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

A Journey Through Digital Transformation

Sebastian'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 Now

Sebastian 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 Difference

Deterministic 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:

1. Workflow automation: Eliminating time-consuming, mundane work like data transformation and entry that used to require hours or intern labor
2. Strategic support: Brainstorming, strategic planning, code planning, and design patterns
3. 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 Success

Sebastian outlines several critical dimensions of AI readiness that organizations must address:

1. Management and Strategic Vision

The 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:

1. "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"
2. "We're implementing AI to help with knowledge retention and dissemination so the experts' answers reach more people's hands"
3. Focus on removing bottlenecks and freeing up people's time

2. Clear Long-Term Goals with Measurable Steps

1. Define what you're trying to achieve with AI long-term
2. Break it down into concrete steps with measurable ROI
3. Ensure each step has an actual, achievable outcome
4. Keep the focus as narrow as possible—projects that try to do too many things with AI often fail

3. Data Infrastructure

Start before you even have a project: Capture as much data as possible everywhere you can:

1. Record calls
2. Transcribe videos and podcasts
3. Store blogs and written content
4. 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.

4. Process Documentation and Formalization

This is especially critical in manufacturing, where Sebastian frequently sees companies with ambitious AI project ideas but:

1. Processes exist only in someone's head
2. The CRM system is "Bob's phone with all his contacts"
3. Sales approaches vary completely by individual with no standardization
4. 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 Crisis

One 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 Strategies

The 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:

1. Formal interviews recorded on calls
2. Self-guided prompts where the expert records video or voice responses on their own schedule
3. 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 Resistance

Sebastian 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 Prophecy

The 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...]]>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 Transformation

Sebastian'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 Now

Sebastian 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 Difference

Deterministic 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:

1. Workflow automation: Eliminating time-consuming, mundane work like data transformation and entry that used to require hours or intern labor
2. Strategic support: Brainstorming, strategic planning, code planning, and design patterns
3. 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 Success

Sebastian outlines several critical dimensions of AI readiness that organizations must address:

1. Management and Strategic Vision

The 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:

1. "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"
2. "We're implementing AI to help with knowledge retention and dissemination so the experts' answers reach more people's hands"
3. Focus on removing bottlenecks and freeing up people's time

2. Clear Long-Term Goals with Measurable Steps

1. Define what you're trying to achieve with AI long-term
2. Break it down into concrete steps with measurable ROI
3. Ensure each step has an actual, achievable outcome
4. Keep the focus as narrow as possible—projects that try to do too many things with AI often fail

3. Data Infrastructure

Start before you even have a project: Capture as much data as possible everywhere you can:

1. Record calls
2. Transcribe videos and podcasts
3. Store blogs and written content
4. 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.

4. Process Documentation and Formalization

This is especially critical in manufacturing, where Sebastian frequently sees companies with ambitious AI project ideas but:

1. Processes exist only in someone's head
2. The CRM system is "Bob's phone with all his contacts"
3. Sales approaches vary completely by individual with no standardization
4. 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 Crisis

One 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 Strategies

The 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:

1. Formal interviews recorded on calls
2. Self-guided prompts where the expert records video or voice responses on their own schedule
3. 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 Resistance

Sebastian 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 Prophecy

The 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 Success

Project Sizing and Scope

Timeframe: 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 Principle

Sebastian 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 Challenges

AI Governance

The 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:

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

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

Change Management

AI 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:

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

The Weakest Link Principle

Sebastian 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 Patterns

Sebastian emphasizes that 2025 saw knowledge retention as a particularly popular application, with multiple manufacturing companies working to:

1. Capture expertise before retirements
2. Distribute knowledge more widely for training
3. Remove bottlenecks created by having all answers in one person's head
4. 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 Recommendation

If 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 Listeners

1. 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...]]>b77be482-9e1a-4a86-83e7-c9815e570362Mon, 16 Feb 2026 07:05:00 -040028:53falsefull5775Manufacturing Without Borders: Technology, Culture, and the Future of the Industry with Tony GunnIn 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 Room

    Tony 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 Job

    Tony 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 Imperative

    The 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 Today

    When 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 Money

    When 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:

    1. Feel they have purpose in their lives
    2. Feel wanted and desired in their company
    3. Know what they bring to the table is valued
    4. 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:

    1. Offering respect and appreciation
    2. Competitive pay that allows people to care for families
    3. Retirement benefits and partnerships that many companies have dropped
    4. Clean air and proper filtration in shops
    5. Reasonable break times
    6. 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 Adopt

    Having visited more than 60 countries, Tony has powerful insights into what U.S. manufacturers should be paying attention to globally.

    Brazil's SENAI System

    Tony 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 Education

    Tony 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]]>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 Room

    Tony 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 Job

    Tony 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 Imperative

    The 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 Today

    When 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 Money

    When 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:

    1. Feel they have purpose in their lives
    2. Feel wanted and desired in their company
    3. Know what they bring to the table is valued
    4. 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:

    1. Offering respect and appreciation
    2. Competitive pay that allows people to care for families
    3. Retirement benefits and partnerships that many companies have dropped
    4. Clean air and proper filtration in shops
    5. Reasonable break times
    6. 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 Adopt

    Having visited more than 60 countries, Tony has powerful insights into what U.S. manufacturers should be paying attention to globally.

    Brazil's SENAI System

    Tony 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 Education

    Tony 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 Leadership

    While 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 Industry

    Tony's passion for putting machinists on camera and sharing their stories stems from two powerful motivations:

    1. Authentic Information Transfer

    When 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.

    2. Giving Machinists the Respect They Deserve

    Manufacturing 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 Resurgence

    Tony 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 Listeners

    1. 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 Gunn

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

    1. LinkedIn: For business updates and day-to-day activities (Tony respects LinkedIn as a business platform and keeps content...]]>75030ea8-3d8e-45a6-bfd8-b3c8a9ad046bMon, 09 Feb 2026 07:05:00 -040033:57falsefull5665Tradition Meets Discovery: Strategic Innovation for Manufacturers with Bruce VojakIn 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:

       1. 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
       2. 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 Innovating

       For 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:

       1. Insurance: Protection against being blindsided by market changes
       2. 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 Change

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

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

       Creating Innovation-Friendly Culture

       Bruce and Lisa explore the tension between fear of change and the need for psychological safety. Key insights include:

       1. Learning Over Failing: Reframe "fail fast" as "learn quickly"—small bets teach you about applications and opportunities you'd never consider
       2. Bridging Generations: Combine the "tradition" of experienced workers with the "tradition" of digital-native younger employees to unlock discovery potential
       3. 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 Examples

       Bruce shares powerful examples of innovation exemplars in action:

       1. 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
       2. 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 Innovation

       Bruce's approach begins with assessment:

       1. Start with informal confidential conversations to discuss your situation
       2. Conduct formal assessments with leadership teams or functional groups to identify hangups and efficiencies
       3. Work through workshops and ongoing advisory relationships
       4. 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 Listeners

       1. 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.
       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:

       1. 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
       2. 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 Innovating

       For 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:

       1. Insurance: Protection against being blindsided by market changes
       2. 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 Change

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

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

       Creating Innovation-Friendly Culture

       Bruce and Lisa explore the tension between fear of change and the need for psychological safety. Key insights include:

       1. Learning Over Failing: Reframe "fail fast" as "learn quickly"—small bets teach you about applications and opportunities you'd never consider
       2. Bridging Generations: Combine the "tradition" of experienced workers with the "tradition" of digital-native younger employees to unlock discovery potential
       3. 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 Examples

       Bruce shares powerful examples of innovation exemplars in action:

       1. 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
       2. 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 Innovation

       Bruce's approach begins with assessment:

       1. Start with informal confidential conversations to discuss your situation
       2. Conduct formal assessments with leadership teams or functional groups to identify hangups and efficiencies
       3. Work through workshops and ongoing advisory relationships
       4. 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 Listeners

       1. 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 Vojak

       Ready 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.

       ]]>56ce51bf-1c0b-4075-9743-97c1868b434bMon, 02 Feb 2026 07:05:00 -040023:59falsefull5555Innovation, AI, and the Future of Manufacturing with Joshua TarbuttonIn 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 Listeners

       1. 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 Team

       Want 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.

       ]]>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 Listeners

       1. 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 Team

       Want 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.

       ]]>f444b837-72d3-4eff-8f2e-03572ad6471dMon, 26 Jan 2026 07:05:00 -040032:15falsefull5445From Data to Drive: Why People, Not Tech, Will Power Manufacturing’s Next Leap with Vince SassanoManufacturing’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:

       1. Lead with people. Culture drives capability; tech follows.
       2. Clarify KPIs. Make sure everyone—from operators to execs—knows what success looks like.
       3. Build trust in data. Transparency beats dashboards.
       4. Invest in cross-training. Multi-skilled teams adapt faster than machines.
       5. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. Lead with people. Culture drives capability; tech follows.
       2. Clarify KPIs. Make sure everyone—from operators to execs—knows what success looks like.
       3. Build trust in data. Transparency beats dashboards.
       4. Invest in cross-training. Multi-skilled teams adapt faster than machines.
       5. 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.

       ]]>a653bb6f-48eb-4585-af34-5332e3b41090Mon, 19 Jan 2026 07:05:00 -040021:55falsefull5335Unlocking Sales Efficiency & Process Alignment with Moustafa MoursyIn 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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. Follow Up Relentlessly: Make quoting and order follow-up a non-negotiable habit; most revenue leaks happen because opportunities fall between the cracks.

       5. Build Process-Centric Culture: Remember, the best technology won’t help unless your team is trained, supported, and committed to continuous process improvement.

       6. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. Follow Up Relentlessly: Make quoting and order follow-up a non-negotiable habit; most revenue leaks happen because opportunities fall between the cracks.

       5. Build Process-Centric Culture: Remember, the best technology won’t help unless your team is trained, supported, and committed to continuous process improvement.

       6. 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.

       ]]>5c574926-5059-4010-a3e2-5fe45c42f45aMon, 12 Jan 2026 07:05:00 -040026:07falsefull5225Unlocking Manufacturing Excellence: Process Mapping That Drives Performance with Joe BockerstetteOn 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:

       
       

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. Don’t Automate Before Simplifying: Clean up your foundational processes before introducing new tech—automation only amplifies existing problems when processes aren’t robust.

       5. 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.

       6. 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!

       ]]>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:

       
       

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. Don’t Automate Before Simplifying: Clean up your foundational processes before introducing new tech—automation only amplifies existing problems when processes aren’t robust.

       5. 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.

       6. 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!

       ]]>7a1f2265-3e1e-4f40-a8ba-ab81e01f0325Mon, 05 Jan 2026 07:05:00 -040025:35falsefull5115Unleashing Business Discipline Without Killing Creativity with Chris HallbergIn 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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       
       

       4. Borrow Military-Level Discipline, Not Rigidity:

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

       
       

       5. 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.

       
       

       6. Commit to Continuous Improvement:

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

       
       

       7. 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

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       
       

       4. Borrow Military-Level Discipline, Not Rigidity:

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

       
       

       5. 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.

       
       

       6. Commit to Continuous Improvement:

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

       
       

       7. 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

       ]]>469f1eca-bf99-4764-8a3e-65e985e58973Mon, 29 Dec 2025 07:05:00 -040029:54falsefull446464Building a Legacy of Quality and Creativity in Manufacturing with David SochaBuilding 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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       
       

       3. 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.

       
       

       4. 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.

       
       

       5. 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.

       
       

       6. 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.

       
       

       7. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       
       

       3. 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.

       
       

       4. 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.

       
       

       5. 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.

       
       

       6. 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.

       
       

       7. 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.

       ]]>3cf1d996-74b8-4102-a02d-92ec5acb2fe7Mon, 22 Dec 2025 07:05:00 -040027:04falsefull445454SOLO: Applause That Inspires: Recognition That Fuels Your Culture with Lisa RyanQuick 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.

        

        

       ]]>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.

        

        

       ]]>30bf3805-a162-428d-aff5-0bf231def15fMon, 15 Dec 2025 07:05:00 -040008:24falsefull444444Rethinking Manufacturing Through Additive Innovation with Jason RollandWelcome 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

       
       

       1. 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.

       
       

       2. 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.

       
       

       3. Factor in Speed, Cost, and Flexibility:

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

       
       

       4. 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.

       
       

       5. 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!

       ]]>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

       
       

       1. 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.

       
       

       2. 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.

       
       

       3. Factor in Speed, Cost, and Flexibility:

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

       
       

       4. 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.

       
       

       5. 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!

       ]]>9e4fa97a-413a-46e2-87b1-c405c36ac14fMon, 08 Dec 2025 07:05:00 -040028:06falsefull443434Bridging the Gap: How AI and Automation Are Transforming Manufacturing Operations with Dag CalafellIn 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

       ]]>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

       ]]>aab13097-52db-45dd-a11e-682d4bf104d3Mon, 01 Dec 2025 07:05:00 -040026:07falsefull442424SOLO: Acts of Service: Leading with Purpose and Making a Difference with Lisa RyanConnect 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>0e8fa454-d3bc-4398-8b79-9fb986471954Mon, 24 Nov 2025 07:05:00 -040010:25falsefull441414Caring Boldly: Building a Culture of Innovation, Inclusion, and Purpose with Laura PhillipsIn 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>3c366f12-6354-45ad-8a3e-f685937ef109Mon, 17 Nov 2025 07:05:00 -040026:38falsefull440404Reimagining the Factory of the Future with Ben WynneIn 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

       ]]>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

       ]]>12d57bbc-a51a-4cb8-86ec-5a1ce317705aMon, 10 Nov 2025 07:05:00 -040023:32falsefull439394How to Build a Global SaaS Brand Without Losing the Human Touch with Sameer NarkarIn 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>b9f5c260-2e61-405b-9cd8-62a75b1a5437Mon, 03 Nov 2025 07:05:00 -040026:34falsefull438384Building Community and Culture in Supply Chain Leadership with Brent HaganIn 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>5622cc7a-2e0e-4f24-902f-1ea859060a95Mon, 27 Oct 2025 07:05:00 -040029:41falsefull437374Automating OSHA Compliance & Building Safer Workplaces with Eric WickIn 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!

       ]]>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!

       ]]>c48ed9a7-c128-4e7b-be45-6a2f73e8d333Mon, 13 Oct 2025 07:05:00 -040033:22falsefull436364Solo: Access Isn’t Optional: How Leaders Build Loyalty with Lisa RyanAre 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:

       1. Ask before it’s a problem
       2. Be human and approachable
       3. Eliminate friction in tools, processes, and training
       4. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. Ask before it’s a problem
       2. Be human and approachable
       3. Eliminate friction in tools, processes, and training
       4. 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.

       ]]>66163f02-46a3-4662-b268-a2b9c25833afMon, 06 Oct 2025 07:05:00 -040009:13falsefull435354Modern Manufacturing Security with Reeves SmithIn 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!

       ]]>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!

       ]]>b448b356-a550-4425-89ea-2043835de170Mon, 29 Sep 2025 07:05:00 -040026:50falsefull434344Building a Culture of Caring and Innovation in Manufacturing with Grace BilbroughIn 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!

       ]]>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!

       ]]>8d9a4208-f6a9-4e0c-af7c-fd0af3a4d6b7Mon, 22 Sep 2025 07:05:00 -040022:49falsefull433334Unlocking Hidden Profits: How to Cure "Profit-itis" and Boost Margins with Ben HansenWelcome 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!

       ]]>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!

       ]]>e6407a01-4fb7-4244-aa90-b32cca58b54eMon, 15 Sep 2025 07:05:00 -040027:46falsefull432324Solo: Recognition That Sticks: Making Appreciation Meaningful with Lisa RyanToo 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>e04a9ae8-db30-4c43-9bfc-d4a261868632Mon, 08 Sep 2025 07:05:00 -040009:57falsefull431314Data-Driven Operations and Workflow Innovation with Harish ChandramowliIn 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!

       ]]>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!

       ]]>1fee1476-0c1d-45e9-a32c-5432b4799397Mon, 01 Sep 2025 07:05:00 -040023:39falsefull430304Solo: First Impressions That Last: Transforming Onboarding with Lisa RyanIn 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!

       ]]>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!

       ]]>449091bb-3807-4e4a-ae5d-3789fbd715f8Mon, 25 Aug 2025 07:05:00 -040007:34falsefull429294The Secret to Hiring Top Finance Talent in Manufacturing with William SpenglerOn 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!

       ]]>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!

       ]]>f6de46ec-4d81-4fa4-a005-367b4a358291Mon, 18 Aug 2025 07:05:00 -040026:13falsefull428284Solo: 3 Culture Shifts to Keep Your Best Talent in 2026 with Lisa RyanWelcome 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:

       1. Purpose Over Pay: Move beyond wages and help employees connect their work to a bigger mission.
       2. Recognition as a Habit: Discover why daily, specific recognition is the secret sauce for boosting morale and driving results.
       3. 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!

       ]]>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:

       1. Purpose Over Pay: Move beyond wages and help employees connect their work to a bigger mission.
       2. Recognition as a Habit: Discover why daily, specific recognition is the secret sauce for boosting morale and driving results.
       3. 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!

       ]]>02c69b9d-47dc-4dbe-955f-d92cf0301d7fMon, 11 Aug 2025 07:05:00 -040009:15falsefull427274Accelerating Digital Transformation in Manufacturing with David BlueIn 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.”

       ]]>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.”

       ]]>e1d618a1-f874-4fe2-a851-0fccdbd29e29Mon, 04 Aug 2025 07:05:00 -040027:36falsefull426264Shaping the Future of Plastics Through Innovation, Color, and Scholarships with the PlastChicksGuests: Lynzie Nebel & Mercedes Landazeri, Co-Hosts of PlastChicks

       Host: Lisa Ryan

       Episode Overview

       In 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 Learned

       1. 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.
       
       

       2. 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.
       
       

       3. 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.
       
       

       4. 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.
       
       

       5. 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.
       
       

       6. 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 PlastChicks

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

       Host: Lisa Ryan

       Episode Overview

       In 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 Learned

       1. 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.
       
       

       2. 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.
       
       

       3. 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.
       
       

       4. 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.
       
       

       5. 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.
       
       

       6. 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 PlastChicks

       You 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
       
       ]]>661aae66-b8e6-4ee1-bcb5-6ecca909f039Mon, 16 Jun 2025 07:05:00 -040035:20falsefull425254Overcoming Training Challenges in Manufacturing Using Voice-Accessible AI with Derek CragerEpisode Overview

       In 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 Learned

       1. 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 Connect

       Want 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.

       ]]>Episode Overview

       In 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 Learned

       1. 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 Connect

       Want 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.

       ]]>2f1331b1-1e4a-4609-ba3d-f5d99bc7f642Mon, 26 May 2025 07:05:00 -040032:14falsefull424244Maximizing Employee Motivation and Company Profits with Dr. Chuck DeBettigniesAre 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 & Takeaways

       1. 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 DeBettignies

       Dr. 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
       
       

       
       

       ]]>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 & Takeaways

       1. 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 DeBettignies

       Dr. 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
       
       

       
       

       ]]>2a90480b-1722-4ba6-9512-f321d5d0173bMon, 19 May 2025 07:05:00 -040031:18falsefull423234Recruiting Puerto Rican Talent for U.S. Manufacturing with Clay MartinConnect 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 & Takeaways

       1. 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 Thoughts

       Clay 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.

       ]]>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 & Takeaways

       1. 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 Thoughts

       Clay 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.

       ]]>ce10a817-abf2-466c-a795-1e32704aaf97Mon, 12 May 2025 07:05:00 -040024:33falsefull422224Breaking Barriers in Mold Making and Inspiring the Next Generation with Scott PetersConnect 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
       
       

       
       

       ]]>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
       
       

       
       

       ]]>c240f16d-f1f0-46d5-af54-42d2fd57aee9Mon, 05 May 2025 07:05:00 -040035:21falsefull421214Building an Iconic American Brand with Dean WegnerIn 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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.

       ]]>7f3c1991-5ae0-46c3-9974-ce4e12bfd1faMon, 28 Apr 2025 07:05:00 -040029:31falsefull420204Enhancing Manufacturing Efficiency with AI and Robotics with Ivan MaderaConnect 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:

       1. 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.
       2. 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.
       3. 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.
       4. 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.
       5. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.
       2. 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.
       3. 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.
       4. 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.
       5. 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.

       ]]>83993cca-e06e-461d-bed1-62371dffea46Mon, 14 Apr 2025 07:05:00 -040029:18falsefull419194Mavens of Manufacturing: Inspiring Future Industry Professionals with Meaghan ZiembaIn 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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.

       ]]>256d13b7-006c-4655-b395-017467a99690Mon, 24 Mar 2025 07:05:00 -040041:50falsefull418184Transforming Manufacturing Organizations Through Deliberate Creativity with Dr. Amy ClimerIn 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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       ]]>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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       ]]>60f3b1ee-4ee9-4ee0-b54e-0f118b3d1a8bMon, 17 Mar 2025 07:05:00 -040029:14falsefull417174Exploring Leadership and Innovation in Manufacturing with Drew AllenIn 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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.

       ]]>39ed1853-1769-4641-ba92-c1f87095021cMon, 10 Mar 2025 07:05:00 -040032:17falsefull416164Expand Your Manufacturing Business: Funding Insights with Marshall LebovitzConnect 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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.

       ]]>402d0ace-838a-4d5b-898f-4cf7a127430aMon, 03 Mar 2025 07:05:00 -040025:07falsefull415154AI, Security, and IT Solutions for Modern Manufacturing with Jeff BorelloJoin 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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.

       ]]>56e1a420-5eeb-4b3b-a527-4cd4c1dc99c3Mon, 24 Feb 2025 07:05:00 -040028:44falsefull414144Revolutionizing Skilled Trades Training with Doug DonovanIn 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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.

       ]]>569bf8f8-b4bc-430f-ba9c-d613e59c6869Mon, 17 Feb 2025 07:05:00 -040027:34falsefull413134How Humanized AI and Live Chats Drive Sales in Manufacturing with Nelson BrutonConnect 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 Takeaways

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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 Strategies

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.

       ]]>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 Takeaways

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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 Strategies

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.

       ]]>0386d2e3-6032-4c3d-bf2a-33822b1165f6Mon, 03 Feb 2025 07:05:00 -040025:32falsefull412124Exploring Modern Marketing Strategies for Manufacturing with Jennelle McGrathConnect 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

       1. 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.
       
       

       2. 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.
       
       

       3. 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).
       
       

       4. 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.
       
       

       5. 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.
       
       

       6. 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.

       ]]>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

       1. 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.
       
       

       2. 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.
       
       

       3. 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).
       
       

       4. 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.
       
       

       5. 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.
       
       

       6. 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.

       ]]>664ca059-fe2b-40c7-99cd-bf35e6f99329Mon, 27 Jan 2025 07:05:00 -040031:23falsefull411114Optimizing B2B Marketing Strategies with AI and Fractional CMOs with Katie SmithConnect 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>c690136d-2fdc-4c22-875f-d7c7faff7519Mon, 20 Jan 2025 07:05:00 -040031:28falsefull410104The Role of Outsourced Financial Management in Manufacturing Success with Jason KrugerConnect 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:

       1. Importance of Real-Time Financial Insights:
       2. Understanding the power of real-time financial data for making informed strategic decisions in manufacturing.
       3. Outsourcing Financial Management:
       4. Exploring how fractional CFOs and controllers can offer cost-effective, high-level financial expertise without the overheads of a full-time hire.
       5. Cash Flow Management:
       6. The critical role of managing cash flows, especially in inventory-heavy industries like manufacturing, is to avoid cash shortages.
       7. Financial Metrics for Success:
       8. Identifying the key financial metrics that manufacturers should focus on to ensure long-term growth and sustainability.
       9. Navigating Growth Challenges:
       10. 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

       ]]>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:

       1. Importance of Real-Time Financial Insights:
       2. Understanding the power of real-time financial data for making informed strategic decisions in manufacturing.
       3. Outsourcing Financial Management:
       4. Exploring how fractional CFOs and controllers can offer cost-effective, high-level financial expertise without the overheads of a full-time hire.
       5. Cash Flow Management:
       6. The critical role of managing cash flows, especially in inventory-heavy industries like manufacturing, is to avoid cash shortages.
       7. Financial Metrics for Success:
       8. Identifying the key financial metrics that manufacturers should focus on to ensure long-term growth and sustainability.
       9. Navigating Growth Challenges:
       10. 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

       ]]>7fff5be7-d80c-4410-ae07-90e4c5194632Mon, 13 Jan 2025 07:05:00 -040025:06falsefull4994The Power of AI in Transforming Manufacturer Sales Processes with Adam HonigConnect 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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       ]]>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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       ]]>8dc9445f-7921-42af-b40a-ebf5f6c8d07cMon, 06 Jan 2025 07:05:00 -040029:20falsefull4884Building Resilient Supply Chains in an Unpredictable World with Kerim KfuriConnect 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>a55fe028-b6a0-45b6-a5e1-b99cb4b151e0Mon, 30 Dec 2024 07:05:00 -040032:31falsefull4774Decoding Industrial AI: Insights and Challenges for Manufacturers from Mikhail TaverConnect 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:

       1. 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."
       
       
       1. AI in Manufacturing:
       
       
       • Current status and future potential of AI in the manufacturing sector.
       • Importance of adopting AI solutions in manufacturing to stay competitive.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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."
       
       
       1. AI in Manufacturing:
       
       
       • Current status and future potential of AI in the manufacturing sector.
       • Importance of adopting AI solutions in manufacturing to stay competitive.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.

       ]]>f8e144e7-dd9d-4922-b1cc-37210b01a67eMon, 23 Dec 2024 07:05:00 -040020:41falsefull4664How Manufacturers Can Foster Long-Term Partnerships With Energy Sector Clients with Zack OlivaConnect 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>1f906246-4179-4339-9925-3e83a8c02c95Mon, 18 Nov 2024 07:05:00 -040028:12falsefull4554Navigating Automation and Generational Transitions in Manufacturing with John Kevin KoehlerConnect 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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       ]]>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:

       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       
       1. 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.
       
       ]]>32c8de83-cfe9-4a30-a9eb-bc830f2b6f16Mon, 11 Nov 2024 07:05:00 -040029:39falsefull4444The Future of Manufacturing: Inclusivity, Flexibility, and Entrepreneurship with Karla TrotmanConnect 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:

       1. 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.
       2. 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.
       3. 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.
       4. 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.
       5. 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.
       6. 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.
       
       

       
       

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.
       2. 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.
       3. 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.
       4. 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.
       5. 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.
       6. 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.
       
       

       
       

       ]]>11220be6-4002-4cb6-b407-e5865dffa849Mon, 04 Nov 2024 07:05:00 -040033:58falsefull4334Balancing IT and Cybersecurity in Manufacturing with Jason VanzinIn 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 Journey

       Jason 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 Cybersecurity

       A 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 Manufacturing

       The 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 Cybercrime

       The 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 Chain

       An 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 Defense

       Training 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 Breaches

       Preparation 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 Hackers

       The 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 Cybersecurity

       Artificial 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 Compliance

       As 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.

        

       
       

       
       

       ]]>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 Journey

       Jason 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 Cybersecurity

       A 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 Manufacturing

       The 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 Cybercrime

       The 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 Chain

       An 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 Defense

       Training 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 Breaches

       Preparation 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 Hackers

       The 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 Cybersecurity

       Artificial 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 Compliance

       As 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.

        

       
       

       
       

       ]]>edb87e0f-2aa2-47e3-983a-58f225a71b92Mon, 21 Oct 2024 07:05:00 -040025:04falsefull4224Navigating Labor Shortages and Automation in Warehousing with Lee RectorIn 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>20822884-26b7-46c8-bfe3-0d96d24132c5Mon, 14 Oct 2024 07:05:00 -040034:10falsefull4114Rebuilding American Manufacturing: Strategies for Industrial Revival and National Security with John GardnerConnect 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>0bb10a7e-b997-443c-b7f2-9e4ac6afc173Mon, 07 Oct 2024 07:05:00 -040028:08falsefull352523The Role of IP in Modern Manufacturing with Jonathan HughleyOn the latest episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan had an insightful conversation with Jonathan Hughley, 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.

       ]]>On the latest episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan had an insightful conversation with Jonathan Hughley, 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.

       ]]>1799e07b-0778-4fc2-af12-87fe97845c0aMon, 30 Sep 2024 07:05:00 -040027:49falsefull351513The Importance of Personal Engagement in the Hiring Process with Dave MacDonaldIn 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>3a3a10ed-3ae0-45cd-8ec4-aacabd6e0ecdMon, 23 Sep 2024 07:05:00 -040030:27falsefull350503Leveraging Data for Manufacturing Success with Alex LaddIn 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

       
       

       1. 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.

       
       

       2. 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.

       
       

       3. 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.

       
       

       4. 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.

       
       

       5. 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).

       ]]>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

       
       

       1. 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.

       
       

       2. 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.

       
       

       3. 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.

       
       

       4. 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.

       
       

       5. 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).

       ]]>91663c4e-291b-4658-99e6-dc1f42b70403Mon, 16 Sep 2024 07:05:00 -040020:22falsefull349493Securing a Clean Exit: The Role of Insurance in Manufacturing Company Sales with Patrick StrothIn 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:

       1. Understanding Representations and Warranties: Grasp the significance of reps and warranties in the sale process and the risks associated with potential breaches.

       2. 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.

       3. Specialized Legal Advice: Engage an attorney specializing in mergers and acquisitions to ensure a smoother and more secure transaction.

       4. 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](https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickstroth)

       - Email: pstroth@libertycompany.com

       ]]>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:

       1. Understanding Representations and Warranties: Grasp the significance of reps and warranties in the sale process and the risks associated with potential breaches.

       2. 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.

       3. Specialized Legal Advice: Engage an attorney specializing in mergers and acquisitions to ensure a smoother and more secure transaction.

       4. 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](https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickstroth)

       - Email: pstroth@libertycompany.com

       ]]>f8193f9f-8849-4a84-9782-296e8bf4162aMon, 09 Sep 2024 07:05:00 -040028:07falsefull348483The Evolution of Manufacturing CEOs: Embracing Complexity and Seeking Guidance with Stephen GoldIn 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>8215a25c-51d2-4ae3-97d2-2c1d8eb51e63Mon, 02 Sep 2024 07:05:00 -040030:04falsefull347473Shaping Talent Management Strategies for Manufacturers with Ron CrabtreeIn 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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       ]]>7f2c0f92-1d12-4a8c-9b89-0e6737199babMon, 26 Aug 2024 07:05:00 -040030:40falsefull346463Cultivating Empathy in Manufacturing Leadership with Marilyn Rosa-GreenIn 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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. 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.

       ]]>5a27cee6-f5e8-4197-b627-eb938662f5dbMon, 19 Aug 2024 07:05:00 -040031:59falsefull345453Next-Gen Swag: Revolutionizing the Promotional Product Industry with Jeremy ParkerIn 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>dc236154-fad2-463a-b370-1b0a6a6ecfaeMon, 12 Aug 2024 07:05:00 -040022:39falsefull344443Navigating the Future of Manufacturing: The Future of the Manufacturing Worker Report Insights with Kerrie JordanIn 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>7809dd04-a8a0-4c0e-adb7-02b1df3e61b0Mon, 05 Aug 2024 07:05:00 -040032:07falsefull343433Uncovering Hidden Grants: A Deep Dive into Manufacturing Funding with Micki VandelooContact 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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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

       ]]>ad0e85d3-2e57-48b2-a1f0-9800ac9baecbMon, 29 Jul 2024 07:05:00 -040034:43falsefull342423Improving Production with Digital Platforms with John ConafayIn 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:

       1. 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.

       
       

       2. 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.

       
       

       3. 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.

       
       

       4. 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

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       
       

       2. 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.

       
       

       3. 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.

       
       

       4. 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

       ]]>57f7b225-2123-4c59-a3c2-8123caa16061Mon, 22 Jul 2024 07:05:00 -040021:56falsefull341413Enhancing Workplace Culture and Employee Engagement in Manufacturing with Jason AnthoineThe 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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       
       

       3. 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.

       
       

       4. 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.

       
       

       5. 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.

       
       

       6. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       
       

       3. 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.

       
       

       4. 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.

       
       

       5. 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.

       
       

       6. 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.

       ]]>758a404b-03e2-418f-a154-1c3f1c0f543aMon, 15 Jul 2024 07:05:00 -040026:21falsefull340403From Landfills to Power Plants: The Critical Role of Gas Analyzers in Emissions Monitoring with Alex KinderknechtIn 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>3d79dd42-a670-48fb-a6f3-33a2177e6230Mon, 08 Jul 2024 07:05:00 -040022:05falsefull339393Driving Efficiency and Sustainability in Manufacturing through Explainable AI with Berk BirandIn 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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       
       

       3. 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.

       
       

       4. 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.

       
       

       5. 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:

       
       

       1. 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.

       
       

       2. 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.

       
       

       3. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       
       

       3. 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.

       
       

       4. 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.

       
       

       5. 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:

       
       

       1. 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.

       
       

       2. 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.

       
       

       3. 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.

       ]]>00013061-d0d4-4eaa-b901-11196ab91446Mon, 01 Jul 2024 07:05:00 -040024:47falsefull338383Exploring Passion, Collaboration, and Emotional Intelligence in Manufacturing and Technology With Mary Cecile NevilleIn 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

       ]]>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

       ]]>4cc65dbe-0a44-4bbc-aa7a-fc78b4ea1966Mon, 24 Jun 2024 07:05:00 -040032:27falsefull337373The Inside Scoop on Buying and Selling Manufacturing Businesses with Dan SheaThis 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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. 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

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. 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

       ]]>670170a5-d645-4a71-a2b0-289c8f6ddb33Mon, 17 Jun 2024 07:05:00 -040028:31falsefull336363The Role of GD&T in Revolutionizing the Engineering Industry with Tom GeissIn 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:**

       1. *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.

       2. *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.

       3. *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!

       ]]>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:**

       1. *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.

       2. *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.

       3. *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!

       ]]>37bfd8f3-acb7-4479-bac0-b996a09d69faMon, 10 Jun 2024 07:05:00 -040025:56falsefull335353The Evolution of Roofing: Technology and Flexibility with Heidi EllsworthIn 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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. 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.

       
       

       5. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. 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.

       
       

       5. 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.

       ]]>547299d7-4498-4f73-984b-143a408f742eMon, 03 Jun 2024 07:05:00 -040030:24falsefull334343Revolutionizing Manufacturing: A Vision for Change with Ann FranzConnect 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:

       1. 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.

       
       

       2. 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.

       
       

       3. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       
       

       2. 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.

       
       

       3. 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.

       ]]>a8838150-18fc-4adb-8946-b6878bf63cc3Mon, 27 May 2024 07:05:00 -040029:02falsefull333333Accelerating Sustainable Energy Solutions for Manufacturers with Gareth EvansIn 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**

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. 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.

       
       

       5. 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.

       
       

       6. 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.

       
       

       7. 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.

       
       

       8. 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.

       
       

       9. 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](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.

       ]]>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**

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. 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.

       
       

       5. 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.

       
       

       6. 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.

       
       

       7. 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.

       
       

       8. 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.

       
       

       9. 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](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.

       ]]>f54f4564-caef-4bc7-9b2c-c198927bf9f3Mon, 20 May 2024 07:05:00 -040028:57falsefull332323From Idea to Action: Creating the Young Manufacturers Network with Abby Wurzbach and Andrew LaneIn 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>79ae95af-9c04-42ca-8bac-463944407fd1Mon, 13 May 2024 07:05:00 -040034:37falsefull331313Human-Centered Manufacturing with Glenn AkramoffLisa Ryan is joined by Glenn Akramoff, CEO of Akramoff LLC, who brings over 30 years of industry expertise. Glenn shares transformative strategies for revolutionizing human-centered manufacturing, emphasizing the importance of aligning personal and organizational goals. He delves into building winning teams, fostering a positive workplace culture, and developing strategies to keep employees motivated and valued.

       From his extensive municipal government background, Glenn provides practical approaches to creating cohesive teams and addressing generational opportunities. Discover how purpose-driven leadership shapes successful manufacturing environments and how veteran workers can pass their legacy to younger generations through mentorship. Glenn and Lisa explore actionable steps for adapting to evolving workforce expectations while balancing generational diversity.

       Key Takeaways:

       • Purpose-Driven Leadership: Align organizational goals to inspire employees.
       • Team Building: Foster collaboration across generational divides.
       • Employee Motivation: Empower your workforce to ensure they feel valued.
       • Workplace Culture: Develop a supportive environment that encourages growth.
       
       

       Tune in to hear Glenn and Lisa offer valuable insights for enhancing manufacturing success and maximizing employee engagement.

       Lessons Learned:

       1. Accountability, fairness, and consistency are essential elements of a positive workplace culture.

       2. Leaders must actively assess and improve workplace culture, structure, and processes to create a cohesive and motivated team.

       3. Recognizing the impact of generational diversity in the workplace is crucial for adapting leadership and motivation strategies.

       4. Purpose-driven leadership and human-centered cultures positively influence decision-making, product quality, customer experience, and overall organizational success.

       5. 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

       ]]>Lisa Ryan is joined by Glenn Akramoff, CEO of Akramoff LLC, who brings over 30 years of industry expertise. Glenn shares transformative strategies for revolutionizing human-centered manufacturing, emphasizing the importance of aligning personal and organizational goals. He delves into building winning teams, fostering a positive workplace culture, and developing strategies to keep employees motivated and valued.

       From his extensive municipal government background, Glenn provides practical approaches to creating cohesive teams and addressing generational opportunities. Discover how purpose-driven leadership shapes successful manufacturing environments and how veteran workers can pass their legacy to younger generations through mentorship. Glenn and Lisa explore actionable steps for adapting to evolving workforce expectations while balancing generational diversity.

       Key Takeaways:

       • Purpose-Driven Leadership: Align organizational goals to inspire employees.
       • Team Building: Foster collaboration across generational divides.
       • Employee Motivation: Empower your workforce to ensure they feel valued.
       • Workplace Culture: Develop a supportive environment that encourages growth.
       
       

       Tune in to hear Glenn and Lisa offer valuable insights for enhancing manufacturing success and maximizing employee engagement.

       Lessons Learned:

       1. Accountability, fairness, and consistency are essential elements of a positive workplace culture.

       2. Leaders must actively assess and improve workplace culture, structure, and processes to create a cohesive and motivated team.

       3. Recognizing the impact of generational diversity in the workplace is crucial for adapting leadership and motivation strategies.

       4. Purpose-driven leadership and human-centered cultures positively influence decision-making, product quality, customer experience, and overall organizational success.

       5. 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

       ]]>759d60ea-69a1-463f-abcd-8b18e5a0df16Mon, 06 May 2024 07:05:00 -040030:17falsefull330303Building Psychological Safety in Manufacturing Teams with Tom GeraghtyIn 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>8d7c3eac-6fe6-49e8-9e95-00d9887e07dcMon, 29 Apr 2024 07:05:00 -040028:07falsefull329293Uncovering Technological Advancements and Future Challenges with Scott MackenzieIn 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

       ]]>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

       ]]>30183208-a014-40ac-8070-e510d984ea0fMon, 22 Apr 2024 07:05:00 -040024:03falsefull328283Decoding AI's Role in Manufacturing with Eknauth PersaudConnect 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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. 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.

       5. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. 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.

       5. 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.

       ]]>076c56bf-0e42-4653-9a7c-44422cbd6ca5Mon, 15 Apr 2024 07:05:00 -040036:23falsefull327273Textile Rental Services and Sustainability in the Manufacturing Industry with Joe RicciContact 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:

       1. 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.

       2. Safety and Innovation: Embracing technology has transformed the industry, improving safety, productivity, and reduced turnover while also addressing challenges such as PFAS and microplastics.

       3. 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

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       2. Safety and Innovation: Embracing technology has transformed the industry, improving safety, productivity, and reduced turnover while also addressing challenges such as PFAS and microplastics.

       3. 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

       ]]>cfbd2117-42c8-4528-8a5b-ed43bb966af7Mon, 08 Apr 2024 07:05:00 -040027:22falsefull326263NTMA: Supporting Small Manufacturers' Cost Reduction and Innovation with Roger AtkinsConnect 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]

       ]]>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]

       ]]>f435fc1b-cdb6-45a0-9edf-a35f4cd1d7ffMon, 01 Apr 2024 07:05:00 -040034:12falsefull325253The Rise of Manufacturing: Legacy, Growth, and Workforce Development with David KlotzConnect 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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. 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.

       
       

       5. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. 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.

       
       

       5. 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.

       ]]>c4edbeed-df6e-4e30-a7f2-7e96627e833cMon, 25 Mar 2024 07:05:00 -040026:39falsefull324243Inside Scoop on Sign Technology Evolution with Lori AndersonIn 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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. 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.

       ]]>00f26229-9148-44b7-9996-25b39efc0db6Mon, 18 Mar 2024 07:05:00 -040026:27falsefull323233Recurring Sales Strategies and Customer-Oriented Approaches in HVACR with Guitze MessinaIn 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>3ba240be-353f-4917-a4c4-bd4b8bbbba1bMon, 11 Mar 2024 07:05:00 -040044:11falsefull322223Manufacturing Masters: Training and Development Trends with Darrin MitchellDarrin 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.

       
       

       ]]>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.

       
       

       ]]>6fe342a0-4b5e-4c36-91ea-852ab2e417faMon, 04 Mar 2024 07:05:00 -040025:49falsefull321213Insider's Guide to Selling Your Manufacturing Company with Addison AdamsConnect 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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. 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:

       1. Manufacturers should get organized, understand the value of their business, and be well-versed in their business's worth before a sale.

       2. Prepare for a sale by considering specialized employees, customer lists, facilities, supplier relationships, and proprietary processes.

       3. Engage a specialist attorney experienced in closing M&A deals to navigate the sale process effectively and efficiently.

       4. 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.

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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.

       4. 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:

       1. Manufacturers should get organized, understand the value of their business, and be well-versed in their business's worth before a sale.

       2. Prepare for a sale by considering specialized employees, customer lists, facilities, supplier relationships, and proprietary processes.

       3. Engage a specialist attorney experienced in closing M&A deals to navigate the sale process effectively and efficiently.

       4. 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.

       ]]>4a4a5452-59f3-4949-9e72-324851e4d528Mon, 26 Feb 2024 07:05:00 -040029:27falsefull320203Navigating Succession Planning Challenges in Family-Owned Manufacturing Companies with Lisa SandersonIn 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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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

       ]]>94bda277-ce2e-45af-99b7-6e361530ccb2Mon, 19 Feb 2024 07:05:00 -040025:26falsefull319193Rethinking Work in Manufacturing: Embracing Human Centricity and Personalized Experiences with Brent KedzierskiIn 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.

       
       

       ]]>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.

       
       

       ]]>7f017a23-622d-421d-8a3a-8e8e2f4dd1fcMon, 12 Feb 2024 07:05:00 -040032:37falsefull318183Veteran Champions in Manufacturing: Hiring, Retention, and Advocacy with retired lieutenant colonel Kathy Lowery Gallowitz.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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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/

       ]]>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:

       1. 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.

       2. 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.

       3. 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/

       ]]>bd870a27-09d6-4a54-97a0-47bc64262312Mon, 05 Feb 2024 07:05:00 -040030:36falsefull317173Recruitment Marketing: Insights and Strategies for the Manufacturing Industry with Nicole MorganHost: 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](www.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.

       
       

       ]]>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](www.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.

       
       

       ]]>178a67d9-1230-49c3-a6a6-3916a1adec0bMon, 29 Jan 2024 07:05:00 -040024:31falsefull316163Self-Insurance and Captive Insurance in Manufacturing with Jarid BeckIn 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.

       ]]>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.

       ]]>d515eac9-4d50-47ed-ae71-1073ab7f86c1Mon, 22 Jan 2024 07:05:00 -040028:47falsefull315153Embracing Digital Technology in Industrial Hygiene with Mona ShumWelcome 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:

       1. **Refusal of Unsafe Work**: Workers hold the power to refuse unsafe work, creating a platform for change and improved safety standards within organizations.

       2. **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.

       3. **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.

       ]]>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:

       1. **Refusal of Unsafe Work**: Workers hold the power to refuse unsafe work, creating a platform for change and improved safety standards within organizations.

       2. **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.

       3. **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.

       ]]>4e22bb8d-e731-4f9b-b3bf-503567455523Mon, 15 Jan 2024 07:05:00 -040022:45falsefull314143Enhancing Manufacturing Efficiency with an IoT Platform with Mike BowersLisa 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...]]>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...]]>4281f2f8-8625-4769-a554-d9ae8204dae3Mon, 01 Jan 2024 07:05:00 -040028:47falsefull313133Innovations in Waste Management and Sustainability with Heather JohnsonConnect 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...]]>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.

       ]]>f2150fd3-a4e1-4143-afeb-9223d314a076Mon, 16 Oct 2023 07:05:00 -040023:01falsefull312123The Battle Against Cybercrime: James Fair Reveals Common Threats Faced by ManufacturersConnect 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...]]>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...]]>543712cd-6326-475e-8fdf-5700f78565bfMon, 18 Sep 2023 07:05:00 -040028:42falsefull311113Maximizing ROI in Manufacturing: The Hidden Opportunity of R&D Tax Credits with Casey BarkaConnect 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 isn't fascinating. It just sounds like it's research and development. What might your clients think is R & D but isn't?

       
       

       Casey Barka: Yes. Many people believe that this is the white lab coat, beakers, and goggles, mixing and doing things of that nature, but it's much more than that. The way that the credit is, we call it an R&D study. We're doing a study for each of our clients. And as we're diving in, it's a project-based analysis. We look at your projects or R&D initiatives, which can be very broad in scope. What we always fall back to is the 4 part test. This is the basis for a lot of our analysis.  

       
       

       You must start with what's called the permitted purpose. Now this is basically what you are doing. As I mentioned, this could be the product process improvement, formulation, technique, or patent. You're trying to impart newer, improved functionality, performance, quality, reliability, and tangible metrics. You're not quite sure how that's going to go. You have to have some technical uncertainty or a challenge. That can be in a couple of different forms.

       
       

       It could be you didn't know if you could do it. It could be capability, or it may not. You might not know what the optimal design will be or how you will do this. The methodology that goes into that to overcome those. That's the second prong, by the way, the uncertainty. To overcome that uncertainty, you go through a process of experimentation. Now this, again, is unique to each client that we have. Not everybody does things the same way, but it's looking at a regimen or trial and error.

       
       

       It can be some formalized product development life cycle that you may have, a stage gate process, or a mechanism that our clients have in place where they evaluate alternative solutions. They have a hypothesis and devise ways to test it to see the best design. They go through some modeling or simulation. They go through prototyping stages where they test and ensure they achieve the requirements and specifications they sought to develop or design. That's the 3rd prong, like, the how you do it. What was that process, and what did it look like?

       
       

       And the 4th part of this is we're only looking at the technological activities. These are based on the hard sciences. We're not concerned about your marketing, sales, and HR back-office. We're looking at those people actively using biology, chemistry, physics, engineering principles, and things of that nature and applying those concepts in and throughout that 4-part test. We analyze which projects are qualified and which are disqualified and removed from the analysis for each of those projects. Once we have qualified projects, we start getting into the qualified expenses associated with each of those projects.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: This may be a similar question, but are there other common misconceptions people have about R&D tax credits in the manufacturing industry?

       
       

       Casey Barka: You would be surprised. We hear it's good to be skeptical of whether or not you qualify for this because not everybody is qualified or doing qualified activities. Here at Strike, we ensure we do everything by the book. It's very ethical. We're not overinflating your credits because part of what we do is stand behind our work. We have a money-back guarantee on anything we help our clients claim.

       
       

       Some of those misconceptions, we don't qualify. Our main thought is that we're just doing general production. The question to that is, do you need to improve your products? Do you need to go through and add new features and enhancements, or are you adding automation on the process side? Are you increasing your throughput and efficiency and improving your quality metrics? Those are all process improvement initiatives we see in the manufacturing sector that people often don't think about, but that is a qualified R&D activity.

       
       

       That process improvement and things of that nature, some people don't think we don't have engineers on staff. We do a lot of on-the-job training. We hire from tech schools. It doesn't matter. Again, it's based on the activities that you're doing. And if you're doing the If you're using the scientific principles in this in the improvements that you're making within your facility, often that would be qualified. And often, clients don't understand the full breadth of expenses we can also claim. For each project, we can look at not only your employee wages but also your taxable W2 box 1. That's what we're looking for. But raw materials and supplies are used during the R&D process.

       
       

       If you're doing prototyping, if you're doing first articles, if you're doing certifications and things of that nature before production, all of the supplies that went into that first article, or maybe you had to go through four different versions of that prototype before you stamped it off for production. For each of those four, you're still resolving that to uncertainty. Whether it is a design or your methods, the raw materials can add up quickly if you outsource to a third-party contractor. You may not have those fee capabilities in-house. There are often testing facilities that people will send samples to or have those contract employees, the ten people you pay, inside your facility. That contractor costs, as long as they're doing the qualified activities I mentioned before, but we can count those expenses. Then the fourth one will probably only apply to some of our manufacturing clients, but you can include computer rent for our software clients developing in the cloud. They're paying for their development for Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure if we can include them.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: Okay. Do you have some examples of people you've worked with, like other...]]>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 isn't fascinating. It just sounds like it's research and development. What might your clients think is R & D but isn't?

       
       

       Casey Barka: Yes. Many people believe that this is the white lab coat, beakers, and goggles, mixing and doing things of that nature, but it's much more than that. The way that the credit is, we call it an R&D study. We're doing a study for each of our clients. And as we're diving in, it's a project-based analysis. We look at your projects or R&D initiatives, which can be very broad in scope. What we always fall back to is the 4 part test. This is the basis for a lot of our analysis.  

       
       

       You must start with what's called the permitted purpose. Now this is basically what you are doing. As I mentioned, this could be the product process improvement, formulation, technique, or patent. You're trying to impart newer, improved functionality, performance, quality, reliability, and tangible metrics. You're not quite sure how that's going to go. You have to have some technical uncertainty or a challenge. That can be in a couple of different forms.

       
       

       It could be you didn't know if you could do it. It could be capability, or it may not. You might not know what the optimal design will be or how you will do this. The methodology that goes into that to overcome those. That's the second prong, by the way, the uncertainty. To overcome that uncertainty, you go through a process of experimentation. Now this, again, is unique to each client that we have. Not everybody does things the same way, but it's looking at a regimen or trial and error.

       
       

       It can be some formalized product development life cycle that you may have, a stage gate process, or a mechanism that our clients have in place where they evaluate alternative solutions. They have a hypothesis and devise ways to test it to see the best design. They go through some modeling or simulation. They go through prototyping stages where they test and ensure they achieve the requirements and specifications they sought to develop or design. That's the 3rd prong, like, the how you do it. What was that process, and what did it look like?

       
       

       And the 4th part of this is we're only looking at the technological activities. These are based on the hard sciences. We're not concerned about your marketing, sales, and HR back-office. We're looking at those people actively using biology, chemistry, physics, engineering principles, and things of that nature and applying those concepts in and throughout that 4-part test. We analyze which projects are qualified and which are disqualified and removed from the analysis for each of those projects. Once we have qualified projects, we start getting into the qualified expenses associated with each of those projects.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: This may be a similar question, but are there other common misconceptions people have about R&D tax credits in the manufacturing industry?

       
       

       Casey Barka: You would be surprised. We hear it's good to be skeptical of whether or not you qualify for this because not everybody is qualified or doing qualified activities. Here at Strike, we ensure we do everything by the book. It's very ethical. We're not overinflating your credits because part of what we do is stand behind our work. We have a money-back guarantee on anything we help our clients claim.

       
       

       Some of those misconceptions, we don't qualify. Our main thought is that we're just doing general production. The question to that is, do you need to improve your products? Do you need to go through and add new features and enhancements, or are you adding automation on the process side? Are you increasing your throughput and efficiency and improving your quality metrics? Those are all process improvement initiatives we see in the manufacturing sector that people often don't think about, but that is a qualified R&D activity.

       
       

       That process improvement and things of that nature, some people don't think we don't have engineers on staff. We do a lot of on-the-job training. We hire from tech schools. It doesn't matter. Again, it's based on the activities that you're doing. And if you're doing the If you're using the scientific principles in this in the improvements that you're making within your facility, often that would be qualified. And often, clients don't understand the full breadth of expenses we can also claim. For each project, we can look at not only your employee wages but also your taxable W2 box 1. That's what we're looking for. But raw materials and supplies are used during the R&D process.

       
       

       If you're doing prototyping, if you're doing first articles, if you're doing certifications and things of that nature before production, all of the supplies that went into that first article, or maybe you had to go through four different versions of that prototype before you stamped it off for production. For each of those four, you're still resolving that to uncertainty. Whether it is a design or your methods, the raw materials can add up quickly if you outsource to a third-party contractor. You may not have those fee capabilities in-house. There are often testing facilities that people will send samples to or have those contract employees, the ten people you pay, inside your facility. That contractor costs, as long as they're doing the qualified activities I mentioned before, but we can count those expenses. Then the fourth one will probably only apply to some of our manufacturing clients, but you can include computer rent for our software clients developing in the cloud. They're paying for their development for Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure if we can include them.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: Okay. Do you have some examples of people you've worked with, like other manufacturers, who have benefited from R&D tax credits?

       
       

       Casey Barka:: We have had to thin down the list. We've worked with over 400 R & D clients now. I picked a couple of examples I did want to share. Our custom racing engine manufacturer in Houston is one of our clients. They have about 20 employees or so. Almost half of them were involved in designing and building these custom racing engines. And from 27 to 2021, we got them close to $660,000 of tax credits that are cash in your hand. These are refunds from the IRS or a reduction of your tax liability in the current year.

       
       

       Another robotics client that we had. We've done a couple of these very similar, about ten to 15 employees, about $600,000 of credits. One client I have in Indiana, another robotics. They build custom gantries and things of that nature that are used in manufacturing. They're developing the robotics going into the end user's facilities. And about 40 employees in that company, about 25, are very technical and engineering-focused. We got them $3,700,000,000 over five years. We've worked with them. These credits can be very lucrative and help move that needle to get companies to pay 0 tax if they're doing the right types of activities and they have the expenses to show court.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan:  What were they doing before? Do a lot of manufacturers not know that these tax credits exist, or are they just doing it poorly, or what was happening before they were suddenly saving all this $600,000 or $3,000,000?

       
       

       Casey Barka: You hit it right on the head. There are many we'd be able to out there that don't know this is on the books. It's that it's an incentive that is available to them. I've studied for some IRS certifications, things of that nature, and the 1200 pages of study materials for the full tax code. Section 41 was two paragraphs out of that. It's a very niche credit. Not a lot of people know about it. Even the CPAs that we partner with are helping their clients. We're often educating them for the first time. I remember hearing about this, but I don't have the bandwidth to do it. And that's what we hear, and that's why striking exists is that CPAs they're swamped. They're handling most of the general tax return, and they don't have the bandwidth to do these specialty calculations, which are pretty complex and require an outside expert who should be able to do it accurately and sustain the credits we calculate.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: All I'm thinking about is not reading a 1200-page document on tax code. But good for you for finding that one paragraph that makes all the difference because that would just not be my strength.

       
       

       Casey Barka: Yeah. I'm not going to lie. A tax code reading all of that is not the most enjoyable. Still, after you have it in your brain for as many years as I have, it's kind of like the back of your hand that then it just applies to being able to disseminate that information to our clients and educate them on what they should have been claiming all along. We've just recently signed a client that's been around since 88, I believe, 89. A manufacturing client founded them. And literally, they could have been claiming this since they opened their doors. Every year, they're working on new product launches and things they want to add to their catalog or portfolio of products they're selling to the public, and we're going to be able to go back to the prior three years. We can go back and amend your three previous years' tax returns. As long as it's still open for amendment, you can go back and calculate these credits, claim them on an amended return, and get a refund check back from the IRS.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan:  Okay. So, yeah, that answered my question - for the last 30 years of that, they were screwed, but for the last three years, they could go back and get some of that.

       
       

       Casey Barka: Correct. That's right.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan:  You mentioned how much the tax code changes every year. What has? Can you provide us with an overview of what changed for 2022 and some of the challenges that manufacturers face if things like, I think it's section 174? If some of these changes are still being overturned.

       
       

       Casey Barka: Yeah. This has been a real eye-opener for many of our clients, and it's not necessarily in a good way. Unfortunately, in 2017, the Tax Cuts And Jobs Act was passed. This was a way that lowered the corporate tax rate down back down to 21%. It had some other incentives and things of that nature in there. But they had to figure out how to pay for those tax cuts. What they what the way it was written is they had five years before these changes took effect.

       
       

       For 2022, let me back up. It might be easier. What is the interplay between section 174 that you mentioned and section 41? If you want to think about an icon bull's eye with concentric circles in it. Your business incurs in a given year if you have all the expenses. That can be everything from your meals and entertainment to your depreciation expense, to all those different things that fall underneath costs, right, then your general ledger. Section 1 74 has to do with research and experimentation. Section 41 is a subset of that. Now section 41 is used to calculate your R&D tax credit for research-increasing research activities. What changed is that before 2022, nobody cared about 1 74. It was always there in order to have an R&D credit; the expense has to be subject to 174. That was the initial qualification. After that, CPAs didn't care. They just put it all in any general business expenses. For 2022, they took away the ability for a taxpayer to deduct ten percent of those expenses in the year.

       
       

       What has to happen now is that any research and experimentation expenses must be now capitalized and amortized over Five years. And there is a midpoint convention to that, without getting into the weeds; essentially, you had $1,000,000 of research expense to throw out a nice round number. k. For 2022, instead of deducting or writing off that $1,000,000, you can only deduct ten percent or $100,000. The other 900,000 gets added back to taxable income. That means that anybody that's doing R&D or RNE if you will. 2022 has become an eye-opener, painful, higher tax bills for many clients. And it is the tax code. It's the way it's written. There is a considerable push from various lobbying groups that we've partnered with from an education standpoint. So, like, the National Association of Manufacturers, nam.org. I think a lot of you are familiar with that. They have taken a spearhead to this and are actively trying to get people to reach out to their legislation, representatives, and senators.

       
       

       Two bills are in Congress now - one in the Senate and one in the House that is looking to change this law, mainly because it's detrimental to the people doing the innovation and driving growth in the US. This is a kick in the teeth if you will. And there are companies I've worked explicitly on where the owner had to take out a $1,500,000 personal loan this year to cover his tax bill just because of this rule change. And -- Wow. -- and, again, it's across the board. If you want to extrapolate that to Tesla and Lockheed Martin doing R&D, they're spending a million dollars, and only ten percent of that can be written off in a year. The big companies are feeling the hit as well. They've had to reissue some 10Ks for the publicly traded companies because their profitability outlook went through the floor.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. Oh, and you'd think that with something like this, it would really stimulate, like you said, not only keeping manufacturing here in the United States but also stimulating innovation and growth within manufacturers because they're constantly looking for ways to improve their products. What do you see again regarding how they've used those credits to stimulate innovation and growth up until now?

       
       

       Casey Barka: If you want to consider it a blank check. It's money that you are owed; you're refunded. It's real cash in hand. Suppose you are a manufacturer and you qualify. In that case, you're doing these types of research projects, your new product releases, process improvements, you're getting, you're doing stuff, and you're getting patents. Patents are a great way to substantiate that you are doing R&D., But you can use this to hire more people, right? Say I threw out a $1,000,000 earlier in the back of the napkin calculation at the federal level; think about ten% returns. for every $1,000,000 that you spend, you'll probably get a $ten0,000, give or take, of actual R&D credit. that's a dollar-for-dollar deduction of your tax liability. It's not a deduction. It's a tax credit that is the bottom line. What is your overall tax liability? Credits are there to reduce that down to 0. Yes. You can hire more people. You can buy equipment. You can plan for that expansion that you want to do to your facility and add new capabilities and things of that nature. And in addition, you can use that as a tax planning tool because manufacturers we deal with frequently like to run close to even. They don't want to pay a lot of tax. They don't want to be at a loss, either. They try getting as close to netting out at 0 as possible. But now, if you know that you have this pool of tax credits, you can work with your CPAs to maybe change the way that you're doing your bonus depreciation, maybe the way that you're doing the way that you're writing off some of your assets, you can use them as a way to raise your taxable income. Still,...]]>1f240792-3be3-4045-8d4e-73801e1aea95Mon, 04 Sep 2023 07:05:00 -040029:36falsefull310103Felt Marketing for Manufacturers: Uncomplicating Success in the Manufacturing World with Allison DeFordConnect 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 manufacturer, and we thought, why would we want to work with anybody else?

       
       

       But the main, the maker everybody's looking to for the marketing support, that help, and that training. It just made sense to support them; the manufacturer is like that foundational person or foundational component, and it's the backbone of this country. I get excited about that.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: Oh yeah. If you just look around, you. Somebody has made everything that we're looking at. Yep. Oh. I always joke with my friends that if I'm speaking at a weird, if there's a weird association, chances are I'm speaking to it because there are associations for everything. It is the coolest thing to be around makers passionate about things nobody else thinks about.

       
       

       Allison DeFord: Yes. Until they have to replace them or they break. 

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: So I have to ask you, what is the We Syndrome, and how is it hurting manufacturers?

       
       

       Allison DeFord: If you look at most manufacturers' websites, let's say you do the five-second speed test. How many times do they use the word we?

       
       

       Look at their social media posts. How many times are they talking about themselves? And what I have had great success doing is helping manufacturers overcome this. And again, you and I have discussed here some things you can do to help yourself that don't cost any money or a lot of money.

       
       

       This is one of them. Flip the script and address. The viewer address, the prospective customer, or the customer who's coming back to your website or looking at your social media feed, you need to lead with them, not you. And I have this little story that I've shared a million times, and people are probably tired of hearing about it, but I found this image years ago a stock photo. It's this little boy, and he's staring at his navel, and he's like squeezing it together, like making it talk. And he's just fascinated with his navel. And to me, that's the Wewe syndrome. I grew up with cousins. I grew up in Indiana, and many boy cousins ran around with their shirts off, and I couldn't; I was a little jealous.

       
       

       Because it was humid as you know what, And they were just fascinated. They were just fascinated with their own navel and thought I was hilarious. And I, that's what I see companies doing. I've been guilty of it myself. Again, I'm not pointing fingers; three are always pointing back at you.

       
       

       It's to flip the script once and for all and show your prospective buyer or your current customer. This is what's in it for you. This is why you should buy this, and this is why you should buy it from us. This is how it will transform some part of your life or business. Flipping the script on the wee is, yeah, it's imperative, and it doesn't take a lot of effort.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: No. Just switching those to use. And make a huge difference. It reminds me of my own marketing material that I, it's the same kind of thing, but I called it doing eye surgery, and that you go through and remove every time, I say I love that eye. Are you doing we surgery? Yes. But it's important.

       
       

       When it comes to marketing, it's not something that, You think a lot about when you are a manufacturer that you know, I make this stuff, people are going to come to me. How are you? What are the areas that you focus on when it comes to working with your clients in their marketing efforts?

       
       

       Allison DeFord: The brand foundation is number one. I always say marketing happens from the inside out, right? Or from the top. We talk about shit rolls downhill. Yeah. I find that most small to mid-size manufacturers I encounter don't have a compelling, unique value proposition.

       
       

       They're not leading with what's the promise? What's the thing that makes you different? Why should I care? What's in it for me? They're missing that the unique value proposition is key. How do you get to that? I take a look at who are your audience personas. Who, what do they look like?

       
       

       We don't have that. We have it here, but we don't have it in A P D F, or we've never put it on paper. It's imperative to understand who you're marketing for and on behalf of, not at. The major way we are different is that we're not trained to help you interrupt. We convince.

       
       

       It's connecting to the heart of your ideal customer. Because people don't make decisions rationally. 90% of the time, they make decisions based on emotion. Why not connect on an emotional level that's imperative? It's that brand foundation stuff that's usually missing.

       
       

       Also, they are usually missing a brand personality and a brand voice. I use Target as an example, even though they're a retailer. We can learn a lot from B2C. You see a commercial come on. Or maybe a radio spot or whatever; it's targeted before they even show you the bullseye logo at the end because there's a voice, there's a tone - same thing with brands like Yeti Gerber Knives. I could go on forever. But those are the ones that are memorable because they have, they're distinct, and they mean something to you. And then a strategy. Most manufacturers are missing a cohesive and not like some 80-page document that they're never going to follow, but create a holistic system as I think of the Hoberman sphere, and when you open it up, it's, and it's all connected.

       
       

       So how is your messaging connected? How is it connecting? Is it consistent? Is it relevant? And are you leading with what's in it for them? You have to help people self-serve because they're what, 80, excuse me, percent through the buying cycle before they ever pick up the phone to call you. And if they're millennials or younger, they don't want to pick up the phone,...]]>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 manufacturer, and we thought, why would we want to work with anybody else?

       
       

       But the main, the maker everybody's looking to for the marketing support, that help, and that training. It just made sense to support them; the manufacturer is like that foundational person or foundational component, and it's the backbone of this country. I get excited about that.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: Oh yeah. If you just look around, you. Somebody has made everything that we're looking at. Yep. Oh. I always joke with my friends that if I'm speaking at a weird, if there's a weird association, chances are I'm speaking to it because there are associations for everything. It is the coolest thing to be around makers passionate about things nobody else thinks about.

       
       

       Allison DeFord: Yes. Until they have to replace them or they break. 

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: So I have to ask you, what is the We Syndrome, and how is it hurting manufacturers?

       
       

       Allison DeFord: If you look at most manufacturers' websites, let's say you do the five-second speed test. How many times do they use the word we?

       
       

       Look at their social media posts. How many times are they talking about themselves? And what I have had great success doing is helping manufacturers overcome this. And again, you and I have discussed here some things you can do to help yourself that don't cost any money or a lot of money.

       
       

       This is one of them. Flip the script and address. The viewer address, the prospective customer, or the customer who's coming back to your website or looking at your social media feed, you need to lead with them, not you. And I have this little story that I've shared a million times, and people are probably tired of hearing about it, but I found this image years ago a stock photo. It's this little boy, and he's staring at his navel, and he's like squeezing it together, like making it talk. And he's just fascinated with his navel. And to me, that's the Wewe syndrome. I grew up with cousins. I grew up in Indiana, and many boy cousins ran around with their shirts off, and I couldn't; I was a little jealous.

       
       

       Because it was humid as you know what, And they were just fascinated. They were just fascinated with their own navel and thought I was hilarious. And I, that's what I see companies doing. I've been guilty of it myself. Again, I'm not pointing fingers; three are always pointing back at you.

       
       

       It's to flip the script once and for all and show your prospective buyer or your current customer. This is what's in it for you. This is why you should buy this, and this is why you should buy it from us. This is how it will transform some part of your life or business. Flipping the script on the wee is, yeah, it's imperative, and it doesn't take a lot of effort.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: No. Just switching those to use. And make a huge difference. It reminds me of my own marketing material that I, it's the same kind of thing, but I called it doing eye surgery, and that you go through and remove every time, I say I love that eye. Are you doing we surgery? Yes. But it's important.

       
       

       When it comes to marketing, it's not something that, You think a lot about when you are a manufacturer that you know, I make this stuff, people are going to come to me. How are you? What are the areas that you focus on when it comes to working with your clients in their marketing efforts?

       
       

       Allison DeFord: The brand foundation is number one. I always say marketing happens from the inside out, right? Or from the top. We talk about shit rolls downhill. Yeah. I find that most small to mid-size manufacturers I encounter don't have a compelling, unique value proposition.

       
       

       They're not leading with what's the promise? What's the thing that makes you different? Why should I care? What's in it for me? They're missing that the unique value proposition is key. How do you get to that? I take a look at who are your audience personas. Who, what do they look like?

       
       

       We don't have that. We have it here, but we don't have it in A P D F, or we've never put it on paper. It's imperative to understand who you're marketing for and on behalf of, not at. The major way we are different is that we're not trained to help you interrupt. We convince.

       
       

       It's connecting to the heart of your ideal customer. Because people don't make decisions rationally. 90% of the time, they make decisions based on emotion. Why not connect on an emotional level that's imperative? It's that brand foundation stuff that's usually missing.

       
       

       Also, they are usually missing a brand personality and a brand voice. I use Target as an example, even though they're a retailer. We can learn a lot from B2C. You see a commercial come on. Or maybe a radio spot or whatever; it's targeted before they even show you the bullseye logo at the end because there's a voice, there's a tone - same thing with brands like Yeti Gerber Knives. I could go on forever. But those are the ones that are memorable because they have, they're distinct, and they mean something to you. And then a strategy. Most manufacturers are missing a cohesive and not like some 80-page document that they're never going to follow, but create a holistic system as I think of the Hoberman sphere, and when you open it up, it's, and it's all connected.

       
       

       So how is your messaging connected? How is it connecting? Is it consistent? Is it relevant? And are you leading with what's in it for them? You have to help people self-serve because they're what, 80, excuse me, percent through the buying cycle before they ever pick up the phone to call you. And if they're millennials or younger, they don't want to pick up the phone, right?

       
       

       They don't want a salesperson to call them ever. They want to do it all digitally, and they want it to feel. Easy. Helping people overcome a lack of content, like we don't know what to talk about, is what we help you figure out. How often should we do it? Where should we do it? Do we have to be on every social media platform?

       
       

       No, you do not, but be where your people are. That's the whole ticket. It's breaking it down and dispelling the myths. Most manufacturers feel overwhelmed with marketing at this point, and I can see why. It's easy. It's easy to do, right? There's much more, and it's changing quickly.

       
       

       So it's like, where do I start? What do I don't know what to do? Guiding them. And what you're guiding, what appeared to me is that it is bringing back the passion for why you started your business. As far as what is that, you talked a couple of times about the promise in your unique value proposition, but why did you even start your company in your garage 20 years ago?

       
       

       What is it that you knew you could do better than anyone else? What is it that you are passionate about? How are you different? And I think if we just even go back to the very foundation. Of, the, of why we even started our business because it wasn't to make cheap stuff that well, we're a penny cheaper than anybody else, and that's why I started my business.

       
       

       There's no passion in that. And we can start to build our branding, or you can also help them build their branding by taking them back to the essence of what makes them unique from every other maker out there. Yes, and I find that most manufacturers make the mistake of talking about what they do, and what they make instead of why they do it, which is what you just said, right?

       
       

       And that's people don't buy from you because of what you make. They buy from you because of why you do it. And what's in it for them? How does it? How does it empower them? How does it make their life easier? Nobody wants to buy a drill, but they do want to make a three-quarter hole, make a hole.

       
       

       Yep. Most manufacturers have such a unique story. Nobody else has, but they've bought into this idea that we need to tell people how long we've been in business, how many square feet of manufacturing floor space we have, our history the more we tell you about ourselves and the, the products that we make, the more compelling it's going to be.

       
       

       And it's not. But when you start from a place of difference, for example, one of our clients is a custom circuit board manufacturer. And when you look at his competitors, everybody's saying the same thing, right? There's a lot of; there's a lot of me too. There's a lot of wee. And we looked at their operation, their business. They have 20 employees.

       
       

       They're not doing gazillions of dollars a year yet, but they've been around for a long time. And I said, you know what you guys do better than anybody else. You uncomplicate something complicated. You uncomplicate circuit board assembly, and your team is down to earth, and there's just this human element with this technological, Piece that I said, that's what makes you guys different.

       
       

       And as soon as we flipped that, and we led with that on their website, I, he's had people ring him up, and we rebranded, changed their logo, and made it a lot more relevant today. And he's gotten many compliments. People are like, oh my gosh, I love what you're saying. I love this.

       
       

       It's speaking to people. Sometimes it's something as simple as you uncomplicate something. Another manufacturer we work with, your natural gift is that you guys make this part of the construction process easy. Your competitors are all big corporate; they're doing many other things.

       
       

       They make it hard. You guys make it easy at every turn, and they said is that unique enough? And they said it is. No one else is talking about it. It doesn't have to be complicated. That's the thing, it's usually right under your nose, and you're just too close to it to see it yourself.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: And it can be something that everybody else is doing. Several years ago, one of the beer companies came out with a label that turned blue. If the beer was super cold, I'm sorry. Everybody's beer will be the same amount of cold.

       
       

       But because they thought ahead, to make theirs blue. Everybody started thinking that theirs must be colder, but that was because they had something different that nobody else was talking about. You find that one thing you just summed up beautifully that you can own.

       
       

       Speaking of providing services and benefits to manufacturers, I have been an expert on manufacturing masters. I know that is your baby and your passion. Why don't you tell us a little bit about what the Manufacturing Masters platform is and why it's valuable for manufacturers and reps?

       
       

       Allison DeFord: Great question. It's the baby of Darren Mitchell; I give him all the credit. Yeah, he's awesome. He is an entrepreneur; I call him Midas. Everything he touches turns to gold, and he's very down-to-earth. And he created this Netflix for manufacturers because of what he likes to call it.

       
       

       But instead of entertainment, it's education and best practices. And me and my company had the great pleasure of helping him name it and develop a brand, and we came up with the tagline, everything they never taught you in school. That's what you're going to find on this platform. And the cool thing about it, Is you're not being educated by just willy-nilly random people, right?

       
       

       These are up to 130 vetted, battle-tested, and trusted experts. I'm on there talking about marketing. You're on there as well. It's every possible subject that you can think of. And one of my favorite stories, Is Darren was in a room with a bunch of manufacturers, and he was, they were talking about this platform, and the one guy just he'd been real quiet, and he raised his hand.

       
       

       Darren said, yeah, what's up? He said I've been doing my job for 26 years, and until I watched the best practices about, I can't remember what the exact topic was until I watched those on this on manufacturing masters. I had no idea what best practices even looked like for my job, and now I do. He's God; I wish I would've had this years ago.

       
       

       And it was just; it's that kind of transformation that happens. And the cool thing is I also have the gift of working with MEPs and associations to bring this to their entire audience. And Darren has priced it in such a way because he fully. NPS and associations and their value is that when they bring this into their program and offer it to their people, not just one person gets to subscribe.

       
       

       Every person in that manufacturing company gets to subscribe for the same. It's all covered. It's incredible. He keeps opening it up. And I keep saying, wow, when I think you're being too generous, you get more generous. And he said that's the point I wanted to bring this to people like me.

       
       

       He owned a business for 26 years, 25 maybe. And he said A lot of times you feel alone. Yeah. You don't know all the stuff that you need to know. And if you can have this support system at your fingertips, It's on demand; it's short. He purposely made, and you know this, every video is like anywhere from two minutes to, some of mine were 20 minutes because I was one of the ones at the beginning, and he's we have to shorten this up.

       
       

       We have to make it the right size and easy to consume on your time. You can grab this nugget and put it into action.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. Most of mine are in the five to seven-minute range. But the interesting thing about the platform that you alluded to is that regarding people being vetted, it's like any sponsors do not pay Darren to be who I want to be, and I have my own channel on manufacturing masters.

       
       

       Allison DeFord: I felt very blessed that he found me because of my work and invited me to participate. But if I would've just found him and started prospecting and trying to sell him on why I would be such a great expert, there's no way he would've had me unless he did the full background.

       
       

       So that's what I like about it, is that it's real people. Real plants. It's not you don't have. I'm a professional speaker, but I am the exception versus the rule. And you're just getting real people sharing their stories about what they do. And as you said, you've seen people learning in those little snippets of information many times.

       
       

       You must have access to something that I could sit down with, I could watch a five-minute or a 10-minute video, get some great ideas that I can put into practice, and you know what? And if it's not right for me, maybe it's not right this time, and I go on to another expert because I have 139 more people I can watch.

       
       

       And when you were on the Manufacturing Masters podcast, you brought up an excellent point, and I think it segues beautifully with this or ties in, I should say. You said it's not 2019 anymore. We can never return, so this platform is incredibly important and relevant today.

       
       

       Number one, everybody's zoomed out at this point, right? And we're working differently than before, consuming much information, news, and social media feeds. It's overwhelming to me, frankly. It's a.when you have many options. It has to be. Our attention spans are, have shortened tremendously.

       
       

       So that's why I think it was brilliant on his part to make these all very short to the point; he had zero fluff. Nobody's trying to sell you anything, right? It's, let's jump into this topic and]]>bb770a75-ecf4-4e70-b508-bbe77cb6dd1aMon, 21 Aug 2023 07:05:00 -040028:17falsefull3993Revitalizing Manufacturing Brands for Growth: Insights with Ed DeliaConnect 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; they're the best fit for what we need right now. And then that's how we aim to position our clients.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: if they, everybody has a brand, whether they've focused on it or not. And especially in the last couple of years when everything has changed. How would a manufacturer know when it's time to either rebrand or rethink its image and position in the marketplace?

       
       

       Ed Delia: It's a great question, and we often come up against that one. We often say it's time to rebrand, and we see this often when the organization's capabilities have outpaced the image. We'll often hear things from CEOs like we are; we're capable of much more. We're capable of bigger opportunities. We're not getting them. The larger clients or, the bigger engagements aren't seeing our value.

       
       

       And that's because their capabilities, from a capability standpoint, they're up to the task. They can handle the biggest, the strongest, the most complex requirements. But from a brand standpoint, they're just not being seen that way. Often say to Clarence, it's not; we all know about if we use a phishing metaphor; we all know about the big one that got away.

       
       

       But I'm more worried about all the fish that circled the bait and never took a bite because they said, no, this is not a good fit for us. They're not up to the task. They can't handle our needs based on how their brand is positioned. Ensuring that the brand is commensurate with the organization's capabilities is critical.

       
       

       And a lot of times we see that they. The organization has outpaced its identity, and that's when it's time for a refresh. And we see ten other common triggers to rethink or reposition the brand. But that would be a big one.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: You think of branding or branding and marketing and all of this stuff, which just sounds expensive. What are some low-cost ideas that can get manufacturers to get started about thinking of their brand and then determining where they want to go if they want to make a larger investment, but take that fear and that, oh boy, I'm going to have to write a massive check to get anything done? What, how can they get started?

       
       

       Ed Delia: One of the things that we often do as a first step is to start a very focused conversation around growth before we even endeavor to get into discussions around the brand. Because sometimes, if a manufacturing leader doesn't fully understand or can't wrap their head around the brand initially, they most certainly understand growth.

       
       

       And often, we will work through a bit of a growth model where we help them prioritize the top three to five growth channels for their organization. That is ultimately going to move the lever and the needle. And then, from there, we start to assess whether that growth strategy could be realized with the current brand or if brand revitalization is required.

       
       

       It's not always necessary, and it's not always the first step. It's just an important step when the company is stalled, has hit a plateau, or is being held back by the brand. And then it's easier to make that value proposition because we're like it's not much what we're paying for, it's what we're losing in terms to competitors or the opportunities we're not getting If we had a stronger brand, we would be growing faster and further.

       
       

       It's been proven that well-branded companies will outpace their non-branded counterparts by two to one. There is an acceleration there once you do go down the path.

       Lisa Ryan: when you talk about growth, that probably means a lot of things to other people. And you said different components of growth. What do you mean by that?

       
       

       Ed Delia: When we look at a B2B or manufacturing enterprise, there are three primary growth methods. You either get more new customers or extend and expand current relationships with current customers. Or you increase buying frequency.

       
       

       Those are the three primary growth methods for a B2B organization or a manufacturer. From there, we've modeled that for each of those methods, there are ten growth channels a manufacturer could engage in to create that growth. Now, what you're left with then is 30 growth channels.

       
       

       That's a lot for anybody to swallow, even a large organization. I never suggest that. What we work with our clients to do is say, what are the top three to five that in the next 15 to 24 months will most readily and rapidly move the needle for this organization? And that's what we prioritize.

       
       

       And then that's what we encourage them, therefore, facing service and sales teams to prioritize. And then that's what's the prioritization in marketing. We're always working towards a growth strategy that, at the end of a period, we can say, how did we move the needle? Did we, ultimately, affect the change?

       
       

       And the strategies could range from either expanding a service line or expanding to a new market sector. Or, in adjacent markets, let's say the manufacturer sells into pharmaceuticals, and they see an opportunity to sell into it. Maybe the veterinary or medical device market is an adjacent or somewhat adjacent industry.

       
       

       Let's look at how to pivot and extend that way. Or it could also be establishing joint ventures or partnerships with other supply chain providers to extend their reach. It could also involve this one that big and large, big and small manufacturers miss asking for referrals and introductions.

       
       

       It sounds simple. But you would be surprised that even the most accomplished sales professionals don't do that or don't know how to do that well; sometimes it's as simple as that we helped the company almost double in two years just by saying, look at all the]]>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; they're the best fit for what we need right now. And then that's how we aim to position our clients.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: if they, everybody has a brand, whether they've focused on it or not. And especially in the last couple of years when everything has changed. How would a manufacturer know when it's time to either rebrand or rethink its image and position in the marketplace?

       
       

       Ed Delia: It's a great question, and we often come up against that one. We often say it's time to rebrand, and we see this often when the organization's capabilities have outpaced the image. We'll often hear things from CEOs like we are; we're capable of much more. We're capable of bigger opportunities. We're not getting them. The larger clients or, the bigger engagements aren't seeing our value.

       
       

       And that's because their capabilities, from a capability standpoint, they're up to the task. They can handle the biggest, the strongest, the most complex requirements. But from a brand standpoint, they're just not being seen that way. Often say to Clarence, it's not; we all know about if we use a phishing metaphor; we all know about the big one that got away.

       
       

       But I'm more worried about all the fish that circled the bait and never took a bite because they said, no, this is not a good fit for us. They're not up to the task. They can't handle our needs based on how their brand is positioned. Ensuring that the brand is commensurate with the organization's capabilities is critical.

       
       

       And a lot of times we see that they. The organization has outpaced its identity, and that's when it's time for a refresh. And we see ten other common triggers to rethink or reposition the brand. But that would be a big one.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: You think of branding or branding and marketing and all of this stuff, which just sounds expensive. What are some low-cost ideas that can get manufacturers to get started about thinking of their brand and then determining where they want to go if they want to make a larger investment, but take that fear and that, oh boy, I'm going to have to write a massive check to get anything done? What, how can they get started?

       
       

       Ed Delia: One of the things that we often do as a first step is to start a very focused conversation around growth before we even endeavor to get into discussions around the brand. Because sometimes, if a manufacturing leader doesn't fully understand or can't wrap their head around the brand initially, they most certainly understand growth.

       
       

       And often, we will work through a bit of a growth model where we help them prioritize the top three to five growth channels for their organization. That is ultimately going to move the lever and the needle. And then, from there, we start to assess whether that growth strategy could be realized with the current brand or if brand revitalization is required.

       
       

       It's not always necessary, and it's not always the first step. It's just an important step when the company is stalled, has hit a plateau, or is being held back by the brand. And then it's easier to make that value proposition because we're like it's not much what we're paying for, it's what we're losing in terms to competitors or the opportunities we're not getting If we had a stronger brand, we would be growing faster and further.

       
       

       It's been proven that well-branded companies will outpace their non-branded counterparts by two to one. There is an acceleration there once you do go down the path.

       Lisa Ryan: when you talk about growth, that probably means a lot of things to other people. And you said different components of growth. What do you mean by that?

       
       

       Ed Delia: When we look at a B2B or manufacturing enterprise, there are three primary growth methods. You either get more new customers or extend and expand current relationships with current customers. Or you increase buying frequency.

       
       

       Those are the three primary growth methods for a B2B organization or a manufacturer. From there, we've modeled that for each of those methods, there are ten growth channels a manufacturer could engage in to create that growth. Now, what you're left with then is 30 growth channels.

       
       

       That's a lot for anybody to swallow, even a large organization. I never suggest that. What we work with our clients to do is say, what are the top three to five that in the next 15 to 24 months will most readily and rapidly move the needle for this organization? And that's what we prioritize.

       
       

       And then that's what we encourage them, therefore, facing service and sales teams to prioritize. And then that's what's the prioritization in marketing. We're always working towards a growth strategy that, at the end of a period, we can say, how did we move the needle? Did we, ultimately, affect the change?

       
       

       And the strategies could range from either expanding a service line or expanding to a new market sector. Or, in adjacent markets, let's say the manufacturer sells into pharmaceuticals, and they see an opportunity to sell into it. Maybe the veterinary or medical device market is an adjacent or somewhat adjacent industry.

       
       

       Let's look at how to pivot and extend that way. Or it could also be establishing joint ventures or partnerships with other supply chain providers to extend their reach. It could also involve this one that big and large, big and small manufacturers miss asking for referrals and introductions.

       
       

       It sounds simple. But you would be surprised that even the most accomplished sales professionals don't do that or don't know how to do that well; sometimes it's as simple as that we helped the company almost double in two years just by saying, look at all the relationships you have. Imagine if you went out and smartly asked for introductions, and they did, and the growth was phenomenal.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: I think the critical thing to learn from that lesson is a lot of times, we're going to hire a marketing company to come in and do a rebranding, and we want to do everything at once. And as you said, there are 30 different channels that they could choose from, and then just determining from the standpoint of what is the three that we should at least start with and get those going.

       
       

       Ed Delia: And maybe that baby step is we're going to teach you how to ask for referrals. It's not doing everything all at once. It's doing one thing, getting good at it, then doing the next.

       
       

       So it's almost like you're getting 1% better with everything you do. Over time, that will lead to big changes, but not getting. It sounds like you're helping them not to be overwhelmed with this whole process by reigning them in a little bit. That is very much, very well stated. We often say it's better to execute with excellence than do too much or too little.

       
       

       So I would rather see a company do three to five things incredibly well than try to take on 10 or 15 initiatives and fail at all of them. And that's part of the prioritization, which will get them down the path, the best way, the furthest, the fastest, and the best possible way.

       
       

       And that's where we prioritize. Yeah, it's only sometimes doing it all at once. We also have to consider bandwidth, resources, and what they can do, manage, and afford at a given period. That's commensurate with their organization. That's factored in as well.

       
       

       So I would never put on the table a massive program for a small niche manufacturer that they could never afford or even undertake doesn't make sense. Let's fix some doable strategies and paths that align with our focus and desire for growth, and let's work on those and execute them well.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: aside from the increased visibility we've been discussing with the brand, what do you think are some other benefits people get when portraying a strong brand?

       
       

       Ed Delia: Interestingly, over the last two to three years, we've been getting more requests for rebranding from the manufacturing community driven by hr.

       
       

       Be driven, being driven by sales and marketing. And the reason is many manufacturers need help attracting and retaining great talent. Often, they have an employee population starting to age and look to retirement. Those people have a lot of tribal knowledge.

       
       

       They know a lot, and they can do a lot, but eventually, they're going to, they're going to say, okay, I'm done. It's time to retire. And there's just not that next generation coming up through the ranks that will take on those positions. And many of the emerging workforce generations, mainly the millennials and a little Gen Y, are just not seeing manufacturing as a sexy path.

       
       

       Although they can do great things in manufacturing, they can make. Some healthy incomes in manufacturing, right? We've been doing a lot of brand development and campaigning around attracting talent versus new customers for our manufacturing clients. That's become a big benefit. And a lot of the leadership and manufacturing are manufacturing realizes we better look the part for this emerging generation; we better showcase as a place that welcomes them is a good place for them too. To come, grow, and develop as our next great employee population.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. Yeah. That's such a good point because I know a lot of times on this show, we talk about the workforce and how hard it is to find people who want to come into manufacturing, and then what do you do to keep them? It sounds like. When you have that strong brand, you are creating a workplace that people are proud to work for because it's known, a brand that's respected, and a brand that people are proud to work for and do business with. It would make attracting people to at least check out the organization easier.

       
       

       Ed Delia: Yeah. And the emerging workforce, they, they're. They're a little different than maybe a year in my day when we were entering the workforce and just happy to get a job. Exactly. Let's just get that first job. That's all we care about. They want to work for a place that has meaning, contributes to the greater good, has a purpose, and is on a journey where there's growth. They're looking for a lot more out of the experience of working, and The manufacturing leadership needs to be attended to that and can't stick to the old ways of just saying, oh, just be happy to be employed and have a job.

       
       

       Lots of places and ways for them to do that. And they don't need to be in the manufacturing community to do that. Manufacturers have to work harder, too. I would say the industry at large could be doing a better job at doing some missionary work to showcase that manufacturing is a great career path for the next generation workforce.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: Oh. There was much gold in what you just said there, but even showcasing manufacturing, what dawned on me too is the manufacturing day, the first Friday in October, to use that as even a kickoff to your branding to show that this is what we're doing in the community, this is how we're interacting. This is our brand, and. Also, to realize that we are not returning to the good old days. Sometimes in my talk, when I'm talking about keeping your top talent from becoming someone else's, and these people come in, and they have that attitude that nobody wants to work anymore, and I can't pay these people enough, and they're not willing to pay their dues.

       
       

       Nobody's going to pay their dues anymore. They don't want to do the crap work nobody else wants to do because they can get tenure and build up their way. It's no, it's a different world where you're not coddling your employees, you're treating them with respect, you're listening to their ideas, and you're creating a workplace VI environment that is in this post-pandemic employee-centric marketplace that we are just not going back to. I'm sure you have dealt with prospects, and many of them understand that they have to change. And then other ones say, I don't need to do any of that. We've been doing it this way for 50 years. Those are probably not the ones you're working with.

       
       

       Ed Delia: No. They and those that may be tried to hold to that. They are quickly changing their tune and realizing that getting people to work for them used to be easier, but now it's not. And now they have to work a lot harder at it. And, some of them are like, do we have to do all that?

       
       

       And I'm like, if you want great talent, yeah. Yeah. You have to fight for it. And if you're willing to fight for it and you're willing to give them a great experience and a great environment, and they're going to stay and grow, You're going to grow, going to grow. Because great talent drives the bus a lot faster than throwing a body at an assignment that could

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: And the interesting thing, too, is we used to worry about losing our people to other competitive manufacturers down the street. Now, with all their options, we're not losing them to their manufacturers. We're losing them to Amazon; we're losing them to Uber. We're learning, losing them to DoorDash because people want to have their businesses and do their own thing instead of being disrespected, told what to do, and treated like another cog in the wheel.

       
       

       So that's the image we need to change with manufacturing, branding, and getting the word out there. We can do that. When you're working, how would you suggest manufacturers develop a realistic growth strategy for their company?

       
       

       Ed Delia: It starts with prioritization, looking at the three primary growth methods, and then assessing the growth channels and carefully assessing which ones are most relevant to that organization. And those are the ones we can then dig into, focus on, and build a real growth strategy, subsequent marketing planning, and then potentially brand planning around that to build a framework they can start to use and work toward.

       
       

       So that everybody, all. Everybody's flying in formation in the organization. Everybody understands what the growth priorities are, and everybody's working. Because when you get that momentum behind it, it will happen. It's going to happen. But with that, if there's clarity or people don't know, manufacturing organizations flounder because they need to know the priority, where they're going, or the focus. They need to know that. And that needs to be reinforced and reemphasized on an ongoing basis. It's not a one-and-done, and you're there. You have to keep working at and working at it, and then you get there, and you get that momentum going. And once that momentum going gets going, it's exciting. It's exciting for all.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: what have you found to be some of the most effective marketing methods that manufacturing brands can use to reach new audiences?

       
       

       Ed Delia: there's some new and some old right now, and this is something of a post covid getting together and gathering.

       
       

       People love returning to trade shows and conferences because they couldn't for long, and it's human nature to want to gather. In the last year or two years, Our clients have all been very aggressive about returning to shows and meeting and greeting in person to re-establish that human...]]>7b6ca339-02e0-4d63-b326-77e4ff3811dcMon, 07 Aug 2023 07:05:00 -040025:34falsefull3883Overcoming Common Manufacturing Mistakes with ERP with Nick FoyLisa 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 perspective, what's happening left and right, up and down in the manufacturing space.

       What we mean by that is how did the manufacturing order get created. What did that happen in the first place? Is it? A sales order. How did that sales order get created? Did it come from CRM? You've had to look left of that process. Then you have to look right at that process. Once it's manufactured, what do I do with it? Do I put it into inventory? Am I managing that through lots of serial numbers? How do I ship that to customers, get it off the shelf, et cetera? And then we've had to look up and down. What we mean by up and down is then looking at things like how do we control things like versioning. How do we control the bill's material?

       How do we control things like PLM - product lifecycle management? How is all that controlled? And then there's the detail of the manufacturing process itself: how are work orders controlled on the floor? How do I get instructions to operators? How do I make things clearly and easily understood on the shop floor? How do I control quality maintenance, all that great stuff that goes along? Again, because we're talking about all those things, it's about more than just that core manufacturing part of the system. There are lots of inputs, there are lots about bots, and there's a lot of stuff up and down at that as well.

       As far as manufacturing's concerned, there are a lot of great standalone manufacturing systems out there. We know that. But you've got to ask yourself, does it do everything to the left and right and up and down of this process as well? If it doesn't, then you'll have a hard time in manufacturing.

       Lisa Ryan: There are probably some challenges you've observed in the manufacturing and industries you've dealt with. What are some common challenges, and how can an ERP system address them?

       Nick Foy: One of the, one of the biggest challenges we see from our clients and especially over the last few years with covid and supply chain issues, is, do I have everything on the floor ready for me to start my production process?

       That's one of our most common issues when starting this production run. Do I have all the raw materials I need where I need them? And again, that comes down to your inventory control, how you receive products, how you store products, and how do you pick for production. For example, I can start the job by ensuring everything is in place. And getting that visibility here are the jobs I can start and those I can't. Your system needs to give you that kind of insight into material readiness or component availability.

       There's nothing worse than starting a production when realizing a quarter of the way through you're missing a vital component and then having to scramble. You either have tons of work in progress now taking off the line, or you have to substitute something else that may not be as ideal as it could be.

       There's nothing worse than that. Certainly, the availability of components and ensuring that inventory shows that the start of manufacturing is one of the biggest challenges our clients have faced. I believe it is, especially over the last few years.

       Lisa Ryan: What are the most common mistakes manufacturers make in implementation?

       Nick Foy: One of the most common mistakes we see is going too complicated, too quickly. We see clients with multi-level bills and materials: sub-components, sub-assemblies, et cetera. We had a client who we've helped get out with some of that over the last couple of months. We had an eight-level bill of material. And the reality is that it needs to be simpler for them to manage. All those sub-assemblies are part of a sub-assembly, part of another sub-assembly. And the poor operator on the shop floor is just; they're clicking buttons on the ERP. It's taking longer than it did to create the product. That's when you know you're in trouble. When the operators spend more time pressing buttons than they make the thing, you've gone to the too complex and too low level and your bills of material.

       Lisa Ryan: How would they fix that if it was such a complicated process that they already have? How would they backtrack and get out of that?

       Nick Foy: It comes down to which ERP system you use or the manufacturing system you use. Our system of choice is DU and with DU manufacturing. Rather than just a blunt bill of material or sub-assembly process, you also have a lot of other tools that are available to you, such as we can create different work centers to help manage that complexity. We can also create operational steps within manufacturing that can replace some of the sub-assembly processes.

       So sometimes, it's about something other than dumbing things down. When I say about getting complex too soon, it's not about dumbing it down to say, let's have a single level and deal with everything offline. What it comes down to is you've got to use a myriad of tools available to you in your ERP to make the complex a lot more straightforward.

       And rather than just seeing Bill's material as that, a blunt tool to fix that. There are a lot of other things in your ERP that are available to you to help fix those situations. This is where using a partner like what we do here at Silverdale becomes vital for these companies. Trying to do this on your own is problematic because guess what? You don't know what you don't know, or you don't see how other people solve This same issue, having a partner that you can call and say, Hey, Here's a problem I'm having. What do you think? And we can talk you through it.

       We've got another client in a similar industry, hardware, with a similar challenge. Let us talk you through how we solved it for them and then set up a demo and a walkthrough and help the team to understand that it is an...]]>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 perspective, what's happening left and right, up and down in the manufacturing space.

       What we mean by that is how did the manufacturing order get created. What did that happen in the first place? Is it? A sales order. How did that sales order get created? Did it come from CRM? You've had to look left of that process. Then you have to look right at that process. Once it's manufactured, what do I do with it? Do I put it into inventory? Am I managing that through lots of serial numbers? How do I ship that to customers, get it off the shelf, et cetera? And then we've had to look up and down. What we mean by up and down is then looking at things like how do we control things like versioning. How do we control the bill's material?

       How do we control things like PLM - product lifecycle management? How is all that controlled? And then there's the detail of the manufacturing process itself: how are work orders controlled on the floor? How do I get instructions to operators? How do I make things clearly and easily understood on the shop floor? How do I control quality maintenance, all that great stuff that goes along? Again, because we're talking about all those things, it's about more than just that core manufacturing part of the system. There are lots of inputs, there are lots about bots, and there's a lot of stuff up and down at that as well.

       As far as manufacturing's concerned, there are a lot of great standalone manufacturing systems out there. We know that. But you've got to ask yourself, does it do everything to the left and right and up and down of this process as well? If it doesn't, then you'll have a hard time in manufacturing.

       Lisa Ryan: There are probably some challenges you've observed in the manufacturing and industries you've dealt with. What are some common challenges, and how can an ERP system address them?

       Nick Foy: One of the, one of the biggest challenges we see from our clients and especially over the last few years with covid and supply chain issues, is, do I have everything on the floor ready for me to start my production process?

       That's one of our most common issues when starting this production run. Do I have all the raw materials I need where I need them? And again, that comes down to your inventory control, how you receive products, how you store products, and how do you pick for production. For example, I can start the job by ensuring everything is in place. And getting that visibility here are the jobs I can start and those I can't. Your system needs to give you that kind of insight into material readiness or component availability.

       There's nothing worse than starting a production when realizing a quarter of the way through you're missing a vital component and then having to scramble. You either have tons of work in progress now taking off the line, or you have to substitute something else that may not be as ideal as it could be.

       There's nothing worse than that. Certainly, the availability of components and ensuring that inventory shows that the start of manufacturing is one of the biggest challenges our clients have faced. I believe it is, especially over the last few years.

       Lisa Ryan: What are the most common mistakes manufacturers make in implementation?

       Nick Foy: One of the most common mistakes we see is going too complicated, too quickly. We see clients with multi-level bills and materials: sub-components, sub-assemblies, et cetera. We had a client who we've helped get out with some of that over the last couple of months. We had an eight-level bill of material. And the reality is that it needs to be simpler for them to manage. All those sub-assemblies are part of a sub-assembly, part of another sub-assembly. And the poor operator on the shop floor is just; they're clicking buttons on the ERP. It's taking longer than it did to create the product. That's when you know you're in trouble. When the operators spend more time pressing buttons than they make the thing, you've gone to the too complex and too low level and your bills of material.

       Lisa Ryan: How would they fix that if it was such a complicated process that they already have? How would they backtrack and get out of that?

       Nick Foy: It comes down to which ERP system you use or the manufacturing system you use. Our system of choice is DU and with DU manufacturing. Rather than just a blunt bill of material or sub-assembly process, you also have a lot of other tools that are available to you, such as we can create different work centers to help manage that complexity. We can also create operational steps within manufacturing that can replace some of the sub-assembly processes.

       So sometimes, it's about something other than dumbing things down. When I say about getting complex too soon, it's not about dumbing it down to say, let's have a single level and deal with everything offline. What it comes down to is you've got to use a myriad of tools available to you in your ERP to make the complex a lot more straightforward.

       And rather than just seeing Bill's material as that, a blunt tool to fix that. There are a lot of other things in your ERP that are available to you to help fix those situations. This is where using a partner like what we do here at Silverdale becomes vital for these companies. Trying to do this on your own is problematic because guess what? You don't know what you don't know, or you don't see how other people solve This same issue, having a partner that you can call and say, Hey, Here's a problem I'm having. What do you think? And we can talk you through it.

       We've got another client in a similar industry, hardware, with a similar challenge. Let us talk you through how we solved it for them and then set up a demo and a walkthrough and help the team to understand that it is an important part of what we do as a company and how would a company know if they weren't using an ERP system, how would they even figure out that, Hey, maybe this is something that I should look at or do things a different way that I'm doing.

       Lisa Ryan: What would be some telltale signs?

       Nick Foy: One of the very big telltale signs is a lack of visibility. If you have a sales team selling the product, they don't know the customer order status, especially when you've got custom-made products. I'm sitting in the car now. I've just finished another client who does one hundred percent of what they do is custom. Every single job, every single project is completely custom. Their problem was that the customer would call in and say, Hey, I'm just checking on the status of my order.

       The problem is that they would have to call the customer then back. I don't know its status; I need to know the material availability. I don't know what's going on in manufacturing. I don't know the scheduled date. I don't know the ship date. And they'd have to call that customer back.

       Now what they can do, Is immediately see, okay, yeah, great, I've got your order here. They call in, and we know who it is because of their telephone number. We can bring up their project and bring up the manufacturing order. We can see the status of the material and the scheduled date they're ready to do. Certainly, you are experiencing some of those types of issues. If you can't see the visibility of when things are happening or be able to answer those questions in a single contact or a single phone call with a client, then it's probably time to start doing that. If you've got a lot of work in progress. If you've got a lot of inventory and capital tied up in your whip, it's time to pick up the phone. As I like to say to people, implementing an ERP is never too early, but it's always too late. The best time to do your re-ERP implementation apart from today was yesterday. And it's never too early to start that journey.

       Lisa Ryan: A lot of the show focuses on the workforce and creating that type of workplace culture, and we know that nobody likes change. When implementing a system, how do you approach change management for organizations now, especially if there may be some employee resistance?

       Nick Foy: I don't know what you're talking about. That's what never happens. You never run into that. Of course, everybody buys into it right away. Everyone sees the panacea; everyone sees the oasis that we're selling. It's never an issue. Yeah, I've, of course, it's always an issue. The biggest way that we do that is spending time on site with the, not just with the client and not just in the boardroom. We spend very little time of our time in boardrooms. We spend a lot of our time on the shop floor understanding how things work today, but also explaining and showing and demonstrating what it will look like tomorrow.

       And I know, I don't know what you're like, Lisa, but I know what I'm like If someone came into my workplace and started moving things around on my desk, put the mouse on the other side, put the webcam, underneath the monitor instead of on top. I'm going to be pretty pissed at that, and I want people to explain to me what the hell a benefit of that is.

       I want the opportunity to have input. There's a famous saying, I can't remember who said it now, but I use that a lot, which is if you're going to change me, involve me. Okay. We're very big on being on the shop floor, showing people what's happening, and getting them to be part of that process as early as possible. This change is not something you can do to someone. Otherwise, it's a very negative experience. I am spending a lot of time on site, helping our clients with their change management process, creating that awareness, creating the desire from people on the shop floors. They say, oh, that's way better than these pieces of paper, or It's way better than me going to this whiteboard every five minutes to update the quantities, or whatever it might be.

       It is creating that sense of awareness and desire. Give them good training outside the conference room, because guess what? Nothing's done in a conference room. But doing a training on the shop floor, creating a training environment inviting four shop floor operators to come and press buttons. Not being afraid of pressing the buttons. It's got to be a big hurdle for people when they see buttons that say, okay, cancel. Delete. Oh my God, am I going to delete the whole system? Getting people used to pressing buttons in a safe environment and helping them understand, you're part of a bigger picture here.

       A lot is going left and right in what you're doing. And being on the shop floor during the go-live and the training and the support is incredibly important to be part of that team. We're very good at what we do. We spend much time engaging with the operators on the shop floor.

       You'll regularly see us there in our blue shirts, on the shop floor, answering questions, helping operators, and getting to know them individually. In a lot of cases, everyone is in change management. Everyone does this at an individual pace. And you have to engage with individuals when you do this sort of thing. This is not something you can do in-mas. There are lots of tools and tricks that we have up our sleeve to make that happen. But, it's it is quite a journey, but again, it's a very individualized journey

       Lisa Ryan: Do you have an example of a client that you worked with, like a before and after where the employees were fighting it, or they were just a mess, and y because of that process that you just shared, what the benefits were what the turnaround turned out to be to benefit that customer.

       Nick Foy: Yeah. Yeah. I've got a goa couple. We have a client down in Georgia. They are manufacturing. They're a print company. They're manufacturing a lot of letters, postcards, and various other things on demand for some big nationwide entities. We spent a lot of time on their shop floor. Before the ERP, they had another system on the shop floor, but it wasn't available to the operators. They weren't using it for real-time updates on production. They had a wad of paper that would follow the order all the way through, through the shop floor, to make sure everything was accurate.

       Now what we did is again, we spent a lot of time on that shop floor with the operator understanding, what they do today, how they do it today, and then showing them, for example, on an iPad, we put technology on the floor. We put some iPads on the floor that are not what they're now using to run their manufacturing operations.

       What was interesting was showing them how easy it was to use. And I'll tell you, this is a big revelation for me. This first time on the shop floor with that client was about a year and a half ago when we first did that, and that was a. a big epiphany for me because it was fresh out of Covid.

       We hadn't been on-site with clients for quite some time. And it was interesting that when we were on the shop floor, we gave them an iPad with a keyboard attached, thinking, okay, they're going to use that and do this. The first thing they did was touch the screen, and that was a big revelation for me that things have moved. People have shifted now to they're expecting to touch screens. They're not expecting keyboards and mouses on the shop floor anymore. The old ERP systems manufacturing shop floor systems were complicated and looked cumbersome.

       You asked the question earlier about how you know when it's time to look at an ERP or look for a new system. If you've got keyboards and a mouse on your shop floor, you should replace them. There's no place for a keyboard and a mouse on the shop floor. And if you find yourself having to do that, you've got the wrong system. Things have moved on over the last five years. And if that's what your operators have to use, then it will not be intuitive, especially for this new generation of workers who are very used to touchscreens, et cetera.

       This is a significant learning for me; it is that, wow, this world has moved on. That client spent a lot of time on the shop floor, getting them used to the workspace, also giving them some choice around, okay, where should we put this touchscreen? Should it be on the left? Should it be on the right? Should it be underneath? Should it be on top of here? And giving them some choice around their workspace as to, oh, that's the most convenient. Put it up here. Oh, great, fantastic. Let's put it here. It gives them this sense of involvement and part of that process.

       We're not just going to stick it there, and it's that weird angle they can't reach or use easily. Certainly, doing small things like that makes a big difference when implementing this type.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, and with Covid, the last couple of years, we've just, we've had no choice but to adapt to technology. Technology itself has changed to become much more user-friendly.

       Nick Foy: Yeah. The shop owners think they have an older workforce, and these guys will never buy into this. They're not going to do it. It's no. They are. And, as you said, it's an expectation.

       Lisa Ryan: I do the same thing. I immediately want to touch the computer, and it's like when people tell me, oh, you have to use the mouse. I'm like, what?

       Nick Foy: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. We call it the official price screen. If it doesn't look like Fisher-Price. If it doesn't look like something you get on a kid's toy, then people aren't going to like it because they want big buttons. They don't want it to be difficult to right-click on something to make it go to the]]>9dc925b6-8fe0-449d-85ae-49d11c66dd77Mon, 10 Jul 2023 07:05:00 -040026:34falsefull3773From Piles to Smiles: Improving Manufacturing Culture with Vince SassanoConnect 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...]]>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]]>6094eb69-6d3e-4376-8993-43a65950fc36Mon, 05 Jun 2023 07:05:00 -040029:00falsefull3663Breaking the Stigma: Why Autistic Workers Make Great Employees in Manufacturing with Peter MannConnect 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...]]>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...]]>9fc8abdb-c198-4d62-847f-0148edcfdf82Mon, 29 May 2023 07:05:00 -040032:19falsefull3553Sustainability and Manufacturing: How New Technologies Can Help Save the Planet with Renan DevillieresConnect 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...]]>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...]]>718d530b-8c1e-4a4b-b4c0-29c038b3c2d6Mon, 22 May 2023 07:05:00 -040028:52falsefull3443The Human Connection in Manufacturing: Bridging the Gap between Operations and Supply Chain Management with Tom PierceConnect 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...]]>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...]]>31659b7c-2708-4844-bad6-62824346a116Mon, 15 May 2023 07:05:00 -040028:12falsefull3333The Surprising Ways AI is Making its Mark on the Supply Chain Industry with Jonathan PorterConnect 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...]]>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,]]>c6d60fe3-238c-461d-8309-748d678e9441Mon, 08 May 2023 07:05:00 -040029:52falsefull3223Solving the Complexities of B2B eCommerce with Arno HamConnect 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]]>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...]]>cca209a8-59c2-4d47-9d24-60b351ac744cMon, 01 May 2023 07:05:00 -040029:29falsefull3113From Supply Chain Issues to Productivity Gains with John AbplanalpLisa 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...]]>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]]>9a0fc77a-2e94-48e3-9646-318451e62802Mon, 10 Apr 2023 07:05:00 -040029:54falsefull252522Industry 4.0 and Beyond: The Role of AI in Manufacturing with Bryan DeBoisConnect with Bryan DeBois:

       Rovisys: https://www.rovisys.com/

       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-debois/

       Lisa Ryan:  Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Bryan 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 Bryan, welcome to the show.

       Bryan DeBois: Thanks, Lisa.

       Lisa Ryan: Please share your background and what led you to do what you're doing at RoviSys.

       Bryan 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?

       Bryan 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 AI will give you are those stepwise improvements 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?

       Bryan 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 strongly believe these projects must first start with use cases.

       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. 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?

       Bryan 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 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....]]>Connect with Bryan DeBois:

       Rovisys: https://www.rovisys.com/

       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-debois/

       Lisa Ryan:  Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Bryan 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 Bryan, welcome to the show.

       Bryan DeBois: Thanks, Lisa.

       Lisa Ryan: Please share your background and what led you to do what you're doing at RoviSys.

       Bryan 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?

       Bryan 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 AI will give you are those stepwise improvements 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?

       Bryan 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 strongly believe these projects must first start with use cases.

       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. 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?

       Bryan 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 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; 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?

       Bryan 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 great insights and analytics. 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 existing infrastructure so that they can avoid causing a lot of disruption in their operations?

       Bryan 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 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?

       Bryan 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 have 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?

       Bryan 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 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 look out for and prepare for on the dark side of AI?

       Bryan 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 equipment goes down, or here's what the final quality of that batch will likely be. It's going to predict one value.

       What you do with that, Is up to you. Your action based on that prediction is up to you, the operator, the engineer, the supervisor, and whoever's seeing that prediction. There's nothing scary about that. You're getting some new insight. The autonomous ai gets a little spookier because Many of our customers see this as a long-term way to train.

       It's, we call it, a brain. A neural network trained through autonomous AI is called a brain. Many of our customers see an opportunity to hook that brain directly into the control. That's something that we always have to hit the brakes on, and we say, okay, with these projects, the first thing we're going to do, we have to the brain and the decisions it's making. But the second thing we do then, once we validate it, is to put it into production in a decision...]]>9659dd68-f555-4338-9f13-4bd741fbe129Mon, 03 Apr 2023 07:05:00 -040026:41falsefull251512Unlocking the Power of Data: A Guide to Digital Transformation for Manufacturers with Vinny MauriciLisa 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...]]>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]]>ebfbf47d-7f30-4535-9641-ff1dc09b1d65Mon, 27 Mar 2023 07:05:00 -040032:48falsefull250502Revolutionizing Business Culture: Strategies for Building a Customer-Centric Organization with Brandon BartneckConnect 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...]]>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...]]>e08f333c-9442-4306-a887-e03a15dc2866Mon, 20 Mar 2023 07:05:00 -040028:10falsefull249492The Technical Side and the Personal Side of Workplace Culture with Tom Hatton and John Ballinger of Clean VaporConnect 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]]>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...]]>fe585cb5-24d7-4dbd-a5dc-56fda851ce13Mon, 27 Feb 2023 07:05:00 -040033:25falsefull248482The Power of A Positive Workplace Culture with Steven BlueConnect 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]]>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...]]>a979d991-7e89-4ec5-aa3f-572a52bc4c53Mon, 20 Feb 2023 07:05:00 -040027:56falsefull247472How a Screw Machine Won World War II - Fascinating Facts about Precision Machining with Noah GraffConnect 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 some other companies, it's better to liquidate their machines. That's another thing we do. We'll do auctions, so that's the one-minute, two-minute scoop.

       Lisa Ryan: One thing I enjoy about my speaking career and podcast is being around manufacturers and people passionate about something nobody else ever thinks about. There are many conversations around precision machining, and touching that niche market is cool. So when are you passionate about it for?

       Noah Graff: For me, it's this normal thing because it's what I've always been around. But in case it's specified. It's often metalworking that we're talking about. And we sell turned parts. We specialize in a specific kind of machine called a screw machine, and they have CNC screw machines and cam mechanical screw machines.

       We specialize in the CAM ones, which are great because you can rebuild them repeatedly. If a machine is from the eighties, that's a young screw machine. Oh wow. If I was alive while this machine was around, it's a cam screw machine. It's a young machine in screw machine years. Some of them we're selling might be in the sixties - that's not crazy.

       Lisa Ryan: So when we talk about bringing younger talent and newer people into the industry in manufacturing. You have these kids walking into the plant, seeing machines 60 years old, 50 years old, 40 years old. What can you then convey to them with all the automation and new shiny toys? What is it about that, that you can continue to use equipment that's that old or young?

       Noah Graff: No, you raise a good point. Getting people to use these machines is difficult. People don't realize that these mechanical screw machines are perfect for making certain kinds of parts. These are meant for parts you're making by the hundreds of thousands, and you can do a pretty precise job with them. And so, you might buy one of these machines. You might pay 30 grand or 80 grand for one of these machines.

       You might pay a million dollars to buy the computer-controlled version. If you're a company that needs to make a hundred thousand parts a year, you're caught in this weird spot where I need money to pay for a million dollars for a CNC machine. And these other machines are going to be too slow, these CNC machines. So if they can find the talent, they want to buy these machines. But it is difficult to find young people that want to do it. I know one of our good customers has apprenticeship programs in his shop. In the apprenticeship program, he pays more for people who want to learn mechanical screw machines.

       The machines are noisy. You're going to get dirty and younger people to want to push buttons and be in front of slick computers and screens and in cleaner shops that are quieter. It's a little harder, but certain people love it. It is possible to train people on these machines. Still, usually, people want to do the most cutting-edge technology, even if it may be different from the thing that's going to make the company the most money. That depends on the route these companies are taking. But you're seeing many phasing them out though they can't because they can't find the talent to run these machines.

       Lisa Ryan: I was going to say because that would bring up things like the knowledge transfer of taking somebody who's been on that machine who knows it inherently because they've been working on it and fixing it for 30 years. Absolutely. And you are bringing somebody in and trying to teach that. How, besides the apprenticeship programs, are you seeing them do anything else, or is it just the luck of the draw that you find the right person who falls in love with it?

       Noah Graff: If you want to work in a machining company, even if you've gone to trade school, the only way to learn is to be in the shop working on the machines in that environment. No matter who it is, they'll have to be trained by somebody, but fewer people will be there to train because everybody's retiring.

       At Graff Pinker, we will refurbish the machines and make repairs. And that's the great thing about mechanical machines. You can keep making repairs. One guy is retired and comes back just because he likes it. That's what you're up against, people. People need help finding enough workers who want to run the slick stuff, let alone the dirty stuff. It's challenging, yet you can if you know how to do it. It can still be a great living.

       Lisa Ryan: It just reminds me of fixing old cars and appliances versus fixing new things where everything is computerized.

       Noah Graff: It takes a specialist to do so that. There's some saving grace regarding the mechanical when there are no computers. Think about it. Would you ever use a computer that is twenty years old? Could you even fathom it?

       But these machines, some of them, some of the CNC machines, are made so well that you can use a machine from your 2000 that has a computer. But it's, and that's a skill set for the people that are repairing them. In our shop, we have a machine from 2007, and we have a guy, it's called an Emco CNC machine. We have a guy from the OEM that came to repair it. He's calling all around and trying to figure it out. It's an art to figure out an old computer,

       Lisa Ryan: I have barely had an iPhone for over three years. Much less a computer for longer than that.

       Noah Graff: And they won't repair the iPhone. They say, No, we're done.

       Lisa Ryan: No, you pay a thousand dollars, and it's disposable. When it comes to the workforce, what are some trends you're seeing people doing to attract or keep people once they get them in there?

       Noah Graff: It's important to, for the industry on the whole and for society to...]]>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 some other companies, it's better to liquidate their machines. That's another thing we do. We'll do auctions, so that's the one-minute, two-minute scoop.

       Lisa Ryan: One thing I enjoy about my speaking career and podcast is being around manufacturers and people passionate about something nobody else ever thinks about. There are many conversations around precision machining, and touching that niche market is cool. So when are you passionate about it for?

       Noah Graff: For me, it's this normal thing because it's what I've always been around. But in case it's specified. It's often metalworking that we're talking about. And we sell turned parts. We specialize in a specific kind of machine called a screw machine, and they have CNC screw machines and cam mechanical screw machines.

       We specialize in the CAM ones, which are great because you can rebuild them repeatedly. If a machine is from the eighties, that's a young screw machine. Oh wow. If I was alive while this machine was around, it's a cam screw machine. It's a young machine in screw machine years. Some of them we're selling might be in the sixties - that's not crazy.

       Lisa Ryan: So when we talk about bringing younger talent and newer people into the industry in manufacturing. You have these kids walking into the plant, seeing machines 60 years old, 50 years old, 40 years old. What can you then convey to them with all the automation and new shiny toys? What is it about that, that you can continue to use equipment that's that old or young?

       Noah Graff: No, you raise a good point. Getting people to use these machines is difficult. People don't realize that these mechanical screw machines are perfect for making certain kinds of parts. These are meant for parts you're making by the hundreds of thousands, and you can do a pretty precise job with them. And so, you might buy one of these machines. You might pay 30 grand or 80 grand for one of these machines.

       You might pay a million dollars to buy the computer-controlled version. If you're a company that needs to make a hundred thousand parts a year, you're caught in this weird spot where I need money to pay for a million dollars for a CNC machine. And these other machines are going to be too slow, these CNC machines. So if they can find the talent, they want to buy these machines. But it is difficult to find young people that want to do it. I know one of our good customers has apprenticeship programs in his shop. In the apprenticeship program, he pays more for people who want to learn mechanical screw machines.

       The machines are noisy. You're going to get dirty and younger people to want to push buttons and be in front of slick computers and screens and in cleaner shops that are quieter. It's a little harder, but certain people love it. It is possible to train people on these machines. Still, usually, people want to do the most cutting-edge technology, even if it may be different from the thing that's going to make the company the most money. That depends on the route these companies are taking. But you're seeing many phasing them out though they can't because they can't find the talent to run these machines.

       Lisa Ryan: I was going to say because that would bring up things like the knowledge transfer of taking somebody who's been on that machine who knows it inherently because they've been working on it and fixing it for 30 years. Absolutely. And you are bringing somebody in and trying to teach that. How, besides the apprenticeship programs, are you seeing them do anything else, or is it just the luck of the draw that you find the right person who falls in love with it?

       Noah Graff: If you want to work in a machining company, even if you've gone to trade school, the only way to learn is to be in the shop working on the machines in that environment. No matter who it is, they'll have to be trained by somebody, but fewer people will be there to train because everybody's retiring.

       At Graff Pinker, we will refurbish the machines and make repairs. And that's the great thing about mechanical machines. You can keep making repairs. One guy is retired and comes back just because he likes it. That's what you're up against, people. People need help finding enough workers who want to run the slick stuff, let alone the dirty stuff. It's challenging, yet you can if you know how to do it. It can still be a great living.

       Lisa Ryan: It just reminds me of fixing old cars and appliances versus fixing new things where everything is computerized.

       Noah Graff: It takes a specialist to do so that. There's some saving grace regarding the mechanical when there are no computers. Think about it. Would you ever use a computer that is twenty years old? Could you even fathom it?

       But these machines, some of them, some of the CNC machines, are made so well that you can use a machine from your 2000 that has a computer. But it's, and that's a skill set for the people that are repairing them. In our shop, we have a machine from 2007, and we have a guy, it's called an Emco CNC machine. We have a guy from the OEM that came to repair it. He's calling all around and trying to figure it out. It's an art to figure out an old computer,

       Lisa Ryan: I have barely had an iPhone for over three years. Much less a computer for longer than that.

       Noah Graff: And they won't repair the iPhone. They say, No, we're done.

       Lisa Ryan: No, you pay a thousand dollars, and it's disposable. When it comes to the workforce, what are some trends you're seeing people doing to attract or keep people once they get them in there?

       Noah Graff: It's important to, for the industry on the whole and for society to make the manufacturing and the machining business seem cool, seem like a good career. It's often more lucrative than doing something that you would spend a whole bunch of money at college to study. That's the first thing. I see a lot of business owners getting involved in the community. They get involved in schools, and they're gaining personally by it, and they're also just doing it as an altruistic thing. Were you asking about young people, or were you asking about all the employees?

       Lisa Ryan: Anybody that you have, the workforce itself. It's hard enough to find people right now, to begin with. And then, once you get them in there, you must figure out how to keep them because they have lots of choices now as far as if they decide to stay with you or ghost you at lunch.

       Noah Graff: This week, I interviewed somebody on Sunday who is a recruiter specializing in manufacturing. We talked a lot about this. She says that you must sell yourself if you are a manufacturing company. You need to treat these employees as though they're customers you're trying to push yourself to. So she's somebody people can go to find a recruiter that specializes in it. She also said networking, being on LinkedIn, is what she's doing.

       That's a big deal. Many machining companies we talk to have the best results when they bring in other people. You can't always have that, but that's something important. Regarding retaining and making your place attractive, it's a lot of what you hear in other places, too, of work-life balance and having better hours.

       Pay is significant, but everybody can offer that to the blue-collar industry by the hour. Traditionally, employee has little control over their hours. It was just, this is what you do and this, you work this many hours a day, and this is your overtime you can take.

       I interviewed a machining company. They have had a lot of luck retaining and getting employees by giving people flexible hours, saying, Oh, you coach your son's team, so you can work these hours. So you can work earlier and get off later, or you have to take your son or daughter to daycare so you can come in at x time.

       Or maybe they'll hire a student who can only work part-time. They're a talent, so they'll let them do that. They'll hire them even though they know maybe they'll leave. And sometimes those are the best possible people. The key is to have an open mind.

       Lisa Ryan: There were a couple of things that you said that stood out number one during the interview process where you are selling them, there's no way that they are selling you on their skills and everything because we must bring sexy back to manufacturing and let people know the benefits of it.

       There are a lot of people out there that are looking for opportunities. One of my clients, and one of the biggest signs they use, is to work with your hands. So it focuses on attracting people that get that intrinsic joy from working with their hands and getting into that.

       The other thing that shows with manufacturing is the work-life balance. Not only open to flexible hours, but we also have to change our minds about that. But if you think about machining, that's something other than something that can be done at home. You have your time back. You're not working from home on the weekends and nights and all of these things.

       It gives you a built-in opportunity to have a work-life balance while not having any student loan debt and being unable to do what you want and have a nice career out of it. It's interesting. The mind shift that manufacturers must have and the flexibility are huge.

       Noah Graff: Yeah. Most of the time, it still needs to be more flexible. You still have to go in. It's a harder sell to people because it takes a lot of time to go in. People are used to being at home now, so it's a shift. But, in many respects, it's healthy to go into a workforce and not see the world remotely five days a week. It's a complicated issue, but I hear so many different ideas.

       Lisa Ryan: We have the mom shift that I know a lot of manufacturers are talking about. Dads can do it too, but working from ten to two. The parents can get their kids off on the bus, then they go to work, and then they pick them up. The mom shift is a big one. I just spoke at FABTECH, and one of the guys in my audience said he has so many workers that get the benefits from their spouses that they don't need them. I'm not sure about all the ins and outs, but he allowed people to work fewer hours.

       So he's offering them thirty-hour workweeks without benefits because they got them from their spouse. They could go from a five-day week to a seven-day week because employees had fewer hours. They had more time on their own. You ask questions that you have never asked before. Your employees worked seven days a week, or he had shifts going seven days.

       They had shifts that he had shifts that went seven days a week instead of five days a week. So he could increase his staff by 30% and yet decrease the money he was paying for benefits. So it was an interesting concept. You think of things in ways we wouldn't have to consider before because flexibility and manufacturing usually don't go into the same sentence.

       No, but if you say, how can I offer half shifts? We have a shift from six to 11. We have a shift from 6:00 AM to 11:00 AM. So just again, giving people shorter shifts, looking for ways to give them their time back, because that's after two and a half years of the pandemic. So that's what we're looking for.

       So what, are there any other trends you're seeing regarding technology or the workforce?

       Noah Graff: As far as workforce, again, in technology, lots of people are talking about automating putting in collaborative robots, cobots. We're hearing a lot about reshoring and nearshoring, where work is coming back to the United States, but it's coming back to Canada or Mexico. So it's not necessarily that specific work that once was there is now here. What's more, now they're quoting jobs, and I'm getting a job that would've been there. So that's what I hear from companies.

       Lisa Ryan: What about some of the global trends you're seeing? So anything from across the sea, China, Europe, South America, or Asia?

       Noah Graff: Sure. Traditionally we've done a lot of business with Europe. Buying and selling back and forth is a puzzle right now. I hear things from places. I've heard Italy is slowing down. People are complaining about energy prices over there. Energy prices in some European countries are like seven times what they were, what they are typical. Unfortunately, some of this stuff in my world, in the machinery dealer world, can be a small sample size. I was talking to some people I knew in Germany who had this expensive CNC multi-spindle they wanted. They complained that their automotive and energy prices had been a little difficult.

       And then they're like, Oh, sorry, the guy can't sell the machine. Now he is got too much work for it. He's got a job. Let's see what else we're about to buy some machines in Japan. We're excited about that. Some CNC Swiss machines it's a kind of screw machine.

       That market is still crazy. If you can get one of these machines, that new one would be about 250,000. If you can get one that's 12 years old, you should get a hundred grand for it, which is pretty good. It is making us go to Japan to get these machines.

       We do crazy stuff like that. But of course, as we were negotiating for the machines, the yen suddenly popped up like 4%. So our margin is shrinking, but still, that's interesting. China is suffering because of the pandemic and different things that the government's done as far as shutting people, shutting them down, et cetera.

       But in the interview I just did this week, I was talking to a guy who sells Swiss star machines. This is like one of the name brands of Swiss screw machines. He said that they buy more machines in China in a month than they'll sell to the US in a year. That's how much they're manufacturing. It blew me away.

       Lisa Ryan: And are the machines that different? If you understand an American screw machine, is it easy to pick up a Japanese or a German model, or is it a new learning curve?

       Noah Graff: Oh no, the machines this guy was selling, this is a star. These are made in Japan. Okay. They are a bunch of machines. This Swiss-style screw machine, some of the main ones are from Japan. There's one from Korea. There's one from Switzerland, very famous. It's called Tonos. They call it Swiss because the people who invented this machine made watch parts in Switzerland.

       They needed a machine that could make long, narrow, precise parts in the United States. They have a few machine tools that they make Ho machines, which are very popular. They make them all over the place. There's a screw machine called a Davenport, one of the old-school screw machines. You could sell a machine from the seventies, and it would still be pretty good.

       This is also called the machine that won World War ii. Because it can just make parts, you can make one part in two seconds. If you ask anybody around the world, even European people making fancy machines, the Europeans make a lot of expensive high-end screw machines. They'll say no, this machine won World War ii.

       Lisa Ryan: So, talk about that. That's an interesting historical fact. So why did one machine win World War II?

       Noah Graff: That was the logical question. The reason it won World War II is that this is a machine. It's called a multi-spindle. These machines make a hundred thousand parts a year or more. They usually...]]>20443d7f-7574-4086-aeaf-b63452102e81Mon, 28 Nov 2022 07:05:00 -040032:50falsefull246462Creating an Enjoyable Complaints Journey in Manufacturing with Jim TincherConnect 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 journey.

       Lisa Ryan: That sound, it sounds like an oxymoron.

       Jim Tincher: Right? That caught me by surprise. And they measure effectiveness, ease, and enjoyability.

       They don't calculate net promoter score because they've proven net promoter score does not link to any business outcomes, and that's what they care about. They don't care about somebody moving their mouse to the right on a survey they care about. Do they create an environment where customers want to work with Dow?

       When there's a discretionary purchase that any of their suppliers can give, they want to go to Dow first. So that's the outcome they're driving towards. Not in that promoter score behaviors are they care about behaviors. And they have found that when customers say it's enjoyable to work with Dow, their order velocity increases.

       The categories in which they order go up. The genuine interest to Dow, their number one outcome, is joint innovation - a customer says, I trust Dow enough that I want to work with you to create new to the world products, and we'll benefit from that. But that only happens if they find that it's enjoyable to work with Dow.

       Lisa Ryan: And you look at that too, that when business is going smoothly, of course, we love the business. But most business loyalty happens when a mistake has been made, and it's up to that company to solve it. When that company acts, based on whoever messed up through that complaint process, that can completely turn that around and create that customer for life because they know that, for example, in this case, Dow has their back. So, talk about that complaints journey. What did it look like before, and how did they make it enjoyable?

       Jim Tincher: Sure. They started in the same situation probably many of your listeners experience. A complaint comes in, and it bounces around the organization. It's easy to convince yourself that this is somebody else's problem and send it to the organization. We see that in all kinds of organizations, not just manufacturing, but certainly in our multiple manufacturing clients.

       There's minimal incentive to take ownership of and solve an issue, and certainly one issue. Nobody wants that on their plate. It's very easy to commit yourself. That belongs somewhere else, and that's the situation they found themselves in. Where it comes in through, customer service goes over to the sales team or account management.

       From there, it goes to R&D and manufacturing and bounces around, with nobody taking ownership of it. And that is true. That's not a Dow problem. That's true of all our manufacturing clients. And what they said is that's not acceptable. So we worked with them to interview their clients; to talk about the impact when a complaint is not resolved and how that impacts the organization and the individual.

       Then, we brought that to Dow. They had us bring that to their senior leadership, showing how they now match. We brought in a video of their clients talking about the good and the bad of working with Dow, and they brought the data. Ricardo Porta is now their head of customer experience, and he brought in all kinds of data to show not just what people said but their behaviors and how that impacted Dow.

       What we then did was we worked across the regions. We went to Shanghai; we went to Tunisia in the Netherlands. We went to Brazil Rio, as well as the headquarters of Midland, to bring in the employees to talk about how this impacts their jobs. We also wanted to get the employees' ideas of making this an enjoyable experience without investing in new roles. It's very easy to say, Let's bring another 50-person department. They'll solve it. Dow was clear - we need to do this with the existing headcount. How can we do that? What they said is that what we'll do is we will carve a group out of customer service and other groups. We'll create a center of excellence for complaints, and we will work and give this group accountability to resolve complaints as fast as possible. As a result, they piloted in Latin America, and Ricardo was the one who led that pilot. They saw that complaints were handled more efficiently, which clients loved and led to greater, more substantial business outcomes for Dow and their clients. This created a positive vibe of success.

       Dow invests in this. They support a better complaints journey. They saw that the KPIs got better in time to resolve. For example, they saw enjoyability get better. The customers became more engaged, and then they saw behaviors improve. For example, future orders, order velocity, and order categories made Dow, a stronger company.

       This wonderful flywheel where investing in customer experience results in a stronger company. And that's the magic about Dow; they proved it. They didn't just say we think that once we invest, everything will be better. Instead, they proved it to help their executives reinforce the importance of the investment.

       Lisa Ryan: I look at that again, returning to the employee standpoint. In many places, complaints bounce around because nobody feels they have the authority or they're not empowered to take care of it. So, number one, they don't care, or they think they're going to get in trouble or they're going to have to jump through a lot of hoops.

       You said several things. You're empowering your employees, making them feel more connected and married to the results. I just learned about the IKEA effect: people are more connected to things they've had a chance to build. So, when you have that employee experience, and you take away that blame, that safety, you're creating a safe environment, and then these employees get to work for what's called a center of excellence. Yeah, I'd want to work for that too. So, you're creating such a win-win in such an easy way to do that.

       Jim...]]>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 journey.

       Lisa Ryan: That sound, it sounds like an oxymoron.

       Jim Tincher: Right? That caught me by surprise. And they measure effectiveness, ease, and enjoyability.

       They don't calculate net promoter score because they've proven net promoter score does not link to any business outcomes, and that's what they care about. They don't care about somebody moving their mouse to the right on a survey they care about. Do they create an environment where customers want to work with Dow?

       When there's a discretionary purchase that any of their suppliers can give, they want to go to Dow first. So that's the outcome they're driving towards. Not in that promoter score behaviors are they care about behaviors. And they have found that when customers say it's enjoyable to work with Dow, their order velocity increases.

       The categories in which they order go up. The genuine interest to Dow, their number one outcome, is joint innovation - a customer says, I trust Dow enough that I want to work with you to create new to the world products, and we'll benefit from that. But that only happens if they find that it's enjoyable to work with Dow.

       Lisa Ryan: And you look at that too, that when business is going smoothly, of course, we love the business. But most business loyalty happens when a mistake has been made, and it's up to that company to solve it. When that company acts, based on whoever messed up through that complaint process, that can completely turn that around and create that customer for life because they know that, for example, in this case, Dow has their back. So, talk about that complaints journey. What did it look like before, and how did they make it enjoyable?

       Jim Tincher: Sure. They started in the same situation probably many of your listeners experience. A complaint comes in, and it bounces around the organization. It's easy to convince yourself that this is somebody else's problem and send it to the organization. We see that in all kinds of organizations, not just manufacturing, but certainly in our multiple manufacturing clients.

       There's minimal incentive to take ownership of and solve an issue, and certainly one issue. Nobody wants that on their plate. It's very easy to commit yourself. That belongs somewhere else, and that's the situation they found themselves in. Where it comes in through, customer service goes over to the sales team or account management.

       From there, it goes to R&D and manufacturing and bounces around, with nobody taking ownership of it. And that is true. That's not a Dow problem. That's true of all our manufacturing clients. And what they said is that's not acceptable. So we worked with them to interview their clients; to talk about the impact when a complaint is not resolved and how that impacts the organization and the individual.

       Then, we brought that to Dow. They had us bring that to their senior leadership, showing how they now match. We brought in a video of their clients talking about the good and the bad of working with Dow, and they brought the data. Ricardo Porta is now their head of customer experience, and he brought in all kinds of data to show not just what people said but their behaviors and how that impacted Dow.

       What we then did was we worked across the regions. We went to Shanghai; we went to Tunisia in the Netherlands. We went to Brazil Rio, as well as the headquarters of Midland, to bring in the employees to talk about how this impacts their jobs. We also wanted to get the employees' ideas of making this an enjoyable experience without investing in new roles. It's very easy to say, Let's bring another 50-person department. They'll solve it. Dow was clear - we need to do this with the existing headcount. How can we do that? What they said is that what we'll do is we will carve a group out of customer service and other groups. We'll create a center of excellence for complaints, and we will work and give this group accountability to resolve complaints as fast as possible. As a result, they piloted in Latin America, and Ricardo was the one who led that pilot. They saw that complaints were handled more efficiently, which clients loved and led to greater, more substantial business outcomes for Dow and their clients. This created a positive vibe of success.

       Dow invests in this. They support a better complaints journey. They saw that the KPIs got better in time to resolve. For example, they saw enjoyability get better. The customers became more engaged, and then they saw behaviors improve. For example, future orders, order velocity, and order categories made Dow, a stronger company.

       This wonderful flywheel where investing in customer experience results in a stronger company. And that's the magic about Dow; they proved it. They didn't just say we think that once we invest, everything will be better. Instead, they proved it to help their executives reinforce the importance of the investment.

       Lisa Ryan: I look at that again, returning to the employee standpoint. In many places, complaints bounce around because nobody feels they have the authority or they're not empowered to take care of it. So, number one, they don't care, or they think they're going to get in trouble or they're going to have to jump through a lot of hoops.

       You said several things. You're empowering your employees, making them feel more connected and married to the results. I just learned about the IKEA effect: people are more connected to things they've had a chance to build. So, when you have that employee experience, and you take away that blame, that safety, you're creating a safe environment, and then these employees get to work for what's called a center of excellence. Yeah, I'd want to work for that too. So, you're creating such a win-win in such an easy way to do that.

       Jim Tincher: One of the other keys they did is they didn't make this a headquarters initiative. We're talking with one client of ours for who 20% of business happens in the US, but the US is where they are headquartered. So, all the ideas are focused on the US first, even though that's a smaller organization. But, again, this is not Dow. It's another group. Dow is very deliberately saying. We're going to involve all four of our regions. We're going to interview all four regions. So, we sent our team, for a second time, out to China, to Rio to involve the customers, talk to them, and understand their experience. Then the customers, because one of the things that Dow did that was effective is they went back to those customers and said, Thank you for giving us your feedback. This is what we're going to do about it. So many programs need to remember to do that.

       And Dan, the chief commercial officer, is very articulate. He went back and recorded a video sharing, here's what we're going to do differently. But also, their sales team deliberately reached out to everybody who participated, saying, Thank you again for being part of this. Here is what we're doing. They were closing the loop with clients, which makes them stronger advocates because that's more enjoyable. You get that feedback that we are your partner, and the sense of being a partner is a crucial part of enjoyability. Dow is not just a vendor. Dow is there to help my business be stronger.

       Lisa Ryan: That feeling is vital to Enjoyability and feeds into that immediate feedback in closing the loop. That also sounds like when you're doing employee engagement surveys. You want to ensure that you're getting back to the employees. Hey, this is what you wanted. This is what we did.

       And then employees, next time you reach out to them, they're not going to say that was a waste of breath last time. It's Holy cow; they're doing stuff. So just getting back to the customer and let them know that what I shared made a difference. And again, you're building that.

       We've spent quite a bit on number two: that emotional North star in the complaints journey. Let's go back to the other three steps in your book—tying the customer experience to business outcomes.

       Jim Tincher: Yeah, that's so important and rarely done that most programs. Our research is very clear. Most programs say, oh, we should do customer experience. They create a group over on the side somewhere. We should do net promoter scores. Let's do that. Okay, now do your survey work. Let us know what happens. That's where the most end, where they, if they do any analysis past that, they'll say, Okay, last year our detractors, those who give a low score, they churned at 7% versus our promoters, those who give a high score churned at 2%. Interesting. Many manufacturers, by the way, don't have a churn issue. It's more about a share of the wallet. But that's hard to measure. And so most customer experience programs don't even try, and they'll look at attrition at, what's that?

       Lisa Ryan: Can you define Share of wallet? What do you mean by that?

       Jim Tincher: That's a great point. Share of wallet is in a category in which they operate - of all the dollars spent in that category, how much goes towards us? So, LA Grand is another manufacturer, and I spent some time over the last eight years we've done programs with them, one of which we measured customer experience. We asked customers, who are your top two providers in this space? We worked with the AV division. Who are your top two providers, and how much do you spend with each? To get a sense of how much of their discretionary, how much of their spending is with that division. And we found for them that confidence in LA Grand was a great predictor of that.

       So, we're connecting the customer experience to outcomes to how much you spend with us versus our competitors. Very few programs do that. They believe that by improving the survey scores, they probably score better behaviors happen. But that isn't very compelling. We met with a $2 billion manufacturer the CEO of a month ago, and we shared one slide that talks about how we measure the customer experience, which is four categories.

       Yes, we have transactional sentiment surveys and net promoter scores, what they use, and that is part of it. But we also talked about behaviors. For example, how many complaints are opened? How do customers order? Do they order digitally? Which did many manufacturers want to drive? Do they order the old-fashioned way instead?

       How often are they ordering within lead time windows? Because again, if we have a better experience, they're more likely to come to us earlier, which means they're outside of the lead time windows, which we want, or before the lead time windows. Then we look at operations. What is the on-time delivery?

       What is the perfect order for Dow users to get it right? What is, how often are we getting the orders? Perfectly on-time product, no issues. And then so we, and the fourth category then is financial. Are we getting it now? A higher share of wallet is hard to measure because it's hard to know how much your customers spend with your competitors, but a good proxy is how many categories of products they are ordering from us. There are specific products for many of our manufacturing clients that they're the only ones who can offer, and that's not where the competition is. There are also several categories of products that their competitors also offer.

       That's the battleground. Do you earn the right for those more discretionary orders by doing a great job on the unique products? And so, the financial is another key part of that order. Velocity is another part, but by bringing in those financial metrics, we measure the customer experience into a combination of sentiments, but behaviors are key. Maybe 10% of your customers respond to your survey. But what percentage of your customers have behaviors? All of them. Univar is a distributor. They work with Dow and others clients outside their distributor of chemicals. They looked at it and said that 90% of our customers must complete a survey.

       Can we predict those who are happy and unhappy based on their behaviors? They look at the operational behavioral data and say this client seems like they're unhappy. I haven't failed that survey. They haven't told us that but based on what we're seeing in maybe order velocity dropping or more complaints open, they look unhappy.

       Hey, account management team, can you reach out to them to see if that's true and what's happening? So they create a synthetic NPS. Because for them, they know NPS matters because they can use the data to do that for them. So coming back to, again, how we measure behaviors. We calculate the operations or impact, and we measure the financial outcomes.

       That's how you measure customer experience. The sentiment is not a score; it is diagnostic. To help explain things. We have a conference; it'll be over by the time this comes out where Ricardo's going to speak about how he was asked a question. And let me bring up the actual question right here. How do I see the impact of inventory on my business, and how does customer experience help me explain that impact?

       Most CX programs would say, I don't know, but he went and did the math to show that when inventory drops for a specific time. Customers have no confidence. Therefore, they order less often because they'll order from somewhere else with enough inventory that they are confident they will be fine. So he can draw that connection between the inventory levels and future EBIT.

       Lisa Ryan: Okay. Amazing. Only a few programs do that. Yeah. You have moved nicely into the third act of bringing the business data into the analysis, where you deal with your inventory levels and customer confidence. For those of you keeping notes, the first one we discussed was tying customer experience to business outcomes. Creating an emotional North Star, the enjoyable complaint journey brings the business data into the analysis. So tell us a little bit more about that before we move to the fourth step.

       Jim Tincher: You bet. And that's where that's how you should be measuring the customer experience is based on. If I had to wrap the difference between what we call a hopeful organization. They might be doing good work, and they're doing customer experience work. Still, they need to be connected to the business versus a change maker driving an improved business through customer experience. And again, that's less than one out of four.

       If I were to sum it up in one sentence, it would be that hopefuls report on sentiment. This is how people feel. Changemakers study and change behavior, and that's all in the data. Both the manufacturer's behaviors as represented in operational data and in the customer's behavior as such things as future orders or the velocity complaints that are ordered, bringing those together.

       For example, if you look at your business and speak to the listeners, I suspect there is a direct link between complaints and future business. There is some threshold between either number of complaints or the length of the complaint where customers change their behavior. There's an issue open past a certain length of time, which will vary by industry in manufacturing.

       Let's say it's a month. If the complaint is open for more than a month, future behaviors change to order from you less often. So if you can look at that data and find that linkage, the survey is only there to help explain why it happens, but the critical thing is linking behaviors and using that data.

       What we find is that we're a Qualtrics partner. Qualtrics is a survey platform, popular. We did not plan this, but we found that every one of...]]>714e805a-6e50-4dbc-92d5-3c6e06de87aaMon, 21 Nov 2022 07:05:00 -040029:30falsefull245452Manufacturing Sustainability with Julia GoldsteinLisa 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 better. How are these materials? People don't; many people are not aware of it. Where plastics and metals come from. More people are right now. People know, Oh, plastics come from fossil fuels.

       But I thought even five years ago, people had no idea, and I wanted to bring that in. So the more research I did, the more people I talked to in developing that book, the more I became convinced that it was truly the way forward. And I remember thinking that 2018 is the right time to bring forth this message.

       And it was almost too early because not many companies were willing to listen to it. And today, they are. And companies of all sorts can improve their sustainability. For example, if you have office buildings, you can think about whether you are keeping the lights on. Do you have reusable coffee mugs instead of disposable ones?

       That's nice. The companies making products have a long supply chain and must deal with all the energy and resources used to make these products, package them and ship them around the world. So we need all sorts of manufacturers to think about how they can improve what they're doing to use fewer resources, serve energy, and not produce as many greenhouse gases.

       Lisa Ryan: What do you find are the biggest reasons why manufacturers are going into this kicking and screaming? Why don't they? Why are they fighting sustainability in some of those cases still?

       Julia Goldstein: I think a lot of them, they still seem to think of it as something that's going to cost them more money today depending on where they are in, say, the supply chain, right? Who's buying from them? Who are they selling to? Their customers may or may need to prioritize this. What they may be hearing from customers is, we need performance, we need cost, we need fast delivery. So, therefore, that's what they're going to prioritize, and they're looking at those short-term, quarterly earnings and keeping those customers happy. What they are often not thinking about as much is the long-term repercussions, the long-term problems in that eventually those customers may say, Oh, we need you to show us your greenhouse gas emissions. What are you doing about being environmentally responsible? Are you polluting our waterways in our cities?

       And if so, we don't want to do business with you anymore. So, it's more of a long tailpiece of things. It requires longer-term thinking, and it's. There's also a psychology that says if I have an immediate problem that I need to solve in the next hour, the next week, or this quarter, that will demand my attention. If I have an issue where I don't do things right, I will have problems in two or five, or ten years. So it's harder to feel the urgency.

       Lisa Ryan: And so when it comes to the costs involved, because there are some, but what are some simple things that manufacturers can do to get started?

       Julia Goldstein: It's about looking at what you are doing now. It's that audit of your processes, your supplies of your suppliers. It's looking for; there may be opportunities where you can save resources. So we can save here by investing a little bit there. And a simple example is stuff like changing out lighting. There will be a capital expense to change to more energy efficient. But it will pay off. It's good to involve employees throughout the company.

       Those on the manufacturing floor making the products may see opportunities to reduce waste. Sometimes consultants can come in and give a solution that would seem almost simple and obvious and will reduce scrap. It will help efficiency, and they just haven't thought about it because they're used to it. This is just how we do things.

       We have this process, this stuff goes over here, and then it gets shipped out of the building. And I don't know what happens to it, but if the employees ask those questions, what happens to it? And how much scrap are we creating, and how can we do it? And empower all the employees to have a say based on what they are seeing and experiencing so that they can make suggestions.

       Lisa Ryan: A lot of times in workplace culture, it's creating a safe environment, to begin with, where employees trust management, not only trust management, but they like them well enough to give them ideas that can save them money and make more profits and all that. So again, when we're looking at starting that very process, if management doesn't have the best relationship with their employees or they are going to try this time, what baby steps could they take to get started with that?

       Julia Goldstein: The top management needs to decide that they want to make those changes and admit where the communication might be breaking. One option, and again, depends on the company's size. Say you've got a company with 500 employees and have a town hall where the C-suite is giving a presentation saying, here's where we stand.

       Here is what we want to do. We want to become more environmentally responsible. We know that we need to do something. We want to listen to you and take questions without dismissing them to make it. Okay. We are going to listen. And how are employees going to know? Okay, they said it before, but they're not going to listen.

       Something needs to change in terms of the set where yes, they are going to listen. They're going to let people know that they heard them. People want to feel heard. They want to think that they can bring something up without being dismissed. They feel like they might lose their job if they complain and say, this isn't working right, because that's a real fear, and sometimes employees might remain.

       Because they don't want to be the whistleblower, and if you can create a safe environment within the company where employees know, who should they talk to and what can they say? And hopefully, they...]]>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 better. How are these materials? People don't; many people are not aware of it. Where plastics and metals come from. More people are right now. People know, Oh, plastics come from fossil fuels.

       But I thought even five years ago, people had no idea, and I wanted to bring that in. So the more research I did, the more people I talked to in developing that book, the more I became convinced that it was truly the way forward. And I remember thinking that 2018 is the right time to bring forth this message.

       And it was almost too early because not many companies were willing to listen to it. And today, they are. And companies of all sorts can improve their sustainability. For example, if you have office buildings, you can think about whether you are keeping the lights on. Do you have reusable coffee mugs instead of disposable ones?

       That's nice. The companies making products have a long supply chain and must deal with all the energy and resources used to make these products, package them and ship them around the world. So we need all sorts of manufacturers to think about how they can improve what they're doing to use fewer resources, serve energy, and not produce as many greenhouse gases.

       Lisa Ryan: What do you find are the biggest reasons why manufacturers are going into this kicking and screaming? Why don't they? Why are they fighting sustainability in some of those cases still?

       Julia Goldstein: I think a lot of them, they still seem to think of it as something that's going to cost them more money today depending on where they are in, say, the supply chain, right? Who's buying from them? Who are they selling to? Their customers may or may need to prioritize this. What they may be hearing from customers is, we need performance, we need cost, we need fast delivery. So, therefore, that's what they're going to prioritize, and they're looking at those short-term, quarterly earnings and keeping those customers happy. What they are often not thinking about as much is the long-term repercussions, the long-term problems in that eventually those customers may say, Oh, we need you to show us your greenhouse gas emissions. What are you doing about being environmentally responsible? Are you polluting our waterways in our cities?

       And if so, we don't want to do business with you anymore. So, it's more of a long tailpiece of things. It requires longer-term thinking, and it's. There's also a psychology that says if I have an immediate problem that I need to solve in the next hour, the next week, or this quarter, that will demand my attention. If I have an issue where I don't do things right, I will have problems in two or five, or ten years. So it's harder to feel the urgency.

       Lisa Ryan: And so when it comes to the costs involved, because there are some, but what are some simple things that manufacturers can do to get started?

       Julia Goldstein: It's about looking at what you are doing now. It's that audit of your processes, your supplies of your suppliers. It's looking for; there may be opportunities where you can save resources. So we can save here by investing a little bit there. And a simple example is stuff like changing out lighting. There will be a capital expense to change to more energy efficient. But it will pay off. It's good to involve employees throughout the company.

       Those on the manufacturing floor making the products may see opportunities to reduce waste. Sometimes consultants can come in and give a solution that would seem almost simple and obvious and will reduce scrap. It will help efficiency, and they just haven't thought about it because they're used to it. This is just how we do things.

       We have this process, this stuff goes over here, and then it gets shipped out of the building. And I don't know what happens to it, but if the employees ask those questions, what happens to it? And how much scrap are we creating, and how can we do it? And empower all the employees to have a say based on what they are seeing and experiencing so that they can make suggestions.

       Lisa Ryan: A lot of times in workplace culture, it's creating a safe environment, to begin with, where employees trust management, not only trust management, but they like them well enough to give them ideas that can save them money and make more profits and all that. So again, when we're looking at starting that very process, if management doesn't have the best relationship with their employees or they are going to try this time, what baby steps could they take to get started with that?

       Julia Goldstein: The top management needs to decide that they want to make those changes and admit where the communication might be breaking. One option, and again, depends on the company's size. Say you've got a company with 500 employees and have a town hall where the C-suite is giving a presentation saying, here's where we stand.

       Here is what we want to do. We want to become more environmentally responsible. We know that we need to do something. We want to listen to you and take questions without dismissing them to make it. Okay. We are going to listen. And how are employees going to know? Okay, they said it before, but they're not going to listen.

       Something needs to change in terms of the set where yes, they are going to listen. They're going to let people know that they heard them. People want to feel heard. They want to think that they can bring something up without being dismissed. They feel like they might lose their job if they complain and say, this isn't working right, because that's a real fear, and sometimes employees might remain.

       Because they don't want to be the whistleblower, and if you can create a safe environment within the company where employees know, who should they talk to and what can they say? And hopefully, they can be open about what's going on.

       Lisa Ryan: It reminds me of a couple of years ago. I was speaking at a conference, and they had chosen, I believe it was 4-Water for their, to make people aware of environmental impact, where they showed those guys, those two guys who started surfing. It was supposed to be this beautiful area in the world and wholly cluttered with plastic.

       So they started this whole movement. I had never heard of it; I had never had any exposure. So, there's something to that of making it compelling and interesting and allowing employees to understand the impact we humans have on the planet. And like you just said, reinforcing that with the company mission that comes from upper leadership and that employee.

       They are open to their feedback and ideas because those employees know their job and understand what they're exposed to more probably than the C-Suite does.

       Julia Goldstein: Yes. And they might learn about something that affects employee safety. There's usually a great mechanism for that. They can work with EHS and say, Okay, we'd better get some better protective gear or better filtration or something like that to make a safer workplace. They can also bring in an environmental benefit by asking if we handle hazardous waste better. Not only are the employees safer, but that's a less hazardous waste to deal with and determine how to dispose of and pay costs.

       And suppose you need to pay the cost of your accidentally releasing something. In that case, there are severe consequences to that for the community that often, I don't know, companies don't always think about that, but I think it's also important to go in with an understanding that yes, you can't just easily and quickly solve all these problems.

       Lisa Ryan: And that allows the employees to feel a part of a bigger mission too. This is the difference. This is the amount of waste we save from going into landfills because of your efforts. This is what happened. Going to the airport and one of the things I look for when I'm filling up my water bottle is I want to see how the water bottles were saved.

       I want to see that. And it's just these little things that I know. And then my online thrift store, thread up that will show how much my purchase, how many gallons of water it's saved because I'm using, what I say is ops other or OPC other people's clothing. But it's just these little things that employees look for, and they can feel better just by knowing these little differences that they are making and the bigger difference that they're part of an organization that's now making too.

       Julia Goldstein: Absolutely. And to start those kinds of initiatives before. Okay. We're going to shout out to the world that we've saved this many gallons of water; having those metrics within the work is great. Because, as you said, that tracker that says, How many plastic bottles has this device saved? Okay, let's see what we can do. And that some of what gets measured is what matters. If all the company measures are quarterly revenue, then that matters. And if it costs 10% more per part to change something out, there's going to be that, Oh, no, that can't happen.

       But it can make sense if what's being measured is more than the revenue piece. And there are all kinds of different ways. So, for example, if something supplies cost more, there are various ways to work around that and figure out how to absorb those costs.

       Lisa Ryan: So, do you have examples of companies that you had worked with as far as a before and after or some of the things that they did to put together a successful sustainability project?

       Julia Goldstein: Some of the examples that I have seen are where, They offer a challenge for employees to come up with ideas that can help with, and some of them are for environmental, some of them also might be social issues. They might be dealing with DEI in the workplace, so they can. There's sometimes overlap because one of the essential pieces is employee retention.

       And attract. More employees, especially the younger employees, right? The new graduates are getting jobs or want to make a difference. So by including them and saying, Okay, we're going to have this challenge, and we're going to give feedback to everybody who responds to let them know we heard your idea if they can't implement it or not, to let the employees know why.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, it reminds me of, I worked with a golf course several years ago, and they would pay $5 for every idea. They didn't care what the idea was. So if the employee had an idea as far as how to make money or save money, like one thing in the snack shop, the employee thought that they should use the over-ripe bananas in banana splits so that they could cover them with whipped cream and people wouldn't know that they were over rip. So they got five bucks, then at the end of the year, they would pick the best idea, and that person would win like $250 or whatever. But it was such an easy idea. It made the company tens of thousands of dollars in those $5 increments.

       So it's not like you have to shell out money, but if you are having fun with it, not taking yourself so seriously that hey, and then I had another client. What they did is they would have on a whiteboard in the office, they would have what you wanted on one side and what we did. So when it comes to integrating those two of getting the ideas from the employees. And, as you said, you can only act on some of the ideas out there. But if you let the employees know that they're being heard, you reward them for their efforts, having some fun with it along the way, it's tough, and the employees see that they're being recognized for those things. So that can make a massive difference in the culture again.

       Julia Goldstein: Yes. I'm starting up a new program, an assessment about where companies find out how well they're communicating their sustainability initiatives and strategies, and policies throughout the company where there's a questionnaire for employees to answer.

       There are individual interviews where employees can use one on one share what's going well and what isn't. What do they care? And say, Okay, are there disconnects? Are there mismatches, or are there areas where the company is doing well, and they should celebrate? Because on a scale of one to five, a four is fantastic.

       Many companies have yet to arrive. Five is the best. And do you want to get to five? Here are some ideas. And again, and if they're scoring, that's maybe a message. There are some quick wins to just something as simple as that town hall, which might be new for the employees.

       We had no idea that our company wanted to do this, and we appreciate it.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. And going into that town hall meeting with only a thank you for sharing. But, yes, as I've seen this. I just had an audience member last week that was doing stay interviews. He decided that he had heard about them and thought he'd start it.

       But unfortunately, when employees were giving him honest feedback, he fought with them. He tried to justify it, and he admitted in front of a room full of people that he messed up because it should just be, Thank you for sharing, even knowing that some employees are going to use it as an opportunity to vent. There could be a seed of something, an idea you can use going forward. So, no matter what employees say, remember that. Thank you for sharing.

       Julia Goldstein: Absolutely. It can be a tough thing for all of us to be able to take criticism without getting defensive.

       Lisa Ryan: Exactly. You have your newest book out, Beyond the Green Team. So what are some of the main takeaways that you cover when it comes to sustainability?

       Julia Goldstein: It is primarily about communication, and the book is aimed at manufacturing companies. We discussed earlier why manufacturers are the key to making a difference here. So there's a chapter that's about that internal communication piece; why it's crucial and critical to start within your company, and then moving to the external communication because the marketing team is already talking about what you're doing, what the products are, this initiative, that initiative, what are they saying about sustainability?

       Is there a reason to pause and rethink what you're doing inside? Then make sure that your outside messaging matches. It is a very tricky thing to do. Also, talk about the issue of greenwashing, which has become more of a buzzword. I don't know if you're hearing it where you sit, but what is it?

       What does that mean? So greenwashing is where a company will brag about its green credential, saying, we are saving the planet because we are packaging your product in a cardboard box instead of a whole bunch of plastic. But it needs to tell the story about some of the other things the company is doing to the detriment of that. So it's overselling those green credentials. Ooh, we better talk about being green and sustainable and eco-friendly. Or here's our new eco-friendly product, and all the details about that and what's behind the scenes is that's five or 10% of their portfolio. What's going on with the other 90%?

       The trick is to be honest about it. But not open it up so that people say, " Oh, 90% of your products are terrible for the environment. Oh goodness, that's awful. So it's a tricky mix in terms of figuring out what to say when, and again, humility, that being able to admit if you had a misstep in that area without getting defensive, is going to be a critical path forward.

       Lisa Ryan: So, as we're getting to the end...]]>ec5b243e-7edb-401b-99ee-02dade28284aMon, 14 Nov 2022 07:05:00 -040028:24falsefull244442Essential Branding Strategies with Jim HuebnerLisa 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 book, we outline our process. There are a lot of different ways to skin that cat. Our process is undoubtedly the way we do it. We recognize there are lots of different ways to do it. We start by doing some research and having a lot of conversations and a lot of surveys and things going out to find out why those customers are doing business with us in the first place.

       And why don't they do business with us? How critical are you to their success? How important is it that you're selling them what you have for their success? Because a lot of times, if you're just a commodity, that can be a considerable challenge. Suppose you're just a commodity and have yet to find a way to differentiate.

       I wrote an article once on how to not sell on price. But, of course, it would help if you were not a commodity. A CEO of one of our clients called me in because he wanted to discuss how we're getting commoditized.

       What do we do about it? And that's where a relevancy report comes into play. In the relevancy report, our goal is to uncover where those opportunities are. Where can we be more meaningful and more important to our clients? And it's sometimes about more than just the product.

       Sometimes it's just about how the service is delivered, the product, or the relationships. For example, we had a client and the manufacturing space, and they talked about a client like them in the book that sells. They manufacture self-storage units.

