I didn't realize I had broader strengths and skills that could benefit the organization. So I needed someone to point it out. And that lesson wasn't lost on me. I've done it as a manager as well. Lisa Ryan: You and I connected at an event I was speaking at, and I was intrigued by a couple of things you're doing. Number one, the focus on the workplace culture that you have. But also the fact that you have a remote team right now. It has been a real struggle for some people in these last two and a half years. How do you connect with people when you're not sitting in the room, drinking coffee with them? With culture, what are some of the things that you've seen, that you've done, that you've incorporated, that have helped you in your career? Scott Hanton: When it was time for me to leave the lab environment and start something new, one of the things I specifically looked for was a company with a positive organizational culture. One of the things that I liked about the LabX media group is right on their webpage. When talking to potential recruits, they state that we have a positive culture. I was looking for that as part of my next career, I'd had enough grind in the laboratories, and I needed to do something surrounded by people enjoying themselves. I can see it in this culture. Some of the things that I like about this culture is they know how to celebrate. We stop and cheer each other on. We thank each other for the work that we've done, and it doesn't always happen at year-end. It occurs along the way when the projects get done. Another thing that I like about the culture is that it's candid. We can speak our minds. We say what's important, and that's everybody in the room. It could be the newest employee in the most junior position. The room will stop and listen, no matter how many gray-haired people like me are around the table. We value everyone's opinion, and we can candidly discuss what we want to accomplish or what's going wrong without anybody feeling like that was a dumb idea. I don't have the authority to speak, or my experience isn't noteworthy. Those things make for a fun place to...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm here today with Claude Goguen. Claude is a civil engineer from Canada and works for the national precast concrete association, a trade association representing precast concrete manufacturers throughout North America. He's been with NPCA for 14 years and mainly works on training and outreach. So Claude, welcome to the show. Claude Goguen: Thank you very much for having me. Lisa Ryan: So share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing with NPCA. Claude Goguen: I graduated with a civil engineering degree in Moncton, New Brunswick, this little town on the east end of Canada. And it was poor timing for me for graduation because the local economy was in a bit of a rough shape. So I expanded my job search and got hired by a precast manufacturing company in Columbus, Indiana. So I packed my Chevy cavalier at the time and drove 30 hours Southwest to a new land of new opportunities. And I ended up working there for ten years or so and then worked for general contractors and developers in Indianapolis, staying in Indiana. And finally, I ended up back in precast, where NPCA hired me in 2008. Lisa Ryan: wow. So what is it that you like best about precast? What's kept you in the industry for so long? Claude Goguen: Good question. I love concrete. I've always since I've been in construction. I've loved working with concrete, and precast concrete is a great industry because we get to make these amazing things out of concrete and then let them cure, and you can ship them out. It's almost like making art pieces, even for a manhole, sewer, or things. But just the idea and working with members and manufacturers have been a great industry from both sides. I've been on the precaster side and also on the association side. And it is a growing industry. It's something that even though concrete's been around for such a long time and seems such an ancient construction material, the technology behind concrete and the increasing new technologies that are coming out are so exciting. So it's still an evolving material in a sense. So I gravitate toward that. Lisa Ryan: And especially since you're talking about concrete being the number two most used material resource on the planet with water being number one. And you said it'd been around forever. So what are you seeing in these new technologies that are super cool? Claude Goguen: In a world of admixtures, these chemicals that they put in the concrete. Concrete is cement, water, and aggregates. From time to time, some of us will make our own concrete to put a fence post in or something like that in the backyard. And that's still what's used today, except for the cement. The cementitious material varies more and more. You've got your regular Portland cement, and then you've got other types of cementitious materials. Some of them that are from another industry. They're waste from a different industry, coal or steel manufacturing. The chemicals they're making that make the concrete do one thing or another, either in its fresh state or hardened state, are just amazing. And now, they are looking at concrete on a nanoscale. They study how to alter its properties and make it even better and more durable on a nanoscale. If I were to tell you that a nanometer is about my hair growing, my hair grows about a nanometer a second. So that gives you an idea of how small a nanometer is, and they are studying concrete on that smaller scale. And then 3d printing of concrete they're working on, and new things are always coming up. Lisa Ryan: Wow. So what are they printing? I saw one of those home shows where they printed houses out of concrete. So what other things are they printing out of concrete? Claude Goguen: They're printing bridge components for small pedestrian bridges. I know there was a bridge overseas in Europe that they 3d printed. But mostly, it's above-ground structures. For example,...

View Details

Connect with Gil Bar Lev: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gilbar-lev/ Website: www.homeroots.co Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm here today with Gil Bar Lev. Gil is the CEO and founder of HomeRoots. He is a serial entrepreneur. Filled with creativity and a hunger to thrive in the current digital world, Gil founded HomeRoots, combining his passion for furniture e-commerce and technology to disrupt the way selling and buying furniture is done with a novel wholesale platform. So Gil, welcome to the show. Gil Bar Lev: Lisa, it's a pleasure being here. Lisa Ryan: So share a little bit about your background and what led you to do what you're doing. Gil Bar Lev: Sure. So, in a nutshell, I came from the software engineering world specializing in web development. So I started my career as such, and one thing led to another. One day I was leading a project that connected toys R-Us with Amazon when Toys R-Us wanted to explore the.com or the internet, the e-commerce capabilities but didn't want to go all in. So I led it from the toys R-Us side, exposed me to e-commerce and my passion for technology. I found the proper marriage for what I want to do moving forward with my career. After I departed from Toys R-Us, I spent my other time in e-commerce, combining it with technology building and helping different brands sell online. And through the following ten years or so, I spent a lot in the direct-to-consumer world, up to the point where I realized we're doing with Brent and also went back to the manufacturing side of things and we want to do whole. So I realized it's 2015, 2016, and the internet has evolved a lot. We've got a lot of marketplaces. I want to see a wholesale and where do I. I realized I got nowhere to go The traditional ones where you go to a trade show you need to exhibit. I was looking at different verticals and categories and noticed that furniture is very complicated. Very complicated because of the logistics side of things, but also, the trade shows themselves are super expensive because you can't just put in a booth in some show, you got to rent a whole showroom, and that's very expensive. And so, all those issues combined led me to want to tackle the furniture world or the furniture space. And that's what led me eventually to HomeRoots, which is a platform or B2B selling platform that enables manufacturers from all over the world to penetrate and expand their market share in the US. Lisa Ryan: So what are they doing? Is it like an Amazon, but only for furniture where people can go and get all the specs they want without having to go to a furniture showroom? Gil Bar Lev: Pretty much it, that's pretty much the basics of it. It works because manufacturers will upload their product specifications down to our platform and alongside their inventory levels and everything else. Then, we push those and promote those products to various retailers. And we ensure that those retailers will offer those products to the end consumer for purchase, whether online or offline, in their stores. Lisa Rya: I'm sure the last couple years, or I shouldn't say I'm sure, but it would seem to me that the last couple years were a boom for you, with everybody looking for furniture and doing it online. So tell us about your experience over the last couple of years. Gil Bar-Lev: Yeah. It's been a rollercoaster over the past. I will say two to three years up and down with different things, different challenges. So at first, it was a challenge. If we're looking back in 2019 or pre-COVID, let's look at COVID. Let's put it this way. It was more about proving our capabilities to retailers and manufacturers and getting them to buy into the idea. Then, 2020 came along with COVID, and everybody wanted furniture. Everybody, stores got closed. There was only online, and manufacturers had difficulties promoting their products online. They're very good at manufacturing....

View Details

Connect with Todd Drouillard Website: https://www.hed.design/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-drouillard-aia-b9a7a629/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. Our guest today is Todd Drouillard. Todd is the section leader of the manufacturing and product development sector within the national architecture and engineering design firm, H E D. As a member of the state of Michigan construction code commission board of directors, Todd focuses on design innovation and improving speed to market in manufacturing, supply chain, and design for automotive and battery technology. Todd, welcome to the show. Todd Drouillard: Thank you. Thank you again for having me on. We're happy to be here. Lisa Ryan: Todd, please share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing. Todd Drouillard: Sure. It all started when I was ten years old, which is crazy to think that you knew what you wanted to do when you were 10. I wanted to be an architect. I had a brief period just because I grew up in the Metro Detroit lake area and was highly influenced by the shows we would have. So a short time, I wanted to design vehicles. That kind of squashed a little bit when I discovered that my artistic talents weren't as great as they should have been. So I did go ahead and received a degree in architecture in the area that made sense to work in automotive. So that's where I've been spending most of my time, probably two-thirds of my 20, 21 years of doing this. And the work has been focused strictly on the manufacturing side. So my role at H E D is precise in that I look for ways that we can design buildings to build better products. Lisa Ryan: Okay. So what was it about architecture? That's so fascinating that you were captivated at age 10. Todd Drouillard: Yeah. I just loved to look at blueprints and drawings, and when my folks had a cottage built a few years before I was born. They still had the old blueprints, and I'd love to roll them out, study them, look at them, and sometimes try to recreate them. I was just amazed that these drawings turned into something tangible. So from there on out, it was just like a passion of mine. Lisa Ryan: Wow. Wow. That's just fascinating. I had no idea what I was going to do at age 10. Todd Drouillard: My children are just beyond those ages, and I asked them, and they don't know. So maybe it was just a strange thing that happened to me. Lisa Ryan: So when it comes to design, I know we talk a lot on this show about the workforce we're going through now with the great resignation and all that stuff that's going on. How do you feel that good facility design can be used to create and retain workforce talent and reduce staff turnover? Todd Drouillard: Yeah. There are a couple of things that we do. My firm has a workplace side too. We often collaborate because what happens in offices and lab environments can quickly move into manufacturing. Many of our clients are coming to us and saying we must differentiate ourselves from our competitors. We need to make the space better than it used to be. So the dark, dreary manufacturing plants are not working. It's strange; we've gone back in time a little bit. If you think back to some of the greatest factories built, they were open-aired skylights and the use of natural ventilation. And then we went back into this box. And we took out the windows, and we just used enough lighting to save money or whatnot. And we found out that you get some fresh air when you bring in light. You make it a more workable space. The employees stay. They enjoy what they see. A lot of times, too, we try to open up areas that may not have been visible to even the offices to show the employees what they're building. So they have this idea that they're part of something greater than before. So we found out that, and the other spaces are making...

View Details

Connect with Dave Evans: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evansda11/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm here today with Dave Evans. Dave is the co-founder and CEO of the digital manufacturing ecosystem company, Fictive. Since its founding in 2013, Fictiv has manufactured more than 18 million parts for early-stage companies and large enterprises, driving innovation with agility, from prototype to production and ensuring supply chain predictability and success for customers in industries from automotive and robotics to healthcare and aerospace. Dave, welcome to the show. Dave Evans: Hey, thanks much for having me. I'm excited to be here. Lisa Ryan: Please share your background and what made you start Fictive. Dave Evans: Yeah, for sure. I'm your classic engineer who likes to solve problems—I studied mechanical engineering, mechatronics, and mechanical electrical systems. And I'm an auto guy. I started my career at Ford, building infotainment systems or dashboards of cars. What we were trying to do there was put consumer electronics into vehicles. So you put your iPhone or iPad these things into the dashboard of a car. And the challenge we ran into at Ford, which is still a problem today, is around development cycles. A vehicle can take four to six years to build a new platform. Meanwhile, you'll get a new consumer device every six to nine months. And you'll get 12 iterations of a consumer device and the time it takes to launch one vehicle when you get in your plane, land, and rent that Mustang. As you're driving around the one in California, winds blow in your hair, and you go to use the touchscreen, and it's horrible, or it feels ten years old. It's because it is. And from my experience at Ford, how do you increase the speed of building new products? And what are the barriers to developing that and the thesis developed at Florida, which we've worked on for almost ten years? First, Fictiv was that if you could speed up the development cycle, you could reduce the risk of getting new products to market, and you unlock innovation for many companies to do that. And we built the company based on how you make hardware, physical goods, and products at the speed of software. We're based in Silicon Valley, don't let all the software folks like Facebook, Amazon, or Dropbox have all the fun. We wanted to build tools for mechanical engineers and physical product companies to build products faster. So if you fast forward to today, That's what we've built. We've built a system to simplify sourcing and build this operating system. This digital operating system probably makes custom mechanical parts. And we find factories with machines which are idle or have extra capacity all over the world. And we're allowing engineers and supply chain teams to order custom mechanical components from all these idle machines all over the place. We don't own a factory. I don't have an injection molding machine. I don't have a sheet metal press. I don't have a CNC machine, but we are allowing an engineer at Honeywell to order parts. From these, it machines through all this digital software we have done. And like you said, Lisa, it's 20 million parts now. So, since we've published that it's up, we built 20 million parts through this network. So, it's not our first rodeo, and I think we are changing how companies think about bringing products to market and driving agility into their supply chain. And I like to believe we are just on day one of that journey because it feels like the work we could do like we just started. Lisa Ryan: At the beginning, you were talking about driving that car and the wind flying in your hair. Sorry, I'm still there. And then going to that touch screen, that's ten years so. So, what would it look like working with Fictive in that kind of example? Who would you be working with, and how would you get that technology into that? Dave...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm here today with Wendy Covey. Wendy is a CEO technical marketing leader, author of content marketing engineered one of the wall street journals, and ten most innovative entrepreneurs in America. And she holds a Texas fishing record over the past 24 years. Wendy and her team at Trew marketing have helped hundreds of highly technical companies build trust and fill their pipelines through inbound marketing. Wendy, welcome to the show. Wendy Covey: I am thrilled to be here. Thank you. Lisa Ryan: First, share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing at Trew marketing. Wendy Covey: I'll tell you, it's not an easy marketing gig working with engineers at technical buyers. Sometimes I think I'm crazy. But I started my career at National Instruments, now known as NI. And they manufacture hardware and software products for manufacturing. And during that time, I held many positions within the organization, from marketing communications to product marketing. And then, after a while, a colleague and I decided to leave, put up our shingle, and start our agency. And we did so because we saw a significant need amongst the smaller companies. So say small to mid-size companies that were working within the NI ecosystem. And at the time, they didn't have websites, or they had websites, but they were pitiful. They had very shallow and content. They weren't doing well in search and didn't have a differentiation—story about what they offered. And so, knowing what we did from our time in marketing, we knew we could help these companies. And so that was the beginning, and that was back in 2008, and we all know what happened around 2009, which wasn't a pretty economic time. And so for us as an agency going from, okay, we'll work with whoever we know engineers, but we'll work with whoever. So we need to get serious about who we are as an agency. And so it was around that time that we decided, you know what, we're going to only work with engineering companies or companies targeting highly technical buyers, something we know inside and out. And once we narrowed that focus, that's when our agency took off. And you mentioned that wall street journal award, which was based on the reality that the business strategy of saying no is to grow our business. Lisa Ryan: So when it comes to marketing, because marketing and manufacturing are marketing and engineering, they aren't generally two words that you find in the same sentence. Why do you find that critical for these types of companies to do? Wendy Covey: Yeah, and it's a funny thing. Because often these manufacturing companies are doing cutting edge things, right? They're solving problems in new and unique ways, yet when it comes to marketing, they can be woefully behind in their adoption of new technology and strategies. And so when it comes to marketing and manufacturing, Boy, if you think about these buyers, let's put ourselves in the shoes of the technical buyer. They have a severe problem they're trying to solve and need lots of education. They might be innovating, solving something that's never been done before. And so when they go to education, where do you think they go? They go to Google. They do searches. And they're trying to find information from trusted sources. And that's naturally what marketing should be doing - creating content on behalf of that company to help that engineer, that technical buyer. Find answers, build trust and start to build credibility so they can be on that shortlist. We believe strongly that this content-driven marketing approach methodology is perfect for the technical buyer. And from a customer standpoint, marketing is fantastic because you have to get your product knowledge and the cutting-edge technology you're using. Lisa Ryan: But marketing is also critical from a workforce basis because, with today's labor shortage, you and I discussed...

View Details

Connect with Rish Gupta: rish@spotai.co LInkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/profilerish/overlay/contact-info/ Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Rish Gupta. Rish is co-founder and head of product at Spot AI, a groundbreaking video intelligent company built to answer a simple question, "Why is it so difficult for people at work to access video off their cameras?" Rish, welcome to the show. Rish Gupta: Thanks, Lisa. Excited to be here. Thanks for having me. Lisa Ryan: So share a little about your background and what led you to focus on video. Rish Gupta: Yeah, it's been a circuitous route to videos that always want to build technologies. So when I graduated college at about 22, 23. I started a company that was a pure software company. I knew nothing about running a business. I ran it for five years, grew to a few million users, and sold it. Again, though, I didn't know anything about running a business. The thing that helped the timing was it was just a couple of years after the event of smartphones. So the new behaviors and the influx of new people coming onto the internet because of smartphones led to that growth as a business for us. So as I was looking through new ideas and things to think about, one of the things that became constant was the number of mobile phones in the world. 91% of the people already have mobile phones, and the number of PCs has stayed constant at 2 billion for the last decade and sells approximately 300 million units a year. So it's okay. These computing devices are not growing. They're everywhere, but they're already there. But everywhere around us, if you see, look at your home, small internet chips are being inserted into your fridges, cars, and these Alexa, the baby cams, and the pet cams. And that seemed like a computing paradigm is changing where everything around us will get digitized. And the same thing was happening in, in the business arena. And then, when you double click on the business arena, you see that 80% if you're trying to get visibility into your physical operations. So basically, through the internet of things or any of these new technologies, 80% of how we consume the world is through our eyes. And 85% of the data on the internet is videos. So we thought, wow, would it be any different in the business arena? And that's why video seems like a really exciting place to focus on concerning enterprises. And then, as we dove into it, we realized that the existing state of videos is people had sold them IP cameras over the last 15 years. So every business, from a gas station to a manufacturing house to any part of an industrial chain, has a security camera. But then they're not able to access it. So they still use a USB thumb drive. It's an old-school VHS-like recorder somewhere in the back room. One person may be in the organization who knows where the video is and knows how to access it. And so, all these pain points in getting this data into the hands of users. And so that, that's what kind of drives us towards solving this problem.

Lisa Ryan: That's interesting because I think about what you just said about computers, that that, that hasn't grown and that, but the mobile technology has, and it's that's probably because five-year-olds don't have laptops yet, but they do have iPhones. So, why are they so far behind with so much mobile technology in the security camera industry?

Rish Gupta: Yeah, that's a good question. When we started building this technology, what baffled us the most was how far behind these cameras were. And the reason for that is if you think about what most people would remember is as children, we used Panasonic, Sony, neon, Canon one of these cameras to capture our memories, our holidays with our family. And today, these brands don't exist, right? Like they exist, or they exist in a much-diminished...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. Our guest today is Emily Wilkens. Emily helps job shops make bigger profits and an even bigger impact by building them a radical brand and marketing machine and empowering them to use it in a few days. Emily, welcome to the show. Emily Wilkins: Well, thank you so much for having me, Lisa. Lisa Ryan: Please share a little about your background, what led you to do what you're doing, and particularly in working with manufacturers. Emily Wilkins: I grew up near Detroit, and most of my family worked for GM or in the auto industry, in some way, shape, or form. I have always been around manufacturing and mechanics and how things work. My dad had three daughters. I was the first of three girls, so I was his son. My dad did a great thing and got me involved in all that. Mom also worked for GM. They met at GM. She worked in product development, returned to school, and became a calculus professor. She's at Kettering University, which used to be GMI, in Flint. I had one choice when it came to college. It was Kettering. It's a unique school because it has a Co-op program that starts from your freshman year. I had a full-time job in the automotive industry before I started school for three months, so you switch from school to full-time work every other term. I had friends that were in management positions. I had friends that worked building or designing roller coasters or Disney like crazy cool opportunities as college students. I started in mechanical engineering, worked in the automotive industry, and found myself hanging out in the design studio. I was pretty bored with all of the mechanical engineering tests they gave me, which were mostly like busy work on spreadsheets and getting bored with being in a meeting with 20 people arguing over half an inch and bored. That's not the experience for all engineers, but that was my experience. I thought about attending art school, and then I switched to business. I stayed at Kettering as an associate company. My focus was in marketing. I liked my classes; I had always been entrepreneurial. I was the one with the lemonade stand and going around selling things to my neighbors, much to my parents' embarrassment. I've worked in product development and small job shops for most of my career. I've been the one-woman marketing show inside a couple of small job shops, so I have an inside look at what they need, what they don't need, what their budgets are, what their capacity is—internally handling marketing projects and working on things like that. When I started my business a couple of years ago, when I was working, I was the marketing director at a broad view product development. I started my business a little bit as part of a broad view and then branched out and started doing my own thing, and then, in the beginning, I didn't have well. I shouldn't say that I began to market metal with manufacturers in mind, and then, when the pandemic hit, I had all these friends like, hey, will you build me a website I'm going to start my business? So I broadened, but then last summer, I doubled back down into manufacturing, and that's where I have the most experience and, I think, where I can help the most. I developed this process that differs from other marketing agencies' approaches. It works well for manufacturing companies like small to medium shops that are doing custom work like RFP-based or FAQ-based projects not. I don't do E-commerce; I don't work with manufacturers who are developing and trying to market their products. I work with specifically service-based manufacturing companies. Lisa Ryan: Give us an example when you're talking about, because when you think about manufacturing, you don't necessarily think about marketing in the same sentence. So what would a job shop want to do to differentiate itself in the market? What are some of the things they do to do that? Emily Wilkins: Yeah, um, so a lot of job...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Robin Ritz. Robin is a creative visionary and owner of Record, a women-owned small business providing safety netting. Robin, welcome to the show. Robin Ritz: Thank you, Lisa. Thank you so much for having me here. Lisa Ryan: Please share your background and what led you to do what you're doing with Record. Robin Ritz: I started in the office environment back in the 90s. My first job was cleaning offices. I used to role-play in an office when I was a child. I like signing checks and enjoy doing office things, so it's a natural fit. In the late 90s, I started working for a safety netting manufacturer. In 1995, Incord was started by my father and his partner, Bob Martin, and Mary Martin. I was able to come on and do some office management and get my get into the admin part of things on the side. I was always interested in art and creativity. About 13 years ago, I became certified as a kaizen creativity coach. I found that balance between evoking creativity and honoring processes in the workplace and being in a manufacturing position. Combining that with the business and admin, I am a creative visionary today. I can incorporate all that love for honoring process but being creative and doing it in manufacturing. Lisa Ryan: That's not something that you think a lot about his creativity in the work environment in manufacturing. You think of it as a much more gritty, get-the-job-done environment. That has helped you create a workplace that draws and keeps people. What are some of the things you are doing that differentiate you from what you hear about in manufacturing? Robin Ritz: One of our guiding principles is that we're trying to be an exemplary employer. We focus on the employee experience. We focus on our corporate culture. We're focused on being the type of workplace somebody would want to work in so that manufacturing becomes secondary to that environment. First and foremost, working with people who are creative beings. Manufacturing gives us something to do at work. But the environment we're trying to create is about empowering people to be creative, be forward-thinking, and show up as a whole person in the workplace. Lisa Ryan: Well, returning to creativity, you're doing safety netting and custom solutions. What are some examples of your employees using their creativity and building those relationships with each other and the customers? Robin Ritz: Every individual has their expression of their creativity so being able to empower employees, to say we want you to use your creative talents in the ways that come naturally to you. Some people might be naturally organized. Some people might be naturally outgoing. Other people are more in an observant role. Hence, by honoring the ways that creativity shows up for each individual, they can contribute in a way that is unique to them. Therefore, making systems process improvements, based on a suggestion, because somebody already organized and sees a better way that it can be approached or bringing a tool that they have from experience outside the workplace. So they're able to say, hey, we could use this or apply this technique to this process because I've seen it work in other ways, so I think it's more about the openness for the input. Then the creativity takes on a life of its own. It's not necessarily painting on a canvas or art supplies. Instead, it becomes creative, and you're creating the environment that you want to work in. You're creating the changes that you want to see. You're creating your career path. You're building relationships with customers or vendors. So it embraces creativity in a way that says you can be creative in different ways, and, yes, we can apply that in a mean factoring or administrative role. Lisa Ryan: And it sounds individualized. It also sounds like a lot of work. So how do you bring...

View Details

Connect with Christopher Nguyen Website: www.aitomatic.com. Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Christopher Nguyen. With a decades-long career, Christopher's tech bona fides are second to none. Since fleeing Vietnam in 1978, this multiple-time tech founder has played key roles and everything from building the first flash memory transistors at Intel to spearheading the development of Google Apps as its first engineering director. Today he's become an outspoken proponent of the emerging field of Ai engineering and a thought leader in the space of ethical human-centric Ai. With his latest company Aitomatic, he's hoping to redefine how companies approach Ai in the context of life-critical industrial applications. Christopher, welcome to the show. Christopher Nguyen: Hi, Lisa thanks for having me. Lisa Ryan: Share with us a little bit about your background and what led you to do what you're doing now with Ai. Christopher Nguyen: The most relevant thing about what I'm doing now can be considered a failure, starting after my previous company's acquisition by a company called Panasonic. We all know Panasonic as a global engine. However, many people don't realize that Panasonic is less of a consumer company than an industrial company in manufacturing, avionics, and automotive. The acquisition of my previous company was the apply Ai machine learning to that global engine. Very quickly, we found that a lot of our, let me call it Silicon Valley techniques of digital-first companies like Google and Facebook, and Twitter run into apparent limitations when it comes to dealing with the physical world. The discussion or debate between atoms versus bits, and we've had to develop a whole bunch of techniques that involve leveraging a lot of human knowledge and expertise. We are automating all of that with machine learning to solve these industrial problems. That's the thesis of Aitomatic, the company. Lisa Ryan: So how do you do that when you talk about taking that human knowledge? How are you taking what we do almost automatically as human beings and turning that into machine learning? Christopher Nguyen: Maybe I can share why we do that because too many of us today, that is counterintuitive. We thought the future is only data-driven, and we only collect enough data with sensors on machines, and then we feed them and do these machine learning algorithms, and they'll know and don't predict they'll do everything for us. It turns out that doesn't apply not today and enough for a very long time to the physical industry. Take the problem of looking at sensors on a machine by refrigeration system and then trying to predict in advance. Is this likely to fail over the next two weeks? Is a compressor going to conk out or something like that? To do that, we still rely on human expertise because it's not in the data we're collecting. It's in their life experience. 30-40 years of seeing various refrigeration systems, models, operating conditions, and so on and building up instead of intuitions in their minds over time. We failed trying to do it the other way. We succeeded in incorporating human knowledge. That's the reason we do that. I can talk about how we do that. Lisa Ryan: That's interesting because when you have somebody that's been in the job for 20 or 30 years and, as you said, that's that feeling that intuition and being able to take a human feeling and turn it into data, that's just fascinating. If there's an easy way to describe how that happens, that would be great. Christopher Nguyen: If we learn like humans, we're building learning machines. We can either learn from examples, or we could learn from instructions. Data-driven machine learning is essentially learning. For example, learning by example requires lots and lots of examples before you start to build up some experience around it. But learning from instruction,...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Nitin Govila. Nitin is a management leader, entrepreneur, engineer, and meditation trainer. He is the Senior Vice President, air Pacific and MEA for the French manufacturing group Serge Ferrari, a flexible composite material sector leader. So, Nitin, welcome to the show. Nitin Govila: Thank you, Lisa. I'm glad to be here and delighted to be speaking with you. Lisa Ryan: Share with us a bit about your background and what led you ultimately to do what you're doing with composite materials. Nitin Govila: I was in the initial years of my life. I was born and brought up in India. I studied there and worked there for six to seven years. I started my career with paints after a few years in the dairy and food sectors. Building materials and paints were the first building materials I started with. I needed to kind of update or upgraded myself, so I felt a need for an international management degree. I came to Paris to do my MBA at HTC Paris, which opened me up to work in an international environment. I started working with another French company, which was in home automation. Then in early 2007 and eight, I felt the need that this part of the world was growing. At that time, I was working in France also, and then I felt the market that this part of the world was growing, and I wanted to be back in Asia. So that brought me to Singapore. I've now been in Singapore for 14 plus years. For the first seven years, I worked for a French company, also in roofing. I moved to a very niche product category in roofing. Then this opportunity came, which was unique and different. I did not know about the sector. We used to see some shade structures, blinds, and awnings, but they were in detail in the industry. When I was with the home automation, we used to supply moderation systems for the blinds and awnings. So I was exposed to that, but beyond that, not so much. It was an interesting journey for me to enter this business category. That's been six and a half years now. In this industry, as you mentioned, I've been handling the role of Vice president of Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. That's nearly a more significant part of the world regarding geography. It's also a growing part of the business for the company. I'm based in Singapore, but most of the time travel across all the countries and regions I am responsible for. Lisa Ryan: What has changed as far as these composite materials? Why are people moving towards them? And what are some of the benefits of using that as far as architecture and outdoor equipment applications? Nitin Govila: Great question. When I joined, it's already been six and a half years, as I mentioned. I also ask this question regarding what has been evolving in our company. It's touching 50 years next year, and what I've seen when I look back at the history, I think the main thing has been the technology and the innovation. If you look at composite materials, how it starts may start with a pellet. If you're using polyester, you begin with those pellets. You crush them you. You make a yarn. We process the yarn through our process and then quote them what drives the innovation and the quality of the products. More and more companies that have invested in innovation have always been able to lead the market, continuously bringing out new products. Based on the market's needs, if I look at significant structures now, I'm talking about stadiums, airports, and large shading structures when we talk about great architecture. Earlier, nobody thought it was a guy maybe 15-20 years back. You might call it a kind of a tarpaulin or a canvas, depending on which country you are from and what words are used. Over the years, companies have leaped to make some innovations. Serge Ferrari is one of the leading companies with innovation. We put nearly four to 5% of our turnover into R&D and innovation. What

View Details

Connect with Andrew: Email: crowe@the-mfg.com Website: the-mfg.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/expertandrewcrowe/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Andrew Crowe. Andrew is the leader of the new American manufacturing Renaissance and host of tv's project MFG. Andrew, welcome to the show. Andrew Crowe: Thank you so much for having me. Lisa Ryan: Share with us about your background and what led to your passion for changing the face of manufacturing. Andrew Crowe: I would love to. My name is Andrew Crowe. I grew up in inner-city St Louis. The area I grew up in was violent, and there weren't a lot of opportunities. In the school district or the radius of where I was, I didn't have a lot of options or platforms to see what I was good at outside of sports and entertainment. Seeing many people around me with jobs that weren't paying enough to survive on it led me into crime - to do something to lift my family out of poverty. Unfortunately, the only examples I had around me were people doing badly and illegal things. Before I was 18, I was a two-time felon and a teenage father. I didn't have a lot of focus, and I didn't know what I was going to do with my life. I didn't have much opportunity to express what I could be. Fast forward to jobs not working out because of felonies and getting into more trouble. I finally had enough. I put the word out that I was looking for a job and a young lady introduced me to a place where she was working. It was a manufacturing plant, and I walked in and took a machinist test and failed horribly. I had never seen micrometers or calibers or anything like that. But on the back side, there was a math test with fractions and decimals, which is what we measured. I did well on that side, so I got hired to run the saw on the third shift, cut material, and drop it off at the CNC machines and the manual machines. I took this job in that factory, and my mind exploded with all the opportunities for the first time. I felt like I was the guy that got left in the museum or the kid in the candy shop. I walked into this new world and had never considered how things were made. I didn't know anything about manufacturing. It lit a fire under me that I had never felt before. I wasn't passionate about the other things I had done in life. I didn't know what that felt like to have a passion. So I stayed in that environment as long as I could. I would work my eight hours, clock out, and then I would stay for four hours and watch the machines. Finally, I would stand and take notes. I bought a lot of coffee and donuts, and I tried to find some teachers and mentors that would teach me more about this field. At the same time, this thing kept me from the streets and making bad decisions because all I could think about was how important my job was. We were making things that went into the fighter jets, the tanks, the cars, and stuff like that, then that moves America and protects America. I didn't feel like a felon, and I didn't feel like a teenage father. I felt like I was an American, and I felt like the things I was doing contributed to America. I was important here, so I would come to work early and stay late. I would study and at the same time. I understood that the culture wasn't conducive to people who look like me, and frankly, not people who look like you. So, as I fell in love with this industry, I realized that this place isn't a great place for people of color and women. Because women raised me, and I am a person of color, I felt there were some things we could do to change that. I watched how manufacturing could uplift my life and brought me from feeling like I didn't have a place in America and wasn't important. I wanted to ensure that people who came from could have that same feeling. At the same time, my career started rising because I put as much as possible into it, so I went from the saw to running the...

View Details

Connect with Miranda Martz Phone: 717-843-3891 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miranda-m-1b742a198/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm here today with Miranda Martz. Miranda is a Pre-apprenticeship Coordinator for the Manufacturers Association. She started as a journeyperson machinist and is committed to the manufacturing industry. Miranda, welcome to the show. Miranda Martz: Thanks, Lisa. Thank you so much for inviting me. Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. Please share with us about your background and what led you ultimately to commit to your manufacturing career. Miranda Martz: It's been an interesting journey and not one that many people have had. Many people like listening to my journey because it's very odd. I grew up in Hannover, Pennsylvania, the snack capital of the world. When I was younger, I wanted to work on cars for a living. I worked with my dad on the weekends. I went underneath the car with him. He showed me how a car works. I grew up with a bunch of mechanics, so that's where I got into loving working on machines and with machinery, even at an age I didn't know what it was. I started there in high school. I never did good in high school, so that four-year college degree wasn't for me either. I never even thought I would graduate from school. I went to a place called Mannheim central, so it was a very Ag-centric school. I was either pushing towards going to ag or going to a four-year college and getting my college degree. I met my counselor maybe once or twice. That was odd to me to pick a career for the rest of my life. I thought I had talked to them, but they didn't know me well. They knew I wanted to work on cars, so I went to the art Institute of Pittsburgh for industrial design technology, and I did the auto track. It's no surprise, probably, but I was the only female to do that, so that has its challenges. But unfortunately, I was there for a year, and it got too expensive because I ended up paying for it myself. So I had to drop out. It wasn't something that was for me. I found that the four-year college route wasn't for me, and it was way too expensive. I couldn't pay for it, so I came home and immediately got a job. But it was at a gas station. I worked there like three years, and I knew I needed to do something else. It wasn't something that could sustain me for the rest of my life. I needed more money, so I started looking into different things and was offered a job by a friend at the time at a place called electron energy corporation. I went on to be a Hone operator. My first machine was a honing machine, making precision holes. From there, I became a machinist III. I worked up through the company. I learned one machine after another. It was something that I could healthily express myself. I was good at it. I knew every single machine that I could in that area. I worked in the ring cell, and it was something that I learned one machine after another. It clicked for me. I thought this was what I meant to do. This is what I'm good at it. It was a way for me to express myself. I wanted more. Over five years, I gathered enough information to be a machinist three at that company, and then after five years, I moved on in my career into the CNC machining world. I got exposed to my first machine – a Hoss CNC. I took CNC classes one through Levels one through three with House, including the programming classes and the turning classes on the laser levels one and two. I went to a company called tape towers. Many people know them as Droplets, but they do staging for the entire world through the largest staging company in the world. I went into their machine shop and learned about one of their CNC machines. It was the same thing. It was easy for me. I learned a lot. I was on one machine, and I couldn't get enough, and I loved it. I started showing them that I could run two machines simultaneously, but I could set up...

View Details

Connect with Joan Enoch Email: HR@lift-all.com Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Joan Enoch. Joan has been working with Lift-All company as the HR manager since January of 2004. Lift-All company manufacturers load-secure products in five plants in the United States. Joan has a degree from Penn state in industrial psychology. Throughout her career has worked in banking and consulting for various nonprofits and for-profit companies. She enjoys the no-nonsense and practicality of working in manufacturing and has a heart for people who work hard for their money to support their loved ones. Joan, welcome to the show. JOAN ENOCH: Thank you. I'm so excited to talk about something I'm very passionate about - manufacturing and who our employees are. They're hard-working, and excellent benefits they deserve to take care of themselves and their family members. Lisa Ryan: Well, awesome. Please share your background with us because it sounds like you've done many things before you got into manufacturing. What got you here? JOAN ENOCH: Well, I started in human resources and, like most folks, ended up initially on the recruitment edge of things. Not too long after doing recruitment and banking. I ended up in the compensation arena. Unlike most HR people in my niche, I love compensation and salary administration. With that came some benefits and just a broad breadth of many different things that I've been fortunate and unable to do over my career. I started in banking, and after banking went through lots of mergers and acquisitions, of which I was on a team doing some of that. Next, I found myself doing control consulting work for an employee assistance program and working with many companies. Then, finally, I landed in manufacturing, and, as you mentioned at the onset, I like the no-nonsense nature of manufacturing. We can tell it like it is. We can have good conversations. There's not tons of politics and playing around with how we want to say thanks. Lisa Ryan: When I think too when you and you mentioned employee assistance programs, which I think is so important, especially considering the last couple of years, with everything that we've gone through. What have you seen as far as how benefits have changed? JOAN ENOCH: Well, you know, federal legislation has changed things. When the affordable care Act came out in 2010, that changed many things. A lot of good came out of that in ensuring employers provide all kinds of preventive services for their employees. Those benefits are covered on dollar one. Also, obviously during Covid the last two years, there's just been a change in how people orient to benefits. There was a complete stoppage when Covid first hit, and the medical world had to figure out how we safely deliver services. So there's been a lot of creativity around telemedicine visits. Paired with more focus on mental health, most folks sit back and revisit how they got through Covid. There were some mental health and spiritual changes or emotional changes. That happened for folks over the last couple of years. What is life really about? We're all faced with Covid. It changed things, so it's been good to have that focus. Not just on our physical health but recognizing that there are so many layers to us as human beings, and how do we take our physical health, mental health, and emotional health and make sure that all of those are getting addressed. Our health care system can do that. Lisa Ryan: Well, it's not only important from a legal standpoint that we pay attention to mental health but there's always that if somebody has a physical disability, it's easy for us to see that. It's easy for us to notice it and empathize with it because we can see it. But when it comes to mental health, and we have somebody who is now suffering from depression, or you can't necessarily look at them and see what's wrong, you want to say snap out of...

View Details

Connect with Dan Burgos: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danburgos1/ Dan's free resource link: https://alphanovaconsulting.com/business-self-assessment-forms/ (https://alphanovaconsulting.com/business-self-assessment-forms/) Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Dan Burgos. Dan is the founder, President, and CEO of AlphaNova Consulting. This management consulting firm helps manufacturers in various industries, including aerospace, injection molding, construction products, chemicals, fiberglass, furniture, electronics, consumer goods, etc. Dan, welcome to the show. Dan Burgos: Hi Lisa. Thank you for having me. Lisa Ryan: Dan, please share with us your journey and how you got into consulting, especially with manufacturing. Dan Burgos: It all started with my father putting those entrepreneurial seeds in my mind as I was growing up. As I was finishing high school, I aspired to become a prosecutor - a lawyer. Of course, I knew I was coming to the US being an immigrant. My aspirations for that path. Then I learned that you had to get any license for every state you moved to, which killed my aspiration. So I had to develop the next best thing, which led me to industrial engineering. It was all about solving problems and being inquisitive. That's how it all started. I went to college, and throughout my journey, I knew I wanted to help people in an entrepreneurial capacity. I didn't know-how. When I finished college, one of my first employers had consultants there. When I interacted with them, I saw the impact that they were having, and I said why I thought this might be it. My career continued, and through the years, I met other consultants. I tried to understand what they did and how they were able to impact. It wasn't until 2009 that I met someone, and I finally said yes. I'm committing to this as my career path. By that time, I already had some experience in manufacturing and remained committed, knowing that I wanted to see different industries within the manufacturing sector. I moved around in other companies from oil and gas and furniture. I worked for a medical device company, an aerospace company, and then, finally, I worked for a boutique consulting company. I wanted to learn the ropes of the business, and it was quite helpful. Eventually, in 2016, I felt that I was ready to take the leap and jump headfirst to the consulting journey. We've been in business since 2016. Lisa Ryan: What are some of the things that you focus on? When you walk in there for the first time, what's something they want to focus on? What are the initial projects that you get started with? Dan Burgos: It depends on the company and the business. Some places have different needs, so there are several areas where we help clients. We help with execution, operations, and operations management. That's what gets us in the door. It's much more tangible for manufacturers, but we look at behaviors also from leaders once we're in. Because you may have a well-oiled machine, but if the leaders, don't have the right behaviors, you may still be having challenges to succeed. We look at that and we also look at the culture that these leaders create. We help in four areas. We help with the efficiency of the operation, we help with the management of the operation, and we also help with leadership. The process for deploying or cascading the strategy and, finally, how do we turn around that culture, how do we create an identity that people can get behind and also deter the people that are poor fits. Not necessarily because it's good or bad, but when someone is a poor fit for a company, it might not be the best place for them to be effective. Lisa Ryan: We've heard it so often that people don't leave the job they leave their managers, so when you're coming in from a consulting view, what are some things you notice. I want to put this in the perspective of somebody...

View Details

Connect with Jordan Erskine: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanerskine/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to this episode of the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Jordan Erskine. Jordan is an innovative founder with 20 years of experience in the cosmetic contract manufacturing industry. Jordan co-founded Dynamic Blending. Since then, Dynamic Blending has seen over a 12,500% growth in less than five years. Jordan talks about breathing new life into a stale industry and how you can innovate within your industries. Jordan, welcome to the show. Jordan Erskine: Thank you, Lisa. It's a pleasure to be here. Lisa Ryan: Please share a bit about your background and what got you started in manufacturing and the cosmetic contract manufacturing industry. Jordan Erskine: It's a crazy story. I graduated from high school when I was 18 years old. I didn't know what I wanted to do with myself. In my neighborhood, there was a guy who started a contract manufacturing company. I didn't know what that was. When I graduated high school, he said, hey do you want to work with me? At the time, there were ten employees or fewer. It was small. I said sure because at 18 years old, I didn't have any prospects for college. I enjoyed it. I was learning how to develop cosmetics and skincare products from scratch. I learned a lot of that is chemistry and that knowledge, but it's an art form too. It was fantastic to see how some of these higher-end skincare products come to be. So I stuck with it and got my undergrad in finance. I left that company and went to another company, where we are contract manufacturing toothpaste for a large Fortune 50 global consumer goods company. We manufactured four to 5 million tubes a month of toothpaste, so it was a very fast-paced operation. I worked there for about nine years and had a lot of student loan debt. I got my MBA in international business while working there at the time. I had about $140,000 in student loan debt between my wife and me. The panic started to set in that we would never pay this off. I got this weird bug, and a light bulb went off that I just needed to start my own company. I knew how to do everything on the contract manufacturing side - from development to production to package sourcing, just everything, so that's what I did. I started putting the pieces together and met up with an old colleague who worked with the first contract manufacturer. His name is Gavin, and he went on to be an attorney. After not talking about it for about 9-10 years, we met back up. One thing led to another, and his law firm invested a little bit into Dynamic Blending, and the rest is history. We only took on about $170,000 angel investment at the beginning. To this day, we are still privately owned by Gavin and me. It's wild. Lisa Ryan: So, when you're talking about a 12,500% growth in less than five years, I'm sure that people are listening to this podcast with their ears perking up, saying, I would like to have a small percentage of that. What were some things that you did that set you apart in such a short time? Jordan Erskine: I learned from the other contract manufacturers I worked for and knowing that this is my company, I want to build it my way. One thing that was important to me was the team. I started recruiting people. I got a couple of key people who couldn't afford higher salaries because we couldn't afford them. They were subject matter experts, so we gave them equity. We gave them a percentage of equity in Dynamic Blending. That sparked an interest. Some of them worked for us for a while for free until we could start affording that. The first thing is that I knew I needed the team in place in every single area to help us grow to where we needed to be. Our chemist, our R&D director, developed the ancestry DNA solution, so he has pharmaceutical drug development and chemical development. He's our director of R&D and then our...

View Details

Connect with Mike Murdock Email: MDOCK50@gmail.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/golfer53/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today Mike Murdock. Mike is the President of M2 Collaborative Solutions. He has 38 plus years of manufacturing operations and vendor supplier optimization experience. In addition, he works with cross-functional teams internally and externally. Mike works directly with key strategic vendors that support their daily manufacturing needs and requirements. Mike, welcome to the show. Mike Murdock: Hey, Lisa. I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of your show and share my experiences. Just briefly, for 38 plus years, I worked for General Mills. My first 27 years focused on the day-to-day manufacturing of multiple products. General Mills owns plants in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In July, the plant I retired from generated $2.4 billion worth of revenue a year. General Mills is roughly a 17 and a half to $18 billion company, so that's a good chunk of revenue coming out of Cedar Rapids. For the last 12 years, I have had a unique role where I focused on working with our key strategic vendors that provided materials, ingredients, and services to the Cedar Rapids facility and our supply chain. I worked in North America, and I did some global initiatives that helped our supply chain with our key vendors. Lisa Ryan: I know that that vendor or supplier relationship is where you put your focus, and it also got you through some tough times and these last couple of years with the pandemic. Please share with us some examples of where you saw that partnering with the people giving you the ingredients and supplies makes a difference and creates a win-win for everybody. Mike Murdock: So, as we are all aware, our world is turned upside down. In March of 2020, the norm was no longer how the business would operate. Nobody knew how long because the pandemic was new to all of us. We didn't know what to expect. But the thing that was refreshing and encouraging for not just me but our General Mills supply chain was those key strategic vendors. I had spent years working with them to lay the foundation and build that trust in our working relationship. I wanted to have uncomfortable conversations, be very fluid, and be nonjudgmental. It allowed us to get opportunities and issues in front of us in a non-threatening way. So what took place as the pandemic started to hit in the March/April timeframe. We had these strategic vendors that I had been working with for years. They reached out to me via phone calls and emails. They let me know that General Mills is a top-three priority for them. They said we would do all we could to ensure your supply chain was not disrupted. That was very reassuring. Knowing that there were many unknowns in front of all of us now. Having that confidence and reassurance from these key vendors that we're dead in the water without their work. We can't make finished products that go out to the consumers. It allowed us to move forward with confidence, believing that we would have the materials and ingredients to make our finished product. Keep in mind that I'm talking about Cheerios, Wheaties, Lucky Charms, Betty Crocker Frosting, Betty Crocker fruit snacks, Nature Valley granola bars - I could go on and on and talk about all the different products in the General Mills portfolio. Think about how many empty shelves there were when you first went to the grocery stores early on in that pandemic. It was hard to understand, but it wasn't very long into the pandemic that some of those things you purchased regularly weren't on the shelves. They were not available. Lisa Ryan: Well, let's think about the vendors you were dealing with. It's General Mills, for goodness sake. You know they are a billion-dollar company, and they don't want to lose that business. There's still something to the relationships that you...

View Details

Connect with Darrin Mitchell: Website: www.manufacturing-masters.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrin-mitchell-20ab80158/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm here today with Darrin Mitchell. Darrin has been a global manufacturer of highway equipment for the past 24 years. Last year, he developed an online training platform for manufacturing businesses to find best practices from experts worldwide. So, Darrin, welcome to the show. Darrin Mitchell: Awesome, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. Lisa Ryan: Please share with us your background and what led you to do what you're doing in manufacturing. Darrin Mitchell: We're a global manufacturer of big highway equipment. If anybody out there listening right now has ever been stuck in traffic, and you've complained that the equipment up ahead is blocking your way or making you late, I'm officially the guy to blame. We build the equipment that was building roads or in the mines or hauling agricultural products. We make big highway trailers for transporting big bulky things. We do that across North America, Australia, New Zealand Middle East, South Korea, and Europe. Lisa Ryan: And so, and why did you choose that industry? What led you into highway equipment, to begin with? Darrin Mitchell: So, 25 years ago, I met my business partner, an engineer. He said he was going to start making these highway trailers. I said, "For the love of Mary, please do not ever do that." He said no, no, I think it's a good idea. I said, "Listen, our biggest competitors are out of Ohio. They are vertically and horizontally integrated. They own their suppliers; they are next to the customers; they come and pick up the product from the factory, and they're happy with a five to 9% margin. Literally, day one - if we tried to compete from a rural and remote community, we've already lost just on the cost of getting materials to our factory. There is no hope in hell of us ever succeeding in competing against someone who has hundreds of millions of cap expending. They're fully automated. They're competing on volume and integrated into the supply chain. We'd never be able to win. Lisa Ryan: Obviously, something changed. Darrin Mitchell: I know. He went ahead and started it anyway and then told me. A few months later, he said I'm in deep, help. Oh okay. We started getting innovative immediately, understanding what we were up against—and not doing what our competitors were doing. One of the things that we did was built a lot of innovation into the product. We were able to ask for a premium. Being from a place where you're removed from your supply chain or customer base, you have to ask for a premium. We built a lot of things moving parts. The products could do things that our competitors couldn't do because they didn't have the capacity. When I meet with my competitors, they say I hate you and say, well, I, like you. Why do you hate us? They would say I hate you because it's hard to copy you. We have a massive assembly line set up in our factory, but how you've innovated with your products makes it hard to replicate that. They had an enormous assembly line, where you would put 10,000 20,000 products a year. So the first thing that we did was we innovated to make the product more valuable to the customer so that we could charge a premium. That's how we started growing the business and understanding that we didn't want to compete against the masses. So we tried to skim the cream off the top and ensure that we could show that value to the customer to charge that premium for the product. So that was the first step in what we did for the business's growth. Lisa Ryan: How did you decide what to add to your products to make them premium? Was that in researching the industry, talking to customers, etc.? How did you choose, and what would be an example of an innovation that you put in a product that your competitors couldn't...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today, Gerry Angeli. Gerry has been a manufacturing and supply chain executive for over 35 years, including CEO-level experience. He's had the opportunity to work all over the planet on products, ranging from high volume consumers to very custom high value-added durable goods. Gerry, welcome to the show. Gerry Angeli: Lisa, it's great to be here. I appreciate you extending the invitation to be on the podcast. Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. Please share with us your background and what led you to do what you're doing. Gerry Angeli: Well, it all started way back when I left college, and I remember the line in the interview that got me into my first job. Coming out of engineering school, the interviewer asked me what I would like. I said, look, if you're looking for a world-class designer, that's not me. But if you're looking for somebody who knows how to troubleshoot things analytically and fix stuff, and work on items associated with quality and reliability. So he stopped me when he said I get 1000 of the first kind. I get one a year of you when can you come to visit the shop and that's how it started so from then until and in the early days, people called me a factory rat. I was always in the factory, so that's how I got started in manufacturing and the supply chain. It's a virtuous profession to make things and get them out there. So throughout my career, I've been up and down the supply chain. From customer service, on the one end to procurement, on the other, it's treated me well. Lisa Ryan: Being in the supply chain these days is just a little tricky. So, what are some of the things you're seeing that your experience or seeing happening in the industry? What are some of the ideas that you have to reestablish business continuity? Gerry Angeli: Well, that's the greatest place to start. I get very vocal about what I see going on at times, and much of it has its roots back in the 1980s when just-in-time and zero inventory production started. I'll hold that thought for a second because those were all good things to do. When I came to Florida, I was recruited by a company down here in Hollywood. Shortly after that, I got an operations executive. They had manufacturing locations in various parts of the planet. They had just moved the company from another State to South Florida when I got here. As I entered, the boss said to me, "I need you to stick your nose in something for me. Everybody warned me that there are hurricanes here, and you got to have a plan if you're in manufacturing, whether it's here or anyplace else, to recover from a weather event." We didn't call it business continuity. Back then, it was disaster recovery. I stuck my nose into the topics. As I got involved with it, naturally, the first thing is power, the second thing is water. All learning associated with recovering from a hurricane or a flood or a tsunami doesn't matter. It is episodic. You learn what to do. Next time because of what's happened to you this time. So, there's no manual written. There's no checklist. There's no place you can go to say what is it the way I have to do. Can I run down this list and be safe? No. You've got to build your knowledge. And so we began doing that, and the more I got involved with it, we went through a couple of storms, where you're down for a week or two. You begin you build an encyclopedia dictionary of what to do. You'll resonate with this. One of the things that I learned early on is they always talk about power and water. Stay away from the down electrical lines. You gotta take care of the folks. They were getting ready for it, preparing for the coming storm, what happened during the storm, and what happened after the storm. The first thing you do is take care of the people. You ensure that they have enough time to get their affairs in order. That sounds a little dark, but it's true....

View Details

Connect with Maziar Adl: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maziaradl/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/maziaradl/).' Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Maziar Adl, Co-Founder and CTO of Gocious. This product decision analytics platform empowers better product innovation for auto, mobility, industrial equipment, and high-tech industries. He oversees the end-to-end design, implementation, and development of products. Maziar, welcome to the show. Maziar Adl: Thank you for having me. Lisa Ryan: Please share with us your background and what led you to form Gocious. Maziar Adl: My background is primarily in information management and industrial engineering. I started working as a supervisor to create a new plant after graduating from college. After that, I switched my career to information management. At that time, information management wasn't necessarily just for manufacturing, but in general. We looked at different ways of bringing platforms to diverse audiences. Eventually, I realized that the product manager's role is rising because competition is growing. Understanding what products have to offer to customers and then bringing the voice of the customer into the company. As a result, I was always interested in how we can help product managers in different industries. When this opportunity came, it was perfect because it was a chance for me to go into this new venture of explicitly providing the product management role with modernized platforms. It's specific to this role, and, in our case in Gocious, we focus mainly at the moment on manufacturing. In manufacturing and, in general, there are complex systems. This is the company that we started in 2018 in southern California. So far, we think that we're on the right track, and we're very excited about the platform we're offering. The next generation is about to come to the market. We call it the CRM, or the product roadmap management system. Lisa Ryan: So what changed with product management over the years? Why have you seen the shift to it being an integral part of manufacturing now? Maziar Adl: It's the fact that product managers now are going through changes more rapidly. The competition is fierce because of the availability of technology and software techniques to bring hardware and physical group goods to market more rapidly. To change them in the market or rapidly and keep track. We're keeping the product innovation going. Keeping up with this pace of change requires modern tools and requires specific roles. That's the challenge for product managers from our understanding. Lisa Ryan: When it comes to designing the systems, are the product managers doing their job differently? What are some of the things that you're seeing that they're adapting or adopting in their plants? Maziar Adl: If you think about it, companies now produce software as a service in software. Product managers have adopted agile technologies, and it's pretty much sinking in. They're looking at optimization, but most of these companies have adopted the process of adopting agile techniques in manufacturing. However, the software is being integrated into hardware. You can see that manufacturers are starting to think about how we capture these agile techniques to speed up and keep up the cadence of the operation? The challenge for the product manager is to keep up the communication and keep up the feedback from the different parts of the organization in a quick way and speed that up. Before manufacturing, cycles were long, but now that's also shrinking. Manufacturers have to give the product managers the tools to keep up with this communication flow. Lisa Ryan: When you're dealing with so many types of equipment and some of it is years or even decades old and trying to modernize the equipment, as well as adapting some of these new technologies, like you're talking about, how does a product manager do...

View Details

Connect with Dawn Sipley: Email: dawn@sipleythebest.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnsipley/ Website: https://www.sipleythebest.com/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Dawn Sipley. With nearly 20 years in HR, nine of those in business ownership, Dawn understands the pressures of entrepreneurship. She began her professional career after graduating from UCF with her business degree in 2004. Since then, she has supported hundreds of companies in central Florida with their hiring needs, either as a corporate recruiter staffing company or consultant. During those years and staffing, the concept of Sipley the Best was born. Dawn, welcome to the show. Dawn Sipley: Thank you so much for having me today. Lisa Ryan: Please tell us about your background and the behind-the-scenes of why you focused your career in recruiting and staffing and doing what you're doing. Dawn Sipley: God had a funny way of bringing me to this market. I thought HR was all about onboarding and new hire paperwork, benefits, and payroll when I was younger. I had no idea. There was this whole human resources human side. I started off in the retail world slowly got into technology recruitment, which led me to the staffing world. I figured out that many people were terrible at hiring in the staffing world, which I found curious because I had a natural talent for it. That's what led me to get into consulting rather than doing it for people. I teach them how to do it and do it well. Lisa Ryan: So, what are some tips you like to share with people? As discussed before the show, job boards are dead, so people have to be more creative when recruiting. What are some of the things that you're seeing and you're helping others to do? Dawn Sipley: One big thing is pivoting their marketing messaging to attract new talent. For 70 years, marketing has been used to acquire new customers. Now it needs to be used to obtain new employees. One of the main reasons people leave a position is because they don't feel appreciated or heard. So they are highlighting employee of the month on your social media, talking about your organization's culture, and highlighting the different activities you do to connect and engage with your employees. Your younger generation of employees are looking at social media and that's how they're identifying potential employers. Using your marketing vehicle to attract new talent is an amazingly thoughtful and productive way to bring in qualified applications and resumes. Lisa Ryan: So that sounds like that may work in the corporate workplace because, of course, those people are on social media all the time. But if you're talking about manufacturing and the trades, is that working for them too? Dawn Sipley: It is. HR teams are more and more moving into a marketing role, and less of a let's just posting on the job board and wait for resumes to come in. The job boards are dead in this market. You can post, and you can boost, and you can do those things, but unfortunately, with the technology that we have, they control those algorithms. They won't put your job ad in front of eyeballs unless you're paying money. You don't have control over that, but you do have control over your Facebook, tick-tock, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram - all of those things. Your HR department needs to have a marketing line to it. Lisa Ryan: So does this entire bringing in like a full-time social media person, or how would you do that in a way that makes the most of your time and your effort when it comes to social media? We could go down that rabbit hole and watch cat videos for the next six hours if we're so inclined. Dawn Sipley: No, you don't have to hire a full-time person. It just needs to be a fraction of what your HR department is doing one or two posts a day to engage on multiple platforms. All that's required is a place. I found the best on social media is posting...

View Details

Contact Mark Whitten LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-whitten-61790119/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. Our guest today is Mark Whitten. Mark is the President and CEO of Spartanburg Steel Products. Spartanburg specializes in designing, developing, and manufacturing high-quality complex metal stamping and welded assemblies, serving the automotive, heavy truck, power, lawn and garden, construction, utility, and off-road vehicle manufacturing industries. A passionate leader with 25 years of manufacturing experience leadership and strategic direction, Mark has achieved business success and transformation through engagement and collaboration. Mark, welcome to the show. Mark Whitten: Thank you for having me, Lisa. I'm glad to be here. Lisa Ryan: Mark, please share with us your background and what led you to do what you're doing right now with Spartanburg. Mark Whitten: Sure. I'm Canadian. I worked in Canada for many years before I came to Atlanta. I went to Mexico first. I started my career with General Motors Academy, a Suzuki joint venture GM plant. I did several different roles there. This was after Freightliner. Then I ended up Magna or National, a tier-one automotive supplier. I worked for Magna was seven years, and then I had the opportunity to go to Mexico as an assistant plant manager. So I moved my wife and children, and we went to Mexico. We were there for six years before returning to Canada again as a general manager for Magna. Then we came to the US in 2015. I did a short stint as a plant manager in the Cleveland area. Then I was recruited to Martin read, another Canadian automotive supplier for their Kentucky plant in Shelbyville. A few years later, I had a director of OPS role. I had the four plants under me at the time. I then had an opportunity to come to Spartanburg Steel Products as President CEO in March of 2020. It was while Covid landed - literally within weeks as I got here. We started the protocols for Covid. Lisa Ryan: Wow, isn't it funny that from now until the end of time, those of us in the know will know that anytime somebody says March of 2020, we will all go ooooh. Mark Whitten: yeah. Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. When you joined Spartanburg, what was the culture like? What were some of the things that you noticed and started to change? Mark Whitten: Well, Spartanburg is a privately held company family-owned business. They've owned the business for 40 plus years. It's a good company with good people. I think that, over time, the performance had eroded. The culture is affected when you have those situations where the company's not making money. You've got customer issues and quality issues. The culture also takes an impact there that people feel at leadership levels. My task coming in here was to grow the business back to what it once was, as a prominent BMW supplier. We're 12 miles from plant 10 Spartanburg, which is building all the X-model BMWs. We had a couple of things we needed to do to build a relationship back with customers. First, we needed to focus on the company's culture and make sure we were doing the right things to engage people. I always talk about how hearts and minds ultimately drive performance. Business results, good quality, profitability, and these things are crucial. The last two years have been a journey of doing exactly what we've coined at SSP 2.0 -Spartanburg Steel Products 2.0. And the 2.0 is, I wanted to honor 1.0. We're a company that's been around 40 years and a BMW supplier. We've had success. I didn't want to take anything away from the people that have been here for 25 plus years; I wanted to honor 1.0 as the foundation. But we ultimately focused on 2.0, which has to be the future. The world's changing, and you and I both know, Lisa, it's changing exponentially since March of 2020. Things continuously change, focusing on engaging people, giving cause and purpose, and clarity around goals. We...

View Details

Contact David Goodman Email: DGoodman@edenark.com, Website: https://edenark.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidegoodman1/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. Our guest today is David Goodman. David is the CEO of Edenark, the world's top environmental sustainability certification program for SME businesses, small and medium businesses, which are classified under a billion dollars. David, welcome to the show. David Goodman: Thank you very much for having me. Lisa Ryan: So, as we get started, please share with us a bit about your background. Why did you choose to focus on sustainability for your company? David Goodman: My career started in advertising and marketing. I spent many years in Real Estate, and I worked with a partner in the largest real estate company in the world. I ran 40 million square feet, and during that time, I spent a lot of time building energy reduction certifications like LEED or brain. A LEED-certified building is not a sustainability program, but they're building an energy reduction program, so I had that background. For the last 25 years, I've been a corporate enhancement CEO. Private equity groups will parachute me in to fix trouble companies. Having seen many companies that needed help and having this background in energy efficiency caused me to think about a way to help businesses use green or sustainability or energy efficiency in a positive way on the marketing side, not just on a positive way on the expense reduction side. That is what brought me to what we have today. Lisa Ryan: When you're thinking about the manufacturing, which is the bulk of this audience, what is it about green initiatives that can help them in their processes products and attracting people? David Goodman: First, we'll look at it from the standpoint of in effect market demand. I'm quoting organizations like Forbes Nielsen, Harvard Business Review, MIT Boston consulting group; these are not my studies; these are studies from large international organizations that are in the business of doing research and studies. We know that seven out of 10 consumers that's both B2B and B2C are looking for. We'll move their business to a certified sustainable business because they're looking for a way to do good, to find suitable corporate citizens. We know that 70% of the market out there is up for grabs. They are open to the potential of moving their business from where they are to where you are as a company. It might be something that you want to think about. We also know that the number one thing that all businesses have since the beginning of time, the number one issue that all companies have is finding a way to stand out, differentiate, and convince the consumer to buy from you versus the organization down the street. If that's the number one issue that all businesses face, we know that sustainability is the number one thing consumers are looking for and that seven out of 10 will switch business. That makes a pretty compelling point, and organizations should consider this. Lisa Ryan: What percentage would you say of sustainable businesses right now? You're looking at something that you want to stand out from the crowd, but is this being one of 100? Is it one of 1000? What are the numbers? David Goodman: That's an excellent question. We know that the big organizations, those big publicly traded organizations, the over billion-dollar organizations, have already figured this out. They already have sustainability programs; they have sustainability departments that are deeply ingrained in both sustainability and SG environmental and social governance. But SMEs, which are, as you touched on before, organizations from basically one employee to 500 employees- $1 to a billion dollars that group is today not pursuing sustainability with any significant percentage. An SME can be significantly different from its peer group by becoming certified. That leads us to the real...