       It's all pre-engineered, still packaged, and delivered for the contractor to put up as a self-storage unit. And one of the things they found over time was, or through our research, that those contractors weren't doing business with them because their steel was better and their delivery was better because of all the traditional things. It was more fade-resistant. It didn't have anything to do with the product. It had a hundred percent to do with the people. It was because they built great relationships with them and hired salespeople who were great relationship builders.

       Those contractors knew they had their back and that in thick and thin, no matter how tough times were. This particular manufacturer was going to have their back. I remember one time, there was an employee of that company that I went to church with. I saw him at church one morning, and I asked what you would do this weekend.

       And he goes, Oh, I was sleeping all day yesterday Saturday. So then, Thursday night, we got a request from one of our contractors. He needed a bid out by Friday morning, and the only way I could do that was by pulling an all-nighter. And I got it done at seven in the morning, went home and showered, and returned to work for the rest of the day.

       That's why they say they do business with you because of your relationships because people are doing that. They're pulling all-nighters to meet the needs of the customer. So that's how they were so incredibly relevant to those contractors because they always had their back.

       It's only sometimes we have the best quality product. Sometimes it can be just the way you do business. Getting back to your original question, that process you need to ask, do the research and find out, and that sometimes honestly sounds selfish of me, but it's best to use a third party. It's best to have somebody from the outside ask your customers these questions because customers don't want to be uncomfortable or make it awkward in their relationship with you. So they'll tell you what they want to hear instead of a third party. They're like, I don't know anything. They don't know who I am, so I'm just going to let them tell them what I think. But it's finding those things out, finding out what they think you don't do so well, and finding those differing opinions about the brand.

       Some people might think back to that one manufacturer I just mentioned. Some of the people thought they were doing business with them because they had this special e-coated steel, which is why people were buying the product. And other people recognized. Now it's probably our relationships, but it's just that process of discovering all these differentiating factors and then what we call value indexing those and saying, Okay, here's all the differentiating factors about our company, our brand, our products.

       Which of these is most valuable? Which of these is the most meaningful and makes us the must-have one we've got to do business with? All things aren't equal. All differentiators aren't equal. You can have the steel. You can have a certain kind of steel or certain kind of treatment that you put on any product and or certain screws that you use or whatever it is.

       But that might be less valuable in the eyes of the customer. It would be best if you got to the bottom of what is most valuable and meaningful to them, and that's what we want to hang our hats on. Not that the other things are ones that you ignore. You still mention those in your messaging, conversations, and marketing.

       But as far as how you're going to separate yourself from the rest, it's got to be that one that is most valuable, most meaningful.  

       Lisa Ryan: How would a manufacturer decide who to connect you with? Do they hand you their customer list, and you go to town? Or do you call other people in the industries who are potential customers to find out about their reputation and why they may not buy from them? What does that process look like to even get started?

       Jim Huebner: Yeah, generally, they'll give us their list of customers, non-customers, people they've been trying to get as customers. Sometimes depending on the relationships, we've been able to talk to their competitors: really good resources or other vendors in the industry.

       
       

       Sometimes you can get what their accurate perceptions are of the brand you're working with from those other vendors. They'll say, Yeah, those are the guys]]>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 book, we outline our process. There are a lot of different ways to skin that cat. Our process is undoubtedly the way we do it. We recognize there are lots of different ways to do it. We start by doing some research and having a lot of conversations and a lot of surveys and things going out to find out why those customers are doing business with us in the first place.

       And why don't they do business with us? How critical are you to their success? How important is it that you're selling them what you have for their success? Because a lot of times, if you're just a commodity, that can be a considerable challenge. Suppose you're just a commodity and have yet to find a way to differentiate.

       I wrote an article once on how to not sell on price. But, of course, it would help if you were not a commodity. A CEO of one of our clients called me in because he wanted to discuss how we're getting commoditized.

       What do we do about it? And that's where a relevancy report comes into play. In the relevancy report, our goal is to uncover where those opportunities are. Where can we be more meaningful and more important to our clients? And it's sometimes about more than just the product.

       Sometimes it's just about how the service is delivered, the product, or the relationships. For example, we had a client and the manufacturing space, and they talked about a client like them in the book that sells. They manufacture self-storage units.

       It's all pre-engineered, still packaged, and delivered for the contractor to put up as a self-storage unit. And one of the things they found over time was, or through our research, that those contractors weren't doing business with them because their steel was better and their delivery was better because of all the traditional things. It was more fade-resistant. It didn't have anything to do with the product. It had a hundred percent to do with the people. It was because they built great relationships with them and hired salespeople who were great relationship builders.

       Those contractors knew they had their back and that in thick and thin, no matter how tough times were. This particular manufacturer was going to have their back. I remember one time, there was an employee of that company that I went to church with. I saw him at church one morning, and I asked what you would do this weekend.

       And he goes, Oh, I was sleeping all day yesterday Saturday. So then, Thursday night, we got a request from one of our contractors. He needed a bid out by Friday morning, and the only way I could do that was by pulling an all-nighter. And I got it done at seven in the morning, went home and showered, and returned to work for the rest of the day.

       That's why they say they do business with you because of your relationships because people are doing that. They're pulling all-nighters to meet the needs of the customer. So that's how they were so incredibly relevant to those contractors because they always had their back.

       It's only sometimes we have the best quality product. Sometimes it can be just the way you do business. Getting back to your original question, that process you need to ask, do the research and find out, and that sometimes honestly sounds selfish of me, but it's best to use a third party. It's best to have somebody from the outside ask your customers these questions because customers don't want to be uncomfortable or make it awkward in their relationship with you. So they'll tell you what they want to hear instead of a third party. They're like, I don't know anything. They don't know who I am, so I'm just going to let them tell them what I think. But it's finding those things out, finding out what they think you don't do so well, and finding those differing opinions about the brand.

       Some people might think back to that one manufacturer I just mentioned. Some of the people thought they were doing business with them because they had this special e-coated steel, which is why people were buying the product. And other people recognized. Now it's probably our relationships, but it's just that process of discovering all these differentiating factors and then what we call value indexing those and saying, Okay, here's all the differentiating factors about our company, our brand, our products.

       Which of these is most valuable? Which of these is the most meaningful and makes us the must-have one we've got to do business with? All things aren't equal. All differentiators aren't equal. You can have the steel. You can have a certain kind of steel or certain kind of treatment that you put on any product and or certain screws that you use or whatever it is.

       But that might be less valuable in the eyes of the customer. It would be best if you got to the bottom of what is most valuable and meaningful to them, and that's what we want to hang our hats on. Not that the other things are ones that you ignore. You still mention those in your messaging, conversations, and marketing.

       But as far as how you're going to separate yourself from the rest, it's got to be that one that is most valuable, most meaningful.  

       Lisa Ryan: How would a manufacturer decide who to connect you with? Do they hand you their customer list, and you go to town? Or do you call other people in the industries who are potential customers to find out about their reputation and why they may not buy from them? What does that process look like to even get started?

       Jim Huebner: Yeah, generally, they'll give us their list of customers, non-customers, people they've been trying to get as customers. Sometimes depending on the relationships, we've been able to talk to their competitors: really good resources or other vendors in the industry.

       
       

       Sometimes you can get what their accurate perceptions are of the brand you're working with from those other vendors. They'll say, Yeah, those are the guys everybody likes to do business with, or why is that? And then they'll extrapolate on that. But our four steps, or the four ways we do the research, is that we do interviews with key personnel is essential. I always say, this is just a gut number/ I haven't measured this, but I think probably 80% of the things we find out, they already know it's that extra 10 or 20% that is like, Oh wow, people perceive us this way, or they think this about our product, or they, that's where all the value is.

       You find that out. You don't necessarily find that out with the critical internal personnel so much. So that's where you find the baseline. But then we also do interviews with key customers, either in person or on a Zoom call. We'll do interviews with other key stakeholders, which could be anybody from their attorney or insurance people to anyone associated with or connected to the brand.

       Again, that's where the vendors come in. In the book, I give an example of a vendor that works in that same industry. And he provides some great insight into the main character in the book. And then we'll do a broader swap with email surveys and those kinds of things to get where it's going. They're rating certain things to give us a general feel.

       But it's the specific comments, I'll be honest, the specific comments that, that people will make in these interviews that end up shedding light on where they truly, where their real opportunity is. And sometimes they're nailing it. So it might be a slight messaging issue.

       Other times again, they might need it. And need to refocus on a sure thing that they're doing instead of what they have been doing.

       Lisa Ryan: What would be an example of a big aha when you were working with the manufacturing and presenting them with the market survey you found? As you said, 80% of the time, they know what's happening or realize it. But what would be some examples of some aha's that the manufacturer did not know that's how they were perceived? Or, could it be something that they were doing well or something that they were doing poorly?

       Jim Huebner: Yeah, one of the examples is the one the book is about, and somebody that's in makes a product. That is used in underwater sea exploration and anywhere with high pressure and a harsh environment. And they'd gone through 30 years of success, maybe even 40 years of success selling these products. They started getting beat up on price by some knockoffs and those kinds of things. So we went in and did this study, and we found out that they were trying to compete on a lot of the low-end stuff, and that's not your bread and butter. That's not why people buy your product.

       And it all came down to one conversation with one engineer. This happened. And that engineer said. You got to understand when I'm putting one of these units on a robot that will be skimming the ocean floor. The last thing I'm going to be worried about is that I spent five extra bucks on the most dependable product on the market because I have too much to lose.

       
       

       I have a million-dollar robot down there. I'm not going to screw around with some untested product, or I don't know how dependable it is when this one is 40 years of never failing. So that was the light. It was like, okay, so we've been sitting there talking about quality all along.

       The problem with the word quality is everybody says it. It's an entirely subjective term. What's quality? For, in their case, the quality. Yeah. It wasn't that it lacked. It needed more quality. It was high quality, but it was dependable. That was the word. That was as simple as that seemed. After doing this for 30 years, I'm telling you that people get so close to it. I'm the same way in my own business. I get so close to things I can't even see them. And that's the beauty of bringing in outsiders.

       What you probably heard it described is that when you're on the inside of the bottle, you can't explain what the outside of the bottle looks like. You lose that. For them to hear this engineer say, " Wow, " we got to focus on dependability.

       And then the beauty of that is so all of a sudden. It gives you this new lens of how to look at HR, production, and who you're buying some of your raw material from. All these things, and ensuring that, okay, if we're going to be the most dependable product on the market. We've got to ensure that everybody we're doing business with and internally is in line with that.

       That is our that's our battle cry. We're going to be more dependable than anybody else's. So how do we do that? That particular manufacturer had a person that was, and this is the example I talk about in the book, is they go through, and they hand test every single piece that comes through off the line instead of batch testing.

       So why is their product more expensive? That helps explain that they're hand, individually testing everyone that comes off the line as opposed to batch testing. And there are other reasons their price is higher. A lot of it's because they're the most dependable on the market, so that they can command a higher price.

       And so the result is they can get rid of the bottom feeders to people who want the cheapest on the market, and they can say, with great confidence, then you should buy this one because it's cheaper. But, if the one lasts forever, you need to talk to us. Did that answer your question?

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. Because it reminded me of there are many times that people chase these bright, shiny objects. If you stick to your core values and why customers do business with you, something new comes onto the market. But we are taking that third party and getting the accurate information because too many times we either make stuff or listen to people who are making stuff up.

       Jim Huebner: Yeah. Versus having the basic information that counts. We have a give acronym, G I V e. E is endless quest. It's about keeping your finger on the pulse of how relevant you are. And that takes some work, and it can take either somebody internally doing it or an outside firm doing it. But it is essential to ensure that you're periodically making sure that our messaging is on track. Our products are meeting the needs or exceeding the requirements. In a constant evaluation of where is there greater op, where are there more opportunities for us to become even more meaningful and vital to these customers we sell to?

       Lisa Ryan: What are the other three letters, then? We started at the end with E.  

       Jim Huebner: So the G is, and you could probably appreciate this, G is a grateful and generous is grateful and generous. I believe, and I've heard this before, gratitude is the attitude that sets the altitude for living. You have to start by being grateful. To give, to pour out, and be a giver instead of a taker. It must begin with gratitude. And it's interesting. As I was researching all of this, I came across a study by the University of Oregon, and I quoted it in the book.

       It was a study done by a neuroscientist who studied people who are generally more grateful than the mainstream. And they found that as a result, and it's all chemistry-related. As a result, more grateful people tend to be more generous. Yeah. And I love it. I would've always thought that in my gut, but it was cool to come across an actual study that proved that was true.

       And I say, A life that, or a brand that gives, is a brand that lives. And what's it take for a brand to give? It's just like life; a meaningful, relevant life pours itself out, not one that takes. And a brand is the same way. A brand must give in some unique way that nobody else is to thrive. And that starts with you got to want to give. You must be, you have to have a generous, you have to have a kind of this sense or spirit of generosity. And then the second, the "I" is inspired difference.

       It's not just about being different. I threw it in giving because it's inspired because it's different in a meaningful and relevant way that helps make you valuable to that customer that makes your product valuable to the customer. So it's not just about what we were talking about before. It's not just about being different. It's about being different in a meaningful and relevant way and helps them get further down the path to success. So that's I, and then v is the value that exceeds the price. And that stems back a little bit to Warren Buffet's quote of price is what I pay, value is what I get.

       The more significant discrepancy there is between the value and the price, the more relevant or meaningful that product or service must be. The example I use in the book is Ace Hardware. With Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe's, and Menards for people in the Midwest, you look at that, and you think textbooks would say there's no way a store like Ace Hardware could survive. I have some connections. Ace Hardware, my buddy, owns five Ace Star stores where their family does. I have an affinity for Ace, but it's always dumbfounded me how well they thrive in that market. But it's because they're the value of going in and somebody tell you how to take the thingamajig and fix it with the do-hickey.

       All of a sudden separates them from everybody else. You walk into the big box, and maybe you'll find that person, but it's not guaranteed that you will find that person. And yes, YouTube helps. Things have changed, but at the same time, there's something about being able to ask that person, Okay, so if I'm going to do this, is this what I would use?

       
       

       And they go, no, I'm not handy at all. And I have to depend on those people. I can't tell you how many times I've gone there just because I want to know if I was doing this right, and I had no problem paying the extra buck or two or...]]>dd4e935f-88c0-4c19-bd8a-0a5de6d70386Mon, 07 Nov 2022 07:05:00 -040030:25falsefull243432Disaster Preparedness for Manufacturers with Tracy WiederConnect 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 disasters and answer your question.

       So as you said, there's the expected, and there's the unexpected. I always categorize it into severe weather events - like hurricanes. In other parts of the country, it can be mudslides, blizzards, and tornadoes. As you said, all things are not natural disasters, so a hurricane, we have some notice. An earthquake, you don't. It's just going to happen. A blizzard, you have a little bit of notice. And tornadoes are pretty sudden. But then there are fires, floods, and power outages. We had a disaster just in the last year involving a plumbing contractor breaking off a fire sprinkler head and instantly flooding the entire building. With that, there's so much pressure behind those fire sprinkler heads. So if you break off that head, you'll flood that whole building.

       And then, of course, there are epidemics and pandemics, which in the past I would've said, I would've often asked, say if I were speaking to people on this topic, I would ask how many people have been through a disaster at work? And now we've all been through a disaster at work and in our personal lives because of that pandemic.

       Yeah. So what's most important is just always to be prepared. Because if you prepare in advance, you're not worried about whether it's a fire that you can't predict or something that maybe like a blizzard that you know is coming, right? If you're just prepared, then you have your plan, you're prepared, and you'll be able to recover.

       To some extent, as opposed to trying to scramble around last minute. There's no big difference between whether you know it's coming and you and a sudden disaster because the best way to approach either scenario is to plan. 

       Lisa Ryan: So, how does one get started even thinking about putting if somebody was starting from ground zero to put together a disaster plan? Where do you start? What does that look like? 

       Tracy Wieder: Yeah, it can seem a little overwhelming and, in some cases, a lot overwhelming, right? So, the first thing anyone has to do in any setting is to determine your vulnerabilities. So in some settings, we might have toxic substances that, if released into the environment, could be hazardous to public health.

       In other settings, we might not have anything toxic but some very expensive equipment. But if it were lost, it would result in significant financial hardship for the company. And then, in some cases, we might also have intellectual property, meaning any inventions, anything that's unique to that particular company or organization that they have copyrights on, that can't be replaced just by going to a vendor and saying, Hey, send me another one.

       So everybody needs to sit down. Think about what they do on a day-to-day basis and what you would do if your computer, your records, and all your assets were gone. And when you think of it that way, I think it's pretty easy to come around to, okay, like I can replace this, I put my data on the cloud but this specific thing I couldn't replace, or it would be so expensive to replace it, that sort of thing.

       And then, so it's really about identifying those vulnerabilities first. Once you know those vulnerabilities, then you can work on them. What can we do to protect these items? The first thing will always be taking pictures because, for insurance purposes, you'll need that documentation. So especially if there are any assets involved, like equipment, you're just going to take pictures of all of it, and you don't have to spend a lot of time on that every year.

       The first time you do it, you get all the pictures, and whenever you replace equipment or bring something new, You take its picture and make sure you don't store it on a hard drive, right? Like we want that data to be stored in the cloud, where you would still have your data if you lost this particular computer.

       And the same goes for any standard operating procedures, protocols, or necessary documentation that your business requires to survive. The data you need, like your customer database, for instance -anything that needs to be stored on the cloud where you're sure it will be safe in case any individual computer is ever destroyed.

       And then from there, other things can be done too - depending on the vulnerabilities. But that's where you start. It's sitting down and saying, if everything were lost, What would be the most difficult to replace? Can we replace it, and what would it take to replace it? And then going from there.

       Lisa Ryan: So, thinking of what's going on with the cloud. I've had experts on the show in cyber security because that could be a disaster too. My husband's company was gotten into by ransomware, and they were shut down for about three weeks. It took that long to get their data back.

       Thankfully they had some backup. So yes, they still lost a week or two worth of data. So is there a happy medium between what you can keep on the cloud and how you ensure that you keep that data?

       Tracy Wieder: Yeah, that's an excellent point because you're right. In the cyber security world, it's hard to imagine anything safe. But again, I advise people to keep it on the cloud and a thumb drive for anything that's super critical. I don't want people to feel like disaster preparedness is. Oh gosh, now, I have to transfer things from here to there every day. So you want it to be manageable for people.

       So again, have to be like all of your data, but for anything that would be important, it's worthwhile to put it on as an external drive, another backup...]]>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 disasters and answer your question.

       So as you said, there's the expected, and there's the unexpected. I always categorize it into severe weather events - like hurricanes. In other parts of the country, it can be mudslides, blizzards, and tornadoes. As you said, all things are not natural disasters, so a hurricane, we have some notice. An earthquake, you don't. It's just going to happen. A blizzard, you have a little bit of notice. And tornadoes are pretty sudden. But then there are fires, floods, and power outages. We had a disaster just in the last year involving a plumbing contractor breaking off a fire sprinkler head and instantly flooding the entire building. With that, there's so much pressure behind those fire sprinkler heads. So if you break off that head, you'll flood that whole building.

       And then, of course, there are epidemics and pandemics, which in the past I would've said, I would've often asked, say if I were speaking to people on this topic, I would ask how many people have been through a disaster at work? And now we've all been through a disaster at work and in our personal lives because of that pandemic.

       Yeah. So what's most important is just always to be prepared. Because if you prepare in advance, you're not worried about whether it's a fire that you can't predict or something that maybe like a blizzard that you know is coming, right? If you're just prepared, then you have your plan, you're prepared, and you'll be able to recover.

       To some extent, as opposed to trying to scramble around last minute. There's no big difference between whether you know it's coming and you and a sudden disaster because the best way to approach either scenario is to plan. 

       Lisa Ryan: So, how does one get started even thinking about putting if somebody was starting from ground zero to put together a disaster plan? Where do you start? What does that look like? 

       Tracy Wieder: Yeah, it can seem a little overwhelming and, in some cases, a lot overwhelming, right? So, the first thing anyone has to do in any setting is to determine your vulnerabilities. So in some settings, we might have toxic substances that, if released into the environment, could be hazardous to public health.

       In other settings, we might not have anything toxic but some very expensive equipment. But if it were lost, it would result in significant financial hardship for the company. And then, in some cases, we might also have intellectual property, meaning any inventions, anything that's unique to that particular company or organization that they have copyrights on, that can't be replaced just by going to a vendor and saying, Hey, send me another one.

       So everybody needs to sit down. Think about what they do on a day-to-day basis and what you would do if your computer, your records, and all your assets were gone. And when you think of it that way, I think it's pretty easy to come around to, okay, like I can replace this, I put my data on the cloud but this specific thing I couldn't replace, or it would be so expensive to replace it, that sort of thing.

       And then, so it's really about identifying those vulnerabilities first. Once you know those vulnerabilities, then you can work on them. What can we do to protect these items? The first thing will always be taking pictures because, for insurance purposes, you'll need that documentation. So especially if there are any assets involved, like equipment, you're just going to take pictures of all of it, and you don't have to spend a lot of time on that every year.

       The first time you do it, you get all the pictures, and whenever you replace equipment or bring something new, You take its picture and make sure you don't store it on a hard drive, right? Like we want that data to be stored in the cloud, where you would still have your data if you lost this particular computer.

       And the same goes for any standard operating procedures, protocols, or necessary documentation that your business requires to survive. The data you need, like your customer database, for instance -anything that needs to be stored on the cloud where you're sure it will be safe in case any individual computer is ever destroyed.

       And then from there, other things can be done too - depending on the vulnerabilities. But that's where you start. It's sitting down and saying, if everything were lost, What would be the most difficult to replace? Can we replace it, and what would it take to replace it? And then going from there.

       Lisa Ryan: So, thinking of what's going on with the cloud. I've had experts on the show in cyber security because that could be a disaster too. My husband's company was gotten into by ransomware, and they were shut down for about three weeks. It took that long to get their data back.

       Thankfully they had some backup. So yes, they still lost a week or two worth of data. So is there a happy medium between what you can keep on the cloud and how you ensure that you keep that data?

       Tracy Wieder: Yeah, that's an excellent point because you're right. In the cyber security world, it's hard to imagine anything safe. But again, I advise people to keep it on the cloud and a thumb drive for anything that's super critical. I don't want people to feel like disaster preparedness is. Oh gosh, now, I have to transfer things from here to there every day. So you want it to be manageable for people.

       So again, have to be like all of your data, but for anything that would be important, it's worthwhile to put it on as an external drive, another backup source. 

       Lisa Ryan: So we've taken a look at the vulnerability standpoint. After that, what are some of the critical things that manufacturers should do to prepare for disasters at their workplace?

       Tracy Wieder: Yeah. And this question has evolved now after having gone through the pandemic, right? So I used to think much more about physical, animal, and equipment chemicals. And these are all still very important, but now we also need to consider our staff and how we can keep the business continuity going with a business continuity plan. So for organizations where they can send their staff home to work, even if you've called everybody back at this point, we must continue to cultivate that as an option when needed. 

       I recommend that everybody who can do that, who can send staff home when needed, do work-from-home drills like twice a year where you send everybody home, you say, We're going to have a day where we work from home, and what are your problems? For example, Bill couldn't make his printer work. Sonya couldn't make her camera work. You go through all these things because these can change from month to month. The last time we did the drill, everything worked. Now this time, Tracy can't make anything work at home. So work-from-home drills are super crucial for those sorts of things. Taking pictures of anything that's a tangible physical asset is essential. I lived through that event in Houston, and it is incredible what the insurance companies will say. You can have a room where it's clear that the roof has fallen in, and they'll say how do we know it didn't look like that before?

       It's essential to take long shots of the warehouse or your work setting and close-up pictures of the equipment itself. And it's not that this will keep you from losing that equipment, but it will make it much easier for you to recover.

       When you're making insurance claims, also, as we said, store things on the cloud, and have backups on external drives. It's imperative to keep updated contact information for all of the teams that you work with. Because at the end of the day, we must take care of each other and look out for each other. 

       But in addition to saying Hey, maybe I have power at my house. You guys don't have power. Oh, come over here. It's two degrees outside, come to my house. Other than that, it's also how you stay in touch about what your organization has made announcements about coming to work or not coming to work.

       And it's just vital to have that contact information. And then, if you have anything on an alarm, often high-end equipment can be on alarms if it goes out of its operating range. So, make sure you test those alarms regularly and that they're working and making contact in the way they're set up to do.

       That's important. I've seen cases where people have a freezer go into alarm and need updated contact information. Or something needed to be fixed with the connection for the alarm monitoring system, and it's only when they come in Monday and find their freezer thawed, and everything inside of it lost that they realize that their alarms were working.

       So testing those alarms is essential. And if you do have anything that's intellectual property that if it's something that it would be possible to distribute, like with collaborators or other branches of your company, it's a good idea to have everything in a variety of places.

       Whereas if that place were lost, it's all just gone. Where maybe you have other locations. Again, it's very broad with manufacturing, so it's hard to speak precisely to any particular environment. But that's the general gist of it. And then also being able to move things if you see the need.

       So having a plan in advance, like if we know something is coming, do we have a location that we could contract with in advance where, say, I'm on the first floor, maybe we get these things up to the fifth floor? So depending on the disaster, if it's something you can plan for, moving equipment, assets, or intellectual property around can be helpful.

       But you have to think that through in advance. If needed, you must have the right electrical in place—the proper utilities and space where this is coming from. I'm going to move these items. And then, as you had alluded to, it's different in the sense if you know it's coming, and you don't know it's coming in the way it hits us, but the way we prepare for it would pretty much be the same. Just plan and understand what you're going to do. 

       Lisa Ryan: And one of the things that I never really thought about before, which was brilliant, is the go of the work-from-home drill, just sending people home. I know that some companies are all bent on bringing everybody back to the odd, back to the office 24/7, bring everybody back, which is a mistake because I did too.

       Yeah, people were perfectly capable of working from home for two years and getting the work done. Does it matter where they're working? It's nice to get people together and have some core hours or days. Yeah, but the thought of Just like you have a fire drill. Which is always a bummer when it happens in front, in the middle of a training program,

       Just tomorrow's a work-from-home date, with no notice except for the night before notice to see what does work and if we need to do that. So I like that. And then the other thing, when you talk about getting dated contact information, that goes hand in hand with workplace culture because you have to create a workplace where your employees, especially your hourly employees, trust you enough with that information, with their home phone number, with their personal email address. So you can get ahold of them when needed. And even that example you said of, it's two degrees outside, and we find out that one employee doesn't have heat and somebody else does. So we can start connecting people and making it about the people because they are your greatest assets. So those two were good, simple tips for people too.

       Tracy Wieder: Yeah. And at the end of the day, we must take care of each other. So I hope that in most work environments, people trust that they understand. But, of course, if people aren't comfortable sharing their home contact information, that will probably make it a more significant issue.

       Yes, it's probably a bigger issue going on there. They need to look for a better work environment because these are really how, other than just being a humanitarian and wanting everyone to be safe and well. This is how companies show the employees they care: keeping them safe, saying to them, we're going to prepare for a disaster so that you don't have to be without a paycheck for longer than is necessary if something happens. And some employees who, if the work shuts down, are without a paycheck. And so that's another way of showing that we care for our employees is to say I'm going to prepare so that we can recover quickly and get you back to earning money. If there were a fire or the worst were to happen. 

       Lisa Ryan: And so yeah. It's really, it's part of the culture, too, of does the organization care enough. Because we think about, again, in disaster planning, our intellectual property, our machinery, our equipment, but when things happen, And I think that we saw it during the pandemic, the importance of empathy, of reaching out to employees and saying, Hey, are you okay?

       What do you need? How can we support you? How can we be of assistance to you? And sometimes just making the call. For example, as a member of the National Speakers Association, I was on the task force that we reached out to every member in the state of Florida after Hurricane Ian. It was amazing that people said, Wow. I'm in four different associations, and nobody else called, and they're in the middle of the state. They're not affected, but we don't know if their loved ones are. So it's reaching out to people in times of need and seeing that there are people on that other side of the equation because, really, you don't have a lot without those assets.

       Tracy Wieder: And it just means a lot. I'm in Miami, and although it looked like Ian was going to hit us at one point, it turned, and it didn't. That's common with hurricanes. So we're okay, but our heart is breaking for our neighbors just north, right? The pictures are horrible. Some people say it's the worst hurricane that ever hit Florida.

       So I agree with you. But, again, just showing some empathy and concern. And even if we go back to my example, which you referenced, you like how easy it is to say open your doors to someone who doesn't have power. And maybe it's 115 degrees outside, perhaps two degrees outside, but I got power.

       You don't like how hard it is to say, Come over and stay safe. Don't freeze. We're in this together. Let's get through it together. And it's important to form cultures like that in the workforce so that people feel they are a team and a family.

       Lisa Ryan: Exactly. And as we end our time together, what is your best tip regarding disaster planning? Whether you're getting started or just. Make sure you have some plan in place. 

       Tracy Wieder: Yeah. So the best tip is just what you said, is to have a plan. That's the number one best tip. So once you're there, you're in really good shape. But yeah, and as I said earlier, but I'll emphasize it again, as you're making that plan, think about it. What are your vulnerabilities, right? What are your most vulnerable? Or sometimes, for some organizations, those vulnerabilities are going to be, what are your most critical functions?

       How can we shuffle people from here to there? Cross-training has become vital for this. What if you have a team of six, and five...]]>bb38e67c-5bd2-42ad-888c-fd8db12dbe4dMon, 31 Oct 2022 07:05:00 -040025:43falsefull242422Cutting Edge Technology and Forming ESOPs in your Manufacturing Company With Jason AzevedoLisa 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 to go, and they're searching for somebody to take something on.

       The other part is it has to be somebody that, when you've got your marketing budget. There are two schools of thought. There's either spending way more on fewer items or less on more things, and it's a volume versus a quality issue. Many companies realized, hey, I can't give away a hundred thousand shirts a year anymore. I can't give away a hundred thousand pieces of apparel.

       But what if I can give away 10,000 that makes an impact? And that's what we are going to people and selling them is, hey, the those free the ugly chintzy things that you were doing that doesn't work anymore.

       I'll give you an example. We worked with a prominent cybersecurity company and helped them develop their trade show booth. And when you would walk into the booth, they gave out shirts with the company logo on them, and it was okay, whatever. And they told me where the shirts are, and we'll give you a giveaway or some of that. So people would walk into this trade show booth wearing this piece of apparel they were given that looks like a cheap giveaway. As soon as you walked into their booth, we had embedded photo chromatic inks into it. And suddenly, all these cybersecurity terms would start showing up all over the clothing you're wearing has the company sitting there going, See when you're with us, you can see all the problems. Wow. So that's what we were doing. We were selling way more than, Hey, this is cool. We were trying to ensure those marketing budgets were going as far as possible.

       Lisa Ryan: Oh, that is so interesting. So then from t-shirts, where did you go?

       Jason Azevedo: We ended up moving into the retail display, another transition point. We got into producing the in caps in all the major box stores and Best Buy and Fry's Electronics. And this was really during that time when everyone called the retail apocalypse.

       But really, it was a change in the market and how you market in-store and what you were looking for and embedding a lot more communication between the client and the display, whether that be buttons or integrating control systems that turn on lights and interact with the person that's looking at the display.

       What ended up happening is we started that display, that company largely assembling components bought by other people. So we would design them, send them out to somebody, they would make our sheet metal, or they'd make our plastic, or any other combination of people couldn't hit the standard that we were looking for regularly.

       We started buying or building all of those sub-companies, whether a button manufacturer, sheet metal company, injection mold or print division.

       We started honing in on all these different manufacturing types to build these displays. You went out, but you weren't finding the quality of the needed products, so you just started buying from companies.

       What did that buy or build the companies? And it wasn't necessarily the quality as we were in the marketing sector. Marketing's a very fast-paced industry, and we noticed that American manufacturers we were talking to in our local area are quoting 12 to 16 weeks lead times. In the marketing world, 12 to 16 weeks is insane. That that there's just, that, that timeline doesn't exist. We couldn't get the responsiveness we needed, so we started building the companies ourselves.

       Lisa Ryan: What were some things I know we talked a little bit about before the show that you are working with legacy manufacturing companies and helping bring them to that next level? So what are some of the things you've done that have set you and those companies apart to get them into a different way of thinking?

       Jason Azevedo: What we do nowadays is we buy legacy US manufacturing companies. Usually, they're going to be second, third generation companies with no planned-out succession plan. So they're giving away to make sure that the company stays safe in the community that it's in but also adds that energy level that, and new processes that we develop whether that be real new age automation and how we have robotics or automation or computer systems control more and more of the pro the process or just modern processing in general?

       During the late nineties, the big one was kaizen and all these buzzwords. There's a new age of mixing that with technology, and how do you work with that? And because many of the companies we purchase from are second or third-generation. They haven't gone through that transition to becoming, to use a buzzword, a lean organization, or focused on how we bring the production size down or up as much as we want but not have it affect our internal plan.

       Lisa Ryan: There are so many things you said regarding succession planning because when you pass that second or third generation, who will you give it to them if the kids are no longer in or the grandkids are no longer in there? And then, of course, there's always the fear of automation of people coming and what jobs will replace, or how will that modernize us? If somebody listening to this show is in that space where they don't know what the next thing is, what are some of the things that you've helped these manufacturers do, or I guess look at it differently when it comes to creating that legacy that they worked so hard to build?

       Jason Azevedo: Yeah, so you hit on something that I like to take on head-on, and it's something that we have to take on head-on when we go into companies. It is a fallacy that automation removes American jobs, right? On the contrary, it gives them because automation and...]]>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 to go, and they're searching for somebody to take something on.

       The other part is it has to be somebody that, when you've got your marketing budget. There are two schools of thought. There's either spending way more on fewer items or less on more things, and it's a volume versus a quality issue. Many companies realized, hey, I can't give away a hundred thousand shirts a year anymore. I can't give away a hundred thousand pieces of apparel.

       But what if I can give away 10,000 that makes an impact? And that's what we are going to people and selling them is, hey, the those free the ugly chintzy things that you were doing that doesn't work anymore.

       I'll give you an example. We worked with a prominent cybersecurity company and helped them develop their trade show booth. And when you would walk into the booth, they gave out shirts with the company logo on them, and it was okay, whatever. And they told me where the shirts are, and we'll give you a giveaway or some of that. So people would walk into this trade show booth wearing this piece of apparel they were given that looks like a cheap giveaway. As soon as you walked into their booth, we had embedded photo chromatic inks into it. And suddenly, all these cybersecurity terms would start showing up all over the clothing you're wearing has the company sitting there going, See when you're with us, you can see all the problems. Wow. So that's what we were doing. We were selling way more than, Hey, this is cool. We were trying to ensure those marketing budgets were going as far as possible.

       Lisa Ryan: Oh, that is so interesting. So then from t-shirts, where did you go?

       Jason Azevedo: We ended up moving into the retail display, another transition point. We got into producing the in caps in all the major box stores and Best Buy and Fry's Electronics. And this was really during that time when everyone called the retail apocalypse.

       But really, it was a change in the market and how you market in-store and what you were looking for and embedding a lot more communication between the client and the display, whether that be buttons or integrating control systems that turn on lights and interact with the person that's looking at the display.

       What ended up happening is we started that display, that company largely assembling components bought by other people. So we would design them, send them out to somebody, they would make our sheet metal, or they'd make our plastic, or any other combination of people couldn't hit the standard that we were looking for regularly.

       We started buying or building all of those sub-companies, whether a button manufacturer, sheet metal company, injection mold or print division.

       We started honing in on all these different manufacturing types to build these displays. You went out, but you weren't finding the quality of the needed products, so you just started buying from companies.

       What did that buy or build the companies? And it wasn't necessarily the quality as we were in the marketing sector. Marketing's a very fast-paced industry, and we noticed that American manufacturers we were talking to in our local area are quoting 12 to 16 weeks lead times. In the marketing world, 12 to 16 weeks is insane. That that there's just, that, that timeline doesn't exist. We couldn't get the responsiveness we needed, so we started building the companies ourselves.

       Lisa Ryan: What were some things I know we talked a little bit about before the show that you are working with legacy manufacturing companies and helping bring them to that next level? So what are some of the things you've done that have set you and those companies apart to get them into a different way of thinking?

       Jason Azevedo: What we do nowadays is we buy legacy US manufacturing companies. Usually, they're going to be second, third generation companies with no planned-out succession plan. So they're giving away to make sure that the company stays safe in the community that it's in but also adds that energy level that, and new processes that we develop whether that be real new age automation and how we have robotics or automation or computer systems control more and more of the pro the process or just modern processing in general?

       During the late nineties, the big one was kaizen and all these buzzwords. There's a new age of mixing that with technology, and how do you work with that? And because many of the companies we purchase from are second or third-generation. They haven't gone through that transition to becoming, to use a buzzword, a lean organization, or focused on how we bring the production size down or up as much as we want but not have it affect our internal plan.

       Lisa Ryan: There are so many things you said regarding succession planning because when you pass that second or third generation, who will you give it to them if the kids are no longer in or the grandkids are no longer in there? And then, of course, there's always the fear of automation of people coming and what jobs will replace, or how will that modernize us? If somebody listening to this show is in that space where they don't know what the next thing is, what are some of the things that you've helped these manufacturers do, or I guess look at it differently when it comes to creating that legacy that they worked so hard to build?

       Jason Azevedo: Yeah, so you hit on something that I like to take on head-on, and it's something that we have to take on head-on when we go into companies. It is a fallacy that automation removes American jobs, right? On the contrary, it gives them because automation and innovation are why the competition from low-wage countries is fading quickly.

       That tool allows American manufacturing to grow and fulfill its need; if manufacturing companies do not automate, there is a considerable problem—why we're consuming products three to four times faster than we did in 20 years? Yet have the same manufacturing force.

       If we cannot produce three to four times faster, we cannot have the products that the industry requests. So we always take that head-on if automation is not something to be feared. On the contrary, automation is the tool that allows American manufacturers to compete with anyone in the world because now you can pay a good wage and get products.

       Lisa Ryan: Not only that, but many younger people also coming into manufacturing have this idea of it being dark, dirty, and dangerous, and now you're showing something clean and modern. Somebody walks into a plant, sees a robot, or sees automation. It brings a whole new level of attraction to manufacturing because it busts what they thought it would be because you have to have a clean environment to have robots.

       Jason Azevedo: You hit on another thing that's near and dear to our hearts because of that mentality that people have stuck in their heads that Charles Dickens dirt floors, machines throwing grease everywhere. That's most people's picture of a manufacturing plant. That has directly caused an issue with succession planning in the space. An entire generation of kids was told to do anything but go into a plant, whether from the leadership side or the floor side.

       They were told about any industry on earth other than manufacturing. I was told that my brother was told that. We didn't listen very well, but we were told that. So that is causing this gap: not a large class of people coming into the industry. And we're trying to get as many people into plants as possible and show them, Hey, this is not what you used to think about it.

       If you look at the Tesla drone footage going through their plants, they look like dealerships, not plants anymore. They're white floors and bright lights like they're gorgeous. And if we can get people to break that stigma, now you've got a strong industry brewing around you.

       Lisa Ryan: If you look at it from a parent or guidance counselor, the kids' thoughts begin regarding what they will do with their career here. You have a great job, good money, and excellent benefits, and when you leave work, for the most part, you leave work. It's not so work-life balance - not that there's ever any balance, but work-life integration is a lot easier if you're looking into some of these types of jobs in manufacturing for that reason. Plus, you're making good money without a lot of student loan debt because you don't necessarily need to go to a four-year college.

       Jason Azevedo: That's where the beauties of manufacturing are. Throughout the manufacturing industry, pretty much every job will pay you to train you on-site. This is not a, Oh, get an education, hope you get a job.

       They will walk into most manufacturing companies and say, " Great, let me show you how to help me. Let's do this. And that's a massive step in the right direction. Also, I think you've talked about it a little bit, but the technology and connecting these new employees with the mission.

       Lisa Ryan: I often run into this conversation about these people saying these kids don't have a work ethic. They won't pay their dues. Nobody is paying their dues anymore. We're connecting differently than we had, knowing they see the world differently regarding technology.

       So there's a lot of this old mentality that we have to, little by little, start to get out. Because if we're looking at 3 million manufacturing jobs going unfilled and not enough people to them, to begin with. It's a cleanup job. We have our work cut out for us.

       Jason Azevedo: We've got a generation that was told to stay away from the industry, and if not two generations, unpacking that will take time and what it's created. This is somebody who was told not to go into this industry and that it was a horrible place to be. So it takes showing that it's not an awful place yet. There was a period when it got really ugly because we had a sudden issue competing against low-wage countries, but Americans did what Americans do, great. They innovated their way out of it. And that understanding is from craftsmen who have been in the manufacturing industry.

       For 40 years or a new person coming in, you need to convince both of them that the times have changed, and if the second you can do that, the two can learn from each other. Huge. And one of the things that we run into is there. One of the significant parts of automation is that it's taken away many painful jobs that destroy your body. So any plant should first consider getting rid of those jobs with automation. So that whole pay-your-dues side is part of its running away because there isn't a machine to stick the young guy inside and make him turn a wrench all day on it. So it doesn't exist anymore throughout a lot of these.

       Lisa Ryan: The other thing we have to consider is workplace culture. You said at the beginning of your career that there were a lot of toxic companies out there, and believe me, there still are, but creating the workplace type of culture brings people in where they feel valued, acknowledged, and depreciated. And I know that you have also explored the opportunities of ESOPs where not, you're not only getting people to buy into their mission, but you're helping them to become owners of the company, which would create that loyalty. Can you talk briefly about what you're doing from a workforce standpoint to make that great environment?

       Jason Azevedo: Yeah, so every, because we buy legacy companies, you also purchase legacy attitudes, legacy quality, let you buy what this company has Been. So we purposely do look for companies that have a better culture than most because it, frankly, it's easier to start from there. But one of the biggest things you put on you went to the ESOP. We, the general partners for MRCA. When we got together to build this company, we promised to give ESOP 100% of the share in under ten years. So the entire national portfolio, if you work for MRCA, you're getting the share, which was the promise we made to everybody. And frankly, that goes a long way with culture when people feel they have a piece of it and are part of it.

       But I'll give an example. We're very fortunate. One of our heads of manufacturing was one of the early Tesla people. He came in the other day. He says I want to put plants on the shop and the plant floors. Okay. Why? Because working in a concrete bunker isn't, it's not comfortable. So why doesn't the shop floor get plants if the office gets plants? Excellent point. Okay, let's get plants on the shop floor. And so it's simple stuff like that. We have a company of ours that we just took it, that all office engineering, and all other employees, now sit on the shop floor.

       There are no offices at all. Because the question came up, why is one different than they have to take phone calls? Great. Then we've got phone meeting rooms, but you're in the plant the rest of your day. And so stuff like that goes a long way. A couple of years ago, 4th of July, we're an American Manufacturing company.

       The 4th of July is a big day for us. So we were running for 24 hours. And we could not because, and this was, there were still some covid rules going on. So the only way we could do a barbecue for everybody was for the owner personally do the barbecue for 24 straight hours and individually package everybody's lunch that day.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. You can't replace that. We talked about paying your dues as ownership. You got to pay your dues. People must know you're willing to go to any portion of the company, and the culture starts building itself. You start getting people that genuinely believe in what's going on. And it's funny because it sounds like that takes a lot of time to do something like that. Would you instead spend time connecting with those employees by having something fun like a barbecue they've probably never experienced in their career before?

       Or would you rather spend your time interviewing new candidates for jobs because you keep losing them? So when we build that strong culture, it gives us the time and the creativity to do new things because you're not spending all of your time trying to recruit and attract new people in a market where they're just really hard to find.

       Jason Azevedo: There's a famous Richard Branson quote that I, that we live by, and it's, people, ask me what if you invest all that money and time in people and they leave? What if you don't, and they stay? But it is a lot of work. Culture is a lot of work, and the reality is that manufacturing, specifically in every industry, loves to say we're in the people business. No. We are in the people business. We use more person-hours than pretty much any other

       industry. And the reality is manufacturing companies sell person-hours. So if you don't realize that your number one asset is the human, you'll be you won't get how the industry runs.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. There was another Richard Branson quote that I love, and I'm probably going to get the words wrong, but basically, he said, train your people so that they can leave, but treat them so that they won't.

       Because, like you just said, you're investing in your employees. You're giving them the tools and the resources to be better tomorrow than they are today.

       And when you treat them well so that they feel connected to...]]>d3e9b5e0-d657-45e1-8d94-b007a211a1ceMon, 24 Oct 2022 07:05:00 -040032:39falsefull241412Reducing Risk and Telling Stories in Manufacturing with Jonathan KlaneLisa 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. How exposed are we? An operator, let's say of a system that's got product moving past them, has to check if they're within touching distance of the operation. So they have a significant amount of exposure to that risk, probability, severity, what can happen, et cetera, et cetera.

       And as opposed to someone much further away, they have far less exposure to it. And thus far less probability. And some people embed exposure into the probability part of the equation. So perhaps the better analogy, and I'll use some risk perceptions for this as well, is biking, or the better example that many of us can relate to.

       I don't know. Do you bike by chance, or do you know how to bike?

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, and I make, I wear a helmet, and I make my husband wear a helmet. Much to his dismay.

       Jonathan Klane: I wear a helmet. I have no protection except the helmet. And in my skin, as we said. I've been hit by a car I've wiped out on my own. I don't know how many times my head has hit the pavement. I don't know how many times with a helmet on. It rings my bell, but I can always walk away because I've got that protection. So I perceive the risk, and I've taken the step where I think I have the most critical exposure to the hazard.

       Here's a good way of looking at it, Lisa. When I used to work at Arizona State, it was about a nine-mile bike commute. And one night, on the way home, on a major drag, a very big road university drive, I got hit by a car. So the police officer responded the guy drove away and never found them. And the police officer said you had the right of way, et cetera.

       So sorry. Glad you're okay and all. And the next day at work, I told a buddy of mine, Rick, and he said, John. You got to get off the major roads, right? There's just too much traffic, right? You're exposed to a lot more traffic at a lot higher speed. They're not paying attention. So you said get on the side roads where there's less traffic. They're going slower.

       Follow me home. I'll show you the way. All of a sudden, by changing my route, I could reduce all the risk factors, right? Exposure, probability, and to an extent, severity. Getting hit by a car going 45 is different from getting hit by a car going 25, right? Odds on. This how do I recognize the risk factors, and then how do I control them?

       Plant managers do health and safety. People do supervisors online. Maybe the maintenance crew does. I used to work with many maintenance crews in all sorts of manufacturing and other facilities, and one person will perceive risk differently from another. I live in Arizona, and we get dust storms. We had one last night. Now our shingles have been upset by the winds. Our shingles are going to be replaced. And the roofer was on the house, right? The guy was inspecting it, and we were joking back and forth, and he said it doesn't bother him in the least, right? But he's got a brother-in-law who is in law enforcement and has been shot twice.

       To each or their own, how do we perceive the risks? And we're, and the science speaks to this very clearly. We're very comfortable with the chances that we know that we take on ourselves willingly, not forced upon us. If I want to wear a mask for Covid, I feel okay about it. If someone makes me wear the mask and I'm resistant, I probably don't feel good about it. And if I'm doing it willingly, I don't see it as a considerable risk. If I'm being, if it's being forced on me, I'm probably going to assign it a negative. We call it a valance, but a value. And therefore, I think that there is a much greater risk. So the risk is about our human perceptions, which are incredibly subjective and vary tremendously.

       Lisa Ryan: When you said at the beginning, you're either safe, or you're not, that's black and white, where with the risk, there's a lot of grays thrown in there. And in the manufacturing, and I don't remember if this was an audience member or a podcast guest, but what they had implemented, I think they called them "gotcha" cards, something like that. So if they saw somebody participating in risky behavior, they called him on it. They said, Hey, you're at risk. The funny thing is the person I was talking to was the manager who implemented this program, and one of his employees busted him because he was unsafe on a ladder reaching for something and could have gotten in trouble.

       He could have gotten hurt as a result of it. And the manager was like, Yeah, of course. Give me a part because you legitimately caught and perhaps prevented me from getting hurt. When we look at the maintenance environment, we must create a safe environment where people don't feel like they're snitching. It's if nothing terrible happened, nothing bad is going to happen. There's this little, tiny chance that it's going to, And then are you going to feel bad because you didn't quote-unquote snitch on that person? But we're looking at keeping everybody safe.

       Jonathan Klane: And our brains are great, but they create heuristics mental shortcuts because our brain is about 2% of our body weight, but it consumes 20% of the energy we use. It's an energy hog. Fuel hog, but it's our brain. It needs it. Part of the way we've evolved is to create these mental shortcuts. They're called heuristics. And all sorts of stuff, right? And it's very subjective to us. So, it might be that a heuristic might be this operation has never hurt me. Therefore, it is safe. And not addressing the fact that odds have a way of catching up. I would bike and go through neighborhoods instead of on the major roads.

       I live on a grid system. Everything is 90 degrees off, but there are neighborhoods that I could cut through, so it lowered the risk, and I might...]]>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. How exposed are we? An operator, let's say of a system that's got product moving past them, has to check if they're within touching distance of the operation. So they have a significant amount of exposure to that risk, probability, severity, what can happen, et cetera, et cetera.

       And as opposed to someone much further away, they have far less exposure to it. And thus far less probability. And some people embed exposure into the probability part of the equation. So perhaps the better analogy, and I'll use some risk perceptions for this as well, is biking, or the better example that many of us can relate to.

       I don't know. Do you bike by chance, or do you know how to bike?

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, and I make, I wear a helmet, and I make my husband wear a helmet. Much to his dismay.

       Jonathan Klane: I wear a helmet. I have no protection except the helmet. And in my skin, as we said. I've been hit by a car I've wiped out on my own. I don't know how many times my head has hit the pavement. I don't know how many times with a helmet on. It rings my bell, but I can always walk away because I've got that protection. So I perceive the risk, and I've taken the step where I think I have the most critical exposure to the hazard.

       Here's a good way of looking at it, Lisa. When I used to work at Arizona State, it was about a nine-mile bike commute. And one night, on the way home, on a major drag, a very big road university drive, I got hit by a car. So the police officer responded the guy drove away and never found them. And the police officer said you had the right of way, et cetera.

       So sorry. Glad you're okay and all. And the next day at work, I told a buddy of mine, Rick, and he said, John. You got to get off the major roads, right? There's just too much traffic, right? You're exposed to a lot more traffic at a lot higher speed. They're not paying attention. So you said get on the side roads where there's less traffic. They're going slower.

       Follow me home. I'll show you the way. All of a sudden, by changing my route, I could reduce all the risk factors, right? Exposure, probability, and to an extent, severity. Getting hit by a car going 45 is different from getting hit by a car going 25, right? Odds on. This how do I recognize the risk factors, and then how do I control them?

       Plant managers do health and safety. People do supervisors online. Maybe the maintenance crew does. I used to work with many maintenance crews in all sorts of manufacturing and other facilities, and one person will perceive risk differently from another. I live in Arizona, and we get dust storms. We had one last night. Now our shingles have been upset by the winds. Our shingles are going to be replaced. And the roofer was on the house, right? The guy was inspecting it, and we were joking back and forth, and he said it doesn't bother him in the least, right? But he's got a brother-in-law who is in law enforcement and has been shot twice.

       To each or their own, how do we perceive the risks? And we're, and the science speaks to this very clearly. We're very comfortable with the chances that we know that we take on ourselves willingly, not forced upon us. If I want to wear a mask for Covid, I feel okay about it. If someone makes me wear the mask and I'm resistant, I probably don't feel good about it. And if I'm doing it willingly, I don't see it as a considerable risk. If I'm being, if it's being forced on me, I'm probably going to assign it a negative. We call it a valance, but a value. And therefore, I think that there is a much greater risk. So the risk is about our human perceptions, which are incredibly subjective and vary tremendously.

       Lisa Ryan: When you said at the beginning, you're either safe, or you're not, that's black and white, where with the risk, there's a lot of grays thrown in there. And in the manufacturing, and I don't remember if this was an audience member or a podcast guest, but what they had implemented, I think they called them "gotcha" cards, something like that. So if they saw somebody participating in risky behavior, they called him on it. They said, Hey, you're at risk. The funny thing is the person I was talking to was the manager who implemented this program, and one of his employees busted him because he was unsafe on a ladder reaching for something and could have gotten in trouble.

       He could have gotten hurt as a result of it. And the manager was like, Yeah, of course. Give me a part because you legitimately caught and perhaps prevented me from getting hurt. When we look at the maintenance environment, we must create a safe environment where people don't feel like they're snitching. It's if nothing terrible happened, nothing bad is going to happen. There's this little, tiny chance that it's going to, And then are you going to feel bad because you didn't quote-unquote snitch on that person? But we're looking at keeping everybody safe.

       Jonathan Klane: And our brains are great, but they create heuristics mental shortcuts because our brain is about 2% of our body weight, but it consumes 20% of the energy we use. It's an energy hog. Fuel hog, but it's our brain. It needs it. Part of the way we've evolved is to create these mental shortcuts. They're called heuristics. And all sorts of stuff, right? And it's very subjective to us. So, it might be that a heuristic might be this operation has never hurt me. Therefore, it is safe. And not addressing the fact that odds have a way of catching up. I would bike and go through neighborhoods instead of on the major roads.

       I live on a grid system. Everything is 90 degrees off, but there are neighborhoods that I could cut through, so it lowered the risk, and I might drive dozens, hundreds of times. I measured it because of the nature of what I do with risk and studying it that on like the 500th time, all of a sudden, there's a car coming in this place that there's never been a car before.

       But I might have been hit if I was not paying attention to it because I didn't expect the car. He didn't expect the biker. But after doing it hundreds and hundreds of. It finally happened, and I remembered my dad telling me his story. So I wrote long-form creative nonfiction about it.

       My dad said, Hey, Johnny, now that you've got a ten-speed bike, I was a kid. You got to remember something. I said, What's that, dad? He said there's always someone coming. And it's like gun safety. The gun's always loaded, right? You're biking around neighborhoods; you're not paying close attention. There's always someone coming. And the other one my dad would use. I don't know where he got all these things. I'm pretty sure he didn't come up with them, right? But they were good. They lasted with me over the decades. Lisa, he said, Johnny, there's a lot of people in heaven who had the right of way. And it's just such a great, powerful metaphor, right?

       Lisa Ryan: And that's the thing. It only takes that one time. I think about what we just went through with the devastation from Hurricane Ian, and there were a whole bunch of people that evacuated who were probably mad because they evacuated and didn't need to.

       And then there's a whole bunch of other people who didn't evacuate, who wish they would've because they lost everything. So that's a thing we never know when that. An incident is going to happen. That changes everything. Or, like you just said, it causes us to go to heaven.

       Jonathan Klane: And it's about our consistent behaviors, habits, and even so, think that work teams are rituals. Like sports. . Sports figures, right? Like Nadal and so many different, different sports, right? Whether it's tennis, baseball, football, or whatever, they have rituals and excellent science.

       I just read another paper where rituals help our brain in putting us in the right frame of mind and preparing for what we're trying to do rituals. Don't mean anything. They don't have a physical construct, meaning they haven't changed something that's going to occur, but they have so much meaning to us.

       For instance, a wedding. A wedding isn't a legal mechanism. There's paperwork and legal stuff, but the wedding itself is a ritual that has tremendous value and meaning not just to the couple but to everyone involved. And they've even done studies to look at oxytocin levels, human love, and bonding chemical, and the closer people are to the people that matter the most.

       In the case of a wedding, a bride and a groom. Or two brides. Or two grooms. And they did oxytocin levels, and the closer they were to that, The higher the oxytocin levels. I think the quote was the bride's level was just off the chart. Her oxytocin level was like through the roof, so these habits that we got into my habit of biking on side roads helped protect me. But more significant than that, my writing that long-form story about biking risk, about conversations with my dad in episodes I had or witnessed, including my crashes and others that I helped take care of or tried to avert, caused the behavior change in me.

       That the writing of the stories and the meaning of the stories, and how powerful they were, caused me to reflect on whether I would wear earbuds and listen to music, which I loved to do. I remember it fondly, but because it was so meaningful in such an emotional way to write those stories. I realized I was driving up the risk by having earbuds where I couldn't hear traffic and by trying to see how fast I could get to work and time myself and see if I could beat my times.

       Those are risk-increasing behaviors, right? And so it was only through this self-storytelling that I could eliminate those behaviors. So we're back to the power of stories, which can be used for health and safety purposes.

       Lisa Ryan: And that's what I was going to do now because when I think about storytelling, and I think of manufacturing and specifically attracting people into manufacturing, opening up as a viable career path, part of that is bringing employees in, with the story.

       So what are some of the things you see regarding companies using stories? I know you've talked to many people in your Ph.D. research, but how are companies using accounts to attract new people and use them as an engagement tool to keep their people?

       Jonathan Klane: Absolutely. In so many ways. It's amazing to me how much I'm exposed to this. And it's a great question, Lisa. So just one example I've seen for several companies, including ours, LabX Media Group, that we have, instead of an employee handbook or manual, it's a playbook. And the playbook is about culture.

       You've probably seen this with a lot of your clients. I saw this with another local company here. I read through the entire playbook, and it tells the story of the culture because an employee wants to know what it will be like there. I understand the job because I've done similar jobs, but what do people like?

       What's the culture like? And the same thing goes for the company. They want to know about that person. So a great way of learning is to ask someone, so there's the usual question, Tell me a bit about yourself or whatever. And you and I were chatting a little bit before, and I shared the advice I had gotten, which I think is great, which is if you want the truth, don't control the answer.

       It's scary. You get the truth, and sometimes that's helpful. And there's good research on vulnerability, how we can bond and relate, and how people connect. So, a good question, instead of telling me about yourself, is, tell me a story.

       Tell me a story that has meaning for you. And stories are just such an excellent way to create meaning-making. Researchers consider them as meaning-making and sense-making tools. They allow us as the storyteller and the story receiver, listener, reader, and viewer to better understand the world around us as described, whatever that world is. And that story, real or fictional. It could be middle earth like Lord of the Rings, right? It can be outer space—Tattooine with Luke and Leia and all that stuff. And we have the willful suspension of disbelief where we're so wired for stories, Lisa, that we're willing to give up the reality and let ourselves be what's called transported into this story. The best thing a storyteller is looking for is that the viewer, reader, or listener feels like they're part of this story where time has a way of slipping away. So stories can be a great way for work groups.

       To better relate stories can be a great way for different groups to understand each other and for different people within a group, to understand their diverse perspectives and perceptions of the same situation. Maybe it was an incident. Perhaps it was a close call. What was going on? What was What were people doing at the time? So thinking and stories can be a great way. People can collaborate on a story. People can tell different stories about the same thing and tell each other, and then there's so much wonderful relatability to it and context and meaning-making that it can help make teams much more effective. If it's done well, it can also be done reasonably quickly. And I know this is something that you and Scott discussed to build psychological safety because stories are a great way to express one's vulnerabilities, which we all want to relate to. I think it also makes it easier for people to remember.

       Lisa Ryan: If you're, trying to share numbers and statistics and all of these things with your employees, they don't care. They don't remember it two seconds after they leave the meeting. But if you show them specifically a story that ties into what they're doing, the difference they're making, and what the increase means over something else. One of my favorite books is Bill Bryson's, a short history of nearly everything, and he talks about the size of the atom in a molecule. And he said that if you put a piece of paper next to the Empire State Building, that is the neutron of the atom compared to the size of the rest of it. In my whole life, I would never think of the size of an atom, but it was the story that he told me, and I read that book years ago. I just reread it because I like it so much. But yeah, that's the thing that makes a difference, that we remember stories, we don't know numbers, we don't remember percentages as such.

       Jonathan Klane: Oh. Yeah. You're getting it. So much of the research is almost as if you could be teaching this stuff, Lisa. ? It's been studied since, God, I think, the seventies. Eldon. Tell that we have all sorts of different memory aspects, but a couple includes semantic memory, which is, like you were saying, facts, figures, data, and statistics, which we, the brain, is not wired well to recall, easy to forget type stuff. And then we have something called episodic memory, which is obvious. It's about episodes. What's an episode? An episode is what life is. Life is stories. That's how we're wired, right? And stories are a wonderful way to get people to remember things.

       I did a study with others when I was at Arizona State, and it was whether or not humor or stories worked better in safety. And so in manufacturing, you got to do a lot of safety training, right? In this case, it was biomedical engineering students, and we had to do fire safety, lab safety, and biosafety three courses in seven class sections. So that's 21 courses every semester. That's a long, And I told the faculty person in charge, I. I don't know what's working. And she said they...]]>464d518c-25eb-43c6-ac86-96fe40c5fdbdMon, 17 Oct 2022 07:05:00 -040032:27falsefull240402Strategies to Fix the "Late Problem" in Manufacturing with Mark LillyLisa 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 to mind was, okay, supply chain, everybody's struggling with the supply chain. We can't get parts. They're sitting in ports in LA or whatever is go that whatever we've been seeing the last couple of years.

       How can people turn that around when many think that's just part of the process? It seems that if somebody could turn around, that would make them stand out from everybody else too. 

       Mark Lilly: Yeah. I think it's making folks look because even before all that happened, folks still struggled with getting their orders out on time.

       People realize this. So I think it's just bringing the shining a light even more. A lot of it can be helped internally. If they genuinely had visibility of when materials are coming in or even if they had the materials right now and also what their priorities should be based on the dependencies of what they're manufacturing and what jobs or work orders are through.

       Most are in danger of being late rather than trying to schedule things based on a due date. However, this is one of the things we find in a high-mix environment, and most scheduling programs or tools will attempt to prioritize your work on the due date, especially in a high-mix environment.

       You will have jobs that are due earlier. But that is less in danger of being late, just by how much work needs to happen on a job and whether it needs to go outside or back. So you could have a job that's due two months from now. That's much more in danger of being late today than if you don't get started on it than a job due even a week from now. 

       Lisa Ryan: So how would you even figure that out?

       Mark Lilly: That's a great question. And that's what we do. We work with whatever data they have, whether in an E R P system or not.

       And we bring that into an approach where we create an execution plan for every work order. So you can see how much work needs to be done or for the quantity you're making when the due date is. And then there's actually, and whether folks realize it or not, they're using a lot of buffer time.

       So when you ask somebody, Hey, what's, what lead time are you quoting your customers? They may say six weeks. And then you ask this, the follow-up question to that. Okay. Of that six weeks. How much time is actual production time, right? Touch time. That will be on a machine, or somebody will be explicitly adding value to it.

       And that's typically their estimates of the routing from this operation steps that need to get done. So you often find that on a six-week lead time job, the actual touch time is a fraction of that. Sometimes only a week, sometimes days. Sometimes even hours. So companies are using a fair amount of buffer time between the actual time that's going to be needed and the due date.

       So we consciously look at that. We work with the clients that say, is that, say, five weeks of buffer time? Is that working for you? Is that, is it too much? In which case, maybe we have an opportunity to reduce that, or perhaps it's even too little, and maybe you need to expand that a little bit, be conscious about how much buffer time you're putting in there.

       The dynamic is then that the execution plan will flex based on quantity. Which lead times, don't lead times a static type of information but should be flexing based upon the quantity. And then that also designates when you need materials upfront. And when that job should start.

       Okay. Now when the job should start is important because what the other thing we often find. Manufacturers have this idea in production that, you know, gee, as soon as we have material, let's get it out into production. Because then it'll come out the other side as quickly. And no, you don't want a flood WIP with too much work.

       There's a principle called Littles Law, which says that there are more things or items in a system. So the longer the time, any of those items will be in the system. A good example is simply a highway. I live in the DFW area. And as you can imagine, we've got certain five-lane highways during rush hour, and you come over the, over the on-ramp, right?

       All are brake lights. And, you're going to be on that strip of highway, say it's, for five miles for 20, 25 minutes because there are so many cars on that highway. The flip side is you come up in the middle of the day or at night. And everybody's flying by you these fewer cars; you're going to be on that strip of the highway for five minutes or less.

       The same way in a production environment. The more work orders, the more jobs, and material you send into production. There's so much traffic. The longer the wait times are going to be on each of the work centers. A more extended period each it's just going to take to get through. That's why there's a lot of expediting at the end of the month.

       So you don't want to starve production, but you want to control how much you send out. And when you do that, whatever is in production has the best chance to flow through its work centers as quickly as possible to shorten your lead time and get out faster. 

       Lisa Ryan: So that certainly sounds like some of the struggles manufacturers have with that traditional method of managing their production. But what are some of the other struggles that you're seeing that they're having when they're doing it the old way? 

       Mark Lilly: Sure. So one of the things with the traditional scheduling model is that you are running a computer program. So you have to run a computer algorithm to get your plan.

       So you try to set up your parameters as best you can. You run this computer program that you, some folks,...]]>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 to mind was, okay, supply chain, everybody's struggling with the supply chain. We can't get parts. They're sitting in ports in LA or whatever is go that whatever we've been seeing the last couple of years.

       How can people turn that around when many think that's just part of the process? It seems that if somebody could turn around, that would make them stand out from everybody else too. 

       Mark Lilly: Yeah. I think it's making folks look because even before all that happened, folks still struggled with getting their orders out on time.

       People realize this. So I think it's just bringing the shining a light even more. A lot of it can be helped internally. If they genuinely had visibility of when materials are coming in or even if they had the materials right now and also what their priorities should be based on the dependencies of what they're manufacturing and what jobs or work orders are through.

       Most are in danger of being late rather than trying to schedule things based on a due date. However, this is one of the things we find in a high-mix environment, and most scheduling programs or tools will attempt to prioritize your work on the due date, especially in a high-mix environment.

       You will have jobs that are due earlier. But that is less in danger of being late, just by how much work needs to happen on a job and whether it needs to go outside or back. So you could have a job that's due two months from now. That's much more in danger of being late today than if you don't get started on it than a job due even a week from now. 

       Lisa Ryan: So how would you even figure that out?

       Mark Lilly: That's a great question. And that's what we do. We work with whatever data they have, whether in an E R P system or not.

       And we bring that into an approach where we create an execution plan for every work order. So you can see how much work needs to be done or for the quantity you're making when the due date is. And then there's actually, and whether folks realize it or not, they're using a lot of buffer time.

       So when you ask somebody, Hey, what's, what lead time are you quoting your customers? They may say six weeks. And then you ask this, the follow-up question to that. Okay. Of that six weeks. How much time is actual production time, right? Touch time. That will be on a machine, or somebody will be explicitly adding value to it.

       And that's typically their estimates of the routing from this operation steps that need to get done. So you often find that on a six-week lead time job, the actual touch time is a fraction of that. Sometimes only a week, sometimes days. Sometimes even hours. So companies are using a fair amount of buffer time between the actual time that's going to be needed and the due date.

       So we consciously look at that. We work with the clients that say, is that, say, five weeks of buffer time? Is that working for you? Is that, is it too much? In which case, maybe we have an opportunity to reduce that, or perhaps it's even too little, and maybe you need to expand that a little bit, be conscious about how much buffer time you're putting in there.

       The dynamic is then that the execution plan will flex based on quantity. Which lead times, don't lead times a static type of information but should be flexing based upon the quantity. And then that also designates when you need materials upfront. And when that job should start.

       Okay. Now when the job should start is important because what the other thing we often find. Manufacturers have this idea in production that, you know, gee, as soon as we have material, let's get it out into production. Because then it'll come out the other side as quickly. And no, you don't want a flood WIP with too much work.

       There's a principle called Littles Law, which says that there are more things or items in a system. So the longer the time, any of those items will be in the system. A good example is simply a highway. I live in the DFW area. And as you can imagine, we've got certain five-lane highways during rush hour, and you come over the, over the on-ramp, right?

       All are brake lights. And, you're going to be on that strip of highway, say it's, for five miles for 20, 25 minutes because there are so many cars on that highway. The flip side is you come up in the middle of the day or at night. And everybody's flying by you these fewer cars; you're going to be on that strip of the highway for five minutes or less.

       The same way in a production environment. The more work orders, the more jobs, and material you send into production. There's so much traffic. The longer the wait times are going to be on each of the work centers. A more extended period each it's just going to take to get through. That's why there's a lot of expediting at the end of the month.

       So you don't want to starve production, but you want to control how much you send out. And when you do that, whatever is in production has the best chance to flow through its work centers as quickly as possible to shorten your lead time and get out faster. 

       Lisa Ryan: So that certainly sounds like some of the struggles manufacturers have with that traditional method of managing their production. But what are some of the other struggles that you're seeing that they're having when they're doing it the old way? 

       Mark Lilly: Sure. So one of the things with the traditional scheduling model is that you are running a computer program. So you have to run a computer algorithm to get your plan.

       So you try to set up your parameters as best you can. You run this computer program that you, some folks, may understand precisely what it's doing. Others may not. And then you get this list then of priorities from the program. And even if it's, there's no such thing as a perfect plan, but let's suppose you have a good plan. That gets to the reality of production, especially in a high-mix environment where things constantly change. Then something does change. Whether a customer calls and changes a due date, a tool breaks your best setup person doesn't show up.

       The beautiful plan you had now doesn't make sense anymore. So it's probably not worth very much, so we realized there needs to be a dynamic production method. It recognizes, acknowledges, and anticipates that change will constantly happen in a production environment.

       So instead of devising a plan and executing it based on that, we do what we do and use those. So an individual execution plan for every work order and job also calculates a real-time priority. And it's very simple using where we are today.

       And how much is remaining on the execution plan, whether it's all the work or just a portion? And then, how much time protection or buffer do we have left to our due date? We call that a threat level. So based on that ratio, How much in danger of being late is each one of your jobs?

       And we publish that in real time, out in production, so that everybody in every department and every work center on every machine can see and know precisely which job they need to work on. So what is the top priority regardless of the due date, right? Like because, as we described, there may be jobs that need your attention now that are due later rather than other jobs.

       Lisa Ryan: So how much do you think this is costing the average manufacturer to have this late problem happening? 

       Mark Lilly: That's a great question. As I mentioned, it's in the trillions on a macro level. When you ask most individual manufacturing companies, and if they're being honest, most will recognize that.

       Maybe in the eighties percentile in terms of on-time delivery. And many struggles with being in the sixties or seventies, even lower. So it's not easy, but you can imagine. And actually, we can pull their data in and show them what it would mean.

       To be able to ship, on the extreme, if they were, and they could do this math as well, certainly by looking at their backlog, if they were able to ship everything on time, what that would mean from a revenue standpoint. But knowing that they're not going to be, that 30% or even 20% of their orders will not make that deadline mark, they're going to fall into a later period.

       What is the financial impact of doing that? So you can imagine there's a tremendous opportunity if you can shift the bar even a little bit, so if you can go from 70 to 80 90 percentile, that change. So you're now shifting when you're going to be able to recognize that revenue, and it's a tremendous financial impact. 

       Lisa Ryan: So when manufacturers are shifting and going to that dynamic production method, what are some of the results they're seeing? 

       Mark Lilly: That's a great question. So there are three components, and I've touched on all of those in different ways. One is anticipating the variability. So have to make sure there's, you're acknowledging you're using a buffer today and talking about that. Where should that be? In terms of when we start jobs and when we need materials. So anticipating that variability using the proper priority.

       So instead of using the due date to schedule, use a risk level of how much in danger of being late. Or of having a stockout, if you're a make-to-stock tech company, are you that's the second one? And then the third is controlling WIP. So how much WIP do you see is once the method is in place and you're doing all three of those things, there's almost an immediate reduction in work and process.

       So if you are in a situation where, you know, and many manufacturers do just by walking out on the floor, they realize we've just got too much whip out here. Just so much an immediate reduction happens in just a few weeks. And that's a tremendous cost saving, right?

       So you can go to the cost accountant or the CFO of the company and ask them how much WIP are you carrying right now. And with this approach, we can reduce that in very short order. So do the math 30%, even 40% of your whip gone within a few weeks.

       That's a tremendous cost saving. But the bigger part is getting work out faster with the resources, the machines, and the people you're already using or paying for today. And now that becomes a contribution margin in the equation or some call that a throughput dollars equation. With our toolset, you can see this as well. Financially. You can see if I was, if I'm doing things the way I'm doing, now I can see how many dollars I will be able to ship. But if I could make these improvements or get things out faster, how much more in a given period would I be able to ship boats from a revenue standpoint, but even more powerful contribution? The neat thing about contribution margin is that any additive contribution margin you can bring in a given period goes right to the bottom line. So it's a direct profit increase for the company. So it's a very powerful lever to help a company grow and improve its finances.

       Lisa Ryan: When you have a high mix manufacturer and face it, nobody has enough time to do anything today. Everybody's plates are overflowing. So how would you even start prioritizing as far as figuring out your most significant risks and knowing where to start? 

       Mark Lilly: That's a great question. And companies are in different stages of being able to implement something like this, right? So we go into some companies that already have an E R P in all their routings and data or are pretty, pretty accurate. So they reflect how production is happening, and we can tie in, but they may still struggle with its scheduling components or material visibility.

       We can tie in very quickly. And within a few short weeks, they can get those priorities. We talked about other companies in the future, and I've been in several of them even recently where they don't. They may have a system, but whatever data is in there, they don't believe it either. So here's how production happens.

       Maybe those routings were set up from a costing standpoint, accounting used, but when you get out to the shop floor, that's not how material flows. So they need to rework those. And then there are dependencies, often manufacturers who make the complex product where sub-assemblies are involved.

       So are those sub-assemblies specifically for a parent? So they need to be aligned very tightly, or are they common parts, common sub-assemblies that maybe even need to be stocked, in which case they also need to be aligned, but a little bit differently to make sure they're going to match whatever the first parent is, that's going to need them.

       So, that does need to be looked at. The good news is. Now we can't create data out of magic, but most folks have it in their heads or often have it on spreadsheets. That's what we usually see where folks have struggled with the traditional scheduling model. They have scheduled in their E R P.

       They may have even purchased a bolt-on. But, unfortunately, they've just struggled with it, and they revert to spreadsheets. So the good news is we can use those spreadsheets as a data source to help them move forward in this direction. Is there some trigger or sign or something to pay attention to that? 

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. This is an issue that we need. Take care of it right away. Is there a timeframe or anything again that would be like that siren that, Hey, this is something you should be paying attention to right now? What does that look like? 

       Mark Lilly: Yeah. If companies aren't already monitoring or measuring, they're on time delivery percentage. So they're not formally doing that. There are likely a few folks in the company who know how good or not that is undoubtedly sales customer service. And that's where the issue arises with customer relationship management, whether it's an existing customer complaining about not meeting the due dates they had established. Or not being able to win new business because of the lead time. If you're being honest and quoting a lead time, it may be longer than some of your competitors.

       Lisa Ryan: And face it, nobody on the planet likes change. So if you're bringing this kind of change into a manufacturing plant, how do you get buy-in from the employees to let them know that this isn't one more program, that it will fail in the next couple of weeks, or that this is going to help them? How do you incorporate the system so everybody sees the value and benefit? 

       Mark Lilly: That is a great question. And a critical question. So typically, we don't get to the point where there's a financial commitment from the client to move forward without at least introducing this to production and getting some in that regard.

       But to your point, We have encountered situations. For example, we've got a modern machine shop article about keeping schedules on track. About that, that very point. We implemented this. We got management's buy-in. We had the big screen TVs and the workstations in production, showing the real-time priorities.

       Everything was wonderful. And eight weeks went by, and management said nothing had changed. We're still on time. Delivery is the same. Our WIP seems to be the same. So we did a deeper dive and realized we hadn't gotten buy-in from the production folks.

       They were still using their old message on a piece of paper,...]]>4f4ae6a3-6b9d-460a-874c-5ee0eda8eec2Mon, 10 Oct 2022 07:05:00 -040025:20falsefull239392Changing the Conversation about Manufacturing to Attract Next Gen Workers with Jim Ver WoertLisa 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 relevant while giving them some money. But then again, addressing their need for spending time outside of work. So do you have examples or specific stories where you've seen that work? 

       Jim Ver Woert: Yeah, I have one, I won't mention the name, but they're down the road from me here. They, I call it the Monday morning factor. They offered a bunch of early retirements because COVID really put into warp speed. A lot of these practices gave employees early retirement. Let's cut the budget. Back then, no one knew what was happening and then what the long-term effects were going to be.

       But they found out one of the immediate effects. They had let the wrong person go on Friday. And literally, on Monday morning, they were standing there trying to figure something out. Nobody knew how to do it because the person that knew how to do it was already retired. So that's, that's just the reality that we went through.

       Now, one thing that we have started helping customers with is, first of all, raising that awareness. And look at your pipeline of your employees. And look at that retirement pipeline - who's coming up in the next six months, year, two years? What is their skill set? What do they do? Are they in that a department of ten people that all do the same one person with that specific tribal knowledge that's getting ready to retire?

       But I've literally gotten those phone calls three or four years later. Hey, Jim, we got so and so retiring at the end of October. Can you folks get in here and help us capture as much as possible from this person before they walk out the door? 

       Lisa Ryan: And it makes them feel relevant regarding the knowledge they're bringing, but then they're, you're really cutting down the learning. From the people coming up who don't necessarily know the history of why that job is being done that way, they're getting to hear it from an expert. 

       Jim Ver Woert: Absolutely. You just hit on a very critical point - the whys behind something. We do so many things in our daily lives that become second nature. But, not knowing the whys behind things, why are we approaching this part at this certain entry angle? Why are we changing the tool at this point and not going another ten parts, all these things? And that's something that can get lost in a black-and-white world. There's AI. Robots and all these things are fantastic, but there's still that human element.

       Some parts are just irreplaceable until you do that mentoring or that one-on-one O J T or that training of the whys and the tribal knowledge to fully comprehend and understand and be able to produce a good part and continue. 

       Lisa Ryan: So mentoring is another big area to do that where you're putting together your tenured employees and maybe your new kids on the block coming in and have them build those relationships and learn from each other. There could also be some reverse mentoring going on, with the younger folks being able to share their thoughts about technology and apps and the things that they're seeing. So again, let's look at and talk about mentoring for a couple of minutes. What are some of the best practices that you are seeing manufacturers do?

       Jim Ver Woert: Yeah, that's a great question. And you hit on a great point, too, that multi-generational mentoring, there's sometimes the more seasoned workforce, if you will, is not as familiar with technology as the younger workforce is. And if they could learn just a few little tricks or implement just a few things and apply them to their job, it would make their job much easier, faster, and quicker.

       But they've never had anybody they've been able to talk to and develop a relationship with. And the same goes the other way where, the whys, why do I have to manually do this when I can just punch a couple of numbers on my phone or punch a couple of numbers here?

       Certain things must be done a certain way to explain that and develop those mentoring relationships. And not only that, it's a passing of the guard, if you will. It's cultural, on a more personal level, to develop that sense of pride and that sense of workmanship and craftsmanship that so many of our seasoned workforce have developed. I call it the good old American know-how.

       Let's try to try to define that in one sentence. There are examples all across the country. I'll never forget one time, in my former job, there was a foundry that I called on. They made castings for the aerospace industry and the US military, and the guy kept telling me these are handcrafted castings. And I was like, what do you mean? What do you mean they're handcrafted? So he said they poured the castings and cut off the risers and the gate. So they do all this stuff but then take it to their shop. And by hand, they sand it here, and they sand it there, and they do this, and they do that.

       And then, there are different kinds of wood and various places in the castings and all these processes that took years, if not decades, to perfect. And that has to be a mentoring environment to pass that kind of craftsmanship onto the next generation. 

       Lisa Ryan: And it works when that person shares the passion for it. You could hear that passion coming through just in you relating that story. It's castings, for goodness sake, but there was so much pride in what went into that process that a newer worker is coming when somebody is mentoring. And conveying some of that, listen, I've done this.

       You can do it too, and it will not happen overnight. So we will work together, and I will try to shortcut the process but let you experience some of that success. I think that too many times in...]]>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 relevant while giving them some money. But then again, addressing their need for spending time outside of work. So do you have examples or specific stories where you've seen that work? 

       Jim Ver Woert: Yeah, I have one, I won't mention the name, but they're down the road from me here. They, I call it the Monday morning factor. They offered a bunch of early retirements because COVID really put into warp speed. A lot of these practices gave employees early retirement. Let's cut the budget. Back then, no one knew what was happening and then what the long-term effects were going to be.

       But they found out one of the immediate effects. They had let the wrong person go on Friday. And literally, on Monday morning, they were standing there trying to figure something out. Nobody knew how to do it because the person that knew how to do it was already retired. So that's, that's just the reality that we went through.

       Now, one thing that we have started helping customers with is, first of all, raising that awareness. And look at your pipeline of your employees. And look at that retirement pipeline - who's coming up in the next six months, year, two years? What is their skill set? What do they do? Are they in that a department of ten people that all do the same one person with that specific tribal knowledge that's getting ready to retire?

       But I've literally gotten those phone calls three or four years later. Hey, Jim, we got so and so retiring at the end of October. Can you folks get in here and help us capture as much as possible from this person before they walk out the door? 

       Lisa Ryan: And it makes them feel relevant regarding the knowledge they're bringing, but then they're, you're really cutting down the learning. From the people coming up who don't necessarily know the history of why that job is being done that way, they're getting to hear it from an expert. 

       Jim Ver Woert: Absolutely. You just hit on a very critical point - the whys behind something. We do so many things in our daily lives that become second nature. But, not knowing the whys behind things, why are we approaching this part at this certain entry angle? Why are we changing the tool at this point and not going another ten parts, all these things? And that's something that can get lost in a black-and-white world. There's AI. Robots and all these things are fantastic, but there's still that human element.

       Some parts are just irreplaceable until you do that mentoring or that one-on-one O J T or that training of the whys and the tribal knowledge to fully comprehend and understand and be able to produce a good part and continue. 

       Lisa Ryan: So mentoring is another big area to do that where you're putting together your tenured employees and maybe your new kids on the block coming in and have them build those relationships and learn from each other. There could also be some reverse mentoring going on, with the younger folks being able to share their thoughts about technology and apps and the things that they're seeing. So again, let's look at and talk about mentoring for a couple of minutes. What are some of the best practices that you are seeing manufacturers do?

       Jim Ver Woert: Yeah, that's a great question. And you hit on a great point, too, that multi-generational mentoring, there's sometimes the more seasoned workforce, if you will, is not as familiar with technology as the younger workforce is. And if they could learn just a few little tricks or implement just a few things and apply them to their job, it would make their job much easier, faster, and quicker.

       But they've never had anybody they've been able to talk to and develop a relationship with. And the same goes the other way where, the whys, why do I have to manually do this when I can just punch a couple of numbers on my phone or punch a couple of numbers here?

       Certain things must be done a certain way to explain that and develop those mentoring relationships. And not only that, it's a passing of the guard, if you will. It's cultural, on a more personal level, to develop that sense of pride and that sense of workmanship and craftsmanship that so many of our seasoned workforce have developed. I call it the good old American know-how.

       Let's try to try to define that in one sentence. There are examples all across the country. I'll never forget one time, in my former job, there was a foundry that I called on. They made castings for the aerospace industry and the US military, and the guy kept telling me these are handcrafted castings. And I was like, what do you mean? What do you mean they're handcrafted? So he said they poured the castings and cut off the risers and the gate. So they do all this stuff but then take it to their shop. And by hand, they sand it here, and they sand it there, and they do this, and they do that.

       And then, there are different kinds of wood and various places in the castings and all these processes that took years, if not decades, to perfect. And that has to be a mentoring environment to pass that kind of craftsmanship onto the next generation. 

       Lisa Ryan: And it works when that person shares the passion for it. You could hear that passion coming through just in you relating that story. It's castings, for goodness sake, but there was so much pride in what went into that process that a newer worker is coming when somebody is mentoring. And conveying some of that, listen, I've done this.

       You can do it too, and it will not happen overnight. So we will work together, and I will try to shortcut the process but let you experience some of that success. I think that too many times in manufacturing, we don't give people enough. Enough credit for their pride and what they do because they're pieces, parts, and components.

       We think they're doing the same thing every day, but it's magic when you find the right people, and they love what they do. 

       Jim Ver Woert: It really is. And it becomes a family. I'll never forget a shop on the west side of Des Moines that I used to visit. This was a group of guys and gals whose number one goal was to be able to do things that all the other shops in the area could not. That was the work they wanted so that they could carry that banner higher than anybody else.

       And pat themselves on the back and fist pump and high-five each other at the end of the day. And it was a magical place to be in sometimes because when they got the secret sauce and cracked the code, I tell you what it was. So it was quite a special moment.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. And that's the thing, and you can feel culture. You can walk into any plant just by walking there and feeling the energy. Do people like working here? Do they not like working there? So not only from a customer standpoint but if you're interviewing applicants with a culture that doesn't feel good, there's no way they're accepting your job offer.

       Jim Ver Woert: Exactly. Exactly. And people pick up on that. People pick up on that. 

       Lisa Ryan: So we've talked a lot about the more tenured workforce and the fact that we're losing them. But we also have to look at the opposite end of the scale of attracting more people into manufacturing, changing the conversations so that parents, guidance counselors, and the public generally realize what a great career path is.

       So when it comes to the training solutions, what do you see that world-class manufacturers are doing? What are some of the things that they're implementing? 

       Jim Ver Woert: Yeah. Great question and great point. You mentioned parents and guidance counselors. That's precisely where it was at another large aviation company. The vice president said, if we don't get them at the junior high level or before, we've already lost them, and that's just critical, and it's literally retraining our culture.

       Here in the United States, and with all due respect to college graduates, that's great. We need them, but I think everybody could agree that not every single person that's drawn a breath of air is queued up and ready and a good fit to go to a four-year college. So just being able to give them options and letting them see different career pathways at an early age is critical. 

       I sit on a board at a local high school with a great shop. They have about eight welding booths. They have a lay of the mill and a plasma cutting table. And when I go to those meetings a couple of times a year to listen to those instructors, talk about their students and the things that excite those students where they got their first small 3d printer.

       And they let them pick whatever they wanted to print, like a small airplane or a small guitar pick or whatever their passion was, go ahead and do that. And boy, those kids were walking up and down the hallways of the school, showing them off to all their friends, saying, Hey look, what I made I had, of course, had to program it, had to get the machine set and do all these things. It really energized him. I think it's that energy, that spirit we were talking about before. Capturing that and generating that in the younger generation is essential. Because again, and excuse me if I'm going on and on. I remember going to Southern Wisconsin for training in my former job and hearing about all the shop classes, high schools, and community colleges closing left and right. And that's such a heavy German, industrial part of the country. So many German tool companies are headquartered there in the Milwaukee area. And to hear that it's just really a cultural blow to our country.

       So I think the good news is you're doing things like this. Those conversations are happening. There are people like Mike Rowe talking out there on a higher, even bigger stage, maybe just raising this awareness and engaging anybody and everybody that'll listen. We need manufacturing for security, safety, and services that our people are accustomed to.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. In high school, I took both wood shop and metal shop. Primarily because I didn't want to take home EC, it was just fun, and you're right. And then, for years, all those programs disappeared, and it is so nice to see them returning. Our community college here in Cleveland, Cuyahoga Community College, has a whole manufacturing technology Center.

       We're starting to see the schools that are opening up. But, still, you made a significant point that if you don't get them by junior high, you've lost them because that's the generation that's coming into the workforce now that by the time they graduate high school, they already have an idea of what they're going to do.

       So using things like manufacturing day, the first Friday in October, and trying to get into the schools talking to people, talking to parents, doing plant tours. I was just at a facility a couple of weeks ago. And when I was pulling into the parking lot, they had all of their signs, join our team, great hours, great work culture. And the thing that, of all the signs, the one that gets the most action is, "work with your hands." So they have a billboard that says if you want to work with your hands, join us. Because there's something that immediate gratification of being able to create something of being able to see, this is what I made. And you're right. Why go to a four-year college if you're not cut out for it and come out with all that student loan debt and flip burgers? 

       Jim Ver Woert: Can I share some stories from the road? 

       Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. 

       Jim Ver Woert: To highlight this. And again, it's to, to no fault of their own. I always joked about myself when I started in this industry. I didn't know the difference between an end mill and a windmill. Cause you don't know what you don't know. And it's not your fault. But I'll never forget. I drove through South Carolina four years ago and listened to one of the local radio stations. The University of South Carolina studied high school students in the state and concluded that around 80% of high school students did not know how to change a light bulb. Why? Because they've never had to do it before. I'm sure their parents love them dearly. I'm sure they would do anything for them, but I think sometimes parents might do a little too much for children.

       Go ahead. How do you think we should change that light bulb? What do you think? Maybe turn it off. Let it cool down for a little bit. So when you touch it, it's not hot going back to some of that tribal knowledge to some of that mentoring, you know why you have to do this. So there's one story.

       The other story is that I got this in many places. One of the first things they would do when they were looking to hire an applicant is to give them a tape measure and ask them, "Show me five and three quarters." They didn't. They had no idea what they were saying because they'd never held to take measure in their entire life.

       And the last one was the screwdrivers. They had some new maintenance, younger people, and they were talking amongst themselves, and they said, oh, that's not the minus. That's the plus screwdriver. Wow. That's a description for Flathead and Phillips. 

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. That just highlights what we were talking about earlier - the need and opportunity ahead of us. The good news is that the only place we can go is up now.

       It's just so funny you say that because my dad had his wood shop in the basement while I was growing up. I can't tell you how many hours down there. I'd be down there watching him look at the tool, work with the tools, and stuff like that. And just things that you take for granted.

       I had one of the guests on my show a while ago, Miranda Martz, who I actually met at ToolingU. Her dad fixed cars, and she would go and watch her dad, and fix cars along with him. And just that little thing is what decided her whole career. So that's a thing. Maybe parents aren't necessarily changing their oil and stuff, but getting your kids involved in your hobbies, what you're passionate about, looking for ways to introduce them, changing a tire. Now, mind you, I know how to change a tire. I just have AAA. So I choose not to.

       I think about light bulbs. It's like these things blow out once every ten years. So none of us are really changing light bulbs that often. But it's the point of just knowing the necessities and exposing kids at as young of an age as possible because there's going to be a small percentage of them that are going to say, that's what I want to do.

       Jim Ver Woert: I will say the good news is the, I think, what is it, the gen Z this latest generation is taking the bull by the horn. There's some really good interest being generated. So maybe we're already generating some interest and lighten that spark and thank the good Lord that's happening because manufacturing is so important and critical to our country. Especially in this day and age, you don't want to depend on other countries.

       I won't name any names for things that are just important, medicine, food, shelter, energy. There's so much that goes into us. Just being able to live a good life comes from the manufacturing industry. I'll never forget one of the best t-shirts I saw "And on the eighth day, God created tool and die makers."

       There you go, just let that set and sizzle for]]>be84fdf5-d0f4-42f8-b796-7ec13452b334Mon, 03 Oct 2022 07:05:00 -040026:11falsefull238382Maximizing Manufacturing Revenues with Rebates with Mark GilhamLisa 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 where you, as a manufacturer, are working hard but without the return you want. And that's one scenario, another where say, the margin isn't as important. It could just be a simplistic growth incentive.

       For example, our customers spend for last year, add a certain percent to it or do it on, on, on a volume basis and incentivize them for growth. And you can tier that as well, that as their growth keeps going, they keep getting more rebates. And the beauty of both schemes is that it is also building loyalty.

       There's a secondary benefit. These are typically annual terms, meaning the customer will spend with you all year. And then, at the end of the year, you will give them cash, but my advice would always be to pay credit notes. So you put a credit on their account for this rebate, which they then got to spend with you again through the credit.

       There are quite a few benefits. First, your customer is getting what they want, which is always crucial. You're already giving them excellent service, but this is now giving them control over their pricing. And you are getting what you want. You are either influencing your mix or your volumes and incentivizing loyalty.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, that certainly sounds like you're developing relationships because everybody likes to get a nice check or a nice rebate at the end of a year. I know we have Costco in the United States here, and we look forward to that rebate check we get every year. But I liked what you said too, about the opportunity to sell a wider variety of products to get more of your product line. Because often, customers may not even know that you carry that one product because they've been buying the other thing for you for a long time. That gives you additional opportunity to penetrate that customer with more and more products and, as you say, builds some nice loyalty there.

       Mark Gilham: I think people don't realize how rebates are part of our everyday life, whether it's I see point schemes as a form of a rebate, anything where you are incentivized to do something, and then you receive something retrospectively as a reward for me is a form of a rebate type arrangement.

       And all the big retailers have been using them for decades. And clearly, they're doing. They're achieving something for themselves. And yeah, there is something, as you say, about seeing how you are performing and stretching yourself to that net next tier. And if I put the boots on the other foot here as a distributor as the.

       We would sit through multiple meetings in the latter part of the year and look at all our trading relationships with our manufacturers and say, where have we got an opportunity to spend a load of money and earn more rebate? And the manufacturers aren't even their salespeople aren't even having to come into our office.

       We're proactively discussing how we can spend more money without a manufacturer. And to add to that, we're then bringing in our sales teams and saying we're about to spend twice as much with this manufacturer as we usually would because it will make us this tremendous sum.

       We're going to take half about six big of sum, and we're going to throw that into a sales promotion. So how do we all work together? And then we knock on the manufacturer's door and say, Hey, good news. We're about to spend a load of money with you. And that, for me, is what these things are about. And like you say, we are just looking forward to that reward.

       Lisa Ryan: Now, how would you start the conversation? Because, as I said, we're from a consumer standpoint, I understand rebates because for Discover Card, that's how they built their whole reputation with 2% cash back. But how do you structure the conversation when you're in a business relationship with people so you're promoting the benefit and it doesn't sound icky, or it doesn't sound like a bribe? Ooh, if you buy this, I'm going to give you this. How would you get into that conversation? that you're going, that win, win that you've been talking about?

       Mark Gilham: Sure. I think what's important is understanding what your client wants. Then, in going into that conversation, what you want. And I believe in most business or negotiations; there is a negotiation. And for me, that's where rebates play well. I'd be surprised if they don't always knock on your door and ask for a lower price. You can offer them that lower price using a rebate.

       You can say we can't just give something out, nothing, but if you do X, Y, and Z, we can get you to that price. So for me, they're an alternative to saying no, they the other thing as well is I think in the modern world of transparency, it's essential to be open and genuine with your customer.

       More recently, it was packaging material. This company was developing an Ecoline that's good for the environment. And they came and knocked on it and said, we'd like you to buy or this Ecoline, but surprise price is higher. And we're sat there going; you know what, we want to be green. We want these, our eco credentials. But we don't want to damage our profitability in the process. How can we do this? And that's where that ratio element came in. They said okay, let's start slowly. But they didn't want to discount the range because what if they'd have discounted their eco range to make it credible or competitive?

       Should I say it's challenging to recover from that you've created a pricing point or a price perception in your product's market? Whereas the net price is subtly arranged behind the scenes. It is about understanding what each side wants and working toward that narrative.

       Lisa Ryan: And it...]]>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 where you, as a manufacturer, are working hard but without the return you want. And that's one scenario, another where say, the margin isn't as important. It could just be a simplistic growth incentive.

       For example, our customers spend for last year, add a certain percent to it or do it on, on, on a volume basis and incentivize them for growth. And you can tier that as well, that as their growth keeps going, they keep getting more rebates. And the beauty of both schemes is that it is also building loyalty.

       There's a secondary benefit. These are typically annual terms, meaning the customer will spend with you all year. And then, at the end of the year, you will give them cash, but my advice would always be to pay credit notes. So you put a credit on their account for this rebate, which they then got to spend with you again through the credit.

       There are quite a few benefits. First, your customer is getting what they want, which is always crucial. You're already giving them excellent service, but this is now giving them control over their pricing. And you are getting what you want. You are either influencing your mix or your volumes and incentivizing loyalty.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, that certainly sounds like you're developing relationships because everybody likes to get a nice check or a nice rebate at the end of a year. I know we have Costco in the United States here, and we look forward to that rebate check we get every year. But I liked what you said too, about the opportunity to sell a wider variety of products to get more of your product line. Because often, customers may not even know that you carry that one product because they've been buying the other thing for you for a long time. That gives you additional opportunity to penetrate that customer with more and more products and, as you say, builds some nice loyalty there.

       Mark Gilham: I think people don't realize how rebates are part of our everyday life, whether it's I see point schemes as a form of a rebate, anything where you are incentivized to do something, and then you receive something retrospectively as a reward for me is a form of a rebate type arrangement.

       And all the big retailers have been using them for decades. And clearly, they're doing. They're achieving something for themselves. And yeah, there is something, as you say, about seeing how you are performing and stretching yourself to that net next tier. And if I put the boots on the other foot here as a distributor as the.

       We would sit through multiple meetings in the latter part of the year and look at all our trading relationships with our manufacturers and say, where have we got an opportunity to spend a load of money and earn more rebate? And the manufacturers aren't even their salespeople aren't even having to come into our office.

       We're proactively discussing how we can spend more money without a manufacturer. And to add to that, we're then bringing in our sales teams and saying we're about to spend twice as much with this manufacturer as we usually would because it will make us this tremendous sum.

       We're going to take half about six big of sum, and we're going to throw that into a sales promotion. So how do we all work together? And then we knock on the manufacturer's door and say, Hey, good news. We're about to spend a load of money with you. And that, for me, is what these things are about. And like you say, we are just looking forward to that reward.

       Lisa Ryan: Now, how would you start the conversation? Because, as I said, we're from a consumer standpoint, I understand rebates because for Discover Card, that's how they built their whole reputation with 2% cash back. But how do you structure the conversation when you're in a business relationship with people so you're promoting the benefit and it doesn't sound icky, or it doesn't sound like a bribe? Ooh, if you buy this, I'm going to give you this. How would you get into that conversation? that you're going, that win, win that you've been talking about?

       Mark Gilham: Sure. I think what's important is understanding what your client wants. Then, in going into that conversation, what you want. And I believe in most business or negotiations; there is a negotiation. And for me, that's where rebates play well. I'd be surprised if they don't always knock on your door and ask for a lower price. You can offer them that lower price using a rebate.

       You can say we can't just give something out, nothing, but if you do X, Y, and Z, we can get you to that price. So for me, they're an alternative to saying no, they the other thing as well is I think in the modern world of transparency, it's essential to be open and genuine with your customer.

       More recently, it was packaging material. This company was developing an Ecoline that's good for the environment. And they came and knocked on it and said, we'd like you to buy or this Ecoline, but surprise price is higher. And we're sat there going; you know what, we want to be green. We want these, our eco credentials. But we don't want to damage our profitability in the process. How can we do this? And that's where that ratio element came in. They said okay, let's start slowly. But they didn't want to discount the range because what if they'd have discounted their eco range to make it credible or competitive?

       Should I say it's challenging to recover from that you've created a pricing point or a price perception in your product's market? Whereas the net price is subtly arranged behind the scenes. It is about understanding what each side wants and working toward that narrative.

       Lisa Ryan: And it also sounds like it brings in the element of fairness because you can justify why I heard this person got this pricing. It's no. We're getting the same. You're getting the same price, but because of the quantity they're buying and the rebate they're receiving, they're doing it.

       It gives you that justification instead. Somebody thought they got a higher price because they didn't negotiate as well as the other company. Would that play a part in it? Am I reading that right?

       Mark Gilham: Yeah. And I think this is where you can empower your clients to be in charge of their own pricing.

       We've encountered scenarios before where one of the most where you get the most friction in a negotiation is right at the start. When you talk about the price because as much as the client can promise volume, you never know if it's genuinely going to be achieved, and the seller does not want to give the discount because they haven't got the volume yet.

       And the buyer doesn't want to buy anything because they haven't got the price they want yet. Whereas you, with a rebate, can take it away. You can tell them that you promise me if you deliver the volume. You will get this price, which is the price. Hopefully, you are asking for it. If you do even more volume, it gets cheaper.

       If you do less volume, it gets more expensive. What it does is it allows related pricing in volume. Driven relationships to be dynamic without having to have awkward and challenging conversations. 

       Lisa Ryan: And especially at the beginning of a relationship when the two have not built trust yet. Both are trying to think that the other is trying to take advantage of them, where you had mentioned earlier about that level of transparency and putting it out there and making it easy for them to understand that they can see how this is more of a win.

       Mark Gilham: Yeah. And it comes back to that word again, that transparency.

       It is critical in modern supply chains that both sides work together and collaborate for mutual benefits.

       Lisa Ryan: have you seen other ways these B2B rebates improve margins and drive revenue from manufacturers? Yes.

       Mark Gilham: If we look to another real-world scenario at Enable, we had a case where a business didn't have any rebates.

       And yet they came to a rebate management software provider and said, Hey guys, we don't have rebates, but we're thinking about having some, but we're not quite sure how they can benefit our business, but somebody has told us rebates will help. So I was brought in, and they explained the scenario.

       The scenario for them as they had two different types of customers, and those customers were competing with each other and driving the value of their product down because one customer bought in bulk and had a lower price. And the other customer bought in single units at a higher price. They had different prices.

       The one who bought in bought did have a lower net price. And the suggestion there was you, what you could do is you could increase the invoice price of the one who buys in bulk and give them that back as a rebate. So on the face of it, both sides are paying the same amount. Because in many B2B worlds, many people in charge of pricing tend to be cost-plus.

       If you affect that cost without restricting it to trading, you can stop that kind of that competition. Hopefully, any manufacturer agrees that the more money your customer can make from their product, the better it is to be you because the less likely they will come knocking on the door, wanting it cheaper.

       Your customers getting into pricing competitions is the last thing you do. So that was a real example of rebates used in a scenario where it was just leveling the playing field at the front end but rewarding at the back end. And I suppose; secondly, another good one is new product ranges.

       If you've got a new product range, again, you can go with the discounting option and push it out at a lower price. But the danger is that the market never then recovers from that initial price point, or what you can do is incentivize using rebates to try. What you can do with the rebate is it doesn't just have to reward what you bought in that range.

       It could reward all the customers spend. Again, looking at that 25% ratio, you can tell your customer that if you buy X of this, I'll give you an extra 2% back on everything. You can make it quite appealing. I think the key always is to do the math and make sure you're happy with it, but the good thing amount of rebate is that you know what you're going to pay out because if you've done all the maths, they should always be rewarding.

       And yeah, self-funding scheme. And they can be undone. Whereas a discount is harder to undo once somebody's paid the price, rebates the following year, you can renegotiate the rebate structure and say it was 25%. For example, we now want it to be 30% in this ratio.

       Lisa Ryan: And again, it goes back to that loyalty because if somebody knows that they have a significant rebate coming from you from the business they've done with you. They continue to be happy with the product, service, and everything else they're getting; the chance of them going elsewhere seems to decrease.

       Yeah. It makes you very sticky as and I think, being completely honest, there were manufacturers in my last role at Grafton that we probably would've moved away from. But, still, we couldn't because we were in this kind of rebate circle where rebates were that rewarding tool, so when we had paid them out, we had to keep spending to spend them through.

       At that point, we'd already earned another round of rebates that we didn't want to forfeit. So it creates a stickiness, but it's a positive stickiness. It is rather than a threat. It's a reward, if that makes sense.

       Lisa Ryan: if somebody was intrigued by the idea of rebates but has no idea how to get started or what types of products would be suitable, to begin with? How does somebody even consider, with a wide range of products that they manufacture, how they could start offering rebates or getting involved in a rebate program?

       Mark Gilham: I think that there are two sides to that. I think the first is I would always recommend keeping it simple to start with and do not offer if you've never worked with VH before, don't offer them to every customer, like a couple of customers, some simple agreements.

       And monitor, understand what you're expecting, and you can monitor if the customer's mix is currently at 23% and you've incentivized them to go to 25, you can monitor that. You can see if it's working. Is the reward big enough for what you're trying to incentivize? So that, that's my kind of, one of my biggest caveats.

       Because I accept as much as the company I work for offers rebate software doesn't mean everybody will go out and buy rebate software. Don't. Start small. And you probably won't get it right the first time. So, start small and keep learning from it. Understand what incentive, how much incentive is required to drive behavior and what type of incentive.

       And then secondly is the important transparency piece. Suppose you are trying to reward somebody's behavior over a while. In that case, they need to see how they're tracking because otherwise, if you are, I think if you look at any high-performing activity in the world, it's essential to know where you're at to push your performance further.

       They're the kind of the basic tips, but then secondly, I think, Enable as an example for us, we're not just about the software. We're trying to build a community where people can use rebates correctly. My role was the evangelist. This is what I'm evangelizing.

       I'm trying to move beyond. The concept of these rebates is creating friction and using rebates the right way. I'm happy to help people and learn how to use rebates correctly. I'll, for example, be doing a few webinars on that type of thing, but I'm always happy to speak to people one-to-one. And you explain to them how we may benefit them.

       Lisa Ryan: would you maybe take a look at a pilot program? You said there'd be a couple of customers, perhaps they pick a couple of great customers that have a relationship with, and they say, listen, we're putting together a, we're experimenting with a rebate program, and we'd like you to be part of the pilot.

       Would that be something else they could do, or does that not?

       Mark Gilham: Yeah. I think that's a good piece of advice. A couple of customers you trust and ask them, get, and gain their feedback throughout the process. And because again, it comes back to that, to me, transparency and collaborative or not selective, you're either collaborating, or you're not, you're either transparent, or you're not, you can't pick and choose when you're going to be those things.

       And for me picking a client you can work with and working to those fundamental principles throughout is good advice. And yeah, you will learn much because, coming back to the first point, this incentivizes a behavior. So, you've got to make sure you can measure two things there: the incentive's size and the behavior you're trying to dry. So, the behavior is what you are getting back, and the incentive is what your customer is getting back. So, you need to ensure that the behavior reward is greater than the incentive you're paying.

       And hopefully, the two are very easily trackable. And both from your side and your client's side.

       Lisa Ryan: Okay. Awesome. As we get to the end of our time together, if somebody did want to continue the conversation with you, what's the best way for them to do...]]>ea67f90a-f50d-47a8-80b4-3c38629b0b27Mon, 26 Sep 2022 07:05:00 -040027:20falsefull237372How a Red Bandana can Increase Employee Engagement with Scott HantonLisa 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 work. And besides the fact that the people are awesome, it's just an absolute joy to work with them.

       Lisa Ryan: I think it's about creating that safe environment. I was listing to an audiobook by Gary Vaynerchuk, and he was talking about radical candor and being okay with being respectful, but that open, honest what's going on, no matter what position they are in the organization. So everybody feels safe sharing their opinions.

       Scott Hanton: Yeah. Our leaders are responsible for providing emotional and psychological safety for everyone in the organization. You can't.

       Lisa Ryan: How do you think that happened? Was it always like that, or did it take somebody to come in and start the process? Because in the beginning, it seems that employees would test you as far as how much they can get away with before they realize that this is real, and we really can.

       Scott Hanton: The company started small with people who trusted each other. They needed every idea they could get their hands on in an entrepreneurial spirit. And so they were successful by trusting people, taking their ideas, and pushing them out into products and the marketplace. And that then became part of the culture. I think our owner, Bob Kado is just a wise man; he attracts talent and listens to them. That's a hallmark to me of a successful business.

       Lisa Ryan: Being open to people who may not know the industry but see the world differently. They have different access to technology. They have additional knowledge levels. Even though they don't know your industry doesn't mean that they can't come up with some really good ideas if they just listened.

       Scott Hanton: For example, we hired a new person maybe a month ago. The project that we hired her for was a little late to start. She had a little time on her hands at the beginning, and now she's come up with a software application that none of us had ever heard of. But it will now be a critical new product for all the four brands I'm responsible for.

       And it was just a blank sheet of paper; on it was a new idea. But she had skills, knowledge, and understanding none of us had. So even though she was in her first month, this idea was recognized. It's been celebrated, and we are pushing it forward right now.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. So what are some of the things that you do to celebrate?

       Scott Hanton: One of the things that I do specifically remember is that every meeting I host is a remote team. We're all squares on a screen. The very first agenda item for every meeting is celebrations. Every team member is encouraged to participate. No one's forced to share, but we encourage people to share and want to get well beyond the work celebrations.

       We want the family, the children, the grandparents. We want all the celebrations. And that starts a lot of nice discussion at the beginning of our meetings and allows us to get to know the people better and what's important to them. So I budget 10% of every meeting I run as this informal sharing time starts with celebrations.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. And that's so important because let's talk about that from the remote team standpoint. You're starting with celebrations. What are some of the other ways? Because not only are you running a remote team but you were hired remotely. So it's not like you ever worked together in person. All of a sudden, poof, overnight, you started that way.

       So take us back to the beginning regarding initial contact, building the relationships, and how that has blossomed into what you've made it today.

       Scott Hanton: I was hired during the pandemic, and we were still figuring out how to do remote onboarding. It was a struggle, but one of the things that benefited me was I was given a mentor or an onboarding coach, somebody I could go to any time with any kind of dumb question.

       And I did. I asked lots of dumb questions. And that process benefited me so much that now we use it for all our new hires. They get an onboarding coach. Who's not their supervisor, right? People are reluctant to ask their supervisor what they think might be dumb questions or to ask the same question five times.

       But the whole role of this onboarding mentor is to do that. And to make them feel comfortable and show them access to information, but also model for them. What behaviors are a success? And so we choose the people we want, their behaviors modeled, and copy them.

       Lisa Ryan: So, are they peers? Are they colleagues? What level in the organization do your onboarding coaches come from?

       Scott Hanton: They can come from anywhere. Most of the time, it's peers, simply because we have most of those employees. But if the right onboarding mentor is above them, hierarchically in the organization, or below them in the organization, that doesn't matter. It's about how they can help the new employee.

       Lisa Ryan: In many of the programs I do, onboarding is a vital part of the retention process because you have that vulnerable time between when the offer is made and when the person starts.

       And if they don't feel connected with you, whether it be phone calls, a welcome email, a welcome package, or a swag bag in the mail sent to them, you want to make that first day magical. In your case, it sounds like they have the onboarding coach. But whoever that connection is, just make it as memorable as possible.

       It sounds like you've done some great things with onboarding. Anything else besides that coach that has also helped in that...]]>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 work. And besides the fact that the people are awesome, it's just an absolute joy to work with them.

       Lisa Ryan: I think it's about creating that safe environment. I was listing to an audiobook by Gary Vaynerchuk, and he was talking about radical candor and being okay with being respectful, but that open, honest what's going on, no matter what position they are in the organization. So everybody feels safe sharing their opinions.

       Scott Hanton: Yeah. Our leaders are responsible for providing emotional and psychological safety for everyone in the organization. You can't.

       Lisa Ryan: How do you think that happened? Was it always like that, or did it take somebody to come in and start the process? Because in the beginning, it seems that employees would test you as far as how much they can get away with before they realize that this is real, and we really can.

       Scott Hanton: The company started small with people who trusted each other. They needed every idea they could get their hands on in an entrepreneurial spirit. And so they were successful by trusting people, taking their ideas, and pushing them out into products and the marketplace. And that then became part of the culture. I think our owner, Bob Kado is just a wise man; he attracts talent and listens to them. That's a hallmark to me of a successful business.

       Lisa Ryan: Being open to people who may not know the industry but see the world differently. They have different access to technology. They have additional knowledge levels. Even though they don't know your industry doesn't mean that they can't come up with some really good ideas if they just listened.

       Scott Hanton: For example, we hired a new person maybe a month ago. The project that we hired her for was a little late to start. She had a little time on her hands at the beginning, and now she's come up with a software application that none of us had ever heard of. But it will now be a critical new product for all the four brands I'm responsible for.

       And it was just a blank sheet of paper; on it was a new idea. But she had skills, knowledge, and understanding none of us had. So even though she was in her first month, this idea was recognized. It's been celebrated, and we are pushing it forward right now.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. So what are some of the things that you do to celebrate?

       Scott Hanton: One of the things that I do specifically remember is that every meeting I host is a remote team. We're all squares on a screen. The very first agenda item for every meeting is celebrations. Every team member is encouraged to participate. No one's forced to share, but we encourage people to share and want to get well beyond the work celebrations.

       We want the family, the children, the grandparents. We want all the celebrations. And that starts a lot of nice discussion at the beginning of our meetings and allows us to get to know the people better and what's important to them. So I budget 10% of every meeting I run as this informal sharing time starts with celebrations.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. And that's so important because let's talk about that from the remote team standpoint. You're starting with celebrations. What are some of the other ways? Because not only are you running a remote team but you were hired remotely. So it's not like you ever worked together in person. All of a sudden, poof, overnight, you started that way.

       So take us back to the beginning regarding initial contact, building the relationships, and how that has blossomed into what you've made it today.

       Scott Hanton: I was hired during the pandemic, and we were still figuring out how to do remote onboarding. It was a struggle, but one of the things that benefited me was I was given a mentor or an onboarding coach, somebody I could go to any time with any kind of dumb question.

       And I did. I asked lots of dumb questions. And that process benefited me so much that now we use it for all our new hires. They get an onboarding coach. Who's not their supervisor, right? People are reluctant to ask their supervisor what they think might be dumb questions or to ask the same question five times.

       But the whole role of this onboarding mentor is to do that. And to make them feel comfortable and show them access to information, but also model for them. What behaviors are a success? And so we choose the people we want, their behaviors modeled, and copy them.

       Lisa Ryan: So, are they peers? Are they colleagues? What level in the organization do your onboarding coaches come from?

       Scott Hanton: They can come from anywhere. Most of the time, it's peers, simply because we have most of those employees. But if the right onboarding mentor is above them, hierarchically in the organization, or below them in the organization, that doesn't matter. It's about how they can help the new employee.

       Lisa Ryan: In many of the programs I do, onboarding is a vital part of the retention process because you have that vulnerable time between when the offer is made and when the person starts.

       And if they don't feel connected with you, whether it be phone calls, a welcome email, a welcome package, or a swag bag in the mail sent to them, you want to make that first day magical. In your case, it sounds like they have the onboarding coach. But whoever that connection is, just make it as memorable as possible.

       It sounds like you've done some great things with onboarding. Anything else besides that coach that has also helped in that process?

       Scott Hanton: We actively plan a new employee's first day, the first week, and the first month. The hiring manager is responsible for long checklists of activities that need to be accomplished but that all of us on the team contribute to. We won't make that just what you said. We want to make that experience memorable and magical to make them feel included quickly. Belonging is a really powerful force for most of us as humans. We want most people want to belong, and we want people to feel like it's easy to belong with us.

       We sand down the rough edges, fill in the potholes, and make that path to complete belonging as easy as possible. We also craft 30, 60, and 90-day objectives so they know immediately what's expected of them, and they'll get feedback right away to help correct issues or to help them find the people or the information they need.

       Most people want to feel like they're contributing. They're getting paid and want to be attached to the organization's purpose and mission. And they don't want just to be reading all the time. So we want to get them to the point where they're actively contributing to the organization as quickly as possible.

       Lisa Ryan: Taking that extra step, being remote, and letting them know the goals, so they're not flailing, like where swim with the sharks and see if you sink or swim.

       Scott Hanton: As a remote organization, it's hard for someone unsure to wander down the hall and ask questions. The hallway is virtual. They may not know who they need to wander into. And so a lot of what we're doing in the first month is introducing them to a wide range of people, not just the name and the face and the role, but what are they doing? How can they help? What sort of knowledge do they have and then set up meetings?

       So they get comfortable talking to these people and feel like they can set up a little zoom call, a 10-minute one, and get a question answered, just like they might wander down a hallway in a brick and concrete environment. Is that something that you set the one-on-one meetings with different people, the various introductions for those 10-minute meetings? How do those happen?

       Scott Hanton: As soon as their email is active in our system. Before day one, we schedule meetings for them. The hiring manager will prepare a wide range of meetings with people. It shows up on their calendar right away when they show up and shows them the people that they need to know.

       We'll review that list of people with them, so they have context, and they're not just going into a meeting blind.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. It makes so much sense to do that. Let's go back to day one. What does day one look like for that person?

       Scott Hanton: So there's a formal company onboarding run by our HR department, and they're going to go through the whole company and the procedures, the employee handbook. One thing I like about this company is it has an employee handbook that makes sense. It's not legalese. We document. They go through that in detail. We'll go through it. Where is information stored? How do the different systems work? And it's not a 15-minute. She usually schedules two hours.

       There is lots of time for questions and interaction to ensure that the person has a good foundation. The next step is to talk to the hiring manager directly; they should have had multiple conversations. That person who led the interview probably communicated the offer, right?

       There's been a lot of interaction between the new person and the hiring manager before day one. But now it's to reinforce. We are so excited to have you here. Here are the reasons we are so excited, and let's start talking about how you can help. First, we'll go through our objectives. Then, we'll begin with the roadmap.

       We'll give the background information about the people we're going to meet, but we also want to leave time for questions. And in every meeting along this onboarding journey, we'll probe the new employee for what questions they have because none of us are mind readers, and I might think the onboarding process was designed very well.

       We make it tailored to the individual. And the only way to do that is to make it safe enough for them to speak their mind. And that starts on day one. Then the group manager will interact with the person to discuss the broader role, the bigger organization, and the purpose. And in many times day, one's done.

       But now we're going to get into meeting the teammates and figuring out how they fit into this team so they can learn from them. They can bring their skills and talents, and we can do something new and exciting.

       Lisa Ryan: Let's back it up a little bit, even more. How do you determine the right people even to hire? How do you figure out who will be successful in this remote environment?

       Scott Hanton: I saw this line from Southwest airlines years ago, and it was a higher attitude and trained skill. We are looking for people with the right attitude who will join and contribute to our group and company culture and not detract from that culture. We have certainly looked at resumes that are fantastic, right? You would expect all the big gold stars from a resume, but after a phone screen, it's like, No, it doesn't mesh with where we want to go. Isn't showing any kindness, compassion, or empathy, and those are things you've got to have to be successful in this virtual environment? As far as the skills, we can train them.

       We have people who can train them. Suppose we find somebody with the passion and perseverance we're interested in. If they don't have a particular skill, we'll teach them, and we're not going to let you know some perceived gap in a resume stop us from hiring the proper human being.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. And this is all the remote, but before you started, before you had this remote career, you also saw a culture from the in-person. One of my favorite things that we've talked about is, of course, the red bandana. So tell us some of what you did with your culture and what I'm talking about.

       Scott Hanton: What Lisa is referring to is a long career in analytical research labs and contract labs, and the lab life can be a grind. People are executing these tactical bench experiments, and their hard life in a research lab is complex and challenging. We have to support each other. One of the ways that I wanted to support the lab staff was to be directly available to them in times of crisis. Every new employee received a red bandana on day one from me, and the concept was here is your red flag. I'm the general manager of the organization. And I'm a very busy human being.

       And I attend meetings all the time, and I'm on calls all the time. I can't walk down the hallway without somebody stopping me. But if there's a problem and you think I can be part of the solution, seek me out and throw that red banner at me. If I'm in the middle of a meeting, maybe I'm in on a call with a customer, and if that red flag comes flying, you are now my top priority. If it comes washing with tears, blood, or some other indicator of urgency, then I'm going to excuse myself from that meeting. And I'm going to give my full attention to that employee. It worked. I would get about one red bandana monthly with something truly important to the individual.

       And sometimes, they were things that I could readily fix a decision that I needed to make. Other times they were complex, big picture, strategic issues that took time and energy to address. But if they don't throw the red bandana at me, I don't know. It's a crisis for them. And it may be a lower priority for me.

       One of my best days in the lab was walking past a conference room and hearing two employees talking, one saying you should throw that red bandana and the other saying, " Oh, I don't know. I'm not sure it's that important. And the other one's saying, do you believe it's that important?

       Yes. Then you should. And I kept walking down the hallway, but within minutes, somebody chased me back to my office and threw a red bandana at me. And that told me that this process worked, that the staff reinforced it. And they trusted that things might not be solved if they threw the red bandana, but they would be better. The person was going to be supported through whatever their crisis.

       Lisa Ryan: I think the fear that people listening to that idea would have is that you would just have people throwing willy-nilly, throwing red bandanas at you all day long. But when you take the opportunity to trust your employees that these are red bandana moments, they trust you that you will act.

       Scott Hanton: That's right. It was never a problem from the first day that I instituted it. I bought 30 or more red bandanas because I had to start one day with all the employees in the lab. It was never a problem. Did I get two in a day? Sure. But did I get one from one individual every day or every week? No, it was not a problem.

       Lisa Ryan: You have a good point. It is valuable to leadership to trust the staff. If you correctly do your recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training, and developing, they've earned our trust.

       Scott Hanton: Exactly. It's creating that culture where it's safe for people.

       Lisa Ryan: There are way too many times too, that, and in, in your case, it doesn't sound like you had a lot of those people, but there's always going to be employees that are going to take advantage of you. There's a tiny percentage. You try these things, and they try to jack the system. But unfortunately, many managers make their...]]>541e3870-9f3b-41d7-9805-5b2e6deaddc2Mon, 19 Sep 2022 07:05:00 -040029:32falsefull236362Talking Company Culture and Precast Concrete with Claude GoguenLisa 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, you said, a house or building panels or things that because the technology's still relatively new. The challenge is putting reinforcing in that printed concrete so it can withstand the intended loads. But it's an exciting industry, not just printing the concrete itself but printing other things that can be used to form and make precast concrete. So there are other uses for it.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. That's what I love about my speaking career. And it's what I love about my podcast is being able to connect with people who are passionate about things that people don't think about. They put that spin on them—encouraging younger people to see the vitality of an industry that has been around for so long and perhaps consider that an option for them as they're looking at what to do with their lives.

       Claude Goguen: Absolutely. In my role, I do outreach and speak to many students in universities and colleges, sometimes in high schools or even once in an elementary school. My passion for concrete comes out no matter who I'm talking to. I love talking about concrete and making it sound as exciting.

       And I will get that feedback where the student will come and say, that's not even a career path I had considered, but that does sound exciting. And it is. Yeah. And so what are some of the things that we've talked a little bit about this, but that you see the concrete, precast, concrete industry heading well, what's happening is a lot of construction sites.

       They are getting leaner, the term leaner, even you've heard of lean manufacturing, right? Finding ways to find efficiencies, reducing waste, finding efficiencies in production, and the same thing applies. To a construction site. How can we reduce the waste that occurs on a construction site? The waiting for materials, stuff like that.

       And that has led very much to precast products because if you think about it, it's a pre-manufactured structure made elsewhere. It's ready by the time you need it. So when it arrives, it can be put into place right away, and it can be used right away. If you're using conventional concrete that you're pouring, you see the trucks going down the road with the big rolling drums, and you pour it on a construction site, then you have to wait for it to cure and wait as one of the wastes of lean manufacturing.

       So in that sense, we've seen precast starting to be used in more and more traditionally cast in applications. So that's where the industry is continuing to grow. It was growing before the pandemic, and it continued to be busy. And then now it's gotten busy, but we see more and more applications.

       And along with the technologies I mentioned earlier, it's giving the industry the versatility to meet the architect, to meet the engineer where they are, and produce whatever their imagination would come up with.

       Lisa Ryan: So we talk about the industry from a technical standpoint, but I know that one thing that not only your members but manufacturers, in general, are struggling with is, finding people to come on board. So what are some things you've seen your members do to attract and retain people to join them?

       Claude Goguen: Yeah, that is, in fact, a struggle, as it is with a lot of other manufacturing businesses. The thing about precast concrete is we're not. It's not well known if somebody is looking for jobs and they see that Amazon is hiring for a warehouse and fulfillment, you have an idea of what you're going to be doing more or less. If you see something about precast concrete manufacturing, it's not 

       we're out there, and people know right away what that is. So we have an image issue. Not that we have a negative image, but we just don't have one.

       We just, we're not out there. And so that's one thing that many of our members are doing now is just getting out there a lot more in many different ways. Visit local schools and universities, and they are opening up their plants for tours. They're going to job fairs, participating in your community, donating a structure for something in the town square, or sponsoring a little league team or Cub scout pack.

       But things that, just getting the name out there so that people go, what is that anyways? And you can explain a little more what's involved.

       So just opening the awareness of the industry is one thing we're doing. And then we're learning as everybody else is to think differently about how to attract and retain today's generation of young employees. So using social media, meet them where they're at and just offer them something that's going to be attractive to them. That will speak to their motivations and aspirations, and that's significant learning.

       Lisa Ryan: Compared to doing the same for, let's say, a baby boomer or a generation X. And when it comes to because I love the fact of plant tours.

       I know I've worked with several precast concrete companies and just going and seeing the size of the plant, the scope of what's being made, and the beauty of some of the pieces. And then also the pride that goes along with that immediate gratification of creating something that. But do you have specific stories or examples or a how-to if a person listening to this was thinking about opening up their plant for maybe using manufacturing day or just opening it up? How does that look? What do they do? Do they have activities during the day?

       Claude Goguen: Yeah, we have this thing, first of all, that we've done for about three years now. It's called precast Days, where it's a coordinated effort amongst many of our manufacturers across the country, across North...]]>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, you said, a house or building panels or things that because the technology's still relatively new. The challenge is putting reinforcing in that printed concrete so it can withstand the intended loads. But it's an exciting industry, not just printing the concrete itself but printing other things that can be used to form and make precast concrete. So there are other uses for it.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. That's what I love about my speaking career. And it's what I love about my podcast is being able to connect with people who are passionate about things that people don't think about. They put that spin on them—encouraging younger people to see the vitality of an industry that has been around for so long and perhaps consider that an option for them as they're looking at what to do with their lives.

       Claude Goguen: Absolutely. In my role, I do outreach and speak to many students in universities and colleges, sometimes in high schools or even once in an elementary school. My passion for concrete comes out no matter who I'm talking to. I love talking about concrete and making it sound as exciting.

       And I will get that feedback where the student will come and say, that's not even a career path I had considered, but that does sound exciting. And it is. Yeah. And so what are some of the things that we've talked a little bit about this, but that you see the concrete, precast, concrete industry heading well, what's happening is a lot of construction sites.

       They are getting leaner, the term leaner, even you've heard of lean manufacturing, right? Finding ways to find efficiencies, reducing waste, finding efficiencies in production, and the same thing applies. To a construction site. How can we reduce the waste that occurs on a construction site? The waiting for materials, stuff like that.

       And that has led very much to precast products because if you think about it, it's a pre-manufactured structure made elsewhere. It's ready by the time you need it. So when it arrives, it can be put into place right away, and it can be used right away. If you're using conventional concrete that you're pouring, you see the trucks going down the road with the big rolling drums, and you pour it on a construction site, then you have to wait for it to cure and wait as one of the wastes of lean manufacturing.

       So in that sense, we've seen precast starting to be used in more and more traditionally cast in applications. So that's where the industry is continuing to grow. It was growing before the pandemic, and it continued to be busy. And then now it's gotten busy, but we see more and more applications.

       And along with the technologies I mentioned earlier, it's giving the industry the versatility to meet the architect, to meet the engineer where they are, and produce whatever their imagination would come up with.

       Lisa Ryan: So we talk about the industry from a technical standpoint, but I know that one thing that not only your members but manufacturers, in general, are struggling with is, finding people to come on board. So what are some things you've seen your members do to attract and retain people to join them?

       Claude Goguen: Yeah, that is, in fact, a struggle, as it is with a lot of other manufacturing businesses. The thing about precast concrete is we're not. It's not well known if somebody is looking for jobs and they see that Amazon is hiring for a warehouse and fulfillment, you have an idea of what you're going to be doing more or less. If you see something about precast concrete manufacturing, it's not 

       we're out there, and people know right away what that is. So we have an image issue. Not that we have a negative image, but we just don't have one.

       We just, we're not out there. And so that's one thing that many of our members are doing now is just getting out there a lot more in many different ways. Visit local schools and universities, and they are opening up their plants for tours. They're going to job fairs, participating in your community, donating a structure for something in the town square, or sponsoring a little league team or Cub scout pack.

       But things that, just getting the name out there so that people go, what is that anyways? And you can explain a little more what's involved.

       So just opening the awareness of the industry is one thing we're doing. And then we're learning as everybody else is to think differently about how to attract and retain today's generation of young employees. So using social media, meet them where they're at and just offer them something that's going to be attractive to them. That will speak to their motivations and aspirations, and that's significant learning.

       Lisa Ryan: Compared to doing the same for, let's say, a baby boomer or a generation X. And when it comes to because I love the fact of plant tours.

       I know I've worked with several precast concrete companies and just going and seeing the size of the plant, the scope of what's being made, and the beauty of some of the pieces. And then also the pride that goes along with that immediate gratification of creating something that. But do you have specific stories or examples or a how-to if a person listening to this was thinking about opening up their plant for maybe using manufacturing day or just opening it up? How does that look? What do they do? Do they have activities during the day?

       Claude Goguen: Yeah, we have this thing, first of all, that we've done for about three years now. It's called precast Days, where it's a coordinated effort amongst many of our manufacturers across the country, across North America, to open their plants about the same time of the year, usually around October and November, but some plants will do it differently.

       We'll offer them some guidance on how they should advertise and what they need to think about in terms of safety and just Somehow make it as educational as possible to the people coming to see the plant. So some of them. We'll try to continue manufacturing, which can be a challenge regarding safety because we have buckets and things moving around.

       And if you have people walking around, it's a sensitive thing. So you have to cord off some areas, but ideally, if you're going to have people in your plant, they will want to see the mud flow. They will want to see you mixing concrete, placing it in a form, and then having somebody explain the process so everybody can hear and understand.

       So those are the challenges. We're helping our members with that. We're making the most of that experience so that people leave there. And with a good understanding of what precast is all about. And actually, precast days have turned out to be not only a good thing for increasing awareness, but it's resulted in some of our members hiring people from that plant door.

       They came back, submitted a resume, and a couple of our plants still have people working there that they first met on the plant.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. Now, do they reach out to local schools? At what age do they start 

       focusing and bringing people in for these plant tours?

       Claude Goguen: Some usually won't reach the high school level. I've not heard of anything beyond that. And then, of course, universal level college at level schools they'll reach out to just, I don't know, just groups. But, first, they will bring in a few of their customers. One thing is some of their customers who purchase precast products have never actually seen the product made.

       So they'll prioritize and invite all their customers; maybe some specify the product, some work for state authorities or private contractors, and then students, just community members. So it depends, but probably not any, not much younger than high school age that I've seen so far anyway.

       Lisa Ryan: I know you've talked a lot about onboarding, and you have a background in engineering, and yet you developed an onboarding program for your members. So what does that onboarding program look like? Where do you continue to get ideas for the content of it?

       Claude Goguen: So the onboarding program in, in, in a briefly its sort it's for our members, and it's set up into two pieces.

       One component is an onboarding guide, and it's meant for the employer. And it just takes you through what onboarding means and how it differs from orientation. It's what you can do from the hire date and before that, with preboarding starting from that phase beyond a year.

       Having a checklist that they can go through to make sure that they're getting the most out of that employee, the employees getting the most out of their experience so they can find out if they're a good fit for each other and that they're going to want to stay. And then, on the other hand, we have a suite of videos that we made that they can play for the candidate or the employee, and the videos range from there's some that talk about the industry in general.

       And just the fantastic things that we do. So, for example, there's one video called the day and the life of a precaster. So some of it is first-person based. And, you arrive at the plant, you go in, you go through your day, you have lunch, we cut out the bathroom breaks, but things that that they can, see what a typical day in a precast plant is.

       Then there are some safety videos, and Then there are videos that are role-based for further on, in, in the employment where they can learn to do specific things in a precast plant. So that's helpful to help the member educate the candidate, the employee who assists in retaining them.

       How it came about or how somebody else had the idea. I wish I could claim the idea, but somebody else here had the idea to do it and asked me if I wanted to do it. And I was I'm the engineer. I usually deal with varied designs and the technical side of things. So this is a bit outside of my comfort zone, but at the same time, I was excited about it. So, where I got my information, I did a lot of reading materials, looked at stuff from experts, including yourself, and listened to some seminars read a lot, but also drew a lot from my own experience.

       I just sat there and tried to remember how it felt during my first day. At NPCA or my first day at that precast plant in Columbus, Indiana. And how I felt in terms of little things, little stressors. I remember I didn't know what to put on or wear. I didn't know what to bring for my lunch.

       Are they going to take me to lunch? Should I bring a brown bag lunch? Should I, where am I going to park? Little things add stress to an already stressful day. And they are then getting into that new environment, not knowing anybody. Things like that. And taking that and molding this onboarding program to try to address that, to make the employee as comfortable as possible when they arrive, they have a set parking spot they're taken out to lunch.

       On the first day, clear instructions are sent on what, where, and what to expect. They get a schedule in the morning when they get there. Things that I remember and even. While you're interviewing them, and you remember something about, let's say, they love root beer than having a root beer sitting on their desk on their first day of work, there's nothing better than little things that make this different than other experiences, oh, they listen to me.

       I don't even remember saying I like root beer. And making it very much as if you've just joined a new family. Whenever I listen to a new podcast or read something, I get a new idea to add to version 2.0 over our onboarding program. It's worked right so far. Plus, I'm getting feedback from those who have used it to try to make it better.

       Lisa Ryan: When you look at these little things you can do, they don't take a lot of time. They don't cost any money. And yet when you think about that employee, they probably sent out a whole bunch of applications, and that you happen to be, they happen to accept the job from you, but that doesn't mean that everybody else will stop calling.

       So if they don't have that great day and don't know where to park, what to wear, what to do for lunch, and all these things. It's just a matter of communication. Who knows what will happen when one of those other companies calls? And so say you, you're still looking, yeah. What you got, which brings us to another interesting point.

       And that's the preboarding of connecting with those people, right after the interview and in that 

       vulnerable place of time, between the time they accepted the offer and their start date, because I'm sure that you have heard many horror stories that people ghost you.

       They're not calling. They're not doing anything. They are just not showing up. So the more preboarding you can use to build that relationship and build that commitment beforehand is probably assuring that you're not going to be ghosted as often. So what are some of the things you're seeing that they're doing before the start date?

       Claude Goguen: And we're trying to get our members to do more of this, but the thing is to make it personal right off the bat. It's either sending a video from the president or the company's owner saying, Hey, I want to welcome you to this company. I understand we've got an offer, and you're coming to work for us.

       This is what we're all about—and telling the story. People love stories, telling the company story because of a lot of our members. Our smaller mom-and-pop companies are big, but they started small. And then we have larger corporate-type companies, but everybody's got a story, and they can share that story and make it a little more personal.

       And then give them and keep in communication with them throughout that period, because you're right. They, it's a prime time for them to get, it's almost a buyer's remorse after buying a house or a car, but it's hiring remorse, or I don't know what you would call it, you have friends saying, Hey, we're, where'd you get a job at precast?

       What's that? Have you heard this other place is hiring? And so, if you just go quiet during that time, expecting them to show up on day one, you may get surprised. So we encourage our members to spend that message send some material for them to look at, get some paperwork done up front, if you can and do it in a way that's going to be, send them electronic files.

       If they're younger folks, have it, meet them where they're, I said, and Yeah, just keep that line of communication going. Don't you think that's important?

       Lisa Ryan: Oh yeah. And even when putting together my programs and slide decks when I use them and using people's pictures, the actual client, for NPCA, I went to your Facebook page to find several people. And the funny thing is, as I walk through the event, I'm so that person's in my slide. Oh, that person's in my slide, and coming from a speaker standpoint, it made me feel more at home because I thought I knew some of these people or knew something about them. The same thing for that brand new person coming in. They get a video from the president or from somebody in leadership that is welcoming them. So it's, oh, they're putting a face to the name. They get, I've heard other organizations that they will put together. Then, what is it? The org chart, but it's all people's pictures on it. So again, you can start to see, oh, I know that person. And even if you don't remember their...]]>b4030716-373f-4ede-8a06-72951935d4c9Mon, 12 Sep 2022 07:05:00 -040027:36falsefull235352Exploring E-Commerce in Manufacturing With Gil Bar LevConnect 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. They were producing items. How about marketing? That's a different topic, and they needed someone to help them. And that's where we came in. Then 2021 was, everybody wanted furniture. But nobody can get it. There are logistics issues. And then it's becoming, and then from the flip of, from 2020, manufacturers were trying to push inventory because many of their sales channels got blocked. After all, retail store physical brick mortar stores were ordered to shut down.

       In 2021, that slipped to the outside on the demand side, where there was insufficient inventory. Whether with their physical stores and now they wanted merchandise, everything got caused in the logistical supply chain backlog that took a long time. So they were hungry for merchandise.

       We came in as a good fit because we have a vast assortment of products we can offer retailers. So that expanded our ability in our market share in 2022. That's a different volume. Now you've got a recession. So now you've got retailers that are overstocked.

       You've got manufacturers who are still having some logistical issues, and they need some good partners on both sides that can help them navigate this landscape, which is very challenging. And it's not something that you see every. 

       Lisa Ryan: That is quite the roller coaster. And it's interesting because it seems, on the one hand, the pandemic came at the right time from an education standpoint because they had no choice but to go online.

       Gil Bar Lev: Yeah. And then when everybody was going online, now we have the supply chain to deal with, followed by a recession. So it's yeah, it's a perfect storm. I was not kidding. It's very interesting to see the dynamics between how things are getting pulled between the supply and demand.

       And every year, it's just a different strength to either side of pulling an influence in the market one way or the other.

       Lisa Ryan: And I'm sure too. We have a lot of manufacturing in the United States as far as furniture, but I know you're also dealing with a lot of international manufacturers of these products. So what are you seeing regarding some of their concerns with the conditions? How are you working and advising them right now?

       Gil Bar Lev: Their primary concern is whether they should enter the market in this condition. A condition that maybe has not officially been called a recession but is slowing down the market in demand for potential goods.

       And my advice to them is that if there's a good time to get into a market, if it's the best time, it's a time where others are retreating. That's the time that you can gain a market share. So, my advice is not to be afraid to step in, yes, there is some slowdown, but if you're in right now, the customer still requires goods.

       They still require furniture and are looking to partner with manufacturers that can supply them with goods. And if you're not. Recession or not. If you're not here, they're not going to remember you. And now they're going to close in the tide. They're going to tighten up their relationship with their existing suppliers.

       Now at the time, you want to get rid of the loose ends in business. Relationships are the most crucial in this type of economy. And if you're not here, you'll miss that. So, I advise many manufacturers to step into the market, gain market share, work with us, advertise their products, and promote them.

       Lisa Ryan: There is an audience for that. People are looking for merchandise. It's not the market has been saturated. It's not. It's just people shopping differently than what we used to shop. A year ago, two years ago, that was it. And we're so used to buying things online. It's almost, I mean, with furniture, there's always this the point where I want to sit on my couch, sit on it, and see how it feels.

       But. It's almost reaching the point that we need to get over that and realize that even though manufacturers believe that's what the consumers want, the consumers want to be able to go on their phone, look at a couch, look at the dimensions of it and say, cool. Send it to me. 

       Gil Bar Lev: Yeah, listen, the beauty of what we're doing in the HomeRoots is that from a manufacturer standpoint, supply standpoint, you don't know or care, sorry, you don't care from where the orders will come.

       Now, HomeRoots knows how to work with its retailers to collect the orders, whether they're getting submitted through a brick-and-mortar store or online or through other forms of marketing or sales channels that are out there that are not necessarily related to rebuilding.

       There might be other ways like designers, stagers, and builders. They still buy furniture, and all those orders get passed on to us faster. This is something that we're focusing on a lot. And this is what we're telling the many factors that listen. Yeah, it might be that e-commerce has slowed down.

       Not might be, but it has slowed down. We've seen that. However, customers now see a trend of buying more from brick and mortar than last year. So, on the one hand, compared to 2020, sales have gone up with brick-and-mortar stores, and sales have gone down with e-commerce, but it's still the same.

       Lisa Ryan: It's just a different buying experience. Now people are looking just to return to the way it was. Not that I'm giving up on e-commerce, I will not give up on that. But I'm saying this is just the trend we're seeing. So what are some of the issues that you've seen with manufacturers?

       Not only in the process itself but converting their way of thinking from strictly brick and...]]>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. They were producing items. How about marketing? That's a different topic, and they needed someone to help them. And that's where we came in. Then 2021 was, everybody wanted furniture. But nobody can get it. There are logistics issues. And then it's becoming, and then from the flip of, from 2020, manufacturers were trying to push inventory because many of their sales channels got blocked. After all, retail store physical brick mortar stores were ordered to shut down.

       In 2021, that slipped to the outside on the demand side, where there was insufficient inventory. Whether with their physical stores and now they wanted merchandise, everything got caused in the logistical supply chain backlog that took a long time. So they were hungry for merchandise.

       We came in as a good fit because we have a vast assortment of products we can offer retailers. So that expanded our ability in our market share in 2022. That's a different volume. Now you've got a recession. So now you've got retailers that are overstocked.

       You've got manufacturers who are still having some logistical issues, and they need some good partners on both sides that can help them navigate this landscape, which is very challenging. And it's not something that you see every. 

       Lisa Ryan: That is quite the roller coaster. And it's interesting because it seems, on the one hand, the pandemic came at the right time from an education standpoint because they had no choice but to go online.

       Gil Bar Lev: Yeah. And then when everybody was going online, now we have the supply chain to deal with, followed by a recession. So it's yeah, it's a perfect storm. I was not kidding. It's very interesting to see the dynamics between how things are getting pulled between the supply and demand.

       And every year, it's just a different strength to either side of pulling an influence in the market one way or the other.

       Lisa Ryan: And I'm sure too. We have a lot of manufacturing in the United States as far as furniture, but I know you're also dealing with a lot of international manufacturers of these products. So what are you seeing regarding some of their concerns with the conditions? How are you working and advising them right now?

       Gil Bar Lev: Their primary concern is whether they should enter the market in this condition. A condition that maybe has not officially been called a recession but is slowing down the market in demand for potential goods.

       And my advice to them is that if there's a good time to get into a market, if it's the best time, it's a time where others are retreating. That's the time that you can gain a market share. So, my advice is not to be afraid to step in, yes, there is some slowdown, but if you're in right now, the customer still requires goods.

       They still require furniture and are looking to partner with manufacturers that can supply them with goods. And if you're not. Recession or not. If you're not here, they're not going to remember you. And now they're going to close in the tide. They're going to tighten up their relationship with their existing suppliers.

       Now at the time, you want to get rid of the loose ends in business. Relationships are the most crucial in this type of economy. And if you're not here, you'll miss that. So, I advise many manufacturers to step into the market, gain market share, work with us, advertise their products, and promote them.

       Lisa Ryan: There is an audience for that. People are looking for merchandise. It's not the market has been saturated. It's not. It's just people shopping differently than what we used to shop. A year ago, two years ago, that was it. And we're so used to buying things online. It's almost, I mean, with furniture, there's always this the point where I want to sit on my couch, sit on it, and see how it feels.

       But. It's almost reaching the point that we need to get over that and realize that even though manufacturers believe that's what the consumers want, the consumers want to be able to go on their phone, look at a couch, look at the dimensions of it and say, cool. Send it to me. 

       Gil Bar Lev: Yeah, listen, the beauty of what we're doing in the HomeRoots is that from a manufacturer standpoint, supply standpoint, you don't know or care, sorry, you don't care from where the orders will come.

       Now, HomeRoots knows how to work with its retailers to collect the orders, whether they're getting submitted through a brick-and-mortar store or online or through other forms of marketing or sales channels that are out there that are not necessarily related to rebuilding.

       There might be other ways like designers, stagers, and builders. They still buy furniture, and all those orders get passed on to us faster. This is something that we're focusing on a lot. And this is what we're telling the many factors that listen. Yeah, it might be that e-commerce has slowed down.

       Not might be, but it has slowed down. We've seen that. However, customers now see a trend of buying more from brick and mortar than last year. So, on the one hand, compared to 2020, sales have gone up with brick-and-mortar stores, and sales have gone down with e-commerce, but it's still the same.

       Lisa Ryan: It's just a different buying experience. Now people are looking just to return to the way it was. Not that I'm giving up on e-commerce, I will not give up on that. But I'm saying this is just the trend we're seeing. So what are some of the issues that you've seen with manufacturers?

       Not only in the process itself but converting their way of thinking from strictly brick and mortar to looking at more eCommerce and online offerings. So many of them are looking for when we first reach out to manufacturers. So many are still looking for direct order, direct import business. And what we've been offering them is a way to eliminate the middleman, let them be the importer, let them play domestically, and build directly with the retailers in understanding the consumer better—than relying on someone else, like a middleman.

       So the challenges we've seen with those manufacturers have been that they don't know how to do it. They don't know how to export their goods overseas. Maybe they have done it for others, but they have not gone all the way with the actual import process. And then they're not sure where the merchandise will get to the store.

       They're not sure how it's going to get marketed. They have a lot of concerns because they have not done it before. But, on the other hand, they are eager to do it. They want to. Just lacking the experience, right? So we're guiding them through this and giving them our fulfillment centers where they can handle the fulfillment.

       We're guiding them through the import process. We're taking care of all the marketing. We're taking care of all the back-office operations for them. And by that, we're eliminating many of the risks and their concerns of entering into the. But that's what the major challenge is, moving between changing a little bit, the mindset between someone else on direct import and the direct importer to drive my business, to drive myself forward to a mode I want to play. I want to play directly in the market. So I don't want to rely on someone else that doesn't want to rely on the middleman.

       I'm taking a specific risk. Yes, but the reward is much bigger, right? Cause of its impact financially. The margins are higher; you get more control over the sales channel. You are just more in control of your own business. If you do it well with our advice and best market information, we can give you the sky is the limit.

       Lisa Ryan: But just the initial open-minded. Some require that of the leaders in those manufacturing companies. And we've been talking a lot about furniture, but it also seems. A shift in mindset to more eCommerce can help manufacturers in many different products. So talk about that in terms of, maybe other products, various industries as somebody who's not in furniture may be able to relate. So start to think about doing that, what you're doing with.

       Gil Bar Lev: The beauty of eCommerce is the ability to collect data faster than other forms. At least in my opinion. So when you're putting out there, when you're putting products out there online, and it doesn't have to, as you said, it doesn't have to be just furniture.

       It can be any category when you're putting products out there and trying to promote them. You're starting to get feedback from the audience. Whether they're visiting the page, whether they like who you're offering, and then whether they convert, if they convert, you know, a lot about your price points and your content and the way you package the product to the consumer.

       But if they're visiting it, then they're not buying it. Then you may have a problem with the pricing, or just the offering is just not attractive. And you learn a lot from it. So before even you go on a massive distributor manufacturing. You could test a few things online and see and gather feedback from the consumer.

       What are they going to, what you're going to have to do, what you're offering, whether the price point is the right price point, and also a little bit about the quality, the first couple of iterations, you get a lot of feedback, right? But, whether you have returns or a lot of customer inquiries, I'm not sure how to operate this product or this, and then you get improved.

       You get iterations. You go through iterations. You're improving the product. The quality of it until you go to a point until you get to the point where you have excellent quality, high-quality product that you feel confident that the consumer wants. And then you're ready to go all in, manufacturing it and promoting it.

       In the destination market that you're looking for. But that stuff you can relatively do fast with e-commerce with brick-and-mortar stores or other forms. But, on the other hand, it takes significantly longer, and you're limited with the selections of offerings that you can go to if you want to put 50 products out there online or 500.

       I'm not saying there's no effort, but the step is not huge. It's doable. But you cannot put a product in the store that easily. That's very challenging, and it doesn't mean just furniture. Forget about it. There's no way because there's a space, but now you got to go to other stores, 500 different skews in a store.

       Lisa Ryan: It is a challenge. It's fascinating from a knowledge standpoint because somebody walks into a furniture store and walks right out. You don't know why they walked out. You don't know if it was the pricing, the furniture quality, and everything. And again, we're so used to leaving our Amazon and our restaurant reviews on Yelp and all this stuff for people to leave reviews for brick and mortar.

       It is a lot more challenging. Getting that feedback as far as pricing quality reviews from others, all of these different things that speed up that whole marketing and decision process, as far as what you're going to be manufacturing, unless I raise a good point. So because what it is when if you go to for example Google business.

       You're not rating the furniture or that piece of item that you just explored or were interested in. But you're not, which might be an interesting new business. Can arrive from our conversations here on how to drive reviews for brick-and-mortar stores for their product.

       But online, you're not just reviewing the seller. You also review the process. That's something that's missing in the physical world. And that's what makes it more challenging to test, do your AB testing, and figure out what actually might sell better. So again, there are different techniques to go about samples, but it's a much longer process.

       And in our economy, especially in the past three years, I remember that you've got to move as fast as you can. Because anyway, the market will slow you down. So you can't, you, you can't waste your time on those things.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. And it's funny, too, because when you think about your, you just said you are reviewing the business. I can leave a horrible review for somebody because the sales rep or the manager treated me poorly, which takes away from anything I may have. I may have loved the furniture but hated the store. So again, Just different ways of looking at it, even to try it out and say, you know what?

       Gil Bar Lev: maybe we'll start testing this product and do some AB testing online or do something. 

       Lisa Ryan: So if a manufacturer is thinking about bringing a portion of their business to e-commerce, what's a good way to get started?

       Gil Bar Lev: First, I advocate for HomeRoots that we're an excellent way to get started. Cause we have put many different eyeballs on a product because of our distribution in the market. So a good way is to work with us and upload the products. And if there are in the furniture for home decor, they will go on to our platform and start their journey there.

       But if they're not, I recommend going with a particular business-to-business marketplace per se, or any marketplace and even a direct consumer marketplace. And test it. That's trying to put something out there to see whether you can gain page views and get feedback.

       See, there is a lot of involvement, whether there's some traction or interest. There's time. There's I also want to say that this is I'm mentioning all those points. Still, those points require investment on time, of someone knowledgeable about the product and dedicated to ensuring that selling online will be successful or will do everything they want.

       To make sure that it's successful. Otherwise, it will not work. And that goes to another point. So I'm sorry that I'm jumping between different things here. You need to. If I weren't a manufacturer and going back to your question to start selling online, I would pick marketplaces.

       If they're in the furniture business, that's our specialty. So I will pick a specific marketplace but hire someone. That knows how to do it, and they have done it well in the past, but you can try to do it on your own, and that's. And sometimes, you do need to do things on your own, but if you decide to do it on your own, have a mentor or someone to guide you through it.

       So you're not wasting time on weeks or months and a lot of money on things that don't make. Just avoid all this. You can speed up the learning curve. So my advice is to find someone who can mentor you or mentor someone you delegate that task to, and then try to play with that.

       And one last thing is to be passionate to have patience. Clicks don't come in immediately. It takes time. You need to test different things. You need to try different keywords. You need to test different. Then, later on, once you do get clicks, you need to test different image areas.

       You got to know what's more attractive to the consumer. Every consumer likes things differently. So you got to figure it out. It's just a lot of baby testing. And you just got to be patient. Yeah. Yeah. I know. We want things to go viral, and most things, no, they don't. It's just most things don't. It's just getting lucky that something does get viral, but in most cases, it's not.

       So don't plan for it. Don't plan that you're going to upload some type of product and then the whole world. I...]]>2c00c148-6135-4c8e-8b65-bd54563c15e7Mon, 05 Sep 2022 07:05:00 -040027:11falsefull234342How to Increase Employee Retention through Building Design with Todd DrouillardConnect 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 great more, I want to say a better area to have lunch a. A better opening to have a communal teaming room, and those bases have made it much better. The other part about it is just going through the exterior design.

       When you drive by these newer manufacturing spaces, they tend to have more of a brand. Then the old white box that we've seen in the past. So our clients have been asking that we want people to drive down the freeway and know that it's an Amazon warehouse.

       They want to know that it's just not a big white box, that it has a branding that something's going on there. And something's excellent.  

       Lisa Ryan:  Is it something that you're primarily starting? I'm sure it's easier to start with new construction, but do you have many of your clients? I'm in Cleveland, which I'm sure is a lot like Detroit when it comes to manufacturing. There are a lot of old plants around, so how would you go about retrofitting and doing some of these things to bring back those dark, dreary places and make them more user-friendly and workforce friendly?

       Todd Drouillard: Yeah, I think it's just going through and looking at what, what's available, and what's there. It's trying to bring like I've noted in, in some of the older, like manufacturing here, like in Detroit, But a lot of times what they would do is I guess to hide the old brick, the old look we've, torn those down, to expose it, to kind show how the building's built.

       So even in the simplicity of trying not to hide the way the building's built because sometimes, the architecture of the building can speak to how cool it can be. So try not to hide that, but a simple way to do it is to lighten it up.

       Does paint everything white 

       I know it sounds right. But, like a simple thing, installing new lighting, efficient lighting to bring some light into the space helps. You can create a bright room with those two things. The other thing is to do your best to get some natural daylight, even though, at times, Detroit, Cleveland, and some of the Midwest can be dreary.

       Lisa Ryan:  We do have some beautiful days. And that does seem to help the morale quite, quite a bit. And like you said, even a fresh coat of paint. There are so many places where you go into the office or where the customer-facing parts of the things or the office facing, and everything's nice, clean, beautiful, and up to date.

       And then you go into the plant or the warehouse, and it's just dirty and everything. So even a coat of paint of a clean coat of paint can make a huge difference for sure.

       Todd Drouillard: And it's just that, it's just the going through it, what an looking at it has, what I want to work here, what I want, people that I know wanna work here and to embrace the space for what it is.

       Try not to make it something that's not it. And I think one of the biggest things is to expose and get down to why that building's there once you're trying to build. It's enjoyable.

       Lisa Ryan:  I think about, I was just in Savannah speaking last week, and there's so much history in that it seemed that every restaurant and hotel that I went into, they welcomed that exposed brick, and you can feel the history. And I think that's such an important point. With these older buildings, there's so much history, and employees want to feel that they are part of something bigger than they are.

       And if they're in this one of these historic buildings, they are, and then it's up to the company to clean it up. And like you said, they can do the natural light or other things. So what are some of the other things that you're seeing? We talked about natural light. We talked about a paint job. What else are companies doing to bring that up to date and make it where they want to work?

       Todd Drouillard: Yeah. The other thing that I've seen a lot of times, too, is when a what, like when they start to introduce them because most of these manufacturing plants have an office slick area exposing the office area into the manufacturing area. So there's not that hierarchy of having the office up above. And everybody's looking down on the like on the workers. So, it's becoming more of an impressionable thing to introduce those, and sometimes you know what, like even blend them.

       So there's no clear line between what's in an office and what's a workspace. Or like a manufacturer or manufacturing space. The same thing is happening in the warehouse, with the warehousing also trying to expose that. So it's not so hidden away and lost a lot of our clients want open spaces with as few barriers as possible, fewer columns, fewer walls. Let's open up the room, make it bright, and we want to be able to see what's going on. And if there's a problem, we can address it. The other part of that is trying to make a very efficient space. Both leading manufacturers, you have an office. You have the manufacturing bees like inbound processing, outbound, nice and linear streak. Sometimes that doesn't like always happening. So our clients look to us to create more efficiency within their floor plans.

       Lisa Ryan:  Then a lot of times that that's achieved by just good planning. Good overall planning of the building. And so, how involved do you get the employees in the process? Because it would seem that, nobody likes change. So you're going in, and all the workers know is that you will change their space.

       So what are some of the ways you get the buy-in from...]]>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 great more, I want to say a better area to have lunch a. A better opening to have a communal teaming room, and those bases have made it much better. The other part about it is just going through the exterior design.

       When you drive by these newer manufacturing spaces, they tend to have more of a brand. Then the old white box that we've seen in the past. So our clients have been asking that we want people to drive down the freeway and know that it's an Amazon warehouse.

       They want to know that it's just not a big white box, that it has a branding that something's going on there. And something's excellent.  

       Lisa Ryan:  Is it something that you're primarily starting? I'm sure it's easier to start with new construction, but do you have many of your clients? I'm in Cleveland, which I'm sure is a lot like Detroit when it comes to manufacturing. There are a lot of old plants around, so how would you go about retrofitting and doing some of these things to bring back those dark, dreary places and make them more user-friendly and workforce friendly?

       Todd Drouillard: Yeah, I think it's just going through and looking at what, what's available, and what's there. It's trying to bring like I've noted in, in some of the older, like manufacturing here, like in Detroit, But a lot of times what they would do is I guess to hide the old brick, the old look we've, torn those down, to expose it, to kind show how the building's built.

       So even in the simplicity of trying not to hide the way the building's built because sometimes, the architecture of the building can speak to how cool it can be. So try not to hide that, but a simple way to do it is to lighten it up.

       Does paint everything white 

       I know it sounds right. But, like a simple thing, installing new lighting, efficient lighting to bring some light into the space helps. You can create a bright room with those two things. The other thing is to do your best to get some natural daylight, even though, at times, Detroit, Cleveland, and some of the Midwest can be dreary.

       Lisa Ryan:  We do have some beautiful days. And that does seem to help the morale quite, quite a bit. And like you said, even a fresh coat of paint. There are so many places where you go into the office or where the customer-facing parts of the things or the office facing, and everything's nice, clean, beautiful, and up to date.

       And then you go into the plant or the warehouse, and it's just dirty and everything. So even a coat of paint of a clean coat of paint can make a huge difference for sure.

       Todd Drouillard: And it's just that, it's just the going through it, what an looking at it has, what I want to work here, what I want, people that I know wanna work here and to embrace the space for what it is.

       Try not to make it something that's not it. And I think one of the biggest things is to expose and get down to why that building's there once you're trying to build. It's enjoyable.

       Lisa Ryan:  I think about, I was just in Savannah speaking last week, and there's so much history in that it seemed that every restaurant and hotel that I went into, they welcomed that exposed brick, and you can feel the history. And I think that's such an important point. With these older buildings, there's so much history, and employees want to feel that they are part of something bigger than they are.

       And if they're in this one of these historic buildings, they are, and then it's up to the company to clean it up. And like you said, they can do the natural light or other things. So what are some of the other things that you're seeing? We talked about natural light. We talked about a paint job. What else are companies doing to bring that up to date and make it where they want to work?

       Todd Drouillard: Yeah. The other thing that I've seen a lot of times, too, is when a what, like when they start to introduce them because most of these manufacturing plants have an office slick area exposing the office area into the manufacturing area. So there's not that hierarchy of having the office up above. And everybody's looking down on the like on the workers. So, it's becoming more of an impressionable thing to introduce those, and sometimes you know what, like even blend them.

       So there's no clear line between what's in an office and what's a workspace. Or like a manufacturer or manufacturing space. The same thing is happening in the warehouse, with the warehousing also trying to expose that. So it's not so hidden away and lost a lot of our clients want open spaces with as few barriers as possible, fewer columns, fewer walls. Let's open up the room, make it bright, and we want to be able to see what's going on. And if there's a problem, we can address it. The other part of that is trying to make a very efficient space. Both leading manufacturers, you have an office. You have the manufacturing bees like inbound processing, outbound, nice and linear streak. Sometimes that doesn't like always happening. So our clients look to us to create more efficiency within their floor plans.

       Lisa Ryan:  Then a lot of times that that's achieved by just good planning. Good overall planning of the building. And so, how involved do you get the employees in the process? Because it would seem that, nobody likes change. So you're going in, and all the workers know is that you will change their space.

       So what are some of the ways you get the buy-in from them? For example, are you meeting with different committees? Are you finding out from the workers there about workflow, or how does that process work?

       Todd Drouillard: Yeah, it's a little bit of both. We've seen it happen both ways, where some groups were created to be the voice of the people on the floor.

       And then other ones have been where we've gone through and done. The companies we've worked for have conducted surveys like their top parts. And it almost always comes across as for people to stay. They want to be treated well and all those things, but down to the buildings, it comes down to the amenities. We've seen many employers offer gyms, even smaller ones. They'll provide like a fitness clean light-locker rooms cleaner just. You know what it seems like when you make it simple and don't overdo it.

       And you create a space for people to be that's important. So it's like that third space between their vehicle, where they may park the car to their workspace. So it's that third space that's important: lunch rooms, fitness areas, break rooms, and team rooms.

       Lisa Ryan:  Those are probably the top things I've seen in the manufacturing-like environments. So what's been your favorite project to work with? You talked about gyms and breaks and break rooms and lunchrooms and stuff. So what was something you worked on that you thought was super cool that this client wanted?

       Todd Drouillard: In one of our projects, this particular light manufacturer makes safety components for like vehicles. So one of the cool things we were likable to do as they had these templates. So that they press out of metal, so in certain worker-areas, we put those up like a ceiling kind of design.

       So you can imagine all these wheels and cogs and things they use to make the parts. We painted them flashy and placed them up so people could see what they were building. I thought that, just down, and that's a straightforward thing.

       In the other areas we've done, we've created some green spaces, courtyards, and exterior spots. So if people wanted to do what they had to, they would break outside. So use of landscape taking it like outside a little bit, getting some fresh air.

       We found that the employees love that stuff. It's something that can be like a differentiator. I love the idea of using the pieces and parts they make in the design.

       Lisa Ryan:  I know a couple of years ago, when I spoke for the spring manufacturers, they would have a part of the week where the person would take one of the parts they were making, make a poster of it, and show where the particular piece went. So again, you're looking at employees who are doing the same thing on the line every day by just valuing what they do and even making art out of it.

       Todd Drouillard: Yeah. That seems that it would put a sense of pride into the workplace. It certainly does. And they've done these companies do follow-ups too.

       
       

       And one of the few employees even said, it's almost like we're making art. The manufacturing side can be an art because it's essential to have that piece. And that may go to a seatbelt assembly or something and, and, and it's the graphics of like you're saving lives, not only are you making parts, you're saving people's lives.

       Lisa Ryan:  So it has that holistic approach of, of, it has all the good feels for the company and the employees to create a message that comes across very well. The other thing you mentioned is incorporating the office and the plant environment to eliminate that "us versus them," but how would you do that from a noise control standpoint?

       Todd Drouillard: Yeah, that isn't easy. Products have gotten much better. And Glass has gained higher what's called STC ratings to develop that. So instead of being open, per se, it has a glass wall that you have to be careful with the design of what areas you integrate. You can often put a fraction of maybe the conferencing rooms, things that may not have to be so loud. And then you create the private phone booths you want to keep away. For many loud noises

       Lisa Ryan:  We talked about kind of optimization of the processes. What are some of the trends you're seeing that are being applied? Facility design. Yeah. Where the, where lately I've been seeing the most like optimization is in the warehousing side bits that whole concept to have that last mile shipment, the idea that you and I can go on our complex computer in a day or so we have a product at our porch or even like the same day. So what's been happening? Are there automatic retrieval parts? And so the warehouse-like of the future is not just a big warehouse with rack storage. It's a multi-floor, multi-piece that is all automated.

       Todd Drouillard: I've seen a lot of leg innovation there. It but the same with any product, especially one that creates any level of waste or scrap or recycling. That's been a big piece too. So in a, let's say, a parts stamping plant where they're stamping out parts, there's an underground system of tunnels that you don't see what's taking all that metal.

       To a specific space that can then be recycled to make more parts, so significantly less wasteful, it's cleaner. It keeps all the noise, dirt, dust, and oils below. So it keeps the plant floor clean and safe as well. So that's, and then the other major innovation.

       Lisa Ryan:  Mostly, come on the safe side. One of the top priorities of any company I have ever worked for is always safety. So they are keeping the workers safe. And that helps with the lighting and with all kinds of things. But you know what, again, there have been a lot of changes to how safe the buildings are.

       And employees are getting back to the workplace and helping people to feel valued. Suppose they think their employer cares enough about them to create a safe environment, not just to protect them from getting fined by OSHA, but because they care about the workers' safety. In that case, they can implement that into the design, making a massive difference in their retention.

       Todd Drouillard: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I think everybody would probably agree that everybody wants to go home, be safe, and not have a problem. So if the employee was to step beyond the band, a boundary machine shuts down, with all these checks and balances in a blaze. Even though humans were intuitive, don't put your hand there. Don't touch that. There's the idea that sometimes you're doing something and you don't; you do something and don't have to think about it.

       So these are there to check and to make sure that the worker is safe throughout the process. Yeah.

       Lisa Ryan:  So somebody listening to this show today, if they were thinking about the fact that, what it would be nice to upgrade our space, what would be an excellent way to start, or how would they begin to figure out their priority list of what would make the most sense?

       
       

       Todd Drouillard: Yeah, I would appreciate the advice that we usually get his, for them to look at their project holistically though, the entire piece of it, not just one, like little like area if they came back, but by and said we want to upgrade our team rooms, but we're like, then what about the office space spaces?

       What about the cafeteria? Like again, you don't have to do it all haul at once, but you can think about it and plan. So when you do the next phase of your project, What it's planned out? So it's coming across as a master plan for the space and seeing where the priorities are.

       It hit their due for lighting, like a like upgrade. It's a great time to do it. You are trying to sell like leadership on the benefits of being able to save money in the long. So that's another piece of it too, is by doing these projects and making the building better, more efficient, new air, like HVAC to help cool the building or these can be made as more of a longer-term saving money. So talk rather than just a quick, immediate fix.

       Lisa Ryan:  Okay. And if you were to say your number one tip or the best idea for facility design, for everything we talked about, workforce and optimization and cost savings.

       Todd Drouillard: Sure. What would that be? Sure. Hire us earlier than you higher us, like earlier than you think you should bring us in as soon as possible. But, again, let's plan and start slow. Let's front-load the project with some time during construction or building. Or the renovation cost, you'll save money been the long run. So getting in there as early as possible and thinking about these things is probably the biggest.

       And then taking a survey of your employers would be another excellent opportunity to see what's on their minds. Absolutely. Okay. And Todd, if people did want to continue the conversation with you, what's the best way to get ahold of you? The best way is through my email address Attard HD.design, or to check out our website, which is hed. Design.

       Lisa Ryan:  Okay. Todd, thank you so much for everything you shared with us today. It was great having you on the show.

       Todd Drouillard: Excellent. Thank you again, Lisa.

       I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. We'll see you next time.

       ]]>0f9d2a36-d920-4cd3-a9f8-3ca1126187beMon, 29 Aug 2022 07:05:00 -040021:51falsefull233332How Manufacturers can Guarantee Revenue Streams with Dave EvansConnect 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, Fictiv. Since its founding in 2013, Fictiv has manufactured more than 19 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 Evans: Let's talk about classic supply chain products. When I was at Ford, you had three options for how you would make this product. I'm an engineer working on this dashboard, and I designed something up in CAD, and now I want to get it physically made. I have a new way to mount an iPhone 11 into the car. And I want to design or prototype this.

       So your options are threefold. First, I could use my internal resource . we had an interior machine shop, a prototyping lab, and some equipment at Ford. The second option is to go to my tier one supply base-people that build components for production and do that, and there are trade-offs there.

       And the third option, which many people do, is you build a network yourself. So you have a leased machine shop in Detroit, Jennifer's machine shop in Wisconsin, or I have a shop in Vietnam or China. And I have all these relationships, and you build this network.

       And traditionally, I'd go out. I'd get RQs. I'd wait for those RQs to come back. Then, I'd award the work to a supplier. The supplier would make it, and they would ship it to me. And typically, that took eight, maybe ten weeks to go through that process—every time I wanted to build one of these new dashboards.

       And to me, that was way too slow because I knew it only took two hours to make my part on the machine. So what happened to the seven-week, six days, and 22 hours between the two hours of making it? And it's a whole bunch of latency that happens. So it's time to say, Hey Lisa, I need a quote. And you're busy, running this machine shop in Detroit, building parts on the factory floor, dealing with something.

       So that quote takes a week or two to get back to me. So I award you the work, and I get put in a queue because you have all these orders ahead of mine. After all, you want to keep your machine running all the time. So it's like this artificial cue to be on. And then the part comes off, waiting for a quality inspector to look at it.

       And then now it has to get shipped to me. All of this is kind of do time. If you fast forward and say, how do we do this eff active? That quote happens in a minute. You use our online software. You're uploading that CAD file and getting instant pricing and DFM designed for manufacturing feedback. You can then collaborate with your purchasing manager teams using our software on any needed changes within a minute. Finally, you can purchase that just like you would buy on Amazon, like an eCommerce experience for buying.

       Custom mechanical component. From there, the part gets scheduled to an idle machine. So that's going to make it like the same day. I know that Lisa's machines are entirely at capacity, but Jennifer's machines in Wisconsin are open and available today. And that park gets routed to Jennifer, and it goes on, the machine gets made, comes off the machine tomorrow, gets inspected by our digital QMS quality management system. So we have physical, effective people looking at those parts digitally and sometimes in the factory. And then it gets shipped back to you in a matter of, say, two, three days. So you take a process that was eight weeks at four, and we've compressed that down to 2, 3, 4 days.

       Think about how many cycles you can go through in that iteration, all to let your hair flow better using the dashboard, driving down the one.

       Lisa Ryan: And to put it in terms that I can understand, and the simpler term is that, if I have a project that I need some market research done or something, and I go to Upwork, and I put on a job of precisely what I'm looking for data mining for this list of people, and then within three to four minutes, usually within the first hour I have about 40 people that have subscribed to that. And then I can check them out. I can read their reviews, then narrow it down and pick the one I'm going to work with. So it sounds that from a product basis, that's pretty similar. You're putting it out there. And then people are saying, Hey, pick me. I have the capacity, and this is what I can do. And then you can check them out.

       Dave Evans: it's that's very close. Your other analogy people use it's like Uber. You get out of the airport. You could stand at the taxi line and are there taxis? Maybe there aren't taxis because they're busy.

       Maybe the queue is a hundred people long, and you're going to wait, and you just got to IMTS, or you just got the CES, and you're going to wait in that line forever. But in Uber, you get off the plane, connect your phone and say, give me a car. It shows up in five. And Uber is doing all the quality for you.

       Oh, do you want a black car? Okay. You can do that. Oh, do you want an Uber X? You can do that. It's a five-star rating. They kick people off and manage all those networks of drivers. All that's done for you. You have a better riding experience than getting in a taxi, and there's no accountability.

       You don't know how long you're going to wait. It's this Uberization or Upwork. If people have used that. For the manufacturing world, what we know is like Lisa's machine shop, Jennifer's, or whoever it's out there like there's enough capacity in the world. What's more, how do you find it?

       Vet it, manage it and digitally do that. And let's get away from email. Let's get away from PowerPoint. Let's get away from the Excel docs required to launch products. Instead, we want to build better digital tools to reimagine how manufacturing is done.

       Lisa Ryan: One and just looking at manufacturing utterly different because we're in this realm of that, of course, it's going to take eight to 12 weeks to get a part because of everything you explained before. But you're]]>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, Fictiv. Since its founding in 2013, Fictiv has manufactured more than 19 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 Evans: Let's talk about classic supply chain products. When I was at Ford, you had three options for how you would make this product. I'm an engineer working on this dashboard, and I designed something up in CAD, and now I want to get it physically made. I have a new way to mount an iPhone 11 into the car. And I want to design or prototype this.

       So your options are threefold. First, I could use my internal resource . we had an interior machine shop, a prototyping lab, and some equipment at Ford. The second option is to go to my tier one supply base-people that build components for production and do that, and there are trade-offs there.

       And the third option, which many people do, is you build a network yourself. So you have a leased machine shop in Detroit, Jennifer's machine shop in Wisconsin, or I have a shop in Vietnam or China. And I have all these relationships, and you build this network.

       And traditionally, I'd go out. I'd get RQs. I'd wait for those RQs to come back. Then, I'd award the work to a supplier. The supplier would make it, and they would ship it to me. And typically, that took eight, maybe ten weeks to go through that process—every time I wanted to build one of these new dashboards.

       And to me, that was way too slow because I knew it only took two hours to make my part on the machine. So what happened to the seven-week, six days, and 22 hours between the two hours of making it? And it's a whole bunch of latency that happens. So it's time to say, Hey Lisa, I need a quote. And you're busy, running this machine shop in Detroit, building parts on the factory floor, dealing with something.

       So that quote takes a week or two to get back to me. So I award you the work, and I get put in a queue because you have all these orders ahead of mine. After all, you want to keep your machine running all the time. So it's like this artificial cue to be on. And then the part comes off, waiting for a quality inspector to look at it.

       And then now it has to get shipped to me. All of this is kind of do time. If you fast forward and say, how do we do this eff active? That quote happens in a minute. You use our online software. You're uploading that CAD file and getting instant pricing and DFM designed for manufacturing feedback. You can then collaborate with your purchasing manager teams using our software on any needed changes within a minute. Finally, you can purchase that just like you would buy on Amazon, like an eCommerce experience for buying.

       Custom mechanical component. From there, the part gets scheduled to an idle machine. So that's going to make it like the same day. I know that Lisa's machines are entirely at capacity, but Jennifer's machines in Wisconsin are open and available today. And that park gets routed to Jennifer, and it goes on, the machine gets made, comes off the machine tomorrow, gets inspected by our digital QMS quality management system. So we have physical, effective people looking at those parts digitally and sometimes in the factory. And then it gets shipped back to you in a matter of, say, two, three days. So you take a process that was eight weeks at four, and we've compressed that down to 2, 3, 4 days.

       Think about how many cycles you can go through in that iteration, all to let your hair flow better using the dashboard, driving down the one.

       Lisa Ryan: And to put it in terms that I can understand, and the simpler term is that, if I have a project that I need some market research done or something, and I go to Upwork, and I put on a job of precisely what I'm looking for data mining for this list of people, and then within three to four minutes, usually within the first hour I have about 40 people that have subscribed to that. And then I can check them out. I can read their reviews, then narrow it down and pick the one I'm going to work with. So it sounds that from a product basis, that's pretty similar. You're putting it out there. And then people are saying, Hey, pick me. I have the capacity, and this is what I can do. And then you can check them out.

       Dave Evans: it's that's very close. Your other analogy people use it's like Uber. You get out of the airport. You could stand at the taxi line and are there taxis? Maybe there aren't taxis because they're busy.

       Maybe the queue is a hundred people long, and you're going to wait, and you just got to IMTS, or you just got the CES, and you're going to wait in that line forever. But in Uber, you get off the plane, connect your phone and say, give me a car. It shows up in five. And Uber is doing all the quality for you.

       Oh, do you want a black car? Okay. You can do that. Oh, do you want an Uber X? You can do that. It's a five-star rating. They kick people off and manage all those networks of drivers. All that's done for you. You have a better riding experience than getting in a taxi, and there's no accountability.

       You don't know how long you're going to wait. It's this Uberization or Upwork. If people have used that. For the manufacturing world, what we know is like Lisa's machine shop, Jennifer's, or whoever it's out there like there's enough capacity in the world. What's more, how do you find it?

       Vet it, manage it and digitally do that. And let's get away from email. Let's get away from PowerPoint. Let's get away from the Excel docs required to launch products. Instead, we want to build better digital tools to reimagine how manufacturing is done.

       Lisa Ryan: One and just looking at manufacturing utterly different because we're in this realm of that, of course, it's going to take eight to 12 weeks to get a part because of everything you explained before. But you're also giving people opportunities. As you said, it goes in a queue. Number one, you don't know if that purchasing agent is on vacation. And if they're ever going to get the quote and get back to you in a couple of weeks, it brings you that immediate Gratification that you have people jumping on that.

       So how do you build the relationships with those manufacturers to deliver these 18 million parts? What's the process that you go through for that?

       Dave Evans: I want you to think that we are your bolt-on supply chain team. Just as your supply chain team has global supply chain managers, quality engineers, and project managers, I have that same structure here. It's just my people aren't using PowerPoints and emails and spreadsheets. They're using Silicon valley software tools to manage all the relationships. So, for example, we inspect the factory, not once a year or once a quarter, as we did at Ford or most places. Still, every day, we have data from our 250 manufacturing partners on their quality, their acceptance rating of any defects that happen, and all that's happening through our digital QM.

       Then on top of that, we have supply quality engineers in China, India, and the US that are physically inspecting these factories or you. This is all to give you confidence when ordering something. So we have the highest quality, not just managed through a system like software, but managed through world-class experts.

       I call them our SWAT team. That's like diving in and inspecting it for you. And what that does is it gives you leverage. Because imagine if you're a small product company, you have an idea. You don't have supply quality engineers, TPMS, or project managers. You don't have any of that stuff. Or maybe you're a big company, and you do, but your network's too large.

       We act as that bolt-on supply chain for you. So you have peace of mind that you'll always get the highest quality product. And that's how we've produced these 20 million parts by building this combination of software plus humans to drive best-in-cost automation.

       Lisa Ryan: And the other thing that comes to mind, though, again, you're working with manufacturing that is slow to change. I'm thinking about people listening to the podcast who may be stuck in that and just having the conversation when you are approaching different people to get into the fictive supplier chain that can be included in those quotes.

       And in that field of people. So how do you explain it to them? And the benefits that open up again, completely changing that mindset of how they've worked before through the whole quote process and everything.

       Dave Evans: Yeah. Generally, this will probably resonate with everybody listening here if you run a factory, a service bureau, or a CNC machine shop. Most owners or operators didn't start the business because they love generating quotes, PDFs, and discussing design permits. Most of them did it because they love making physical parts. They love running the factory, working with machines, and doing all that creative work.

       But what happens is to run a successful service bureau or business. There's all this upfront administrative work that you have to do. Talk to any machine shop owner and say, how much do you like chasing down past due invoices? So how many hands raise? This many? Zero. How many times, what's your percentage of things that you quote versus you win most is about 20%. 

       Meaning for every ten quotes you send out, only two of them will you going o get awarded? What about those other eight that are lost productivity for you? When you work effectively, what we're doing is all that front office work for you. And we're basically like money on a tree. That's just you can pull down as much as you want.

       So you have this guaranteed revenue stream for your factory. Theft is prevented. Standardized work orders, standardized payment terms, and improved cash flow. And you have consistent revenue. If you work with a customer, they'll make a product, and then they go away because they're shipping it and selling it. We will always be making products because we're consolidating all this demand from many industries.

       And what we see is that we are a strategic partner, not just a customer, but a partner for these manufacturing part plants, service bureaus, machine shops, and that it's a kind of those values of, it's predictable revenue, it's a strategic partner and software development. And then it's all around payment terms.

       Lisa Ryan: Are some industries better for this, or what areas do you specialize in and find that you're hitting these home runs with?

       Dave Evans: I think that complex mechanical components are where we win the most. If you're ordering a block with four holes, You probably don't need a lot of sourcing expertise to get a block with four holes.

       
       

       You don't need a lot of people. A lot of people can make a block with four holes. Some avenues do that. But suppose you have tight tolerance and complex mechanical parts. In that case, there's a lot of back, and forth in how you quote it, design for manufacturing feedback, the invoicing around it, how you do reorders, like all this complexity.

       
       

       And that's where our digital systems shine both for the customer. 

       Someone at Ford or Honeywell, but also for the manufacturing partner, the guy or gal producing, and that's where, I think that in the ecosystem of custom mechanical manufacturing, the complex parts is where we shine.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: I think about product prototypes and then the complex parts. Do you do anything, or do your suppliers do anything with like 3d printing and that type of development? Or is it more machining?

       
       

       Dave Evans: We do pretty much all custom mechanicals. Machining is a big portion of it. 3d printing and additive are another huge portion of it. Injection molding is probably the fastest growing highest utilization for us because of all the constraints in that market today.

       
       

       So I'd say those are probably the three big ones, but then there's a long tail of other services.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: And again, when we're starting to change the conversation and look at how manufacturing is just different today, and evolving with all of this new technology, what are some of the biggest mistakes that you're still seeing manufacturers make, and what are, some ways that they can take a look at those mistakes and maybe improve their process.

       
       

       Dave Evans: Listen, we are in the most challenging period for the supply chain in the last 20 years, 50 years. How far do you want to go back? When you take global trade wars between us and China, with an ongoing pandemic, a war in Europe, and the Suez canal. And now we're talking about different diseases that are coming up even beyond Covid. So all these are causing disruptions in the supply chain, and everybody's hurting on the demand side and the supply.

       
       

       And we see the common pitfalls that I see when I talk about simplifying sourcing, it's this whole process of how do you plan what you need? How do you source it? How do you make it? How do you deliver it? And how do you ensure the quality of it? These kinds of five things. That's what sourcing is.

       
       

       And then we see two people get. We see folks get hung up on this idea of agility and resiliency. 

       Get out your notepad now as you're listening. Agility is the ability o sense and respond. Like in your supply chain, if you have agility, you can see that something will mess up and react quickly.

       
       

       That is, I would ask you to rate your supply chain on how good your agility and ability to sense something are. And when that happens, respond to it. Resiliency then is the ability to adapt to change. So you can have a very agile supply chain, meaning you can sense things will happen, but if you don't have resiliency, meaning once you've sensed it, are you going to make a change?

       
       

       So Hey, I know a global trade war will happen with China. Okay. That would mean you got agility. But do you have a backup plan that would be your resiliency to move things out of China? If that's the case, I'll take another one. We know hurricane season is coming up in the Florida region, which is great. I have the agility that I can sense and respond, but you have a resiliency that you can move production out of the Southeast of the US when that happens. So what's your resiliency plan? And this is why we're talking with many companies today, both factories and the companies, the demand side, and OEMs. Say, how much agility and resiliency do you have in your factory?

       
       

       If you're a factory listening to this and run that, let's talk about a labor shortage. That's a big one. We always hear, what are your indicators of how much agility you have around your hiring plans around retention and how you find talent? But if that doesn't work out, what are your resiliency plans?

       
       

       How are you going to adopt and change to a new hiring strategy? s it around training? Is it culture? Is it wage increases? Is it labor practices? These are all plans that I would implore everybody to listen to. What's your agility? And what's your resiliency plan in your supply chain today?

       
       

       And I would bolster those if you're not already.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: Awesome. If you had, we talked about that agility and resiliency. Any other tips that you find helpful, or have you worked with your clients within manufacturing?

       
       

       Dave Evans: Yeah. We'll probably get to this because whenever we connect with Lisa, we talk about culture a lot....]]>fd762d4b-fdab-439f-89e4-9223cc1d3bfaMon, 22 Aug 2022 07:05:00 -040032:32falsefull232322Building Brand Credibility Through Video for Manufacturers with Wendy CoveyLisa 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 how critical marketing is to sell the products and bring in the right people. So talk a little bit about that.

       Wendy Covey: Yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up. Often we'll work with companies on their brand messaging, which gets into how they position themselves.

       What do they use to define their culture and core values? That shouldn't just be focused on attracting new buyers. It should also be how we live and breathe as a company, how we want our staff to engage with each other, with our customers, and who we want to attract as new employees come in.

       And so, there are a lot of different stakeholders that should be considered when creating that message. And then it. Stop there. You can make wonderful words, but you fall flat if you're not living and breathing those words within your operations and how you act as a culture. So it takes it.

       It might be great for marketing to come in and do lead a messaging exercise and create this remarkable messaging and put it on the website. But, still, it takes the entire organization to adopt that messaging and live and breathe it over time.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. There are so many instances when a company will hire a consulting or marketing firm to come in with something that they think will look good, chiseled on the wall.

       But every time the employees walk by, they're like. Yeah. So how do you get that buy-in with employees, so they know down to the core of their being? So that the words on the wall are, is the company they are working for or represents the company they're working for.

       Wendy Covey: Yeah. Yeah. So, it may start at the executive level, where you have a team. Think of it as a branding committee, right?

       You have your executive sponsor. You have HR at the table. You have marketing at the table, maybe sales as well. And that message, those core values, all those things are crafted. But then, how does that translate into downstream operations? So a great example is if one of your core values is honesty or trustworthiness, then maybe that should be in a performance review, right?

       Maybe those core values should be reflected in those conversations that managers have every year, every six months, with an employee to check how things are going. So now it has become not just a sign on the wall or something nice on a website, but something that we expect our employees to live up to.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. And also, when it comes to recruiting employees, what are some of the methods that some of your clients are using to use that marketing method and get the word out as far as their culture and what they've built? Why would these employees want to join their organization versus competitors down the street?

       Wendy Covey: I find a lot of manufacturing companies. I don't have a good definition of their culture. So one is, it is just looking inward and trying to put the words around what their culture is. So, for example, with Trew marketing, we call the way we work laid-back excellence. We want to be approachable.

       We want to have this Austin style of we're laid back. We're not very formal, but when it comes to details, those matter, and excellence matters. And so when we recruit someone, we explain laid-back excellence, which will appeal to someone or maybe repel someone else. And that's a good thing because we want someone that fits in our culture and in.

       Not uncomfortable there. And I think that's no different than manufacturing companies, whether at a job fair or on your website, just trying to put those words around what culture means for that company.

       Lisa Ryan: So what do you think are some of the biggest mistakes people make in marketing?

       Wendy Covey: Wow. There are lots out there. The first is having a very outdated website, and Google changes its algorithms every few years. They punish you. It's very punishing if you don't keep up with the latest technology trends on your website. So that's one end of it: ensuring your website's secure. For example, it loads quickly. Those are all sort of table stakes. Still, then the other side of it is having accurate information about what you offer, how your company operates, and speaking about things using a buyer's language. And or a recruiting person's language instead of your own internal language.

       So think, if I'm just promoting my products and using lots of acronyms, that's not very friendly language compared to speaking to a buyer in their terms and helping offer content along each stage of the buyer's journey. So it's that combination of fresh content that's thoughtful towards the buyer or the recruit, whoever that person you're writing for is combined with a website house that functions as it should.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. And so often, I know there's a difference between the written and spoken words. And doing some combination where you are speaking into some kind of dictation, so it comes out as you said, that relaxed, casual type of language where it's very conversational versus sounding like a fifth grade English teacher wrote it.

       Wendy Covey: That's great you bring that up. And usually, during a brand positioning and messaging project, we talk about the tone of voice. You'd be surprised that not every company would agree with the statement that you should be conversational and approachable.

       There are different styles, and it goes back to that culture. One might be that we want to be informative and commanding. And the next one might be. I'll give you an example—Vertech, a control integration company, calls themselves control freaks.

       And that's very casual...]]>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 how critical marketing is to sell the products and bring in the right people. So talk a little bit about that.

       Wendy Covey: Yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up. Often we'll work with companies on their brand messaging, which gets into how they position themselves.

       What do they use to define their culture and core values? That shouldn't just be focused on attracting new buyers. It should also be how we live and breathe as a company, how we want our staff to engage with each other, with our customers, and who we want to attract as new employees come in.

       And so, there are a lot of different stakeholders that should be considered when creating that message. And then it. Stop there. You can make wonderful words, but you fall flat if you're not living and breathing those words within your operations and how you act as a culture. So it takes it.

       It might be great for marketing to come in and do lead a messaging exercise and create this remarkable messaging and put it on the website. But, still, it takes the entire organization to adopt that messaging and live and breathe it over time.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. There are so many instances when a company will hire a consulting or marketing firm to come in with something that they think will look good, chiseled on the wall.

       But every time the employees walk by, they're like. Yeah. So how do you get that buy-in with employees, so they know down to the core of their being? So that the words on the wall are, is the company they are working for or represents the company they're working for.

       Wendy Covey: Yeah. Yeah. So, it may start at the executive level, where you have a team. Think of it as a branding committee, right?

       You have your executive sponsor. You have HR at the table. You have marketing at the table, maybe sales as well. And that message, those core values, all those things are crafted. But then, how does that translate into downstream operations? So a great example is if one of your core values is honesty or trustworthiness, then maybe that should be in a performance review, right?

       Maybe those core values should be reflected in those conversations that managers have every year, every six months, with an employee to check how things are going. So now it has become not just a sign on the wall or something nice on a website, but something that we expect our employees to live up to.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. And also, when it comes to recruiting employees, what are some of the methods that some of your clients are using to use that marketing method and get the word out as far as their culture and what they've built? Why would these employees want to join their organization versus competitors down the street?

       Wendy Covey: I find a lot of manufacturing companies. I don't have a good definition of their culture. So one is, it is just looking inward and trying to put the words around what their culture is. So, for example, with Trew marketing, we call the way we work laid-back excellence. We want to be approachable.

       We want to have this Austin style of we're laid back. We're not very formal, but when it comes to details, those matter, and excellence matters. And so when we recruit someone, we explain laid-back excellence, which will appeal to someone or maybe repel someone else. And that's a good thing because we want someone that fits in our culture and in.

       Not uncomfortable there. And I think that's no different than manufacturing companies, whether at a job fair or on your website, just trying to put those words around what culture means for that company.

       Lisa Ryan: So what do you think are some of the biggest mistakes people make in marketing?

       Wendy Covey: Wow. There are lots out there. The first is having a very outdated website, and Google changes its algorithms every few years. They punish you. It's very punishing if you don't keep up with the latest technology trends on your website. So that's one end of it: ensuring your website's secure. For example, it loads quickly. Those are all sort of table stakes. Still, then the other side of it is having accurate information about what you offer, how your company operates, and speaking about things using a buyer's language. And or a recruiting person's language instead of your own internal language.

       So think, if I'm just promoting my products and using lots of acronyms, that's not very friendly language compared to speaking to a buyer in their terms and helping offer content along each stage of the buyer's journey. So it's that combination of fresh content that's thoughtful towards the buyer or the recruit, whoever that person you're writing for is combined with a website house that functions as it should.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. And so often, I know there's a difference between the written and spoken words. And doing some combination where you are speaking into some kind of dictation, so it comes out as you said, that relaxed, casual type of language where it's very conversational versus sounding like a fifth grade English teacher wrote it.

       Wendy Covey: That's great you bring that up. And usually, during a brand positioning and messaging project, we talk about the tone of voice. You'd be surprised that not every company would agree with the statement that you should be conversational and approachable.

       There are different styles, and it goes back to that culture. One might be that we want to be informative and commanding. And the next one might be. I'll give you an example—Vertech, a control integration company, calls themselves control freaks.

       And that's very casual language compared to some of their peers in the industry. So it all is a mashup of how your tone, voice, and culture fit together.

       That would also represent who you're attracting, especially in engineering. I think of that as more detail-oriented and more formal, and maybe in another type of a small manufacturer where you're looking for somebody who's that good cultural fit to consider, as you said, who the audience is and gearing the language towards that.

       So you could see where some companies jump into content development without first taking a step back to say, what tone do we have? What voice, key messages, what does our company stand for, and what key phrases and messages should be woven downstream to every case study, white paper, and every page on a website? Top-down is very important when putting together a content strategy.

       And what about from the recruiting standpoint? We talked to ensure you don't have an old website so that Google doesn't punish you. But what about photos of your current employees or videos of what a day in the life looks like or those types of things to attract people to your organization?

       Lisa Ryan: What are some things that manufacturers can get started with, or at least keep an eye out for when they go through their website and decide what to do?

       Wendy Covey: I love that you jump to a perfect assumption: we should tell those stories of those employees. And I think some companies are afraid to do that.

       They're afraid to give employees the autonomy or the independent voice that's not controlled, or they're afraid that they'll be poached if that employee is out there on too many things, but that's an outdated view. So these days, recruits and prospective customers expect to look at LinkedIn profiles, see stories about employees, and understand what they're doing.

       And again, it builds credibility for that recruit, thinking about working at the company and in some authenticity of what's happening firsthand from that employee. But it also helps think for a prospective customer, are they real? Are they the real deal? And you. Who are, do they have technical experts who have their voices, and are there sales people authentic, technical people that I can trust to help advise me through this purchase?

       So there are all kinds of reasons to get those employees involved. And then, as for the tools, I know Lisa, you, and I talked about going where that person is. And that can be a little challenging. On the marketing side, when we're trying to attract new customers, we publish an annual survey.

       It's called the state of marketing to engineers. And we do this alongside global spec. That's a partner. And every year, we study how engineers seek and consume information to make a purchase decision. And in the report, we ask, where do you go? Do you use social media? What do you rely on the most?

       Do you watch video? Do you watch podcasts? And so that's a great resource to get a pulse on the engineering side. And as far as the recruits. You're seeing more social media utilized by companies to tell their culture story. And so, while engineers, when looking to make a purchase, aren't necessarily going to places like Facebook or Instagram, they may be going there in their personal lives.

       And when they come across culture posts that might be more attractive or more engaging to them using that side of the brain, like recruiting. I want to work for them. It's personal side versus. I'm researching an RF product to put into this thing I'm designing.

       Lisa Ryan: And you also made an interesting point with the information for recruiters. It's easy for them to go to LinkedIn and see where that potential candidate's working and start wooing them. But if they're. Boss, if their company was posting them for Joe's, the employee of the month, or Maryanne just won this fantastic award, and they're giving their people kudos almost to the point of they are the face of that organization.

       It certainly makes it much more difficult for them to leave; versus that, here's the LinkedIn profile of this person. So we talked earlier about being. Poaching people, but by promoting them more and their role within your organization, it seems that would be cementing their relationship even stronger.

       Wendy Covey: Agree.

       Lisa Ryan: So what are some of the other things you see working in manufacturing? Again, what are some of the best things they can do if somebody is listening to the show today and just looking to pick up some marketing tips to get started?

       Wendy Covey: Yeah. Our research shows that 96% of engineers watch video for work every week, 96%, but manufacturing companies feel intimidated by video.

       And I, I get why, when. Sometimes when we think of video, we think of that very polished corporate overview that an expensive production company comes in and does, but that's not really what they're seeking. A lot of it is how-to information. It's videos that show a demo of a.

       Product and so those can be done cheap, as long as your lighting. Good lighting is good, and your sound is good. You can use a very basic setup. You can also use webinar technology to do on-demand software demos, things like that. That one big tip is if you've been putting off video, this needs to be your video year.

       And then we're on a podcast right now, and podcasts have jumped hugely in popularity this past year; 73% of engineers listen to podcasts for work every week. And that was up from 40-something a year ago. So I think the adoption is for a few reasons. I think.

       There are more shows out there than there used to be. And as you have more opportunities to find something that matches your need, that's a good thing. And then also, it might be that we were craving more of that spoken word material during COVID and coming out to sheltering in place.

       It was one of those where we can't go to an event, but I still want a personal connection. So videos, podcasts, maybe that speaks to some of the spikes.

       Lisa Ryan: And it's funny because I think about my podcast and how it was a COVID-inspired podcast to come out because I fought it for years because I was so intimidated by it.

       And I'm sure many people listening to the show think it will take a lot of time and money. So we're recording the on zoom, we're stripping out the audio, and I'm going to upload it to my podcast site after being edited. And it's simple, but those, and. I'm not concerned about the downloads because it's not the information it's meeting new people. It's having conversations.

       So what you just said about inviting companies to consider, maybe it's a once a month, once every couple weeks, or even once a week podcast where you're talking to different people in your organization or interviewing your customers or vendors. There can be so much that goes on.

       That we don't have to wear because it's one of those things you get struck by lightning where you get millions and millions of downloads because there are so many shows out there. But if you think about how you can have some fun with it, get the word out and, hopefully, attract some people that like what you have to say. That's what a podcast is all about.

       Wendy Covey: Yeah, it brings a voice and a personality to your brand. And as does video, that's harder to do on that flat page, right? I will say on the podcast front that what we recommend our clients do is start with being on the other. People's podcast to develop, who is that spokesperson?

       Who's going to be the face of that initiative? And then, when starting your podcast, if it's technical, some of our clients have been running into some challenges with bringing on guests whose companies allow them to come on and talk about their projects. So it's no different than asking permission for a case study in legal blocks. It's because of IP issues. Sometimes podcasts can run into the same issue.

       So there are some strategy things to consider depending on the subject matter. But like you said, there are a lot of benefits to doing it. So I'm with you. I have. I'll second that encouraging voice, and I also think that the podcast isn't necessarily the venue for talking a lot of straight technical because that's better in the written word where you can go through and take your marker and underline and everything but conveying the personality of the company and the passion.

       Lisa Ryan: That's why I like talking to manufacturers. I love being around passionate people who make things and conveying that excitement. As we start to change the conversation into the younger generations and more so into their parents and guidance counselors and stuff to welcome and introduce more people into manufacturing and podcasting would be a great way to do so because it's so accessible these days.

       Wendy Covey: All about having that strategy and goal and then making sure your editorial calendar supports it. That's great.

       Lisa Ryan: So if you think of all the things, all the ways that you help manufacturers with their marketing, again, if somebody was listening today, what would be your number one tip for them to get started?

       Wendy Covey: If they're starting from, if they're starting from ground zero, and if they already have some marketing, that's like just. Okay. All right. So starting from ground zero, really understanding who you are as a company and putting that into words, right? So we call that brand positioning and messaging.

       Suppose you're just starting. The most important thing to do is understand who you are as a company and how to articulate that. And that is through brand positioning and messaging. And it's that...]]>9dd3918f-8798-4458-a831-9ee172da980fMon, 15 Aug 2022 07:05:00 -040024:14falsefull231312The Power of Video Surveillance in Manufacturing Using AI with Rish GuptaConnect 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 capacity than they did 15 years ago. And today, if I ask you on your iPhone, what camera do you have? You don't know it's so the software has completely disrupted the hardware experience. So what we saw in the consumer world is the hardware companies, which are building the actual camera, lenses, and technologies.

       They were not software companies, and they didn't build Instagram. They didn't make a way to share these photos. They didn't build a way to create beautiful videos out of these photos to share with your friends or software companies. And something similar is happening in the enterprise space. The traditional camera vendors who built the cameras sell tens of billions of dollars yearly to these two American companies.

       They are hardware companies with little to no software experience. So they have focused on making the cameras have more resolution. Have a beautiful-looking chassis. So it looks good on a brochure, but they haven't looked at what happens once the videos are recorded. They don't have the expertise for that.

       So you end up with this old-school software. If you went online and searched just some of this software on this, it's like windows 95 and in today's world. Wow. You still, if you need to share a video. Like a cube clip. You can just send it to me right now with a link. You'll just paste it on this in the email, and I'll have it in a second.

       But with videos in businesses, they have to use a USB thumb drive, do a specific V video recorder somewhere in the back room, transfer it to their desktop, put it on a Dropbox folder, secure that link, and then send it on email. So there are six steps to get to that video. Wow. So that's the state of the industry, and it's purely because you have competence in hardware without competence in software.

       And one thing that we are all learning about technologies is software is eating the world, and we have to think about how consumers consume the end product. And now, as you know, the data is being built. 

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: You just brought me back to this vision. When I first started dating my husband. He was one with a television-sized video camera. My dad had one that he never left home without.

       And what a pain that was between the full-size VHS tapes and then the micro tapes and all of that kind of stuff, which are now just sitting in boxes somewhere versus the, I don't know, 800 videos that I have on my phone that are higher quality than that. 

       Rish Gupta: That's so funny. Yeah. One, one of my funniest memes on how the world has changed in the last 15 years from a hardware perspective is you, somebody showed a kid a floppy disc, and the person's oh, you treaty printed the save icon because they had never seen a floppy disc in their life.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. That's yeah, it's we've come a long way. So what are some of the solutions? To begin with, we think of the video in business and manufacturing that we know that we are on camera most of our lives anyway. It seems a bit big brotherish, but if we were bringing that into technology, that would be in manufacturing and empowering employees. What does that look like? 

       Rish Gupta: Yeah, the first thing, when you speak about a video being a big brother and a lot of this comes with the China surveillance kind of news we have fed, okay. If the cameras are there, somebody's watching us; somebody's recording us.

       Somebody has oversight on us. Then there's a piece of vast information, symmetry asymmetry in that kind of thing where. Yes, the camera's everywhere, but only a few select people control the access. And the difference is in traditional systems. It's tough to give access to multiple people.

       They have to individually set port forwarding and VPNs and complicate technology so that your computer sitting at home can access this remote VHS. Recorder sitting on a different computer network in a factory, somewhere in another state. And even though you might be the owner of this company, you have to be given special permissions.

       And if your vice president of operations needs this access, they need to be given special permission. So it's really difficult to set up these users. So what we have allowed doing is we integrate with your, Whatever email system that you use, whether it's Microsoft or Google or whatever else, and give access to every employee in the company.

       So video, it's not just the videos everywhere. The videos were available to everyone. So what is being recorded, you have access to it. You know how it is impacting. So your day-to-day operations. So if you want to know, did this shipping vehicle come yesterday or not? Was there a delay?

       You have access to that data yourself. You're not like somebody above me, or just the C-suite has access to it. And they're watching me. This is for people to improve. So one of the things we work closely with our customers is onboarding many of their different departments and users onto the platform.

       And then we hold training in the first couple of weeks with those people to ensure they know they have logins to this. So they have access to the cameras that need to do their work. And this video is more of a productivity enhancement tool than somebody trying to watch them do their job.

       So it's the question they're trying to answer in the day-to-day business. So if you are FA manager for a specific facility, rather than having to walk across to every part of the facility during the day to figure out what's happening in every different conveyor belt and different manufacturing area, are you able to sit at...]]>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 capacity than they did 15 years ago. And today, if I ask you on your iPhone, what camera do you have? You don't know it's so the software has completely disrupted the hardware experience. So what we saw in the consumer world is the hardware companies, which are building the actual camera, lenses, and technologies.

       They were not software companies, and they didn't build Instagram. They didn't make a way to share these photos. They didn't build a way to create beautiful videos out of these photos to share with your friends or software companies. And something similar is happening in the enterprise space. The traditional camera vendors who built the cameras sell tens of billions of dollars yearly to these two American companies.

       They are hardware companies with little to no software experience. So they have focused on making the cameras have more resolution. Have a beautiful-looking chassis. So it looks good on a brochure, but they haven't looked at what happens once the videos are recorded. They don't have the expertise for that.

       So you end up with this old-school software. If you went online and searched just some of this software on this, it's like windows 95 and in today's world. Wow. You still, if you need to share a video. Like a cube clip. You can just send it to me right now with a link. You'll just paste it on this in the email, and I'll have it in a second.

       But with videos in businesses, they have to use a USB thumb drive, do a specific V video recorder somewhere in the back room, transfer it to their desktop, put it on a Dropbox folder, secure that link, and then send it on email. So there are six steps to get to that video. Wow. So that's the state of the industry, and it's purely because you have competence in hardware without competence in software.

       And one thing that we are all learning about technologies is software is eating the world, and we have to think about how consumers consume the end product. And now, as you know, the data is being built. 

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: You just brought me back to this vision. When I first started dating my husband. He was one with a television-sized video camera. My dad had one that he never left home without.

       And what a pain that was between the full-size VHS tapes and then the micro tapes and all of that kind of stuff, which are now just sitting in boxes somewhere versus the, I don't know, 800 videos that I have on my phone that are higher quality than that. 

       Rish Gupta: That's so funny. Yeah. One, one of my funniest memes on how the world has changed in the last 15 years from a hardware perspective is you, somebody showed a kid a floppy disc, and the person's oh, you treaty printed the save icon because they had never seen a floppy disc in their life.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. That's yeah, it's we've come a long way. So what are some of the solutions? To begin with, we think of the video in business and manufacturing that we know that we are on camera most of our lives anyway. It seems a bit big brotherish, but if we were bringing that into technology, that would be in manufacturing and empowering employees. What does that look like? 

       Rish Gupta: Yeah, the first thing, when you speak about a video being a big brother and a lot of this comes with the China surveillance kind of news we have fed, okay. If the cameras are there, somebody's watching us; somebody's recording us.

       Somebody has oversight on us. Then there's a piece of vast information, symmetry asymmetry in that kind of thing where. Yes, the camera's everywhere, but only a few select people control the access. And the difference is in traditional systems. It's tough to give access to multiple people.

       They have to individually set port forwarding and VPNs and complicate technology so that your computer sitting at home can access this remote VHS. Recorder sitting on a different computer network in a factory, somewhere in another state. And even though you might be the owner of this company, you have to be given special permissions.

       And if your vice president of operations needs this access, they need to be given special permission. So it's really difficult to set up these users. So what we have allowed doing is we integrate with your, Whatever email system that you use, whether it's Microsoft or Google or whatever else, and give access to every employee in the company.

       So video, it's not just the videos everywhere. The videos were available to everyone. So what is being recorded, you have access to it. You know how it is impacting. So your day-to-day operations. So if you want to know, did this shipping vehicle come yesterday or not? Was there a delay?

       You have access to that data yourself. You're not like somebody above me, or just the C-suite has access to it. And they're watching me. This is for people to improve. So one of the things we work closely with our customers is onboarding many of their different departments and users onto the platform.

       And then we hold training in the first couple of weeks with those people to ensure they know they have logins to this. So they have access to the cameras that need to do their work. And this video is more of a productivity enhancement tool than somebody trying to watch them do their job.

       So it's the question they're trying to answer in the day-to-day business. So if you are FA manager for a specific facility, rather than having to walk across to every part of the facility during the day to figure out what's happening in every different conveyor belt and different manufacturing area, are you able to sit at your desk and pull up videos and see, okay, quickly what's happening and then go to the area where you feel there's something, going amiss and you can help those.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. Yeah, I think about the security cameras. People only needed access to them when something went wrong. And if you watch enough crime shows, when the people tried to get to the security camera, they were either broken, or there was no film in there.

       It sounds like a much more proactive approach. And like you said, just being able to keep an eye on things, not in a big brother way, but a more productive way because you know exactly what's going on in those particular areas in the plant and making it much more helpful daily instead of just when something got broke, broken into or stolen or anything else that we the traditional. 

       Rish Gupta: Yeah. And think of it as, if you're browsing the internet and on Facebook or Instagram, you always have this sense of how much data these companies are taking from me.

       Versus if you had your own ACC and access to what exactly data was going through your laptop to these remote servers, you have more visibility. It'll not feel that big brother. You might then decide on certain activities you don't or specific activities you do because you know precisely the access, what is being seen, and what is not.

       You can push back on management. I believe giving access to the end users is the key. If you keep the access limited to a few people in the security team or the C-suite, that's not the solution to empower your people to make better decisions. 

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: But what about when it comes to like privacy issues?

       
       

       Rish Gupta: Yeah, because when you're talking about physical and data security and all of that, getting into the wrong hands, what are you seeing that owners and operators are doing to ensure that they keep the video data secure? Yeah. There, there are a few. Things that we think about deeply over there.

       One is as a company. We take a stand. There is what we call it a personal identifiable information of PII. We don't store that. So, even though we have other artificial intelligence in our product, we don't do facial recognition, and that's by design. Okay. Which is saying that the idea is not to track specific people.

       The idea is to understand what's happening as trends in your factories and manufacturing facilities and your businesses and physical operations. So as a technology tool, don't surface a lot of PII. Don't. Individual data on people. So that means nobody should feel that tomorrow they can just search video footage of just me.

       No, they're looking at what's happening at a shipping bay or manufacturing floor. Nobody's tracking a specific person. The second thing we do interestingly is we don't take the video to the cloud, and there are a couple of other reasons. But that fundamentally allows the video to be on the premise behind the company's firewall. So the company's not taking these videos and storing them on some remote cloud server, somewhere outside their network. It's within their network on their premises. And we have just built a technology where we can securely punch in a hole in our appliance, stream that particular video, and authenticate user requests for it.

       The third aspect is that we go through third-party audits, like HIPAA for healthcare businesses and stuff, to ensure that our security standards are meeting the best in class. We have engineers from top companies like Microsoft SKU, Meraki, and others who have dealt with these problems at scale.

       And so we are making sure at all three levels, don't take private data about people. Don't store that at all. Don't build technologies that allow for that second. Let's keep the video with the people who own the video, which are our customers. And then third is from a technology perspective - since that's the part we understand the best is build an infrastructure, which is highly secure - is audited by third parties with top certifications, to make sure that our customers feel very secure, that this data is not leaking.

       And the last bit, we are returning to the non-big brother stuff. We provide an audit log in the dashboard to our customers. This means our customers can pull and see who was looking at what video at what time. So if there's any misuse happening, they can track it.

       Like they have a complete audit log of every click on their videos, which traditional systems don't provide. So that's another thing. It's about surfacing the data with the users and letting them see how these videos are consumed. Who's watching? What is somebody sharing a video externally to a third-party stakeholder you shouldn't want to? You can see all of that and then take control of that and build policies or restrict controls as you see fit for your business.

       Lisa Ryan: So take us to the very beginning. You're just about to start working with a company, and you need to train the employees. Yeah. And you need to get them back, through that fear of technology, the fear of big brother, and also share with them the benefits and why you're doing that. So what does that first meeting do with the leaders and employees? How does that sound? What does that look like?

       Rish Gupta: Yeah, the good thing has been the concern about being big-Brotherly. It doesn't come much from our customers because most customers come with insight into their journey where they've realized that the existing video system is not up to demand.

       Like they're not able to access it. They have people asking for access because there was a manufacturing delay, and somebody wants to know why it is. Can I go and see the video of when the manufacturing line stopped? And they were like, oh, we don't know if it's easy to access, et cetera. So typically, there is an internal operational plan for these videos in the organization, which brings customers to say, " Okay, we need a more modern solution. And that's when they start talking to us. So often, they're like, Hey, we want to give access to our people. So they begin at that point, and they're like, can your system take care of that?

       Will you charge us more for more users? And we're like, no, we have unlimited users added at no extra cost. So you want to add your entire organization. You want to add some external stakeholders. So feel free to use it. This is your video, your security, like footage. You do it with it. So that's one premise that they come with.

       So that's helpful. The second thing they ask is, okay, there are three kinds of use cases they typically want to understand. One is, can I have multiple locations? So usually, most of our customers have more than one location because that's when remote viewing and being able to. So seeing something without being there really starts being helpful.

       So they'll be like, can I get all these locations in one dashboard? And that's a nontrivial problem because the way most and your customers might resonate with this might resonate with them. The way they bought these security cameras is in piecemeal 2007. They're like, oh, let us build these facilities. So we purchased ten cameras there, and then, in 2012, we added this other part. And so we all bought five cameras. And they end up smattering six, seven different camera brands across three or four other locations. And they're like, how do I even access these different camera brands in one platform?

       And we make that easy. We work with every brand of camera out there in the enterprise segment. So can I access it? Can my people watch all the videos without jumping from one system to another? Can it be all in one system second? Do you have good filters for me to find something quickly?

       If something happened yesterday, I don't want to spend hours looking for it. Can you make it happen in a minute? So that's the second thing we get them on. The third part is. They talk about either the artificial intelligence part of it or the collaboration. Can I comment on the videos? Can I annotate on top of videos?

       Can I share this internally? Can I get insights? How many what was the first time a person showed up during this day in this room? When was the last time a person left, and again, not a specific person? These are just. What is the total number of people counted? So then they can understand when the shifts are starting, when the shifts are ending, what is the maximum number of people in, at any point, sometimes they use it for OSHA guidelines saying these things should not be blocked.

       These entry pathways or exit pathways should be empty. So then they're like, wow, this system can not only help me find something which happened in the past or help me look into my business as it's operating now. But it's also generating some data, which helps me understand overall trends in my industry - days, weeks, months, and so forth. So those are the three pillars we will generally talk about. And then, some customers will talk about security to us, and we'll talk about the certifications we have and how we have the right people, but that's typically a customer journey. So they're coming in with some internal need for a modern system.

       And then they're checking boxes and realizing a few more things. Okay. So now that makes sense and that they have videos already. So it's not like you're suddenly coming in and putting in cameras, but because the videos are so piecemealed all over the place, there's no access from location to location.

       What you're doing is taking everything they have, putting a nice little package with a bow on it so that they can access it as needed from wherever. They want customers. So yeah, exactly what you said most. If you look at most...]]>8ed20ad9-a084-4e47-913d-4dba6a68a1f0Mon, 08 Aug 2022 07:05:00 -040026:45falsefull230302Mastering Your Marketing Outreach in Manufacturing with Emily WilkinsLisa 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 shops grow organically like most of them, they grow to a point organically because they become known in their community for being good at whatever their whatever it is they're doing. Word gets around, and then they end up with customers, and not many of them do much marketing. But then I think they get to a point where they realize that maybe they're not super profitable. On some of their projects, they end up with customers who are a pain in the ass that they don't want to work with or like their business. They want to, they want it to grow, and they want to impact their community. Hence, a lot of the shops that I work with they're small businesses, and they care about their community, and I think that's amazing, and so that's what I like about working with those types of shops that they want to provide a good place for people to work and grow. So they can have a more significant impact on their community.

       Lisa Ryan: So when somebody is looking at creating a new brand message, or you call it a radical brand message. I know you have a blueprint for that. Without going into all of the steps, what are some simple strategies? If somebody is starting to think they want to focus more on marketing and get the word out about their excellent work, what would be some steps for them to get started?

       Emily Wilkins: The first thing is to ensure they have something exciting to say. We make anything, or we make parts out of metal. So it is not like you're not saying anything. You're what all of the shops like you do. What is it about you that makes you different? In the end, it can be, it can be anything. It doesn't have to be this super profound message. It has to be memorable and get people excited and interested.

       Lisa Ryan: So, like no, it would be if we're a metal shop and they made things, and they're like I have no idea what's exciting because we make everything so. What would be some ways to get them to think differently? What are some of your favorite ones that you've worked with people having conversations or exploring with people that it's like, oh my God, I didn't realize that's exciting, instead of the traditional marketing blah blah blah that everybody else is putting out there?

       Emily Wilkins: I did a website and brand for a company called Onex Inc in Erie, Pennsylvania. Their mission was when I did my setup process with them. They talked a lot about wanting to revitalize the American dream, and they were big on revitalizing their communities. Erie, Pennsylvania, was hit hard by offshoring. The 60s manufacturing was in Erie in the 60s, which was the peak of economic progress. They were manufacturing, and then offshoring happened, and the community took a hit from that, and the recession, 2008 10 whatever hit them even harder.

       They were big on revitalizing the community and bringing people together. They sold their company back to their employees a couple of years ago, so they're people-centered. When we built their brand, I changed the one word from revitalized to reignite because this company makes industrial furnaces like they that's the thing they are in forge and heat treat furnaces and so, so one little word change to from revitalize to reignite lit them up and love it. So they ran with it, and throughout their site, we use a lot of like heat words, keep your phone, keep your forge high and keep your friend is hot, and like exciting and using words like that to make it more interesting and fun.

       They are working on a project right now where they're going to increase their customers' production by 50%, and this customer has a production-based bonus for their team, so increasing their bonus by 50% is a pretty big deal. So that's an awesome story. We're trying to get the word out there in different industry publications. We want to talk about that and how that will affect their communities. We are interviewing some of the people that work there to find out what that means for them and what that's going to do for their life and things like that so.

       Lisa Ryan: On LinkedIn, I see manufacturers talking about what they do. We have this new product, and they show a picture of the new product, it's like okay. It's the story behind it and having some fun with it, doing the play on words like the eye-rolling dad joke say that, but it makes people smile at me. It gives them a reaction versus yet another dull campaign. It also sounds like getting the word out there, so I know you do stuff with blogs that, again, when I don't think it when I think about manufacturers, I don't think a whole lot about blogging because it's more like technical articles and technical things.

       Talking specifically about product features, it sounds like you're focusing on the benefits and the fun and the culture and everything else, so talk about getting that job shop's history out there in a fun and unique way.

       Emily Wilkins: A lot of these shops, as I said, there are 100 million fab shops that all do the same thing like it's not how are you going to make that different and exciting and the way you do that is by making it human it's all about those human connections, and you have a new product or a new service that you want to showcase put one of your humans on camera and have them talk about it and show it and talk about the process of how they come up with this idea or what problem they're solving or whatever it's it's more than personality like people. You're selling to a company like you're selling your stuff to other manufacturing companies. Still, your buyer is a human - a person buying from you as a human takes care of human things whenever you post anything online. If there's a human face in it, it...]]>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 shops grow organically like most of them, they grow to a point organically because they become known in their community for being good at whatever their whatever it is they're doing. Word gets around, and then they end up with customers, and not many of them do much marketing. But then I think they get to a point where they realize that maybe they're not super profitable. On some of their projects, they end up with customers who are a pain in the ass that they don't want to work with or like their business. They want to, they want it to grow, and they want to impact their community. Hence, a lot of the shops that I work with they're small businesses, and they care about their community, and I think that's amazing, and so that's what I like about working with those types of shops that they want to provide a good place for people to work and grow. So they can have a more significant impact on their community.

       Lisa Ryan: So when somebody is looking at creating a new brand message, or you call it a radical brand message. I know you have a blueprint for that. Without going into all of the steps, what are some simple strategies? If somebody is starting to think they want to focus more on marketing and get the word out about their excellent work, what would be some steps for them to get started?

       Emily Wilkins: The first thing is to ensure they have something exciting to say. We make anything, or we make parts out of metal. So it is not like you're not saying anything. You're what all of the shops like you do. What is it about you that makes you different? In the end, it can be, it can be anything. It doesn't have to be this super profound message. It has to be memorable and get people excited and interested.

       Lisa Ryan: So, like no, it would be if we're a metal shop and they made things, and they're like I have no idea what's exciting because we make everything so. What would be some ways to get them to think differently? What are some of your favorite ones that you've worked with people having conversations or exploring with people that it's like, oh my God, I didn't realize that's exciting, instead of the traditional marketing blah blah blah that everybody else is putting out there?

       Emily Wilkins: I did a website and brand for a company called Onex Inc in Erie, Pennsylvania. Their mission was when I did my setup process with them. They talked a lot about wanting to revitalize the American dream, and they were big on revitalizing their communities. Erie, Pennsylvania, was hit hard by offshoring. The 60s manufacturing was in Erie in the 60s, which was the peak of economic progress. They were manufacturing, and then offshoring happened, and the community took a hit from that, and the recession, 2008 10 whatever hit them even harder.

       They were big on revitalizing the community and bringing people together. They sold their company back to their employees a couple of years ago, so they're people-centered. When we built their brand, I changed the one word from revitalized to reignite because this company makes industrial furnaces like they that's the thing they are in forge and heat treat furnaces and so, so one little word change to from revitalize to reignite lit them up and love it. So they ran with it, and throughout their site, we use a lot of like heat words, keep your phone, keep your forge high and keep your friend is hot, and like exciting and using words like that to make it more interesting and fun.

       They are working on a project right now where they're going to increase their customers' production by 50%, and this customer has a production-based bonus for their team, so increasing their bonus by 50% is a pretty big deal. So that's an awesome story. We're trying to get the word out there in different industry publications. We want to talk about that and how that will affect their communities. We are interviewing some of the people that work there to find out what that means for them and what that's going to do for their life and things like that so.

       Lisa Ryan: On LinkedIn, I see manufacturers talking about what they do. We have this new product, and they show a picture of the new product, it's like okay. It's the story behind it and having some fun with it, doing the play on words like the eye-rolling dad joke say that, but it makes people smile at me. It gives them a reaction versus yet another dull campaign. It also sounds like getting the word out there, so I know you do stuff with blogs that, again, when I don't think it when I think about manufacturers, I don't think a whole lot about blogging because it's more like technical articles and technical things.

       Talking specifically about product features, it sounds like you're focusing on the benefits and the fun and the culture and everything else, so talk about getting that job shop's history out there in a fun and unique way.

       Emily Wilkins: A lot of these shops, as I said, there are 100 million fab shops that all do the same thing like it's not how are you going to make that different and exciting and the way you do that is by making it human it's all about those human connections, and you have a new product or a new service that you want to showcase put one of your humans on camera and have them talk about it and show it and talk about the process of how they come up with this idea or what problem they're solving or whatever it's it's more than personality like people. You're selling to a company like you're selling your stuff to other manufacturing companies. Still, your buyer is a human - a person buying from you as a human takes care of human things whenever you post anything online. If there's a human face in it, it will do a million times better than something that doesn't have a face in it. The more human you can make it, the better. The more they bring out that personality is a great way to engage your team, which is a huge thing right now because talent attraction and retention is like most manufacturers' number one problem right now, so I'm leveraging your marketing efforts also to engage your team and get them involved that's a win, win for everyone right.

       Lisa Ryan: We think of marketing as getting new customers, but yeah, if employees have heard of you. Because of your marketing efforts and you're showing humans in your marketing. You're getting the word out as far as some of the different things you're doing, the mission that you are helping to support as far as the organization and in the community, you are going to attract people to you that you probably wouldn't have found otherwise.

       Emily Wilkins: yeah, and you're going to attract a higher caliber of people who care about others. People who care about people will care about their job more and what they're doing and helping their team and all that.

       Lisa Ryan: So when it comes to blogging, I know one of the other things you have is your stupid simple blog system. They're a little overwhelmed by blogging. I don't have time to blog. I don't know what to write. I sat there and looked at the computer screen and the keyboard for 10 minutes.

       What are some of the tips that you can share that might ease that nervousness and get them started?

       Emily Wilkins: A couple of things. Number one, engage your team. The machinists are not known for their writing skills. Still, you don't know unless you ask. Maybe your machine likes to write, or perhaps your welding guy is a comedian and loves to get on camera and be funny or whatever. Find out what those talents are from your team, give them reasons to use them, and show them that you value them.

       For that, blogging is excellent for search engine optimization because the more you add to your website, the more Google sees that you're making changes and keeping things relevant. So the more it'll send you traffic, the more search terms you'll come up for. With blogs, the key is to think about who you're and who you're trying to talk to. Who's the ideal audience that you're trying to talk to? 

       One stupid simple hack I use is to have a conversation with someone and record it. I use its otter.ai to recreate the program. I use it to record all of my meetings, and it transcribes your audio and sinks that with the audio so you can search through the transcripts for things you have to go back and edit if you don't know.

       You record that conversation, and then you can copy and paste the text into a blog and then go through and add it and make it more of a blog post, and that's one stupid simple hack that will make blogging a million times easier.

       Lisa Ryan: And I also think something like asking the question what is keeping my customers up at night or another thing that may be fun is you have your receptionist or customer service people have had maybe having them write down things like the, what are the what are your customers asking, and then you can put that information out there, so again it's real it's relevant. You're getting your people involved because now they feel that the blog post this week was my customer that I talked to last week. Sometimes we overthink it, don't we?

       Emily Wilkins: Totally, yes. Don't make it dull and stuffy. People don't want to read like the way that we're taught how to write in school like that's not how we don't talk that way so don't write that way like right like you're talking to somebody. You don't have to be perfect.

       Lisa Ryan: Right exactly.

       Emily Wilkins: It can that's more likely to turn people off anyway if it's too dull.

       Lisa Ryan: I also use the otter Ai, and there are so many other programs like that. Something easy to do, and maybe you post it as an interview with Joe, the machinist, Sally the welder, or whatever you want to do in those short snippets.

       Emily Wilkins: A lot of fat, and if you want to stretch that ship is what I call. Record somebody, like your machinist, explaining something or whatever, record somebody saying it on video. Use otter to transcribe it, then you can post the video and turn the transcripts into a blog post, so you created two pieces of content with one video.

       Lisa Ryan: There are so many programs out there. I use happyscribe. You're doing all of the above when it comes to putting the subtitles on them that way. It's like I've got the video that people can see a natural person, you have the subtitles, and then for the people who hate videos and, taking the time to watch a two-minute video. They can then read what's below it. You never do anything one time. Purpose repurpose, repurpose.

       Emily Wilkins: You can repost things. You can recycle your posts in a couple of months like people will forget, or you have new people following you now, or different people will catch other people like you at different times. Can you post the same thing for the month?

       Lisa Ryan: I do that with the manufacturer's network. I keep going and reposting the other, the other episodes. I don't know how often they're listened to, but the content is out there, you tag the people that are in it, they can share it and, like you said, maybe you're having new people, because the life of something on social media is a couple of seconds some. I'm scrolling through, and I don't see it. I'm not going to see it.

       Emily Wilkins: With video content, if you have on your website or YouTube that that's going to be there forever, and people can search that one until the Internet crashes and probably won't ever happen, but.

       Lisa Ryan: yeah, who knows who would have a pandemic that took out the last two years of business to write directly. When somebody is considering doing more marketing outreach for the reasons you said, either their customer list is getting stale, or they want to up the quality of the customers they're attracting, what's the number one way to get started? What is the number one thing to create? First, I guess, with your prioritizing it.

       Emily Wilkins: The messaging is the most critical part of you. You want to ensure your message is clear, consistent, and memorable. It doesn't have to be profound, but it has to be memorable and short and sweet. You have different levels and different layers of messaging, right, so you have a short and sweet tagline. You might have an elevator pitch a little bit longer. You have some messaging on your homepage on your website or topics that you care about or unique viewpoints on things, maybe there's something that you've always hated about your industry, and you're doing things differently.

       Maybe you have a unique perspective on a specific topic or think about everything and try to brain dump that's always the first. The first step is developing that messaging and brain-dumping ideas because you have that list forever to pull from.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, and So what about it so I'm we know the website is essential because that's the first place, people are going to go in and learn about you so having real people they're getting humans involved having the blog live there, what about social media when it comes to manufacturing Where are you finding that customers and other manufacturers are hanging out.

       Emily Wilkins: The most LinkedIn has been massive for me. It can depend a little bit on your market. Still, LinkedIn is important, and every social network is different, too, so you want to know who your audiences are on those other networks. Facebook is a little more for employee-type posts than human interest things. Still, TikTok is up and coming.

       There are not as many companies that are using it for that, like leveraging it for that, but that makes it easier for you to get your stuff seen, and there are a ton of people on it and new people joining every day. So hence, its growth is a fast-growing platform. I'm going to contradict my earlier statement. Some people will sit there and watch manufacturing processes on tech talk for hours like they'll walk and hashtag satisfying is one easy a lot of like watching like a manufacturing process happen, like, I found this awesome account that I posted about this on LinkedIn the other day, but is it's stamping press of some sort. Still, they started putting all these colorful things under the under press and stamping them to see what it would do.

       So they're like making this vast, colorful mess out of their machinery, and it's fun to watch and cool to watch so, and I don't know if it will necessarily get customers from that we get your name out there and get people to pay attention to.

       Lisa Ryan: If we bring the sexy back to manufacturing, it's like that's where future generations are coming in. If they can see something cool that looks fun, that's hashtag satisfying. That may be because it's like I do. my sister always sends me TikTok stuff. I don't get it. I spend most of my time on LinkedIn and a little bit on Facebook. That's so true because if we're looking for ways to bring new people into the market, allow your customers may not be on TikTok. Still, your future employees certainly are right now, so that's a great tip, and again, we get out of our comfort zones and do something, and if you don't want to do TikTok, I'm sure there's somebody in your organization that loves it. So with a more than a happy question, her young people like who's on...]]>666be082-6990-450a-a9ff-b8c300f968cbMon, 01 Aug 2022 07:05:00 -040035:18falsefull229292The Creative, Sensory-Rich Manufacturing Environment that Brings Employees to You with Robin RitzLisa 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 that to figure out your people's strengths when it comes to creativity and creating a safe environment for them to go for it like you're like you do.

       Robin Ritz: So intentionally being mindful of the processes we have in place and trying to communicate to employees our values and our strategy so that they feel their input is at least in alignment with that. Look at things like your onboarding, your orientation, your initial performance review, and then your annual performance reviews. Those give us the formalized opportunities to discuss career goals, professional development, or ideas they might have to improve their workplace. 

       Some of the questions on that review are what you would do if you were the owner for a day. So it gives people the opportunity to present their ideas in a way that is a little bit whimsical, but we get some great feedback from that. So the formal, very practical way of approaching it is to ensure you create those conversations within your reviews within that formalized process. Then there are the opportunities for it to come up in between. But, still, you're at least not missing those opportunities within your performance reviews or professional development conversation so that you're at least creating the opportunity for them.

       Lisa Ryan: So let's start with onboarding. When that brand new employee joins Incord, how does the day look? Do you start before they come on board building relationships with them? What are you doing for the first day of the first week to set the tone for their experience in Incord?

       Robin Ritz: So I would say, particularly over the past two years, and now we're in 2022, so over the past two years, it's evolved because we had to get to a place where we could do it virtually we had to come up with an effective model, both in person and not in person. So we created employee portals where we can provide all of our policies, our Frequently Asked Questions, our health care benefits, and all of our portfolios, if you will, for employees. We created an internal website with all that information that's immediately and continuously available to employees to a manager supervisor because the first day is so inundated you're overloaded with all this information. You don't need it until you need it right.

       We do the typical go-around and try introducing you to as many people as possible. But, still, we know that is super overwhelming as well, so breaking it into little segments with different departments and making sure that there's like a buddy system for that new employee are some of the ways that we try to make it as comfortable as possible. But, honestly, we're constantly revisiting that just because there's always that opportunity to make that impression. It means so much that employees' first day first.

       Lisa Ryan: So talk about the buddy system. How do you choose the person to buddy them up with, and what does that buddy do.

       Robin Ritz: So what I have seen is that it's pretty informal that because we have a community of employees that have a long history working here are average ten years probably over 15 years, so what I've seen most typically is that the supervisor will provide a formalized training, but the community itself within the workforce can recognize who's the best fit to start to help this person make them feel comfortable bringing them into the community that we have, so it really what I've seen is that it happens organically because you're allowing it to develop naturally tremendous, so it's not as formal as we're going to assign this person to this person it's more like the flock knows how to take care of the new little chicks. And there are mama hands that will do it naturally. And you'll find that there are ways that personalities start to reveal themselves, and you'll see it just happening organically. I think part of it is that Law of reciprocity, where somebody who's been working here long enough remembers what it was like when they were coming in, and they are going to be that change that they wanted to see or they're going to make sure that that person's feeling comfortable. Much of that comes back to when you said it seems like a lot of work.

       It's not a lot of work when you're empowering at the lowest levels when you're empowering across the board, so the managers aren't responsible for it. Employees are responsible for it, and coworkers are responsible for it, so it doesn't have to be heavily managed. It's not micromanaging. It's organic relationship building. It's not work; it's very fluid, and I think that's the other piece where it's like when you're not trying too hard, it comes together in a very natural way that is a forest, and so it, it has more integrity, it has more authenticity, and it has more lasting power.

       Lisa Ryan: I think the most interesting thing you said in that whole mix was that your average tenure is 15 years and more, and yet they are so welcoming to the new people. Instead of having that attitude of these new people, they're not going to be here for very long anyway, why should I make friends with them? Why should I take them under the wings where it sounds like, with Incord, you've created the type of workplace where those tenured employees have a stake in building the relationships with the new people so that it does keep them on board and so those people to can grow into those same tenured employees.

       Robin Ritz: There's like almost like a parental pride, when you are helping somebody becomes successful you are helping somebody acclimate you're helping somebody feel comfortable in part of something...]]>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 that to figure out your people's strengths when it comes to creativity and creating a safe environment for them to go for it like you're like you do.

       Robin Ritz: So intentionally being mindful of the processes we have in place and trying to communicate to employees our values and our strategy so that they feel their input is at least in alignment with that. Look at things like your onboarding, your orientation, your initial performance review, and then your annual performance reviews. Those give us the formalized opportunities to discuss career goals, professional development, or ideas they might have to improve their workplace. 

       Some of the questions on that review are what you would do if you were the owner for a day. So it gives people the opportunity to present their ideas in a way that is a little bit whimsical, but we get some great feedback from that. So the formal, very practical way of approaching it is to ensure you create those conversations within your reviews within that formalized process. Then there are the opportunities for it to come up in between. But, still, you're at least not missing those opportunities within your performance reviews or professional development conversation so that you're at least creating the opportunity for them.

       Lisa Ryan: So let's start with onboarding. When that brand new employee joins Incord, how does the day look? Do you start before they come on board building relationships with them? What are you doing for the first day of the first week to set the tone for their experience in Incord?

       Robin Ritz: So I would say, particularly over the past two years, and now we're in 2022, so over the past two years, it's evolved because we had to get to a place where we could do it virtually we had to come up with an effective model, both in person and not in person. So we created employee portals where we can provide all of our policies, our Frequently Asked Questions, our health care benefits, and all of our portfolios, if you will, for employees. We created an internal website with all that information that's immediately and continuously available to employees to a manager supervisor because the first day is so inundated you're overloaded with all this information. You don't need it until you need it right.

       We do the typical go-around and try introducing you to as many people as possible. But, still, we know that is super overwhelming as well, so breaking it into little segments with different departments and making sure that there's like a buddy system for that new employee are some of the ways that we try to make it as comfortable as possible. But, honestly, we're constantly revisiting that just because there's always that opportunity to make that impression. It means so much that employees' first day first.

       Lisa Ryan: So talk about the buddy system. How do you choose the person to buddy them up with, and what does that buddy do.

       Robin Ritz: So what I have seen is that it's pretty informal that because we have a community of employees that have a long history working here are average ten years probably over 15 years, so what I've seen most typically is that the supervisor will provide a formalized training, but the community itself within the workforce can recognize who's the best fit to start to help this person make them feel comfortable bringing them into the community that we have, so it really what I've seen is that it happens organically because you're allowing it to develop naturally tremendous, so it's not as formal as we're going to assign this person to this person it's more like the flock knows how to take care of the new little chicks. And there are mama hands that will do it naturally. And you'll find that there are ways that personalities start to reveal themselves, and you'll see it just happening organically. I think part of it is that Law of reciprocity, where somebody who's been working here long enough remembers what it was like when they were coming in, and they are going to be that change that they wanted to see or they're going to make sure that that person's feeling comfortable. Much of that comes back to when you said it seems like a lot of work.

       It's not a lot of work when you're empowering at the lowest levels when you're empowering across the board, so the managers aren't responsible for it. Employees are responsible for it, and coworkers are responsible for it, so it doesn't have to be heavily managed. It's not micromanaging. It's organic relationship building. It's not work; it's very fluid, and I think that's the other piece where it's like when you're not trying too hard, it comes together in a very natural way that is a forest, and so it, it has more integrity, it has more authenticity, and it has more lasting power.

       Lisa Ryan: I think the most interesting thing you said in that whole mix was that your average tenure is 15 years and more, and yet they are so welcoming to the new people. Instead of having that attitude of these new people, they're not going to be here for very long anyway, why should I make friends with them? Why should I take them under the wings where it sounds like, with Incord, you've created the type of workplace where those tenured employees have a stake in building the relationships with the new people so that it does keep them on board and so those people to can grow into those same tenured employees.

       Robin Ritz: There's like almost like a parental pride, when you are helping somebody becomes successful you are helping somebody acclimate you're helping somebody feel comfortable in part of something bigger than them, and there's a pride in the workplace, when your job, and you can show somebody else how to do it, I think there is a lot of energetic exchange there where it's not ownership or afraid of sharing it because somebody is going to replace you or somebody is going to outshine you it's more like hey I've done so well here, I want to share that experience with you so, and I think that again it's almost an individual thing where we're fortunate enough that we're attracting heart-centered individuals that they care about their work Community they care about the success of their coworkers and by helping somebody else be successful, they know they're going to be successful, so it is collaboration on its best.

       Lisa Ryan: Talk about the collaboration and communication and the feedback loops you have there because it sounds open. Talk about that. How does the feedback work a

       Robin Ritz: So, again, it's incredibly intentional we're constantly checking in and making sure do employees feel like senior managers know what's going on do employees know what supervisors know what's going on, so we'll do it through like survey services where it's a text or an email so that people can answer a quick question it's formal and informal so within the review process within timed at certain times throughout your career you're checking in with that, so it's some formal some informal.

       But the biggest thing is that it's consistent with the communications. So you've got a newsletter that's coming out that's consistently going out, you've got the surveys that are always asking for that feedback, and then the highs and part of it is that the feedback loop has to be saying yes or no we're going to implement that because of this relationship or strategy or this misalignment with our strategy or we're going to push it out, because of the timeline. But that feedback loop is critical for employees to know your suggestion has been heard, and here's the response. Yes, no, or indifferent, here's why we're doing what we're doing, and that then creates a feedback loop of Okay, well, I feel comfortable presenting another idea because, yes, it was hard, it was acknowledged. Even if it was a no, I know why it was no. And that's the most critical piece: people will stop giving suggestions when they think they're not being heard or implemented, so even if it's not being implemented, if it's being acknowledged and explained, you'll get more suggestions.

       Lisa Ryan: The other thing you mentioned is that you attract a lot of heart-centered individuals to join your organization. In a market where it's an employee market and Labor is hard to find, what are some of the ways that you are attracting people how? Where are you finding them?

       Robin Ritz: One of the things that we participate with every year in Connecticut is Hartford's current top workplace. We're 11 years. I believe 11 years in a row that it's an employee vote that was voted as a top workplace in Connecticut, so that is something that keeps us in an attractive position for employees looking for employers in Connecticut. So we have some bragging rights to say our employees voted for us.

       With your words, I am a huge fan of impact ability, so we're constantly claiming that we attract high-caliber, very talented individuals. Again it's intentional that we want alignment with highly motivated, highly intelligent, highly engaged individuals, and so it's like attraction. But it has to be something you are intentional and mindful about so that it is when you're presented with it right. I think that's something that we want to be an exemplary workplace because we're putting the workers and the work before the workplace. It's something that we keep revisiting as our values and that It continues to get itself right.

       Lisa Ryan: yeah, what are some fun things that you? Celebrations are a big part of your company culture. So what are some of the things you celebrate, and how do you do that.

       Robin Ritz: Okay yeah, so thank you. One of our values is any time for celebration. We are a family business; we have a lot of family members that are working amongst employees that are working. So I would say almost every Friday, we have a birthday party, a baby shower, or some personal celebration we're making time for. We have an events committee. They're planning their events around the survey responses from our employees, so rather than creating an event that we think might be enjoyable, we've asked the employees, well, what are the important holidays for you to celebrate and how do you want to celebrate them and are we doing them collectively an entire

       group of employees are you doing them by departments, or by facilities and things like that so. So every year, all your major holidays, I would say that we try to take time out and celebrate. But we will also do things like bring in an ice cream truck and do ice cream socials, or our events committee lines up things like Zumba classes and hula hooping, and we like playing with parachutes, and so I mean it we try to have fun in ways that are engaging for everybody. And it's always based on employee feedback, so it's mostly like, Can we eat.

       Lisa Ryan: How many employees do you have there, and are they all on-site, or do you also have a virtual team.

       Robin Ritz: So we're over 130 employees, and we have multiple facilities within Colchester, Connecticut, and Oakdale Connecticut, that we're operating out of so all of our production is on-site. We did have a virtual work capacity in the past couple of years just out of necessity, but otherwise we've brought everybody back. Everybody works from the office, except for our outside sales team, so we have an outside sales team under sales managers and they're all home base nail homes.

       Lisa Ryan: And as far as like the hours because, and I wanted to get the number, because hundred 30 employees is not 15 or 20 where you can really super ultra-personalized, but it sounds like with everything that you're doing you're getting to know your employees you're listening to them so even with a larger team all of that is possible. What about hours and scheduling you brought everybody back, who are remote, is there any flexibility there or how do you work with people to give them some of their time back.

       Robin Ritz: Thank you for asking, so we did we shifted, we have to do two shifts are in 2020 just to keep our numbers small enough so when we did bring everybody back in production, we gave the production crew, the availability of saying what hours , do you want to work, and we also have a second shift so we've got I believe it's 737 30 to 333 30 that's our first shift and then we've got a second shift that comes in for production.

       And for our admin staff because we're a sales driven organization, we want to make sure that we're available when our customers need us to be available, we had been an eight to five business but we put it out to our entire sales team and came back that were eight 830 to five. So, and it was really about responsiveness to make sure that we're available for our customers and When are they most needed. As far as the employees working from home have there is a lot of VPN or a virtual tool in place, so if somebody can still work from home if they need to.: But we also added two new I guess some people come FLEX days or personal days, so we increase the personal days. I think, as of two days from now, so there'll be using the realism, but that gives people more time for the appointments that they need to schedule, or some of the offsite type of activities that it just didn't feel like they had enough time to do, and so we built a little bit more flexibility for employees to be able to schedule around those work hours.

       But we have we are manufacturing there's a huge value to people being in person, so really, really, really, really embrace that as much as we can.

       Lisa Ryan: And as we're getting to the end of our time together one other quote that from a previous conversation that you said was there, your commitment to a sensory rich environment Making a workplace that's more than just the work, so what are some of the things that you do that maybe we didn't talk about so far that would help that to happen.

       Robin Ritz: So sensory-rich, it is really because you are in that manufacturing environment. One of the things that's important to us is that we do have natural lighting, there are really good sound systems in all of our factories, so that there's music that's going on there is bright and colorful artwork on all the walls, so that there is something nice to look up at. There is an empowerment within the employees' workstations to the degree that it's available where they can personalize it and they can have things that are meaningful to them, and they want to look up and see so it's everything from. it's everything sensory, so we've got Tara diffusers going that are making it smell good you've got natural lighting coming in you've got music you've got artwork we've got plants we've got things to create creature comforts around the environment that just give it a richer, more texture yeah. One itself, like everything that you're.

       Lisa Ryan: doing there is really leading to that consistency of being on the best places to work list, because it really does come down to culture and even with everything that you're doing it sounds like your business is super strong and you're getting a lot done.

       Robin Ritz: yeah we do we get a lot of work done, we work hard, we play hard or but we're Doers and I think that's it you got to be doing the work anyway. We do see work...]]>f890f7f3-8f56-4864-b751-8ea64d92b83eMon, 18 Jul 2022 07:05:00 -040023:55falsefull228282Incorporating Human Intelligence into Ai in Manufacturing with Christopher NguyenConnect 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, you could say if the temperature is too high, but the pressure is too low, then signal something that may be problematic soon. So the basics of clarifying or encoding human knowledge are about capturing some of these rules from the past. Their so-called expert system where people tried to do these things. But advances in technology in terms of machine learning itself are enabling us to do this. We can take the natural language you, and I can speak like this, and then it can be translated into something that a machine can understand. Then we can sit down with a domain expert, a manufacturing assembly person who knows machines well. They can say if the sound that comes off sounds like the knock-knock of an engine, then I know to take that offline. We can take the sentence as is, and now our machine learning algorithm can understand it and translate it into code. That code becomes automated and part of the automated system's knowledge set.

       Lisa Ryan: One of the surprising about automation is that it's so widely used, and yet according to your information, only 9% of manufacturers are currently leveraging it. So what are some of the challenges you've seen that have stopped that from expanding wider?

       Christopher Nguyen: One of the challenges or surprises that I've learned in the last five years, being part of Panasonic before launching this company, is how the meme or the fear is that robots are coming to replace us. Replace thousands of people, and we just put a bunch of robots doing that; it turns out, the lab we use the word profit with most profitable, the most promising applications are not that right. So it is more about solving the problem of not having enough students than not having enough expertise.

       In one example, because it's Panasonic, we also operate in Japan. There are these supermarket chains that run refrigeration systems. There are 10,000 supermarkets in one chain and hundreds of thousands of refrigeration equipment. And three experts in the entire country are qualified to diagnose this. It's very much a human expertise constraint. The solution is to quantify what they know and their lifetime of experience, then try to replicate the scale here in the US, where we're facing the same crisis. We've all come on software in the last 30-40 years. We've outsourced our manufacturing - all the tooling or the physical stuff. Now we're finding that it's not just a like economic risk but geopolitical risk.

       Lisa Ryan: Especially with the labor shortage we're facing right now, there are two sides to that equation. Number one, it's great to have automation to do the jobs that nobody else wants. So we can start making people's lives easier while requiring fewer people. But, on the other hand, if you're talking about three people in an entire country that has that knowledge, there's gotta be some fear around, "Well, if I communicate everything I know to the machines, then I'm going to communicate myself, out of a job." So how do we balance that where we can get away from the fear of where we're not that we can work in harmony between man and machine.

       Christopher Nguyen: I'll give you an example. Here in the US, you may have heard of a company called Huntsman. They make refrigeration equipment. They are a Panasonic subsidiary, a very large operator. They sell in supermarkets. If you go into the freezer section, you'll see the huntsman logo. To build, run and operate such a network, you need a  very large force of service personnel who understand this equipment, have experience and can go out and repair them. Unfortunately, there's a massive shortage of people willing to take these jobs. So what does Huntsman do? Believe it or not, they set up universities, but for schools to try and teach these people, they've been paid very well. So this is a general example where we were short on people willing to take these jobs or right because everybody goes to college and gets a computer science degree. Ai machine learning will try to help those solve those problems first rather than working people out of a job.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, exactly, and we certainly need both. I know I was talking to my mother today and her air conditioner went out while she's in Atlanta, Georgia, where it's 100 degrees today, and she's in her late 70s. And nobody can come out. They have nobody to come out until Monday. So the labor shortage is real regarding not only people's health, like my mother's what air conditioning, but also at you just said with 10s of thousands of air conditioning units, how do we get the people to do that.

       Christopher Nguyen: That's an important example of when you share it. There's a field called predictive maintenance. You're in manufacturing and instrumentation. Where we try to prevent right failure is better than predictive maintenance is better than even preventive because preventive maintenance, you go out and replace everything every six months. Maybe there's a bit of waste, but predictive means you can try to predict that something is likely to fail.

       The value of being able to do so is far more than the cost of that piece of that compressor or the labor to go out; it's a life and death situation. It's not like a Google or where you click on the wrong ad. What he stands for is that you are trying to essentially build intrusion detection system cybersecurity for automotive because soon, cars are computers on wheels and will be hacked. If you get that...]]>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, you could say if the temperature is too high, but the pressure is too low, then signal something that may be problematic soon. So the basics of clarifying or encoding human knowledge are about capturing some of these rules from the past. Their so-called expert system where people tried to do these things. But advances in technology in terms of machine learning itself are enabling us to do this. We can take the natural language you, and I can speak like this, and then it can be translated into something that a machine can understand. Then we can sit down with a domain expert, a manufacturing assembly person who knows machines well. They can say if the sound that comes off sounds like the knock-knock of an engine, then I know to take that offline. We can take the sentence as is, and now our machine learning algorithm can understand it and translate it into code. That code becomes automated and part of the automated system's knowledge set.

       Lisa Ryan: One of the surprising about automation is that it's so widely used, and yet according to your information, only 9% of manufacturers are currently leveraging it. So what are some of the challenges you've seen that have stopped that from expanding wider?

       Christopher Nguyen: One of the challenges or surprises that I've learned in the last five years, being part of Panasonic before launching this company, is how the meme or the fear is that robots are coming to replace us. Replace thousands of people, and we just put a bunch of robots doing that; it turns out, the lab we use the word profit with most profitable, the most promising applications are not that right. So it is more about solving the problem of not having enough students than not having enough expertise.

       In one example, because it's Panasonic, we also operate in Japan. There are these supermarket chains that run refrigeration systems. There are 10,000 supermarkets in one chain and hundreds of thousands of refrigeration equipment. And three experts in the entire country are qualified to diagnose this. It's very much a human expertise constraint. The solution is to quantify what they know and their lifetime of experience, then try to replicate the scale here in the US, where we're facing the same crisis. We've all come on software in the last 30-40 years. We've outsourced our manufacturing - all the tooling or the physical stuff. Now we're finding that it's not just a like economic risk but geopolitical risk.

       Lisa Ryan: Especially with the labor shortage we're facing right now, there are two sides to that equation. Number one, it's great to have automation to do the jobs that nobody else wants. So we can start making people's lives easier while requiring fewer people. But, on the other hand, if you're talking about three people in an entire country that has that knowledge, there's gotta be some fear around, "Well, if I communicate everything I know to the machines, then I'm going to communicate myself, out of a job." So how do we balance that where we can get away from the fear of where we're not that we can work in harmony between man and machine.

       Christopher Nguyen: I'll give you an example. Here in the US, you may have heard of a company called Huntsman. They make refrigeration equipment. They are a Panasonic subsidiary, a very large operator. They sell in supermarkets. If you go into the freezer section, you'll see the huntsman logo. To build, run and operate such a network, you need a  very large force of service personnel who understand this equipment, have experience and can go out and repair them. Unfortunately, there's a massive shortage of people willing to take these jobs. So what does Huntsman do? Believe it or not, they set up universities, but for schools to try and teach these people, they've been paid very well. So this is a general example where we were short on people willing to take these jobs or right because everybody goes to college and gets a computer science degree. Ai machine learning will try to help those solve those problems first rather than working people out of a job.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, exactly, and we certainly need both. I know I was talking to my mother today and her air conditioner went out while she's in Atlanta, Georgia, where it's 100 degrees today, and she's in her late 70s. And nobody can come out. They have nobody to come out until Monday. So the labor shortage is real regarding not only people's health, like my mother's what air conditioning, but also at you just said with 10s of thousands of air conditioning units, how do we get the people to do that.

       Christopher Nguyen: That's an important example of when you share it. There's a field called predictive maintenance. You're in manufacturing and instrumentation. Where we try to prevent right failure is better than predictive maintenance is better than even preventive because preventive maintenance, you go out and replace everything every six months. Maybe there's a bit of waste, but predictive means you can try to predict that something is likely to fail.

       The value of being able to do so is far more than the cost of that piece of that compressor or the labor to go out; it's a life and death situation. It's not like a Google or where you click on the wrong ad. What he stands for is that you are trying to essentially build intrusion detection system cybersecurity for automotive because soon, cars are computers on wheels and will be hacked. If you get that wrong, someone dies, so I think this is a crucial combination: applying Ai machine learning to the essential processes in our lives. We're still physical people. We still drive cars. We do eat fish, and so on. So the impact of failure can be quite consequential.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, the interesting thing you just said about the predictive is that Carrier reached out to my mother yesterday via email to let her know that they sensed something wrong with her system. Still, unfortunately, AT&T was putting in fiber, and somebody cut her line, and she didn't have Internet, so it's a perfect storm. But that predictive maintenance is such an interesting concept because if they can let you know. Hey, there's a good chance we're seeing something that's not working. Then, you can send those people we have so few to fix or do preventative maintenance because they know. That there's a good chance that it's going to fail.

       Christopher Nguyen: On a typical factory floor, one failure can easily shut down the line and costs $20,000 an hour. The cost of that screw or compressor you're trying to replace can prevent that from happening. So it has a very, very meaningful economic and human life value.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, you also brought up an interesting point that ties in with Ai and automation. That is cyber security. The more that we outsource, automate, and take it out of the human control and put it into the machine control, there are a couple of people out there - one or two - who are the bad guys. So what are some of the things you've learned about the risks? Also, you talk about putting that human intelligence back into the driver's seat when dealing with cyber security.

       Christopher Nguyen: You may be familiar with SPYCAR legislation. In the US, SPYCAR stands for safety and privacy in your car. The US Senate likes to have these clever acronyms. But essentially, by a specific year, it was initially envisioned to be 2023 but maybe push that a little more. All cars on the road must have an intrusion detection system. Because vehicles are becoming computers on wheels, they are subject to attack. The way technology has been built is that when people first computerized the car. There's something on the vehicle called the canvas, which you think of as this network. So you have all these sensors and actuators and the processors talking to each other security when that was first built was not top of mind.

       Because the cars are moving, they think, who will connect to them and hack them? Now cars are getting connected. There have been demonstrations as far back as 2015. That was when a Jeep Cherokee was controlled and was driven off the road. Because it is life and limb, it is human life at stake. It's not just again clicking on the wrong ad. Congress is trying to get ahead of all this and requiring that manufacturers put these intrusion detection systems into cars. 

       My company provides some of the intelligence that goes into that. These things have to be a knowledge infection. We can see car communication patterns that have not occurred before. So that may indicate a kind of a cyber-attack going on and then being alerted to alert the driver and perhaps shut down the systems before it goes too fast and cost somebody death.

       Lisa Ryan: So, as the hackers get more imaginative and innovative and out with that, is that something that you're just continually monitoring and looking at and patching. How does that work? You're getting better, but the chances are that they're getting better too. So how do you continue to protect these devices, these cars, and trucks?

       Christopher Nguyen: It is an escalating ever-escalating battle, and the hope, wish, and the promise is that machine learning or learning machines can be better than machines that are not learning. Computers are pretty dumb. All of the intelligence in a computer comes from humans. We tell them exactly what to do. We tell them, step one, do this step. They're very inflexible, but when you apply Ai and machine learning, the hope is because those machines are now learning. They can adapt. They can adapt sufficiently so that they can see new patterns faster than we expect to have a sort of human response. They essentially can begin to pass themselves, which affords us not perfection, but an additional layer of defenses before things get terrible.

       Lisa Ryan: So what is it exactly that you do at Aitomatic? Tell us a little about your services and how you work with your companies?

       Christopher Nguyen: Some use cases I mentioned include refrigeration predictive maintenance, identifying and counting the number of fish under the ocean using sonar echograms. This is for keeping fish for something called fixed net fishing off the coast of Japan, as well as cybersecurity, automotive cybersecurity, and avionics. So these are the various use cases. We don't implement directly what our customers do, so these customers have teams called engineers. So you have computer engineers, software engineers, and now you have these emerging people skills called Ai engineers. They use automatic tools, so we have tools, and we have a cloud service that enables them to build these systems. We offer the capabilities that I just mentioned here. They integrate them in specific ways to fit their particular use cases.

       Lisa Ryan: We talked a lot about Ai and some of what's happening. We also covered the small percentage of manufacturers that are currently leveraging that. Then there are the automotive cyber security issues. What would be your best tip for somebody looking at taking their manufacturing to the next level of using that human intelligence along with automation? Whether it be the Labor shortage or the technology, what would be some of your best tips for somebody listening today.

       Christopher Nguyen: What our expertise is and what we believe in. There are lots of tools and techniques to force someone to get into machine learning to develop Ai solutions. If they think that they have an asset that is human expertise right from years of experience and so on, and they want to apply that to their Ai system, they should seek out tools and techniques companies like ours that specialize in something I call knowledge first Ai.

       Lisa Ryan: And so, and this year tool, you mentioned earlier about just being able to talk to it in everyday conversation, it sounds like a knock-knock when it does that or how do you how would you even know what to say to the machine.

       Christopher Nguyen: Communicating an international language is the first step on the journey. That starts the knowledge encoding. Once that knowledge is encoded, we then automatically generate what's called the machine learning model. Then the whole thing gets deployed into production, and once it's in production, data is still coming in, and incidents happen. New events occur. All of that is then looped back into rebuilding or refreshing the system, so essentially the whole thing is an operating system learned from human instruction. So as well as more data comes in, it will also learn about what's happening in real-time.

       Lisa Ryan: And are some industries better than others when it comes to using Ai, or is it across the board in manufacturing that everybody can benefit.

       Christopher Nguyen: There's nothing that is best for everything. The difference between the digital and physical industries is that I used to be part of the digital industry right now at Google and so on. Some tools and techniques work with big data that move quickly in and out, and the process itself is also digital. That works very well for certain classes of companies, I think, for manufacturers for automotive companies, for a bionic company, anything that has a physical dimension, we find that those tools and techniques don't work.

       We need to have this human expertise, and so I think, for you know, an Ai company like Automatic that focuses on what's called knowledge first Ai is much more suitable for the physical industry.

       Lisa Ryan: On the other thing that just popped into my mind as we look at the graying of America in manufacturing, we have all these people walking out the door and taking that knowledge with them. It also gives them a chance to leave a legacy. So all of those decades of information feel relevant because they're contributing to the company's future and truly leave a legacy with the knowledge they've built up in their career.

       Christopher Nguyen: yeah, for us, they're not just relevant. They're essential, literally. Sometimes, this knowledge is lost forever and then has to be somehow built up from raw data. That isn't easy to do essentially like eventually, 50 years from now, machines will learn everything, but what we do the in the intervening 50 years.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. We speak a lot on the show about workplace culture and helping employees feel that they're valued, appreciated, and part of a bigger mission. In this case, with that human intelligence, that human factor, you can work it into your conversations. Let the managers say. This is your legacy. We value you, and that's why we're doing it. We're not trying to take people out of the equation. We want to bring your knowledge into the equation.

       Christopher Nguyen: Machines, when used correctly, will always augment us rather than replace us.

       Lisa Ryan: Exactly. Christopher, it has been a pleasure having you on the show today. If somebody does...]]>29c6396f-1c3a-40b0-a938-0978e5fc5921Tue, 28 Jun 2022 07:05:00 -040024:25falsefull227272Exploring Composite Materials for Design and Acoustics with Nitin GovilaLisa 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 in 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 history, I think the main thing has been technology and 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 yarn.

       We process the yarn through our process and then quote them what drives the product's innovation and quality. 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 happened was slowly, the minds of the architects and the designers and consultants also changed and evolved.

       There was also a field of study that evolved in engineering, called ten cyl or the fabric or ten cell membrane engineering. Many colleges came up with a couple of them, offering specialization in Germany. These courses became a field of study. When those people came out to start their professional careers with architect or design firms, they also began experimenting. As time went along, when you see those structures, there are still structures that were done 20-25 years back and are still there. That also created more and more openness for the architects, designers, and the final client to look at it. Over time, they also realized that one of the unique ways for every architect or designer is always to have a signature structure made. A unique one and composite materials being free-flowing have been able to give that to feed into their imagination.

       It boils down to what kind of yards are used. Are you using glass yarns are using. They have a proven history of projects which have lasted 20, 30, and 40 years and are still standing. That's why now it's moving in the lines. It's the fifth element of construction, other than the classical ones. The concrete and other elements we talk about are moving as a fifth element. It looks like a prominent open structure or a close structure. Even in close structures, people use membranes and fabrics because they can roll up the building. They can make a façade. They can create a perforated facade or single-skin facades can, depending on their needs.

       The structure you see behind me as my backdrop is made of a facade material. It's in a public park in Queensland. I visited this place last week to see the project because that also gives a lovely perspective. It's a public space. You can walk and be underneath it. It adds to the aesthetics and creates that iconic structure, which goes in very hand in hand with the city's identity. For that matter, the countries and entities, so if you asked me briefly, it's a long answer, but I would say innovation. Being able to show a proven history, that you've done it, you've done it successfully, and being able to go and meet the right influencers and tell them what the product can bring. Then you have all the test labs and the reports to complement to prove that these are three-four elements that are leading plus the flexibility of it. Even non-combustibility or sustainability in companies like us have taken the lead in that direction. So that building norms or the local norms of a city or a country are also filled in that direction, whether you're going to greener way, whether you're going the noncombustible way, or you want to have more fire-resistant buildings or structures in that sense.

       Lisa Ryan: Because this is audio-only, people don't see the structure behind you, but I can verify that it is super cool, so just from the sustainability aspect, that's great. But the creativity, because you have the opportunity to work with those flowing materials and create something unique. You have a lot more flexibility. Let's talk about its sustainability of it. Using glass and polyester and those different fibers, from a sustainability standpoint, is that, like recycled materials, we can incorporate our, I don't want to call it, our waste, but our waste into these types of projects? We'll talk a little bit about the sustainability aspect of that.

       Nitin Govila: Certain companies are working on it again here. We are taking the lead. We have been leaders in developing PVC-free products. In that sense, which is mainly for interior applications, so instead of somebody wanting a polyester coated PVC polyester yarns and PVC coated product if they wish to a PVC free, that's a trend which is going. Because sustainability also has very different meanings in different countries in certain countries. They want to understand the entire back end of the process in the value chain of the whole manufacturing. We consider the terms of how the raw materials are sourced. The raw material supplier companies are doing in terms of their processes. In Australia, you have a concept called PVC best practice, which means that vinyl and PVC are not bad, but it's more important to see what the processes follow to make a product.

       We also have a second development we had in the past, and now we are doing it uniquely also is to create, how do we recycle these membranes and then recycle to what is it recycle to a bad waste in a way that okay. It's recycled, but still, it's not such a usable way. Maybe you can still make some applications not related to structures. But some other things or are you able to create even the yarns and pallets which are of good quality so that you can use them to make another fabric, which will be a good quality. The company is working on the second step earlier, we had the recyclability that it created pallets, and you could use them for various things. Maybe low-end usage now, we've gone one step ahead to develop a technology where we are working on it. We should have it launched at the end of this year or early next year.

       If you're also able to show that the pallets you create are of high quality, then when the yards you create and through that, the fabric you make will also have better quality. Then other elements are what coating process use what environment are you using to, then and classify production in that direction. So there is a very, very strong effort towards that. We are aligned with the overall objectives of Europe or other parts of the world. We have allocated a specific part to ensure we are moving in that direction. The world is moving or as expected of companies like...]]>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 in 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 history, I think the main thing has been technology and 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 yarn.

       We process the yarn through our process and then quote them what drives the product's innovation and quality. 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 happened was slowly, the minds of the architects and the designers and consultants also changed and evolved.

       There was also a field of study that evolved in engineering, called ten cyl or the fabric or ten cell membrane engineering. Many colleges came up with a couple of them, offering specialization in Germany. These courses became a field of study. When those people came out to start their professional careers with architect or design firms, they also began experimenting. As time went along, when you see those structures, there are still structures that were done 20-25 years back and are still there. That also created more and more openness for the architects, designers, and the final client to look at it. Over time, they also realized that one of the unique ways for every architect or designer is always to have a signature structure made. A unique one and composite materials being free-flowing have been able to give that to feed into their imagination.

       It boils down to what kind of yards are used. Are you using glass yarns are using. They have a proven history of projects which have lasted 20, 30, and 40 years and are still standing. That's why now it's moving in the lines. It's the fifth element of construction, other than the classical ones. The concrete and other elements we talk about are moving as a fifth element. It looks like a prominent open structure or a close structure. Even in close structures, people use membranes and fabrics because they can roll up the building. They can make a façade. They can create a perforated facade or single-skin facades can, depending on their needs.

       The structure you see behind me as my backdrop is made of a facade material. It's in a public park in Queensland. I visited this place last week to see the project because that also gives a lovely perspective. It's a public space. You can walk and be underneath it. It adds to the aesthetics and creates that iconic structure, which goes in very hand in hand with the city's identity. For that matter, the countries and entities, so if you asked me briefly, it's a long answer, but I would say innovation. Being able to show a proven history, that you've done it, you've done it successfully, and being able to go and meet the right influencers and tell them what the product can bring. Then you have all the test labs and the reports to complement to prove that these are three-four elements that are leading plus the flexibility of it. Even non-combustibility or sustainability in companies like us have taken the lead in that direction. So that building norms or the local norms of a city or a country are also filled in that direction, whether you're going to greener way, whether you're going the noncombustible way, or you want to have more fire-resistant buildings or structures in that sense.

       Lisa Ryan: Because this is audio-only, people don't see the structure behind you, but I can verify that it is super cool, so just from the sustainability aspect, that's great. But the creativity, because you have the opportunity to work with those flowing materials and create something unique. You have a lot more flexibility. Let's talk about its sustainability of it. Using glass and polyester and those different fibers, from a sustainability standpoint, is that, like recycled materials, we can incorporate our, I don't want to call it, our waste, but our waste into these types of projects? We'll talk a little bit about the sustainability aspect of that.

       Nitin Govila: Certain companies are working on it again here. We are taking the lead. We have been leaders in developing PVC-free products. In that sense, which is mainly for interior applications, so instead of somebody wanting a polyester coated PVC polyester yarns and PVC coated product if they wish to a PVC free, that's a trend which is going. Because sustainability also has very different meanings in different countries in certain countries. They want to understand the entire back end of the process in the value chain of the whole manufacturing. We consider the terms of how the raw materials are sourced. The raw material supplier companies are doing in terms of their processes. In Australia, you have a concept called PVC best practice, which means that vinyl and PVC are not bad, but it's more important to see what the processes follow to make a product.

       We also have a second development we had in the past, and now we are doing it uniquely also is to create, how do we recycle these membranes and then recycle to what is it recycle to a bad waste in a way that okay. It's recycled, but still, it's not such a usable way. Maybe you can still make some applications not related to structures. But some other things or are you able to create even the yarns and pallets which are of good quality so that you can use them to make another fabric, which will be a good quality. The company is working on the second step earlier, we had the recyclability that it created pallets, and you could use them for various things. Maybe low-end usage now, we've gone one step ahead to develop a technology where we are working on it. We should have it launched at the end of this year or early next year.

       If you're also able to show that the pallets you create are of high quality, then when the yards you create and through that, the fabric you make will also have better quality. Then other elements are what coating process use what environment are you using to, then and classify production in that direction. So there is a very, very strong effort towards that. We are aligned with the overall objectives of Europe or other parts of the world. We have allocated a specific part to ensure we are moving in that direction. The world is moving or as expected of companies like us.

       Lisa Ryan: The other thing I find interesting about what you're doing with your materials is the difference between sound and noise. What are you doing with those internally, as far as helping workers to be more focused on what they're doing because you're able to reduce or eliminate some of the day-to-day noise? Talk about it from that standpoint? How are your products and your technology helping today's manufacturing workers?

       Nitin Govila: It's not only the manufacturing workers that's important. But it's also overall. I would say workspace so whether it's manufacturing, whether it's an office, whether it's a restaurant or a public space interest public space or, for that matter, include swimming pool or a sports gym or whatever. What happens is that acoustics is, and I'll prefer to use the word acoustics here because acoustics is misunderstood or misconstrued. When you talk about acoustic, people first understand this sound reduction of soundproof. That's where I have learned it. Before joining the company, I did not understand that sound and bad noise are different.

       What is essential is to have a good sound or up and reduce the effect of bad now is not bad noise means that you are an area, you have a lot of people. There's a reverberation of sound, which affects that even when you go to a restaurant. It's packed on a Friday evening or Saturday. You're not even able to hear the person across your table for which you've come for dinner. Suppose you have an environment that ensures that those sound reverberations are what the coefficient NRC or the Alpha. We say the noise reduction coefficient is measured in terms of the material. In that case, you're not saying you're making a soundproof. It's not like a recording room. But what you're recording also insulates you. You don't feel much of anything in a recording room. Here it's different.

       You remove the bad noise effects and have a good sound. You're able to sit comfortably and be in a good space. You can also hear the other person, whatever the other person is saying, and communicate comfortably even if people are around now. What's happening is over the years and still happens. There's a lot of effort put towards in an office, not only the aesthetics, or how do we manage the heat, the terminal part the glare, part all those elements are being looked at more seriously.

       Even though there is an element of exterior protection outside the window or inside, that has its pluses and minuses. The acoustic part is never looked at, and when you look at it now, try to get people back to the office after the covert. You become pertinent to creating a good space that people would want to return to; otherwise, they were happy in their homes. They have created a space of working for the last one and a half years doing these calls like zoom calls or teams calls, and then, when they come to the office, they see it's an open space.

       You may feel heavy or not so comfortable, so I think that's an element I see sometimes gaining but not so much a part of it is also lack of information and knowledge available. Maybe there are not so many acousticians who can share the difference between all those elements. Part of it is also design and awareness. The moment all that comes together, we are playing a part, when we try to show at different exhibitions or displays or even presentations to architects to discuss this. Because the free-flowing fabric word that it ensures it can fit into your design environment. You can envelop it with the lights, so if you have a light, you can cover the lights. Instead of glass, you can do fabric. Nobody will ever realize that you can do ceiling baffles. You can do panels.

       You can even do the walls and print on them; nobody will even realize there is fabric. It provides the acoustic effect that if you take swimming pools, you can do the ceiling underneath any roof. It could be a membrane roof. It could be a steel roof. The sound does not get reflected. That improves the whole acoustics of the place. Many times when we see stadiums being designed, they are always double-skinned. Part of it is also because of that; our product is included in the Qatar World Cup, which has five stadiums. There's one stadium, designed like a Bedouin, a Middle East tent where the outside surface is a membrane. The inside part is done on the ceiling. The design of what the intent in the Middle East inside will look like. We designed it from the yards. We did not color it. The yarns are of that red-brown whitish color to give that look from the inside. That's an acoustic fabric that was put inside the top membrane, which is also to show that effect but also provide comfort for the spectators who will be there to watch the game. So it's evolving, but I think it will take some time to get that across.

       Lisa Ryan: It sounds like it's quite an education process because when you were talking about a noisy restaurant on a Friday or Saturday night, that makes sense because it detracts from the experience when you can't hear the person across from you. But if you go into a manufacturing plant or an office where sound is not something we even think about, what would be some signs to look for? How would somebody know this could be an issue that could be helped by looking at their acoustics?

       Nitin Govila: The first point, as you just mentioned, is the element of education. If we are taking the lead, there are not so many companies that can manufacture fabrics that can give these acoustic properties. We have a couple of products in a range, so we have to take the lead in educating, so when we talk to architects or consultants, we do our presentations in public forums or at different events. We ensure that we try to bring that element to education. We cover it in our catalogs and other communication. We have also changed the way. Sometimes we communicate so when we do big events or even exhibition booths. We try to create an experience room.

       In that exhibition where people sit inside that space, they will feel the difference, so that's also what we are trying to do, and then obviously. We sometimes tell people okay, let's start with one of your rooms. Let's not start with the whole office. Let's take a meeting room, for that matter. Can we do a different way of a meeting room, and we are happy to support you on that or work with you on that, so maybe once they see the difference there, they'll come back to us, okay, let's look at the design of the whole office. It's a long effort, so it's all about communication and talking about it. Using case study methods, where we've done a lot of projects like this, to show that it could be a church and a restaurant. That's why sometimes more specific, very targeted audience-specific events started happening. If we decide to participate in that, we also try to bring in those elements.

       Lisa Ryan: I also see in your background that you're a meditation trainer. So that mental health of workers falls right into that category, so talk a little bit about that because it sounds like you're doing a lot with the architects. Who would then have to sell the concept to the end-user? Whatever the benefits of mental health for that end-user, whatever that building is? How does that work, and what are some success stories that you have experienced?

       Nitin Govila: So I would say it's still very nascent where people look at mental health from the office environment. The design environment is still a different category to look at. One thing that has happened over the last few years is magnified, so you have bigger companies with specific HR and specific people-focused departments that are being created for workplace wellbeing and wellness. That's real positive development. Mental health is being talked about. Also, stress is being talked about. Breakdowns are being talked about in companies. But it's still connected to an element that's related to people. Somehow I am not yet able to see a connection that the office environment also could play a part, I think it will happen, but I suppose it's too early for that. At least we are talking about this subject. It's a very positive direction because many years back, it was not even talked about, or it was not even considered good to talk about. At least now we are open about it; companies are taking specific actions to help their employees to understand supporting them. I do a lot of weekly meditation sessions with certain companies in Singapore virtually. They made it a practice that they gave their employees a half an hour option, not forcing them but they have a choice.

       Those kinds of things companies are doing. They are also doing other things to help them maintain that. Ideally, it would be nice that the whole thing becomes holistic and that even when you design your space, you're already thinking of what colors I use and what kind of protection. I'm doing outside my glass, how I manage the heat, how I manage the air conditioning load, how I manage the aesthetics, or the glare or whatever when I'm looking at my screen. The sound or whatever, am I, creating space where I can have an opening for myself when I can connect with myself either meditate either pre or whatever I do that maybe you know. I worked with some companies that are creating meditation boards, or they've completed separate rooms called introspection rooms, where people can walk in whenever they wish to sit quietly for whatever time they want to and then come back. Part of it is happening now, the overall integration to combine all those elements. Maybe a little bit away, but it will take some time.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, I think it's funny because there's probably a certain percentage of people listening or who have been in manufacturing thinking there's no way my people...]]>9103cd49-9546-48e7-b06f-7fde850aeb12Mon, 20 Jun 2022 07:05:00 -040029:49falsefull226262Non-Traditional Resources for Finding and Hiring Great Talent with Andrew CroweConnect 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 manuals. Then from the manuals to running some CNC machines. At that time, I just started, just diving in.

       I looked on YouTube there weren't; there was no titan at the time. There was nobody that was teaching that looked like me and represented my community. So I made that my mission - to return to the community and teach them skills as much as possible. I will work with the youth. I organized the youth offenders and organizations working with the boys and girls club. My sister works at a place called the Wyman group, where she runs programs for teenage mothers and single mothers, and battered women, and I would teach these skills, so people could get these jobs that are paying high. So they can work around their schedules and keep pushing the industry forward.

       At the same time, my name started rising in the industry because I became a conduit between the open jobs and the job list in these communities. I would go into some major brands and give them the skill set and the tool set to start communicating with these pockets of society that have been overlooked by our industry and build that bridge. I was making that connection because the workforce, the face of the workforce, and the workers are changing. How our industry has been recruiting workers isn't going to work if we want to continue to thrive.

       A gentleman said something on one of my LinkedIn posts, saying that manufacturing is a global heavyweight division. So we need everybody on our American spectrum, everybody in that boiling pot. We need the opinions and creativity in our minds to have a manufacturing sector that will compete globally, and this is how we do it.

       I'm noticing that we had a significant void in hiring, recruiting, and retaining the next generation of American manufacturers and leaders. So I decided to get out on the road, and I started with friends of mine. Master cam has been a great partner. Edge factory is also helping me get on the road and put American manufacturing at the forefront. Getting in front of communities and showing them awareness and access to these careers, training for them, and showing them local opportunities around them that they can get in front of right now to change their lives and become whatever they want to be in manufacturing. Whether that's the saw guy, the CNC operator, the machine is, the programmer, or the engineer, this is the new American dream and is accessible.

       I also go to companies and teach them how to recruit and retrain. Then, when I'm done, they use the programs there to find and educate the people on their own. It's a beautiful thing.

       Lisa Ryan: I love the energy and passion and everything that you have coming through. People listening to this show think, "Man if I had 100 of him, it would be great." There are a couple of things that immediately come to mind.

       With almost 3 million manufacturing jobs going unfilled by 2030, we must look at nontraditional sources. Being a felon, you look at that population, and we're afraid or don't think they will work. You turn that on its head because somebody gave you a chance. Now you're coming in with a whole new world that you had never been exposed to, and with jobs pay great. You are contributing to a bigger mission because, as you said, you're not just making pieces-parts, you're contributing to aircraft carriers, and you can feel a part of something. It seems that manufacturing is not where you see many people of color and women, so that needs to change. What are some of the things you're doing? We know that we need bodies to fill these jobs, but why should manufacturing look at more ways of bringing in diversity and changing the face of their workforce?

       Andrew Crowe: When looking at underserved populations in nontraditional populations, especially felons, you get an 85% recidivism rate drop when you introduce fellas manufacturing careers. People who get paid high amounts, not high amounts but good enough amount to be able to survive. They are less likely to supplement those incomes with the street in illegal activities, so number one, our reentry population, I like to call it, needs society's validation. They need to say you're more than the mistake you made now. Let's help you reenter society.

       In a way, you can pay your restitution, your parole officer, whatever that may be, and you can still have life and food and take care of your kids, and that's all people want. At the same time, you're looking at numbers in a manufacturing environment. If people can work hard for you, you're looking past some of those things they may have done in the past. There's an avenue to go to school and get different labels. There's a real opportunity.

       Another thing that I'll say is a lot of the companies that I talked to in the beginning think that they must make a significant investment, or they think that they must drastically change some of the things they're doing. It doesn't have to work like that. There are happening around you and in your community that you are going to call them. Some of those fears you have, especially felon based, are things like bonding insurance you can get for that felon trying to reenter. That will protect him from anything you think will happen while they're on the job and insure you.

       At the same time, there are a lot of programs that do background checks that work on soft skills. The Urban League has a lot of beautiful ones that will help work on all the things. They provide transportation to these jobs so that all you have to work on is the hard skills and train them on the job. Another thing, why do we have to diversify. We've got to diversify because we've only traditionally, have given a seat at the table and mouths to speak and consideration of the opinion of...]]>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 manuals. Then from the manuals to running some CNC machines. At that time, I just started, just diving in.

       I looked on YouTube there weren't; there was no titan at the time. There was nobody that was teaching that looked like me and represented my community. So I made that my mission - to return to the community and teach them skills as much as possible. I will work with the youth. I organized the youth offenders and organizations working with the boys and girls club. My sister works at a place called the Wyman group, where she runs programs for teenage mothers and single mothers, and battered women, and I would teach these skills, so people could get these jobs that are paying high. So they can work around their schedules and keep pushing the industry forward.

       At the same time, my name started rising in the industry because I became a conduit between the open jobs and the job list in these communities. I would go into some major brands and give them the skill set and the tool set to start communicating with these pockets of society that have been overlooked by our industry and build that bridge. I was making that connection because the workforce, the face of the workforce, and the workers are changing. How our industry has been recruiting workers isn't going to work if we want to continue to thrive.

       A gentleman said something on one of my LinkedIn posts, saying that manufacturing is a global heavyweight division. So we need everybody on our American spectrum, everybody in that boiling pot. We need the opinions and creativity in our minds to have a manufacturing sector that will compete globally, and this is how we do it.

       I'm noticing that we had a significant void in hiring, recruiting, and retaining the next generation of American manufacturers and leaders. So I decided to get out on the road, and I started with friends of mine. Master cam has been a great partner. Edge factory is also helping me get on the road and put American manufacturing at the forefront. Getting in front of communities and showing them awareness and access to these careers, training for them, and showing them local opportunities around them that they can get in front of right now to change their lives and become whatever they want to be in manufacturing. Whether that's the saw guy, the CNC operator, the machine is, the programmer, or the engineer, this is the new American dream and is accessible.

       I also go to companies and teach them how to recruit and retrain. Then, when I'm done, they use the programs there to find and educate the people on their own. It's a beautiful thing.

       Lisa Ryan: I love the energy and passion and everything that you have coming through. People listening to this show think, "Man if I had 100 of him, it would be great." There are a couple of things that immediately come to mind.

       With almost 3 million manufacturing jobs going unfilled by 2030, we must look at nontraditional sources. Being a felon, you look at that population, and we're afraid or don't think they will work. You turn that on its head because somebody gave you a chance. Now you're coming in with a whole new world that you had never been exposed to, and with jobs pay great. You are contributing to a bigger mission because, as you said, you're not just making pieces-parts, you're contributing to aircraft carriers, and you can feel a part of something. It seems that manufacturing is not where you see many people of color and women, so that needs to change. What are some of the things you're doing? We know that we need bodies to fill these jobs, but why should manufacturing look at more ways of bringing in diversity and changing the face of their workforce?

       Andrew Crowe: When looking at underserved populations in nontraditional populations, especially felons, you get an 85% recidivism rate drop when you introduce fellas manufacturing careers. People who get paid high amounts, not high amounts but good enough amount to be able to survive. They are less likely to supplement those incomes with the street in illegal activities, so number one, our reentry population, I like to call it, needs society's validation. They need to say you're more than the mistake you made now. Let's help you reenter society.

       In a way, you can pay your restitution, your parole officer, whatever that may be, and you can still have life and food and take care of your kids, and that's all people want. At the same time, you're looking at numbers in a manufacturing environment. If people can work hard for you, you're looking past some of those things they may have done in the past. There's an avenue to go to school and get different labels. There's a real opportunity.

       Another thing that I'll say is a lot of the companies that I talked to in the beginning think that they must make a significant investment, or they think that they must drastically change some of the things they're doing. It doesn't have to work like that. There are happening around you and in your community that you are going to call them. Some of those fears you have, especially felon based, are things like bonding insurance you can get for that felon trying to reenter. That will protect him from anything you think will happen while they're on the job and insure you.

       At the same time, there are a lot of programs that do background checks that work on soft skills. The Urban League has a lot of beautiful ones that will help work on all the things. They provide transportation to these jobs so that all you have to work on is the hard skills and train them on the job. Another thing, why do we have to diversify. We've got to diversify because we've only traditionally, have given a seat at the table and mouths to speak and consideration of the opinion of one type of person, and that's been an older white male. Our industry is full of it, and that's great. There's nowhere that that they need to go, but our table is big now because we're still a global competition.

       Our tables are even bigger, and more seats need to be here. But they're going unfilled because we're only replacing the seats there. So we need to look at this table as hey let's introduce more cuisine, whether you like it or not. Whether it's something that you're used to eating, it's still an option. Let's introduce more people at the table who have an opportunity to speak and put in their opinion. At the same time, you don't have to go anywhere. We're not pushing you out. We're just adding seats to this bigger table that we've created.

       The more that we can say, hey, I like a little bit of this type of food that type of food. It all works in harmony. This is the balance that we found. These things go together with the best.

       Then we're humming, and we're able to put ourselves in a place where we're the top global manufacturer again. But, again, we're going against on a global scale with countries that don't traditionally cut out parts of their population. So we're not even given ourselves a good chance to say we've all this traditional old manufacturing knowledge. Plus, we've got all this new knowledge, angles, opinions, and experiences that we can add to that that will make us even more robust.

       Lisa Ryan: When it comes to it, it all sounds like a great idea. What would be a practice instead of just looking at it from the standpoint of Okay, we need some more people of color? We need some more women in the organization. What can manufacturers do to start building their diversity and their diversity programs in the right way and the way for the long term? Where you have not only diversity but also belonging and inclusion.

       Andrew Crowe: 100%. That is a great question, and I think that going along with looking at other industries. Almost every other sector has adapted things like this. So we've got an advantage in that. In that event, we can look at industries like the IT industry, which started and was typically for nerds. Whatever that definition was, then, and then there was an explosion of computing, and everything the Internet, made everything more digital were digitizing. So now there are more jobs than the stereotypical nerd can feel.

       So we started looking at things like coding boot camps. And coding boot camps are now. So if you're a peg-leg unicorn that identifies as a pirate, there's a coding camp for you. They've rebranded the industry to something easy to get into, no matter who you are. You can upscale quickly. You can learn from, and with people that look in, whatever like you and in you have that comfortability. Plus, you matter. If we can adapt some of those things, like coding camps in pockets of communities and empowering those communities to have the resources to teach these camps.

       We can change what it looks like and change, the the the culture of manufacturing as well. But, at the same time, the industry is in a weird place where most of the knowledge is with the people enforcing the toxic culture. So if you're a manufacturer, you have to make the hard decision to say, this guy's got a lot of knowledge and is making us a lot of money and parts. He's got a lot of power around here because he's been here for a long time. But he's not a good culture fit for what we need going forward. So do I get rid of him, change the culture now, and lose all that knowledge and machining stuff or do I not take the stand and change the culture and do the right thing. It's tough. It's tough to decide for many companies, especially when they don't see the replaceable talent already clearly on the horizon, if that makes sense.

       Lisa Ryan: Part of that is having mentor-mentee relationships, where you're putting that older ten-year-old worker together with that new person and giving them the opportunities. We're seeing a lot of mentoring and reverse mentoring because those new and diverse employees see the world differently from exposure to tech, life, and what they've had.

       So again, companies can start the conversation if they are open. What success stories or things have you seen in the industry supporting those types of workforce development programs? What are you seeing?

       Andrew Crowe: So I'm seeing a lot of success with companies that tie in with official apprenticeship programs or local tech schools via shared technology. Some of those machines are sitting empty that have work available. They're using those and maybe donating to those Community organizations that have the time to train people from the community. They can then give them workers who are already trained and precisely what they need. Companies with apprenticeship programs put the young with the seasoned, allowing those conversations to occur. Not only that, they're incentivizing those things so that other people within the company see that there is value in those relationships. They're making that the culture.

       I also see national brands like Master Cam happening out here and taking a stand and trying to make their software and things more accessible and affordable. So hence, programs that couldn't traditionally afford them are around the pockets of the population that needs them. So laying those seeds and then tying them back to the companies that use Master Cam.

       They can start to build those bridges and build those bonds. Other companies are thinking outside the box, and it's working. For example, there's a city where we help initiate a live-work program where the local manufacturers are on board. The regional economic development Council is involved so that if you work at one of these manufacturing plants and satisfy a certain amount of KPIs, they will match your down payment and your closing costs on a home. The Economic Development Board will match the other half. So you've got a taxpaying worker committed to that job and city for at least the next 15 to 30 years. You're helping break generational curses by assisting people in getting real estate and owning homes quicker through working. Those situations include relationships and collaboration with industry and government, tying it into the community working in the cities I've been to. I've been consulting with you for sure.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and it's a win, win because not only are you helping individuals to get off the street, to get a good job with good benefits, and like you just said, the potential for homeownership that makes them more stable and committed to the organization. It's a win for the company because they are again getting loyal workers coming in. They're showing they care and can feel good that they're making a difference. I believe, is there some tax credits too.

       Andrew Crowe: So hiring felons and hiring disadvantaged people there 100% are tax credits that the government will give you that you can again put back into a recruiting and retaining programs and make it stronger and apprenticeship program. So all these different things will benefit you in a karmic way or help the industry because we're bringing more people in, but there's a financial aspect to that as well.

       We also know from studies that a happy worker is a more loyal worker is a more productive worker. So if you go into a company, this company allows you not to gamble with your life and your family's life and be a good productive member of society. They helped you become a homeowner when when when other opportunities arise, there's an aspect of that that sending you that you're not going to jump ship. 

       When companies reach out to me, it's either hey, we've got this population we can't reach it all, or we can call them, but they won't stay here right once we get them in. These are some of the tools that you can have to build that loyalty to your company and build it up to keep people here. No matter if they find somewhere that will pay them a little bit more, they won't consider that as much.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and I know that when you're looking at that person that's been there for 30-40 years, they're bringing in all these young kids, and they start to feel irrelevant. If you begin to put together these relationships, you have to force them at the beginning to happen. But then you put together people who wouldn't necessarily gravitate towards each other, and then those relationships, and we come to a different level of understanding. Because now people have a different story where they can understand where people are coming from, they're a little bit better at developing those types of relationships.

       Andrew Crowe: 100%. I'll even take it a step further. It gives you data you can then use to build an actual manual. Then, you can build out actions to continue fostering those relationships in the future once you force them or naturally let them happen. You can start to build a program and a culture that says this is how we work with these two gaps. This is the pathway that they go through to achieve ultimate cooperation and ultimate collaboration.

       Then you can start measuring these things. When you bring in new or older people, you can say, hey, are they hitting these standards? Are they moving through this process? Let's put them through it. Or if they were underperforming, their culture isn't what we needed. Here's a process that we develop from doing it less reenacted. I mean re-engaging and putting everybody through it again, which improves the company.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and the other thing manufacturers got this reputation and not only among the underserved communities but every parent on the planet, that has...]]>1862fcd5-a297-40cc-b125-e87cabd95069Mon, 13 Jun 2022 07:05:00 -040030:35falsefull225252Attracting Employees Through Apprenticeships with Miranda MartzConnect 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 the machines and then program the machines. Within the six years at that company, I became a lead machinist.

       I was the only woman in the machine shop for them, so that came with its challenges, but it was great I got to custom make things and express myself in that way. After that, I got the opportunity to become a journeyman or machinist. Through them, I was offered to go to school, and I did my apprenticeship at the Manufacturers Association.

       I finished my journeymen in 2020. In June of 2020, I got offered the position of helping to teach their CNC classes at the Manufacturers Association at night. I support the teacher. His name is Bob, and I teach CNC levels one, two, and three in the evenings. I enjoyed that, and I got immersed in the teaching and training realms a little more.

       I got into it when I taught the adult classes. I enjoyed it, and they had an opening for a pre-apprenticeship coordinator. I didn't know what that was currently. But I found out that it was helping to teach kids, and it was helping them learn the trades. This is something that I wish I had when I was growing up or had somebody to look up to me.

       I wanted to let them know that what they want to do isn't stupid. It's not dumb, and it's worth the same as a four-year college degree. Suppose you want to be an apprentice. I didn't know what machining was until my late 20s. Manufacturing opened my world. It would have been a different way for me to get here. It called me because it's my passion to help kids and guide them into manufacturing and the trades if that's something they're interested in. That's how I got here.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and it's such an exciting journey. Let's break down a couple of parts of it. When people listen to the show, you are exactly who they want - somebody who is passionate about it, loves it and takes on the extra responsibilities of learning all the machines. They want workers who decide to take the extra step to go into the journeyperson program. Everything that you are doing is showing initiative. And yet, in a culture where we're looking for more women to get into the trades. You had your share of trouble. Not getting into a ton of detail, but if somebody is again listening to the show and looking for ways to connect not only with more females to bring them into manufacturing and machining. Once they get there, what would be the type of treatment or respect you expect.

       Miranda Martz: Well, I grew up with it. We all know that discrimination exists because we wouldn't be talking about it if it didn't exist. I knew what I was getting myself into, but at the same time, I had to learn to shut that all out, not listening to what they were saying and what they were believing. I had to believe in my instincts as a person and know what was right for me. I believed in myself and knew where I was going. I was not to condone or like stand for the disrespect. I wish I had known when I first started.

       Miranda Martz:  I have my views and my own opinions. It doesn't matter who I am, where I am, or what I look like. It's how I do my job and how professional I am. If somebody doesn't appreciate that, then maybe that's not my company. That's not the company culture, and I'm sure that's not how the company wants them to react. If you're ever in that situation, think about what's best for you. I think a lot of women try and please other people. I know I did. When I was younger, I wanted to fit in. I wanted to be part of this mold. You want to empower your women on the job. That's why I went into this trade. I keep that in my mind because you only need that one person. If you need that little bit of confidence, or you need that little bit of push, there's that one person that you can go and talk to who gives you that confidence like the look, you are doing a great job, like you, don't have to go above and beyond, or do ten times more work or, to try and prove yourself, because what you're doing.

       You're proving yourself already. Focus on yourself. Focus on the excellent job that you're doing and try your best. I hate when people think other people's opinions make them their reality. You are your person. Do what's best for you. Don't let other people's views or people bring you down for who you are. I've been there, and I know what happens.

       I know the horrible things people can say to you and try and do to you to trick you into making you think that you're not worthy or you're not good enough, but all that's crap. I wish I would have come into that knowing that as a younger person, but that's something, especially in my class, being a pre-apprenticeship coordinator and having so many kids. I'm talking to these kids and especially the young girls in the class. I'm creating an open environment where they can be honest and tell me what they face. For example, I'll wear a pink jumpsuit in the class because the machine doesn't care what I look like, as long as I give it what it needs. It will produce what I want it to produce, so that's something huge for me.

       Lisa Ryan: When we also think about the fact of it's not necessarily, especially in today's market with the Labor shortage that we have of looking for somebody with all of the experience. What you want is that passion, that desires to learn - male or female - or anything else, it doesn't matter. It's looking for that person who has the commitment, who loves what they do. It's seeing that passion because you can always train on the skills.

       We also want to get away from being away from judgments when it comes to what a woman can do versus what a man can do in a machine shop environment. If I've heard it...]]>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 the machines and then program the machines. Within the six years at that company, I became a lead machinist.

       I was the only woman in the machine shop for them, so that came with its challenges, but it was great I got to custom make things and express myself in that way. After that, I got the opportunity to become a journeyman or machinist. Through them, I was offered to go to school, and I did my apprenticeship at the Manufacturers Association.

       I finished my journeymen in 2020. In June of 2020, I got offered the position of helping to teach their CNC classes at the Manufacturers Association at night. I support the teacher. His name is Bob, and I teach CNC levels one, two, and three in the evenings. I enjoyed that, and I got immersed in the teaching and training realms a little more.

       I got into it when I taught the adult classes. I enjoyed it, and they had an opening for a pre-apprenticeship coordinator. I didn't know what that was currently. But I found out that it was helping to teach kids, and it was helping them learn the trades. This is something that I wish I had when I was growing up or had somebody to look up to me.

       I wanted to let them know that what they want to do isn't stupid. It's not dumb, and it's worth the same as a four-year college degree. Suppose you want to be an apprentice. I didn't know what machining was until my late 20s. Manufacturing opened my world. It would have been a different way for me to get here. It called me because it's my passion to help kids and guide them into manufacturing and the trades if that's something they're interested in. That's how I got here.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and it's such an exciting journey. Let's break down a couple of parts of it. When people listen to the show, you are exactly who they want - somebody who is passionate about it, loves it and takes on the extra responsibilities of learning all the machines. They want workers who decide to take the extra step to go into the journeyperson program. Everything that you are doing is showing initiative. And yet, in a culture where we're looking for more women to get into the trades. You had your share of trouble. Not getting into a ton of detail, but if somebody is again listening to the show and looking for ways to connect not only with more females to bring them into manufacturing and machining. Once they get there, what would be the type of treatment or respect you expect.

       Miranda Martz: Well, I grew up with it. We all know that discrimination exists because we wouldn't be talking about it if it didn't exist. I knew what I was getting myself into, but at the same time, I had to learn to shut that all out, not listening to what they were saying and what they were believing. I had to believe in my instincts as a person and know what was right for me. I believed in myself and knew where I was going. I was not to condone or like stand for the disrespect. I wish I had known when I first started.

       Miranda Martz:  I have my views and my own opinions. It doesn't matter who I am, where I am, or what I look like. It's how I do my job and how professional I am. If somebody doesn't appreciate that, then maybe that's not my company. That's not the company culture, and I'm sure that's not how the company wants them to react. If you're ever in that situation, think about what's best for you. I think a lot of women try and please other people. I know I did. When I was younger, I wanted to fit in. I wanted to be part of this mold. You want to empower your women on the job. That's why I went into this trade. I keep that in my mind because you only need that one person. If you need that little bit of confidence, or you need that little bit of push, there's that one person that you can go and talk to who gives you that confidence like the look, you are doing a great job, like you, don't have to go above and beyond, or do ten times more work or, to try and prove yourself, because what you're doing.

       You're proving yourself already. Focus on yourself. Focus on the excellent job that you're doing and try your best. I hate when people think other people's opinions make them their reality. You are your person. Do what's best for you. Don't let other people's views or people bring you down for who you are. I've been there, and I know what happens.

       I know the horrible things people can say to you and try and do to you to trick you into making you think that you're not worthy or you're not good enough, but all that's crap. I wish I would have come into that knowing that as a younger person, but that's something, especially in my class, being a pre-apprenticeship coordinator and having so many kids. I'm talking to these kids and especially the young girls in the class. I'm creating an open environment where they can be honest and tell me what they face. For example, I'll wear a pink jumpsuit in the class because the machine doesn't care what I look like, as long as I give it what it needs. It will produce what I want it to produce, so that's something huge for me.

       Lisa Ryan: When we also think about the fact of it's not necessarily, especially in today's market with the Labor shortage that we have of looking for somebody with all of the experience. What you want is that passion, that desires to learn - male or female - or anything else, it doesn't matter. It's looking for that person who has the commitment, who loves what they do. It's seeing that passion because you can always train on the skills.

       We also want to get away from being away from judgments when it comes to what a woman can do versus what a man can do in a machine shop environment. If I've heard it time and time again in the welding industry, which is where I come from, that women make better welders.

       Miranda Martz: Absolutely, we are more detail-oriented for sure. They're more dexterous with their hands. I hear it all the time from our member companies. We were a nonprofit we run from our members, and we're here for the community. They say we want our workers to show up and show up on time. Those are the two big asks by all these companies. It's not like, Oh, we need more men, we need more women like it's not that. They need people. We're in this massive crisis. I'm going to call it a crisis because, by the year 2030, we're going to have three million open manufacturing jobs worldwide. I want kids and young people, and even women or anybody that doesn't think that they can do it, but there are so many different things in manufacturing that they can do.

       There's a common misconception about manufacturing and machining that it's a dirty, dusty environment - it's air-conditioned. There might be a shop around, and if you go and walk around these manufacturing facilities now, they're super clean, bright, well-lit, and air-conditioned. They're all automated.

       Lisa Ryan: it's something that I want people to understand. The other important part you talked about is having a pre-apprenticeship and working with kids. Right now, so many people wait until kids get out of high school or get out of college or go to tech school. It works when you can get kids at the earliest age possible and use things like manufacturing day to go into the schools or have tours. When you work with the guidance counselors to bring them to walk into a clean, automated shop, it's not like when I was in the welding industry, which was everything your mother ever warned you about. So many people still have those preconceived notions. Talk to talk about that a little bit as far as your introduction. How are you awakening that passion? What conversations are you having?

       Particularly with the girls, you have come through the program - how do you inspire them to follow in your footsteps.

       Miranda Martz: I think, well, especially for the girl thing seeing me there, seeing me hearing about my journey and knowing that there's somebody that's been in the industry that looks like them, and has been through the things that they're going through. Having somebody to talk to you about it is huge. Having that representation is huge. I try my best in the classroom. I try to identify with the kids - I'm a big kid myself. You can see it on the back of a 3D printer.

       I love what I do. I have a passion for what I do, I love making things and conceptualizing things, and I see that in the kids I see kids who want to get involved and get their hands dirty and make things. So I allow them the freedom to do that. I let them have the space; even if they don't like it, tell me if they don't like it. The whole point of having a pre-apprenticeship is taking up a pipeline into an apprenticeship and telling them that line of success and saying that if you don't want to go to a four-year college, that's okay, not to take that traditional path.

       I want that to be gotten rid of. I don't want somebody to think that if they go to a trade school, they are less of a person than somebody who goes to college because that was a preconceived notion, especially what I had to do. Try and integrate, like all the manufacturing companies. There are 2500 and South-central Pennsylvania. We have over 400 companies that we work with that are members. I try and encourage them to come and talk to the kids. They do; they speak to the kids, and we take tours. I try and get them internships when they graduate high school.

       So, when they go through a program, it's a two-year program or two-season program, and they get immersed and the introductory things that these companies need. We did ask the company what they're looking for. They're hiring people, so we do lean with the kids and solid works. I like using solid works. We make a race car with the kids, and they get to make their models, and they get the hands-on experience, but we try and make it as fun as possible and as relevant to them as possible. They're like, okay yeah, this is fun.

       And then, when they grow older, they get to see, think, and say, " Yeah, I could be an engineer, or I could make this, or I can do that. That is the best feeling. What gets me through to the next season and the next kids is seeing their faces light up when they see something they made. I can see myself in them. So when I first made my first thing, it was something that made me feel good, and that gave me the fuel to want to keep going.

       So now it's me saying the kids do that, so it came full circle for me, so that's the most remarkable part.

       Lisa Ryan: And what conversations have you had with the parents of the kids attending this? How do you connect with school guidance counselors to let them know that this is a viable career path and a great alternative to a traditional college path?

       Miranda Martz: Schools now are so much I'm going to say in that respect better. When I went to school, as I said, I only saw my counselor like twice, but now they have what is called CTE teachers. They help get kids involved in after-school activities or even during school, like pre-apprenticeship things, to get them immersed in something they would like. In a career, and I think one of the biggest hurdles for me, as you were saying about parents, the parents can be a little difficult at times. Trying to get them to change their mind because manufacturing was the way it was when they were younger.

       Manufacturing was not a dirty word, but it wasn't ideal. They want their kids to have a better life than them and go to college. They don't understand how lucrative it can be. They don't know what manufacturing is. The modern manufacturing that we have now and logistics, and you can go and drive for Walmart and make $100,000 a year, which blows my mind. But it's evolved much, and I think it's a common misconception that manufacturing machining welding as, as you can say, CNC machining all those different areas are so antiquated, and it's not.

       It's so different. I would love to take the parents with me with the kids and open their eyes to like the way things are now.

       Lisa Ryan: That's not a bad idea, right. You were maybe having a family day instead of a kid's day where mom or dad could come because they would be more open to supporting that. I think about that too. You can either go to a four-year college and pay off your student debt for the next 30 years, basically making a house payment, or go to a tech school to become an apprentice, have minimal debt, and make a great living more than that.

       When you leave work, you leave work you're not thinking about it and answering emails all hours of the day and night, and all of that additional stress that comes with it, but opening up the eyes of the parents will let them know that their kids can have every bit as good of a life. Absolutely, because of the money that they can make.

       Miranda Martz: An apprenticeship is like a traditional school, like college. The beauty about an apprenticeship is that your company sponsors you, so you don't have to put up the money for an apprenticeship so that it can help underserved people. I know I didn't have the money even to do one year of college, let alone four years.

       I was working, and I was making money. My company was sponsoring me, and they were paying for my classes and my books at the time, so I didn't have to pay for that. Every six months, in our model with the state, we get a race you're supposed to get 6% ratings are there. So as a percentage of your pay every six months, it's a big bonus to be an apprentice, and it's as good for you and your career.

       If you want to further your career and make good money, you can do that without going to college.

       Lisa Ryan: You talk about the fact that when you as a business owner get involved with a local JVS or community college, tech school, apprentice program, manufacturers, of Manufacturers Association. In your area, number one, you can get to know the kids if they're going to work for somebody. They will work with somebody they know, so you have pre-access before they graduate. You can help design the program, so create the exact students with the same skills you want. So what are you, seeing as far as companies getting involved, how are they getting involved? What are they doing? Also, what are some of the success stories you've seen from companies that take advantage of that?

       Miranda Martz: We encourage the companies to come and talk to the kids during our lunch hour. We have them come in, and they can bring swag if they want to. But the kids, if you ask them what manufacturing, they have no idea.

       It's sad. When I went to Hershey and talked to their fifth graders to eighth graders about manufacturing, it was trying to get them. We want to start young and get them even to know what manufacturing is to see if they'd be interested.

       I have the companies come in and talk to the kids. We take tours through the companies every year at our kickoff of ours. We do a kickoff celebration at one of our companies, so we have a big party for the pre-apprentices before starting. We take tours, but then we also do job shadowing. They can take a kid and do job shadowing if they want to. We do placements and mock interviews. We do internships at the companies as well. That's also part of my job as a pre-apprenticeship coordinator to see where these kids shine.

       We place them with the companies that would best fit them. For example, plenty of]]>47c81be7-055c-4cb1-9f46-6b6ef5506244Mon, 06 Jun 2022 07:05:00 -040028:19falsefull224242The Secret Sauce of Leadership: Creating Leaders Who Lead Cultures with Rue PatelConnect with Rue:

       Email: Rue@RueWorks.com

       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rue-patel/

       CLASSIC EPISODE! (Originally Aired January 23, 2021)

       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]]>Connect with Rue:

       Email: Rue@RueWorks.com

       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rue-patel/

       CLASSIC EPISODE! (Originally Aired January 23, 2021)

       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,]]>99b90244-05d4-4724-bf36-63f8d1912bc3Mon, 16 May 2022 07:05:00 -040025:03falsefull111111The Benefits of Wellness in Your Manufacturing Plant with Joan EnochConnect 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 it. Put a smile on your face and get back to work, but that full awareness of mental health in the importance of taking care of our employees has come to light in the last couple of years with Covid.

       JOAN ENOCH: Absolutely, and when you think about different physical ailments that happened to individuals, whether it's an incident of an accident or a diagnosis of cancer when that happens, there's also an emotional and mental component. When we think about general life cycles, if we're dealing with marriages and divorces and adolescent children and or aging parents, there's a physical component. Still, there's also that mental health and emotional health. And, in some cases, medication can help us through certain situations, and in others, we might need to talk with our best to work through my triggers and how do I, you know, manage those a little bit better.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and it's been interesting to see the changing of the health care that no there is more accessible access to. Number one to mental health, to therapists but also who would have thought we'd be doing what we were doing with our phones with Telehealth know what do you think this is Doc year ago nobody would even thought of it, and I think that that's a huge change right now.

       JOAN ENOCH: Absolutely, and I love that, from a federal standpoint or not just federal perspective, but some legislation that has gone through. We recognized, hey, let's try, let's have a no copay for some of those services so that people can get that treatment. Get that connection. Try out what Telehealth looks like telemedicine for physical health, for you know, behavioral and mental health, and it costs less because we're not saying we're not sending someone in their car to drive somewhere to sit in a waiting room. For those services, so there's been some great strides, and I'm hopeful that that continues.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and we're also looking at the fact that many people on the planet don't think anything about a $30 or $50 copay because they got to go to the doctor, and that's just part of it. But a percentage of the population doesn't go to the doctor because of that copayment issue, so giving them the flexibility with Telehealth gives them even more access than they may have taken advantage of before.

       JOAN ENOCH: Exactly, and when I think about what we have done from a benefits standpoint in the last 15 years that I've been with the company. We recognize that we have a broad range of employees in our company. We've got entry-level unskilled labor. 30% of our population uses English as a second language. We work 24 hours a day now. We're not a seven-day operation; we're five days with some overtime on Saturday. But all those challenges make it harder for people to go to the doctor, and that component of what's the sweet spot, so we put things together, where we have a $10 copay to see your family doctor.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, so speaking of the changes over the years that you've seen, but with the all the different kinds of employees, you have their help you decide what changes you're going to make to your benefits every year.

       JOAN ENOCH: While I look at data now. I'm not allowed to see individual health care claims, so I don't know what prescriptions people are on or what medical diagnoses they have. But I get collective data, and I can look at the information that tells me how many people are getting preventive visits and who are not. Who is going to urgent care? Are they going to the emergency room? So we look at all of those touchpoints and try to develop the best way to encourage people to get treatment at the right time, with the right providers. We have a $10 copay for your family doctor, primary care physician, or pediatrician and a $40 copay for urgent care. There are times that that's warranted. We've also structured things where we go above and beyond what's required for 100% pay for some of those preventive services.

       We've got employees at all different levels of the organization. They get medical screenings from their doctor, and they order blood tests. And next thing you know, it's coded diagnostic instead of preventive, and you know they're subject to like a $400 bill well, that's ridiculous. It happens across all organizations due to coding and how hard it is to understand it. So first, we've done some things and said there's no copay for your first mammogram of the year because people are not trying to get multiple mammograms. There's no copay for your first colonoscopy because people are not trying to get multiple colonoscopies.

       Lisa Ryan: And just the education process because I can't tell you how many of my customers, as well as podcast guests, mentioned that employees would just go that instead of going to a regular doctor making an appointment, they go to urgent care, that is their go-to versus having the choices like Telehealth like wellness. At Lift-All, you are huge into wellness and that education. Please tell us a bit about your wellness program and what that entails for your employees.

       JOAN ENOCH: Well, thanks, Lisa. It is something again we're passionate about. It's part of our culture. Our journey started back in 2007, a little bit before the time that wellness programs were the thing to do. I was fortunate at the time that the President of our company, when I went in and said hey, I'd like to spend about $20,000 on doing onsite wellness screenings, and explained that we have all these people not going to the doctor. We have people going to the emergency room. If we do this onsite...]]>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 it. Put a smile on your face and get back to work, but that full awareness of mental health in the importance of taking care of our employees has come to light in the last couple of years with Covid.

       JOAN ENOCH: Absolutely, and when you think about different physical ailments that happened to individuals, whether it's an incident of an accident or a diagnosis of cancer when that happens, there's also an emotional and mental component. When we think about general life cycles, if we're dealing with marriages and divorces and adolescent children and or aging parents, there's a physical component. Still, there's also that mental health and emotional health. And, in some cases, medication can help us through certain situations, and in others, we might need to talk with our best to work through my triggers and how do I, you know, manage those a little bit better.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and it's been interesting to see the changing of the health care that no there is more accessible access to. Number one to mental health, to therapists but also who would have thought we'd be doing what we were doing with our phones with Telehealth know what do you think this is Doc year ago nobody would even thought of it, and I think that that's a huge change right now.

       JOAN ENOCH: Absolutely, and I love that, from a federal standpoint or not just federal perspective, but some legislation that has gone through. We recognized, hey, let's try, let's have a no copay for some of those services so that people can get that treatment. Get that connection. Try out what Telehealth looks like telemedicine for physical health, for you know, behavioral and mental health, and it costs less because we're not saying we're not sending someone in their car to drive somewhere to sit in a waiting room. For those services, so there's been some great strides, and I'm hopeful that that continues.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and we're also looking at the fact that many people on the planet don't think anything about a $30 or $50 copay because they got to go to the doctor, and that's just part of it. But a percentage of the population doesn't go to the doctor because of that copayment issue, so giving them the flexibility with Telehealth gives them even more access than they may have taken advantage of before.

       JOAN ENOCH: Exactly, and when I think about what we have done from a benefits standpoint in the last 15 years that I've been with the company. We recognize that we have a broad range of employees in our company. We've got entry-level unskilled labor. 30% of our population uses English as a second language. We work 24 hours a day now. We're not a seven-day operation; we're five days with some overtime on Saturday. But all those challenges make it harder for people to go to the doctor, and that component of what's the sweet spot, so we put things together, where we have a $10 copay to see your family doctor.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, so speaking of the changes over the years that you've seen, but with the all the different kinds of employees, you have their help you decide what changes you're going to make to your benefits every year.

       JOAN ENOCH: While I look at data now. I'm not allowed to see individual health care claims, so I don't know what prescriptions people are on or what medical diagnoses they have. But I get collective data, and I can look at the information that tells me how many people are getting preventive visits and who are not. Who is going to urgent care? Are they going to the emergency room? So we look at all of those touchpoints and try to develop the best way to encourage people to get treatment at the right time, with the right providers. We have a $10 copay for your family doctor, primary care physician, or pediatrician and a $40 copay for urgent care. There are times that that's warranted. We've also structured things where we go above and beyond what's required for 100% pay for some of those preventive services.

       We've got employees at all different levels of the organization. They get medical screenings from their doctor, and they order blood tests. And next thing you know, it's coded diagnostic instead of preventive, and you know they're subject to like a $400 bill well, that's ridiculous. It happens across all organizations due to coding and how hard it is to understand it. So first, we've done some things and said there's no copay for your first mammogram of the year because people are not trying to get multiple mammograms. There's no copay for your first colonoscopy because people are not trying to get multiple colonoscopies.

       Lisa Ryan: And just the education process because I can't tell you how many of my customers, as well as podcast guests, mentioned that employees would just go that instead of going to a regular doctor making an appointment, they go to urgent care, that is their go-to versus having the choices like Telehealth like wellness. At Lift-All, you are huge into wellness and that education. Please tell us a bit about your wellness program and what that entails for your employees.

       JOAN ENOCH: Well, thanks, Lisa. It is something again we're passionate about. It's part of our culture. Our journey started back in 2007, a little bit before the time that wellness programs were the thing to do. I was fortunate at the time that the President of our company, when I went in and said hey, I'd like to spend about $20,000 on doing onsite wellness screenings, and explained that we have all these people not going to the doctor. We have people going to the emergency room. If we do this onsite wellness screening, this will work so our first year. I needed to know what was going to get people to participate in screenings, so at the time, this probably sounds a bit odd, but flat-screen TVs were in. We bought 37-inch flat-screen TVs. We bought so many for each plant location, our corporate office, and our sales team. So if you participated in the onsite screening, you're in a drawing for a flat-screen TV.

       We had over 80% of our employees participate. I'd almost say wellness and flat-screen TVs watching TV health. It's not a great connection there. However, that was the motivation to get people in. The second year, we did T-shirts. In the third year, we did water bottles, so we wanted people to trust the system and trust the process.

       We learned that people weren't going to the doctor, so suddenly, once they got hooked, they said, " Wait, this is my blood pressure. This is normal. I have high cholesterol. Maybe I should talk to a doctor, and, over time, people started wanting to know their numbers because they wanted to compare year over year. So if you ask most of our employees now do you know your cholesterol level, most of them probably do because that's been part of our culture. Then over time, in addition to you trying to give trinkets, we incentivize using more of a stick approach. We charge a little more for insurance, but you get a credit if you participate in wellness, so the cost is reduced significantly. I went back, and before our conversation today, I went back and looked and said, Well, how have we done on our costs? Overall in the United States, if you look at the per capita spending on healthcare, for the last 12 years, it's gone up about 40%.In our case, our costs have gone up 18% over the previous 12 years.

       Well, I went back and looked and said, " Okay, over the last 12 years, when have we increased the cost that our employees are paying, and when have we decreased the price. So in those 12 years, we had only four years where we increased the cost of insurance, and when you think about how expensive insurance has been and how expensive medications have been, we had a couple of years of a 2% increase, 4% the highest was around 9.8%. But we also had five years where we were pleased to go to the employees at their annual open enrollment and say, guess what, you have no increase in your costs. No increase and the same co-pays loaded up to them, which we have a low deductible plan and even had two years where we decreased the cost.

       And said you're going to pay less next year, and you've had the prior year, and I know a lot of it is because we've got this wellness program in place, and we have people getting connected to a doctor.

       Lisa Ryan: When I think that you're doing the best, though, is your level of communication. In many organizations, the employees hear about benefits on day one. When they hear about them during the open enrollment, maybe it's time for open enrollment to fill out the paperwork. But that constant communication with your employees and even starting you know when you talked about flat-screen televisions. Because employees, when you're talking about medical, they probably didn't trust you at the beginning, so you have to come up with something creative that you spent some money on because back in the day, 37-inch flat-screen televisions were not the $287 that they are now at BestBuy.

       JOAN ENOCH: Now they were over $1,000 exactly. It was on. Wow, I can win a flat-screen TV.

       Lisa Ryan: But, after they started to see the benefits, but it's communicate, communicate, communicate. And then the little incentive, so it's not like you had to begin with flat-screen TVs and go bigger. You started big, and then you could keep the conversation going from the financial standpoint and from that knowledge. Think about the amount of pain and anguish you're saving your employees because they know their cholesterol and blood pressure, and know if they're at a problem level. And because of your wellness programs, you're avoiding many things that otherwise they may be subjected to.

       JOAN ENOCH: Exactly, and again, not just with the wellness program but the medical benefits aside, we've had employees who we cover PSA testing for a man with no copays. And invariably, every year, I have one or two people say, hey, I've got my PSA test, and Sure enough, I have prostate cancer, and they catch it early. And same with colon cancer. We've had a lot that was caught early.

       I continually say to our employees hey, I cannot prevent every accident. I cannot even prevent every illness. For some of us genetically, it will happen to us based on what we got from our parents or maybe lifestyle issues. But, if we can get there as soon as possible. Then, we can reduce the pain associated with those treatments and that recovery piece.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, even believe that you also provide financial incentives like non-tobacco use and talking with a health coach, so talk about some of those additional steps that are, you know, lifestyle choices.

       JOAN ENOCH: Sure, so with our wellness program and, again, I have a wellness committee, this is not me doing all of this. I've got champions out there that. In open enrollments and wellness meetings, they'll look around the room and say you know you're crazy if you don't participate in this. This is a good thing, not just financially, but you'll benefit from it. So our first level, you have to do a screening and complete a rapid survey. And if you do that, you get $400.

       Our biometric screening includes normal blood pressure, cholesterol, height, and weight, but we also cover much other bloodwork. Once you do your screening and your survey, you get a score, and if your score is 70 or below, you need to have one phone call with a health coach. That health coach they're available all different times of the day, we've got in there English speaking non, and it was speaking translators available for all of that. They'll go through your results and explain what they are, and then there's a button on the phone or your phone APP or if you're in the portal that you can click, and you can send that right to your doctor because we want the doctors to have that information.

       We do screen for tobacco and blood work, so if you test negative, you get $600. If you test positive, you can take a cessation class that we have people taking cessation classes to earn that money. If you need to talk with a health coach in our final tier, you get the point for that, depending on your coaching score. The last thing we do is ask people to upload one document showing that they had a preventive visit so that it can be for a mammogram. It could be your annual checkup with your doctor. Any preventive services you take a picture of that you upload, you get points, another $400. So all in all, it's 1400 dollars a year.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, it's so interesting with the smoking cessation because I was speaking at a conference over the weekend, and one of the people there was talking about how they were paying when you had a smoker, and they stopped smoking, then they would test them and everything they got 1500 dollars and then if they continued for a year, or something they got $3,000. But then all the nonsmokers were like, hey, why don't I get any cash, so I think that rewarding the excellent behavior like you're doing.

       It's so many of these things. First, you think it through, and it's a great opportunity. Then you look at its ramifications where you're rewarding the nonsmoker, to begin with, and then giving the smoker the opportunity, through the cessation program, to one day be a nonsmoker and help them for the rest of their lives.

       JOAN ENOCH: For those that use it, tobacco is hard to quit. Whether it's smoking or chewing, I'm perfectly fine if someone does that cessation program for three years in a row because I never know that that may be at the right moment in time. That may be just exactly what they need to quit that year.

       Lisa Ryan: yep, exactly. So what are some of the other needs that you see? What are some of the other things you've been doing that we haven't talked about yet?

       JOAN ENOCH: Well, one of the things that I've come to understand, not just for our company, but hey, the United States has an aging population. We've got all these hard-working individuals that are steady Eddie as they come to work. They're of that generation where they'll keep coming, but they're close to social security and retire. Medicare is so complicated most people don't understand there's Medicare Part A, there's a see there's a Done to sign up. If you delay your social security, what does that look like in your income? What does it look like if you have a spouse?

       We have an outside company that we've partnered with, and we provide that service at no cost to our employees. It's free. The name of the company is fed logic. They provide that guidance for people, so it's one phone call away you call you to schedule an appointment for you or anyone in your household, and they'll walk through all of that. It blows my mind that we have this complicated system, and people don't know what's available to them.

       For instance, someone can retire at 62 and draw on their spouse's social security. Then, when they're 67 or 68, they can change to their social security.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, well, I know, to even with Medicare as much of a pain as it is to go through, and you know, good for you for providing that information, but that is something that I've had some people that they want my employees to look at that, as a government handout just like unemployment and they don't want any part of it, because they don't understand that Medicare is]]>e58c5fc3-d6d7-4a0b-8a11-cc0df8c09884Mon, 09 May 2022 07:05:00 -040026:14falsefull223232Getting Your Manufacturing Culture Right with Dan BurgosConnect with Dan Burgos:

       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danburgos1/

       Dan's free resource link: 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 listening to this show today - what are some of the signs that they may look for that would tell them that wow, there's a problem with my management team that we need to start addressing?

       Dan Burgos: Some of the indicators could be employee turnover. Many manufacturers do not have certain leadership processes that are so beneficial. I'll mention a handful. For instance, many manufacturers do not complete culture surveys or engagement surveys to know how employees feel about their management. Are they being included? Do they feel connected? Do they feel engaged and included in decisions or are the decisions made only by leaders and employees only there to provide physical labor?

       Also, very few manufacturers have a talent management process. They don't take a look at what high potential individuals want. We want to maintain engagement and consider the labor market's challenges today. You're best served by keeping those people engaged because those are your future leaders by the same token. How about the people that are in the middle? They need some support to rise to a higher level of performance. Lastly, what are the people in the third-string categories that are not performing but are also not a good fit, character-wise? Is there a way we can turn that around? Are those people having a negative effect on our culture that we probably are best served?

       When I say ours, I mean both parties, the business, and the individual by moving to a different company, which would be a better fit for them. But, unfortunately, very few manufacturers do that. So they end up with many people in that third category-creating damages within the business.

       Lisa Ryan: On there are so many times that you're thinking of your hourly employees, as the ones doing the grunt work that you don't even necessarily see their potential. If you bring in some kind of talent management talent, education, training, and empowering employees to learn things that maybe they weren't hired for but that's how you get that spark. You may open something in one of those employees you had no idea that they would rock in that area. It's kind of taking a chance, taking a risk, and believing in those hourly employees that sometimes managers don't give the time of day to.

       Dan Burgos: Let me share a recent story. One of our clients recently had departure for an employee. When I asked around how much of a contributor, were they? They said, he has potential, but we don't have an opening for him. Many manufacturing leaders feel that it has to be a promotion, and because you were smaller, there's no place for them. I counter that with that's not the only way, you can engage someone. You can give them a special project. You can put them in charge of onboarding your people. You can find what's what makes them tick and keep them engaged. Maybe they can be an assistant, they can cover for other people, and they can be cross-trained. There are so many opportunities - the list goes on - so many opportunities to engage someone to keep them interested and find something that fulfills their potential until that next opportunity comes along. We miss out on a lot of that. People move to the next company like individuals did because he was looking for a bigger challenge and their employer could not provide it.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, that's such a good point. it does not have to be especially if you have a relatively flat organization. It's taking a look at what you can do. Back in the day when I was an executive recruiter, if somebody was in a job for fewer than five years, you'd be like a job hopper. Now, you go on Indeed or Monster, and they are telling young people that if you want to progress in your career, you got to move to a different company about every 18 months or so, is where they're showing. Especially younger millennials and Gen Z - that's when they want to change. It's not like it has to be the next promotion. Still, maybe it's a different department, maybe it's getting involved in onboarding, training, and giving them something to let them know that you're paying attention so when other opportunities open up, they know they would be first in line. They don't have to grow their career by going somewhere else.