View Details

Connect with Kelly: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-springer-b847996/ Email: Kelly.Springer@metalflow.com Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Kelly Springer. Kelly Springer serves as Metal Flow Corporation's President and Chief Executive Officer. Metal Flow Corporation manufactures technically sophisticated custom metal components primarily to the global automotive industry. Kelly has made significant contributions to the community through her involvement in various organizations, including her current roles as a member of the Michigan West Coast Chamber board of directors, the Michigan Women Forward Advisory Council, and as Executive Champion for Inference Manufacturers next group. In addition, she was recognized in 2017 as the recipient of the Lakeshore Athena leadership award. Kelly, welcome to the show. Kelly Springer: Thank you for having me excited to share some time with you today. Lisa Ryan: Great. As we get started, please share a bit of your background, including why you chose to go into manufacturing. What led you to Metal Flow? Kelly Springer: Well, I started in manufacturing way before college. I worked in a family-owned business that had a manufacturing bent to it. It was a printing company and a family business. After graduating college, I went into accounting because my degree was in accounting. I was a public accountant for 23 years. During that time, the main focus of my practice was tied to manufacturing. Metal Flow was one of my clients. I joined the organization in 2013 as the chief financial officer was intrigued about leaving the consulting side of public accounting and being part of a team that was running a successful business. I spent a fair amount of time on the manufacturing floor and learned more about our processes in a family-owned business setting. I'm not a family member; I'm responsible for executing along with my executive team on all the things that make this business successful. We're going to talk a bit about people, and people are certainly the number one cornerstone of what we do here at Metal Flow. Lisa Ryan: When you look at how the labor market is right now, people are incredibly hard to find. The focus is on retaining the people you already have, those good people who are making everything work, and, of course, getting rid of the toxic people bringing everybody else down. Your tagline is people, process, products, pride, and where people come first. Please share your philosophy and how you've changed the culture over there. Kelly Springer: When you think about people, you don't have to go too far to hear lots of articles, podcasts, and media coverage about the uptick in automation in American manufacturing. That's an aspect. But the core foundation of what we do requires people to do it. We want folks to take great pride in the fact that they're part of the Metal Flow. We refer to our employees as team members. It starts by valuing them and the technical talents that so many of our roles have and recognizing that retention becomes a vital part of understanding what all those roles involve. So for us, it's just as crucial that the person who packs our parts in a box that ultimately puts the shipping label on them and sends them out the door feels equally as valued as the individual who ultimately manufacturers that part, with an extreme level of technical expertise that we relied on. When we think about that, and that philosophy, and or culture, we really were in a position where that became critical, even before the pandemic. Labor was tasked, and indeed, retention of those technical string paint trained individuals became essential to us, well in advance of that. We have focused on retention as a strategy for people for many years now, and it built that into our culture. Lisa Ryan: What are some of the things you do to make sure that that...

View Details

Connect with Prateek Joshi: prateek@plutoshift.com Website: www.PrateekJ.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. Our guest today is Prateek Joshi. Prateek is the founder of Pluto shift and a published author of 13 books. He's been featured in publications such as Forbes, CNBC, TechCrunch, and Bloomberg. You can also visit his website at Prateekj.com to learn more about him. Prateek, welcome to the show. Prateek Joshi: Thanks Lisa for having me. It's great to be here. Lisa Ryan: Alright, please tell us about your background and what got you both interested and involved in Ai. Prateek Joshi: I grew up in a small town in the southern part of India. When I was growing up, water was a beautiful luxury. In college, it stuck with me as I began my professional career. I studied machine learning Ai across law, a natural inclination. But there's a big gap in Ai in the physical world. It's not nearly as ubiquitous as it could be. We all know how to use it every day, as in search engines, but it was about machine learning. But there's a big gap when it comes to the physical world. That was the core motivation behind doing this, to bring Ai to the physical world. It started with water, meaning any physical infrastructure that touches the water and gathers data. So, we use Ai to solve a fundamental problem like water. How can we use it efficiently? How can we distribute it? How can we make sure it's not wasted? So, that's how it all started. Lisa Ryan: What are some of the applications of water that Ai would be used for? It's something that I would have never even thought of. Prateek Joshi: I ended up with a simple example. As the average consumers here in America, we get our water to a network of pipes. An essential part within that setup is called the cleaning process, meaning you'll get raw water from somewhere, and there are these very large treatment facilities that convert raw water into the water that we can consume. This is a very energy-intensive process, meaning you need to use a lot of electricity and chemicals to make sure the water is clean. If you're not careful, the water can leak and waste electricity, which is again a huge problem. A simple application collects data for pressure-temperature flow rates and then uses a tool like Ai to make sure you're not wasting water. You're not letting it leak, and you're not wasting electricity to clean water. This is one application of how you can use Ai efficiently. There are 100 other use cases as well. Lisa Ryan: When it comes to manufacturing, of course, water plays a significant role with many factories and plants. But as far as taking this into the manufacturing sector, how do you make Ai practical for manufacturers? Prateek Joshi: Let's look at a manufacturer. A simple example would be a company that produces food or beverage, and part of the process is to get raw material. Let's say you're making ketchup. You've got to get your raw material in, and then you need at least sources such as electricity, chemicals, and water. That goes into it, so raw material sources go into the facility when the ketchup comes. A manufacturing operation can be broken down into several steps if you look at a manufacturing operation. Each step has a certain efficiency level, meaning how much are you consuming to produce a unit of output now if we don't use any new technology? A human would have to do it. Imagine a facility where you have 300 membranes, like a filter. What stops this from going through, and you got to make sure that it's all functioning. You can't keep an eye on such extensive infrastructure by planning around as a human. The goal is how do we make sure that if let's say, Monday number 49 is acting up. How will we know if the pressure is going way up or it's going way down? You need to know. In the corporate world, you'll be sitting inside your office, and you want...

View Details

Connect with Ann Wyatt LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/awyattrecruits/ Website: https://www.annwyattrecruiting.com/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Ann Wyatt. Ann is President of Ann Wyatt recruiting. She's very passionate about workforce development and building a solid quality team, focusing on manufacturing. Her goal is to connect the right people to the right jobs. Ann, welcome to the show. Ann Wyatt: Lisa, thank you so much for having me. Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. Please share a bit about your background, how you got started in recruiting, and why the focus is on manufacturing. Ann Wyatt: Sure. I started my recruiting agency. I got into recruiting because I'm very passionate about workforce development. My first job after graduating college was working for the career Center. I worked my way up through the career Center. I enjoyed the jobs portion, matching the candidates with the companies and working with local area employers on job fairs. After that, I worked with the greenfield sites and hired new or existing candidates from the labor market, creating and developing labor market information profiles for economic development. In 2015, I decided that it was starting to get tight. We're already starting to see a tight candidate pool at that time. I decided that I could do a better service to the community by leaving the state and starting my own recruiting company, focusing strictly on manufacturing. Firstly, I picked manufacturing because it made up most of the workforce in the local area Bowling green, Kentucky, where I'm from. The wages were higher in manufacturing than in other industry sectors, so we had to work all positions when I was looking. When I was looking at the different industry sectors like health care, customer service, retail, and manufacturing, the wages were substantially higher in manufacturing than in other industries. I thought that somebody didn't have to have a college degree to go into manufacturing, and they could make perfect money. So, that was quite inspiring to me. I wanted to stick with the manufacturing and develop those relationships with the local area employers even further. One of the things we're seeing is the numbers all over the board. Lisa Ryan: With 2.8 million manufacturing jobs going unfilled by 2028 and all these other statistics that are out there, many manufacturers are all fighting over the same people. One of your areas of expertise is working with your clients on the candidate experience. A lot of times, they post a job. They don't think about it, or, as you say, they post and pray, and then whoever walks in the door doesn't think about it. It starts from the starting point of their candidates' experience. So what are some of how you've seen companies successfully elevate their candidate experience? Ann Wyatt: That's a great question, Lisa. I think that companies are still getting acclimated to the fact that this is a candidate-driven market. They have to put a lot more effort into recruiting quality talent than they were previously. They're used to the idea of posting job descriptions on a job board and just hoping and praying for the best. Companies with the most success and recruiting top talent are going through those extra steps to build a relationship with a candidate. From the moment they apply for the position, whether things like getting back to them or leaving them with an automated or canned response or no response. Whether that's having a great marketing and branding strategy where they do video job descriptions or creating interactive job descriptions that tell the candidate a little bit more about the company, their story, their brand, and their history. Whether that's being just more flexible with the candidates long term desires. For example, I just had a company come up with 5000 on their salary from their salary cap for a position. They...

View Details

Connect with Steve Burke: Website: https://www.hitech-industrial.com/ Phone: 219-707-5956. Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan, and welcome to the Manufacturer's Network Podcast. Our guest today is Steve Burke. Steve is President of HiTech Industrial, a multiline distributorship representing over 30 manufacturers. They support many sectors from steel, chemical, healthcare, transportation, automotive, and manufacturing. And after being in business for just over two years because of their focus on customer service, they have both made a profit and exceeded their goal. So, Steve, welcome to the show. Steve Burke: Good morning, Lisa. Thank you for having me. Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. So, Steve, share a bit of your journey and what led you to found HiTech Industrial. Steve Burke: My background is as a pipe fitter. For about 23years, I had the privilege of working in many different industries. I then moved into a service technician, multi-state, working in all the industries we usually cover: steel, chemical, heavy manufacturing, automotive, and more. And this allowed me to see exactly what's going on in their maintenance teams and some of the issues they're having. Lisa Ryan: Okay, so share a bit of that background, like where you were and then why you decided to start, what were you looking to create that was different from what you are seeing out there. Steve Burke: As a hands-on technician, I saw a distinct repetition of maintenance issues lubrication, hydraulics piping things that were not being done in their optimum way. Frequently, I would make suggestions, which would positively influence the customers' maintenance. So they would ask me to do other things like, Can you show some of my guys this? Could you work with me on that? What's this stuff about a Lubrication audit. So I broadened the spectrum of just being a parts replacer or providing a part to someone who provided a consultant service to increase reliability and help their maintenance teams. Lisa Ryan: And so then, how have you translated that into what you're doing with HiTech? Because, again, starting a business and meeting goals and making a profit right off the bat, you have to be doing something right. What do you attribute that to? Steve Burke: Well, I worked as a distributor for a pipe fitting for about ten years. So again, this took me deep into the engineering and the maintenance teams, working with them on significant problems that they were having and finding out other issues in hydraulics and lubrication things of this nature. Once I saw that I started asking questions and saying, Well, is this the first time this has happened? And often I heard, no, this happens all the time. I've got to make this repair. I've got to do this process over and over again. And when you started to ask why the answer was Gee, I don't know. It's the way we always did it. Henry Ford had a saying where he said, if you've always done what you always do, you always get what you always got. And I think that's true. And HiTech industrial is trying to bridge that gap and help them move into an area where they can find solutions to reliability and their maintenance problems. Lisa Ryan: So when some of the things that we talked about, some of the things that you focus on, things like being transparent, taking a sincere interest and actively listening to your customers and doing service, that goes one step beyond what are some of the philosophies that led you to do that, like transparency. I'm sure that you sometimes have to tell your customers things that they don't necessarily want to hear, but that transparency also does well for you. So talk a bit of that. We'll start with transparency. Steve Burke: Sure, it's been a key for us to work personally with our customers, whether it be a maintenance manager, whether it be the President of a manufacturing company, or whether it just be a technician. And we have to make some hard statements like you mentioned, you can't do it...

View Details

Connect with Martin DeBono: Website: http://www.gaf.energy/ (www.GAF.energy) LinkedIn: Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. Our guest today is Martin DeBono. Martin is President of GAF energy. GAF energy has built a combined manufacturing and R&D facility in California, where they are currently building the next generation of solar roofing systems. Martin, welcome to the show. Martin DeBono: Thank you for having me. Lisa Ryan: So share with us a bit about your background and what led you into solar. Martin DeBono: Out of college, I joined the navy. I was a submarine officer for five years after serving in the military. I pursued a career in technology, working for various software and hardware companies during that journey. A recruiter reached out to me and said, hey, are you interested in working for the solar power company? This conversation took place back in 2012. At the time, I thought solar power, that's just a niche industry. It turns out that even at the time, it wasn't an easy industry, and it's been growing very quickly. Last year, more than half of all the new electricity generation in the United States came from solar. For the last eight or nine years, I've been in solar. I recently became the President of GAF energy, an operating company in the standard industry family of companies. Standard Industries is best known for owning the largest roofing manufacturing company in Europe. So we joined a company with a strong heritage in roofing and manufacturing. The reason for this is that there is a convergence between solar roofing and being part of the world's largest manufacturer, and we felt it would be a great platform in which to push both industries forward. Lisa Ryan: So why solar? What are some of the opportunities that you see for solar long term? I live in Cleveland, Ohio, so that's not usually where we think of the sun a lot. Martin DeBono: I'm here in California, one of the nation's leading solar markets. What's remarkable is the cost of solar generators has come down, and the cost of electricity has gone up. In solar, you're getting electricity from technology. We've seen the pricing of technology go down. The price of your iPhone has come down. The cost of computers has come down. You get way more performance at a similar price point. Solar energy is following the price of other technology. We get more for the same price, whereas traditional energy – coal, natural gas, etc. - is going up because those commodity prices are rising with inflation. The opportunity with solar energy is enormous, including in places like Ohio, especially when you incorporate the solar generating material into the building itself. By manufacturing a solar roof, we can kill two birds with one stone, integrating the solar and roofing systems. It reduces costs and will allow more people to get the benefits of solar electricity, which is a more reliable source of electricity. It's also a less expensive source of electricity than what you get from utilities. Lisa Ryan: It's also obviously a lot cleaner and something that we don't have to worry about running out of any time soon. As far as the contribution of making a difference on the planet, it also sounds like solar has a leg up on a lot of the other places that we get our energy from. Martin DeBono: Many people aren't sure about the impacts of climate change and global warming, but I try to tell many people that the effects of getting fossil fuels include shipping. You're transporting it, and that takes money. As a veteran myself, we have the Sixth Fleet, which protects the Persian Gulf to ensure oil supplies. So, first, there's a benefit for the self-generation of electricity. Second, the answer is staring us in the face during the day, or at least for half the day. The amount of energy that the sun transmits to the earth in one minute Is the equivalent of all the world's power plants' output any year. If...

View Details

Connect with Gil Mayron: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gilmayron/ Website: https://cobotnation.com/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. Our guest today is Gil Mayron. Gil is the founder and CEO of Cobot Nation, Architects of Automation. Before Cobot, Gil was a pioneer of the consumer 3D printing industry, as the founder and CEO of Botmill 3D, which manufactured and sold the first fully assembled desktop 3D printers. 3D Systems Corp acquired Botmill. He resides in Las Vegas, Nevada, with his wife and two children. Gil, welcome to the show. Gil Mayron: Thank you. Lisa Ryan: So share with us your background and what led you to everything you're doing in robotics and automation. Gil Mayron: I started in 3D printing. 3D printing is inherently slow, so there are only so many things that you can do to speed up the printing process when usually they use lasers, plastic filament, or some other method. But most of the time, it's going either point by point or layer by layer, so the only way that you can speed up 3D printing is typically through something like automation. We recognized early on that automation was in the same phase as 3D printing. When I sold the company back in 2011, very few companies took it on the consumer level. The industrial patents are starting to expire, and it makes sense that the adoption is coming around now, especially since you have code. Lisa Ryan: That has changed the industrial landscape, hasn't it? Gil Mayron: My background in 3D printing led me to do automation and robotics; it's a very similar type of process when it comes to sales and other things like that. The only difference over here is that we deal with customers directly. We're not making a product that we're selling as a commodity; we are making a highly customizable product to the customers' needs. We do something very few do. What led me over to robotics is that 3D printing is slow. It's inherently slow, and the way that you can speed it up is through automation. So automating little tiny tasks between the more significant tasks, and in automation, especially in industrial robots. We saw the same scenario in 3D printing in 2008, 2009, and 2010 which led me to sell the company in 2011. The industrial companies, so all the large industrial robotic arms, are incredibly high priced. It isn't easy to integrate within your company, so we saw that the opportunity was virtually identical to what we saw in 3D printing. Lisa Ryan: Oh wow. What do you think when it comes to robotics? We've been talking a lot about automation and the need for automation, but what role do you think robotics plays as far as the future of manufacturing. Gil Mayron: The role that robotics plays in the future of manufacturing is probably upwards of 95% or more within the actual processes being done. Our engineers go out to facilities daily. It's incredible how many facilities that we go to, which are some of the largest names in the world, and they have no automation or the automation that they think they have is not automation. It's not helping up the flow of what they're doing. All of the repetitive tasks; all the things where you have humans that could be sitting on the floor sitting on a chair; they're doing something for a few hours at a time, because their safety reasons, or they physically get tired. Those are all things that are going to get replaced. Those are all things that we can easily have robots do. Those are things that are happening right now. You'll probably see a massive transition happen for the next 12 to 24 months, especially considering that our customers were saying that they're having problems hiring labor, so not only are they automating, but they're having problems hiring work. Lisa Ryan: So what do you think has been part of the hesitation when you go into these plants, especially large companies where you think automation will be a natural fit? Why the hesitation for...

View Details

Connect with Joel Block: Website: JoelBlock.com Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm here today with Joel Block. Joel is a futurist, long-time venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager, which is gobbledygook for a professional investor who lives in a shark tank like on TV. Initially, an expert blackjack player, counting cards, and beating casinos in Las Vegas, Joel later built and sold his publishing company to a Fortune 500 company. Joel, welcome to the show. Joel Block: Lisa, thanks for having me. How are you? Lisa Ryan: Good, good, thanks. I know that this is a manufacturing podcast, and we're going to be getting there. There are all kinds of disruptive business trends going on in manufacturing. Before we get started, you are a professional investor, which means you look forward in time. How do you decide exactly what to do regarding these trends that you're talking about? Joel Block: I started in the gambling business, and I take risks for a living. I look at things. Investors give me their capital. I'm not a broker. Investors literally give me their money, and then we buy something together, and then we share the profits. That's how Wall Street works. It's how my business functions, and that's been in that business for 30 years. I've bought and sold companies. I've built and sold my own company from scratch to a big company, and I've done with many other companies entrepreneurial-type people have tried to do. I look at companies from many different perspectives, and I think about the impact of other things happening in the world. Then I think about who will win, who will lose, and that's how I do it. One of the things that we'll talk about, I hope, is disruptive business trends because these are things that could knock you out of your lane or cause you some problems. I like to think about that. I want to think about what could go right, what could go wrong, and the impact of different kinds of external and internal things. There's a lot here, and you will unpack a lot of stuff. Lisa Ryan: So, how did you get started in all this? What was your journey as far as where you started and how you ended up here? Joel Block: I learned how to play blackjack as a young. I was 20-21 years old. I was in casinos. I was playing, and actually, I knew I was good at it. But I also knew if I kept playing, I wouldn't have gone to college, and it would have been bad for me in the long run. So I ended up getting an accounting degree and became a CPA. I worked at Price Waterhouse, but I was a little rebellious. I wasn't an excellent account. If I didn't quit, I'd been fired for sure. What made me not be a good accountant made me great in business. I asked a lot of questions. I always wondered, and they didn't want me to wonder things. They wanted me to be a good soldier and do the work. I wasn't a good soldier, but I was a great general. That wasn't what they needed from me, so I get that, and it wasn't the right environment. So I started a real estate syndication company where I learned how to raise capital. I learned how this stuff works and then started a venture capital transaction I built and sold. I've just stayed in that business ever since. I love doing deals and buying and selling things. I spent a lot of time helping executives of different kinds of companies to see the world. It may be another way because I bring a different perspective to them. I helped them to learn from all the things that I've learned. You go inside of 1000 companies in your career – buying, selling, looking at their books and records and be involved with those companies, and you learn a few things. I've been around the block and share a lot of Intel with my clients or companies we work with. Lisa Ryan: A lot of the discussions you get into have to do with private equity, so what exactly does that mean, and why are you having these kinds of conversations with manufacturers recently? Joel Block: Many...

View Details

Connect with Michelle Katics: Email: Michelle@BankersLab.com. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellekatics/ Website: BankersLab.com Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. Our guest today is Michelle Katics. Michelle is co-founder and CEO of Bankers Lab who provide lending simulation tools to the financial sector for the last ten years in over 30 countries. Bankers Lab is making these financial simulations available to the manufacturing sector, which can benefit from the world-class solutions used by banks for years. Bankers Lab is working to disrupt finance in the manufacturing sector, reduce the time and friction required to finance manufacturing equipment, and enable more rapid innovation. Michelle, welcome to the show. Michelle Katics: Thank you for having me, Lisa. Lisa Ryan: Michelle, please share with us some of your background and what led you to do what you're doing with Bankers Lab. Michelle Katics: Well, I'm a recovering banker who was solving problems. I was working internationally in banking, we were trying to teach people across our banks' footprint in 57 countries how to optimize their portfolios, which was no easy feat. My background is very much mathematics and economics. It seemed like everything I had done till that point came together. We saw that simulation was a way to solve those problems to help people see things that you can't see from a textbook and to see how the world works through simulation. Lisa Ryan: So, share with us a bit of that process. When I think simulation, I think video games and I think of flying a plane and trying not to crash it. How does that look like in the banking industry? Michelle Katics: Well, the concept is the same in a sense. We use the analogy of a flight simulator. We say to people, okay, that's great you can drive the plane, but do you know what to do in a storm? Do you can you do a water landing? It is pretty comical if you Google how to do a water landing in an airplane. It gives you ten steps, but it's ten steps. Set the flaps to this. Set that attack angle to that, etc. Anybody can read those steps, and you can probably memorize them and repeat them as a trick at the bar or something. There's no way you and I will do a water landing. There's such a difference between just reading something in a textbook and practicing it. The concept of simulation, which is what they use in most verticals. Most industry verticals these days are something we also do. In the financial sector, you'd say, gosh, it's been my dream to learn how to manage a multi-billion dollar credit card portfolio. I don't know why you'd have that dream these abilities. No problem, give me two days with you, and we're going to put you into the simulator, and you're going to make all these decisions about the portfolio. What are my credit criteria? What size credit limits should I give people. The thing about simulation in any simulation is that you press the button, and you get to see what will happen in two years. You see it instantly, so your learning loop is seconds long, whereas if you try to learn by doing and your job, you'd have to wait two years. It creates this very rapid learning. When you have these complex portfolios, with the cause and effect in there, it's just such an easy way for people to wrap their heads around that. They can practice, not just the core concepts, but they can also anticipate what might happen in the future. Clients can come to us and say, well, we think this might happen next year, what should we do? No problem, let's simulate it. So, you know, do the fire drill if you will. Lisa Ryan: So, what are you seeing or how are you seeing manufacturers using this type of technology? Michelle Katics: It is a new thing for us, and it's really fun. In manufacturing, if you step back for a minute and look at the industry, you've always had massive manufacturers doing their finance, such as GE capital. In the...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. Our guest today is Rich Morin. Rich spent 20 years helping companies recruit, interview, hire, and retain employees that fit their culture. In addition, he spent eight years in the US managing the sales of Fortune 500 companies selling Boeing, Sikorsky, General Dynamics, General Motors, Ford, Mack truck, and many others. He also trained many managers in leadership and coaching skills, including helping sales forces become more competent and confident in sales skills. Rich, welcome to the show. Rich Morin: Well, I appreciate it, and thank you very much for the opportunity. Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. Would you please share with us about your background and what led you to do what you're doing? Rich Morin: It's a short story. Twenty-one years ago, I was involved with a training company that also dealers for international hiring assessments. Although that company met its demise, I'm still a very active dealer with Profiles International, which puts me in front and center with companies looking to recruit, interview, hire, coach, and retain the kinds of people that fit their company and culture. I have spent a reasonable amount of time interviewing my clients, providing the objective tools for the hiring process. We all have been guilty of hiring somebody on a gut feeling, and a short while later, we regretted that gut feeling because the good feeling is gone. Then you have to terminate the person without objective data. Unfortunately, that still happens too often. Lisa Ryan: I'm sure well, let's go with the thinking about the hold on. Thinking about those profiles of people you've talked about, a certain gut feeling went with it that could sometimes lead us to hire wrong. In today's workplace, where it's so difficult to find people, it makes it more critical than ever to make sure you're bringing on the right people. How do profiles help you to do that, knowing about that person before they ever come on board? Rich Morin: Well, there are two answers to your question. First, and speaking of what profiles has an example, a pattern is made of the position, so the company takes a hard look at what they expect from this position in person. The applicant then completes a series of questions, and these cover the gamut from mathematics to general knowledge to verbal skills and so on. It becomes a match against the company's pattern, so now, you have the job call it manufacturing manager or sales manager doesn't matter. There's a pattern, and then you see the fit, that is, the level of fit between the applicant and the position. I'm coming out of that where the applicant fell out of the grading. So, if you can imagine, and I can send sample reports, of course, but on a scale of one through 10, if the position requires a 6, 7, 8 and if the applicant is weak, of course, it will generate interview questions to help examine that. Two things happen. The company then realizes maybe they don't need that higher level of skill, or the person is flat out not going to make it. So they're probably going to struggle if you do hire them for that position. But the good news is you can match them against a different position using the same data. Perhaps there's a better fit, so what comes out of this, you're right. You've got an applicant in a very thin field these days. There's not a lot of them applying, but now, if they don't fit the first position they applied for, they're offered a second position to which they fit. They go, wow, I'll take that job because they fit. Part of this has got to do with their cerebral ability, verbal reasoning, numerical skill, and numerical reasoning. We are the only critters that use numbers and words. Some people are good at numbers, and some are not. If the job requires a lot of numbers, it's nice to know that upfront. They might interview well and look great, but if they can't do numbers, they're

View Details

Connect with Chip Hautala Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chiphautala/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/motionsource-international-llc/ Website: www.MotionSource1.com. Phone: 888-963-moto or 888-963-6686. Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm here today with Chip Hautala. Chip is CEO at MotionSource international. He's an experienced business owner and C-level executive with a demonstrated history of working in the machinery and manufacturing industry. In addition, he has business development skills, working with startups, sales development, budgeting, business planning, and team building. Chip, welcome to the show. Chip Hautala: Thank you, Lisa, glad to be here. Lisa Ryan: Chip, please share with us a bit about your background and what led you to MotionSource? Chip Hautala: I founded MotionSource in 2012. We're in our tenth year. Before that, I was involved in industrial distribution lubrication and hydraulics with another company. I was a CIO and CFO there. After they let me go, a number of our suppliers contacted me and asked me if I had was if I was going to start my own company. I said, well, I hadn't thought about it. After five or six of them came to me and said, you really should start your own company, I did that. That's how MotionSource began. Lisa Ryan: So you were doing something right if you have vendors and suppliers coming to you and wanting you to start your own company. What do you think are some of the things that you were doing right? You have a pretty cool culture over there. For ten years, you've been doing it. What do you think it was that made those people reach out to you? Chip Hautala: I think it's because I had hired every person who works there in the former business I was in. I take a team concept as I'm an old ballplayer. People say a small business is a family. I say no. Families can be dysfunctional, but teams work together. Teams always have each other's back. So I developed a team mentality, and I carry that over into MotionSource. My word is my bond. I've never gone back on my word in business, and I think that counts for something. Lisa Ryan: And how have you incorporated that team concept into MotionSource? What does that look like for your employees? Chip Hautala: Everyone works together. JFK had a saying that a rising tide lifts all ships. We have profit sharing. Some benefits that make it possible for everyone to work together. We have split commissions. If you were one of our salespeople and you didn't quite know enough about this. There was somebody else in a building and did they can work with you on that. They're going to receive a commission too. You're going to receive a commission, so everybody wins in the end. I'm big on quotes, but there's a Bruce Springsteen quote that says nobody wins unless everybody wins. That's the way I run the business. Lisa Ryan: That's a unique outlook when it comes to sales. Often you have one salesperson, and they go in, close the account, and get all the commission, even though a lot of other people potentially help them do that. It sounds like you created something that allows everybody on that team to win. Chip Hautala: Exactly. It's a team mentality because everybody wins when we win. It's a matter of making sure that everyone is taken care of; everybody does their job. So it lends to a more cooperative environment. When the company makes a profit, which we've been making for many years now, at the end of the year, we sit down, and we say, okay, we're going to divvy this up among everyone. Everybody gets an equal share of what the profit is. I don't need to be a multi-millionaire. But everybody and I always tell everyone here. You know what? This is how I feed my family, but this is how you feed your family. Let's stick together on this. Let's work together. It's led to an incredibly high employee retention level. Lisa Ryan: What are some...

View Details

Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast, the Thanksgiving week edition. Yes, it is Thanksgiving week in the United States, and doing something special today, I thought we'd talk about the THANKS process. This concept is what I talk about in the programs that I do. It's about creating a culture of appreciation in the workplace, so you can keep your top talent from becoming someone else's. Engagement is essential in manufacturing because it is difficult to find people who want to come into manufacturing and stay in manufacturing. We also want to create the type of culture that makes people want to stay with us. By looking at the six steps of the THANKS process. by the end of our time together, hopefully, you'll have some ideas that you can start implementing not only throughout the holidays but all year long. When we look at the acronym THANKS, the T stands for trust. So what are you doing with your team to establish trust? There are too many times that you're thinking about, oh let's try this new product, let's try this new program, let's do this new engagement initiative. Your employees are thinking, oh no one more thing; they're going to try to bring us in to get more productivity to try to squeeze more effort out of us. After a couple of weeks, you drop that and go right back to doing something else when it doesn't work. Find one thing that works, find something that works for you and make a commitment to doing that. Listen to your employees, ask them for the things that they want to see. Now, sometimes that can be scary because you're thinking they're going to say, well, I want $10 more an hour, and I want to work, three days a week, Or I want to work remote. You're working manufacturing gotta show up and run the equipment can't be working remotely. Look for ways to build those relationships by consistency by transparency. Too many times, managers believe that employees are only out for there's. Too often, managers believe that employees are only out to serve their self-interests. But, unfortunately, employees believe that management is also out to say and have their self-interests. When we create the type of culture where both sides can see that we're working together for the benefit of each other, then we can establish trust. Your employees aren't necessarily going to like everything you tell them. But, when they know that you're coming from a place of transparency, you're coming from a place of their good. You're looking out for the organization and what you're trying to create there. Then, over time, things will start to change. Your culture took a long time to build. It is certainly not going to change overnight. That's the thing with building trust. It takes a long time to establish, and it can evaporate with an eye roll. Think of some of the things you're doing that can establish that trust. For example, how have you built trust with some of your top team members? The H in thanks is how you help your employees. How do you help them be better tomorrow than they are today? This means investing in your team members. Too often, managers will say, if I spend all that money on training, those employees will take all that investment and go somewhere else. So let me ask you, what if you don't invest in them and they stay? No employee ever quit because of too much training. As we're having millennials and gen Z in the workplace and gen alpha following them, these people are looking for professional and personal investment. That's just that skills training in the plant, as far as what they're going to use, it's personal development. So looking at that employee holistically, what can you do for them that will make them better in every aspect of their life. I spoke at an HR conference, and I asked the question now, how do you invest in your employees? A woman raised her hand, and she said that they give every employee 1500 dollars a year to invest in whatever personal or professional...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm here today with Jon Franco. Jon Franco is the thinker and co-founder of Gorilla 76, an industrial marketing agency in St Louis, Missouri. Jon's day-to-day activities are focused on growing and developing a great team rooted in great relationships and creating an award-winning culture. Jon's mission is to create the best workplace in town. Jon, welcome to the show. Jon Franko: Thanks for having me. It's nice to be here. Lisa Ryan: Jon, please share with us a bit about your background and what led you to do what you're doing now with Gorilla. Jon Franko: I'm a 2005 graduate of the University of Missouri, Columbia journalism school. I went to school and initially thought I wanted to be a long-form news writer. I quickly found out that probably wasn't my thing. I had an aunt in the marketing space that opened my eyes to what an agency looks like and how to use a journalism background in a more business environment, so I became a copywriter. I worked a couple of years of a small agency, a small good-sized agency here in St Louis. At the same time, I was building Gorilla 76, which I'm a Co-founder of on the side. In 2008, my business partner and I turned in our notice and started Gorilla full-time. We haven't looked back. In terms of specifically focusing on the manufacturing space, it just happened. We got some early opportunities in the industrial world. We did well with those. It matched our design and creative style. Using word of mouth naturally and different things, you continue to get more opportunities in that space. Finally, in 2011 or 2012, we thought, what if we just hang our hat on this industrial thing altogether. It's a fascinating space - great clients, great people. They genuinely look at working with us as partnerships, whereas sometimes, you work with some big household name brands. So I feel like sometimes you're the punching bag when you're the Agency partners. So it's been great, and that's how I've gotten to where I am today. Lisa Ryan: So when it comes to working with these manufacturers, it's probably one of the reasons. They want a manufacturer. They don't want to spend all of their time marketing, so they leave that to the professionals. What are some ways you have found that having a good copy and a marketing presence has helped these manufacturers? What are small to medium manufacturers? Is it medium to large? Give us a little bit of an idea to recap what you do for them. Jon Franko: We describe it as in terms of the size, the middle market on the low end might be 15 to 20 million. They're doing a year in business on the high end. They might be 250 to 300, will even extend beyond that. It depends on their internal setup. In terms of what we're doing, it's very much like we know in the manufacturing space. It's typically a very consultative sales process. You're not calling overnight, most of the time. I'm going to switch and start working with a different manufacturer, different provider. It's much more of an educational process that needs to be baked into the selling process. That's where we help people, and that's where long-form content, not a promotional copy. We're not saying we're the best at doing this, but here's why we do it the way we do it. Here's one way you can do it. Oh, by the way, that's how we do it. It's creating opportunities. It knows that there's a consultative sales process and helping our clients. They can fill their pipeline with people who are yearning for that, that are doing information searching. They are looking online to try to find answers to questions. So we're helping put our clients in that position where they're answering those questions. Lisa Ryan: What are some of the best practices you're seeing regarding how manufacturers promote themselves in the marketplace? Jon Franko: It's a variety of things. Anytime you can have transparency and just brutal honesty....