       Dan Burgos: That's exactly right. We miss out on a lot of talent within the business already. The environment is very industrialized, so they have some challenges finding people who can get accustomed to that when you have already. They're loyal. They're not going anywhere. So you want to exploit and tap into that talent, as much as possible. That's why one observation I have.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. It's interesting too because you talk about making things more efficient, and the labor shortage. One of the things and I've had a couple of people on my podcast talking about automation. But automation not only from being more efficient where there's a labor shortage but also the fact that a lot of that automation is going to woo people to your company - like wow that's the coolest thing I've ever seen. I want to work for you versus going into manufacturing plants and seeing equipment that's twice as old as they are. They're not going to have the interest. So there are little things that you can also do that will increase efficiency and attract new candidates to join you. Have you seen that with your customers?

       Dan Burgos: Absolutely. I think the culture that it's such seems to become a or has become a buzzword these days, but it's having an environment where you don't feel that you don't...]]>Connect with Dan Burgos:

       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danburgos1/

       Dan's free resource link: 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 listening to this show today - what are some of the signs that they may look for that would tell them that wow, there's a problem with my management team that we need to start addressing?

       Dan Burgos: Some of the indicators could be employee turnover. Many manufacturers do not have certain leadership processes that are so beneficial. I'll mention a handful. For instance, many manufacturers do not complete culture surveys or engagement surveys to know how employees feel about their management. Are they being included? Do they feel connected? Do they feel engaged and included in decisions or are the decisions made only by leaders and employees only there to provide physical labor?

       Also, very few manufacturers have a talent management process. They don't take a look at what high potential individuals want. We want to maintain engagement and consider the labor market's challenges today. You're best served by keeping those people engaged because those are your future leaders by the same token. How about the people that are in the middle? They need some support to rise to a higher level of performance. Lastly, what are the people in the third-string categories that are not performing but are also not a good fit, character-wise? Is there a way we can turn that around? Are those people having a negative effect on our culture that we probably are best served?

       When I say ours, I mean both parties, the business, and the individual by moving to a different company, which would be a better fit for them. But, unfortunately, very few manufacturers do that. So they end up with many people in that third category-creating damages within the business.

       Lisa Ryan: On there are so many times that you're thinking of your hourly employees, as the ones doing the grunt work that you don't even necessarily see their potential. If you bring in some kind of talent management talent, education, training, and empowering employees to learn things that maybe they weren't hired for but that's how you get that spark. You may open something in one of those employees you had no idea that they would rock in that area. It's kind of taking a chance, taking a risk, and believing in those hourly employees that sometimes managers don't give the time of day to.

       Dan Burgos: Let me share a recent story. One of our clients recently had departure for an employee. When I asked around how much of a contributor, were they? They said, he has potential, but we don't have an opening for him. Many manufacturing leaders feel that it has to be a promotion, and because you were smaller, there's no place for them. I counter that with that's not the only way, you can engage someone. You can give them a special project. You can put them in charge of onboarding your people. You can find what's what makes them tick and keep them engaged. Maybe they can be an assistant, they can cover for other people, and they can be cross-trained. There are so many opportunities - the list goes on - so many opportunities to engage someone to keep them interested and find something that fulfills their potential until that next opportunity comes along. We miss out on a lot of that. People move to the next company like individuals did because he was looking for a bigger challenge and their employer could not provide it.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, that's such a good point. it does not have to be especially if you have a relatively flat organization. It's taking a look at what you can do. Back in the day when I was an executive recruiter, if somebody was in a job for fewer than five years, you'd be like a job hopper. Now, you go on Indeed or Monster, and they are telling young people that if you want to progress in your career, you got to move to a different company about every 18 months or so, is where they're showing. Especially younger millennials and Gen Z - that's when they want to change. It's not like it has to be the next promotion. Still, maybe it's a different department, maybe it's getting involved in onboarding, training, and giving them something to let them know that you're paying attention so when other opportunities open up, they know they would be first in line. They don't have to grow their career by going somewhere else.

       Dan Burgos: That's exactly right. We miss out on a lot of talent within the business already. The environment is very industrialized, so they have some challenges finding people who can get accustomed to that when you have already. They're loyal. They're not going anywhere. So you want to exploit and tap into that talent, as much as possible. That's why one observation I have.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. It's interesting too because you talk about making things more efficient, and the labor shortage. One of the things and I've had a couple of people on my podcast talking about automation. But automation not only from being more efficient where there's a labor shortage but also the fact that a lot of that automation is going to woo people to your company - like wow that's the coolest thing I've ever seen. I want to work for you versus going into manufacturing plants and seeing equipment that's twice as old as they are. They're not going to have the interest. So there are little things that you can also do that will increase efficiency and attract new candidates to join you. Have you seen that with your customers?

       Dan Burgos: Absolutely. I think the culture that it's such seems to become a or has become a buzzword these days, but it's having an environment where you don't feel that you don't have that social impact. I don't know if you've experienced this, I know I have. You get to a point where Monday comes along or the next day, you have to go to your employer, and you feel I don't want you don't feel joy or pride or the desire to even walk in the door and do your job. So I think that is something that is accessible to everyone. it's not expensive it takes effort, and it takes commitment and persistence, I will say to create that environment for employees, because they spend most of their time at work won't you want to have a pleasant experience of doing that. Doing that goes so far for people, yet we feel that we miss out on creating that for employees.

       Lisa Ryan: Oh yeah, and it's, not to say, that it's going to be happy, happy, joy, joy all the time - we're not going to be dancing down the street, woohoo, it's time to go to work. But if we know that our boss cares about us, knows our name, knows something about us, maybe knows our kids' names, knows our interests, what lights us up in our interest within the company, and how we can grow. So you are right that all that is a conversation, a little bit of time, hardly any money hardly any effort, but some effort.

       Dan Burgos: That goes into them yeah hundred percent with you.

       Lisa Ryan: So what are some of the things you have seen, to help manufacturers become more efficient.

       Dan Burgos: Well, I mean there's a lot. We look for specific activities that are non-value-added so think about it. If you have to do something twice, it's important to make sure you do things right the first time. If there's something that you're repairing reworking any of those things you want to eliminate as much as you can, meaning that your processes are reliable enough that you can produce a quality product and generate complaints from your clientele. The other one is movement throughout a factory product flow it's one thing that you want to be watching for if your product flow requires the operation to have the product move back and forth throughout a factory, you're going to incur a lot of extra cost and transportation property damage possibly obsolescence and not, not to mention safety and quality right.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. If somebody is because we can't even see what's right in front of us many times, I mean this is the way the shop has been operating for 40 years, this is the way that the process has always been. So in addition to bringing in that neutral third party that can point out some of these things, what could a manufacturing professional do to at least start to become aware Is there something. Is there some kind of process that they can get started to see where some of that redundancy is?

       Dan Burgos: yeah I think everything starts with education right understand. What is value-added and wants non-value-added and all you have to do is go watch your operation once you're clear on what those things are and it's everywhere about I always say I've never walked into manufacturing business that doesn't have any of this waste. We call it a waste because it's a waste of time for employees to be searching to be walking to be repairing things throughout a factory. So the first step is to get educated go understand what is value and what is getting in the way of that value. Once you get started, identifying then, then it gets easy in terms of how do we solve for this it's probably the easiest part it's more finding it and being able to come up with solutions, but that that's where it starts That would be my first tip for listeners yeah.

       Lisa Ryan: When you've been doing this for a while, what are some examples that you've had with some of your customers who have looked at some of these things and improved their efficiency.

       Dan Burgos: yeah so One example that comes to mind is years ago I worked with this manufacturer and they were as a mattress manufacturer and their lead times, meaning their order to delivery time was about two weeks. China what's starting to get into their market Chinese manufacturers and their lead times we're about a month. However, considering the lower Labor costs that Chinese manufacturers, had they were getting more competitive because they were lower price and lead time was somewhat similar. So there's was affecting his manufacturer, so we got in there and we were able to help them catch that lead time from two weeks to three days.

       Dan Burgos: So imagine what that would do for the market right, you can say, well, you can go with a cheaper version that it's going to you're going to have to wait for a month, so you're gonna have to tie up a lot of working capital carry all this inventory. We can deliver it to you in three days, and then you can upsell and, of course, that was dramatic. We were able to do that without having to reduce personnel, we found ways to improve and reduce the time it took for the product to flow through the factory, without affecting quality and without reducing personnel being more efficient. That did wonders for their business they that the threat of the Chinese manufacturers went away because their value proposition was so valuable to the clients, that it was a no brainer decision at that point.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, I mean, that's significant, so two weeks to three days. So what do you think was the biggest time saver and when they went through their process.

       Dan Burgos: So there's a concept we use we call batching in which you're processing, a group of I'm going to call it parts. All you're completing each step for other tasks for all of them, one after the other. As opposed to following them with what we call a one-piece flow where you're completing all the steps for one and then you move it along. And then all the steps for the second one and move it along this is still this practice is still very commonplace in manufacturers and it creates such a difference in delivery times that it's so impactful to give you an example. I'm working with a client, and they have parts that they put in a furnace to cook the product, and they've been doing batching, so they're furnaces.

       One of the employees pointed out, while we didn't realize it, our furnaces or ovens have been cooking air from eight in the morning to two in the afternoon until we're done with a whole batch. We're in the process of switching to that. So they'll have a product starting to be loaded into the ovens probably around 9-10 in the morning. Subsequently, the next operation is either waiting for work because they're until they complete a batch, and then it's either that or they're completely overwhelmed with the whole batch showing up at once. So now they have to work with all of these simultaneously.

       Lisa Ryan: Oh, interesting, so you're saying that batching is inefficient and doing it all at once is efficient, so that goes totally against the norm of what most people think right.

       Dan Burgos: Absolutely, it's very counterintuitive, and I won't say that there are exceptions, there are, but in most cases, as a rule of thumb you want to default to one be slowly supposed to batching. I always tell clients this: if you were the company owner, what would you rather your employees tell you at the end of the week, "Boss, we completed the parts up to 50% in terms of processing" or would you rather say, "We shipped let's say 50% of the parts and we're working on the other, 50%." The answer is the latter because you have revenue coming when you ship 50%. Helping you process all of them to 80% does not generate any revenue. Often, that helps them click and understand that you don't want to have to process all these parts all this product as one, meaning the first one you finish has to wait until the rest of the batch is completed before it can move on to the next operation.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and the other thing is that it seems that you'd be able to catch any mistakes faster. Because if one mattress comes off the line and there's a problem with it, it's better than when all the parts to make that mattress in that batch come off. They're all bad now you have more waiting time, so yeah, that is a super interesting way of looking at your business completely different from what we're used to.

       Dan Burgos: And that's Another point I share with clients, and I've had that happen with the mattress manufacturer, it was with a label they prefer in it, and they put them on and when the worker looked at me said, guys, these are all wrong, so they had to go back and redo all the world because they were batching at that point so there's a lot of benefits to making that transition, but, as you said right when people have been accustomed to doing it once or a certain way for a long time. It's that transition, and that's why I emphasized earlier their behaviors changing and accepting and being open to doing things a different way it's the key to being successful besides or, above and beyond the concepts themselves.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, I'd say that you have to be willing to look at every aspect of your business differently in my programs. Even when it comes to the batching versus the full product going through, is there a small place where you can start? find one area you're not going to completely transform the plant overnight, but if there's one area, you can at least put it to the test. Then you can start showing the success and then be willing to take it a little further, and a little bit further, so yeah, I think that that's a knowledge bomb kind of a drop the MIC moment so.

       How do you work with your clients, and if somebody wanted to get a hold of you, what's the best way for them to reach you?

       Dan...]]>c4251b3a-1caf-4fff-a76c-4585f6afcb65Mon, 02 May 2022 07:05:00 -040026:10falsefull222222Innovating Your Manufacturing Processes with Jordan ErskineConnect 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 director of quality. He worked for he helped Johnson & Johnson get out of FDA issues with Tylenol.

       We've got people in place that are subject matter experts, so I can focus on what I need to focus on. Gavin can focus on what he needs to focus on. Many of your listeners or other manufacturers will be like, " Yeah, that's exactly right. We've learned the hard way not to put the right people in the right seats on the bus.

       Lisa Ryan: A couple of things come to mind. Number one, you're starting a brand-new company, and to grow it, you're giving parts of it away. That had to be a little scary but finding those right people and ensuring that you got the right people on the bus right away. So what was that process? What did you think I would have to give them a piece of my company to get these people on board?

       Jordan Erskine: It's common with startups. Many of these tech companies go public or get bought out. You hear 50 employees became overnight millionaires. That's also the motivation. It depends on the industry, but we didn't have the technical expertise in our specific situation. We knew we couldn't pay $150,000 a year, plus salaries for some people. We had to get creative and take a step back.

       I'd rather have a small piece of the biggest possible pie than own 100% of a company barely doing a million dollars. You have to realize that it's not always this situation where you do have to give up equity, but in many instances, you can also have it vested overtime right, so you're not worried about how you will perform for me.

       You can give them a tiny, small point of 2.25% year over year to ensure they stay with you and work toward the business. In doing so, you give them more of an ownership mentality. It is hard. I'm a serial entrepreneur mindset, so I'd rather have a lot of little pieces and help, and knowing that there are other teams within those groups helping build that company, it all falls on my shoulder, right. So that's another risk on the other end.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, those two words to that you said that that ownership mentality is a key. When you have people who are owners of the company, they will look at it differently because everything they do, they can potentially have a piece of it. So, for people listening to the show, maybe that looks like some profit-sharing, perhaps that looks like opening up the books. But, it is a different level of mentality because otherwise, employees think you are just shoveling dollar bills into the back of pickup trucks. So, having that ownership mentality, they can see the company's numbers and play a significant role in that.

       Jordan Erskine: On top of that, it looks good for the company when things get tough for the owners. We've had to do this a little bit where we might drop back our salaries by 20% for a little while to help with cash flow or onboarding some of these large clients. Like I told you, they want a net 90 net 120, so that's after delivery. When you're talking about those terms with some of our clients, and maybe similar industries, and things like that, you're fronting their whole production project for six months plus. By the time you order bottles and materials, it's 12 weeks. It comes to your facility. Then you got a manufacturer, and then it's another net 80 or net 120 payments on top of that delivery. So you're stretching out like six-eight months on some of this stuff. We can't do that with every client for small and medium-sized manufacturers. So we have to get creative. Having an ownership mentality helps.

       Lisa Ryan: When you're getting creative with things like bankrolling your customers and working with them to create that, what are some examples or other ideas you have brought into working with your customers?

       Jordan Erskine: I think I think one thing is forecasting. For the most part, it doesn't exist. A lot of these big brands we talked to have zero forecasts. But the ones that do have good predictions, it's easy for us. We've gone to the suppliers, which was never done in the past because we've never been put in these situations. Now we're trying to create longer-term like 12 to 24 months supply agreements, working through the brands, and then working with the suppliers. Often, they don't require us to put any deposit down. That helps solidify those products for that brand, and it sounds crazy. Still, again in this industry, only the big dogs have that figured out, like the Unilever's, the Johnson & Johnsons - because their teams are so big and multinational. But many of the big brands don't have good forecasting; they're flying by the seat of their pants. It sounds crazy, but if you can get them reined in then, then the supplier wants to know. They don't know. We don't know, so we're placing orders with the suppliers.

       They placed an order with us. We got a panic versus, hey, here are six months, here's what we can commit to. Here's what the supplier committed to that we have agreements with the client, if, maybe it's a personal guarantee or company guarantee or something like that, but there are ways that you can. It might take a little bit of risk, but you have to step outside the bounds to keep your customers happy in this day and age. To keep that supply ship flowing - you have to look at everything.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, well, and even taking that step back and planning what that looks like, you're almost setting a goal that when you have that in your mind, your subconscious starts to figure out how you're going to make it happen. So it's excellent from the standpoint of being able to finance it, and get it out there, that you have the numbers that]]>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 director of quality. He worked for he helped Johnson & Johnson get out of FDA issues with Tylenol.

       We've got people in place that are subject matter experts, so I can focus on what I need to focus on. Gavin can focus on what he needs to focus on. Many of your listeners or other manufacturers will be like, " Yeah, that's exactly right. We've learned the hard way not to put the right people in the right seats on the bus.

       Lisa Ryan: A couple of things come to mind. Number one, you're starting a brand-new company, and to grow it, you're giving parts of it away. That had to be a little scary but finding those right people and ensuring that you got the right people on the bus right away. So what was that process? What did you think I would have to give them a piece of my company to get these people on board?

       Jordan Erskine: It's common with startups. Many of these tech companies go public or get bought out. You hear 50 employees became overnight millionaires. That's also the motivation. It depends on the industry, but we didn't have the technical expertise in our specific situation. We knew we couldn't pay $150,000 a year, plus salaries for some people. We had to get creative and take a step back.

       I'd rather have a small piece of the biggest possible pie than own 100% of a company barely doing a million dollars. You have to realize that it's not always this situation where you do have to give up equity, but in many instances, you can also have it vested overtime right, so you're not worried about how you will perform for me.

       You can give them a tiny, small point of 2.25% year over year to ensure they stay with you and work toward the business. In doing so, you give them more of an ownership mentality. It is hard. I'm a serial entrepreneur mindset, so I'd rather have a lot of little pieces and help, and knowing that there are other teams within those groups helping build that company, it all falls on my shoulder, right. So that's another risk on the other end.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, those two words to that you said that that ownership mentality is a key. When you have people who are owners of the company, they will look at it differently because everything they do, they can potentially have a piece of it. So, for people listening to the show, maybe that looks like some profit-sharing, perhaps that looks like opening up the books. But, it is a different level of mentality because otherwise, employees think you are just shoveling dollar bills into the back of pickup trucks. So, having that ownership mentality, they can see the company's numbers and play a significant role in that.

       Jordan Erskine: On top of that, it looks good for the company when things get tough for the owners. We've had to do this a little bit where we might drop back our salaries by 20% for a little while to help with cash flow or onboarding some of these large clients. Like I told you, they want a net 90 net 120, so that's after delivery. When you're talking about those terms with some of our clients, and maybe similar industries, and things like that, you're fronting their whole production project for six months plus. By the time you order bottles and materials, it's 12 weeks. It comes to your facility. Then you got a manufacturer, and then it's another net 80 or net 120 payments on top of that delivery. So you're stretching out like six-eight months on some of this stuff. We can't do that with every client for small and medium-sized manufacturers. So we have to get creative. Having an ownership mentality helps.

       Lisa Ryan: When you're getting creative with things like bankrolling your customers and working with them to create that, what are some examples or other ideas you have brought into working with your customers?

       Jordan Erskine: I think I think one thing is forecasting. For the most part, it doesn't exist. A lot of these big brands we talked to have zero forecasts. But the ones that do have good predictions, it's easy for us. We've gone to the suppliers, which was never done in the past because we've never been put in these situations. Now we're trying to create longer-term like 12 to 24 months supply agreements, working through the brands, and then working with the suppliers. Often, they don't require us to put any deposit down. That helps solidify those products for that brand, and it sounds crazy. Still, again in this industry, only the big dogs have that figured out, like the Unilever's, the Johnson & Johnsons - because their teams are so big and multinational. But many of the big brands don't have good forecasting; they're flying by the seat of their pants. It sounds crazy, but if you can get them reined in then, then the supplier wants to know. They don't know. We don't know, so we're placing orders with the suppliers.

       They placed an order with us. We got a panic versus, hey, here are six months, here's what we can commit to. Here's what the supplier committed to that we have agreements with the client, if, maybe it's a personal guarantee or company guarantee or something like that, but there are ways that you can. It might take a little bit of risk, but you have to step outside the bounds to keep your customers happy in this day and age. To keep that supply ship flowing - you have to look at everything.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, well, and even taking that step back and planning what that looks like, you're almost setting a goal that when you have that in your mind, your subconscious starts to figure out how you're going to make it happen. So it's excellent from the standpoint of being able to finance it, and get it out there, that you have the numbers that are at least close, not just throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks.

       How do you change that mentality when working with somebody who may not have ever thought about forecasting before? What are the steps to start that process?

       Jordan Erskine: yeah, I mean we send them like some templates, and some guides, and things like that, like what to look for. It depends on where they're selling. Some of our clients sell on Amazon, which will have a completely different product sale cycle than something sold in like Ulta, Sephora, or even Target. They're all different cycles where they are ordered. We help them. We determine where they're selling based on our knowledge and trends, and we've got a good team of project managers, supply chain professionals, and planners. That's what makes Dynamic so unique too. We didn't get into it, but we indeed are like a turnkey and beyond. We can consult all of our subject matter experts on projects that we don't even manufacture, or our quality team has consulted with some of the biggest brands that were manufactured for that you would think they've got their stuff figured out. However, they still need us to consult with them. That shows you the level of expertise we have that we're helping some of these larger pharmaceutical companies get through some of these drug processes.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, it sounds like you're adding a lot of value to your customers. So what do you think are some of the ways that manufacturers listening to this podcast can start to reconsider the value they're adding and add additional value to what they're doing.

       Jordan Erskine: A couple of things that come to mind if you dive into your customer experience, for the most part, manufacturing is pretty stale. Most manufacturing industries are contract manufacturing for cosmetics. It's pretty stiff, always done the same way. Most of our competitors want large orders. They want million unit orders. They don't care about anything else. We care; we want to build the brand. We want to help the brand succeed and be a part of it - be a partner. Diving into what your customer experience looks like will go a long way. Because when people are shopping around and researching, there are so many companies that still don't have good websites or good web presences for information. When companies are shopping around, they're doing their due diligence per se. They see a website that looks like it hasn't been updated since 1990, and then they look at this other website that may cost $20,000 to build like that difference. In many industries, many brands and companies would be like, Oh well, these people look bigger, just that whole consumer perception somehow. We've established a good web presence so that everybody can find us were a resource. We're just continually building out like education materials.

       Lisa Ryan: People are shopping around a lot of times. It's going to come down to price, and it's like where can I get the best price, and that's all they care about. But if they find somebody adding value who's taking the time to send them templates to create forecasts, they're working with them. They're making an actual customer experience because he had the market. It's not like the massive margins and manufacturing, so the price is undoubtedly a big part.

       But by the same token, if you can have reliability and trust, you can build those relationships and stop all the turnover. So from a vendor and customer standpoint, that's undoubtedly going to have a substantial bottom-line impact.

       Jordan Erskine: Yeah, and where's everybody up? Where's everybody at now that had the soul mentality of I has to find the cheapest I'll bet you 90% of those companies are more are scrambling right now. We even see price increases of 20 to 25% on raw materials daily. We're getting notices. We can't just take that, and add 20% on our clients' projects without them, knowing hey, my unit costs went up 75 cents. What the hell's going on. We have to explain, " Oh well, your chemical from Bulgaria that you process once a year. That mentality is starting to change with the current supply chain state. Companies like Dynamic can show that value. We can be more of an extension, so when your team is scrambling with marketing or artwork, our marketing agency can help you. That's the mentality you need to have. It's just where your customer pain points are. Maybe you have a big client that runs another product and another manufacturer with problems. You don't have that machinery, but perhaps that machine is a $250,000 investment. Well, is that worth that risk? Maybe, if you can get multi-year manufacturing agreements out of this client to switch over. You've got to get creative. You got to get innovative, and sometimes that takes a bit of risk. If you build it, you have to have the "they will come" mentality.

       Lisa Ryan: Exactly. If you have that type of trust, and relationship, the price increases. But we realized that right now with the craziness of the supply chain. Something happened last night that we saw this like in action. We went to a restaurant for my birthday. They gave us the menu, and we were starting to look at it, and then they came back, and they're like, oh wait, we just got a new menu, and they switched the menu, and my husband said the prices just all went up.

       Jordan Erskine: wow. While you're sitting there?

       Lisa Ryan: We were sitting there. It's a restaurant that we both love. We've been going there for years. We have a trusted relationship, and we also know that restaurants have to raise their prices to survive. So it's a good enough experience we know we're going to the food's excellent. We knew we would have a fabulous time, so it didn't matter. 

       Going right back to what you said, when you are upfront with your vendors, when you have that trust built with them, you can, hopefully, watch the prices go up as you're sitting there. But yeah, it's a lot more understandable when it does that.

       Jordan Erskine: I think one other thing too is just transparency. I mean, people love transparency. It sounds crazy, but I mean not to keep beating a dead horse. Still, we just talked to probably one of the biggest brands worldwide. In terms of like consumer goods, and the comment from them to us as we like you guys call us back we're like what they've been talking to other manufacturers don't even call them back, and this is a multibillion-dollar company. We're like, and this is crazy. Just call them back. So the look of that level of transparency, I think, is lost on a lot of manufacturers. That's why the contract manufacturing game has such that bad reputation for always keeping people in the dark or not being truthful. We're trying to change just by being we have nothing to lose. You're either going to want to work with us or not.

       We feel like we can prove to you that we are the best, and most people don't come through our facility, they would agree, so that's that mentality that you have to build towards, and have it, 24 seven year facility company.

       Lisa Ryan: For goodness sake, call people back. We're often making judgments about what that person wants, what that company wants. We have this massive company calling us right now, and we don't even have enough inventory, so we don't want to turn them down. Whatever those thoughts are, it's like stop thinking those thoughts and make the darn call. You've built those relationships with these large companies because you're calling them back. It's an unfortunate sentence.

       Jordan Erskine: It's humbling, but hopefully, we can be an example. Nobody wants to do business with anyone who feels like that. That was like the dark, or someone's something shady going on behind the back door, or something like that, and just unnecessary.

       Lisa Ryan: So what do you think are some of the other ways that manufacturers today can innovate in what they're doing even if they've been doing things the same way for years and years. There are some ideas that they can get started with.

       Jordan Erskine: One thing that people think is very expensive is robotics. There are quite a few good robotics companies that have lease options. We're going to be adding some robotics to our manufacturing lines too. Training them on different things will increase our efficiencies, obviously decrease Labor a little bit. Given the markets you're in, obviously, like California has issues with labor markets and manufacturing York-New Jersey, that will help you tell we haven't seen much. In terms of that, we're more adding it for efficiency, and some of these larger clients want to see automation. There are many ways to automate and not spend a million dollars. You can do a lease on some of these robotics. Companies will charge you per hour, like an employee. They're not even charging you if it's off during the weekend if it's running. That helps you when you're working out your piece, your colleagues, and your cost accounting would be like, Oh well, this is easy because the robot only ran for three and a half hours with this shampoo. Going back to the customer experience side, weirdly, is what many people don't have that we're building out is a custom backend. Everything doesn't have to be through text, phone, email, and things get lost in email. We have a central dashboard location where clients can log in. They can see all their invoices. They might we're going to link it to their inventory, so they can see their real-time list whenever they want. They can pay invoices and like approvals for artwork within the system. So it'll be like a full circle of quality management for the client. Things like that will simplify]]>caada7d1-9d2b-45df-8b1f-8ed13296b1f7Mon, 25 Apr 2022 07:05:00 -040031:12falsefull221212Partnering with Your Suppliers for Manufacturing Success with Mike MurdockConnect 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 built. To get that type of loyalty, besides the fact that you are probably a big chunk of their business, what did that look like?

       Mike Murdock: Great question. It's just not about the annual spending; it's the relationships. I was involved with from eight to $400 million a year spent for General Mills. So that is carrying a bit of influence in weight with these folks, but, more importantly, it was how we treated each other and respected one another. We took the time to understand each other's needs and the complexities of the challenges of making that finished product.

       When they were providing materials, we investigated what it took for them to deliver that material or that ingredient that was so unique. We needed to be specific to our General Mills requirements. We took the time to understand what that was about and those challenges. Then we helped each other eliminate some of those frustrations, some of those things that prevented us from success. We worked on removing those things to make them more efficient in the past. More importantly, this created more capacity and made it safer for the employees. We eliminated some of those inefficient things that created stops and required people to do something that was not necessarily safe for what we wanted them to be doing. We laid that groundwork.

       Lisa Ryan: In a previous conversation, we talked about things like labeling. You have a company as big as General Mills saying this is how we want it. Vendors have to do it this way, no ifs and or buts about it. You took the time to see where some of those problems were with the machinery. You reviewed some of the things and took the time to understand where your vendors are coming from. I believe it also led to that loyalty, so please share that story.

       Mike Murdock: That was a great story. The result turned out well for General Mills and our vendors. It led into the General Mills organization, where we would track performance. It was all based on available uptime capacity for those particular lines. It was based on a hundred percent optimal capabilities of a line or system. As we looked at the labels that we're talking about has to do with Betty Crocker one pound tubs which I'm sure many people have purchased these one-pound tubs to either frost a cake or cupcakes or cookies or something. That label that goes on the outside, whether it's buttercream, vanilla chocolate, or wherever it is, has to be put on. It's a tub that comes in blank with no information on it, so you would think that's not a big deal. But keep in mind, that there are hundreds of these tubs traveling through the system in a minute. Hopefully, these labels are being picked up one at a time. It comes out of a magazine; it's wrapped around this spinning tub and glued on the bottom side. It spins, and there was a lot of frustration and many downtimes associated with that label being applied. We were losing roughly 26 hours a month in this process. Imagine one day out of your mouth. You're not making the product because you're fighting this label being put on to this tub of frosting.

       Fast forward. We reached out to the vendor company that provides these labels for us, started sharing some information, and talked about its concerns. We invited them to come in. Along with the equipment vendor that handled this label that was being applied, we had all kinds of resources within General Mills engineers, operators, and maintenance people involved.

       What it was about in the first message to everybody as we're not in this conversation to try to find somebody to blame for the poor performance. We know we've got a problem. We know we have opportunities to get better, but please understand that we are not here to point the blame. We're not here to accuse anybody of anything. We are here to gather facts and data based on information that we can track and validate.

       So, with that in mind, I asked everybody to leave their opinions and emotions outside the door before entering the meeting. Because we wanted it to be a very friendly data-driven conversation, we spent a day and a half talking about all the information on the equipment within the plant in Cedar Rapids and the process at this label company in Fort Worth, Texas. We invited the equipment vendor that handles the label being placed to share some of their data and information.

       Then we looked at the top five areas that we should focus on trying to improve, and we identified those. There was a responsibility on both sides of the table that needed to be addressed. For General Mills, we needed to invest roughly $30,000 in capital to improve the equipment that had been in place for about 15 years to update to some of the changes in technology that have taken place. We committed to that.

       We took a group of roughly five employees from the Cedar Rapids General Mills plants down to the label plant in Fort Worth, Texas. We looked at their process. We sat down and talked about what are the things that we were asking them to do. That makes it challenging. One of the things we learned quickly was printing on the backside of the label that had recipes and ideas of how to use frosting that had been in place for ten years. Quite honestly, nobody knew why it was there, and it didn't add any value. It did add six hours of incremental handling and processing to the label company. Imagine if you can eliminate those six hours of adding ink to the backside, waiting for that ink to dry, cure before you go back, and handle it again. That's a significant efficiency gain and a new elimination of non-value-added steps and processes that create challenges on their side of making that label. It was a considerable...]]>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 built. To get that type of loyalty, besides the fact that you are probably a big chunk of their business, what did that look like?

       Mike Murdock: Great question. It's just not about the annual spending; it's the relationships. I was involved with from eight to $400 million a year spent for General Mills. So that is carrying a bit of influence in weight with these folks, but, more importantly, it was how we treated each other and respected one another. We took the time to understand each other's needs and the complexities of the challenges of making that finished product.

       When they were providing materials, we investigated what it took for them to deliver that material or that ingredient that was so unique. We needed to be specific to our General Mills requirements. We took the time to understand what that was about and those challenges. Then we helped each other eliminate some of those frustrations, some of those things that prevented us from success. We worked on removing those things to make them more efficient in the past. More importantly, this created more capacity and made it safer for the employees. We eliminated some of those inefficient things that created stops and required people to do something that was not necessarily safe for what we wanted them to be doing. We laid that groundwork.

       Lisa Ryan: In a previous conversation, we talked about things like labeling. You have a company as big as General Mills saying this is how we want it. Vendors have to do it this way, no ifs and or buts about it. You took the time to see where some of those problems were with the machinery. You reviewed some of the things and took the time to understand where your vendors are coming from. I believe it also led to that loyalty, so please share that story.

       Mike Murdock: That was a great story. The result turned out well for General Mills and our vendors. It led into the General Mills organization, where we would track performance. It was all based on available uptime capacity for those particular lines. It was based on a hundred percent optimal capabilities of a line or system. As we looked at the labels that we're talking about has to do with Betty Crocker one pound tubs which I'm sure many people have purchased these one-pound tubs to either frost a cake or cupcakes or cookies or something. That label that goes on the outside, whether it's buttercream, vanilla chocolate, or wherever it is, has to be put on. It's a tub that comes in blank with no information on it, so you would think that's not a big deal. But keep in mind, that there are hundreds of these tubs traveling through the system in a minute. Hopefully, these labels are being picked up one at a time. It comes out of a magazine; it's wrapped around this spinning tub and glued on the bottom side. It spins, and there was a lot of frustration and many downtimes associated with that label being applied. We were losing roughly 26 hours a month in this process. Imagine one day out of your mouth. You're not making the product because you're fighting this label being put on to this tub of frosting.

       Fast forward. We reached out to the vendor company that provides these labels for us, started sharing some information, and talked about its concerns. We invited them to come in. Along with the equipment vendor that handled this label that was being applied, we had all kinds of resources within General Mills engineers, operators, and maintenance people involved.

       What it was about in the first message to everybody as we're not in this conversation to try to find somebody to blame for the poor performance. We know we've got a problem. We know we have opportunities to get better, but please understand that we are not here to point the blame. We're not here to accuse anybody of anything. We are here to gather facts and data based on information that we can track and validate.

       So, with that in mind, I asked everybody to leave their opinions and emotions outside the door before entering the meeting. Because we wanted it to be a very friendly data-driven conversation, we spent a day and a half talking about all the information on the equipment within the plant in Cedar Rapids and the process at this label company in Fort Worth, Texas. We invited the equipment vendor that handles the label being placed to share some of their data and information.

       Then we looked at the top five areas that we should focus on trying to improve, and we identified those. There was a responsibility on both sides of the table that needed to be addressed. For General Mills, we needed to invest roughly $30,000 in capital to improve the equipment that had been in place for about 15 years to update to some of the changes in technology that have taken place. We committed to that.

       We took a group of roughly five employees from the Cedar Rapids General Mills plants down to the label plant in Fort Worth, Texas. We looked at their process. We sat down and talked about what are the things that we were asking them to do. That makes it challenging. One of the things we learned quickly was printing on the backside of the label that had recipes and ideas of how to use frosting that had been in place for ten years. Quite honestly, nobody knew why it was there, and it didn't add any value. It did add six hours of incremental handling and processing to the label company. Imagine if you can eliminate those six hours of adding ink to the backside, waiting for that ink to dry, cure before you go back, and handle it again. That's a significant efficiency gain and a new elimination of non-value-added steps and processes that create challenges on their side of making that label. It was a considerable improvement. We also looked at the layout of the sheet of the labels made. We improved that by 7%. Out of every sheet printed and cut, we added 7% more coverage to that sheet. You're getting a better yield from that initial paper or the material you're using. You're doing it in less time, and you're gaining capacity. All of this stuff starts to be win/win scenarios, which we focused on.

       Lisa Ryan: When you think about something, you know when you're looking at a product, mainly a food product. I buy wine based on the pretty label, but I felt I didn't even think about it. If I'm buying frosting or if I'm buying Cheerios, you're okay buying food. That's probably the least of my attention. When it comes to that attention to detail, knowing every process area is critical. You know you're onto something when you pay attention to the minor parts of a product that have nothing to do with the taste and show those types of cost savings. There are too many times that we look at the massive parts, and where we can make a huge difference where you were making a significant difference with really a tiny part.

       Mike Murdock: As I mentioned initially, we were experiencing 26 plus hours a month of downtime after we completed the work. Keep in mind that this has been going on for the better part of 10 years. There was a lot of frustration from the operators, mechanics, and everything on the plant floor. We spent roughly six months working on making these changes, improving, and adding the new technology from the capital purchase. When we got done, the average monthly downtime was under one hour. So we gained a full day of production back in. As a result of that, the employees, the operators, and mechanics on the floor started believing that there was a new way to address issues going on for years. They started becoming more engaged, more involved in coming up with thoughts and ideas about what else can we do to improve our day-to-day manufacturing process.

       These were things when those guys woke up and put their feet on the floor in the morning. Their first thought is I have to fight eight hours of this label. Well, guess what - that was eliminated. It's no longer in front of them, and so as a result of that, the vendor we work with we were doing roughly $8 million a year worth of business with them. As I mentioned earlier, some companies do 400 to $500 million a year's worth of business at General Mills.

       We took that same application that we improved and learned on the Betty Crocker frosting, and we applied it to the Progressive soup label. They provided those labels and saw the same benefits.

       Our annual supply chain vendor award ceremony, held in our corporate office in Minneapolis, this small vendor that we're spending eight to $9 million a year with General Mills won our supply chain vendor of the year. So it was a massive win for those guys.

       It was 12 to 15 months later because of their willingness to collaborate with General Mills to make the process better and drive nontraditional cost savings, which saved money for both of us. Not just for General Mills, they saved money substantially on their side of it as well. They ended up tripling their business with General Mills, and within that 12 to 15-month timeframe afterward, they were doing 25 to $30 million a year in business with General Mills.

       So there's another payback for them being willing to collaborate with us and look for ways to optimize and improve the process.

       Lisa Ryan: When I think one of the things that, and not that you breezed over it, but kind of went over it quickly is the attitude of the employees. They knew they would go to work and have this frustration messing around with this machine. You took the steps you needed to work with the vendors, working with everybody to fix that. Please talk a bit about how that improved employee morale, employee engagement levels, productivity, and the things you saw from the people there.

       It immediately impacted the morale on the floor, and I'm going to move out of our frosting division and move up into our cereal department in Cedar Rapids. In one of the other projects that I had worked on, we saw double-digit gains in the performance of that one cereal line that we were focusing on. As a result, these were some of our most senior tenured employees in the plant. Most of them had 20 years plus experience working in that plant. When one line was chosen to be the guinea pig for this new philosophy of let's work, collaborate, and share information, thoughts, and ideas with our key suppliers and see where it will get us. That one went quick, and within a two-month timeframe, they saw about a 14% improvement on their land performance, day in and day out.

       Suddenly, I had people knocking on my door office door saying, are we next? How come you're not helping us? I'll help whatever you want. It became more of a pull instead of a push. When you've got the morale, and when you've got the people on the floor that have been frustrated for years, and keep in mind these employees, for the most part, they get 15-20 plus years of experience. They know quite a bit. They understand why they're successful and see why they're not successful. When something looks like help to them, they get excited and want to be a part of it. Once they believed in and trusted that there was a process for them to leverage and use to help make their day better, more efficient, and, most importantly, for all of us safer. Sign me up. Please help us. Here are some ideas and thoughts that we've been talking about for years, and nobody has listened to us. We haven't been able to get after this. Please help us figure out how to do this. So the unique thing about that was that I'm not the problem solver; I'm the person that brings all of the significant and necessary resources together, and what I do is kind of leave that conversation. It's staying focused on factual data-driven information. It doesn't become an emotional conversation because emotional emotions take you off the path and don't allow you to get to the actual root cause of what's stopping you from being successful.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, I know some of these, and manufacturing inherently we have an older workforce, and more tenure workforce it's been with us. Sometimes, we're afraid to bring changes to them because you know that they're going to fight, kick, and scratch, and we've been doing it this way for 40 years. But they're also the people, and I think you've demonstrated this nicely: when number one, they're involved in the process. But you can get that buy-in because you're listening to them, and you're doing it over time, and you're showing them how it's making them safer and making their lives easier. Then they become your biggest proponents of those new systems and get all the less tenured people to buy-in.

       Mike Murdock: They became informal leaders on the floor, and they didn't even know what they were doing. That was the beauty of it. Those people became leaders amongst their peers without even realizing what was doing it.

       I'll never forget one thing, and I chuckle about it often when I talk about it is out on the cereal packaging floor. Keep in mind that this person had been there 30 years, and his nickname was grumpy. That's where there may call, and I was one of the few unfortunate ones that had a pretty good relationship with him. He'd open up and talk to me, and he was on that team. He was the first to have that 14% increase in performance up in the cereal department. He became the number one advocate of the new process in that department.

       He made it so much easier for me to work with other people. He would sit around in the break room and talk about, hey, my day is so much better because of this, and it wasn't about what I did for them. It's what they were freed up to do to help themself so enabling them to get in front of you know key suppliers when their key resources, and talk about in great detail, and detail. I wouldn't have the experience and knowledge to talk about with those people. Because I didn't live it eight to 12 hours every day as these people have for years, and so, when you get those people together, you almost sit back. You'll allow those conversations to take place, and then you guide them on what the process will look like to make those improvements and free them up to do the things differently than they've been doing to get those positive results.

       The one thing that you know is important is it needs to be a win/win scenario. It has to be good for both sides. I always shared with our vendors that if it's good for one of us and not the other one, it's not good for either one of us. So it's got to be something beneficial for both sides.

       Lisa Ryan: So, as we get to the end of our time together, boy, time flies when you're having fun.

       Mike Murdock: It does.

       Lisa Ryan: What would be your best tip, your best idea for somebody listening to start building better relationships with their suppliers and vendors? How do you get that process started?

       Mike Murdock: The first thing that I'd say is you've got to take the time to get to know your vendors' capabilities on a very personal and in-depth level. I quickly found that the mentality of all the vendors is just trying to make my life miserable though they're sending us junk and everything else. Most of the time, what they're sending you is what you're asking them to provide. So instead of leveraging vendors' experience, knowledge, and expertise in the field they exist in, we want to tell them as a customer how to provide that material or that ingredient when, quite honestly, they know better than we do. So don't be afraid to expose yourself, and say listen. Here are some of...]]>0ab714a2-8b83-47a7-a5b5-ae7b2b7ce055Mon, 18 Apr 2022 06:05:00 -040030:17falsefull220202Three Tips to be a Master of Manufacturing With Darrin MitchellConnect 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 duplicate.

       Darrin Mitchell: The quickest thing we did was we spent a lot of time sleeping on airport floors. We spent a lot of time in a very senior leadership position. We spent a lot of time with customers, so we would say what features do you like? What features don't you like? What can it do? What can I do? What could it do to make you more money? How can we become more valuable in it? We wouldn't get that feedback if we lived in a rural location. So we had to spend that time with the customer to do that.

       What we ended up doing is our competitors would make these big dump trailers that go up in the air, and the materials followed at the back. We put a conveyor belt in the bottom of the trailer that you could have a driver that's relatively inexperienced run it. They turn on the trailer, and it loads without going up in the air and having that threat of falling over.

       The addition of the moving parts was something nobody could copy because it interfered with the manufacturing process. So we got good at it, and it was a level of complexity that our competitors found it difficult to copy.

       Lisa Ryan: Was it also because your competitors had been doing it the same way for so long that they didn't have the flexibility you had as a newer company? Did that play anything into it?

       Darrin Mitchell: Most manufacturers are set up for efficiency and effectiveness. We've seen this lately with disruptions in supply chains. Everything goes well when it goes, really, really well. But, as a manufacturer, sometimes you've got things so efficient it's hard to be flexible. You always have to remember that you have to build that flexibility into your innovation, your factory, supply chain, and staff. You have to develop that flexibility. Otherwise, you can get caught flat-footed.

       Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. One of the things that we talked about extensively is your focus on culture. That's pretty much what you're known for in everything you do. You gave me a little teaser about what you're going to share - some ways to increase culture by 33%. Tell us more.

       Darrin Mitchell: I'm glad I caught your attention. I think 33% is a fascinating number because it does something to the human brain. One of the things you need to think about as a manufacturer is before you that little BS detector goes off in your head is, you need to think about 33% compared to what. I would suggest that companies out there are serious and interested in a genuine and tactical way to improve their company culture today. They should reach out to someone like Lisa Ryan.

       Let's get a base level of where to start because many companies don't even know where they're at today versus how they improved from where they're at. I have three tips today because we are limited on time, and we can ramble about things for hours. Divide them by ten; you've got 11.1% for each tip that you can improve your culture. Number one is in a leadership position. When you're a leader, you give up many of your rights and responsibilities. As an employee within the business and as a leader, you have to admit that you never let your team fill in the blanks. Everybody who shows up every day who's worth their salt that comes to the business believes in something beyond a paycheck. They think they're wearing a team jersey, and they're part of something. They gain additional value in their lives beyond a paycheck. Your responsibility as a leader within the business is don't let them fill in the blanks. As a leader, I mean that you always need to be front and center explaining what the future looks like and what our place is as a team. Where do we fit into that future; what is it. You never lie to people because if you do that, they'll never come back once again.

       You need to be honest. It would be best to give people that clear indication of the business's future and where they fit into it. I'll give you a good example. This is the bad news during covid because we always like these heroic stories of good things. But during covid, I am sick and tired of talking about it. I had 130 employees. Even the team leads were so panicked and frustrated. They were getting it from work; they were getting it from CNN, and they were getting it from their spouses. They were beyond their capacity to handle the situation. So guess who else wants me.

       But I gave up that right to fall into that mode when I accepted the mantle of the leadership position. So what I did was two times a week for the first eight months of the pandemic. I would break everybody into small groups, stand in front of everyone, and say, 'This is what I know. This is what's happening with the business. I understand everybody has concerns, but I guarantee that I will keep standing in front of you until we get to a better day. I will not candy coat anything in front of you, but I do know this one thing you are a world-class team acting like a world-class team today. I have the utmost respect for my coworkers who come to work every day and continue to conduct themselves.

       I said that twice a week for eight months. I would always give them an update. What it did, was that it reassured them that someone had the fingers on the pulse of their future. When your home life was unstable, and many of us went through that, you knew you had some stability when you came to work. Someone was thinking actively about your future and where you fit into it.

       The first rule would be as as a leader, you can't advocate conversation. Your job in that leadership position is to talk about the future. So how do we, as the...]]>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 duplicate.

       Darrin Mitchell: The quickest thing we did was we spent a lot of time sleeping on airport floors. We spent a lot of time in a very senior leadership position. We spent a lot of time with customers, so we would say what features do you like? What features don't you like? What can it do? What can I do? What could it do to make you more money? How can we become more valuable in it? We wouldn't get that feedback if we lived in a rural location. So we had to spend that time with the customer to do that.

       What we ended up doing is our competitors would make these big dump trailers that go up in the air, and the materials followed at the back. We put a conveyor belt in the bottom of the trailer that you could have a driver that's relatively inexperienced run it. They turn on the trailer, and it loads without going up in the air and having that threat of falling over.

       The addition of the moving parts was something nobody could copy because it interfered with the manufacturing process. So we got good at it, and it was a level of complexity that our competitors found it difficult to copy.

       Lisa Ryan: Was it also because your competitors had been doing it the same way for so long that they didn't have the flexibility you had as a newer company? Did that play anything into it?

       Darrin Mitchell: Most manufacturers are set up for efficiency and effectiveness. We've seen this lately with disruptions in supply chains. Everything goes well when it goes, really, really well. But, as a manufacturer, sometimes you've got things so efficient it's hard to be flexible. You always have to remember that you have to build that flexibility into your innovation, your factory, supply chain, and staff. You have to develop that flexibility. Otherwise, you can get caught flat-footed.

       Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. One of the things that we talked about extensively is your focus on culture. That's pretty much what you're known for in everything you do. You gave me a little teaser about what you're going to share - some ways to increase culture by 33%. Tell us more.

       Darrin Mitchell: I'm glad I caught your attention. I think 33% is a fascinating number because it does something to the human brain. One of the things you need to think about as a manufacturer is before you that little BS detector goes off in your head is, you need to think about 33% compared to what. I would suggest that companies out there are serious and interested in a genuine and tactical way to improve their company culture today. They should reach out to someone like Lisa Ryan.

       Let's get a base level of where to start because many companies don't even know where they're at today versus how they improved from where they're at. I have three tips today because we are limited on time, and we can ramble about things for hours. Divide them by ten; you've got 11.1% for each tip that you can improve your culture. Number one is in a leadership position. When you're a leader, you give up many of your rights and responsibilities. As an employee within the business and as a leader, you have to admit that you never let your team fill in the blanks. Everybody who shows up every day who's worth their salt that comes to the business believes in something beyond a paycheck. They think they're wearing a team jersey, and they're part of something. They gain additional value in their lives beyond a paycheck. Your responsibility as a leader within the business is don't let them fill in the blanks. As a leader, I mean that you always need to be front and center explaining what the future looks like and what our place is as a team. Where do we fit into that future; what is it. You never lie to people because if you do that, they'll never come back once again.

       You need to be honest. It would be best to give people that clear indication of the business's future and where they fit into it. I'll give you a good example. This is the bad news during covid because we always like these heroic stories of good things. But during covid, I am sick and tired of talking about it. I had 130 employees. Even the team leads were so panicked and frustrated. They were getting it from work; they were getting it from CNN, and they were getting it from their spouses. They were beyond their capacity to handle the situation. So guess who else wants me.

       But I gave up that right to fall into that mode when I accepted the mantle of the leadership position. So what I did was two times a week for the first eight months of the pandemic. I would break everybody into small groups, stand in front of everyone, and say, 'This is what I know. This is what's happening with the business. I understand everybody has concerns, but I guarantee that I will keep standing in front of you until we get to a better day. I will not candy coat anything in front of you, but I do know this one thing you are a world-class team acting like a world-class team today. I have the utmost respect for my coworkers who come to work every day and continue to conduct themselves.

       I said that twice a week for eight months. I would always give them an update. What it did, was that it reassured them that someone had the fingers on the pulse of their future. When your home life was unstable, and many of us went through that, you knew you had some stability when you came to work. Someone was thinking actively about your future and where you fit into it.

       The first rule would be as as a leader, you can't advocate conversation. Your job in that leadership position is to talk about the future. So how do we, as the business employees, fit into that to give people that sense of accomplishment. We tend to announce the big things and the good things all too often. You have to announce all things because, when people when you're absent, nobody fills in the space. But positive news does, so take that opportunity to be the leader they're looking for in that space.

       Lisa Ryan: The funny thing is that we've heard that it's almost cliche so often that people don't leave their job; they leave their boss. Companies will say, oh yeah, Joe left to go somewhere else to make more money. But, no, if Joe were happy, he would have never left. There was something about the leadership. The boss was not transparent because, like you just said, when the grapevine is going, and people don't know what's going on, they're going to make stuff up.

       When they're not happy thoughts, they're making up; they're justifying. They're looking at the way that leader is looking. They're looking at their expressions on their face so just that getting in front of people, knowing that your employees aren't always going to like what you have to say, but the fact that you're being straight with them twice a week for eight months. It's probably interesting as your employees were at the bar on Fridays with their buddies talking about work. Their friends are probably saying our boss. I don't even know where our boss is. He disappeared, and I don't know what's going on. You show that level of vulnerability that you're willing to be transparent with them. That communication builds those relationships. That's key.

       Darrin Mitchell: And I screwed up a lot of stuff too. You segued very nicely into the second point is who is the boss. We found a lot of times in our cultural development. The senior leadership of the business has a certain level of influence on the culture. Those senior leaders need to realize that managers and team leaders have a more significant impact on your culture.

       One of the things we did was to empower our team. An excellent example of this that I was proud of is that we would set out monthly production objectives as a team every month, and we would pick a number and say we're going to get 30 units out the door this month. If all of the employees succeeded in getting those 30 units out the door every month, high quality, with all the needs, features, and benefits that the customers were looking for, we give them a $100 bill. Now, someone could say, hey Darrin, tax issues, and I'm going to shut up. I don't care.

       We were very specific in what we would do. I would go to the bank and pick up a stack of hundred-dollar bills, and I would hand those to the team leads before the meeting. I never handed out a $100 bill. If we hit our objectives, the team leads would meet with their teams to say, hey, we hit our goals, and only the team lead was allowed to pass the bill and shake the hand. I was never allowed to touch that. I said, here we are, this is where we're going, and the team leads took that personally. That is a good incentive because it was more powerful than giving them a $1,000 bonus.

       Doing this, shaking hands, making eye contact, and saying Thank you to one of your coworkers made a difference. So this month, we turn that into a ritual. It was a very positive effect on the business.

       If you want to improve your culture, the second thing is to find ways to empower your team leads because they have more influence over the masses than you do in a senior leadership position. After all, they're the direct reports coming out of the business.

       Lisa Ryan: We talked about the difference between $1,000 and $100. When you start, people think that it's all about the money. You illustrated that so beautifully because many times say you had a great month and gave everybody $1,000. If they would be like and then next month, it goes down to 100 now you have people complaining welcome, we only got 100 this month, and it takes away the magic. It's like a $25 gas card given to somebody catching them in the act of doing something right. It will not upset anybody else because you're being recognized, so it's the smaller gifts. What even makes that you could probably have done the same thing with a $50 bill. Because it's the eye contact and the handshake and that personal connection that your leaders are your managers are showing their employees, I see you. I appreciate you. It also sounds like you're getting them to all buy into the system because you often see it all the time. Some managers are great with their people, and some just aren't. Those with the departments with the high turnover, but you're saying, well I can't get rid of them they're our highest producing department, even though they have 100% turnover. You have to get rid of those toxic managers, train them, or do something. You bring everybody into the team, have that meeting, ritualize the experience, keep it consistent, and come together in celebration. You have so many great ideas.

       Darrin Mitchell: And number three is the most uncomfortable thing a manufacturer will ever do. I will ask every manufacturer out there today to make a video. Last year alone, we had 6 million views on YouTube. This is how people find out who we are, why they should trust us, and why they should work with us. We use those videos - not needs, features, benefits, products. We created those videos to show who we are, and it's effortless to do business with us. And guess who the star of the videos was.

       Lisa Ryan: The employees.

       Darrin Mitchell: You got it. I would go and pluck out employees randomly from the floor. I would say you're a star, and they would go on a dare to you. You're going to be awesome. We did many fun, silly, serious, different things with the employees. In one, we filled up a trailer with water in the middle of winter. We just opened the tailgate and dumped it on one of our employees sitting in a little Mr turtle pool. We were trying to show how watertight it was. We took four of our most husky employees, and they were their wives' dresses and wigs, and we said, the new models are coming. All silly tongue-in-cheek stuff, but here's what happened. The rest of the world started saying you look like fun people to do business with. You look like you're a sincere human being.

       Secondly, those employees started becoming transmitters for the business, but they also took those videos home to show their children and their spouses. This is what I do every day. So now the business has become part of the family household, so mom doesn't get up at 6 am every morning to go and do something. She actually does something pretty cool because I have just seen her on this little device in my back pocket.

       Lisa Ryan: That's great! I talk about the power of video all the time. We're looking at such a tough labor market to attract employees. They're checking you out online, and they want to see. Do you have people who look like me? Does it look like it's a fun place to work? If you have nothing online and all you have is a bunch of negative reviews on glassdoor.com, and you've never even answered to, the chance of that employee ever even filling out an application goes down.

       It sounds like you're increasing your business because it looks like you're fun to do business with but just as far as a recruitment standpoint, making it easier. You think about one of your employees going home and telling their spouse, hey, you know I'm going to leave this job. I'm tired of it. They'll say, you can't leave that you're a YouTube video star.

       Darrin Mitchell: And when that little transmitter they were able to send that to their family and friends, and there was a particular recipe on the people I would pick for the videos. I wanted them to share that with family and friends. So I was starting to get applications from those family and friends that the video said, hey, I want to be happy like he seems to be happy. We will also give you a paycheck, train you, and do all those good things to treat you like a human.

       Lisa Ryan: The thing is, and it sounds like you just brought in your phone, it's not like you brought in a huge production team and did a big fancy thing. You could have. But just that when people think about the technology that we have. I just got the iPhone 13 pro, so I have more power in my hand right now than most movie theaters did ten years ago. So it's easy to do. It's just the point of doing it.

       Darrin Mitchell: You hit the nail on the head. Lisa, the recipe is to forget the flashy stuff. It doesn't work - it sets off the BS detector. So grab your phone and be authentic and sincere. People will share that with you.

       Lisa Ryan: Out of everything you've seen and done with your culture over the years, what's your favorite thing? If you were to give some advice or an idea that somebody listening today could start to implement immediately, what would that be?

       Darrin Mitchell: If you want the most sincere answer. The most heartfelt answer you could get from me is after 23 years, especially for the last five years. Financially, we were in pretty good shape. When you're not under duress as a manufacturer, you tend to take it out on your people. We found ourselves in an okay spot. We were in a safe place, and we set up a high school education program.

       I watched many of my coworkers graduate, and they would say privately to me thanks, I don't feel like a piece of shit anymore, and I would go, ah, okay. That's deep. I take so much pleasure out of thinking about those memories. I was fortunate enough. I graduated high school.

       To see one of my coworkers associate that with me, I feel like]]>380f0305-992d-4e2e-bb82-f096adf7a30aMon, 04 Apr 2022 07:05:00 -040030:08falsefull219192Nurturing Supply Chain Relationships with Gerry AngeliLisa 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. They want to take care of their house; they want to ensure that their assets are safe, just like you do with manufacturing. The second thing is communication, consistently over-driving what's going on. Why is it happening? What's happening to you? When are we close? When are we opening all of that stuff? You have to take care of yourself first because that fosters a sense of belonging and the people. If they know or appreciate that you're taking care of them, they'll take care of you. You need your workforce with you.

       Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. What did this company do before you? Did they just fly by the seat of their pants then one day decide that they needed a process? Because Florida has always had storms.

       Gerry Angeli: Well, they remember they had just moved here to they came from apart, so we had snow days. That's no process for a day, and that was about it. You dig out from under your go back to work. But here, there's a great deal of uncertainty, but the point is this is the learnings that accrued from the topic of disaster recovery. Align themselves very well with the modern version called business continuity, and in the business, continuity lives the supply chain.

       Take the analysis of what you need to ensure that your supply of materials, the critical ones, to the nuts, bolts, screws, and plastic bags are tended. The biggest mistake that I see happening now is the supply chain. First, we suffered from just in time. We want everything to get here. Just in time, though, that's fine, but not all the time. There are certain things that you need a three- or four-week supply of. During hurricane season, you might not be able to get them. You must make provision for you can call it stockless production. But what are you doing to keep yourself running? If something happens to you or somebody else in Jacksonville, for example, have a storm up there, and not here, but you still can't get stuff.

       The second thing is, like for like. You're A-class items in your inventory. That's the uniquely your stuff - the materials that make your products your products. The things the expensive stuff come from maybe one or two places on the planet. The relationship you have with those suppliers should be different from your relationship with people who sell you the C and D items. One of the things that we learned to do is that for the objects 20 years, items make up the critical pieces you need in your processes.

       As the company president, I thought I made sure that I had a line with the company's president, where they came from pyramid level to pyramid level. President, the President, Vice President, the Vice Presidents, and because, because if you relegate the entire supply chain. I have nothing against the purchasing department, don't get me wrong. You have no firepower.

       The regular folks talking to the common folk can't get you to need something when you need it. You can't get you to deliver something when you need it, and here's the critical learning. If you do that process all the time, whether or not there's a storm or a disruption of any kind, it becomes a matter of routine.

       To call the president of the other company and say how things are going, you must have quarterly meetings about your A-items. The costs go up. The prices go down. Materials come in short supply. You have those dialogues routinely. When a storm happens, you can't get diesel fuel for the generator. If you call the president of that company that day when the other thousand people call that guy that day, you're just another pain.

       You must nurture those relationships in the supply chain all along. Let me give you an excellent example of that. I had a friend who had a business that made sub-assemblies for us down here in Fort Lauderdale. His company was up in Tallahassee, and he had the same problem. They get hit with storms. One day we talked, and he asked me about business continuity because he knew that that was a big question. He says, "what happens if there's a storm in Tallahassee. I can't get you the product you need. I said what the truth of the matter is, I can make yourself, make this assembly that you're driving to.

       I'll put the parts on a truck before the storm hits. You send them down here, and I could do the same thing. If the storm hits here, I can send my stuff up there, and you could make the products. A handshake came of a discussion about keeping the supply chain continuous for those critical parts during a disruption caused by weather. You have to think through that stuff you have to work on or not all the time. You have to think about those disruptions, and the same thing applies. We had another example where a truck full of assembly was in an accident. It caught on fire, and we lost two months of production and didn't know it.

       You know, it was the, wow, where's the truck. So you go on a magical mystery tour trying to figure out what happened to your parts. But the same things that you learn in business continuity for a storm apply there. Then the last thing I'll talk about is the competence of managing for continuity, whether it was when the pandemic hit and things started to shut down. Because the factory shut down, supplies were short because nobody was working. But then we began to run out of materials because the places where the raw materials were scarce, the disturbance, this time, no money planned for this disruption to last this long. Even in all the planning that we did, the most prolonged time that we planned for was a month. Because you figure anything that would happen short of, you know, getting a fire that burns you to the ground, you'll come back to life within a month. Several things have changed that now. One is cyber security. That's a disaster that's...]]>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. They want to take care of their house; they want to ensure that their assets are safe, just like you do with manufacturing. The second thing is communication, consistently over-driving what's going on. Why is it happening? What's happening to you? When are we close? When are we opening all of that stuff? You have to take care of yourself first because that fosters a sense of belonging and the people. If they know or appreciate that you're taking care of them, they'll take care of you. You need your workforce with you.

       Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. What did this company do before you? Did they just fly by the seat of their pants then one day decide that they needed a process? Because Florida has always had storms.

       Gerry Angeli: Well, they remember they had just moved here to they came from apart, so we had snow days. That's no process for a day, and that was about it. You dig out from under your go back to work. But here, there's a great deal of uncertainty, but the point is this is the learnings that accrued from the topic of disaster recovery. Align themselves very well with the modern version called business continuity, and in the business, continuity lives the supply chain.

       Take the analysis of what you need to ensure that your supply of materials, the critical ones, to the nuts, bolts, screws, and plastic bags are tended. The biggest mistake that I see happening now is the supply chain. First, we suffered from just in time. We want everything to get here. Just in time, though, that's fine, but not all the time. There are certain things that you need a three- or four-week supply of. During hurricane season, you might not be able to get them. You must make provision for you can call it stockless production. But what are you doing to keep yourself running? If something happens to you or somebody else in Jacksonville, for example, have a storm up there, and not here, but you still can't get stuff.

       The second thing is, like for like. You're A-class items in your inventory. That's the uniquely your stuff - the materials that make your products your products. The things the expensive stuff come from maybe one or two places on the planet. The relationship you have with those suppliers should be different from your relationship with people who sell you the C and D items. One of the things that we learned to do is that for the objects 20 years, items make up the critical pieces you need in your processes.

       As the company president, I thought I made sure that I had a line with the company's president, where they came from pyramid level to pyramid level. President, the President, Vice President, the Vice Presidents, and because, because if you relegate the entire supply chain. I have nothing against the purchasing department, don't get me wrong. You have no firepower.

       The regular folks talking to the common folk can't get you to need something when you need it. You can't get you to deliver something when you need it, and here's the critical learning. If you do that process all the time, whether or not there's a storm or a disruption of any kind, it becomes a matter of routine.

       To call the president of the other company and say how things are going, you must have quarterly meetings about your A-items. The costs go up. The prices go down. Materials come in short supply. You have those dialogues routinely. When a storm happens, you can't get diesel fuel for the generator. If you call the president of that company that day when the other thousand people call that guy that day, you're just another pain.

       You must nurture those relationships in the supply chain all along. Let me give you an excellent example of that. I had a friend who had a business that made sub-assemblies for us down here in Fort Lauderdale. His company was up in Tallahassee, and he had the same problem. They get hit with storms. One day we talked, and he asked me about business continuity because he knew that that was a big question. He says, "what happens if there's a storm in Tallahassee. I can't get you the product you need. I said what the truth of the matter is, I can make yourself, make this assembly that you're driving to.

       I'll put the parts on a truck before the storm hits. You send them down here, and I could do the same thing. If the storm hits here, I can send my stuff up there, and you could make the products. A handshake came of a discussion about keeping the supply chain continuous for those critical parts during a disruption caused by weather. You have to think through that stuff you have to work on or not all the time. You have to think about those disruptions, and the same thing applies. We had another example where a truck full of assembly was in an accident. It caught on fire, and we lost two months of production and didn't know it.

       You know, it was the, wow, where's the truck. So you go on a magical mystery tour trying to figure out what happened to your parts. But the same things that you learn in business continuity for a storm apply there. Then the last thing I'll talk about is the competence of managing for continuity, whether it was when the pandemic hit and things started to shut down. Because the factory shut down, supplies were short because nobody was working. But then we began to run out of materials because the places where the raw materials were scarce, the disturbance, this time, no money planned for this disruption to last this long. Even in all the planning that we did, the most prolonged time that we planned for was a month. Because you figure anything that would happen short of, you know, getting a fire that burns you to the ground, you'll come back to life within a month. Several things have changed that now. One is cyber security. That's a disaster that's man-made. Somebody attacks you dropped your operation to its knees because of ransomware or just because they do nasty things.

       Provisions for cyber-attacks in the supply chain all businesses have to plan for.

       Lisa Ryan: A look at some of the things in Florida. There will be storms, and there are parts from August to November or whenever hurricane season is that you can plan to have that. Three or four extra weeks a truck is a one catching on fire is a one-time event. But how would you prepare for things like the pandemic? We have this backup at the LA ports, where people wait months and months to get their supplies. Is there anything that we could have done or that we could have? We could be doing better when the unexpected happens like it's been for the last two years.

       Gerry Angeli: That's a fascinating question, Lisa. It's one that I wish I had five bucks every time somebody asked me a question in the last three months. When there's a disruption, three things happen all the time. The first thing is prices go up. They never go down. If there's a drought in Brazil, prices go up tomorrow. They go up. They don't go down. Prices go up when there's a disruption.

        Supply uncertainty increases. Whether the tsunami in Japan took up the ice back in, I don't think it was 2010 supply uncertainty increases. Everybody who uses those supplies starts to grab at whatever that thing is, and shortages and allocations happen. It never goes the other way. I worked in the Far East and lived there as part of my career. I can tell you that the ports of LA and Long Beach are always the ones that get congested. They're the ones that always have the lineup of freighters and bankers lined up waiting to unload. Not Seattle, not Miami, Long Beach, and Los Angeles. Now, someone somewhere should be thinking about that saying in the event of his disruption, why don't we send the boats someplace else to load and unload. As simple as that, that one infuriated me. People get on TV and say, oh me, oh my, what are we going to do. Do you mean nobody thought of that?

       One of the things that we used to do when I was over there is call up my customers and say where you want me to send this stuff because LA and Long Beach will get back up. The other alternative is to put it on an airplane costs you a little more. You have to decide and risk analysis that says what's worse, spending a little more money or not having it. That's indecision and risk analysis, analysis but it's always the same porch. Make provision for that when there's a disruption. Those ports get disrupted. They get the lines. Then there's a Eureka someplace in the news. Why don't we send it through the Panama Canal and bring it to get it to Miami or someplace on the east coast? It costs more good example of that was the freighter that got stuck in the Suez Canal.

       Well yeah, after it happened, everybody said, oh me again, oh me oh my, what are we going to do? The boat was stuck for a week, so the worst that could happen is we'll be down for a week now that's not the way it works, folks. It's a chain. When that boat gets stuck, all the other ships passing through that canal have this all the other vessels have to sit and wait.

       At one point in time, I kept watching over that one again for the same reason, because I was learning. It's unreal for us when it comes to learning. There were 400 ships on either side of that canal waiting for the one stuck to get unstuck so that they could move on. Now each of the boats in the channel stuck. I think it had something like 20,000 containers on it. Not only were the ships not loading and unloading, but they were also sitting there idling. The containers were all in the wrong place. They weren't being loaded or unloaded on the way back around the way to a customer. They were in the wrong place, and the cascade started to happen next.

       Even though the boat was only stuck for a week and a half, technically, I guarantee you there'll be stuff that happens next month that someone will cite. The reason that happened is that both were stuck in the canal lesson. Well, it's the cascade. One thing starts to set up the next, and you run out of stuff. That's the work that's anathema to any manufacturing. So how did you run out, and what happened during the pandemic? We ran out of everything.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, toilet paper.

       Gerry Angeli: And that doesn't know the changes. That doesn't count the changes and demands that happened. So when people begin to, I don't want to say that's the wrong thing but make a run on a particular commodity. When and whether it is for paint.

       Think of the things, make a list of the things that come to mind the pigments for paint, chlorine, for your pool. You cited toilet paper. Products all went short all went on allocation. You can't get it, and then, when I'm the prices went up, the price goes up. Delivery uncertainty goes up allocations result. You get a disruption. Those three things are going to happen guaranteed might only last the day. In our case, we're lucky to have yours.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. Let's go back to the very beginning. It was interesting when you said out of all this disruption that's going on, including the pandemic and hurricanes, it comes down to people first and taking care of them. What have you seen as good examples of that or just some of your philosophies about creating that positive workplace and focusing on the employees? Employees are in short supply right now.

       Gerry Angeli: If you view the human resource as part of the chain, the same things are happening. You're over in short on the same day. There's a whole host of reasons beyond this podcast's scope to talk about why people are doing that. In one of the CEO roundtables that I sit on, we discussed this topic all the time because it's changing the fabric of manufacturing quite dramatically. Working from home is terrific and virtual work is excellent, but you know, unless we turn manufacturing operations in the cottage industries, you gotta go to work in the building where everybody else's get done what you need to get done.

       One of the most incredible things that I'd seen I saw in the forest, and I visited here when it happened there were people in the immediate amount in the primary mode when into a safety protocol. Make sure everything was super clean, the place smelled like Clorox and bleach, but there was no hesitancy on the part of the people who manage the operations to make sure they didn't do anything to worsen the situation. The place was clean and neat and tidy, and sanitary every day. What were those things they do from business continuity? When a storm happens, everybody has a job and a task. There are assignments made. Your job is this your job.

       One of the best practices I saw is that several of my colleagues who run operations immediately split their shifts apart. So there was a time window when the first shift would stop and then spend an hour cleaning the place before the next shift got there, so that created a two-hour window where nothing was happening. So that one could tidy up, straighten up, sanitize, leave and the next one comes in. What does that do that instills a sense that again back to the folks they care enough to make sure that I have a sanitary place to work and it's visible the value is recognizable. They got to work, and the whole place smelled like Clorox. Whatever product you use to do the cleaning but it's a tangible example for the folks that somebody cares about them.

       Lisa Ryan: Okay, probably if you put the numbers to it, they may have lost a little bit of production, but if they could save those people from leaving the company because they didn't feel safe, they didn't feel protected. With the great resignation going on, they could have been a big part of that and just left, so I'm it sounds like there was probably an evening out of the numbers. Where they didn't make as big of a loss as they could have by stopping production like that, what did they find?

       Gerry Angeli ran it at 80% capacity, but it throttled back. It does. But at the same time, their demand throttled back as well. But the most significant benefit was the operation kept running, and one of the things that I used to say is that the rest of the world knows how to do this. Still, America doesn't because we never stop, never sit that, we never take a vacation we're always working.

       Starting and stopping kills a manufacturing operation, unless you know how to start and stop unless you know how to wind down the operation and start the operation backup. This is what killed a plant is when you shut down a lead time. Four to eight weeks, unless you stop it.

       Lisa Ryan: what's an IC.

       Gerry Angeli: Integrated circuit.

       Lisa Ryan: The other thing that.

       Gerry Angeli: The thing that that that is also void at the moment because they can't get the raw materials and machines have been shut down for so long and then when you lose the human resource. That does it; you also lose a colleague of mine calls it the tribal knowledge. You could have all the processes procedures in the world written down and documented, and codified. But if you lose the person that knows how the whole thing goes together, you have just been disrupted in a big way.

       So what it does, is it establishes a continuity through that time yeah, you're not doing the tech amateur is not running at 7000 pm. It's down at 4000 pm. You're still running. You do not forget how to do anything.

       Lisa Ryan: So what do you so go back to what you just said with the starting and stopping kills a manufacturing plant. Unless you know how to do that, so in your]]>f8a7d83d-3b4f-4c31-9196-6d56e2fd79dfMon, 28 Mar 2022 07:05:00 -040035:05falsefull218182Keeping Up with Manufacturing Innovation and the Pace of Change with Maziar AdlConnect with Maziar Adl:

       LinkedIn: 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 that? Communication is one thing but is it easy for them to get everything talking to each other. Walk us through the process of what that looks like.

       Maziar Adl: Product managers on their own are almost helpless, they need a lot of support from different parts of the organization, so if you think about it, a product manager can only bring products to life that the customers need if engineering can deliver them, for example, they can always move as fast as the organization can change. Giving them tools to product managers or bringing them to the new age is one thing, but this must relate to the rest of the organization. That means that the approach to product design and development should change.

       I'll give you an example, so in the case of automotive, if you think about cars, today more and more software is being installed on vehicles, I guess, for example, you see, you wake up, and Tesla now has downloaded a new version of their software. Your car might even start bark sounding like the bark of a dog. If you think about it, the software gives the ability for the hardware to be looked at as a platform that can change more rapidly. Using software being installed or new versions of the software being installed on it. But to design that kind of hardware, it's a different mindset historically; manufacturers didn't think of their products that way. They thought of the products as, let's say, a car, not as a platform that then later, you can rapidly change it like your laptop right.

       The laptop you have hardware-wise is the same laptop you had maybe a year ago, and you haven't changed it. But since then, you've installed so much software, and your laptop's going to change every day. That's how most of the manufacturers are looking at things. That means a change in design. Changing the way you approach solutions in the market and, of course, the product manager wants your organization to be in the proper mode. A product manager needs tools to communicate at that pace, so engineers know what needs to change and bring those changes on the platform more rapidly.

       Lisa Ryan: So it sounds like when you use the examples of the car of Tesla, in particular, but in the car industry, consumers today are looking for a lot more personalization and a lot more customization. It sounds like this is allowing product managers to bring some unique things that are more personalized to their consumers to the market.

       Maziar Adl: Only we give one source of truth, a platform that product managers can leverage to track changes and define the product and customize it for different markets. We call it personas or other customer needs and have a platform that can be reconfigured for these markets or personas.

       Lisa Ryan: So besides the auto industry, give us some other examples of your technology or how this technology is changing the industry.

       Maziar Adl: So, think of everything complex. By complex, I mean you have to bring different modules on parts on a platform, and you can reconfigure it for other markets and personalize them it all fits. For example, you can look at industrial machinery and consumer electronics like laptops, TV, or hi-fi systems. These are good examples, but it doesn't end there. You can also look at the equipment that requires software. For instance, IOT equipment, if you look at your home, you have smart devices that monitor or manage parts of your home like air conditioning. These all are examples of things that you can configure and repurpose for different markets. You have to bring in other parts and modules, and features together to make this physical hardware and then improve it over time.

       Lisa Ryan: And when you talk about a roadmap for product managers, what do you mean by that?

       Maziar Adl: One of the interesting things about agile, in general, is that you know agile. Most of the focus has been tactical. In other words, hey, we do two weeks, and then we move to the next increment, and we build things incrementally when manufacturing cycles are simply longer, and you have to think of your product a little bit more strategically. So, what gushes enable is strategic product planning, so what you can do is you can map the changes and these configurations or changes to your product definition over time. And map when those releases happen in the next three to say 5-10 years and make a business case of every release or the overall strategy of your product.

       For example, if you want to move all your manufacturing equipment, let's say in the case of cars, you want to move entirely to EV well, maybe you start by moving your vehicles or a subset of your product line to hybrid. From there, you move to EV, and little by little, you sunset your old cars to make, and your objective is to become fully sustainable or usefully sustainable energy. In those cases, you can map that strategy with Gocious' platform and continuously evolve it or improve on it as time goes by and communicate that with the rest of the organization.

       Lisa Ryan: And is there a way to test this out before you implement the program so you can see how it works and the different changes?

       Maziar Adl: Absolutely, so one of the things we do is there are two things one is using the platform itself cautious platform we allow for people to have a trial, and if the operation is a little bit bigger, we carve a test space for them to kind of experiment, but the second one is testing the ideas or the ideas that are coming in before you]]>Connect with Maziar Adl:

       LinkedIn: 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 that? Communication is one thing but is it easy for them to get everything talking to each other. Walk us through the process of what that looks like.

       Maziar Adl: Product managers on their own are almost helpless, they need a lot of support from different parts of the organization, so if you think about it, a product manager can only bring products to life that the customers need if engineering can deliver them, for example, they can always move as fast as the organization can change. Giving them tools to product managers or bringing them to the new age is one thing, but this must relate to the rest of the organization. That means that the approach to product design and development should change.

       I'll give you an example, so in the case of automotive, if you think about cars, today more and more software is being installed on vehicles, I guess, for example, you see, you wake up, and Tesla now has downloaded a new version of their software. Your car might even start bark sounding like the bark of a dog. If you think about it, the software gives the ability for the hardware to be looked at as a platform that can change more rapidly. Using software being installed or new versions of the software being installed on it. But to design that kind of hardware, it's a different mindset historically; manufacturers didn't think of their products that way. They thought of the products as, let's say, a car, not as a platform that then later, you can rapidly change it like your laptop right.

       The laptop you have hardware-wise is the same laptop you had maybe a year ago, and you haven't changed it. But since then, you've installed so much software, and your laptop's going to change every day. That's how most of the manufacturers are looking at things. That means a change in design. Changing the way you approach solutions in the market and, of course, the product manager wants your organization to be in the proper mode. A product manager needs tools to communicate at that pace, so engineers know what needs to change and bring those changes on the platform more rapidly.

       Lisa Ryan: So it sounds like when you use the examples of the car of Tesla, in particular, but in the car industry, consumers today are looking for a lot more personalization and a lot more customization. It sounds like this is allowing product managers to bring some unique things that are more personalized to their consumers to the market.

       Maziar Adl: Only we give one source of truth, a platform that product managers can leverage to track changes and define the product and customize it for different markets. We call it personas or other customer needs and have a platform that can be reconfigured for these markets or personas.

       Lisa Ryan: So besides the auto industry, give us some other examples of your technology or how this technology is changing the industry.

       Maziar Adl: So, think of everything complex. By complex, I mean you have to bring different modules on parts on a platform, and you can reconfigure it for other markets and personalize them it all fits. For example, you can look at industrial machinery and consumer electronics like laptops, TV, or hi-fi systems. These are good examples, but it doesn't end there. You can also look at the equipment that requires software. For instance, IOT equipment, if you look at your home, you have smart devices that monitor or manage parts of your home like air conditioning. These all are examples of things that you can configure and repurpose for different markets. You have to bring in other parts and modules, and features together to make this physical hardware and then improve it over time.

       Lisa Ryan: And when you talk about a roadmap for product managers, what do you mean by that?

       Maziar Adl: One of the interesting things about agile, in general, is that you know agile. Most of the focus has been tactical. In other words, hey, we do two weeks, and then we move to the next increment, and we build things incrementally when manufacturing cycles are simply longer, and you have to think of your product a little bit more strategically. So, what gushes enable is strategic product planning, so what you can do is you can map the changes and these configurations or changes to your product definition over time. And map when those releases happen in the next three to say 5-10 years and make a business case of every release or the overall strategy of your product.

       For example, if you want to move all your manufacturing equipment, let's say in the case of cars, you want to move entirely to EV well, maybe you start by moving your vehicles or a subset of your product line to hybrid. From there, you move to EV, and little by little, you sunset your old cars to make, and your objective is to become fully sustainable or usefully sustainable energy. In those cases, you can map that strategy with Gocious' platform and continuously evolve it or improve on it as time goes by and communicate that with the rest of the organization.

       Lisa Ryan: And is there a way to test this out before you implement the program so you can see how it works and the different changes?

       Maziar Adl: Absolutely, so one of the things we do is there are two things one is using the platform itself cautious platform we allow for people to have a trial, and if the operation is a little bit bigger, we carve a test space for them to kind of experiment, but the second one is testing the ideas or the ideas that are coming in before you mark every release on the roadmap. That's in our platform, so you have an idea for a new release if you're on our platform. If you have a roadmap, you can put it in a draft mode, and then we'll discuss it with your peers or other parts of the organization. Then, when it's ready, you can publish that new roadmap or changes for the wider audience to know what's now approved or published for production in the next three to five years.

       Lisa Ryan: Okay, now with the way technology is going, these days, I mean three to five years is a long time. A lot of other things can change in that time too. How do you account for the potential changes in technology that may be happening?

       Maziar Adl: And that's precisely the crux of the issue. I think you just put your finger on it. Imagine if manufacturers need to do this, they need to look at three 5-10 year horizons because that's the cycle time to meet their objectives, or that's how long it takes for specific R&D to materialize now. As time goes by, market conditions change precisely, as you mentioned. That's a long horizon, so to keep the roadmap on track, they must continuously revisit that roadmap and make adjustments as they get more information or enrich the future roadmap.

       Today, you might not know what's happening five years from now, but you have a high-level idea. Two years from now, five years, four years away, or three years away, you have to evolve that with PowerPoints and spreadsheets, and then people churn, and then you don't know where that spreadsheet is anymore or trying to keep it up with many related documents. You can do this now with the technology of the day. With web two point O, you can or web 3.0 that's coming you can put it in a central place where everybody can have access remotely from anywhere in the world.

       Whether you're working hybrid or in different parts of the world, bring them all together, always give them the latest, and make rapid changes when necessary.

       Lisa Ryan: What would be an example of a before and after? What was a manufacturer doing before they put this roadmap into place? What was their process was, and what happened as a result.

       Maziar Adl: So let me paraphrase some of the comments from our prospects and customers. To give you an example, if you have a strategic roadmap for your product portfolio, multiple product lines come together. And you are going into a meeting with every product line product manager presenting their case. You have an executive board or a product board reviewing the products on the road maps and making sure that everything's on track.

       Suppose you don't have standard reporting methods if you don't have one place to put everything together and have the information at your fingertips. Then that meeting either gets concluded with not no proper decisions or some decisions will be postponed to other meetings. The other one is aligning everybody together becomes very difficult because you have to bring a lot of people together from different parts of the organization to make decisions. This is expensive, but delays in these decisions can hurt the company quite a bit.

       Many times we've heard that if you have, let's say quarterly meeting to review your strategic roadmap, make sure everything's on track, a lot of times, people come. But the executives asked questions, and the information was not readily available, or the information was not consistent, so team A presented it differently than team B. They're submitting different information, so the standardization of the data is not there, and then they go back and then come back again for another round after a journey.

       Also, because this information is not accessible from a central place or on the web remotely, then what happens is it's not like you can before the meeting. Invite everybody on the platform and say, hey, let's check everything so when we're going into this meeting, everything's ready and everything's good to go and the decisions are made, and we can bring things back on track.

       You can save a lot of time collectively manpower of executives or product managers, or you know executive management if you do this, which is quite expensive and quiet and delay in decisions can disrupt the production as a result. So we can start using these kinds of platforms.

       Lisa Ryan: And what's the best way for somebody to get started? Is there something that they're looking for, as far as an outdated process, or maybe there's something in the system that's holding up everything? What would be a sign that this would be time to develop some process like this?

       Maziar Adl: There are different angles. One is to imagine your portfolio manager or your product manager responsible for defining the product, making sure that you get buy-in from executives or senior leadership to execute the product, and making sure that the definition of the product is the same across the board. It would help if you had some analytics. You also need a space to define the product and then combine them to take you to executives or senior leadership to get the buy-in and communicate it across the board. It might not be an issue if you're doing this with a very small group and you're doing it on spreadsheets and PowerPoints.

       But if the team is a little bit larger and you have gates, you continuously have to make changes. It would help if you informed others of those changes, and these documents are all intertwined, so it's not one spreadsheet. For example, you have multiple spreadsheets that tie things together and try to keep up with the change, and you want to reduce the mistake. The platforms like this definitely will reduce the time it takes to keep up with the changes in your product roadmap. Your product definition gives you much better visualizations that help you communicate more effectively with your peers or with your Executive the products coming out. Or you believe it's right for the market to come out. Those are the main reasons you would look to leverage a platform like this in your organization.

       Lisa Ryan: And so, when you think about this, from a general standpoint if somebody whether or not they were using your platform or not, but they want, but a manufacturer listening today wanted to look for ways to improve the processes that they're doing in the plant, what would be your best piece of advice for them?

       Maziar Adl: Well, the first piece of advice is to stay competitive. Look at how you can speed up the product management planning and product strategy to ensure that the strategies are continuously aligned with the market needs, so you don't lock in something. The organization creates so much affinity around it that everybody's afraid of raising their hand, saying, hey, this is wrong. The product is not aligned with the market any longer. So you have to find ways to bring processes or tools together to bring the people together to make sure that you can continuously look at their product roadmap and make adjustments as necessary.

       I think the world is going in that direction. How do you with software becoming more and more relevant in hardware manufacturing? How do you bring hardware and software teams together to work in tandem? Have a nice cadence working together. How would you leverage new processes or tools to help you with bringing these groups as one team together?

       Lisa Ryan: If somebody would want to continue the conversation with you and learn more about the roadmap or Gocious, what's the best way for them to get ahold of you.

       Maziar Adl: So you can always reach me are from different channels. I'm always available on my email, of course, mazadl@gocious.com. The other one is my LinkedIn page, https://www.linkedin.com/in/maziaradl/. You can always go to our website if you generally want to reach us. We have a contact place to reach out to if you need to see our platform. We're always available. We're going to meet you in person, where you know we're going to show you a demonstration of the platform, and we'd be more than happy to answer any questions anybody might have, okay.

       Lisa Ryan: It has been a pleasure having you on the show, so thanks so much for joining me today.

       Maziar Adl: Thank you so much for having me. This was an immense pleasure.

       Lisa Ryan: But I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. We'll see you next time.

       ]]>169f5ea4-3fb1-4501-8568-0cf45306d63aMon, 21 Mar 2022 07:05:00 -040023:42falsefull217172Simple Recruiting Strategies for a Tight Labor Market with Dawn SipleyConnect 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 inside of groups. I am in a lot of groups.

       I'm in an electricians group. I'm in a plumbers group. I'm in an industrial controls technicians group, and even though I don't work per se in any of those fields, one of those fields I'm able to see what my target audience is talking about, what they're complaining about, and what they're happy about.

       It gets me engaged with a targeted audience. Then, when I get a job opening in one of those fields, I can post it there. Since I've had an engagement with that audience already, I'm a trusted resource and not just a headhunter or a recruiter. Unfortunately, those recruiters and headhunters that are cold calling are viewed as sleazy salespeople at this point. People are tired of LinkedIn messages. They're tired of the phone calls. They want to do business with someone they've already had a previous engagement with.

       Lisa Ryan: So it sounds like narrowing down the groups that would be most applicable to people listening to this show because you don't want to be in 20 different groups if you're going to participate and get a flair for what's in that group. But to become a part of it, that's when you are opening the window. You're not coming across as sleazy, but you're connecting with friends.

       Dawn Sipley: You can also focus on geographically reached groups and not necessarily guilt that region or skill set focus, so some of those groups are national groups. Those are the things that I'm going to pull people to the state of Florida to hire for because I'm based here in Florida, even though I do national recruitment. But I'm also a part of many of my pro-community groups where I post things in there that are helpful, like good tools, interviewing tips, resume rewrite services, and different things like that.

       When a job opening comes up, they already know me as a trusted resource that gave them many tips and tricks. In addition, those micro-community groups are an excellent resource because you typically want the higher within 30 miles on a given location.

       Lisa Ryan: When it comes to the things that you are posting on social media, because if every day, you were posting, hey we're hiring, we're hiring, then people are going to take you with a grain of salt. What are you seeing successful manufacturers and other types of organizations posting that attract new candidates to them?

       Dawn Sipley: Stories always have a high click rate. Horror stories on you won't believe what this candidate just did, or I'm so frustrated by this; or wow, what a fantastic day, the perfect candidate came in, they did this, and this we hired them, or we offered them more money than he was asking for.

       Talking about negotiation on more than just salary negotiation – benefits and things like that. Some of the trends that we're seeing are advice on being an elite job seeker, not just an average job seeker. I share when I'm willing to pay more money, what am I looking for that will get that extra dollar $5 out of the corporate pocket. There are tips to where they feel like they are learning something from engagement, engaging with us, and promoting questions and things like to be asked and answered professionally.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, that sounds like many tactics that are good for people actively on the job search. What about those that aren't necessary but may be curious about new opportunities? What are companies doing to maybe catch their attention?

       Dawn Sipley: Again, it's just that organic engagement you don't have to be looking to be curious, right, and you don't have to be job seeking to want to learn how to be a suitable job seeker. The days of working for a company for 30 years, getting a pension, and retiring are gone 90% of the time, have a separation of employment from your current employer. You will leave whether it's your decision.

       The employers' decision or the good Lord above you're exiting at some point. So always keep that in mind and stay in tune with the job market. A happy employee to know when is a good job time to be looking when is a good time, not to be looking right now is an excellent time for job seekers in Florida, unemployment is 4.4%, which is very low.

       Other states are slightly higher, but it is a job seeker job market. So if you're not earning what you want to earn, now's a good time to start sniffing around and investigating and seeing who has the filter in their environment and where you could transition over to.

       Lisa Ryan: What resources are people not necessarily in that marketing mode or aren't used to doing this marketing? What would be a good way for them to get started?

       Dawn Sipley: Podcasts are a great way to start YouTube tutorials marketing 101. Companies and corporations should be looking at social media engagement. Webinars are not only for their HR team or their it team or their marketing team, but all of their employees should be soldiers to increase your sales and increase your hiring ability. They were engaged in the community that way. Otherwise, they're going to do it anyway. They might do it poorly, so investing in building your brand is essential.

       Lisa Ryan: So what would be some things when you talk about a personal brand? What is that? What does it look like in the marketplace?

       Dawn Sipley: Man, that's a huge question. So, the cliff notes version. Personal branding is knowing what and knowing what you don't know. First off, you know, everybody always tries to be...]]>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 inside of groups. I am in a lot of groups.

       I'm in an electricians group. I'm in a plumbers group. I'm in an industrial controls technicians group, and even though I don't work per se in any of those fields, one of those fields I'm able to see what my target audience is talking about, what they're complaining about, and what they're happy about.

       It gets me engaged with a targeted audience. Then, when I get a job opening in one of those fields, I can post it there. Since I've had an engagement with that audience already, I'm a trusted resource and not just a headhunter or a recruiter. Unfortunately, those recruiters and headhunters that are cold calling are viewed as sleazy salespeople at this point. People are tired of LinkedIn messages. They're tired of the phone calls. They want to do business with someone they've already had a previous engagement with.

       Lisa Ryan: So it sounds like narrowing down the groups that would be most applicable to people listening to this show because you don't want to be in 20 different groups if you're going to participate and get a flair for what's in that group. But to become a part of it, that's when you are opening the window. You're not coming across as sleazy, but you're connecting with friends.

       Dawn Sipley: You can also focus on geographically reached groups and not necessarily guilt that region or skill set focus, so some of those groups are national groups. Those are the things that I'm going to pull people to the state of Florida to hire for because I'm based here in Florida, even though I do national recruitment. But I'm also a part of many of my pro-community groups where I post things in there that are helpful, like good tools, interviewing tips, resume rewrite services, and different things like that.

       When a job opening comes up, they already know me as a trusted resource that gave them many tips and tricks. In addition, those micro-community groups are an excellent resource because you typically want the higher within 30 miles on a given location.

       Lisa Ryan: When it comes to the things that you are posting on social media, because if every day, you were posting, hey we're hiring, we're hiring, then people are going to take you with a grain of salt. What are you seeing successful manufacturers and other types of organizations posting that attract new candidates to them?

       Dawn Sipley: Stories always have a high click rate. Horror stories on you won't believe what this candidate just did, or I'm so frustrated by this; or wow, what a fantastic day, the perfect candidate came in, they did this, and this we hired them, or we offered them more money than he was asking for.

       Talking about negotiation on more than just salary negotiation – benefits and things like that. Some of the trends that we're seeing are advice on being an elite job seeker, not just an average job seeker. I share when I'm willing to pay more money, what am I looking for that will get that extra dollar $5 out of the corporate pocket. There are tips to where they feel like they are learning something from engagement, engaging with us, and promoting questions and things like to be asked and answered professionally.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, that sounds like many tactics that are good for people actively on the job search. What about those that aren't necessary but may be curious about new opportunities? What are companies doing to maybe catch their attention?

       Dawn Sipley: Again, it's just that organic engagement you don't have to be looking to be curious, right, and you don't have to be job seeking to want to learn how to be a suitable job seeker. The days of working for a company for 30 years, getting a pension, and retiring are gone 90% of the time, have a separation of employment from your current employer. You will leave whether it's your decision.

       The employers' decision or the good Lord above you're exiting at some point. So always keep that in mind and stay in tune with the job market. A happy employee to know when is a good job time to be looking when is a good time, not to be looking right now is an excellent time for job seekers in Florida, unemployment is 4.4%, which is very low.

       Other states are slightly higher, but it is a job seeker job market. So if you're not earning what you want to earn, now's a good time to start sniffing around and investigating and seeing who has the filter in their environment and where you could transition over to.

       Lisa Ryan: What resources are people not necessarily in that marketing mode or aren't used to doing this marketing? What would be a good way for them to get started?

       Dawn Sipley: Podcasts are a great way to start YouTube tutorials marketing 101. Companies and corporations should be looking at social media engagement. Webinars are not only for their HR team or their it team or their marketing team, but all of their employees should be soldiers to increase your sales and increase your hiring ability. They were engaged in the community that way. Otherwise, they're going to do it anyway. They might do it poorly, so investing in building your brand is essential.

       Lisa Ryan: So what would be some things when you talk about a personal brand? What is that? What does it look like in the marketplace?

       Dawn Sipley: Man, that's a huge question. So, the cliff notes version. Personal branding is knowing what and knowing what you don't know. First off, you know, everybody always tries to be bigger, better, faster than anyone else. That's not necessarily the key to being valued. Knowing a lot and good communication skills, appropriate communication, professional interactions on social media. Those are all things that build your personal brand. You're building your personal brand already, whether you know it or not. So empowering yourself in your team to create a personal brand positively is good. Employers always love someone who is quote-unquote drinking the Kool-aid right. They love their brand ambassadors that are uniquely in passionately open about loving what they do every day.

       If they do it for their current employer, they'll probably do it for me when I hire them and make them a happy employee.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, so going on the opposite of recruiting because now people who may be listening to this podcast is yeah, but I don't want my employees to keep their eyes open and be working on their personal brand because then they're going to leave me. What are companies doing when you have tried. Please share an example of when you try to define, you had the ideal candidate, but they just loved their employer so much they were unwilling to move, no matter what that employer did. Have you seen that, and what does it take to build that type of loyalty to your company?

       Dawn Sipley: Engagement buys loyalty. Money doesn't buy loyalty. I'm not talking about social media engagement; I'm talking about truly knowing and having a real relationship with your employees. Let's start by knowing their name and knowing their kids' names and their wives' names and when hard things happen, cover for them not, not to say that you're not going to have a private conversation on how they could have been proved that situation. Not throwing your team members under the bus just because they're out there and they're engaging, and they're looking, you made the statement.

       We don't want them out there, looking fantastic to be doubled up by the competition. But you also don't want them out there, looking terrible not being gobbled up by the competition. What's worse, they stay, and they have their personal brand. Look for legal, looking for your company, and that's why more and more companies have social media guidelines around what they can post and cannot post about the company and about their involvement and things like that, so acknowledging IT training on it. Doing it well will make them go away and get stolen by the competition. It'll increase your brand as long as you have that engagement out there.

       Lisa Ryan: What are some do's and don'ts when it comes to having those social media policies? What are companies doing to protect themselves and be open and transparent to the community?

       Dawn Sipley: One is to do the training, not just to let the employees know how they engage in what they do. Give them rules to play in a wide net as well. You can post this, or you can't post that having general rules of integrity and respect and professionalism. Usually, guide them because we can't monitor everything and control everything, but we can empower our folks to do the right thing. If you want them to agree with your vision or comply with it, you want them on board with your idea. You want them to share your exact image. You can't beat them into compliance. That's not going to produce the same amount of high-quality content. It will empower them and have them in alignment with your vision. It shouldn't be just a list of do's and don'ts but more "This is our culture, this is our vision, and this is how we share."

       Creating great original content for them to share that they would be proud to share. So, for example, if you're an employee of the month and you're highlighted on the employee website, well, then they are likely to share those amazing things with their personal network.

       Lisa Ryan: Okay, so that, so what so Besides that, because the employee of the month is a great way to promote and it's not necessarily the employee tooting their own Horn. They're just sharing that somebody else's tooting their Horn. What are some of the other things people like to share or are good to share from social media? Whether it be the company, giving them some guidance, or just the employee sharing on their own?

       Dawn Sipley: What first came to mind, for me, was a LinkedIn message that I saw the other day. A gentleman had just returned from paternity leave. He was paid this week. He had time to bond with his newborn child, and he gave a massive shout-out to his organization. He thanked them for the opportunity to be able to go home and have that that once in a lifetime experience with their newborn. Things like that, where they're so in love with the company that they want to share what it is. Doing the right thing, going above and beyond, when you don't have to. At least paternity leave is amazing. For so long, our culture is only given maternity leave. Still, fathers must bond with their children, as it is for mothers, so having healthy social policies promote a healthy society. Our employees aren't just our employees; they're moms and dads, siblings, or caretakers - so having policies that allow them to be all of those things will promote your workplace and being unique and special and engaging in a place where people want to work.

       Lisa Ryan: That's such a great idea for sharing the paternity leave. Again, if some other guys are looking at that going wow, I would love to have that opportunity turn into an excellent opportunity to look at that organization if they are in the same neighborhood. Are there ways that you encourage people, or maybe you're finding some people to get the process started to start the people posting so that they know what's Okay? They think about it because, in some cases, people wouldn't even think about posting that, and yet it's such a critical part of letting the world know what a fantastic benefit and what a tremendous job companies are doing.

       Dawn Sipley: I have a girlfriend with a selfie wall. It's a green grass wall with a neon sign that says hashtag be inspired. Every day, her employers or employees are going up to the wall taking selfies, taking pictures, doing hashtags. Once it's developed into the culture, the employees are recognized for excellent content.

       I'm a part of the Central Florida Christian Chamber of Commerce, and one of the things that they do in their weekly newsletter gives a shout-out to people who have shouted out to them during the week so that they will reshare. Small business owners post where they said amazing things about the Chamber, so that's just one example. If I was an employee saying, man, I love the place I work. The boss man came in today, sat down with me, and just chatted with me for 45 minutes. I got to know him better and where he's coming from and stuff like that, well then, the company would share that. It's such an honor to have Sally on our team. I appreciated spending the time with her to learn more about her family and the challenges that she's having. We're going to change the policies. She shared with me that it had been an obstacle for her to be her best, which just created this whole circle. Enthusiasm becomes contagious. You want the attention and the words of affirmation or a huge love language for many people—one of the top love languages in a free love language.

       Lisa Ryan: It just reminds me when employees are getting awards, and of course, there's an employee of the month, but there's also just being recognized for service, maybe for milestones for anything that you can do and to have a fight would seem to me that an easy way. This is what I do too. You have a file of just copy and paste. On Monday, I'm going to talk about Bill on Tuesday; I'm going to talk about Jane on Wednesday; I'm going to talk about Jose, whatever it is. You can start to do a media planning calendar. It's also the consistency of getting it out versus promoting 20 employees and one day and then none for the rest of the month.

       Dawn Sipley: You have to have a drip campaign you can't go and do a blast and expect that collapse all year, and the same goes with leadership, these companies, they have these summits and these giveaways, and they talk about leadership and rah-rah you leave all hyped up and on fire, for the company. Then you get in on Monday, and it's back to the same grind. Everything that we're told to you has been lost in the sauce, and they're not demonstrating leadership every week, every day in the ways that they treat their employees and the things they do. So it is a drip campaign of being authentic and being honest. You can't have any of that if you don't have good leadership and a healthy environment. The same goes for glassdoor and places like that. They judge employers on whether they're a good place of employment. As an HR consultant, I always look at the timelines. Because you'll notice, you'll get a few bad reviews, and then suddenly, five employees hop on there and go, oh no, this is a great place. Well, I guarantee five employees posted all on the same day were told by their boss, hey, we've got some bad reviews on glassdoor and need you to go on there.

       Well, the morning they're going to go on there, and they need to keep the job they just saw job last week. That all authentic drip campaign and not laugh because laughter for doing anybody can produce content. In a week and a month and have a campaign, but is it a part of the authentic culture of the organization, and can you see it across different platforms, not only on their social media but on their website on their internal communication.

       It is the standard held at the same place across the board.

       Lisa Ryan: When the other interesting]]>8ced0847-ed91-4a19-b33e-45e5c83d0e79Mon, 14 Mar 2022 07:05:00 -040029:51falsefull216162The Role of Garbage, Bathrooms, and Leaders on Employee Engagement with Mark WhittenContact 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 need to provide the tools and training to the people that need it. These kinds of things have been our focus. 2.0 is all about performance. It's about engagements, about culture. It's about quality. We're building the business back. That's been the journey of the last two years.

       Lisa Ryan: And a lot of it is paying attention to those little things. We think that we're going to start this engagement initiative and that it's going to take all kinds of time and tons of money to do all these different surveys. But it comes down to some of the little things of just noticing trash and bathrooms, for example. What are some of the things you noticed along those lines and some of the other little things?

       Mark Whitten: Well, let me share a story. In my previous assignment before Spartanburg, I went to another underperforming business. It was a large million square foot plan with UAW and a thousand employees. It was in a tough spot I went there. I set up a task to focus on improving the performance and results. In my first week, I think day two, I met the leadership team. They came into the boardroom and welcomed me. The team went around the table got to know the team.

       I said, Let's go for a walk on the floor. Let's walk through the plant, but I intended to observe their behavior. I wanted to see how this leadership ran the bus. They are the ones I wanted to watch. I wanted to see how they behave as they walk through the facility.

       What I observed was that they broke every safety rule. You're supposed to have your plugs, eyeglasses, follow the walkways, cross at proper walkways, and these kinds of things. They broke all that. They were talking on our phones, cutting across aisles your plugs, their earplugs were hanging out.

       But the worst thing for me was that they were walking by the garbage on the floor. As we walked down the aisle, there was a pop can on the floor. They all proceeded to walk by that garbage can as I watched in horror. As I followed them, I always wanted the back. My point was to observe behavior. So, I picked up the pop can, and I continued to pick up the garbage as we walked through the plant.

       I didn't see them engage any employees as they walked by. There was no engagement, no high fives, and how are you? No, Hello, how's your day. Nothing. We got back to the boardroom, and we came in, and I said, you know I understand the problem in this company. They looked at me with a surprised look, like I had some ultimate wisdom. I said it's you. It's every single one of you. You are the problem. You are the reason that this business is the way it is. You allow it. You model the incorrect behavior, but you expect employees to follow the rules. You punish them for not following the Rules, yet you don't.

       You don't lead by example in any way, shape, or form. Even the little things - if I knew they weren't doing the little things, I was guaranteed they weren't focused on the right things and the big things. Of those 10, eight of them left the organization in short order. Two of them were passionate people who cared. They were overshadowed by the other eight. They stayed with me, and we built a new leadership team. We got great results after that. But it's the little things, as you point out, Lisa.

       I think a lot of your listeners and leaders have not missed this, but maybe don't give this behavior as much credit, as let's do simple things like picking up garbage and leading by example in your behavior. Every single day, how you engage people are talking to people. Listening to people, respect and dignity, walking through your shop floor - those people are out there doing the complex jobs. They're doing the tough jobs and listening to them, respecting them, hearing them out, and making sure that we're doing the things to help them be successful is critical.

       Things like coffee chats, one-on-ones, employee meetings, ask the President box. We used all kinds of different methods in which our employees can reach out and bring forth issues, ask questions and make sure that they've got clarity. These little things matter.

       And if I could just go one more point, that's the bathrooms you mentioned. As I walked through the plant in my last assignment, I went to the furthest bathroom I could find, which was an employee bathroom. I was horrified with what I saw - the door stalls were ripped off, there were no stall doors in the room where the toilets were. And there's graffiti written all over there about how much of this company sucks and things like that. So I just knew right now that the culture is what it is, but it's that because of management's behavior, bottom line.

       So, bathrooms matter. It's a sign of respect. You have 400 people working in your facility. You want them to come to work and be safe. You want them to be engaged. You want them to perform well. So, you have to create an environment that allows that to happen. And that's an organization focused on cleanliness with bright lights, clean bathrooms, proper facilities for lunch and eating, and things like that. That matters tremendously if you want to engage people truly.

       Lisa Ryan: And culture does start at the top. So, when you're walking through the plant and engaging, do you know your employees by name? Do they look at you and smile and wave? Do you give everybody a high five or at least an air high five? Or, when they're walking by, are your employees avoiding your glance because they don't know what you're going to say to them, or they don't feel seen anyway. So that level of respect of looking at your forward-facing areas in the plant - where your customers come in, or vendors come in. Do...]]>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 need to provide the tools and training to the people that need it. These kinds of things have been our focus. 2.0 is all about performance. It's about engagements, about culture. It's about quality. We're building the business back. That's been the journey of the last two years.

       Lisa Ryan: And a lot of it is paying attention to those little things. We think that we're going to start this engagement initiative and that it's going to take all kinds of time and tons of money to do all these different surveys. But it comes down to some of the little things of just noticing trash and bathrooms, for example. What are some of the things you noticed along those lines and some of the other little things?

       Mark Whitten: Well, let me share a story. In my previous assignment before Spartanburg, I went to another underperforming business. It was a large million square foot plan with UAW and a thousand employees. It was in a tough spot I went there. I set up a task to focus on improving the performance and results. In my first week, I think day two, I met the leadership team. They came into the boardroom and welcomed me. The team went around the table got to know the team.

       I said, Let's go for a walk on the floor. Let's walk through the plant, but I intended to observe their behavior. I wanted to see how this leadership ran the bus. They are the ones I wanted to watch. I wanted to see how they behave as they walk through the facility.

       What I observed was that they broke every safety rule. You're supposed to have your plugs, eyeglasses, follow the walkways, cross at proper walkways, and these kinds of things. They broke all that. They were talking on our phones, cutting across aisles your plugs, their earplugs were hanging out.

       But the worst thing for me was that they were walking by the garbage on the floor. As we walked down the aisle, there was a pop can on the floor. They all proceeded to walk by that garbage can as I watched in horror. As I followed them, I always wanted the back. My point was to observe behavior. So, I picked up the pop can, and I continued to pick up the garbage as we walked through the plant.

       I didn't see them engage any employees as they walked by. There was no engagement, no high fives, and how are you? No, Hello, how's your day. Nothing. We got back to the boardroom, and we came in, and I said, you know I understand the problem in this company. They looked at me with a surprised look, like I had some ultimate wisdom. I said it's you. It's every single one of you. You are the problem. You are the reason that this business is the way it is. You allow it. You model the incorrect behavior, but you expect employees to follow the rules. You punish them for not following the Rules, yet you don't.

       You don't lead by example in any way, shape, or form. Even the little things - if I knew they weren't doing the little things, I was guaranteed they weren't focused on the right things and the big things. Of those 10, eight of them left the organization in short order. Two of them were passionate people who cared. They were overshadowed by the other eight. They stayed with me, and we built a new leadership team. We got great results after that. But it's the little things, as you point out, Lisa.

       I think a lot of your listeners and leaders have not missed this, but maybe don't give this behavior as much credit, as let's do simple things like picking up garbage and leading by example in your behavior. Every single day, how you engage people are talking to people. Listening to people, respect and dignity, walking through your shop floor - those people are out there doing the complex jobs. They're doing the tough jobs and listening to them, respecting them, hearing them out, and making sure that we're doing the things to help them be successful is critical.

       Things like coffee chats, one-on-ones, employee meetings, ask the President box. We used all kinds of different methods in which our employees can reach out and bring forth issues, ask questions and make sure that they've got clarity. These little things matter.

       And if I could just go one more point, that's the bathrooms you mentioned. As I walked through the plant in my last assignment, I went to the furthest bathroom I could find, which was an employee bathroom. I was horrified with what I saw - the door stalls were ripped off, there were no stall doors in the room where the toilets were. And there's graffiti written all over there about how much of this company sucks and things like that. So I just knew right now that the culture is what it is, but it's that because of management's behavior, bottom line.

       So, bathrooms matter. It's a sign of respect. You have 400 people working in your facility. You want them to come to work and be safe. You want them to be engaged. You want them to perform well. So, you have to create an environment that allows that to happen. And that's an organization focused on cleanliness with bright lights, clean bathrooms, proper facilities for lunch and eating, and things like that. That matters tremendously if you want to engage people truly.

       Lisa Ryan: And culture does start at the top. So, when you're walking through the plant and engaging, do you know your employees by name? Do they look at you and smile and wave? Do you give everybody a high five or at least an air high five? Or, when they're walking by, are your employees avoiding your glance because they don't know what you're going to say to them, or they don't feel seen anyway. So that level of respect of looking at your forward-facing areas in the plant - where your customers come in, or vendors come in. Do those areas have the same level of cleanliness and brightness as the employee lounge, lunchroom, and bathroom. So, a coat of paint can make a huge difference and again, you know, a couple of hundred bucks for a couple of gallons of paint, and you've just made the place brighter and shown your employees that you appreciate them.

       Mark Whitten: I agree. It's the broken windows theory. The broken windows theory is an interesting philosophy. For example, when you have the disorder, pick any city where you go into an area where they've got broken windows. Maybe some poverty and other things that the environment creates or allows that disorder is acceptable. The opposite is also true. When you go to a very organized, clean, safe place, people fall in line. People's behavior is dictated by the environment in which they work or live. For example, we put a tremendous amount of effort into cleaning the facility - polishing floors, putting all new LED lights in, proper walkways. We gave the operators tools because we wanted to create an environment of expectation.

       Here's a funny story. When we started this journey two years ago, the management team and I would go on the floor twice a week for an hour and clean. We cleaned. We got filthy, sweaty – we'd pick up garbage because I wanted the employees to see how important this truly was. I would lead that. The management team created it because we allowed it. So we're going to fix it. We would go out every week, and I tell you, you wouldn't believe the stuff we threw out. It was incredible. There was garbage that had been there for years. There was filth everywhere. We lead that transformation.

       One of the things that bothered me was the chairs on the floor. This is a manufacturing operation where you've got welding, stamping, and assembly. There's no place for having a chair, like a cafeteria chair out in a weld cell or those kinds of things. So I threw out 30 of them. I threw them into dumpsters, and my point was that we want our people to rest in, but we have areas that are conditioned where employees go and sit down for lunch and rest areas and breaks and the thing.

       But out on the shop floor, we didn't want to have chairs. What that told me is the culture of the company. For example, people were sitting around all the time. Sitting in chairs and I didn't, that's not the message you want to have for your employees or your customers. We corrected that we cleaned up where I'm driving at is. If you walk through our plan at any point in time, you won't find garbage on the floor, and you won't find chairs and floor. That's not because I'm asking for it. It's because our employees know that's the environment in which we work. They pick up the garbage. Because they know it's an expectation now and so by us leading that transformation, we still do it we go out there, we clean we do these things it's our people have 

       changed their behavior in line with the expectations and what are the leaders have done in this business.

       Lisa Ryan: Now, let's back up just a little bit because you said you had when you were doing that initial walk-through, and ten leaders were walking with you and eight of them left almost immediately, and that is part of the culture, obviously part of a very toxic culture that they were not able to reduce themselves or stoop to that level to clean up garbage or whatever it was but that experience because know in an in a Market where Labor is hard enough to find the thought of losing ten managers can be terrifying but then on the tail end it also helped you to achieve your goal of what you need you need to remove those toxic people so walk us through the thought processes that they were unwilling to move ahead with and how that all transpired.

       Mark Whitten: Yes, so if we back up to my previous assignment, this happened in 2016. With the eight managers that left the business. I genuinely believe that you know I'm a people person and a servant leader. I put my leaders on a pedestal. I truly work to serve them to help them, but I never allow one thing. I'll never support what you use the word toxic, which is precisely that. Managers who treat people poorly and then have the foundation of dignity and respect. When you're not respectful to employees, when you talk down to employees, when you can't, when you can't model proper behavior as a leader following safety rules or engaging people.

       From a functional or tactical perspective, I don't care how good you are at your job. You can be great at your tactical job, but you treat people horribly. I don't care you won't work with me because those people will never gain the people's trust, and you have to have people's hearts and minds. If you want to have a culture of engagement and performance, you can browbeat people down. You can beat people down for a short time, but it never last and never works for a long time, so to your point, yes, it isn't easy. It was not something I wanted to do, but I had to do it because those leaders were toxic in the organization. And they were doing improper and incorrect things, and I couldn't allow that to go on, and that's why they had belief, and yes, you're right, especially today. It's terrifying to lead to losing leaders. Here's the difference between that toxic environment and those eight liters left. Yes, it was difficult for quite some time. You know we struggled. We had to find people, bring people up to speed, but in the end, after that hardship that we went through.

       The results that we got were fantastic, and we changed things with the Union. The relationship with the UAW was improved dramatically with the employees and significantly enhanced. We did employee surveys that improved. Leaders lead by example and respect people. That was the difference coming to Spartanburg. I didn't change any leaders here, so what when the difference in Spartanburg when it came in, as the senior leaders here were engaged. They cared; they just worked, maybe, didn't weren't working in the right things, per se, but they had the right DNA. They had the DNA of leadership and respect and dignity; we added we added one, moved one around, and made some minor changes, but nobody left the company, and no senior leader left the company.

       Lisa Ryan: If an owner or leader is considering and thinking about their management teams, and I know part of it is a gut feeling, but what are some of the ways that you determine that that manager has that DNA that if they if they're not perfect, now that at least you see the opportunity to work with them to bring out those skills to an increase their level of connection with their employees.

       Mark Whitten: it's a couple of things you know for me it's it's more gut, more observation, more questions, and getting to know them. You know, get there, get to know who they truly are as a person. We've used tools like disk and other assessments and things that can give us a predictor of someone's behavior as a leader, so we have some indication of their typical way or styles. But I depend far more on the person and getting to know them.

       Spending time with them getting even you know I go as far as getting to know their spouse in them, you know we will set up some off-sites and different things to meet the families. We can get to know each other as people and truly understand who they are, but observing how they interact with their people is one big one. Listening to how they engage with their peers listening to how they work with their employees, and observing them in their work environment so when they're in their element, and they're working and observing and seeing how they do, they listen.

       Do they actively participate? Do they ask questions? Do they follow up? That's a simple thing like it's going back to the simple things like following up on unemployment questions or concerns. One of the things I think it's missed so often here's my perspective: I wasn't an hourly shop floor employee as a young man. As an hourly employee, I started my first job at sterling or Freightliner trucks on the shop floor. So my perspective of leadership was to observe poor and great leaders, but I got a wide variety of leaders in my life, and both were truly valuable. I got to see all the things that you should never do and all the things that you should do. As a leader, so as an hourly employee, one of the simple things I would always ask a lot of questions just that I just that was my personality.

       My supervisor recombined and said, hey, you know what about this, or can you follow up and find out this for me? Oh yeah, no problem. I never got a response. He'd see me the next day. I'd wait, and when I questioned him two or three days. Oh yeah, I'll get back with you, nothing, and this went on and on and on. It drove me crazy because I thought I was here, I am an employee, and I just asked a simple question I can't get an answer to. As I progressed through my career, I realized that it's important to them when employees have a question. It's important to them that they're trying to understand as a leader, you own that when you accept a question from your employees, whatever it is. You have to follow up. As I tell my leaders, you don't have to say yes. We can say no, but you have to explain. You still owe them an explanation. We don't have to agree. We can agree to disagree. But at the end of the day, the dignity and respect foundation is following up and going back to your employees. That's another one. It gets missed often, but anyway, back to your question, observation, listening.

        Observing the DNA is evident if they've got the right intentions and are doing the right thing. Maybe they're struggling in some areas. They need some help. But you know, they've got the right DNA to be a leader deep down.

       Lisa...]]>ba1e163c-451f-43d4-8cf6-dce258d8103bMon, 07 Mar 2022 07:05:00 -040033:21falsefull215152The Profitability of Certified Sustainability with David GoodmanContact 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 numbers. The numbers show us that an SME that becomes certified sustainable waves that flag and says, look at me, I'm a good corporate citizen. Depending on the study, they are growing between 75% and 20 times faster than their peer group.

       If you at New York University, the Stern School of business does an annual study, and pre covid certified sustainable business grew about 5.6 times faster than their non-certified peers. During covid, it got up to 7.1. We're waiting for the newest data, which will probably continue that upward trend. That upward separation between the non-certified sustainable companies and the certified sustainable company they're lapping the field.

       Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, is the largest asset manager in the world - $9 trillion in holdings - Larry doesn't want to work with CEOs of companies that are not certified sustainable. It's not because Larry is a tree hugger but because he knows they're leaving money on the table.

       So you've got these companies that if they become certified sustainable and wave a flag and say look at us, we're a good corporate citizen, good things happen on the revenue side. Good things also occur on the costs; either cost will go down, the cost of money is going to go down, being able to hire quality and hire and retain quality employees goes up. So the ability to stand out is significant.

       Lisa Ryan: So what are some of the things included in sustainability? I think about all right, we put up recycle bins, and we're recycling paper and cans, but starting from there to genuinely take on the certification and say we are sustainable. What are some of the most impacted by going that route?

       David Goodman: Let's stop for a second and talk about the word I've used a few times - certified sustainable. And let's define Certified sustainable versus just sustainable. This gets to your question. Tomorrow, an organization could bring you to know senior management or all the employees together, and it could say we're going to become a sustainable organization. Somebody could go Google a bunch of books, and they could read up on it, and they could do everything right. They would be doing good for the environment, and costs would go down. But on the revenue side of their P&L, they will not see the needle move much because over 80% of consumers, both B2B and B2C, will not believe their claims. There's been too much puffery and advertising - any toothpaste will give you the widest white. And we, as consumers, especially in the green\sustainability environment where there's so much greenwashing, which is lying or exaggerating when a company goes out and says I'm a sustainable business. If it doesn't have a third party that's a globally accepted entity that certifies or are verifies their claim, it's just not going to be recognized by the marketplace.

       Back to your question - your question was what about a whole bunch of things that a company can do, but the first part of the question is if a company is going to commit the time and do it for the environmental benefits\cost saving benefit. Or is the company going to do it for the market benefit, brand benefit, and, frankly, from the standpoint of government compliance and selling to other organizations. Back to what the manufacturers were talking about, they often sell their stuff to other organizations that put their product in a bigger finished well. And that end client if it is a larger company if it's a publicly-traded company and already has a sustainability program its procurement department is going to require its vendors to become sustainable food, so holding on to that business is going to be more complex and more complicated if you're not certified sustainable, i.e., proving that you're sustainable now. So back to your question, what can you do so there's all kinds of easy IE - non costly things that a company can do like a meatless Monday. A meatless Monday is where all the staff decides they're not going to go to McDonald's and have a big MAC at lunch. They're not going to eat meat.

       The trickledown effect on that company's carbon footprint is 10% by having a meatless Monday, so here's something that a company could do that costs the company absolutely nothing. It's also a team-building event that lowers its carbon by 10%, and it didn't cost them a shiny nickel. Then there's all the other end of the spectrum. You've got things like solar or led capital improvements. Still, we don't recommend that a company does any of that until we cover many very inexpensive, very easy, very fun things that get the team smiling. It receives the QA team saying, hey, this is fun, this is good to do.

       Lisa Ryan: Okay, I thought about it in 2019. I became a certified speaking professional, which differentiates me because only 17% of professional speakers have it. I also know that it was a five-year process to get it, with money and shows, and everything, but it differentiates my business from everybody else. I also know the amount of paperwork and time it took. People who are listening might be thinking that this sounds like it's going to take a lot of time, cost a lot of money, and be a lot of paperwork.

       So, where does that look like? When is a company committed that we will go that route and become certified? I do like the fact that you started with it being fun.

       David Goodman: It has to be fun anytime you ask people to make a small change significant change. We're in January, so we're at that time when everybody goes into their...]]>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 numbers. The numbers show us that an SME that becomes certified sustainable waves that flag and says, look at me, I'm a good corporate citizen. Depending on the study, they are growing between 75% and 20 times faster than their peer group.

       If you at New York University, the Stern School of business does an annual study, and pre covid certified sustainable business grew about 5.6 times faster than their non-certified peers. During covid, it got up to 7.1. We're waiting for the newest data, which will probably continue that upward trend. That upward separation between the non-certified sustainable companies and the certified sustainable company they're lapping the field.

       Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, is the largest asset manager in the world - $9 trillion in holdings - Larry doesn't want to work with CEOs of companies that are not certified sustainable. It's not because Larry is a tree hugger but because he knows they're leaving money on the table.

       So you've got these companies that if they become certified sustainable and wave a flag and say look at us, we're a good corporate citizen, good things happen on the revenue side. Good things also occur on the costs; either cost will go down, the cost of money is going to go down, being able to hire quality and hire and retain quality employees goes up. So the ability to stand out is significant.

       Lisa Ryan: So what are some of the things included in sustainability? I think about all right, we put up recycle bins, and we're recycling paper and cans, but starting from there to genuinely take on the certification and say we are sustainable. What are some of the most impacted by going that route?

       David Goodman: Let's stop for a second and talk about the word I've used a few times - certified sustainable. And let's define Certified sustainable versus just sustainable. This gets to your question. Tomorrow, an organization could bring you to know senior management or all the employees together, and it could say we're going to become a sustainable organization. Somebody could go Google a bunch of books, and they could read up on it, and they could do everything right. They would be doing good for the environment, and costs would go down. But on the revenue side of their P&L, they will not see the needle move much because over 80% of consumers, both B2B and B2C, will not believe their claims. There's been too much puffery and advertising - any toothpaste will give you the widest white. And we, as consumers, especially in the green\sustainability environment where there's so much greenwashing, which is lying or exaggerating when a company goes out and says I'm a sustainable business. If it doesn't have a third party that's a globally accepted entity that certifies or are verifies their claim, it's just not going to be recognized by the marketplace.

       Back to your question - your question was what about a whole bunch of things that a company can do, but the first part of the question is if a company is going to commit the time and do it for the environmental benefits\cost saving benefit. Or is the company going to do it for the market benefit, brand benefit, and, frankly, from the standpoint of government compliance and selling to other organizations. Back to what the manufacturers were talking about, they often sell their stuff to other organizations that put their product in a bigger finished well. And that end client if it is a larger company if it's a publicly-traded company and already has a sustainability program its procurement department is going to require its vendors to become sustainable food, so holding on to that business is going to be more complex and more complicated if you're not certified sustainable, i.e., proving that you're sustainable now. So back to your question, what can you do so there's all kinds of easy IE - non costly things that a company can do like a meatless Monday. A meatless Monday is where all the staff decides they're not going to go to McDonald's and have a big MAC at lunch. They're not going to eat meat.

       The trickledown effect on that company's carbon footprint is 10% by having a meatless Monday, so here's something that a company could do that costs the company absolutely nothing. It's also a team-building event that lowers its carbon by 10%, and it didn't cost them a shiny nickel. Then there's all the other end of the spectrum. You've got things like solar or led capital improvements. Still, we don't recommend that a company does any of that until we cover many very inexpensive, very easy, very fun things that get the team smiling. It receives the QA team saying, hey, this is fun, this is good to do.

       Lisa Ryan: Okay, I thought about it in 2019. I became a certified speaking professional, which differentiates me because only 17% of professional speakers have it. I also know that it was a five-year process to get it, with money and shows, and everything, but it differentiates my business from everybody else. I also know the amount of paperwork and time it took. People who are listening might be thinking that this sounds like it's going to take a lot of time, cost a lot of money, and be a lot of paperwork.

       So, where does that look like? When is a company committed that we will go that route and become certified? I do like the fact that you started with it being fun.

       David Goodman: It has to be fun anytime you ask people to make a small change significant change. We're in January, so we're at that time when everybody goes into their gym and health club because it was just the holidays and they put on a little weight. Are they going to stay at the health Club in February? Um, maybe, maybe not. Using that analogy, if we want an organization to keep up the course, we've got to make it fun. We've got to make it affordable. We've got to make it where everybody smiles and says, hey, let's keep doing this.

       So back to your question, what we did was we took the world's top sustainability standard. The ISO 14,001 is bigger than all the other global programs added up and multiplied by five, it is the world's preeminent international sustainability standard, but it's a monster. It's big; it's cumbersome; it's expensive. We turned it into an SME program. It is priced and designed so that a small business can afford it. I have an automotive garage in Malaysia that is a client. If that automotive garage in Malaysia can afford it, the odds are that just about any organization can afford it. The entire program is set up to be very affordable, both in money and time.

       The biggest concern we get from prospects is not the cost upfront before they even know the cost. Their concern is more about oh my gosh, we're pretty busy around. Is this going to take us away from the day job? And it won't.

       The program's design is fast. The cost is rough - I know this will sound too good to be accurate, but roughly 5% of the historical cost is a very affordable program. We're very fast, the companies like it.

       Lisa Ryan: What are some of the things that you look at when they're going through the certification process.

       David Goodman: The listeners aren't going to see this, but I'm going to show it to you what I do. I send every new client a sheet with roughly 50 no-cost/low-cost ideas. I asked them to take two markers like the yellow and green color, and with one of the markers, I asked him to mark the things they had already done. Oh, my gosh yeah, we've already got recycle bins. Yeah, we already started putting LEDs in when our regular lights burned out. Then, with the other marker, markdown some things they like to do. So that becomes, In effect, the starting point for our discussion.

       I give them these ideas of meatless Monday - things that aren't going to cost them anything. Often things that when they look at the list, it'll prompt them to remember, oh my gosh, yes, we've already started a bunch of this stuff.

       We call it our foundation. We can start laying out what we're going to do this year and what we will do next year. We work on two or three projects this year that are easy again fun getting everybody smiling and saying, oh, you know what, that wasn't so bad after all, and so they come back next year, and we do more.

       Lisa Ryan: And one of the things when it comes to workplace culture is that we want to find, to keep the good people that we have in many cases, they want to be part of something bigger than them, and this sounds like a sustainability issue. This project sounds like a great way to do that. What do your customers do to get their employees involved in this process and get their ideas?

       David Goodman: Let's touch on what you were saying. At the beginning of this, at this point, in terms of hiring and retaining employees. Again, a study that we didn't do. Hewlett Packard did this study, and other organizations have done similar studies. Roughly 50% of employees do not want to work for a company that is not certified sustainable or does not have sustainability as part of its core DNA.

       Now, does that mean that they won't take the job? No, they may take the job, but there'll be looking to move on. Also, they will accept less money to work for a sustainable company. If I'm an organization looking to find employees and I am not certified sustainable, I'm fishing in a pond with about 50% of the fish. If I am certified sustainable, I'm fishing it with all the fish. So I'm going to be able to catch more. Keep more. And work less hard to get them and keep them.

       Now back to your other point about what organizations have done. First, there is the point of getting them involved. So we form a green team. A green team usually has a representative from different departments - somebody that raises their hand says, yeah, I'd like to be part of this. That green team leads the effort and goes through that report that I was talking about, and comes up with recommendations to take the management and get buy-in.

        But then, in terms of action items, we have many companies doing the meatless Monday that I talked about. We have many companies expanding their led retrofit that they had already started. We have many companies doing Community programs because sustainability is not just about building-related things like energy reduction; sustainability is about people. It's also about all the stakeholders, which would include the Community.

       There are Community-related things. There are outreach things. There are procurement things reaching out to vendors. So you can have a company that would take all its plastic cups in and plates and transition that into regular plates or things like Bamboo, which grow fast.

       There are so many different ideas and programs that are not costly. For example, some companies put in electric chargers for electric cars. That's great, but you don't have to go that far. You can do little things and have everybody pitch in.

       Lisa Ryan: And what are, as far as getting the word out because this also sounds like an excellent opportunity for PR and just letting the Community know what you're doing? How important and how proud you are to have certification? Is that something that you also help people with, or are they hiring a firm on their own? What are they doing as they're going through the process? Then, once they get the certification.

       David Goodman: So we have published a guide, and the guide lists eight things that we recommend. Companies, think about consider and, in effect, ask for when they are pursuing a sustainability Program. One of those eight things is that your sustainability vendor provider consultant has its program. The marketing of your pursuit and attainment of your certification is critical to your question to get the word out.

       Let's talk about scheduling. Let's say that you and I signed an agreement today. Today, we signed a contract for you to be my client to start the sustainability Program. Tomorrow, before we start on that list, I will show you all those ideas before talking about the green team or anything to do with the actual work. Tomorrow, the first thing we will work on is a press release. That press release will talk about your company ABC corporation has decided to pursue becoming a certified sustainable business. That will go out on all of your media. That will go out on all my media. My media touches about 2.5 million. Then it is repeated every month, so we start getting the market excitement the buzz.

       People would get in the company. Get phone calls from their vendors, from their clients, from their friends - hey, what's going on over there? It looks like you guys are doing something sounds neat. So we start that promotion of the pursuit of the certification before we even start working on the certification. Then every time there is an action event, we apply. They got certified. They started, formed the green team, and started working on the projects - that becomes a talking point in the furtherance of that messaging. So that goes out again to wave the flag and say, look at us, we're a good corporate citizen, we're doing good.

       Lisa Ryan: And if somebody is thinking about this, what would be your best tip for them to get started?

       David Goodman: Well, my best tip would be to look at that published document that talks about those eight points because let's say to your point, somebody says, you know yeah I've heard about this, maybe we should check into it. But where do we start? What should we look for in a program? There are all kinds of different organizations out there saying they got good programs like in everything in life.

       What should we seek, in terms of those critical things that will make this work for us and be and end up with you know the best we can, we can achieve.

       If you read that article and people could send it, I'll give you my email and all that people could send. So I could provide them with that information, and they just read that article. So that article is a good guide in terms of what they should look for and how they can make their own decisions if they agree with those eight points or not, awesome.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, as we get to the end of our time together, if somebody did want to connect with you and learn more, tell us first, how's the best way for them to do that? Also, please share how your process works when you work with a client.

       David Goodman: So the company website is Edenark.com. If they go to that and they'll see, just like in all websites, there's a contact us section, where you can just put in your name and send us a note. If they wanted to contact me directly, DGoodman@eadenark.com, I would then send them that article. It's a PowerPoint presentation that they can review, and they can then come out of that and decide if this is something they want more information on.

       So, to your question about okay, well watch the process, we would talk. We would discuss what their goals are. We would then put together an agreement, and then, once that agreement was signed, we would start that promotion and get that going. So, we get the effect and market excitement, i.e., revenue potential, before...]]>fee0f6c0-9557-4c33-ad34-a89233e17befMon, 14 Feb 2022 07:05:00 -040028:51falsefull214142Simple Retention Strategies for Manufacturers with Kelly SpringerConnect 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 person like you said that was shipping the boxes out the door feels just as valued, listened to, and heard as the technical people making the products? What are some of the things, some of the ways you're creating that?

       Kelly Springer: Now, certainly there's the given right, I think you have to be market competitive - whether that's with your wages, whether that's with your health package your benefits, and to me, that's just a given in this day, and age it's so easy for that information to be readily available to folks. We view our team members as part of one larger team, so no role is more important than another. We have stepped back to say there's no magic bullet when we think about it. It's all the smaller individual things that we're able to do. 

       So we recognize that health insurance, check Giving a given 401k, check. Those things are presented. We're focused on how people feel when they walk into our building every day. We want to make sure they are engaged in the vital work that we think we do, making safety-critical parts. 

       And do they feel like their contribution, whether it's any role in the organization, is valued by those around them? So building that team environment, recognizing those efforts, and celebrating success collectively can be almost something that becomes part of your culture but doesn't necessarily come with a big price tag. 

       We have intentionally done what we refer to as Metal Flow high fives things that are simple that don't cost dollars. But again, a way that you can recognize someone with hey, you're getting a card that says we're giving you a metal flow high five, and their peers recognize their efforts and trying to celebrate in that way. Some of the small things. We've done fun activities around food, fun activities around games, and interaction in ways that break the norm. We also have outdoor picnics, food trucks, and things like that. While that aspect is essential, it's the camaraderie and the gathering together. Even with the pandemic and being outside with a safe distance, we develop further a team's relationship. 

       When you talk about retention and why individuals leave often, it could be tied to who they work for in that management role. So we've been intentional about providing additional training to our teams' managers and supervisors to let them understand how their position and engagement can make a difference. 

       Lisa Ryan: So let's break it down with a couple of the things you shared. Let's start with the high fives. Is everybody given a stack of these cards? Is there a common place where you keep them? Are they printed out? What is the procedure that you use for them?

       Kelly Springer: Our procedure is our HR team coordinates that activity. It can be someone recognizing one of our core values or principles, and they are following our mission. Or they helped me out when I was having a tough day. So there are wide open criteria. The process is straightforward. You can recognize them. We take occasions where we use that same approach and do it 100% across the board to the whole team.

       Manufacturing day is a great example. It is celebrating that we get to work in manufacturing here, and our work is essential. But, in terms of Michigan and the US economy, when we think about those simple things.

       Lisa Ryan: and I love the fact that you're doing things with manufacturing day. I can't tell you how many audiences when I mention manufacturing day, very few hands get raised. It's a meaningful way to introduce people to manufacturing, bring it into the schools, and bring that pride back for American manufacturing. What are some of the things you do for manufacturing day?

       Kelly Springer: Well, we make it a day of celebration. We highlight some of the wins that we've had collectively as a team over the last year. We use it to talk about the great things about manufacturing and the parts we manufacture. Our parts go all over the world. 

       Our team meetings talk a lot about leveraging this broad reach that we all have to make safety-critical components, specifically in the automotive space. We're doing that with an American flag hanging in our production facility. Our uniforms have the American flag on them—our production uniforms, put that pride celebration that comes with that. 

       We also host students on that day. This year, we released a testimonial Video about why we work, and that will flow. The great thing about what we do here is that it included lots of different team members that we then featured in the video, and we released it for the first time on manufacturing day.

       Lisa Ryan: So did you bring in a whole production team, or did you use your cell phones, and walk around the plant, and talk to people.

       Kelly Springer: Well, we did a little bit of both. We brought in a production team that helped us with items that will be used to sell our product moving forward. The fact that we wanted team members to be part of that. Then we separated all that footage and used some drone video. The video of our facility was shot by one of our team members who happened to have great skill with drones. It showcases who we are, what we do, and, most importantly, the people that we have.

       Lisa Ryan: It's also in finding little personal details about that one employee. Who would have known that they were an expert drone operator unless you have those conversations, and you allow that employee to shine by being involved in this incredible project? 

       Number one, that's...]]>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 person like you said that was shipping the boxes out the door feels just as valued, listened to, and heard as the technical people making the products? What are some of the things, some of the ways you're creating that?

       Kelly Springer: Now, certainly there's the given right, I think you have to be market competitive - whether that's with your wages, whether that's with your health package your benefits, and to me, that's just a given in this day, and age it's so easy for that information to be readily available to folks. We view our team members as part of one larger team, so no role is more important than another. We have stepped back to say there's no magic bullet when we think about it. It's all the smaller individual things that we're able to do. 

       So we recognize that health insurance, check Giving a given 401k, check. Those things are presented. We're focused on how people feel when they walk into our building every day. We want to make sure they are engaged in the vital work that we think we do, making safety-critical parts. 

       And do they feel like their contribution, whether it's any role in the organization, is valued by those around them? So building that team environment, recognizing those efforts, and celebrating success collectively can be almost something that becomes part of your culture but doesn't necessarily come with a big price tag. 

       We have intentionally done what we refer to as Metal Flow high fives things that are simple that don't cost dollars. But again, a way that you can recognize someone with hey, you're getting a card that says we're giving you a metal flow high five, and their peers recognize their efforts and trying to celebrate in that way. Some of the small things. We've done fun activities around food, fun activities around games, and interaction in ways that break the norm. We also have outdoor picnics, food trucks, and things like that. While that aspect is essential, it's the camaraderie and the gathering together. Even with the pandemic and being outside with a safe distance, we develop further a team's relationship. 

       When you talk about retention and why individuals leave often, it could be tied to who they work for in that management role. So we've been intentional about providing additional training to our teams' managers and supervisors to let them understand how their position and engagement can make a difference. 

       Lisa Ryan: So let's break it down with a couple of the things you shared. Let's start with the high fives. Is everybody given a stack of these cards? Is there a common place where you keep them? Are they printed out? What is the procedure that you use for them?

       Kelly Springer: Our procedure is our HR team coordinates that activity. It can be someone recognizing one of our core values or principles, and they are following our mission. Or they helped me out when I was having a tough day. So there are wide open criteria. The process is straightforward. You can recognize them. We take occasions where we use that same approach and do it 100% across the board to the whole team.

       Manufacturing day is a great example. It is celebrating that we get to work in manufacturing here, and our work is essential. But, in terms of Michigan and the US economy, when we think about those simple things.

       Lisa Ryan: and I love the fact that you're doing things with manufacturing day. I can't tell you how many audiences when I mention manufacturing day, very few hands get raised. It's a meaningful way to introduce people to manufacturing, bring it into the schools, and bring that pride back for American manufacturing. What are some of the things you do for manufacturing day?

       Kelly Springer: Well, we make it a day of celebration. We highlight some of the wins that we've had collectively as a team over the last year. We use it to talk about the great things about manufacturing and the parts we manufacture. Our parts go all over the world. 

       Our team meetings talk a lot about leveraging this broad reach that we all have to make safety-critical components, specifically in the automotive space. We're doing that with an American flag hanging in our production facility. Our uniforms have the American flag on them—our production uniforms, put that pride celebration that comes with that. 

       We also host students on that day. This year, we released a testimonial Video about why we work, and that will flow. The great thing about what we do here is that it included lots of different team members that we then featured in the video, and we released it for the first time on manufacturing day.

       Lisa Ryan: So did you bring in a whole production team, or did you use your cell phones, and walk around the plant, and talk to people.

       Kelly Springer: Well, we did a little bit of both. We brought in a production team that helped us with items that will be used to sell our product moving forward. The fact that we wanted team members to be part of that. Then we separated all that footage and used some drone video. The video of our facility was shot by one of our team members who happened to have great skill with drones. It showcases who we are, what we do, and, most importantly, the people that we have.

       Lisa Ryan: It's also in finding little personal details about that one employee. Who would have known that they were an expert drone operator unless you have those conversations, and you allow that employee to shine by being involved in this incredible project? 

       Number one, that's super cool, but when you think about attracting people to metal flow, if I'm a candidate. I'm checking you out. I'm going to go and see what kind of videos you have out there. I'm willing to see those interviews to see if people look like me. Does it look like a great place to work? That's why I asked about the cell phone. In addition to the production crew, of course, the production looks great. 

       Still, having honest conversations with people will make candidates more likely to come to interview. Because they can see what's going on there, and that pride, and that you know the joy you have of working together, I'm sure coming through on those videos.

       Kelly Springer: It certainly does. When you talk about recruiting, you also think you have many different tools in your toolbox. We try things to see if they work. One of the critical things for recruiting talent has been our existing workforce - by using them to tell their story. Sometimes that's been done through bonus programs and referral bonus programs, but we don't have that in place right now. 

       But when we walk through the facility, we're giving a potential candidate, who we feel we're selling. The opportunity to see what we do and who we are. We walk them up to a Work Center and ask why you don't tell this candidate and why you work at metal flow. Why are you here? What gets you excited about coming here every single day? We can then use those answers directly from our team members to build and recruit others. Again no cost to asking those questions.

       Lisa Ryan: On the other thing too is it's giving that potential new employee people they've already met before they even walk in the door, instead of being the total new kid on the block. You're allowing your current employees to reinforce What they like about working there, and as you said, while capturing what they're saying, you can use additional fodder to put out there to bring in more people. It all comes back to culture. If you don't have that culture where people enjoy working there, it's going to come across on the videos too. If you don't have that culture, you probably won't do videos to begin with. These are the little things that you're doing. What are some of the other things you're doing that surround your culture?

       Kelly Springer: Creating this career path for our team members becomes very important. You can look at the statistics and know whether you group it by age or that folks can move a fair amount. In a country that has a lot of manufacturing opportunities for individuals, one of the critical things that we've focused on is how we create a career path that requires, in many cases, a variety of training opportunities. We're certainly very proud of our apprenticeship program designed explicitly for our journeyman toolmakers, and that program is approved through the Department of Labor. We've taken great pride. We had great success, But we onboarded a training coordinator. We started to focus on the skills and competencies needed in our roles. How can we help our team members? Do we understand where they want their career to go? Are we asking the right questions through our performance management system to understand their long-term desired role? What skills do they need? Do they know the skills and competencies required? How are we helping them through in-house training? 

       We also have a very successful continuing education program that allows us to support those future career paths for our team members. So being able to show that, yes, I started in this type of role, but I can talk to others who've made lateral moves. Who's made vertical moves; who've grown their career in a variety of different roles? That testimonial helps us on the retention front and the recruiting front. We don't expect you to stay in this entry-level role in perpetuity, but we can help you create a career path that will work for you long term. That's an attractive opportunity for someone considering employment.

       Lisa Ryan: It also sounds like you're taking quite an individualized approach with employees. How do you find out from them? How do you work with them to set the career path they want?

       Kelly Springer: Our performance management system identifies what contributions they feel they've made to the organization, so we can celebrate those and recognize those. But a vital part of that with their direct supervisor is understanding what you want. So I believe the question we asked is where you want your career to be one year from now it's less about the title, wage and more about what position you are interested in learning more about how we can showcase you. That way, in some cases, we've done internal internships. You have a chance to see what another role might be like; some are very much in line. You can start as an operator. You can become a technical operator. Those are very well understood. Still, it creates other opportunities, even outside of some of those roles. We also task our team members with learning something new every year. What new skills or training would you like to have And those that their supervisor has identified for them. So through that process, we've been able to highlight some nontraditional career paths that have worked out exceptionally well for some of our team members.

       Lisa Ryan: So is there one or two particular stories that come to mind as far as an employee that may be surprised, you with the career path they chose or a unique way that you helped a particular individual.

       Kelly Springer: We have had an individual who went through our apprenticeship program. They then decided to take additional coursework, supplemented through a program that we have. Now, this person is leaning more towards a technical design engineering position. They could do an internship in our design engineering group and then make that transition. We've had individuals who have worked in our sales estimating roles, who now, in one case, the director of procurement.

       Based on coursework and additional training done, we have other individuals who have started individual roles for all of the purchasing that we do. We've been very intentional about moving them to other areas of the organization. 

       For example, we have a college student who started with us as an intern, joined us full time in our sales development role, spent time on the floor doing tool assembly, and then moved into a project management role. We'll do a rotation through quality to enhance his long-term sales engineer goals. So these are lots of different examples.

       But ultimately, each can be individualized as long as you have the building blocks within our system to help them achieve those desired outcomes.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and you're showing people that there are lots of opportunities for them because what we see too many times is that When people feel that they want to move ahead in their career, they think they have to go to another company to do so. When you're figuring out how to put all of these programs into place, it's helping you keep those people. They not only see it for their peers, but they can see themselves in those same roles as well.

       Kelly Springer: Absolutely. They are the best person to tell what that journey through their career path has meant to them. You have to capture what that experience has been.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. When looking at your employees who are learning something new every year, is there anything you're using to train other employees? They're highlighting that knowledge or how you are disseminating it through the peer-to-peer type of training.

       Kelly Springer: To some extent, we are. It's informal - it's happening informally today. We also have examples of learning a role or some aspect of a role that may complement what you do. An example of that I would give is building a forecast to forecast what our sales volume would be our materials scheduling team does that. Our financial analyst potentially reports at the end of the month on performance. An example might be a learning opportunity for that team member. They might need to sit with the person who builds the forecast for one month to understand the data that goes into it and how that completes that picture of all of those different functions within the organization.

       Another example is someone in the production environment who doesn't understand all the different types of quality checks required in another production area. They could spend time learning that technology, whether that's a key on a piece of equipment or just a new measuring technique, and ultimately they're enhancing their skills. Still, they're also doing a level of cross-training independent of the skill they're developing.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, in steadily cross-training, but that communication allows people in different departments to understand the actual process instead of just assuming that it should be done a lot faster because until they get in the midst, and see everything that's that is going on in there. They also get to see what goes wrong along the way. So that adds time to it, then it just keeps people communicating instead of just those silos that we run into so often.

       Kelly Springer: It builds on our concept that we're one team - one Metal Flow working together. Each role is critical. Someone will say, well, I have no idea what people in accounting do sitting in an office all day. I said, well, you don't ever not get paid when it's time to be paid. They play a critical role. Their role is vital; it's just different than your role. I think building that through and creating the concept of understanding what others do and why their role is]]>4898636c-5f9a-4c0f-acec-520ab74df678Mon, 07 Feb 2022 07:05:00 -040031:23falsefull213132The Power of AI and Machine Learning in Manufacturing with Prateek JoshiConnect 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 to know what's happening. That's where technology like remote monitoring can be beneficial. For example, a tool can automatically detect memory numbers 40 minutes. Of course, it would help if you did something about it, so what this does is it makes sure that they get produced regularly, and you don't need to run around to make sure the system is working perfectly. That's just one example.

       The production supply chain is another vast area of many use cases. Operations-specific use cases can be deployed inefficiency here.

       Lisa Ryan: Let's go back to artificial intelligence. Since you've written 13 books on it, you're the expert. So what exactly is artificial intelligence? What does it do, and how does it work?

       Prateek Joshi: Artificial intelligence is a State. It's the goal, meaning you can build a system. To build an Ai system that is intelligent enough to take actions independently. Ai is a state of being. Now machine learning is a vehicle to achieve that goal. Data is the field for the vehicle. That's how we relate these terms like Ai, machine learning, and data.

       That's how they put it together. Until then, we use the umbrella term artificial intelligence to describe any system hardware, software, or combo that can do things on its own. We use it every day. The simplest form of intelligence is like a calculator. That is simple, but we don't think of it as Ai, but technically it is doing the little thing. I have two massive numbers, and it shows you the result.

       More complex Ai systems can drive cars. They can detect danger when flying in the air, which ranges how much intelligence they have. We can put in a system, but that's how we look at Ai. Today, as you've seen, there is a very successful implementation of Ai in the form of automation, meaning if you're in a factory, sometimes it's hazardous for a human to approach a hot furnace. So, a machine does the specific task of taking this and putting it there. It sounds like a simple example of how Ai manifests itself in the video.

       Lisa Ryan: So, Ai then would be a part of machine learning? Because if I hear you correctly, machine learning is the machine is doing something, and, over time, it learns from itself and gets better.

       Prateek Joshi: Yes, machine learning is as more data comes in, the machine learns how to behave in various scenarios. It learns more and more it approaches. As of today, we are not fully there yet. We don't have an Ai system that's indistinguishable from humans. We're not there yet, but plans are becoming more intelligent, and machine learning is all the algorithms. The umbrella term is machine learning. All the algorithms, tools, and frameworks you use to make a system intelligent.

       Lisa Ryan: What are some of how you would deploy some of these Ai technologies in the world of physical infrastructure?

       Prateek Joshi: An excellent way to look at it is we work backward from the use case. Let's say the goal is to reduce energy consumption. Let's say you're a food processing company and want to reduce the energy. You can do per unit of output produced. That's a problem, and once you've identified that goal, you work backward to figure out what tool or system I should use to attack this problem. Because Ai is pretty vast, no single model can solve everything. Working backward on the issue, and when you do that.

       Once you define that, you also assess what data we have available. We want to reduce energy consumption, but do we even know how much we can do today? Do we know the initial primary lowers that make the energy consumption go up and down? I'm collecting temperature data, so these are basic questions. Then, we have some pressure-temperature data. We know what you want to do; then, you build a tool. It could be software. It could be hardware. It may be both. The whole time it is achieved, it starts driving that. Today, you can do X. Maybe three months from now. You will consume point eight of that. Meaning 80% of that and then eventually 50. The goal is to drive towards that goal in fashion, and that's how they appear. We're continually improving with more data.

       Lisa Ryan: If somebody's thinking about incorporating Ai or machine learning into their plant, what would be some ways to drive the behavior change needed for that implementation? Because people are going to be afraid they're going to lose their jobs, or they may not like the robots, or they may be afraid of them, or they have all these misconceptions as far as what I can do. They start with that conversation and change the employees' behavior to get the buy-in you need.

       Prateek Joshi: We commissioned a study to understand that. In March of 2020 and then a few months later, we wanted to understand people in manufacturing. It could be operations managers, operators directors, and people running facilities. So we surveyed those professionals to know how you use it. Because you can go into the facility every single day, and yet you need to know everything that's happening at all times.

       So what are you doing so? We conducted a survey and found very interesting results. It's not that people or companies do digital transformation. If you're doing pen and paper, how do you digitize that work if you don't lose it in a fire? The goal is, how do you digitize the operations? And 94 of the participants said that the company's primary way of doing it is boiling the ocean. Meaning somebody comes up with a big initiative, their entire company of 40,000 people. They try to do everything all at once, and in many instances, it's not feasible to do...]]>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 to know what's happening. That's where technology like remote monitoring can be beneficial. For example, a tool can automatically detect memory numbers 40 minutes. Of course, it would help if you did something about it, so what this does is it makes sure that they get produced regularly, and you don't need to run around to make sure the system is working perfectly. That's just one example.

       The production supply chain is another vast area of many use cases. Operations-specific use cases can be deployed inefficiency here.

       Lisa Ryan: Let's go back to artificial intelligence. Since you've written 13 books on it, you're the expert. So what exactly is artificial intelligence? What does it do, and how does it work?

       Prateek Joshi: Artificial intelligence is a State. It's the goal, meaning you can build a system. To build an Ai system that is intelligent enough to take actions independently. Ai is a state of being. Now machine learning is a vehicle to achieve that goal. Data is the field for the vehicle. That's how we relate these terms like Ai, machine learning, and data.

       That's how they put it together. Until then, we use the umbrella term artificial intelligence to describe any system hardware, software, or combo that can do things on its own. We use it every day. The simplest form of intelligence is like a calculator. That is simple, but we don't think of it as Ai, but technically it is doing the little thing. I have two massive numbers, and it shows you the result.

       More complex Ai systems can drive cars. They can detect danger when flying in the air, which ranges how much intelligence they have. We can put in a system, but that's how we look at Ai. Today, as you've seen, there is a very successful implementation of Ai in the form of automation, meaning if you're in a factory, sometimes it's hazardous for a human to approach a hot furnace. So, a machine does the specific task of taking this and putting it there. It sounds like a simple example of how Ai manifests itself in the video.

       Lisa Ryan: So, Ai then would be a part of machine learning? Because if I hear you correctly, machine learning is the machine is doing something, and, over time, it learns from itself and gets better.

       Prateek Joshi: Yes, machine learning is as more data comes in, the machine learns how to behave in various scenarios. It learns more and more it approaches. As of today, we are not fully there yet. We don't have an Ai system that's indistinguishable from humans. We're not there yet, but plans are becoming more intelligent, and machine learning is all the algorithms. The umbrella term is machine learning. All the algorithms, tools, and frameworks you use to make a system intelligent.

       Lisa Ryan: What are some of how you would deploy some of these Ai technologies in the world of physical infrastructure?

       Prateek Joshi: An excellent way to look at it is we work backward from the use case. Let's say the goal is to reduce energy consumption. Let's say you're a food processing company and want to reduce the energy. You can do per unit of output produced. That's a problem, and once you've identified that goal, you work backward to figure out what tool or system I should use to attack this problem. Because Ai is pretty vast, no single model can solve everything. Working backward on the issue, and when you do that.

       Once you define that, you also assess what data we have available. We want to reduce energy consumption, but do we even know how much we can do today? Do we know the initial primary lowers that make the energy consumption go up and down? I'm collecting temperature data, so these are basic questions. Then, we have some pressure-temperature data. We know what you want to do; then, you build a tool. It could be software. It could be hardware. It may be both. The whole time it is achieved, it starts driving that. Today, you can do X. Maybe three months from now. You will consume point eight of that. Meaning 80% of that and then eventually 50. The goal is to drive towards that goal in fashion, and that's how they appear. We're continually improving with more data.

       Lisa Ryan: If somebody's thinking about incorporating Ai or machine learning into their plant, what would be some ways to drive the behavior change needed for that implementation? Because people are going to be afraid they're going to lose their jobs, or they may not like the robots, or they may be afraid of them, or they have all these misconceptions as far as what I can do. They start with that conversation and change the employees' behavior to get the buy-in you need.

       Prateek Joshi: We commissioned a study to understand that. In March of 2020 and then a few months later, we wanted to understand people in manufacturing. It could be operations managers, operators directors, and people running facilities. So we surveyed those professionals to know how you use it. Because you can go into the facility every single day, and yet you need to know everything that's happening at all times.

       So what are you doing so? We conducted a survey and found very interesting results. It's not that people or companies do digital transformation. If you're doing pen and paper, how do you digitize that work if you don't lose it in a fire? The goal is, how do you digitize the operations? And 94 of the participants said that the company's primary way of doing it is boiling the ocean. Meaning somebody comes up with a big initiative, their entire company of 40,000 people. They try to do everything all at once, and in many instances, it's not feasible to do because it's a massive company. So they are introducing a drastic change in our stakes. That's why. But boiling the ocean shouldn't be the plan, yet people do this. Within that, 78% of the participants said that they were supported by the Department heads when they took an op-specific approach. I mean that you choose a piece of work that could be monitoring a membrane or detecting pump failure. A small piece of work, and then you transform that; you digitize that in an already focused manner and a bite-sized way. What that does is it creates a success template meaning oh this facility in Los Angeles, or this was somebody in in in Miami did it. That template can now be implemented in Chicago, Boston, and Seattle.

       A groundswell builds up, and that's how you transform a particular piece of work in and digitize that. So what we call out specific digital transformation. I would say start with the bite-sized approach and a clear success template that can be used to transform work. That's what we have seen as a third party did quite a bit here.

       Lisa Ryan: Is there a best practice for deciding where to start? Are you looking for the most mundane tasks that human effort is wasted on, or are you looking at the most dangerous tasks? Are you looking for those detailed tasks that maybe humans miss the mistakes? Is there some best practice you recommend?

       Prateek Joshi: That's a good question. What happens is the initial choice determines the entire approach, meaning people are either completely turned off by it, or they become very enthusiastic about it. So, the initial choice matters a lot. What we have seen is pick a workflow that is low-hanging fruit with high impact, meaning something could be easy. But if the company doesn't care, the initiative will be killed. So, the goal is to figure out what is low-hanging fruit. I can have the highest impact on the business, which is a great first try, so let's automate it. Because, when it comes to bringing a new piece of technology, it has to make sense for both the user, meaning, it has to be easy to use. Because the company has to invest capital, Roi needs to see the return. The sooner you can make that happen, the better it is.

       Because of that, I think this combo that using a simple example would be monitoring as a simple example or other examples could be if you are scanning the seats by hand, digitize that. Nobody wants to sit and do that. People have other work to do, so the goal is to identify those tasks that nobody will mess with. So it's going to have a significant impact.

       Lisa Ryan: So, with the clients you've worked with within the study you've done in this field, do you have some examples of success stories that you can share of where the company was before and what happened after they started using Ai.

       Prateek Joshi: Yeah, we have a perfect example for company, where before we started working with them they know they produce the beverage company that makes a product and what was happening was water as you can imagine, is a crucial part of the business; meaning how this how they treated it and how they use it. How they discard all of that matters because every incremental benefit, every incremental ISM efficiency, will translate to the old dollars because it's a pretty big company. Because of that, within the operation, water treatment with a huge part of it. We started working with them on that and what happened was over a year, we ended up saving more than 15 million gallons of water. That was one side, and you can imagine 15 million gallons can feed a family for years. It's a lot of water on an industrial scale, it's large, so the goal is to identify these high-impact areas were before doing this. After using a product, they started out doing that, saving this water. What this also does is, in addition to the Auto I benefit, that is, a positive impact on the ESC metrics carbon footprint. So that is another very key benefit that you can achieve by solving problems and energy, water, and chemicals that can significantly impact your PSG footprint.

       Lisa Ryan: Are there particular types of industries that you've mentioned beverage a couple of times, and you said your connection with water. What are some of the other big industries that you've seen that have successfully taken off taken off with us?

       Prateek Joshi: The trend we have seen as any industry, where the energy consumption is high, is that those industries are active. They actively pursue new technologies because it's costly. So the source has a significant impact on carbon footprint. So are the water, beverage, food processing, chemical, manufacturing, and data centers.

       We've seen a lot of activity in these industries. Food and beverage have been very active, so say that's one of the most active verticals. All of these industries have been actively pursuing new technologies here.

       Lisa Ryan: Do you have any other ideas or tips if somebody is starting to think about this? What are some resources they could turn to? What would be the best way for somebody to begin exploring the topic?

       Prateek Joshi: I think many of the resources are available online and on our website. We have several White Papers and case studies that were just published, mostly talking about how to think about it. In addition to that, many of the publications, depending on the industry or smart water magazine publishers, water-related technologies, food, and beverage, have something similar. The chemical industry has something similar, but the goal is to try things out and create a framework to quickly try things without disrupting the business and see exactly what works for you. It would be best to look at simple things like automating. But an easy starting point because this is only something we can automate, something as simple as scheduling. We automate that. It makes our life easier. With the manufacturing, you can look at it. You automate the work of monitoring. You can automate the work of ticketing.

       What happens after taking what happens when you do save energy? How does that work? Determining what can be automated is step one—after that, working with a partner who can do a small, well-defined pilot. I'm going to go from there, so I think that's an excellent way to get started here.

       Lisa Ryan: And is there a way to test that it's working, or is this something that once you commit Ai, you're all in or not. Is there a way to try it, see if it works, and then decide yes, I'm going to stay with this or no, I'm going back to the old way?

       Prateek Joshi: 100%. That matters a lot, and that's precisely how we should think about it, so as a new technology, the goal is within them. Let's see what our director of operations says. The goal is, can you create a framework where, if you want to test out. Let's say you saw a new Ai cloud tool that can reduce chemical consumption, so the goal is, how can we quickly pass it out. It usually takes about 90 days. No matter what piece of tech it is, within 90 days, you should be able to see the impact.

       I know. I think it should take like two years, that's too long. But I've seen 90 days has a good time at the break where you deploy it. You use it honestly for 90 days. Then you measure before it was a surprise, meaning you have to be diligent about the status quo before you start doing it to measure the impact, and then you can do it. So it's not a one-and-done thing. It's like Ai is almost becoming a ubiquitous cloud or Internet. It's already here. The goal is to make it work for you, and it's all it's ubiquitous. Almost all of us use it every day in some shape or form. It's just going to figure out how to make it work for you.

       Lisa Ryan: And what about tying it in with your existing system systems? You think that some manufacturers have equipment that is decades old. So they're trying to incorporate some new equipment, or is it better if you're starting fresh I mean, how difficult is it to tie in all the different systems that you're going to find in a manufacturing plant.

       Prateek Joshi: That's a legitimate concern, but potential customers are when we talk to noncustomers. We do see that quite a bit. These companies have been around for decades; some companies have been around for more than 100 years, so they have a long history of decisions and associated hardware. The goal is to ensure that they stay up to date on simple things like data collection, so if you're not collecting data, step one is to get the sensors in place.

       Start collecting the data, but yeah, I think if you're not on the journey, some people are on all parts of the spectrum. If you have nothing going on the step, one would be talking to a hardware company, which can deploy sensors and send the data to a database. Once you have that, you go to the following type of data analysis, if you don't do data analysis without any data in place, I think. I think assessing where you are on that spectrum and then choosing the right initiatives matters a lot, and I think many, many companies have successfully moved along the spectrum. They're moving fast, and many vendors and companies are showing up with amazing technologies.

       Lisa Ryan: And then the last thing that comes to mind is just from a security standpoint from a cyber security standpoint, how are you making sure that all of this is being kept safe that nobody can. Access that or hack into your system. What are some of the things you would recommend as far as that goes, or is that not an issue?

       Prateek Joshi: No, it's an issue. Any data company has to have access to your customers' data. Make sure that data and your system are secure. A...]]>a3b40984-1aae-4488-a818-0a668d539e3cMon, 31 Jan 2022 07:05:00 -040028:06falsefull212122Recruiting Tips to Help you Win New Manufacturing Talent with Ann WyattConnect 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 were in love with the candidate.

       But they just really thought that she was the perfect person for them. So they went that extra mile, and when the candidate came back and said, I guess I would take a pay cut. So they didn't make her; they gave her what she was currently making.

       Those types of ideas and the ability to put yourself beyond just the traditional corporate stuffy box and show your human side as a company. Show that you care about your workforce and invest in your workforce. Those will be driving factors when you're looking at recruiting and retaining top talent.

       Lisa Ryan: You brought up a couple of things that I want to focus on. The one with this candidate that you just placed was looking to leave her last employer, and she was thinking about taking a pay cut to do it. That sends a message loud and clear to people. You are listening to your employees and having their ears open. Taking care of the people you already have on your team and making sure you're having those conversations that keep you here would cause you to leave. Having those in advance can have prevented that woman from ever thinking about leaving.

       Was there anything, and I don't know how much she shared with you, but why was she thinking about leaving her last employer? What was it about this company that she was thinking about taking a pay cut, even though she ended up not having to. That's an excellent question. I love that.

       Ann Wyatt: The candidates had been with the previous employer for five years. The previous employer was a greenfield startup company that came to the area. I will tell you; I wouldn't say I liked taking this person from this company. I have a little bit of history with the company. I don't work for them. It broke my heart that she wanted to leave because I worked with them at the state. It was like I wanted good things for this company. What was frustrating for her was that she didn't feel like the organization and support she needed with the company.

       In the greenfield sites, especially if it's like a foreign company coming in, it takes a long time to get their structure in place and to get up and to run. So to get their product out the door, she was getting to the point that she was losing faith. It was ever going to stable out for her, and I think that was the driving factor for why she left. When I called her up and asked her about this position, she was very interested in the company's very well-established. They had most of all their processes and procedures in a row. Everything was in a good routine. She liked the fact that the company was smaller. It was more family-oriented, and some people like that. She liked that.

       When she went in for her interview, the client went out of their way to give her a quality candidate experience. What I mean by that is she was introduced to everybody on the floor, everybody in the office. She was allowed to talk to everybody to ask questions of other employees that were not necessarily interviewing her. I remember talking to her after the interview, and I said, how did it go? What did you think? She was still at that point; for her that, she was like, okay, I'll do it, I'll take the pay cut. She was saying I'm still making this amount. So when I called her up, I talked to her. She said they were so sweet, so friendly, and welcoming to me. She said I would be very interested if I had to take a pay cut.

       Lisa Ryan: I said that's great. That sounds so much for these companies saying I can't afford to pay these people. I can afford all the money that they're looking for. It's not about the money. Here is a woman ready to take a pay cut to go somewhere else. They took her around; they introduced her to everybody, making her feel at home. They created that experience. She was at that level of frustration that may have been alleviated if her other company had asked her - what tools do you need? What resources can we provide for you? To minimize the frustration that she was still having five years later. The other thing is, can you explain what you mean when you say greenfield?

       Ann Wyatt: A greenfield is the manufacturing equivalent to a startup. Essentially, they worked with the local area, economic development—all the way up through the state of Kentucky, which starts at the state level. The company will contact the United States Chamber of Commerce about economic development. We'll try to begin the process of saying, hey, I'd like to put a plant in.

       For example, somewhere close to a customer, this company had GM as one of their biggest customers. They wanted to be close to Bowling green, Kentucky, for that reason. Then the state will work with that company to find the right development for them to meet their needs. If they need a railway, for example, or they need shipping like by boat, or they need to be by an airfield like at an airport.

       They'll work with that. They'll work with utilities if they need wastewater and things like that.

       Lisa Ryan: They're starting with a greenfield, starting from the ground up. Then they build the building and all that. That's what I thought. Just in case somebody else had the same question in their mind about that. Going back to that woman, and her taking the job anything. Is there anything else about that experience that the company did well? What solidified her commitment to joining them, besides the extra five grand, showed how much they valued her. They didn't make her take a pay cut, so it just sounds like such a win, win.

       Ann Wyatt: Exactly. I was this recruiter. These moments are infrequent. When this happens, you could cry. It's so good for everybody. They...]]>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 were in love with the candidate.

       But they just really thought that she was the perfect person for them. So they went that extra mile, and when the candidate came back and said, I guess I would take a pay cut. So they didn't make her; they gave her what she was currently making.

       Those types of ideas and the ability to put yourself beyond just the traditional corporate stuffy box and show your human side as a company. Show that you care about your workforce and invest in your workforce. Those will be driving factors when you're looking at recruiting and retaining top talent.

       Lisa Ryan: You brought up a couple of things that I want to focus on. The one with this candidate that you just placed was looking to leave her last employer, and she was thinking about taking a pay cut to do it. That sends a message loud and clear to people. You are listening to your employees and having their ears open. Taking care of the people you already have on your team and making sure you're having those conversations that keep you here would cause you to leave. Having those in advance can have prevented that woman from ever thinking about leaving.

       Was there anything, and I don't know how much she shared with you, but why was she thinking about leaving her last employer? What was it about this company that she was thinking about taking a pay cut, even though she ended up not having to. That's an excellent question. I love that.

       Ann Wyatt: The candidates had been with the previous employer for five years. The previous employer was a greenfield startup company that came to the area. I will tell you; I wouldn't say I liked taking this person from this company. I have a little bit of history with the company. I don't work for them. It broke my heart that she wanted to leave because I worked with them at the state. It was like I wanted good things for this company. What was frustrating for her was that she didn't feel like the organization and support she needed with the company.

       In the greenfield sites, especially if it's like a foreign company coming in, it takes a long time to get their structure in place and to get up and to run. So to get their product out the door, she was getting to the point that she was losing faith. It was ever going to stable out for her, and I think that was the driving factor for why she left. When I called her up and asked her about this position, she was very interested in the company's very well-established. They had most of all their processes and procedures in a row. Everything was in a good routine. She liked the fact that the company was smaller. It was more family-oriented, and some people like that. She liked that.

       When she went in for her interview, the client went out of their way to give her a quality candidate experience. What I mean by that is she was introduced to everybody on the floor, everybody in the office. She was allowed to talk to everybody to ask questions of other employees that were not necessarily interviewing her. I remember talking to her after the interview, and I said, how did it go? What did you think? She was still at that point; for her that, she was like, okay, I'll do it, I'll take the pay cut. She was saying I'm still making this amount. So when I called her up, I talked to her. She said they were so sweet, so friendly, and welcoming to me. She said I would be very interested if I had to take a pay cut.

       Lisa Ryan: I said that's great. That sounds so much for these companies saying I can't afford to pay these people. I can afford all the money that they're looking for. It's not about the money. Here is a woman ready to take a pay cut to go somewhere else. They took her around; they introduced her to everybody, making her feel at home. They created that experience. She was at that level of frustration that may have been alleviated if her other company had asked her - what tools do you need? What resources can we provide for you? To minimize the frustration that she was still having five years later. The other thing is, can you explain what you mean when you say greenfield?

       Ann Wyatt: A greenfield is the manufacturing equivalent to a startup. Essentially, they worked with the local area, economic development—all the way up through the state of Kentucky, which starts at the state level. The company will contact the United States Chamber of Commerce about economic development. We'll try to begin the process of saying, hey, I'd like to put a plant in.

       For example, somewhere close to a customer, this company had GM as one of their biggest customers. They wanted to be close to Bowling green, Kentucky, for that reason. Then the state will work with that company to find the right development for them to meet their needs. If they need a railway, for example, or they need shipping like by boat, or they need to be by an airfield like at an airport.

       They'll work with that. They'll work with utilities if they need wastewater and things like that.

       Lisa Ryan: They're starting with a greenfield, starting from the ground up. Then they build the building and all that. That's what I thought. Just in case somebody else had the same question in their mind about that. Going back to that woman, and her taking the job anything. Is there anything else about that experience that the company did well? What solidified her commitment to joining them, besides the extra five grand, showed how much they valued her. They didn't make her take a pay cut, so it just sounds like such a win, win.

       Ann Wyatt: Exactly. I was this recruiter. These moments are infrequent. When this happens, you could cry. It's so good for everybody. They did a great job being flexible in the pay, and they have excellent benefits. I want to say, like, for their health care coverage, their deductible is low. They have like a $700 deductible on a family plan. I thought that was her. I was like, I want that.

       But they go out of their way to constantly improve their benefits and do everything they can do to help their employees out.

       Lisa Ryan: I think it was magical how they walked her through the plant and introduced her to people. That goes on both sides of the equation. Number one: she got to see who she was working with, but it also gave the people on the floor some comfort that this person was going to be a good fit. Because maybe if she was did something where she brushed off somebody, or she was rude to somebody, that team member can come up, and say I don't think she's going to be a good fit here. So it really can help a company on both sides of the equation of supporting your current employees to feel connected to the process and as a very welcoming gesture to your new employees coming in.

       Ann Wyatt: I think that was a mini high-performing teams interview. Getting her to walk the floor, talking to everybody, and introducing her to everybody, was a great way to get feedback. Whenever I see companies hiring with high-performing teams made up of different people from that department, those companies have the highest success with retention and talent acquisition.

       Lisa Ryan: How vital is training? It is the whole process of training your managers to do it and doing it the right way. Training and professional development in the company itself, and let's start with the managers - the people were doing the job interviews and posting the jobs. What are some best practices when you are training your people?

       Ann Wyatt: Sure, no, that's a great question. I do think that it takes a certain level of training. Many companies, when they're hiring, recruiting frequently falls under the human resources function. I don't feel like it's an excellent fit for human resources just because of compliance issues. Human resources always have to be so compliant. And they have to understand employment law. I like to think of recruiting as if human resources had a happy spot. That's the happy spot for human resources. A lot of companies hire entry-level people to come in. That's their first job. You can do the recruiting because it's a lot of fun. It's happy. I'm not going to say it's easy, but it's not like negotiating employee or mediation. It's not like that. It's not benefits or payroll either. Companies should do a more proactive job of providing interview training, whether situational or behavioral interview training. I think that's important when you're doing interviews. There's a lot of nonverbal cues that people give.

       It helps that you're not subconsciously reading what you see. Instead, you see it, acknowledge it, and then what does this mean. So, for example, if somebody is over talking or they're not talking enough, you're going to immediately have that little red flag say, Oh well, what's wrong. But then, being able to go further, and saying okay, well this person is easy, they're over talking, they don't have enough experience. They're saying a lot, but nothing in that situation. Or they're under-talking, so maybe they're not very interested.

       Being able to read those numbers is essential. I think it's an excellent practice for companies for performance and analytics measures to have a matrix of their core values. What soft skills they're looking for when they're doing the behavioral interviews and then assessing them and ranking them based on that set.

       Lisa Ryan: Make sure that you're getting the right fit right off the bat. Besides that one client that we spend some time with their employee experience, what are some of the other things that you've seen people do or ideas that work when it comes to connecting with that employee right off the bat before they agree to come on board?

       Ann Wyatt: Recruiting is a lot of relationship building, and I would like to see it as a recruiter. I would love to see some more of that, too, in recruiting. It's a lot of relationship building. If somebody applies for the position, and they're not the right fit, it doesn't take much to send them a DM on LinkedIn and say, hey, I saw that you applied for that, thanks for that. But I think that this is what the company is looking for, or just being that person not making time for them so if they have questions to be there to answer their questions if they want to learn more about the company. And what their story is to provide them a look at the company and their story. What's their product, where are they in a global market? What's unique about this company? Why do the employees of this company want to work there? Those are all things that, as a recruiter, I feel like you should be able to not only understand but also convey effectively to candidates that you're contacting. Building relationships may not work out for this, but I love to stay in touch and check in every so often to say Merry Christmas, hey Happy New year. I've spent a lot of this over the past couple of weeks to be friendly.

       Lisa Ryan: You mentioned something about video interviews or video job descriptions earlier. Please tell me more about that. What do you mean by that?

       Ann Wyatt: Video job descriptions are a great way to showcase your company, your product, your machinery, and what you do. It is a great way to show prospective candidates. When I have a company interested in doing a video job description, for example, I try to pick out some of the things required from the job - what they're looking for. When you read a job description, there's what they need. So you pick out the things that matter most that will be the driving decision-making factors. You showcase those in the job description videos, so whether that's a technical role - say somebody is looking for an automation engineer or something, that person needs to have a strong PLC background. I want to know what your plc hardware is. What are you running? Rockwell, Siemens - what do you have. I want to showcase that in the video for candidates. Because somebody may be very interested, they may not have the experience. Maybe they have seen it. So being able to give them a quick, effective visual synopsis of what you're looking for what you need, and then also what you do at the same time, is a lot more effective than just the old text.

       Lisa Ryan: That sounds like something you could do right on your phone. You're not looking at hiring a production team; you're looking at showing a day in the life of what that job is on a short video that you can shoot right on your phone.

       Ann Wyatt: Definitely. You could also do employee testimonies. If you want to pull somebody from the floor that works in that same role and have them talk about what they like about it, why they took the job, and what their day-to-day is like. You could do that. If there's a camera app, you could use that. I have software, but I think it's not expensive. It's like $250 a year. It's very cost-effective to do things differently.

       Lisa Ryan: Those are the things that set you apart. Even though we all have a smartphone of some kind with us at all times pretty much anymore, there are probably very few people doing that. So, suppose you want something to differentiate yourself from everybody else out there immediately. In that case, it's showing that day in the life on video and doing things that are different from what everybody else is doing in their recruiting practices.

       Ann Wyatt: Exactly. It makes you appear transparent. It makes you appear approachable, and you're stepping out of that rigid corporate box and showing your humanity to your candidate pool. That's something that they want to consider before they take a new job. At the end of the day, the candidate pool is so tiny if somebody takes a new job because they genuinely want to.

       Lisa Ryan: Exactly. So, as we get to the end of our time together, what would be your biggest tip for companies to recruit successfully or onboard new employees?

       Ann Wyatt: I think going the extra mile to be willing to meet people where they are is something that I say, often in a lot of advice in a lot of the advice that I give it but what I mean by that is to be flexible and meet people where they are. Find out if you're interested in hiring a person. You're saying, Okay, this is the one for us. Find out what that motivating factor is for that person. Sometimes it's many. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes they want flexibility. Being able to meet them where they are and going that extra mile for them is the best advice as to what you can do to win in the candidate race right now and increase your culture and retention.

       Lisa Ryan: If somebody wanted to get a hold of you and continue the conversation, what's the best way for them to connect?

       Ann Wyatt: Probably LinkedIn is where I spend most of my time. I love connecting with people on LinkedIn. So please send me a DM and let me know that you found me through the podcast. I would be happy to connect with you.

       Lisa Ryan: All right, well, and thank you so much for being with me today. It's been a great conversation.

       Ann Wyatt: Thank you, Lisa. It's a pleasure.

       Lisa Ryan: I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. We'll see you next time.

       ]]>f68405e6-51fb-4704-aff2-9142177ee065Mon, 24 Jan 2022 07:05:00 -040026:08falsefull211112Employees - Engaging and Keeping The Lifeblood of Your Business with Steve BurkeConnect 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 that way. It doesn't work. You're not fixing it. You're just putting a new part on a problem, and it's going to fail. We got into discussing that more in-depth with them. What do you mean, it's going to fail?

       And what I found out is that people have assumed roles where they don't know the history of the maintenance issues. So they find out that we're replacing parts repeatedly and not looking at a root cause, not looking at a process that has been changed, not looking at additional equipment that's been added that is affecting or contributing to the downtime failures.

       Lisa Ryan: Really, what you're doing is instead of just selling parts, you're going above and beyond and giving them the service, and probably over time, maybe you're not going to sell as much because you're not replacing the same parts because you've fixed the problem, which then would lead your customers to trust you more. So is that what you're finding?

       Steve Burke: That's precisely correct. Yes, we do shoot ourselves in the foot, so to speak, for not replacing every part or making an extra couple of dollars replacing a part. But we prefer building a relationship with our customers, understanding their personal needs because that's going to bond our customers or join our customers to partner together to create more reliability and profitability. And in some cases, we even make a safer alternative for them to operate.

       Lisa Ryan: I know that training is a significant component for you. So is that looking at both the people you employ to ensure that they are trained personally and professionally and your customers or talk about your focus on training?

       Steve Burke: Training is just one of the most overlooked things in the industry today. We don't have time to train. We don't have the budget to train as things we hear. We don't have the people to teach who could train on this system. Joe and Bob and all the old-timers are evolving. They're retiring. They're leaving the industry and taking with them 30, 40 years of a wealth of knowledge, the young people coming in, qualified, great guys willing to work. They don't have the knowledge or experience we're trying to get to that process. Find out how and where we can help them solve their problems.

       Some of them have more knowledge than myself because they've been highly trained in an area, but they don't have the broad understanding that 30 plus years of experience working in the industry has provided. So we're joining with the maintenance managers and finding out your biggest problems. And this is a fundamental question that's not being asked when you call up a mega house or a large supply house. And you say, I need part XYZ. That's what they do. They give you part XYZ, but they don't connect with why you need part XYZ, and who knows how to replace it? And how many times have you replaced that in the last year? Because they should last in multi-years. So we're kind of explorers. We're kind of investigators asking these questions.

       Lisa Ryan: And when you talk about the fact that, yes, we do have the silver tsunami of baby boomers that are retiring and taking their 30 and 40 years of experience with them, is there anything that you're doing to capture some of that knowledge before the people walk out your door.

       Steve Burke: We are looking to maintain a relationship with our customers. We're a small company, Lisa. So we're not big, but we take people and train them to have a comprehensive knowledge of the products that we carry. And then we work with them. Often I go out with them to look at a job, meet with a team, and ask the questions that they haven't learned how to ask yet, because you can't just ask Gee, why is it broke or what have you done to fix it?

       Steve Burke: You have to go to the second level and third level questions to funnel down, create an understanding of what is your real problem, reliability. And how can I help you?

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. So really taking it into the real world instead of textbook what's supposed to happen because we know in maintenance, there's no way you're ever going to see anything that can go wrong in maintenance.

       Steve Burke: It's true. We're finding that maintenance teams, managers, and leadership are being asked to do more right now with fewer people. Manpower is plaguing the nation right now, let alone manpower that wishes to work in a hands-on, hands, dirty environment. And we're working with them to optimize the steps they are taking to create the maintenance programs that keep things running.

       Lisa Ryan: And one of the things I know that you do to our customer audits to help with that, to investigate those problems and provide solutions. So, could you share with us a bit of your process? What does that look like? Maybe some steps that if somebody is listening to the podcast today and would like to incorporate that thing for their customers, how would they get started?

       Steve Burke: You had a tricky question to answer. We're covering multiple product lines. Let me just take one example. That is easy to share, and that will be in lubrication. Lubrication touches anywhere. There's moving parts in manufacturing, steel, chemical. It's a universal issue. And yet it is also one of the most specialized knowledge banks there is. It's not a glorious or a sexy industry to be in. Everybody wants to stay away from it. It's constantly the last component of a piece of equipment that's looked at for liability.

       But lubrication is the lifeblood of the industry. So we'll come in, and we talk with people, and they start asking some fundamental questions about lubrication from single-point lubrication to multi-hundred-point lubrication systems. Do you have them? What are you doing with them? Who's your lubrication guru, and the answers often are. We don't have one. We haven't had one for years. I just had a...]]>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 that way. It doesn't work. You're not fixing it. You're just putting a new part on a problem, and it's going to fail. We got into discussing that more in-depth with them. What do you mean, it's going to fail?

       And what I found out is that people have assumed roles where they don't know the history of the maintenance issues. So they find out that we're replacing parts repeatedly and not looking at a root cause, not looking at a process that has been changed, not looking at additional equipment that's been added that is affecting or contributing to the downtime failures.

       Lisa Ryan: Really, what you're doing is instead of just selling parts, you're going above and beyond and giving them the service, and probably over time, maybe you're not going to sell as much because you're not replacing the same parts because you've fixed the problem, which then would lead your customers to trust you more. So is that what you're finding?

       Steve Burke: That's precisely correct. Yes, we do shoot ourselves in the foot, so to speak, for not replacing every part or making an extra couple of dollars replacing a part. But we prefer building a relationship with our customers, understanding their personal needs because that's going to bond our customers or join our customers to partner together to create more reliability and profitability. And in some cases, we even make a safer alternative for them to operate.

       Lisa Ryan: I know that training is a significant component for you. So is that looking at both the people you employ to ensure that they are trained personally and professionally and your customers or talk about your focus on training?

       Steve Burke: Training is just one of the most overlooked things in the industry today. We don't have time to train. We don't have the budget to train as things we hear. We don't have the people to teach who could train on this system. Joe and Bob and all the old-timers are evolving. They're retiring. They're leaving the industry and taking with them 30, 40 years of a wealth of knowledge, the young people coming in, qualified, great guys willing to work. They don't have the knowledge or experience we're trying to get to that process. Find out how and where we can help them solve their problems.

       Some of them have more knowledge than myself because they've been highly trained in an area, but they don't have the broad understanding that 30 plus years of experience working in the industry has provided. So we're joining with the maintenance managers and finding out your biggest problems. And this is a fundamental question that's not being asked when you call up a mega house or a large supply house. And you say, I need part XYZ. That's what they do. They give you part XYZ, but they don't connect with why you need part XYZ, and who knows how to replace it? And how many times have you replaced that in the last year? Because they should last in multi-years. So we're kind of explorers. We're kind of investigators asking these questions.

       Lisa Ryan: And when you talk about the fact that, yes, we do have the silver tsunami of baby boomers that are retiring and taking their 30 and 40 years of experience with them, is there anything that you're doing to capture some of that knowledge before the people walk out your door.

       Steve Burke: We are looking to maintain a relationship with our customers. We're a small company, Lisa. So we're not big, but we take people and train them to have a comprehensive knowledge of the products that we carry. And then we work with them. Often I go out with them to look at a job, meet with a team, and ask the questions that they haven't learned how to ask yet, because you can't just ask Gee, why is it broke or what have you done to fix it?

       Steve Burke: You have to go to the second level and third level questions to funnel down, create an understanding of what is your real problem, reliability. And how can I help you?

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. So really taking it into the real world instead of textbook what's supposed to happen because we know in maintenance, there's no way you're ever going to see anything that can go wrong in maintenance.

       Steve Burke: It's true. We're finding that maintenance teams, managers, and leadership are being asked to do more right now with fewer people. Manpower is plaguing the nation right now, let alone manpower that wishes to work in a hands-on, hands, dirty environment. And we're working with them to optimize the steps they are taking to create the maintenance programs that keep things running.

       Lisa Ryan: And one of the things I know that you do to our customer audits to help with that, to investigate those problems and provide solutions. So, could you share with us a bit of your process? What does that look like? Maybe some steps that if somebody is listening to the podcast today and would like to incorporate that thing for their customers, how would they get started?

       Steve Burke: You had a tricky question to answer. We're covering multiple product lines. Let me just take one example. That is easy to share, and that will be in lubrication. Lubrication touches anywhere. There's moving parts in manufacturing, steel, chemical. It's a universal issue. And yet it is also one of the most specialized knowledge banks there is. It's not a glorious or a sexy industry to be in. Everybody wants to stay away from it. It's constantly the last component of a piece of equipment that's looked at for liability.

       But lubrication is the lifeblood of the industry. So we'll come in, and we talk with people, and they start asking some fundamental questions about lubrication from single-point lubrication to multi-hundred-point lubrication systems. Do you have them? What are you doing with them? Who's your lubrication guru, and the answers often are. We don't have one. We haven't had one for years. I just had a customer who told me that 24 of their automated systems are no longer operational. Five of them are limping along because they have nobody to provide the technical expertise and the time to come in and fix it.

       Sometimes we have to do this on a fee basis where we work with our customers and find out how we can help or work with your team to get a start point to get this quired knowledge of your issues, and we'll work with them. We'll find out where the problems are. We'll find out where their high maintenance issues are, and we'll start from there and roll it out. Often that means talking to maintenance managers, supervisors, and technicians to understand their level of lubrication and how to maintain it.

       And right now, there's a vacuum in that area. People are trying, and they're looking online to find stuff, but there's no real active resource. So we'll take it and work with them. From the basics, Lisa, from what lubrication is and how to maintain your system to that complete process.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. And as we're going more and more into automation, that lubrication part will be, like you said, the lifeblood of keeping that equipment going. And when we think about maintenance, the best thing about maintenance does not have to use it. If you maintain your equipment correctly and even start with the basics that you talk about of Lubrication 101. Too often, people assume, vendors assume, that people know what to do, where to put the parts, and how to work anything. But the fact that you're starting from that ground zero and not assuming anything seems like that will be invaluable to extending the life of your customers' equipment.

       Steve Burke: And that's what we found over and over time. And if you take and make these repairs and create a process for successful maintenance of these systems, they're very durable. They last a long time. Without that maintenance, without that understanding, they can become a daily maintenance issue that impacts profitability and downtime and, again, sometimes even safety. For example, some statistics show that 65% plus bearing failure is directly related to improper lubrication. So that's a huge number. And when people start to hear that and see that, and you can show more, you can extend the life of a bearing, extend the runtime of a piece of equipment, protect their assets. You become a valuable resource to them.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. And one of the ways that I think you also stay a resource is in your follow-up. So you're not just going in there doing an audit, giving them the right pieces, and then okay, see you later. Let's go on to the next one. You are also staying in touch with them. So what are some of the ways that you continue to be a resource for the long term with your customers?

       Steve Burke: Yes, staying in touch is a law start. Customer service is a law that starts right now. They want a large house. A large company often wants to get that call taken care of and off their list, and they won't ask or follow up a need with them. Situations like, hey, I sent them a text. Hey, I send them a voicemail. Hey, I left them an email, and they didn't get back to me. Maintenance teams are overworked right now. You have to be the source that gets back to them repeatedly until you talk to them. And we sometimes apologize for being overly enthusiastic, if you will, and trying to reach out to our customers. And, hey, I know this is the third email. I know this is the third call. Please excuse me. If you'd like me to stop, let me know. But if you're just too busy, I'll wait for you, and I'll make my efforts to get a hold of you. And I didn't trust that way by being a Bulldog. I've been called you're a Bulldog. Well, sometimes you have to be a Bulldog to help people. And I always apologize and say, if that's ever an inconvenience, let me know, and I'll change.

       Lisa Ryan: And the fact that you're giving them the choice of, hey, if you don't want to hear from me, fine. But the fact that you keep going after probably most of your competitors give up when they sent that one text or they sent that second voicemail and they didn't hear back. So they move on to the next one where you are, letting those customers know that this is important. They are essential to you, and you're there for them.

       Steve Burke: That's correct. And we hear that routinely. Thanks. I got to get to that. But I had this. I had that we had a tornado here. We had this. There are many different reasons why they can't get back to you and what you would like to be prompt information, but often they'll say, yeah, thanks. I got to get that done. Let's get this and move forward. And that's where we earned reliability, trust. Or that's where we've gained a hey. This guy cares because we do. We care about our customers, and we care about finding the solutions.

       Lisa Ryan: I think that's such an essential lesson for everybody, not only in manufacturing and distribution but in every industry. When we're reaching out to potential customers, and they're not getting back to us, we think it's all about us. Oh, they must not like me. They must not want to do business with me. I must be getting on their nerves. But, in most cases, it's got nothing to do with you. We don't know that they just had a tornado, that they just had a flood, that they just had a major breakdown, that their maintenance guy quit, or all of these other things that are taking their attention.

       And we are such this tiny dot on their radar. We don't think about it. So if we can take ourselves out of the equation and just let them know, okay, I'm here from you. I'm here for you when you need me. I'm here for you when you need me, but just keep on keeping on that. You're adding value and keeping your ego out of it. It sounds like it's true.

       Steve Burke: And I often ask questions like, when would you like me to reach back to you? I understand how busy you are. Is there someone you can delegate this to? I can take this off your plate and perhaps work directly with a technician. And we do that routinely because technicians are the keys to maintaining reliability. It's not in a CEO's hands. It's not in a maintenance manager's hands. He directs these solutions to go out there and fix things. If they're going to do it, they can if they have the knowledge and ability to do it.

       But they can't do anything if just because somebody wants them to. If they don't have the tools, the knowledge, and the experience to get it done or the resource, we can help them out with that resource, right? So I still get dirty, Lisa. I still go down into the dirty pits, and I still get my hands all greasy if that means helping out a customer well.

       Lisa Ryan: You're also setting an excellent example for the people who work for you, which I want to get into a little bit, too, because I know that you have a small company and that labor is hard to find. But it sounds like you are building a heck of a team by doing what you're doing and letting your employees know that you are just as willing as they are to get your hands dirty. So what would you say are some of the things you are doing to create that workplace culture that keeps people working for you and not going down the street to a competitor.

       Steve Burke: What a challenge. When I started this company, I asked the people I was bringing to the team. Is this what you want to do? Is there anything else you want to do? Because if there is, now is the time to go and do it. But if you elect to stay here, if you like to move forward, success will follow because we will be working harder than the next guy. We will be providing services that the next person isn't providing. We will be sincerely focused on delivering what our company is designed around.

       That is to provide solutions to the industry. Once I gave some time, and I said, don't answer now. You cannot answer me right now. Don't just nod your head. Don't just say yes. I want you to go home, talk with your wife. I want you to think about it. I want you to look at it. And I want you to see if there's anything else that could make you happier. And once they did, once they came on board. How are we going to make this the best company?

       How are we going to strive for excellence daily? One of our slogans is always better, never best, because we want to improve daily for our customers. And for us. It may be adding a paper void packing machine. It may be buying a piece of equipment in one of the cases of hose crimper, the state of the art where you could buy one that was less money. But we're going to buy the best one to make sure we can do it quickly, efficiently and provide the best product for our customers.

       So those kinds of things and listening to their input. Well, think we should do this. One of the cases is we take parts and get them in from a customer, and they're Rod. They're just a piece of metal. Okay, we bag them and vacuum seal them, and then we put a label on the outside of them because some of our customers don't have the luxury of having a climate-controlled area to store their parts. And when they store metal steel, they'll find that they'll get corroded, rust, covered, damaged, and it's hard to see them.

       Sometimes it's hard to read numbers that are stamped on or laser etched down. So we put them in a half-inch yellow and black label, and it's easy for them to read. So we try to simplify everywhere we do bin management for our customers because of that.

       Lisa Ryan: So I think a vital lesson, too, is making sure that your employees have that commitment to you by not making them. When we think about bringing people on board, we're like, oh, no, you have to give me an answer right now where sometimes when you take the time you let them process, and then when they're ready to commit to you, the employees know where you're coming from, and they're willing to make that commitment. And it]]>060aa49b-93e7-4b21-9752-80e3c8273e96Mon, 17 Jan 2022 07:05:00 -040028:10falsefull210102The Future of Solar Manufacturing in the United States with Martin DeBonoConnect with Martin DeBono:

       Website: 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 we can harness a small fraction of that, we can wean ourselves off fossil fuels. You're right, it is clean, but I think that the most common reason people choose to get a solar roof is selfish, and that is it's less expensive. You can use a significant investment investing in solar - it pays off.

       Lisa Ryan: So, your emphasis has been that you are doing the R&D and the manufacturing in the United States. Why is that such a big deal?

       Martin DeBono: Yes, so it's been shocking now that I'm old. I just had a major milestone of a birthday. But you see just the loss of manufacturing expertise in the United States, especially in solar. As recently as five or six years ago, almost a third of the solar panels in the world were manufactured by US companies. Now that number is less than 5%, and I've seen facilities move across borders or in different States to save a few hundred thousand dollars or a few million dollars a year.

       Perhaps, the most concerning is that I've seen an exodus of talent from the clean energy industry accompanying the decline of American manufacturing excellence in clean energy. By this, I mean, eight or nine years ago, when I got into the solar industry, it was pretty easy to recruit people because they're like, hey yeah, I'm going to work for an American company, I want to make a difference, as you mentioned.

        Solar energy is clean energy, and it does indeed help with some of the challenges that our energy supply chain has today. But they become disillusioned when they have to spend 2, 3, 4 months a year away from their home by flying to Asia, where the predominant manufacturers of solar products in the world are located. They are trying to implement their inventions on the manufacturing line. So today, those same people are not getting into the industry but instead taking jobs at Google or Microsoft. They are highly educated, and those companies need highly educated people. So for us, combining manufacturing and R&D was a necessity. We want to attract talent and meet our customers' demands very quickly.

       Lisa Ryan: Solar has been around for a while. What is it that you're doing on your end? In bringing solar to the United States, what differentiates what they get from Asia, and the rest of the world.

       Martin DeBono: Yes, so, as I mentioned, by combining R&D and manufacturing in the same facility, we've been able to make advances very, very rapidly. We just announced the first world's first nail-able solar single, and it's the first advancement in the way solar is installed in about 30 years. The traditional way solar is installed to take a flat-screen TV and bolt it to the roof through the water protection barrier. Many of your listeners have seen a solar panel it's about two feet by three feet or two feet by four feet and lug it up to the roof. We've created a nail-able solar shingle.

       There's nothing else like it in the world. It will reduce the installation time remarkably. It also makes sure that the waterproof integrity of the home is maintained, and it looks a lot better than those early solar panels. In addition, you're able to do it quickly again by not having our R&D team having to spend half their lives on planes. Instead, they walk 10 feet to see the manufacturing line where these new products are created.

       Lisa Ryan: Please tell us what those panels look like compared to other solar panels.

       Martin DeBono: Yes, certainly. What we produce looks nothing like the traditional solar panels at all. It looks like a shingle. Traditional shingles are 40 inches wide by about 16 inches tall, and the two singles overlap half of it. You shingle half of the single above it, and it covers the single below it to make sure water flows. We created a solar shingle about five feet wide and again 16 inches deep. They nail it down, and it looks just like a shingle.

       If you are standing on the sidewalk and you're looking up at your house, they are perfectly in line with the rest of the roof. There is nothing that the single soul itself is the shingle. It's remarkable. No one has invented it before because I don't think people thought it could be invented. But, more importantly, there are several factors at play that allow this to be the right time for such an invention.

       First, what's happened in the solar industry is the solar cell itself is no longer the most expensive part of the value chain. The actual installation of the solar module is the most costly part. When someone looks at what makes up the cost of a solar system, getting installed is the most significant part. Sales and marketing is the second biggest part. The solar cell itself has come down much in the same way. If you think that an iPhone memory has come down to low prices, processing power has also come down. That spawned a new form of computer, the handheld computer or the iPhone.

       Similarly, the cell's very, very low cost has enabled us to focus elsewhere. The first reason is the reduction in the price of the solar cell. The second reason is that we come from it from a roofing perspective. Finally, GAF Energy, through its relationship with Standard Industries, knows a lot about manufacturing, and we're able to put that manufacturing expertise to bear to create an entirely new form factor.

       Based on the single form factor, the company has been perfecting for 50 or 60 years. When you combine the advances in materials technology and solar, along with the manufacturing expertise in roofing, those are two of the three...]]>Connect with Martin DeBono:

       Website: 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 we can harness a small fraction of that, we can wean ourselves off fossil fuels. You're right, it is clean, but I think that the most common reason people choose to get a solar roof is selfish, and that is it's less expensive. You can use a significant investment investing in solar - it pays off.

       Lisa Ryan: So, your emphasis has been that you are doing the R&D and the manufacturing in the United States. Why is that such a big deal?

       Martin DeBono: Yes, so it's been shocking now that I'm old. I just had a major milestone of a birthday. But you see just the loss of manufacturing expertise in the United States, especially in solar. As recently as five or six years ago, almost a third of the solar panels in the world were manufactured by US companies. Now that number is less than 5%, and I've seen facilities move across borders or in different States to save a few hundred thousand dollars or a few million dollars a year.

       Perhaps, the most concerning is that I've seen an exodus of talent from the clean energy industry accompanying the decline of American manufacturing excellence in clean energy. By this, I mean, eight or nine years ago, when I got into the solar industry, it was pretty easy to recruit people because they're like, hey yeah, I'm going to work for an American company, I want to make a difference, as you mentioned.

        Solar energy is clean energy, and it does indeed help with some of the challenges that our energy supply chain has today. But they become disillusioned when they have to spend 2, 3, 4 months a year away from their home by flying to Asia, where the predominant manufacturers of solar products in the world are located. They are trying to implement their inventions on the manufacturing line. So today, those same people are not getting into the industry but instead taking jobs at Google or Microsoft. They are highly educated, and those companies need highly educated people. So for us, combining manufacturing and R&D was a necessity. We want to attract talent and meet our customers' demands very quickly.

       Lisa Ryan: Solar has been around for a while. What is it that you're doing on your end? In bringing solar to the United States, what differentiates what they get from Asia, and the rest of the world.

       Martin DeBono: Yes, so, as I mentioned, by combining R&D and manufacturing in the same facility, we've been able to make advances very, very rapidly. We just announced the first world's first nail-able solar single, and it's the first advancement in the way solar is installed in about 30 years. The traditional way solar is installed to take a flat-screen TV and bolt it to the roof through the water protection barrier. Many of your listeners have seen a solar panel it's about two feet by three feet or two feet by four feet and lug it up to the roof. We've created a nail-able solar shingle.

       There's nothing else like it in the world. It will reduce the installation time remarkably. It also makes sure that the waterproof integrity of the home is maintained, and it looks a lot better than those early solar panels. In addition, you're able to do it quickly again by not having our R&D team having to spend half their lives on planes. Instead, they walk 10 feet to see the manufacturing line where these new products are created.

       Lisa Ryan: Please tell us what those panels look like compared to other solar panels.

       Martin DeBono: Yes, certainly. What we produce looks nothing like the traditional solar panels at all. It looks like a shingle. Traditional shingles are 40 inches wide by about 16 inches tall, and the two singles overlap half of it. You shingle half of the single above it, and it covers the single below it to make sure water flows. We created a solar shingle about five feet wide and again 16 inches deep. They nail it down, and it looks just like a shingle.

       If you are standing on the sidewalk and you're looking up at your house, they are perfectly in line with the rest of the roof. There is nothing that the single soul itself is the shingle. It's remarkable. No one has invented it before because I don't think people thought it could be invented. But, more importantly, there are several factors at play that allow this to be the right time for such an invention.

       First, what's happened in the solar industry is the solar cell itself is no longer the most expensive part of the value chain. The actual installation of the solar module is the most costly part. When someone looks at what makes up the cost of a solar system, getting installed is the most significant part. Sales and marketing is the second biggest part. The solar cell itself has come down much in the same way. If you think that an iPhone memory has come down to low prices, processing power has also come down. That spawned a new form of computer, the handheld computer or the iPhone.

       Similarly, the cell's very, very low cost has enabled us to focus elsewhere. The first reason is the reduction in the price of the solar cell. The second reason is that we come from it from a roofing perspective. Finally, GAF Energy, through its relationship with Standard Industries, knows a lot about manufacturing, and we're able to put that manufacturing expertise to bear to create an entirely new form factor.

       Based on the single form factor, the company has been perfecting for 50 or 60 years. When you combine the advances in materials technology and solar, along with the manufacturing expertise in roofing, those are two of the three concentric components. The last was a willingness to invest. Standard Industries is one of the largest private companies in the United States, if not the world. They have the capital to invest. They've invested in leading technology such as recycling asphalt shingles. As I mentioned, their willingness and desire to make a long-term investment, even though it seems very quickly, it's taken us two, three years to do this. They've invested two to three years in making this happen. As a result, the combination of some of the constituent components of solar pricing is coming down.

       Roofing manufacturing expertise, willingness to it, and willingness to invest has allowed GAF energy to move state of the art, and it's something that nobody expected can be done.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, I think, from a Labor standpoint, it also sounds like there can be tremendous savings in labor if you're not lugging those big titles up to the roof and doing all that. Talk a bit about that aspect of your product.

       Martin DeBono: Yes, absolutely. The labor savings is twofold: one, the actual physical act of getting the material on the roof is much simpler. The shingles go up just using traditional shingle transportation methodologies. In many parts of the country, shingles are delivered right onto the roof, as opposed to a solar module having to be lugged up the roof - it's about 47 pounds, I think the only limit is 50 pounds, so it's just under that. Once on the roof, they use a nail gun, and it goes down at least twice as fast as the next fastest technology for solar. So the savings are significant. The other savings that we get are directly related to our manufacturing in the United States because we're closer to the customer. Because our factories are in California, we can take advantage of streamlined logistics and supply chains.

       As I mentioned, 95% of the solar panels United States come from outside the United States, and if the weather is holding up the ports on either coast or the amount of time it takes shipping across the ocean, that's a lot of time - six to 12 weeks on the water. With inflation, that eats into your profits. We have labor savings. The savings one gets from the supply chain nearby are fantastic.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. We've heard for years about how manufacturers were leaving the United States. So it sounds like this is an excellent excuse to start bringing some of that manufacturing back. But what do you think are some of the reasons we've lost so much manufacturing here in the states, including solar.

       Martin DeBono: I think that we've lost it because many companies just became concerned about cost and not innovation. They became worried about prices and not customer satisfaction. Then, of course, there's no doubt that other governments, China specifically, said, hey, we need to build a manufacturing base here. So they made low-cost government loans available to incentivize people to move their facilities overseas. The reason I say it's short-term is that I've seen decisions made where one moves a factory from the United States outside the United States for a few million dollars. You lose that in terms of meeting changing market requirements rapidly. You lose that in terms of productivity losses because you have people who designed the equipment which isn't located near the people operating the equipment.

       When there are challenges in production, those are costs that don't show up in any spreadsheet initially. But they show up overall. So I think that what you see in the solar industry is that as more of the solar manufacturing has moved overseas, the industry's overall profitability has declined.

       I tell many people who are not familiar with the solar industry, like the airline industry. If you added up all the profits in the airline industry from 1932 to the year 2000, it was zero. They couldn't make any money. We saw that in the solar industry, solar manufacturing was outsourced to Asia. The overall profits in the solar industry have gone away. That's because they lost sight of innovation, and they lost sight of customer service.

       Lisa Ryan: Is your product both for home use and commercial use, or is it primarily geared one or the other?

       Martin DeBono: Our product is primarily geared towards residential space. GAF is the largest residential roofing manufacturing company in the United States. They're one of the largest commercial manufacturers as well. But we designed our product to blend perfectly with a typical residential roof, so in the United States, the predominant roof type is our singles. Our solar shingle matches very well with the traditional shingle, and so you have a seamless transition from one to the other. There's so much opportunity in residential roofing right now that that's our focus. We put this in perspective that over 5 million people get a new roof a year. GAF has over 25% market share, so they're able to give them a million people a year. The opportunity around roofing is so prominent on the residential side that that's where we'll focus initially.

       Lisa Ryan: On this show, we talk a lot about workplace culture in manufacturing and the skilled trades, which is an excellent correlation between both. What are the things that you are doing well with your employee? How are you not only attracting people to your industry but what are some of the things that you're doing to keep to keep them there?

       Martin DeBono I don't want to call our employees skilled and unskilled because our assembly line operators have become very skilled in what they do. So let's say the folks, the PhDs, and the masters who invent the products for them can see the fruits of their labor. Every day is gratifying; even now, the factory has been up and running for four or five months. People go out, and walk the line, and look at what's going on, and it gives them a tremendous sense of satisfaction.

       They also appreciate that they don't have to get on a plane to make any changes. Suppose you're a creative type, an engineer, an inventor, physicist, or chemist trying to make a significant impact in the world. In that case, the ability to see the fruits of your labor is remarkably rewarding. It exceeded my greatest expectation. We did this because we wanted to attract talent and retain it. The looks and the smiles on people's faces when they see that line running and the ability for us to change very quickly has paid huge dividends on the Ph.D. master side of the house as well as our operators.

       The cultural challenge is typically when you have a manufacturing company. All the people that designed the actual widget or whatever you're making are physically separated from those that manufacture it. You can end up a multicast cultural system, where Hey, I'm skilled, your unskilled labor. We're trying hard to avoid that. It does cost us a bit more, but we share the same cafeteria benefits to both skilled and unskilled labor. While that costs a bit, what we believe that enables us to do is if you can instill empathy for the operators and the people that develop it. You will come up with a much more efficient manufacturing process more quickly.

       The time it might cost in downtime has increased the time to implement the new features that enable you to get more margin by having just one workforce, as opposed to thinking about it, if skilled and unskilled, there are benefits there.

       Operating in California is a very high-cost environment, and automation is also super important to us. We expect that, over time, we will be able to automate more and more of the process to improve our output. Our operators will move from doing manual steps to being the ones who oversee the robots that, through it, this is only possible by having the R&D team co-located with the factory.

       Lisa Ryan: One, and the other benefit too is if somebody on that factory floor, who is using the product, sees something that maybe the engineers miss because they're not involved in the day-to-day manufacturing or the day-to-day installation, that conversation happens having to fly over to Asia to make a tweak that may or may not work. You're having that conversation, and when those hourly, the unskilled employees feel heard feel that they're making a difference. That level of commitment and loyalty to the company goes up several times because they're not just some grunt work around the line. They're being listened to and having lunch with the skilled labor.

       Martin DeBono: It happens all the time. A young woman has a Ph.D. who is talking with the operators. They are the ones in manufacturing and impacted her part of the value chain. They develop the type on that instantiate itself. She 

       came and redesigned some of the ergonomics of that. This is all the best practice in manufacturing, but here you have it happening at a much quicker pace. Similarly, our attrition now is remarkably low for what we pay. We have had such low attrition on the operator side, and I attribute that they are just as invested in making these things, making this company work because their recommendations are, if not immediately implemented there, directly discussed. It's not like they put them in some box, and they make your back in six to nine months, but they can go and talk with the folks that are responsible for that particular job. It has been remarkable.

       I think that, overall, this will enable our success. We have a good market product and market fit. We can manufacture this product locally so we'll stay in front of the competition concerning implementing these new capabilities. Therefore, the challenge becomes, how do we manage our costs? We manage our costs by getting costs out of the system faster. Simply...]]>9c594089-f647-4070-b6c3-f8ed91f1db95Mon, 10 Jan 2022 07:05:00 -040025:43falsefull2992The Pros and Cons of Automation in Manufacturing with Gil MayronConnect 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 bringing any automation in.

       Gil Mayron: In general, and manufacturing in general, just its sound and taste are typically gritty. It's a dirty business that comes with a lot of wiring, many electronics, and many things of that nature. The hesitation is a fear factor as to how I get into this. It sounds like it will be so expensive because only the largest companies on the planet have it. When they look at videos of Tesla, and they see these robots operating on things, then there is no way that somebody who has a singular plant is thinking to himself. Oh, I can do with that guy does because they're doing it because they make a lot of money. We're seeing now that the ability to get into it is it doesn't take a lot of money at all. It takes 10s of thousands, if not just a few thousand dollars, to get into automation these days, as opposed to what it would have been like just a few years ago, which is hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars to automate a singular task or a singular cell. So the hesitation is price; the hesitation has been the perceived fear of what comes with it. Not only that, let's keep in mind the owners of a lot of companies out there, whether unionized or not, the hesitation is also around the human aspect of what's happening there. We're starting to see more and more companies finally getting a grip around, "look, automation is happening. If I don't do it, somebody else is going to do it." And by the time I do it, if I'm the only one who does it, anyone else is probably somewhere in the range of about 18 to 24 months behind me.

       My throughput is already increased, so that gives me a huge leg up to get customers. The hesitation will start to cancel itself out and more coming along the lines of adopting automation.

       Lisa Ryan: When we talk about the human factor and the potential displacement, there are pros and cons. The pros, being that with labor being as hard to find, it eliminates some of that. It also eliminates repetitive tasks and makes for a safer environment. The cons are that people are going to lose their jobs. How do you deal with both ends of the spectrum, helping people incorporate more robotics in their facility?

       Gil Mayron: If you know that automation is coming, you should have the ability to prepare at least to a slight degree. As far as trying to train yourself with more management within the company you're operating. Not just the cell, but now, you're running multiple cells at the same time for the companies themselves who are automating. We have yet to see a company where the only reason they're automating is safety. Maybe they may start that way but, it's also throughput. It's how much can make it done in a given period.

       It's always going to be more with a robot. It's always going to be more consistent with the robot. A robot ultimately pays itself off, so you have no cost associated with it over time, except for a small support cost to keep it up and running throughout the years.

       But then, of course, you have the cons. The cons are really on the human side of things, but for humans for people. Some things can be done. First, when companies are automating, they should compensate the people remaining at the company. They should be giving good packages for the people leaving the company. They should be raising the wages, so we shouldn't hear from a lot of these companies that Oh, we can't find labor. If you're automating, and you know precisely what your margins will be, you know exactly what you're going to make.

       Most of the companies we deal with are publicly traded, so they know what the effect is on what they do. So there should be no reason why they can't incorporate a program to raise wages, give good benefits packages, give good retirement packages, and ultimately offer more training to the employees who may need that training, especially the younger ones coming in.

       Lisa Ryan: How do you start that conversation with the employees getting their feedback taking a look at the tasks that could be automated. How do you get their feeling for where they want to go in the company if they stay with the company? Is there a process that you have seen your clients go through at that from your starting point?

       Gil Mayron: Two years ago, when we would go to a facility visit, we often would disguise ourselves. We wouldn't wear a Cobot Nation hat or a shirt. Now, when our engineers show up, we're fully branded. The employees know what's going on. Many of them got excited because they were helping out their job to a very good degree. Most companies that start in automation are the process. They usually don't just automate an entire facility in one shot. Usually, it's a process so that they might automate one line, then two lines, then the majority of the facility, and then ultimately all of the facility at the end of the day.

       Lisa Ryan: When you're talking about robots, talk a bit of that. There's the term itself - how that's playing out. How can cobots augment the capabilities of the humans that you still have working there?

       Gil Mayron: The definition of a cobot is a collaborative robot. This could be a robot that can work with or without a human. Most of the robots that we make at my company are collaborative, so we intend to have them work next to a human. Even though we put all the safety precautions, the intention is that it could work next to a human. For example, it'll have perimeter sensing so that it won't go beyond a certain point. We can add other sensors so that the robot may slow down when a human enters a room. If the robot is...]]>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 bringing any automation in.

       Gil Mayron: In general, and manufacturing in general, just its sound and taste are typically gritty. It's a dirty business that comes with a lot of wiring, many electronics, and many things of that nature. The hesitation is a fear factor as to how I get into this. It sounds like it will be so expensive because only the largest companies on the planet have it. When they look at videos of Tesla, and they see these robots operating on things, then there is no way that somebody who has a singular plant is thinking to himself. Oh, I can do with that guy does because they're doing it because they make a lot of money. We're seeing now that the ability to get into it is it doesn't take a lot of money at all. It takes 10s of thousands, if not just a few thousand dollars, to get into automation these days, as opposed to what it would have been like just a few years ago, which is hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars to automate a singular task or a singular cell. So the hesitation is price; the hesitation has been the perceived fear of what comes with it. Not only that, let's keep in mind the owners of a lot of companies out there, whether unionized or not, the hesitation is also around the human aspect of what's happening there. We're starting to see more and more companies finally getting a grip around, "look, automation is happening. If I don't do it, somebody else is going to do it." And by the time I do it, if I'm the only one who does it, anyone else is probably somewhere in the range of about 18 to 24 months behind me.

       My throughput is already increased, so that gives me a huge leg up to get customers. The hesitation will start to cancel itself out and more coming along the lines of adopting automation.

       Lisa Ryan: When we talk about the human factor and the potential displacement, there are pros and cons. The pros, being that with labor being as hard to find, it eliminates some of that. It also eliminates repetitive tasks and makes for a safer environment. The cons are that people are going to lose their jobs. How do you deal with both ends of the spectrum, helping people incorporate more robotics in their facility?

       Gil Mayron: If you know that automation is coming, you should have the ability to prepare at least to a slight degree. As far as trying to train yourself with more management within the company you're operating. Not just the cell, but now, you're running multiple cells at the same time for the companies themselves who are automating. We have yet to see a company where the only reason they're automating is safety. Maybe they may start that way but, it's also throughput. It's how much can make it done in a given period.

       It's always going to be more with a robot. It's always going to be more consistent with the robot. A robot ultimately pays itself off, so you have no cost associated with it over time, except for a small support cost to keep it up and running throughout the years.

       But then, of course, you have the cons. The cons are really on the human side of things, but for humans for people. Some things can be done. First, when companies are automating, they should compensate the people remaining at the company. They should be giving good packages for the people leaving the company. They should be raising the wages, so we shouldn't hear from a lot of these companies that Oh, we can't find labor. If you're automating, and you know precisely what your margins will be, you know exactly what you're going to make.

       Most of the companies we deal with are publicly traded, so they know what the effect is on what they do. So there should be no reason why they can't incorporate a program to raise wages, give good benefits packages, give good retirement packages, and ultimately offer more training to the employees who may need that training, especially the younger ones coming in.

       Lisa Ryan: How do you start that conversation with the employees getting their feedback taking a look at the tasks that could be automated. How do you get their feeling for where they want to go in the company if they stay with the company? Is there a process that you have seen your clients go through at that from your starting point?

       Gil Mayron: Two years ago, when we would go to a facility visit, we often would disguise ourselves. We wouldn't wear a Cobot Nation hat or a shirt. Now, when our engineers show up, we're fully branded. The employees know what's going on. Many of them got excited because they were helping out their job to a very good degree. Most companies that start in automation are the process. They usually don't just automate an entire facility in one shot. Usually, it's a process so that they might automate one line, then two lines, then the majority of the facility, and then ultimately all of the facility at the end of the day.

       Lisa Ryan: When you're talking about robots, talk a bit of that. There's the term itself - how that's playing out. How can cobots augment the capabilities of the humans that you still have working there?

       Gil Mayron: The definition of a cobot is a collaborative robot. This could be a robot that can work with or without a human. Most of the robots that we make at my company are collaborative, so we intend to have them work next to a human. Even though we put all the safety precautions, the intention is that it could work next to a human. For example, it'll have perimeter sensing so that it won't go beyond a certain point. We can add other sensors so that the robot may slow down when a human enters a room. If the robot is to hit somebody, it stops immediately. There are other things that we can't stop. If you were to run into the robot, that's your fault, but that's pretty much where we see how it's able to work with humans. I also want to point out collaborative robots are lead generators. It's an entry point in getting to full automation. Every time we gain a new customer, every time somebody takes it on, within a month, they call us back, and they say, "hey can we do this again over here?' Many times they have to repeat things that they're doing. We have some customers where one robot will replace 21 people on one line in a day, so that's seven people per shift; three shifts - one robot replacing them. It is also quadrupling their throughput. That's an excellent example of what these robots can do. Whether they work with or without a human, it is of the collaborative nature. We do that with every customer, but it usually leads up to full automation.

       Lisa Ryan: So what do you think are some of the myths about automation? What are some things that people don't tell you about automation that happens in the real world?

       Gil Mayron: Many people think that they can't do automation, for whatever reason. Maybe it's because they're not an engineer. Perhaps it's because they're just not adept at certain things, or they're just set in their ways. There is a warning for those who have a contract type of business. Let's say a contract manufacturer who has a machine tending process. They deal with the CNC machine, and they're doing the same process, day in and day out. That same customer needs to start to embrace automation because if their neighbor gets automation, they will lose that business immediately. There goes their entire livelihood, and I can tell you the amount of smaller companies that rely on one, two, or three main customers, and if they lose them, they lose their livelihood. So the perceived nature of automation needs to change. People need to embrace automation. It's going to happen, whether they like it or not.

       I might be a catalyst in my own right, but it doesn't mean that somebody else will be. It needs to be embraced, and the gritty nature needs to be perceived a little differently. We're doing the branding of our company in much more of a Willy Wonka type of style. If you walked into our office, you wouldn't see any robots until you walked into one of our collaborations, also played on the word collaborative laboratory. You open the door, and suddenly you see overhead conveyors, different types of robots, vision systems, and things like that. We try to take that automation and break it down into something that makes sense for the customer. Most of our customers have no engineering talent at their company, so we do these things from scratch.

       We train them on what to do, and we move on from there, so that's one way to deal with having people adopt automation.

       Lisa Ryan: One of the things we've seen in the last couple of years with COVID is the speeding up of technology. How much more user-friendly things have become because we've been forced into technology adoption. From your standpoint, what are some of the coolest things that you've seen as making the software more user-friendly or getting people involved; getting people trained? I'm sure it's easier today than it was just a couple of years ago to get involved with robotics.

       Gil Mayron: All of our competitors tried to sell their collaborative robots as robots that are easy to program. That you can do by yourself if you buy the robots. We get many calls from those customers that say, "Hey, I still have the robot in the box. I have no idea what to do with it." We handle things at my company because we do not have the customer do any programming whatsoever. The interface that we give them is custom to their company. It could be branded to their company and be as simple as they wanted to be. If they only wanted to adjust a cycle time, that's all the robot will do. This way, it makes it a lot easier to train the people who are getting into automation on dealing with all of these robots.

       Some of the cool things that we're seeing are integrating all of the machines on the machine floor very easily. Because of that, we're seeing that it's very easy for automation to start to take place. We're seeing that people are getting a little more excited about automation rather than scared of automation.

        That's going to play a big part in unionized companies. They need to think about what they're going to do. Some of the cool things on top of just those regular scenarios are the type of things that we're working on. For example, the ability to go into a bin of a whole bunch of different objects, and for the robot to be able to identify precisely what it's looking for - whether by shape, color, texture, whatever the case may be, it can pick it up. It can do something with it. It can have multiple tools on that. It can go directly over to a welding cell. It can then go directly over to a painting cell. It can go directly over to the truck. We're seeing all these things start to happen, and people are excited about it.

       Lisa Ryan: You take away that fear with a done-for-you system. When you have that robot sitting in a box, I'm sure that you're like, "I have no idea what to do." You've spent enough money that you don't want to break it the first time you take it out. So having somebody that you can lean on to get the system going for you sounds like an excellent plan for getting started.

       Gil Mayron: It also allows companies to manage their employees. The ones that can stay on board - it's very easy for them to stay on board; it's very easy to be trained. The ones who are not staying on board should be offered a greater incentive for leaving or more training.

       Lisa Ryan: Is there a success story or two that comes to mind when you think about the difference that cobots have made for one of your clients?

       Gil Mayron: We have a case study that's coming out in about a month with one of our customers. They are a billion-dollar company that deals with corrugated pipes. One of their processes involves 17 different humans. Think of an entire line - you have 17 people across this line, and at the end of the process, you have somebody sitting on the floor who's taking a pipe and is putting a pipe into a machine that's banging the end the pipe. We call that a swaging machine. It has a bunch of dyes inside, and it just bangs the end of that pipe to shape it into whatever it is that they want. This person is sitting on the floor, and they're taking these pipes, which are extremely sharp. They have to wear gloves, and they have to put one in, take it out, switch it over, put it in, take it out, move on to the next one. They have to do it within a specific time because the machine itself is timed, not the person. The person doesn't have a way to press a foot pedal every time. They need to keep up with the machine. The only way to make that consistent, safe, something worthwhile that immediately brings a profit to the company is to replace it with a robot. That's one of the case studies that we have coming out. We think it's going to be a very formidable one.

       This is the kind of company where they saw the improvement within the first day, and then they decided to do it across all of their other facilities.

       Lisa Ryan: So it sounds from that that it's taking a walk around the plant, and seeing those repetitive tasks; seeing those people sitting on the floor, putting themselves in some danger that may be the best place to start to see how it works.

       Gil Mayron: That's correct. If somebody has a notion of their company being automated, they can certainly come to my company. We will send an engineer out immediately; we have engineers all over the place. The engineer's job is to go and look at every application, then walk through the facility. They identify every application and rank every application on what's the most important thing to the customer.

       We can then come back to them with a return on investment. We can show them which application will make them the most money, which one is good for them to do now, what they should be phasing out later on, and so on. We give a good starting point. We don't know about the rest of the companies. We don't think that they operate in much of the same way. For us, it's essential to hold their hand as we go through the process.

       Lisa Ryan: So is there anything that we should know about the processes of how you work with your customers?

       Gil Mayron: One thing to know is that any customer that has anything to do with manufacturing, that's something that they should be looking at the automation for and if they don't. They should certainly be wary of their competitors and when their competitors are looking at automation. Other than that, I think we covered most of it. We try to simplify the process as much as possible, and we believe we are doing a pretty good job at it. My background dictates that. We're going to continue on this path, and simplify, and try to have as many people as possible adopt it.

       Lisa Ryan: Wonderful. If somebody did want to get a hold of you to continue the conversation, what would be the best way for them to do that?

       Gil Mayron: I can be reached via LinkedIn or my company. Other than that, there's no other way to contact me. So I'm completely dislocated from any other social network. The company, however, is on every single social network - Cobot nation.

       Lisa Ryan: All right, and I will put your contact information there in the show notes too. Gil, it has been a pleasure...]]>14372ca1-5263-454c-88b1-e3f91036c061Mon, 03 Jan 2022 07:05:00 -040025:05falsefull2882Today's Most Disruptive Trends in Manufacturing with Joel BlockConnect 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 smaller companies are being approached by private equity firms to buy them. This is a very, very robust time for sales transactions. I recently was talking to a guy who called me to say, "I'm not ready to sell my company yet, but I'm starting to get some calls." What do you think I said? Well, the iron is hot. Companies are paying a lot for companies, so these private equity outfits are spending a lot. So if you're thinking about selling, you may not be perfectly ready, but the time may be just right.

       Companies are paying a lot because there's a lot of money on the sidelines. Private equity companies only make money. When they deploy their capital and buy assets and then put those assets to work, that's the only way they make any money. They've got a big pool of capital in a bank that's not making them any money, and they got to put it to work. That's part of the reason they're so aggressively looking for companies to buy now that presupposes everybody understands what private equity is if I could just give you a minute on this.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, please.

       Joel Block: It's a complicated business. I've spent my whole life in it. It's a kind of business that most people don't understand. Here's how this works. If you have equity ownership, like when you have your house, you have a mortgage, which is the bank borrowing - that's debt. Then there's equity, which is the part that you own. So we're not talking about the debt part. We're talking about the equity part, just the amount you own.

       Equity comes in two primary forms. There could be public equity, which is the stock market where people put their savings or their retirement or their pension fund goes into. They're called equity securities. That's where you're buying the equity of a company. That's public equity because it's been processed through the government regulatory system. There's a whole other category called private equity, which has any business funded privately now that could be a small business where a family puts the money in to run their little company. It could be a large business that is just as owned privately by families are people, but it's not public, so there can be many owners. A private equity firm is a firm that specializes in taking in capital from typically other firms and other funds, and they aggregate all this capital together. Then they go and look to buy things. They tend to have something in common. Whatever it is they believe, they'll have a strategy.

       For example, they want to put a network of manufacturing companies in a specific category. We want to buy and put the other roofing companies; we want to buy and put together manufacturing companies; we want to buy and put together mobile home parks. There are different ways that you can group assets. These companies are looking for venture capital and finance for innovative or early-stage companies. Another example is hedge funds which are well known but not well understood. There are lots of different kinds. Most of the types that affect manufacturing are these firms looking to buy companies, and they're building portfolios of what are called portfolio companies.

       They're trying to get ten different companies with some synergy to work together and help each other. They're not financial buyers, which are only looking for returns. They're called strategic buyers because they're trying to build synergies among their assets. So that's who's making the phone calls. The good news is that they're not price-sensitive. They're more concerned about the value of their portfolio and your ability to contribute to their portfolio. It's not about how great you are. It's about how great of a fit you are into their portfolio.

       Lisa Ryan: When I think about venture capital, I think of days of old where these companies were coming in and buying companies to tear them apart and sell them and pieces. But it sounds like what you're saying is they're looking to build something where a group of companies will make money. So instead of tearing things apart, they're building things together. Is that what I'm hearing?

       Joel Block: Well, these things are not. They're not mutually exclusive. You know some companies by and tear things down, some companies by an aggregate assets something so there are all different strategies that these companies will do. But what probably affects the manufacturing industry more right now are probably the ones where the people are aggregating - strategically aggregating assets to build a portfolio. That is not to say that somebody wouldn't buy a company and then have a garage sale. There might be great real estate. They may have some other idea for what the business could be. There's a familiar saying right in my neighborhood where there was a great restaurant fantastic restaurant. They came in probably paid 50 times more than the restaurant was worth because they wanted the real estate to build a large-scale apartment shopping Center. So it's not out of the question that that doesn't exist. It does. Most of what's happening in manufacturing right now are probably strategic buys for building portfolios.

       Lisa Ryan: And what do you see, are some of the other significant trends on the horizon for manufacturers?

       Joel Block: The fact that private equities calling is a trend. It's not a disruptive trend, but it's happening. Some other things are big and important. The most significant thing that manufacturing companies could do immediately that would most impact their pricing would most positively impact their bottom line is to get off the transactional treadmill where...]]>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 smaller companies are being approached by private equity firms to buy them. This is a very, very robust time for sales transactions. I recently was talking to a guy who called me to say, "I'm not ready to sell my company yet, but I'm starting to get some calls." What do you think I said? Well, the iron is hot. Companies are paying a lot for companies, so these private equity outfits are spending a lot. So if you're thinking about selling, you may not be perfectly ready, but the time may be just right.

       Companies are paying a lot because there's a lot of money on the sidelines. Private equity companies only make money. When they deploy their capital and buy assets and then put those assets to work, that's the only way they make any money. They've got a big pool of capital in a bank that's not making them any money, and they got to put it to work. That's part of the reason they're so aggressively looking for companies to buy now that presupposes everybody understands what private equity is if I could just give you a minute on this.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, please.

       Joel Block: It's a complicated business. I've spent my whole life in it. It's a kind of business that most people don't understand. Here's how this works. If you have equity ownership, like when you have your house, you have a mortgage, which is the bank borrowing - that's debt. Then there's equity, which is the part that you own. So we're not talking about the debt part. We're talking about the equity part, just the amount you own.

       Equity comes in two primary forms. There could be public equity, which is the stock market where people put their savings or their retirement or their pension fund goes into. They're called equity securities. That's where you're buying the equity of a company. That's public equity because it's been processed through the government regulatory system. There's a whole other category called private equity, which has any business funded privately now that could be a small business where a family puts the money in to run their little company. It could be a large business that is just as owned privately by families are people, but it's not public, so there can be many owners. A private equity firm is a firm that specializes in taking in capital from typically other firms and other funds, and they aggregate all this capital together. Then they go and look to buy things. They tend to have something in common. Whatever it is they believe, they'll have a strategy.

       For example, they want to put a network of manufacturing companies in a specific category. We want to buy and put the other roofing companies; we want to buy and put together manufacturing companies; we want to buy and put together mobile home parks. There are different ways that you can group assets. These companies are looking for venture capital and finance for innovative or early-stage companies. Another example is hedge funds which are well known but not well understood. There are lots of different kinds. Most of the types that affect manufacturing are these firms looking to buy companies, and they're building portfolios of what are called portfolio companies.

       They're trying to get ten different companies with some synergy to work together and help each other. They're not financial buyers, which are only looking for returns. They're called strategic buyers because they're trying to build synergies among their assets. So that's who's making the phone calls. The good news is that they're not price-sensitive. They're more concerned about the value of their portfolio and your ability to contribute to their portfolio. It's not about how great you are. It's about how great of a fit you are into their portfolio.

       Lisa Ryan: When I think about venture capital, I think of days of old where these companies were coming in and buying companies to tear them apart and sell them and pieces. But it sounds like what you're saying is they're looking to build something where a group of companies will make money. So instead of tearing things apart, they're building things together. Is that what I'm hearing?

       Joel Block: Well, these things are not. They're not mutually exclusive. You know some companies by and tear things down, some companies by an aggregate assets something so there are all different strategies that these companies will do. But what probably affects the manufacturing industry more right now are probably the ones where the people are aggregating - strategically aggregating assets to build a portfolio. That is not to say that somebody wouldn't buy a company and then have a garage sale. There might be great real estate. They may have some other idea for what the business could be. There's a familiar saying right in my neighborhood where there was a great restaurant fantastic restaurant. They came in probably paid 50 times more than the restaurant was worth because they wanted the real estate to build a large-scale apartment shopping Center. So it's not out of the question that that doesn't exist. It does. Most of what's happening in manufacturing right now are probably strategic buys for building portfolios.

       Lisa Ryan: And what do you see, are some of the other significant trends on the horizon for manufacturers?

       Joel Block: The fact that private equities calling is a trend. It's not a disruptive trend, but it's happening. Some other things are big and important. The most significant thing that manufacturing companies could do immediately that would most impact their pricing would most positively impact their bottom line is to get off the transactional treadmill where you sell something. The next day you have to sell something else, next to sell something else and move toward more of a subscription or a recurring revenue model. Many people will say, oh, this doesn't apply to us. That's more of a technology thing. But Wall Street and the private equity companies love these kinds of revenue numbers. They love recurring revenue because it's dependable.

       In manufacturing, what does that mean that could be an auto-ship, where somebody signs up for an automatic shipment every month. You give them some reason why they would do that; Maybe they get priority shipping, priority inventory, maybe they get a slight price discount for being automatic. You can have a whole service department, where your service department is based on we're going to send somebody out whenever you need them. So we have a service contract service. Contracts are recurring revenue, so there are different ways that manufacturing firms can install recurring revenue programs into their model. It's essential because recurring revenue is higher quality than transactional revenue, so it's different. The real difference here, the trend, is that this is not about all dollars being the same color green because they're not. Recurring revenue dollars are worth more, and that's just an important distinction that I hope your listeners can understand. Suppose they move in the direction of starting to create higher quality revenue. In that case, they move toward making their company more valuable, whether it's to an acquirer or just for the current ownership and management to have more money come to the bottom line. Those are better dollars.

       Lisa Ryan: It just seems that this is a different way of thinking when it comes to manufacturing and when the last two years now, with COVID and everything else that's been going on of looking at every aspect of your business differently. Certainly, recurring revenue, some auto-ship can be a game-changer for some people listening today.

       Joel Block: it's a real game-changer. The first big company that did this was Microsoft. Microsoft was always in the software sales business, but they're no longer in the software sales business. They're in the software rental business. You don't buy Office anymore. You rent it yearly - Office 365, their new program (and it took a long time for it to catch on). Still, once it finally caught on, they were rewarded with not only enormously more revenue, enormously more net profit, but enormously more market CAP.

       Those prices or stock went enormously higher, so part of it was related to more revenue that came to the bottom line, and part of it was a Wall Street rewarded them with a higher number. All those things together, it's fantastic. These are concerns that are easy for companies to address. I wouldn't say easy, but this isn't the most complicated thing in the world. If people sit in a boardroom and start thinking, How can we create some recurrence? How can we create some repetitiveness so that our salespeople don't have to be knocking on doors all the time? That's the beginning of a solution.

       Lisa Ryan: It also ties those customers to you. It makes it harder for them to leave you and go to a competitor because they know you're always there. Their products are expected.

       Joel Block: And that's why your company becomes more valuable. You're not a transient kind of company where things are coming and going, and maybe somebody buys, perhaps they don't buy. When you start getting the kind of regularity, regularity means loyalty and loyalty are bankable. When you've got that then, you're in the money.

       Lisa Ryan: When I think about it from a convenience factor, because, even with the Microsoft 365, which of course I went into that fighting kicking screaming, I wanted to buy that and pay one time for it. But then they just made it so darn attractive for you, with the different things you could do on PowerPoint, and it just made sense to stay with that program. So it's the same thing if you as a manufacturer can figure out how to make it more convenient for your customers, how to give them, like you said, discounts or better service or priority shipping, or that they know that they are first in line.

       When it comes to some of the shortages that we're doing because they're recurring customers versus some Joe off the street, that will be a one-shot deal. If you're making an offer, they can't refuse.

       Joel Block: That's exactly right. If you look more carefully at Microsoft, think about this because this is what used to happen. Maybe your experience is the same. About every five years, I buy a new copy of Office. I go to Staples, and I pay about $200. Of that. Microsoft probably got half, so they got about $100. Then I would take that disk and give copies of it to my kids. But, of course, I wasn't supposed to do that, so we all did the same thing.

       So, every five years, Microsoft got 100 bucks out of me. So they come out with this new idea, they say, look you're going to get all our updates, you're going to get everything too, you're going to have it all the time, and you get the whole suite there's no fool around. You can have as many people, and all five of your people in your family can be on the thing. So what do they do now? So Staples is out of the loop, so they got 100 bucks direct. They get it every year, so in 10 years under my old pattern, they would have probably got $200, but now under the new pattern, they get $1,000, so that's five times more.

       Wall Street gave them a two-times bump on their multiple because I'm a more loyal customer now. I mean, now they've got predictable revenue. Suppose you look at the stock price. Their stock price is up almost ten times from about 2014. The numbers have gone up by ten times when you look at the numbers. It's not inflation. It's because Wall Street has rewarded them for specific patterns of activity. These patterns of movement help manufacturing companies do precisely the same thing.

       They need to be doing some of this. This is a very disruptive trend; it's a powerful trend, and there are strategies that companies need to employ to hook into these things and to take advantage of them.

       Lisa Ryan: When you also mentioned inflation so, and that's something that's come up in a lot of conversations in the last several weeks, several months, how does inflationary market affect manufacturing.

       Joel Block: Well, you know what's obvious is the prices go higher. A couple of things happen. Number one on the supply side, everything you have to buy goes higher. On the sell side, everything to sell as to go higher, so the whole ocean just lifted a little bit, you know, everything went up a little bit. But there's a lot more to it than that. If you borrow money, there's a perfect chance that interest rates will be higher.

        Not long from now, I mean the Fed is working on this right now. They haven't exactly released it; we'll know more by the time this episode comes out. But the likelihood is that the Fed will be raising interest rates at least somewhat, so that means that if you carry inventory, you're carrying costs are going to be going higher. That puts pressure on manufacturers. There's a lot there, so that's a very problematic thing in the manufacturing sector. Manufacturers need to plan for that. They need to be as lean as they can on inventory. But then, they're conflicted because there's a supply chain problem. They want to have as much inventory as they can because otherwise, they may not give me more. So there's an actual conflict, which companies have to work through and think through. That's the impact of inflation. Inflation impacts us in many different ways, and the other thing is that consumers are getting pinched. As prices start going higher, food, gas, travel, housing - those numbers go higher for people. They have less discretionary income, so depending on the kind of product you produce, whether you're an end-user product or something that goes into another product, there may be fewer dollars available. So as the economy starts to contract and get a little smaller because people don't have the money to keep going.

       Over the last ten years, more air has been put into the balloon. The balloon is the economy, and the economy gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And now, a little bit of air will start coming out of that balloon. It's not going to be like the recession during COVID. It's not going to be the recession of 2008, but we can expect that the balloons will get a little smaller. That means that everybody will have to tighten their belt a little bit because things are going to change. That's a more extensive discussion than now, but certainly, it's an important question that you bring up.

       Lisa Ryan: What are you, seeing as far as the manufacturers are doing well right now to prepare for the future? What are the mistakes that you're seeing that they're making?

       Joel Block: You know COVID was kind of a mixed bag for people. For some people, it just knocked them off their podium, and they lost their balance. They had to reorganize themselves. For others demonstrated remarkable resilience, and they confirmed the ability to think clearly that this market is not working anymore. They looked at the landscape. They asked what other landscapes can we address. They found other places to start selling in different ways to put their products into the marketplace. They started thinking about what other problems that we could solve are. That's the question that you have. That's the fundamental question. What problem do we solve? When you understand what problem you solve well, who has this problem. Where are those people? How do...]]>b969c2fb-728a-484b-b0cc-dadc8497e69bMon, 20 Dec 2021 07:05:00 -040030:25falsefull2772Insourcing Finance as a Revenue Stream in Manufacturing with Michelle KaticsConnect 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 past, to do your financing if you're going to sell jet engines or medical equipment or robots or whatever it is, you want to provide that funding for your customers, which many big manufacturers do. In the past, you had to have big on-premises servers and a team of 20 people. Systems manage those loans. These days with things in the cloud, we're seeing that you don't need to be as big as GE anymore to do that.

       To some extent, because of the cloud-based software, finance for this part of the economy has always been full of friction. Let's face it. Banks are not the best at providing this kind of financing. They're good at many things, but typically this has been, I would say, a bit of an Achilles heel, so the manufacturers like, wait a minute, let's do this ourselves.

       Lisa Ryan: We've all heard things about outsourcing. We outsource all kinds of services and products and everything these days. But what you're talking about is something you refer to as insourcing. What does that look like, and why might some manufacturing companies insource their financing?

       Michelle Katics: Let’s take an example of we're selling robot arms. Some small shop comes to us and says we'd love to buy three of these. We have a significant labor shortage. I would tell them that as the manufacturer of that robot, go to the bank, get a working capital loan, and return. I'm outsourcing the finance.

       That poor, small business goes to the bank that needs 8500 pieces of paperwork, so, you might not sell that equipment if that small business can't get that loan. Insourcing finance means I've already built the robot arms. I own them. I've made the thing I'm selling.  I will provide the financing myself. I might either lease them, and many manufacturers do this already. Still, I'll give that financing myself, so what we see, for example, is with cloud-based systems, you can set up simple credit criteria. The other thing is that I can increase sales of my robot arms because I've created a financing option. I'm the one-stop-shop. It would help if you bought this thing for me. Canon financial does a great job with print shops and stuff that they're always financing the printers.

       But the other upshot is that it creates a customer stickiness that we noticed. For example, Canon Financial provides the financing for the local print shop to buy a massive printer to print posters and stuff like that for the community. Still, it's sticky because once the leasing arrangement ends, Canon Financial is right in there saying, hey, we see that this equipment was depreciated. Do you want to upgrade to the next model?

       It provides this natural touchpoint with the customers to keep expanding your sales to them, renewing it, and providing them the next generation of equipment. If they went to the bank, bought it, and went away, you have to start with them to sell more.

       Lisa Ryan: So, in the case of that robot arm, though they are financing it to own it, they're not financing it to lease it like you would with a printer for Canon.

       Michelle Katics: We see a trend that we would call equipment as a service. I say software as a service, meaning you don't own the software. If you have ever used Office 365, that's the service because you don't own it. You're just renting it for nine bucks a month. I don't want to cough up the 250 bucks upfront. I'll pay nine dollars a month, thank you very much.

       Equipment as a service is the same concept. Creating flexible and short-term leasing options is what we're seeing. Successful manufacturers who do this provide all those options. So do you want to purchase to own? Will we give you this working capital loan for this equipment, or do you want a long-term lease? If it's a crane, I only need to lease it for a month, so that's more like equipment as a service. In that type of sector, they'd have these leasing arrangements, but at the end of the day, good lending is centered around good product design.

       Each manufacturer needs to kind of know whether you're building cranes; that might be kind of more short-term use. You might have particular financing options versus somebody selling robot arms where these factories say, no, we want to buy it to own it, thank you very much. We will use this thing until we run it into the ground. For each type of manufacturer, there are different product types for financing that are most suitable.

       For agriculture, for example, John Deere has provided financing suited to their industry. The other reason manufacturers are better suited to do this is you go to a bank and say we need an agricultural loan, so the guys going to pay he can pay us zero. So while he's planting his crops, and he'll pay you a bullet loan when he does his harvest, John Deere understands agriculture, so they're good at providing that product structure, whereas the bank might be like, what? You’re not going to pay me anything for four months? It's that type of those product features that the manufacturers already understand those customers in a way that the banks don't.

       Lisa Ryan: So, as far as from a personnel standpoint, though, is that something that manufacturers would have to take on a whole new department and a whole new learning curve, or is this something that Bankers Lab that you set it up and you do that work for them.

       Michelle Katics: We see people setting this up in different ways. For example, the more prominent companies would have a couple...]]>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 past, to do your financing if you're going to sell jet engines or medical equipment or robots or whatever it is, you want to provide that funding for your customers, which many big manufacturers do. In the past, you had to have big on-premises servers and a team of 20 people. Systems manage those loans. These days with things in the cloud, we're seeing that you don't need to be as big as GE anymore to do that.

       To some extent, because of the cloud-based software, finance for this part of the economy has always been full of friction. Let's face it. Banks are not the best at providing this kind of financing. They're good at many things, but typically this has been, I would say, a bit of an Achilles heel, so the manufacturers like, wait a minute, let's do this ourselves.

       Lisa Ryan: We've all heard things about outsourcing. We outsource all kinds of services and products and everything these days. But what you're talking about is something you refer to as insourcing. What does that look like, and why might some manufacturing companies insource their financing?

       Michelle Katics: Let’s take an example of we're selling robot arms. Some small shop comes to us and says we'd love to buy three of these. We have a significant labor shortage. I would tell them that as the manufacturer of that robot, go to the bank, get a working capital loan, and return. I'm outsourcing the finance.

       That poor, small business goes to the bank that needs 8500 pieces of paperwork, so, you might not sell that equipment if that small business can't get that loan. Insourcing finance means I've already built the robot arms. I own them. I've made the thing I'm selling.  I will provide the financing myself. I might either lease them, and many manufacturers do this already. Still, I'll give that financing myself, so what we see, for example, is with cloud-based systems, you can set up simple credit criteria. The other thing is that I can increase sales of my robot arms because I've created a financing option. I'm the one-stop-shop. It would help if you bought this thing for me. Canon financial does a great job with print shops and stuff that they're always financing the printers.

       But the other upshot is that it creates a customer stickiness that we noticed. For example, Canon Financial provides the financing for the local print shop to buy a massive printer to print posters and stuff like that for the community. Still, it's sticky because once the leasing arrangement ends, Canon Financial is right in there saying, hey, we see that this equipment was depreciated. Do you want to upgrade to the next model?

       It provides this natural touchpoint with the customers to keep expanding your sales to them, renewing it, and providing them the next generation of equipment. If they went to the bank, bought it, and went away, you have to start with them to sell more.

       Lisa Ryan: So, in the case of that robot arm, though they are financing it to own it, they're not financing it to lease it like you would with a printer for Canon.

       Michelle Katics: We see a trend that we would call equipment as a service. I say software as a service, meaning you don't own the software. If you have ever used Office 365, that's the service because you don't own it. You're just renting it for nine bucks a month. I don't want to cough up the 250 bucks upfront. I'll pay nine dollars a month, thank you very much.

       Equipment as a service is the same concept. Creating flexible and short-term leasing options is what we're seeing. Successful manufacturers who do this provide all those options. So do you want to purchase to own? Will we give you this working capital loan for this equipment, or do you want a long-term lease? If it's a crane, I only need to lease it for a month, so that's more like equipment as a service. In that type of sector, they'd have these leasing arrangements, but at the end of the day, good lending is centered around good product design.

       Each manufacturer needs to kind of know whether you're building cranes; that might be kind of more short-term use. You might have particular financing options versus somebody selling robot arms where these factories say, no, we want to buy it to own it, thank you very much. We will use this thing until we run it into the ground. For each type of manufacturer, there are different product types for financing that are most suitable.

       For agriculture, for example, John Deere has provided financing suited to their industry. The other reason manufacturers are better suited to do this is you go to a bank and say we need an agricultural loan, so the guys going to pay he can pay us zero. So while he's planting his crops, and he'll pay you a bullet loan when he does his harvest, John Deere understands agriculture, so they're good at providing that product structure, whereas the bank might be like, what? You’re not going to pay me anything for four months? It's that type of those product features that the manufacturers already understand those customers in a way that the banks don't.

       Lisa Ryan: So, as far as from a personnel standpoint, though, is that something that manufacturers would have to take on a whole new department and a whole new learning curve, or is this something that Bankers Lab that you set it up and you do that work for them.

       Michelle Katics: We see people setting this up in different ways. For example, the more prominent companies would have a couple of people say under the CFO who would manage this. Some people pull in a consultant to set up the initial credit criteria. We come in with the simulation exercise, just so as an organization, then we say to sort of, for example, to the manufacturer. What are your goals with this financing? Are you trying to increase sales? Are you trying to make sure that you get product renewals? Are you more interested in short-term cash, or are you trying to maximize it over the long term when you set up the criteria?

       Our partner, Turnkey Lender, has software where it's super easy to do the drop-down boxes, and somebody can set up the software for you. You're up and running, and you can bring in a consultant. We can find the people. Then the idea is to automate it as much as possible and have people within the manufacturer set up financing. Before, we had to hire a whole department of people to sit and push the 83 pages of paper for the loan applications. This process is as automated as possible, and you have somebody who understands the strategy. Then you can manage that.

       Lisa Ryan: Okay, so what are some of the typical hurdles when manufacturers are insourcing finance?

       Michelle Katics: Well, these days, with the cloud-based software, I think, sometimes it might just be perceptions. If you say to somebody, oh plug into this loan origination and management system, they assume it's going to be some giant IT project. These perceptions are starting to get shattered. I'll give you a great example with Canva. Canva is software that you might use online to create what a graphic designer would have done in the past. The free account is so powerful, right? But the point is with cloud-based software, there's a perception that it would be difficult. It's a lot easier. One thing is just the perceptions are a hurdle.

       The second thing that is true for any lender is to understand lending. That's where we come in. If that's the sticking point, no problem. We'll put you in the flight simulator and teach you enough to be dangerous. You have a sound system with lots of reasonable checks and balances, and you have somebody good set it up according to your strategy, but I think that knowledge gap is what we're trying to make sure is not a sticking point.

       Lisa Ryan: I just had an experience, and I think about financing and like you said, the 84 pages of paperwork, I took my car in four tires the other day, and of course, they found a lot more with my car, so it ended up being a lot more expensive than I thought. Instead of paying them my credit card at the end, I went to their lender and got pre-approved, and I never gave the tire to replace my credit card. They did 90 days same as cash, it was the easiest thing on the planet, I did an electronic signature.

       It's so easy how these types of services are making our lives, especially when now, mind you. I signed and probably said electronic sign and 84-page document that I have no idea what's in it; hopefully, they're not taking my first child, which would be difficult since I don't have one except my cats. So it wasn't an easy option versus what you were talking about. That small manufacturer is going to a bank—having to justify and do all of the paperwork they need to decide whether or not you're going to get the loan.

       Michelle Katics: Here's my question about the manufacturing sector.  The financial industry has done an excellent job at the point of sale. We've created many frictionless financial products for the consumers. But at the end of the day, the financial sector is failing the manufacturing industry because it's our engine of growth.

       For example, when we talked to manufacturers in northeast Ohio, you guys have all these crippling Labor shortages. You realize you can source other products, but if you have supply chain issues, you need capital. We need to fix this in the manufacturing sector to have the frictionless process you have as a consumer. Because it's the engine of growth of the economy, we're having supply chain issues if we can get that capital expenditure sorted out and made easier for everybody. It just seems as it'll help both at the broad economic level and help those companies grow faster.

       Lisa Ryan: So what are some of the companies that you've worked with that are doing this?

       Michelle Katics: So a great example, I'd like to call our partner, Turnkey Lender, who provides the actual production software for this activity. Turnkey lender, if you go to their website and their blogs, they have some excellent case studies about Siemens that they're working with, so you can read those. Case studies are online about the work that they have done with them which is very interesting for the manufacturers. We can always give you those links for the show notes if you like because those are highly relevant. We're also seeing things like the example of a solar panel manufacturer saying, oh wait, I can increase my sales if I provide the financing.

       Here's another excellent example where lending is contextualized in the manufacturer knows more than the bank meaning. A solar panel manufacturer might evaluate that financing, not just based on the borrower's ability to repay. It's more about what's the site plan. Is there enough sun? Is the thing going to pay for itself? Is the installer high quality? The manufacturer will see that whole set of elements outside of just the borrower, whereas if you go to the bank for that solar panel, that the bank will just be looking at the borrower.

       Lisa Ryan: Is this program work primarily for selling parts already on the shelf? You mentioned robot arms - if they already manufacturer the robot arms. But what about things like custom orders and customer equipment? Would that also work the same? Or how would that work?

       Michelle Katics: From a finance perspective, it works, the same. But another area to call out based on that question of what other products does this work for some of that the other thing that it works well for is what we call factoring. So invoice financing works great for that. If you're having supply chain issues, often you get your lending the short-term money while the goods are in transit—that is gap financing. For any manufacturing company, especially right now, a supply chain issues. If I were a CFO, I'd step back and say what's causing friction in my system right now and how can I use throw some financing to unlock it? My suppliers are struggling because the transit times or longer, and they need were financing for that transit time. Maybe I’ll provide that. Oh, and I made extra interest income along the way. So I would look at the whole system and say, okay, what is my sticking point? Is it a Labor shortage? Can I throw some tech at it? Where's the friction in the system, and let's see if we can use some financial options some financial engineering to smooth out those bumps.

       Lisa Ryan: When you brought up an interesting point with interest, too, that becomes an additional source of revenue for the company - instead of that manufacturer paying the bank. Are you seeing that many of these companies are offering interest rates similar to the bank? Are they the same as the bank? Do they give them a little bit of a break on the interest rate to make it more attractive to them? Or do they make it perhaps higher for the convenience of being a one-stop-shop?

       Michelle Katics: I'm going a little bit finance geek out on you. So the short answer is that any manufacturer should be in a position to charge a lower rate, whether or not they decide to do that, for the following reasons so let's say you have a piece of equipment that costs $100,000. And we go to the Bank to borrow the money, and we're going to the bank needs to have the hundred thousand dollars. They need the cash to give me for the loan, and then I pay interest on hundred thousand dollars. Let's say it's 10%. If I'm the manufacturer, I have the equipment, and maybe let's imagine it cost us $50,000 to produce the equipment. I've already done my cash outlay right, so I lend the money to my buyer for $100,000. The cool thing is, I collect interest on $100,000, but I only needed the 50, whereas the Bank needed 100. It seems to say so my so based on that simple example. So my interest margin is my profit margin is double the bay if that makes sense because I'm charging interest to my client, not just on the goods I produced, but I'm charging them the interest in my profit margin.

       I'm in a position I have all this flexibility. I have another revenue stream, but then that's a little short-sighted. Yes, I have another revenue stream, but the ample opportunity is that customer stickiness, the customer relationship. Your customer will be very loyal and keep coming back to you, rather than a different manufacturer for that type of thing. If they just filled out a one-page thing and upped my contract, I got the new generation of equipment two years later. Why would I switch right from the print shop? Why would I rip out all my Canon stuff and buy from somebody else when I just thought one page for new get my latest equipment called good.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, well, and you're also differentiating yourself from all of your competitors because they are going the traditional route. It makes it a lot more challenging to get the financing you need so as a differentiating factor, so not only for long-term retention of customers, like in the cannon example. But also for attracting new business because you make it kind of a done for you one-stop-shop type of thing.

       Michelle Katics: Exactly. Let's say our print shop chose between two big printer companies, absolutely. I would even tolerate a...]]>46d037d1-f0de-4c28-a601-52881b60025fMon, 13 Dec 2021 07:05:00 -040031:19falsefull2662What to Know Before You Hire - The Power of Assessments With Rich MorinLisa 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 going to struggle, hate it, and leave. They're going to affect your company's culture because it will be moaning and groaning about how tough it is because they never fit in the first place.

       Lisa Ryan: One, it sounds like this is something to know each job description; to understand what is entailed, to take a look at people who have been successful in that so that you're not doing just an overall profile for your company, but as for that specific situation, how does a company figure out how to build those profiles for each position that they're interviewing for?

       Rich Morin: Well, it's straightforward. Within the system, there's a library, and they can scroll through and pick the exact title, if you will, or something that's very, very, very similar. They take it, of course, they rename it to make it the same company, write their name and so on. That's one way. The other way is they can do a job assessment survey. It's a bunch of questions that ask what does this job requires. Here's the problem: we'll say that you have somebody who has been doing a job for 20 years or 30 years.

       Well, their interpretation of what the job requires is changed. They're still doing it, and everybody accepts that, but the new people coming in there are new to it. Communications requirements, new software requirements - so in actuality, the job is not the one the person who is leaving has been doing; it's a very different job. So to your point, the companies have to be very aware of the changes happening so rapidly. Back to the assessment, they want to hire somebody with the capacity, verbal skill, verbal reasoning, and a library. Some people can speak well, but they don't understand a lot of the words. They can fool you because they have a nice rhythm to their delivery, but they're not competent in the language. Especially if you're in a multi-lingual situation where you have people dealing with different languages or language skills, verbal skills and reasoning are critical.

       Without repeating the numbers aspect, those things are essential. So now you have a profile of the current position requirements, and then you can do a match that makes sense.

       Lisa Ryan: It also seems that it's essential to keep up to date with people. Because, as you said, somebody's been in a position for 20 years they had a job description they're doing it. But, looking at not what the position was, but what the position needs to be going forward, mainly we're just coming out of this pandemic. Technology has changed just about every part of business, and so looking at, starting with today and looking into the future, would be a critical part for people as they're starting to look at who they need to hire and what kind of positions they need to fill the talent that goes along with that.

       Rich Morin: Well, yes, and so, then brings me up to a different solution if you will. Fit first tech.com is a company that has been in business for 20 years. They do a lot of business throughout North America, but what they do is unique. Companies are coming out now; they're starting to hire. However, the job boards are not full of applicants. However, the job boards exist, whether it's Monster or Indeed, or all these different job boards. So this system creates some questions. The applicants answer the questions, and automatically they're funneled. So instead of reading through 50 resumes, I'll elaborate in a resume in a minute, but instead of reading 50 resumes, the top three or five candidates are at the very top. Job descriptions are not based on what they've done because often, what they've done is not crucial versus what they're required to do.

       Now they've got the top applicants at the top. They can read the resume, and they can read the resultant questions. Their replies to those questions now have a real sense of who this person is, and there's a speed element required here. You want to answer these applications rapidly because you can still get them if they apply to multiple companies. 

       So you've got a job as a forklift operator, and so 50 people apply. Do they want to be a forklift operator? Well, not really. They want a job. Now, they will tell you they always wanted to be a forklift operator. That was a dream job - well, that's probably not true. 

       These assessments help you see through them. The forklift operator has got so much capacity. You're from a warehouse manager position because it happens to be a vacancy, and the guy goes, yeah, I'd like that. The reason he would like that is that he matches the requirements and the questions. It shows what he is capable of, not what he has done or she has done. The funneling helps deal with it if you're not getting a flood of applicants but getting many applicants. It funnels them and gives you questions. Then it goes further and helps you coach them, which helps retain them and helps to onboard them. You have more objective data about these applicants.

       One more element, now it doesn't preclude you, the employer, from contacting referrals. What it does is help you create questions. When the applicant submits his five referrals questions, the employer can go to the referrals and ask very pertinent questions about this person.

       Not, "Oh, he's a great guy. She's a nice girl who's been here five years; who cares. We want to know specifics about how they operate, what their good points are. What are their bad points? What kind of conflicts? You can ask those kinds of questions, so now you know the whole story. It can take the referral information to still speak with the referrals, but now you've got some objective criteria they responded to. You're not trying to reach people on the phone....]]>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 going to struggle, hate it, and leave. They're going to affect your company's culture because it will be moaning and groaning about how tough it is because they never fit in the first place.

       Lisa Ryan: One, it sounds like this is something to know each job description; to understand what is entailed, to take a look at people who have been successful in that so that you're not doing just an overall profile for your company, but as for that specific situation, how does a company figure out how to build those profiles for each position that they're interviewing for?

       Rich Morin: Well, it's straightforward. Within the system, there's a library, and they can scroll through and pick the exact title, if you will, or something that's very, very, very similar. They take it, of course, they rename it to make it the same company, write their name and so on. That's one way. The other way is they can do a job assessment survey. It's a bunch of questions that ask what does this job requires. Here's the problem: we'll say that you have somebody who has been doing a job for 20 years or 30 years.

       Well, their interpretation of what the job requires is changed. They're still doing it, and everybody accepts that, but the new people coming in there are new to it. Communications requirements, new software requirements - so in actuality, the job is not the one the person who is leaving has been doing; it's a very different job. So to your point, the companies have to be very aware of the changes happening so rapidly. Back to the assessment, they want to hire somebody with the capacity, verbal skill, verbal reasoning, and a library. Some people can speak well, but they don't understand a lot of the words. They can fool you because they have a nice rhythm to their delivery, but they're not competent in the language. Especially if you're in a multi-lingual situation where you have people dealing with different languages or language skills, verbal skills and reasoning are critical.

       Without repeating the numbers aspect, those things are essential. So now you have a profile of the current position requirements, and then you can do a match that makes sense.

       Lisa Ryan: It also seems that it's essential to keep up to date with people. Because, as you said, somebody's been in a position for 20 years they had a job description they're doing it. But, looking at not what the position was, but what the position needs to be going forward, mainly we're just coming out of this pandemic. Technology has changed just about every part of business, and so looking at, starting with today and looking into the future, would be a critical part for people as they're starting to look at who they need to hire and what kind of positions they need to fill the talent that goes along with that.

       Rich Morin: Well, yes, and so, then brings me up to a different solution if you will. Fit first tech.com is a company that has been in business for 20 years. They do a lot of business throughout North America, but what they do is unique. Companies are coming out now; they're starting to hire. However, the job boards are not full of applicants. However, the job boards exist, whether it's Monster or Indeed, or all these different job boards. So this system creates some questions. The applicants answer the questions, and automatically they're funneled. So instead of reading through 50 resumes, I'll elaborate in a resume in a minute, but instead of reading 50 resumes, the top three or five candidates are at the very top. Job descriptions are not based on what they've done because often, what they've done is not crucial versus what they're required to do.

       Now they've got the top applicants at the top. They can read the resume, and they can read the resultant questions. Their replies to those questions now have a real sense of who this person is, and there's a speed element required here. You want to answer these applications rapidly because you can still get them if they apply to multiple companies. 

       So you've got a job as a forklift operator, and so 50 people apply. Do they want to be a forklift operator? Well, not really. They want a job. Now, they will tell you they always wanted to be a forklift operator. That was a dream job - well, that's probably not true. 

       These assessments help you see through them. The forklift operator has got so much capacity. You're from a warehouse manager position because it happens to be a vacancy, and the guy goes, yeah, I'd like that. The reason he would like that is that he matches the requirements and the questions. It shows what he is capable of, not what he has done or she has done. The funneling helps deal with it if you're not getting a flood of applicants but getting many applicants. It funnels them and gives you questions. Then it goes further and helps you coach them, which helps retain them and helps to onboard them. You have more objective data about these applicants.

       One more element, now it doesn't preclude you, the employer, from contacting referrals. What it does is help you create questions. When the applicant submits his five referrals questions, the employer can go to the referrals and ask very pertinent questions about this person.

       Not, "Oh, he's a great guy. She's a nice girl who's been here five years; who cares. We want to know specifics about how they operate, what their good points are. What are their bad points? What kind of conflicts? You can ask those kinds of questions, so now you know the whole story. It can take the referral information to still speak with the referrals, but now you've got some objective criteria they responded to. You're not trying to reach people on the phone. You're not trying to call them and get ahold of them. There's no time, you got to hire them, and you haven't spoken to the referrals.

       Lisa Ryan: Right and speaking to referrals is a critical part of that because people can come across well in an interview that can come across great on paper. But then, when you take the time to ask the question to those referrals, you might find out things like, ooh, that person won't work a single minute of overtime, or that person will never pitch into something that's not specifically on their job description. So we find out these little personality quirks that may not show up necessarily in the interview process.

       Rich Morin: That is correct. Especially if you think about the challenge of being a leader these days, now, I take exception to the word manager, and I'll explain. I don't like to be managed, but you can coach and lead me. I not really don't know too many people that want to be managed.

       To stay on that for a moment, you look at a winning team of any kind baseball, football, soccer, it doesn't matter. Those teams are not managed to greatness, no, no they're coached and led to excellence. These assessments provide the "managers" now; if I had it my way, I promote them to coach and leader. But it gives them objective data to help coach and lead these people; some will be better equipped than their leader.

       They have more knowledge, more wisdom, or experience, and more education. That's a good thing, so these assessments help hire better people than the person interviewing. You don't want to hire people smaller than yourself.

       Lisa Ryan: So let's think about that for a minute. We've used the assessment. We found the person we're going to hire. They're a good match for the position and the company. We've checked out their referrals. What are some ways you have seen your clients successfully onboarding these people, so the offer is made, but there may be a week or a couple of weeks before that person starts?

       And then, once they start, you want to hit the ground running. What's like that t-minus two weeks, until the first month or two that that person's onboarding. That would be an excellent way to onboard them.

       Rich Morin: Well, there are a few different aspects to my reply. The first is that a company's culture is so fragile. Everybody you bring in can either support it or undermine it. So you've decided to hire somebody within your ranks who is a great person, a hard worker, focused, and loyal to the company. So those are the kinds of people you want to team up with that new entrant into your company. Those first few days will set the course. Too often, companies hire somebody, and everybody's busy, so the person stumbles around, will you know go to this department go to that department. Still, they're kind of on their own, and they're forming wrong opinions about what's going on and about the helter-skelter ways things are happening. Maybe it's because of a flood of orders, who knows, but they don't know that, so you want to invest a reasonable amount of time planning.

       It's the four p's: you plan, you prepare, you practice, and then, you perform well. You want your people to have a planned entrance.  You want to prepare them for them. You want them to practice, so now they're with people with seniority and experience. They see the attitude. They see a safe environment. So these people are taking the time to explain how to do the work safely. That includes ergonomics - how to get up from your chair and move your arms and wrists so you don't develop carpal tunnel syndrome. A lot goes into onboarding, but picking the people you want to team them up with goes a long way and helps establish what is required, especially if it's multi-dimensional.

       So the one person introduces the new applicant to the next person that says, well, sometimes you'll be doing this person's job. So there's a transfer of knowledge, and it's smooth, and the person understands clearly what they've stepped into.

       Lisa Ryan: Exactly. Figuring out that first-day work buddy is also essential, but it helps in a couple of different ways. Number one, that person who is your good employee, who's been with you, who has the right attitude, feels that they are valued. They are empowered to be that person's leader or guide for their first couple of weeks on the job.

       It makes the person that's starting feel more connected because they're not sitting in a basement filling out paperwork for the first day of their job, and nobody even knows they were supposed to be there. You're also allowing a relationship to happen. We've probably all been there, where that very first person that we meet our first day on the job or the first person that invites us out to lunch. That person is our friend for the rest of the time that we're there. So making sure that you start those relationships right off the bat with something like that gives everybody involved a much better onboarding experience.

       Rich Morin: Absolutely. I use sports as an example. I love sports, and I think it's a great example of coaching and leading. What do they do with a rookie? They give them the locker right beside the veteran. Why is that not any veteran but the right veteran? Because they see how they prepare, they think, they see how they act, and that person takes them under the wing. They team them up with these people for why, well, they want them to be good.

       In the case of sports, you're paying them a lot of money. That doesn't mean they're going to be good. You must coach and lead them. By teaming them up with somebody like a mentor, the word mentor applies here. That goes on, and it establishes a bond. They will link with that person for a long time because they were matched correctly. Their personalities meld, and the position strengths, perhaps yeah, it's powerful.

       Lisa Ryan: Look at the amount of investment that we have in that employee. We spent time going through the interview process and the screening process, and then we're paying for the profile assessments to come through. So by the time we have that person come on board, we could have invested thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars in the process unless we are very structured about how we're bringing that person on and how we're welcoming them to the organization. We're making sure that on day one, that their workspace is set up, maybe their business cards have been ordered, their password is ready, their desk is clean, and their truck is clean, whatever it is. 

       People know that they are showing up for the job. You spend all of this kind of money upfront, so you must keep that in mind. Once that person starts - and for the first 2, 3, 6 months that they're on board - they probably have interviewed with other companies and are just as likely to say, "hmm, this company isn't what I thought it was. I'm out of here." So all of that money you invested in them walks out the door.

       Rich Morin: Absolutely, the two words that come to mind to support when you said, our cost and price, so it costs a lot to bring somebody on board. It costs a lot if they do come on board. When they harm and scare away your customers. They'd cause issues in the road. The absolute fragile culture you tried so hard to create is cost versus the price of an objective assessment, so now, the person, the applicant has completed. You've taken the time, your HR people, whoever's interviewing takes the time to read the results. They look at the questions and interview the person using objective data. Suddenly, for the price of two or $300, they have a very clear view of the person and, by the way, the applicant is impressed because now they've been asked to do something that other employers are not. They're going, wow, this company put me through this assessment. They get a personal copy, not one that matches, but one that tells them about them. They go, wow, I didn't know that I was good at this or that. This is a fit; this doesn't fit - so it's a win/win. Cost versus price, let me assure you, the price of an assessment is enormously lower than the cost of not using them, and let's face it, we've all made hires in haste. We've all made hires based on gut feeling, and it doesn't work out very well too often.

       Lisa Ryan: It makes me think of this past year. My husband was part of the great resignation. He was with a company for 13 years, and his priorities shifted. He realized that as he started to get to the end of his career, he wanted more. He didn't feel valued and appreciated all these things that I talked about in my programs. So finally, a company on LinkedIn found him. They told him it was going to be a long process. It was about a two-month interviewing process which included about six hours of personality assessments. The company wanted to make sure that they got the right person in. I will tell you. It was a match made in heaven. But, of course, I could have told them that Scott would be the most excellent employee that they had. 

       I thought the funniest thing was that he scored the lowest areas were things like creativity and innovation. Well, he's a cost accountant, so those are the areas that you don't want people to be innovative and creative. So I thought it was funny. When I look at the last couple of months of him being with this company, how much of a difference and how valued he felt right off the bat, I know that what he went through that process that company had 10s of thousands of dollars invested in him in that whole two-month process. I don't know how many other people they were interviewing; I'm just happy they chose Scott.

       Rich Morin: And that's a great...]]>672d7443-0271-4f3e-bf17-bf3976f81882Mon, 06 Dec 2021 07:05:00 -040030:44falsefull2552Unlimited Vacations, Profit-Sharing, and Workplace Culture with Chip HautalaConnect 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 specific stories or incidents or somebody who came from another company and got involved with the profit sharing. What things are you doing that they have shared with you? What are the reasons that they stay with you?

       Chip Hautala: One of the excellent examples I have is our national sales manager, Heather Pucci. She was working for a recruiting firm. I was looking to hire another salesperson, and she kept saying sending applicants over to us. I was interviewing them, and I said they were missing something. Finally, she came into the office, and she told Chip I'm sick and tired of sending you quality people, and you're rejecting them. What are you looking for? I said I'm looking for you. I'm looking for somebody like you, that's what I'm looking for.

       She said, are you offering me a job? I said, yeah, I think I am. She had zero experience in industrial sales, but she was doing industrial recruiting for a long time. She came in, and I said, it's going to be tough because you're going to have to learn all this stuff. You're going to learn everything that we know. If you're willing to do that, you're going to make a hell of a lot more money than you're making in recruiting. She committed to it. She was a salesperson for several years, and now she's our national sales manager. All of our salesmen report to her. That's a success story that we have.

       Lisa Ryan: It says something about you, especially in an industry where it's so hard to find people to begin with, with industry experience. What did you look for beyond that in finding somebody who had the personality, had the drive, and was willing to commit to the industry? You were taking a chance on them, and that it worked out well for you.

       Chip Hautala: I always say this as long as you don't quit on me, I'll never quit on you. You're never a loser until you quit trying. As long as you keep trying, I will keep working with you. She had a rough first year. I'll be honest with you. She didn't do very well on sales, and I lost money on her the first year, but she kept trying and got better. She evolved to the point where she was one of our top salespeople. She had some management skills, and she became a sales manager.

       Everyone responded very well, which is interesting because we're in a male-dominated industry, and she's a female sales manager. It worked out well.

       Lisa Ryan: You're sending a message to the rest of your employees, too, when you're not giving up on someone. When companies lose money on a sales rep in the first year, they're gone. But the fact that you continue not to give up on her and allow her to fail forward has paid off. That leads to a level of commitment and loyalty when employees see that you have their back and you're not going to let them go with the first sign of things not going well.

       Chip Hautala: Definitely. You learn a lot more in defeat than you learn in victory. As long as a person is learning and going forward and keeps trying, that's a winner. That's somebody that I want to be associated with going forward. That's how we have populated or our company here. I don't call anyone.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. Some of the other unique aspects of your business that we've talked about are that you offer more flexible hours and unlimited vacation time. Please tell us a bit about that because we hear all of these things with Netflix and these other companies offering unlimited vacation times. People are curious as to how they do that. Do people take advantage of it? How do you get any work done when you're just out basically allowing your employees to do whatever they want to do so? How has that worked for you?

       Chip Hautala: it's worked out well. One of the reasons is that this is your business, whether you're an employee or a business owner. We succeed when everyone succeeds. We do have an unlimited vacation here, but the rule is, you have to have somebody to cover for you. There's never a time when everyone's on vacation when a customer is not served. There's never a time when somebody is on vacation when their emails are not monitored.

       It's incumbent upon you. If you want the privilege of unlimited vacation, you are responsible for making sure that everyone's covered. It's worked out excellent. In our society, we tend to value work too much. Compared to European societies, Americans work far more. That's not what life's all about. A gentleman I worked for many years ago told me that nothing that happens inside these walls is as important as what happens outside these walls. I've carried that philosophy forward. Your work needs to be done. You need to hit your numbers, but you also need to have a life outside of here. That's what you're working for.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. You have the communication in place that people are responsible for filling their slots to ensure they're covered. But you're also empowering them and treating them like the adult human beings that they are. They can have that work-life flexibility that is so important, especially in these last 19 months, 20 months, however long it's been with COVID. People have changed their priorities. It sounds like you've been doing that all along, and it's helping you keep the people you have.

       Chip Hautala: It's funny that you mentioned that, Lisa. The funny part about it was in 2012 when I started MotionSource. I'm an old it guy. I thought that I would set up the system where everything...]]>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 specific stories or incidents or somebody who came from another company and got involved with the profit sharing. What things are you doing that they have shared with you? What are the reasons that they stay with you?

       Chip Hautala: One of the excellent examples I have is our national sales manager, Heather Pucci. She was working for a recruiting firm. I was looking to hire another salesperson, and she kept saying sending applicants over to us. I was interviewing them, and I said they were missing something. Finally, she came into the office, and she told Chip I'm sick and tired of sending you quality people, and you're rejecting them. What are you looking for? I said I'm looking for you. I'm looking for somebody like you, that's what I'm looking for.

       She said, are you offering me a job? I said, yeah, I think I am. She had zero experience in industrial sales, but she was doing industrial recruiting for a long time. She came in, and I said, it's going to be tough because you're going to have to learn all this stuff. You're going to learn everything that we know. If you're willing to do that, you're going to make a hell of a lot more money than you're making in recruiting. She committed to it. She was a salesperson for several years, and now she's our national sales manager. All of our salesmen report to her. That's a success story that we have.

       Lisa Ryan: It says something about you, especially in an industry where it's so hard to find people to begin with, with industry experience. What did you look for beyond that in finding somebody who had the personality, had the drive, and was willing to commit to the industry? You were taking a chance on them, and that it worked out well for you.

       Chip Hautala: I always say this as long as you don't quit on me, I'll never quit on you. You're never a loser until you quit trying. As long as you keep trying, I will keep working with you. She had a rough first year. I'll be honest with you. She didn't do very well on sales, and I lost money on her the first year, but she kept trying and got better. She evolved to the point where she was one of our top salespeople. She had some management skills, and she became a sales manager.

       Everyone responded very well, which is interesting because we're in a male-dominated industry, and she's a female sales manager. It worked out well.

       Lisa Ryan: You're sending a message to the rest of your employees, too, when you're not giving up on someone. When companies lose money on a sales rep in the first year, they're gone. But the fact that you continue not to give up on her and allow her to fail forward has paid off. That leads to a level of commitment and loyalty when employees see that you have their back and you're not going to let them go with the first sign of things not going well.

       Chip Hautala: Definitely. You learn a lot more in defeat than you learn in victory. As long as a person is learning and going forward and keeps trying, that's a winner. That's somebody that I want to be associated with going forward. That's how we have populated or our company here. I don't call anyone.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. Some of the other unique aspects of your business that we've talked about are that you offer more flexible hours and unlimited vacation time. Please tell us a bit about that because we hear all of these things with Netflix and these other companies offering unlimited vacation times. People are curious as to how they do that. Do people take advantage of it? How do you get any work done when you're just out basically allowing your employees to do whatever they want to do so? How has that worked for you?

       Chip Hautala: it's worked out well. One of the reasons is that this is your business, whether you're an employee or a business owner. We succeed when everyone succeeds. We do have an unlimited vacation here, but the rule is, you have to have somebody to cover for you. There's never a time when everyone's on vacation when a customer is not served. There's never a time when somebody is on vacation when their emails are not monitored.

       It's incumbent upon you. If you want the privilege of unlimited vacation, you are responsible for making sure that everyone's covered. It's worked out excellent. In our society, we tend to value work too much. Compared to European societies, Americans work far more. That's not what life's all about. A gentleman I worked for many years ago told me that nothing that happens inside these walls is as important as what happens outside these walls. I've carried that philosophy forward. Your work needs to be done. You need to hit your numbers, but you also need to have a life outside of here. That's what you're working for.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. You have the communication in place that people are responsible for filling their slots to ensure they're covered. But you're also empowering them and treating them like the adult human beings that they are. They can have that work-life flexibility that is so important, especially in these last 19 months, 20 months, however long it's been with COVID. People have changed their priorities. It sounds like you've been doing that all along, and it's helping you keep the people you have.

       Chip Hautala: It's funny that you mentioned that, Lisa. The funny part about it was in 2012 when I started MotionSource. I'm an old it guy. I thought that I would set up the system where everything is in the cloud or phone systems in the cloud. Our networks are in the cloud; our business systems are in the cloud. I thought to myself. If we ever have a snow day, everybody could still work from home. Never did I imagine there'd be a pandemic, where we'd be closed for how long.

       Last year, during the pandemic, we worked remotely for 15 months. Everybody worked from home. Nobody skipped a beat. There was never a phone call that was missed. Everybody worked a lot harder. They considered it a privilege to be able to work from home. We never laid anybody off. We never had any shut down as far as that goes. It worked a lot better than it was a perfect Union of technology and communication with our employees.

       Lisa Ryan: And how are you handling that now? They were working exclusively from home for 15 months. Do they have to come back to the plant? Is there even more flexibility in working versus coming to the office? How is that working out now?

       Chip Hautala: We have flexible hours, so some employees have to come in a little bit later during the school year because they're taking their children to school. They come in earlier in the summertime. If you want to take time off, you can take it; it's one way the pandemic helped. It validated our business model of allowing people to work remotely. There's never a time where you have to come into the company. If you want to go into the office, you're welcome to go into the office. If not, you can work from home. You're an adult, so you're responsible for completing everything you need to complete.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, and I think they are just empowering your employees, letting them know that you trust them. I can't tell you how many horror stories I hear about companies monitoring people's minutes on the phone; they're tracking people's keystrokes on the computer to make sure that they are not ripping you off by working from home. You've seen it, I've seen it. We've all seen it who trust employees. Given the trust to do the work they need to do on their own, without the distractions at home, the chances are good that they will work even harder for you while they're at home.

       Because you've trusted them with that flexibility, they're also going to stay with your company instead of looking for that next company that's going to give them that flexibility that they're looking for.

       Chip Hautala: Exactly. One of the best compliments I've ever received, and one of the things that make me smile, is when I've had people tell me, you know, this is the best place I've ever worked. I'm never leaving here. So that means a lot to me.

       Lisa Ryan: If you were looking at all the things that you do within MotionSource, what are the things that are working best for you?

       Chip Hautala: Communication. Whenever a customer calls in, I've worked for companies, and we still deal with some suppliers, where when a customer calls in for a quote, it takes a week to get back to them. We have a rule here that will get back to you within 20 minutes with a price. People are waiting on that price so that they can place their order. They may be resellers where they need to get back to their customer on that, so that's one of the rules that we have. You have to get back to somebody within 20 minutes with pricing and availability.

       Also, we never sell parts. We sell value. There are many times when I empower the employees to do this. It's better to lose the sale unless you have is the perfect solution for it. We work with it, and here's how you want to tweak it to get it to work better, rather than trying to sell them something new. Those people always come back. They know that you have their back. Our job here is to make you as a customer looks like a rock star, whether it's to your customer or whether it's to your boss.

       Lisa Ryan: Your 20-minute rule has got to lead to a lot more closed business. When people wait a week for a quote, the first person who receives the quote back is the one who wins the business. So the 20-minute rule, I'm sure that that leads to a lot more sales than letting those quotes fall through the cracks too.

       Chip Hautala: The company I used to work for before I came here was in a similar industry, and it was not unusual for it to be a week, a week and a half, two weeks to get back to a customer with a quote. Nobody wants to wait that long. What if you went to the store and wanted to buy a pair of shoes and they said, you want those shoes? Come back next week, and we'll give you a price on those. Would you ever go back there again?

       It's the same thing in the industry. It's essential to get back to people. It shows that you care. It shows that you're invested in them, and that's the best way to do business. That's how I would want to be treated, so that's how we treat our customers.

       Lisa Ryan: It also prevents a lot of those from falling through the cracks. Oh no, I was supposed to get back to this person, and I never did. By that time, they've already chosen another supplier anyway. From a networking standpoint, if you were to think about something that you would like to learn from other manufacturers or distributors, what would that be? By the same token, what are some of the insights that you would be willing to share if somebody reached out to you?

       Chip Hautala: What I would like to learn from other manufacturers and other businesses in your practices as a closing business? What are your practices as far as pricing, things like that? I want to share that the most important thing is communication. Communication is key. It would help if you remained in contact with your customers, team members, and everyone else. If you have excellent communication, you have a great culture, and you have a great business.

       Lisa Ryan: You've shared some great ideas with us today. When it comes to MotionSource, who are the type of businesses that you reach out to? What would be good contacts or good connections for you?

       Chip Hautala: Anybody in the rubber industry. We're very big in the rubber industry. We have a lot of products for the food processing, food servicing, and packaging industry. We have several customers in the packaging industry, the auto industry, in the steel industry. Anybody in those sectors, we can help. We've also added a couple of line items where we're more of a green business. We offer green solutions for everything, where there's no electricity involved. A lot of our pumps are solar pumps. We can provide you with that. As we advance, there are things to do, so we've jumped into that right away.

       Lisa Ryan: Absolutely, and if somebody did want to connect with you, what's the best way for them to do that?

       Chip Hautala: I'm on Linkedin. You can find me as Chip Hautala. You can look up MotionSource on LinkedIn. Our website is MotionSource1.com. Everything that we sell there's manual for online. You can give us a call at 888-963-moto or 888-963-6686.

       Lisa Ryan: Chip, it has been an absolute pleasure having you on the show today. Thanks so much for joining me.

       Chip Hautala: Thank you, Lisa. Thank you for inviting me to be on.

       Lisa Ryan: I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. We'll see you next time.

       ]]>e5a25860-c8a6-4170-8e8e-1d3a9c94c693Mon, 29 Nov 2021 07:05:00 -040021:19falsefull2442It's a Great Week to Give THANKS to Your Employees with Lisa RyanHey, 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 development they want. You could almost see the heads of the accounting managers exploding. They were trying to figure it out. We have 500 employees. Here we don't have that kind of money laying around. I asked them what percentage of your employees take advantage of that, so think for yourself you're giving your employees 1500 dollars, they can invest it. However they want, what is the percentage of employees that you believe would take advantage of that.

       The actual number when I asked her was three to 5%, so you're giving a benefit to all of your team members, and yet only a small percentage of them are going to take you upon it. Do you know who those people are? Those are your future leaders. Those are the people you keep an eye out for. There are lots of different ways that you can incorporate training in your facility. You can offer lunch and learns. There are tens of thousands of hours of video uploaded to YouTube daily.

       Find a topic that your employees want to talk about that they want to learn about, and having that same conversation with each other to grow and develop together is inexpensive. It'll cost you lunch, and that's about to have that kind of in-house training providing resources to your employees and teaching them how to use those resources in case they haven't picked up a book since junior high or high school nonfiction book. I should say. You can have you and do training in house and create a learning culture. You can also bring in somebody from the outside. Yes, that is a shameless plug. But if you think that when you get somebody in that, your employees aren't used to seeing daily, the chances are good that they will hear things differently from that person.

       Think about sending your employees to your industry's trade show. Not only is it a great recruiting tool because there and we talking about it to their friends when they got the bar next Friday. They'll be talking about this great event that their company just invested in them to do and their friends, going to be like, wow, how do I work for a company like that. It also allows your employees to see what's going on in the market and what's going on with the competition. What's going on with their customers? So they will become even more committed to your company and to your industry - and they will stay in it.

       We're building trust; we're helping our employees to be better tomorrow than they are today. So next, we go on to acknowledge, applaud, and appreciate our employees - catching them in the act of doing things well and recognizing them immediately for their actions. I'm not saying that you have to go around and give trophies. It's about acknowledging them for their work instead of saying, hey, great job. What's so great about it?

       You're paying attention. I appreciate that you stayed after your shift and helped us get that order out. The customer was delighted, and we appreciate you very much. You're letting your employees know that you are paying attention to the things that they're doing.

       There are all kinds of things that you can do, but one of the most effective is to come up with your own all about me sheet. This can be a survey that you can find out from your employees as far as your favorite candy bar, your favorite gift card, your hobby, and your favorite restaurant. That way, it allows you to personalize your recognition of them because it's really easy to go to your local coffee shop and get a couple of hundred dollars worth of $10 gift cards so that you can get past those out your employees. But what if they don't like that brand of coffee? What if they don't like coffee? Some people don't, so you're finding ways to recognize them and also specifically. It's not about the money. It's not making some big grand gesture because if you're giving away too much money in these prizes or whatever they are giving, it actually can be a demotivator.

       Because the rest of the employees will be like, how come he got that, how come she got that? I work just as hard, but nobody will begrudge that employee's $25 gas card because they went above and beyond.

       Look for ways to incorporate peer-to-peer recognition as well, because what that does is also gives accountability throughout the whole shop throughout the entire department. For example, sometimes you may have employees performing at their peak when you are around as their manager. Then, the second the manager walks out, they are going back right back to their slacker ways. If you have some peer-to-peer recognition going on - catching people in the act of doing things well and acknowledging each other. You have not only more accountability built-in, but you're also helping your employees to build stronger relationships with each other.

       Think about some of the ways you can start to recognize your employees and do that consistently. For example, using the all about me sheet, maybe putting together an employee experience team, that team has the power to go and interview employees and find out how they like to be recognized. If you're doing company functions, put a committee in charge of employees because they get to. Take accountability, take responsibility for it, and they also get to see how many details go into planning these types of events, so we're building trust, we're helping our employees, and we're acknowledging applauding their efforts.

       Next, we're going to navigate the work-life integration face that these last 1920 months that we have been in this worldwide pandemic. Our priorities have changed. Maybe you had some of your team that was working remotely. Perhaps they are still dealing with the issues of their kids in school, having an immunocompromised person in the house, all of these different fears that are going on. Time is the most valuable asset that you have to share with your employees. So having some flexibility in your scheduling these days...]]>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 development they want. You could almost see the heads of the accounting managers exploding. They were trying to figure it out. We have 500 employees. Here we don't have that kind of money laying around. I asked them what percentage of your employees take advantage of that, so think for yourself you're giving your employees 1500 dollars, they can invest it. However they want, what is the percentage of employees that you believe would take advantage of that.

       The actual number when I asked her was three to 5%, so you're giving a benefit to all of your team members, and yet only a small percentage of them are going to take you upon it. Do you know who those people are? Those are your future leaders. Those are the people you keep an eye out for. There are lots of different ways that you can incorporate training in your facility. You can offer lunch and learns. There are tens of thousands of hours of video uploaded to YouTube daily.

       Find a topic that your employees want to talk about that they want to learn about, and having that same conversation with each other to grow and develop together is inexpensive. It'll cost you lunch, and that's about to have that kind of in-house training providing resources to your employees and teaching them how to use those resources in case they haven't picked up a book since junior high or high school nonfiction book. I should say. You can have you and do training in house and create a learning culture. You can also bring in somebody from the outside. Yes, that is a shameless plug. But if you think that when you get somebody in that, your employees aren't used to seeing daily, the chances are good that they will hear things differently from that person.

       Think about sending your employees to your industry's trade show. Not only is it a great recruiting tool because there and we talking about it to their friends when they got the bar next Friday. They'll be talking about this great event that their company just invested in them to do and their friends, going to be like, wow, how do I work for a company like that. It also allows your employees to see what's going on in the market and what's going on with the competition. What's going on with their customers? So they will become even more committed to your company and to your industry - and they will stay in it.

       We're building trust; we're helping our employees to be better tomorrow than they are today. So next, we go on to acknowledge, applaud, and appreciate our employees - catching them in the act of doing things well and recognizing them immediately for their actions. I'm not saying that you have to go around and give trophies. It's about acknowledging them for their work instead of saying, hey, great job. What's so great about it?

       You're paying attention. I appreciate that you stayed after your shift and helped us get that order out. The customer was delighted, and we appreciate you very much. You're letting your employees know that you are paying attention to the things that they're doing.

       There are all kinds of things that you can do, but one of the most effective is to come up with your own all about me sheet. This can be a survey that you can find out from your employees as far as your favorite candy bar, your favorite gift card, your hobby, and your favorite restaurant. That way, it allows you to personalize your recognition of them because it's really easy to go to your local coffee shop and get a couple of hundred dollars worth of $10 gift cards so that you can get past those out your employees. But what if they don't like that brand of coffee? What if they don't like coffee? Some people don't, so you're finding ways to recognize them and also specifically. It's not about the money. It's not making some big grand gesture because if you're giving away too much money in these prizes or whatever they are giving, it actually can be a demotivator.

       Because the rest of the employees will be like, how come he got that, how come she got that? I work just as hard, but nobody will begrudge that employee's $25 gas card because they went above and beyond.

       Look for ways to incorporate peer-to-peer recognition as well, because what that does is also gives accountability throughout the whole shop throughout the entire department. For example, sometimes you may have employees performing at their peak when you are around as their manager. Then, the second the manager walks out, they are going back right back to their slacker ways. If you have some peer-to-peer recognition going on - catching people in the act of doing things well and acknowledging each other. You have not only more accountability built-in, but you're also helping your employees to build stronger relationships with each other.

       Think about some of the ways you can start to recognize your employees and do that consistently. For example, using the all about me sheet, maybe putting together an employee experience team, that team has the power to go and interview employees and find out how they like to be recognized. If you're doing company functions, put a committee in charge of employees because they get to. Take accountability, take responsibility for it, and they also get to see how many details go into planning these types of events, so we're building trust, we're helping our employees, and we're acknowledging applauding their efforts.

       Next, we're going to navigate the work-life integration face that these last 1920 months that we have been in this worldwide pandemic. Our priorities have changed. Maybe you had some of your team that was working remotely. Perhaps they are still dealing with the issues of their kids in school, having an immunocompromised person in the house, all of these different fears that are going on. Time is the most valuable asset that you have to share with your employees. So having some flexibility in your scheduling these days is key.

       Finding out what would make their lives a little bit easier if they're coming in and half-hour early or leaving or coming in a half-hour late. Whatever it is so that you have that communication going. People know what to expect when it comes that you can have lots of flexibility. It just comes down to making sure that you know from a communication standpoint. Realize that if you have employees working remotely, taking that away from them and demanding them to return to the shop full time will probably not play out well for you. People want to have that flexibility and know that you trust them. Empower them to make their own decisions; to keep their schedule. As long as the work is getting done, does it matter when, where, or how it gets done? It's getting done and, in most cases, when you empower your employees with that type of flexibility.

       You're considering that there is more in their life than just the job. So you're looking for ways to give them tools. Work-life integration is how you're going to have a much more committed, loyal team.

       Trust, help, applaud, navigate - now we get to know our employees. Of course, some of your employees will not want you to know anything about them. They want to keep their work in their personal life separate. Those people seem to be fewer and far between. Your employees want to know that you care about them as a person. You've heard the saying before that people don't quit their jobs; they quit their bosses. If they have a boss who is indifferent to them, it doesn't take the time to get to know them, get to know a bit of them, even greet them by name find out how they're doing, the chance of keeping them is much smaller.

       You can use that all about me sheet. First, you can find out things about your employees. Then, you can have them share in your meetings. Starting the meeting by sharing good news, for example, kicks the meeting off on a much more positive note. But it also allows your employees to know things about each other, because it doesn't have to be all plant-related. The good news that they're sharing is that they can share what's going on with their kids with their family with their vacation, whatever they have and then we're allowing these.

       Other relationships to form Gallup organization when they take a look at what constitutes a highly engaged employee is that that person has a best friend at work, not a good friend, not people they tolerate but a best friend so when you create those types of opportunities for people to get to know each other during work hours after work hours, it makes it much harder for them to quit because they don't want to leave their best friend behind.

       We've built trust. We've helped our employees. We've acknowledged their efforts. We've navigated work-life integration. As a result, we get to know our employees, and we serve a greater mission.

       You're just not making pieces, parts, or components at your plant. You are contributing to something, whether it is the life-saving equipment in a hospital or working on airplanes, the grocery stores, whatever it is. We break it down into that greater good. Employees want to feel that they are contributing to a mission that is greater than them. Think about things that you can do to share that with your employees. They had one of my clients. They are a spring manufacturer. They had it every week. They would take one spring, and it would be a part of the week, and they would hang that up on the wall. They would show the spring they were making, and then they would show a picture of where that spring went. The people on the line are seeing that I'm not making just a spring I'm contributing to this bigger piece of equipment I'm contributing to building the so you're getting that immediate gratification.

       What are you doing to give back? Are you allowing your employees to get involved in charitable opportunities? Are there organizations that your company contributes to? There are Apps for that that you can have your employees? Choose a charity they want to support, build a team, and go off, whether it be once a quarter, twice a year, or whatever it is. They're giving the opportunity to give back. When you look at the research surrounding volunteerism, for example, there forms a different type of connection employees feel good about doing that, which makes them feel even better about working for your organization. Get your employees involved in the process, maybe having people submit their favorite charities to their favorite organizations and then voting on which ones your company will support during this particular time. There are so many things that you can do, and these are all, of course, done over the long term.

       In this week of thanksgiving, think about what you can do to thank your employees—building that trust—helping them to be better tomorrow than they are today—acknowledging their efforts by catching them in the act of doing things well—navigating work-life integration building flexibility as much as you can to give that precious commodity of time to your employees—getting to know them as people getting to know their likes. What lights them up? Finally, serving a greater mission.

       I'm Lisa Ryan. I appreciate you and wish you and yours the happiest of thanksgiving this week and an upcoming holiday season. See you next week.

       ]]>da7d93e8-47b0-458e-9700-b7fb45fe33c5Mon, 22 Nov 2021 07:05:00 -040020:56falsefull2332The Impact of Your Company's Core Values on Your Culture with Jon FrankoLisa 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. Don't promote, don't sell. You always want to position yourself in the best light, but don't say we're the best, blah blah blah, unparalleled customer service, or whatever. Everybody says that. We see results. We see results in content marketing. We see results in the demand side of the world where we're doing some more paid social. We don't see a huge payoff on organic social. We still do it for a couple of clients, but we don't know a ton there.

       It's not about having the flashiest website or anything. I could get this point. A decent website is a barrier to entry, so that needs to be in place. It's about helping. If you can provide content that helps your potential buyer, you can only give that content by understanding your potential buyer. That's a huge part of it. We need to be able to understand our customer's customer.

       If you can understand those things and provide valuable content, that will set you up for business success now. Sometimes that's written content; sometimes it's podcast content; sometimes it's video content; sometimes it's old-school print content. It's a set of sale sheets that you need to mail to somebody. There are different applications, but I think that's step one if you're providing helpful content.

       Lisa Ryan: How are you diving into that when you're working with your clients? Is it an interview process? You walk through the plants. Do you see what they're doing? You're putting into words things that they can't.

       Jon Franko: I think it's all of the above. I'd be lying if I said we are great about walking the floors of our clients. I think that's something we need to do a better job at. For the past few years, we have had the excuse that we're in a pandemic. What we have done is hire journalists like true journalists, not fake journalists. I wasn't an advertising copywriter, but your journalists are good at taking something they know minimal to nothing about. Learning about it in writing - about it at a level that other people can understand. We were always going to have access when we work with a client to the subject matter experts within a company.

       We need access to the customers. We need access to the sales team. It's interviewing and early on in our process. We have a knowledge extraction day, where we will go up and set up on-site at a client. We videotape the whole thing and pepper them with questions all day long. We pepper different players that they've identified as stakeholders that you need to talk to. Having access to the right people is incredibly important. Five years ago, we weren't getting that buy-off from companies. Many times, we would work directly with just the marketing manager.

       There's nothing wrong with being a marketing manager, but unless that C-suite is bought in, a lot of times, those key stakeholder interviews aren't going to happen. Because it's different if the marketing manager says to an engineer, hey, I need to get some of your time. At the same time, the engineer will push it off, whatever that they have more important things to do. You get the CEO, saying I need you to make time for this interview with our marketing agency. It's going to happen. That was a long way to answer your question, but yes. Then, of course, the interviewing, there's the secondary research, just the online reading, etc. But a lot of our clients were writing about things that haven't been written about that much. We are pioneers in some of these and some of these categories.

       Lisa Ryan: Some of the other things you and I discussed before is just the workplace culture you've developed at Gorilla. It's nice with your background in manufacturing and that you're not on the plant floor. You're not a manufacturer. There are still many transferable skills that people listening to this can pay attention to because of the great resignation going on right now.

       It's hard enough to find new talent, so to at the speaking event that I was at earlier this week, I talked to one of the participants in my program, and he said you need to cherish the employees you have. That's not usually a word that you hear in the manufacturing or the trades. But taking care of, focusing on, and cherishing the employees - the good employees you have now. Because keeping them is going to be much more important than finding new ones. What are some of the things you're doing with your culture over there because it sounds like it is a pretty cool place to work?

       Jon Franko: To give more importance, I recently did the math and the LinkedIn posts on what it looks like for us to hire for any role. In looking at the time for interviewing, the time to write the job description, all those things, onboarding, etc., my math came out about $32,000 per hire. So it's relatively significant to keep these people. Once you get on, it's just essential for creating a cohesive team. You don't want to see turnover constantly.

       In terms of what we're doing, ten years ago, it was, hey, we have a beer fridge and a ping pong table, and we wear T-shirts to work, and we listen to music. So it was all that stuff. Don't get me wrong, I think that's still part of being a marketing agency and a good culture, but I have learned that it's all about the core values. If you truly believe in your core values, and they're genuinely core to who you are, and you live by them, the excellent culture will result.

       Our core values result in improved relationships, kindness, and inclusion, and I think we do an excellent job of adhering to those. Everything we do, from the interviewing questions we have to our company manifesto...]]>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. Don't promote, don't sell. You always want to position yourself in the best light, but don't say we're the best, blah blah blah, unparalleled customer service, or whatever. Everybody says that. We see results. We see results in content marketing. We see results in the demand side of the world where we're doing some more paid social. We don't see a huge payoff on organic social. We still do it for a couple of clients, but we don't know a ton there.

       It's not about having the flashiest website or anything. I could get this point. A decent website is a barrier to entry, so that needs to be in place. It's about helping. If you can provide content that helps your potential buyer, you can only give that content by understanding your potential buyer. That's a huge part of it. We need to be able to understand our customer's customer.

       If you can understand those things and provide valuable content, that will set you up for business success now. Sometimes that's written content; sometimes it's podcast content; sometimes it's video content; sometimes it's old-school print content. It's a set of sale sheets that you need to mail to somebody. There are different applications, but I think that's step one if you're providing helpful content.

       Lisa Ryan: How are you diving into that when you're working with your clients? Is it an interview process? You walk through the plants. Do you see what they're doing? You're putting into words things that they can't.

       Jon Franko: I think it's all of the above. I'd be lying if I said we are great about walking the floors of our clients. I think that's something we need to do a better job at. For the past few years, we have had the excuse that we're in a pandemic. What we have done is hire journalists like true journalists, not fake journalists. I wasn't an advertising copywriter, but your journalists are good at taking something they know minimal to nothing about. Learning about it in writing - about it at a level that other people can understand. We were always going to have access when we work with a client to the subject matter experts within a company.

       We need access to the customers. We need access to the sales team. It's interviewing and early on in our process. We have a knowledge extraction day, where we will go up and set up on-site at a client. We videotape the whole thing and pepper them with questions all day long. We pepper different players that they've identified as stakeholders that you need to talk to. Having access to the right people is incredibly important. Five years ago, we weren't getting that buy-off from companies. Many times, we would work directly with just the marketing manager.

       There's nothing wrong with being a marketing manager, but unless that C-suite is bought in, a lot of times, those key stakeholder interviews aren't going to happen. Because it's different if the marketing manager says to an engineer, hey, I need to get some of your time. At the same time, the engineer will push it off, whatever that they have more important things to do. You get the CEO, saying I need you to make time for this interview with our marketing agency. It's going to happen. That was a long way to answer your question, but yes. Then, of course, the interviewing, there's the secondary research, just the online reading, etc. But a lot of our clients were writing about things that haven't been written about that much. We are pioneers in some of these and some of these categories.

       Lisa Ryan: Some of the other things you and I discussed before is just the workplace culture you've developed at Gorilla. It's nice with your background in manufacturing and that you're not on the plant floor. You're not a manufacturer. There are still many transferable skills that people listening to this can pay attention to because of the great resignation going on right now.

       It's hard enough to find new talent, so to at the speaking event that I was at earlier this week, I talked to one of the participants in my program, and he said you need to cherish the employees you have. That's not usually a word that you hear in the manufacturing or the trades. But taking care of, focusing on, and cherishing the employees - the good employees you have now. Because keeping them is going to be much more important than finding new ones. What are some of the things you're doing with your culture over there because it sounds like it is a pretty cool place to work?

       Jon Franko: To give more importance, I recently did the math and the LinkedIn posts on what it looks like for us to hire for any role. In looking at the time for interviewing, the time to write the job description, all those things, onboarding, etc., my math came out about $32,000 per hire. So it's relatively significant to keep these people. Once you get on, it's just essential for creating a cohesive team. You don't want to see turnover constantly.

       In terms of what we're doing, ten years ago, it was, hey, we have a beer fridge and a ping pong table, and we wear T-shirts to work, and we listen to music. So it was all that stuff. Don't get me wrong, I think that's still part of being a marketing agency and a good culture, but I have learned that it's all about the core values. If you truly believe in your core values, and they're genuinely core to who you are, and you live by them, the excellent culture will result.

       Our core values result in improved relationships, kindness, and inclusion, and I think we do an excellent job of adhering to those. Everything we do, from the interviewing questions we have to our company manifesto about conducting quarterly reviews. If the mail person comes in, and there is a hot day or hey, can I get you a glass of water? That's the type that is core to us. That has been ultimately what has made our culture great now. We are still seeing turnover. I'm losing somebody in a week. It's brutal right now. We're competing for a lot of our talent. We're competing a lot less with other marketing agencies.

       When we lose people, many times, it's to a software company. These companies have massive amounts of funding. They can come. They can make ridiculous offers and have benefits. We can't touch it if we lose people. The Agency world can be just a grind in general.

       It's not an easy space. It's a lot of hard work. If you have that core culture or those core values in place, then your culture is a byproduct of that. If everything's up to you, you make it a lot harder for people to live. If there's still going to happen, you make it more difficult.

       Lisa Ryan: How did you come up with your core values? How did you get them?

       Jon Franko: They are all in the core values. I hear them talking about them constantly, which is great. In terms of how we came up with them, we came up with them. The core values were one of those things like I will be the first thing that I used to roll my eyes, I was like, this is stupid. These are just things that people put up in a boardroom, and they have some sort of motivational poster, and no one believes. When we went through the exercise, we were working with a strategic planning partner. So it was less like what you want to be, and it was more uncovering what we were.

       We were a results-driven company. When Joe and I started this business, we were two guys obsessed over reading everything we could about marketing. We started this business because we've worked on our portfolios together outside of work. We did like fake cat campaigns together, so that was the improvement piece. We knew that the best clients he had had had come from great relationships that we built worked our whole lives to make whether as family, friends, whatever that then connected as people.

       Kindness, nobody wants to work with a jerk. That was a massive part of it as well. Admittedly, this was something that we opened our eyes to. Civil unrest has been going on in the past year and a half, and we started looking around the office. We're like, wow, many of us all look like, and probably need to be more aware of that. Think about how we can start to be more inclusive. Not only different races and religions, and things like that, but now that we're in a remote setting, like if somebody works in California, and somebody works in DC, well, we have to think about what time we're going to have our happy hour. You don't want to make the person in California feel like she needs to have a beer at three o'clock, so I mean, we want to be inclusive of just how we're working.

       Our values were core to us. We thought they were aspirational, but when we start digging in, we're like, wow, this is who we are. That was the light bulb that went off. Employees were involved in the strategic planning committee, but the person directing this exercise was like, this is when you've nailed it. They are already part of who you are. So many companies say we want to be this, and we want to do this. That's fine, but if you're going to be aspirational, you better plan how you're going to achieve those core values.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. I know. It's funny because when you were going through that whole thing about the turnover and losing it to other more prominent software companies and those types of things. Many manufacturers listening to this podcast can substitute those words with well, we're competing with people who are leaving because they're going to Amazon, which has deep pockets. We're all in the same boat. We're all looking at the same type of issues as far as finding. People keep finding and keeping people. There's always going to be the big monster corporation with deep pockets who'd like to suck everybody into their realm. But it focuses on the core values. I like the fact of it being aspirational or not being aspirational of being where you're at.

       I was working with a foundry, and what they did is they used one of those word cloud things. They had all the employees put in the top three words they attributed to their company. As a casting plan, of course, you had words like hot, and hard, and that type of thing but the biggest one for the most part. So when you do a word cloud, the more somebody puts in one word, the larger that word gets in the cloud, and what they were happy to find is that the most prominent word that came up for them is family.

       People thought it was like it was a family. That's such a great point because people listening to this figure out how to get started. It's like don't put that those high goals of what you aspire to be, who are you now, and how can you make that just a little bit better going forward.

       Jon Franko: I also think, just the key to getting started. I have not mastered this. I'm not even close. I am much better than I used to be, but the whole idea of like you have two ears, and one mouth like listen to your people. There are some tools we have in place. In an office setting, they work great. I think they could work in a manufacturing setting. You need an environment where everybody has email. There's a tool called Office Vibe. I was just on a call with them today. It's weekly employee surveys that are very simple. They're fun to take, and it creates a massive data set. We always have access to measure happiness and different things, so if we see numbers starting to trend a certain way, it's time to listen and find out what's going on. Then address it, and get it fixed before it becomes a problem before it results in a turnover.

       That has been probably my most significant area of development. In the past couple of years, I think I've gotten to be a better listener. I have a long way to go, as any of my employees will tell you, but I have learned the importance of that. It's regular feedback. It's weekly. Because it's weekly, it's also short and fun, so people aren't getting burned out in the process.

       Lisa Ryan: But you also have that immediate gratification of noticing when something starts to go a little bit awry. You can take steps to fix that. The other thing that we mentioned from our conversation is, you have a buddy system there.

       Jon Franko: Whenever somebody first starts to grow up. This was something that came up before the pandemic. I can remember it. It became very relevant during the pandemic when we were all working in separate locations. When somebody new starts at Gorilla, we pair them up with somebody who's been there longer. It's typically somebody not in their department; it's somebody that maybe they wouldn't cross paths with the time. It's nothing more than that person welcomes them with a typically handwritten note at the beginning.

       Set some scheduled check-ins, the first several weeks every week. Just to be like, hey, I'm here for you. You can ask there. We believe in subscribing that there are no stupid questions. When you walk into a company, and all you see are a bunch of names in a slack channel or whatever, an email with server whatever, and you're like, all right, I have to ask. I'm just going to ask everybody this question that I might think is dumb or whatever.

       Well, it's much easier if you're the person they told me to talk to you for stupid questions. I think this is a silly question. Where do wherein dropbox do I save this type of file.

       So that buddy system is I it's turned out to be a positive addition, it's that person is in no means a manager of the new employee. It's more just a spiritual leader if you will, or even appear like, hey, I'm here for you. We'll get coffee. We'll do a weekly zoom call, and I want to be here to check-in. I was going to add like I do those as well, but new employees aren't gonna tell me if something's broken. They're going to be like, yeah, everything's great, I love it. I'm happy, but they will tell another employee if something's broken.

       Lisa Ryan: When you're setting them up from day one because I think that's what the problem is. Often, new employees show up, their business cards aren't ready, or their computers are not set up, or there's an inch full of dust on their desk. If they're in the trades, their truck is filthy. It's not set up versus just being prepared to rock out that first day. Let that new person know that we're all expecting you. Have a welcoming committee, and, by the way, here's your buddy. This is your one source for everything. In jobs that we've had in our careers, we all know the very first person that we connect with, the first person we have lunch with, and our best friend for life.

       Using that buddy system, forming that connection from the first day sets people up for success.

       Jon Franko: I agree. It's something we have revisited our entire onboarding process. The minute that the offer letter is signed, our process kicks off. There are numerous touchpoints before that person even starts different people emailing different things. They begin to meet the entire cast of characters. It's your first day. This is where you'll park. Then someone else will send a note, hey, we always like people to get lunch on us the first day. Here's a gift card for postmates for 20 bucks. Small stuff adds up and makes that initial experience big. The minute they start, it's like driving a car off the lot. The minute you drive that car off the lot, it's getting colder, and things can start falling apart. The minute somebody starts, they can start having a bad...]]>d46d9bc3-a25b-4fbd-acca-812b8dfc6324Mon, 15 Nov 2021 07:05:00 -040026:09falsefull2222The Power of a Positive Focus to Keep Your Employees from Leaving with Todd CarrollConnect 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 you to meet the goal throughout the month. One of the nice things about being me is that we're a 100,000 square foot manufacturing facility on 52 acres. We've got walking trails; we've got ponds; the ponds are stocked with fish, so you can take a break at 11 o'clock in the day and do your walk around the pond. It's about a mile - that counts. Then, if you want to come back on the weekends and go fishing, you're able to do that as well. It's a nice opportunity to take a break from the day-to-day grind.

       Let's face it today, and in the current environment, it's tough to please customers. You've got supply chain issues, manufacturing delays, and different things like that. So you need a little brain break from the overall grind of things.

       Lisa Ryan: Please share a bit about the gym. I know you said that it's 30 minutes every other day. What kind of equipment do you have in the gym? People may think that they have to spend all this money and put together all of this. What have you seen from the employees taking advantage of that as far as health, happiness, and retention?

       Todd Carroll: Before COVID, everybody was pretty much utilizing the gym. We've got treadmills, ellipticals, free weights, and an entire matt area that you can do stretches. You can do different videos on the TV screen as well. It's pretty nice. If you want to take a quick shower before you head back to work, you can do that as well. It's a fully operational, functional gym. From my perspective, it's not just a couple of pieces of equipment. You could probably get a good 15 to 20 people in there one time if it were full. But throughout people's different shifts, different breaks, and stuff like that, it doesn't get that heavily utilized at one time.

       Many people don't use the gym; they come out, and they do the walks around. It's mainly in the summertime, so it works out well.

       Lisa Ryan: Okay. Was that always part of B&B, or is that something you put in since you've been there?

       Todd Carroll: Well, this is our fourth building. We started in the garage of Bob's parents' house. We moved out from the garage to another facility. We were over on Genesis Drive, and then we moved into the current building. Our existing structure was built in 2014/2015. The gym was part of it at that time. Bob likes to have healthy employees. He wants to make sure that they're healthy and not only physically but mentally. From an insurance standpoint, we have a local facility called WellPort that will come over and give flu shots free of charge. So if our employees have minor things laceration on their hand or need to get immunizations, they're able to go to that local facility free of charge.

       Those are just some of the nice things that are in place. When we have a milestone, say that we record sales, booking, or whatnot, we do an employee lunch. Everybody gets to partake in that. We also have an event where throughout the quarter, if an employee goes above and beyond the call of duty, somebody can recognize it. Leadership says okay and goes to HR and says, XYZ employee did something well. I want to extend them a ticket. They'll get these tickets throughout the month. Then they'll spin the wheel. Every ticket equals a spin on the wheel. They can get a $50 gift card to a local restaurant or Home Depot or a $100 gift card. It depends on what slots are on that wheel. Those are nice little things to pick up, so when they get home, and they want to take the family out to grab a bite to eat or take the significant other or spouse out for a date night, those are just nice simple little gestures to say thanks for the efforts of taking care of the customers.

       Lisa Ryan: right when it sounds that you are making a significant investment in your people. People who may be listening to this or are thinking, yeah, well that's a lot of money, I don't have that. But if those same people were to take a pen to paper and add up the cost of turnover, add up the cost of people ghosting you at lunch, or not showing up for interviews, or you're getting bad reviews on glassdoor.com.

       Any of these things that keep people away from the shop - the investment that you are making in your people is you're probably saving 10s of thousands of dollars in retention costs because people aren't leaving.

       Todd Carroll: You're right. Where we are located up Laporte, other manufacturers are all competing for the talent. Rick Talbert is our President, and he's a metrics guy. He likes to track those different types of things about turnover and many other metrics as well, so when you say investing in your people, they are our number one asset. If we take care of our people, our people are going to take care of our customers. That's something Bob has always been pretty adamant about - making sure that everybody's got a voice everybody and can give input.

       We're still kind of in the pandemic, and I'm checking in with employees to see how they're doing. I want to find out if everything is going well, what's stressing them out, those types of things. It's nice to see that people are not just a number. People matter at B&B, and we try to take care of them so that they're there for a long time. We've got a lot of folks that have a lot of longevity for many years.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. We also talked about what you do over there, which takes just a little bit of time costs, no money at all. You're starting your meetings off on a positive focus. How did that get started? What do people share in the discussions when you're starting?

       Todd Carroll: Sure, this is something that I started at B&B because an old]]>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 you to meet the goal throughout the month. One of the nice things about being me is that we're a 100,000 square foot manufacturing facility on 52 acres. We've got walking trails; we've got ponds; the ponds are stocked with fish, so you can take a break at 11 o'clock in the day and do your walk around the pond. It's about a mile - that counts. Then, if you want to come back on the weekends and go fishing, you're able to do that as well. It's a nice opportunity to take a break from the day-to-day grind.

       Let's face it today, and in the current environment, it's tough to please customers. You've got supply chain issues, manufacturing delays, and different things like that. So you need a little brain break from the overall grind of things.

       Lisa Ryan: Please share a bit about the gym. I know you said that it's 30 minutes every other day. What kind of equipment do you have in the gym? People may think that they have to spend all this money and put together all of this. What have you seen from the employees taking advantage of that as far as health, happiness, and retention?

       Todd Carroll: Before COVID, everybody was pretty much utilizing the gym. We've got treadmills, ellipticals, free weights, and an entire matt area that you can do stretches. You can do different videos on the TV screen as well. It's pretty nice. If you want to take a quick shower before you head back to work, you can do that as well. It's a fully operational, functional gym. From my perspective, it's not just a couple of pieces of equipment. You could probably get a good 15 to 20 people in there one time if it were full. But throughout people's different shifts, different breaks, and stuff like that, it doesn't get that heavily utilized at one time.

       Many people don't use the gym; they come out, and they do the walks around. It's mainly in the summertime, so it works out well.

       Lisa Ryan: Okay. Was that always part of B&B, or is that something you put in since you've been there?

       Todd Carroll: Well, this is our fourth building. We started in the garage of Bob's parents' house. We moved out from the garage to another facility. We were over on Genesis Drive, and then we moved into the current building. Our existing structure was built in 2014/2015. The gym was part of it at that time. Bob likes to have healthy employees. He wants to make sure that they're healthy and not only physically but mentally. From an insurance standpoint, we have a local facility called WellPort that will come over and give flu shots free of charge. So if our employees have minor things laceration on their hand or need to get immunizations, they're able to go to that local facility free of charge.

       Those are just some of the nice things that are in place. When we have a milestone, say that we record sales, booking, or whatnot, we do an employee lunch. Everybody gets to partake in that. We also have an event where throughout the quarter, if an employee goes above and beyond the call of duty, somebody can recognize it. Leadership says okay and goes to HR and says, XYZ employee did something well. I want to extend them a ticket. They'll get these tickets throughout the month. Then they'll spin the wheel. Every ticket equals a spin on the wheel. They can get a $50 gift card to a local restaurant or Home Depot or a $100 gift card. It depends on what slots are on that wheel. Those are nice little things to pick up, so when they get home, and they want to take the family out to grab a bite to eat or take the significant other or spouse out for a date night, those are just nice simple little gestures to say thanks for the efforts of taking care of the customers.

       Lisa Ryan: right when it sounds that you are making a significant investment in your people. People who may be listening to this or are thinking, yeah, well that's a lot of money, I don't have that. But if those same people were to take a pen to paper and add up the cost of turnover, add up the cost of people ghosting you at lunch, or not showing up for interviews, or you're getting bad reviews on glassdoor.com.

       Any of these things that keep people away from the shop - the investment that you are making in your people is you're probably saving 10s of thousands of dollars in retention costs because people aren't leaving.

       Todd Carroll: You're right. Where we are located up Laporte, other manufacturers are all competing for the talent. Rick Talbert is our President, and he's a metrics guy. He likes to track those different types of things about turnover and many other metrics as well, so when you say investing in your people, they are our number one asset. If we take care of our people, our people are going to take care of our customers. That's something Bob has always been pretty adamant about - making sure that everybody's got a voice everybody and can give input.

       We're still kind of in the pandemic, and I'm checking in with employees to see how they're doing. I want to find out if everything is going well, what's stressing them out, those types of things. It's nice to see that people are not just a number. People matter at B&B, and we try to take care of them so that they're there for a long time. We've got a lot of folks that have a lot of longevity for many years.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. We also talked about what you do over there, which takes just a little bit of time costs, no money at all. You're starting your meetings off on a positive focus. How did that get started? What do people share in the discussions when you're starting?

       Todd Carroll: Sure, this is something that I started at B&B because an old boss of mine would do it. The premise behind it is that you get so wrapped up working with your co-workers, and you know them at work. Whenever I have a sales meeting, or I'm leading the charge of whatever discussion we're having, I pause and say, all right, we're going to have a positive focus. Everybody understands it now. It's kind of funny because I'll say all right, we're going to start the positive focus. If somebody sitting to the left or me or somebody said to the right, they're like go that way because they don't want to go first. It entails that anybody can just talk about something positive going on in their life - personally or professionally. It allows us to hear the personal side of life. The positive focus is to understand that person for more than, "Oh hey, I go to Angel for all our quotes and pricing availabilities. It's now Angel's time – she's got a family, they went to Michigan this weekend. This is the first time I've been able to get away for a while. Somebody else may share that their kid won the local baseball tournament. It's nice to see the co-workers as people who have families.

       Sometimes we have issues, and we get to share that as well. So you'll get some that sprinkling of some professional positive focuses, but again it's just kind of like a cleansing of the palette. It's not a complete business focus. It's just like all right. We're all people. We all got families, and we're all trying to do our job so that we can provide for our families. We also want to move the business forward in a positive professional way. It's been nice, and everybody understands. We're leading the charge or having meetings. We typically start that way, and I think others are picking up on it we well. The first time we did it, it was a little rough. It was challenging because nobody was used to it. It's easier now.

       As you go through the day, lots of things happen to folks. If you can't sit there and figure out the positive side of something, you've got to change your mindset from constantly looking at the negative. We're trying to focus on that positive side because it keeps the spirits are up, and it just cleanses the palette for the meeting. You start fresh.

       Lisa Ryan: When you're looking at people holistically instead of just workers in the plant, you're looking at people with families and lives, which leads to more compassion, which leads to more empathy, and better relationships. Gallup polls have found that people who have a best friend at work are more engaged than those that don't. Giving people the opportunity to share the victories in their lives and build those connections with people allows those relationships to happen. People get to know each other. It's also more challenging for them to leave because they know they're going to go to another manufacturing plant where they're not going to know the people where they're just an employee ID number.

       So, taking into that consideration and spending just the first couple minutes kicking off with that positive focus, I'm sure your employees now look forward to that.

       Todd Carroll: We're very fortunate to have a very active owner in the business, and before COVID, we would have Easter egg hunts for the families. All the employees bring their families and kids, and the Hamilton's are great folks. They sit at home, and they bundle up all the Easter bags with eggs and different things. The eggs would have candy and some money or coupons or gift cards. We're fortunate to have the Hamilton family leading the ship. They're all involved, from Bob to Helena and the kids. They're good people.

       Lisa Ryan: It's essential to have that type of connection again with the employees. As the leadership team or the ownership level of a company, you are seen differently by your employees. When Bob is walking through the plant, and he calls an employee by name or asks him about his wife or kids or what's going on in his life, there's a different level of connection. It's unfortunate, but in most cases, they are not going to have that kind of relationship at many other facilities that either they had worked in the past or potentially would work for in the future.

       Todd Carroll: Let's call a spade a spade. We're pretty good at many things that we do, but we still have a lot of things we need to work on. We're not perfect, by all means, but what's nice is if we've got an issue, we typically put it on the table and have a conversation about it. I'll call that the here's the adult conversation where you don't make it personal, and you don't get your emotions involved with it. If you do that, you can pretty much say anything to anybody at any time. You get through the issues, and some of them are tough conversations, but again it's about a group of team members coming together to move the business forward. If you don't have issues, you're living in La-la land.

       In this time, you've got to work together with the supply chain issues, labor issues, all those types of things. Things can get a little stressful at times, and you gotta remember, "Hey, we're all here for the same boat. We're all in the same storm." We're all working, trying to figure out how to get out of that. In time, we lean on each other quite a bit. All of us bring a little bit different skill sets and experiences to the table. We recognize who carries one, and we lean on them if there's an issue that pertains to what they're good at.

       Lisa Ryan: Your number one focus is on your employees, but you also take good care of your customers with things like customer appreciation week. There are lots of ways that you go out of your way to connect with your customers. Please share a bit about what you're doing along those lines.

       Todd Carroll: In this marketplace, the power transmission industry has a lot of manufacturers. We're growing. We're coming up higher on the radar screen for most folks, but we're not your traditional recognized tier one manufacturer. The name brand guys are out there, so we have to work harder from the standpoint of getting a job done faster - following up on that quote, making sure that we try to anticipate what the customer needs. We ask a lot of questions.

       I'll give you an example. Last night, we had a group that we do a lot of business with. They send orders through the web, and I noticed that they were ordering a couple of pulleys and belts, but they didn't match. I called and asked if they were running these together. They were, and I let them know that they were using the wrong belt. We were drop-shipping it to a customer, looking out for the customer from the standpoint of making sure that all the parts go together.