View Details

Connect with Todd Carroll: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-carroll-65b11914/ Website: https://www.bbman.com/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm here today with Todd Carroll. Todd is the Vice President of sales at B&B Manufacturing, serving the United States and Canada. B&B is a manufacturer of timing pulleys, synchronous belts, and power transmission products. Todd, welcome to the show. Todd Carroll: Good morning, Lisa. Thanks for having me. Lisa Ryan: Absolutely! Todd, please share a bit about your background and what led you to manufacturing and with B&B. Todd Carroll: Great. I've was born and raised around this industry. I grew up in Indiana and went to Purdue University. When I graduated, my dad had an independent distributorship here in Indianapolis. I was able to get familiar with the different manufacturers that he represented. As I graduated from Purdue, I got into manufacturing with one of his tier-one manufacturers. My journey started there down in Dallas, Texas, Arlington, Texas. It then took me to Portland, Oregon, and then Minnesota - all with that one manufacturer. I like to see how things are made from the raw form into finished form and where it goes in the marketplace. Manufacturing is unique from a pair of power transmission standpoints because there's not anything you didn't get up this morning that manufacturing and our products didn't have some role in making, whether it's making toothpaste or coffee or whatever. I've also spent a little time on the distribution side with some different distributors, national distributors in the United States. But I've always found my way back to manufacturing. It's my comfort zone and my happy place. I like to connect people with products, solve problems, and come up with solutions for manufacturers for the customer. Lisa Ryan: One of the things that we talked about in our initial conversation is that we want to change the conversation to bring more people into manufacturing and in today's competitive workplace where everybody's fighting for the same people. You must create the type of culture that people want to work for, and there are just so many things that you were doing there at B&B to make that happen. Was this something that was kind of always part of your DNA, as far as building those relationships, or was there something with B&B that you just decided to start changing things and connecting with employees? What are some of the things you're doing and some of the thoughts behind it? Todd Carroll: If you talk to anybody who knows me, they will tell you that I'm in sales and I like to talk a lot, so I connect pretty well with people. At B&B, one of the nice things is that we've got a privately owned company. Bob Hamilton is our owner and CEO. I've known him for probably about 20 years. So when we talked about my coming on board to set up the sales and marketing aspects of B&B, I started to get to know Bob well as the leadership team that he's put into place. I began to understand what kind of culture he was creating there. In today's workplace, you're fighting for talent, and it's hard to find it. How do you keep it? How do you bring it in the door? One of the things that we do is a standard benefits package. You've got your 401 k's contributions, but we also have profit sharing. If we hit a specific goal for the company, then the company kicks in a bit more percentage for its overall profit sharing side. We've also got a gym onsite, and Bob pays the employees to work out. If you have a certain group within the organization - let's say that because we're a manufacturer, we've got primaries out in the shop. We've got secondaries. We've got shipping, receiving, packing, etc. If your team does all the workouts during the month and there's 100% participation, you get to take off a Friday, about two o'clock, and you get paid the rest of the day for it. Bob also pays...

View Details

Contact Will Healy, III LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willhealyiii/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm here today with Will Healy, III. Will is enthusiastic about manufacturing technology and workforce development. A Purdue University mechanical engineer who loves to share his passion for automation, Will is a leader with Baluff Worldwide and the Advanced Manufacturing Industry Partnership or AMIP. He speaks from personal experience about the industrial revolution, managing culture change, and organizations bridging the manufacturing skills gap and creating value through automation. Be sure to follow Will on YouTube, Twitter, and Reddit with a handle #willautomate. Will, welcome to the show. Will Healy III: So glad to be here. Thank you for having me, Lisa. Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. Would you please share with us a bit of your background? One of the things, because people can't see you on this podcast, but you are a younger generation coming into manufacturing, so tell us a bit of your background and again as a younger person than what we're used to seeing in manufacturing how your path led here. Will Healy III: I'm right on the border of gen X and millennials, so I have some gen X tendencies, but I have plenty of millennial tendencies like I'm looking at my phone right now. I went to military school when I was a kid and learned a lot about discipline. I was good at physics and math and chemistry in high school, and so people said, well, you should be an engineer. I didn't know any better, so I went to mechanical engineering school. I will say about mechanical engineering school is you don't want me to design anything, and the second thing is they make minimum requirements for a reason. So, Lisa, do you know what they call someone in engineering school who gets the minimum requirements? Lisa Ryan: I have no idea. Will Healy III: They call them an engineer. You get an engineering degree. You just met the minimum requirements. I have a mechanical engineering degree and but I was a people person all through school. I was building groups around me and studying those kinds of things, so I knew I didn't want to design and started technical sales. So I started looking into technical sales as an option, and I think many students don't even know that that's a thing. They believe they have to be a design engineer if they go to engineering school. There are so many career paths that have nothing to do with designing. You still need to understand the technical background. So I went into technical sales with Baluff. I spent many years doing industries like welding and stamping, food and beverage. I've worked in the wind industry - all working on automation and how we use technology, and we use automation to improve the output of our factories and improve the lives of our workers. I spent the last 15-16 years doing automation with Baluff in a variety of roles. I have been in product management, and now I know I do marketing strategy and work on where the company should be going and what we should discuss. Lisa Ryan: I know that you are active on YouTube, Twitter, Reddit - all of that. That's one of the things to kind of change the conversation when it comes to introducing people to manufacturing - letting people know what's out there, what kind of career paths are there. What are some of the things you're sharing, and where are you getting the most responses or questions? How's your social media journey been? Will Healy III: I loved LinkedIn from the beginning. I thought it was a neat place to connect with people, and I call it my digital Rolodex, so getting a business card now is a reminder to find someone on LinkedIn. But I see it as such a powerful tool to connect with people uniquely. I've had a lot of success with LinkedIn, but I've also had a lot of success in person. So we can talk about the skills gap and hiring and everything that everyone's talking about,...

View Details

Connect with Charlie Carter: Website: https://aisc.org/ Email: carter@aisc.org Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today. Charlie Carter. Charlie, a structural engineer by education and for most of his career, is now the President of the American Institute of Steel Construction, the AISC. The AISC is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit technical institute and trade association that serves the structural steel design community and construction industry in the United States. Charlie, welcome to the show. Charlie Carter: Thanks, Lisa. I appreciate you having me. Lisa Ryan: Please share with us a bit of your background. I know that you spent most of it as an engineer, so what led you to do what you're doing now? Charlie Carter: Yes, well, I graduated with an engineering degree in structural engineering 30 years ago. It was a time where it was difficult to find a job. But there was this job at ASIC, which I knew from my education. I was taught steel design, and I took that job not knowing what it would be. But 30 years later, here I still am. I thought I was in my forever until retirement job. In my previous role, I was Vice President and chief structural engineer running all the technical activities of AISC on behalf of our industry members and serving the design Community traction industry. But as fate sometimes has it, there's one other thing you might not have expected. So I became interested interviewed and was selected to be a is each President, my current role. Lisa Ryan: The AISC is a credentialing organization, so please share with us what you do for the steel construction industry. Charlie Carter: You mentioned in the introduction that we're a technical Institute and a trade association. Those are two very different functions. Usually, they are separate, but the AISC has existed for 100 years. So we're 100 years old this year. Lisa Ryan: So, happy anniversary. Charlie Carter: Thank you very much. It's been strange here to have an anniversary, but you can celebrate everything virtual. If you look at our founding, we were founded by some very smart people who saw a need to have things like the basis for design, the basis for contracting, and resources that would be useful. So in the 1920s, they created standards that engineers could follow in the design process and contracting standards, where you didn't have to invent the wheel every time you wanted to buy and sell structural steel. These are resources that people could refer to know what was acceptable and, more importantly, acceptable. The AISC, in its technical institute function, has been serving that role of documents. The building code references every jurisdiction in the United States that uses the international building code design, and construction is done according to the standards we write. The key role that AISC provides as a technical Institute is creating that information and all the information that supports it. There are somewhere north of 300 volunteers - experts in design and construction - who give their time, expertise, and wisdom to create all that information. It's been maintained by the succession of those volunteers for 100 years. In 100 years, somebody will say that it's been done for 200 years. There will always be buildings and bridges made out of steel and a need for information. The trade association part serves the industry that we exist in. They are the businesses that make the steel in a mill where it has a service Center where it's cut it to length, put holes in it, fittings on it, and prepare to ship to the field to be erected into buildings and bridges and those are steel fabricators. Those are the primary Members that we serve. Interestingly, we help them most by providing all that information to the design community to pick steel and designs. Then they have work to do, and that's what their businesses are based on. So

View Details

Contact Sunny Han Email: Sunny@fulcrumpro.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yusunnyhan/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited today to introduce you to Sunny Han. Sunny is the CEO and founder of Fulcrum Manufacturing, an ERP platform dedicated to helping manufacturers build a better future. He led Fulcrum to raise a $3.1 million seed round of venture capital in 2020. Sunny is dedicated to delivering a connected future where frictionless manufacturing production and supply chains lead to faster and better product innovation. Sunny, welcome to the show. Sunny Han: Thanks for having me, Lisa. Lisa Ryan: So, please share with us a bit about your background. Where you started, and what led you to do what you're doing today? Sunny Han: There's no magical story. My entire childhood was spent playing with computers and writing software and making friends with people that played video games with me and things like that. So I have a deep-seated past in technology. How I got into manufacturing was having no direction after college and working in the consulting industry. Because of that, I was exposed to many manufacturers, and I spent almost a decade working with midsize and small manufacturers. Between five to 10 employees, all the way up to hundreds or thousands of employees, and the flavor of that work was mainly in organizing them, helping them communicate better internally implementing technologies to assist with implementing earpiece systems, customizing them, writing custom software on top of them, helping them position themselves in the market correctly, and doing all sorts of different things. Through that experience of learning about all different types of manufacturing, I started to get this hunch that a new operating system for manufacturing could drive a very different future of how manufacturers work with technology. It wasn't as if I was born on a shop floor with a tool in my hand or something like that. It was a very circuitous path that led me here. But it's something that I've fallen in love with over time. Lisa Ryan: That's what we need. Not only do you bring more youth to manufacturing than what we're seeing, but for the most part, the silver tsunami is going. People are retiring in record numbers. So that easy adaptation you bring to technology and your love of manufacturing all woven together is precisely the type that we need to change the conversation. I mean, there's so much focus on er P and technology and everything in manufacturing. However, as you and I spoke a couple of minutes before the show, we still need to focus on humans. So how do you look at that? As far as that ideal mix of making sure we're taking care of our employees, attracting them into manufacturing, retaining them, and bringing in the technology, we need to move forward. Sunny Han: I think there's this weird tension that exists right now, and I think most people don't understand it. I didn't understand it for an extended time. I don't think I still fully understand it. Still, manufacturing has been the origin of many business concepts, six Sigma, lean, agile, Kanban, kaizen - all of these concepts that have been ported over to software development and other businesses. They were developed primarily to make manufacturing more efficient and have these processes available to improve continuously. So I think there's a statistic that over half of all the software programmers in the world were CNC machine programmers. So writing software for manufacturers has a rich history of manufacturing - both supporting, sponsoring, and ultimately spreading the word of technology out into the world. So that's where they started. And yet, when you ask them about manufacturing, most people ask a 20-year-old or a 25-year-old or even a 30-year-old, and the impression is that it's an old backward industry. It's dirty and a little less technologically advanced. This tension is weird and...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. Our guest today is Todd Miller. Todd is President of Isaiah Industries, based near Dayton, Ohio. Their company is a manufacturer of specialty metal roofing. They ship their products throughout North America and Japan, Hawaii, and the Caribbean. A young baby Boomer, Todd's entire career has been in manufacturing and marketing with Isaiah. He co-owns the business with his college roommate. Todd, welcome to the show. Todd Miller: Thanks so much, Lisa. I'm delighted to be here - I love what you do. Lisa Ryan: Well, thank you. Todd, please share with us a bit of your background. It sounds like you've been with Isaiah pretty much your entire career, but you still had to make that choice at some point to join Isaiah, so what got you there? Todd Miller: Yeah, that's an interesting concept. My father had started the business when I was in high school, so I worked here in the summers and things like that during high school and college. I went to college for a degree in communications which, when I graduated, I realized prepared me to do almost nothing. It was about as meaningful as had I gotten an English degree. I discovered it at the end, but it was fascinating. I was going out, doing a typical interviewing thing, and realized that everyone was trying to put me in an entry-level position, which would have been great you got to start someplace. But I had something already with my father's business and based upon my years of experience there and summers and even doing some part-time writing and design work. I just was able to step into a role there that had me at a little bit more than just an entry-level position in terms of an industry that I somewhat knew something about. That started 40 years of more learning. Lisa Ryan: When it comes to staying in your father's business, in our ideal perfect world, that's the succession planning. But we also hear of people that want something better for their kids and not the hard work that I've done. I want you to go to college and get that communication degree. But what was that experience like? Was it good that you decided to stay with your father, or was there any disappointment that you didn't go out into the world and find something of your own? Todd Miller: You always wonder, well what if, or what could have been but, again I kind of look at it, that has been in one industry one general position my entire career. I want to think that that's helped me develop a certain level of mastery. Don't get me wrong, I'm always learning, and that's what I love the most about it. The thing is if you're not if you're always learning from where you are, and you're always going higher up, you're never going back to an entry-level position and having to rebuild. I've liked that. We had a fantastic relationship for many years in the business. My father was the engineer, so he was the one that kept things going from a manufacturing standpoint. I was the silly marketing and sales guy, and then a couple of years after I was here, my college roommate came into the business, and he was our finance numbers-purchasing person. That was great because the three of us each knew our roles. We respected each other, and we were good still love to have input from each other. It just functioned well. My father, unfortunately, had a stroke at a relatively young age, which took him out of the picture from a day-to-day standpoint. However, we had great team members who stepped into that engineering and manufacturing and maintenance for all. We hardly missed a beat as a company, although we saw him regularly, he has passed away. Lisa Ryan: So what is it that you love about the metal roofing business. Todd Miller: I enjoy the people. I've been heavily involved over the years, with a couple of significant trade associations in our industry - the Metal Construction Association, which is a very technical research building codes oriented...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. My guest today is Bryce Austin. Bryce started his technology career on a Commodore 64 computer and a cassette tape drive. Today, he is a leading voice on technology and cyber security. Bryce holds a CSM certification and is an internationally recognized professional speaker. In addition, Bryce has first-hand experience of what happens during a cyber security crisis, as it did to Target due to their 2013-2014 data breach. In his free time, Bryce is a high-speed car driver and coach. He's driven cars from a 65 horsepower mini Cooper to a 650 horsepower Porsche 911 turbo. He has had over 100 students, none of whom have died while under his instruction. So, Bryce, welcome to the show. Bryce Austin: Thank you so much, Lisa. Lisa Ryan: Please share with us a bit about your background. You went from car racing and coaching to cybersecurity. Bryce Austin: There are many twists and turns that a career takes. I thought I would be a Ph.D. chemist, and after a couple of years of Grad school, I decided I didn't want to be a Ph.D. chemist. I went into technology for fun. I had done consulting for years and ended up in the payroll space. Payroll is the right target for cybercriminals. Think about what payroll does for free for your company. You take a big pot of money, and you move it into a bunch of small pots. If a criminal can get in there, make up a janitor. See how long it takes someone to notice. Wait till one of these law firms runs their quarterly bonus. They run it for eight bazillion dollars and change all of the bank accounts to yours and never be seen from again. These were not theoretical issues we were dealing with. This was the real world. I did that for a small company for a few years, and then for Wells Fargo, I was the CIO of their payroll division for eight years. I went over to Target, just in time for the breach. That was a significant transition in my career, so I decided to go off and start my own company, helping others understand these cyber security risks so that they can make good conscious decisions about them. Lisa Ryan: Well, and 2013-2014 is when we started hearing a lot about these breaches, wasn't it? Why did it all of a sudden become such a forefront topic? Bryce Austin: Well, it started hitting people like you. Before that, there was the Stuxnet attack where the US and the Israelis allegedly went after the Iranian nuclear centrifuges. That was 2010 - it's been going on for a long time. I think Target was the first large-scale breach that most of the world knew about, and a large section of the US was impacted by it. We had Home Depot, and then we had a whole bunch of others that went down. A few years later, we had Equifax, and essentially every American taxpayer had most of their sensitive information siphoned off. Now it's being used to trick us into doing things that we shouldn't be doing. Lisa Ryan: It sounds like to back in the day, it was the cybercrime, where they got all of the information so that they could attack, but now, it seems that they're taking it, the next step further with this ransomware. Now, they are not only stealing your information, but they are also shutting you down. With this crime hitting companies left and right, what happened? Bryce Austin: Sure, well, some companies have valuable data on the black market on the dark Web. If you are an Equifax, they don't need to shut you down to profit from you if you're a healthcare company. They can steal that data and resell it the same thing. That happened with the manufacturers' network podcast, Target, and the credit card numbers. For most of us, though, particularly in the manufacturing industry, there isn't a treasure trove of easily sellable data that we have. The cybercriminal figured out that they don't have to steal your data and sell it to someone else. They can steal it from you and block your access to it, and you will pay to get it...

View Details

Connect with Carolyn Strauss Website: www.CarolynStrauss.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynstrauss/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. My guest today is Carolyn Strauss. Carolyn is an expert on leadership sales persuasion and execution. She works with companies who want to increase their dollars per minute. Carolyn grew up in the manufacturing business; her father owned and operated the oldest leather tannery in North America. Carolyn spent 18 years on-air at the Home Shopping Network designing and selling her own clothing line - the Carolyn Strauss collection. While she was there, she created a dollars-per-minute formula that led to her consistently selling over $500 per minute and ultimately exceed over $1 million of product in one day. Carolyn, welcome to the show. Carolyn Strauss: Thanks, Lisa, it's so good to be here with you. Lisa Ryan: Carolyn, share with us a bit of your journey and what led you to do what you're doing. Carolyn Strauss: Well, the speaking and consulting that I do came out of decades of learning how to work with companies in my own business. I love this podcast. I love your show. I've listened to it many times, and I love it because I think manufacturing is the basis of everything on the planet. If it's not made, we can't buy it. I love that all of your listeners are creating something. I love working with companies that produce things. Like you said in my intro, I had my own clothing company for 18 years on the home shopping network. We had one client. We had one source of selling our goods. I wouldn't recommend that, but if it. That's how you structure your business; that's how we structured our business. We manufactured in the United States when I started my company in 1997. We manufactured in the US until 2007. What happened in 2007 is we got an order for today's special. For anybody who hasn't watched the home shopping network, I highly recommend you guys watch that and have your salespeople watch it all the time. Nobody does sales and persuasion better than HSN. In 2007, we got an order for it today's special. We had 36,000 sets: three-piece sets. It was a tank, a jacket, and pants—36,000 of them - seven sizes: extra small through three x and petite average and tall. Lisa Ryan: Wow, that's a lot of SKUs. Carolyn Strauss: It was like 144 SKUs. We did the math because of the different and three or four different colors. It was like 144 skews for one item. Not only that, but we had four collections around it that had pants and jackets and prints and all of this. At that moment, no factory in the US could handle an order that big. We got the order in February. We weren't going to be selling it until November. But there still were no manufacturing capabilities in the US to handle it. That broke my heart. It broke my heart because my dad lost his business. We closed the tannery in 1987 because of overseas competition. The chemicals that he needed in the leather industry and because of the pay structure, he had to close. My dad ran a Union shop, and he lost his business in 1987 and had to go overseas. So when I had to take my clothing manufacturing to China, my heart broke. I stepped away from my company for six months at the beginning of 2008 because I was heartbroken. I was like, if I can't manufacture in the US, I'm not doing this anymore. It's not fair. It's not right. And then 2008 happened, the recession occurred, my retirement vanished. That's a whole separate story that I can tell on another disaster podcast on financial disasters. So I went back to it, and the Chinese manufacturing did an incredible job for us; I hate to say it, but they did. So we did a combination of us and overseas manufacturing for the next eight years of my line. Lisa Ryan: So tell us because I'm sure that the fascinating part of the intro and what you've developed is this dollar per minute because we think about manufacturing...

View Details

Contact Rick Winter: Email: rwinter@SNCMfg.com Website: SNCMFG.com Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers Network Podcast. My guest today is Rick Winter. Rick is VP of sales and marketing at SNC manufacturing. Rick began his manufacturing career at a very early age. During summers after high school, Rick worked in a paper mill to pay for college, and after graduating college with a BBA in marketing, Rick worked for polaroid. Then, he moved on to a company that specialized in custom extruded aluminum components for the telecom industry. He now works for SNC manufacturing, a leading custom transformer manufacturer of single-phase and three-phase industrial control transformers, with manufacturing facilities in Oshkosh, Mexico, and China. Rick, welcome to the show. Rick Winter: Thanks, Lisa. Lisa Ryan: Share with us a bit of your background. What attracted you to manufacturing, and what's kept you here. Rick Winter: I grew up in a blue-collar area, mainly the paper industry. My father worked in the paper mill his whole life, and I worked in that paper mill in the summertime to pay for my school, so I was exposed to it early on. It was the lifeblood of my upbringing. That's what pretty much everybody did in the area. As I moved through my career, I worked for companies that manufactured products. So I started in the different side of it, and then, as I moved into, I've always enjoyed being in the factory and seeing the production being done. It's always had a hands-on feel, so it's enabled me to be better at the front-end of the business and better understand what goes on behind the scenes in the plant. Lisa Ryan: I know that you like being in the plant. What are some things you've done with your workplace culture in connecting with your employees and engaging them? What helps you keep them? Rick Winter: That was a challenge. I've been at SNC for five years now. One of the things that I took on pretty early on was changing the culture at SNC. This is our 75th year of being in business. We have many long-term employees, and with that comes a lot of the traditional, historical, cultural things that may be outdated in many ways. So we are trying to get the culture to be more interactive and break down that barrier of the front office versus the factory—that and getting everybody to understand that we're more of a team. One of the first things I did was to set up quarterly all-hands meetings. During these sessions, we talk to the employees, just like everybody else. We tell them how things are going, how we're doing against our revenue goals, our bottom-line goals, and then the other initiatives we're doing. We're getting them to feel a little more ownership and understanding of their stake and making them understand that they're an important cog in this whole system. Without them, we can't deliver on our end. So that was one of the things we started doing was getting more employee events. Recently, we took the entire factory to a local minor league baseball game. We do that once a summer, and they bring their families. We do stuff like that throughout the year. We have events on-site and host dinners or barbecues where the staff grills out for the employees. We try to get our employees to realize that we appreciate what they do by doing small things with more interaction. Lisa Ryan: So you say it's an all-hands meeting that you're having - the office staff, along with the leadership team and the people in the plant? Rick Winter: Correct. It's everybody from the owner of the company on down. The management team will do the presentation. We have a template that we use. We do it during the lunch hour, and we'll usually bring in lunch that day for the employees - whether it's food trucks or we have a catered. We go through 15-20 minute quick updates on what's going on with business and making sure they're informed. Lisa Ryan: Many times, you see that there's this kind of us versus them...

View Details

Connect with Rosemary Coates: Email: rcoates@ReshoringInstitute.org Website: rcoates@ReshoringInstitute.org LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosemarycoates/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. My guest today is Rosemary Coates. Rosemary is the founder and executive director of the Reshoring Institute, a 501 C three nonprofit and nonpartisan organization focusing on expanding US manufacturing. She's also the President of Blue Silk Consulting, a supply chain management consulting firm. Ms. Coates has been a management consultant for 30 plus years, helping global supply chain clients worldwide. In the early 2000s, she assisted many companies source products from China and set up operations there. But now helps companies with their global operation strategy by determining what products to manufacture in each market, including what can be manufactured in America. Rosemary, welcome to the show. Rosemary Coates: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. Would you please share with us a bit of your background and journey that I alluded to in your bio? Rosemary Coates: I've had a long history of being in manufacturing firms. After I graduated college, working at solar turbans and San Diego all the way to graduate school. I got recruited out of Grad school to Hewlett Packard in Silicon Valley - that's where I live, now. After that, I went into management consulting at KPMG, a partner in another firm. So I'd been doing management consulting and software implementations in the supply chain sectors for many years. I worked for SAP for five years as manager of their business consulting group in the West. At one point, I was so interested in China, and, of course, you may know that in the early 2000s, everyone was going to China because the market was opening after trying to send it there. It was a low-cost environment, and everyone's competitors were going. I was very interested had always been interested in China and have done a few projects there. I decided to break out on my own, and I started a consulting firm, and that was focused on helping companies and global supply chains, particularly in Chinese manufacturing. I did that for about 15 years, helping lots of companies shift their operations to China and did many global expansion projects and so forth, which was fun to do. Then along came the 2014 presidential election when Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were China-bashing like crazy, and I'm thinking, "Holy cow, I can't tell anybody what I do for a living. This is awful." That plus, I'm shutting down so many factories in America. I did a lot of that, and it just really started to get to me. I began to feel like this is just not the right direction to go. We shouldn't be shipping all of our capability and manufacturing overseas. It just started weighing heavily on me. At the same time, because of the presidential election and all the China-bashing that was going on, some of my clients started talking to me about the potential for bringing some manufacturing back. That sparked this whole idea of reshoring. I gathered some of the people, the top managers that worked for me together, and we designed a process and approach for determining where in the world you should manufacture. We started helping companies understand if they could move to manufacture back to the US or add additional countries, and you know all kinds of decision points. It was evident that reshoring was going to become a trend. I felt strongly that clients were interested in moving back to America to make an economic case. Out of that grew the Reshoring Institute. We incubated under the University of San Diego. They have an extensive supply chain program there. I'm on the board at USD. That's also my Alma mater from graduate school. I asked them if they would help us get started, and they were accommodating. For three years, we incubated the Reshoring institute at the...

View Details

Connect with Susan: Email: susan@raincatcher.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susancoaches/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today Susan Frew. As the daughter of a carpenter and the wife of a master plumber, Susan used her business coaching experience, having coached over 10,000 hours, 18 different trades, and 150 companies. The Frews grew Sunshine Plumbing Heating and Air 535% in one year and made the elusive Inc 5000 list in 2019 along with 43 other awards and accolades. Susan has made it her life's work to help other businesses thrive and avoid catastrophe Susan is a certified business coach, a Fix this next advisor, and a profit-first professional. Susan, welcome to the show. Susan Frew: Thank you, Lisa. I'm honored to be here. Thanks for having me on. Lisa Ryan: Absolutely! Susan, please share with us a bit about your background and really what led you to what you're doing today. Susan Frew: Well, it was a sort of a roundabout way. I started in Telecom. I grew up on the east coast, and I was in New York City working for AT&T wireless, and I got transferred to Denver. I ultimately got transferred to the Caribbean for two years, and when that assignment ended, I decided to come back to Colorado. I bought a business coaching franchise. I started my business coaching franchise up in the mountains of Colorado, and beautiful Breckenridge, where many people listening would know where that is - so beautiful places ski with your family. During that journey, I met my husband. He was a plumber, and I don't know if this was because I was born the daughter of a carpenter or not, but I ended up coaching all these tradespeople. I'm up to 19 different trades that I've coached. I met my husband through that experience, and then we moved down to Denver shortly after the recession and started sunshine plumbing heating air. We went into service because we felt it was recession-proof. No matter what happens in the economy, you're not going to live without heat, hot water, and a working toilet. So we thought we had a good niche. We went into business against 950 competitors. Lisa Ryan: You and I had a conversation about employees. Many times on the Manufacturers' Network Podcast, we're talking about workplace culture and keeping your top talent from becoming someone else's because it is so difficult to find people. But from your tale of finding the wrong person, you do have to be careful to make sure that you're spending the time you're spending the effort to get the right person on board. Susan Frew: Here's our story. I consider myself a speaker and a business coach, and here we were running the company. We grew it extremely fast. We went from zero to $3 million in no time flat and had a lot of interest. During that time, I felt that I needed to hire a full-time bookkeeper/office manager to go out and do more speeches on how we grew our company. In a very disorganized way, I dumped all of my responsibilities on my office manager. I went out and fulfilled my ego dream of speaking all over the country. Meanwhile, my employee back home was not doing the right and ethical thing by our company. Part of it was a little fraud, mixed in with a bit of con, mixed in with a little larceny, and ended up with our company in a million dollars in debt. Lisa Ryan: How did she get away with it? Susan Frew: Well, I thought I had a good handle on this because I know how to read financial reports. I was a business coach. I've taught "Financials for dummies," which was one of my programs. I would ask questions about certain things, and she would give me some off-the-cuff answers. What I had done is I set up this program for her where she would get a bonus if she could stay on budget every single month. The bonus was significant - it could be up to 1500 dollars a month. She kept asking me for a raise, and I said, I can't afford it,...

View Details

Contact Kevin Powell: Email: KSNTPowell2me.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinpowellecho/ Telephone: 970-485-9069. Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network Podcast. I'm here today with Kevin Powell. Kevin has created success throughout the supply chain from manufacturing to sales and distribution with over 20 years of business and community leadership, including management and board roles. In addition, as an engineer with an MBA, his career encompasses engineer sales and leadership roles. Kevin, welcome to the show. Kevin Powell: Thanks, Lisa. I'm looking forward to our discussion today. Lisa Ryan: You have a background that if I told everybody what you've done in your career, we would be here for 20 minutes just talking about that. What is the Cliff notes version of your career when and how did it lead you to do what you're doing. Kevin Powell: At 32 years old, I was in a position of being named President of my first company, and, quite frankly, it was because I was the only choice they had. I was the one that was prepared, I was the one that was affordable, I was the one that they were willing to take a chance on, and I was excited about the business and my career. I was fortunate enough to have a couple of great mentors and made the most of it. I became CEO of four different businesses, each of which had different challenges or states of concern, and created success in each case. We've been blessed with the fact that we got to take a lot of people along. We created a lot of success along the way. Lisa Ryan: Before we started the podcast, we talked about lots of topics that we were going to cover today in our conversation, and the subject of diversity came up. The fact that you are a white male talking about diversity is such an interesting angle because it's not one that we normally see or relate to. Still, in your working with leaders in traditional companies and traditional roles, it sounds like you've made some strides in helping people to understand the need for diversity and how that impacts company culture and overall productivity. Would you please share what you're doing and what's working when it comes to that changing of culture? Kevin Powell: One of the things I learned through wholesale distribution was that it's pretty clear that people are your product. If you're buying somebody else's product and reselling it for a profit, adding value along the way, the value that's added is from the people that you have. If the people are all identical, you limit the value you can add and sell to a diverse community. You're often singularly looking at it from your lens instead of the lens of the variety of people that exist in the country in the world today. So that combined with our manufacturers, who were fortune 500 companies because of their publicly traded positions, they wanted to do the right thing. They looked at some of the smaller family-owned privately held distributors and said this doesn't look like we want it to add the value we always wanted to. How can we improve? I partnered with a couple of major manufacturers to help work on changing the Channel. You talked about it from a white male perspective. One of the things I learned along the way, as if you want to change the culture of any organization, you've got to first start with a change in the current cultural leadership of that organization and not have them be drugged along. So I worked within myself to become a leader and treat people as individuals, not as groups. Lisa Ryan: So what do you think are some of the mistakes that leaders are making when it comes to understanding diversity in their culture: What are the things that they believe they may be a little bit off course on? Kevin Powell: I think the biggest one is that that if you're leading an organization. That everybody within the organization in your customer base feels like you, and it's easy to get caught up in little progress and miss...