       When you get into synchronous, it can get a little tricky at times but ask them the questions on a drive system - what's your horsepower? What's your rpm? Why are you doing this?

       We had another customer that called us up for a belt probably four months ago that a competitor makes. The belt had a three-month lead time on it. I asked him for the drive information, and we redesigned it into something on the shelf. Their customer was down, and we shipped it out the same day. They got it the next day, and they were up and running. They were pretty pleased with it.

       Lisa Ryan: So, in these difficult times, what are some of the things right now that are working?

       Todd Carroll: We've hired a customer advocate manager that we haven't had this role before. This person, Marissa, is looking into the backlog, looking at orders, and trying to be proactive about looking at okay this customer we got an order in. The delivery date is coming up, and we're not going to make that. So we're trying to invest in being proactive and picking up the phone and calling the customer and saying hey, "This order you had it in here for X amount of days or weeks, I should say, and it's not going to be on time. We're going to be in need another two weeks. I want to give you a heads up."

       We're trying to do with that way because we didn't use to do it that way. Sometimes we would get a call, and the customer would say, "where's my stuff?" And we're like, "Let me check on that." You never want the customer to call you when you're late.

       Lisa Ryan: When it's evident that's not news that they want to hear, however, the fact that you are being proactive and letting them know builds a certain level of trust that now they know that you are on top of things that you are paying attention to them and it's not something that fell through the cracks. With everything that we're going through right now with the supply chain, the customers are probably more used to not getting calls and guessing where their product is versus when they're working with B&B, they know what the status is.

       Todd Carroll: We're getting more proactive today. Are we 100% bulletproof? No. We've got a long way to go. But it's something that we've put in place. We've got different ways of quoting customers from the standpoint of a quick turnaround. We're a big believer that the company that receives the quote back first usually wins. We carry extensive inventories as well. Being a salesman at heart, Bob knows that you can't sell from an empty wagon, so we've got a significant amount of inventory. We have over $10 million of finished goods inventory in stock that we can ship. It's come down a bit, but that's what's carried us during the pandemic. So we can continue to increase that stock level and keep it at that level.

       In a company of our site, you won't see that amount of stock on the shelf from other people. We're pretty fortunate to have the leader of the company with that mindset. A lot of our business is made from the manufacturing side. People know us for custom-making...]]>6eae6a7d-8a02-4f09-a257-9926381ba188Mon, 08 Nov 2021 07:05:00 -040028:46falsefull2112How Using Automation Increases Retention with Will Healy IIIContact 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, but these things are solved locally. 

       You announced AMIP in my bio. This is a local industry sector partnership. That means we are manufacturers, working with local tech schools, working with local institutions, working with local nonprofits, working with second chance citizens like people coming out of prison, and working with legal immigrants coming into the country looking for work. So we're pairing manufacturers with tech schools and universities and these not-for-profit organizations to create genuine connections and solutions to the skills gap problem. For me, social media is amazing, and I've made lots of connections through that.

       But what's been most worth my time investing is in the local community. I was one of the first proponents of Manufacturing Day. Many years ago, I made Baluff have a Manufacturing Day event. We were the only company in Cincinnati in that first year doing a Manufacturing Day event. We've done it for many years. We didn't do it this year and last year because of coronavirus, but we did virtual tours. Engaging with the community, real people, and real organizations has had the most value and has had the most impact. People contact me still like, hey, I went on a tour five years ago, and now I'm in school, to be in manufacturing. Those kinds of things are just amazing.

       Lisa Ryan: That's such a good point because we can often use social media and all the other ways that we connect. But social media by itself is a little bit taking the lazy way out. If you're looking for people, you can post stuff on social media all day long. But until your company gets involved with local tech schools, guidance counselors, and people who can make those relationships, everybody's competing for the same people.

       But suppose they have a relationship with you, with Baluff. In that case, they're more likely to come to work with you and to stay with you because they've done your tour. They know who you are, and they've already built a relationship. So the personal connection is a massive part of that as well.

       Will Healy III: You're not the only manufacturer in your community struggling to hire people. You may see them as competitors, but working together to get a program started at the local tech school, you both need machinists. Still, the local tech school doesn't know machines. So the program works together with other manufacturers, talks about common problems, and then engages with organizations around you that want to provide that support. I had an Aha moment about two two and a half years ago that they're not my competitors. They're my colleagues. We have to work together to solve this. It's much too big a problem for me to solve. 

       Lisa Ryan: Going back to those trade and technical schools where you can get together with your "competitors" to see what skills we need for machinists coming in. What kind of curriculum do you need? I work with a lot of workforce development departments of JVS's and community colleges. They will design a program for you. So you can have ready-made students coming out. It's just it's paying attention and some time investment. As you know, you're not just competing with other manufacturers now; you're competing with Amazon. You're competing with every other big-box distribution center that's coming in who's looking for the same people.

       Will Healy III: Really, the only market that has a bigger labor problem than manufacturing is the retail, hospitality, and food service space. They're struggling for workers as bad as we are, so we have to provide an experience. Then we have to engage at a different level if we want to have the workers we want, so we're going to have the highest quality workers.

       Lisa Ryan: Providing an environment where it's just fantastic to work. If you have people from another setting, we pretty much know what a waiter or waitress does at a restaurant. The job is fast-paced, so if those people are looking for the next step in their career, and they come into your manufacturing company, and it's all equipment from the 70s, and there isn't a robot or automation to be found, you're going to be like I can't do this.

       What are some of the things you're seeing with technology and how it's impacting the strategy? Not only for attracting employees, but retaining the ones that you have?

       Will Healy III: The biggest thing is your technology strategy is impacting your HR strategy. That's the heart of the question to me. If you want to hire and retain and attract the best workers, you have to be investing in your company. You have to show them that you care about the company and that you're investing in technology.

       How are you investing in the workers? How are you investing in technology to make the workers' lives better? How are you making a lot of workers' life safer? How are you making the workers' lives easier to do the jobs? How are you having them do more - using their brains instead of their brawn. 

       I like to talk about discovering your technology strategy and how it is positively or negatively impacting the HR strategy. For example, some ideas are faster onboarding. For example, if you have a position that's churning all the time, why is it churning? It's not because you have bad workers. If you have a good job, they're gonna want that job. So if you're having a lot of churn, you may have bad training. We need to work on the training. Do we have a bad process? When you work on the process, it helps us invest in and make that job better. Let's make it less dull, less dirty, less dangerous. Let's make it a job that will work...]]>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, but these things are solved locally. 

       You announced AMIP in my bio. This is a local industry sector partnership. That means we are manufacturers, working with local tech schools, working with local institutions, working with local nonprofits, working with second chance citizens like people coming out of prison, and working with legal immigrants coming into the country looking for work. So we're pairing manufacturers with tech schools and universities and these not-for-profit organizations to create genuine connections and solutions to the skills gap problem. For me, social media is amazing, and I've made lots of connections through that.

       But what's been most worth my time investing is in the local community. I was one of the first proponents of Manufacturing Day. Many years ago, I made Baluff have a Manufacturing Day event. We were the only company in Cincinnati in that first year doing a Manufacturing Day event. We've done it for many years. We didn't do it this year and last year because of coronavirus, but we did virtual tours. Engaging with the community, real people, and real organizations has had the most value and has had the most impact. People contact me still like, hey, I went on a tour five years ago, and now I'm in school, to be in manufacturing. Those kinds of things are just amazing.

       Lisa Ryan: That's such a good point because we can often use social media and all the other ways that we connect. But social media by itself is a little bit taking the lazy way out. If you're looking for people, you can post stuff on social media all day long. But until your company gets involved with local tech schools, guidance counselors, and people who can make those relationships, everybody's competing for the same people.

       But suppose they have a relationship with you, with Baluff. In that case, they're more likely to come to work with you and to stay with you because they've done your tour. They know who you are, and they've already built a relationship. So the personal connection is a massive part of that as well.

       Will Healy III: You're not the only manufacturer in your community struggling to hire people. You may see them as competitors, but working together to get a program started at the local tech school, you both need machinists. Still, the local tech school doesn't know machines. So the program works together with other manufacturers, talks about common problems, and then engages with organizations around you that want to provide that support. I had an Aha moment about two two and a half years ago that they're not my competitors. They're my colleagues. We have to work together to solve this. It's much too big a problem for me to solve. 

       Lisa Ryan: Going back to those trade and technical schools where you can get together with your "competitors" to see what skills we need for machinists coming in. What kind of curriculum do you need? I work with a lot of workforce development departments of JVS's and community colleges. They will design a program for you. So you can have ready-made students coming out. It's just it's paying attention and some time investment. As you know, you're not just competing with other manufacturers now; you're competing with Amazon. You're competing with every other big-box distribution center that's coming in who's looking for the same people.

       Will Healy III: Really, the only market that has a bigger labor problem than manufacturing is the retail, hospitality, and food service space. They're struggling for workers as bad as we are, so we have to provide an experience. Then we have to engage at a different level if we want to have the workers we want, so we're going to have the highest quality workers.

       Lisa Ryan: Providing an environment where it's just fantastic to work. If you have people from another setting, we pretty much know what a waiter or waitress does at a restaurant. The job is fast-paced, so if those people are looking for the next step in their career, and they come into your manufacturing company, and it's all equipment from the 70s, and there isn't a robot or automation to be found, you're going to be like I can't do this.

       What are some of the things you're seeing with technology and how it's impacting the strategy? Not only for attracting employees, but retaining the ones that you have?

       Will Healy III: The biggest thing is your technology strategy is impacting your HR strategy. That's the heart of the question to me. If you want to hire and retain and attract the best workers, you have to be investing in your company. You have to show them that you care about the company and that you're investing in technology.

       How are you investing in the workers? How are you investing in technology to make the workers' lives better? How are you making a lot of workers' life safer? How are you making the workers' lives easier to do the jobs? How are you having them do more - using their brains instead of their brawn. 

       I like to talk about discovering your technology strategy and how it is positively or negatively impacting the HR strategy. For example, some ideas are faster onboarding. For example, if you have a position that's churning all the time, why is it churning? It's not because you have bad workers. If you have a good job, they're gonna want that job. So if you're having a lot of churn, you may have bad training. We need to work on the training. Do we have a bad process? When you work on the process, it helps us invest in and make that job better. Let's make it less dull, less dirty, less dangerous. Let's make it a job that will work or wants to do so. We have a place where we have a lot of churn. We have to look at ourselves, not at the workers. We're fine, but we're not finding the right workers.

       Do you have the right job is a question we have to look at. Do we have the right technology to support the job? If it's training, I've seen some awesome things like augmented reality. I know that sounds crazy, but real people are implementing this real right now. I've seen some great applications of glasses, where the work instructions are projected right at the person's eye so they can see a video of the steps while they're working. I was at a trade show where I put on one of these glasses and put together an assembly I'd never done before with 20 seconds of training on how the headset works. After that, I was able to do an assembly.

       Other companies use projection so they can predict what happens on the workbench. For example, they show videos on where the parts go and how the parts assemble. While you're working, they're turning on and off the cameras and ensuring you're doing all the proper steps. Someone can walk into the work cell and do the task even if they've never done it before. There are onboarding technologies where automation is guiding the technology and making it easier to onboard people. It adds flexibility. If suddenly, you need to create a new product and you're going to go and spend weeks training the operator on changing all the fixtures, and you have a new program for it or a new display for the headset, the operator can do the new assembly. So it gives you more flexibility when you involve technology in the processes.

       Lisa Ryan: You're also coming in from a gamification standpoint. You have so many kids coming in who are playing video games, and they're used to having that for entertainment purposes. So if you could bring that level of entertainment to show them how to do their job and that's implemented, number one will make training them a lot easier because they're used to playing their video games. But it's also a super cool way to learn something new that will make them money and give them a career.

       Will Healy III: Whenever we can invest in technology to make it more engaging for the worker, we're using our brains, making it more interesting and less repetitive. Those are good opportunities. How do we make the work easier for people? I've seen exoskeletons - that sounds crazy and like science fiction - but I'm not talking about Avatar battling robots. I'm talking about assisted lifting. If someone's job is lifting stuff all day, every day, or their job is to use a drill above their head every day. There are exoskeletons that they can wear so that it isn't holding up the way to their arms all day the arm. The tool is holding their arms, so they're able to do the job better. 

       You have better outcomes. You don't have as many workman's comp claims that come from repetitive injuries. There are so many different technology options to make the work-life of that worker better. Think about if you're lifting all day you get home. You're going to be cranky and tired. Your family's going to get tired of you yelling at them, and you're not going to want to do anything at home or exercise or anything. But if you've got technology assisting you with your work, your work is better, and your home life is better because you're way less exhausted at the end of the day. Investments like that are what attract people. This is how technology choices impact our HR strategy, our hiring, retention, and attraction.

       Lisa Ryan: Looking at it from a cost standpoint. I'm sure that people who are listening to this podcast are thinking, "exoskeletons, do you know how crazy expensive those things are?" Number one, they're probably not nearly as expensive as you think. But number two, if you look at the cost of one worker's comp claim, look at the expense of turnover of that one employee because he's not happy at work, then he goes home, and he's miserable at home. So we look at that employee holistically - not only the person who shows up at the plant every day, but who that person is for the rest of their life. So you can make that a little bit easier for employees to know that, hey, this is an employer that cares about me and is investing in me to make my life my job a little bit easier. Then you're going to retain them.

       The other thing that we talked about before the show is getting extended career life out of our baby boomers. We know that the silver tsunami is happening - it was happening before the pandemic, and now you just had 19 months of people at home playing with their grandkids, and they're thinking, I don't want to work anymore. So what are some of the ways that you can use automation as a retention tool?

       Will Healy III: Definitely. We think about boomers. Most of the boomers I know still want to work. They don't want to retire, maybe there are some, but they're tired. Or they want to quit because there are a lot of physical demands in the job they have. When we look at the physical demands, how can we use automation to eliminate the physical demands but keep the mental parts. They have so much knowledge. These are people, maybe who have been at their company for 25 years. How do we keep that tribal knowledge in our company for a few more years?

       How can we get rid of the negative parts of the job, like the physical demands that they can't do anymore? Things like collaborative robots - or cobots. One of the most extensive applications for cobots is machine tending. That means the loading and unloading of the machine. Someone still has to put that in that CNC machine. What is the program or what is the project we're working on? Someone still has to put that in there. But the robot does the loading and unloading - the terrible part, the heavy part, the dirty part of the job.

       We're solving not only our skills gap problem, but I also can't find any machinists. You keep that machine guy around, but instead of him just running one machine, they can be running three or four or five machines. The robots are doing the tending, and they're just doing the setup and the changeover.

       They're more valuable to you because now not they're not just making one part. They're making five parts. They're making you more productive. They're making you more money. So you invest in technology, and it makes the work more valuable to you.

       Lisa Ryan: So, when you say cobots or collaborative robots, please explain what you mean by that if somebody listening has never heard of a cobot.

       Will Healy III: A collaborative robot is a little bit different. This is a six-axis robot - the one that looks like a big arm is what I'm talking about. It looks like an arm mounted on a pedestal. The reason it's called a six-axis because there are six degrees of motion, but that doesn't matter. It looks like a big arm. Typically, a traditional robot has to be inside a cage because it's hazardous, strong, and fast-moving. Recent developments have allowed what's called collaborative robots. They operate a little bit differently. They usually have less payload. They move slower, but they allow humans to work very closely and interactively with them, so there's still safety.

       Lisa Ryan: It allows for much closer robot and human collaboration.

       Will Healy III: This reduces the idle time of the human and the robot's idle time by allowing both of them to work together in this way. So, a cobot is nothing more than a six-axis robot that can work closely with people. It allows people to be more efficient and effective and the robot honestly to be more efficient and effective.

       Lisa Ryan: If somebody was thinking about adding automation, maybe they have an older plant, and they're starting to think about adding that, or they have some automation they wanted to take to the next step, what is a good place to start? How should you determine what kind of automation you're bringing into your facility?

       Will Healy III: If you have older equipment and no automation, you probably should go and rent a bulldozer and bulldoze the whole factory. No, that's not realistic. It would be great to buy all brand new automated IoT smart factories. Let me think of twelve more buzzwords. It'd be great to buy all those, but it would be great, but that's not realistic for the vast majority of small to mid-sized manufacturers. That's not a realistic expectation. It's not a realistic expectation for large manufacturers either. What we can do is solve problems. To spend money, we need to know where the issues are so what are causing us the most significant pains. Is it machine downtime? Many people have machine utilization under 25%, which means your machine is not running 75% of the time. Right or wrong, that's just the state of the way it is. So, machine uptime is a lot of times the biggest problem that I encounter. When people are trying to automate, they want to know things like how we get more uptime; how do we get more productivity.

       It depends on the goals. What are your roadblocks? Where are your blockages? I see machine uptime putting automation around it. Either automation or monitoring of the machine to better understand the machine's condition and prevent unplanned downtime. Do maintenance during lunch breaks if you can. If you can say, hey, something's vibrating too much, let's take a look at it while the machines are on a break. Or we can look at automation. We have a lot of quality defects. Let's add some automated checkpoints so the operators are manually putting things together. Let's use automation to validate that they do it properly, so we're not sending out bad quality products. 

       Are we trying to see more into our...]]>6946c749-9b23-48d8-9e2c-2cae534803b6Mon, 01 Nov 2021 07:05:00 -040027:54falsefull152521The Need for Speed in Steel Manufacturing with Charlie CarterConnect 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 the technical information feeds the purpose of the trade association, and we do both in parallel.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and it makes the industry stronger when you have it on both sides. People have access to technical information, but then they can also network with each other and see what's going on in the market. And make friends with people who they would have considered their competitors. So this makes the referral basis stronger and makes the industry as a whole stronger.

       Charlie Carter: that's exactly right, and what you have in these committees, you have a mixed group of people that designed and people that construct they have some educators, you have some researchers, you have some code officials. You have a lot of different perspectives in the room, and the more they talk to each other, the better the results that we get. They tend to know each other, and they're going to work on that building or bridge together in the design and construction process. So the benefit is to them in some respects, as well.

       Lisa Ryan: We think about steel in the United States like way back when we were all about steel, and we were this massive producer. We have this idea that the steel is not made here. It's going everywhere else. You and I had a conversation that we do a lot of steel here. Tell us how that's changed the industry, and what impact steel has had on the United States economy.

       Charlie Carter: That's an excellent point. People hear about steel in the news today, and it's pretty common for people to think that steel is made elsewhere. However, in buildings and bridges, that's not the case. The vast majority of steel you see going up on a building or to make a bridge is produced here in the United States. If you go back 40 years, you had companies like Bethlehem steel located in Pittsburgh, Bethlehem, and Gary, Indiana, and places like that - high population centers because there were many people employed in the processes of mills. They also were fairly dirty because they were doing basic oxygen production techniques, which involved down raw materials and a lot of stuff coming out of smokestacks.

       About 40 years ago, a transition started that mainly was an economic change was then called mini-mill. They were smaller than those big integrated Mills that I named before. They were led primarily by Nucor and other companies today. Companies like Steel Dynamics aren't located in population centers. They use production techniques based on recycling scrap steel and melting it using electric car processes. A carbon rod is pushed into the recycled steel, and a ladle and the electricity run through it to melt it. That's a very different production technique. It's lower cost, and it's also significantly clean, so not only has the industry reinvented itself many times over, they've reinvented where they're located. The production techniques and the cost structure production are much lower. The carbon footprint is different, so when you mostly hear comments about steel being dirty, we're talking about production techniques still used in other countries. In the US, we lead the world in the cleanness of our production and the sustainability of construction using steel made in the US.

       It's a great story, and I wish more people knew how much steel is produced here and how green it is based on how we produce it here.

       Lisa Ryan: I'm sure that that will surprise people because we don't necessarily think about sustainability and a green industry when you're talking about steel. What are some of the things when we talk about attracting people to the steel industry is because we talked about the fact that they're locating it where energy is inexpensive because so many of the processes are automated. If somebody is considering a career and looking at steel, what are some of the career opportunities? Why would they want to join the steel industry?

       Charlie Carter: Everybody's looking for people these days. We hear that on the news. It doesn't matter what industry you're in, every store you pass on your way to work is looking for somebody to work with, and the steel industry is no different.

       The great thing about jobs in the steel industry is they're great jobs. This is an industry that builds things. When you drive to work, you pass all these things, and you point to, and you tell your kids, "I built that." It's an industry that makes things and builds things, and that's what this country has been all about - the making and the building of things. That is what has driven us as a society and as a country.

       When I look at how all those changes that I described the production have happened, the shift from population centers to low energy cost centers in the United States, the mill today. If you had gone into one of those old integrated mills, you would see people everywhere - and shoulder to shoulder in some cases, doing the processes. It was very labor-intensive. Today, if you were in a mill and you had to talk to someone, you probably have to walk to find them.

       Suppose people are running equipment that's highly automated and computerized. In that case, mechanized and people drive the production techniques at a higher skill level. It's the same thing in our warehouses - the Home Depot's of steel are called service centers. The mill sells to service centers, and they warehouse products until somebody needs them. Then, they'll buy it if there's enough. After that, they'll buy it from a mill direct.

       But more often today, probably 70% of the steel bought and sold in the US goes through service Center. That makes...]]>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 the technical information feeds the purpose of the trade association, and we do both in parallel.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and it makes the industry stronger when you have it on both sides. People have access to technical information, but then they can also network with each other and see what's going on in the market. And make friends with people who they would have considered their competitors. So this makes the referral basis stronger and makes the industry as a whole stronger.

       Charlie Carter: that's exactly right, and what you have in these committees, you have a mixed group of people that designed and people that construct they have some educators, you have some researchers, you have some code officials. You have a lot of different perspectives in the room, and the more they talk to each other, the better the results that we get. They tend to know each other, and they're going to work on that building or bridge together in the design and construction process. So the benefit is to them in some respects, as well.

       Lisa Ryan: We think about steel in the United States like way back when we were all about steel, and we were this massive producer. We have this idea that the steel is not made here. It's going everywhere else. You and I had a conversation that we do a lot of steel here. Tell us how that's changed the industry, and what impact steel has had on the United States economy.

       Charlie Carter: That's an excellent point. People hear about steel in the news today, and it's pretty common for people to think that steel is made elsewhere. However, in buildings and bridges, that's not the case. The vast majority of steel you see going up on a building or to make a bridge is produced here in the United States. If you go back 40 years, you had companies like Bethlehem steel located in Pittsburgh, Bethlehem, and Gary, Indiana, and places like that - high population centers because there were many people employed in the processes of mills. They also were fairly dirty because they were doing basic oxygen production techniques, which involved down raw materials and a lot of stuff coming out of smokestacks.

       About 40 years ago, a transition started that mainly was an economic change was then called mini-mill. They were smaller than those big integrated Mills that I named before. They were led primarily by Nucor and other companies today. Companies like Steel Dynamics aren't located in population centers. They use production techniques based on recycling scrap steel and melting it using electric car processes. A carbon rod is pushed into the recycled steel, and a ladle and the electricity run through it to melt it. That's a very different production technique. It's lower cost, and it's also significantly clean, so not only has the industry reinvented itself many times over, they've reinvented where they're located. The production techniques and the cost structure production are much lower. The carbon footprint is different, so when you mostly hear comments about steel being dirty, we're talking about production techniques still used in other countries. In the US, we lead the world in the cleanness of our production and the sustainability of construction using steel made in the US.

       It's a great story, and I wish more people knew how much steel is produced here and how green it is based on how we produce it here.

       Lisa Ryan: I'm sure that that will surprise people because we don't necessarily think about sustainability and a green industry when you're talking about steel. What are some of the things when we talk about attracting people to the steel industry is because we talked about the fact that they're locating it where energy is inexpensive because so many of the processes are automated. If somebody is considering a career and looking at steel, what are some of the career opportunities? Why would they want to join the steel industry?

       Charlie Carter: Everybody's looking for people these days. We hear that on the news. It doesn't matter what industry you're in, every store you pass on your way to work is looking for somebody to work with, and the steel industry is no different.

       The great thing about jobs in the steel industry is they're great jobs. This is an industry that builds things. When you drive to work, you pass all these things, and you point to, and you tell your kids, "I built that." It's an industry that makes things and builds things, and that's what this country has been all about - the making and the building of things. That is what has driven us as a society and as a country.

       When I look at how all those changes that I described the production have happened, the shift from population centers to low energy cost centers in the United States, the mill today. If you had gone into one of those old integrated mills, you would see people everywhere - and shoulder to shoulder in some cases, doing the processes. It was very labor-intensive. Today, if you were in a mill and you had to talk to someone, you probably have to walk to find them.

       Suppose people are running equipment that's highly automated and computerized. In that case, mechanized and people drive the production techniques at a higher skill level. It's the same thing in our warehouses - the Home Depot's of steel are called service centers. The mill sells to service centers, and they warehouse products until somebody needs them. Then, they'll buy it if there's enough. After that, they'll buy it from a mill direct.

       But more often today, probably 70% of the steel bought and sold in the US goes through service Center. That makes for a lot of efficiencies. You're not warehousing a lot of steel in your yard and needed someone else's doing that well. Those are also excellent jobs. We're in a trade with a product with a very high value and a very high impact. And the people that are buying, that the fabricators there the bulk of AISC members, we have about 1000 fabricators in the US, who are members of AISC. They're the ones that cut those shapes the length and put the holes in them where they're supposed to go so that the parts that come together and get bolted together. The holes are in the right place, or welding components get attached in the shop or the field.

       All of the jobs in a steel fabrication shop are kinds of jobs where you learn a skill, enter that workforce, and grow in your skill. You're able to grow a career at having that skill welding or any of the jobs in a fabrication shop have the potential to progress. We also see a lot of automation and fabrication shops, including today's robotics making a huge difference where a lot of parts can now be automated entirely for how they would be fabricated makes a difference there. That way, the fabricator can make more tonnage on a given day. Thanks to automation, they can say that they can play the same number of people and produce more tons of steel. Robotics is only adding a home flavor to that. That's very exciting to see is what keeps the industry vibrant and keeps those jobs rolling, and keeps them as attractive for a place to work.

       Lisa Ryan: So it's not only from a technology standpoint that you get to deal with robots and automation. You also get the immediate gratification of seeing the building and the bridges you helped construct. From a more significant mission standpoint, we were talking before the show about the percentage of recycled steel, so you're making a difference in that you're making something that you're able to use repeatedly.

       Talk about that a little bit - more on that sustainability and the recycling part of it.

       Charlie Carter: That's a huge benefit of steel. It's something that developed quite organically, for a pardon the pun, but this is not something that nobody talked about. Sustainability, in the terms that we're talking about it today, 40 years ago. Those mini-mills are now the largest producers in the country.

       They started with the idea that there's a better, faster, more efficient, and less costly way to make steel. That drove the recycling of steel scraps deal in the US. We recycle a lot, right. Everybody puts their recycling out, and it gets picked up, and the steel components of that get separated and probably find their way to some reuse 98% of steel across the board. 98% of what's made of steel in the US is your car, dishwasher, refrigerator, cans, old beams from buildings, and railroad car wheels. Think about everything that magnets stick to, and 98% of that finds its way back as recycled steel at the end of its life.

       About 2% is lost somewhere in the process; it doesn't get separated, or there's corrosion that happens, and all these things add up to about 2% loss but 98% recoveries.

       Lisa Ryan: I had no idea it was that high.

       Charlie Carter: Seeing those beams that get rolled today or 93% recycled. Stuff winds up at a mill in the yard, where they pick it upcharge the ladle, bring it in the shop, and melt it down. It's just as good and then many times better because of the mix that they put together. You get better chemistry and more refined steel due to everything that comes along with that recycling process.

       Lisa Ryan: Right now, technology keeps making it better and better too.

       Charlie Carter: Interestingly, it was all driven by economics. This was a faster and less costly way to make it, but it also turns out that it's earth-friendly. Thirty years later, we go, wow, that this was good. In the US, we enjoy a status. The rest of the world is catching on to their recycling now. One advantage we have is our power grid. What drives the carbon footprint of steel since the steel is recycled. That's the energy you're putting in, and the US power grid is also one of the best in the nation for execution - the best in the world for sourcing that power.

       If you look at other countries, they're primarily generating electricity where they're using it in steel production with coal plants. That's the opposite. For example, in the US and China, the carbon footprint of US production is one-third or say it the other way. Chinese production is three times the carbon footprint of what we produce in the US.

       Lisa Ryan: What are some of the things that you're seeing your members doing that are going well, that they're doing well, that are making a difference in the industry and their work environments?

       Charlie Carter: The marketplace right now is pretty hot. It's incredible to me how things evolve them the marketplace will slow down. You went through that period after 2008, and again just a few years ago, and the market heats up, and you can't make steel fast enough. That's the period of the market that we're in right now. It's being driven by many factors - warehouse construction, distribution centers, the Amazon economy is creating a lot of construction and a very high steel demand. It's a really good time to be in a position to make that steel and make the components from that steel and sell those in the marketplace. That drives a lot of innovation. We're always looking for ways to advance how we design and construct.

       One of the things we're working on today is seeing right now is called the need for speed. That's a little play on the old Tom Cruise movie. I feel the need for speed. We realized that we could work all day to make everything cheaper and just cut class, but anyone can do that. What you really could do to serve the construction industry and the needs of owners and developers and anyone who would pick steel make it easier and faster. To pick steel easier for them to design and systems that would make projects go faster at the end of you can cut time out of a construction project.

       When people are paying interest on loans, if the project opens sooner, they get rents faster. One good example of this is Magnus Associates in Seattle, that a project folder in your square tower where they were collaborating with us. One of those innovative ideas that need for speed projects well speedcore. This was a new way to do the Center of a building which is more traditional methods would have been a concrete core with steel framing around it. They said we think we could go four months faster in construction if we did the whole building at a steel rate. So they innovated this idea called speedcore. When they tried it, first project, first practical use of the technology - they saved eight months in the construction.

       The owner or the general contractor on that project estimated was about a $20 million savings versus what it would have been in the old system. So this interest in this opportunity to use steel and the market driving it right now allows us to look at things like that. It's super exciting to deliver something practical and meaningful. We played a small role in that AISC, everybody could come together, and now we're looking at other projects using that same approach.

       The second project is going up whether there's a third, fourth, fifth that is soon to be. We hope that's something that we see going to revolutionizes the whole marketplace throughout the country, but we'll see where it goes.

       Lisa Ryan: If you were to think about the best tip that you've seen either coming through AISC or technology workplace, what would that be to share with our listening audience today?

       Charlie Carter: The most important thing that I have observed in my 30 years is the power of the group that comes together. Everything we do, I mentioned earlier, is by committee. We have 300-some volunteers. They're the people who have built the tallest buildings globally and the longest bridges in the world - either by designing them or constructing them. They're all sitting there, and they're all talking to each other in these meetings. They're the most accomplished people I could find.

       They sit there and say, well, I didn't think that that's a good point, and nobody knows everything. Then, the right group comes together, and they create information that's useful to them and useful to everyone else.

       There is value in that combined knowledge and the quality of smart people talking to each other. That same thing happens on a project when the designers and the constructors speak to each other. Too often, they're driven into adversarial modes, where you have to beat the designer down and get as much out of them as you can. I got to beat the fabricator down and get as much out of them that usually doesn't work out. In the grand scheme of things, if everybody came together and said, how will we work on this together and make this a great project.

       It works for standards. They write the standard, and it becomes an excellent standard that everyone can follow and make building bridges safe for the general public. Efficient, economical design and build and in work on an individual project to advocate for that.

       We love it when we see our member fabricators being involved early in a project pick their brains. Because earlier in a project, you can have the most impact that that tower in Seattle went the way it did because people talked about the process early and said, what can we do here. It will build that in their minds before they ever started designing it. They made the most of it, and it was that collaboration. That, to me, would be the most important thing. There's...]]>56cfb9de-23f0-4158-9649-3814905af289Mon, 25 Oct 2021 07:05:00 -040028:05falsefull151511The Future of Manufacturing with Sunny HanContact 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 strange, but the fact of the matter is that manufacturing is not a commodities thing.

       Operating a laser cutter takes skill and knowledge, and programming takes skill and expertise to understand what different gauges of metal and how they react and different EDM Ratings on rubber, how it melts, and how it extremes through an aperture, and things like that. I think there's a lot of craft that goes into it. I think what we see right now from the newer generation is that there is a little bit more of a risk aversion, but there's a lot more of a desire to know something that's deeper know something that is a craft.

       So I'm very, very bullish on a return of a younger generation into manufacturing that's going to happen very soon, in my opinion. But that's also going to be human-focused. A lot of times, people ask me about the future of manufacturing. It has to be automated. It has been primarily machine-driven. I think that's the case. I believe that we're moving into a future where there will be more and more machines doing things that otherwise humans would do out of necessity because of the Labor force.

       Still, I don't think that transition will happen over two years; I think it's going to take 30 years to transition. In the interim, we're going to need a group of wonderful humans that can both programming the machines to create them. Still, we ultimately do the work that humans are meant to do, which is creative communication. You know roles and responsibilities that are far more about what humans want than just the execution of making a component or apart. Hence, a long-winded answer, but hopefully, That gives you some context of where my head's at on that subject.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and it's something that I think many manufacturers have been doing for a long time; it's like they're in the "we've always done it this way, there's no need to fix things that aren't broken" mode. They're afraid of technology because they think that technology and automation are going to replace jobs And. In some cases, it will, but if we could replace the grunt work if we could replace that, like you said, the noncreative. Just the things on the line and have a machine do that and then allow the humans to be creative and work with the technology.

       I know I was just at the FAB tech show and walking around. I love watching robotics. I love watching technology because it's fascinating, so if I'm fascinated by it. Imagine somebody walking into a manufacturing plant and seeing the robot seeing the automation. It becomes a recruiting tool like, hey, I want to work there. This is the coolest thing ever.

       Sunny Han: Sure. A big draw is about to happen because the software will get a lot better and easier to use. It's going to be a lot fewer clipboards and pencil and paper and whiteboards. It's going to be a lot less manually moving things around. It's going to be a lot more robotic automation augmenting you as a human. Technology and software automation is going to augment you in your brain as a human as well. We're moving towards a future in construction and manufacturing specifically. People who work as operators will start to feel superhuman because of all these tools and automation around them. I think that will be exciting and not just a recruiting tool, but just kind of as a change in the paradigm about how people think about manufacturing in general.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, I mean back in the days when I was selling into manufacturing, it was everything your mother ever warn warns you about. Dark, dirty, and dangerous, and now again, you have the fun technology and, I think, one of the most significant gifts of code. What came out of this whole thing was how it's sped up technology, because where people were afraid to use it before they realized that number one, they had to use it. It's so much easier. There's so much technology that is just intuitive that it's not nearly as scary as it used to be, so I think that we've had in these last 19 months or so more of this transition that we would have never had had it not be for this pandemic.

       Sunny Han: Yeah, I think everybody is on zoom. We're on zoom right now, and I think it's just a lot less scary for most people. People are consuming media online. They're doing a lot of things online. They're storing items online and subscribing to different services that shift was already happening and accelerated almost to completion. So just in the last year and a half, many of our customers or prospects would be maybe a little queasy about having their software beyond the cloud. We don't have anybody care about that, so I think that's some a component inside there, but I also think that, too.

       Thinking about how things work and how you work as a human being has also changed. It's not just with remote work, but what is gratifying about work has changed as well. So all of those things are leaving us in a market with an open mind and as an excellent opportunity to steer the market in the right way. To make the ecosystem go in a way that's positively reinforcing instead of more insular and to touch back on one of the points you just made implementing European systems; implementing machines, pallet systems, warehouse systems. These are harrowing experiences for many manufacturers 10, 20, 30 years ago, so it makes sense that they're hesitant to do it again. Still, I think they'll start to discover that it's just a very different process now that we've advanced quite a bit as an entire industry.

       Lisa Ryan: Now, if you were to bring out your crystal ball, what are you, seeing as far as US manufacturing in the future.

       Sunny...]]>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 strange, but the fact of the matter is that manufacturing is not a commodities thing.

       Operating a laser cutter takes skill and knowledge, and programming takes skill and expertise to understand what different gauges of metal and how they react and different EDM Ratings on rubber, how it melts, and how it extremes through an aperture, and things like that. I think there's a lot of craft that goes into it. I think what we see right now from the newer generation is that there is a little bit more of a risk aversion, but there's a lot more of a desire to know something that's deeper know something that is a craft.

       So I'm very, very bullish on a return of a younger generation into manufacturing that's going to happen very soon, in my opinion. But that's also going to be human-focused. A lot of times, people ask me about the future of manufacturing. It has to be automated. It has been primarily machine-driven. I think that's the case. I believe that we're moving into a future where there will be more and more machines doing things that otherwise humans would do out of necessity because of the Labor force.

       Still, I don't think that transition will happen over two years; I think it's going to take 30 years to transition. In the interim, we're going to need a group of wonderful humans that can both programming the machines to create them. Still, we ultimately do the work that humans are meant to do, which is creative communication. You know roles and responsibilities that are far more about what humans want than just the execution of making a component or apart. Hence, a long-winded answer, but hopefully, That gives you some context of where my head's at on that subject.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and it's something that I think many manufacturers have been doing for a long time; it's like they're in the "we've always done it this way, there's no need to fix things that aren't broken" mode. They're afraid of technology because they think that technology and automation are going to replace jobs And. In some cases, it will, but if we could replace the grunt work if we could replace that, like you said, the noncreative. Just the things on the line and have a machine do that and then allow the humans to be creative and work with the technology.

       I know I was just at the FAB tech show and walking around. I love watching robotics. I love watching technology because it's fascinating, so if I'm fascinated by it. Imagine somebody walking into a manufacturing plant and seeing the robot seeing the automation. It becomes a recruiting tool like, hey, I want to work there. This is the coolest thing ever.

       Sunny Han: Sure. A big draw is about to happen because the software will get a lot better and easier to use. It's going to be a lot fewer clipboards and pencil and paper and whiteboards. It's going to be a lot less manually moving things around. It's going to be a lot more robotic automation augmenting you as a human. Technology and software automation is going to augment you in your brain as a human as well. We're moving towards a future in construction and manufacturing specifically. People who work as operators will start to feel superhuman because of all these tools and automation around them. I think that will be exciting and not just a recruiting tool, but just kind of as a change in the paradigm about how people think about manufacturing in general.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, I mean back in the days when I was selling into manufacturing, it was everything your mother ever warn warns you about. Dark, dirty, and dangerous, and now again, you have the fun technology and, I think, one of the most significant gifts of code. What came out of this whole thing was how it's sped up technology, because where people were afraid to use it before they realized that number one, they had to use it. It's so much easier. There's so much technology that is just intuitive that it's not nearly as scary as it used to be, so I think that we've had in these last 19 months or so more of this transition that we would have never had had it not be for this pandemic.

       Sunny Han: Yeah, I think everybody is on zoom. We're on zoom right now, and I think it's just a lot less scary for most people. People are consuming media online. They're doing a lot of things online. They're storing items online and subscribing to different services that shift was already happening and accelerated almost to completion. So just in the last year and a half, many of our customers or prospects would be maybe a little queasy about having their software beyond the cloud. We don't have anybody care about that, so I think that's some a component inside there, but I also think that, too.

       Thinking about how things work and how you work as a human being has also changed. It's not just with remote work, but what is gratifying about work has changed as well. So all of those things are leaving us in a market with an open mind and as an excellent opportunity to steer the market in the right way. To make the ecosystem go in a way that's positively reinforcing instead of more insular and to touch back on one of the points you just made implementing European systems; implementing machines, pallet systems, warehouse systems. These are harrowing experiences for many manufacturers 10, 20, 30 years ago, so it makes sense that they're hesitant to do it again. Still, I think they'll start to discover that it's just a very different process now that we've advanced quite a bit as an entire industry.

       Lisa Ryan: Now, if you were to bring out your crystal ball, what are you, seeing as far as US manufacturing in the future.

       Sunny Han: I see things that are coming back. I see automotive manufacturers missing a bolt or a break press piece of sheet metal that otherwise was made in bulk overseas that's coming back and being done here locally. I see many companies struggling to meet the demand of quickly quoting things to get something out the door. I see orders increasing in popularity and releases being more dynamic.  I see order quantity is going lower, and I see relationships getting a little bit deeper. 

       I believe that a lot of things that we did to gain efficiencies 10, 15, 20 years ago by outsourcing to Asia or other places in the world, some of that will start getting done. There are concerns about climate change,  supply chain, flexibility, and agility. I think the cat's out of the bag - we rode that rocket of growth based on ordering large volumes from overseas, taking advantage of economic disparity. That economic disparity is shrinking. The ability to say that the future is not going to be volatile is going away, and I think we're going to see a larger than expected amount of reshoring work very soon. I believe the intelligent smart manufacturing business owners and business leaders are pre-planning and preparing as much as possible. They are making sure that they're ready to take advantage of it as it happens.

       Lisa Ryan: So, and along those lines, you know what is some of the advice that you would have, as these manufacturers are planning the can help them to win business going forward.

       Sunny Han: I think speed is essential. I think, in the past, where you might have been able to go back and forth for two or three months and try to establish a relationship, most people are trying to get an answer quickly. I think this concept of building a relationship first before vetting out whether the connections will happen that's flipped a bit where a buyer from a large manufacturing company is not going to be as tolerant of having a long relationship before buying from you. They're going to want to know your quality, what your pricing is like, and how you operate? Where are you geographically? And What's your capacity? much sooner because they're now starting to talk to more vendors. They want more stability. That is a change that the market needs to react to by getting answers faster, potentially taking a little more risk.  Manufacturers need to understand that price is no longer the primary factor in different fields.

       It's the ability to react quickly, to have excess capacity, to build a little more. I think these larger manufacturers realize that the component vendors they're buying from are tier-two, tier-three, tier ones, so we work with these suppliers a lot. They need them to increase their supply by 30% or decrease it by 10%. That relationship is worth a lot of money because they understand what it means to have a bunch of AC units sitting out in their warehouse, not able to be shipped out because it's missing a rubber gasket. Or they have a bunch of RVs sitting out that can't be bought because it's missing a particular bolt. I think that was just not included in these large spreadsheets of these people make decisions with before. Now that it's made into the model, you can deliver more value by being flexible fast.

       Lisa Ryan: And it sounds like a lot of communication goes along with building those relationships to set yourself apart from just being the cheapest manufacturer on the market. What are some of the things you've seen from the companies you work with as far as you know how they're communicating? How often they're communicating, you understand how they are building those relationships for the long term.

       Sunny Han: I think a lot of it is still up in the air. It's still being developed right now. I think it's just a new dance that everybody's playing. I wouldn't say that there's any magical recipe, I think, just being open-minded. There's a certain amount of intuition that we all have that's based on experiences, right. That's where our intuition comes from.

       We're learning that the future is very different than the past. We're taking a few risks in a very strategic way. That's probably the best way for you to learn a new dance with a new dance partner. You otherwise would have immediately said no to smaller production runs; maybe try it out see if you can make it happen. With the people you have, some complexity will arise from that, and there's a cost to that complexity. But the increased margins and the increased revenue you might get from these activities could more than offset that complexity and that cost and that burden. I think being more open-minded and willing to stomach a little bit more volatility in the short term is probably the best advice in terms of how to make sure that you're going to benefit and reap some benefit from this volatility.

       Lisa Ryan: Looking long-term instead of the short-term pain you may be going through to get there. So, as we think about the changes again with the generations - millennials and Gen Z starting to come into the workplace and attracting them into manufacturing, we were looking at succession planning. Unfortunately, there are not many owners there with sons and daughters who are in line to take it over. So, hence, as people start the process, maybe they're not thinking about selling their business tomorrow, but at some point, it would be nice to retire and have that next person have those following people ready to take over the ship.

       So, when we're looking at introducing these new generations into the workforce and that kind of succession planning to prepare your business either for succession or for sale, what are some of the things that you see that work along those lines.

       Sunny Han: I think that the market out there is active a piece of context. A lot of manufacturers might be missing that because the stock markets are doing so well. Because there's so much liquidity and capital out there, private equity companies are traditionally buying manufacturers as their bread and butter acquisition targets. They have a lot more money, and they have a lot more pressure to deploy that money and to buy businesses. That isn't to say that every business has value is going to go up, but it does mean that the availability of buyers is high and there's probably a lot of folks that are being inundated with emails from companies that are looking to buy them. Some of them with names that they can't recognize whatsoever. There is a need to vet them out and make sure that they're legitimate and confident that they will do the things you want to do with the business long term.

       If your employees are essential to you, make sure that you're able to carve a deal out that will serve you correctly. Most people miss that you feel that you are getting rid of the business on the worst day of your business life. Selling it will be easy, and just finding someone to provide you with enough money for it is the only thing that's difficult. But the moment it comes to walk away and the business is still functioning, the machines are still working, the people are still busy doing things, and the customers are still getting product ships. Removing yourself and your ego from a business is incredibly difficult, so the company is where the owner has already done that, and step back. The business is self-sufficient and has management in place.

       They have the tools in place. They have the processes in place. Those companies are significantly more attractive to outside investors.  If I were to advise a family member who owned a manufacturing facility, I would tell them that you have to be honest with yourself, you might not be the person who wants to sell, and that's okay. But trying to be both, I think, is where the danger comes in.

       Lisa Ryan: So if you're doing that assessment, and you know that you're probably too tied into your business and not as able to walk away, what are some of the baby steps to kind of put those processes in place to gradually start that process of moving out to make your business more sellable or marketable. If so, if you have an owner of a company, after they do their self-assessment, they realize that they are two tied into the business.

       What are some baby steps they can take to start that process to make their business more marketable and hand it off to that next donor when the time has come?

       Sunny Han: Yeah, I think a lot of times for business owners, the truth about their business rests in their brain and their brain only. There's a process called due diligence where anybody who's going to buy you will try to know the truth about your business. It's not like they're trying to poke holes in your story; it's not adversarial. It can feel adversarial for sure, but just like if you're going to buy a car, you're going to want to go check it out, take it for a test drive, things like that. The easier you can make that process, the more that the truth about the business is written down on paper is what you want. It isn't things that can easily be reproduced and also verified the better.

       I think a clean shop is a much more intangible aspect of things as possible. Most of these investors will not come in and operate the business and make sure that there's a good working environment that people would want to work in. It makes recruiting other folks to come work at your company and has a calm demeanor about everything. 

       That has a substantial intangible value because it tells the investor that acquiring this company is going to be just fine without either the owner or without me having to step in. Now some smaller private equity companies are called search funds, where they put an operator into the business to manage it and run it....]]>49cc9579-706b-4284-aef7-3ed3b60a5f29Mon, 18 Oct 2021 07:05:00 -040026:50falsefull150501The Business of Relationships - Trade Associations, Customers, and Culture with Todd MillerLisa 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 organization, and then also the Metal Roofing Alliance, which is a market development association. I've loved that ability to work with my competitors and work for the betterment of the industry. We've had an ideal industry for doing that because, as a part of the market share of the overall roofing industry was pretty small. I mean, 15 years ago it was around 2%. We've grown it to 15%. That's only happened because the various players didn't see each other as competitors. But, of course, all the different types there's the competition, so our goal was to grow this for all of us, and it's interesting, we're still doing that. We still get along well. Our annual trade show is coming up next week for our industry, and I'm looking forward to it because we didn't have it last year. It's been a while since I've seen all my colleagues, so I'm looking forward to next week in Tampa.

       Lisa Ryan: I'm so glad that you shared that with the trade association that you're a member of because, as many of these that I speak to, people think that they're going to give away all their trade secrets, or they don't want to hobnob with their competitors. That is the wrong assumption because when you're going to your trade association, you're making friends and building relationships. You're meeting the families and all of that, which keeps you in the industry and builds a referral source.

       If another contractor can't handle a job, they're much more likely to refer it to somebody that they know, like, and trust versus some schmo down the street that they don't know at all.

       It sounds like you are pretty active with both of those associations. So that says a lot about you, but it's also showing the growth in the industry from 2% to 15% just because of the efforts you've put behind it.

       Todd Miller: It has been good, too, because as I've gotten to know our competitors, there have been a lot of opportunities, where I'm like, I need this a piece of equipment, and I don't have it, but they do so maybe they can do this work, for me, and vice versa.

       Just a couple of weeks ago, we did some embossing work for one of our competitors. This has built some solid relationships, and always fun to go out and see how other people approach things in their manufacturing environments.

       That's undoubtedly, one of my greatest pleasures is getting the opportunity to tour other plants. People always say, well, they're gonna steal my ideas, and that doesn't happen. Maybe in some minimal areas but generally speaking, plants grow and they're built holistically. You can't just go someplace else and steal there.

       I did completely redesign my entire planet Florida batch there, which would be silly, but it's still fun to visit and see other operations.

       Lisa Ryan: You're very passionate about your company and your industry, and I believe that that's one of the things that have helped you create the workplace culture you have over there at Isaiah. When it comes from the ownership, that level of commitment, and involvement in the industry, I know that you do lots of things with an average tenure of 17 and a half years on your team. What are some of the things that you feel have enabled you to create that culture? What do you do to keep your employees when they could go down the street and maybe even make more money.

       Todd Miller: Sure, I think a big part of it is early on in business, someone told me never to hire one of my friends. I'm always like, okay, I understand that, but I honestly didn't understand it. So I started hiring friends and people that I knew and referrals. I found out that I ended up hiring people who had similar work ethics, culture, and core values as the rest of our organization, so we only hire off of referrals now.

       I'm not like some of my manufacturing friends here in my local town, who tell me, Todd, if I can hire 40 people tomorrow, I would. I don't have those kinds of needs. I have found that we're able to always hire off of referrals from friends and people currently working here, and we've hired about 12 people in the past year. Some of those were temporary seasonal, but we got them all off of a referral.

       That also goes back to our faith life. One of my daily prayers is, Lord, bring me the people we need when we need them and give me the wisdom to recognize them. We frequently hire people without fully knowing what they're going to do, just because we feel like this is a great cultural fit for our organization.

       In terms of what we get our whole company to strive for, that is customer service. What we find is that when you get some good people together, and they're all committed to meeting customer needs, that's when great things happen. You do meet those needs. Regularly, you're very different from other manufacturers out there. Again, it goes back to our team and their commitment.

       One of the things that I often tell our team here is that, as a product manufacturer that gets resold, I tell them we don't sell anything. It's our customers who ultimately sell it. So our goal has to be to make our customers successful. If they're not successful, we're not successful.

       Lisa Ryan: And I know that you see a lot of social media on your company out there. There's a lot of things that your team does as a team. They're friends outside the office. So please share some of those things that you're seeing that are helping to promote Isaiah as a pretty cool place to work.

       Todd Miller: Sure, we see that, especially on the plant floor. Guys are getting together outside of work—folks helping each other with projects at their homes and that type of stuff. Most of our families]]>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 organization, and then also the Metal Roofing Alliance, which is a market development association. I've loved that ability to work with my competitors and work for the betterment of the industry. We've had an ideal industry for doing that because, as a part of the market share of the overall roofing industry was pretty small. I mean, 15 years ago it was around 2%. We've grown it to 15%. That's only happened because the various players didn't see each other as competitors. But, of course, all the different types there's the competition, so our goal was to grow this for all of us, and it's interesting, we're still doing that. We still get along well. Our annual trade show is coming up next week for our industry, and I'm looking forward to it because we didn't have it last year. It's been a while since I've seen all my colleagues, so I'm looking forward to next week in Tampa.

       Lisa Ryan: I'm so glad that you shared that with the trade association that you're a member of because, as many of these that I speak to, people think that they're going to give away all their trade secrets, or they don't want to hobnob with their competitors. That is the wrong assumption because when you're going to your trade association, you're making friends and building relationships. You're meeting the families and all of that, which keeps you in the industry and builds a referral source.

       If another contractor can't handle a job, they're much more likely to refer it to somebody that they know, like, and trust versus some schmo down the street that they don't know at all.

       It sounds like you are pretty active with both of those associations. So that says a lot about you, but it's also showing the growth in the industry from 2% to 15% just because of the efforts you've put behind it.

       Todd Miller: It has been good, too, because as I've gotten to know our competitors, there have been a lot of opportunities, where I'm like, I need this a piece of equipment, and I don't have it, but they do so maybe they can do this work, for me, and vice versa.

       Just a couple of weeks ago, we did some embossing work for one of our competitors. This has built some solid relationships, and always fun to go out and see how other people approach things in their manufacturing environments.

       That's undoubtedly, one of my greatest pleasures is getting the opportunity to tour other plants. People always say, well, they're gonna steal my ideas, and that doesn't happen. Maybe in some minimal areas but generally speaking, plants grow and they're built holistically. You can't just go someplace else and steal there.

       I did completely redesign my entire planet Florida batch there, which would be silly, but it's still fun to visit and see other operations.

       Lisa Ryan: You're very passionate about your company and your industry, and I believe that that's one of the things that have helped you create the workplace culture you have over there at Isaiah. When it comes from the ownership, that level of commitment, and involvement in the industry, I know that you do lots of things with an average tenure of 17 and a half years on your team. What are some of the things that you feel have enabled you to create that culture? What do you do to keep your employees when they could go down the street and maybe even make more money.

       Todd Miller: Sure, I think a big part of it is early on in business, someone told me never to hire one of my friends. I'm always like, okay, I understand that, but I honestly didn't understand it. So I started hiring friends and people that I knew and referrals. I found out that I ended up hiring people who had similar work ethics, culture, and core values as the rest of our organization, so we only hire off of referrals now.

       I'm not like some of my manufacturing friends here in my local town, who tell me, Todd, if I can hire 40 people tomorrow, I would. I don't have those kinds of needs. I have found that we're able to always hire off of referrals from friends and people currently working here, and we've hired about 12 people in the past year. Some of those were temporary seasonal, but we got them all off of a referral.

       That also goes back to our faith life. One of my daily prayers is, Lord, bring me the people we need when we need them and give me the wisdom to recognize them. We frequently hire people without fully knowing what they're going to do, just because we feel like this is a great cultural fit for our organization.

       In terms of what we get our whole company to strive for, that is customer service. What we find is that when you get some good people together, and they're all committed to meeting customer needs, that's when great things happen. You do meet those needs. Regularly, you're very different from other manufacturers out there. Again, it goes back to our team and their commitment.

       One of the things that I often tell our team here is that, as a product manufacturer that gets resold, I tell them we don't sell anything. It's our customers who ultimately sell it. So our goal has to be to make our customers successful. If they're not successful, we're not successful.

       Lisa Ryan: And I know that you see a lot of social media on your company out there. There's a lot of things that your team does as a team. They're friends outside the office. So please share some of those things that you're seeing that are helping to promote Isaiah as a pretty cool place to work.

       Todd Miller: Sure, we see that, especially on the plant floor. Guys are getting together outside of work—folks helping each other with projects at their homes and that type of stuff. Most of our families are from the same community, so you get a little bit of where their kids may be going to school or playing ball together, that type of thing.

       We did an enjoyable thing this past summer, and I know other companies were doing this, too, but we had food trucks come in. Six times over the summer, they came in to provide lunch for everybody. That was just a really fun time. I'll hear people say I still like that the best. Someone else will say I like that food truck the best. It was just a lot of fun, and it gave people a chance to relax and have something different for lunch.

       Lisa Ryan: Now, when you bring in food trucks, is that something that you supply the truck and people pick out and pay for their own lunch, or are you picking up the tab for lunch for the day?

       Todd Miller: We pick up the tab for it. We enjoyed it a couple of times we found out Oh, we had a customer stop by, and the food truck was here, so we got to buy them lunch. Sometimes a person went beyond just our team, which was a lot of fun, and the food trucks loved it. It was a great way to support some local entrepreneurs. People who are out there working hard to do something unique. We liked that aspect of it too.

       Lisa Ryan: One of the other things that have made Isaiah successful is your focus on customer service. That's one of the things that you excel at. What are some things you're doing to take care of your customers that differentiate you from others in the industry?

       Todd Miller: Sure, a lot of it is the company's entire culture, revolves around that customer. We had a situation recently where we were trying to learn some new things. We had brought on a new product line a couple of years ago. It hadn't taken off like gangbusters, but it had been growing. One of the things I was picking up on was that certain things we're doing with this product line are not necessarily helpful to our customers. I found that folks in operations, who were developing our processes, really weren't aware of exactly who the customer was for that product line. So I spent a lot of time educating them on that customer and what their particular needs were. It was very eye-opening.

       It boiled down to they're accustomed to thinking that okay, we're selling roofing products. It's going to a distributor. It's going to a contractor who knows how to unload products and knows how to deal with them. In this case, this product line is being sold to is sometimes a do-it-yourselfer. Sometimes it's to a very small contractor. But folks who didn't have that level of expertise on how to unload the product, properly transport it, and so forth. Once they got that picture, I saw some great things happening. Then, finally, they were starting to say, well, what if we did this. That would make it easier for them. I'm like, right on, that's exactly what we need to do: make it as easy and as safe for our customers as possible.

       Lisa Ryan: And how did you find out exactly what those customers needed? Was it based on your education of the product? Did you talk to the customers? Did you reach out to the customers? Where did that education start?

       Todd Miller: Sure. That can be a challenge for many manufacturing companies, especially ones that are getting closer to their consumer. It seemed like we went through a period in our country where a lot of manufacturing was you're making OEM products that we're just going to somebody else. They were the assembler, but now this is hurting more and more manufacturers, even, in some cases, selling direct to consumers. What happens there is sometimes you end up with your sales, and your operations folks don't talk enough. So sales are out here, pushing hard and doing these unique things changing industry being disruptors, and yet, the problem is that operations folks aren't aware of what those changes are that are happening.

       That's a key for us - making sure that we bring that closeness in between sales and operations to make sure that everyone's on the same page and operations knows as much as they possibly can about that and customer in the product's end-use.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, so what are some of the things that are still keeping you up at night?

       Todd Miller: I suppose it's like a lot of manufacturers, right now, it is the supply chain issues. That's probably starting to become a broken record amongst most manufacturers. I spent most of this year saying it, listening to my suppliers, and saying it will be better now. My mind, I'm thinking what's going to be magical about 2020. Here we are, fourth-quarter 2022 is almost upon us, and I'm saying least it's not going to start much different than 2021. Some of these challenges will be here long term, one of the things that we're starting to hear more and more. I hear from other manufacturers as well. Now it's coming down to not so much major supply chain disruptions as individual chemicals, individual small components, that now are just throwing a monkey wrench into everything.

       It's boiling down, that narrowly. So that certainly is a concern. The other thing that keeps me awake is the cost of freight and transportation. I see more and more orders, where the freight is more expensive than the product itself. That's troubling, and I'm sure that that has to be happening in other industries as well.

       Lisa Ryan: When you're dealing with the supply chain and dealing with the freight charges, how what are some of the things you're doing to handle that? Is it communication? Is it passing on some of those costs to the customers? How are you getting through this?

       Todd Miller: Well, certainly a lot of them do end up getting passed on. How can you have more efficiencies internally to help offset some of those costs? I know that it's put a huge onus on our traffic management folks, the ones who arranged for shipping and things. Still, we're just plain happy to get more creative in looking for lower freight rates and not necessarily just always believing. Wow, companies have been the best on price in the past. They will be in the future. So instead, we're looking for other options as well.

       What we see more and more often is mainly a manufacturer trying to serve the whole country that those freight costs. I remember the days when I could get a truckload of material from here to California for $2,000, sometimes even a little bit less. Now you're talking $6500 minimum. So it's just a significant change that embeds a lot of cost in our products, so just having to be creative automatically. It may force a lot of manufacturers to look at more regional locations or regional breakpoints.

       A couple of years ago, we put a warehouse facility in Dallas that serves as a distribution facility for us. So I can ship full truckloads there and then use that as a breakpoint, rather than having to ship smaller orders, where the freight adds up to be quite costly.

       Lisa Ryan: And as you think of everything that you're doing at Isaiah for with your culture and with all of that of keeping your employees, for somebody listening today, what would be your number one tip? Something they can start to implement, or at least begin to think about to help them change that culture over time?

       Todd Miller: I sound like a broken record, but it really would be to get your entire organization as close to the customer as you possibly can. We're just living in a culture where it's all about online ratings. It's all about what that customer thinks of you, and what their experience has been, and how they share that experience with others. So that would be the big thing. Don't think that you can be a manufacturer that's off by itself and on an island just crunching pieces of metal or making pieces of plastic or whatever. You've got to get your entire organization close to the customer.

       Lisa Ryan: Wonderful, and from a networking standpoint, what would be one thing that you would like to learn from other industry colleagues about the way that they do their business and what is something that if somebody wanted to connect with you that you'd be willing to share with them?

       Todd Miller: One of the big things right now is learning more about how other companies address this freight and shipping issue. Maybe there are ways in our own area that I don't know that regularly ship half truckloads to Dallas and perhaps another company here and pick what our hometown ships half truckloads to Dallas. Why couldn't we combine those things? That learning more about that would be important to us.

       I'm an open book. I love to talk about one of the things, though, and believe me. I'm not as good at this. I'm not as religious as I used to be, but I'm a big believer in building systems in your business. Too often, something goes wrong, and we start to point fingers at a person instead of looking at the process and the systems in place. One of the things I love talking to other companies about is ways to build those systems and processes and document them to be followed by their entire organization.

       Lisa Ryan: Wonderful. Todd, if people did want to reach out and connect with you, what's the best way for them to do that?

       Todd Miller: Sure, actually, I've got my websites. Probably the easiest one to remember; it's just Todd@ToddMiller.com. It's an educational website we have on metal roofing. Todd@ToddMiller.com is the perfect email to reach me. Folks are always welcome to call me as well, and they can pick that information up off our website,...]]>6fbedf68-592f-4c34-a42e-2c116ca09c50Mon, 11 Oct 2021 07:05:00 -040024:01falsefull149491Protecting You and Your Manufacturing Business from Cybercrime with Bryce AustinLisa 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 back. That's the very tenet of ransomware. That's how it works.

       They will get into your systems; they will encrypt your data using some ridiculously long decryption key that no one would ever be able to guess. And unless you pay up, you don't have access to your data which typically means you can't run your company, and it's a very profitable business model for them. You've heard about the colonial pipeline, where they shut down the eastern seaboard the ability to transfer fuel.

       JBS foods is the number one meatpacker on the planet. They have 20% of the market. They got popped. Then, CSN financial is one of the ultimate ironies in that they are a large insurance company that offers cyber security liability insurance, including ransomware payouts. Well, their payout set records. They paid $40 million to the cybercriminals to get their data back. To the manufacturing industry, this has become a more and more serious issue because, to be honest, manufacturers hadn't had to worry about this until recently until the last few years. It was a small enough risk to where you can ignore it, and now I'm guessing most people in the audience either have dealt with some cybercrime or know a company that has, so now, we do need to worry about it.

       The second part of your question was what we do about it well. We could write books on that. But the short-term takeaways are as follows multifactor authentication or MFA. This is something that keeps 95% of the bad guys out of your systems because if they get your username and your password, there is another step they have to take to get into your systems, and it's called MFA.

       If you shop online, Google MFA space, Gmail APP, even your personal, social media accounts with your business social media accounts MFA space Facebook, MFA space LinkedIn. All of these platforms support MFA. It takes you five minutes to set it up, and it makes you and your company a porcupine in the land of squirrels. When it comes to cybercriminals, they're going to go after the squirrels you want to be a porcupine, and the thing is huge.

       Many companies aren't patching their computers; to be honest, I recommend they set them to autopatch, and walking through doing that isn't that difficult for most of my clients. It's something that you can also Google and figure out how to do. But as soon as someone finds a vulnerability in a piece of software, typically, the software manufacturer makes a new version of it. That's great, assuming you patch it and put in that new version; otherwise, the vulnerability sits out there, so patching is critical.

       We have a lot of technology out there that wasn't designed for today's Internet, where the world's been trunk to the head of a pin. We can have bad guys halfway around the world trying to get into our systems. That old technology, if it needs to be hooked up to a network, typically those networks are hooked up to the Internet. They have to be ready to have a reasonable level of cyber defense, and if you can't put antivirus software on that new CNC lathe that you put in, this new Internet of Things is a heating and cooling system that you put in. If you can't defend it against the Internet, it shouldn't be on the Internet.

       Many of these companies that got hit are putting this antiquated technology out on the Internet, and then they're so surprised when someone takes advantage of it.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. Well, there's one question. It seems with ransomware that if a cybercriminal comes in, and they shut down your system until you pay in that one case, you said $40 million. What is the integrity of the criminals? What do they have to then turn on your systems? I mean, they got the money. Are we talking about criminals with integrity when it comes to ransomware? When that does happen, do you know where the vulnerability was, or does that take somebody coming in and finding out so that it doesn't happen again?

       Bryce Austin: Lisa, great questions. First and foremost, integrity is far too strong a term.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. I realized that.

       Bryce Austin: Categorically. These are business people, they are criminals, but they are criminals looking to make money. If they do not often. Usually, most of the time, give up that decryption key, and the decryption key works to at least get back most of your data. If word gets out that no one will pay the ransom, their business model will fall apart. Typically, they give up the key to massive caveat to that, though, is – one, if they find that you have sellable data or could just be damaging to you, there are several instances where first you pay for it the decryption key. Then they try to extort more money from you, saying, well, we've made a copy of your data, and we're going to leak it unless you pay again. That can go on forever.

       So, integrity? Absolutely not. Right business -makes sense.

       Lisa Ryan: Looking at it from a business standpoint, now that does make sense. The whole blackmail scheme again takes it to a whole other level.

       Bryce Austin: It does, most of the ransomware cases that my company's work, regrettably, we don't get back all the data and the reason is twofold. Criminals are not known for their rigorous error checking and thorough scrutiny of their code. So, yes, it encrypts it, and usually, it gets it back, but have we hit times where their software made a mistake, and it's not retrievable anymore. One tip I give to my clients is to have at least 30% of their hard drives empty. They need to have 30% free space on them.

       When you encrypt data, in theory, it doesn't get any bigger, but in practice, it does, and in almost every ransomware...]]>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 back. That's the very tenet of ransomware. That's how it works.

       They will get into your systems; they will encrypt your data using some ridiculously long decryption key that no one would ever be able to guess. And unless you pay up, you don't have access to your data which typically means you can't run your company, and it's a very profitable business model for them. You've heard about the colonial pipeline, where they shut down the eastern seaboard the ability to transfer fuel.

       JBS foods is the number one meatpacker on the planet. They have 20% of the market. They got popped. Then, CSN financial is one of the ultimate ironies in that they are a large insurance company that offers cyber security liability insurance, including ransomware payouts. Well, their payout set records. They paid $40 million to the cybercriminals to get their data back. To the manufacturing industry, this has become a more and more serious issue because, to be honest, manufacturers hadn't had to worry about this until recently until the last few years. It was a small enough risk to where you can ignore it, and now I'm guessing most people in the audience either have dealt with some cybercrime or know a company that has, so now, we do need to worry about it.

       The second part of your question was what we do about it well. We could write books on that. But the short-term takeaways are as follows multifactor authentication or MFA. This is something that keeps 95% of the bad guys out of your systems because if they get your username and your password, there is another step they have to take to get into your systems, and it's called MFA.

       If you shop online, Google MFA space, Gmail APP, even your personal, social media accounts with your business social media accounts MFA space Facebook, MFA space LinkedIn. All of these platforms support MFA. It takes you five minutes to set it up, and it makes you and your company a porcupine in the land of squirrels. When it comes to cybercriminals, they're going to go after the squirrels you want to be a porcupine, and the thing is huge.

       Many companies aren't patching their computers; to be honest, I recommend they set them to autopatch, and walking through doing that isn't that difficult for most of my clients. It's something that you can also Google and figure out how to do. But as soon as someone finds a vulnerability in a piece of software, typically, the software manufacturer makes a new version of it. That's great, assuming you patch it and put in that new version; otherwise, the vulnerability sits out there, so patching is critical.

       We have a lot of technology out there that wasn't designed for today's Internet, where the world's been trunk to the head of a pin. We can have bad guys halfway around the world trying to get into our systems. That old technology, if it needs to be hooked up to a network, typically those networks are hooked up to the Internet. They have to be ready to have a reasonable level of cyber defense, and if you can't put antivirus software on that new CNC lathe that you put in, this new Internet of Things is a heating and cooling system that you put in. If you can't defend it against the Internet, it shouldn't be on the Internet.

       Many of these companies that got hit are putting this antiquated technology out on the Internet, and then they're so surprised when someone takes advantage of it.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. Well, there's one question. It seems with ransomware that if a cybercriminal comes in, and they shut down your system until you pay in that one case, you said $40 million. What is the integrity of the criminals? What do they have to then turn on your systems? I mean, they got the money. Are we talking about criminals with integrity when it comes to ransomware? When that does happen, do you know where the vulnerability was, or does that take somebody coming in and finding out so that it doesn't happen again?

       Bryce Austin: Lisa, great questions. First and foremost, integrity is far too strong a term.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. I realized that.

       Bryce Austin: Categorically. These are business people, they are criminals, but they are criminals looking to make money. If they do not often. Usually, most of the time, give up that decryption key, and the decryption key works to at least get back most of your data. If word gets out that no one will pay the ransom, their business model will fall apart. Typically, they give up the key to massive caveat to that, though, is – one, if they find that you have sellable data or could just be damaging to you, there are several instances where first you pay for it the decryption key. Then they try to extort more money from you, saying, well, we've made a copy of your data, and we're going to leak it unless you pay again. That can go on forever.

       So, integrity? Absolutely not. Right business -makes sense.

       Lisa Ryan: Looking at it from a business standpoint, now that does make sense. The whole blackmail scheme again takes it to a whole other level.

       Bryce Austin: It does, most of the ransomware cases that my company's work, regrettably, we don't get back all the data and the reason is twofold. Criminals are not known for their rigorous error checking and thorough scrutiny of their code. So, yes, it encrypts it, and usually, it gets it back, but have we hit times where their software made a mistake, and it's not retrievable anymore. One tip I give to my clients is to have at least 30% of their hard drives empty. They need to have 30% free space on them.

       When you encrypt data, in theory, it doesn't get any bigger, but in practice, it does, and in almost every ransomware case that we've worked, there's some big network share where they were running low on space that had 5% space free. So then the bad guys hit, and the encryption starts, and it runs the drive out of space. So the ransomware keeps on going, and everything after that point gets turned into hamburger; you can never get it back.

       So yeah, so that's the other part of your question, do you get the key typically yes, does the critical work for a lot of your data? It works, but for all of it, I've never gotten 100% of it back, not once.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and it sounds like just that one tip that you said, as far as keeping 30% empty on your disk, I mean that can save that's not only something that you can do right now to check that you have that. But it's easy enough to implement. Maybe not cheap, but easy enough to implement as that insurance against cybercrime.

       Bryce Austin: Well, it's like being healthy or driving safely; there's not any one thing you can do, but there are some small tips that can make a huge difference. Having that drive space helps multifactor authentication absolute silver bullet in this industry offline backups this is huge. If you get hit having a copy of your data sitting in a drawer somewhere now, if it's up in the cloud, it's a virtual or not a literal door, but if it's on-premise, I mean a literal drawer. Go out and buy a large hard drive, or if you're a larger company, a set of hard drives and something called a NAS device or network-attached storage. You can make a copy of your data doesn't have to be every day, once a week, even once a month, yes, you might have month-old data, but it beats no data. Having that in a drawer makes it much harder to hack. It needs to be off of your network. If it's on the network, the bad guys will often try to find your backups and delete them before they begin the ransomware attack again and again and again.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. This is all fine and dandy for businesses to protect themselves, but I knew a couple of weeks ago that I had a friend who got the quote email from apple about the $4,000 system they were sending him. And he is a consumer. I said Dick, you didn't answer that, did you? And he said yeah, I called them. Well, 1500 dollars later, he had to pay to get his own computer system back. That's the scary part; this is not just companies. This is hits of computers of family members.

       As individuals, what are some of the things that we can do to protect ourselves?

       Bryce Austin: That's a great question. I wish I hadn't lived examples of what you just talked about but absolutely. I'm a family as I've had clients that are business owners or executives. They're pretty easy to look up on LinkedIn, so they know who to go after. The bad guys are very bright. If only we could get them to use their power for the light side of the force. So what can you do as an individual? I want to reiterate that multi-factor authentication or MFA, all of your essential systems should affect your local computer. It needs a password, and it needs to be a reasonably strong one. Using the same password everywhere is a big problem.

       Yahoo was breached in 2013, and they got all the passwords. Linkedin was breached in 2016. They got all the passwords. Well, if you're using those passwords everywhere, if you have the same password pretty much everywhere, think of it like your housekeeper. If every single door that you walk through in your life has the same key and you lose one copy of that key that you use that a grocery store that you use to some retailer. Well, now, they have your whole life. So a password keeper is a program designed to randomize your passwords everywhere, and then you have one master password to unlock the password keeper.

       I'm a giant fan. There are lots of them, and they all work well. There's the last pass; there's one password -that's the number one—the word password. There's dash lane; there's key pass- any of these are fine. But a password keeper lets you use different passwords all across the Internet, so if one of the websites you visit gets hacked, one website gets hacked, not everything in your life. Having conversations with your loved ones about how cybercrime works and how these schemes work that you will get fake emails or fake phone calls, or I've even had to fake letters in the snail mail in our old school mail. They try to get you to do something you shouldn't do, or they claim to have video of you cheating on your spouse, or they claim to know about your business misdealing. Suppose you don't pay up this that and the other. Education about that is critical.

       The last thing that you can do is to encrypt your devices at rest. That means that if your smartphone or laptop is lost or stolen, you're only out the equipment; the information on it is protected by that password we talked about initially. For windows computers, it is called bit locker. It's easy to turn on for MAC computers. It's called file vault on your iPhone will automatically do it unless you disable it, so don't do that.

       For android devices, it varies all across the board. Having these devices encrypted at rest means that your data is safe. Even if your device isn't with you, that's a big positive.

       Lisa Ryan: So when it comes to this, these are just scary things. I know every time I'm at a program and a cyber security person is talking there, I know that I'm just going to be terrified by the end of the program. We spoke about password lockers. What about companies like LifeLock? Is locking your credit cards, freezing your credit score - are those other types of things that are out there worth it?

       Bryce Austin: I have mixed feelings about those. Let's start with credit freezes - I'm a fan. Because of Equifax, you can lock your credit for free, and you can unlock it for free. They used to charge for that, which I think was criminal. I'm glad it's free now, but unless you need to take out a new credit card and take out a car loan to take out a home loan, freezing your credit with all three of the major creditors - Experient, Trans Union, and Equifax - you have to do all three of them separately.

       It makes it hard for someone to pretend to be you and take out a loan in your name or try to buy a car and your neighbor that kind of thing, so I'm a big fan. However, if you happen to own rental properties or change cell phone plans a lot, I want to warn your listeners. If you need to transfer the utilities for your rental property into your name between different renters, they will need to check your credit for that. You'd have to unfreeze it, and if you want to move from T mobile, Verizon, or Verizon to Tmobile - they'll probably check your credit.

       I still think it's a good idea. I believe there is some utility there. Someone spending a little bit of time to shore up their own defenses is far more powerful than a tool or a service like LifeLock. You can't pay someone else to do the work you need to do to be healthy, and if you want to be cyber healthy, there's some work that you, you should do yourself. For example, getting rid of that old Windows 7 computer that you can't patch anymore because it's been out of service for a year and a half, but you don't want quite to get rid of it. I'd rather see people put the money into buying a new Windows 10 device fully patched with good antivirus on it than I would see them subscribe to something like LifeLock.

       Lisa Ryan: OK, so we've talked about the main things like having an MFA for all of your personal and business accounts. Having a password keeper freezing your credit, what would be some of your other best tips for protecting yourself from Cybercriminals?

       Bryce Austin: Educating you and your workforce on cybercrime is a very good idea. There are lots of programs you can use. For example, sending fake malicious emails so phishing. That's where the pH fishing your employees with emails that look like they could have been from a cybercriminal but there you trying to teach them. Spotting those so they don't click on a link that they shouldn't is a big step forward. I have a lot of my clients doing that every month, and it pays over actual dividends.

       Bryce Austin: The last thing you can do, it almost turns us on its head, where it can be more of competitive advantage for your company. There are some certifications that your company can get to show you have a good cybersecurity program. Things like a sock to soc and the number to a sock to certification or for those of manufacturing apply familiar with ISO ISO 27,001 is the ISO cyber security certification. These can take some time. It's not the right thing for everybody, but if your company's product or service is providing. Others could be given a competitive advantage if your salespeople could go into a meeting saying, well, we are ISO 27,001 certified. Here's how that keeps our customers safer than our competitors.

       That's a good, positive conversation. That's what Volvo did 40 years ago, saying our cars are safer than the others, and here's why you should buy them. It's the same sort of thing is just in the cyber world now.

       Lisa Ryan: Bryce, you have given us so much information to keep us safe. How is it that you work with your clients? If people did want to get a hold of you, what's the best way for them to do that.

       Bryce Austin: Well, short, my company is called TCE strategy, which stands for technology and cybersecurity education. We act as a company's "attorney on retainer" in the cyber security advisory space. We're not attorneys. But we try to give good unfettered fiduciary style advice about what makes up a secure enough cyber security posture for you as a business owner, as an executive...]]>553800a1-afae-4048-8ecc-990f63111ff8Mon, 04 Oct 2021 07:05:00 -040023:15falsefull148481Upping Your Dollars-Per-Minute in Manufacturing with Carolyn StraussConnect 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 so many times. It's the revenue coming in through the month. It's the price, the cost of everything that we look at these hard things, but we don't narrow necessarily break it down into those tiny increments like that.

       Would you please share with us a bit of that mentality? I know you work with manufacturing clients today, but what are some ways they can start to change their thinking to focus on those smaller increments to become more profitable.

       Carolyn Strauss: I love that question. Dollars per minute is how I think so when you're on the home shopping network. When you get on air right, I a million dollars worth of merch that I needed to sell for the day. I would have to break that up on each show when I would get on. I'd have a 50-minute hour to sell my goods. An hour is only 50 minutes because you have 10 minutes of breaks and stuff, so I'd have 50 minutes. 

       When I got there, I would get what's called a flow sheet showing what items would be in the show and how much time each of them got. At the top of the flowsheet was a little number that would show how many dollars in that 50 minutes they expected me to sell. The number was anywhere between 120,5000. I would see several $380,000 worth of 29 and $39 retail price goods that I would need to sell, and so what I would have to do is take that number divide, whatever the number on the top of the page was by 50 and know how many dollars per minute I needed to sell to be successful. The home shopping network is that if you don't sell at least 20 $500 per minute, you're a failure. So I knew exactly my metric of what was successful and what was not.

       Lisa Ryan: wow.

       Carolyn Strauss: So after doing that for 18 years. After doing it for three years, I started to see every activity in my business and in the businesses of the people I work with. This creates the dollars per minute that I need this person's activity to generate. I'm not saying to micromanage - that is not how I work with my clients at all. We're not talking about micromanaging, but it's like it's productivity. It is productivity, but its value and productivity. Where are your people putting their time and attention so that each person is as valuable and productive to the organization as they can be. Each manufacturing piece is as effective as it can be. I was designing my collection, and I had a business partner who bought the fabric and the pricing because of the details that I couldn't handle. 

       But what I realized is I would let's say it's September, now I would be designing a collection in September that I would be showing on air in March, so I had seven or eight months to get from a concept in my head into the hands of my customers in seven or eight months. So I realized that there was an eight-step process in executing that I would have to do, and if I missed a step, I failed, and something went wrong.

       I created the eight steps of execution, which is one of the things I work with my clients to help them optimize their dollars per minute. What I love about this formula is that it works for every single business. Executing gets getting stuff done. It's getting stuff done.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, and so going through that process with the short time we have together, we can't go into tons of detail, but what are the steps - the cliff notes version.

       Carolyn Strauss: I am happy to tell you what the steps are. The steps are first is imagining and inventing what it's gonna look like when it's done. I believe in doing that, like leadership, figuring out what we are making and what it will look like, and creating a time frame for it right. But in that, you've got to get input from your team. You've got to get in production in conversation with the production people, salespeople, and marketing people. What I found with a lot of companies that I've worked with lately, I don't know if you've seen this Lisa, I know you work with companies all over the place., Have you found that they tend to be siloed in the bigger companies where they're at least 100 employees or more?

       Lisa Ryan: Absolutely, that's one of the biggest complaints of departments don't talk to each other. Everybody's got so much on their plate right now that they don't even think about going into a different department to talk to people.

       Carolyn Strauss: I spoke in a marketing association, and I asked the marketing people at this big conference I was speaking at how often you meet with your sales teams, and most of them said never. How do you know what your customers are asking for if you? How are you marketing something that you don't know is going to help your salespeople sell it.

       It makes me crazy. Silo is a big problem. I believe, when you come up with the concept of what you're going to design or what you're creating or manufacturing, you've got to talk to the whole team.

       The second step that most people miss, and this is, I think this is the most important step. Most people don't realize that when you go to add something to your manufacturing line or add something to your business or shift something, resources will need to be allocated. So there are three kinds of resources: your human resources, your tangible resources, which are essential to give in manufacturing, and your intangible resources, which people don't tend to think about, like your credit line. Do you have money? Do you have the credit to go to the bank?

       Then there's the conversation of getting everybody on the same page is talking about here's what we're making here's what it's going to look like when]]>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 so many times. It's the revenue coming in through the month. It's the price, the cost of everything that we look at these hard things, but we don't narrow necessarily break it down into those tiny increments like that.

       Would you please share with us a bit of that mentality? I know you work with manufacturing clients today, but what are some ways they can start to change their thinking to focus on those smaller increments to become more profitable.

       Carolyn Strauss: I love that question. Dollars per minute is how I think so when you're on the home shopping network. When you get on air right, I a million dollars worth of merch that I needed to sell for the day. I would have to break that up on each show when I would get on. I'd have a 50-minute hour to sell my goods. An hour is only 50 minutes because you have 10 minutes of breaks and stuff, so I'd have 50 minutes. 

       When I got there, I would get what's called a flow sheet showing what items would be in the show and how much time each of them got. At the top of the flowsheet was a little number that would show how many dollars in that 50 minutes they expected me to sell. The number was anywhere between 120,5000. I would see several $380,000 worth of 29 and $39 retail price goods that I would need to sell, and so what I would have to do is take that number divide, whatever the number on the top of the page was by 50 and know how many dollars per minute I needed to sell to be successful. The home shopping network is that if you don't sell at least 20 $500 per minute, you're a failure. So I knew exactly my metric of what was successful and what was not.

       Lisa Ryan: wow.

       Carolyn Strauss: So after doing that for 18 years. After doing it for three years, I started to see every activity in my business and in the businesses of the people I work with. This creates the dollars per minute that I need this person's activity to generate. I'm not saying to micromanage - that is not how I work with my clients at all. We're not talking about micromanaging, but it's like it's productivity. It is productivity, but its value and productivity. Where are your people putting their time and attention so that each person is as valuable and productive to the organization as they can be. Each manufacturing piece is as effective as it can be. I was designing my collection, and I had a business partner who bought the fabric and the pricing because of the details that I couldn't handle. 

       But what I realized is I would let's say it's September, now I would be designing a collection in September that I would be showing on air in March, so I had seven or eight months to get from a concept in my head into the hands of my customers in seven or eight months. So I realized that there was an eight-step process in executing that I would have to do, and if I missed a step, I failed, and something went wrong.

       I created the eight steps of execution, which is one of the things I work with my clients to help them optimize their dollars per minute. What I love about this formula is that it works for every single business. Executing gets getting stuff done. It's getting stuff done.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, and so going through that process with the short time we have together, we can't go into tons of detail, but what are the steps - the cliff notes version.

       Carolyn Strauss: I am happy to tell you what the steps are. The steps are first is imagining and inventing what it's gonna look like when it's done. I believe in doing that, like leadership, figuring out what we are making and what it will look like, and creating a time frame for it right. But in that, you've got to get input from your team. You've got to get in production in conversation with the production people, salespeople, and marketing people. What I found with a lot of companies that I've worked with lately, I don't know if you've seen this Lisa, I know you work with companies all over the place., Have you found that they tend to be siloed in the bigger companies where they're at least 100 employees or more?

       Lisa Ryan: Absolutely, that's one of the biggest complaints of departments don't talk to each other. Everybody's got so much on their plate right now that they don't even think about going into a different department to talk to people.

       Carolyn Strauss: I spoke in a marketing association, and I asked the marketing people at this big conference I was speaking at how often you meet with your sales teams, and most of them said never. How do you know what your customers are asking for if you? How are you marketing something that you don't know is going to help your salespeople sell it.

       It makes me crazy. Silo is a big problem. I believe, when you come up with the concept of what you're going to design or what you're creating or manufacturing, you've got to talk to the whole team.

       The second step that most people miss, and this is, I think this is the most important step. Most people don't realize that when you go to add something to your manufacturing line or add something to your business or shift something, resources will need to be allocated. So there are three kinds of resources: your human resources, your tangible resources, which are essential to give in manufacturing, and your intangible resources, which people don't tend to think about, like your credit line. Do you have money? Do you have the credit to go to the bank?

       Then there's the conversation of getting everybody on the same page is talking about here's what we're making here's what it's going to look like when we're done then there's getting the commitment. Because if you have people on your team who aren't committed to working on what you're working on don't see why they matter in the process, it's not going to get done.

       When you write, and then you've got to work in action and get all the pieces together, I call it to work in action. Because it's what action is everybody taking, and that's really where dollars per minute come in. What action is everybody in every department taking to make this work? There's assessing what's happening, where you stop and go. Okay, are we benchmarking the ROI. Are we where we're supposed to be by this time frame.

       Then there's completing it. How many projects does your company start? That doesn't get finished so you've spent all of this time, all of these resources, all of these this human capital, getting something done, and it's not going to go to market. I have a funny story about that. Remind me of that in a second.

       Then, you complete it and deliver it. Then you have to go to the assessment about it, to see this worth it did this make us money. Did this improve our reputation and move us forward as a company to where we want to go next. Those are questions that a lot of manufacturers and a lot of people don't look at. Then we go back to reinventing and starting again. Okay, what comes next? So many of these cycles happen simultaneously. I found that there's almost always one piece that people are missing in every organization. That's where they get hung up on, so when I go in and work with them, we look at all the pieces and see if how it can work. I realized that that was the process I went through in my company. I did that every time.

       Lisa Ryan: When you're getting rid of the silos, as you said very early in the conversation, everybody in different departments sees things differently and gets that feedback. Unfortunately, it may not be feedback that you like, but you're getting lots of other thoughts from people, and I had a guest on my podcast a couple of weeks ago. He said they have all-hands meetings where they have the office and the plant people get together. Think about a silo and us versus them. They have a great life versus the people in the plant and all of that. Having those conversations is such a little thing that anybody can do—looking at where those conversations are happening and making sure that you're looking for ways for people in the plant in all departments to have regular contact with each other and then take it to the end.

       Sometimes we get done with a project. So, for example, we get done with a product line, and we're ready to go on to the next. But then, like you said, taking that step back to assess did we make money was this worth the effort, and again being okay with whatever answer comes out of that.

       Carolyn Strauss: That's right. I can't tell you how many times we did a collection and didn't make money on it. Because the printing costs more than we thought it would, we gave them a price and the printing costs more than we thought it would result in the cutting costs more than we thought it would, and something happened. I mean, now what's happening with the supply chain. I have friends who are still on HSN, and, by the way, my line lasted from 1997 until the middle of 2015, so I was there for 18 years. Every four to six weeks with three, four or five, probably seven or eight times a year, I was on air with my stuff. We were constantly manufacturing. I have friends who are on air now who are having the most challenging time getting their goods. I have a friend who had today's special last week, and it's still on backorder because it's on a container ship somewhere off the coast of Los Angeles right now.

       I can't imagine right now. My heart breaks for you because the supply chain is so challenged right now, given the past 18 months of COVID. Okay, so the quick story, because I hate to leave a short story. I had an uncle who was Vice President of an advertising agency in New York City. It was when I was living back in New York. I lived in New York for 20 years and, while I was living in New York every once in a while, I'd take a weekend and go up to their house upstate because they had a pool, and it was good to get out of the city. So my uncle and I were sitting on the train on the way from the city up to the white plains area where they live, and he said yeah he said well we're launching a new mustard type product, and I said, really that's very exciting he's like yeah, this company has been a client of ours for 20 years. So I said, " Well, what's the product, and he said the product is "dip and spread."

       I swear I stopped, and I waited. What. The product is called dip and spread. I said, are you going to call the product? Because it's just how my brain goes. So inappropriate to me. He said no, no, no, why. I told jack, dip and spread, really. He said he'd been working on it for probably a year, and he had had no outside feedback. Nobody had said anything, and I was the first outside person he had had a conversation with. I'm like are you kidding? Then I said, let me tell you what I'm seeing, and he went, "Oh, my God, we never thought of that." I said, well, half of your potential buying audience will, and I would rename the product, and they did.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and we go, so we get so married to an idea. We fall in love with our thoughts. I can't tell you how many speech titles are.

       Carolyn Strauss: Many years, and I'll give you one of mine that was a failure.

       Lisa Ryan: I'm trying to think, but one of them was I thought that turn off turnover would be good because I thought that this way you can eliminate employee turnover.

       Carolyn Strauss: Yes, but then, when you looked at the turnover of product production is good.

       Lisa Ryan: So yeah, I was just. I thought it was catchy ahead of alliteration, and I bought the URL.

       Carolyn Strauss: I had one called, "take a nap with your clients and vendors." I had a new attitude and perspective right now to look at them in a new way. There's a flaw in the plan; nobody wants your people to take a nap with anyone. I spent a year on that being married to that, so yeah, take a nap.com. That was f. You're right; everybody gets so married to their ideas, which is why it's so important to have outside eyes, which is why I love the consulting that I do.

       I can go in, be completely neutral, understand their end goal after having a conversation with them, and then we start talking about what you are working on. I can go. We may want to rethink this.

       Lisa Ryan: It's getting the outside feedback but being ready to let go of something even if it's something that you're madly in love with too many times that we've seen it that we come up with this great idea. You see it on shark tank all the time that people come up with this fantastic idea. They never think they develop the item before they decide to discover if there's even a market need for it by getting that outside feedback, even if you're talking to some friends. Any honest feedback is getting the real story from people, and that that feedback hurts sometimes.

       Carolyn Strauss: I recommend a mastermind group. I think every leader of an organization should have a mastermind group, a group of peers, not in your industry, even necessary to bring your ideas and challenges to. They then look at it and say, where that might not be the best idea, I think it's brilliant. That's why you do what you do, Lisa. That's why this podcast is so valuable because people can listen to it and hear the mistakes that other people have made.

       Lisa Ryan: Right exactly. Well, boy, time does fly, so I know that you do a lot of consulting work but share how you work with your clients, what you exactly do, and then, what would be the best way to get in touch with you if somebody wants to learn more.

       Carolyn Strauss: So thank you well. My website, making it simple, is CarolynStraussa.com, so almost everything there is to know about me is there. How I work with my companies is I work with however they need. Suppose it's consulting with the management team and getting everybody on the same page. One of my sweet spots lately has been family-owned businesses. I just worked with a software development company that had three brothers running it. And the older brother wanted to get out within two years. The middle brother wanted to keep working. The younger brother was the salesman who tried to expand. How do you get anything done when you have leadership on three such different tracks? So that was a consulting job where I worked with an electronics company and electric and electric service company in Ohio. How I work with them is I go in once every once in a while and do those full team meetings like you were talking about, Lisa, where the installer people and the salespeople and the Office people all get together. We have a conversation about where the company is going in the next year. Whatever will serve people.

       Lisa Ryan: Carolyn, it has been an absolute pleasure to have him on the show and a whole lot of fun, too, so thank you so much for being here.

       Carolyn Strauss: Thanks, Lisa.

       Lisa Ryan: I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers Network Podcast. See you next time.

       ]]>6fd2d6c5-6266-4f94-93bd-4bbac2520389Mon, 27 Sep 2021 07:05:00 -040024:09falsefull147471Breaking Down Barriers to Create a Winning Manufacturing Culture with Rick WinterContact 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 mentality, with the people in the office versus the plant. I'm assuming that this has helped in developing more of those relationships. Do you have any before and after stories? What was it like before you started doing these meetings with the office and the plant people now that they're getting together like that regularly?

       Rick Winter: During last year, we couldn't have in-person meetings. We heard a lot of people say that they missed them and they enjoyed having them. One of the things we always stress in the meeting is a customer highlight because, for all they know, they're just handling all these components and putting together parts, and they have no idea what they're going to do. So we tell employees what the part is, what it does, what it goes in, and connect it. As a result, we've seen improvement in our quality. 

       We're trying to show the bottom line and how being more efficient improves the bottom line. We can do more things with benefits and raises. We stress, for example, in Wisconsin, we make a lot of military parts. We can tell them, "Hey, this part is going on to the new navy destroyer," and they take a little pride in that. They understand that. They're paying a little bit more attention to what they're doing, knowing the importance of what that thing is that they're making and where it's going. Those are some of the benefits of it.

       Lisa Ryan: And it gives them that feeling that they're part of something bigger than themselves, no pun intended. They see the pride of this piece. So when you're saying it's going on a destroyer, they're going to make darn sure that it's not their point that their product that fails on that, so it's just these little things. 

       A couple of years ago, when I spoke for the Industrial Fastener Association, one of the guys said they had a part of the week. So they took a particular fastener, and they showed what the part was and showed where it went. 

       So it's these little things that you're doing that's building that connection that, like you said it improves quality and improves pride. You're getting the conversation going by being transparent and letting all the employees know what's happening - the good, the bad, and the ugly, particularly this last year.

       Rick Winter: yeah yeah, exactly.

       Lisa Ryan: So what are some of the things that keep you up at night?

       Rick Winter: We're challenged like I'm sure everybody else out there with Labor issues. We've had to increase wages to compete with everybody else, fighting for the limited worker out there. That's nothing new.

       The other thing is the supply chain. Logistics are significant problems and have become a daily battle where we're spending excessive time.

       Just communicating with customers and often not giving good news, A part typically has a two-week lead time. It's now six to eight weeks. Sometimes we can't even provide a lead time or commit to a ship date because we're not getting committed ship dates from our suppliers, which makes me responsible for our customers.

       I'm extra vigilant in ensuring that if they need something, they will look to see if they can get it somewhere else. We are trying to make sure that we can secure the parts. We value those relationships with those customers and keep them updated monthly. I send out customer updates with a newsletter of what's going on. We update our customers on the challenges we're facing with our supply chain and logistics. 

       We're doing the best we can to meet their commit dates. But, again, it's about keeping those lines of communication open. We let them know that we didn't suddenly lose the recipe and couldn't make parts in a timely fashion. It's been a challenge maintaining customers. These are some of the things we're doing.

       Lisa Ryan: The newsletter is an exciting idea because it does give a bit of communication and transparency. Also, it's probably not something that your competitors are doing. So at least customers know where they stand with you. They might not necessarily like it, but the point is that they know.

       So what are some of the things that you communicate? For example, you're communicating timelines, and what are some of the other things you're putting in that? Have you gotten any feedback from your customers after sending that out?

       Rick Winter: We let customers know if we get a new piece of equipment. For instance, we got an automated welding system which we put into our Mexico plant. I talk about how we use it and the benefits to our plant efficiency and quality. 

       Also, if we launch a new product line or introduce a new product, we let them know. We do a lot of custom work and have some standard offerings, but I'll talk about that in the newsletter if we bring on some new stuff. Also, if we qualify for a new mil-spec or any of those product lines, we will inform them that the product line is now updated with this certificate.

       Lisa Ryan: It also gets your customers saying, I didn't know you did that. You're letting them know all the different ways that you can help them instead of just the one product that they had been ordering from you before they knew the other things that you offer.

       Rick Winter: One of the benefits we've seen is where somebody has come back because we may have been making one or two custom parts for them, and also they come back. Oh, I didn't know you guys did this. So it's helped, and that's an essential piece during the pandemic. The ability...]]>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 mentality, with the people in the office versus the plant. I'm assuming that this has helped in developing more of those relationships. Do you have any before and after stories? What was it like before you started doing these meetings with the office and the plant people now that they're getting together like that regularly?

       Rick Winter: During last year, we couldn't have in-person meetings. We heard a lot of people say that they missed them and they enjoyed having them. One of the things we always stress in the meeting is a customer highlight because, for all they know, they're just handling all these components and putting together parts, and they have no idea what they're going to do. So we tell employees what the part is, what it does, what it goes in, and connect it. As a result, we've seen improvement in our quality. 

       We're trying to show the bottom line and how being more efficient improves the bottom line. We can do more things with benefits and raises. We stress, for example, in Wisconsin, we make a lot of military parts. We can tell them, "Hey, this part is going on to the new navy destroyer," and they take a little pride in that. They understand that. They're paying a little bit more attention to what they're doing, knowing the importance of what that thing is that they're making and where it's going. Those are some of the benefits of it.

       Lisa Ryan: And it gives them that feeling that they're part of something bigger than themselves, no pun intended. They see the pride of this piece. So when you're saying it's going on a destroyer, they're going to make darn sure that it's not their point that their product that fails on that, so it's just these little things. 

       A couple of years ago, when I spoke for the Industrial Fastener Association, one of the guys said they had a part of the week. So they took a particular fastener, and they showed what the part was and showed where it went. 

       So it's these little things that you're doing that's building that connection that, like you said it improves quality and improves pride. You're getting the conversation going by being transparent and letting all the employees know what's happening - the good, the bad, and the ugly, particularly this last year.

       Rick Winter: yeah yeah, exactly.

       Lisa Ryan: So what are some of the things that keep you up at night?

       Rick Winter: We're challenged like I'm sure everybody else out there with Labor issues. We've had to increase wages to compete with everybody else, fighting for the limited worker out there. That's nothing new.

       The other thing is the supply chain. Logistics are significant problems and have become a daily battle where we're spending excessive time.

       Just communicating with customers and often not giving good news, A part typically has a two-week lead time. It's now six to eight weeks. Sometimes we can't even provide a lead time or commit to a ship date because we're not getting committed ship dates from our suppliers, which makes me responsible for our customers.

       I'm extra vigilant in ensuring that if they need something, they will look to see if they can get it somewhere else. We are trying to make sure that we can secure the parts. We value those relationships with those customers and keep them updated monthly. I send out customer updates with a newsletter of what's going on. We update our customers on the challenges we're facing with our supply chain and logistics. 

       We're doing the best we can to meet their commit dates. But, again, it's about keeping those lines of communication open. We let them know that we didn't suddenly lose the recipe and couldn't make parts in a timely fashion. It's been a challenge maintaining customers. These are some of the things we're doing.

       Lisa Ryan: The newsletter is an exciting idea because it does give a bit of communication and transparency. Also, it's probably not something that your competitors are doing. So at least customers know where they stand with you. They might not necessarily like it, but the point is that they know.

       So what are some of the things that you communicate? For example, you're communicating timelines, and what are some of the other things you're putting in that? Have you gotten any feedback from your customers after sending that out?

       Rick Winter: We let customers know if we get a new piece of equipment. For instance, we got an automated welding system which we put into our Mexico plant. I talk about how we use it and the benefits to our plant efficiency and quality. 

       Also, if we launch a new product line or introduce a new product, we let them know. We do a lot of custom work and have some standard offerings, but I'll talk about that in the newsletter if we bring on some new stuff. Also, if we qualify for a new mil-spec or any of those product lines, we will inform them that the product line is now updated with this certificate.

       Lisa Ryan: It also gets your customers saying, I didn't know you did that. You're letting them know all the different ways that you can help them instead of just the one product that they had been ordering from you before they knew the other things that you offer.

       Rick Winter: One of the benefits we've seen is where somebody has come back because we may have been making one or two custom parts for them, and also they come back. Oh, I didn't know you guys did this. So it's helped, and that's an essential piece during the pandemic. The ability to meet and see customers were restricted. I don't know whether that business is ever going to come back.

       It's been increasingly more challenging over the last decade or so, using the Internet. You can't walk in and cold call people. With COVID, it makes it even more challenging. We use the newsletter, and we're also using a lot of email communications to customers. We communicate with them as a primary lead generation tool. We let them know what we're doing and see if we can do anything for them.

       Lisa Ryan: How often does that go out?

       Rick Winter: we're just we just started it about three-four months ago. We're starting monthly at this point, and it varies. We have different programs, so we have certain target accounts or other market sectors that will go after, and depending on those, sometimes they may be, every couple weeks. So it's that delicate balance of being an irritant and informative and so for our general customers is monthly.

       Lisa Ryan: It sounds like a great idea, mainly if along the way you started highlighting different customers or customers of the month or product of the month. If people or companies are mentioned there, we all like to see our name up in lights.

       Rick Winter: We'll do a similar one. We'll do a quarterly newsletter with the contract reps. I'll do the same thing. I'll feature a new sales success with a person because all the sales guys want to see their name in print. I'll list all the new customers and new reps, or if they've done anything that stands out as well, we'll talk about that in there. You're right; people always want to see their name and in print or some media.

       Lisa Ryan: If you're looking for ways to engage employees using different tools, like having an intracompany newsletter. You're highlighting successes and highlighting the company's mission and the other products that you have. It is a great tool to keep in touch with your customers. 

       It's also a great tool to share information, along with the meetings that you're doing. Looking for ways to create those relationships to happen because, as you mentioned, we're all fighting for the same people to come and join our firm. When you have good employees, they create a culture that they don't want to leave. They're not going to go down the street for 50 cents more an hour because they feel connected and enjoy what they're doing. They think they're part of something bigger.

       So if you were to think about from a networking standpoint, what would be some of the things that you would potentially like to learn from other manufacturers, and what would you be willing to share with your expertise with other manufacturing colleagues?

       Rick Winter: Well, I read a lot about automating and everybody they talk about automating; to get over the labor challenges that we're all facing and replacing it with automation which, deep down, nobody wants to do. You don't want to replace all these jobs with machines, but you may inevitably have to be a viable organization at the end of the day.

       I'm interested to know what other manufacturers are doing in long-term automation lines. Have they been aggressively going after it? For example, there's a big show coming up in Chicago in a couple of weeks called FABTECH where it's just you go there, and it's like a playground of automated equipment.

       Lisa Ryan: yep, I love it. I'm speaking there, so I'm very excited about going there.

       Rick Winter: We go every year. We'll go, and we'll walk the floor. I'll go down there with our VP of operations. We go through and look at all the different types of equipment that are there. The last time we went, we bought some equipment that helped streamline some of our molded capabilities by automating them. We didn't replace any employees with it. Still, it significantly contributed to the bottom line because we allowed those to automate that area, which took four employees. We were able to repurpose those employees into other roles.

       I'd be curious to see what other manufacturers are doing along those lines and then what they are doing in their marketing and sales activities. The challenge is getting in front of customers and the lack of trade shows. We cannot get in to see people. What other tactics may they are they employing that are successful.

       Lisa Ryan: The funny thing is with automation is it does become a recruiting tool, because when you have employees come in and see some big fancy robot or some automation, it's like, wow, that's cool, I want to work on that, so it does have some other positive benefits from a recruiting standpoint.

       Rick Winter: Even though we have automated a few different things for the welding line and this molded line, we didn't reduce staff. It's just increased efficiency and allowed us to focus on those people in other areas. So in our industry, not a lot has changed in the transformer world. Of course, there are automated multi-spindle machines and all that. They are a little bit sexy, but all at all, it's not that sexy of an industry.

       Lisa Ryan: And what would be some of the things that you would be willing to share if people wanted to reach out to you.

       Rick Winter: I would be willing to talk about what we're doing and in our customer outreach or are programs that we're doing to keep customers updated and try to get new customers. I'd be happy to talk about any of those activities and what we're doing internally to make our place of employment more desirable for people to work and want to be here.

       Lisa Ryan: So, and as we're getting to the end of our time together, if you had one tip for manufacturers today as far as working on that culture, the thing you feel would be the easiest for somebody to start implementing what would be your best tip.

       Rick Winter:

       1. Talk to people.
       2. Talk to your employees.
       3. Talk to other people in your industry as well as other people in the manufacturing field.
       4. See what they're doing and see what's practical.
       
       

       The most important thing you can do is ask questions and ask what they like or, more importantly, what they would like to see. That can steer you in many different directions and answer a lot of those questions and help at least get you going in some direction.

       Lisa Ryan: Thank you so much for being on the show today. If somebody did want to connect with you, what's the best way for them to do that?

       Rick Winter: Shoot me an email at 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...]]>4132ac14-d333-4a33-aff1-e6adf4045e08Mon, 20 Sep 2021 07:05:00 -040022:52falsefull146461How Companies are Bringing Manufacturing Home from China with Rosemary CoatesConnect 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 University of San Diego and took graduate student interns to help us do the research and get our sea legs. Then we went nationwide, and today, the Reshoring Institute is where I spend most of my time. We're nonprofit, so we do all kinds of global supply chain strategy work and consulting work - small consulting projects and big international projects.

       We're working on a giant project for the State of New York in manufacturing, and we help analyze, determine, and implement manufacturing projects to expand manufacturing in America. That's where we are today. We're associated with about 15 universities across the nation. We take graduate student interns that are very often scary smart and teach them about manufacturing. They're going to be the leaders of the future, and they help us with our research.

       Lisa Ryan: What would you say the things that you've seen? We've heard so much about manufacturing coming back to America, and China is certainly not as cheap as it used to be when it came to any of their manufacturing processes. So it's not like they're saving as much money as they used to, but besides the cost savings, what are some of the most significant benefits that you've been able to show manufacturers about coming back to the United States.

       Rosemary Coates: Well, you're right about cost increase, although that is not the primary driver. Wages in China are maybe a quarter of what they would be in the Western world, and in today's environment, we saw some financial incentives. For example, the tax reform act of 2017 was helpful to manufacturers. They got a big tax break, but it didn't drive much manufacturing back. It was just a tax break.

       Then, the trade war intended that it would drive manufacturing back to the US. Instead of just cause, manufacturers absorb more costs because they were paying the tariffs on imported parts and finished goods coming back into the US. That didn't drive any manufacturing back, although there was certainly talk. We were moving along, getting projects here and there, and doing our research. Then the pandemic made a big difference because it introduced risk.

       The economic incentives were there all along, but the risk is a whole other aspect, and many companies recognize that. It's time to think about their strategies more in-depth and potentially bring manufacturing back to America. The risk is certainly top of mind, with most executives potentially mitigating that risk through manufacturing close in the US or either in Mexico, sometimes Canada, so that's one aspect. But, of course, the economics have changed pretty significantly, and logistics costs are high.

       We're working on a project with the State of New York and are interviewing 50 companies in manufacturing. One after another, after another, they tell us that logistics costs are just choking them. For example, getting a container from Shanghai to LA used to be 1000 bucks now. It's as high as $15,000. The costs are exponential - most companies are paying at least three or four times more.

       That's a big issue that will eventually straighten out because it's based on the imbalance of containers around the world, and once that gets straightened out, we'll probably see some reduction in those costs, although not back to 2019 rates. So we should see some calming of that. So that's undoubtedly one of the factors.

       Another factor has short cycle times. If you have to wait six weeks to get the product from China, it's tough to fill your orders fast. Amazon has taught us all - whether industrial or personal consumers - that we want our stuff overnight. We're not going to wait six weeks. We want it in two days maximum. That's driven this whole attitude of shortening of cycle times in general across the industry. So having local manufacturing is helpful in that regard.

       Another aspect is engineering changes. It's tough to do those when you're at a distance. You've got an engineering problem. You get an engineer to hop on a plane, and tomorrow, they can be at a factory in Indiana or Alabama or somewhere. That makes a big difference in how quickly we respond to the marketplace.

       Lisa Ryan: Not only that, but you have your suppliers local, whether the United States, Canada, or Mexico, so it's not the slow boat from China. There's also something about buying products that are made in the United States. I know that you did some research through the Reshoring institute that talked about Americans' preferences for that made in the USA label. Would you mind telling us about that study and what you have found?

       Rosemary Coates: That was interesting. Since I'm working in that sector, there wasn't anything too surprising to me, but we surveyed 500 people across America and asked them some simple questions. These were all age groups from 18 to about 85, all education levels high school graduates, all the way to PhDs. The group included men, women in all regions of the US. We asked them some simple questions – "do you prefer to buy products made in the US? If so, would you pay more for them? If so, how much more?" The responses came back affirmatively. Somewhere around 60 or 70% said, yes, they prefer products made in the US. Yes, they would pay more for them, and the amount is between 10 and 20% more. If you get an exact product from China and one made in the US side by side, consumers are willing to pay 10 to 20% more for the product made in the USA. They indicated to us why there is a perceived better quality of products made in the US now.

       We didn't qualify that in any way. We didn't say good, bad, and indifferent. We didn't say any of that - we just said, "Do you think that products made in the US are better quality?...]]>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 University of San Diego and took graduate student interns to help us do the research and get our sea legs. Then we went nationwide, and today, the Reshoring Institute is where I spend most of my time. We're nonprofit, so we do all kinds of global supply chain strategy work and consulting work - small consulting projects and big international projects.

       We're working on a giant project for the State of New York in manufacturing, and we help analyze, determine, and implement manufacturing projects to expand manufacturing in America. That's where we are today. We're associated with about 15 universities across the nation. We take graduate student interns that are very often scary smart and teach them about manufacturing. They're going to be the leaders of the future, and they help us with our research.

       Lisa Ryan: What would you say the things that you've seen? We've heard so much about manufacturing coming back to America, and China is certainly not as cheap as it used to be when it came to any of their manufacturing processes. So it's not like they're saving as much money as they used to, but besides the cost savings, what are some of the most significant benefits that you've been able to show manufacturers about coming back to the United States.

       Rosemary Coates: Well, you're right about cost increase, although that is not the primary driver. Wages in China are maybe a quarter of what they would be in the Western world, and in today's environment, we saw some financial incentives. For example, the tax reform act of 2017 was helpful to manufacturers. They got a big tax break, but it didn't drive much manufacturing back. It was just a tax break.

       Then, the trade war intended that it would drive manufacturing back to the US. Instead of just cause, manufacturers absorb more costs because they were paying the tariffs on imported parts and finished goods coming back into the US. That didn't drive any manufacturing back, although there was certainly talk. We were moving along, getting projects here and there, and doing our research. Then the pandemic made a big difference because it introduced risk.

       The economic incentives were there all along, but the risk is a whole other aspect, and many companies recognize that. It's time to think about their strategies more in-depth and potentially bring manufacturing back to America. The risk is certainly top of mind, with most executives potentially mitigating that risk through manufacturing close in the US or either in Mexico, sometimes Canada, so that's one aspect. But, of course, the economics have changed pretty significantly, and logistics costs are high.

       We're working on a project with the State of New York and are interviewing 50 companies in manufacturing. One after another, after another, they tell us that logistics costs are just choking them. For example, getting a container from Shanghai to LA used to be 1000 bucks now. It's as high as $15,000. The costs are exponential - most companies are paying at least three or four times more.

       That's a big issue that will eventually straighten out because it's based on the imbalance of containers around the world, and once that gets straightened out, we'll probably see some reduction in those costs, although not back to 2019 rates. So we should see some calming of that. So that's undoubtedly one of the factors.

       Another factor has short cycle times. If you have to wait six weeks to get the product from China, it's tough to fill your orders fast. Amazon has taught us all - whether industrial or personal consumers - that we want our stuff overnight. We're not going to wait six weeks. We want it in two days maximum. That's driven this whole attitude of shortening of cycle times in general across the industry. So having local manufacturing is helpful in that regard.

       Another aspect is engineering changes. It's tough to do those when you're at a distance. You've got an engineering problem. You get an engineer to hop on a plane, and tomorrow, they can be at a factory in Indiana or Alabama or somewhere. That makes a big difference in how quickly we respond to the marketplace.

       Lisa Ryan: Not only that, but you have your suppliers local, whether the United States, Canada, or Mexico, so it's not the slow boat from China. There's also something about buying products that are made in the United States. I know that you did some research through the Reshoring institute that talked about Americans' preferences for that made in the USA label. Would you mind telling us about that study and what you have found?

       Rosemary Coates: That was interesting. Since I'm working in that sector, there wasn't anything too surprising to me, but we surveyed 500 people across America and asked them some simple questions. These were all age groups from 18 to about 85, all education levels high school graduates, all the way to PhDs. The group included men, women in all regions of the US. We asked them some simple questions – "do you prefer to buy products made in the US? If so, would you pay more for them? If so, how much more?" The responses came back affirmatively. Somewhere around 60 or 70% said, yes, they prefer products made in the US. Yes, they would pay more for them, and the amount is between 10 and 20% more. If you get an exact product from China and one made in the US side by side, consumers are willing to pay 10 to 20% more for the product made in the USA. They indicated to us why there is a perceived better quality of products made in the US now.

       We didn't qualify that in any way. We didn't say good, bad, and indifferent. We didn't say any of that - we just said, "Do you think that products made in the US are better quality? And the answer was resounding yes. There's a perception and now why that's very important because, if we can manufacture in the US, for no more than, say, 10 to 15% more cost is 10 to 15% more. Americans perceive the quality is higher and are willing to pay more for it, so we use that number when calculating the cost of manufacturing in the US versus manufacturing in China or other low-cost countries. We know if we can get that cost within 10 or 15%, we got a winner.

       Manufacturing here has got a lot of advantages. It's a faster turnaround time. It's perceived higher quality. Whether it is or it isn't, it's perceived as higher quality. It's a speedier engineering change order. It's better logistics. It reduces your carbon footprint and on and on and on. So there are a million reasons why you would want to do it based on that economic factor.

       Lisa Ryan: When I think about it, there's also the softer side of it. It makes it easier for employees who want to work for a company that is made in America. A company that is keeping jobs here. There's that certain aplomb that comes with that. When you're looking at Millennials and Gen Z - the newer generations coming into the workforce, they want a company with a mission. If that manufacturer can say our mission is to bring you the highest quality products made right here, it will be even easier for them to attract talent. We all know that there is not enough talent to go around right now.

       Rosemary Coates: There's a huge shortage across the board and workers. We call that economic patriotism. It's based on the value of what you're willing to pay and how you perceive companies. There's a general preference among Americans to buy products manufactured here and to work for companies that manufacture in the US. I think it's awesome.

       Lisa Ryan: I had a guest a couple of weeks ago on the podcast who talked about this. I knew the numbers were similar, but I didn't realize they were that expansive. China has the number one GDP percentage of the GDP, like a 20% of manufacturing, the US is at 18%, and these numbers may be slightly different and going off the top of my head. But where they do it with 200 million people, we do it with 20 million. The opportunity to showcase what we do in the technology and the efficiency of American manufacturing puts every other company on the country on the planet to shame.

       Rosemary Coates: So you know that's a critical point - we don't want the 23 cent an hour T-shirt production back. Bangladesh or Myanmar - some of these low-cost countries. We want to have come back to the more sophisticated, more skillful requirements and environment for manufacturing. We want to put people back to work that makes a living wage and because, if we don't, we have to supplement their income with welfare. We don't want to create a bigger welfare state. What we want to do is bring in higher-skilled manufacturing jobs. Instead of putting pegs in holes, you run the robot that puts the pegs in holes. The robot technician is different from an unskilled Laborer. That's what we want. We want to focus on those higher-tech higher-skilled jobs, to bring them back because they pay a better wage, which creates better productivity for us.

       We sometimes hear politicians saying, Oh, we want to bring all the jobs back from China, and I'm like, that's not what we want. We don't want all that low-skilled stuff coming back. We want a more sophisticated environment and to move up the maturity curve for industry 4.0.

       Lisa Ryan: We've heard that trying to leave China can be troublesome. What have you experienced when companies are trying their best to bring manufacturing home?

       Rosemary Coates: That's a big one. Because I spent so much time in China, I'm very familiar with the craziness that can go on there. I've had clients who said, "okay, let's pull everything out of China and move back. We think we can make a case for it. We're going to build a new plant somewhere in the Midwest and bring everything back. At that point, I know I have to have a little tough conversation with the CFO.

       First of all, most of the employees in China are on employment contracts. That means that when they go to work for a company, they sign up for one or two years and have an employment contract. If you close your plant, you must pay out all those employment contracts. Surprise! That's a big surprise for a lot of companies. So even if you're sourcing there and you have a dedicated production line, you may be caught in that situation.

       Another thing is tools, dies, and molds. Once you establish that kind of thing in China, even if you think you own them, you believe they are written into your contract appropriately. You're probably never getting them back. There are a couple of reasons for this. First of all, there's a general culture that they become part of the infrastructure. So to take apart the infrastructure is just not allowed. And secondly, if it's any technology, the Chinese government won't allow it to be exported.

       You're probably going to have to write off all your machine tools, molds, everything, especially if you've had molds made in China, which many companies do because they're maybe a 10th of the cost of a mold made in the US. You gotta leave those behind. In terms of IP, here you are shutting down production, and the Chinese factory is learned how to make your goods. They have your IP instructions on manufacturing. They have your molds. They have your tools. So to say okay, we're going to stop making products there and move away, you've got to understand that the Chinese factory will continue to make your product. They're going to sell it under a slightly different name worldwide, and you're going to find yourself competing with your former factory in China. That's a problem.

       Sometimes you have to apply for permits to leave China. It's complicated and expensive, and you should go into this decision with your eyes open. We help a lot of companies in that regard, even though it's bad news. You need to know about it. You need to know what your costs are and your risks and leave an environment like that.

       Lisa Ryan: This brings us to exactly what you do at the Reshoring Institute. How can you help people listening to the podcast and may want to start considering bringing their business back to the States? Would you please share how you help your clients? Also, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

       Rosemary Coates: One of the first things I would recommend is to go to our website, www.ReshoringInstitute.org. We publish all of our research there. It's a complete website, full of all kinds of goodies that you can look at and determine that we also provide low-cost consulting work. Because we're a nonprofit, we have world-class consultants that have been in the business for 20-30 years. I've got a spectacular team. We do consulting projects at roughly half price of what you would get anywhere else. We help you find sources, supplier substitutions for foreign suppliers. For US suppliers, we do factory location, all kinds of design work.

       We can certainly help in that regard. Again, you can contact us through the website, or you can contact me directly, and my email is rcoates@ReshoringInstitute.org.

       Lisa Ryan: Wonderful. Rosemary, it has been an absolute pleasure having you on the show today. Thanks so much for joining me.

       Rosemary Coates: Oh, thank you

       Lisa Ryan: I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. We'll see you next time.

       
       

       ]]>42ed022a-2160-4180-866d-7262949e76a1Mon, 13 Sep 2021 06:05:00 -040022:57falsefull145451What To Do When a Good Hire Goes Bad with Susan FrewConnect 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, but we can afford to do this if you can stay on budget. There were some red flags in there - there were quite a few. If you're listening to this, here's one sign: if your employee is visibly living above their means, you need to question that. This employee took a family of five to Cancun for a week at an all-inclusive resort. That is a costly vacation, and they were making pretty much minimum wages for the rest of her family. She was doing pretty well, but they had all kinds of debt they were carrying around.

       The way she spent money – especially the way she spent our money. That's why I was trying to keep her on budget. What she did was she would short our bills. So not pay them. Instead, she would pay a portion of them so that red flags wouldn't be waived. She did that with our payroll taxes, primarily.

       If we had 5000 due on Friday, she paid 4000. If the bill was for $4000, she pays three. So her budget numbers would look right, and I would sign the form, and we'd send in the check.

       In my mind, everything's copasetic. What she didn't realize was at the end of the year, when the w2's would true-up, the IRS would catch her. It was about an 18-month cycle by the time the letter started coming to my home. I was here on a Saturday doing housework, just hanging out on a Saturday. The doorbell rings, and it was the mailman. I opened the letter from the IRS. Nobody likes getting a certified letter from the IRS, but it was for $498,000.

       Lisa Ryan: Oh, that does not make your day.

       Susan Frew: I am still convinced, Lisa, that the IRS sends those letters on Saturday to ruin your weekend. There's nothing you can do. You can't call anyone. You have to wait until Monday, and of course, that's their busiest day, so getting through to anyone is difficult. There were penalties and interest for all of those quarters that she had shorted the payroll. Then, come to find out that we owed our vendors $175,000 on top of that.

       Then, there was what's known as a trust fund penalty for not being a good steward of those payroll taxes and allowing my employee not to submit appropriately. Now in my mind, the bills were correct - that's why my signature was on there. The IRS doesn't care what your story is; it's your problem if your signatures are on there. That's how we got a million dollars in debt. It was a painful couple of years.

       Lisa Ryan: What were some of the lessons that you learn throughout this? I'm sure that there were plenty. What do you share about things that they can look for something to do so that this doesn't happen to them?

       Susan Frew: Well, first thing, don't buy into your own media and your own PR. I was so high that we were becoming these big celebrities for growing our company and winning all these awards. I'm traveling all over the country, giving these big keynotes that I wasn't watching what I was doing. It turned into a horrible situation for me. I was up there, telling stories of how successful we were, and once I found out what happened, I became a fraud in my mind. I couldn't deliver those keynotes anymore. I would get down off the stage, and I would feel terrible. So that's number one - don't buy your own PR because you need to pay attention to what's going on, no matter how big your britches get.

       Secondly, get your own mail. I don't care how important you are or how busy. You need to get your own mail because there is information in there. That goes for your electronic mail too. I have an email address called accounting@sunshineplumbingheating.com, that only I have access to that. If I'm on the road, wherever I am, I can see it concerning the mail it goes to a P O box, I can have it, so I'm going to be gone for longer than a couple of days.

       They will scan it and send it to me, but I usually go there on the weekend to pick it up, and I see what's happening. So you learn a lot from your mail in a business.

       The third thing, Lisa, is to do two different kinds of background checks. There's a regular background check, which will check the motor vehicle, background, felonies, that type of thing. But there's a second layer that most people are not aware of. It's called civil penalties. An attorney can run that there are services out there that you can buy. I use a service that's $29 a month. It shows you non-criminal things that will give you a clue that this may not be a good hire for you, especially if you're putting him in charge of finances.

       Because I found once, I did pull those records. She had filed for bankruptcy three times. She had liens, garnishments, judgments - like judgments from my competitors. They were suing her because she stole money from them. Because of all those liens and garnishments, she and her husband weren't taking home very much money, which prompted them to do a lot of the things they did. They would do something like go down to the tire store and buy a set of tires for all their cars and charge them to our truck account. We have ten trucks on the road. They stole a gas card, and they would fill up all of their cars on a Friday afternoon for two years. It was her job to review the gas bill, so that's how she got away with that one. Now, I have checks and balances in every area of our company, but I was asleep at the wheel. I take responsibility for what happened.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, such a good, such a good lesson to learn. The other thing that we were also talking about is the difficulty it is in finding people. You must check out the people you have working for you,...]]>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, but we can afford to do this if you can stay on budget. There were some red flags in there - there were quite a few. If you're listening to this, here's one sign: if your employee is visibly living above their means, you need to question that. This employee took a family of five to Cancun for a week at an all-inclusive resort. That is a costly vacation, and they were making pretty much minimum wages for the rest of her family. She was doing pretty well, but they had all kinds of debt they were carrying around.

       The way she spent money – especially the way she spent our money. That's why I was trying to keep her on budget. What she did was she would short our bills. So not pay them. Instead, she would pay a portion of them so that red flags wouldn't be waived. She did that with our payroll taxes, primarily.

       If we had 5000 due on Friday, she paid 4000. If the bill was for $4000, she pays three. So her budget numbers would look right, and I would sign the form, and we'd send in the check.

       In my mind, everything's copasetic. What she didn't realize was at the end of the year, when the w2's would true-up, the IRS would catch her. It was about an 18-month cycle by the time the letter started coming to my home. I was here on a Saturday doing housework, just hanging out on a Saturday. The doorbell rings, and it was the mailman. I opened the letter from the IRS. Nobody likes getting a certified letter from the IRS, but it was for $498,000.

       Lisa Ryan: Oh, that does not make your day.

       Susan Frew: I am still convinced, Lisa, that the IRS sends those letters on Saturday to ruin your weekend. There's nothing you can do. You can't call anyone. You have to wait until Monday, and of course, that's their busiest day, so getting through to anyone is difficult. There were penalties and interest for all of those quarters that she had shorted the payroll. Then, come to find out that we owed our vendors $175,000 on top of that.

       Then, there was what's known as a trust fund penalty for not being a good steward of those payroll taxes and allowing my employee not to submit appropriately. Now in my mind, the bills were correct - that's why my signature was on there. The IRS doesn't care what your story is; it's your problem if your signatures are on there. That's how we got a million dollars in debt. It was a painful couple of years.

       Lisa Ryan: What were some of the lessons that you learn throughout this? I'm sure that there were plenty. What do you share about things that they can look for something to do so that this doesn't happen to them?

       Susan Frew: Well, first thing, don't buy into your own media and your own PR. I was so high that we were becoming these big celebrities for growing our company and winning all these awards. I'm traveling all over the country, giving these big keynotes that I wasn't watching what I was doing. It turned into a horrible situation for me. I was up there, telling stories of how successful we were, and once I found out what happened, I became a fraud in my mind. I couldn't deliver those keynotes anymore. I would get down off the stage, and I would feel terrible. So that's number one - don't buy your own PR because you need to pay attention to what's going on, no matter how big your britches get.

       Secondly, get your own mail. I don't care how important you are or how busy. You need to get your own mail because there is information in there. That goes for your electronic mail too. I have an email address called accounting@sunshineplumbingheating.com, that only I have access to that. If I'm on the road, wherever I am, I can see it concerning the mail it goes to a P O box, I can have it, so I'm going to be gone for longer than a couple of days.

       They will scan it and send it to me, but I usually go there on the weekend to pick it up, and I see what's happening. So you learn a lot from your mail in a business.

       The third thing, Lisa, is to do two different kinds of background checks. There's a regular background check, which will check the motor vehicle, background, felonies, that type of thing. But there's a second layer that most people are not aware of. It's called civil penalties. An attorney can run that there are services out there that you can buy. I use a service that's $29 a month. It shows you non-criminal things that will give you a clue that this may not be a good hire for you, especially if you're putting him in charge of finances.

       Because I found once, I did pull those records. She had filed for bankruptcy three times. She had liens, garnishments, judgments - like judgments from my competitors. They were suing her because she stole money from them. Because of all those liens and garnishments, she and her husband weren't taking home very much money, which prompted them to do a lot of the things they did. They would do something like go down to the tire store and buy a set of tires for all their cars and charge them to our truck account. We have ten trucks on the road. They stole a gas card, and they would fill up all of their cars on a Friday afternoon for two years. It was her job to review the gas bill, so that's how she got away with that one. Now, I have checks and balances in every area of our company, but I was asleep at the wheel. I take responsibility for what happened.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, such a good, such a good lesson to learn. The other thing that we were also talking about is the difficulty it is in finding people. You must check out the people you have working for you, particularly if they're in charge of your finances. Share with us some of the things you have done to woo people to work for sunshine plumbing. What are some of the things that have worked or that aren't working? What are you finding out there?

       Susan Frew: Well, in the beginning, one of the things that we did is a lot of advertising using Facebook. We were creative and funny with our ads. We used all those awards I was talking about. We've won best workplaces from Inc. magazine and some local places, so we used all of that. We've always had a sign-on bonus, and we always broke it out in quarters. So, if you stay with us for 90 days, six months, nine months, 12 months, you get a bonus from us.

       We would try to make your experience here unique and different. We celebrated birthdays. We don't do on-call. We do not do nights and weekends - weird for a plumbing and heating company, but our employees were that important. If we had clients who had a problem, we would put them in a hotel rather than call one of our guys out in the middle of the night. We thought that was unique.

       We paid vacation and offered unlimited personal time off. You can win points for getting reviews and the grand prize for getting good reviews from clients trip to Mexico for two. We did all kinds of things -great creative things. Then this market started getting harder and harder and harder. As I said earlier, our top competitor in the market has 950 competitors in this space in Colorado. They were offering a $10,000 signing bonus, which I thought was outrageous. I even did a Ted talk about why can't we get women in the trades - which we've always been looking for. We need more women in the trades. We never seem to find that many of them, so we thought that $10,000 was crazy. So we are now offering a $10,000 sign-on bonus. Lisa, no one is applying. Nobody. I don't know what our future is. What we just did is we are merging with one of our subcontractors. We've joined forces. They're struggling because they don't have good back-end administration. We're struggling because we don't have workers. So we will come together, and we formed a partnership agreement to work out of the same shop. We are sharing resources, and they're coming aboard with a group of employees.

       That's been my solution. I've been trying to buy other companies or find strategic partnerships like that. I believe this market is going to turn around this fall. That is my hope. I think that that's, we have to be creative.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, that is $10,000 is one thing, but so are the people. People were working before, so have they just left the industry because of the pandemic, and they just totally got burned out? Or are there not enough new people coming into the industry?

       Susan Frew: it's all of it. The baby boomers are aging out. There's over a million person work shortage. They call it a blue-collar phrase. So that it's probably much more than that, all of the parents over the last 20 years pushed everybody to go to college, whether you were college material or not. So what we see actually in the trade schools now is people that are a little older. They tried the College route, but that didn't work for them. They're hands-on folks, and they want to go and get jobs with their hands. So we're seeing people in their 30's going to trade school now, which is great, right. But it's been faltering for 20 years. We have this giant gap. That's one of the things that's happening.

       The pandemic and the stipends for unemployment. Those jobs in that 22 probably $30 per hour range, which is where a lot of manufacturing jobs and trades jobs. If you do the math on the unemployment, you can get pretty close to what your salary was, and in plumbing, you can do side work. I can put in water heaters all day long in my neighborhood and make some money in my pocket that nobody needs to know about. I can go to Home Depot and buy the stuff and, am I licensed? No, probably not - but my neighbor's happy, I made a few blocks, and then, of course, there are childcare issues.

       When the kids were in school, someone needs to stay home with them. How do we manage that so it's a perfect storm of things happening in the trades and manufacturing? In factories all over the country, so many industries have been touched by this. It's also that our guys go into your house. How do I know you're not telling me a story that you're healthy?

       Lisa Ryan: Hopefully, as all the extended unemployment finally ends this fall, we will start seeing more people going back to work. Let's go back to the happier side of business things. What are some of the things that caused you to be the best place to work? How did you grow your company – it sounds like you did some super cool things for your employees.

       If somebody's listening to this today is thinking about ideas or needing ideas and suggestions to keep their employees, what are some of the creative things that you did there.

       Susan Frew: I didn't elaborate on the unlimited personal time off now that's not paid. That would be cost-prohibitive for mostly all of us. So we said, with proper notice, if you want to take an extended period off, you can.

       We had an employee who always had a dream to go hunting in Canada with his son. He was getting a little older, the son was starting to have children, and he's like, if we don't do this now, we're probably never going to do it. So we gave him a month off, and he never forgot that we did that. If you need a day to go, whatever you need to do, we will work with you with unlimited personal time off. You would think that people would take advantage of what they don't. It's something that they liked. We offered a gym membership now. Everyone thinks that's a great thing. Does everybody use it? No, but it was something. We always make sure we recognize people's birthdays and anniversaries, so that's something that we do.

       We have in the past and, from time to time, sent flowers home to someone's spouse, or we've sent people out to dinner we've sent employees on a trip. We sent one employee to see his friend, whose son was passing away, and he wanted to say goodbye to him before he went. We used some of our points and miles and sent them on a trip. That's many things that we have done, just really trying to be outside the box.

       Lisa Ryan: As we're getting to the end of our time, please share a bit of what you do and how you work with your clients. Then, if somebody would like to connect with you, what's the best way for them to do that?

       Susan Frew: Well, in the middle of our drama, and I need to, I need not leave everyone hanging. This is how we got out of the debt. We did a little Dave Ramsey, along with Profit First. If you've not read profit first, you should probably pick up a copy or download it. It's a great premise. We started doing those two things now. We also had this giant shop on the highway with the light-up sign. It's fabulous -5000 square feet - in this huge building. It costs a fortune, so we shut down the big building we moved the offices into the basement of my house.

        How humiliating is that for the big lady on the keynote stage talking about how great they were, we got a little shop down closer to the city? For the last two years, we dug and dug and dug and dug and dug, and last weekend, they moved out of the basement into another shop with an office.

       We have effectively paid off over $600,000. Some of the debt we have is for our trucks, so I'm not counting that as too much debt. We will be completely debt-free by the middle of 2022. It took a lot of sacrifices, a lot of hard work, a lot of elbow grease by all of us.

       What I do know from all those years of coaching about how great we were and how you could get there, you know what so what who cares, lady. What people want to hear is, hey, how can you help me get out of my predicament? So that's what I do now.

       I've partnered with a business brokerage firm called Raincatcher. I'm on staff with them as their professional speaker. I run their business coaching division. We work with business owners who want to sell their companies. They might not want to sell for three to five years, but we start to help them to get prepared. There's my division which is coaching, and then we have brokerage. If a company's not ready to sell but needs some structural changes or an increase in profits to get to the correct number, they send them over to my department, and then I work with them until they're ready. Then they go to brokerage, sell, and off they go into the sunset with their retirement funds. That's what I do now. It's really fun, and I know my story on stage is a lot different.

       It is a hey. Anybody can get in this predicament. There's a way out. Let's breathe. I know sleeping is difficult when you don't see how you will make payroll next week. I've been there many times, and I get it, and I think that I'm a lot more helpful now than I've ever been. The best way to reach me is on LinkedIn, and my moniker on there is Susan coaches. It's been like that for a long time. My last name is Frew in Commerce City, Colorado. You'll see me out there.

       Hit me up or if you're going to be at FABTECH. Come and see me because I will be there. I'm speaking in two sessions. We have a booth for Raincatcher, so I love to see you there.

       Lisa Ryan: Yes, and I will be speaking there too, so it'll be fun to hang out together.

       Susan Frew: Yes, absolutely.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, Susan, it has been a pleasure to have a conversation with you. Thanks so much for being on the show.

       Susan Frew: Thank you. It's been my honor Lisa, and I look forward to spending time with you in...]]>b3bbb37d-3355-46fe-b71b-a1e41006aa85Mon, 06 Sep 2021 06:05:00 -040025:10falsefull144441The Importance of Diversity from the White Male Viewpoint with Kevin PowellContact 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 the big picture. For example, you and I talked earlier about the story of diversity that was one of my eye-openers. I had a young lady who was in a relationship with another lady, and we became friends. My wife and I and the two of them would go out with them. I thought that I was doing excellent. I thought that I was so open-minded. I thought that I was this worldly leader of diversity and acceptance and everything else and that I had created this utopia within the office I was leading.

       I had somebody pointed out to me one time to go back to her desk and see if she has a picture of her significant other on her desk. And sure as heck, she didn't. So I went back the next day and looked around, and everybody else had pictures of vacations, family, everything else, and she had a photo of her horse on her desk. So what I learned at that moment was that, even though she knew that I was personally accepting, I hadn't created a culture around the office that made her feel comfortable enough to share that personal side of her life with everybody else around her. So even though her situation may have been publicly understood around the office shooting, I feel comfortable talking about it.

       Lisa Ryan: When you are paying attention to those types of details, pictures on the desk, and some of the steps that you would recommend for leaders to pay attention to and little by little to start making those changes.

       Kevin Powell: People genuinely want to be listened to, not talk to. It's practicing the adage of the leadership of listening twice as much as you speak and look around twice as much as more twice as much as you command. If people feel like you're listening to them, they feel valued, whatever the topic is. I see so many leaders walk into a room and instantly command the attention of others. The best leaders are often the quietest in the room.

       Lisa Ryan: You've done a lot with manufacturers, turning them around and seeing the value of having lots of diverse ideas, where not everybody is thinking alike. What are some of the things that that you've seen? Some of the productivity increases due to companies that focus on people's diversity and thought within their organizations?

       Kevin Powell: It understands that if you're in the electric business like I was for a long time, or the swimming pool business that I was in for a while, or today, working with some startups that are doing Internet marketing and others, knowing that your customer base is not you and creating a workforce that understands what their customer base is and caters to them is a lot of the key to success.

       If you're trying to create a situation where your business is only focused on who traditionally is bought from you, as opposed to being buying from you, you're missing a huge market.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, and you and I had talked about that of just the opportunity for salespeople to make sure that they're getting it. If there are two parties involved a husband-wife that they're not just focusing on the person that looks like them, the other male in the room that they're making sure to figure out who's the decision-maker and pay attention to that many to that person, because how many sales have been made, because that salesman talked directly to the husband, knowing that the wife was the person who was going to be making that buying decision. These are just some of the little things you mentioned - the photos on the desk and the attention that we're giving to people and just going outside of maybe our comfort zone.

       Kevin Powell: We always tend to stereotype around groups, and it is human nature, and it's the self-awareness that breaks of that and even within the white male population, we do that, for example, I look at another white male and my assumption tends to go towards an upbringing very similar to mine, and I was raised in a farm community by parents who had gone through the depression and didn't have much money. I could be looking at somebody who led a life with two professional parents and had more than enough resources to do anything they wanted. You assume that people have gone through the same things you have. What you learn is that we're all individuals. As a leader, you need to lead the individual, not any one group.

       Lisa Ryan: When a person listening to this podcast is thinking about things that maybe they can do in their plan to make it a people-first environment to focus on people attending, of course, it is one thing. With some of the turnarounds you've been involved in, what have those leaders done to engage their employees better to bring them in and make them feel valued and appreciated, so that they are more productive to the organization?

       Kevin Powell: I think the biggest mistake people make is that it's a money game and having worked with many turnarounds. I've learned there is the power of your words is far, far greater than the power of your budget and that a great example would be if you want to show appreciation to somebody, you can get them an Amazon gift card for 200 bucks, but if you get to know that person and find out that they have a passion for knitting or a passion for fishing. So you get them a knitting kit or a fishing kit that every time they use, they think about you. You've now taken your words and made them more important than your budget.

       Lisa Ryan: That's one of the things that I talk about in some of my programs. It's through something simple like a survey, call it the all about me sheet, where you're finding out your favorite gift card, favorite hobby, sports...]]>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 the big picture. For example, you and I talked earlier about the story of diversity that was one of my eye-openers. I had a young lady who was in a relationship with another lady, and we became friends. My wife and I and the two of them would go out with them. I thought that I was doing excellent. I thought that I was so open-minded. I thought that I was this worldly leader of diversity and acceptance and everything else and that I had created this utopia within the office I was leading.

       I had somebody pointed out to me one time to go back to her desk and see if she has a picture of her significant other on her desk. And sure as heck, she didn't. So I went back the next day and looked around, and everybody else had pictures of vacations, family, everything else, and she had a photo of her horse on her desk. So what I learned at that moment was that, even though she knew that I was personally accepting, I hadn't created a culture around the office that made her feel comfortable enough to share that personal side of her life with everybody else around her. So even though her situation may have been publicly understood around the office shooting, I feel comfortable talking about it.

       Lisa Ryan: When you are paying attention to those types of details, pictures on the desk, and some of the steps that you would recommend for leaders to pay attention to and little by little to start making those changes.

       Kevin Powell: People genuinely want to be listened to, not talk to. It's practicing the adage of the leadership of listening twice as much as you speak and look around twice as much as more twice as much as you command. If people feel like you're listening to them, they feel valued, whatever the topic is. I see so many leaders walk into a room and instantly command the attention of others. The best leaders are often the quietest in the room.

       Lisa Ryan: You've done a lot with manufacturers, turning them around and seeing the value of having lots of diverse ideas, where not everybody is thinking alike. What are some of the things that that you've seen? Some of the productivity increases due to companies that focus on people's diversity and thought within their organizations?

       Kevin Powell: It understands that if you're in the electric business like I was for a long time, or the swimming pool business that I was in for a while, or today, working with some startups that are doing Internet marketing and others, knowing that your customer base is not you and creating a workforce that understands what their customer base is and caters to them is a lot of the key to success.

       If you're trying to create a situation where your business is only focused on who traditionally is bought from you, as opposed to being buying from you, you're missing a huge market.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, and you and I had talked about that of just the opportunity for salespeople to make sure that they're getting it. If there are two parties involved a husband-wife that they're not just focusing on the person that looks like them, the other male in the room that they're making sure to figure out who's the decision-maker and pay attention to that many to that person, because how many sales have been made, because that salesman talked directly to the husband, knowing that the wife was the person who was going to be making that buying decision. These are just some of the little things you mentioned - the photos on the desk and the attention that we're giving to people and just going outside of maybe our comfort zone.

       Kevin Powell: We always tend to stereotype around groups, and it is human nature, and it's the self-awareness that breaks of that and even within the white male population, we do that, for example, I look at another white male and my assumption tends to go towards an upbringing very similar to mine, and I was raised in a farm community by parents who had gone through the depression and didn't have much money. I could be looking at somebody who led a life with two professional parents and had more than enough resources to do anything they wanted. You assume that people have gone through the same things you have. What you learn is that we're all individuals. As a leader, you need to lead the individual, not any one group.

       Lisa Ryan: When a person listening to this podcast is thinking about things that maybe they can do in their plan to make it a people-first environment to focus on people attending, of course, it is one thing. With some of the turnarounds you've been involved in, what have those leaders done to engage their employees better to bring them in and make them feel valued and appreciated, so that they are more productive to the organization?

       Kevin Powell: I think the biggest mistake people make is that it's a money game and having worked with many turnarounds. I've learned there is the power of your words is far, far greater than the power of your budget and that a great example would be if you want to show appreciation to somebody, you can get them an Amazon gift card for 200 bucks, but if you get to know that person and find out that they have a passion for knitting or a passion for fishing. So you get them a knitting kit or a fishing kit that every time they use, they think about you. You've now taken your words and made them more important than your budget.

       Lisa Ryan: That's one of the things that I talk about in some of my programs. It's through something simple like a survey, call it the all about me sheet, where you're finding out your favorite gift card, favorite hobby, sports team, candy bar, whatever it is so that you can personalize that recognition. Many times, that employee is not going to remember filling out that form six months ago. If they knock it out of the park and you paid enough attention to realize that they like knitting, it's like, wow, he's paying attention to me versus, you know, throwing another generic gift - though you can buy a gazillion things on Amazon. In the scheme of things, it's not as personalized as your knitting kit would be.

       Kevin Powell: If you're not building lasting relationships, and financial success you have will be short-lived. You don't make those through grouping people together. You build those by getting to know people individually, and it's harder with covid. People aren't sitting across the desk from you. They are in a collaborative situation there zooming, or they're on conference calls or otherwise. I think leadership requires outrageously more effort in the days of covid than in the past. The companies that will be successful in this are the ones that did treat people as individuals, as opposed to groups, even in this environment of electronic communication versus in person.

       Lisa Ryan: Communication is such a big thing right now because we think people are fine and fine on their own with all the technology. It's that that personal connection that picking up the phone or sending a text or going and seeing that person in their office personally. Whatever it is, but even in this game in this age of remote workers, that attention to not only connecting with them from the aspect of how's the business going but how's your job going? How are you doing? You're making a lot more of those personal connections.

       Kevin Powell: You can't create more time. Our success is defined in how we spend the time we have. One of the mistakes I've seen in the remote work environment is people hunker down and do their work. You miss that communication. That interaction creates a collaboration that grows a business, as opposed to just getting some paperwork done. The success and leadership in both the remote work environment and a diverse work environment all come down to making sure as a leader you genuinely know your people and that they feel valued, and that doesn't happen by accident. It occurs by an intended purpose in getting to know what creates a situation where somebody will do something they otherwise wouldn't.

       Lisa Ryan: Exactly. In one of our previous conversations, you told me a bit of the first company when you were President of that the company was pretty much going bankrupt, and by utilizing some of these things of building relationships, building that culture, and getting employees engaged and excited, that you were able to turn that business around four years later. Please share with us again a bit of the journey. What did it look like from an employee engagement standpoint? What are some of the things that you did to change that environment? You're in manufacturing, you're in distribution – whatever - we all want to make money, and we all have to figure out how to do that. Sometimes we're so focused on the widgets that we're making and making those better that we don't look at the product, which is the people, which seems to be your specialty.

       Kevin Powell: Making sure that people feel valued, you know the company that I took over had a gang in the warehouse. They had a Unionized environment and were almost bankrupt. The bank forced the sale of the business. Four years into our journey, we became one of Minnesota's best places to work.

       That didn't happen by accident. It happened by working, not as an individual, but with a team of leaders that understood that our goal was to create something that created a future for everybody involved, not just the leaders, not just the owners.

       We created a future and showed people a path to what that future looks like, to the point where our Union, which in the upper Midwest to decertify a union, doesn't just happen. We ended up decertifying the Union because they looked at their contract and said, why should we have a union? We have confidence that the client is looking after our best interest. We don't need to work against each other. We can work with leadership directly as a group and make that happen. There's a place in every work environment for those organizations, and where they apply, God bless them. But, in our case, we created enough individual relationships that they felt trust that we were looking after everybody's interest, not just our own.

       Lisa Ryan: It sounds like it was a pretty toxic environment when you came in there, so things like getting the gang out. Did you put together inter-departmental meetings, putting together teams of employees together? What was your process that started that turnaround and then ended up snowballing into decentralizing the Union?

       Kevin Powell: It created a situation where people felt that they could win and had a path to win. When people understand that their work translates to good for them and support each other, the biggest thing for me was hiring the right people. If you're looking to hire somebody, I'd ask what community activities they are involved in? Suppose they're interested in building a habitat for humanity home, and they're willing to give up a Saturday of their time to pound nails for a family to move in. In that case, they're never going even to meet. Imagine how they treat the person next to them at work. They'll have a relationship with that person. So starting to find the right people and then creating a work environment of engagement is different from a work environment of satisfaction.

       Kevin Powell: When employees are satisfied, it could mean that they're shopping on Amazon all day. They may be satisfied with that work environment, but it doesn't create a situation where the company wins, and the individual wins. It creates a situation where people are just happy. I don't believe that they're genuinely happy because they're not fulfilled. Engagement means they are supporting each other, and they are keeping the company. They are supporting the cause. Do they understand the link between their success in that?

       Lisa Ryan: What are some of how you allowed people to showcase those personal successes so that they felt a part of that company mission. It was everything from the vocabulary we used to the cadence of our work, for example, on vocabulary. We used to have a monthly meeting. We changed that to a celebration meeting. When we change that to a celebration meeting, we also had people showcase their successes each month, a different person or group got to do so, and we'd also celebrate some support that we provide outside the four walls of work. For example, at habitat for humanity, we would showcase the work that a group did at the habitat for humanity house the month before.

       It's the vocabulary and then the cadence that the leadership is commanding versus the leadership by collaborating. It wasn't unusual for us as a group of leaders to change the jeans and go pick orders at three o'clock in the afternoon because we wanted to make sure that a warehouse person knew that we would do it. We were lousy pickers. Occasionally, if I had a driver that would call in sick and route needed to get run, we had a choice between contracting out, or if I had a lighter day, sometimes I'd go in and drive the truck that that morning and then come in and do get caught up on the work in the afternoon. It was a great way to know people then knew that you weren't above them and that you were genuinely there to help them. You were there to help them be successful at their job, and their job was essential.

       One of the stories that I tell is that if I had a warehouse person call in sick or a counter salesperson or a customer service person call in sick, what happened, what happened is is that every ten other people were affected, customers might not have their product delivered. Others had to work overtime. There's all this chaos that happened when one team member on the front line called in sick. As the business leader, if I went to a conference that lasted a month, sometimes people wouldn't even know. So whose job is more important? Just understanding that a person who is that frontline worker is the one adding value. As a leader, your job is to organize that value in a most effective way to the customer. Making the customer competitively better than doing business with somebody other than your business is important.

       The other thing I'd tell you is that feedback is outrageously critical and delivering it in a way that can be received well is important. Another story that I suggest is that I've got two kids, and they mean more to me than anything in the world. As a parent, I'm the one that's there cheerleading for them the most. I cheerlead for them 100 times more than I ever give them critical feedback. But, I do give them critical feedback, and I do so because I care about them. I want them to succeed and taking that type of attitude to your employee base and making sure that, through your everyday actions through your listening, through your caring through your behaviors, they understand that you're there to help them succeed as opposed to telling them what they did wrong. It is so essential, and that breakthrough comes from listening to a few times in this podcast, but it's listening and genuinely feeling, genuinely knowing; having an employee know that what they say matters that neither one of you are always right and that we're in this together for mutual success. It doesn't happen by sitting behind your desk.

       Lisa Ryan: There were so many good tips. I love changing meetings to celebration meetings because]]>5b23efb6-7dfc-4c76-ba78-73221c15604fMon, 30 Aug 2021 06:05:00 -040030:23falsefull143431Addressing Supply Chain and Workforce Issues in Manufacturing with Alan DavisConnect 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. We're going to award it outside of the state because our buyers have scoured the state, and they cannot find anyone here that can deliver this. So we said this is perfect. We have the prototype ready, and we searched.

       Sure enough, two miles from their facility was the exact company they were looking for. They didn't know they were there, and that was when we decided as a company that number one, we needed to solve this for our country because it was a massive need. But number two, that it had huge value to the industry. If we could solve this, not for the state, but our country, imagine the economic impact that it would have. At that time, we decided this is our journey, this is our path. This is where we're going, and we've been all-in every sense, trying to make sure that we built the right solution for our country. We built the first U.S. manufacturing supply chain connection solution that connects us to the manufacturing capabilities of the United States.

       Lisa Ryan: That's what it's all about. You look at what I'm trying to create here with the Manufacturers' Network Podcast – it's connecting manufacturers. Sometimes you get so focused on your business, what you're doing, and your products. Either you don't think about other manufacturers in the area, or unfortunately, you look at them as the competition. I don't want anything to do with them versus building this connection - this group of people – and knowing who you can give the business if, for whatever reason. You're not the right company for it, or you don't have what you need to fulfill that order, and partnering with other manufacturers, it's it seems so easy that it's something that we should have been doing all along.

       But putting that focus on keeping it local to have the jobs and everything else, and building those relationships.

       Alan Davis: It's amazing if you start looking local first. Then, you can expand your search beyond your local community to your state, and into your country, and then international. That helps - no matter which ecosystem you're in. That helps your ecosystem because starting local first is always going to be the most economical solution. Well, not always, but almost always will be the most economical solution if you can find the right kind of provider.

       Now, if you can't find the right kind of provider, you have to expand that search, and sometimes that does take you internationally. But there are definite advantages to everyone. If you start with that local search, first one, especially when you look at things like the contribution to the local community, of standing out there, of letting people in your community, in your area know what you're about, know what your mission is, how you're contributing, because then also in a market where it's so difficult to find the correct skilled labor force that you need, that makes your plant somewhere where people want to work. They want to be a part of that because they see what you're doing locally.

       That was right after the Supply-Chain workforce was the next area the manufacturing asked us to start working on, so we have a workforce module. The solution is the Connex marketplace. You can find at Connexmarketplace.com. But that was the next piece that they came forward with and said, look, it's great if we solve the supply chain problem, but that introduces the next problem right behind it: do we have the workforce to sustain that business?

       That’s been an ongoing problem for several years. It seems to be exacerbated in the current climate, so there's a lot that we need to do in that area as well, and R&D or innovation is right there with it. We are working on all three of those problems and trying to help solve the challenges associated with them in manufacturing.

       Lisa Ryan: We think about the workplace. I mean, back in the day, you went into manufacturing because you could make great money with great benefits, and all this, and now you're not only competing with other manufacturers, but you're competing with Amazon. You're competing with these other tech companies that have money to play with. We're getting away from having that conversation. Looking at the things that differentiate a career in manufacturing and knowing that we need to have that conversation to attract people into the labor force that we're so desperately looking for.

       I know that there is no easy button to have potential workers show up at your door. But what are some of the things that you have found that are working to attract the workforce that we need?

       Alan Davis: That's a big question because many things contribute to it. One of the first things is manufacturing struggles to compete for the workforce, particularly in the U.S., mainly because of some perception problems we have a perception that manufacturing is this old, dirty industry that no one wants to work in, and it's hard work and low pay.

       And it couldn't that perception could not be further from the truth. Today's manufacturing is very much high-tech and has tremendous jobs. In fact, on average, they pay about a quarter percent more than any other industry. It is a fantastic industry to be involved in. But getting past that perception problem is part of what we're trying to help within the application and better connecting industry and education institutions. There's a better exchange of knowledge, understanding, and information between them.

       If kids are attending grade school through university, they don't always have an understanding of what some of those pathways are. They don’t know the opportunities of these high-paying jobs, and incredible careers that are available in manufacturing....]]>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. We're going to award it outside of the state because our buyers have scoured the state, and they cannot find anyone here that can deliver this. So we said this is perfect. We have the prototype ready, and we searched.

       Sure enough, two miles from their facility was the exact company they were looking for. They didn't know they were there, and that was when we decided as a company that number one, we needed to solve this for our country because it was a massive need. But number two, that it had huge value to the industry. If we could solve this, not for the state, but our country, imagine the economic impact that it would have. At that time, we decided this is our journey, this is our path. This is where we're going, and we've been all-in every sense, trying to make sure that we built the right solution for our country. We built the first U.S. manufacturing supply chain connection solution that connects us to the manufacturing capabilities of the United States.

       Lisa Ryan: That's what it's all about. You look at what I'm trying to create here with the Manufacturers' Network Podcast – it's connecting manufacturers. Sometimes you get so focused on your business, what you're doing, and your products. Either you don't think about other manufacturers in the area, or unfortunately, you look at them as the competition. I don't want anything to do with them versus building this connection - this group of people – and knowing who you can give the business if, for whatever reason. You're not the right company for it, or you don't have what you need to fulfill that order, and partnering with other manufacturers, it's it seems so easy that it's something that we should have been doing all along.

       But putting that focus on keeping it local to have the jobs and everything else, and building those relationships.

       Alan Davis: It's amazing if you start looking local first. Then, you can expand your search beyond your local community to your state, and into your country, and then international. That helps - no matter which ecosystem you're in. That helps your ecosystem because starting local first is always going to be the most economical solution. Well, not always, but almost always will be the most economical solution if you can find the right kind of provider.

       Now, if you can't find the right kind of provider, you have to expand that search, and sometimes that does take you internationally. But there are definite advantages to everyone. If you start with that local search, first one, especially when you look at things like the contribution to the local community, of standing out there, of letting people in your community, in your area know what you're about, know what your mission is, how you're contributing, because then also in a market where it's so difficult to find the correct skilled labor force that you need, that makes your plant somewhere where people want to work. They want to be a part of that because they see what you're doing locally.

       That was right after the Supply-Chain workforce was the next area the manufacturing asked us to start working on, so we have a workforce module. The solution is the Connex marketplace. You can find at Connexmarketplace.com. But that was the next piece that they came forward with and said, look, it's great if we solve the supply chain problem, but that introduces the next problem right behind it: do we have the workforce to sustain that business?

       That’s been an ongoing problem for several years. It seems to be exacerbated in the current climate, so there's a lot that we need to do in that area as well, and R&D or innovation is right there with it. We are working on all three of those problems and trying to help solve the challenges associated with them in manufacturing.

       Lisa Ryan: We think about the workplace. I mean, back in the day, you went into manufacturing because you could make great money with great benefits, and all this, and now you're not only competing with other manufacturers, but you're competing with Amazon. You're competing with these other tech companies that have money to play with. We're getting away from having that conversation. Looking at the things that differentiate a career in manufacturing and knowing that we need to have that conversation to attract people into the labor force that we're so desperately looking for.

       I know that there is no easy button to have potential workers show up at your door. But what are some of the things that you have found that are working to attract the workforce that we need?

       Alan Davis: That's a big question because many things contribute to it. One of the first things is manufacturing struggles to compete for the workforce, particularly in the U.S., mainly because of some perception problems we have a perception that manufacturing is this old, dirty industry that no one wants to work in, and it's hard work and low pay.

       And it couldn't that perception could not be further from the truth. Today's manufacturing is very much high-tech and has tremendous jobs. In fact, on average, they pay about a quarter percent more than any other industry. It is a fantastic industry to be involved in. But getting past that perception problem is part of what we're trying to help within the application and better connecting industry and education institutions. There's a better exchange of knowledge, understanding, and information between them.

       If kids are attending grade school through university, they don't always have an understanding of what some of those pathways are. They don’t know the opportunities of these high-paying jobs, and incredible careers that are available in manufacturing. When they begin learning about the workplace, and learning about jobs, and starting to think about what those jobs might be for their future, and then obtaining the right skills to be able to enter into those jobs. We haven't solved the problem because it has to come through that process for the next generation of the workforce to understand what the opportunities are, and to take advantage of them.

       There's the issue of helping the existing workforce transition to manufacturing jobs and be able to find a pathway that takes them from their current place of employment or direction of career to be able to make an amendment, a change, or a pivot to come back over into manufacturing and take advantage of some of those amazing jobs. So those are a couple of the things. There are also some challenges associated with training the existing workforce.

       There's a concern occasionally about automation, robotics, and things like that taking over all the jobs. That's not the case. When you implement automation and robotics, the reality has been that it almost always creates more jobs and increases production. An interesting statistic that I think helps here is that with one-tenth of the labor force, we produce almost the same output as China in manufacturing. So China has about 20 percent of the world's goods. We produce about 18 percent. They do it with about two hundred million whereas opposed to our 20 million, so it is a stark contrast.

       But what it means is we've been very innovative in our ability to manufacture goods in the United States. That level of innovation has to continue. Part of being in manufacturing is the opportunity to innovate and find ways to take those leaps and bounds forward in producing new goods, producing all goods in new ways, and so many things. It is such an exciting place to be, and right now, with so much focus on the problems that we have with our supply chain, and being able to fix those problems, and making sure that we're resilient in our supply chain in the future, all of that tends to hopefully help people understand that this is a long term, wonderful industry, and it's not going anywhere. The jobs there are going to grow and get better. I think if we can begin to combat some of those perceptions or misperceptions, then I believe we have a much better shot at addressing some of the workforces challenges that exist today.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, and even thinking about automation for years, it was expensive and scary, and, oh, this is going to take away everybody's job where instead, as you said, it's creating jobs. But now what it's doing is getting rid of that drab, that manual labor, that repetitive motion, basically the grunt work. So why not have automation take care of that so that you can leave the innovation, and you need people to program those robots? When I was in the welding industry, it was all dark, dirty, and dangerous.

       And now, as you said, it's opening up those channels to introduce kids coming through schools to see what it's like to see that it's bright, and high tech, and a fantastic place to work where you have that immediate gratification of something that you helped to build, you helped to create. So lots and lots tied up in there. You are using things like Manufacturing Day to open up to the local schools, to come in to see what you're doing. You're not going to get all of those kids. But if you get one or you get a couple, that puts you ahead of everybody else.

       Alan Davis: One of the things we've been working on is this opportunity within the solution for teachers, academic advisors, and others booking plant tours and downloading materials, videos, about the manufacturing processes from the industry to connect better. We're a part of a group in defense manufacturing community partnerships in the United States where we're holding these workshops to try to understand better what some of those needs are in the workforce, and R&D, and in additive manufacturing, and advanced manufacturing, and all these areas so that we're able to step in, and better help solve those problems.

       Lisa Ryan: Where are those resources available? Because I think that if a teacher or a guidance counselor or people are working in the schools that knew that that was available, that maybe that would open some channels that they didn't know. What would be some good resources for people listening to check out and find some of those videos and resources?

       Alan Davis: We are in the process of compiling that. It'll be coming out and available to the academic organizations sometime in the fall. But in the meantime, to reach out to any of their manufacturing organizations in their state. So who is a great resource, by the way, the MEP system that we have in the United States is beneficial to manufacturing and certainly acts as a liaison to help in some of those communications between academia, and industry, manufacturing associations, the Chambers of Commerce.

       There are so many wonderful organizations that are there to help support manufacturing in the state. Right now, they're the ones who do their very best to try to make some of those resources available and to make those connections, and so the solution that we're putting forward is to help support that communication and all that interchange back, and forth.

       Lisa Ryan: I talk to my clients about partnering with your local tech schools, and getting involved in those because then you're basically getting students right off the line that are coming into your plants. You’re building those relationships. When students see that you're involved with that trade or technical school, you're a known entity, and they feel comfortable working for you. So, and when it comes to additional resources, if somebody is not familiar with what an MEP is, can you tell us a little bit more about that?

       Alan Davis: Yeah, absolutely, and I will make one more comment on what you said because working with those tech colleges, one of the things that we learned early from them was they want to help more students get trained and be ready to come into the workforce. But they were limited or constrained by the access that they had to equipment into materials that they needed to train the students better. So that was one of the problems or challenges brought forward to us some years ago.

       We put an exchange center together for the exchange of surplus material where our large manufacturers were so gracious and stepped forward, and said, look, we have the equipment, we have materials, and we're happy to donate that or provide it at a very low cost to schools so that they can have better access to those things to help with the workforce problems. So that exchange has been amazing, and so those organizations come back to us frequently and say, this has been one of the best values we've ever gotten out of the application is this ability to exchange.

       So in our country, MEP goes back about 30 years. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIS) was asked to create the MEP program, which is a manufacturing extension partnership, and what that is, is an organization. There is one MEP who is a partner to NIST in every single state. They have federal funding to help manufacturers, particularly with challenges and issues that they face, such as being certified or finding some training that they might need to help the manufacturers with their operations better. Their mission has continued to expand grow, and I know they are very much involved in helping with issues like cybersecurity and making sure that your plant is safe and secure. There are loads of resources that are available through the MEP network and your state.

       Lisa Ryan: OK, so they can do a Google search on their state and MEP, and that should be able to come up easily findable. Absolutely, and then finally, let's get to the issues with the supply chain. Some of the things that you're seeing are the issues and what is working right now. What are some of the good things that manufacturers are doing in an area that the supply chain is struggling with, and they can turn it around?

       Alan Davis: I think almost everyone now sees the problems, and the struggles, and supply chain, and everything from ships being stuck, and not being able to goods into the port, to not being able to get goods manufactured, and shipped soon enough, to not having enough ships, and all kinds of things. That is impacting various aspects of the supply chain but in a very positive way. When these challenges arise, it opens a door and an opportunity for innovation and positive change.

       I tend to gravitate toward what I see is happening to address the issues. In addition to trying to work through the problems to get the supply chain flowing again, there's also a lot of innovation. There is a lot of focus and effort around trying to change the supply chain, maybe a little bit, see if you can't find a closer supplier to your facility or provide something to you in the United States that maybe you were getting overseas.

       Now, that's not always possible. It's not always feasible, and it's not always the best course of action. But we're seeing it often right now, and then we're seeing companies starting to innovate. So I'll show you quickly. I am holding a pen here. This is the first promotional pen produced in the United States in many, many years. This is a 3D printed pen and one of the first pens made in the United States, which is because there have been these problems in the supply chain. So manufacturers are stepping forward, and I know I'm using a straightforward example of a pen. But, still, I use that to illustrate that this is happening all over the United States. When manufacturers see the problem, they're stepping up, and]]>010d4423-865e-4c2a-93e3-6b6789db44b5Mon, 23 Aug 2021 09:30:00 -040027:30falsefull142421How Manufacturers Modernize Their Sales Process with Damon PistulkaConnect 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, everything's been manufactured. And when we think about manufacturing and these younger generations coming into the workplace because they haven't had that same level of exposure, they don't necessarily know how cool and passionate people can get about it. I mean, my manufacturing audiences are some of the most passionate people on the planet about what they do.

       But when it comes to changing that conversation, many manufacturers have been doing it the same way for 40 years, the same equipment that they've had in the plant. And this is not how we attract the new generation. So you and I will talk about ways that you've seen your clients and how you've helped people as far as little things that we can do to modernize manufacturing for today and the future.

       So, start there, kind of what are you seeing and how are you helping your clients progress and change things?

       Damon Pistulka: When I talk about modernizing manufacturing, I don't even pretend to know how to do it on the manufacturing floor anymore. I think that is something that manufacturers are very good at. If you're in business today, you're not a sloppy manufacturer anymore. You've been in business for a long time. Even if you're an OEM manufacturer, you've got to get good at least producing that product efficiently enough to support yourself.

       So when it comes to the manufacturing floor, I think there are two things we're selling ourselves short on. So let's back up to the beginning of the question. Modernizing manufacturing to me is about digital transformation. It's not because I think everyone should be doing digital marketing. I think you should be to some extent. But it's not only that. It's the fact that is understanding the generational transformation that we were going through. So we're getting into this quite a ways down the road and understanding that.

       What does it mean for our workforce? What does it mean for our customer base? And that's where I talk with more of the clients I'm working with: understanding your customer base and how it's changed over the last ten years because manufacturing and some of the other industries we work with are closely related. It traditionally was Damon's going a salesperson for a manufacturer; he's out meeting with customers. That's what we do.

       That's how we sell. Yeah, we got a website. You can contact our phone number that might have been all it was, or it's an equipment list or something like that. We got some pictures of the product, whatever it is. And that's the length of the breadth of the way the digital format was. And that's the sales process. Right, to have x many salespeople or manufacturer's reps or distributors or whoever the heck I'm selling my product the way I did it.

       Well, fast forward to today. We've been going through the last how many years we've been talking about baby boomers retiring. I mean, heck, it started ten years ago already. And we're rolling through that. And now it's hitting. When you look at manufacturing, we've got the double whammy in 2021. We got the big jobs to shift that people are talking about; people leaving because it's such an employer's market. They can go wherever they want.

       And you've got people retiring at a faster rate than ever before because they sat through the 2008-9 crash when the real estate went to hell. And then they stayed through that. And then we had it covid in 2020, and some people hung on. And now, when people are getting past this, we're going to have even more. But the underlying change that people don't focus on a lot in manufacturing is that the average age of the buying population is not going up anymore.

       It's going down significantly. The buying population and the employees all grew up with Google. Most of them grew up with a cell phone in their hand. How are they going to know if they want to come and work for your company? They're going to look up your website, and they're going to be concerned about things that people in my generation never cared about. We didn't focus on your community involvement; what's your larger purpose?

       How do you treat your employees? What kind of things are you going to do for me that help me as a person? Think about how you were working in manufacturing. How much time you spent on your cell phone. It's like not only are we looking at ways to add apps because the guys are out in the field or they're on the shop floor, and they can look up a short video, but even they're checking you out on YouTube.

       Lisa Ryan: So who do you have that you took your phone and said, hey, what do you like about working here? I love LinkedIn and YouTube, where you have these little short videos on how things are made. Because if I'm a prospective candidate thinking about going into manufacturing, I'm like, wow, I can do that because you're making it look exciting. You're showing them what they can be a part of versus the old website with the phone number and equipment list.

       Damon Pistulka: I think the real change happening now in manufacturing that we all need to be aware of and be changing to accommodate people coming to work for us now is cell phone generation. So they want to know what the company's going to do for them. And they also want to know what you expect from them as a company. So they know I don't think that millennials or the next generation, Gen Z know what they want, but they want a sense of involvement and enjoy things. And I don't necessarily think that they don't want to work. I think they want to need to know that, hey, I'm going to get this if I do that. And that's not different. I mean, it's no different than when we grew...]]>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, everything's been manufactured. And when we think about manufacturing and these younger generations coming into the workplace because they haven't had that same level of exposure, they don't necessarily know how cool and passionate people can get about it. I mean, my manufacturing audiences are some of the most passionate people on the planet about what they do.

       But when it comes to changing that conversation, many manufacturers have been doing it the same way for 40 years, the same equipment that they've had in the plant. And this is not how we attract the new generation. So you and I will talk about ways that you've seen your clients and how you've helped people as far as little things that we can do to modernize manufacturing for today and the future.

       So, start there, kind of what are you seeing and how are you helping your clients progress and change things?

       Damon Pistulka: When I talk about modernizing manufacturing, I don't even pretend to know how to do it on the manufacturing floor anymore. I think that is something that manufacturers are very good at. If you're in business today, you're not a sloppy manufacturer anymore. You've been in business for a long time. Even if you're an OEM manufacturer, you've got to get good at least producing that product efficiently enough to support yourself.

       So when it comes to the manufacturing floor, I think there are two things we're selling ourselves short on. So let's back up to the beginning of the question. Modernizing manufacturing to me is about digital transformation. It's not because I think everyone should be doing digital marketing. I think you should be to some extent. But it's not only that. It's the fact that is understanding the generational transformation that we were going through. So we're getting into this quite a ways down the road and understanding that.

       What does it mean for our workforce? What does it mean for our customer base? And that's where I talk with more of the clients I'm working with: understanding your customer base and how it's changed over the last ten years because manufacturing and some of the other industries we work with are closely related. It traditionally was Damon's going a salesperson for a manufacturer; he's out meeting with customers. That's what we do.

       That's how we sell. Yeah, we got a website. You can contact our phone number that might have been all it was, or it's an equipment list or something like that. We got some pictures of the product, whatever it is. And that's the length of the breadth of the way the digital format was. And that's the sales process. Right, to have x many salespeople or manufacturer's reps or distributors or whoever the heck I'm selling my product the way I did it.

       Well, fast forward to today. We've been going through the last how many years we've been talking about baby boomers retiring. I mean, heck, it started ten years ago already. And we're rolling through that. And now it's hitting. When you look at manufacturing, we've got the double whammy in 2021. We got the big jobs to shift that people are talking about; people leaving because it's such an employer's market. They can go wherever they want.

       And you've got people retiring at a faster rate than ever before because they sat through the 2008-9 crash when the real estate went to hell. And then they stayed through that. And then we had it covid in 2020, and some people hung on. And now, when people are getting past this, we're going to have even more. But the underlying change that people don't focus on a lot in manufacturing is that the average age of the buying population is not going up anymore.

       It's going down significantly. The buying population and the employees all grew up with Google. Most of them grew up with a cell phone in their hand. How are they going to know if they want to come and work for your company? They're going to look up your website, and they're going to be concerned about things that people in my generation never cared about. We didn't focus on your community involvement; what's your larger purpose?

       How do you treat your employees? What kind of things are you going to do for me that help me as a person? Think about how you were working in manufacturing. How much time you spent on your cell phone. It's like not only are we looking at ways to add apps because the guys are out in the field or they're on the shop floor, and they can look up a short video, but even they're checking you out on YouTube.

       Lisa Ryan: So who do you have that you took your phone and said, hey, what do you like about working here? I love LinkedIn and YouTube, where you have these little short videos on how things are made. Because if I'm a prospective candidate thinking about going into manufacturing, I'm like, wow, I can do that because you're making it look exciting. You're showing them what they can be a part of versus the old website with the phone number and equipment list.

       Damon Pistulka: I think the real change happening now in manufacturing that we all need to be aware of and be changing to accommodate people coming to work for us now is cell phone generation. So they want to know what the company's going to do for them. And they also want to know what you expect from them as a company. So they know I don't think that millennials or the next generation, Gen Z know what they want, but they want a sense of involvement and enjoy things. And I don't necessarily think that they don't want to work. I think they want to need to know that, hey, I'm going to get this if I do that. And that's not different. I mean, it's no different than when we grew up. We needed to know.

       We weren't as concerned about the environment or the community. So that's a bit more now. But we have to be clear on that. And you have to know that you're competitive because now people can go check out different companies much easier again because of information at their fingertips. In the 80s, when looking to find a job or the 90s, you're looking to find a job.

       How the heck did what the benefits were at a company before? We didn't have a place like Glassdoor where people can get on Glassdoor, and most manufacturers are listening, probably only know what it is. But, still, I'll tell you, look at your company, look at Glassdoor, because if you had bad employee experiences, it's probably on there, and you don't even know about it. And your Gen Z and Millennials, they're looking at that before they come to work with you.

       Lisa Ryan: I mean, like you say, like, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. I know you may be driving listening to this or something. So write that down glassdoor.com.

       Damon Pistulka: Yeah, it is. It is the place because I've gone to clients that I've started to work with them. I look at their glass stories. What's the last story? It doesn't matter. And it's that. And they said, well, you got a couple of bad reviews on Glassdoor, some negative comments here. Well, years ago, it wouldn't matter.

       It wouldn't matter because that wasn't we don't understand those things. But like when you're trying to sell something today, we have to put ourselves in the shoes of that person and make ourselves attractive to that person. That person is different from we are.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and those negative reviews, they can be offset if that company comments and says, we understand what we're seeing and you're showing that you're paying attention to those bad reviews, not going to kill you because we all know that grumpy people leave companies. It's not that big of a deal, but it's in conveying that. Are you a company that people want to work for? Because I agree with you, millennials and Gen Z want to work.

       What we need to do is give them opportunities so that they want to work for you.

       Damon Pistulka: One hundred percent. You said it much better than I could, and that's the point when you look at modernizing your manufacturing, and again, we're not talking about all in the shop or whatever you're making and that kind of stuff. This is about modernizing for you to be attractive to employees. Modernizing so you can be appealing to customers. So when we look at the customer side of it, to look at these customers that we're selling to, I don't care if you're selling, you're a tier-one supplier, and you're trying to win contracts with a big company.

       The average age of the person you're selling to is probably thirty-five to forty-five, right? Those people grew up with a cell phone in their hand. They're using Amazon way more than the 50 plus-year-old person is. And they expect to do business kind of that way. They hope that your business is doing a lot more than the old OK. The system's going to send you the POs. It'll show up when it's supposed to. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

       They want to be able to look you up online. They want to be able to see what's going on with you. They want to feel a part of your business and understand how you are a part of their business and how you are a part of helping them. And that takes a different approach. It's not a salesman talking to them once every quarter or whatever it is to check-in or them having a good account rep at the other end that's taken that order.

       You're sending them some valuable information on the products you use or ways to improve in some other area of their business or how you can make their life better with your solutions or keep them informed on industry news. And like you said, the same kind of approach for people buying from you now or going to buy from you in the future, you have to be producing stuff on YouTube.

       You have to be putting some sort of content out in a blog or once in a while. Maybe periodically sending an email of good information out to your customer base or potential customer base. It's not an option anymore.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. And when you're doing things for the community, you mentioned earlier how you are showing up, giving back to the community? What is your mission? How are you making a difference that's important to today's buyers, too? So if you're doing something, some people are like, well, I don't want to toot my own horn. I want to be anonymous. I want to do good. But it's in sharing what you're doing in a genuine, authentic way that this is how we're making a difference. You're going to make that buyer proud that they're doing business with you.

       Damon Pistulka: Yeah. And you make it the point you make about not wanting to toot your own horn. There are ways to do this and be very subdued about sponsoring a charity event, or you can your workforce can go out and work for a week on some great project. But, again, it's about helping the community focus on what you're helping, not on you.

       And it won't look like you're tooting your own horn. It looks like you are so grateful that your customers allow you because we do good work and have great customers. It will enable us to do this for our community. And then you're not too in your own horn. You're showing people how you want to use the benefits of the business relationship to help more people. And like you said, the buyers want to see that because they feel a part of it.

       Right. If your customer can feel a part of you helping the community, that's even better.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, because what differentiates you? You're competing with somebody down the street who's making the same thing. You are. OK, well, maybe I know it's a different quality, blah, blah, blah. However, it's still what differentiates you and having those roles being seen in the community, taking into account who's buying from you instead of that product that you've purchased. What? We've always sold it this way.

       Damon Pistulka: Yeah. Look at the difference in retail, right? You have the behemoths like Wal-Mart or Kroger or the big store chains. Right. It could be that the Albertsons or whatever the grocery stores. Why is Trader Joe's or Whole Foods popular? It's a much different market that we're working in. That's a younger market that shops in those. And they're very loyal to those brands because they have maybe a little more community feel to them. You can see it all over, in what you're doing and what you're buying.

       People want to know that they're buying from somebody that is not in it for the buck. They're in it to help more than helping the community of the world at large as well.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. And I think that's such a good point. So often on this podcast, we talk about the employees and the younger generations and attract and retain the employees. You have a different mindset with younger people who grew up with the cell phone. They think differently. So this adds such a different perspective. So we're taking it even further into the whole atmosphere of our business. So we're not only considering those same technology challenges and apps and videos, but we're also looking to attract and retain employees but also looking at that world of people who are buying from you.

       So, such a great way of looking at it.

       Damon Pistulka: Yeah, it's you have to put your customers and your employees in your story with you, because if they're not in it with you, then you're competing for air time. But when you can show your customers how they're helping you to do good in the world, and, yes, you're going to make that quality on-time delivery pricing, all that stuff is old news. If you're sitting there on your website and you say, hey, we produce the highest quality at the lowest prices possible, blah, blah, blah, there are 14 million other sites to do the same damn thing.

       So, listen, it's, it's not worth your time to put that on there. Put why you're different. We treat people this way. We do this in our community. I was talking to Matt Goosy from Memoir's Machining on a business podcast. Matt does something where he shares 40 percent of his profits back with his employees every year. How many places do that, and how much of a community impact is that?

       If I was trying to recruit employees, that shows that he cares about the employees? It's things like this that are amazing. Of course, you still have to make great parts on time and all that. But those differentiators you have are probably not inside the manufacturing floor anymore as they are about how you do business.

       Lisa Ryan: If it came down to your best tip for modernizing the whole feel of manufacturing and the buyers and the employees, what would you say would be a step for somebody to get started?

       Damon Pistulka: I think it's putting themselves in place in the place of an employee. And looking at your company from that perspective, have a 20 something-year-old person look at your company and that you and you say, what do you think when you look at our website if you are coming to work here? Or have them look at or have someone that's a bit old or look at the same thing from buying from you look at your website, look at all of your social media, look at all your marketing materials, whatever you've got put together, and say what does and how does it make you feel?

       Because that is the real, those are the real people that matter. It doesn't matter if you're branding people or your salespeople think this is the coolest flier ever or I'm the best salesperson ever. It's what you're...]]>7377f604-2e7f-46b1-bfa1-92f8dd248bc3Mon, 16 Aug 2021 06:05:00 -040027:55falsefull141411The Revolution of Efficiency in Manufacturing with Andrea DallanContact Andrea Dallan

       Email: Andrea.Dallan@dallan.com

       Website: www.dallan.com

       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreadallan/

       Get "The Revolution of Efficiency" book 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 line and connect with HMI with a human-machine interface.

       The environment and the level of safety have increased dramatically in the past 20 years or so. Getting to explain this to students is helping to build that. How can we say to let them know that there is a career and the possibility of growing professionally in the manufacturing and the operation area? It's not about being in the office. These manufacturing jobs are going to pay more office jobs. That's what we need to explain to young people right now.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, you also mentioned that you look for these kids, these 16 and 17-year-olds and younger, who have the right attitude for working in the company. What does that right attitude look like? And when you find somebody with that attitude, how do you continue the conversation and get them excited about working for you?

       Andrea Dallan: Our human resources has an excellent connection with the professors in the technical high schools here in our town. We offer students the possibility to spend time in our production during the summer and the school year. They can spend one week here in the company and then three weeks at school. So we start to observe these kids when they are 17, 18, 19-years old - right before they finish high school. We try to find people who have the right attitude are curious. They are brilliant in what they do. They want to learn more. Once we spot this, it is very encouraging for us. We tend to call them again for the following summer for another period until they graduate. 

       We end up adding two or three of them every year to our workforce. The students train on the assembly or the automatic lines. First, they will make one installation for one of our customers. Then, they will arrive to do service to our lines at the customers' facility. This is the kind of path which starts from the high school and then, once we have found that people persons with the right attitude we train them to give good value to our customers.

       Lisa Ryan: Introducing them to your company while they're still in high school and getting them to come in for those couple of weeks over the summer, and meeting the people and seeing the processes and starting to build those relationships, particularly if you have them back through their high school career where maybe they're spending two or three summers with you. By the time they graduate high school, it seems like a no-brainer that they would go to work for you because they've already seen the culture. They know it so that investing in time and building those relationships with these kids coming out of high school seems to set you apart.

       Many people are looking to hire the same people. From what you're doing, it sounds like for a lot of your competitors and maybe a little bit too late, because you already have them.

       Andrea Dallan: You have to find the people that will do very well in our company as an environment, that will be good team members. We have 12 students that are doing this stage inside our company, but we will not hire all of them. We also have to be because they may choose something different, but we have to choose one another, so we want to start a long-lasting relationship when it goes on.

       They start to work, or we need to train them for two or three years before they are ready to do one installation alone. So there is a lot of investment of time for us. We try to retain them as much as possible. It means investing in teaching them a lot and then doing our best to retain them. So they can be productive and entirely onboard with our company.

       Lisa Ryan: It sounds like making that extra effort to establish those relationships with the professors and working with the schools and talking to the parents and getting all of those other people involved in the process to change that conversation that manufacturing is a great career. You're working with automation and cool technologies, and you're getting involved in making things that have never been made before. You're conveying that excitement and passion that you have.

       Andrea Dallan: We hear a lot of the IoT industrial Internet of Things and the advanced sensors. There are many changes in our industry, from the electrical point of view on the automation and on the mechanical side. All of these elements interact with one another in our machines, and so if someone has the right attitude, if they are curious, if they are willing to learn. They keep that humble attitude of learning from the older and more skilled technicians.

       Over time, we understand that we can also learn a lot from them because younger people were born in the digital age. They can give us a lot of added value, and they can keep our minds fresh and open for for for novelties.

       Lisa Ryan: Whenever I talk to my manufacturing clients, the people problem is always number one. How do you find workers? Then, how do you retain those workers? Coming in at number two or number three are the supply chain issues we're all experiencing today. After the pandemic, we've seen prices of raw materials go through the roof.

       I know you've just written a book on being more efficient. In what ways do you see that manufacturing companies can stay healthy and profitable amid all these raw material costs and supply chain issues?

       Andrea Dallan: The rise in raw materials prices puts the spotlight on every company's number one problem. We have to figure out how...]]>Contact Andrea Dallan

       Email: Andrea.Dallan@dallan.com

       Website: www.dallan.com

       LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreadallan/

       Get "The Revolution of Efficiency" book 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 line and connect with HMI with a human-machine interface.

       The environment and the level of safety have increased dramatically in the past 20 years or so. Getting to explain this to students is helping to build that. How can we say to let them know that there is a career and the possibility of growing professionally in the manufacturing and the operation area? It's not about being in the office. These manufacturing jobs are going to pay more office jobs. That's what we need to explain to young people right now.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, you also mentioned that you look for these kids, these 16 and 17-year-olds and younger, who have the right attitude for working in the company. What does that right attitude look like? And when you find somebody with that attitude, how do you continue the conversation and get them excited about working for you?

       Andrea Dallan: Our human resources has an excellent connection with the professors in the technical high schools here in our town. We offer students the possibility to spend time in our production during the summer and the school year. They can spend one week here in the company and then three weeks at school. So we start to observe these kids when they are 17, 18, 19-years old - right before they finish high school. We try to find people who have the right attitude are curious. They are brilliant in what they do. They want to learn more. Once we spot this, it is very encouraging for us. We tend to call them again for the following summer for another period until they graduate. 

       We end up adding two or three of them every year to our workforce. The students train on the assembly or the automatic lines. First, they will make one installation for one of our customers. Then, they will arrive to do service to our lines at the customers' facility. This is the kind of path which starts from the high school and then, once we have found that people persons with the right attitude we train them to give good value to our customers.

       Lisa Ryan: Introducing them to your company while they're still in high school and getting them to come in for those couple of weeks over the summer, and meeting the people and seeing the processes and starting to build those relationships, particularly if you have them back through their high school career where maybe they're spending two or three summers with you. By the time they graduate high school, it seems like a no-brainer that they would go to work for you because they've already seen the culture. They know it so that investing in time and building those relationships with these kids coming out of high school seems to set you apart.

       Many people are looking to hire the same people. From what you're doing, it sounds like for a lot of your competitors and maybe a little bit too late, because you already have them.

       Andrea Dallan: You have to find the people that will do very well in our company as an environment, that will be good team members. We have 12 students that are doing this stage inside our company, but we will not hire all of them. We also have to be because they may choose something different, but we have to choose one another, so we want to start a long-lasting relationship when it goes on.

       They start to work, or we need to train them for two or three years before they are ready to do one installation alone. So there is a lot of investment of time for us. We try to retain them as much as possible. It means investing in teaching them a lot and then doing our best to retain them. So they can be productive and entirely onboard with our company.

       Lisa Ryan: It sounds like making that extra effort to establish those relationships with the professors and working with the schools and talking to the parents and getting all of those other people involved in the process to change that conversation that manufacturing is a great career. You're working with automation and cool technologies, and you're getting involved in making things that have never been made before. You're conveying that excitement and passion that you have.

       Andrea Dallan: We hear a lot of the IoT industrial Internet of Things and the advanced sensors. There are many changes in our industry, from the electrical point of view on the automation and on the mechanical side. All of these elements interact with one another in our machines, and so if someone has the right attitude, if they are curious, if they are willing to learn. They keep that humble attitude of learning from the older and more skilled technicians.

       Over time, we understand that we can also learn a lot from them because younger people were born in the digital age. They can give us a lot of added value, and they can keep our minds fresh and open for for for novelties.

       Lisa Ryan: Whenever I talk to my manufacturing clients, the people problem is always number one. How do you find workers? Then, how do you retain those workers? Coming in at number two or number three are the supply chain issues we're all experiencing today. After the pandemic, we've seen prices of raw materials go through the roof.

       I know you've just written a book on being more efficient. In what ways do you see that manufacturing companies can stay healthy and profitable amid all these raw material costs and supply chain issues?

       Andrea Dallan: The rise in raw materials prices puts the spotlight on every company's number one problem. We have to figure out how to keep the cost of their production under control. Today, the influence of the cost of raw material on the price of the final product has grown exponentially. So a lot more people are contacting us to understand how they can make the same amount of production using, for example, less raw material or thinner gauge material. This is one of the reasons why I started to collect my articles in this new book in the first book I wrote. The central theme was efficiency because, in one company, efficiency means producing using fewer resources. For example, one of those sources of raw material, so if we can do the same amount of production using less raw material to reduce the scrap or use a thinner gauge, that is huge savings. 

       That turns out to be a considerable saving at the end of the year. We have customers who are through the redesign of one product or the redesign of the one process, they have gone from saving hundreds of thousands of US dollars to millions of US dollars, so that's what changes from market to market. 

       What was a big advantage before the rising prices of raw materials, and right now, it's an even more enormous advantage? Companies that have started this process are rethinking their production lines. Their operation in the direction of efficiency has the benefit right now in this condition of price increases.

       Lisa Ryan: The people factor and the production factors still go hand in hand because you're looking at efficiency and the opportunity to use fewer raw materials or thinner gauge materials. But still keeping connected with the employees, ensuring that they're engaged, that they like what they do, you're investing in them. So it's going to be the employees and seeing things differently.

       If they feel valued, if they feel appreciated, they're more likely to come up to you and say, hey, I think that we can save a little bit over here we can save a little bit of time we can save a little bit of money. If the employees don't feel that they're a part of the team, it will not happen, so it sounds like those to go hand in hand together.

       Andrea Dallan: We have this mindset throughout the team. Look for inefficiencies because inefficiencies can be a problem. It starts from the raw material or the lack of flexibility or one process or the lack of automation in one process. So if the whole team comes together and analyzes this one process, maybe even together with external experts, sometimes it's essential to have external eyes to help us find the solution to become one. That creates a considerable value for our support for each company. I see in our customers' companies all the time.

       Lisa Ryan: When I think about what happened in the future, employees were afraid of automation because they believed that that was a way for companies to eliminate their jobs. Employees are such a massive part of automation because somebody's got to know how to run it. Somebody's got to know how to program it. So now you're allowing those employees, instead of doing, I don't want to call them menial tasks, but basic labor - they can use their skills, knowledge, expertise, and machines, do they, don't have to do the "grunt work." What do you think will be the role of automation in the production process in the future?

       Andrea Dallan: We are taking out through automation many manual tasks, but these are also the tasks that are so uncomfortable for the operators to work on. Whenever we have introduced automation to our customers' facilities, we have seen that the operators were a little bit suspicious. When they understand that the equipment is designed to relieve them from that part of the manual labor is repetitive and tiring, they rise to a different role. The supervisor can dedicate time to quality control. 

       The whole structure of our customers benefits from their change of mindset. We have seen so that some customers, for example, move some of the operators to the logistics because it became so productive that it was more important to keep the machine fed with the raw materials and to take out the ready production, or rather than just doing the manual packaging. So we had worked to get automation. 

       We also a more significant result of the added productivity and the wellness of the whole workforce. When you don't have labor to do production, everything is taken care of by automation. So you can expect much better productivity over the eight hours over the shift. We are sure that we obtain a lot more effectiveness from the equipment. 

       There is also another important point that has come out during this pandemic. We hope are these crazy times are over, but we have heard a lot about social distancing over this time. We have also understood that the more automated the systems or, the more so, social distancing is also guaranteed. We have seen our customers with higher degrees of automation in their processes, producing more continuity and without any stop. People aren't working too much together. Someone has called this pandemic proof processes, but let's keep let's get the pandemic board out much safer procedures. They are more automated than we are making even the production a lot safer, even for these cases.

       Lisa Ryan: Your company has opened a branch in the United States. What are some of the perspectives that you've seen - comparing your European operations to the US market for these automated systems.

       Andrea Dallan: Yes, so there are some differences between European facilities and US facilities. We opened our facility in 2018. We are working in the US since the 90s. My father always pushed the company to work more outside of Italy rather than in Italy. This is the reason why he pushed me to study foreign languages. For him, that was the future. He turned out to be perfectly correct.

       The one thing that we have seen is they said that the need for automation is very similar. There is a lot of room for expansion for us in the United States. Many companies have equipment in the field that is sometimes 30-40 years old. The older style of equipment lacks automation, which is the highlight. The strong point for our equipment is that they also understood that services in the United States are critical for most companies.

       This is the main reason for opening a branch and opening one facility that will be specialized. But he specialized in the service of spare parts. We have many of our customers in a driving range of five to eight hours from Dayton, where we have our facility. That is one difference. The level of service requested in the States and the requests from the companies are very similar. The demand for productivity, automation, flexibility, and increasing the efficiency in the use of raw material.

       I can also add that we have seen that in the states, so the market dimension for our customers is much larger than it is in Europe. So, therefore, our machines are oriented to very high productivity. It is very much in line with what our customers in the US expect, so it was in the right place at the right time, I think.

       Lisa Ryan: It all comes down to efficiency, which you have written the book on. Tell us about your book, the revolution of efficiency, that came out last year. Then, Think Thin, which is coming out. Talk about the books and if somebody would like to get that how they would do it?

       Andrea Dallan: Okay, thank you very much. I always liked writing articles. I started very early in the first years were when I was working. These were articles that analyzed how to calculate the cost per hour of one production line or calculate the price of one sheet metal product outside the one line. Over time, I had a lot of articles, and I thought it was time to to to bring them together and to give them the shape of a book, but I didn't know where to start.

       At the same time, it was also the age when my children started to ask me about how I began to work in the company. So I brought the two things together and started writing this story for them. Given the problems that our customers are facing, I put all of these elements together. I think the nice thing is that I have asked many of my customers to give me some case studies to make the reading more fun and more practical. 

       We are bringing actual case histories or stories. So I was writing these four elements of efficiency. So that was the reason for the title of the book. So and efficiency, so the problems that our customers face and typically are efficient in sustainability are producing with the last raw materials or optimizing the raw materials.

       They are increasing the flexibility of their processes to produce smaller batches according to the lean production methodology. Automation is not about reducing the workforce but of improving the quality of the people's work and the quality of the production. The productivity has to be more competitive, so each time we work on that efficiency, we generated the same result. We used fewer resources which tuned into higher profits for the company. 

       The first book was a collection of case studies and focused on the processes I have listed. It will be available in kindle unlimited for another two months, so it's just a subscription, and you can get it for free. So if you put the link down, there will be a lot of essential information.

       The second book is on a different topic. It is on product design. It means that we can build a lot of efficiencies, looking at the process. If we start earlier on and we designed the product to be manufactured more efficiently, using less raw material. There are some chapters on that. The characteristics of raw materials, how to form the water, what we need to take care of bringing us even more efficiency,...]]>fc271feb-a2c1-4562-a449-accbbf41a23cMon, 09 Aug 2021 06:05:00 -040029:44falsefull140401How to Make More Money When Selling Your Manufacturing Business with Fran BrunelleLisa 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, it ain't gonna happen, sweetie. So we have to take action. We've just seen some wonderful things company that we sold down in Carolina. The owner was very involved with the local high school. They had a work-study program where the students could go and try out a career they thought they might be interested in. He would hire them, and the owner would start them doing some menial tasks. If they showed work ethic, he would move them to shadow a machinist, a setup guy, someone doing solid works depending on where the students' interests lie, and if they determined that this was a career path that they wanted, he would take them down to the local trade school. He would help them. The trade school would assist the student and applying for any grants that might exist. If there were no grants available for the student, my client would pay for their education to promise that they would stay with him for a short time.

       I remember saying to him, "So, you're paying for these students' education. Aren't you afraid that they're going to leave and go to a competitor?" His response to me was, "Well, shame on me if they do because I've not created a culture that they want to stay in." He had a delightful program staff. It was such a wonderful mix of middle-aged guys, but some very young firecrackers came up through the process.

       Things like this workforce engagement, not just doing things to address the skills gap and pulling them in but then creating an environment where they want to stay in those companies. I've been doing this for 27 years. As a result, those companies sell faster and at better prices. Suppose a buyer walks into a manufacturing company and sees everyone has gray hair, and half are walking around with a cane because they're about to croak. In that case, your buyers and acquisition lenders see danger in that.

       You cannot wait as a manufacturer until you are right up at that point to start to address it. It takes years to handle these things.

       Lisa Ryan: It's interesting. Many manufacturers don't know that you can work with the workforce development sections of your local community college or tech schools and design the exact employees you want to put together the programs to customize those employees. Building those relationships, you're going to have a one-up on the competition because they're already there. But the fact that he's paying for the education, he's creating that culture. He's taking any of the competitors out of the market right there because this employee has shadowed. They have followed the management. He's already invested in them. He's showing them that he sees something in them that maybe nobody else has ever seen before.

       There's that fear of, "Well, I'm going to spend all this money to train these people, and then they're going to leave." Good for him for realizing the fact that it's still up to you. You still create the type of culture that keeps them there, but this is not something that happens overnight for the people listening. This is something he's invested in that time. He's invested in those relationships. I'm sure that whenever he is ready or was rated to sell, that company probably went rather quickly and at a reasonable price.

       Fran Brunelle: We had four different offers - all over list price. That man got to choose who he wanted to sell to. The company that bought them is fabulous. It was to individual buyers leaving corporate America. One had been CEO of a publicly-traded company. These staff members are now exposed to educational opportunities that they would never have otherwise been exposed to. Fabulous company.

       Lisa Ryan: When you look through when you talk about what these buyers and lenders are seeing as they're walking through an organization. Do you have a wide range of people? Do you have a diverse staff? Do you have a diverse team of all different ages? Those young kids are coming up and bringing that energy to it. You can feel culture. You can walk into a plant, and you can feel if people want to be there or not versus the people that are just about to retire. Who would want to buy that? You have people in that retirement mode who might be thinking, well, why should I make friends with these young kids? They're just going to be gone in six weeks anyway.

       What have you made friends with them, and built those relationships, and like that owner connected with them, and made them feel valued that's what keeps them there.

       Fran Brunelle: One other thing I would say about involvement with schools in your community. Everyone thinks it's difficult to do this. Schools are struggling. I've had clients that have donated machine tools to the trade school. As a result of that, one particular client got to have his banner placed upon the wall of the machine tool school. Who do you think students are going to call? He gets the cream of the crop because he shows the Community school that they care about this student's development. I'm sure he gets the best employees before his competitors.

       Now you do strategic planning in every other area manufacturers. So I'd like you to have.

       Lisa Ryan: Exactly. What are some of the biggest mistakes that you see companies making?

       Fran Brunelle: It is an interesting subject, because what makes a manufacturer successful also makes them incredibly easy to sell, and they sell it at a higher price. There's any number of things. We talked about workforce development.

       Another topic would be modernizing your equipment. Manufacturing had a bad reputation for several decades for a reason. Hopefully, we can get the message out that it's not a dirty old machine shop. Some of the places we visit are like cleanroom...]]>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, it ain't gonna happen, sweetie. So we have to take action. We've just seen some wonderful things company that we sold down in Carolina. The owner was very involved with the local high school. They had a work-study program where the students could go and try out a career they thought they might be interested in. He would hire them, and the owner would start them doing some menial tasks. If they showed work ethic, he would move them to shadow a machinist, a setup guy, someone doing solid works depending on where the students' interests lie, and if they determined that this was a career path that they wanted, he would take them down to the local trade school. He would help them. The trade school would assist the student and applying for any grants that might exist. If there were no grants available for the student, my client would pay for their education to promise that they would stay with him for a short time.

       I remember saying to him, "So, you're paying for these students' education. Aren't you afraid that they're going to leave and go to a competitor?" His response to me was, "Well, shame on me if they do because I've not created a culture that they want to stay in." He had a delightful program staff. It was such a wonderful mix of middle-aged guys, but some very young firecrackers came up through the process.

       Things like this workforce engagement, not just doing things to address the skills gap and pulling them in but then creating an environment where they want to stay in those companies. I've been doing this for 27 years. As a result, those companies sell faster and at better prices. Suppose a buyer walks into a manufacturing company and sees everyone has gray hair, and half are walking around with a cane because they're about to croak. In that case, your buyers and acquisition lenders see danger in that.

       You cannot wait as a manufacturer until you are right up at that point to start to address it. It takes years to handle these things.

       Lisa Ryan: It's interesting. Many manufacturers don't know that you can work with the workforce development sections of your local community college or tech schools and design the exact employees you want to put together the programs to customize those employees. Building those relationships, you're going to have a one-up on the competition because they're already there. But the fact that he's paying for the education, he's creating that culture. He's taking any of the competitors out of the market right there because this employee has shadowed. They have followed the management. He's already invested in them. He's showing them that he sees something in them that maybe nobody else has ever seen before.

       There's that fear of, "Well, I'm going to spend all this money to train these people, and then they're going to leave." Good for him for realizing the fact that it's still up to you. You still create the type of culture that keeps them there, but this is not something that happens overnight for the people listening. This is something he's invested in that time. He's invested in those relationships. I'm sure that whenever he is ready or was rated to sell, that company probably went rather quickly and at a reasonable price.

       Fran Brunelle: We had four different offers - all over list price. That man got to choose who he wanted to sell to. The company that bought them is fabulous. It was to individual buyers leaving corporate America. One had been CEO of a publicly-traded company. These staff members are now exposed to educational opportunities that they would never have otherwise been exposed to. Fabulous company.

       Lisa Ryan: When you look through when you talk about what these buyers and lenders are seeing as they're walking through an organization. Do you have a wide range of people? Do you have a diverse staff? Do you have a diverse team of all different ages? Those young kids are coming up and bringing that energy to it. You can feel culture. You can walk into a plant, and you can feel if people want to be there or not versus the people that are just about to retire. Who would want to buy that? You have people in that retirement mode who might be thinking, well, why should I make friends with these young kids? They're just going to be gone in six weeks anyway.

       What have you made friends with them, and built those relationships, and like that owner connected with them, and made them feel valued that's what keeps them there.

       Fran Brunelle: One other thing I would say about involvement with schools in your community. Everyone thinks it's difficult to do this. Schools are struggling. I've had clients that have donated machine tools to the trade school. As a result of that, one particular client got to have his banner placed upon the wall of the machine tool school. Who do you think students are going to call? He gets the cream of the crop because he shows the Community school that they care about this student's development. I'm sure he gets the best employees before his competitors.

       Now you do strategic planning in every other area manufacturers. So I'd like you to have.

       Lisa Ryan: Exactly. What are some of the biggest mistakes that you see companies making?

       Fran Brunelle: It is an interesting subject, because what makes a manufacturer successful also makes them incredibly easy to sell, and they sell it at a higher price. There's any number of things. We talked about workforce development.

       Another topic would be modernizing your equipment. Manufacturing had a bad reputation for several decades for a reason. Hopefully, we can get the message out that it's not a dirty old machine shop. Some of the places we visit are like cleanroom hospitals. They have modern work environments, and I just took a deal under contract in the Midwest. They have done fabulous things with continually modernizing their equipment and bringing robotics in. Everybody is afraid that robotics is going to take away jobs. In this particular instance, a job was the least favorite job in this machine shop. It had to do with the weight of the metal piece that had to be put into the CNC machine. My clients said, "Okay, let's see what technology we can apply to this." So we don't have this issue of anybody wanting to do this job when you walk into their facility.

       It's funny you talk about atmosphere, how you can sniff a good atmosphere instantly. Well, that was this place. They instituted robotic cells, and that's the first thing you see when you come in. My client said that it was the best recruiting tool they have. Young people come in, and they're like, wow, this is amazing. I didn't expect this. It's a wonderful clean environment. They have documented procedures. Everyone knows what to expect. There are bonuses relative to performance, and they treat their people right. Those are all things that make a difference.

       Beyond that, we have blog articles. A recent blog article I did had 15 different points that help a manufacturing company to sell well. There are things like customer concentration and sector concentration. In some industries, that's very hard to avoid. For instance, if you're in the aerospace sector, you will have a customer concentration if you're doing anything of relevance because there are only so many big players in the industry.

       In other areas, buyers and lenders will look for less customer concentration. There's a whole host of things that matter, but the workforce development and the skills gap are among the largest.

       Lisa Ryan: When you're seeing these companies investing in that workforce development, what are some of the best ideas or the best tips that you would give to somebody listening today as far as focusing on that area?

       Fran Brunelle: I think one of the things that I would say is exposing someone coming in a student say do it on a Work Program. Expose them to any number of things. I had two different clients in the past, would start workers out in high school, as I described earlier, but they would rotate them around the entire shop. Then, once they were trained on everything, the person could gravitate to what they most were interested in and where they had a fit. The manufacturer ends up with a whole team of people who are cross-trained. If people are going out sick, you're not afraid of that because you have a fully trained team that skill did in every type of machining. That's probably the most important thing, I would say.

       Lisa Ryan: Not only from a cross-training standpoint, but there you're also giving your employees opportunities to find the job that light them up. They may have applied for one particular job that they thought would be okay, and that job might have kept them there for a little while, but by having the opportunity to go around the shop, and having a say in what they do, because that is not a common practice. So when you can differentiate yourself over what everybody else is doing - when you're all competing for these same employees in a lot of cases - all of these little things that you can do, and cross-training is such a win, win.

       Fran Brunelle: it's funny you just said you reminded me of an interview that I did for the women and manufacturing podcast with a woman from Koch industries. She told me a story about what of their workers whose job was loading tractor-trailers every day with paper products toilet paper shipped all over the country. This gentleman had an interest in technology, and today, he designed the computer programs that the entire process in that plant is now automated. That man wrote the program to accomplish all of that. They gave him the autonomy to work towards what he was most interested in. I just found that touching in a great story and a good example for other companies. Sometimes you have talent, and you hire a person for one thing, and they end up being fabulous in something else. You've got to give them the room to discover that.

       Lisa Ryan: Exactly! Well, that is such a great tip. As we're coming to the end of our time together, tell us a bit about how you work with your clients and what's the best way to get in touch with you.

       Fran Brunelle: Sure. In the M&A sale process, we represent the seller. We don't represent buyers. We get that request a lot, but our goal is to help with the manufacturer. Often the buyers are private equities, much larger corporations. Sometimes they have teams of attorneys. My interest is in assisting the manufacturer in protecting them through the process and ensuring that the jobs stay in the community. So that's how we work.

       We will run a potential client through an evaluation process. So before we ask them for a listing, they will know we will have provided them with an opinion of the value of their company, and we will do that without charge. Now some people come into the process, and they are perhaps smaller than I have an audience for, and I'll tell them that up front. But again, my industry is interesting in that many work where you're paying 10s of thousands of dollars upfront to find out what is my manufacturing company worth, and how long is it going to take you to sell it, and what are you going to do to sell it, and what is the whole process like.

       We will work with you to understand these things upfront and walk you through an educational process. So you are completely prepared for anything that's going to happen in the M&A process.

       Lisa Ryan: Wonderful, and what's the best way for people to get in touch with you?

       Fran Brunelle: best way you can visit our website acceleratedmfgbrokers.com, or you can call us 908-387-1000.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, Fran, it has been an absolute pleasure to have you on the show with me today thanks for being here.

       Fran Brunelle: thanks for having me. It was a joy.

       Lisa Ryan: I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. We'll see you next time.

       ]]>670e7884-5f11-426a-8f2a-476b4adf5791Mon, 02 Aug 2021 06:05:00 -040022:51falsefull139391Modernizing Manufacturing to Attract Millennials with Jake Hall, the Manufacturing MillennialContact 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 Industry can offer us, 

       professional growth.

       Lisa Ryan: And when it comes to these associations, are there things that they do better than others, as far as to be attractive to a millennial? Is it shorter programs? Is it more interesting speakers? Is it Industry related? Is it soft skills? Is it networking topics? What were some of the things that light you up that you think that an association professional can use to change their conferences up?

       Jake Hall: I think a few things, and there's no one fix all of us. I believe there are multiple things. I think a couple of them is that when you look at millennials, we're not necessarily working just for a paycheck. A lot of the younger generation also looks for purpose within their position. Purpose within their job and if they can impact or contribute to something higher than just what their task is. Doing from an eight to five job, they see more value in it. When you're looking at conferences organizations, what can you do to show that this is impactful to your current job or the industry as a whole?

       When you're looking at the event, if it's just something that's where you need to go, they're going to talk about stuff, but you're not going to walk away with anything you can use to either impact your business or business Industry. What value is that bringing that younger generation, and I think the other big thing is how your event is being planned out. Younger generations like to have fun. They like to socialize. We're on up. We're in a social media frenzy within the communication. Are you leveraging what people enjoy doing as part of the event? It's not so much that it's this newer generation has a shorter attention span. It's just that we process and look at information differently because we have so much information at our fingertips. Where before, you go to a conference and you were listening to an industry expert. That's where you learned.

       Nowadays, I can go on YouTube and listen to that same expert on YouTube at my convenience or hop on a podcast and listen to that speaker whenever I want. What value are you contributing? Past just what education can learn, I think a lot of that has to do with networking, so how much networking is leveraged out events. It is more important than they come and listen to this 90-minute speech on topic X, Y Z to learn from a systems expert. That is not necessarily the same and more because of the power of Information available at our fingertips. That's how we get information these days. We get information from Wikipedia and other sources that didn't exist 15-20 years ago.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, which also from a speaking standpoint, you can be fact-checked like right there.

       Jake Hall: Oh, I'll have that I've done speakers either they throw out a statistic I'm like no way, and I'll Google right there, and I'm like okay so he's either making that one up, or he's wrong, or other sources are wrong. It's just one of those things where information is now literally in the palm of our hand that we would typically be consuming at a conference.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, the other thing that I like about speaking at manufacturing conferences is that it feels like a family. These people have known each other forever. They know each other's families and compete against each other, but they still provide resources and sometimes a new person coming in, where you're not quite part of that family yet. So you might feel like an outsider. Unless that association planning committee does something to bring people like you, bringing the newer members into the fold, you get that same level of connectedness.

       Jake Hall: Absolutely. That's that power that networking can leverage. I think some of my favorite conferences I've been to are the ones where you can bring your spouse in as well. So your spouse can be a part of the spouses' group, and they can go off and do their things, then everyone gets together that night because it is about relationships, it is about feeling connected.

       And having those connections at the end of the day, it's not what, it's who. It's the Industry that contributes to growth and opportunity. So I think organizations that can leverage that - not only the business side but also the personal and relationship aspect, tend to have the most success.

       Lisa Ryan: You think about the association member's content, but those spouses are getting together, and they're building relationships. It makes it extra hard for you not to go to that association if your spouse is like, "Oh no, I need to see my friends this year. We're going."

       Jake Hall: That's when the successes happen - when they do events at these nice resorts or conferences. I know my wife's excited when I say, "Hey, let's go to Florida for four days." I think we can go there for four days, and especially in the middle of December or January when it's snowing here in Michigan. I think companies and conferences that can leverage beyond just having all these keynote speakers. They need to go beyond that because I like the conference, but my favorite part is simply the networking. To see people face to face, have those handshakes, and have those introductions right because you're conversing with a person. Everyone's having a beer. You're sitting around a table, and someone walks up to say, "Oh hey Jake, I want to introduce you to such and such. They do this. You never have that opportunity anywhere else. That's where I think the biggest value comes from in conferences.

       Going...]]>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 Industry can offer us, 

       professional growth.

       Lisa Ryan: And when it comes to these associations, are there things that they do better than others, as far as to be attractive to a millennial? Is it shorter programs? Is it more interesting speakers? Is it Industry related? Is it soft skills? Is it networking topics? What were some of the things that light you up that you think that an association professional can use to change their conferences up?

       Jake Hall: I think a few things, and there's no one fix all of us. I believe there are multiple things. I think a couple of them is that when you look at millennials, we're not necessarily working just for a paycheck. A lot of the younger generation also looks for purpose within their position. Purpose within their job and if they can impact or contribute to something higher than just what their task is. Doing from an eight to five job, they see more value in it. When you're looking at conferences organizations, what can you do to show that this is impactful to your current job or the industry as a whole?

       When you're looking at the event, if it's just something that's where you need to go, they're going to talk about stuff, but you're not going to walk away with anything you can use to either impact your business or business Industry. What value is that bringing that younger generation, and I think the other big thing is how your event is being planned out. Younger generations like to have fun. They like to socialize. We're on up. We're in a social media frenzy within the communication. Are you leveraging what people enjoy doing as part of the event? It's not so much that it's this newer generation has a shorter attention span. It's just that we process and look at information differently because we have so much information at our fingertips. Where before, you go to a conference and you were listening to an industry expert. That's where you learned.

       Nowadays, I can go on YouTube and listen to that same expert on YouTube at my convenience or hop on a podcast and listen to that speaker whenever I want. What value are you contributing? Past just what education can learn, I think a lot of that has to do with networking, so how much networking is leveraged out events. It is more important than they come and listen to this 90-minute speech on topic X, Y Z to learn from a systems expert. That is not necessarily the same and more because of the power of Information available at our fingertips. That's how we get information these days. We get information from Wikipedia and other sources that didn't exist 15-20 years ago.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, which also from a speaking standpoint, you can be fact-checked like right there.

       Jake Hall: Oh, I'll have that I've done speakers either they throw out a statistic I'm like no way, and I'll Google right there, and I'm like okay so he's either making that one up, or he's wrong, or other sources are wrong. It's just one of those things where information is now literally in the palm of our hand that we would typically be consuming at a conference.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, the other thing that I like about speaking at manufacturing conferences is that it feels like a family. These people have known each other forever. They know each other's families and compete against each other, but they still provide resources and sometimes a new person coming in, where you're not quite part of that family yet. So you might feel like an outsider. Unless that association planning committee does something to bring people like you, bringing the newer members into the fold, you get that same level of connectedness.

       Jake Hall: Absolutely. That's that power that networking can leverage. I think some of my favorite conferences I've been to are the ones where you can bring your spouse in as well. So your spouse can be a part of the spouses' group, and they can go off and do their things, then everyone gets together that night because it is about relationships, it is about feeling connected.

       And having those connections at the end of the day, it's not what, it's who. It's the Industry that contributes to growth and opportunity. So I think organizations that can leverage that - not only the business side but also the personal and relationship aspect, tend to have the most success.

       Lisa Ryan: You think about the association member's content, but those spouses are getting together, and they're building relationships. It makes it extra hard for you not to go to that association if your spouse is like, "Oh no, I need to see my friends this year. We're going."

       Jake Hall: That's when the successes happen - when they do events at these nice resorts or conferences. I know my wife's excited when I say, "Hey, let's go to Florida for four days." I think we can go there for four days, and especially in the middle of December or January when it's snowing here in Michigan. I think companies and conferences that can leverage beyond just having all these keynote speakers. They need to go beyond that because I like the conference, but my favorite part is simply the networking. To see people face to face, have those handshakes, and have those introductions right because you're conversing with a person. Everyone's having a beer. You're sitting around a table, and someone walks up to say, "Oh hey Jake, I want to introduce you to such and such. They do this. You never have that opportunity anywhere else. That's where I think the biggest value comes from in conferences.

       Going back to the whole millennial thing, if you were to go out there and say, "Hey, this is my new person working within the company, or you introduce them and say, "Hey, go talk to this person and listen to their story. As younger people, they see the value. They feel like they're being invested outside of, "Hey, we just want you to do this job the whole time."

       Lisa Ryan: Let's take it away from the association conferences and go into the manufacturing plants. We don't have enough skilled Labor force. So parents have not been having that conversation about going into manufacturing or going into the trades as a viable career.

       What do you see from the companies that you've worked with? What are they doing to engage, attract, and, most importantly, keep the people they have?

       Jake Hall: I love your comment, Lisa. Let's backtrack a bit. For so long, the educational system, the parents, the guidance counselors, the teachers, and organizations said, "Hey, your next step in your career after you graduate high school is to get a four-year degree from somewhere. Then, that was necessary. It was then. There was value in getting a four-year education degree. It did advance your career to a point.

        I think we're past that now. I believe we are to the point where that was saturated. The educational system has focused too much on the need for a four-year degree to be successful. This isn't the case anymore. I think companies as a whole have begun to recognize it. Going back to this comment of investing in your current employees is just as valuable as finding new ones. To fit what your demand is, I think that goes back to the idea of having more conversations around employee retention rather than new employee attraction.

       If I can take my existing worker, who's been working here for a long time, and enjoy working there, or they see some value in it, invest in them. Nowadays, there are so many programs where I can send my workers to get robot training, or vision training, or automation training. They can take a CNC program and create their common manually assembled tasks and invest in them. Companies are automating to fit that demand they need, and companies are automating to be more profit-centric. Companies are automating because either they can't get enough reliable workers consistently. Maybe they have machines and experience.

       I'm working with companies that can't run all the machines they have on the floor because they don't have the operators to run them. So you have all these companies that have just ginormous backflow and orders that are going out 6-12 months - this is in aerospace. These are basic consumer products that normally should have a couple of week lead times out months. That's just because they can't get Labor in there.

       When you talk about companies, I think, "How is your company leveraging retention within the company? How are you creating purpose and drive within that company with your younger workers? If that young worker doesn't feel connected to your company as soon as another company offers him $1 more, he's going to leave. He feels that in the company's eyes, that's all he's viewed as from a company perspective. He's an eight to five task Labor person.

       But as soon as you go and say, "Hey, we're going to put you through an educational program. We're going to invest in you. We want to give you extra tasks so you can gain experience, not to overwork them, but to say, "This is going to add value to your career. The other person is saying, "Well, I'm getting invested in, and they're more likely to stay. Companies are taking multiple approaches. You hear stories about manufacturing places that when you work 40 hours a week, you can put your name in a drawing and win a yeti cooler from the bass pro shop.

       There are other companies out there who are sending in semi-trailers of medical staff. At the end of each month, if you work 40 hours each week for that month, they offer free medical. Manufacturers are doing crazy things right now to compete against the other industries.

       There's a significant Labor demand right now between manufacturers and distributors. Just this week, which will be the first week of June, if people are listening to this podcast, later on, Amazon announced that they are no longer doing marijuana and drug testing as part of their hiring process. So that's an extensive conversation right now, especially within the manufacturing industry where there's a risk if a person is operating heavy industrial equipment or running a high-lo. So there's a risk within the manufacturers. How do you attract people when a person can go over to Amazon now and not have to worry about getting screening or getting testing for stuff? Whereas with the manufacturer, you have that insurance risk.

        

       Manufacturers are not just battling the idea of overseas competition or the other manufacturing facility down the street or across the state. It's now all of these new industries that are popping and attracting that common Labor force. That's not moving to the distribution warehouse, and that's not going to go anyway time soon. By 2030, there will be 22,000 new warehouses built in the US - strictly for warehouse and distribution. Those facilities are going to have to be run by someone. It's a difficult task. When you look at attracting and retaining the workforce, we can do a couple of things.

       The whole idea of my role as a business development manager for Feyen Zylstra is working with companies to help modernize their existing manufacturing processes. I help them make their processes more robust, more efficient, add more ROI, and integrate Industry 4.0 solutions. The idea of data and traceability with other machines is perceived as the industry leader and an innovative company. If a person walks into that facility and sees these manufacturing processes that are 20-30 years old and extremely manual intensive, she's going to move somewhere else. You need to come into manufacturing companies with automation.

       To be more efficient have to take processes and make your manufacturing company more attractive to the future workforce because we are tech-savvy people. We love the idea of digital data. We love the idea of interacting on our phones. If I can go on my phone or an iPad and get my work instructions. Or if I can do a machine setup or changeover through digital tools or through virtual reality goggles or something like that versus just on a piece of paper or on an attack board where my job's down, rather than through an earpiece system or something like that. It's just what other companies are doing. We're in the world of the app and the dot without necessarily.com. The app industry and all these new technologies mean that the manufacturing industry needs to adapt quickly to new technologies or simply be left behind.

       We're going to continue to battle the Labor demand seriously. We already are - even pre-pandemic - but current and post-pandemic. That's the biggest thing manufacturers are facing right now.

       Lisa Ryan: There are so many topics that you just brought up. First of all with training. It's one thing to introduce people to the cool things out there - all of the robotics and 3D printing – and looking at employees holistically. Why not send them for financial training? Is there a way to send them to presentation skills training? Looking at the employees holistically is critical because, as I say in my programs, "Nobody ever quit because of too much training."

       It's the money that you're investing in those people that keeps them there.

       But then, when we talked about the whole marijuana thing going on, of course, you don't want your workers to come to work stoned. If a company like Amazon, who's paying a great hourly wage and not drug testing, that just takes a whole bunch of other people. How many people have you and I both talked to and found that they can't find workers because nobody can pass a drug test?

       We look at these policies that we've had been in business for 40 years, and we have to start looking at our businesses differently. So every single area of that and marijuana falls right in there, which continues to be an interesting conversation.

       The automation. What you said about not having the workers to do the job. Instead of a couple of week delay, now you have several month delays. What can we do to look at our business differently? I think you made some stellar points of giving people ideas to do that.

       Jake Hall: Absolutely. You mentioned the holistic view. The one thing that stood out to me is that you can schedule an appointment with a financial advisor to give financial advice. I would have never thought about that, and I've been in the Industry for maybe ten years now. You scheduled an appointment for your employee to sit with a financial advisor go through the whole plan. Talk about value add. When you feel invested, and it makes sense.

       As soon as the person stops worrying about financial stuff, they can worry about their job. They can focus more on their job, creating less stress within a person's life. They feel a lot less struggle when they're at work. It's amazing to see how companies invest in value-added propositions beyond just the eight to five paycheck. That did work for a long time, but times are changing. You look at the Industry; look at the Googles and the Amazons of the world - where I can go to Google and get my sushi. I'm not saying that's going to be the key success - for manufacturers is to open up a sushi bar at your work - it's that approach you're looking at.

       You've got to realize that the Industry is you're competing against now. It's how millennials will be, and Gen Z's are high demand Labor force for future manufacturing. You need to realize that the Labor force is never]]>d1ccd26e-3239-48f4-bb8e-162308396778Mon, 26 Jul 2021 06:05:00 -040031:20falsefull138381How to Attract More Women and People of Color into Manufacturing with Nancy Lurker, President of EyePoint PharmaceuticalsContact 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 encourage women to persevere in this field. We need more women and people of color. Persevere, because look there's no doubt that when you bring in more diversity into an organization, you get different approaches to problems, different ways to think about things. It also changes the culture of the company, which I love.

       Undoubtedly, bringing women into manufacturing and women into stem changes the dynamic in many different ways, very much for the positive. One of the things I like to do is mentor women, particularly young women - up and coming. It's not easy. It never is. None of these fields are easy. Indeed, getting to the C suite is difficult. It takes a lot of hours and commitment. But also, what I do is we do reach out so, for instance, many times will be doing a job search, and we open it up to all comers, of course, but I want to try to make sure that we do get diversity in the organization. We promote from within, so we make a real effort to mentor our people of color and women so that they can know that they've got a great career track at EyePoint pharmaceuticals.

       Lisa Ryan: There are the traditional ways of finding employees. When you are looking to increase that level of diversity and the number of women that join you, what are some nontraditional ways you do that? I know that there's no magic cure or easy button when it comes to finding people, but if there are some nontraditional ways that you've discovered?

       Nancy Lurker: I was just going to say there's no secret sauce. I tap into my network. I will say this, in pharma, it's a unique ecosystem. It is biotech. You go into the Boston area where EyePoint pharmaceuticals are headquartered. There is an incredible biotechnology pharma ecosystem. It doesn't take much to reach out and find women and people of color in that area now. Because of the pandemic, the good news is we figured out you don't have to be living in Boston. We will often go way beyond Boston to find people now. Sometimes we use the traditional executive search firms, but I would also say to go on LinkedIn. We post every job except for very high-level positions. We post every job on LinkedIn. If you see a job there, apply for it because we want to make sure that we get a broader pool of women and diverse candidates. I'm very committed to that. I think that it brings a different perspective to the company.

       I tap into my network. I reach out to people in the Boston area that I know, but we also go on LinkedIn, and we go way beyond the Boston area.

       Lisa Ryan: It's good that you're saying that because people have this idea about LinkedIn that the jobs are there, but all of them apply. It would be almost impossible to get a job because of the competition. So obviously, you're not finding that.

       Nancy Lurker: No, no, in fact, we often use the LinkedIn network to get candidates in for positions. All the time now again, you put your resume in. We do want to make sure the resume is at least somewhat close. We've had excellent success through LinkedIn.

       Lisa Ryan: Awesome. When you're thinking about bringing women into STEM and people of color, what are some of the myths preventing people from joining STEM that is not necessarily true?

       Nancy Lurker: Yes, so I'm going to say some things. I was not the smartest person in my class now; there's no doubt that when you take courses in my undergraduate biology and chemistry, it's not easy when you take courses in that field. But you don't have to be the smartest person in the room. You don't have to be the one that is a brilliant scientist. I don't have a Ph.D., I have a master's in business, but I don't have a Ph.D. I'm surrounded by very, very talented scientists and iPoint pharmaceuticals with PhDs, and but yet. Don't let that intimidate you. You have something to offer. You can bring insights in, and often you may not be the scientist working at the bench at the lab.

       You might need that background. On the business side, you might need that background in regulatory. You might need that background, working in the manufacturing area, to understand some of the basic science that goes into making the drug, so don't be intimidated by it. If you like it, hang in there. Being a B student is perfectly fine. Sometimes people have this idea that scientists are nerdy. You got to be brilliant. I'm never going to make it. Don't think that way. It's a big ecosystem of people. That science degree, even if it's just a bachelor's, will come into great use in many different areas in this field.

       Lisa Ryan What is some of the leadership lessons you've learned through your experiences as a woman in STEM.

       Nancy Lurker: There are many leadership lessons one, I would say that I have never felt that I wanted to or needed not to be feminine. I love to dress in nice pretty clothes. I like to fix my hair up nice. I like jewelry. You can be who you are in this whole field and still do very, very well. But, again, you have to stick to your guns. Often, I'm not going to deny that you go into meetings at times, and it still exists. Men will tend to at times talk over to you. I'm not trying to any way denigrate men because they bring a tremendous amount to the table as well. Everybody does, but sometimes men can still talk over you. I just push right on through. I don't. I'm not afraid to call it out to say, excuse me, I was talking or excuse me, I just said that, and you're repeating it so. It happens, but you have to have the confidence to do that. That's probably the biggest thing I would say, and the second thing is to advocate for...]]>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 encourage women to persevere in this field. We need more women and people of color. Persevere, because look there's no doubt that when you bring in more diversity into an organization, you get different approaches to problems, different ways to think about things. It also changes the culture of the company, which I love.

       Undoubtedly, bringing women into manufacturing and women into stem changes the dynamic in many different ways, very much for the positive. One of the things I like to do is mentor women, particularly young women - up and coming. It's not easy. It never is. None of these fields are easy. Indeed, getting to the C suite is difficult. It takes a lot of hours and commitment. But also, what I do is we do reach out so, for instance, many times will be doing a job search, and we open it up to all comers, of course, but I want to try to make sure that we do get diversity in the organization. We promote from within, so we make a real effort to mentor our people of color and women so that they can know that they've got a great career track at EyePoint pharmaceuticals.

       Lisa Ryan: There are the traditional ways of finding employees. When you are looking to increase that level of diversity and the number of women that join you, what are some nontraditional ways you do that? I know that there's no magic cure or easy button when it comes to finding people, but if there are some nontraditional ways that you've discovered?

       Nancy Lurker: I was just going to say there's no secret sauce. I tap into my network. I will say this, in pharma, it's a unique ecosystem. It is biotech. You go into the Boston area where EyePoint pharmaceuticals are headquartered. There is an incredible biotechnology pharma ecosystem. It doesn't take much to reach out and find women and people of color in that area now. Because of the pandemic, the good news is we figured out you don't have to be living in Boston. We will often go way beyond Boston to find people now. Sometimes we use the traditional executive search firms, but I would also say to go on LinkedIn. We post every job except for very high-level positions. We post every job on LinkedIn. If you see a job there, apply for it because we want to make sure that we get a broader pool of women and diverse candidates. I'm very committed to that. I think that it brings a different perspective to the company.

       I tap into my network. I reach out to people in the Boston area that I know, but we also go on LinkedIn, and we go way beyond the Boston area.

       Lisa Ryan: It's good that you're saying that because people have this idea about LinkedIn that the jobs are there, but all of them apply. It would be almost impossible to get a job because of the competition. So obviously, you're not finding that.

       Nancy Lurker: No, no, in fact, we often use the LinkedIn network to get candidates in for positions. All the time now again, you put your resume in. We do want to make sure the resume is at least somewhat close. We've had excellent success through LinkedIn.

       Lisa Ryan: Awesome. When you're thinking about bringing women into STEM and people of color, what are some of the myths preventing people from joining STEM that is not necessarily true?

       Nancy Lurker: Yes, so I'm going to say some things. I was not the smartest person in my class now; there's no doubt that when you take courses in my undergraduate biology and chemistry, it's not easy when you take courses in that field. But you don't have to be the smartest person in the room. You don't have to be the one that is a brilliant scientist. I don't have a Ph.D., I have a master's in business, but I don't have a Ph.D. I'm surrounded by very, very talented scientists and iPoint pharmaceuticals with PhDs, and but yet. Don't let that intimidate you. You have something to offer. You can bring insights in, and often you may not be the scientist working at the bench at the lab.

       You might need that background. On the business side, you might need that background in regulatory. You might need that background, working in the manufacturing area, to understand some of the basic science that goes into making the drug, so don't be intimidated by it. If you like it, hang in there. Being a B student is perfectly fine. Sometimes people have this idea that scientists are nerdy. You got to be brilliant. I'm never going to make it. Don't think that way. It's a big ecosystem of people. That science degree, even if it's just a bachelor's, will come into great use in many different areas in this field.

       Lisa Ryan What is some of the leadership lessons you've learned through your experiences as a woman in STEM.

       Nancy Lurker: There are many leadership lessons one, I would say that I have never felt that I wanted to or needed not to be feminine. I love to dress in nice pretty clothes. I like to fix my hair up nice. I like jewelry. You can be who you are in this whole field and still do very, very well. But, again, you have to stick to your guns. Often, I'm not going to deny that you go into meetings at times, and it still exists. Men will tend to at times talk over to you. I'm not trying to any way denigrate men because they bring a tremendous amount to the table as well. Everybody does, but sometimes men can still talk over you. I just push right on through. I don't. I'm not afraid to call it out to say, excuse me, I was talking or excuse me, I just said that, and you're repeating it so. It happens, but you have to have the confidence to do that. That's probably the biggest thing I would say, and the second thing is to advocate for yourself.

       Women have a hard time with this. There are patterns in terms of what I've seen over the years. Women tend not to advocate for themselves as much. They don't come to me as much and say, hey, I'm ready for a promotion, I want to be promoted. Men typically do that, which I have no problem with that. I will say to women, "you're ready for a promotion. You should be going to your boss," and I was advocating for this.

       The second thing is that women tend to feel that they have to be 95% ready for that next promotion. Often men will feel 75% good enough. I can do that next job. Don't feel like you have to have every single box checked off before you're ready for that next promotion.

       Finally, don't get too loyal to your company, because the reality is often you can make big leaps forward by leaving one company and going to another company. I'm not saying that IPoint should do this because I love you all, and I want them to stay here. But it does help at times. I did that in my career, and it helped tremendously.

       Lisa Ryan: Alright, well, and it's different today than it used to be. I mean, back at way back in the day, when I was an executive recruiter, if I saw somebody with fewer than five years at a company, I'd be like - job hopper. But it's different today. You already said that instead of having employees just in the Boston area, the pandemic had shown us that you could have people from all over the country. So we're expanding our views. We're expanding our candidate base. We're expanding the diversity that we're able to bring in. I like the lessons that you talk about for women because it's true they're not advocating for themselves. They feel this sense of loyalty to a company that may not appreciate them and goes somewhere else.

       Nancy Lurker: I'm married. I never sacrificed my family for my job, so what did I do. You need to be confident. You don't need to apologize if you need to take an hour off or two hours off to go to the soccer game, the dance recital. I don't care what it is running them to the doctor. I think this applies to men as well. Don't apologize for that. I don't feel like you mind if I do this. Just say, "I've got an important event with my kid, and I'm going to go. I'm going to go take two hours off and be there. If that's a problem, let me know. You deserve to be able to do that. You can have a family. You can have a successful career. I have never been one to ascribe to the theory that you have to be putting in 80 hour work weeks nonstop.

       Now to be fair, in the C suite, you're putting in 60 hours - there's no doubt about it. I intersperse that there are many times I take time off to be with my family, and I'll rework meetings around. I tell people, I don't try to fudge it, and say oh, you know, and that's not just when I hit the C-level, I did that going all the way up. Be transparent about it. Be proud of it, and make sure that you prioritize what's important in your life.

       Lisa Ryan: You're also setting the example for your employees and what you expect from your employees. Many times it's all fine and dandy when the leadership says, "Oh, your family's important, and you should spend time with them, and they never see the C suite leaving their office. They're putting in 60 or 80 hours a week. The fact that you are setting that example and being that transparent. You're not saying, "Ooh, I have another doctor's appointment," and then they see you on Facebook enjoying your kid's soccer game.

       You're setting the example for the behavior that you want. That's so important. This is what I'm doing, and you're not taking advantage of it.

       Nancy Lurker: The nice thing about the pandemic. I think it's allowed us to get rid of some horrible commutes; that frees up time. It will enable you to be on a conference call, go on mute. The dogs are barking; the kid just walked in the door. Go drop your bags off. I think it's wonderful.

       Lisa Ryan: It's also changed how we look at the workplace. You have many people, particularly the baby boomers, who we never thought would retire because of their work ethic. Suddenly, they just spent a year working from home, playing with their grandkids and their kids, and realizing life outside. Hence, unless companies are willing to have that transparency from leadership, that flexibility can stay connected to family. There are going to be big losers in the long run.

       Companies forcing their employees to come back to the office with no choice of doing any remote work ever again. These are the things that we look at. I believe that it's going to open up for women much more because we've all discovered the value of family.

       Nancy Lurker: I couldn't agree with you more. I think it is going to change the dynamic and allow a lot more flexibility. It's about time; we need it.

       Lisa Ryan: What are some of the things you have seen working best from a cultural standpoint? It sounds like you have a pretty significant culture over there at iPoint. What are some of the things you're doing that are working to keep that high engagement level?

       Nancy Lurker: I'm going to say a lot of tech companies do this. But I also think it's how we go about it, so first of all, it starts at the top. I hire for what I call high achievers but low ego. I don't want a bunch of people in the company that are all about them. They can often be poisonous to a culture that's number one number two. I can be a demanding boss, but you also have to be kind. You have to be respectful. Don't throw your weight around. It starts with me. I have to model that, so I like to think of myself and the leadership team as we're just orchestra conductors, but we need everybody, so with that, as the backdrop.

       This is not a macho culture, right. As I said, this is not where I'm going to come into your work 80 hours a week, and I got my snacks over here. I've never gone for that. You can be highly successful and have a very successful company and not have that culture. So again, with that as a backdrop, we try to do a lot of fun things. We often have International Food Day. Everybody brings in food from their respective countries, and you cannot believe the amazing food we have.

       We throw a lot of company events. We have your typical snacks that people can get. I try to be around, and just walk around, and get to know people. We're growing pretty rapidly, so it's a little hard for me now to stay on top of who everyone is, but I always try to walk around and say hi to everyone. I also have what I call "coffees with Nancy." Over 12 months, I will have three to five employees meet with me as a group and work through the entire employee base through the year. It's just a chance for a casual conversation. I did it all through the pandemic, with that was all done virtually.

       You just get to know each other. I try to bring in people from different departments to get to know each other as well. We do have several different locations, so it's it all those things go about building a fun culture. People don't feel like they have to have their political guard up all the time. I don't want energy to play politics. I want energy going to how can I do, how can I solve this problem? How do I make sure I get this project done? Because they want to, not because they're trying to kiss up to their boss.

       I worked hard to make sure we have a culture that exemplifies it. We're not perfect. We never will be, but we strive to make sure that that's a key part of our company culture.

       Lisa Ryan: and how many employees do you have?

       Nancy Lurker: We're up to about 120 now and continuing to add.

       Lisa Ryan: The reason why that's important to know is that for people listening to the podcast, they're like, I can't be spending that amount of time. When you prioritize over a year, I talked about this in my programs all the time, so it's so nice to hear when people are doing it because you're getting the feedback you're creating a safe environment for people to share things. So I'm sure that from time to time, you get to hear some stuff.

       Nancy Lurker: Much to the chagrin of my management.

       Lisa Ryan: The response to that is simple, and I'm sure you do this. Thank you for sharing.

       Nancy Lurker: Oh, my gosh, yes yeah.

       Lisa Ryan: When you fight them, when you argue when you do any of the above, well that's not what I meant by that, they will never share with you again. It sounds like you have created a very safe, authentic, transparent environment as a CEO for your employees to do that, which is easy. It's not easy to do. It's something that when you place it as a priority, you can do it.

       Nancy Lurker: You can do it, and I'm going to say again, it starts at the top. It's not just me. It's also the leadership team. So I'd say actually down to the Vice President level helps to set that tone. But you have to have people who are willing not to let their ego get in the way, and I will say, Lisa, unfortunately, I've seen it too many companies. It's all about them. If you make it all about yourself, you will never get the type of loyalty and trust that you want in a company.

       They're not stupid. They can tell what's going on.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, and they're not going to like everything you tell them, but at least if you're coming from a place of authenticity and transparency, they know that you'll always have their back.

       So Nancy, what are some of the things that are still keeping you up at night?

       Nancy Lurker: Well, actually, I would say two things one is, and it ties in right into manufacturing. We...]]>887bdbb1-9e0b-469b-84d5-fa248e31941cMon, 19 Jul 2021 07:05:00 -040029:11falsefull137371Introducing Additive Technology to Your Manufacturing Workforce with John WilczynskiContact 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, makes it a little easier for us to introduce it to students because all they've known is operating in that environment since they've been children.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, reaching out to guidance counselors and parents is excellent because that's where the conversation needs to get started. Making sure that those guidance counselors have the resources like you said, is critical too. Too many times, guidance counselors' sole focus is to help kids pick out college. Giving them that access to, "Hey, this is a terrific way for these kids to make a living." It is a gateway drug. I like that.

       John Wilczynski: It's also something that translates to the existing workforce. If you think of incumbent workers, and we see technologies changing around us every day, there is a need for the product that we might produce today to look different tomorrow. It's always hard to focus on a product day in and day out with your nose down. You're just working on it, and most of the workforce has to operate in that environment. We're trying to help bring information to them raise awareness - to make sure they're well-positioned. When we think of the future workforce, it is unlikely that many of the positions from today are even defined, for you know 10, and 20 years from now.

       We have to be able to start creating this more adaptive workforce. That means the introduction of new technologies - again not easy to do. Awareness is a big part of the challenge that we're all faced with.

       Lisa Ryan: What do you see with the companies and organizations you've worked with? What's working well? What are some of the best practices that you're seeing?

       John Wilczynski: You need to put tools into the hands of the folks that you have working for you. Just like in many fields, they are the people who understand what they're doing today - better than any engineer - who has dreamt up the process or oversees the value stream map of what's going on. They touch and feel these products every day. They understand what works and what doesn't. We've seen many folks have success with introducing low-dollar pieces of equipment into the hands of, and maybe it's not the operator on the floor necessarily, but it's the skilled trades crew or the folks responsible for the equipment. They expose them and give them some training on what the technology can and where it makes sense to use it.

       For hundreds of dollars, a low-cost 3D printer on the floor, maybe in the shop where they can start playing with it. These the most accessible entry points for the technology around prototyping. Around you need some particular setup because two items must be aligned every time to do that overnight, before the first shift coming in. This action creates a tremendous opportunity. When you start to see those things click is when you see more adoption. Then they become the champions within the organization. We've seen work as the introduction of tools, getting them some training, and providing them the time to use the tools you're providing. There are several cases where what doesn't work is buy the equipment you think will lead to some specific increase in revenue. You must realize the cost of that as the business owner and, in particular, small business owner. Even a $1,000 investment isn't necessarily insignificant, so you have to weigh it and determine when you can pull the trigger on those kinds of things.

       But you also can't put it in the corner and let one person use it and collect dust. We've all seen that on the shop floor - tools that got introduced by somebody that never really took off. That is not an effective way to use the technology.

       Lisa Ryan: Right well, and too many times manufacturing has this stigma of we've been doing it this way for 40 years, and if it's not broken, we're not going to fix it. Realizing that these kids are in school now and graduating from school prepares them for jobs that don't exist yet for products that don't exist yet.

       So where do you see that that fine line between being flexible enough to kind of turn on a dime and getting out of that mindset that things are always going to be like this because we've been doing it this way for 50 years?

       John Wilczynski: This was all thrust upon us this past year. I'm sure that's come up more than a few times here recently in your podcast but what we saw dovetails nicely into this training topic. There were opportunities to fill and supply Chain gaps that existed. It might not be the component for an aircraft you are used to making because not too many people were flying or somehow related to hospitality. Often the skilled workforce or the workforce that you have is plenty capable if you're able to expose them to the technology.

       We saw success stories where organizations could introduce the technology and get their folks back to work quickly - working on unconventional things for them. That's not easy to do. You're not going to turn around a tier-one supplier or an OEM making automotive parts and put 1000 people back to work, making facemasks. They're not equal. I completely understand that. Still, you also have to be in the position somewhere within the Great Lakes region if and when the combustion engine starts to transition towards electrified vehicles that we all understand is happening at some level, and it will continue to happen.

       Some manufacturers make their living daily making components for those combustion engines. What does that mean? It doesn't mean anything to them today or tomorrow, or next year. How are they positioning themselves so that in five years or, more likely, ten years out - when it becomes a more relevant...]]>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, makes it a little easier for us to introduce it to students because all they've known is operating in that environment since they've been children.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, reaching out to guidance counselors and parents is excellent because that's where the conversation needs to get started. Making sure that those guidance counselors have the resources like you said, is critical too. Too many times, guidance counselors' sole focus is to help kids pick out college. Giving them that access to, "Hey, this is a terrific way for these kids to make a living." It is a gateway drug. I like that.

       John Wilczynski: It's also something that translates to the existing workforce. If you think of incumbent workers, and we see technologies changing around us every day, there is a need for the product that we might produce today to look different tomorrow. It's always hard to focus on a product day in and day out with your nose down. You're just working on it, and most of the workforce has to operate in that environment. We're trying to help bring information to them raise awareness - to make sure they're well-positioned. When we think of the future workforce, it is unlikely that many of the positions from today are even defined, for you know 10, and 20 years from now.

       We have to be able to start creating this more adaptive workforce. That means the introduction of new technologies - again not easy to do. Awareness is a big part of the challenge that we're all faced with.

       Lisa Ryan: What do you see with the companies and organizations you've worked with? What's working well? What are some of the best practices that you're seeing?

       John Wilczynski: You need to put tools into the hands of the folks that you have working for you. Just like in many fields, they are the people who understand what they're doing today - better than any engineer - who has dreamt up the process or oversees the value stream map of what's going on. They touch and feel these products every day. They understand what works and what doesn't. We've seen many folks have success with introducing low-dollar pieces of equipment into the hands of, and maybe it's not the operator on the floor necessarily, but it's the skilled trades crew or the folks responsible for the equipment. They expose them and give them some training on what the technology can and where it makes sense to use it.

       For hundreds of dollars, a low-cost 3D printer on the floor, maybe in the shop where they can start playing with it. These the most accessible entry points for the technology around prototyping. Around you need some particular setup because two items must be aligned every time to do that overnight, before the first shift coming in. This action creates a tremendous opportunity. When you start to see those things click is when you see more adoption. Then they become the champions within the organization. We've seen work as the introduction of tools, getting them some training, and providing them the time to use the tools you're providing. There are several cases where what doesn't work is buy the equipment you think will lead to some specific increase in revenue. You must realize the cost of that as the business owner and, in particular, small business owner. Even a $1,000 investment isn't necessarily insignificant, so you have to weigh it and determine when you can pull the trigger on those kinds of things.

       But you also can't put it in the corner and let one person use it and collect dust. We've all seen that on the shop floor - tools that got introduced by somebody that never really took off. That is not an effective way to use the technology.

       Lisa Ryan: Right well, and too many times manufacturing has this stigma of we've been doing it this way for 40 years, and if it's not broken, we're not going to fix it. Realizing that these kids are in school now and graduating from school prepares them for jobs that don't exist yet for products that don't exist yet.

       So where do you see that that fine line between being flexible enough to kind of turn on a dime and getting out of that mindset that things are always going to be like this because we've been doing it this way for 50 years?

       John Wilczynski: This was all thrust upon us this past year. I'm sure that's come up more than a few times here recently in your podcast but what we saw dovetails nicely into this training topic. There were opportunities to fill and supply Chain gaps that existed. It might not be the component for an aircraft you are used to making because not too many people were flying or somehow related to hospitality. Often the skilled workforce or the workforce that you have is plenty capable if you're able to expose them to the technology.

       We saw success stories where organizations could introduce the technology and get their folks back to work quickly - working on unconventional things for them. That's not easy to do. You're not going to turn around a tier-one supplier or an OEM making automotive parts and put 1000 people back to work, making facemasks. They're not equal. I completely understand that. Still, you also have to be in the position somewhere within the Great Lakes region if and when the combustion engine starts to transition towards electrified vehicles that we all understand is happening at some level, and it will continue to happen.

       Some manufacturers make their living daily making components for those combustion engines. What does that mean? It doesn't mean anything to them today or tomorrow, or next year. How are they positioning themselves so that in five years or, more likely, ten years out - when it becomes a more relevant technology. What does that mean for their workforce if they're not adapting or at least starting to think about these things? They're going to be facing complex challenges moving forward. Some of their competitors are already there. It's the balance of introducing technology. It's not necessarily going to displace your current approach, but you have to continue. One of the points I wanted to make is the importance of investing in the workforce, just keeping your folks trained. It starts with on-the-job training. You get them to the point where they're capable. You must continue to invest in them so that they can you know it takes a desire on their end and an employee.

       But at some point, we all have to realize the world will change at a pace that it has over decades - when our parents were working in manufacturing. It is a very different world today than it was, you know, 20, 30, 40 years ago. We have to start creating a workforce, which will be tough with the existing workforce. But they're competent and well-trained people. You have to figure out how you introduce them to these new concepts, and then we start to get wild and start talking about VR and all those kinds of things. We see the intersection between our technology and those technologies work very nicely.

       Skilled trades folks worked for the plant that I worked in and me. They were experts. They knew more than I ever would, but they didn't memorize the thousand page manuals. Today, we put something in front of students, and they put a headset on, and they can interface with where the gearbox comes out, check clearances, and do things that our parents never thought could be a reality.

       So how do we make sure folks are ready for that? You can't just turn the switch and put a headset on someone who's been working for 40 years. That's not going to work very well. It's the gradual introduction to the technology, and making sure they understand how it can help them

       Lisa Ryan: This past year has been a perfect example of what would have happened if we would have said what if a year and a half ago, what if the hospitality industry disappeared overnight? What if people stopped flying? What if combustion engines disappeared from the face of the planet because everything went electric. These are the questions that we can start asking now. Maybe we're not ready to make that change overnight, but at least it's not going to come and surprise you when something like a worldwide pandemic comes.

       The give of COVID was it did speed up technology to a place that probably would have taken us 15 or 20 years to get to where we are now. But it also allows us to ask that question, what if and start to make those plans like you're seeing some of your partners doing.

       John Wilczynski: We've done a lot of work around pandemic response and continue to show the progress that would work. It's more important to make sure that we learn from our lessons and figure out how to translate that into creating resilience supply chains - widespread talk right now. This month, a year ago, we were having these conversations with folks around recovery response. In the dream, we were getting to the point where we're focused on resiliency. We're at that point now. We've seen a lot of the efforts back off as conventional supply chains have caught up. What did we learn from any of that? How are we making sure we're implementing that? How do we ensure that if a barge gets stuck in a canal somewhere, we have an alternative path forward?

       That's easy to use that example and not have to back it up because I'm just talking to you, but as you think about exploring your various failure modes that could exist within your process and your supply chain. You have to study. I know we did a lot of that in my past life, where you considered every option and waited. We need to make sure we're doing that. Hopefully, we won't encounter the same kind of craziness over the past year, but change is inevitable. We're going to see it. We will have disruptions. We will have unrest. We will have all of these things that impact our business. If we continue to do things the way we always had, we're unlikely to survive through those things. We saw that in many cases, and not that it was anyone's fault, what happened over this last year, but others reacted and were able to sustain themselves in the meantime at least.

       It'll be an interesting next ten years to see how all of these new technologies come together and how dealing with this new reality is a threat across everything that is just the reality of living in a connected world. From a manufacturing point of view, we hear countless stories of where threats come in, and that's something we deal with quite a bit in our world. As a wholly digital technology, there are concerns about where threats come in. When you start to look down into the tiers of the supply chain, there's not a lot of folks who can afford the types of bodies that you need in place to deal with those kinds of threats. There are lots of opportunities; lots of risks out there as well.

       Lisa Ryan: When it comes to those threats and those failures, what are the main things you're seeing that keep manufacturers up at night?

       John Wilczynski: We do a lot of work with the Department of Defense. There are increased sensitivities around every component that's manufactured. It's the information that you have access to. A competency model is being utilized right now around manufacturing to make sure people understand what cyber maturity matrix. It's about the various stages of awareness, so people know where there are potential threats. Some of it's pretty basic - knowing where your information is stored, knowing who has access to it. Those all sound relatively simple until you start to think about interacting with my supply chain or my vendors. What are they sharing? What information do they have access to? Then, as you start to move files around, as most of the manufacturing is digital at this point, we're not sending mailing a lot of files anymore. We're getting 2d drawings and having the manufacturers create opportunities. Many cyber threats need to be considered, so awareness is the first thing that needs to be addressed. We need to understand that there are concerns that you should have. It would help if you kept that in front of you. Once you're through that and make sure your people all understand that.

       Then you start to add on systems, make sure you're monitoring things, do maintenance properly, and update doing updates. As silly as all of that sounds, those patches and that update are done. They've seen potential vulnerabilities, so you have to stay on top of all of those things. Not easy to do as a small business owner. Potentially the person or a small number of persons manages all of those activities, but it has to be done. We've seen countless examples where there were entry points into a bottom tier of a supply chain that ultimately led to a bigger problem up the supply chain. They tagged along with the information as it was shared from place to place, so it is certainly something to pay attention to right now right.

       Lisa Ryan: Ass we're starting to get to the end of our conversation, what would you say when it comes to your best tip to help manufacturers listening to this podcast? Whether it be in the supply chain or technology – something you've seen that could help our audience today.

       John Wilczynski: Double down on the people. As you're introducing new technologies, a skilled workforce is what you need. There are a lot of displaced folks out there. We hear from countless manufacturers that are struggling to find capable bodies. You have to make sure you're taking care of your folks. What I mean by that is making sure that they are trained and understand what's coming out. Introduce them. The more engaged they are, ultimately, the more interested they will be in staying on the right track.

       At that point, it will make your insertion of technology easier because if you have them buying into what you're trying to accomplish and following your vision. It's a lot easier to get them behind you versus forcing it upon them because they're not engaged. It's maybe an over-simplification of a concept, but we've seen a lot of success as we're again doing a lot of work with the Department of Defense. We also work with the large installations, and they have a large workforce that's been around for a while. It's not easy to introduce these new concepts, although we have to make sure that we're meeting these requirements for the types of sophisticated components that they need for the current military. We've seen quite a bit of success. The only way it works is to double down on people.

       Lisa Ryan: John, it has been an absolute pleasure having you on the show today. If people want to get a hold of you and connect with you, what's the best way for them to do that?

       John Wilczynski: So, probably the easiest way is to go to our website. It is simply America Makes.us. You can find me there. I can share my email address on LinkedIn, all of those kinds of things as well. I'm happy to talk to folks, especially if you've got questions want to engage in the additive manufacturing space; we'd be glad to talk to you.

       Lisa Ryan: All right, well, John, again, thank you so much for joining me today.

       John Wilczynski: Thank you very much thanks for having me.

       Lisa Ryan: I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. See you next time.

       ]]>dec1aecd-fcef-4a87-be1d-aa2e74e70a7bMon, 12 Jul 2021 07:05:00 -040025:28falsefull136361Attracting the Next Generations into Manufacturing while Giving Back With Roger Sustar, President of Fredon CorporationContact 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 it at Lakeland Community college in the gym. She obtained the full-ride scholarship to MIT. That was four years ago. She's graduated and going on to great and better things. A couple of the girls went to Ohio State and graduated. One or two of them are now at Steris Corporation.

       We started the bot program because we're trying to do to get kids involved with manufacturing. Our primary focus is to promote rewarding careers in manufacturing. We need not just the welder on the floor, the packing department or the shipping department, but we also need people in the accounting department and the quality department.

       We started a junior bot program for seventh and eighth graders because we wanted to get to them. Then we thought we'd have to go down even further, so we went on to fifth and sixth graders. We started a summer camp it's called SMI - Summer manufacturing institute. Senator Brown is the one who promotes this, and we took it, and we made it three separate weeks - two with boys and girls, and one with just all girls. It's been a fabulous experience. We now do it out at auburn career Center.

       We've now gotten funding to continue to do this, and it's these fifth and sixth graders are loving it. It's the beginning of their heads accumulating all this knowledge and trying to figure out what they want to do. Everybody, we always ask what do you want to be when you're 17 years old. I'm 60 plus years hundred, and 70 years 17 years right, I still don't know what I want to do. I'm still trying to figure out how to succeed in life and how to do things. Anyone who knows what they want to do with at 17, 18, 19, 25, I applaud you because I had no idea what we would do. All I knew was we were going to succeed. I'd tell my wife, and she goes yeah yeah, sure. But we did. We also even work with PSC partners in science excellence. We have the school system and lake county partners in science excellence. They go down to kindergarten.

       Most stem because stem now well I think they call it steam now.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, because they added the art application, and they added all that stuff in there, which is fine.

       Roger Sustar: It's excellent. Some have stream - the Catholic schools use a stream because they put religion in there now too. But really, what it amounts to is just showing somebody what we do, instead of just thinking that you know most youngsters want to be what police officers, firemen, doctors and stuff like that. This gives them a little bit more perspective on what's going on. We're never afraid to bring people into our plant because we like to show them what we do so they can see what it is. Some might not like it. But if we can get one youngster out of 10, that's a success.

       Lisa Ryan: So let me ask you, it's one thing to get the kids involved and interested in fifth and sixth grade, but what about the parents that are so focused on sending their kids to college. How are you changing in their mind that this is a great career path for their kids?

       Roger Sustar: That's a great question. We do with the robots, and with the fifth and sixth graders, we invite the parents to come, especially for the robot program because we want them to see the plants for the kids are going to be at today can see what it's like. In addition to that, last year, we started an apprenticeship Program For our AWS team members, and we begged, borrowed, and asked all our guys to please send kids to our Program. Juliana petty, our executive director, and a great young lady. She grew up working out MFG, Molded Fiber Glass. MFG made the first corvette body.

       This apprenticeship program is something we started our second class in February this year as long as the first class last year, so now all the kids that get out of the robot program. The junior bots program and the fifth and sixth graders now have a path that we try to give them to see what it is. Many of our people are training for our companies, our AWT, my friends, and our business. We do tuition reimbursement. The good part about our AWT apprenticeship program is that the State of Ohio recognizes us, so the couple thousand dollars you pay for your student will get your $2,000 back from the states once he finishes that first year. We will help you fill out the paperwork and get everything performed. If you look down to the TechCrunch program, you'll see AWT right at the top of the list.

       We're excited about that because that's a great way we're going to continue to keep youngsters into our business so that we can build up our future. Our future is in the kids. We have to replace many people who have learned on hand over the years with the new generation.

       Lisa Ryan: If somebody is listening to this from another state that they don't have access to that type of programming or they're thinking about getting it started now, who would be the best people for them to connect with. What would be a good way for them to create a program like that?

       Roger Sustar: They can contact us with no problem. If they're in stamping, the PMA knows about what we do. If you're in machining, the national tooling machine association knows what we're doing. If you're in a school, PMA – the Precision Metalforming association knows all about us. NAM – the National Association of Manufacturing knows what we do. October is manufacturing, and we work hard with the local chambers of commerce in Lake county, the east, west, and mentor. We take a whole afternoon, and we will have about 30-40 manufacturing companies – Lincoln, Swagelok, Parker Hannifin, Eaton, all the big guys, plus all these little fellows. We'll try to show the kids...]]>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 it at Lakeland Community college in the gym. She obtained the full-ride scholarship to MIT. That was four years ago. She's graduated and going on to great and better things. A couple of the girls went to Ohio State and graduated. One or two of them are now at Steris Corporation.

       We started the bot program because we're trying to do to get kids involved with manufacturing. Our primary focus is to promote rewarding careers in manufacturing. We need not just the welder on the floor, the packing department or the shipping department, but we also need people in the accounting department and the quality department.

       We started a junior bot program for seventh and eighth graders because we wanted to get to them. Then we thought we'd have to go down even further, so we went on to fifth and sixth graders. We started a summer camp it's called SMI - Summer manufacturing institute. Senator Brown is the one who promotes this, and we took it, and we made it three separate weeks - two with boys and girls, and one with just all girls. It's been a fabulous experience. We now do it out at auburn career Center.

       We've now gotten funding to continue to do this, and it's these fifth and sixth graders are loving it. It's the beginning of their heads accumulating all this knowledge and trying to figure out what they want to do. Everybody, we always ask what do you want to be when you're 17 years old. I'm 60 plus years hundred, and 70 years 17 years right, I still don't know what I want to do. I'm still trying to figure out how to succeed in life and how to do things. Anyone who knows what they want to do with at 17, 18, 19, 25, I applaud you because I had no idea what we would do. All I knew was we were going to succeed. I'd tell my wife, and she goes yeah yeah, sure. But we did. We also even work with PSC partners in science excellence. We have the school system and lake county partners in science excellence. They go down to kindergarten.

       Most stem because stem now well I think they call it steam now.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, because they added the art application, and they added all that stuff in there, which is fine.

       Roger Sustar: It's excellent. Some have stream - the Catholic schools use a stream because they put religion in there now too. But really, what it amounts to is just showing somebody what we do, instead of just thinking that you know most youngsters want to be what police officers, firemen, doctors and stuff like that. This gives them a little bit more perspective on what's going on. We're never afraid to bring people into our plant because we like to show them what we do so they can see what it is. Some might not like it. But if we can get one youngster out of 10, that's a success.

       Lisa Ryan: So let me ask you, it's one thing to get the kids involved and interested in fifth and sixth grade, but what about the parents that are so focused on sending their kids to college. How are you changing in their mind that this is a great career path for their kids?

       Roger Sustar: That's a great question. We do with the robots, and with the fifth and sixth graders, we invite the parents to come, especially for the robot program because we want them to see the plants for the kids are going to be at today can see what it's like. In addition to that, last year, we started an apprenticeship Program For our AWS team members, and we begged, borrowed, and asked all our guys to please send kids to our Program. Juliana petty, our executive director, and a great young lady. She grew up working out MFG, Molded Fiber Glass. MFG made the first corvette body.

       This apprenticeship program is something we started our second class in February this year as long as the first class last year, so now all the kids that get out of the robot program. The junior bots program and the fifth and sixth graders now have a path that we try to give them to see what it is. Many of our people are training for our companies, our AWT, my friends, and our business. We do tuition reimbursement. The good part about our AWT apprenticeship program is that the State of Ohio recognizes us, so the couple thousand dollars you pay for your student will get your $2,000 back from the states once he finishes that first year. We will help you fill out the paperwork and get everything performed. If you look down to the TechCrunch program, you'll see AWT right at the top of the list.

       We're excited about that because that's a great way we're going to continue to keep youngsters into our business so that we can build up our future. Our future is in the kids. We have to replace many people who have learned on hand over the years with the new generation.

       Lisa Ryan: If somebody is listening to this from another state that they don't have access to that type of programming or they're thinking about getting it started now, who would be the best people for them to connect with. What would be a good way for them to create a program like that?

       Roger Sustar: They can contact us with no problem. If they're in stamping, the PMA knows about what we do. If you're in machining, the national tooling machine association knows what we're doing. If you're in a school, PMA – the Precision Metalforming association knows all about us. NAM – the National Association of Manufacturing knows what we do. October is manufacturing, and we work hard with the local chambers of commerce in Lake county, the east, west, and mentor. We take a whole afternoon, and we will have about 30-40 manufacturing companies – Lincoln, Swagelok, Parker Hannifin, Eaton, all the big guys, plus all these little fellows. We'll try to show the kids what we do and how we do things and get them excited so they can see what's going on.

       Lincoln is a great helper because Lincoln will bring in their virtual welding machine, and the kids will have an opportunity to weld. I don't know if you've done that yourself.

       Lisa Ryan: I've done it. It is the coolest thing ever.

       Roger Sustar: It is. I wish they had one with chocolate so that you could excite young school kids. We had a 3D printer that made things for the kids so they can make things themselves. They get excited with that kind of stuff. The youngsters get excited with computers, and all that kind of stuff. Then the 3D printing and even one of my friends in our AWT, Rick Pollack from maker gear, makes many little 3D printers. He waited till the patents ran up before he competed against that. Many of his printers are on all local high schools because they're reasonable - they're under a couple of thousand dollars. A lot of people give back to the high school that you went. That's where you're more friends with anybody else or where your children go to school. Help them, and get them involved with stuff like this.

       This year, I went to all the local Churches for our summer camps, and I begged them to put just a couple of paragraphs about our summer camp. We begged the news-herald to do an article, and they did it. Now we have all our campers filled up, so we're excited about that.

       The hardest part in everything is taking that first step, keeping trying, and keeping trying because whatever anybody thinks it's impossible, it is almost impossible. But one tiny step at a time, and you'll make it. You'll make waves. We're very fortunate to have a young lady that's excited about helping. I'd hate to lose this young lady because she's doing an excellent job and very excited about the things we're doing. We're pleased with that kind of stuff.

       Lisa Ryan: I think that that's what plays such a role in bringing people in who are passionate about manufacturing. The more passionate you are - and all of the manufacturers you're getting involved with your manufacturing day and your October activities - that's what lights those kids up and makes them want to get involved.

       Also, having the parents involved to see that wow, this is a real job, is a solid job. Kids can go to a trade school or do an apprenticeship and come out with very little, if any, debt. They can make a good living with great benefits right off the bat, instead, instead of having to live in the basement with his hundred thousand dollars worth of college loans.

       Roger Sustar: It's companies like CRT that are involved with things we do. We're trying to build a training center. Lake Erie College is working with us to do an MBA degree in business management for those who want to do this. We haven't even started the apprenticeship thing, and they already want to put that in. There are a lot of opportunities. That's what's good to see for the parents to moms and dads to see what the kids to, and how they can get involved in anything like that. Tell the parents it's most important to think. You have to go to the companies, and see what they are because we're not your father's Oldsmobile. It's different today than what it used to be. Fifty-two years ago, in 1969, there is no way we could be making parts like we are today the equipment that we have today. It is so sophisticated.

       We spent three, four, or $5,000 on a piece of equipment. Now we're talking 3,4,5 600,000 for a piece of equipment. Then it costs thousands of more in tooling to gear it up and get it going, so there's no way we're going to take a 17, 18, 19-year-old kid and put them on a half a million-dollar machine. Would you let somebody drive your Shelby GT Cobra? That's the progression. It's how we make it up, and we continue to go. Take one step and another step in another phase because it is difficult to fight an uphill battle. I think that because of COVID, there's an opportunity to make a decent living. You can live in a nice suburban community, have your two car payments, have your big 65 and 75-inch color tv, a three-bedroom house with two bathrooms - everything in life is possible. That's up to the individual to tell them what to do.

       That's the hardest thing. I lost a cousin this past week. He was three months younger than I am. He never did all the crazy things that I do. I feel sorry for him because we've taken many chances in our life - my wife and me. She's allowed me to do these crazy things because she believes in me, and that's got to be the only person that believes in me.

       Lisa Ryan: Roger, it has been such a pleasure talking to you today. If people wanted to learn more about what you've done with AWT and, and doing this, what's the best way for people to get in touch with you.?

       Roger Sustar: Oh, that's easy. They can just go to the website it's thinkmfg.com. You're more than happy to contact us. You can ask us, whatever you want, and we will be sure to get back to you. We love to have manufacturing companies have Members will be charged $250. It's no big deal. They have many associate members, we have regular members, and we have those and pay a whole bunch more to help us. That's what the good part is, and having all these people work together on my biggest problem, of course, is getting the Eatons, the Parker Hannifin's, The Lincoln Electric's to understand that we're all in this together. We're not trying to steal people; we're trying to build America and make it the greatest place in the world. Let's keep it that way. We keep moving forward.  

       Lisa Ryan: Roger, again, thank you so much for being on the show.

       Roger Sustar: Lisa, this was a privilege to be with such a nice young lady. I appreciate your time. This is very, very friendly. Thank you so much.

       Lisa Ryan: Oh, you're welcome. I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. We'll see you next time.

       ]]>a27e34c0-e48d-462a-85b9-0142530c147dMon, 05 Jul 2021 07:05:00 -040022:09falsefull135351Getting the Right People to Join Your Team and Stay with You with Keith Ledbetter, CEO of SE Michigan ABCLisa 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 problems. How do you take people when there is already a skilled Labor force and find people like you. You don't necessarily have the right to the same background that you're looking for—finding those people with those inherent skills and getting them in the right seats on the bus. Please share the story of where you started and what it took to create that winning culture that you have now.

       Keith Ledbetter: Right, I think to provide proper context, you have to go back to what I came into. It was pretty dramatic. We had a situation where only a year earlier, the association couldn't make the mortgage payments. They were getting ready to lose their building. They had significant indebtedness. We had a membership in our association that wasn't a group of people who want to be involved as an association.

       I remember we celebrated my hiring at ABC. I think we had about six people show up. It sent a message, like, hey, we've got some work to do. On the school side, we were floundering. We weren't being successful and weren't bringing in the new students we hoped to bring in. All these things are tearing down the organization, we weren't following proper rules and protocols, and we really needed to tighten up across the board, and so, frankly, at the time, I didn't know what I was coming into, and even worse.

       My predecessor hadn't been paying proper dues to ABC National, so we found significant indebtedness beyond even what we owed the Bank. That was the starting point that I had, and I quickly recognized that I didn't have the right team in place. There was a culture there that had to be changed in significant ways.

       When I parachuted in, I had no idea; I just assumed everything was great, and I would go into this opportunity. These are not things that necessarily come out in the job interview. That boy, you've got a tough job on your hands. I found out literally on day one; when there was a board meeting, we had some major problems that had to be dealt with. I realized this very early on. I had to have the right people in place to get it turned around.

       Lisa Ryan: Isn't that funny that if you had known everything that you were running into, there's a pretty good chance that you may not have taken that.

       Keith Ledbetter: You know, life is funny. I love the challenge, and I look back five years from now, literally my fifth anniversary coming up here very shortly. The turnaround that we have has been miraculous. I'm still. I'm excited today about what I do than I have been in many years because I had to change teams. I had to get new people in that had a different set of skill sets. It's been a pretty remarkable recovery.

       I say it's a ragtag team, but these are high-level professionals. In their previous roles, they weren't necessarily appreciated for what they brought to the table. For us, more of our new hires were the foundation of our turnaround were people who had been fired or left under less than ideal circumstances at their most previous job. I had another gentleman who was an uber driver and a substitute teacher who was partially retired, yet I had another guy who was a key employee of mine today, but he hadn't had a real job. For several years, he'd done a little bit of this and a little bit of that but hadn't had a real job. How do you take this ragtag group of people and turn them into what I consider to be an incredibly high-performing, high-achieving team?

        I've done pretty well not to brag on myself, but I think one of the things I've done well is identifying areas in which people excel: and put them in those areas that they are best. For example, I often think of a football team analogy, where the field goal kickers will not be great quarterbacks. A quarterback isn't going to be a tremendous offensive line. If you get them in their skill set and have them do what they're fantastic at, it pays dividends.

       I was able to see the value that they brought, find areas in which I needed their skills, and put them in those areas. As a boss, I'm not afraid to admit that my people are better at their jobs than I would be. I've hired specialists. I've heard people who are experts in their craft in their area. I've let them go, and they've done quite remarkable things.

       Lisa Ryan: So, how did you determine that a conversation you had with them, asking them what they were good at or what they enjoy doing. Was that something that you were observing and just seeing what lights them up? How did you get to that point of pinpointing where to put people.

       Keith Ledbetter: Well, it's an ongoing joke within our staff, especially when hiring new people. I looked in my network, and I thought, okay, I need someone good at this area. I need someone who can go out there in the community. I don't have to push them out the door, but they prefer to be outside. What I often did is I found people who work full-time employed or were under challenging circumstances. I interviewed them, but they didn't know they were being interviewed.

       We were able to have some very, very frank conversations, and then at the end of those conversations at a few of them say, are you interviewing me. I found people that I wanted to hire. I said, well, as a matter of fact, I do have a position open that, frankly, I do have a job opening that I think would be an interesting fit. Why don't we continue to have some conversation to determine whether this worked out or not. My looking for people wasn't a one job interview.

       In some cases, I did some job posting on posting boards. But in many of my key positions, I look within my network. I found people looking for work and then try to have a very candid conversation over weeks to determine whether we'd]]>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 problems. How do you take people when there is already a skilled Labor force and find people like you. You don't necessarily have the right to the same background that you're looking for—finding those people with those inherent skills and getting them in the right seats on the bus. Please share the story of where you started and what it took to create that winning culture that you have now.

       Keith Ledbetter: Right, I think to provide proper context, you have to go back to what I came into. It was pretty dramatic. We had a situation where only a year earlier, the association couldn't make the mortgage payments. They were getting ready to lose their building. They had significant indebtedness. We had a membership in our association that wasn't a group of people who want to be involved as an association.

       I remember we celebrated my hiring at ABC. I think we had about six people show up. It sent a message, like, hey, we've got some work to do. On the school side, we were floundering. We weren't being successful and weren't bringing in the new students we hoped to bring in. All these things are tearing down the organization, we weren't following proper rules and protocols, and we really needed to tighten up across the board, and so, frankly, at the time, I didn't know what I was coming into, and even worse.

       My predecessor hadn't been paying proper dues to ABC National, so we found significant indebtedness beyond even what we owed the Bank. That was the starting point that I had, and I quickly recognized that I didn't have the right team in place. There was a culture there that had to be changed in significant ways.

       When I parachuted in, I had no idea; I just assumed everything was great, and I would go into this opportunity. These are not things that necessarily come out in the job interview. That boy, you've got a tough job on your hands. I found out literally on day one; when there was a board meeting, we had some major problems that had to be dealt with. I realized this very early on. I had to have the right people in place to get it turned around.

       Lisa Ryan: Isn't that funny that if you had known everything that you were running into, there's a pretty good chance that you may not have taken that.

       Keith Ledbetter: You know, life is funny. I love the challenge, and I look back five years from now, literally my fifth anniversary coming up here very shortly. The turnaround that we have has been miraculous. I'm still. I'm excited today about what I do than I have been in many years because I had to change teams. I had to get new people in that had a different set of skill sets. It's been a pretty remarkable recovery.

       I say it's a ragtag team, but these are high-level professionals. In their previous roles, they weren't necessarily appreciated for what they brought to the table. For us, more of our new hires were the foundation of our turnaround were people who had been fired or left under less than ideal circumstances at their most previous job. I had another gentleman who was an uber driver and a substitute teacher who was partially retired, yet I had another guy who was a key employee of mine today, but he hadn't had a real job. For several years, he'd done a little bit of this and a little bit of that but hadn't had a real job. How do you take this ragtag group of people and turn them into what I consider to be an incredibly high-performing, high-achieving team?

        I've done pretty well not to brag on myself, but I think one of the things I've done well is identifying areas in which people excel: and put them in those areas that they are best. For example, I often think of a football team analogy, where the field goal kickers will not be great quarterbacks. A quarterback isn't going to be a tremendous offensive line. If you get them in their skill set and have them do what they're fantastic at, it pays dividends.

       I was able to see the value that they brought, find areas in which I needed their skills, and put them in those areas. As a boss, I'm not afraid to admit that my people are better at their jobs than I would be. I've hired specialists. I've heard people who are experts in their craft in their area. I've let them go, and they've done quite remarkable things.

       Lisa Ryan: So, how did you determine that a conversation you had with them, asking them what they were good at or what they enjoy doing. Was that something that you were observing and just seeing what lights them up? How did you get to that point of pinpointing where to put people.

       Keith Ledbetter: Well, it's an ongoing joke within our staff, especially when hiring new people. I looked in my network, and I thought, okay, I need someone good at this area. I need someone who can go out there in the community. I don't have to push them out the door, but they prefer to be outside. What I often did is I found people who work full-time employed or were under challenging circumstances. I interviewed them, but they didn't know they were being interviewed.

       We were able to have some very, very frank conversations, and then at the end of those conversations at a few of them say, are you interviewing me. I found people that I wanted to hire. I said, well, as a matter of fact, I do have a position open that, frankly, I do have a job opening that I think would be an interesting fit. Why don't we continue to have some conversation to determine whether this worked out or not. My looking for people wasn't a one job interview.

       In some cases, I did some job posting on posting boards. But in many of my key positions, I look within my network. I found people looking for work and then try to have a very candid conversation over weeks to determine whether we'd be a good fit for each other.

       It's a little bit unique. What my approach was, was an ongoing conversation. It was a relationship. I feel that professional world, you're most successful when you have relationships with people, bringing people in, and understanding their background. Maybe what was lacking in their previous roles, and what you might be able to do for them. Then for them to have a real frank and genuine understanding of what you need from them.

       That's been the secret sauce to me—my ability to build these great teams. I realize now that many of these people, while they may not have been ideally suited for some of their previous roles, were ideally suited for my organization and me. They had a fantastic skillset, and then I'm finding that they are far better at what they're tasked with doing in my organization.

       That's when you know you've hit the sweet spot when you're not the smartest people in the room that there are so many other great talents out there. You that can add stuff that you're not very good at. I recognized that and humbled myself to acknowledge that these people were phenomenal in my weak areas, and they're going to be a fantastic addition to the team.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, I think the big idea that just came out of that was the fact that interviewing is not placing an ad or going online, looking for a specific person or turning out over to HR, and saying hey, this is the person I'm looking for. It's a continuous conversation. It's looking for people who would be a good fit and having those conversations.

       One of the things I say in my program is that you want to hire more slowly and fire more quickly. It comes to getting rid of those toxic people and for you taking that time to get to know people. You're assessing, "Is this person going to be a good fit. That's how you keep that you find talent. You can control it a lot easier if you found that to be true.

       Keith Ledbetter: I probably had a little bit of unfair advantage because I've had a great network of people and professionals I've known. Being in the legislative world and being a lobbyist, you're a connector of people. You know people across numerous industries. I used that network of people to have conversations that the average CEO or that maybe the average person looking to hire doesn't have. When I was taking inventory of my strengths, I said that is an area that I'm good at that I have a network of people, so how can I find the right people to be able to work, the organization, and not everyone is a great fit.

       But it certainly worked out for me. In some cases, you have to do some online advertising or some job postings, and you have to be good at that, too, especially when you don't find that person in your network that can do a job that needs to be done. Again, I think, really delving into the people and understanding them understanding what they're good at having some frank conversations. It isn't a point of discussion. When people are nervous in a job interview, you don't get a lot out of them, so the degree that you can early on break down those walls and have an excellent personal conversation. Please get to know them a little bit more on a personal level.

       I don't care all that much whether the people I hire are particularly skilled or have a background and precisely the job title and responsibility that need them. I want someone who's pliable. I want someone who learns. I need someone with the basic foundational skills, whether it's a people person who needs to be out there selling or marketing was a person who Is a financial guru. Suppose it's a person who's very organizational in nature. In that case, you know, I have needs across the organization in all those different areas, and some people will be phenomenal in one of those areas and very, very weak. I think the other thing also has done reasonably well.

       I've taken people, and I've hired them, and I've told them, look, I'm hiring you for this role, but we're going to find out where you best fit within this organization. This is not a stopping point for you; you're not limited to just this role. We're going to figure out what you excel at what's you're very talented at. We're going to put you in that role, and we're going to make you incredibly successful, so I say, look, bear with me for a little bit while we figure this out. In comparison, you figure out what you like doing here. What we figure out makes sense, how you can use those skills, and we're going to put you in that role, and it's been a unique thing. Most new employees liked the idea that hey, they're going to work with me that.

       If I get stuck in a role that I'm not good at, it doesn't mean that I have to stay here. We can have some ongoing conversations, so then once you've onboarded them. Part of my strategy has been let's have some discussions on an ongoing basis. How are you doing here? How do you like things? Do you have frustrations closing the door, so it's me? That employee has a good, really good conversation to understand each other and send the signal. They know that they can reach out to me, even if they have a direct report different from mine.

       My role as CEO is the guy who is masterminding all of those relationships, putting them all together have this tapestry that we put together that utilizes the best of all people's skills and abilities. That's been kind of neat, and frankly, it's been fun. I'm learning as I go. I don't have this all figured out immediately, but I also have accumulated this great team and then motivate them to stay with me and not just take off when we hit rough waters.

       I also have high expectations of what my team is going to do. Sometimes I'm sure this frustration. It's like I'm asking them for the impossible. I want them to stretch. I want them to reach. I want them to struggle to get the best out of themselves. If you do hire a high-performing team, they want to know that they're high-performing. They want to achieve great things. Sometimes you have to be in a level of discomfort to do those things. It's been pretty cool to watch this organization. I talked about how when we started. We were in debt. We weren't following the rules. We had a low-performing organization. We were on the verge of being kicked out of our National Association because we didn't do what we were supposed to do. To go that to where we are today, we've almost tripled enrollment in our school. We paid off a million dollars in debt on our building, and now we owe it free and clear. We have no debt that we have at this point. We've grown our trade association membership four years in a row. We may be the only or one of the only chapters in the entire United States that can say that we've done that. We've turned it around from what would be considered one of the lowest-performing organizations in the country.

       One of the highest performing organizations with again what I'm referring to is this ragtag group of team members that maybe didn't work at their stride when I hired them. But we brought him in. We motivated them. We gave them off the appropriate onboarding. We gave them a big vision of what kind of accomplishments. We've inspired them. We work with them, we train them, and we talked to them and having ongoing conversations. Those are all been part of what it's taken to transform this into a winning team. Hopefully, I'll be able to continue keeping them. I realized that a certain number of cases,

       I think it all starts with remarkable authenticity, a desire to help your people become better and do well in this world and the professional career, and I certainly take that on myself. I asked my employees what do they want to do? How can I help you? Let's build some skill sets that you can use throughout the entirety of your career? I think that's very important.

       I'll give you a story. I have one of my directors of education who is phenomenal. Susie is 26 years old. She is undoubtedly a phenomenal employee of ours and has been an essential part of our team. I know she has aspirations to do other things. I also know she has an extreme interest in being part of the political world. We had an opportunity as an organization to testify before the Michigan house committee last week.

       I could have done that. I'm a lobbyist by trade and background. I have a former state representative who is my Vice President of workforce development either one of us could have done that testimony. Recognizing how important that was for her and how meaningful it would be in terms of her career progression to get exposed to that and do that, I decided to have her do the testimony. It did, is it put when did her sales that these people care about me that they're giving me opportunities. That would be very hard for me to find anywhere else. They care enough about me that they're going to allow me to shine in the public limelight.

       That's just an anecdotal example of some of the things that I like to do to put my team in a position to develop themselves. Even when we could find other ways too, or we could have done other things, and in that particular situation, I needed to provide that an opportunity for my employees.

       Lisa Ryan: You have given us so many great hints and strategies to attract and retain great talent, so from a networking standpoint, if you were to think about something that you would like to learn from industry, other industry, colleagues, as well as what would be your areas of expertise that you'd like to share or you'd be open to sharing what would that be?

       Keith Ledbetter: As someone who prides me, leading an organization is growing by leaps and bounds and having a lot of success. I always struggle with that next step. Are you willing to put some things on the line? To risk a few things to get to that next level. As an example for]]>88638be3-3829-49f5-8988-37dbde5d5a6dMon, 28 Jun 2021 06:45:00 -040024:27falsefull134341Manufacturing Success at the Intersection of IT and Industry with Craig James of Cat-Strat ServicesContact 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 about that is you just talked about the assemblies and these computers that took up an entire room or an entire building, and right now we have that capacity in the palm of our hand, if not even more powerful computers than we're back in the day. But we're seeing so many changes in technology changing in manufacturing because of technology and what's possible. So, where have you seen that convergence?

       Craig James: So I probably don't have to be the first one to inform your listeners around the concepts of IoT or sensors or 3D printing. Chances are, with Industry 4.0, your listenership is well-tuned in better than I might be in terms of what's happening from a macro trans trend standpoint. But the implications are significant.

       Today, we think about a manufacturing line, a product designed, developed, manufactured, and distributed; it's indivisible NMR anymore from those things like sensors, networks, technology, and software—embedded algorithms, machine learning, A.I., all that now is baked into what manufacturing is. So the lines are blurring even more. And what's the implication? , when we think about, OK, I'm listening to the show, the theory's interesting, but how do I adapt?

       What do I do? One of the first things we need to be thinking about is how to become aware of technology and enable our teams and upskill. And that's not to make a judgment of what manufacturing staff might have been years ago. But the fact is it's shifting and changing. So the need for tech-savvy, adaptive, more intangible workers that think and do will become essential as we look to the future.

       Lisa Ryan: And even in the last year of the pandemic, when it has speeded up technology quite a bit, we're so far ahead from where we were just a year ago. But if you're looking at your older workers who were averse to technology before, it's become a lot easier. Technology, today versus just a year ago, seems to be a lot more user-friendly. It was so encouraging your employees to get that fear out of the way and just try it for goodness sake because it's here to stay.

       Craig James: Well, I think you hit on a key thing. And sometimes, when we think about what we do, especially as we emerge out of a pandemic, we think about all the tangible things we need to do, maybe retool, rethink. But are emotion around what's happened, what's happening, and about to happen becomes key? Fear is a crucial word for sure. And no matter how bullish and strong we think we are as business leaders, let's face it, the last year has been rather significant.

       It's been a once in 100 year set of circumstances. So our ability to put our feeling and thinking off to the side for a second. We have to react. We have to be quick. We have to be adaptive and responsive. This might sound contradictory, yet at the same time, we need to be reflective, stop and think. Hold the fort for a second and make sure we reassess the landscape because it's changed.

       I was just having some flashbacks as far as what this year has meant personally and professionally. That has been one of the gifts, and probably one of the struggles, not only in manufacturing but also about the employees. It's not just about the work. It's how are you doing? Let's take time and reflect on this. Let's take time for self-care and take care of ourselves, but making sure that the leaders connect with their employees on a more personal level than maybe they ever have been before.

       Lisa Ryan: And sometimes we look at these as soft skills or touchy-feely or airy-fairy stuff, and it is certainly the farthest from the truth, especially now.

       Craig James: I'm going to remember that because quite often, as consultants and advisers and executive coaches sometimes are accused of airy-fairy and woo woo. And I would say our practice tends to lean on the human side. We have to translate and make tangible some of these conceptual things that often are discarded. But you're hitting at such an important point as a leader now more than ever before, special care for our team and care for ourselves. Check into them and check into ourselves.

       I had the gift of interviewing a fabulous fellow named Lawrence Ganti. He's the chief business officer of a company that makes the things that go into the stuff that makes the vial that the vaccine goes into before it goes in your arm. So a pretty important deployment tool, the vial. And it can go into how interesting it is from a technology and manufacturing standpoint. It's a nanofilm of glass that goes inside a polymer. So you have both the glass and the plastic benefits of holding back. Anyway, there's a lot to that story. So here's a guy who had a hundred team members a year ago and now has five hundred and fifty, had one facility and now has four, made 10 million vials a year now makes one hundred and twenty all in months.

       And I said, Lawrence, we've got some other things to do here. How can I provide value? Because you probably have a thousand things that are waiting for you by the time we're done with our chat. He said, Craig, are you kidding? The gift to me right now is to stop for a second and to reflect. So I know it's important for your listeners to know what I can do with the stuff? One is to take the time, dare to stop, and reflect.

       Because what's happening now is we're all in a hyperdrive to get back right back to normal. Yeah, we need to take a breath. And that's counterintuitive again, because hell heck, sorry. I'm a strategic planner and thought leader. I'm proud to say so.

        

       That sounds arrogant. It just comes from...]]>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 about that is you just talked about the assemblies and these computers that took up an entire room or an entire building, and right now we have that capacity in the palm of our hand, if not even more powerful computers than we're back in the day. But we're seeing so many changes in technology changing in manufacturing because of technology and what's possible. So, where have you seen that convergence?

       Craig James: So I probably don't have to be the first one to inform your listeners around the concepts of IoT or sensors or 3D printing. Chances are, with Industry 4.0, your listenership is well-tuned in better than I might be in terms of what's happening from a macro trans trend standpoint. But the implications are significant.

       Today, we think about a manufacturing line, a product designed, developed, manufactured, and distributed; it's indivisible NMR anymore from those things like sensors, networks, technology, and software—embedded algorithms, machine learning, A.I., all that now is baked into what manufacturing is. So the lines are blurring even more. And what's the implication? , when we think about, OK, I'm listening to the show, the theory's interesting, but how do I adapt?

       What do I do? One of the first things we need to be thinking about is how to become aware of technology and enable our teams and upskill. And that's not to make a judgment of what manufacturing staff might have been years ago. But the fact is it's shifting and changing. So the need for tech-savvy, adaptive, more intangible workers that think and do will become essential as we look to the future.

       Lisa Ryan: And even in the last year of the pandemic, when it has speeded up technology quite a bit, we're so far ahead from where we were just a year ago. But if you're looking at your older workers who were averse to technology before, it's become a lot easier. Technology, today versus just a year ago, seems to be a lot more user-friendly. It was so encouraging your employees to get that fear out of the way and just try it for goodness sake because it's here to stay.

       Craig James: Well, I think you hit on a key thing. And sometimes, when we think about what we do, especially as we emerge out of a pandemic, we think about all the tangible things we need to do, maybe retool, rethink. But are emotion around what's happened, what's happening, and about to happen becomes key? Fear is a crucial word for sure. And no matter how bullish and strong we think we are as business leaders, let's face it, the last year has been rather significant.

       It's been a once in 100 year set of circumstances. So our ability to put our feeling and thinking off to the side for a second. We have to react. We have to be quick. We have to be adaptive and responsive. This might sound contradictory, yet at the same time, we need to be reflective, stop and think. Hold the fort for a second and make sure we reassess the landscape because it's changed.

       I was just having some flashbacks as far as what this year has meant personally and professionally. That has been one of the gifts, and probably one of the struggles, not only in manufacturing but also about the employees. It's not just about the work. It's how are you doing? Let's take time and reflect on this. Let's take time for self-care and take care of ourselves, but making sure that the leaders connect with their employees on a more personal level than maybe they ever have been before.

       Lisa Ryan: And sometimes we look at these as soft skills or touchy-feely or airy-fairy stuff, and it is certainly the farthest from the truth, especially now.

       Craig James: I'm going to remember that because quite often, as consultants and advisers and executive coaches sometimes are accused of airy-fairy and woo woo. And I would say our practice tends to lean on the human side. We have to translate and make tangible some of these conceptual things that often are discarded. But you're hitting at such an important point as a leader now more than ever before, special care for our team and care for ourselves. Check into them and check into ourselves.

       I had the gift of interviewing a fabulous fellow named Lawrence Ganti. He's the chief business officer of a company that makes the things that go into the stuff that makes the vial that the vaccine goes into before it goes in your arm. So a pretty important deployment tool, the vial. And it can go into how interesting it is from a technology and manufacturing standpoint. It's a nanofilm of glass that goes inside a polymer. So you have both the glass and the plastic benefits of holding back. Anyway, there's a lot to that story. So here's a guy who had a hundred team members a year ago and now has five hundred and fifty, had one facility and now has four, made 10 million vials a year now makes one hundred and twenty all in months.

       And I said, Lawrence, we've got some other things to do here. How can I provide value? Because you probably have a thousand things that are waiting for you by the time we're done with our chat. He said, Craig, are you kidding? The gift to me right now is to stop for a second and to reflect. So I know it's important for your listeners to know what I can do with the stuff? One is to take the time, dare to stop, and reflect.

       Because what's happening now is we're all in a hyperdrive to get back right back to normal. Yeah, we need to take a breath. And that's counterintuitive again, because hell heck, sorry. I'm a strategic planner and thought leader. I'm proud to say so.

        

       That sounds arrogant. It just comes from experience to lead. I thought you have to learn. And what I've learned. Some of the planning stuff just a year ago we advised it's all undone and so stop. Reflect. Yes, but react at the same time. We have to do both. We have to be adaptive, reactive. But the idea of planning is almost out the window because you can't plan and count on anything.

       Lisa Ryan: You've got to be not so surprised by surprises because they're going to happen. So it's a really interesting time right now. I know with me, and with lots of people, we have the zoom burnout. We are not only on camera but also attending meetings and now doing virtual conferences. We're not moving much. Taking care of our employees from a personal standpoint and giving the gift of getting away from technology in that point of reflection. Being able to walk away and turn off all technology and be in a room by yourself away from devices and give yourself the gift of just thinking and reflecting.

       Craig James: Because when you take the time to listen to yourself, it really because we have so many things trying to get our attention all day long that we don't take the time to listen and reflect. So again, we can't take care of others unless we're taking care of ourselves.

       One of the things that we use in executive coaching, that's a little tool or tip that your listeners might want to try, is simple. I've always got a whiteboard for conveying some thoughts. Here's a visual in your mind's eye. If you're making about technology invasion, and that's what it is, it's people who work hard to figure out a way to get your attention.

       It's compelling. It's seductive. And here's the thing. Take a hiatus and turn technology off. One of the techniques we use is this picture on a whiteboard. Many arrows go in one direction and a bunch of arrows going in the other. When you look at a day's activity, you then ask yourself to stop and reflect on how many arrows came at you? How many arrows did you issue and fire upon your own volition around something that needed to happen that was important. I can tell you nine times out of nine, the arrows coming in outwait and outnumber the arrows going out. And so a little a slight tweak of that can be helpful. Consciousness and awareness of what's coming in and what am I initiating can go a long way in shifting our behaviors a little bit.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, and being comfortable with connecting with employees, especially in manufacturing. We're used to focusing on whatever that end product is. But now reaching out and saying, so how are you doing? How are you dealing with that? I mean, thankfully, we're finally getting to hopefully the end seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

       I mean, I am fully vaccinated now. Thank God we do it for you. But it was a year in the making. I don't want to call it PTSD, but we're looking back on a year. I kept referring to 2020 as the year that wasn't. I got to hug my father for the first time in a year this week. And I am not the only one. Thankfully, I have my own company. But look at your employees because many people are still suffering and still having these repercussions from everything that we've gone through.

        

       Craig James: You're hitting on some so important things to remember. It's not anyone thing, Lisa. It's a combination of a notion of care, the human touch, the soft skills. The ante has been up for sure. I read an article not too long ago. I think it was in Forbes suggesting that the key ingredient to the innovation ecosystem right now is emotional intelligence. Interesting you think A.I. or some other technology term in terms of innovation and design? No, it's the human stuff.

       I think the other thing to Lisa on a human level, but maybe not a softer touch, a realistic look at our behaviors and our skills, again, repeating is the notion of adaptation and agility being unsurprised by the surprising. So that has to do with stopping, thinking and projecting, imagining things that could or may not happen. But just imagine, worst case, the best case most likely and take that time, not so much to think and plan, but to hone adaptation skills and not be surprised by surprise.

       The other thing that we've found fascinating right now is what we call the counterintuitive effect. What's been fascinating in the last year is that the human touch thing is the need for it, but the business dynamics are shifting. We talked about it in manufacturing and business, in general, a little bit earlier in our chat. There are sensors embedded, let's say, in manufacturing processes, but the fact that the market shift is so different be to be used to be manufacturing.

       We worked with a client, unnamed in their client, unnamed in apparel. And they used to design the stuff, make it, ship it, outsource production and have retail partners. Their thinking has to be all about deals to see how they make the stuff, design it, have a personal relationship with the consumer, and direct to consumer sell and transact with those consumers. OK, now a manufacturer designer has to be distributor marketer, social media expert, subject matter expert, retail distribution, website, experts and manufacturer to that is significant.

       Back to counterintuitive, and then I'll do it here. The counterintuitive thing is fascinating. One of my favorites, I almost use it to a fault examples is Purell Gojo Industries. OK, so through the pandemic, good news or bad news for Purell right now when people are trying to keep their hands clean. The answer is a great time for business. Bad time question for you. Question. Good. Bad. I think it's both good because they make hand sanitizers, but it's bad because making beer yesterday is also making hand sanitizers.

       So not only is there all kinds of stuff changing landscapes, changing competitive land, fields changing, yet at the same time, both are happening. At the same time. Good things are bad things. Bad things are good things. A friend who's in the OEM parts business for aircraft, OK, crap business bad because planes aren't flying business. Good because planes don't fly. The parts go bad. Good. Well, wait, bad because they won't buy them from us because there's an idle plane next door to get the parts from.

       There are all kinds of things happening when we turn industries and markets upside down back to what do we do, what can we do? We have to be unsurprised by the surprising.

        

       Lisa Ryan: We need to be anticipatory and think about the crazy things that won't happen because they just might. Absolutely, when I think back again a year ago, at the end of twenty nineteen, going into 2020, if I would have sat and thought about the surprises and asked myself the question, what would happen if the speaking industry completely disappeared overnight? What would happen if the meeting and travel industry? Because it's something that it's unfathomable. 

       It would have been something that wouldn't have been even crossed my mind—so challenging yourself to think about the unthinkable, not to be surprised by the surprising. I think that's a great activity because if nothing else, we've learned from this past year that literally, anything can happen.

         

       Craig James: Absolutely. And there's some good stuff out there to read. This is a little bit more on the would you call it airy-fairy, but it's tangible called mind site. It's a great book that allows you to put your thinking and set it over there and look at it. And I think not only are we thinking, but we are thinking about our thinking needs to shift, and we need to be able to examine it, not judge it. That's what we do in coaching.

        You don't judge it. Just pay attention. I read an excellent article, I think in Inc. that was talking about the little subtleties of the language and stories we tell ourselves. One sentence equals this. How am I ever going to fix that problem? The second sentence is, how am I going to fix the problem? Sounds the same. Maybe even similar. Hugely different. How am I ever going to solve this problem?

        Essentially is saying I blanked - I can't do it. What do I do? Oh, God, whereas how am I going to fix this problem is simply asking a question. See so little subtle things like this can serve us in shifting, adapting, and being proactive as best we can.

        

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. That is powerful. And just that one little word ever takes it from almost a despondency to a possibility. Well said. So, Craig, as we're getting to the end of our time together, your firm provides strategic advisory services and business development, growth consulting, executive coaching. I mean, you pretty much do everything so well. I don't know. But how is that? How is the game-changing for you? And how do you work with your clients?

        

       Craig James: Well, thanks for the opportunity to speak to it in your kind words. In many ways, executive coaching, strategy, work, business development, sales, coaching is not like brand new technology. There's a lot of folks that do it. And that's great. There's plenty for many where we're a little bit different. Perhaps a little is that we're boardroom but high touch, robotic and flexible and adaptive. The big thing for us right now is executive coaching.

         

       That personally brings a lot of joy. That's a great gratification. You see the material impact. It's a privilege to be part of someone's leadership journey and growth. One of the things that's game-changing right now or shifting for sure is this moment in time in history. We went in the last year from deer in the headlights to hold down the fort to now let's regroup and do something about this and then do...]]>d19d61e7-5555-4e70-a91a-0c55bdf57505Mon, 21 Jun 2021 06:45:00 -040024:51falsefull133331Providing Resources for Small to Medium-Sized Manufacturers with Kent GladishContact 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 told are doing well binoculars, grills, weights, these are all things that people want in their homes because of covid. They want to buy them locally. I mean weights. I don't even know where weights were manufactured before, but TMA Members are now manufacturing barbells and weights because the lifters of the world, a year ago, went out to Dick's sporting goods and bought up all the weights. Of course, you don't just order a freight load of very heavyweights from China, so my story is getting crazy. That way, our Members manufacturers some precision-related things, and those precision-related things are doing quite well these days.

       I joke about springs because there are so many springs in all sorts of handheld kitchen devices. We're all cooking more at home, and so all of those spring manufacturers are crazy busy these days because we're buying up those particular goods. Medical Research devices, course medicine, and all things related to health or up and all of the tools they use to do their research are precision manufacturing locally. Those local manufacturers tend to be doing well, so manufacturing is pretty broad. If you go through your day and look at everything, you see it's manufactured by somebody somewhere, so all over the place.

       Lisa Ryan: You highlight so many of your Members that are doing pretty unique things that you've seen maybe with their culture or how they've reached out to people during these times - little things that they're doing that people are listening today might say hey that's a good idea, I can do that.

       Kent Gladish: The thing that I've been noticing it's the most progressive again in my world, which is northeast Illinois small to medium-sized manufacturers. Because I'm a numbers guy, 10% of my Members are under ten employees, and 10% of my Members are over 80 employees, so the 80/20 rule says there between you know 10 and 80, so that that's what I mean by small.

       But they're progressive guys focusing on their culture; they're focusing on their employees, focusing on millennials, and attracting millennials. They're skewing their websites, not necessarily toward a new business; they're skewing them toward new employees, so they're illustrating how cool they are; how they do their group hugs least that was pre-covid. But just doing unique things having flexible hours, focusing on the employees, dressing them in not just a Cintas uniform, but in something branded for the company, and celebrating their members.

       I respect the focus on their culture. They were the ones that were the smartest when it came to covid. They said let's shut down on Friday so we can clean Friday, Saturday, Sunday so they could be more efficient Monday through Thursday. The employees love that because they got a three-day weekend, even though they were working 10 hour days that could have occurred before, but it didn't, so covid created a benefit in that particular case.

       Lisa Ryan: And when you look at the difficulty of finding people, with so many jobs going unfilled, those little things like closing down on Fridays help. You're creating that culture that keeps them. The website is so important too. You can't go with stock photos of people who don't look like the people who are interviewing anymore. When that candidate is looking at the website, they're asking, "Do I see myself there?" These little things have just shown the real world.

       Kent Gladish: Our members' number one issue is largely unchanged for many years. They are trying to find skilled people. They have the work; they have the machines; they don't have the skilled person to run the machine to make the parts. I've collected 16 Members who had their best year ever in 2020. Sixteen of them are ready to go on second shift. A lot of this younger workforce says I'm not working the second shift. So they're trying to get to be creative to pay more to find ways to get them to work on that second shift but finding the skilled people.

       Kent Gladish: You told me you would ask about the best tip. I'm going to tell it to you now. I had a smart guy named Tim Roth. He works for Zeman manufacturing. What he does is he gets in his car. He drives to the local Starbucks, Burger King, Wendy's, whatever, and asks for the manager. He realizes that the manager at one of those retail outfits has to deal with customers, deal with money, and trust to open and close the place. He would ask, "How about a career in manufacturing? I'm willing to pay X. I'll bet you're making X minus something." He converted a handful of people that way.

       Trying to find local areas skilled people who can work with their hands have some math skills but don't know that there's a manufacturing career, because we all see Burger King and Wendy's. Still, we don't see all the small to medium-sized manufacturers as we're driving around. I do I get to see, and that's my purpose. There are ways to skin that cat.

       Lisa Ryan: When even changing the conversation regarding schools and bringing back tech programs and introducing manufacturing at a much younger age. You're right. You can look for people with that enthusiasm with that energy, and you can teach them the skills, but who would think about going up to drive-through restaurants and talking to the managers because of those little things good with numbers trustworthy. Those are, that is a great tip.

       Kent Gladish: At 100,000 feet, our society looks at you know every kid has to go to college. If you don't go to...]]>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 told are doing well binoculars, grills, weights, these are all things that people want in their homes because of covid. They want to buy them locally. I mean weights. I don't even know where weights were manufactured before, but TMA Members are now manufacturing barbells and weights because the lifters of the world, a year ago, went out to Dick's sporting goods and bought up all the weights. Of course, you don't just order a freight load of very heavyweights from China, so my story is getting crazy. That way, our Members manufacturers some precision-related things, and those precision-related things are doing quite well these days.

       I joke about springs because there are so many springs in all sorts of handheld kitchen devices. We're all cooking more at home, and so all of those spring manufacturers are crazy busy these days because we're buying up those particular goods. Medical Research devices, course medicine, and all things related to health or up and all of the tools they use to do their research are precision manufacturing locally. Those local manufacturers tend to be doing well, so manufacturing is pretty broad. If you go through your day and look at everything, you see it's manufactured by somebody somewhere, so all over the place.

       Lisa Ryan: You highlight so many of your Members that are doing pretty unique things that you've seen maybe with their culture or how they've reached out to people during these times - little things that they're doing that people are listening today might say hey that's a good idea, I can do that.

       Kent Gladish: The thing that I've been noticing it's the most progressive again in my world, which is northeast Illinois small to medium-sized manufacturers. Because I'm a numbers guy, 10% of my Members are under ten employees, and 10% of my Members are over 80 employees, so the 80/20 rule says there between you know 10 and 80, so that that's what I mean by small.

       But they're progressive guys focusing on their culture; they're focusing on their employees, focusing on millennials, and attracting millennials. They're skewing their websites, not necessarily toward a new business; they're skewing them toward new employees, so they're illustrating how cool they are; how they do their group hugs least that was pre-covid. But just doing unique things having flexible hours, focusing on the employees, dressing them in not just a Cintas uniform, but in something branded for the company, and celebrating their members.

       I respect the focus on their culture. They were the ones that were the smartest when it came to covid. They said let's shut down on Friday so we can clean Friday, Saturday, Sunday so they could be more efficient Monday through Thursday. The employees love that because they got a three-day weekend, even though they were working 10 hour days that could have occurred before, but it didn't, so covid created a benefit in that particular case.

       Lisa Ryan: And when you look at the difficulty of finding people, with so many jobs going unfilled, those little things like closing down on Fridays help. You're creating that culture that keeps them. The website is so important too. You can't go with stock photos of people who don't look like the people who are interviewing anymore. When that candidate is looking at the website, they're asking, "Do I see myself there?" These little things have just shown the real world.

       Kent Gladish: Our members' number one issue is largely unchanged for many years. They are trying to find skilled people. They have the work; they have the machines; they don't have the skilled person to run the machine to make the parts. I've collected 16 Members who had their best year ever in 2020. Sixteen of them are ready to go on second shift. A lot of this younger workforce says I'm not working the second shift. So they're trying to get to be creative to pay more to find ways to get them to work on that second shift but finding the skilled people.

       Kent Gladish: You told me you would ask about the best tip. I'm going to tell it to you now. I had a smart guy named Tim Roth. He works for Zeman manufacturing. What he does is he gets in his car. He drives to the local Starbucks, Burger King, Wendy's, whatever, and asks for the manager. He realizes that the manager at one of those retail outfits has to deal with customers, deal with money, and trust to open and close the place. He would ask, "How about a career in manufacturing? I'm willing to pay X. I'll bet you're making X minus something." He converted a handful of people that way.

       Trying to find local areas skilled people who can work with their hands have some math skills but don't know that there's a manufacturing career, because we all see Burger King and Wendy's. Still, we don't see all the small to medium-sized manufacturers as we're driving around. I do I get to see, and that's my purpose. There are ways to skin that cat.

       Lisa Ryan: When even changing the conversation regarding schools and bringing back tech programs and introducing manufacturing at a much younger age. You're right. You can look for people with that enthusiasm with that energy, and you can teach them the skills, but who would think about going up to drive-through restaurants and talking to the managers because of those little things good with numbers trustworthy. Those are, that is a great tip.

       Kent Gladish: At 100,000 feet, our society looks at you know every kid has to go to college. If you don't go to college, you're a loser. Blue-collar jobs don't pay much, which is all flat wrong. We know who the industrial arts teachers are in the local high schools who get it. It's inspiring because they will invite us in. I'm here in my late 50s have been asked to speak to high school kids at four high schools, and I'm not even the lead person at TMA that networks with that. I see the glass is half-full. Many young people are getting on the STEAM agenda. If you throw the arts into STEM, you get STEAM. Science, technology, engineering, math, arts gives you STEAM. It was just somebody who saw stem and said, hey, wait. You forgot the arts, okay. We've got a great set of high schools here called east and west Leiden that are graduating a whole crop of seniors, many of whom go off to college, but many of whom go off to a manufacturing career immediately because they get their credentials. In high school, they are doing machining and Labor work and whatnot, and then they go right out into our TMA members, making more money than their parents do.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, the nice thing about it too is they're not coming out of college with 10s of thousands of dollars of student loan debt either, and they're immediately making a nice living. Now, I remember back in my high school days, the kids in shop class or on wood shop or any of those were seen as the troublemakers. There was the kind of that whole stigma around that. We're starving for these people. Getting rid of that old mindset and looking at the new and the opportunities that manufacturing brings.

       Kent Gladish: I graduated high school in 1980, and if you could shift everything that I graduated high school, I would have been a machinist. I had excellent math skills. My dad had me work on the car on the weekends and in different periods. That's why I'm so passionate about it as I look at some of these young people. Even though I love my college situation - that was very important in my life - but my parents paid for my college. I was very fortunate that way, and it didn't cost that much back in the late 80s.

       We see this whole transformation of making sure that young people have tools to see what careers are out there to pursue them accordingly. My wife is in the High School System. Those tools do exist. It's starting to take hold. It's the parents and the rest of society that's got the stigma about blue-collar and so forth. But there was just a piece on LinkedIn just this morning. I don't even know who posted it, but they talked about plumbers' hourly wage, truck drivers. They were all doing very well financially. That's a misnomer, and manufacturing is much the same way. You've got to have your skills. You got to be good. You gotta get to work every day. You got to be on time or 15 minutes early.

       I work with a fair number of young people who get it, and it's fascinating to place them at a TMA Member and watch them go crazy.

       Lisa Ryan: So when you're at a high school, and you're talking to these kids, what are you telling them about manufacturing? What are you doing to light that spark within them?

       Kent Gladish: That's a challenge. I usually bring parts that I can hand to them and let them pass around. I like giving them a seat belt buckle because nobody thinks about the seat belt buckle they wore to get to school it's just a simple piece of metal that's been chrome plated. But a 100-pound girl in a 30 mile an hour impact all of a sudden weighs 1000 pounds, and that buckle has to hold the strap that holds her whole upper body without eating the steering wheel saves her life—that little buckle like a chrome-plated buckle. Then nobody thinks about that my member manufactured it. Oh, by the way, it never has any air pockets in it because that wouldn't bode well. I'll try to give them a little bit of shock and awe about automobile accidents to try to get their attention from the old bald guy talking.

       I often talk about how much money they will be making because I've heard too often that that's what they want to know, so I just come right out and say uh-huh. But I say it's a range, and then I hit hard by saying you got to get out of bed. You got to get to work early. It doesn't matter if there was a train. You should have been early and hit them pretty hard that way. 

       Lisa Ryan: Are you using things like manufacturing day as well as an organization.

       Kent Gladish: We probably have 20; it could be 40 TMA Members that have their houses open on October 1 or whatever Friday is the manufacturing day in October. We promote that through all of our social media and our conversation, just trying to get our members involved in the Community. High schools tend to be involved. It's the high schools who get it.

       Not all the high schools get it; many of them admit they want all their kids to go off to college because that makes them look better, which is unfortunate. Manufacturing Day is a lot of fun to try to humanize the manufacturing world because I know we're all those manufacturing areas are in northeast Illinois. Still, nobody else drives there. They're all headed off to the malls.

       Lisa Ryan: I think we became a lot more aware of manufacturing this last year as the supply chain was so disrupted. Number one was the whole toilet paper scare, but then you also had all the stories of these companies that one day they're making beer, the next day they're making hand sanitizer. One day they're making plastic; the next day they're making shields. That opportunity to not only adjust immediately on the fly but, to be able to contribute in such a significant way to society is also a big thing.

       Kent Gladish: Thank you for reminding me of that. A year ago, I had a colleague who was connected to northwestern hospital. They said we need a million face shields now. I went out to the TMA membership, and I said, here's what they're looking for. Who's in? I got 20 members. Today, I have five Members who still manufacturer face shields because they pivoted. They were not plastics people that are metal people.

       Manufacturers know how to tool up, and they know how to make something with precision at the right tolerances, but inexpensively so they can make a buck. They pivoted, and that's what they're continuing to make as we speak. It was neat to be a part of that. Let's get a million face shields in here. I swear it was in five working days. I mean, it was something.

       Now there wasn't a shortage of soap, a shortage of some of the materials that we have today on those various levels. There's that silly story of weights. I am a weightlifter. I'm looking over the table there at my 55-pound bar made by TMA members. I assembled several of them because we came to realize in late March of last year, none of the sporting goods stores carry weights because nobody could go to the YMCA or their gyms. So, boom. We've got metal workers who know how to laser cut and water jet cut weights and so on, so forth, so several people pivoted that way.

       Brian Fleck at K-tracks is a TMA Member who is distributing weights because of that whole program. Thank you for reminding me of that.

       Lisa Ryan: Another great way to highlight why people should go into manufacturing and go into those programs, so that's terrific.

       Kent Gladish: Absolutely.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, can it's been a pleasure, having you on the show if people wanted to learn more about team TMA or to connect with you what's the best way to do that.

       Kent Gladish: The best way to do that is through email or LinkedIn would probably be the easiest, but my email address is KGladish@TMAIllinois.org

       Lisa Ryan: Alright, thank you again so much for being on the show today.

       Kent Gladish: you're very welcome, have a great rest of your day Lisa.

       Lisa Ryan: Thanks! I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers Network podcast. See you next time.

       ]]>15de6150-188a-421d-84d0-87c91c964772Mon, 14 Jun 2021 06:45:00 -040021:50falsefull132321Strategies to Help SMMs (Small-Medium Manufacturers) Increase Profits with Rahul SarkarConnect 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 shop there and look for manufacturers, look for supplies as some of the Tier one suppliers followed suit. But that assumes they don't have the resources to send people there. So they got even further squeezed. They had to drive the prices down even further to match offshore competition.

       How far do you go this? You run into negative territory. That is why if you think if you look at the statistics, twenty percent of businesses fail within the first five years, 50 percent of businesses fail for manufacturing companies. Suppose you think of what happens in year 10. So if I make it past five years, am I all good? No. Unfortunately, within twenty-five years, 80 percent of manufacturing companies disappear.

       So that's tragic. And that is where the focus has been on profits. But it has to be on revenue. You have to have a substantial amount of revenue before you start cutting and packing and making the reductions, trying to increase profits. And that's the mindset change that is really important in this case. So if you're not focusing on profits, what are some of the things that they can do to focus on their people? Focus on their culture because we know when they're doing the right things, the profits happen.

       Lisa Ryan: But what do those right things look like?

       Rahul Sarkar: If a company can focus on building revenues, for example, small, medium manufacturing companies, fabricators, job shops, they are getting requests for quotations. They may they're lucky if they win five percent, 10 percent would be an awesome number. How many actually look at why they didn't win the remaining ninety-five percent of the bids and analyze that and try to figure out what we do wrong and provide the proper training, provide the proper resources, and bring in all of the good stuff.

       And secondly, along the same lines of revenue, you have to think of other ways to privatize our manufacturing capabilities and make products.

       This is where the pandemic really proves the point because of the urgent need for small-medium manufacturing companies to jump in and really step up. They were able to help and help society in general and help people and first responders and all of that and help themselves realize, oh, my gosh, I can make a specific product like guards or whatever face mask that this.

       And I think that that lesson should be carried on. It shouldn't just be during a pandemic where we realize that, oh, my gosh, we would make a lot of money if you had products. We have to carry that thinking forward and not just wait for the scraps to drop off the table. Yes.

       But get a little more control of your own destiny by outside-the-box thinking. Unfortunately, that it's not a very tidy answer and you have to try different things.

       Lisa Ryan: One of the things to do with them being such a part of the pandemic and making masks and making all the things and seeing that they were part of this greater mission, seeing that they helped in the greater good of society. And we can actually take that message forward so that companies are reminded that no matter what it is that they're making, no matter what it is that they're doing, what are their employees doing to contribute to that greater picture, even if they're making a spring, you know. They're just sitting making the same pieces, parts every single day.

       But letting that employee know this spring goes into this piece of equipment that saves lives. The spring goes into this airline, this plane, or whatever it is to see that contribution that we make. Why is this job important?

       Rahul Sarkar: And the people aspect is something that gets so neglected. Let me explain. If you think of when a downturn hits, who are the first to go? Which item gets cut first? HR and quality and people get cut because if you think of your revenue as a big pizza. That's your revenue, and slices of that pizza are coming off. Those are your expenses and what is left behind. A little sliver of pizza that you have left behind is what you take home for profits right now. If you think of the mindset of, OK, what do you focus on? You have to focus on the biggest contributor to that expense item. Where is there a piece of good?

       You consume manufacturing. If you're in manufacturing, 50 percent of the pizza is goods and materials cost. People cost maybe 15, 20 percent if you have more of a slice, bigger slice. And that that is a problem that you need to address. But think to focus on the big, big problems, the big slices like materials. And that's why I recommend one thing, one mindset of thinking I recommend for all segments is the Pareto principle. It's the fundamental way of thinking.

       You always look at the big hitters; the Pareto Principle says that 80 percent of your effects are caused by twenty percent of the causes. Right. For example, 80 percent of your losses are driven by 20 percent of your products or three. Some of your customers had problems that, you know, take up 80 percent of the time of your people and so forth, if you think along those lines, what are the biggest contributors to my problems today?

       And you will have a mindset of thinking, oh, what can I do to help that, even from the revenue side of things? OK, why am I not what is driving those 90, 95 percent of bids away from us? Why did we lose that? Did we have proper training? Are our salespeople educated enough to gather information on the market, the market pricing, and accept what is not acceptable to mess up? Did someone bid to load it so that mindset will take a manufacturing company a long way?

       If you have to think of the way you look at a problem, you cannot. And that's why...]]>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 shop there and look for manufacturers, look for supplies as some of the Tier one suppliers followed suit. But that assumes they don't have the resources to send people there. So they got even further squeezed. They had to drive the prices down even further to match offshore competition.

       How far do you go this? You run into negative territory. That is why if you think if you look at the statistics, twenty percent of businesses fail within the first five years, 50 percent of businesses fail for manufacturing companies. Suppose you think of what happens in year 10. So if I make it past five years, am I all good? No. Unfortunately, within twenty-five years, 80 percent of manufacturing companies disappear.

       So that's tragic. And that is where the focus has been on profits. But it has to be on revenue. You have to have a substantial amount of revenue before you start cutting and packing and making the reductions, trying to increase profits. And that's the mindset change that is really important in this case. So if you're not focusing on profits, what are some of the things that they can do to focus on their people? Focus on their culture because we know when they're doing the right things, the profits happen.

       Lisa Ryan: But what do those right things look like?

       Rahul Sarkar: If a company can focus on building revenues, for example, small, medium manufacturing companies, fabricators, job shops, they are getting requests for quotations. They may they're lucky if they win five percent, 10 percent would be an awesome number. How many actually look at why they didn't win the remaining ninety-five percent of the bids and analyze that and try to figure out what we do wrong and provide the proper training, provide the proper resources, and bring in all of the good stuff.

       And secondly, along the same lines of revenue, you have to think of other ways to privatize our manufacturing capabilities and make products.

       This is where the pandemic really proves the point because of the urgent need for small-medium manufacturing companies to jump in and really step up. They were able to help and help society in general and help people and first responders and all of that and help themselves realize, oh, my gosh, I can make a specific product like guards or whatever face mask that this.

       And I think that that lesson should be carried on. It shouldn't just be during a pandemic where we realize that, oh, my gosh, we would make a lot of money if you had products. We have to carry that thinking forward and not just wait for the scraps to drop off the table. Yes.

       But get a little more control of your own destiny by outside-the-box thinking. Unfortunately, that it's not a very tidy answer and you have to try different things.

       Lisa Ryan: One of the things to do with them being such a part of the pandemic and making masks and making all the things and seeing that they were part of this greater mission, seeing that they helped in the greater good of society. And we can actually take that message forward so that companies are reminded that no matter what it is that they're making, no matter what it is that they're doing, what are their employees doing to contribute to that greater picture, even if they're making a spring, you know. They're just sitting making the same pieces, parts every single day.

       But letting that employee know this spring goes into this piece of equipment that saves lives. The spring goes into this airline, this plane, or whatever it is to see that contribution that we make. Why is this job important?

       Rahul Sarkar: And the people aspect is something that gets so neglected. Let me explain. If you think of when a downturn hits, who are the first to go? Which item gets cut first? HR and quality and people get cut because if you think of your revenue as a big pizza. That's your revenue, and slices of that pizza are coming off. Those are your expenses and what is left behind. A little sliver of pizza that you have left behind is what you take home for profits right now. If you think of the mindset of, OK, what do you focus on? You have to focus on the biggest contributor to that expense item. Where is there a piece of good?

       You consume manufacturing. If you're in manufacturing, 50 percent of the pizza is goods and materials cost. People cost maybe 15, 20 percent if you have more of a slice, bigger slice. And that that is a problem that you need to address. But think to focus on the big, big problems, the big slices like materials. And that's why I recommend one thing, one mindset of thinking I recommend for all segments is the Pareto principle. It's the fundamental way of thinking.

       You always look at the big hitters; the Pareto Principle says that 80 percent of your effects are caused by twenty percent of the causes. Right. For example, 80 percent of your losses are driven by 20 percent of your products or three. Some of your customers had problems that, you know, take up 80 percent of the time of your people and so forth, if you think along those lines, what are the biggest contributors to my problems today?

       And you will have a mindset of thinking, oh, what can I do to help that, even from the revenue side of things? OK, why am I not what is driving those 90, 95 percent of bids away from us? Why did we lose that? Did we have proper training? Are our salespeople educated enough to gather information on the market, the market pricing, and accept what is not acceptable to mess up? Did someone bid to load it so that mindset will take a manufacturing company a long way?

       If you have to think of the way you look at a problem, you cannot. And that's why Benjamin Franklin said, what is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting the results to be different. That's insanity, right? For 50 years, we've been struggling. We've been struggling to have small, medium manufacturing companies make a decent profit. Yet nothing's happening. Nothing's changing because we are focused on profit first. Revenue first is what I say is we have to focus on that.

       Lisa Ryan: So, with some of the clients you've been working with, what are you seeing? What are some of the things that they are doing that are helping them put their people first? You know, specific examples of maybe some of the cool things or ideas that you've seen?

       Rahul Sarkar:  Companies that I have had success or seen succeed have treated their people as not line items but a part of the balance sheet. I think that is where it's. Again, it's a mindset. If you look at your people as expense items as opposed to assets. I think that's where I have seen. Just recently, I've been working with the company, and the leadership there is just incredible. And they understand the value of people and recognition and bringing having people that people have ideas.

       So many ideas. Trying to pull ideas from the people. The power of ideas is immense. And I think we see companies where the owner tries to do it all. You cannot do it all. You have to trust your people, hire bright young minds, bring them in. Don't slash your workforce. Many companies get rid of people and all of that knowledge and experience that you just collected over ten, fifteen, twenty, walk out the door. That's your asset which is walking out the door.

       Lisa Ryan: Now, when you talked about that company that you're working with, and you said they were a great leadership team, what makes them great?

       Rahul Sarkar: The the CEO, the company president. His attitude sets the tone. I've seen companies with terrible, terrible employee satisfaction situations, the leadership, and the top person in command. I think they set the tone. I have known this for 20 years. The fish rots from its head. I see this in so many places.

       And this company is such a classic example of how if you have the proper leadership, that is hands-on. He's running around the shop floor. He's cleaning up vehicles and showing the people that no job is above my level. I'm with you. I'm a part of the team. And we all have to succeed as a team. I think that mindset is so valuable. Appreciating the people. Walk around the shop, talk to people. Get to know them as people, not just expense items on your P&L statement.

       Right. I think that has a huge, huge effect on making people think. Why am I making this spring? If they know the why and they understand that, hey, my spring is going in there, and if I don't make the spring properly, I can end up making the team suffer. Leadership drives that team spirit, and that's, I think, so vital. 

       Lisa Ryan: It really does start at the leadership. There are way too many companies that look at employee engagement and retention and that type of thing as an issue or somebody below them. And it really does start at the top. And when you said walking through the plant, giving your employees access, knowing them by name, knowing a little bit about the employees, because when that leader is walking through the plant and says, hey, Bob, how are you doing? Bob can be like, holy cow.

       Rahul Sarkar: Oh, my gosh, yes. That is so powerful. And this is another mistake companies make. They think, oh, I give financial incentives, financial incentives not to respect people, just that that high wage means so much. The recognition making the job meaningful. Why am I making this screw, or why I'm making the spring? Giving them all of that really makes a difference.

       And this is where I think it's encouraging to see more and more of an awakening and a realization. In fact, some of your guests on your earlier shows have been talking about things like that. And it's really encouraging to see that. And I'm hoping that this will spread throughout the whole small-medium manufacturing companies because they really need the help, and they are the ones that can help themselves.

       That's the thing that they have to understand, not the government, not some dole or something. They have to use their people's resources, their brains, the brains that they have in the companies use that.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, especially since we have such a shortage of skilled workers out there. You think with unemployment being at an all-time high right now are high for a long time, that people would be easy to find, and they're not. So it's those skilled workers that you need. So if you have good people working for you, it's really creating those relationships and saying thank you and recognizing your employees. And all of that is not an excuse to pay them less than market wage is still left, right?