View Details

Connect with Alan Davis Email: alan.davis@i5services.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alandavissolutiondevelopment/ Website: https://i5services.com/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today, Alan Davis. Alan is the founding member and CEO of I5 Services. He started i5 services to change industries through creative technical solutions to complex business problems. His background is in technology and years of experience, leadership, and the transformation process. For the last eight years, he has been working tirelessly to connect the U.S. manufacturing supply chain. Alan, welcome to the show. Alan Davis: Thanks for having me today, Lisa. Great to be with you. Lisa Ryan: Alan, please share with us some of your background. What led you to focus on manufacturing and then the founding of i5 services? Alan Davis: Great question. In 2001, I was involved in another industry. We came up with an innovative solution for the airline industry when 9/11 happened, and the airline industry was somewhat devastated at that point and having a hard time recovering. Our solution had a huge impact on the client that we were working for - about 40 million dollars a year. That solution opened our eyes. That technology is still being used today; almost all the world's major airlines use it. But it helped the airline industry at a time when it needed it. That opened my eyes to the fact that there was this great need for some very innovative technical solutions that would solve very complex business problems. These solutions would have a direct impact on the bottom line for our clients. They would also have a dramatic impact positively on the entire industry or ecosystem that they serve. Fast forward a few years. The downturn of the economy happened. I got a nice severance package from my former employer, and we started i5 Services. Here at i5 services, we focus on manufacturing. A couple of years after we had started the company, an economic development study was done in the state of Utah to determine how to improve the various economic sectors. Part of that study was that in manufacturing, they decided that they needed a virtual industrial park. It was this ability to connect manufacturers with each other. The idea was that if a prominent manufacturer could buy local first, it would keep more jobs, more dollars in the state, and therefore boost the economy overall in manufacturing. We were selected to build the solution for that, along with Utah Manufacturers Association. We brought together manufacturers from around the state. We probably had 30 or 40 manufacturers participate, and over four months, we held workshops every other Friday for four hours. We got in the conference room, and we dug deep into why the solution was needed? Why weren't the existing solutions out there solving the problem? What were the benefits of doing this? It was a very informative and enlightening process because we truly understood that our manufacturing ecosystem is not connected well as we went through this. In fact, not well at all to the point where we have a hard time finding manufacturing capabilities. Anyone who had their eyes open during the pandemic will certainly understand challenges and problems in the supply chain. As we were looking at the problem, the manufacturers said this to me - and I thought this was eye-opening - they said, go to any solution that's out there today, any search engine, and try to search and find all the women-owned plastic injection molding companies in the state of Utah and tell me what you see. You cannot get a comprehensive set of results in any solution out there other than the one that we built at that time for the state of Utah. We put a prototype together while we were going through the workshops. One of the large manufacturers came to us at the end of those workshops and said, look, we have a $70 million contract....

View Details

Connect with Damon Pistulka Email: damon@exityourway.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damonpistulka/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers Network podcast. I'm here today with Damon Pistulka. Damon is co-founder of Exit Your Way, where he focuses on identifying and executing opportunities for business owners to increase their business value. Damon worked his way through college and earned a mechanical engineering degree. He started working in an injection molding company where he worked in technical and managerial roles, including designing, building, and operating facilities. Damon managed businesses to design and produce retail store fixtures, custom fabricated metal products, advanced aerospace components, and high-tech devices. Damon, welcome to the show. Damon Pistulka: Thank you, Lisa. And that is quite a mouthful. And it makes me realize I have to rewrite that because it's too much, too much to come on. It shows I'm old. That's all it does. Lisa Ryan: But it shows that you've been in and around the manufacturing business. So you've been working in that area, and that's who listens to the podcast. Damon Pistulka: When I was in college, I worked my way through college, sweeping the floor in a tool room until they finally started letting me draft and do other things. I was closer to getting out of school. So, I've been in manufacturing for a long time. Lisa Ryan: Yeah. So please share with us a bit about your journey. As a young man, what initially brought you into manufacturing, and then what kept you there? Damon Pistulka: I grew up on a big farm. It was in the Dakotas, out in the middle of nowhere, where it was miles and miles from the nearest Wal-Mart - which was about 70 miles away. We had thousands of acres. We're farming. You have to understand how to fix things. It's assumed that you're going to do that. You're going to work with your hands. So I get to college, and I didn't know what to do. I ended up having a roommate that was in engineering. And I thought that's pretty cool. I started doing engineering. And the next thing, I was in a mechanical engineering program. Then I worked for a manufacturer. And here I am many years later now. And it's been it was fun. I enjoyed the technical part of it and learning how things are done. And I still to this day am enthralled by when I can walk through a manufacturing facility and see products being made and touch them when they're done and feel them because it's so much fun to do that. And it doesn't matter. I've been able to do injection molding. We made all kinds of medical products and business products and things that go on doors and all this stuff that you get involved in so many different places. And then being able to help those companies do that. I was able to go into plants where television plants and automotive plants and tools like Black and Decker type tools were made. Plants where they're making air compressors and hand tools and all this stuff that you go, wow, that's how it drills made. I see all that stuff. And it was so much fun to do that. I was running companies for people. I was taking the knowledge of how things get done and then applying that in the business setting. It's always been fun for me because when you can get a company working together, everyone who is designing or the people in the office and the people working on the product or handling the product all know what they're supposed to do. And they're all working together. And it's not we and them and all that kind of B.S. that goes on. You can achieve so much with not a lot of money. And because of the ingenuity that you get when people work together. Diversity brings people together to solve problems. It's so much fun. Lisa Ryan: That's one of the things I loved about manufacturing in the welding industry. Same thing. You get to see how everything's made because when you look around you, man,...

View Details

Contact Andrea Dallan Email: Andrea.Dallan@dallan.com Website: http://www.dallan.com/ (www.dallan.com) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreadallan/ Get "The Revolution of Efficiency" book https://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Efficiency-Productivity-Flexibility-technologies-ebook/dp/B092JVBX9B/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+revolution+of+efficiency+andrea+dallan&qid=1628424700&sr=8-1 (here) Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today Andrea Dallan. Andrea is an engineer entrepreneur and CEO of Dallan Spa, an Italian family business producing systems for the processing sheet metal since 1978. With 160 employees, including engineers, technicians, and operations, he is the author of the books "The Revolution of Efficiency," which came out in 2020, and "Think Thin," which is coming this summer. With a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering at the University of Padua. During more than 20 years spent in sales, Andrea Dallan has visited hundreds of companies analyzing production processes and helping entrepreneurs and managers to make their operations more efficient. He's also the father of Mateo Vittorio and Beatrice. Andrea, welcome to the show. Andrea Dallan: Thank you, Lisa, for inviting me. I'm excited to be here. Thank you for the introduction. Lisa Ryan: You're very welcome! Andrea, please share with us a bit about your background. What led you to what you're doing now? Andrea Dallan: I started to work in our family company back in 2000. My father established the company in 1978. He was an engineer, which led me to choose my studies at the University. I was starting to work during high school here in the company. I went through many jobs in the company and eventually found out that working around sales and speaking foreign languages was my favorite. It was in line with my attitude, which gave me the possibility to meet many engineers. That's the beauty of my job - meeting people and getting to know their problems. I also enjoy helping them find solutions to their challenges, challenges in production. Lisa Ryan: Now, we talked about a lot of different topics. We landed on the fact that digitalization changes the conversation in manufacturing from that dark, dirty, and dangerous to something cool as we move into industry 4.0. So when it comes to recruiting people into manufacturing, what are some of the things you've done? What are some of the companies you've worked doing? Andrea Dallan: This is a hot topic right now. We are based in Italy, but 90% of our customers are in Europe and the US. We see the challenges in recruiting. It is a real challenge for many of our customers. Companies used to support their lines for their manufacturing in the high schools. Without professional schools, there are a lot fewer students to choose this professional career. It's a problem for companies in Italy, but this is a general trend in Europe. I see that it's becoming a problem in the United States as well. So the problem is that working in a factory in manufacturing in sheet metal fabrication. It seems not to be sexy anymore. Students tend to look for other types of jobs that are more into office jobs. They are looking into marketing and all this kind of stuff. The significant point about digitalization is that it is an effort that we are also making as a company with the high school in our hometown. There are opportunities in manufacturing and choosing a professional school because the environment inside companies has changed completely. Going into manufacturing means we look for people who assemble our automatic systems. Then we deliver to our customers for doing their manufacturing. They can go to one company and become responsible for a whole line with a high level of automation. The kind of skill that will require from these guys is a lot more towards digital. The knowledge they need is to know how to operate

The Revolution of Efficiency: Maximize corporate profits and cash flow by combining Productivity, Flexibility and Automation with Sustainable technologies that use less raw material, energy and labor

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today Fran Brunelle. Fran is the President and founder of Accelerated Manufacturing Brokers. She specializes in the sale of small and mid-sized manufacturing firms. To ensure the continuity of US manufacturing, Fran and her team help transition ownership to the next generation of entrepreneurs. Recently Fran was named to the 2020 most influential women in mid-market mergers and acquisitions. Fran is also the host of WAM - Women and Manufacturing podcast. She writes on topics that helped manufacturing business owners prepare their companies for sale and navigate the sales process to ensure positive financial results supporting their retirement. So, Fran, welcome to the show. Fran Brunelle: Thank you so much for having me. It's good to be with you today. Lisa Ryan: Fran, please share a bit about your background and what path led you to work with manufacturers and get into the selling of manufacturing businesses. Fran Brunelle: Sure, So, we just passed in April, our 27th anniversary. So, we started my career serving the manufacturing community as an industrial auctioneer selling the manufacturing equipment that the businesses use that I currently sell. Often, a manufacturer who needed an auction had some need for speed, usually because they were in financial trouble. But the companies that were buying equipment from us were growing thriving, constantly rotating out their equipment for newer pieces or better brands. Eventually, at their behest, we started our journey as M&A professionals. Those buyers said to us, "Hey, I need to retire. I was hoping you could sell my business or help me find a company to acquire to facilitate my growth. For a while, we ran both divisions, and we started to hit our stride in manufacturing M&A, and, at the point where we grew over 400% three years running, we said goodbye to auctions. Like the M&A practice, you're helping to transition ownership of manufacturing to a different generation of entrepreneurs, ensuring that the company goes on and the jobs go on. So, it's a much different gig than auctioning. I remember very early in my career. I used to say, God, this cannot be my purpose in life; I'm the grim reaper. Over time, the skills that I learned in the auction industry and learning about manufacturers and machine tools. It was a process. I would never be able to do what I do today to help manufacturers retire in wealth if I had did not have that basis to understand manufacturing. Lisa Ryan: From the standpoint of succession planning, there's a lot of my clients that don't have their children, or their children may have no interest in the business. There isn't a succession plan. In this podcast, we talk about employee retention, engagement, finding employees, and all these steps. As we were talking before the show, when you set your business up for sale in the future, now or in the future, you're going to have all those processes in place where you're going to have happy staff, and you've done workforce development. So, what you can do now to sell your company in the future, perhaps, or what you need right now, is attracting and retaining good employees. Would you please share a bit about the good things these companies do for their workforce development and create that culture? Fran Brunelle: One of the things I enjoy talking about, and just an observation from traveling the entire country selling manufacturing companies, is that everybody talks about a skills gap. A lot of people complain about it, but not a lot of people do something about it. Manufacturing companies that are proactive in their communities, engaging with the high schools, and engaging with the trade schools are not having the same types of problems as others. You have to be involved if you're waiting as a manufacturer for somebody else to do it, for the government to do it,...

View Details

Contact Jake Hall: Email: Jake@themanufacturingmillennial.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobrhall/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today, Jake Hall. Jake is the manufacturing millennial. He talks about the latest technology in the automation and manufacturing industry while being a business development manager at Feyen Zylstra, an electrical contractor system integrated company. I found Jake because he also posts cool manufacturing videos on LinkedIn, so make sure to check him out. Jake, welcome to the show. Jake Hall: Thanks for having me. It's great to be here. Lisa Ryan: Well, you are the manufacturing millennial, and I know that that's one of the things that the listeners to this podcast have issues with: how do you find the younger generations? How do you create that type of passion that you bring every day to manufacturing? So please share a bit about your background and what got you to where you're doing now. Jake Hall: The Labor force and manufacturing is absolutely the hot topic, so for me, as a millennial and a younger person, manufacturing goes back to after graduating from college. I had the opportunity to go into automation distribution. So entering that field brought many options quickly where I'm not working at one specific company. I'm traveling around visiting machine builders, manufacturers and end-users, and all different industries. I had a unique experience seeing the diversity that manufacturing offers. It's exciting as my career developed, I started attending more professional conferences. I attend these conferences, and I'm walking around and say, man, people my age are underrepresented in the manufacturing industry. I never really looked at the statistics until one day after a conference. I said, man, I'm one of like two millennials in this room. What are the odds of that? I looked it up and said, holy cow, millennials and Gen Z are entirely underrepresented in manufacturing. I said, what can I do to create more conversation and awareness around what can manufacturers working companies and automation and distribution and the warehouse in the street do better to attract the future workforce, which in this case is the millennials and then the generation behind me, the Gen Z's. So I think that goes back to the fact that I need to share the diversity that manufacturing offers and dispel the myths around manufacturing that it's this dark, dirty, dangerous environment with no opportunity for growth. So that's kind of how the thing kicked off. Lisa Ryan: I speak at a lot of conferences, and you are right. People aren't sure. Do millennials not enjoy conferences? Do they don't get it? They don't like to be in person. What are some of the things that you're hearing? Going back to what made you go to those conferences and get involved in your industry, trade associations because, again, that's the conversation that we need to start having. Jake Hall: I think, for a long time it was when you go to these conferences, it was always this idea of right in the upper management, kind of the old boys club, in a sense, right you go there, everyone knows each other, you go there your network. The handshakes are there, but I think what he's starting to realize is to say, hey, we need to inspire the next generation to get involved directly. They need to begin networking. They need to be getting tied into the Industry more in-depth. I think that's what a lot of companies have failed to do in the past was see that there's so much value in payback when you can not only attract the young workforce but retain the existing young workforce that's there. And when you can show the potential that the industry has to offer at a much larger scale when you visit these conferences or trade shows or events. That's where you can say, hey, we're investing in you, and we want you to see the value that this

View Details

Contact Nancy Lurker LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancy-lurker-6603316/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today Nancy Lurker. Nancy is President and CEO of EyePoint Pharmaceuticals, a specialty company that develops and manufacturers sustained release drug delivery, innovative ophthalmology products to treat debilitating diseases of the eye, leading to blindness. Ms. Lurker is a healthcare industry veteran and decision-maker who brings more than 30 years of experience with the public, and private startups, including fortune 500 biotech and pharma companies. Nancy, welcome to the show. It's so good to have you here. Nancy Lurker: Thank you, Lisa. It's great to be here. Lisa Ryan: Nancy, please share with us your background, particularly in manufacturing, since that's the audience that we have. Nancy Lurker: Well, I've spent several years in the pharmaceutical industry at big pharma and several small pharma companies. In almost all cases, except for actually two companies I was at, which was on the service side. I've been in a manufacturing company, so I've got a lot of experience, just in terms of how you think about manufacturing drugs, which is not easy. Lisa Ryan: I understand that you have some pretty cool technology with what you've developed at your company. Why don't you tell us about what you do? Nancy Lurker: We have some exciting technology. We are an ocular drug delivery company, making products that we will commercialize ourselves. We also do work with partners, though they might, in some cases, come to with drugs they want to put in our drug delivery technology. The reason is that when you're dealing with drugs that go into the eye, it's very complex. If you can think about the eye, it's tiny, and it's a highly complex organ. Our drug delivery technology is minute. We have one's called Duracert, and one is called Verizon. They're very different from each other. I'll focus on Duracert are because that's our main platform. It's an amazing drug delivery technology that we can release drugs into the eye. You inject into what's called the posterior back, part of the eye. I know, for listeners, they might be like, 'oh my God, injecting the back of the eye. How horrible!' It's not as bad as it sounds. Doctors are very used to it. It's an extremely small, about the size of a tiny piece of hair in terms of diameter, and that gets injected into the eye. We can tailor the release of the drug depending on the drug. Depending on how long we want it to go - anywhere from three years down to one month. Right now, we have one drug on the market that releases out over three years. This drug is no more than three millimeters long - about one millimeter in diameter. It's amazing! The patient can't see it. You can't see it. It drops to the bottom of the eye, and it just sits there. It releases a tiny microscopic dose, in this case, asteroid, every single day, 365 days a year, for three years. We also have a very exciting drug in the pipeline that will release a kinase inhibitor over six months. But, again, based on how we pick these timeframes is based on what doctors want and what's best for patients, in some cases to literally what we can do, because, as you can imagine, the pharmacogenetics from a code dynamics of a drug also have to marry up with a drug delivery technology. So there are some limits there in terms of what we can do. Lisa Ryan: I love having people in manufacturing on the show because of their passion for it, and you are extremely passionate about what you do. We talked about one of the things before the show was getting more women into STEM, getting more women into manufacturing, and being excited about the mission that you have. What are some of the things that you've done as an organization to find women and find people in stem and steam that are working for you? Nancy Lurker: it's not easy. I want to...

View Details

Contact John Wilczynski: www.AmericaMakes.us Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, John Wilczynski. John is the Executive Director of America Makes - the nation's leading Public-Private Partnership for additive manufacturing technology and education. John graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering technology. He's worked in a variety of manufacturing positions with varying levels of responsibility. He continued to gain experience in manufacturing while spending more than eight years at General Motors Pontiac Metal Center division, working through various positions and levels throughout the stamping organization. John, welcome to the show. 35 00:05:05.490 --> 00:05:07.500 John Wilczynski: Thank you for having me, Lisa. It's good to see you. Lisa Ryan: John, for people who aren't familiar with America Makes, please share with us a bit of what that partnership looks like and what do you do over there. John Wilczynski: Absolutely. American Makes is what we call a manufacturing innovation institute. There are now sixteen Manufacturing innovation institutes in the United States - all focused on different advanced manufacturing technologies. We were the first - we were founded back in 2012. Our technology focuses on areas around additive manufacturing or what most referred to as 3D printing. We're looking to bring together the community around the technology - ultimately looking to increase the adoption and use of the technology. We specifically do that by working in a Public-Private Partnership. That means is we're trying to bring together the community from industry - both large and small, nonprofit Community, government Community, and the academic community. We want to understand what the problem space looks like and then organize a coordinated response, so we're focused on applied research at the Institute. That means we're looking to identify the topics that are preventing us from using the technology today. Ultimately, we're trying to do that in a way that helps everybody. It doesn't just solve a problem for eight individual organizations but instead creates intellectual property that can be shared across the community. Lisa Ryan: It also sounds like giving this attention to manufacturing is another goal to bring people into industry. You and I talked before the show about how hard it is to get people to come into manufacturing as a career when you have cool things like 3D printing and additive manufacturing. Please share a bit about what you're doing in partnership to change that conversation and, shall we say, woo people into manufacturing as a career. John Wilczynski: Absolutely. It is more complicated than you think - especially for those of you who live in this world today and understand all of the benefits that come. As you mentioned, I got to see the product being produced and fenders being made on the equipment from the automotive industry. Then taken to the assembly plant, I could realize the product that I was touching every day. This is not common for a lot of folks. I think we have something really interesting in additive manufacturing to help communicate more efficiently to students entering the workforce. More importantly, we try to get the guidance counselors and parents to understand where opportunities exist. We just kicked off a program within the State of Ohio. We're based in Youngstown, Ohio. It is an activity to deploy 3D printers to several high schools and provide them with a curriculum. Most importantly, we provide resources to those guidance counselors and parents to understand where opportunities in manufacturing exist. It is our education and workforce development director who calls additive the gateway drug to manufacturing. It's an easy space for people to get their heads around. From its inception, 3D technology is digital, which in some ways,...

View Details

Contact Roger Sustar: www.thinkmfg.com. Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Roger Sustar. Roger is CEO of Fredon Corporation, which offers complete manufacturing solutions for precision machining needs. They've been in business since 1969 and always go one step beyond to provide their customers with the highest level of quality through planning employee involvement, training technology, and a highly effective quality control system. Roger is a firm believer in giving back to the community. He started a group called AWT - the Alliance for Working Together - to serve as a forum for manufacturers in Lake county to discuss common business issues. Welcome to the show, Roger. Roger Sustar: wow, Thank you, Lisa, very much. Lisa Ryan: Roger, please share a bit of your background and what ultimately led you to Fredon. Roger Sustar: I came back from the United States Army back in 1964, got married, and before I got married. My dad had me worked for his little company for about two days or three days, and I quit my father's company called Masco Machine. He had a very nice company in Highland Heights, Ohio. Because it was just too harsh, he had three partners. My wife wanted me to go to school, so I tried to get into Fenn college, which is the pre-Cleveland state. I had failed. I passed the essay test because I wrote the essay, and my wife typed it. That was when papers were around that before the computer, a long time ago. I got an a-minus or something like that. She did an excellent job. I used to pass an English grammar exam, and grammar is, you know, diagramming. Right after the fifth try, I said, screw this. I couldn't take it. I learned a lot about manufacturing, especially fabrication, because his company was called nonferrous metals fabricating. I learned a whole bunch he bought a plastic company called Cleveland plastic fabricators, and at one point, he said to me, said how about if I give you 49% of my business, and you run it for me. I said, wow, that's pretty good, but I have to go home and talk to my wife. He got upset, called my father said, oh boy, what kind of wimpy you have for a son that he can't do things independently. I was a good husband because I had my wife involved with everything. We started our own company a couple of years later. It was crazy, but that's what happened. Lisa Ryan: In all of these years of business, you have a real focus on introducing young people into manufacturing, even starting as little as young as fifth and sixth grade. Tell us a bit of the Alliance for Working Together - why you created it, and some of the results that you're seeing because you're doing it. Roger Sustar: Okay, well, we started it early 2000s when business became tough for a small company to survive. Back then, we were primarily concerned what helping each other with healthcare with insurance costs, where to purchase steel, where to get aluminum - anything like that. It wasn't easy at that time. We finally kept meeting and hearing these things, and then it ended up the most crucial thing that everybody was concerned with was the future workforce. We started this whole thing based on a robot program that I saw in Arizona. We watched it inside a cage, and then we decided that we needed a wow factor, so we would take those robots and build those. We teed it off with NRL - National robotics league. Ours is a little bit different. Ours is called the WT robots. We went to the high schools, and we got high schools involved. The high schools are excited about it because it's free for them. It's getting companies like us and others to participate and help the kids. I'll get into Bowman high school - a parochial girls' Catholic school that I had a friend that I knew. He was going to church on Sundays, and I called him and begged him to help the girls at Bowman. One of those girls used her robot experience with us, and we usually do...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network podcast. I'm delighted to introduce you to our guest today, Keith Ledbetter. Keith is President and CEO of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Southeast Michigan. He manages this 250 Member construction trade association in southeast Michigan and helps lead its affiliated skilled trade school, the southeast Michigan construction Academy, with over 500 student apprentices. As the architect of a dramatic construction association turnaround, Keith's unique professional background helped create an uncanny ability to get things done using relationships and personal appeal. His wide-ranging skill set, ability to find when propositions amiss disagreement and strong leadership enable him to build motivated teams, quickly adapt to new challenges, and flourish in diverse corporate roles. Keith, welcome to the show. Keith Ledbetter: Thank you, Lisa thanks for having me today. Lisa Ryan: Well, you and I talked a bit about your resume and your journey. You've been all over the place. Please share with us where you've been and really how you got to where you're at right now. Keith Ledbetter: There was certainly no straight line as part of that path. While I was in college, I enjoyed politics, and I wanted to get involved. I wanted to do something big. I wanted to have a meaningful impact on people on an enormous scale. When you're young, you're probably not going to be the CEO. You're not going to be a leader of a significant organization. I got involved in the political system, and I worked in the Michigan house of representatives for 15 years. It was cool. At a relatively young age, I got involved and made many key decisions on state policy matters. At first, I was just the quiet guy in the room, taking notes and offering private counts to my boss. As time went on, I became in a more significant role. From there, I became a lobbyist for the heavy construction industry. I did that for another six years, and I advocated for people's interests related to infrastructure investment, road and bridge improvement things like that. That area's expertise led me to work at Chrysler, and I was a corporate government relations executive. I represented the company's interest to elected officials in the northeast United States, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Maine. I was the go-to for the company anytime they had issues or concerns related to public policy. Strangely enough, I ended back up in the construction industry after using some of the same skills. I read an article in The Wall Street Journal this morning about making sure that when you're applying for the jobs that even if they're not related entirely to what you're doing, that you want to make the connection for any particular person who's doing the hiring. Some of these job skills that you have in these various areas apply to what you do. I took those same skill sets, and then I began running a nonprofit on my own: Associated builders and contractors of southeast Michigan. I also ran a trade school called the southeast Michigan construction Academy, where we have over 500 apprentices who are learning skilled trades. So, how did this guy who started in politics, and doing that kind of stuff, how did he end up in the skilled trades, and training, all these young people, most of them without college degrees? It's been a strange ride. But it's been pretty cool to see that your skill set can go from one industry area to another fairly easily. Lisa Ryan: When you joined ABC, it sounds like it was a mess when you took it over and putting some work into it. And getting the right leadership team in place and just running it. Taking what you refer to as a ragtag group of individuals and transforming them into a winning team. That's why I wanted to have you on the show today. Even though construction is a little bit different from manufacturing, both industries run into the same...

View Details

Contact Craig James: Email: CraigJames@Cat-Strat.com Website: www.Cat-Strat.com Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers Network podcast. I'm delighted to introduce you to our guest today, Craig James. Craig is a man who wears many hats. Among them, executive coach, writer, speaker, modern philosopher, information technology industry veteran and co-founder, co-managing partner of Catalyst Strategies, also known as Cat Strat Services, a strategic advisory firm that helps organizations stop and think. He is the host and co-executive producer of the podcast Big Audacious Idea. And he and his partner, Sue James, are launching a new podcast called The Possibility Zone. Both Sue and Craig are active in the disciplines of rethinking, reflection, and strategic planning. They've also been active in nonprofit and community organizations, and currently, they serve as co-presidents of the northeastern Ohio chapter of Conscious Capitalism. Welcome to the show, Craig. Craig James: Glad to be here. Thanks for having me. , you should probably go into speaking or something where you energetically and eloquently said you make me sound good. Lisa Ryan: Well, thank you. I think I'll do that—just a crazy idea. Well, Craig, I know that in your intro, it sounds like you have done lots of things. So share a bit of your background and what led you to the journey you found yourself on? Craig James: Well, jeez, thanks for the personal interest. Try to think about making this relevant to your listeners—one of the things that characterize my background in information technology. I grew up in the I.T. industry, and that's relevant to our chat today. But going back a little bit further, I suppose there's an entrepreneurial gene or two in the blood. My folks were a mom-and-pop shop back in the 50s, working virtually before that was even an idea. Sure enough, in the last 20 years, Sue and I started our firm. We're entrepreneurs. We're thinkers and philosophers, but we're business people, too. We bring a blend of other stuff. I'm a loner in a way, but I love to connect with people. I grew up as an only child. Some of the things that resonate with me playing guitar, skiing, individual experiences yet connected with other humans. That's the quick one, too. Lisa Ryan: Well, and I know that this is the Manufacturers Network podcast, and you've spent most of your career in I.T. So when people are thinking, why does she have an I.T. guy on, what is it that you're finding as far as how is manufacturing similar? Because that's why we're having this whole conversation. Craig James: Well, I appreciate you clarifying that, and I appreciate you having me on the show, even though I'm not a manufacturing guy. However, what's constant across manufacturing or I.T. or other services and industries is I'm a businessperson. And, one of the things that I'm not when I look back at my days is I'm not a technologist either. There's a lot of things I'm not. I never did programming. I wasn't a tech guy. I was a sales guy, business guy, growth guy, leader within I.T., So those concepts apply both in manufacturing and information technology. I think what's interesting right now is the convergence and similarities and how this is blurring. If we looked at information technology back, I won't date myself. Long ago, when I sold big computers, it was manufacturing. I mean, a five-million-dollar computer took weeks to produce on the line. We called them assemblies because the computers were assembled on an extensive manufacturing line, and 12 guys and white coats their blue coats came into a clean room and installed the thing over a matter of days. So the physicality of computing, the manual manufacturing, the tangibility, the materiality of where it began is where and how in the early days it in manufacturing, I won't say were one in the same, but very similar. Lisa Ryan: Well, the interesting thing...

View Details

Contact Kent Gladish: Email: KGladish@TMAIllinois.org LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kentgladish/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce you today to Kent Gladish. Kent is Vice President of Member development at the Technology Manufacturing Association. TMA helps small to mid-sized manufacturers in Illinois basically with just about everything. Kent has a unique background, with an undergrad in physics and also an MBA in marketing. Kent, welcome to the show. Kent Gladish: Thank you for having me. It's always good to be live here and looking forward to our near future. Lisa Ryan: All right, awesome. Please share a bit of your journey to what led you to TMA on that Friday afternoon? Kent Gladish: I graduated college with a physics degree and said, now what am I going to do? And I landed at a company called Video Jet in the Chicago area. If you open your refrigerator, you'll find little freshness dates on just about everything in your refrigerator. That company's grown from 150 people up to probably up to 3000 by now. But that got me into my master's degree to find my home and marketing and ended up at a small manufacturer in the Chicago area called humbler. They went through another recession lost my position there, but I had met TMA along the way. On a Friday afternoon, I was able to land the position, and whenever anybody tells you the cold call doesn't work anymore, well, it's just not true. It does. I joke about that because I wouldn't be sitting where I'm doing what I do, which I love to pieces. I like to say our Members manufacture something. They're not good at all the other stuff. You have to have the manufactures in northeast Illinois. When you think about all that stuff, health insurance, and 401k, and I need a freight forward or need to redo my floor, I need to redo my ceiling. I need to figure out covid. I need. I need. I need. I need. Big gigantic companies have all those resources. They join the small guys join an association to get access to those resources. That's why we're on this earth. Lisa Ryan: One of the things that I noticed and why I wanted to have you on the show is that you do such a great job talking about your Members on social media and promoting some of the good things they're doing. I understand that many came up because of covid and just really taking it to the next level with explaining what your member manufacturing Members are doing. Kent Gladish: I was making 60 appointments a month with our Members. Because I spend most of my time not in front of a computer, face-to-face with them shaking hands, etc., Covid hit, and my number of appointments dropped significantly. The marketing side of me said, why don't you start taking pictures of their brand or their signage and put that on LinkedIn. It's mainly because it's pretty easy and it's free, so that has become 225 times a year. I want every business day spotlighting one of my Members just so people are aware of small to medium-sized manufacturing. Because everybody's heard of Boeing and Deere and Caterpillar, but very, very few, very few people recognize that in manufacturing, 84% of the companies that manufacture in the United States are under 25 employees. 85% of the manufacturers and this under 25 employees, so really the United States' backbone, let alone northeast Illinois, comprises small companies. We don't hear about the small companies. We hear about the big companies due to the mass media. Lisa Ryan: And what are some of the things the success stories that you've been seeing your Members doing during these times to increase their business to communicate better to connect with their customers all of the above. Kent Gladish: My members have always been doing precision metalworking and plastics, and so when you find the precision, that's where the things that are booming now. We made a list here. These are things that I've been...

View Details

Connect with Rahul Sarkar: Email: rsarkar@chiketa-phoenix.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarkarrahul/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers Network podcast. I'm excited today to introduce you to Rahul Sakar. Rahul is president of Clarity Manufacturing Consulting and has 30 years of manufacturing experience reinforced by postgraduate education from the Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of Notre Dame. He has worked with a passion in the trenches, in the nooks and crannies worldwide to help small and medium fabrication and manufacturing companies win more bids, increase revenue and achieve operational improvements leading to greater profitability. Welcome to the show, Rahul. Rahul Sarkar: Thank you, Lisa. Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here, and I'm looking forward to this. Lisa Ryan: Great. Please, tell us a little bit about your background and journey. What led you into manufacturing and doing what you do? Rahul Sarkar: Well, I initially had wanted to become a teacher, a professor at a university, but I soon very quickly got into manufacturing. And I think the reason I have focused for the past 30 years and worked in small and medium manufacturing companies is that many years ago, my first boss, who became a business partner, later on, told me that if you work in a small, medium manufacturing company, you will learn a lot. You'll wear multiple hats, and boy, he was right. And so I have been, like you mentioned, all over the world, various companies, visiting and understanding what manufacturing is all about. And, you know, the other thing that has driven me is that the small-medium manufacturing companies are in so many ways disadvantaged. If you think of the two hundred fifty-thousand manufacturing companies in the US, 80 percent, 75 to 80 percent of that number have 20 employees or less. I mean, think of that, 75 to 80 percent have 20 or fewer employees. They're the backbone of the manufacturing in this country, which is about 10 percent of GDP. Right. But think of what the parts that have had to experience for the last 50 years, 50 years. And it is not getting any better. Profits have shrunk, their sales have shrunk. And that inequity is really troubling. I've made it my passion to understand what and why this happens to what can be done about it. And I hope to play a part in that. Lisa Ryan: Profit is certainly important for any business. And when you're looking at these small and medium manufacturers (SMMs) compared to OEMs and some of the big players out there, that's a big thing. So what are some of the ways that SMMs can increase their profits in those times? Rahul Sarkar: The answer to that is don't focus on profits. I'll explain what I mean by that. I think that mindset that focusing on the profits mindset has contributed to the sufferings and troubles of SMMs. Here's the thing. If you think of the large OEMs' profit margins, double-digit profit margins, easily 10, 15, 20 to 20 percent for if you're an Apple, you're 35, 40 percent. And the small guys are shrinking from double digits to single digits. And heck, if you are making five percent net, you're celebrating at the end of the day. So that squeeze has been brought about by the large OEMs and enforcing the smaller manufacturers. It's almost like you don't know what will happen because the OEMs make products know what they're where the revenues come from. They know democracy. They have a history and can make forward-looking projections. But for example, you are waiting for the scraps to fall off the table that the big dogs are dining at. It's the large OEMs that are squeezing the smaller guys for profit. And guess what happens if you think of the exodus of US manufacturing in the late nineties and two thousand who drove that? It wasn't the small-medium manufacturing companies. Large corporations had the resources to go over to Asia and set up...

View Details

Contact Carol Cambridge: Telephone: 623-242-8797 Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan from the Manufacturers Network podcast. I am excited to introduce you to Carol Cambridge. Carol Cambridge is CEO of the Stay Safe Project, an international conference speaker, and a workplace violence expert highly profiled for her expertise. She has often sought by the media for comments when tragedies occur. Carol has been interviewed by ABC, NBC, USA Today, CBC, and as far away as News Channel Asia in Singapore. Her career began as a communications specialist in emergency services and disaster preparedness with a Canadian law enforcement agency. Twenty-seven years later, Carol has taught over a quarter of a million people how to make intelligent, powerful, and life-saving decisions. When Carol is not speaking in training, she is at home in Glendale, Arizona, with the love of her life and three beautiful dogs. Carol, welcome to the show. Carol Cambridge: Thanks so much for having me. Lisa Ryan: Well, you have such a fascinating background and what you've been doing. So just share a bit of how you got started and how you ended up where you did. Carol Cambridge: Well, I came to the States several years ago. I was either overqualified or underqualified for absolutely everything. Not wanting to start working back into shiftwork, I realized a hole in corporate America, specifically manufacturing, the construction industry, and the electrical industry. I thought I have a wealth of information that can help people. And I think the biggest thing over the years that I've learned is that we don't necessarily have good critical thinking when it comes to emergencies and crises and dealing with people who are angry and disgruntled employees. I was able to translate what I had spent much of my career at that point, learning and translate that into a way that people were interested in. And it was beneficial to people. Lisa Ryan: It's unfortunate that with all the workplace violence and everything that we see that makes the news that this has become such a big part of your career. But when put in those types of environments, those types of situations, it's really good, especially in manufacturing and everywhere that people know exactly what to do. Carol Cambridge: That's right. And what happens and when I see a lot is that people think that they know what they're going to do in a crisis until that crisis happens. When their emotions are involved, they see people they work with or love that are involved in a horrific situation. We go right to that flight, and flight freeze brain. I see many people who think they know; they will swear up and down that they know exactly what to do. But when I do some of the experience training that I do, we find that people are shocked by their own responses, and they just don't react the way they assumed they would have. Lisa Ryan: So take us through the experience. When it comes to proving to people how they actually react instead of how they think they'll react. How do you bring that to life? Carol Cambridge: Well, there are a couple of different ways. In the workplace violence piece, I will throw it to the people when I'm doing training. I will say you are now part of this risk assessment team. I give them a little bit in the scenario. Then I'll say when you asked me the right questions in the right order, so to speak, and there's not exact rightness, but often what happens is they will think about protecting. For instance, the one employee instead of, oh, we have an entire plant full of employees. And you have to think about both of those. And most of us don't have that ability. We go to one specific area, so I'll ask them. They start asking me questions. I'll supply them with a little bit more information. And then we play out the scenario. And many of them are surprised because they'll put steps nine, 10, or 11 in front of maybe the first steps they should have done. For instance, let's...

View Details

Connect with Ray Brown Email: Ray Brown@Escogroup.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ray-brown-23b65622/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today, Ray Brown. Ray is the President of Esco Group. Esco Group provides electrical construction, electrical engineering plant automation, Arc flash analysis, and electrical safety services to various commercial and industrial clients, primarily within the food and beverage manufacturing agriculture and municipal markets. Ray likes to say that they provide engineering construction services from seed to table. Ray, welcome to the show. Ray Brown: Hello Lisa, thank you for that warm introduction on Esco. Lisa Ryan: Well, it's so nice to have you here. Tell us a bit of your background and what led you to Esco. Ray Brown: You bet. You know it started in grade school. No, I'm just kidding. I'm probably one of the very few folks out there that this was my first and only job. I'm a graduate from the University of Northern Iowa up in Cedar Falls in 1992, with a CPA BA in accounting. Little did I know this was to become my life's purpose and passion. Esco Group and our family have over 300 employees. We're very proud of saying that this has been my only job, and I'm grounded. I have a great family. My wife was my high school sweetheart. We have over 25 years together and two wonderful kids - Ethan and Natalie. I'm honored to be on your show, Lisa. Lisa Ryan: Well, it's great to have you here. One of the things that we were talking about before we got started was this whole year that we've gone through with COVID and some of the effects that it's had not only on us but on our employees. It's bringing up things like depression and dealing with mental illness. It's a topic that many people are not comfortable talking about - they don't know how to talk about it. What are some of the things you've experienced? How have you worked with your employees this past year to help them get through all this? Ray Brown: Before we get going, I think, with like anything that we tack on Esco, you have to start somewhere, whether the safety or mental illness and, as I share, what we're doing at Esco. We don't draw a line in the Sand. This is where we want to be today. We focus on growth from one day to the next. One of the things I recognized for myself going through this past year, half of our workforce, we have around 300 employees, about half of those hundred 50 or so, give or take, actually are in manufacturing. Manufacturers continue to be super successful every day, navigating not just the Covid challenges but other manufacturing challenges. Half of our workforce is engineering office space, so they're all working from home, so we had a pretty diverse background this last year of folks that when you talk about what their new normal look like, that didn't change construction electrical construction professionals. They showed up on the job from day one lot much like manufacturing professionals out there, and then our engineers working in that hybrid model. There are a lot of different challenges around isolation, and that was me as well. I think there's a stat out there I share with the Esco family - one in four of us went through some depression this last year or continue to maybe suffer from some of that. I felt that one of the things that we started this year at Esco group, we have dynamic teams that help. I strategically partner with our three engagement teams, focusing on building mutual commitment and making it fun and around that flow experience. Then we have an employee ownership team that helps us share the principles of employee ownership, but the three-team that we'd like to call them partnering with them just this month of April and May as health or wellness month, so we're educating ourselves. One of the initiatives that we're just going to be launching is "Make it Okay" and wear a green...

View Details

Connect with Theo Etzel Email: Theo@TheoEtzel.com Website: TheoEtzel.com Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guests today, Theo Etzel. Theo was CEO of conditioned air for 23 years. The company grew from $2.7 million in revenue to $55 million in sales at that time. He stepped down as CEO in June of 2018 and is currently Chairman of Conditioned Air, now a 60 plus million dollar regional organization in the residential and light commercial HVAC markets. Conditioned Air employs over 375 full-time co-workers and has branches in Fort Myers and Sarasota. Theo is the author of the book, Invest your Heartbeats Wisely, released in April of 2016. The book focuses on practical full philosophical, and principled leadership concepts for business and life. Theo, welcome to the show. Theo Etzel: Thank you, Lisa. I really appreciate being here. It's always a joy. Lisa Ryan: Great! Please tell us a little bit about your background and what led you to do what you're doing. Theo Etzel: Well, my background is that I'm a native Floridian. I grew up in Miami and attended Stetson University with a focus on finance and economics. That got me started on the business side of things by developing hotels for hotels' national chain and traveling around the country. Even into some entrepreneurial things after that. Developing an area franchise model for Ben and Jerry's in the Atlanta area. We were living there and did that for several years. We ended up selling those stores and having the opportunity to come to Naples, Florida, back down on the west coast. I took over a small air conditioning company, Conditioned Air, and applied sort of the entrepreneurial people skills needed at that time. It helped me grow the business. I would say that I didn't have any experience in the HVAC world specifically, but I certainly had business experience. I'm a people person, so I tried my best to bring good practices, good ethics, good people treatment into the company and learn the HVAC business as I went along. I wanted to build a team that could really help that process grow. Lisa Ryan: So you walk into this small HVAC company without any industry experience, and you're about to take it over. What were some of the things you did right off the bat to connect with the people who work there, develop that passion for the business, and build the culture you did? Theo Etzel: I think the first challenge that I realized that the company had organizationally was that the person in my chair previously had not been forthright and straight-up with the staff. My number one goal was to establish trust with the staff, which required a whole level of transparency of telling people what I was going to do and making sure that I did it so that they saw that there was consistency in word deed. Building the trust probably took the better part of a year to be truthful because there was skepticism. He's young. He hasn't been in our business before. What does he know? What's he here for? I mean, you have you know people. People will make up their minds a narrative to support their suspicions. If allowed to, and so that's where I do think in any organization, no matter what size. Terrific communications have to be the key, so you have to tell people what you're going to do constantly. Set expectations and carry through with those. Solicit input for what works and what doesn't work. Ask questions and respect their opinion doesn't mean you have to adopt it. But it means you have to communicate with them if you don't choose to adopt an idea that someone suggests. You do need to explain why we can't do it exactly that way. Lisa Ryan: So what would be an example of something specific that you did to build trust, as they saw that you were young, and they were skeptical. Maybe it was the leftover from the previous administration of what they experienced for them but was there something that comes to mind as an...

View Details

Connect with Joe Fritz Email: jfritz@investmentcasting.org Website: www.investment casting.org Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today, Joe Fritz. Joe has been the Executive Director of the Investment Casting Institute since 2013. With over 35 years of experience, Joe has contributed to some programs, including the navy's Trident programs, the air force's joint strike fighter program, and Boeing 787 Dreamliner program. Joe holds degrees in engineering from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from Union College. Joe and I had the opportunity to work together in Puerto Rico at his association's annual meeting. He was also kind enough to let me bring my mom with me. We had a great time together. Joe, welcome to the show. Joe Fritz: Well, thank you very much, Lisa. We did have a good time in Puerto Rico, and it was a distinct pleasure meeting your mother and having you speak at our event. You were extremely well received, and I had many people requesting that we share the event's recording with folks on their staff to learn from you about gratitude in the workplace. Lisa Ryan: It was almost like back in the olden days when we used to have live events. Joe Fritz: It does seem like quite a long time since we've been able to do so. The pandemic last year wiped out every live event that we had, except for one training program that was conducted in February. Lisa Ryan: Share with us just a little bit about your background, and then we'll get into the details as far as what this last year has meant to you, your association members, and really what you hear in the industry. Tell us about you, Joe. Joe Fritz: That's a loaded question. As you can tell from your introduction, I have a solid military design background. That was really a big part of my career when I first got out of college, working through things until the end of the Cold War. When the Berlin Wall came down, I worked as a design engineer for General Electric in the naval ordnance division. It was like this bright young man better find something else to do with them without a Cold War to be building apartments for. I applied for a blind ad in The Wall Street Journal. Nobody ever gets a job on a blind ad. What they were looking for was an engineer with aerospace experience, an advanced business degree. A couple of my friends pushed me to apply for it, and I ended up changing industries completely, finding myself in the world of metals and material science. Since 1990, I've been working in the investment casting industry and parallel industries I've stepped out in a couple of times. Still, I became fascinated with technology and the science involved in creating precision metal components. Using this process for the point that I could actually say that I love the industry. Around 1999-2000, a business colleague of mine solicited my help in looking at and preparing his presentation to apply for the job that I'm in right now. I was I got very excited about this. Mike, this is the perfect job for me. He laughed at me, and he said, you know, the only differences, I know the Board of Directors, and you don't. In 2013, Mike picked up the phone, calls, and says, hey Joe, I'm planning on retiring. Are you going to throw your hat in the ring? After some discussions and a series of interviews, I found myself the Executive Director of the investment casting Institute. We're a 501 C six nonprofit trade association. We have approximately 265 Member companies throughout the United States and some international. Our focus is on bringing first-off benefits to our Members, especially the smaller members. We've got a couple of substantial companies. Still, the smaller companies are the ones that really derive benefit from working with us, so we offer educational benefits we try to work up discount programs to support them. We offer networking opportunities. A huge part of my job is...

View Details

Contact Mauricio Barboza: Email: mauricio@joncoind.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mauricio-barboza-a6bb9558/ Lisa Ryan: Hey. It's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network podcast. I'm really excited to introduce you to Mauricio Barboza today. Mauricio was born in San Jose, Costa Rica. He studied architecture at the University in Costa Rica and graduated with honors majoring in emergent manufacturing technologies. Mauricio is currently the director of business development at Jonco industries. He is responsible for identifying new markets and emerging trends, developing new business opportunities and long-standing partnerships, and building and expanding their client base to drive forward their company's profitable growth ultimately. These are fancy words to say he helps their business grow. Mauricio, welcome to the show. Mauricio Barboza: Thank you, Lisa, glad to be here. Lisa Ryan: So share with us a little bit about your background, and really what led you to Jonco, and doing the things that you're doing now. Mauricio Barboza: My background is actually in architecture. I went to architecture school, and I got a major in emerging technologies. I've always been passionate about the manufacturing industry about business development, product development, and, more so, Creative Problem Solving. That is what led me to Jonco. Jonco is a problem solver. Jonco industries is a multi-industry manufacturing and packaging company in Milwaukee. We have a wide range of capabilities from fulfilling from powder filling and chemical filling. We have a large format digital printing. We do a lot of cutting - whether CNC, and computer-controlled, and water jet, and whatnot. One of the fascinating things about Jonco that I was attracted to is adapting to change and how they have grown as a business. As a matter of fact, one of the most recent things right now, and because of the pandemic, is we're taking on a shift. We're allocating one for facilities, one of our warehouse facilities, to develop a fulfillment center. There's a major need for fulfillment centers right now because everything's everything going on with the pandemic. Everybody wants everything right away, so the need for a fulfillment center is out there. We're taking that shift, and that is one of what attracted me to Jonco. Lisa Ryan: In our conversations leading up to the podcast, we talked a lot about the pandemic and some of the pivots that you made in making one product, and then just overnight changing to something else, based on what the customers were looking for. So what did that look like before and after, and really how were you able to change so quickly? Mauricio Barboza: One of the fascinating things about the manufacturing industry right now is that everything changed. It's not the same as before the pandemic. It's never going to be the same it's never going to go back. The pandemic pushed the manufacturing industry to adapt and embrace technology. I love the fact that it pushed manufacturers and forward thinkers to embrace technology at a faster pace. When we talk about technology, there are really three big players out there. One is automation. Automation has been a while for decades. The biggest difference right now with automation and how things are moving is that it has become accessible. It has become accessible to smaller industries - from small companies to mid-sized companies. Think of it as a car. When cars came out, they replaced the horse. It was a novelty. Now, everybody's got a car. Similar things are happening with automation. Automation is just becoming available. It's easier to use. The interface is user-friendly, so it's one of the fascinating things that is happening right now. Another thing is that the digital transformation. Everything is shifting from paper and pen and all that traceability to digital to the Internet of Things. We're doing everything that we're doing on the computer, computer control,...

View Details

Connect with John Millen: Website: www.MillenGroup.com Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan, and welcome to the Manufacturers Network podcast, Live Edition, and we're excited to introduce you to our guest today, John Millen. Now, John is a benefit hacker over the last 20 years in the employee benefits industry. He became annoyed and upset that there were not better ideas to contain health care costs and improve benefits for employees, having been a victim of a high deductible medical plan himself. He decided to radically change the way health care plans are presented to employees, to employers. John is the Millen Group's co-founder, an independent benefit advisory firm located in Richmond, Virginia. And over the past two decades, manufacturing has been the number one industry that they've been able to improve. So, John, welcome to the show. John Millen: Great. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks for having me on. Appreciate it. Absolutely. Lisa Ryan: Share with us a little bit about your background and what led you into employee benefits and particularly your focus on manufacturing. John Millen: Yeah, so absolutely. So my training from college was as an engineer, mechanical engineer. And in that field, you're solving lots of problems. Yes, it's about math and physics and all that stuff. But you're solving problems. And several years ago, I remember going through the process of open enrollment for myself. I picked a medical plan, which happened to be a very high deductible medical plan, thinking that's all I needed. I didn't have any advice. I just picked it because it was the cheapest and ended up learning the hard way that I picked the wrong plan in that process. And then, over that period, after that, you have a sting like, oh, my gosh, why didn't anyone tell me that it worked this way? We have provided different types of benefits for almost 20 years to small companies and big companies. I started seeing what was being communicated to employees from the front of the room, and I got irritated, and I got mad. I'm like, why are they not saying this way? And then not saying this? And it started from that. I wanted to fix the problem. I was tired of seeing other people get burned by different things. And there were some mistruths, not intentional people aren't bad people, but they just didn't know what they didn't know. After several years of that, seeing companies do things a certain way, we wanted to hack it in a good way. Benefit Hacker. It was very catchy. It gets people's attention, but it's like, hey, there are things you can do that you've been told may not be the right thing, especially over time. Everyone says, right, right. Who wants to sell insurance? Like I didn't go to college to sell insurance. And I don't love selling insurance. I love solving problems. And insurance is a mechanism. It's a risk mechanism that is always changing. So that's kind of what led me to this industry. Lisa Ryan: Right. And it's something that with benefits, it's always on our mind. I know for me, with my husband being furloughed last year for ten months, that was the one question that kept popping up is, holy cow, what are we going to do if he gets laid off and we don't have benefits and going to the market or using COBRA or whatever? So from my own experience, thank goodness our Christmas present was that Scott got called back to work in December, and now we don't have to worry about that anymore. But when companies are thinking about employees and, you think that, OK, well, employees, they're an asset versus a liability. But from our conversation, before we were talking about that, they look at their employees as assets, but they don't generally treat the employee benefits spend that way. So what do you see as far as the investment versus expense? Fascinating. John Millen: So it's a little thing I do when I get on an early call with the president or the CFO of a manufacturing facility, I'll just ask a simple...

View Details

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan, and welcome to the Manufacturers' Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guests today, Teresa Lindsey. Teresa is the CEO of Channel Products, a privately held Cleveland-based manufacturer of components systems and technologies for the gas appliance industry and beyond. Recently she's launched two new divisions of Channel, Spotted Yak, an engineering design firm, and Haute Door Life, an online retail entity, offering high-end curated outdoor living products. Channel has manufacturing facilities in both United States and China and a distribution Center in Europe. Under her leadership, the company's revenue has grown by over 100%; profitability has increased by over 1,000% the overall employee base has tripled. She has built a culture based on high levels of individual and corporate performance and charitable service. Teresa, welcome to the show. Teresa Lindsey: Thank you for having me, Lisa. Lisa Ryan: Well, that is quite a background. I'm so excited to hear about your journey regarding how you got to where you're at. We're going to talk about the culture you created. Please share with us a little bit about your background. Teresa Lindsey: Thank you so much. I had a different life, a unique life. Some might say somewhat disadvantaged by comparison to others. I grew up in a world that I didn't have an emphasis on career or education. I had to navigate my way through all of that into adulthood and took several different paths. There are many splits in the road in that journey, but I finally ended up manufacturing several years ago. I was going from General Motors into Haute corporation, a publicly held friction manufacturer. Then, after that, with the private equity firm who owned Haute and who owns Channel. Through that ended up at Channel, and the way it got here is unique. We purchased Channel; I was with the private equity firm. We purchased the company, and I came in for about six months to help them operationally. Let's see how we can improve things; let's improve morale. Let's dig into the meat of the company. We felt like it had good bones. Let's see what we can accomplish. During that time, we discovered that because it was a local company, we were busy on due diligence with several other companies. We missed some things, and so it ended up being not exactly what we thought we were getting when we purchased it. Let me say it that way. What ended up happening was an executive decision made by the private equity firm, the ownership, that they would replace the President. I was in that meeting sitting there with the owners, and I just felt it well up inside of me, and I just said, give it to me, I can do it. I can run this. I can fix it, and I can make that happen. That was nine-plus years ago. They took a chance on me, and they gave me a shot. They had no reason to do that or to believe that I could do anything I was saying that I could do. But they did. They believed in me, and here we are today. So that's my journey here to Channel Products. It's been a fun ride with many intricacies to it, a lot to overcome, and a lot to learn, as you can imagine. Many moments were growing moments for me, first times. Here we are. It's been fun, and I'm grateful I surrounded myself with people far better than me. That facilitated the climb. Lisa Ryan: When you were looking at the first days of Channel nine years ago, you don't have to go into the details as far as what you thought you were getting but didn't. Share with us the journey as far as the culture, the way it was, and some of the things that you saw as an outsider coming in that oh I can fix that. What happened with the employees? How did you finally get them to buy in - because we know this whole process takes time. It doesn't happen overnight. How did you take it from day one - brand spanking new off the street - to what you've created? Teresa Lindsey: I would say that that we're still on...

View Details

Connect with Scott Gauvin: Website: www.macresco.com Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest, Scott Gauvin. Scott is a seasoned change agent with over 25 years of experience successfully helping organizations realize their potential. Throughout his career, Scott's focus has been on driving performance gains through organizational alignment and a progressive operation strategy approach. He has advised companies the world over and across a wide range of industries, including pharmaceuticals, biotech, consumer goods, medical devices, agriculture, packaging, legal services, banking, food processing, and industrial manufacturing. He holds a BA from the University of Massachusetts, an MBA from Boston University, and is a Six Sigma black belt. Scott, welcome to the show. Scott Gauvin: Thank you, Lisa. It's a pleasure to be here. Lisa Ryan: So share with us a little bit about your background and what has led you into the work you do, particularly with lean. Scott Gauvin: Early in my career, I worked for a manufacturer and got a chance to play in many different areas and learned a lot about some of the issues that plague manufacturing companies. I realized a disconnect between some of the changes we were creating and how we created that change. Throughout many experiments that went awry, we learned that one of the things we struggle with is implementing sustainable change. When we're implementing and practicing lean, one of the things that I've focused on - especially the last probably 10-15 years, is how to create change, but more sustainably. My focus is on the human element of lean practices. Lisa Ryan: That was one of the things that we were talking about a little bit before we started the interview because manufacturers are pretty much familiar with lean. Everybody, at some point, is doing lean. You mentioned that a lot of them are only doing about 50% of lean. So what are they doing right Scott Gauvin: Lean comes from the American executives' work who studied the Toyota operating model back in the 1980s. They've adapted it to their operating models, but there are two parts of that Toyota model: one is continuous improvement, and the other is respect for people. Many equate the respect for people as being nice to people. You should be nice because that's the right human thing to do, but the idea of respect for people isn't about being nice. The respect for people part is Toyota's operating mindset, which forms their culture. The respect for people pillar is about the mindset you establish. The focus is on the human element of change. How you're incorporating every stakeholder into the change equation and letting their skills, their talents, their knowledge, their experience transform the organizations. Manufacturers get this wrong because they focus only on the continuous improvement side of these two pillars, and they give lip service to the respect the people piece. They implement the tools and then focus on creating cost reductions or productivity improvements. Lisa Ryan: And why do you think they are they're thinking that? Do they perhaps feel that those soft skills are not contributing as much to the bottom line? Where is the disconnect? Scott Gauvin: I think it all comes out of what's driving the need. What's driving the executive is we've got to get our numbers up; we've got to improve our performance, and so, what are the tangible things that we can do that? We can see that we can affect those. There are many tools in the lean methodology that helped drive change that will ultimately reduce waste or increase productivity. The problem is that a lot of those changes aren't sustained. There's an industry week article floating out there that they did a study that suggested that as much as 97% of lean efforts fail to achieve what they set out to accomplish. Most start their lean efforts with the wrong purpose. They set out to reduce costs...

View Details

Connect with Ashleigh Walters: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleigh-walters-makethingsbetter/ Website: https://www.onexinc.com/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the manufacturers' network podcast. I'm excited to introduce you today to Ashley Walters. Ashleigh is President of Onex, an employee-owned business operating for over 54 years in Erie, Pennsylvania. Onex designs services and manufacturers high-temperature industrial furnaces. When Ashleigh assumed the general manager role in 2013, the company has lost sight of its mission and family-centric core values. Today Onex's mission is to make things better: empowered employees, happy clients, thriving communities. Ashleigh holds a BS in chemical engineering from Auburn University. She's the chairman of the board of directions for Northwest industrial resource Center, a manufacturing extensive partnership, and President and director of Aspire casualty, a reinsurance company. Ashleigh is the author of "Leading with Grit and Grace: a journey of organizational culture change. Ashleigh, welcome to the show. Ashleigh Walters: Thanks so much for having me, Lisa. Lisa Ryan: Please share with us a little bit about your background and what led you to Onex, to begin with, in 2013. Ashleigh Walters: Sure, I have; as you noted, my bs in chemical engineering from Auburn University. I met my husband there back in 1998. He started Onex in the southern division in 2002 when we graduated from college; I joined Onex in 2003 as a technical salesperson. Fast forward to 2013. I was a stay-at-home mom with two little boys, and my father-in-law called to let me know that the current leader had left the organization and that he needed me to lead and take a look at the financials. Lisa Ryan: Okay, and then, and so what happened, I know that there was that they had kind of lost sight of their vision by that time so tell us a little bit about the process of what you saw and how that transition started to take place. Ashleigh Walters: The previous leader was a command and control style leader, so he had siloed the company. People weren't working well together. People were living in fear. The first thing I started asking curious questions: how are we doing this; what's going well; what's not going well. As I asked those questions, employees at first were fearful of answering me because they thought I would find something wrong in what they were doing. They thought I was going to throw them under the bus. Then they realized, as I helped them solve the problems they were facing, that I wasn't there to hurt them; I was there for them and helped get rid of the obstacles in their way. I call that a much more democratic approach to leadership. It's really about putting people first. As a leader, I have to help them. The most important part of my job is helping them do their job to the best of their abilities. Lisa Ryan: How about how many employees do you have it Onex. Ashleigh Walters: We have 50 full-time employees. Lisa Ryan: Okay, so going around and talking to each of the employees and having those conversations. How much time would you say that that took out of your week? Ashleigh Walters: To change a culture takes time. It took us a good four years before I felt like we were in a spot where everybody was on the bus everybody was on the same page. We did many different events and used many lean principles to help us make that cultural shift, so we started with a value stream mapping event. We mapped our entire production process, and then we went on to map our office processes as well. Since we did those different lean-type initiatives, it started the conversation and started the collaboration. Those initiatives are what helped to lead to the culture change as well. Lisa Ryan: So take us back to the early days when you first came in, and you start asking these employees questions, and they were still in that fear state. What did that sound like? How are they...

View Details

Connect with Per Sjofors: Email: per@sjofors.com. Website: www.sjofors.com Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers Network podcast. I'm here today with Per Sjofors. Per is the founder of Sjofors Partners. Pricing has always been an interest area for Per. As a serial entrepreneur running companies in Europe and the U.S., he did pricing experiences. Now some of these experiences worked spectacularly well, and others not so much. As a result, Per founded his company out of his frustration that his business schools taught him that pricing is too abstract, too academic for a business executive to act on. Per, welcome to the show today. Per Sjofors: Thank you very much, Lisa, and thank you for having me. Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. Share with us a little bit about your background. What brought you here, and with this whole focus on pricing and the craziness that goes along with that? Per Sjofors: Well, it's a little bit of what you just mentioned. I had been able to run a few companies here in the U.S. and in Europe before I moved here. And these experiments we did with pricing - some were spectacular. I mean, we could see revenues are up 25 percent the next quarter, and others were complete duds. And business school learnings were so academic and so theoretical that it was useless. So, 13 years ago, I decided I was too old and too opinionated to report to anybody. So I decided to take that interest in pricing and develop a process that would make every pricing experiment a success. That is the process that we've been using ever since. And the core of the process is to understand how you can predict sales volume at different prices. Now, once you can predict sales volume at different prices, and when you can predict revenue at different prices, you can set the price that is the best for you if that prediction is correct. Lisa Ryan: Right. When it comes to manufacturing, you and I have talked about this a couple of times, but we think that there's just one way to do pricing in cost-plus. But this is one of the biggest mistakes that manufacturers are making. And there are two others. What do you see about these mistakes, and how can we start to turn that around and be more profitable? Per Sjofors: Cost-plus is a big one. I've been there myself in some of these companies. We use a rule of thumb because different industries have different rules of thumb - some are 35 percent, some is 50 percent, some double the price. In some industries, you go up as high as ten times the cost. But, it's all irrelevant because your cost as a manufacturer has very little to do with the value you deliver to customers. There's another very logical thing, but a lot of manufacturers don't think about it. And this is if you manage to reduce your cost, your price goes down in dollars. If you manage to reduce your cost and have your prices the way they are, there's no reason to make a little more money. The other another mistake, of course, is to look at a competitor. If you have competitors that have prices online, it's quote-unquote, easy. And many times, in manufacturing, you don't have that ability. You try to get somebody at last year's price list or maybe an international price list or something like that. And they'll give you some hints somewhere where competition or pricing sets their prices. But it doesn't tell you the story. It doesn't tell you what deals they're making, doesn't tell you about bundles they're making. It doesn't work. That tells you what kickbacks they may offer to their clients and special incentives, and so forth. So trying to set a price based on a competitor leads to using the wrong price. And by the way, that competitor may well have guessed in getting to set their price in the first place. Lisa Ryan: When you think about it, you're trying to differentiate yourself

View Details

Connect with Lisa Anderson Website: www.lma-consulting.com You can also call 90963039 Telephone: 909-630-3943 Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan from the manufacturers' network podcast. I'm excited to introduce you today to our guest, Lisa Anderson. Lisa provides expertise and advice on maximizing the customer experience and enabling profitable, scalable, dramatic business growth. She's worked in industries as diverse as aerospace and defense, building and industrial products, food and beverage, consumer products, and health care products. Before founding LMA consulting group, she was the Vice President of operations at Paper Pack. Her tenure included transitions and promotions through its transformation from a $100 million family-owned business through a merger and acquisition of three businesses combined into one 350 million dollar global company. A leveraged management buyout followed this combined with an investment banking group, which sounds like quite the ride. Lisa Anderson: Thank you. I'm glad to be here, and it was a great experience. Lisa Ryan: So share with us a little bit about your background, including more details of what you did with Paper Pack. Lisa Anderson: So I've been consulting now for 15 years, but before that, I started my career at Coca Cola and did planning and distribution planning. I went to a press plastic injection molder and then onto Paper Pack. It was quite the experience. We grew the core business and then bought a division of P&G and bought another smaller entrepreneurial company similar to us. It was quite an exciting challenge to merge cultures, people, processes, and systems successfully to integrate the products, grow the business, and increase profits and increase the company's value. It was a great experience to utilize in my consulting today. Lisa Ryan: And even with all of those changes and everything you went through in your history before today. The last year has been, shall we say, rather interesting in manufacturing. How are you working with all of these changing conditions in the manufacturing marketplace? Lisa Anderson: Well, never been busier. Current clients are finding that their demand is volatile. It depends on who their customers are, and the importance of the customer is shining through with coronavirus. A food manufacturer could be their customers' customer could be a Costco as an example, has been increasing as people are still shopping for food. On the other hand, the customers' customer could be Starbucks, and that took a nosedive when a lot of Starbucks slows down and, in some areas of the country, only drive through their open. That's led to volatility in demand, which meant that we had to focus extra efforts on understanding changing customer decisions, getting a change in customer behaviors, and getting a better handle on our demand, so that we could know what to manufacture and how to set up our supply chain to be successful. Lisa Ryan: And that's one of the things that I've been hearing from a lot of the people that I've had as guests on the show is the thing that's keeping them up at night is the supply chain, because you don't know one day to the next, so what are you, seeing as far as what's going on in manufacturing what's going on in the supply chain. Lisa Anderson: Well, that's a great question. I'm seeing that manufacturers that were already innovating and understood the importance of having a diversified supply chain. That doesn't mean that "hey, I have to have ten suppliers for every material or anything, but it does mean we have to be used uncommon common sense and be thinking strategically ahead. For example, when I was a Vice President of operations, we had one of the critical materials we purchased from Brazil. There are plenty of things that can go wrong in getting the product from Brazil into the United States, so all along, we had a backup source of supply in the United States on the east...

View Details

Connect with John Hrdlick: Email: John.Hrdlick@inxintl.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-hrdlick-ba953815/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan, and welcome to the Manufacturers' Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, John Hrdlick. John is President and CEO of INX International Ink company. He spent most of his career in the industry at INX during his 44 years with the company. He's worked in the production lab and text service, eventually landing. Operations Management around 1994 as a VP in 2011, he became a senior CIO, and then President. He added CEO in 2019. He enjoys managing the employees towards their goals and challenges in all of his roles. He's also an active member and participant on NAPIM boards and the IMDPA associations. John, Welcome to the show. John Hrdlick: Hi, Lisa. I'm delighted to be here. Always a pleasure talking to you. Lisa Ryan: Share with us what led you into INX, and share with us that journey of what got you to where you are. John Hrdlick: Well, it's a journey that most people don't see these days. I came out of high school; there were other opportunities. I did start college after high school, and at the time, due to the cost and my maturity level, I didn't last very long. And I left with the idea that I'd get my act together, I get some money in the bank, and then go back to school. So that led me to a shift position in a factory. I was laid off, and a friend of mine got me into the business where he worked. I was a production worker. That was a different company. I stayed there for three years and then went to INX to make more money because I got married. So I've been very fortunate to work for a company like INX, and opportunities kept coming my way. Every chance I had to move up or take on a different role, I took it, and it eventually took me to where I am today. Everyone has a mentor, and I was lucky to have Rick Leaneti. He's my mentor. He was our President for 19 years, so he brought me up to the organization, which helped me understand our company's culture. It took me all over the world. I've seen most of our employees. I think most of our facilities and that also includes seeing customers all over the world. So even though I had mainly operational positions. I was still involved with sales and people and to be successful. I focused on that taking care of our people and taking care of our customers. Lisa Ryan: So when you said that everyone in the company had a mentor expand a little bit more about that. What did that program look like, and how did that what levels do people get mentors. How did that process work? John Hrdlick: Well, at the time, we didn't have a program. Individuals at INX would take people under their wings and help them along. I worked for Rick for ten years. Then I left and came back about five years later and worked for him again. I moved up to our corporate office, and there was probably a period of five or six years where I didn't work directly for Rick, but he was always there. When I became CEO, he and I worked together every day. Even when I didn't realize he was mentoring me, he taught me and helped me and the ability to do what I do today; it wasn't an organized program. It was just someone who saw something in me and took me under his wing, and you see that all of our company. Lisa Ryan: Starting on the production floor and then ending up as President, you're right. It's not a story that you hear every day. So, is that one of the things that you attribute to success is the fact that they groom people within the company versus John Hrdlick: Least I would say there's a good mix. But what he has done over the years is they do nurture their employees. INX is a great company, and people tend to stay and make a full career out of our company. If you look at our average tenure, our employees were with us for 22 years on average. That has gone down in recent years for two...

View Details

Connect with Suzanne O'Connell: Email: soconnell@certifiedThomaspartner.com.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannemoconnell/

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan, and welcome to the manufacturers' network podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today. Suzanne O'Connell. Suzanne is a mechanical engineer and certified Thomas partner. She has 28 years experience in manufacturing and 20 plus years in digital marketing, and nearly a decade serving Thomas industrials B2B clients. Welcome to the show. Suzanne O'Connell: Lisa, Thank you so much for having me. Glad to be here.

Lisa Ryan: So as we get started. That is a lot of engineering and manufacturing in your background; tell us a little bit about your journey that made you decide to do that.

Suzanne O'Connell: Well, I always loved math and science, so pursuing mechanical engineering was a natural path for me. Ironically, I started in computer science. And then I fell in love with HVAC and refrigeration - thermodynamics classes, if you will. So I changed to mechanical engineering. I started in product development, and I was writing selection software for a manufacturer of cooling towers, evaporative fluid coolers -product lines like that. I realized that I like people as well. And when you're coding software, you're not getting a lot of interaction with people. So I naturally progressed into an inside Technical Sales role and then into outside sales roles, and finally into the consultation role that I have at Thomas. Lisa Ryan: And I know that you do a lot with digital marketing and there's so much going on with this whole internet of things. Please share with us a little bit about what that is in how it's impacting that industrial space. Suzanne O'Connell: Well, there's a lack of skilled employees, which is further driving the adoption of automation. And there's an accelerated trend to embrace and deploy the Industrial Internet of Things. So businesses are now driving scale through technology, and they're able to collect more data than they ever have been able to previously. Lisa Ryan: So when you're talking about automation. How exactly does industrial automation change the way these traditional job roles are viewed?

Suzanne O'Connell: Well, the drive for automation and technology on the shop floor is transforming the way that we look at the future infrastructure and work opportunities and manufacturing; historically, we've been divided between blue-collar and white-collar jobs, we see the emergence of new collar jobs that combine complex technology and data with traditional manufacturing capabilities. Lisa Ryan: Why know that one of the things we've seen in the last several years is this large influx of millennials into the industrial space. So how have you seen this demographic creating those new opportunities and challenges? Suzanne O'Connell: Well, it's an exciting time where we're about 50/50 between our millennial managers and our baby boomer generation. So that's changing dynamics in the office. And this new generation has very different requirements for doing business. They've grown up with the internet their entire life. They're used to getting things in an instant, and they don't tolerate slow any longer. So it's creating some interesting dynamic tension between employees and business and their customer base as they rise in positions of authority. We are also seeing our baby boomers adapt to millennial behaviors. So we see a lot more engagement electronically versus phone activity that we have seen historically. Lisa Ryan: One of the questions that I get a lot from my clients is attracting Millennials and Gen Z into this industrial space. So we're looking at this IoT; we're looking at all of this digital automation coming in. But what are companies using to attract these new generations? Suzanne O'Connell: I think they're naturally attracted to technology

View Details

Connect with Eric Schwarzenbach: Email: eschwarzenbach@rollomaticusa.com Website: www.Rollomaticusa.com Show Transcript: Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan of the Manufacturers' Network podcast, I'm excited to introduce you to today's guest Eric Schwarzenbach. Eric is President of Rollomatic, which is a manufacturer of CNC cutting tool grinding machines. He's been there for 24 years, Eric. Welcome to the show. Eric Schwarzenbach: Thank you, Lisa. And thank you for giving me this opportunity. I'm excited to be on your show and talk about the time we've gone through now in covid. Lisa Ryan: Share with us a little bit about your background. I know you've been with Rollomatic for 24 years now. But what got you to where you're at? Eric Schwarzenbach: I was at that time I was living in Switzerland. I had the opportunity to move to the US and take over the subsidiary of Rollomatic here in Illinois in 1997. I was green in terms of what America was and then the culture here, but I was highly excited to come here. I'm originally born in Switzerland and moved to England when I was 19 years old. My mother tongue is German, so I had to learn my English in England. And of course, coming to the US with English British was more difficult because I asked people, What their surname was. And they said, What are you talking about? But I was always in this industry of grinding tool machines since I left Switzerland. I worked in England for 14 years and then moved to Denmark to work there for five years. I traveled in Europe at the time, and then I worked in Switzerland for another company for 12 years until I was very fortunate to find Rollomatic and get the precision here in the US. Lisa Ryan: That's great. That's so funny that you talk about American English versus British English, because, in this country, we think that we're speaking English, but I guess not so much. This has been an interesting past year with covid and with the pandemic. Share with us some of the things that have come up working as a result of the changes you've had to make. How have you gotten through the last year? Eric Schwarzenbach: The covid situation opened up several opportunities for us, which were beneficial for the company. We didn't see that initially; in the pandemic, we all got scared. Businesses around those collapsed, but it also opened up opportunities. The most significant one is that we had already made plans to install a COO - chief operating officer, who would work along with me. We installed him on April 6th, a week before the country was closed down. Travel came to a grinding halt, and I worked from home for two months. He was on his own here running the company, which was very good for him to learn. We were able to implement certain measures in the company where we separated tasks and duties. We improved the working processes in place and put specific procedures in place that became very beneficial. I returned to work again in May back to the office. The fact that we didn't travel meant we couldn't travel with customers. We didn't have any trade shows going on, so we didn't have to prepare for them or execute them. This gave us so much time to focus on our teams and to educate and train our teams. Lisa Ryan: What would be an example of one of the procedures you changed that resonated with your staff there? Eric Schwarzenbach: The organizing of the applications and service team was before we had one person doing the entire two teams. We split that, and we went back to whiteboards - on the wall with magnets and dry erasers. We went back to basics to organize and to schedule and to be able to try to follow the process of doing tests grinding for our customers. It improves your speed and the quality of it. It also gives us the readiness to give feedback to our sales team. Lisa Ryan: And how did your sales team deal with not being able to go to trade shows and see their customers. What did they do to keep...

View Details

Connect with Laura Timbrook: Email: Laura@LauraTimbrook.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauratimbrook/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan from the Manufacturers' Network podcast. I'm here with Laura Timbrook. Laura is a well-being strategist, and she's also a fellow podcaster. She is the host of the Manufacturing Wellness Podcast. So, Laura, welcome to the show. Laura Timbrook: Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. Lisa Ryan: We've had several conversations over the last couple of months. Not only was I on your podcast, but you were in my summit and focusing on why wellness is so essential to manufacturers. So before we get there, let's learn all about you. What led you to concentrate on wellness and then bring it into manufacturing as your point of focus? Laura Timbrook: Yes. So for me, I come from a 15 year of management-level leadership background. I transitioned into corporate wellness coaching, and I did that for about another eight years. What I found out is that my favorite clients were manufacturers. So instead of focusing on all corporate and all industries, I managed down to manufacturing. And it's been such an adventure. I love when I leave a manufacturing facility and my cheeks hurt because I've been smiling and laughing all day. And that was one reason I wanted to focus on their workforce because there was a lot of work to be done. Often, the employees felt like they were left out, that the wellness approaches didn't work for them in their unique lifestyle. I'm a big believer that health is for everybody. And I focused on manufacturing, and I love doing it. Lisa Ryan: So share with us some of the reasons why wellness hasn't been a focus in manufacturing; and why is it even more important today? Laura Timbrook: There hasn't been a focus in manufacturing because we take that approach like I'm tough enough. We don't realize how much our bodies start breaking down. When our bodies start breaking down, we power through it. And those who don't power through it, they're considered weak. That's not really how we need that to work. We need to make sure that we're building our employees up. In the last two years, we have seen that wellness has come up in manufacturing, especially the small to mid-levels. Your big companies like G.E. and your large manufacturers, they've got those fancy wellness programs, but the small and midsize don't. And they're starting to realize now more than ever, especially with covid, how important taking care of our heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, how important that is. They decided through this whole pandemic, if you were going to get covid and how bad you were going to get it. Lisa Ryan: Addressing that issue from a small and medium manufacturer is essential because I can't tell you how many of my clients that I've talked to that their employees get sick, they go to the emergency room. It's like they don't even think about they don't have a primary care physician. It hasn't been something that's been brought up at all in their careers. And when you look at some of the expenses that go along with that, if you can start with that foundational wellness and get employees in the habit. They're bringing those healthier habits home and knowing where they are from the point of wellness, instead of going and sitting for four hours in the emergency room, which is a pain, No. Two is going to cost that company a lot of money. And in the long run, it's not practical. What are some of the foundational ways that you start or give manufacturers some of those ways to get started? Laura Timbrook: We've all seen that iceberg picture where you have the top of the iceberg. That's your health fairs, your doctor's appointments, your fitness – that's the top of the iceberg. But the bottom of the iceberg is where wellness takes hold - that's with relationships and purpose. We forget how...

View Details

Connect with Greg: Email: greg.crowley@rmgfelm.com Website: https://www.rmgfelm.com/ Lisa Ryan: Hey it's Lisa, Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to today's guest Greg Crowley. Greg is President of Rockford manufacturing. Greg, welcome to the show. Greg Crowley: Thank you for having me. Lisa Ryan: So share with us a little bit about your background. What led you to where you're at now with Rockford. Greg Crowley: So Rockford manufacturing group is a small OEM with 40 to 50 people depending on the business level. I spent most of my career as an aerospace mechanical engineer with an MBA education. Four years ago, I switched to the wire fastener industry and took an opportunity to run a small company. So I'm originally from eastern Canada and have been in the States since 1997. Lisa Ryan: Nice. So what with all of this craziness has been going on for the past year. What is it that's working as far as your people your processes, some of the good things that have that are going on or have happened? Greg Crowley: Yep, it's, it's good to focus on the good things because there's so much downside these days with covid. On the positive side, we won a PPP loan, which helped us over the last maybe six, eight months. Our machinery is expensive, so people only want to buy it if they have to. But with this market what's working well is we had to downsize about 20% and that that was a little painful, but we did it only once. And since then, we've been keeping everybody in the building busy. We did reduce. So we didn't want to reduce more than that because when the market recovers. We did move to a 36-hour workweek, and all the salary people took a 10% pay cut, so that's helping us at least stay out of the red until business picks up. So the fact that we're keeping everybody busy is good. Nobody's looking for work in the building. Lisa Ryan: It's so important when you have good people to be able to keep them right now because who knows who's going to be available when covid is in the rearview mirror, which can't come too soon. Were you finding that your employees could work remotely, or were they coming to the facility every day? Greg Crowley: So most people in the office worked remotely when we're in Illinois, and it pretty conservative-run state. So when it first hit roughly in the March timeframe, that Illinois order came from the governor. We did have most of the office working at home, and we had a software tool called splash.com, which helped because people could use their home computers to tie into their work ones and do pretty much everything they do here. So that helped for maybe four to six weeks, and then eventually everybody came back in the building. So the only time somebody will be off now is if they have positive covid test results or a spouse that now can do the work from home. So right now, everybody is in the building and healthy. So that's good. We did have a wave of covid hit us, no more than a couple of people at a time. But it went through pretty much the office and the shop. Lisa Ryan: And so when that happened, did you reduce production when you had fewer people? How did you handle that? Greg Crowley: Yeah, good question. It did impact production, but luckily, not to the point where we would slow down a customer's order. It would have been rare if it happened, but we had enough buffer in this system with the schedules to keep borders on track. If we lost a complete department, that would have been terrible, but we only lost one person from one department. So it wasn't like it brought us to a halt. We did have an issue in the weld area, and to be safe, we went to outside suppliers to do some work for us. We needed to protect the schedule. Lisa Ryan: It's been interesting having these different conversations as far as how people have dealt with that, and now with my husband's company, they schedule production based on who shows up for the day. So...

View Details

Connect with Allison Giddens: Email: akrache@win-tech.net LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisongiddens/ Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network podcast. Our guest today is Allison Giddens. Allison is president and co-owner of Win-Tech, a precision machine shop based just outside Atlanta, Georgia. She has an undergraduate degree in psychology and criminal justice, graduate degrees in conflict management and manufacturing leadership, and certificates in cybersecurity risk management and finance. And she still doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up. Welcome to the show. Allison. Allison Giddens: Hey, thanks for having me. Lisa Ryan: Now, share with us a little bit about your background about your journey, what led you to president and co-owner of Win-Tech. Allison Giddens: So it was a stumble, to be honest with you. I left college and worked in sales and marketing for a large media conglomerate outside of Atlanta. I can let you guess who that is. As much as I was learning, it just wasn't for me. The corporate world just wasn't for me. I happened to be pet sitting for some neighbors, and I knew that he was a business owner. I said to him; I want to come work for you. And he said you don't even know what I do. I said I don't care. I know it's a small business, I think I want to get involved in that. So he said, You can come in for an interview. I laughed and said, Well, I'm already working for you, shouldn't I get a job? (because I was young and stupid, and I thought, that's how things worked.) But I came in for an interview and got to know that group. He hired me on as an admin assistant of sorts. And I grew to learn a little bit about everything, and he threw me to the wolves on a couple of projects, which was good. I quickly realized that this whole manufacturing overlapped with a small business thing that was for me that was cool. Lisa Ryan: Right. Awesome. So please share with us a little bit about your culture over at Win-Tech. What are some of the things you're doing right now that are working? Allison Giddens: So a few years ago, we asked the employees what they felt the company's values were. This question was something that in the 30 years that Win-Tech had been around, we never purposely gone out of our way to figuring it out. It felt like culture was driving us rather than us driving the culture. We found that through some conversations and some Survey Monkey results, there were three words that the employees found that set Win-Tech apart and held the biggest value. And those were accuracy, respect, and accountability. Those three things speak to our group. It is manufacturing, and it's essential to be accurate. The respect level and accountability ultimately speak to the importance of integrity that employees find are important. Those types of things have worked well to highlight. That's led to better communication within the team. So, for example, the accountability aspect. You can talk all day about how it's essential to be accountable for something. Still, unless certain expectations are communicated, you can't hold somebody responsible for something. Some things that we found worked for us was that we initiated five-minute stand-up meetings every Tuesday afternoon. Granted, when covid came around, it was a little more challenging to get 30 people together six feet apart, but we made it happen. By doing that, we were able to communicate the same thing to everybody at the same time. So everyone heard the same information, and that was helpful. Lisa Ryan: So when it comes to those three words that your employees came up with, what was it about the culture that made them feel respected that made it feel like that was one of your values of being accountable? Allison Giddens: I think that the respect, accountability, and accuracy ultimately came from the founder and owner of Win-Tech. Dennis Winslow was always very fair. I mean, he's a just...

View Details

Connect with Roger Email: absconsulting58@gmail.com Telephone: 509-366-2953 Show Transcript: Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan from the Manufacturers' Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce you today to Roger Sargent. Roger is a 20-year entrepreneur who has vast experience working in manufacturing. He's found that family-owned manufacturers have a whole set of challenges that go along with that. So I'll let Roger tell you a little bit more about his background but Roger. Welcome to the show. Roger Sargent: Thank you, Lisa. I'm glad to be here. Lisa Ryan: Well, good. Well, share with us a little bit about your journey before and after entrepreneurship took over. Roger Sargent: Well, I tried to be a professional tennis player at one time and realize that there were a whole lot more people out there that were better than I was. So I started teaching the game because I love the game so much and I realized that the pounding on the court every day was going to beat up my body. So I got into management. A few years later, I got the opportunity to become a partner in a health club, which eventually led me into a partnership in a restaurant and hotel. I realized that all of my business knowledge and systems that I had applied work for any business. About 15 years ago, I started my own consulting business, where I helped small business and middle-sized business owners and their teams with their processes and helped them get out of their own way. In the construction and manufacturing industries, you find that many of those owners started with a family-owned practice. They've let these processes and procedures that they have always applied go hand down from generation, generation from one employee to another and after a while, no one knows why they do it this certain way. They keep doing it. And so that's what I help business owners in all types of businesses, but preferably manufacturing and construction help them get out of their own way. Lisa Ryan: So, take us through the process you use when working with your clients. Roger Sargent: Well, it just starts with getting introduced in and asking a lot of questions; most of those questions start with why and then who, and if they can't answer the why, the who doesn't matter. It's finding out why they do some things the same way over and over again. And if they can spell out exactly succinctly why they do it this way, it probably means to me that it's necessary. But so many times, probably eight out of 10 times, I ask a specific question on certain procedures, I always get, "I don't know, we've always done it that way." That's not a good thing to hear when you're in a business that you don't know why you do something a certain way and so from there, once you start realizing that there's a lot of, I don't know, we've always thought that way, all of a sudden, teams start to realize that maybe we need to start rethinking these things. I help them with that process. Okay, this is how you've done it for X number of years, whatever. What is the result we're trying to get in the timeline? And now, let's see if we can work backward and make it happen more efficiently and productively. Lisa Ryan: So what are some of the things you repeatedly see when it comes to these family-owned or smaller manufacturers getting stuck? Roger Sargent: Well, it starts with the first generation to the second generation and so on, that the founding member of the family who started the business had this idea and they want to keep the family involved. They put the family in there, and they let them work at the business, which is great. So they get to know all the frontline issues and procedures and systems. But what they don't learn is the why. Why are we doing it this way? How do we ever come up with that particular method? It just starts to get transcended down, but because it's always been done that way and it's family-owned. No one wants to rock the...

View Details

Connect with Rue:

Email: Rue@RueWorks.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rue-patel/

Show Transcript:

Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today Rue Patel. For 15 years, Rue Patel led General Mills' largest manufacturing site. He was accountable for delivering expected quantifiable results with a focus on employee consumer and environmental responsibility.

Rue is the founder of Rue Works. He works with smaller businesses to define and implement their growth strategy, provide executive coaching to their leaders, and speak at industry conferences. Welcome to the show.

Rue Patel: They said, thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

Lisa Ryan: Well, I know that you spent most of your career at General Mills, but you share with us a little bit about your journey.

Rue Patel: Yeah, so my manufacturing journey started at PepsiCo, followed by 29 years at General Mills in various roles, mostly manufacturing, but some Research and Development roles. We had an incubator, a little business where we had a skunkworks factory and did some cool experimental things. I found that my love and passion was in building our brands through excellent manufacturing to driving people leadership, people growth, and development of great talent, driving great processes that deliver great results for General Mills.

And our $2 billion plant was an example of one that doubled in size in the last seven or eight years. And we were able to do a lot of that without capital and without adding additional headcount, so purely through improvement and some great technology.

It was the use of that technology with great planning, so it's been a lot of fun. I then kicked into Rue Works when I retired a few months ago. It's a passion to help smaller businesses - under 100 million dollars thereabouts - and help them improve themselves through the same things: strategy development, people development, and talent acquisition. In some cases, finding ways to improve their processes, streamline their systems, and drive to the bottom line. And that's been just a lot of fun.

Lisa Ryan: Yeah, and it sounds like you're able to easily translate a lot of the work that you did for such a massive company like General Mills into working with smaller organizations. Part of what we're trying to do with this podcast is to show how easily transferable some of these ideas are.

You and I have had many conversations about some of the cool things you did a General Mills. But I was hoping you could share with our listeners some of the different philosophies that you had. And some of the other things you did at General Mills that now you're translating that key the clients you're working with today.

Rue Patel: Yeah, so I'm a believer that General Mills, just a great company, is a company of people. It's a people company that happens to make food. For me, the center of this thing is people and the ability to develop people to see things differently, see themselves differently, and expand different roles.

I have done a lot of work with our minority and diversity groups, as I'm of Asian descent and a first-generation immigrant; and with women in our organization. Mentoring, supporting, leading, guiding, and sometimes pushing and kicking people to do things they didn't think they'd achieve. A third of our General Mills factory leaders who reported to me are now directors. I have worked on my teams at some point in their career. And I'm super proud of that.

So beyond the quantifiable stuff. It's the leadership of people, and then their ability to develop a strategy, make a plan and then execute that plan to drive results and do it the right way is stuff I've worked on. So that's the part that I get excited about is seeing that thing mushroom.

So I approached things without a template or canned approach. It's like observe, see, go to the data analysis, understand what's happening, talk to the folks, develop strategies that you can get your arms around and implement. We didn't want to throw around big words, nor throw about big concepts, nor throw earth-changing things that companies that are doing well but want to get better at. But just like, let's find a niche.

So you can take this thing a couple of levels higher, develop some people some talent and move that organization in a very structured and organized way that didn't seem like a template that got dropped on them.

I want to do things that fit their culture and their mold instead of force-fit an organization, so it's a very different approach than a lot of the ordinary consultants. These consultants have a program, and they're trying to force you into their program. So I stay completely away from that part of it. Now I use elements of things that have grown up with the Toyota manufacturing principles, such as work, and they work great.

So transforming those into workable components that a small manufacturer or small business can leverage takes a little bit of work and takes some finesse, but there are ways to do that. We work within the culture, technology, and maturity of an organization instead of just dumping them onto a company.

Lisa Ryan: One of the key things that stuck out in my mind is when you talked about the number of leaders who ended up working for you at General Mills. Paying attention to people within an organization who have leadership skills and then bringing them up through the ranks sounds like a great way for people to find replacements for themselves as they move up. How did you accomplish that? Like, what were you looking for, or how did you bring those leaders up.

Rue Patel: Almost 27-28 years ago, General Mills didn't have great orientation programs and weren't great development programs. So through my experiences at PepsiCo and in school, I put together a basic Excel spreadsheet with the things I would have liked to have in my development portfolio. I wanted to know what I would have needed right off the bat to be a better leader for the folks I served. We built that, and we took that template and built a boot camp. We brought our young leaders in, and through the course of 20 plus years of General Mills, I'm super happy to facilitate every one of those sessions that thousands, thousands of General Mills leaders through these sessions. We incorporated other folks and brought in other leaders and specialists who could help them with skills. But the core of this thing was building a foundation of leadership.

And so that thing has been a passion of mine because it's something I missed when I came to work. And when I was young, in my career. And I want to make sure that people had that now. Often, people follow a template in their mind in terms of by 26 I want to do this, by 36, and one of this by 40, I want to beat this - they often fail to look at their potential, and frequently when you give them some positive reinforcement, you provide them with a kick in the right direction.

I'd meet with our young leaders monthly. And so part of it is committing the time to go and do that. And then, they'd come up with a homework assignment every time, so they'd say, every time I come in here and get some work. And we do some follow-up work, and we get introspective. We look at what they want to do. We look at things that challenge them. Work on different skills and techniques that help them become better leaders. Hey, what's the problem you're having on the floor. Well, I had this person that had an issue, and we had a little bit of a conflict or conflict resolution. Let's talk about some of that. Let's work on it. Instead of doing it through a big seminar with hundreds of people, we focused one on one, and saying, based on your skills and your style and work that you're doing, how would you go about addressing that conflict? Let's work on those things.

So those folks would have homework, and they come back and say, hey, I tried it, and it worked or tried it, and it didn't work. And let's analyze that and let's figure out why it doesn't work. So paying attention to focus is essential; paying attention to individuals matters.

Lisa Ryan: So going back to that original spreadsheet. What were some of the key things that were on it that you were looking for?

Rue Patel: So for any leader, an organization, some basic financial skills. How does the cost structure at my company work? From that, more importantly, what do I control, and how do I impact? It wasn't just "here's a p&l." It was like, "Okay, here's a p&l let's bring it down to what you do at your level." And here's three or four things you can do to impact that was one of developing your value base, and your brand is of either was critical. Early in someone's career. So how do you do that? How does it show up? What things challenge you in those environments? And how do you make sure that you stay steadfast on your values? Always stay steadfast on your leadership ability was important - things like your commitment to safety and food quality. We made a million Cheerios a minute. They had to be right, every one. No exception.

How do you commit to that, how do you bring your team and commit to those things? How do you work on nurturing the culture on your team - because that's super important. How does that communication strategy work for your team?

Well, Whether there's a small team of operators, mechanics, or it's a team of 200 people in a department that you run or a small factory that you're on a General Mills. How do you go about creating effective communication strategies? That's real. And it touches your folks to want to do something, want to be something, and drive something different.

So we focused on some fundamental elements and worked with many leaders around the country to understand more about leadership. So you can read books and watch TED talks and videos like so many resources. I buried myself in coach John Wooden's learnings from UCLA basketball and then four years plus or minus with Coach Developing Leadership Institute. I use some of those foundational things that we put together for corporations, he already had that for basketball, but this is for corporations. Guess what; it's the same.

And then we worked with coaches, generals in the Air Force, leaders in our communities and asked, "What are the three or four basic elements of leadership that we can teach our folks that take away the complications?

To be a good leader takes a bit of secret sauce. But there's a lot of simplicity to it. Through my work with Rue Works, I found that it's the same set of skills, tools that work with the CEO of this manufacturer that also works with his floor leaders. The same stuff, different game, different scale but the foundational elements of the same, so it's breaking this thing down and making it simple. Hard to do, but the concepts are simple.

Lisa Ryan: Well, and the simplicity about it is that it not only looks at the leader for his or her performance at work. It gives them personal skills that they can use in the rest of their life as well. If you are sharing your numbers with your employees and teaching them about balance sheets and all of that financial stuff appropriate for the workplace, it also helps them in their personal finances. You're working at their values. Now you're creating this family feeling of people who have values and making sure you're getting the right people on the bus. It sounds like you're taking a holistic approach where we're not only looking at, hey, this guy's a Rock Star, and he has this resume pedigree. That's going to be great but as a human being. He's just a horrible human being that's not working, where we're looking at that holistic approach.

Rue Patel: Right. So we started with values and understood the characteristics of a leader. As you might expect, it's the same thing I expect from my leaders. That my folks would expect for me. And if you generate those lists along with levels in the organization. They're not that different. They're not that different people expecting from the leaders.

So we work on those things around a specific set of core values. And we go from there. Let me skill-build around that. As opposed to dropping a template on people and saying, well, you fit in this box. Let's fit you in this box. It's like every company is a different box. And we got to find out what their box looks like and then figure out how to fill it and then overflow it, but it starts with values, and you're right to the point where great leaders are great at work. But they're great people. They do great things outside of work. They do great things with their family. They're great in their communities. And it's the same leadership traits characteristics that show up along the board, so simplicity is is an excellent place to start.

Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. Well, what are you finding with the clients you're working with as far as what is keeping manufacturers up at night?

Rue Patel: I think the lack of talent that's available is keeping people up. So the small manufacturers of work with many, many of them are family-owned businesses. They've grown. They've got a great product. They've grown, and they're kind of stuck.

They're looking at who's going to take over that company in three to five years. What's their succession plan look like? And there's a skill set that's missing. And sometimes it's generational, but it's hard for a parent owner of a CEO, for example, to address a family member about skills about work ethic, about values, right. And so we're finding that those things in the scale of companies that I want to work with. Simple things that keep people up are true or real obstacles for family businesses and keeping things from progressing further their inhibiting growth.

For example, I'm working with a $25 million company that wants to be a $50 million organization, and they've got some great tools to do that. I talked to their CEO, and I said, hey, if you've got eight people on your team, six of them need to be 100 million dollars thinkers for you to be a successful $50 million company. But if you've got a bunch of $12 million thinkers that are just struggling and by following suit, you're never going to get there. You're just not going to get there.

So how do we address that gap? How do we manage that thinking and sometimes be quite frankly have to fire them? And sometimes you have to develop it, and there's a combination.

So again, to my point. You work with the individuals and see where they can go and how they can grow, and their aspirations versus dropping in a predefined kit for that company. Each one's been different. And each one's been fun to work with an exciting. I'm not saying easy, but they're challenging, but they're great to work with once they realize that. Here's how I needed to think for us to grow as an organization. So that discovery process is real for the CEOs and the owners of these companies. Sometimes it's pretty scary for them when it says all your family members don't have the skills or they don't have the desire. They're happier sitting in the office; they're happy to drive the fancy car. Why we have the desire to do it the same way you did it.

Lisa Ryan: And so what is one way you can get somebody who is a $12 million thinker to 100 million dollar thinker? What's your approach to mindset? I realize that it varies from person to person, but is there a good rule of thumb to start that process?

Rue Patel: If there is, and I think it does vary from person to person. So, listening to them, seeing how they operate and then getting some good data on them from their team. Here's how they come across. Here's how they operate. They may not even show up to work on time and maybe really some simple foundational things where, hey, I'm the boss, this kid. I don't need to show up till ten, and I'm going to take a two-hour lunch, right. So sometimes it's just a work ethic - show you care. But when it comes to some foundational skills, say financial skills.

There are tools available to help that understanding and to build a document. But the broader part of it as well. How do you get that across, how do you build trust? How do you communicate with the team? How do you show you care? How do you show that you're capable of providing that leadership five years from now to run this company? That people can't see you now. And if there's damage done, it's even harder to undo some of that damage. How do you build trust and take it down a few levels - just having some good conversations with some people. So each case is going to be different. But we look at the leadership elements first, and then we focus on the functional skills that time with those leadership elements that go later with that. So you want a $12 million thinker, to be a better leader, a better thinker, and then be a better financial person. Right. So there's also this thing he says you know about the attitude. Sometimes you have to, to just not there. And so that's a more difficult question to deal with. And so, well, what can they do well and this figure out what that isn't this company as opposed to the role that I'm in right now. And sometimes it's ego busting, and it's hard. It's easier for me to do it than for dad to do it for mom to do it because those conversations rarely happen, and they're not effective. So, each one's different. And sometimes it's just gotta be delicate with the stuff, I mean, especially with small businesses.

Lisa Ryan: Right. So from a networking standpoint, if you were to look from both sides, What information, resources, or help would you like to gain from other manufacturing colleagues? What are some of the knowledge, skills, and expertise you can share with other manufacturers and related industries?

Rue Patel: I always have had this principle, where I want to hang out with people that are better than me. And I don't want anybody in my group that's not as good as me. I don't want to sound egotistical, but it forces your A-game when you surround yourself with people better. It forces you to learn; it forces you to pay attention, simply because I don't want to get left behind, so I have to work harder. It's easy for a retiree to be like in coast mode, yet I got this. And when I say that I'm not learning and be around people that I can learn from - whether it's around great leaders, around great tacticians, or folks who can execute a plan. Great negotiators are good as I'm looking for those skills, and I'm looking for people that I even my personal life.

I want these people to be better than me in every aspect, not maybe one person's got everything but in different things. I can look for a better communicator. Better bike rider more put more effort into, well, I could put more effort into that, but I can also put more effort into other things, right. So it's all translatable to me. And then I'm so I like to surround myself with that, and I measure that I'm always thinking to myself, I need to be around that person because I can learn from them. So learning is a great avenue. To kind of open myself up and, you know, humble down and say, I can learn. I need to learn these things I can get better. It's putting the

View Details

Connect with Sue: Emails: sue@hpwpgroup.com Website: https://www.hpwpgroup.com Show Transcript: Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan, host of the Manufacturers Network podcast. I am excited today to bring you my guest, Sue Bingham. For more than 30 years, Sue, a human resources executive, has provided direction to companies in the transportation and logistics, pharmaceutical, aerospace, food bottling, floral, optical, textile, and medical device industries. She's worked closely with company leaders to analyze their organizations and facilitate the implementation of common-sense systems that positively impact the organization's bottom line. Sue is an expert at effectively using culture to form a common language across global operations, leading to greater collaboration, higher team member satisfaction levels, and increased business unit cooperation. Her passion is helping companies embrace and transition to high-performance work environments. Sue, welcome to the show. It's so good to have you today. Sue Bingham: Thank you, Lisa. Lisa Ryan: I know you're a former human resource executive, but kind of share with us a little bit about your journey and really what led you to what you're doing today. Sue Bingham: My journey, as as you could tell, started in manufacturing. I was exposed relatively early on to the pretty traditional management approaches and pretty traditional HR, which is a role where we micromanage attendance records. We tell supervisors how to manage. We have lots of policies that we enforce and so on. And none of that ever felt right to me because when I was younger and the people I talked to were adults. Whether they worked in the plant or whether they worked in an office didn't matter to me. They were still adults. I had trouble taking on some of the traditional human resource responsibilities that a traditionally managed manufacturing company had at that time. So that was my real awakening. I happened to have a mentor who led me in a different direction, who showed me an entirely different role for human resources. It was one that that was genuinely adding value in a business partner through actually having fewer policies, not more. We also recognized that everybody could be all salaried. Getting rid of the two-class system that seems to permeate manufacturing operations in particular, where you're one class of person with even different benefits and different rules if you work in the plant. If you work in the office, that's different. So that two-class citizenship bothered me quite a bit. When I found all these ways to eliminate that by treating people as respected, responsible adults, it made a world of difference. I wanted to take that learning to more and more companies. Lisa Ryan: So when you look at the different companies you're working with; obviously the two-class system is one of the manufacturing challenges. What are some of the biggest challenges they're facing right now? Sue Bingham: Well, across the board and working with some of the manufacturing groups that get together and talk about their biggest problems, clearly it's staffing and retention. In recent research, I heard that there were some four hundred thousand open positions in manufacturing, which as of October and yet from last year, hiring was up. Turnover is down because people need the jobs they have and are looking for jobs. So I think the problem is that we're still doing staffing in the same old way. Manufacturing is not getting creative at recruiting, not having a culture that causes people to be attracted to the job, using a hiring process with a certain turnover. And everybody accepts it as a cost of doing business. Right. Lisa Ryan: Well, and I think that leads very nicely into our next conversation. One of the reasons I wanted to have you on the show was this concept that you shared with me about employees doing the hiring. So as people who...

View Details

Connect with David Byrley: Website: https://www.leverage30.com. Email: dhybyley@gmail.com Show Transcript: Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan from the Manufacturers' Network. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today David Byerly. David has spent more than 30 years in the startup, new business unit, new product, and new business development for multiple industry leaders of industrial cutting tools contractor tools, food processing capital equipment, dental lab tools nanomaterials, and powder powered medical devices and knives. So, welcome to the show, David. It's good to have you here. DAVID BYRLEY: Thank you for the opportunity. Lisa Ryan: I read a little bit about your background, but share with us what you did, what brought you into manufacturing, and your journey of what got you to where you are today. DAVID BYRLEY: Right out of high school, I went to work in industry as a machinist and that was it goes back to 1978. I immediately began to work on my engineering degree and spent the next 11-12 years going from being a machinist to an engineering technician ultimately completed my engineering degree at Cleveland State. I worked my way into management and found a path in new product development. When you're involved in that process, you're involved in manufacturing, and you're involved in the business side, you're learning product management and marketing and sales. So you get a fully comprehensive view of the business right then. So did that many years and leveraged leading into technical sales, product management, engineering, R&D, and lots of different areas. And so now that's what I do. I bring all that comprehensive knowledge into working with companies starting up new business units or major new product categories or looking to make some acquisitions and really would like to understand what that acquisition might be in the industry or anything that can leverage that comprehensive understanding early-stage startups. Lisa Ryan: When you're working with your manufacturing clients, what are some of the things you see now that they're doing well - this can be a specific customer that sticks out in your mind, but it could be about the employees, the workplace culture, they've developed or just some things that our listeners can learn from as far as what they can do to make the workplace better. DAVID BYRLEY: Industry is getting very efficient and is becoming masters at getting multi-functional teams together to accelerate getting projects done in a much more efficient manner. If I look back 20-25 years ago, there was still a mixture. There are a few people leaving everything and relying on that too to manage the projects. But project management goes much farther down into the organization, narrowing down, but many more people have those skills. Companies are becoming much more comfortable with that. That's one of the things I'm noticing. Lisa Ryan: That's interesting that you say that because one of the things that we see with the two newest generations in the workplace, the millennials and Gen Z, is they want their input to be heard. They want to be a contributing member of the organization, instead of just in days past where it was like well what the managers do it. That is feeding into exactly how manufacturers need to connect with their new employees is getting them involved. It sounds like what you're seeing is that's really paying off in terms of productivity and just moving the process forward. DAVID BYRLEY: I'm working with a client right now, in two different business units. I'm impressed by their product managers and how they're way ahead of where we would have been 15-20 years ago. The product manager would have just been in the corner doing his basic research, but now many people understand how to be successful in commercializing products and things like that. So yeah, I think the new generation that's coming in has much more the...

View Details

Connect with Chris Luecke: www.manufacturinghappyhour.com/community Show Transcript: Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan of the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to have as my guest Chris Luecke. Chris is a podcaster marketer and self-proclaimed media Maverick in the manufacturing industry. As the host of the podcast and video series Manufacturing Happy Hour, Chris interviews leaders in the industrial sector to simplify and explore the latest trends and technologies impacting modern manufacturers. Chris recently left his sales job of 11 years with Rockwell Automation to pursue podcasting and marketing full time. He now helps manufacturers and other industrial companies create lead generating digital content and build dedicated customer communities. I had the honor of being on Chris's podcast. A couple of months ago. And when I started looking up top manufacturing podcast gets his layer was right in the top 10. So, Chris, it is an absolute pleasure to have you on the show today. Chris Luecke: It's great to catch up again. Lisa, Thank you for having me. I loved having you on manufacturing happy hour, and I'm excited to be on the other side of the interview table today. Lisa Ryan: Well, good. Well, you talked about leaving your career at Rockwell automation and now going into working with manufacturers full time. Please share with us a little bit about your background about your journey, and really what led you to where you are and what you're doing today. Chris Luecke: Sure, and I appreciate the great intro. You know, I, I'll try to tie some things in, and we've things together. So, I worked as a sales guy for Rockwell automation for the greater part of a decade for just over a decade. For context, I'm sure many of your listeners know, but Rockwell Automation is the largest company globally, dedicated to industrial automation and information solution. So, programmable automation controllers, VF, DS, large automation systems. Rockwell automation does all of that. So, I was working for most of that time in two different markets. I started my career in Houston, Texas. For the latter half of that, I worked as a sales guy out in the San Francisco Bay area. One might imagine, those are two very different markets. In Houston, I served more heavy industry - oil and Gas, Petro Chem, and working with what I would say the more senior generation of individuals; people who had been at their companies for 20-30 something years and hadn't jumped around from company to company. They valued the face-to-face meeting and the handshake that was working in Texas. Now I go out, go out to the Bay Area Silicon Valley. I think everyone has their visions of what the tech world is like out there. You know, 20- and 30-somethings and their hoodies behind computers cranking out the latest code. And to be honest, that the manufacturing industry has some of those elements out there. It's a younger generation of workers making the decisions out there, and they're not typically sticking around a company for their whole career; they're going to jump every two to three years. So with that being kind of the two different markets where my career had been, I started podcasting and doing videos at a necessity. I had to think, okay, I'm also a -something. I'm 33 now. I was in my late 20s when I moved out to San Francisco. I'm like, how do I consume content? And I'm like, well I videos and podcasts. I'm likely customers that are my age aren't that different. So I thought, why not communicate to them the way they're used to being communicated to? I'll create videos. I'll create podcasts. Whether it's someone in that generation or someone older, that's an excellent way for me to be in front of my customers - even when I'm not in front of them. So, it started as a necessity for reaching the type of audience I was serving out in the Bay Area. It evolved into a good sales and marketing practice after that. It not only helped me keep in...

View Details

Connect with Steve Pacilio: Website: https://www.lift-all.com Email: spacilio@lift-all.com Show Transcript Lisa Ryan: Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today, Steve, Pacilio. Quality customer service and safety are paramount, Steve says. With the current challenging business climate, my focus has been on our company's biggest asset, our employees. Welcome to the show. Steve, it's great to have you here. Steve Pacilio: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Lisa Ryan: Well, hey, I'd like to start. I know that you've been with lift all for a long time. But if you could share with us a little bit about your journey about what brought you to lift all in the first place and what got you to where you are today. Steve Pacilio: Basically, I went to Northern Illinois University and received an Accountable and operations management degree. I worked for several companies. After that, and I was in the materials management role and the company that I was working for, I felt bored and wanted to challenge myself. And so I said, looked and looked and ended up finding Lift-All, and it's been a great challenge. I'll tell you that much, and as you said, I started as a plant manager. I love manufacturing. I learned about slings, about the whole industry, how to make the products. I also learned about people. My most significant personal journey is learning how to manage people and work with people to achieve our set goals. I worked my way up to the company and was elected president three years ago in 2017. Lisa Ryan: That's one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on the show. It's your commitment to people because everybody's competing for the same people right now. Even in these times of real high unemployment, it's essential to keep the right people you have so they don't go down the street 50 cents or a buck more an hour. What are some of the things that you feel that you're doing well? As far as creating those connections with your employees. Steve Pacilio: This all starts from the top. It has to do with communication and making sure that the employees understand where the company's going, how they're doing, and that sort of thing. There is nothing worse than being on the plant floor and not realizing the focus here and where we are going in the future. I have a staff meeting every month, and I take notes from the staff meeting and then roll them out to the plant managers and discuss certain areas appropriate for information they should know. And I think that's helpful. I also like to walk through the plant and say hello. One thing we do well is that we have an excellent wellness program. We have an unbelievable wellness program that we started could be 12-14 years ago. And at that point, it was many, many people that didn't even have a primary health care provider. People in the plant would go to the emergency room when they got sick. That makes it difficult for traceability and understanding if there isn't a problem or health issue. Also, it's costly for the company. So we work with our HR department to develop a wellness program. We have the majority of our people now on the healthcare program. They can earn up to 1400 dollars in credits for next year by going through and doing the biometric testing and seeing their doctor for a physical once a year. They're now doing the things that are needed - the preventative testing stuff. So that's been good, and it's to show our employees, hey, this is good for you. It's also good for the company, and you're not sick as much. Hopefully, we can prevent a catastrophic illness. Lisa Ryan: For the people who listen to this, they might say, oh, we've tried wellness programs are people don't buy into it. They don't do it. We invest all this money we try health care is health fairs, and nothing happens. I'm sure you probably had some people fighting you at the beginning. Please share a little bit

View Details

Connect with Jesika Young: Email: jesika@cimtechmachine.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesikayoung/ Show Transcript: Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to this episode of the Manufacturers Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to today's guest Jesika Young. Jesika is President, CEO, and co-owner of three manufacturing companies Cimtech, Axis, and Action. Most importantly, Jesika is a team member first. Jesika believes strongly in putting the team above all else. She was named "woman to watch" by Business First as she made a move to watch and then acquiring a 43-year-old manufacturing company in the heart of southern Indiana. Cimtech Incorporated was named a top 10 precision manufacturer. In her short two years of manufacturing, Jesika has been named among the most influential women in manufacturing by Influential Women in Manufacturing. Jesika, welcome to the show. It's great to have you here. Jesika Young: Thank you so much, Lisa. It's good to be with you again. Yeah. Lisa Ryan: So you have such a fascinating background and kind of your journey regarding how you got and ended up in manufacturing. So why don't you share with us just a little bit about what brought you here? Jesika Young: So it's quite a peculiar roadmap that brought me into manufacturing, but I grew up in manufacturing. My father was an administrator for the sheet metal and construction trade, so I love being around fabricators and watching things being built. But I became an accidental banker and am now retired or, as they say, recovering commercial banker for ten years. In July of 2018, my partner and I made the leap into entrepreneurship and ownership in purchasing a 43-year-old manufacturing company. So a lot of my clients were manufacturers, and so it was a good fit. Lisa Ryan: And so walking into the plant for the first time, a 43-year-old company, as not only the new owner but a younger woman walking in without a whole lot of manufacturing background. How was that, and then how did you learn and start to transform the culture over there? Jesika Young: Certainly, the question was, who is this, who's this chick, and what is she doing in here. I had to take a step back and realize that our average tenure of teammates was 20 years. Certainly, I knew my value wasn't how to operate a CNC machine or how to weld. I didn't have that business experience. And so to take a step back and not come in in an old hierarchy type of manner, but as a teammate. We've had this philosophy that no one person is above or below the team. I was helping in assembly and trained on the fork trucks - and so truly just learning from each team member. Secondly, we want to make sure that they knew the importance of communication and collaboration. Communication is one of the easiest things that you can do, so communicating our goals and objectives, communicating our why or intent with why we purchased the company. Communicating that we wanted to grow and it was they are a vital part of the team to help us grow and then that collaboration piece which is again. They've got a lot of experience. So when there are ideas or problems, bring team members to the table to collaborate and then communicate the findings. Lisa Ryan: And it's funny because you and I have had several conversations. And every time I said "employees," you corrected me and said "team members." On the one hand, it's such an easy change for people to make in their perspective of how they're looking at the people who work for them and with them. But share a little bit about why the whole concept of team members and being a part of a team is essential to you and how it's worked for you. Jesika Young: My partner and I grew up in sports. If you asked my 19-year-old self or even my 21-year-old self, I wanted to be a sports broadcaster, but there was always a love for sports, and being a teammate truly meant that you were with people. You had a common goal that we're trying to...

View Details

Connect with Karen Norheim: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karennorheim/ Email: knorheim@americancrane.com

Show Transcript: Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to today's guest Karen Norheim. Karen is passionate about all things manufacturing as a second-generation coming into the leadership role for her family's company American Crane and Equipment Corporation. Karen has sought to solidify the founder's legacy while putting her stamp on the company culture. There's so much more in your background. Please share a bit about your journey and how you got to where you're at. So, welcome to the show, Karen. Karen Norheim: Hey, thanks for having at least I'm excited to be here. Yeah, so my introduction to manufacturing came through my father. I work for our family's business. And so I have. I am the second generation coming in. What's interesting is I wanted nothing to do with it. I did not think any factoring was all that interesting or cool, and he recruited me to come work for him. And I very reluctantly said okay, Dad. I'll get I'll give it a shot. Well, thank goodness. I did because it has been one of the best decisions I've ever made. Manufacturing is now my passion. I've been with our company for 18 years: amazing people, amazing products, and a wonderful experience to work with my father. Lisa Ryan: I know that you are doing many things well when it came to your culture and keeping things going. So what did you see that worked best for you during these uncertain times Karen Norheim: Well, about, I think we're going on two years ago, maybe two and a half years ago, 2020 has warped my mind as far as, you know, I feel like I'm in time travel and I lost a year. But we put a lot of groundwork in as I took over leadership from my dad; I saw that we needed to lock-in that founder's legacy, that culture that he created for us. So we did a reboot, and we call our culture "Grit Matters." Perseverance, heart, and integrity. We did a lot of work on building our culture, cultivating our people, and nurturing our environment. Thank goodness we did because I think that is one of the key elements that we could pivot when we got to March of last year and figure it out. There was a ton of pain, but we persevered in 2020 and survived the storm due to our people's cultural reboot and development. They have been amazing. I can't tell you how proud I am of how they have risen and stepped up in the crisis to keep us going and keep our business thriving. Lisa Ryan: So take us back two years ago, before you decided to put this in process. What did it look like? What were some of the specific steps you did kind of build that culture you created? Karen Norheim: Well, we had already had a good culture. It wasn't like we had a bad culture; it just wasn't written down on paper. We didn't have those ritual things that kind of keep it top of mind, and we were starting to shift into a can't do versus a can-do attitude. And so we saw that, and people needed to know that I was in it for the long run. I didn't realize that, which is what my father and I learned from him. Through this mistake too is that we didn't. People don't know what you're thinking. Just because you know what's going on in your business, doesn't mean that the rest of your employees know what you're thinking. And we needed to communicate this. We needed to share what was is important. Employees wanted to know if I planned to stick around. We let them know that my family is committed to the business for the next 40 years. We need to put those things in place. It started with defining those behaviors. I think it's important to define what behaviors make us great and are important for us to do well as a company. So we revised our vision, mission, and core values statements, and then we did a rollout, which involves a ton of communication. Communication, communication,...

View Details

Connect with Kevin: kevin.johnson@bhamfast.com Show Transcript: Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan of the Manufacturers Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to Kevin Johnson. Kevin is V.P. of manufacturing at Birmingham Fastener. He has 25 years of experience in steel and steel products. He has worked for Nucor, Fontana Grupo in increasing responsibilities. And his current role is responsible for sales, manufacturing, engineering, maintenance, shipping, and quality. He studied metallurgical engineering at Purdue University and is the chairman of the Industrial Fastener Institute chairman and is also on the A.G. Gaston Boys and Girls Club board. Kevin enjoys spending time with his wife Cindy and their two children, Amani and Jada. Kevin, welcome to the show. It's good to have you here. Kevin Johnson: Thanks, Lisa. Glad to be here. Lisa Ryan: Well, you and I had the opportunity to meet at the Industrial Fasters Institute, and now you are in charge of that. So not only dealing with manufacturing at your plant but also I'm sure that you hear many things from your members. So when it comes to your background, please share with us a little bit about what brought you to manufacturing and how you got where you're at. Kevin Johnson: OK, well, you know, I come from a manufacturing family. I'm the third generation. My grandfather was in aluminum. My dad was in steel, and I ended up in steel as well. That kindled my interest in metallurgical engineering. So I received a scholarship for that. I attended Purdue. It was in-state. And from that, I went to my first job, which is an Otakupu, and started in their lab. They moved me up to the lab supervisor, then over quality control. I went over to Nucor, hired in as a metallurgist, and again had a similar thing. I went over quality and then went over all manufacturing and had a wonderful career with those guys. I went to Fontana Gruppo, where I was director of operations and plant manager and had a great relationship with the team here at Birmingham fastener, so I took a vice president of manufacturing job with them. And it's been great. Getting to see all of the sides of it helped me project through various roles of increased responsibility. Lisa Ryan: What are some of the things that you're doing right now at Birmingham fastener that are working well for you? What are the retention efforts you're doing? What's going well? Kevin Johnson: Well, I'll tell you, we've focused on incentivizing people to try to keep some more walking the talk. I mean, at the end of the day, we want to give people the best job experience we can. We also know what goes in your pocket has a little bit to do with your happiness. In one particular area where we do our performing, we instituted a pay for performance plan. And this plan has just been great. Production is up about 30 percent. And for the people that are into numbers, to be candid, the payroll has roughly stayed the same, even though those guys are making more money themselves. And you say, well, how can you do that? Well, overtime has just totally disappeared in the area and the productivity there. So we look at what's the speed of a machine and what's the best output that it can get. Can somebody do that through the day now? So we take an arbitrary number of, say, 80 percent of that goal, and that 80 percent will pay you X amount they hit. That amount will virtually double what you're currently making. So, of course, we drop their base rate when we interviewed them in this program. But it does probably pay them twenty-five percent more than what they made in prior years. And they're working fewer hours. So you have to find that win-win. That's what we looked at. We've also looked at attendance, and we say, hey if you're going to have perfect attendance, we get pretty handsome rewards for those who achieve that. Lisa...

View Details

Connect with Hector Diaz-Stringel: hector.diazstringel@gmail.com Transcript from the show: Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan from the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited today to introduce you to our guest, Hector Diaz-Stringel. Hector has spent most of his career in manufacturing. He's currently the President of ATA tools, and he's also been involved with chemicals, plastics, composites cutting tools in both Mexico and the United States and with companies working with companies both large and small. So, you're going to hear lots of different insights from different types of companies. So Hector, welcome to the show. Hector Diaz-Stringel: Thanks for having me. Lisa Ryan: Well, share with us a little bit about your journey and your career and how you ended up where you're at now. Hector Diaz-Stringel: Well, without boring everybody with many details, I did start in Mexico, where I'm originally from, as an engineer. I was there for a couple of years, and then the company was looking to expand in Mexico. The company based out of Indiana went to Mexico to look for an engineer to train and send back down to open the market. It was a chemical company, and the plan was I was going to come here for a couple of years and then go back to Mexico, and 20 years later, here I am, so that never actually happened, which has worked out very well. The company was doing well. But they saw more opportunity in the US than in Mexico. So I help them build our plant in Ohio. That's how I ended up in Ohio. I went there was a small privately held company. A larger organization acquired us. And then I moved to other places. I worked in companies public and private, tiny and huge, so I have different perspectives, including private equity at some point. So I got to a point about five years ago, an Irish company was looking for somebody to run their US business. We got connected, and I like what they were doing and where they want it to go. And here we are. Five years later. Lisa Ryan: Awesome. What are some of the things working right now, whether it be with your employees or your processes? Before the podcast, we talked about the toll that the pandemic has taken and how you've rebuilt your business. Why were you able to do that? Take us through that journey and what's been working for you. Hector Diaz-Stringel: Many different things. Fortunately, again, we went through the lows of the pandemic, like every other business in the US, We were coming out of it, but many things that helped us get through that one is our employees. The 75-80 people who work with ATA are committed to seeing us succeed from a safety and health point of view and a customer service point of view and make sure that customers were not going to see a service disruption. But we also have the product side of things. When the pandemic started and we realized it is a health issue, it will quickly become an economic issue. Having gone through the 2000-2009 collapses, we looked back to learn from what happened ten years ago and what we could apply to the situation we did. We put our plan together. It was clear to us that if we had a strong product and have a strong track record with our customers' quality and service, we were in an excellent position to make it through the crisis. We are also fortunate that we have a good financial footing. Not that 2020 was easy to get through with a drop in business. But we were on a solid footing, so we didn't have to worry about whether we would be able to pay our bills or have the cash flow to manage our business. That allowed us to get down to basics. It was about quality tools and software. Let's make sure that whatever orders we have coming in that we are servicing them. And let's make sure that we're ready for any other opportunities because companies that we compete against that may not be in that same situation where they may have a weaker position to begin with. We were bound to make their...

View Details

Contact Jay Foran at jforan@teamneo.org Show Transcript: Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to this episode of the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today. Jay Foran. Jay helps businesses discover exciting growth opportunities in the Northeast Ohio region, which is why I chose him because, of course, I'm from northeast Ohio. He works with corporate clients and site consultants to navigate the Regional Economic Development Framework, connecting them with state and local resources and emerging technologies. Before joining Team NEO, Jay was vice president of business development for the Lake West Group, a management consulting firm. He also served in a variety of key leadership positions with Procter and Gamble. So Jay. First of all, welcome to the show. It's great to have you here. Jay Foran: Thanks so much; I appreciate the invitation. Lisa Ryan: Good. So, share with us a little bit about your journey and what ultimately led you to serve the people of northeast Ohio as well as you do. Jay Foran: Sure. So, as you mentioned in my bio, I had spent a lot of time with Procter and Gamble, 25 years to be exact, and 20 of those years were on the west coast. But I am a native of Cleveland, Ohio area Northeast Ohio and my wife and I were in California for years. So then we started having children and decided we wanted to be closer to family. So we came back to the region. In 2000, as you mentioned, I joined a consulting firm but upon re-entry into the region. I connected with two good high school friends and others in key leadership positions in the community. And through that those connections, I found myself getting involved in some of the school rehabilitation programs and the city of Lakewood. They were looking at their school buildings and how they could get those buildings in better shape. More conducive to education, etc., ultimately ended up leading the effort to convince the taxpayers that it's worthy of a $200 million investment. So that was a great experience. Along the same timeline, I got involved again locally with the formation of a Community Development Corporation called Lakewood Alive. It's all about engaging citizens in the health and well-being and betterment of their local community. That organization is still thriving here 15 years later. Well, I was consulting. I was traveling a lot. And basically, it came to a point where I said, "Wait a minute, I moved back to northeast Ohio to be involved." I find myself on an airplane, leaving the region, and I certainly enjoy what I call the Community and Economic Development aspects of the things I was doing on a volunteer basis. So when the position of Team NEO came open in 2007, I thought it was a great match with my interest and how I wanted to create that Capstone situation for myself in the latter part of my career. And so that's how I found my way to Team NEO. I've been there since again 2007 - now beginning my 15th year. Lisa Ryan: Wow. Tell us a little bit, for those people outside of our region who may not be familiar with Team Neo, your mission. Jay Foran: Sure. Well, Team NEOs stands for Team Northeast Ohio, and we are a private nonprofit Regional Economic Development Organization serving the 18 counties of Northeast Ohio - basically going from the Pennsylvania border west to Cedar Point or Erie County and then south to Mansfield and Richland county and then back over to Pennsylvania. So this area makes up about 20 to 25% of the state's geography but about 35 to 40% of the state's economy. So Team Neo's been private and the nonprofit was stood up by the major Chambers of Commerce across the region. Back in the early 2000s, but in 2011 we became the network affiliate of Jobs Ohio. Our organization's role is to help companies and the economy grow. So we work with companies in the region to assist them with those impediments that may hold back the growth, or if they've...

View Details

Connect with Scott Mackenzie, Host of the Industrial Talk podcast Scott@IndustrialTalk.com www.IndustrialTalk.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8E%99%EF%B8%8Fscott-mackenzie-mba-l-i-o-n-98846625/ Program Transcript: Lisa Ryan: Hey, I'm Lisa Ryan and welcome to the manufacturers' network podcast, I'm excited to bring you my guest today. Scott McKenzie, the host of the industrial talk podcast and one of my very favorite people on the planet, and he will soon be one of yours as well. Scott, welcome to the show. Scott MacKenzie: Well absolutely honored to be part of this particular podcast. I love it. I love what you're doing. I love what you stand for. I love your purpose and your passion and everything's associated with it, you are adding value to a lot of people right now. I love it. Lisa Ryan: Well, we actually got together because I was on your podcast, which I know you've been doing for a number of years. I'd like for you to just kind of share your journey. And where were you were in your career and what got you to what you're doing today. Scott MacKenzie: Yeah, I have a strong industry background. I was with Price Waterhouse - did a lot of work there. And then I also then went into a terminal company took it public, retired and then I started my own maintenance company. I spent a lot of money on print from a marketing perspective and the attention perspective got nothing out of it. I was just coming back from a client. And I was listening to a podcast and for whatever reason, I decided I can do that. And all I wanted to do was just be able to open up a dialogue with companies that I could never get in through the door. Nobody wants to talk about industrial maintenance, but if they have something going on, I'd always say, “Hey, get on the podcast. I think the listeners would love to hear about what's going on in your company,” and for the most part people would say “yes.” And that's how the door was open and it turned out to be just an absolutely incredible journey. And podcasting has just been a wonderful experience because I get to meet people like you and others around the world just because of this. It's good. It's cool. That's, that's it. Lisa Ryan: We actually met on the podcasts, of course, so we didn't meet live until a couple of months ago when you got to come to my lovely city of Cleveland to show us off and work with some of the manufacturing leaders in Cleveland, so just yeah props to you number one for showcasing one of the best cities in the world. Scott MacKenzie: Without a doubt, and, and boy that manufacturing base in that whole area Northeast Ohio - Team NEO, Manufacturing Works, Magnet. It takes incredible passion for that area to be successful, especially where we're going in this COVID. I don't have an answer. I don't have a crystal ball on that. However, you guys have got tremendous skills in that area manufacturing skills. Good stuff. Lisa Ryan: So what are some of the things that you're seeing right now that have just been some highlights some of the things that manufacturers are doing really well. As far as keeping up with the times and moving forward into the next year and into the next decade. Scott MacKenzie: Yeah, that's an interesting question because nobody in their business continuity plan had a global pandemic. So from a manufacturing perspective, what I saw was really positive versus some of the challenges which we all know. The challenges included how nimble manufacturers can be. They had to keep the lights on. They had to survive. Now I hope they're at a point where they can begin to rebuild it and then begin to prosper in whatever this next normal is, but what I really saw was that these leaders these manufacturing leaders figure out how to survive because when you start looking at their business, it wasn't just “here's the business” because that definitely got hammered, but “where is my supply chain? Where do I, where do I source my feedstock....

The Manufacturers' Network: Recent Episodes

Lisa Ryan

Manufacturing #AdditiveManufacturing #Automation #Leadership #WorkforceDevelopment #Innovation #CrackingTheRetentionCode

ManufacturingEfficiency #DigitalPlatforms #CollaborationInEngineering #HardwareEngineering #CloudComputing #AIInManufacturing #IntegratedSystems #OperationalEfficiency #BusinessOptimization #InnovationInProduction

ManufacturersNetwork #Podcast #TextileIndustry #Sustainability #Innovation #WorkforceDevelopment

Manufacturing #FamilyBusiness #ChangeManagement #SuccessionPlanning #TrainingAndDevelopment #Innovation #PodcastInterview #LeadershipDevelopment #OrganizationalChange

Background and Work at Resolute PR

Addressing Workforce Recruitment Challenges

Employer Marketing and Employee Recruitment

Trends in Workforce Marketing

Women in Traditionally Male Positions

Contact Information

Key Themes

Lessons Learned

Fun Facts