       Rahul Sarkar:  That's exactly right. And Lisa, that the point you bring up about the skilled workforce gap? We've complained about this for 10, 15, 20 years. We've talked about the gap. Why do any good shop individuals go work at McDonald's instead of at the factory? That site that has to change, that really has to change. You have to attract the brains; you have to increase the wages you pay them.

       And this is something, in fact, just yesterday there was a poster of a Forbes article and I was like very, very encouraging to read that the someone is saying that someone is saying those words like it will cost you minimal to pay the person two dollars extra per hour if you think of the the the downside off of retraining and attrition. So that's a whole different topic.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, exactly. I know. And just as we move off that topic, I remember reading some statistics that said that by that time, when the employee walked in the door, you've already spent about sixty-five hundred bucks getting them in there on day one. So when you start to put that pen to paper, you can't afford to have that high turnover and just to look for these little things to make your culture a better place to work to people enjoy working there, then that's going to keep them, and it's going to increase your profits.

       Rahul Sarkar:  It comes profit comes. If you do all these things right, profit will come. So absolutely.

       Lisa Ryan: So if you were to think about your best tip from what you've seen or what you've worked when it comes to putting people first, what would that be? 

       Rahul Sarkar: The power of ideas your people have been running, the machines have been making, the parts have been doing. Whatever you are having them do for many, many years. They have ideas that would blow your mind. And if you're about 15, 20 years ago, there was a book, The Power of Ideas or something. It was so profound. And then suddenly people stopped talking about it because everyone ran to the next big thing. 

       In fact, they had the pie of ideas. Your people have so many ideas. Cool. Just make it easy for them to come up to you and talk to you and give those ideas and recognize them for those ideas, you know, and I think that's a tip that you can take to the bank really well.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. And especially when you have new employees come in that are seeing the world differently from you, whether or not they have experience in your industry or not. Listening to them and acting on the things they share makes them even more loyal and more committed to you because they feel heard.

       Rahul Sarkar:  Absolutely. And those new employees, new people coming in, bring in a whole different world view and different ways of thinking. If you've been in a shop, on a factory floor, you walk by that that that leaky oil pan or whatever leaky machine every day. And you don't think about a new person: Why is it leaking? How much is that costing? That's costing. You get new, fresh ideas. And that's, you know, absolutely like you just said, fresh ideas and respect and freedom to think and speak and be valued as an individual. That's so, so important.

       Lisa Ryan: When you talk about that leaky can that people walk by every day, it's also thinking about what your break rooms look like versus your customer-facing places. You have people in the office. The office is bright and shiny, and clean. You go into the shop lunchroom, and it's dark and dirty. And so these little things about just helping the environment for your employees to make sure that when that new employee, that prospect comes in, who might be joining your company, they're looking around going, wow, that they must care about us because it's clean. After all, it's bright because it feels good to be in that place.

       Rahul Sarkar: Absolutely. That is so, so vital because then people, the employees think, oh, they like you said, they care about us. And you feel like instead of just you walk into the lobby, nice, beautiful. And then you walk out of the shop. It's dark, and it's dangerous, oily. Its floors are slippery. It's like, whoa, you know, that's, and it sends a message, and they leave anyone who doesn't desperately need a job believe they don't want to work in there.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, you and I can obviously talk about this all day long and being on the same page. If people want to get a hold of you to connect with you and learn more, what's the best way for them to do that?

       Rahul Sarkar:  Email a call me on my website. My number]]>861ad7b5-d098-4926-86ca-7b8f0a9cc963Mon, 07 Jun 2021 06:05:00 -040024:54falsefull131311Don't Ignore the Signs: How to Create a Safe Workplace in Manufacturing with Carol CambridgeContact 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 say it's a high-risk termination, and this person has been dismissed.

       But there is fear, or there has been a threat that this person may come back into the plant, and perhaps this person has a history of owning weapons, and they're very familiar with weapons. And through the risk assessment that this person is becoming more and more dangerous. Suddenly, there are twenty-four hours into this, but they haven't shared any information with the people in the plant. And it's hot, and it's in the summertime. So, all of the doors are open because they don't have air conditioning in the plant.

       And all of a sudden, they realize they put all these other steps into place, and they perhaps spent a lot of money. But this person could walk through any one of those doors and start shooting at any time. So that's how we play it now with the active shooter.

       Well, it's more highly charged. Let's say we put them into a situation of a mock drill. We give all the proper warnings for people ahead of time, and then we put them in that situation where we dim the lights, and they will hear the sounds of shots fired. I don't use that weaponry. I'm not trying to scare anybody. But just the sounds, the dimming. It's the fact that they're told that there's a shooter and that they need to hide or get out of the room. We can plant people with disabilities, and we just watch what happens and.

       People typically will do absolutely everything wrong. They don't know where to hide. They all go up the same exits that they entered. They just do things that we're trained to do. And what we're prepared to do is how to respond in a fire drill that's stand up, walk slowly toward the exits, be kind to everybody.

       But in an active shooter who wants to be the tallest person in the room, not me, not you.

       And so they go out the doors without looking. I never say where the shooter is. The shooter could be outside. We have someone playing the role of an active shooter, and they'll have a Nerf gun. They can't hurt anybody. Most of the time, somebody who gets hit with it doesn't even realize they're hit with that Nerf bullet. But people come back afterward, and they'll say, oh, my gosh, I never thought to look at what exits we have in this room. I never thought I had an assumption. It challenges their assumptions. It challenges their biases.

       It challenges them because they thought they would have perhaps fought or gone after the attacker when in fact, they hit their automatic instinct was to hide. And none of those reactions are wrong. It's just what happens to us in a crisis.

       So through the debrief and the follow-up training, we do a second one, and they will see the difference in the room, and you save their lives. But they could also save their coworkers' lives, especially in a manufacturing setting, because you typically have so many, so many objects that could be used as weapons, where if you were in an office building, there wouldn't be quick access to those kinds of weapons.

       So people think through and start using those critical thinking skills in a little different way.

       Lisa Ryan: Now, the thing that comes to mind to me is as much as we both fly of being on an airplane and you hear that that safety announcement over and over and over again, you can pretty much do it by heart. You know exactly where the exits are. You know exactly what you're going to do. But until that plane is going down, you have no idea. And you think in a plant environment; we never or rarely have that conversation.

       So how in the world can you think about what you're even going remotely to come close to, what you're going to do?

       Carol Cambridge: So much of this comes in one ear out the other. When you shared that example of being on a plane, I think of my friend Jackie. And it was gosh, it was probably almost 30 years ago she was involved.

       She was on air Egypt that was hijacked, and she was shot. There were a lot of people killed on that plane. She was shot in the head. Thankfully, Jackie survived. And without going into her whole story, I remember saying to Jackie afterward, besides the fact that you thought this plane is going down or that you may be shot in the head, what was going through your mind initially when those hijackers first said that? She said, My first thought was that I don't pay attention to what the flight attendants say. I just thought because they were going dropping quickly, the oxygen all came down. She's like, what should I do? And so it was a real honest to the core answer.

       And I think what happens is we train situational awareness. And it's one thing that we don't typically train our supervisors or managers and we certainly don't train our employees. And that's why experiential training is so effective. It gets people thinking now. Is it on its total behavior change or a little bit more so than if I were sharing the story and listening to me?

       Because we know that they don't remember that, it's an experience that internally causes them some fright or friction. They're aware of that emotional response. They will start paying attention. We also do what we do when we go in and do this training in companies and manufacturers. We supply them with a video series. And this video series is small snip snippets. It's two to five minutes in length. It's something that they can use in their safety meetings to remind them.

       And there is a section on situational awareness and all these other things. It's keeping that on the top of their mind and so that it's part of their conversation. Now it goes away. But the next time we hear a media story about an active shooter somewhere, it raises that conversation...]]>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 say it's a high-risk termination, and this person has been dismissed.

       But there is fear, or there has been a threat that this person may come back into the plant, and perhaps this person has a history of owning weapons, and they're very familiar with weapons. And through the risk assessment that this person is becoming more and more dangerous. Suddenly, there are twenty-four hours into this, but they haven't shared any information with the people in the plant. And it's hot, and it's in the summertime. So, all of the doors are open because they don't have air conditioning in the plant.

       And all of a sudden, they realize they put all these other steps into place, and they perhaps spent a lot of money. But this person could walk through any one of those doors and start shooting at any time. So that's how we play it now with the active shooter.

       Well, it's more highly charged. Let's say we put them into a situation of a mock drill. We give all the proper warnings for people ahead of time, and then we put them in that situation where we dim the lights, and they will hear the sounds of shots fired. I don't use that weaponry. I'm not trying to scare anybody. But just the sounds, the dimming. It's the fact that they're told that there's a shooter and that they need to hide or get out of the room. We can plant people with disabilities, and we just watch what happens and.

       People typically will do absolutely everything wrong. They don't know where to hide. They all go up the same exits that they entered. They just do things that we're trained to do. And what we're prepared to do is how to respond in a fire drill that's stand up, walk slowly toward the exits, be kind to everybody.

       But in an active shooter who wants to be the tallest person in the room, not me, not you.

       And so they go out the doors without looking. I never say where the shooter is. The shooter could be outside. We have someone playing the role of an active shooter, and they'll have a Nerf gun. They can't hurt anybody. Most of the time, somebody who gets hit with it doesn't even realize they're hit with that Nerf bullet. But people come back afterward, and they'll say, oh, my gosh, I never thought to look at what exits we have in this room. I never thought I had an assumption. It challenges their assumptions. It challenges their biases.

       It challenges them because they thought they would have perhaps fought or gone after the attacker when in fact, they hit their automatic instinct was to hide. And none of those reactions are wrong. It's just what happens to us in a crisis.

       So through the debrief and the follow-up training, we do a second one, and they will see the difference in the room, and you save their lives. But they could also save their coworkers' lives, especially in a manufacturing setting, because you typically have so many, so many objects that could be used as weapons, where if you were in an office building, there wouldn't be quick access to those kinds of weapons.

       So people think through and start using those critical thinking skills in a little different way.

       Lisa Ryan: Now, the thing that comes to mind to me is as much as we both fly of being on an airplane and you hear that that safety announcement over and over and over again, you can pretty much do it by heart. You know exactly where the exits are. You know exactly what you're going to do. But until that plane is going down, you have no idea. And you think in a plant environment; we never or rarely have that conversation.

       So how in the world can you think about what you're even going remotely to come close to, what you're going to do?

       Carol Cambridge: So much of this comes in one ear out the other. When you shared that example of being on a plane, I think of my friend Jackie. And it was gosh, it was probably almost 30 years ago she was involved.

       She was on air Egypt that was hijacked, and she was shot. There were a lot of people killed on that plane. She was shot in the head. Thankfully, Jackie survived. And without going into her whole story, I remember saying to Jackie afterward, besides the fact that you thought this plane is going down or that you may be shot in the head, what was going through your mind initially when those hijackers first said that? She said, My first thought was that I don't pay attention to what the flight attendants say. I just thought because they were going dropping quickly, the oxygen all came down. She's like, what should I do? And so it was a real honest to the core answer.

       And I think what happens is we train situational awareness. And it's one thing that we don't typically train our supervisors or managers and we certainly don't train our employees. And that's why experiential training is so effective. It gets people thinking now. Is it on its total behavior change or a little bit more so than if I were sharing the story and listening to me?

       Because we know that they don't remember that, it's an experience that internally causes them some fright or friction. They're aware of that emotional response. They will start paying attention. We also do what we do when we go in and do this training in companies and manufacturers. We supply them with a video series. And this video series is small snip snippets. It's two to five minutes in length. It's something that they can use in their safety meetings to remind them.

       And there is a section on situational awareness and all these other things. It's keeping that on the top of their mind and so that it's part of their conversation. Now it goes away. But the next time we hear a media story about an active shooter somewhere, it raises that conversation to the top again. And people will think, gee, what do we do? What doors do we get out? Do we have a system for warning other employees, that kind of thing?

       Lisa Ryan: You stated at the beginning of their time together of that summer in the manufacturing plant with all the doors open, and you just released or fired that problem child of an employee. What do you think are the top things that most leaders do wrong when it comes to a termination? And then how do we evaluate the risk that goes along with that?

       Carol Cambridge: Great, great question. So the first part of that is that most leaders have a knee-jerk reaction. They have a problem employee, somebody who's made a threat, and they instantly want to terminate immediately.

       Manufacturers across the country are notorious for having several different locations. They could have five locations. They could have 40 or 50 locations across the U.S. But their human resource professional is perhaps in a different state. And so they want to do this termination. And so it's an operations manager or a plant manager that's handling the termination. They decide they want to do it right away. They do it without that risk assessment. They may know some information about this person, but they didn't even check with human resources. Had they done that, they would have found a history and a very serious history that would lead them to handle the termination differently.

       Leaders tend to react too fast. When they start doing an initial risk assessment, they forget that the situation is fluid so that the risk can change. My suggestion to people is always to send that person home for the day and suspend them if you need to for two or three days. Then the employee thinks, well, OK, I may have. I don't know if I was suspended with pay or without pay, but they're not in that panic situation. We don't know what's going on at home. We don't know what's happening at home is just as important as what's happening at the workplace.

       I'll share a story with you, and this company felt that they had done everything right. The manufacturing was a small manufacturer. It was a family business. They shared that this employee had been with us for 17 years. We knew the whole story. He's a good guy, but he'd just become very disgruntled, unhappy, lately, abusive towards other employees. We could handle the behavior anymore. I sent him home while drinking was a part of the problem. And this man had become an alcoholic over the years. And that particular night, he picked up the phone and called several of his friends, and he said, look, do me a favor, whatever you do, do not go to work tomorrow morning. Promise me you won't go.

       Now, he called several different people, leaving a message. Some of them he spoke to personally, some of them, he left a message. One or two of these employees contacted the person at home because she was part of this family-owned business. They called her about 11 p.m., and they said, this is what he said. She right away contacted the sheriff's department and made arrangements.

       They were only a plant that worked two shifts, day shift, and afternoon shift. They didn't work overnight. The sheriff came with their canine unit. They went through the entire planet looking for things, looking for bombs, any kinds of things that had been stored there. And they swept it clean around 10:00. And they did open up to let the early morning shift in. They hired some off-duty officers.

       Around 10:00 that morning, that former employee called and apologized and said, you know, I make these threats. I know what was wrong. I apologize. I shouldn't have done that. And so he backed off. Everyone in the seminar was clapping and giving her kudos, as I did as well because she handled it very well. But then I asked this question: What did you do with the other two or three employees who never called you about the threat?

       Lisa Ryan: Oh, wow. Bam, bam.

       Carol Cambridge: She said, it never occurred to me. I never thought about it. Wow. And I said, why do you think they didn't report this?

       So it woke everybody else up in the room, and they realized everything she did was correct. But here's what happens. We have one or two people making all the decisions around determination, and what I always suggest excuse me.

       What I always suggest is that we have a team of people I like to call it a react team. One of the suggestions I always put in place when I work with manufacturers is that you have a react team and what I call it, it's an acronym really - it's a rapid emergency action capabilities team.

       So whether it's a threat, a workplace violence incident that has happened. We have situations where people run over other people with a forklift, or there's an assault on the plant floor, or they've used a tool as a weapon to threaten someone. These aren't unusual. A team of people working together to handle a threat is a much better choice and not a large team.

       One manufacturer told me that they had a termination team, and I said, OK, that's kind of scary to me. What do you mean by termination team? He said, when we terminate someone, we have seven people on our termination team. Wow. That's such a bad idea because the person you're terminating, and I'm talking high-risk termination, right. Do you think they want to be blindsided by seven of their coworkers or seven of their supervisors terminating them about behavioral problems on the job?

       That creates a more hostile environment. When I talk about the REACT team, I'm talking about a team that helps evaluate the risk. The actual termination should have no more than two people in the room at the time because anything more than that seems like they're being ganged upon. The second part of the question, and do I have time to answer? At least I should.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. It's getting to the end. But it's still it's so fascinating that I know that I want to learn more.

       Carol Cambridge: Let me just give a few quick tips about evaluating. What is the reason? Is it narcotics? Is alcohol a part of the problem? Maybe they're not drinking on the job, but their behavior is a result of that alcoholism. Do they have a history of violence? Are they bullying other employees? Are they associated with a hate group that we're seeing much more of across this country right now?

       Are they not taking accountability for their behavior? So everything that happens to them, they're blaming on the company. They're accusing the supervisor. They're blaming another team member. If they have that preoccupation with blaming others, if they have this all or nothing kind of mentality, it's all this way, or it's all that way. They can't see any middle ground that's concerning to me, somebody who has an unstable personal life. So if we know they've just divorced or are in the middle of a divorce or a separation, we know there's a financial hardship.

       It could be that their child has been diagnosed with cancer just to keep up with all of their co-pays. They have had to foreclose on their house. They're going home, lose their security. All of these things play into the emotions of that person. And as much as we like to think, we leave those emotions at home, and we don't bring them to work.

       That's not what happens. So when you're terminating someone like that, we have to make sure that we provide some emotional stability for that person. And we don't want to up the fear because desperate people will do desperate things, and we want to avoid that. So the higher the risk.

       If they tend to provoke fear in other employees, for instance, all of those kinds of things we evaluate ahead of time and the more check, so to say that we put beside these things, the higher the risk of this person. And then often we need to bring in some outside help of a protection team. We may have to have law enforcement on-site, many different security protocols that we would then put in place depending.

       Lisa Ryan: It is the idea of sending that person home for the day and probably even with pay. As much as you hate to do it, at least something gives them some opportunity to go home and cool down and think about it. Small investment versus, like you said, a seven-person termination team. Holy cow. Yes. Oh, really? And also getting to know your employees, getting to see a few of your employees.

       And also, the thing that stuck out in my mind was the people who didn't report it of creating a safe enough culture that the employees feel comfortable enough if they do get one of those dreadful calls like that, that they know the people to get in touch with. They feel safe and comfortable in doing so. And that's certainly not something that's going to happen overnight. But these tips to just start paying attention to now are so critical.

       It's so true.

       Carol Cambridge: And I want to give you a shout out for the work you do, Lisa, because when you have a more engaged community within your work environment, a caring, engaged community, we see less workplace violence. We see more minor problems. Now, it doesn't mean that it's a bad hire.

       You can have a very good hire, or you could have a very engaging employee, a good scenario, and still have a problem because this person begins spiraling. And so you might not see it for seven years, eight years, ten years, 15 years. So as engaging and wonderful as your work environment is, you still need to have these teachers for terminations in place and security protocols that you can go to immediately.

       Lisa Ryan: So as we start to wrap it up, what would be your best tip for somebody to get started as far as doing that assessment and evaluating those risks?

       Carol...]]>4d636d51-6334-4ab2-a175-55db5c7cac6bMon, 31 May 2021 07:05:00 -040026:39falsefull130301The Impact of Mental Health on Employee Safety with Ray Brown of Esco GroupConnect 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 shirt. We're going to get some things printed up. The shirts say, "Make it okay to talk about mental illness." We all have different challenges that we're going through. Understanding those challenges, whether they're at home or work, allows us to be the best for ourselves - the best teammates, the best employee-owners, and the best partners for our manufacturers that we support 27/7/365 out there. When we look at how we operate at Esco, we're simply an extension of the manufacturing process professionals out there.

       We were hopeful that every day we make their lives a little bit simpler. Being our best and talking about mental illness is a big part of that mission.

       Lisa Ryan: But on the other thing that it falls into, and I know you're a big proponent of the safety of your plant. Taking care of your workers and making sure that they are comfortable talking about that uncomfortable topic of mental illness and depression and other programs that you're working on with the Green shirts and making it okay to have awkward moments. But from a mental standpoint, people who are being taken care of have a better chance of keeping themselves and everybody else working there safe.

       Please share a bit of your safety philosophy and how mental illness and depression play into that.

       Ray Brown: On July 22, 2006, it was a beautiful early Saturday morning. I was spending some time with my fearless mentor for over 20 years. We were ready to tee off, and we got one of those calls that, as a CEO President, you never want to get. On that call, we learned that we lost a dear team Member to what could have been a very preventable electrical accident at one of our manufacturing facilities.

       We've always had an excellent safety culture. Probably six months before that 2006 incident, I was at another customer site, and one of our leaders was sharing our story with one of our customers. He said, "you guys at Esco are so serious. Don't take this the wrong way, but you're kind of like the safety Nazis. We're making sure you got all the proper training and ensuring that if you see a safety violation, you give those mornings out. Then we had this event happen. It's the things that you never forget.

       It is the life, but also the lives of those other family members, that change. He had three kids and a wife that unfortunately passed away of cancer. They'll forever be changed. Those folks at that manufacturing facility told ourselves a may not-so-true story on how we look at safety. We had to look at ourselves and think about things.

       One of the things I preach around Esco is the growth mindset and what that means. You have to take a look at failure and continue to learn from that and move forward. We want to embrace and look at the silver linings in any event that happened. No matter how tragic it is, we try to make sense of that tragedy and use it as something that can be used to enact change positive change for other folks.

       Employees will be a legacy for Esco, and hopefully, with that growth mindset in mind, it's forever changed Esco. We've tried to look at our safety program. It is the way we get up every day. Mental illness is a big piece of that. We talked about getting our employees home safely from home to work and back again, just recognizing that mental illness is a big part of that safety journey. Getting awkward is a big part of that. One of the things that we've done is the direct result of this.

       We had employees write letters to their family members as if a horrific accident happened. The spouses had to write a letter back to their spouses saying why they would be missed. It's called getting awkward. We talk about some super uncomfortable things. It was a pretty robust discussion. I still remember getting many personal notes from spouses. I think that's the first time I've gotten a personal note from our employees' spouses thanking us for taking that activity. Mental illness is a big part of that. Make it okay to talk about those things.

       This employee came into work super dedicated, coming into work early Saturday morning trying to get to a baseball game so get into a plant get the job done so I can go and coach that baseball game. Unfortunately, he did not make it to that baseball game. That family and Esco changed. The good part of Esco is that it is a family. Those three young kids graduated college. We still try to keep in touch with them. It's been a couple of years since they were at one of our Esco group family baseball games, but it did turn out to be positive for these kids. They are growing up to be three very successful adults.

       Lisa Ryan: Going back to the letter – that's such a powerful thing to do. Most people, number one, never think about doing it, or they think, well that's morbid. Why would I want to do that? But if you think about, and I talked about this in my programs a lot, we see the times that we say the nicest things about people during their eulogy. To have that conversation, and to be able to say all of those things that you want to say, but may never say, well, that person, still on the planet, what a powerful way to build a relationship, and let people know exactly how we feel about them.

       From a personal standpoint, I am just creating that it's okay in the workplace to have those difficult conversations. Kudos to you for doing many difficult and uncomfortable awkward things over there to make the plant better.

       Ray Brown: Thank you, Lisa. We learn a lot from not just our employees but our partners and manufacturing it as well. I think we've got a unique perspective. We can have conversations with the back office....]]>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 shirt. We're going to get some things printed up. The shirts say, "Make it okay to talk about mental illness." We all have different challenges that we're going through. Understanding those challenges, whether they're at home or work, allows us to be the best for ourselves - the best teammates, the best employee-owners, and the best partners for our manufacturers that we support 27/7/365 out there. When we look at how we operate at Esco, we're simply an extension of the manufacturing process professionals out there.

       We were hopeful that every day we make their lives a little bit simpler. Being our best and talking about mental illness is a big part of that mission.

       Lisa Ryan: But on the other thing that it falls into, and I know you're a big proponent of the safety of your plant. Taking care of your workers and making sure that they are comfortable talking about that uncomfortable topic of mental illness and depression and other programs that you're working on with the Green shirts and making it okay to have awkward moments. But from a mental standpoint, people who are being taken care of have a better chance of keeping themselves and everybody else working there safe.

       Please share a bit of your safety philosophy and how mental illness and depression play into that.

       Ray Brown: On July 22, 2006, it was a beautiful early Saturday morning. I was spending some time with my fearless mentor for over 20 years. We were ready to tee off, and we got one of those calls that, as a CEO President, you never want to get. On that call, we learned that we lost a dear team Member to what could have been a very preventable electrical accident at one of our manufacturing facilities.

       We've always had an excellent safety culture. Probably six months before that 2006 incident, I was at another customer site, and one of our leaders was sharing our story with one of our customers. He said, "you guys at Esco are so serious. Don't take this the wrong way, but you're kind of like the safety Nazis. We're making sure you got all the proper training and ensuring that if you see a safety violation, you give those mornings out. Then we had this event happen. It's the things that you never forget.

       It is the life, but also the lives of those other family members, that change. He had three kids and a wife that unfortunately passed away of cancer. They'll forever be changed. Those folks at that manufacturing facility told ourselves a may not-so-true story on how we look at safety. We had to look at ourselves and think about things.

       One of the things I preach around Esco is the growth mindset and what that means. You have to take a look at failure and continue to learn from that and move forward. We want to embrace and look at the silver linings in any event that happened. No matter how tragic it is, we try to make sense of that tragedy and use it as something that can be used to enact change positive change for other folks.

       Employees will be a legacy for Esco, and hopefully, with that growth mindset in mind, it's forever changed Esco. We've tried to look at our safety program. It is the way we get up every day. Mental illness is a big piece of that. We talked about getting our employees home safely from home to work and back again, just recognizing that mental illness is a big part of that safety journey. Getting awkward is a big part of that. One of the things that we've done is the direct result of this.

       We had employees write letters to their family members as if a horrific accident happened. The spouses had to write a letter back to their spouses saying why they would be missed. It's called getting awkward. We talk about some super uncomfortable things. It was a pretty robust discussion. I still remember getting many personal notes from spouses. I think that's the first time I've gotten a personal note from our employees' spouses thanking us for taking that activity. Mental illness is a big part of that. Make it okay to talk about those things.

       This employee came into work super dedicated, coming into work early Saturday morning trying to get to a baseball game so get into a plant get the job done so I can go and coach that baseball game. Unfortunately, he did not make it to that baseball game. That family and Esco changed. The good part of Esco is that it is a family. Those three young kids graduated college. We still try to keep in touch with them. It's been a couple of years since they were at one of our Esco group family baseball games, but it did turn out to be positive for these kids. They are growing up to be three very successful adults.

       Lisa Ryan: Going back to the letter – that's such a powerful thing to do. Most people, number one, never think about doing it, or they think, well that's morbid. Why would I want to do that? But if you think about, and I talked about this in my programs a lot, we see the times that we say the nicest things about people during their eulogy. To have that conversation, and to be able to say all of those things that you want to say, but may never say, well, that person, still on the planet, what a powerful way to build a relationship, and let people know exactly how we feel about them.

       From a personal standpoint, I am just creating that it's okay in the workplace to have those difficult conversations. Kudos to you for doing many difficult and uncomfortable awkward things over there to make the plant better.

       Ray Brown: Thank you, Lisa. We learn a lot from not just our employees but our partners and manufacturing it as well. I think we've got a unique perspective. We can have conversations with the back office. C-suite folks also have great discussions with the plant managers. Engineers who make manufacturing happening, and then also the online folks. We are getting awkward. Knowing that it impacts all of those folks and their families, our families bring it home.

       Lisa Ryan: So what are some of the things that are going well for you? Even though some of them came due to tragic circumstances, what is still keeping you up at night?

       Ray Brown: Understanding that the employee experiences are ever-evolving. Like Esco, there's a lot of companies out there trying to figure out what is that new construction environment looks like for employee experience, health, and safety. What does the office environment look like for developing the right culture? When we talk about mental illness and safety, culture is top of mind. What's keeping me up at night is that we take the same approach as safety. Let's try this experience out, and let's learn from how that might look. Whether we're going to hybrid mode, we have to develop some new safety protocols for the plant. We take that growth mindset, and dialing in the things around mental illness and safety are part of that equation. Letting that natural evolution and keeping that conversation and discussion open, I think that's probably the most significant piece that I've seen. A lot of super-successful leaders this past year lead with a lot of grace and compassion. Keeping that conversation open to what that experience might look like because it's going to be different for each employee.

       The other important piece is that employees need to recognize that showing up creates a great experience for another employee. I don't know if we always put ourselves in that mindset. It's not about my employee experience, but if I know that tomorrow, I'm losing one of my best team members. Suppose they wanted to work in the office full time, and I couldn't offer some of that route or the in collaboration. In that case, I might have to look at that bigger picture on that growth mindset and have my employee experience evolve a little bit to make sure my entire team and my entire company are successful.

       Lisa Ryan: From a networking standpoint, what would be some of the things that you would like to learn from other manufacturers, and by the same token, what of your insights and knowledge would you be willing to share with your manufacturing colleagues?

       Ray Brown: We try to hone in on being a great partner. Efficiencies and product count. What are those essential things around collaboration teamwork that are drive success within manufacturing? We've developed a pretty intimate plant services model embedded in many of our long-term successful partners. In talking with some of the plant folks, I think we get focused on some of the financials. But what are some of those soft things that an integrator electrical construction company could be mindful of to continue to get better?

       Lisa Ryan: If somebody did want to connect and learn more, what is the best way for them to do that?

       Ray Brown: LinkedIn is a great opportunity to get connected. Or just my email Ray Brown@Escogroup.com

       Lisa Ryan: It has been an absolute pleasure having you on the show today. Thanks so much for sharing your insight.

       Ray Brown: Thank you so much for the opportunity to talk with you and share the Esco story today.

       Lisa Ryan: I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers Network. See you next time

       ]]>3b1152e7-560f-4d29-a915-97e8df6da891Mon, 24 May 2021 06:05:00 -040018:47falsefull129291Open Your Mind to Open Book Management with Theo EtzelConnect 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 example of something you specifically did to build that trust.

       Theo Etzel: I think one of the first things we did was when I reviewed sort of some of the programs or things that have been in place, 401Ks, things like that that may have gotten trimmed, as it were. Some of the benefits had been reduced overtime over the last 18 months or so a couple of years from when I got there.

       I did sit down with people and really look at what matters to them. What did you have? What don't you have now? Why is that important? What are things important to you? We also looked at that we are competitive in recruiting with the current benefits package we have? What did we have? What don't we have now? I think I worked diligently to reestablish things that had been lost that were important to them.

       Lisa Ryan: Even sitting down and asking them the question that critical of what's important to you. Because you can make up stuff all day long as far as what you think that employees need but having those individual conversations and listening certainly sounds like it had a big role in building that trust.

       Theo Etzel: Yes. Fast forward just to current just by way of teeing off on that. The conversations are terrific, but I'm involved in a private school on the board of trustees now, and our head of school has an excellent way. When he showed up at our school and was new, he to sat down with the staff and did the individual questions, and several of the questions I thought were really key, and that is what are we doing currently that you like. What could we do better that you would like to see improved? What are the sacred cows that I might trip over?

       Lisa Ryan: interesting.

       Theo Etzel: So I don't know what they are. Would you tell me something that is known but it's not talked about, and then, and I thought this was key. What are you scared I'm going to do? That is a scary question, but it's a great question because it's an opening question. What are you scared I'm going to do? It's a vulnerability question. I think you're going to reduce our salaries. Or I think you're going to cut a lot of staff. Or you know I don't think you're going to invest in our development individually, you know education-wise.

       You know anything can come out, but it creates a tremendous amount of conversation and insight into the organization. While I didn't use those specific questions in my conversations, I always tried to find out what was important what was needed. That really reflects more on my style. One has a coach as a leader. Trying to build other people and servant leadership, which is if you're working with me. I don't want to come in and have to tell you what to do daily. If I'm micromanaging, I don't find any joy in that, nor do I find that productive at all.

       But what I will ask is, what do you need from me that helps you do your job better easier, more efficiently, and creates a better atmosphere and in the organization? If we can do that, it will set out to do that, and so, if you continually ask what that is, that leads to a lot of innovation, I think so.

       Lisa Ryan: Fast forward. You're going from the beginning of initially building that trust. You and I cannot have a conversation, of course, without talking about your open book leadership because that is so mind-blowing for people who would never consider showing their employees the actual books. I'd really love for you to walk through that process, maybe, starting with the philosophy that made you look at that process of implementation looked and what happened afterward with the employees.

       Theo Etzel: But that goes back to my premise that, especially for leaders, people in the organization are actually on the front lines doing the company's work. In our case, the technicians in people's homes or on a construction site or their installations are going into equipment in people's homes or our offices and businesses. They're coming in contact with the customer. They have to do manual labor. They have to do the heavy lifting on the front line.

       It can be a straightforward jump for someone if they wish it to be to go from here. I am putting in this complicated system to feel that he must be up in his office pushing dollar bills in his pockets and figuring out how to get them out of the Office every night. Because it's a natural thing to play with, it's an unknown. How much does the company make? They pay me, but how much does the company make? Is the company in good shape? Are we doing the best we can? Are we going to be around the right people who want to know some certainties so, interestingly, from the manufacturing world, The book The great game of business by jack stack focused on manufacturing? The plant was designed to be an open book plant. In other words, they put teams together. They asked for input. How do you do your job more efficiently? Here's the impact of manufacturing on what one more widget per hour means. They started sharing a lot of numbers. They got a lot of input on improving the system can do it better. People became invested mentally in the organization, so we took that model, and we modified it to fit our company.

       We started sharing with people. We started it as an education process. If you haven't done it, and people aren't used to looking at a profit and loss statement, you do have to invest time, and energy, and an education. We started with the expenses, and we made it kind of a game. Guess how much we spent on gas last month. Getting our vans to everybody's home. People's eyes bugged out when they heard how much the gas bill was or the insurance]]>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 example of something you specifically did to build that trust.

       Theo Etzel: I think one of the first things we did was when I reviewed sort of some of the programs or things that have been in place, 401Ks, things like that that may have gotten trimmed, as it were. Some of the benefits had been reduced overtime over the last 18 months or so a couple of years from when I got there.

       I did sit down with people and really look at what matters to them. What did you have? What don't you have now? Why is that important? What are things important to you? We also looked at that we are competitive in recruiting with the current benefits package we have? What did we have? What don't we have now? I think I worked diligently to reestablish things that had been lost that were important to them.

       Lisa Ryan: Even sitting down and asking them the question that critical of what's important to you. Because you can make up stuff all day long as far as what you think that employees need but having those individual conversations and listening certainly sounds like it had a big role in building that trust.

       Theo Etzel: Yes. Fast forward just to current just by way of teeing off on that. The conversations are terrific, but I'm involved in a private school on the board of trustees now, and our head of school has an excellent way. When he showed up at our school and was new, he to sat down with the staff and did the individual questions, and several of the questions I thought were really key, and that is what are we doing currently that you like. What could we do better that you would like to see improved? What are the sacred cows that I might trip over?

       Lisa Ryan: interesting.

       Theo Etzel: So I don't know what they are. Would you tell me something that is known but it's not talked about, and then, and I thought this was key. What are you scared I'm going to do? That is a scary question, but it's a great question because it's an opening question. What are you scared I'm going to do? It's a vulnerability question. I think you're going to reduce our salaries. Or I think you're going to cut a lot of staff. Or you know I don't think you're going to invest in our development individually, you know education-wise.

       You know anything can come out, but it creates a tremendous amount of conversation and insight into the organization. While I didn't use those specific questions in my conversations, I always tried to find out what was important what was needed. That really reflects more on my style. One has a coach as a leader. Trying to build other people and servant leadership, which is if you're working with me. I don't want to come in and have to tell you what to do daily. If I'm micromanaging, I don't find any joy in that, nor do I find that productive at all.

       But what I will ask is, what do you need from me that helps you do your job better easier, more efficiently, and creates a better atmosphere and in the organization? If we can do that, it will set out to do that, and so, if you continually ask what that is, that leads to a lot of innovation, I think so.

       Lisa Ryan: Fast forward. You're going from the beginning of initially building that trust. You and I cannot have a conversation, of course, without talking about your open book leadership because that is so mind-blowing for people who would never consider showing their employees the actual books. I'd really love for you to walk through that process, maybe, starting with the philosophy that made you look at that process of implementation looked and what happened afterward with the employees.

       Theo Etzel: But that goes back to my premise that, especially for leaders, people in the organization are actually on the front lines doing the company's work. In our case, the technicians in people's homes or on a construction site or their installations are going into equipment in people's homes or our offices and businesses. They're coming in contact with the customer. They have to do manual labor. They have to do the heavy lifting on the front line.

       It can be a straightforward jump for someone if they wish it to be to go from here. I am putting in this complicated system to feel that he must be up in his office pushing dollar bills in his pockets and figuring out how to get them out of the Office every night. Because it's a natural thing to play with, it's an unknown. How much does the company make? They pay me, but how much does the company make? Is the company in good shape? Are we doing the best we can? Are we going to be around the right people who want to know some certainties so, interestingly, from the manufacturing world, The book The great game of business by jack stack focused on manufacturing? The plant was designed to be an open book plant. In other words, they put teams together. They asked for input. How do you do your job more efficiently? Here's the impact of manufacturing on what one more widget per hour means. They started sharing a lot of numbers. They got a lot of input on improving the system can do it better. People became invested mentally in the organization, so we took that model, and we modified it to fit our company.

       We started sharing with people. We started it as an education process. If you haven't done it, and people aren't used to looking at a profit and loss statement, you do have to invest time, and energy, and an education. We started with the expenses, and we made it kind of a game. Guess how much we spent on gas last month. Getting our vans to everybody's home. People's eyes bugged out when they heard how much the gas bill was or the insurance bill or training or tools that we buy or all those things that go into making up a business.

       We started with the income side. We would then do it every quarter, and we would project on the screen a profit and loss. Our CFO would go through the line items. Now the line items are grouped. Let's not kid ourselves; we're not showing everybody's individual salaries up there. We're doing things properly, but we're going to show how much is spent on health insurance. How much you spent on vacation time. You know each part of the benefits that we contribute to, and then all the things that make up our expense side. It's a very educational, very eye-opening thing, and then, if our feeling was if you share this information and you're asking for people to think about how to do things in a wiser, better, more efficient way to create more value for the company. You really need to share part of the profit growth that results from people pitching in and having a quote owners mentality, so we do that. They're part of a share program at the end of the year, and we divide up a portion of the profits. They get to see that their quote share values every month, and it's not. It's just a way to involve people, thank people, and always have people thinking about the greater picture.

       Lisa Ryan: When the other interesting thing that came out of this was it really helped with your retention versus people jumping and starting their own HVAC companies. Talk a little bit about that.

       Theo Etzel: If employees think in their mind, oh wow, he's up there stuffing dollar bills in his pocket. How hard can that be? I'll go down to the used car place, get a van, and through my sign on on the side of it? I can be their competitor once people started getting an education on what it takes to really make the phone ring what you spend on advertising. Some of these other components really add up in being a consistent business. It became clear to a lot of folks. I like what I do, and there they are providing career paths here, and that's something that goes hand in hand. If you don't if want retention, then you do need to. You need to have a way for people to accelerate move up or move around in the organization and tear down sort of silos that you plug somebody in. They say I quit. That's not healthy either, but it helped mentally prepare people to say I really like what I'm doing. I'm not taking my work home with me. I don't have to worry about payroll. I don't have to worry about some of the other things. It puts in perspective what the business climate is out there as well.

       Yes, it does help with retention, in my opinion, does, and I, but I also think it makes for a more satisfied workforce because one of the key things that happened after we started doing this. Very first meetings, several people walked up and said, thank you for trusting us with.

       So it was a huge step of trust to show them we have nothing to hide here. We're going to show you how we're doing.

       Lisa Ryan: It also helps them when we look at our employees from a holistic standpoint, and we're taking care of the whole person, not the person. That shows up at the plant or shows up at the job site.

       Lisa Ryan: But by giving people that financial education, there's probably a good chance that they could better with their own personal finances. They could take that same mentality into their home because they have a different level of understanding.

       Theo Etzel: Correct, I think you're probably right on that. I do think it's important along with that concept to look at the employee holistically, so we are always concerned about the family, what's going on in their life and offer programs to assist people that have situations that come up, as we all do and need some guidance on some things. It's an essential thing to stand behind folks that. Are you really on the team? We want to be supportive of that.

       Lisa Ryan: So what are some of the things right now, amidst the covid, and everything else that we're going through, but what's keeping you up at night.

       Theo Etzel: Oh, my, you know early on, people have asked me this question, and I said, I have to answer it this way, so well early on, when I wasn't too many months after I got to wondering, are we really going to make payroll on Friday. People owed us some money, so I knew Thursday, I'd grab the checks and make sure they paid us. We had a few weeks like that. I know the feeling of being stressed. Unfortunately, we don't have that to contend with now. But I would say it concerns in covid, but beyond covid, we travel so many miles on the road, and we put our people at risk, and obviously other drivers that are on the road, are at risk. I would say just the sheer number of miles that we drive. We emphasize the safety aspect of everything that we do. I never complain about anybody that says. I don't think this job is safe. I need help. We want to support the driving and making sure they're accident-free. That is first and foremost because that's huge exposure for us right from that standpoint. We want everybody to return home safe and healthy and be able to come back to work.

       On the covid side of things, we took extraordinary steps immediately to give personal protective equipment to people to be protected when they went in someone's home or to a construction site. We made sure that we could contract trace. We had to do the same thing. We had to have people work from home. We had to have people. Not only did we not have group meetings again for a long time, but those kinds of things also did it virtually and did it by video and video messages. Communication is the key, so you have to continually keep that going by whatever means available at the time.

       Lisa Ryan: When it comes to creating this network of industry colleagues, what would be something that you would like to learn from other manufacturing, HVAC industry professionals, and what would be your areas of expertise that you'd be willing to share with people who wants to connect?

       Theo Etzel: Oh well, thank you. I'm always happy to talk about leadership styles and company culture because I really think company culture is key to success. I think that having a solid team and that team atmosphere is just so key. Recognizing people. I always say catch them doing the right thing. Catch someone doing the right thing, tell them they're doing the right thing, pat them on the back and make sure you do that publicly so that other people see you congratulating someone or thanking somebody. I'm happy to talk to people about my experiences in those things in the efforts that we took to do that.

       As far as learning things, I am open to so many things to learn and love to do that. I enjoy listening to people talk and picking up on subtle things that they've had experienced, especially when it comes to employees, and gaining more efficiencies out of a process. Or how they got people to buy into a process when they had a large process to implement.

       Implementation of a change in an organization of something that you're used to a computer system, whatever it might be, and all of a sudden, they got a whole new system. Now I've gotta go this direction as many tears and gnashing of teeth come with things like that.

       I'm always a student of how to help get that done efficiently and timely, so I love stuff like that too.

       Lisa Ryan: If you could boil it down to your favorite leadership principle since you wrote a whole book on it, what would be your words of wisdom to leave our listeners with today?

       Theo Etzel: The most important thing that a leader can do is invest in their people. It's all about the team and the people. If I don't think if you are willing to serve people, if you're not willing to be transparent, if you're not willing to be honest with them, and expect honesty from them, then I don't think you're going to have a great culture in the company. If you show them respect and show admiration for the people doing the work with you, and your real team makes them and not afraid to lead the charge, and be right by their side when times are tough and admit when times are tough. For when you've made a mistake, and apologize, and say let's you know recover, and let's keep going. I think your culture will suffer from that. It has served me well in all my experiences, and anytime I didn't trust my gut on doing it that way, I'm just always regretted it, so it's just the best policy definitely.

       Lisa Ryan: Theo, it has been a pleasure to have you on the show. If people want to get in touch and connect with you, what's the best way for them to do that?

       Theo Etzel: The easiest way is to email me at Theo@TheoEtzel.com. You can always go to the website TheoEtzel.com and fill out the contact sheet there.

       Lisa Ryan: All right, well, once again, thank you so much for being my guest on the show today, Theo.

       Theo Etzel: Absolutely, Lisa, I always enjoy talking to you, and thank you for what you do.

       Lisa Ryan: You're very welcome. I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers Network podcast. See you next time.

       ]]>5cba9fc9-e35f-4e96-aa64-323fb8293c8dMon, 17 May 2021 07:05:00 -040025:14falsefull128281Attracting Talent into the Investment Casting Industry with Joseph FritzConnect 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 bringing people together, facilitating communication, and the ICI has afforded me that opportunity.

       In addition to focusing on our Members, we also focus on the customer base. Our Charter aims to educate the customer on the benefits of investment casting versus other metal forming technologies. That's not to say that our role is to push investment. Quite often, people will come to me looking for a referral to somebody who can make an investment casting for them. When I look at their growth or speak to them, I go, you don't want to use investment casting. This is better made as a sand casting or a die casting, or a fabrication, depending on the configuration. We try to bring people together and make sure that they will be in good long-lasting relationships.

       Lastly, I view is the third leg of the stool of what we do. We have three legs on every stool that is sustainable. That's very important to us. We work with young people. We have an associated trade association. It's a 501 C three it's a nonprofit, the foundry educational foundation, and they work very closely with the schools and young people. Through them, we've worked to support their initiatives and have direct contact with the schools on our own.

       I can often be found talking to a bunch of high school juniors, and seniors, and sometimes junior high school kids as well as going to the universities, and it's very fulfilling when you put a spark, and they come and talk to you afterward that one thing to talk about the process, and the training, and education that gets involved with it.

       When you start passing out parts and components that show examples of what you can do with this process, it sometimes ignites a fever in some of the students, and that's a great thing. I've been doing this now, going out to eight years. There are kids that I met in junior high schools, and high schools, and in college, and they keep in touch with me and let me know what they're doing, and they're smart because they're learning how to network, right from the start, so there's some goodness there, and it's very gratifying to do what I do right now.

       Lisa Ryan: Now there are so many different ways to go in this conversation number one, I didn't know about your stalking your current job for 13 years. So, the other guy retired. That was pretty good, and succession planning was already in place. Still, I really like what you talked about the last time with sustainability and bringing new people into the industry because with all of the manufacturing manufacturers and manufacturing associations that I work with, that seems to be the main thing that they struggle with is how do you bring these new generations into the workplace.

       You not only starting earlier going into high schools and stuff but giving them that that physical component, something that they can hold in their hand-building those relationships with those people. I continue to keep in touch with you, so obviously, that's working. So how are you not only as a person but as an industry with your Members communicating that same philosophy as far as connecting with the newer generations coming in?

       Joe Fritz: First off, I'd like to point out that the industry clearly has identified that there's a need for sustainability. Every year we conduct a house business report. In fact, we're currently collecting survey results for our 2020 house business report. A year in review, but I can go, year after year, and I can tell you that the number one concern is attracting, training, and retaining new employees. We've seen in recent times, and when I say recent, and showing my age recent talking the past 10 years. But over the past 10 years, we've seen much greater difficulty in retaining those employees. I've heard stories of the from foundries where they've hired someone they show up late for the first day of work, and then they never come back again.

       I had spoken to one foundry. This is a very high-tech foundry - excellent benefits. They have over a 90% turnover of new employees in the first year; we've never seen before. Historically, you go back to When I entered the industry, you would get in, and you'd see people in going into companies new hires minimum of a two-year commitment, if not longer. But what's a very curious thing is that when I walked into my first investment castings boundary in 1990, I noticed that the majority of the people I was dealing with were my contemporaries or older Okay, but mostly my contemporaries.

       I don't want to say it's a sad thing, but the concerning thing is that I walk into a foundry today. Most of the people I see are my contemporaries. You would think that you see a lot more young people in the industry, so I've taken I personally have tried to sit back and try to understand what that is, and some people say, oh, it's the millennial phenomenon or its people don't want to get their hands dirty.

       We're becoming a service economy, and I hear all those comments the United States was built on manufacturing, and manufacturing is our future, but it's a changing and evolving future. So you take a look at what I've done is, I take a look at what's exciting these young kids today, and one of the big things is additive manufacturing. I go to every high school, and a lot of the junior high schools have 3D printers, and these kids are clamoring to those classes, and I think part of it. Because it's not just an academic thing, you can put things into play and build something. You can do it in class and combine some of your teachings involved with that. I think they get excited about that so.

       What I try to do, at least when working with these young people, is trying to make the connection because...]]>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 bringing people together, facilitating communication, and the ICI has afforded me that opportunity.

       In addition to focusing on our Members, we also focus on the customer base. Our Charter aims to educate the customer on the benefits of investment casting versus other metal forming technologies. That's not to say that our role is to push investment. Quite often, people will come to me looking for a referral to somebody who can make an investment casting for them. When I look at their growth or speak to them, I go, you don't want to use investment casting. This is better made as a sand casting or a die casting, or a fabrication, depending on the configuration. We try to bring people together and make sure that they will be in good long-lasting relationships.

       Lastly, I view is the third leg of the stool of what we do. We have three legs on every stool that is sustainable. That's very important to us. We work with young people. We have an associated trade association. It's a 501 C three it's a nonprofit, the foundry educational foundation, and they work very closely with the schools and young people. Through them, we've worked to support their initiatives and have direct contact with the schools on our own.

       I can often be found talking to a bunch of high school juniors, and seniors, and sometimes junior high school kids as well as going to the universities, and it's very fulfilling when you put a spark, and they come and talk to you afterward that one thing to talk about the process, and the training, and education that gets involved with it.

       When you start passing out parts and components that show examples of what you can do with this process, it sometimes ignites a fever in some of the students, and that's a great thing. I've been doing this now, going out to eight years. There are kids that I met in junior high schools, and high schools, and in college, and they keep in touch with me and let me know what they're doing, and they're smart because they're learning how to network, right from the start, so there's some goodness there, and it's very gratifying to do what I do right now.

       Lisa Ryan: Now there are so many different ways to go in this conversation number one, I didn't know about your stalking your current job for 13 years. So, the other guy retired. That was pretty good, and succession planning was already in place. Still, I really like what you talked about the last time with sustainability and bringing new people into the industry because with all of the manufacturing manufacturers and manufacturing associations that I work with, that seems to be the main thing that they struggle with is how do you bring these new generations into the workplace.

       You not only starting earlier going into high schools and stuff but giving them that that physical component, something that they can hold in their hand-building those relationships with those people. I continue to keep in touch with you, so obviously, that's working. So how are you not only as a person but as an industry with your Members communicating that same philosophy as far as connecting with the newer generations coming in?

       Joe Fritz: First off, I'd like to point out that the industry clearly has identified that there's a need for sustainability. Every year we conduct a house business report. In fact, we're currently collecting survey results for our 2020 house business report. A year in review, but I can go, year after year, and I can tell you that the number one concern is attracting, training, and retaining new employees. We've seen in recent times, and when I say recent, and showing my age recent talking the past 10 years. But over the past 10 years, we've seen much greater difficulty in retaining those employees. I've heard stories of the from foundries where they've hired someone they show up late for the first day of work, and then they never come back again.

       I had spoken to one foundry. This is a very high-tech foundry - excellent benefits. They have over a 90% turnover of new employees in the first year; we've never seen before. Historically, you go back to When I entered the industry, you would get in, and you'd see people in going into companies new hires minimum of a two-year commitment, if not longer. But what's a very curious thing is that when I walked into my first investment castings boundary in 1990, I noticed that the majority of the people I was dealing with were my contemporaries or older Okay, but mostly my contemporaries.

       I don't want to say it's a sad thing, but the concerning thing is that I walk into a foundry today. Most of the people I see are my contemporaries. You would think that you see a lot more young people in the industry, so I've taken I personally have tried to sit back and try to understand what that is, and some people say, oh, it's the millennial phenomenon or its people don't want to get their hands dirty.

       We're becoming a service economy, and I hear all those comments the United States was built on manufacturing, and manufacturing is our future, but it's a changing and evolving future. So you take a look at what I've done is, I take a look at what's exciting these young kids today, and one of the big things is additive manufacturing. I go to every high school, and a lot of the junior high schools have 3D printers, and these kids are clamoring to those classes, and I think part of it. Because it's not just an academic thing, you can put things into play and build something. You can do it in class and combine some of your teachings involved with that. I think they get excited about that so.

       What I try to do, at least when working with these young people, is trying to make the connection because additive manufacturing is a significant part of what we do. Now some people view printed metal products as a competing technology to investment casting. In certain aspects, it is, but you print more than metal. You've print plastics, the resins polymers. There are all sorts of stuff that you can print. It all plays a role in what we do since the 1990s. For example, additive manufacturing was largely used for doing prototype work, where we would print a pattern instead of injecting a wax. Maybe I should give you a high-level view of how our process works in an investment casting process, which is also called the lost wax process. You start with a wax pattern that looks like the finished product with the same configuration of what you want to make and metal.

       You take that, and typically you take several of them, assemble them onto a wax bar or something that we call a screw, and build a cluster of parts. Then they take that, and they dip it into a ceramic slurry, and back it up with a stucco, let it dry, and then they repeat till you build a laminated ceramic Shell around all the waxes.

       Then they removed the wax you basically melted out. You fire the mold, so it becomes hard, and you bring it to a temperature that the metal will the metal easily. You pour the metal into the ceramic mold. If you break the Shell off, cut the parts so often, clean them up, and haven't finished the metal product. In normal production, you will build a metal tool to inject the wax into to make those wax patterns, but in prototype development.

        It's very costly if you've got to build a 30,000 or 100,000 or $300,000 tool to work on a design that's changing so. You would generally get a CAD file, and you would print back then. It was a simple stereo with the graphic pattern, and we call to replace the wax pattern and build the Shell around. You can make parts. The customer can take put them in their engine or their automobile or so forth.

       Do evaluations on it modify the designs, and so you get to the point that you have a stable design that you are willing, then, to cut metal on, and build a tool for that's work first got introduced to our industry, you look at it today with the evolution of the additive manufacturing technology, people are printing patterns for low-rate production. To replace waxes again, you're not going to build a tool for a run of 20 parts right, so it's still used for prototyping is used for low rate production.

       But what you're also finding is now, you can print ceramics, so instead of printing a wax pattern or a plastic pattern to dip into a Shell, some people are actually printing the shells themselves with all the internal passages right out of the chute. Now is this a disruptive technology? It's more of enabling technology because the process is slow. It's not suitable for high rate production, and it's costly, but there are many benefits from it? One of the things I try to do when putting the spark in these young kids is to show them some printed patterns, show them to transition, and let them know that it can lead to many things. It also helps when you talk about the opportunities, and the availability of positions, and the long-term prospects.

       I'll tell you I've seen the people who have entered the industry with high school degrees, who are now general managers, and Vice Presidents of companies because they've done what it takes they put in the effort, and they've done very well with it.

       Lisa Ryan: Now, in that have you reached out to this is reaching out to the kids but what about things like guidance counselors or teachers or anything, getting into the schools for things like manufacturing day because it's one thing to get the kids inspired, but we also need to change the conversation with the parents. With the guidance counselor's so that they're not so focused on the four-year college degree because, as you just demonstrated with somebody with a high school diploma, they could be running a plant as part of their career path.

       Joe Fritz: Right, and we do that, in fact, it doesn't stop with them, and also a lot of what we do to support the Integration of students, and keeping the students has also helped educate our members, and the foundry so it's a full stem to Stern, but we do attend the career days manufacturing days I had mentioned the foundry educational foundation they run an event every November which we attended support. I have personally spoken with career counselors and teachers in the schools I've been invited to speak at.

       I've also spoken with the not PTA but the various school districts that are looking to get back into some of the more basics, realizing that the curriculum we have today is really straight away from the trades history is great, I mean, it's a very different world case in point, I went to a school with our business administrator Nora gamba you've met Nora.

       Lisa Ryan: Oh yeah.

       Joe Fritz: We went there to talk to these kids at a junior high school in Jamaica Queens, New York, and we get there, and it's gigantic school. The kids were amazing. That was probably the most attentive group we ever spoke with them afterward, I'm talking with the instructors and some of the counselors there, and they were saying, well, we used to be a vo-tech school. But now it's basically reading, writing, and arithmetic, but we'd like to get our foundry back up and running. I go, you have a foundry, and they took me for a tour, and they have a foundry, and those kids are hungry. Right now, it's used as a storage area for props for the theater group. I know they're taking steps to bring that online, and we have offered our technology and our services to help them out in any way we can, so there I think there's a recognized need among the academic community. The very fact that we were invited in, and then they made a point of showing me what they want to do, but there. I think that there's an issue connecting with the parents.

       My father goes, you want to be smart. You want to get a college degree. You want to work with your mind and not your hands. My father first-generation American, and he had a vision for my future. I was somebody who always enjoyed working with his hands. There are many kids out there that do, and I think that part of my going to higher education was because it was my father's dream. I don't regret it all because I still get my hands dirty - mostly in my garage rather than in the workplace.

       Having a desire to manufacture and see things made is not something that is inbred into you. It's something that you learn. You either like seeing things come together, building things, making things, and design things, or you don't. That's something that has to be nurtured. I have seen the kids who really want to do this up, but my father wants me to be a doctor, but no, my mom thinks I should be a lawyer.

       I always ask what is it that you want to do because that's The key thing you have to appeal to their interests. You can't force them impressed upon anybody, and one of the things I always tell these kids I go, what is it that you love to do. Right pick what you love to do, and make that your career goal your career objectives, and, as the old saying goes, you'll never work a day in your life.

       Lisa Ryan: We look at from when your father was going was getting started, and he wanted you to go to college, so you could have a quote-unquote better life than he did. But unfortunately, we've had two generations of everybody going to college. Now, these kids are coming out with 10s of thousands of dollars in student loan debt for either something that they don't want to be doing because mommy and daddy told them to go to college or something that they can't find a job in their chosen degree so turning it around and saying listen.

       You have a stable job with something you love to do, working with your hands, great benefits, and very little debt that you will amass by going directly from high school to a tech school. It's directly into the trades like that, so it's just really changing that conversation that the one we talked about was two generations ago or a couple of generations ago where college was where you could. They don't want to say that you could actually get something from college, but there's so much competition now, and we don't have enough people.

       Joe Fritz: That is being exposed at that young age to say, wow, this is cool. I can work with my hands. This is what I want to do, and having mom and dad be okay with that. That's very true, but that's not to downplay the importance of college graduates. You need the engineers; you need the accountant. It would help if you had the marketing people. Still, the real main force, the key people that make this industry strong and great, are actually doing the people who have a passion for it, the people who focus on quality.

       The people trying to improve things, and hopefully, that's stem too stern from the person who was hired to push the broom to the guy who's running the corporation. Everybody would be great if everybody had that passion. But it's the people on the shop floor that really make things happen because they're the ones who are going to put quality into a product. They're the ones who are going to recognize when a product is lacking in quality before anybody else does so.

       Lisa Ryan: What are those what are you, seeing as far as so what some of your Members are doing you've shared what you've done to change that conversation and to attract people but are there some best practices that you've heard from your Members are they doing something else that unique that might be helpful to somebody tuning in today.

       Joe Fritz: Well, first off, one of the things that we see a lot of our Members doing]]>e1681af9-f7f1-4528-b62d-c1c89d054d84Mon, 10 May 2021 07:05:00 -040036:42falsefull127271Collaborate with Your Competitors and Watch Your Business Grow with Mauricio BarbozaContact 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, and how we monitor data and upgrade analytics from everything we can collect on the floor.

       The third piece is collaboration. One of the things that endemic has taught us is that we all need a backup plan. What better way to do it than to collaborate with your colleagues. You understand their capabilities to see them not as competition but as a strategic partnership. That's been huge. Those are three things that we're trying to push within our company.

       Lisa Ryan: So, give me an example of a collaboration that you had with somebody you may have thought, as the competitor in the past, and you were able to use the pandemic and partner with that person. What did that look like?

       Mauricio Barboza: I'll give you two examples. When I talked about collaboration, there are two venues: one is with companies doing similar things that you are, and the other is with universities, and using them as research and development, coming up with new things, and innovation.

       One example is in the sewing industry. We were affected, by a pandemic, because it is labor intense. When a team is out, what do you do? We've reached out to all Contracts owners or their contract manufacturing companies and build that synergy. When we're short, we reach out to them.

       At the end of the day, we're trying to serve the end-user customer. We keep our customers happy, whether we do it ourselves or we do it with partners. They're going to stick with us, and we're going to help each other out.

       In similar ways, when our competitors or strategic partners are at full capacity or one of their teams was out with Covid, they reach out to us and say, "Hey, can you guys tackle this right now?" Absolutely - if it was within our abilities.

       Lisa Ryan: That's such an important lesson for other manufacturers to pay attention to. There is enough business for everybody. We might not be thinking that right now because of just what this last year has led to, but you think about the future in those relationships those other companies helped you. You helped those other companies who are more likely to refer business to in the future because they've developed that relationship with you. Kudos to you for being able to step out and create those relationships for happening.

       Mauricio Barboza: Absolutely, and you're right. There's enough business for everyone. The most important thing that has come out of this is that a strategic partnership is looking out for each other. To try to grow together - learning from each other's mistakes and learning from everything-we have to succeed. It's been a great learning curve. It's been a great challenging time, but it has really benefited the industry.

       Lisa Ryan: What about the employees that you have working for you? One day you're making packaging, the next day you're making masks or seals, or you're just completely changing the product overnight. How were how did that work with your team and get the buy-in for that to happen?

       Mauricio Barboza: I feel that that staying fresh. It is well-liked by our people because it's not the same thing, every day, every week, every month. It keeps changing, so is that continuous growth is that the continuous learning process doing things differently. It's not every hour. Everything changes so often that it keeps us fresh in a way. That's very attractive to us for a lot of the people that work here.

       Lisa Ryan: It sounds like it's built into your culture. You're naturally able to make that shift when everything changes overnight. That was your business model, to begin with, because of everything that you do there.

       Mauricio Barboza: Adapting to change is at the core of our business. That's what we grow with the challenges and opportunities. When companies don't want to do something, we see that as an opportunity to help them out and grow a business and that division. I feel that our culture sees that. We champion the good stuff that is coming out of all those changes. We try to keep a good attitude.

       Lisa Ryan: What are some examples of working with your team - of acknowledging them, of sharing that good news, and positivity? How are you doing that in the plant?

       Mauricio Barboza: Well, we set up attainable goals, and we give teams tasks, and if they accomplish the task, we reward them. We have a program where if you go beyond what we have asked, we have this room that will collect things that we have gathered from other companies that you went to that room, and you can pick something. It keeps them motivated. We want to express our appreciation for them because we felt people were everything. As much as we've tried to embrace technology and automation, we really need to take care of people.

       Lisa Ryan: That's a great idea when you have things given to you from other companies because it's a really inexpensive way to reward the people who are working with you. Are there any other programs or things you're doing to keep that motivation going and keep people inspired?

       Mauricio Barboza: Continuous growth is one of the reasons they join Junko industries. They're not going to stay at the same place for a long time. We're going to train them. We help them grow. They can grow within the company at a swift pace because of what we do, which is very encouraging. That keeps everybody motivated. We have a set of tests. If you exceed those tests, you will get rewarded, whether it's an object, or PTO, anything that will keep them excited.

       Lisa Ryan: That's a great way]]>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, and how we monitor data and upgrade analytics from everything we can collect on the floor.

       The third piece is collaboration. One of the things that endemic has taught us is that we all need a backup plan. What better way to do it than to collaborate with your colleagues. You understand their capabilities to see them not as competition but as a strategic partnership. That's been huge. Those are three things that we're trying to push within our company.

       Lisa Ryan: So, give me an example of a collaboration that you had with somebody you may have thought, as the competitor in the past, and you were able to use the pandemic and partner with that person. What did that look like?

       Mauricio Barboza: I'll give you two examples. When I talked about collaboration, there are two venues: one is with companies doing similar things that you are, and the other is with universities, and using them as research and development, coming up with new things, and innovation.

       One example is in the sewing industry. We were affected, by a pandemic, because it is labor intense. When a team is out, what do you do? We've reached out to all Contracts owners or their contract manufacturing companies and build that synergy. When we're short, we reach out to them.

       At the end of the day, we're trying to serve the end-user customer. We keep our customers happy, whether we do it ourselves or we do it with partners. They're going to stick with us, and we're going to help each other out.

       In similar ways, when our competitors or strategic partners are at full capacity or one of their teams was out with Covid, they reach out to us and say, "Hey, can you guys tackle this right now?" Absolutely - if it was within our abilities.

       Lisa Ryan: That's such an important lesson for other manufacturers to pay attention to. There is enough business for everybody. We might not be thinking that right now because of just what this last year has led to, but you think about the future in those relationships those other companies helped you. You helped those other companies who are more likely to refer business to in the future because they've developed that relationship with you. Kudos to you for being able to step out and create those relationships for happening.

       Mauricio Barboza: Absolutely, and you're right. There's enough business for everyone. The most important thing that has come out of this is that a strategic partnership is looking out for each other. To try to grow together - learning from each other's mistakes and learning from everything-we have to succeed. It's been a great learning curve. It's been a great challenging time, but it has really benefited the industry.

       Lisa Ryan: What about the employees that you have working for you? One day you're making packaging, the next day you're making masks or seals, or you're just completely changing the product overnight. How were how did that work with your team and get the buy-in for that to happen?

       Mauricio Barboza: I feel that that staying fresh. It is well-liked by our people because it's not the same thing, every day, every week, every month. It keeps changing, so is that continuous growth is that the continuous learning process doing things differently. It's not every hour. Everything changes so often that it keeps us fresh in a way. That's very attractive to us for a lot of the people that work here.

       Lisa Ryan: It sounds like it's built into your culture. You're naturally able to make that shift when everything changes overnight. That was your business model, to begin with, because of everything that you do there.

       Mauricio Barboza: Adapting to change is at the core of our business. That's what we grow with the challenges and opportunities. When companies don't want to do something, we see that as an opportunity to help them out and grow a business and that division. I feel that our culture sees that. We champion the good stuff that is coming out of all those changes. We try to keep a good attitude.

       Lisa Ryan: What are some examples of working with your team - of acknowledging them, of sharing that good news, and positivity? How are you doing that in the plant?

       Mauricio Barboza: Well, we set up attainable goals, and we give teams tasks, and if they accomplish the task, we reward them. We have a program where if you go beyond what we have asked, we have this room that will collect things that we have gathered from other companies that you went to that room, and you can pick something. It keeps them motivated. We want to express our appreciation for them because we felt people were everything. As much as we've tried to embrace technology and automation, we really need to take care of people.

       Lisa Ryan: That's a great idea when you have things given to you from other companies because it's a really inexpensive way to reward the people who are working with you. Are there any other programs or things you're doing to keep that motivation going and keep people inspired?

       Mauricio Barboza: Continuous growth is one of the reasons they join Junko industries. They're not going to stay at the same place for a long time. We're going to train them. We help them grow. They can grow within the company at a swift pace because of what we do, which is very encouraging. That keeps everybody motivated. We have a set of tests. If you exceed those tests, you will get rewarded, whether it's an object, or PTO, anything that will keep them excited.

       Lisa Ryan: That's a great way of expanding the skill base of your employees. The ones that are looking for tasks, you can pinpoint them as your future leaders. They can grow with the company because it sounds like you do many that promoting from within.

       Mauricio Barboza: Sure, absolutely, and it is exciting. I mean, if you think about it, 

       they're always asking us what's next. One of the newest things right now is this fulfillment Center that we're in the process of building a 300,000 square foot facility. We're turning into a fulfillment center with state-of-the-art software, and technology, and whatnot. It is exciting that they know they're working for a company that is willing to grow at the industry's pace, if not faster. Trying to take care of the problems is current, and we do our best at it. We tell ourselves that we are experts at becoming experts, and that's how we have done business since 1988 since we've been in business.

       Lisa Ryan: One of the other things that we talked about was that you have about 60% of your employees are full-time, and then you also use a lot of temporary workers. What are some of the ways that you manage that, too, to keep basically everybody happy and keep that turnover rate down?

       Mauricio Barboza: That's been a challenge with corporate. That's what has been one of the biggest challenges for us. Before covid, we could ramp a team in a matter of a week or weeks because of the Labor-intensive projects we have done in the past. Now that's different, and that's why we're shifting towards more automated stuff.  

       We push all of our employees to think of the company as part of theirs, grow within the company, and support all the operations we do and bring in.

       Lisa Ryan: It sounds like that's probably what one of the things that are keeping you up at night is dealing with that the change, the automation, and bringing in new people. What else is keeping you up at night?

       Mauricio Barboza: Well, I think the pandemic has told the industry that we need a backup plan. We can no longer be in business without having a backup plan. We need to adapt to everything that is shifting forward. If you are one of those companies or individual thinking that are just waiting for the storm to pass, waiting for this to be over so we can go back to normal, that's not going to happen. You're going to be left behind.

       One of the things keeping us up at night is having that backup. Automation is part of it. New technologies are part of it, listening to the industry, fulfillment centers, and move forward with the industry.

       Lisa Ryan: From a networking standpoint, in getting together with other manufacturing colleagues, what are some of the things you would like to learn from them? And what are some of the things the ideas or strategies you would be willing to share with your manufacturing colleagues?

       Mauricio Barboza: Sure, well, I will be willing to share all the ways that we have learned that failed and succeeded and how to learn about ways that they have accomplished. What have you done? What have you done wrong? What did you learn in the process? Because failures are actually good, failures help you grow. Learning from those failures so important as a company. If you can learn that from a different company making their own mistakes, it's even better.

       I'm willing to share our stories, how we have grown as a company, and our challenges. I would love to hear from similar companies.

       Lisa Ryan: The pandemic has speeded up a lot of the technology. It's put us light years ahead of where we would have been had it not been for the pandemic.

       Mauricio Barboza: I see that pandemic as a technology accelerator of the century. I mean, really speed up the process. It was going in that direction. It happened faster now.

       Lisa Ryan: If you were thinking about all the things that you've done in this last year, what would be your biggest piece of advice or strategy that's worked best for you, that might help someone else listening to this podcast today?

       Mauricio Barboza: Sure, keep up with what's going on in the world again. Bring him back. Don't get used to waiting for the storm to pass. Learn how to dance in the rain. We need to learn how to dance under the worst circumstances because that's what helps us grow. If you're one of those waiting for everything to pass, are you going to be left behind?

       Lisa Ryan: Mauricio, it has been an absolute pleasure to have you on the show today. What would be the best way if somebody did want to connect with you what's the best way for them to do that?

       Mauricio Barboza: sure, they can do it via email, whether my personal email or Jonco industries and to leave you my email addresses.

       Lisa Ryan: I'll put that in the show notes so that people can click. Thank you so much for being on the show today it's been great talking to you.

       Mauricio Barboza: Thank you, Lisa. I appreciate it.

       Lisa Ryan: I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network podcast. See you next time.

       ]]>f08bf9fa-6d6c-4863-94ad-27252effbdacMon, 03 May 2021 07:05:00 -040017:05falsefull125251Benefit Hacking to Improve Employee Attraction and Retention with John MillenConnect 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 opening question: Do you view your employees as an asset or a liability? And they kind of chuckle. They go, well, I have a few liabilities, but they're mostly assets, like, OK, we agree with that. I said, so then the money you're spending the three-quarters of a million dollars on your benefits for the year you're spending, do you view that as an expense or an investment?

       And it trips them up, and it's because they want to say expense. After all, it's an expense that comes off the top line. But you invest in assets. Right? So it's an investment. And the reason I talk about that is because so many people get it. Focused on the wrong thing, if you're spending three-quarters of a million dollars every year, what is the value you're getting from that? And sometimes the value is not very good.

       For the client we worked with last year, the money they spent was not like we're not maximizing the dollars spent. And so that pivots the conversation a little bit from insurance, like who cares what the deductible is yet to. Let's maximize it spent because it's a big dollar amount.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, not only getting the benefits for the employers themselves but just as a recruiting tool to get people on board, because when you have employees that are looking at you, that's one of the main things that the newer generations coming into the workplace right now are concerned about because they see how health costs can just destroy their family's finances. So just looking at they're investing anyway, making sure it's a good plan. But from your standpoint, also making sure that they're maximizing what that spend is.

       John Millen: Absolutely. And you said something just there. People are more aware because of covid probably right now their health care. They're more aware of, like, how much do I have to pay out of pocket? And you talked about retention. Here's a great tip that everyone can use right away, no matter what industry. But this is something we integrated with our manufacturing clients is tell the applicant upfront about your benefits. Don't wait until a new hire orientation. And I think it's a strange reaction.

       I get some people who are like; I don't want to do that. Like, well, is that because you have crappy benefits? But if you have good benefits, you should tell them if you have pretty crappy benefits, yet you may not want to say to them. So we started doing that where you take your benefits book, right, that you create and maybe it's just the first two pages of summary, and you show them these are all the different benefits we provide.

       You want to show them the cost if you don't want to. But that is a recruiting tool because I guarantee you they're thinking about it in their head. They're thinking, what are the benefits like? What are the benefits? And ninety-nine percent of employees will not have the courage to ask usually. And so HR professionals, recruiters are surprised. They want to see the benefits. What do we give? What do we offer them? That should be a part of the applicant process.

       Lisa Ryan: If you have a good benefits package, when especially when it comes down to they're looking at a couple of different employers to join, they have one employer who has been transparent and has shown them the benefits, and they're pretty good benefits, like, wow, this is cool versus nobody else sharing that information. So it sounds like it's certainly giving them an edge. Just the fact that they're providing that information and kind of setting in that employee's mind that, hey, this might be a pretty cool place to work.

       John Millen: Here's another thing that that I would highly suggest. How many times do you go to a website for a company and find out careers and says benefits and it says health insurance, dental vision, whoopty do like just having health insurance today is not good enough.

       You have to have a good health insurance plan. This is where the conversation pivots a little bit towards your spending half a million dollars or a quarter of a million dollars or a million dollars or whatever it is.

       Are we maximizing that because your health plan needs some tweaking, needs some updating? Not only telling them, showing them the benefits, but don't just say we have health care because some people find out that means a six thousand dollar high deductible plan with no other coverage will be an issue?

       Lisa Ryan: What do you think are the benefits that have the highest impact on employee attraction and retention?

       John Millen: So great question. Health insurance, right? Medical insurance. It's number one. It's the thing that can devastate a family more than anything. So definitely your health insurance package. But I would say to look at that is not just health insurance. It's your health care benefits. I mean that health insurance is Blue Cross Blue Shield, a three thousand dollar high deductible plan. That's the health insurance. But the health care benefits might be things you layer in on top of that bundled in there to make the plan a lot more robust.

       So definitely health insurance. But think of it, not just health insurance, but health care benefits. So what are some examples? What's been popular recently is telemedicine. We saw it kind of spring up last year. Hey, I can talk to a doctor over the phone or video at home.

       Why? Because you couldn't go to the doctor and has been around for a decade. This is not new, but it took that moment for the industry to get shaken that we've been talking about it for six years. So we will add cost or investment a couple of bucks a month for people into the medical]]>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 opening question: Do you view your employees as an asset or a liability? And they kind of chuckle. They go, well, I have a few liabilities, but they're mostly assets, like, OK, we agree with that. I said, so then the money you're spending the three-quarters of a million dollars on your benefits for the year you're spending, do you view that as an expense or an investment?

       And it trips them up, and it's because they want to say expense. After all, it's an expense that comes off the top line. But you invest in assets. Right? So it's an investment. And the reason I talk about that is because so many people get it. Focused on the wrong thing, if you're spending three-quarters of a million dollars every year, what is the value you're getting from that? And sometimes the value is not very good.

       For the client we worked with last year, the money they spent was not like we're not maximizing the dollars spent. And so that pivots the conversation a little bit from insurance, like who cares what the deductible is yet to. Let's maximize it spent because it's a big dollar amount.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, not only getting the benefits for the employers themselves but just as a recruiting tool to get people on board, because when you have employees that are looking at you, that's one of the main things that the newer generations coming into the workplace right now are concerned about because they see how health costs can just destroy their family's finances. So just looking at they're investing anyway, making sure it's a good plan. But from your standpoint, also making sure that they're maximizing what that spend is.

       John Millen: Absolutely. And you said something just there. People are more aware because of covid probably right now their health care. They're more aware of, like, how much do I have to pay out of pocket? And you talked about retention. Here's a great tip that everyone can use right away, no matter what industry. But this is something we integrated with our manufacturing clients is tell the applicant upfront about your benefits. Don't wait until a new hire orientation. And I think it's a strange reaction.

       I get some people who are like; I don't want to do that. Like, well, is that because you have crappy benefits? But if you have good benefits, you should tell them if you have pretty crappy benefits, yet you may not want to say to them. So we started doing that where you take your benefits book, right, that you create and maybe it's just the first two pages of summary, and you show them these are all the different benefits we provide.

       You want to show them the cost if you don't want to. But that is a recruiting tool because I guarantee you they're thinking about it in their head. They're thinking, what are the benefits like? What are the benefits? And ninety-nine percent of employees will not have the courage to ask usually. And so HR professionals, recruiters are surprised. They want to see the benefits. What do we give? What do we offer them? That should be a part of the applicant process.

       Lisa Ryan: If you have a good benefits package, when especially when it comes down to they're looking at a couple of different employers to join, they have one employer who has been transparent and has shown them the benefits, and they're pretty good benefits, like, wow, this is cool versus nobody else sharing that information. So it sounds like it's certainly giving them an edge. Just the fact that they're providing that information and kind of setting in that employee's mind that, hey, this might be a pretty cool place to work.

       John Millen: Here's another thing that that I would highly suggest. How many times do you go to a website for a company and find out careers and says benefits and it says health insurance, dental vision, whoopty do like just having health insurance today is not good enough.

       You have to have a good health insurance plan. This is where the conversation pivots a little bit towards your spending half a million dollars or a quarter of a million dollars or a million dollars or whatever it is.

       Are we maximizing that because your health plan needs some tweaking, needs some updating? Not only telling them, showing them the benefits, but don't just say we have health care because some people find out that means a six thousand dollar high deductible plan with no other coverage will be an issue?

       Lisa Ryan: What do you think are the benefits that have the highest impact on employee attraction and retention?

       John Millen: So great question. Health insurance, right? Medical insurance. It's number one. It's the thing that can devastate a family more than anything. So definitely your health insurance package. But I would say to look at that is not just health insurance. It's your health care benefits. I mean that health insurance is Blue Cross Blue Shield, a three thousand dollar high deductible plan. That's the health insurance. But the health care benefits might be things you layer in on top of that bundled in there to make the plan a lot more robust.

       So definitely health insurance. But think of it, not just health insurance, but health care benefits. So what are some examples? What's been popular recently is telemedicine. We saw it kind of spring up last year. Hey, I can talk to a doctor over the phone or video at home.

       Why? Because you couldn't go to the doctor and has been around for a decade. This is not new, but it took that moment for the industry to get shaken that we've been talking about it for six years. So we will add cost or investment a couple of bucks a month for people into the medical plan, even though they may have it because it enhances the benefit and makes it so much better. There are other benefits you can add in there, whether it's first dollar coverage or different types of supplemental plans that can take the perceived value or the actual value of the plan from here to here.

       So not just health insurance, it's health care benefits, that whole little package, I would say that's number one. Number two: And this is going to surprise a bunch of if I told you, what are the three top benefits that you would ask for at an employer? What would you say were the top three?

       Lisa Ryan: You would say health, wealth, the health benefits of vision and dental, I guess, would be the top three and the three most popular.

       John Millen: But I would say you probably need to insert in their disability insurance.

       Lisa Ryan: Oh, yeah, I have mine. I have a friend who had a tree fall on her when she was riding in the Metro Parks, and thank goodness she had disability insurance. Whenever I think about canceling my policy because I don't want to pay the benefits premium, I think about what she went through and what saved her because she had a disability.

       So, yeah, I am all over that, and I've had my interest for, yet no one ever went bankrupt from a dental bill. No one ever went bankrupt because they couldn't get glasses, and so it's one of those just little nuances. Yes, you're going to have dental. Yes, you're going to have vision coverage. But sometimes what I tell them is, look, if you don't have employer-paid short or long term disability or both, maybe be making your dental vision partially voluntary or one hundred percent voluntary and give them a five thousand monthly benefit, because it's something that is not discussed.

       John Millen: It's not sexy. It's important.

       Lisa Ryan: When I see that Ramina popped in and said that she's been using her telemedicine for years for her parents, I mean, I think that that was one of the things that covid just brought in is I would have never thought that I could visit my doctor by phone. But the fact that you can't it's like that's just one of the many technologies that this pandemic has forced us into doing and making it normal and normalizing it because I just get my doctor on the phone and show him what's going on and it works.

       John Millen: So it's been interesting. That's right. A lot of the medical plans have it. We don't always bundle it. And external, we do it when the. So here's an analogy on most medical plans, you have vision coverage. Is it very good vision coverage, you get an annual exam as part of your medical plan, does it pay for glasses? No. Does it pay for polycarbonate lenses? No. So, yeah, there's vision in it.

       What I see, though, is some of the telemedicine plans, not all the time, need to be enhanced a little bit. And so that's when we say let's make it no cost, there's no fee ever. You can add your whole family. So these are just little things. Little tweaks. It doesn't cost a lot of money, but minor tweaks.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. And this is kind of funny. Romina shared that she has a friend of hers who's a doctor and can do that while on vacation. So, again, we're looking up. Not that we want to be working. Twenty-four seven, for goodness sake, because we do need to take advantage of those vacations. But it gives us so much more flexibility than what we used to have when it comes to our benefit. So what are some of the things that you're seeing that maybe employees, employers are missing when it comes to their benefits, some of the biggest mistakes that they're making?

       John Millen: So another great question. One of the things I've seen as a little bit of a trend, and it's going to sound a bit controversial. It's not mainstream as it's been around for the past 15 years. There's been this movement towards consumer-driven health care, meaning, hey, you spend three weeks researching that big screen TV at Best Buy, but yet you only spend five minutes when you need your knee replaced. You just go where they say there's a lot of truth in that, that we're not aware of the cost of health care because health care is not the same as health insurance.

       So that is a big issue that's trying to be fixed. But I would say over the past 15 years. There are some cases when employees will not be a consumer of health care. They will go where their doctor says, period.

       And I've heard for so long now, this is not all the time, but I've heard so long. And they say from the front of the room, next time you need a hip replacement, just go online. You can look at the costs. You can look at this.

       And I think I have five thousand dollars out of pocket, max. That's all I'm going to pay. I don't care if it costs one hundred thousand or six hundred thousand. If my doctor says this is where we're getting it done, I'm going to go there. So there are some cases where consumerism is not working. In some places, it is prescription drugs, outpatient testing, things like that. It's working. So here's what I would say is look at your employee benefits options.

       So some companies have one option. Some have to. Some have three, some have five and six, which I think is crazy. Ridiculous. Look at those plans and ask yourself, does it have prescription coverage? Because we're finding that prescription drugs are a third of the claims, and you can't get away from it on TV, see all these fancy ads. But prescription drug costs are going up fast. So if all you have are high deductible plans, meaning no prescription coverage until you hit your deductible, it's painful.

       And that's what's happening with the rationing of insulin. People are cutting back their insulin because it's so expensive, and it's causing people to die from it. So this is a straightforward little thing you can add now. Is it does it add more cost? Yes, but it's an investment. And I'll give you a quick story. I was talking last year, I got a call from one of my manufacturing clients, and they had a new hire employee from a different state that was going to work for them.

       And he had a bunch of benefit questions. So the HR manager called me. She said, would you mind talking to him? He's not an employee yet. He's looking. And I said, sure, I called him. And he told me he said, my prescription cost is two thousand dollars a month. Do they have any kind of plans that will help pay for my prescription I'm taking? I looked up the prescription, I looked at the plan.

       We had redesigned, we had added back in prescription coverage. And I said I said, Greg, it's going to be 40 bucks a month for the copay. Forty dollars a month versus two thousand a month. That caused him to move from North Carolina in, among other things, not just benefits, but that's a retention tool, and that's a big thing that's missing, is having good prescription coverage.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. Well, so when you're looking at the fact that they're doing spending three-quarters of a million dollars on health insurance for their employees every year, what is the best way to get to maximize that spend?

       John Millen: So the first thing I would say is knowing your five-year cost and your five-year projection. What is it going to cost you over the next five years? I asked this question a lot. How much are you going to spend on your health care or benefits package over the next five years? And I get blank stares. I don't know not only what you are going to spend, but it's compounding because most of the time, it's going up to eight to 12 percent a year.

       So it's not just one plus one equals two. You're adding more on top of that. We show we show a potential client. This is what you're going to spend. They see seven million dollars. I say, all right, now it's perspective. You can no longer assume that eight percent renewals are good. I hear this a lot in our industry. I talk to a client. We just talk to our broker. And they said we got a five percent renewal, and that's good, and we should just move on.

       I don't think that's good because it's been five percent and 12 percent and twenty-two percent. It's gone like this. So I think you've got to look at the thought out into the future and say, how do we bend this curve down? I don't see a lot of that happening. I see a lot of reactionary things. Last minute. Here's your window, Lisa. We just got your renewal back. It was a 12 percent increase. I got them down to eight.

       I think it's the best thing you should take, not what does that look like five years from now? And can we try some new things.

       Lisa Ryan: So as we're getting to the end of our time together, what's your number one tip that you would give to people listening today regarding what they're doing with their benefits to make them better and to use it as an attraction and retention tool?

       John Millen: Wow. So, one, there are lots of things that I would say. From personal experience, working with tens of thousands of employees over 20 years is making sure that investment that you've created, that package that you're all of your employees understand, are educated about it and know how to use it. The biggest thing I see, especially manufacturing, right, John? We're running presses. We're running machinery. We're running porcelain tile. We can't stop what you need to give the employees time.

       It's some way to carve out 30 minutes or 60 Minutes one time of year and explain to them what they are, how they work, and what's right for them. This is how I tell employers you're spending seven thousand dollars a year on average per employee on their benefits.

       If they get paid...]]>3b564acd-bef3-4dee-9f92-3742de6be954Mon, 26 Apr 2021 07:05:00 -040022:56falsefull124241Blowing Up Your Company's Culture - and Putting It Back Together Again with Teresa LindseyLisa 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 the journey. Culture is an ever-evolving thing. The word culture is thrown around so lightly. These days, everybody uses it. We use it all the time. To me, there's so much more than the buzzword culture that goes on in an organization.

       Unfortunately, when I first stepped in, it was a culture of fear and intimidation—lots of silos and a lot of breakdowns. I don't want to say infighting is strong, but dissension if you will. It was it was difficult. The culture mirrored the leadership, and the business mirrored all of that. It was walking into a great challenge as well as a tremendous opportunity. There was no place to go but up. To heal and to restore, we started to put into place concrete things.

       The first thing I did was I stepped in, and I had scheduled a meeting with every employee, all of them. I called it "school, the Pres," and I sat down with each individual. I had a list of five questions at the time. I asked them all the same questions. I took a few minutes to get to know them personally -tell me about your life, your family, where do you come from? Then I asked them very specific questions.

       One of them was, "We snap a finger, and you're me, you're now the President of Channel Products. What's the very first thing you change. What's the first thing that you think would have the greatest impact and make a difference here. What are you afraid of?" Having those conversations started to lay the groundwork for some much-needed change.

       From there went to work, facilitating several different things, one of the early things that I did was 360-degree peer reviews. I did them a bit differently. Rather than doing a survey, having people fill out opinions, and all of that, I listed every employee's name and put an ABC D or F next to their name and then yes or no. I handed that list out to every employee, and I said I want you to go through, and we had in a team meeting defined all of the attributes of an A player. I made sure that it was their definition, not mine. What is your definition?

       Here's what's interesting about culture back then. Everybody was listing A player attributes because it was almost like a finger-pointing exercise. "Communication is an A player," while they're looking over here at Sally, who is not good at communication. It was almost like that.

       Everybody was just frustrated. We defined 34-36 attributes. Then I rolled out the 360-degree review. It was for them to check to go down each name, are they in A player B, C D or F and then yes or no. If you started your own company today, would you hire them? It was very simple, very clean. There was a small comments section that you couldn't offer opinion or thoughts or complain, but what you could do is, if you mark them anything less than a player B or below, you could list up to three of those attributes that we had defined as an opportunity for them to work on. So no chance to shred somebody. I don't hear you're complaining but let's dig in.

       I took the results for each individual and put their name down A, B, C D E, F, yes or no, and then just put a number, and you got seven a's 20 B's, 3 C's - type of thing. As it stands, only two people would hire you, and the rest would not. I put those in an envelope, sealed them, and pass them out at the next meeting, which we at the time called one team meetings, now they're called Channel chats, and pass them out. Then the real facilitation began. As you can imagine, as people open those envelopes and pulled that out, they saw that they're sitting in a room full of peers and all those peers had opinions about how they were not necessarily an A player. There were only just a couple of people who were viewed as being very strong A players.

       That was a starting point. Then it was about facilitating. Okay, we are going to create a standard high in the company for performance. Today, we make it very difficult to get into our company - intentionally, it's by design. We're going to set the standard, really, really high, and then we're going to watch the fallout. Some people are going to make it. Some people aren't. For those of you who aren't going to make it, I'm going to help you transition into something that's an excellent fit for you. We're going to do this together because I care about you, and I want the best for you and your families. But this just might not be the right place for you going forward.

       That was the beginning of it all. Since then, we've implemented a number of powerful cultural things that we do and maintain That have evolved over the years into a very mature, very rich, and robust culture.

       Lisa Ryan: And for the people who had the three things that made them, not an A, was there some recourse? Did you offer them some training, some guidance support? I'm assuming that that meeting was probably filled with a lot of shock and hurt and all the other emotions that go along with that. When you're thinking you are "all that in a bag of chips," and you find out, well, maybe not.

       Teresa Lindsey: I will say that I had a revolving door after that. People in tears, people angry. Other people took a position of indifference, "whatever, I don't care." Because they couldn't handle the results, the only person who saw the results were the staff members who had a specific group of people reported to them. They didn't get to see everybody's results. If they had, say ten direct reports, they got the results of those ten direct reports to help coach and mentor them through that process and help them develop the skills where the gaps were.

       Lisa Ryan: It sounds like again, I'm going back to having that first conversation right off the bat before you even build that level of trust to...]]>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 the journey. Culture is an ever-evolving thing. The word culture is thrown around so lightly. These days, everybody uses it. We use it all the time. To me, there's so much more than the buzzword culture that goes on in an organization.

       Unfortunately, when I first stepped in, it was a culture of fear and intimidation—lots of silos and a lot of breakdowns. I don't want to say infighting is strong, but dissension if you will. It was it was difficult. The culture mirrored the leadership, and the business mirrored all of that. It was walking into a great challenge as well as a tremendous opportunity. There was no place to go but up. To heal and to restore, we started to put into place concrete things.

       The first thing I did was I stepped in, and I had scheduled a meeting with every employee, all of them. I called it "school, the Pres," and I sat down with each individual. I had a list of five questions at the time. I asked them all the same questions. I took a few minutes to get to know them personally -tell me about your life, your family, where do you come from? Then I asked them very specific questions.

       One of them was, "We snap a finger, and you're me, you're now the President of Channel Products. What's the very first thing you change. What's the first thing that you think would have the greatest impact and make a difference here. What are you afraid of?" Having those conversations started to lay the groundwork for some much-needed change.

       From there went to work, facilitating several different things, one of the early things that I did was 360-degree peer reviews. I did them a bit differently. Rather than doing a survey, having people fill out opinions, and all of that, I listed every employee's name and put an ABC D or F next to their name and then yes or no. I handed that list out to every employee, and I said I want you to go through, and we had in a team meeting defined all of the attributes of an A player. I made sure that it was their definition, not mine. What is your definition?

       Here's what's interesting about culture back then. Everybody was listing A player attributes because it was almost like a finger-pointing exercise. "Communication is an A player," while they're looking over here at Sally, who is not good at communication. It was almost like that.

       Everybody was just frustrated. We defined 34-36 attributes. Then I rolled out the 360-degree review. It was for them to check to go down each name, are they in A player B, C D or F and then yes or no. If you started your own company today, would you hire them? It was very simple, very clean. There was a small comments section that you couldn't offer opinion or thoughts or complain, but what you could do is, if you mark them anything less than a player B or below, you could list up to three of those attributes that we had defined as an opportunity for them to work on. So no chance to shred somebody. I don't hear you're complaining but let's dig in.

       I took the results for each individual and put their name down A, B, C D E, F, yes or no, and then just put a number, and you got seven a's 20 B's, 3 C's - type of thing. As it stands, only two people would hire you, and the rest would not. I put those in an envelope, sealed them, and pass them out at the next meeting, which we at the time called one team meetings, now they're called Channel chats, and pass them out. Then the real facilitation began. As you can imagine, as people open those envelopes and pulled that out, they saw that they're sitting in a room full of peers and all those peers had opinions about how they were not necessarily an A player. There were only just a couple of people who were viewed as being very strong A players.

       That was a starting point. Then it was about facilitating. Okay, we are going to create a standard high in the company for performance. Today, we make it very difficult to get into our company - intentionally, it's by design. We're going to set the standard, really, really high, and then we're going to watch the fallout. Some people are going to make it. Some people aren't. For those of you who aren't going to make it, I'm going to help you transition into something that's an excellent fit for you. We're going to do this together because I care about you, and I want the best for you and your families. But this just might not be the right place for you going forward.

       That was the beginning of it all. Since then, we've implemented a number of powerful cultural things that we do and maintain That have evolved over the years into a very mature, very rich, and robust culture.

       Lisa Ryan: And for the people who had the three things that made them, not an A, was there some recourse? Did you offer them some training, some guidance support? I'm assuming that that meeting was probably filled with a lot of shock and hurt and all the other emotions that go along with that. When you're thinking you are "all that in a bag of chips," and you find out, well, maybe not.

       Teresa Lindsey: I will say that I had a revolving door after that. People in tears, people angry. Other people took a position of indifference, "whatever, I don't care." Because they couldn't handle the results, the only person who saw the results were the staff members who had a specific group of people reported to them. They didn't get to see everybody's results. If they had, say ten direct reports, they got the results of those ten direct reports to help coach and mentor them through that process and help them develop the skills where the gaps were.

       Lisa Ryan: It sounds like again, I'm going back to having that first conversation right off the bat before you even build that level of trust to have that in-depth conversation, so what was that process like? They were coming from command, control, and fearful environment. Here's this new person coming in - what's going to happen? What were some of the steps that you took to build that trust and to be able to have those difficult conversations?

       Teresa Lindsey: One of my very first meetings with them when the ownership introduced me to the workforce, I said to them, look, there's only one thing that matters here, and that's trust. I am going to trust you to show up every single day and give 120% of yourselves. That's my expectation. I'm going to trust you to show up here and give everything you have to be loyal, supportive of our future to our growth to their culture and what we have going on.

       In return, you have to trust me to make the very best decisions for you and this company. Some of it's going to feel personal but it's not. This is about us building a company, which we're all here to do. Everybody collects a paycheck here to do just that. It's about us building a company, but the way we're going to build the company is by building a culture. I was very clear with them that the only way to get to where we were going was that we had to blow up the culture and then reassemble it piece by piece.

       In those initial three months, I talked to them a lot about vulnerability. This is going to hurt. We're going to be vulnerable with one another. I was very vulnerable with them. I was also very transparent with them. It's one of my key beliefs as a leader. I believe in leading people in the managing process. We never manage people here. I don't ever let my team say all I manage them, or that's not true. We lead. Nobody wants to be managed. They want to be lead. We lead people and manage the process.

       The second element to that was stripped down vulnerability to rebuild that trust and so much so that. I put myself out there a lot of times and allowed for open comments and feedback on me. I would intentionally do that, so they could see me being very vulnerable. I believe in transparency.

       In my years of leadership here at Channel, I am hyper transparent with the people here. The only thing we don't share our people's salaries. We share everything else - we don't break HIPAA laws, but I mean, we share everything else. Whether it's the company's performance or making a tough decision like building a facility in China, I knew that I would have to change my workforce here as a result of that and downsize.

       I started telling them six months in advance. I started giving them a heads up – "Look, we're going to keep this many people, and I want all of you here. I need you to show me that you want to be here." Here are the requirements here the standards for that. This is how we're going to make decisions about who stays and who does not. This is not personal. It's business. I love all of you as if it is personal.

       We're going to walk through this together. I met with them more than once a month—every three weeks. I met with the entire workforce, reminding them, this is what we're doing. This is the decision we're making.

       The interesting thing about that is when it came time to sit down and have those one-on-one meetings with people to let them know who was coming with us to our new headquarters - because simultaneously, we were building a new headquarters - and who was coming to the new headquarters, who would no longer be joining us on our journey as a company.

       We brought in a firm to help us, transition folks. We gave them all the support in the world, the softest landing you can imagine. We gave them a heads up 60 to 90 days in advance. We had those meetings 60 to 90 days in advance of them having to have a replacement in a job.

       The firm we worked with actually sat me down afterward and said, "we've been doing this for over 30 years. Never in our history have we had people who have just been told they were exiting the company say through tears, I will miss Teresa and this company. This is the best thing that's ever happened to me. I'm so sad I'm not going forward with them, but I don't blame her. I could have done more. I should have done more."

       When you talk about transparency and culture, we have a very low churn rate on less than 2-3% of our people leave independently. If we're exiting someone, it's a different story. Most people come, and they plant themselves. It's for reasons, just like that, and that blowing up of the culture and rebuilding it is what has made us what we are.

       Lisa Ryan: So what's your favorite part of your culture, right now, out of all the good things that you've done.

       Teresa Lindsey: It's hard for me to narrow it down because there's so much that I love about Channel Products, our people, and who we are. I would say that everybody here is excited and focus and loyal about being a part of something bigger than themselves. That's important to me, and it extends throughout our organization. It permeates in many different ways, and it manifests itself in a lot of different ways in our culture. We go above and beyond for employees.

       We do unique things. We are a unique culture. We have all the normal stuff - a game room and a gym in our building. We're unique in the way we approach our people. They have the option to work four 10s and take Fridays off. We give them paydays off to volunteer every year. We have a program where they all year long get chips poker chips in exchange for swag and gift certificates and tickets and airlines stuff. We have a lot of different events throughout the year. We do charitable things throughout the year.

        Our people appreciate all of that, but they're fiercely loyal to just the company's vision and making it successful. We support people on the back end. We've had many people here who have been diagnosed with, unfortunately, life-threatening illnesses that happen when you have many people. I believe we reap what we sow as an organization.

       I had one associate who did not show up to work for over a year because he struggled with cancer and unfortunately passed away. I never took him off of our payroll. I kept him on our payroll to continue to get benefits to continue to take care of him, even though he was not contributing from an actual business standpoint.

       We've done that a number of times here for folks. I believe that when you're good to people, and it goes beyond, "we had a party for them and gave them pizza." When you're genuinely good to people and they show up, and they see those examples, and they show up every single day, knowing wow if I were in that situation, this is how they would treat me. This is what I can expect from Theresa in the organization.

       That goes a long way to creating loyalty and fostering teamwork and camaraderie and stuff so.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and when you give your employees time off to do volunteer work, what does that look like.

       Teresa Lindsey: So we have our Channel cares portion of our organization, and we do some pretty cool philanthropic stuff. COVID obviously, last year was a bit challenging with those things, but we've done things.

       One example that I give because everybody loves it and other people have emulated it is that we took the entire company into four teams. We surprised them. They showed up that day, and we said, surprise, this is what we're doing today. We sent them out on limo buses. Each team had a limo bus, and $250, we bought them matching T-shirts for their teams and everything it was a competition for Channel chips. I mentioned our elevate program with the Channel chips.

       Employees had to go out into the surrounding community. They had three hours to do as many random acts of kindness that they could do. They just had to figure it out as a team and tell the driver where they wanted to go.

       Where do they go, and what are they going to do? And it was the spur-of-the moment. There are categories like who can do the most random acts of kindness? Who does the coolest, most unique thing? Who can bring back the most money? Who can just do genuine random acts of kindness without spending money? We had all these categories for winning, and that day they went out and did over in three hours. 

       We did over 100 random acts of kindness - everything from coloring books and crayons to the hospital's children's unit. They took stuff to the fire department and the police department. They took Gatorade to construction workers. They stopped and paid for gas. They went to a drugstore, found a woman standing in line, and paid for her prescription. They had to take a picture of everything they did, verify, and text it back to us while they were out doing this. We were keeping trackback at the home base. One team took a picture around a woman in a dental chair - they paid her copay that day—so unique things.

       That extends over into the volunteer days. We allow our people to volunteer any place they want. There is a form they have to fill out and have signed. It's not a day on the boat. They have to go and give up themselves, but we pay them to do that. A lot of times, they'll get together as a department, or different people in the organization will pull together. We did shut down one entire day, and we paid all of our employees to go and work at the Cleveland food bank.

       We do a number of things like that as part of our philanthropic arm. We try to be unique rather than just cutting a check. I feel like anybody can do that. We try to approach it with maybe some more teeth and grit.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, so what are some of the things that keep you up at night.

       Teresa Lindsey: Thinking of how to leverage this wave that we're on as a company. I almost feel guilty saying this amid the challenges of a...]]>ad09eb3d-0bc0-4fb2-b036-227d971fbcd9Mon, 19 Apr 2021 07:05:00 -040030:16falsefull123231What's Missing from Your Lean Manufacturing Program with Scott GauvinConnect 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 to eliminate ways to improve efficiencies; thus, they focus on the metrics instead of focusing on a holistic approach, which is a combination of the tools and the mindset in the culture around the respect for people aspect. The purpose is around the respect people piece. It's not about being nice. The purpose is to engage the stakeholders to create more value. That's why we're doing this continuous improvement thing.

       If we're focused on just reducing costs, that's got a shelf life that's not very long. This is why we often see a lot of clients who call us back to help them. It's because they've done lean, or they've had some lean initiatives they didn't stick to. The efforts aren't sustained, and so they're asking us to help them with another approach. What we're seeing, when we do an evaluation, is that there's a lack of understanding and implementation of the respect of people piece.

       Lisa Ryan: it's interesting because you think, with only two pillars, that would be 50% each. 50% of the time, we're focusing on continuous improvement, and then the other 50% is that respect for people. For the companies that are making that mistake, what would you say that their ratio is?

       Scott Gauvin: There are two kinds of organizations: there are organizations who have been doing this for a long time and have come around to understand what the respectful people piece is. They understand that it is a mindset shift. It is a cultural shift. It's the way we operate as opposed to. We do the continuous improvement side are the things that we do -the immediate needs. We focus on continuous improvement.

       For the average organization, it's like 98% continuous improvement tools and maybe a nod to the respectful people piece. There are very few organizations that I've been to that do a good job with the respect for people piece because it focuses on the mindset and the culture of the organization itself.

       Lisa Ryan: And what are some of the things that you advise your clients to start to do to get stronger in that respect for people aspect of lean.

       Scott Gauvin: It goes back to the mindset. One of the things that we do with our clients when we're heading down this path is when we look at why they are doing lean in the first place. What's the purpose of it? It's almost always to improve the operational efficiencies and reduce costs, in some ways. Then we migrate the conversation over to the people aspect because if they're people, they will be more capable of better buy-in. If the people were more engaged, the result would be the productivity improvement, the reduction of costs, the elimination of waste, and so, a lot of the conversation is around what are the right mindsets that the organization needs to adopt to have it be part of the way we do things as opposed to creating these events that almost forced the change to happen.

       One of the first things we do is an evaluation of what is the current mindset and what are the mindsets that we want to migrate to. Then we create a path to migrate from the current mindset to whatever that future mindset is that we want to have.

       Lisa Ryan: So does that start with an employee survey, or how do you figure out what the mindset is?

       Scott Gauvin: So the mindsets are usually dictated by leadership. Whatever the leaders think usually permeates through the rest of the organization. It's a conversation with the key leaders in the organization around what do. I'll give you an example: one of the questions that I ask when I sit down with the leadership team is, "On a scale of zero to 100, what percentage of the employees at this organization come to work to do their best every day.? The executives usually will come back somewhere between 25 to 80%. That gives me a sense of where their mindset is in terms of the employee. I start to describe to them that they should think that the answer to that question is 100%. Now, what they'll say to me is, "Oh well, but I can tell you the guy. I know the guy that doesn't come to do his best every day." I explain to them is it's not about that guy, it's about your mindset. How do you see the people in your organization? Because if you see that only 50% of them are coming to do their best, well, then guess the decisions you make, how you resource, the policy decisions you make, the change process, and the changes you make. Because now you're making changes, based on the 50% of the population is trying to get one over on you. That drives all kinds of waste in itself. The first mindset shift has to be with the leadership that everyone comes to work every day, thinking that 100% of the people are coming to work to do their best and if they're not doing their best. What is it that's getting in their way? What can I do to remove those barriers? That's one of the first ways that we do an evaluation; it's a conversation.

       Lisa Ryan: It sounds like it could be a difficult conversation if you run into a leader that comes up right off the BAT and says only 20% of my people, and that's how they're seeing it that's such an interesting perspective. How do you have that conversation and get that leader to start thinking it's not my people it's me.

       Scott Gauvin: It's not my job to necessarily change their mind it's my job to create the environment that hopefully inspires them to reconsider their approach. What they've been doing isn't working, so they want to do something different. I'm proposing a new approach. If you change your mindset, you change your thinking; you change your approach because if you want to change the outcomes, you first have...]]>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 to eliminate ways to improve efficiencies; thus, they focus on the metrics instead of focusing on a holistic approach, which is a combination of the tools and the mindset in the culture around the respect for people aspect. The purpose is around the respect people piece. It's not about being nice. The purpose is to engage the stakeholders to create more value. That's why we're doing this continuous improvement thing.

       If we're focused on just reducing costs, that's got a shelf life that's not very long. This is why we often see a lot of clients who call us back to help them. It's because they've done lean, or they've had some lean initiatives they didn't stick to. The efforts aren't sustained, and so they're asking us to help them with another approach. What we're seeing, when we do an evaluation, is that there's a lack of understanding and implementation of the respect of people piece.

       Lisa Ryan: it's interesting because you think, with only two pillars, that would be 50% each. 50% of the time, we're focusing on continuous improvement, and then the other 50% is that respect for people. For the companies that are making that mistake, what would you say that their ratio is?

       Scott Gauvin: There are two kinds of organizations: there are organizations who have been doing this for a long time and have come around to understand what the respectful people piece is. They understand that it is a mindset shift. It is a cultural shift. It's the way we operate as opposed to. We do the continuous improvement side are the things that we do -the immediate needs. We focus on continuous improvement.

       For the average organization, it's like 98% continuous improvement tools and maybe a nod to the respectful people piece. There are very few organizations that I've been to that do a good job with the respect for people piece because it focuses on the mindset and the culture of the organization itself.

       Lisa Ryan: And what are some of the things that you advise your clients to start to do to get stronger in that respect for people aspect of lean.

       Scott Gauvin: It goes back to the mindset. One of the things that we do with our clients when we're heading down this path is when we look at why they are doing lean in the first place. What's the purpose of it? It's almost always to improve the operational efficiencies and reduce costs, in some ways. Then we migrate the conversation over to the people aspect because if they're people, they will be more capable of better buy-in. If the people were more engaged, the result would be the productivity improvement, the reduction of costs, the elimination of waste, and so, a lot of the conversation is around what are the right mindsets that the organization needs to adopt to have it be part of the way we do things as opposed to creating these events that almost forced the change to happen.

       One of the first things we do is an evaluation of what is the current mindset and what are the mindsets that we want to migrate to. Then we create a path to migrate from the current mindset to whatever that future mindset is that we want to have.

       Lisa Ryan: So does that start with an employee survey, or how do you figure out what the mindset is?

       Scott Gauvin: So the mindsets are usually dictated by leadership. Whatever the leaders think usually permeates through the rest of the organization. It's a conversation with the key leaders in the organization around what do. I'll give you an example: one of the questions that I ask when I sit down with the leadership team is, "On a scale of zero to 100, what percentage of the employees at this organization come to work to do their best every day.? The executives usually will come back somewhere between 25 to 80%. That gives me a sense of where their mindset is in terms of the employee. I start to describe to them that they should think that the answer to that question is 100%. Now, what they'll say to me is, "Oh well, but I can tell you the guy. I know the guy that doesn't come to do his best every day." I explain to them is it's not about that guy, it's about your mindset. How do you see the people in your organization? Because if you see that only 50% of them are coming to do their best, well, then guess the decisions you make, how you resource, the policy decisions you make, the change process, and the changes you make. Because now you're making changes, based on the 50% of the population is trying to get one over on you. That drives all kinds of waste in itself. The first mindset shift has to be with the leadership that everyone comes to work every day, thinking that 100% of the people are coming to work to do their best and if they're not doing their best. What is it that's getting in their way? What can I do to remove those barriers? That's one of the first ways that we do an evaluation; it's a conversation.

       Lisa Ryan: It sounds like it could be a difficult conversation if you run into a leader that comes up right off the BAT and says only 20% of my people, and that's how they're seeing it that's such an interesting perspective. How do you have that conversation and get that leader to start thinking it's not my people it's me.

       Scott Gauvin: It's not my job to necessarily change their mind it's my job to create the environment that hopefully inspires them to reconsider their approach. What they've been doing isn't working, so they want to do something different. I'm proposing a new approach. If you change your mindset, you change your thinking; you change your approach because if you want to change the outcomes, you first have to change your mindset; changing your mindset will then drive a new set of behaviors. Those new behaviors we can then form into new habits those new habits, then ultimately create the outputs are the results are the outcomes that we're looking for. It's a process if they have a better path to get to those outcomes, well then they'd probably be pursuing it, and so there are occasions when I've had an executive say now I'm sticking to my guns it's only 20%, and what I'd say is that I can't help you. If you're not willing to change your mindset, we're not going to change behaviors. If we don't change behaviors, we can change habits, and if we don't change the habits, you're going to get the same outcomes that you've always been getting.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, so when it comes to mindset changing, what is the very first thing that a leader listening to this podcast may do to get started.

       Scott Gauvin: Thinking about what is the intention behind the behaviors that they're engaged in. Why are they making that decision? Are they making that decision for something that is for themselves, or are they making that decision for something beneficial to those around them? That's the first challenge you can use to evaluate do you have the right mindset or not if the if it's so that I can get my numbers up that I can look good or so that I can achieve my goals if you're saying a lot of me and my or I the chances are you've got a tainted mindset. If you're saying to help my team to help my people to make it more effective to get more their voice into the conversation to utilize more of their skills and talents and knowledge and experience, well, then you're probably on the right path. There are degrees there that you can look at, but the first thing would be to look at yourself and evaluate the behaviors you're engaging in. Are you doing those things for your intrinsic reasons, or you're doing them to help others around you.

       Lisa Ryan: It reminds me of going through sales copy or speeches, or whatever and doing "I" surgery on it when you're removing all of those "I's" and looking at the needs of that customer that prospect to that audience member. It sounds like that is a good beginning step for people is to do some "I" surgery.

       Scott Gauvin: The other thing I always come back to in these change efforts, we always talk about getting buy-in. I think leaders can improve their odds of success by getting better buying, and buying is a combination of creating clarity and listening. If you want people to buy in, first they've got to understand what they're buying into and why leaders don't do a good job of creating that clarity. You're on a need to know basis, and right now, you don't need to know. That doesn't work for any change effort. The second is listening. People need to express their concerns, fears, and disillusionment of whatever the changes they need to be. They need to have a platform where they can disagree debate it out. Once they've had that moment that they can have that conversation, and their voice has been heard. When we've had that conversation and talked about why they don't like the idea, why do they don't want to change, there's a much greater chance that they will commit to that change, even if they disagree with it because they understand what the change is for and their voice has been heard. They've been at least able to express their concerns or their reservations about the change. That's another thing that leaders could do if you want to increase your change success and create better by creating clarity and listening.

       Lisa Ryan: Creating that safe environment for people to express what they like what they don't like. I tell people in my programs to become the master of the poker face. No matter what that employee tells you, no matter what that person in your organization tells you, your only responses, thank you for sharing - even though you want to say no, that's not right. But that safe environment is being okay with whatever employees say. That sounds like that has a big part of getting the buy-in that we need to move forward.

       Scott Gauvin: The other thing that we often see is that people shy away from it because they're afraid of the conflict that might arise out of that. Like you were saying, you have to have that poker face. I don't think it's a bad thing to say. I'm not sure I agree with you on that, and here's the reason why.

       Those conversations are the richest because if we shy away from the conflict that might create. It's okay for us to have differences of opinion. The differences of opinion create the platform for us to share. If there's one thing that I would tell people, don't shy away from the conflict. That's just a difference of opinion, and it sometimes involves some strong emotions. But what I would say is don't have a poker face manage your feelings around it so that you don't retort back or don't just be dismissive about it, but have the conversation. The conversations have the richness and opportunities you can debate because I know I'm not always right as a leader in my organization. I'm not going to admit that to my team always because we don't want to say that we're wrong but, but allowing yourself not always to be right as a leader is a powerful thing. People have different knowledge that they're bringing to the situation, so allowing that conflict to bubble up and have the conversation respectfully, of course, is valuable.

       Lisa Ryan: When, in the beginning, you said that respect wasn't about being nice and that clarification of the fact that when you're nice is when you're conflict avoidant. People aren't necessarily feeling safe because I don't want to hurt their feelings. But respect comes from the opportunity to share a difference of opinion and still like each other, or at least be polite to each other at the end of the day, right.

       Scott Gauvin: Right, and we have a workshop that we often run. It's a primer workshop for a lot of the change efforts that we do. We always run this workshop before we start any new lean effort. It's called conflict is the root of all waste, and the idea behind this this this workshop is that a lot of the waste that we see are the symptoms of unresolved conflicts. If we got good at engaging in productive conflict respectfully, not only are you creating that environment of respect for people, but you're almost encouraging it. We're saying we want to have the conflicts to flush out what is underneath all of these ways because the reason why a lot of these wastes keep coming back on people is because they're dealing with the surface waste and not the underlying current that's driving the waste in the first place.

       I often equate it to my lawn. The lawn comes up, and it looks beautiful, and then all sudden, I start seeing the weeds. What do I do? I mow the lawn, and the weeds are gone. My lawn looks beautiful, and then two weeks later, we get a little bit of rain, and two weeks later, the weeds are right back. What we often do with our lean activities is mow the lawn. We knocked down the problems, but they just keep coming back because we haven't addressed the fundamental root. That's the root of that waste, which is that unresolved conflict. If you're practicing respect for people, you're willing to go at the root, not just cut the surface waste.

       Lisa Ryan: Now that is a powerful explanation of getting to the root of that. We're getting to the end of our time together. Scott, what are some of the ways you serve your clients and the best way for people to get in touch with you.

       Scott Gauvin: Our practice revolves around three key pillars, one is helping organizations develop strategies to grow their businesses, and so that then leads into the operation components, where we help organizations with their lean efforts. And the third piece is around the culture organizational development piece. What we find is that they're all three are connected if you. If you've got a good strategy, then that strategy can inform where you're going to operate and support the way you operate. You need to have a good culture, and so we help organizations where those three meet.

       The best way to learn more about myself or my organization is to go to our website macresco.com. There's a ton of information about our models, our approach, and there's a way to contact us right there.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, wonderful, Scott. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and insight when it comes to lean and that respect for people it's been a blast catching up with you.

       Scott Gauvin: Thank you, so it's been a lot of fun.

       Lisa Ryan: i'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network podcast. See you next time.

       ]]>d726a7d1-b515-4389-b060-1c9fa26ac782Mon, 12 Apr 2021 07:00:00 -040022:12falsefull122221The Value in Creating an ESOP for your Manufacturing Employees with Ashleigh WaltersConnect 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 reacting? What did it feel like that there was the trust wasn't there?

       Ashleigh Walters: Yes, I think it was a very divided organization people came to work with their heads down to their work and left for the day. Now you can feel a difference when you walk in the door. You get smiles and friendly faces, and how can we help. It's just a different dynamic. You can tell people are working together, all playing on the same team.

       Lisa Ryan: You mentioned that you were helping employees when you were asking questions and then pitching in and giving them what they wanted. What were some of the things that they were asking as far as what's going on, what's working well, and what's not.

       Ashleigh Walters: yeah, sometimes it was just as easy as like a report; it took a ton of their time that I didn't need. Maybe the previous manager had wanted to see this report every Monday, but it wasn't important to me. Just flushing out some of this helped. I always asked what takes up the most of your time and annoys you. Then, whatever that was, we worked to try to fix it. We found three different people filing different AP stuff in different ways; it was just redundant tasks.

       We tried to flush out kind of the inefficiencies and waste in the system and, as we helped remove those obstacles and get rid of that annoying work for people, they were more apt to give us even more ideas on how we can improve.

       Lisa Ryan: I love that question of what annoys you because that can be a little bit of a difficult question because you don't know exactly how employees will answer that or what they're going to come up with. Was there some hesitation in using that word? What was it about the word annoying that made it?

       Ashleigh Walters: We've gone on to use that Paul Acres from his book and he says what bugs you might be a better way to phrase it. You're never allowed to talk about another person. It's always a process or a piece of your work that is causing the issue that you'd like to see improved. I also call it servant leadership in that you're there to serve. Those on the team look like going to their workspace and seeing them do the process and helping them understand like there is a better way to process - whether it's an officer on the production floor.

       Lisa Ryan: And I know that in your intro, it said that you're that Onex is an employee-owned ESOP, so was it like that, when you first came on board or how did you transition to an ESOP.

       Ashleigh Walters: So when I first joined Onex, my father-in-law, Eric walters, was the majority owner of the company. Drew and I purchased him out in 2018 and became the majority owners. Drew and I had begun thinking about Okay, what does a succession plan look like for us. And while I understand retirement succession planning for 40-year-olds seems like a very odd topic, we also knew that third-generation family-owned businesses only had a 13% success rate. So, while our two sons, we would love for them to come and work for the company, one day if they so choose, we didn't want to make that something they had to do. We tried to understand what succession planning for the future might look like for us.

       I sat in on a panel for succession planning, and I found out about an ESOP. When I came home and told Drew, I think this could be an excellent plan for us. He told me I was crazy that I hadn't understood what I heard about the planning event. We watched all the YouTube we could find on it, and he said, "actually, I think you're right. This is going to be a good option for us." We already had that family-centric culture. We repaired that culture, and an ESOP was a kind of a natural transition for us. It was just reimagining what a family-owned business looks like.

       Lisa Ryan: What is an ESOP? What does that mean that the employees own the company? What there a percentage is that is. Please share a little bit about what that looks like because Drew thought it was too good to be true. People who listen to this don't understand the full implications of what an ESOP is. Can you share a little bit about what you discovered?

       Ashleigh Walters: ESOP's became part of the law in 1976. there are not many of them in the US, I think; maybe around 5000 Companies are ESOP's. So it's not something that's widely known about. An ESOP is an employee stock ownership Program. That means Drew, and I sold all of our shares to the ESOP trust, so all of our shares went to the ESOP trust. They are released every year to the employees who Onex employs within that year, and they release based on payroll out of the total payroll for the year. The company is also valued every year, and so you, the employees get a statement at the end of each year that says, these are the shares that you own, and this is the value of those shares. The employees never pay a dime to be a part of an ESOP, but it becomes their retirement plan. So when they retire, the statistic is that they retire with 2.5 times more as an ESOP company than a traditionally matched 401k.

       Lisa Ryan: So what does that mean as far as succession planning, though? The employees own the company, but once you and Drew decide to retire, what happens in that next step?

       Ashleigh Walters: It's just like every other company. The next step is to make sure that we have leaders within the company that are coming up and learning how to lead and manage the company so that one day when we retire, those...]]>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 reacting? What did it feel like that there was the trust wasn't there?

       Ashleigh Walters: Yes, I think it was a very divided organization people came to work with their heads down to their work and left for the day. Now you can feel a difference when you walk in the door. You get smiles and friendly faces, and how can we help. It's just a different dynamic. You can tell people are working together, all playing on the same team.

       Lisa Ryan: You mentioned that you were helping employees when you were asking questions and then pitching in and giving them what they wanted. What were some of the things that they were asking as far as what's going on, what's working well, and what's not.

       Ashleigh Walters: yeah, sometimes it was just as easy as like a report; it took a ton of their time that I didn't need. Maybe the previous manager had wanted to see this report every Monday, but it wasn't important to me. Just flushing out some of this helped. I always asked what takes up the most of your time and annoys you. Then, whatever that was, we worked to try to fix it. We found three different people filing different AP stuff in different ways; it was just redundant tasks.

       We tried to flush out kind of the inefficiencies and waste in the system and, as we helped remove those obstacles and get rid of that annoying work for people, they were more apt to give us even more ideas on how we can improve.

       Lisa Ryan: I love that question of what annoys you because that can be a little bit of a difficult question because you don't know exactly how employees will answer that or what they're going to come up with. Was there some hesitation in using that word? What was it about the word annoying that made it?

       Ashleigh Walters: We've gone on to use that Paul Acres from his book and he says what bugs you might be a better way to phrase it. You're never allowed to talk about another person. It's always a process or a piece of your work that is causing the issue that you'd like to see improved. I also call it servant leadership in that you're there to serve. Those on the team look like going to their workspace and seeing them do the process and helping them understand like there is a better way to process - whether it's an officer on the production floor.

       Lisa Ryan: And I know that in your intro, it said that you're that Onex is an employee-owned ESOP, so was it like that, when you first came on board or how did you transition to an ESOP.

       Ashleigh Walters: So when I first joined Onex, my father-in-law, Eric walters, was the majority owner of the company. Drew and I purchased him out in 2018 and became the majority owners. Drew and I had begun thinking about Okay, what does a succession plan look like for us. And while I understand retirement succession planning for 40-year-olds seems like a very odd topic, we also knew that third-generation family-owned businesses only had a 13% success rate. So, while our two sons, we would love for them to come and work for the company, one day if they so choose, we didn't want to make that something they had to do. We tried to understand what succession planning for the future might look like for us.

       I sat in on a panel for succession planning, and I found out about an ESOP. When I came home and told Drew, I think this could be an excellent plan for us. He told me I was crazy that I hadn't understood what I heard about the planning event. We watched all the YouTube we could find on it, and he said, "actually, I think you're right. This is going to be a good option for us." We already had that family-centric culture. We repaired that culture, and an ESOP was a kind of a natural transition for us. It was just reimagining what a family-owned business looks like.

       Lisa Ryan: What is an ESOP? What does that mean that the employees own the company? What there a percentage is that is. Please share a little bit about what that looks like because Drew thought it was too good to be true. People who listen to this don't understand the full implications of what an ESOP is. Can you share a little bit about what you discovered?

       Ashleigh Walters: ESOP's became part of the law in 1976. there are not many of them in the US, I think; maybe around 5000 Companies are ESOP's. So it's not something that's widely known about. An ESOP is an employee stock ownership Program. That means Drew, and I sold all of our shares to the ESOP trust, so all of our shares went to the ESOP trust. They are released every year to the employees who Onex employs within that year, and they release based on payroll out of the total payroll for the year. The company is also valued every year, and so you, the employees get a statement at the end of each year that says, these are the shares that you own, and this is the value of those shares. The employees never pay a dime to be a part of an ESOP, but it becomes their retirement plan. So when they retire, the statistic is that they retire with 2.5 times more as an ESOP company than a traditionally matched 401k.

       Lisa Ryan: So what does that mean as far as succession planning, though? The employees own the company, but once you and Drew decide to retire, what happens in that next step?

       Ashleigh Walters: It's just like every other company. The next step is to make sure that we have leaders within the company that are coming up and learning how to lead and manage the company so that one day when we retire, those leaders are still here. The thing that Drew and I felt the best about is that previously, before we sold the shares, if Drew and I had been killed in a plane crash or a car wreck or something, then there wasn't a succession for the company itself there was no we don't know who would have bought the company if we weren't here. If something happens to us, the employees go right along; the company goes right along with no change.

       Lisa Ryan: Okay, that makes sense, so what are some of the things that are keeping you up at night.

       Ashleigh Walters: So I think as a leader, what keeps me up at night is always trying to assess a situation and understand what my options are for addressing it and thinking through the different options, all the different scenarios. It weighs very heavy on me that I have 50 families banking on me to make the right decisions. While I don't always make the right decisions, I try to fail fast, learn from them and quickly recover.

       Lisa Ryan: And from a networking standpoint, if you were to reach out and learn from your manufacturing colleagues or people that are listening to this podcast, what are some of the things that you might like to learn from other manufacturers.

       Ashleigh Walters: Since COVID 19 hit, I haven't been able to be in person and network with these other manufacturers or other business leaders in person. I do miss that. I always want to hear what they're doing, and their organization is going well. What I'm interested in is to hear about is not just the standard business stuff, but what are they doing that's different and unique, that's helping move their business forward.

       Lisa Ryan: And, by the same token, what expertise or insight would you be willing to share with your colleagues.

       Ashleigh Walters: So I certainly have led through to crisis now, so anybody coming out of this COVID 19 pandemic and it's just feeling a little tired and a little lost and doesn't know which way to go. I'd be more than happy to share my story and see if there's a nugget in there that would help them.

       Lisa Ryan: If you were to wrap this up and then nice bow and give your best idea or suggestion for something that's worked over there and Onex to the people listening, what would that be?

       Ashleigh Walters: So I think that the freedom to fail has been an ample opportunity and a competitive advantage for us here at Onex. I mean, you're free to make decisions within the bounds of our vision or mission and our core values. I'm not letting you light up a furnace and make it destructive. I'm only saying like think outside the box. Don't take the status quo; try something new. If it doesn't work, that's okay try again. You truly learn more from your failures than your successes but never make the same mistake twice.

       Lisa Ryan: that's terrific advice, and it also helps you create a safe environment for people. They would rather know that if something didn't work than they told you. You learned from their mistake and moved on versus knowing that they would get in trouble, and then you don't know where it's going to.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, Ashley, it has been an absolute pleasure having you on the show Thank you so much for sharing your insight with us.

       Ashleigh Walters: Thank you so much, Lisa.

       Lisa Ryan: I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' etwork. See you next time.

       ]]>86938d56-b169-43de-8e81-cad0fa8b5d98Mon, 05 Apr 2021 07:00:00 -040015:44falsefull121211The Price is Right: How to Get the Most from Your Pricing Strategy With Per SjoforsConnect 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 from your competitor anyway, as far as in terms of product, in terms of service, and in favor of something else that you're doing. And if you're going to price yourself the same, then what differentiating factor do you have?  

        Per Sjofors: Well, you used a very keyword here, differentiators. When I did these experiments, the key was to figure out from the process I developed how you can differentiate yourself in meaningful ways to your customers so that you can command higher prices so that you gain a little bit of pricing power.

       Let me give you an example. We're currently working with a company that provides steel plates that you run over when there's a trench in the street. Can you think about something that is more commoditized than a piece of metal?

       Lisa Ryan: And it doesn't have to look pretty. You're driving over it for.

       Per Sjofors: Exactly. This company naming no names here, has managed to become the high price leader in their market. They charge between 20 to 25 percent higher fees than the competition. They also charge delivery fees - the competition doesn't do that. Now, how do they do that?  

       Well, by adding services to a commodity product. They have managed to position themselves to be the thought leader by providing educational services on safety. They have consultants that advise on what kind of steel plates you should use. They have managed to differentiate themselves in a way that is meaningful to their clients.

       Lisa Ryan: That's probably what happens when you're selling that to a purchasing agent. They're thinking that they're just calling and buying pieces of metal to put on a road. But when this manufacturer comes and says, and we can do this, and we can share this, these safety tips and everything, it's just really looking at your business differently.

       Per Sjofors: Exactly. Yeah. This is a trend that's been going on for a while. We know that more and more commodity manufacturers are becoming service organizations that also sell the commodity. By doing so, you almost always increase that pricing power.  

        Lisa Ryan: You mentioned in our conversation a couple of weeks ago that maybe you have a little less flexibility in the price if you have a commodity product. You talked about bundling, making it difficult for people to compare those apples and oranges of the bundles. But then you're looking if you're doing a strictly a cost-plus, then you have some of these higher-margin things that maybe you're letting leaving money on the table. So tell us about both ends of those of that spectrum.

       Per Sjofors: It's fascinating because companies that use cost-plus typically have the same uplift or margin for every product. But every company has specific products that are a complete commodity and certain products that have a level of uniqueness. One of the recommendations that we discuss is how to segment the product on a scale from unique to commodity. You want to categorize these anywhere you want to call them A, B, and C, meaning A are unique products. C is complete commodities, and B products are somewhere in between.

       That leads to a different pricing strategy for all of these with the unique products; all discounting should stop, prices should increase. For C products, it's all about strict cost control. True commodity products are being sold on price. And for those B products, those are sort of in-between; you should find out if you can add something to make a product a B product, so you gain that pricing power.

       Lisa Ryan: There are three mistakes that manufacturers make in their pricing. What else are they doing wrong?  

        Per Sjofors: Cost-plus is a mistake because the cost has little to do with the benefit that your competitor does. It's the benefit and the value that the customer sees. The sort of costs among various manufacturers are similar, so you end up having a near-identical product with near-identical prices. But that is also an opportunity because that means that the savvy manufacturer can differentiate themselves and, once they do, see a doubling of sales growth and three to five times higher valuation, which is enormous.  

       We touched upon this already; the third major mistake is to guess. I remember speaking to a CEO a couple of years ago. He had this product, and he said, we priced this one hundred sixty dollars. I don't know; he said maybe he should have been ninety-nine. Perhaps it should have been three-fifty. I don't know, but one hundred and sixty just felt right.  

        Lisa Ryan: It's so funny. We talk about this, and immediately my mind goes to Shark Tank. You have people coming out of Shark Tank, and they want a ten million dollar valuation. And the product hasn't even come to market yet. But then they say the sentence that the sharks hate, "but this is a three billion-dollar business." Oh, yeah. Well, I think, and if we just got .02 of the market, we can make tons of money. That drives the sharks wild. 

       Per Sjofors: Another there's another term for that, which is the Chinese sneaker syndrome. You know, I'm going to sell sneakers to only half a percent of the Chinese population, and I'll have a million-dollar company. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's also interesting that you mention Shark Tank because they talk about pricing there sometimes, but the sharks make the same...]]>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 from your competitor anyway, as far as in terms of product, in terms of service, and in favor of something else that you're doing. And if you're going to price yourself the same, then what differentiating factor do you have?  

        Per Sjofors: Well, you used a very keyword here, differentiators. When I did these experiments, the key was to figure out from the process I developed how you can differentiate yourself in meaningful ways to your customers so that you can command higher prices so that you gain a little bit of pricing power.

       Let me give you an example. We're currently working with a company that provides steel plates that you run over when there's a trench in the street. Can you think about something that is more commoditized than a piece of metal?

       Lisa Ryan: And it doesn't have to look pretty. You're driving over it for.

       Per Sjofors: Exactly. This company naming no names here, has managed to become the high price leader in their market. They charge between 20 to 25 percent higher fees than the competition. They also charge delivery fees - the competition doesn't do that. Now, how do they do that?  

       Well, by adding services to a commodity product. They have managed to position themselves to be the thought leader by providing educational services on safety. They have consultants that advise on what kind of steel plates you should use. They have managed to differentiate themselves in a way that is meaningful to their clients.

       Lisa Ryan: That's probably what happens when you're selling that to a purchasing agent. They're thinking that they're just calling and buying pieces of metal to put on a road. But when this manufacturer comes and says, and we can do this, and we can share this, these safety tips and everything, it's just really looking at your business differently.

       Per Sjofors: Exactly. Yeah. This is a trend that's been going on for a while. We know that more and more commodity manufacturers are becoming service organizations that also sell the commodity. By doing so, you almost always increase that pricing power.  

        Lisa Ryan: You mentioned in our conversation a couple of weeks ago that maybe you have a little less flexibility in the price if you have a commodity product. You talked about bundling, making it difficult for people to compare those apples and oranges of the bundles. But then you're looking if you're doing a strictly a cost-plus, then you have some of these higher-margin things that maybe you're letting leaving money on the table. So tell us about both ends of those of that spectrum.

       Per Sjofors: It's fascinating because companies that use cost-plus typically have the same uplift or margin for every product. But every company has specific products that are a complete commodity and certain products that have a level of uniqueness. One of the recommendations that we discuss is how to segment the product on a scale from unique to commodity. You want to categorize these anywhere you want to call them A, B, and C, meaning A are unique products. C is complete commodities, and B products are somewhere in between.

       That leads to a different pricing strategy for all of these with the unique products; all discounting should stop, prices should increase. For C products, it's all about strict cost control. True commodity products are being sold on price. And for those B products, those are sort of in-between; you should find out if you can add something to make a product a B product, so you gain that pricing power.

       Lisa Ryan: There are three mistakes that manufacturers make in their pricing. What else are they doing wrong?  

        Per Sjofors: Cost-plus is a mistake because the cost has little to do with the benefit that your competitor does. It's the benefit and the value that the customer sees. The sort of costs among various manufacturers are similar, so you end up having a near-identical product with near-identical prices. But that is also an opportunity because that means that the savvy manufacturer can differentiate themselves and, once they do, see a doubling of sales growth and three to five times higher valuation, which is enormous.  

       We touched upon this already; the third major mistake is to guess. I remember speaking to a CEO a couple of years ago. He had this product, and he said, we priced this one hundred sixty dollars. I don't know; he said maybe he should have been ninety-nine. Perhaps it should have been three-fifty. I don't know, but one hundred and sixty just felt right.  

        Lisa Ryan: It's so funny. We talk about this, and immediately my mind goes to Shark Tank. You have people coming out of Shark Tank, and they want a ten million dollar valuation. And the product hasn't even come to market yet. But then they say the sentence that the sharks hate, "but this is a three billion-dollar business." Oh, yeah. Well, I think, and if we just got .02 of the market, we can make tons of money. That drives the sharks wild. 

       Per Sjofors: Another there's another term for that, which is the Chinese sneaker syndrome. You know, I'm going to sell sneakers to only half a percent of the Chinese population, and I'll have a million-dollar company. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's also interesting that you mention Shark Tank because they talk about pricing there sometimes, but the sharks make the same mistakes. They're saying your price is like your competitor or price a little lower. Or, your product is not as good as a competitor, so price a little lower. And how much is a little lower? Well, it's gotta be lower, or your product is a little bit better; it's gut-feels higher. That's not the way to do it. That's guessing. Right.  

        And it's so funny because companies generally go from, you know, everything should be driven by data, and then you guessed the price.   

        Lisa Ryan: Well, it's kind of like asking your friends or asking people, hey, I'm about to develop this product. Is it something of interest to you? Oh, yeah. That sounds like a great idea. That's the best idea I've ever heard. But a follow-up, would you buy it and what would you pay for it and try to get that real sense of. Yeah, that's a great idea, because again, we go back to Shark Tank. How many of those people are all my friends told me this was a great idea.  

        Per Sjofors: Whenever you do some as a startup, you never want to talk to your friends about this. They will never tell you the truth. You come up with a dud of a product or a product idea, and they will say, oh, yes, this is great. There are statistics that roughly 40 percent of all startup fails because they say there's no product to market fit. Why? Because they haven't done the research. They haven't understood what potential customers truly are willing to pay for that product. So they're guessing their price, which means that they're either too high and won't sell anything or are too low, and they're not making enough money.  

       And so they fail. It's about that ability to understand sales volume at different prices. And that will always lead to the right price. And sometimes, if you do this as a startup, you may end up saying, I will never make money on this product, so get it right now.

       Lisa Ryan: And when it comes to pricing, again, a lot of people are thinking, well, it's got to be the low price. If I can just come out with the lowest price, I can make it up in volume. So, what's the error of that thinking?

       Per Sjofors: This is a very well-known example, but look at Apple versus Samsung. Samsung has telephones or smartphones that are technically superior to Apple in virtually all aspects, yet a Samsung phone is three hundred bucks, and an Apple phone is twelve hundred. How do they get there? Well, they got there by superior marketing, by having differentiators that make sense to the client. And yes, Apple has a small market share, but they have superior valuation. And they generate 70, 80 percent of the whole cell phone industry's profits.  

        Lisa Ryan: If somebody's listening to this podcast today, decides that they need to start looking at their pricing, what's a good place for them to start?

       Per Sjofors: Well, obviously, I want to put myself forward. There are very few people that work with pricing in the way that we do. It's a unique way, and it's a practical way because it came from that very practical need I had in the companies I've been running. So obviously, my website is sjofors.com, and my email is at per@sjofors.com.

        Lisa Ryan: And so what does that process look like? Where do you start with your clients?  

        Per Sjofors: We work specifically with manufacturers. We start with an impact analysis, which is relatively short. We have our own A.I. software. It's a fairly short term and not a very expensive analysis of a company's transactional sales data. From that, we can assess how much more would they make if they price right. A typical 20 small 25, 50, 100 million dollar manufacturer, the results of that, is almost always several million dollars in in in in in revenue that is pure profit.  

        Lisa Ryan: Wow, so that's a big difference. So if you could wrap it up in a nice bow and share your best idea or biggest aha, somebody's watching this today can use it right away.  

        Per Sjofors: Pricing is much more important than most companies believe it is. And pricing is also something that you can work with proactively. Pricing is part of the four quadrants of marketing for a reason because those four pieces are connected. And when you start working with pricing proactively, the company will earn superior profits, crush the competition, and lead to unexpected shareholder values. 

       Lisa Ryan: It has been an absolute pleasure having you on the show today. Thanks for hanging out with me here.  

        Per Sjofors: Thank you very much, Lisa. And thank you for having me.

       Lisa Ryan: You're welcome. I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers Network podcast. See you next time.

       ]]>362e973f-8f3d-4f86-849a-36b490d18563Mon, 29 Mar 2021 07:00:00 -040019:09falsefull120201The Importance of Taking Care of Your Customers' Customers with Lisa AndersonConnect 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 coast. Now we didn't just establish a backup supply that we went to them if something went wrong. Instead, we had 20% of our volume going through the backup source supply all along, so that they were working with us, they knew they could count on us for some volume. They knew they were the backup supply, but they were a vital backup supply. 

       This did not make our private equity investors happy because they preferred that we didn't have to spend as much money on this critical raw material. Luckily, we won that battle and kept utilizing them because we had issues with the ports somewhere along the line. I think it was the transportation challenges. There's plenty of obstacles, and our backup sources supply ramped up quickly. One of the clients that we're doing that sort of thing already is better off than saying no. No time like now to start and rethink what you're doing in your supply chain, and that's just one example. 

       The other thing is folks had supply let's say you had two places within Asia well, that's not helpful, even if they had China and India let's say they both experienced issues around the same time, and it still created challenges. So, it's thinking about the same thing that could be true in the United States, when I was in that role again everything under the sun happened, of course, when I was in that role, so there was a hurricane the things happen. In North Carolina, our plant was lucky, as a P&G plant, so they planned it strategically on a hill, which was helpful because the rest of the town was underwater. That said, we weren't, but no, we couldn't do anything for several weeks in our suppliers were affected. Hence, we had to have backup sources of supply and sources of production. You know, the ability to be agile so that the issues could happen, no matter where you are. However, the closer you are to your customer, the more likely, you can respond quickly, so I'll turn it over to you because there's plenty more I could talk about. Still, I'm sure you have other questions.

       Lisa Ryan: You said companies that are already innovative are the ones that are faring better. What do some of those innovations look like? If somebody hasn't necessarily been that innovative to this point, what would be a good area for them to start?

       Lisa Anderson: Well, you know that's true, so it could be something simple like getting a better handle on customers' changing customer requirements and changing customer patterns. That could be as simple as talking to your customers and collaborating with customers to impact our customers' customers. 

       How do we positively impact their product and service? It could just be collaborating with your customer on innovating in terms of the service you're providing. So it could be that you customize a product on the fly. At the end of the process, your customer can tweak the product or tweak it to the service. Some of it's just about having the service to figure out what your customers' customers need. 

       Let's say your end customer is a customer at Walmart, which is the same situation as if your customer was Boeing, which is surprisingly enough at the end in Walmart. You have a customer buying product so that you can get that point of sale type data, and at Boeing, they're using the product to build a plane either way. 

       If you can figure out what needs to go to all the Boeing branches, there are fewer than Walmart's, but several still exist. So if you can figure out what needs to go to each Boeing for each growing facility, Boeing doesn't have to do it and have what they need when they need it. They don't have too much; that's a service that you're providing to Boeing. The same thing is true for Walmart, which is more expected. Still, Walmart's the same thing. If we provide products to every Walmart in the country and the distribution centers, it depends on what you're doing and what you're supplying them, which saves them a lot of hassle. They can focus on more activities that help them promote the products in the store. Let's say that's some of the innovative products and services you could provide without even having to redesign products or do anything significant. When it relates to the product, there are many configured orders like options on products, where you can say you know I'd like it in this package size of that package size or this color. Suppose you can put those closer to the customers' point where you serve the customer. 

       In that case, your customer can change their mind. They don't necessarily know what their customers will do to have a more agile, flexible service to better serve their customers. 

       Hence, it's all about how do you find ways to serve your customers better in a more profitable way? When you look at how we do it more profitably, we go back into our manufacturing side and say, what can I produce these items to a certain point in the process and then mass customize or customize the fly. 

       Lisa Ryan: Well, one of the things that it's such an interesting way of looking at things that people are only considering their customers and the fact of just taking it that one step further, to think about your customers' customer. It gives you that much better of an opportunity to understand how you can better serve that customer so that they can serve their customer. It just opens up not only a whole new conversation and way of looking at things, but it sets your business apart because nobody else is asking them that question. 

       You can do something right off the bat, sit down and look at your top three customers, top five customers, etc. and think about what's my...]]>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 coast. Now we didn't just establish a backup supply that we went to them if something went wrong. Instead, we had 20% of our volume going through the backup source supply all along, so that they were working with us, they knew they could count on us for some volume. They knew they were the backup supply, but they were a vital backup supply. 

       This did not make our private equity investors happy because they preferred that we didn't have to spend as much money on this critical raw material. Luckily, we won that battle and kept utilizing them because we had issues with the ports somewhere along the line. I think it was the transportation challenges. There's plenty of obstacles, and our backup sources supply ramped up quickly. One of the clients that we're doing that sort of thing already is better off than saying no. No time like now to start and rethink what you're doing in your supply chain, and that's just one example. 

       The other thing is folks had supply let's say you had two places within Asia well, that's not helpful, even if they had China and India let's say they both experienced issues around the same time, and it still created challenges. So, it's thinking about the same thing that could be true in the United States, when I was in that role again everything under the sun happened, of course, when I was in that role, so there was a hurricane the things happen. In North Carolina, our plant was lucky, as a P&G plant, so they planned it strategically on a hill, which was helpful because the rest of the town was underwater. That said, we weren't, but no, we couldn't do anything for several weeks in our suppliers were affected. Hence, we had to have backup sources of supply and sources of production. You know, the ability to be agile so that the issues could happen, no matter where you are. However, the closer you are to your customer, the more likely, you can respond quickly, so I'll turn it over to you because there's plenty more I could talk about. Still, I'm sure you have other questions.

       Lisa Ryan: You said companies that are already innovative are the ones that are faring better. What do some of those innovations look like? If somebody hasn't necessarily been that innovative to this point, what would be a good area for them to start?

       Lisa Anderson: Well, you know that's true, so it could be something simple like getting a better handle on customers' changing customer requirements and changing customer patterns. That could be as simple as talking to your customers and collaborating with customers to impact our customers' customers. 

       How do we positively impact their product and service? It could just be collaborating with your customer on innovating in terms of the service you're providing. So it could be that you customize a product on the fly. At the end of the process, your customer can tweak the product or tweak it to the service. Some of it's just about having the service to figure out what your customers' customers need. 

       Let's say your end customer is a customer at Walmart, which is the same situation as if your customer was Boeing, which is surprisingly enough at the end in Walmart. You have a customer buying product so that you can get that point of sale type data, and at Boeing, they're using the product to build a plane either way. 

       If you can figure out what needs to go to all the Boeing branches, there are fewer than Walmart's, but several still exist. So if you can figure out what needs to go to each Boeing for each growing facility, Boeing doesn't have to do it and have what they need when they need it. They don't have too much; that's a service that you're providing to Boeing. The same thing is true for Walmart, which is more expected. Still, Walmart's the same thing. If we provide products to every Walmart in the country and the distribution centers, it depends on what you're doing and what you're supplying them, which saves them a lot of hassle. They can focus on more activities that help them promote the products in the store. Let's say that's some of the innovative products and services you could provide without even having to redesign products or do anything significant. When it relates to the product, there are many configured orders like options on products, where you can say you know I'd like it in this package size of that package size or this color. Suppose you can put those closer to the customers' point where you serve the customer. 

       In that case, your customer can change their mind. They don't necessarily know what their customers will do to have a more agile, flexible service to better serve their customers. 

       Hence, it's all about how do you find ways to serve your customers better in a more profitable way? When you look at how we do it more profitably, we go back into our manufacturing side and say, what can I produce these items to a certain point in the process and then mass customize or customize the fly. 

       Lisa Ryan: Well, one of the things that it's such an interesting way of looking at things that people are only considering their customers and the fact of just taking it that one step further, to think about your customers' customer. It gives you that much better of an opportunity to understand how you can better serve that customer so that they can serve their customer. It just opens up not only a whole new conversation and way of looking at things, but it sets your business apart because nobody else is asking them that question. 

       You can do something right off the bat, sit down and look at your top three customers, top five customers, etc. and think about what's my customers' customer. Then have that conversation.

       Lisa Anderson: It's shown through the coronavirus because the customers' customers reacted differently from the past. Historical patterns were blown up. Everything changed. If the customers' customer supported hospitality, they probably aren't doing well. If they supported the PPE type of business, they increased dramatically. That was true for many other less obvious industries, how you service those customers, and what kind of value you could provide. You can differentiate yourself far easier and quicker in a way than even redesigning products. Not that you shouldn't be looking at that also.

       Think about it consumers have changed the way they consume it during this pandemic. Not everything that we did pre-pandemic is what we want to do post endemic. We may not even know, but we will evolve, and so our businesses, our understanding of what new products they would need in new services. We were talking about services before this. So, what new products they'll need and or what tweaks to products they'll need in the future. Given what's happening in the pandemic, we don't want to wait till it's done to figure that out. 

       Somebody had to be first. Apple came out with the iPod, but the iPod was just a better walkman. No one knew they needed an iPod. So I know it's fascinating about it, it wasn't entirely new. You have to think about how can I make my customers' lives better. What would they want?  

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and one of the things that came out of the whole pandemic was it's speeded up the technology. If it had not been for the pandemic, we're probably light years ahead now just because we have been forced to adopt technology that may have taken months or years to be able to implement. So what is some of the technology that companies should be looking for looking at today?

       Lisa Anderson: Well, that's true. I've been involved in this region of the country, which in southern California, was known in terms of advanced manufacturing and significant and distribution. Because of the Asian supply chain, and so they had been concerned for several years, we needed to re-skill and look at how we deal with the changing conditions. Because of technological advances, we're going to automate warehouses, as well as manufacturing facilities. How would we keep up with changing conditions since the pandemic that has been accelerated? What was five years ago was is happening now. So that's like to your point, first of all, that's true. So what are some of the necessary technologies? You want to have a modern system, which is the system, that you use to take orders, ship receive, produce, invoice, etc. 

       These days, if you have a highly customized system, if you have a system that cannot scale with your growth, you are behind your competitors' rest. Because of the modern systems today, we have many capabilities built into them that you can utilize to scale your business successfully. They also integrate better with some of the technologies that I'm going to talk about, so I started with the system. You can't build a house with just windows; you have to have a foundation and some walls. So it would help to have a foundation in your technology to start with, so with that said, artificial intelligence is gaining momentum. 

       How does that apply well for one in the demand forecasting, which we just talked about changing customer conditions? The ability to apply artificial intelligence to find patterns where there are none is helpful. So that's one of the areas where artificial intelligence is coming into play similarly in like cash flow planning, which is critical especially depending on your size company or status. Certainly, if you're looking at going into an area of growth, having cash to support that growth is essential. It certainly comes up on the manufacturing floor, so when you look at it instead of doing preventative maintenance, how do I predict which maintenance which equipment or machinery do I need need to be looking at now, instead of just going to what the preventive maintenance schedule let's pinpoint where it's going to break down and fix it - resolve that before it even breaks down. So that's one of the areas that a lot of the manufacturers, especially the bigger ones, have been doing all along, but that's, so that's like artificial intelligence. Still, there's plenty of folks looking at robots. Robots are good. Robots are bad. Well, robots are both. 

       I'm working with a food manufacturer that has invested a lot in technology. Technology has its good points and bad ones. You can go faster and be more efficient; you don't have to worry about people standing next to each other with covid and all sorts of advantages, on the other hand. But you have high-speed lines going by with like food bars, in this case. One thing goes wrong, and the rest is kind of that Lucy show everything could start flying off the line. You get all sorts of issues and waste and all kinds of problems. 

       So you have to bring the right skills in. You have to do it smartly, so it's not always going faster is not always better if you don't keep your quality, etc. However, many robots, a lot going on their Internet of Things, certainly connecting machinery to other systems and related parts, are gaining momentum. You know the augmented reality. One of the things with the virtual world we live in today is that the experts may not be readily available to fly out and help you with your machinery or equipment or just everyday tasks that you have to do.

       It would help if you had an expert. So, we can do a lot with webinars and zoom and those kinds of things when it comes to more analysis, the planning, the project side of things in the end, and even the earpiece side of things. When it comes to the machinery and equipment, it's helpful to show somebody what's going on, so you can start simply by showing a video of what's going on in the manufacturing facility and walking through.

       I've done that with some clients just to layout their processes. Still, you can go a step further. There are 3D glasses and ways you can collaborate with folks to help somebody who's solving a problem on the line. Some technologies support that type of activity; there are autonomous vehicles and all sorts of opportunities. 

       I think technology is also making labor costs less relevant I mean, that's been happening anyway because if you're comparing it to China. Let's say the rates have been going up in China. There are so many extra costs added into the end to end supply chain when you think about inventory and IP and the risks and all these other things. In addition to that, technology has allowed us to produce faster, more efficiently, automate tasks. 

       One of my clients uses a robot to produce throughout the night, so they need the skills to set the product up, but then, if they can keep it on a certain product that they required extra volume of they can produce that through the night, and then in the morning, they can look at it. That helps them keep up with customer demand, so there's a lot to be said for that requires very little labor. 

       Hence, it's enabling folks to relook at their manufacturing and supply chain operations and reevaluate where should I source products, how should I set this up where should I be located those types of things.

       Lisa Ryan: When the other thing is that I've noticed in just in the last year, how much easier technology is. It's much more intuitive than it's ever been before. It's much less scary than it's been before, where in the past, that might have been this whole overwhelming project product or project to bring all of this technology into the plant. Now you get it, and it simplifies your life, probably to a greater extent than the pain of implementation, as you would have had just a few years ago.

       Lisa Anderson: I think that's very true. That reminds me of another aspect of the system that's gaining popularity is E-commerce and B2B. Collaborating with customers with a portal for those kinds of things has gotten far easier and far more implementable. The philosophy has changed largely, and so that's partly why some of the modern ERP systems and the appropriate partner are quite important. But if you can implement these technologies and more of a like strategic sprint or in an agile fashion, you don't have to worry about learning something completely new. Agile is a somewhat uncommon common sense, which means let's try the most critical piece and start to implement there. We start directionally, and then we iterate and change as we go, but it means that you don't have to have everything perfect and spend months and months before you see any results and then like something's gone wrong, and you have to start all over again, which is not.

       Lisa Ryan: So if you were to give your best piece of advice to people listening today, what would that be?

       Lisa Anderson: Well, so I would say, the one thing that they can do is look at changing customer conditions changing customer requirements and how you can add value to that to your customers and your customers' customers. It will take your business to a whole new level. More companies will succeed, and not only succeed but pull away from the competition during times of turbulence. If you want to pull away from the competition by innovating, pulling all the resources to innovate, collaborate, and look at your data. None of that will be possible if you don't start with your team. Ensure that you have the right people on your team and that you're empowering and engaging them. This sounds easy, and it is not easy to accomplish. You really need to be doing that and creating a culture of innovation, and...]]>3dfaf441-8e43-4ccc-9afd-0b33e7bab9e5Mon, 22 Mar 2021 07:00:00 -040029:07falsefull119191Take Care of Your People and the Numbers Will Take Care of Themselves with John HrdlickConnect 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 reasons. Number one, our business is growing, so we're adding employees, but also because of the baby boomer effect, we're seeing a lot more retirements now. It's not uncommon to see people at INX with 50 years or more of experience, in their 40s, like me, 30s 25.

       Every month, I fill out anniversary cards for each employee. In North America, South America, and Europe and it's one of their milestone years, whether it's 5, 10, 15, and so on. I send them a handwritten card, and that resonates with employees. It fits our culture of having open-door policies. Anybody can call me up or send me an email. Sometimes that creates a lot of extra work. Still, anyone who works at INX knows they can connect to senior management at any given time. That is very important and the opportunities they see to move up in the company. So it's an excellent all-round company.

       Lisa Ryan: How many employees, approximately, do you have?

       John Hrdlick: Overall, in our part of the company, we have roughly 1300 employees.

       Lisa Ryan: So 1300 employees and regularly, you are sending out handwritten cards acknowledging those employees. Did I hear you correctly?

       John Hrdlick: Yes, but that's for milestone anniversaries only. Suppose I had to do that every year for every employee.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. You'd never be enough time.

       John Hrdlick: On average, it's probably 12 to 15 cards a month to fill out.

       Lisa Ryan: Okay, that's such an important point because that 12 to 15 cards, which most people don't even write one or two and a month, but it makes such a colossal difference takes minimal time. So what would you say you invest an hour, a couple of hours?

       John Hrdlick: I would say two hours. I try not to write the same thing. And every card - and many of the employees I know. So I can add something that I know about them. So roughly two hours; I break it up, so I don't do every card in one sitting before my writing gets terrible or unreadable. So I try to take my time and break it up throughout the month.

       Lisa Ryan: I've been on the receiving end of a note for a handwritten note from a CEO or CEO. When I was in the welding industry, Bud Kailash was at the top of the organization as Chairman CEO. When I had a good month, Bud would write on my Commission statement, "Congratulations. Lisa. Good month." It means the world when somebody takes the time out to do that. So I want to commend you for doing that. To the people who are listening, these little personalizations can make such a huge difference to your employees. 

       Speaking of that culture, which obviously, you must have a pretty terrific culture because of the tenure you have there besides the handwritten notes. What are some of the other things that are going well?

       John Hrdlick: There's a lot of things we're doing well. But if I look at the top of the list, I have to say I can't talk about this without mentioning our response to covid. We're very proud of our employees. The last year, every directive we sent out, every update letter we've sent, everything we've asked our employees to do, they've responded. We're in an essential company, so we never stopped manufacturing. Our corporate office moved to their homes to work within three days of covert starting, which's roughly 80 people. To repeat the cooperation and attitude from our employees to keep everything running during this time is very commendable we 86% of our products find their way onto food packaging. That food packaging and beverage packaging ends up in the grocery stores, and that's what made us essential. We were part of the supply chain that get food and beverages in the stores for people who couldn't go out to restaurants and things like that anymore. We reminded our employees of their part in that process, and we made sure we were communicating every month with them. So they were up to date on everything we were doing.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. What are some of the other things that you or your leadership team do to take care of your employees to connect with them?

       John Hrdlick: Well, we work in a very competitive industry, and to stay profitable, reasonably profitable, and viable, we have to manage our costs very well. So many years ago, we instituted a program that thinks it's TPM - total productive maintenance. We didn't come up with it. It's based on a Japanese model. But the best way I can describe TPM is it's lean on steroids. It's to get the involvement of the employees' management needs to go out on the shop floor, talk to the employees. Ask them what's working, what's not working. What did they need from us to help them and whatever we do to improve our production floors' efficiencies, the employees are directly involved. 

       So that helps us involve them in the entire process, but they get to know management. The employees see me walk around. They see our CEO walk around in our various division vice presidents, and you get that one on one relationship with employees. We're one of them. We're coming to them for help to make us more efficient. That has helped us over the years to mitigate our manufacturing costs increase every year. When we budget, we target zero budgeting for our operations. With our business growth, we strive to, year to year, keep our costs reasonably flat as much as...]]>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 reasons. Number one, our business is growing, so we're adding employees, but also because of the baby boomer effect, we're seeing a lot more retirements now. It's not uncommon to see people at INX with 50 years or more of experience, in their 40s, like me, 30s 25.

       Every month, I fill out anniversary cards for each employee. In North America, South America, and Europe and it's one of their milestone years, whether it's 5, 10, 15, and so on. I send them a handwritten card, and that resonates with employees. It fits our culture of having open-door policies. Anybody can call me up or send me an email. Sometimes that creates a lot of extra work. Still, anyone who works at INX knows they can connect to senior management at any given time. That is very important and the opportunities they see to move up in the company. So it's an excellent all-round company.

       Lisa Ryan: How many employees, approximately, do you have?

       John Hrdlick: Overall, in our part of the company, we have roughly 1300 employees.

       Lisa Ryan: So 1300 employees and regularly, you are sending out handwritten cards acknowledging those employees. Did I hear you correctly?

       John Hrdlick: Yes, but that's for milestone anniversaries only. Suppose I had to do that every year for every employee.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. You'd never be enough time.

       John Hrdlick: On average, it's probably 12 to 15 cards a month to fill out.

       Lisa Ryan: Okay, that's such an important point because that 12 to 15 cards, which most people don't even write one or two and a month, but it makes such a colossal difference takes minimal time. So what would you say you invest an hour, a couple of hours?

       John Hrdlick: I would say two hours. I try not to write the same thing. And every card - and many of the employees I know. So I can add something that I know about them. So roughly two hours; I break it up, so I don't do every card in one sitting before my writing gets terrible or unreadable. So I try to take my time and break it up throughout the month.

       Lisa Ryan: I've been on the receiving end of a note for a handwritten note from a CEO or CEO. When I was in the welding industry, Bud Kailash was at the top of the organization as Chairman CEO. When I had a good month, Bud would write on my Commission statement, "Congratulations. Lisa. Good month." It means the world when somebody takes the time out to do that. So I want to commend you for doing that. To the people who are listening, these little personalizations can make such a huge difference to your employees. 

       Speaking of that culture, which obviously, you must have a pretty terrific culture because of the tenure you have there besides the handwritten notes. What are some of the other things that are going well?

       John Hrdlick: There's a lot of things we're doing well. But if I look at the top of the list, I have to say I can't talk about this without mentioning our response to covid. We're very proud of our employees. The last year, every directive we sent out, every update letter we've sent, everything we've asked our employees to do, they've responded. We're in an essential company, so we never stopped manufacturing. Our corporate office moved to their homes to work within three days of covert starting, which's roughly 80 people. To repeat the cooperation and attitude from our employees to keep everything running during this time is very commendable we 86% of our products find their way onto food packaging. That food packaging and beverage packaging ends up in the grocery stores, and that's what made us essential. We were part of the supply chain that get food and beverages in the stores for people who couldn't go out to restaurants and things like that anymore. We reminded our employees of their part in that process, and we made sure we were communicating every month with them. So they were up to date on everything we were doing.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow. What are some of the other things that you or your leadership team do to take care of your employees to connect with them?

       John Hrdlick: Well, we work in a very competitive industry, and to stay profitable, reasonably profitable, and viable, we have to manage our costs very well. So many years ago, we instituted a program that thinks it's TPM - total productive maintenance. We didn't come up with it. It's based on a Japanese model. But the best way I can describe TPM is it's lean on steroids. It's to get the involvement of the employees' management needs to go out on the shop floor, talk to the employees. Ask them what's working, what's not working. What did they need from us to help them and whatever we do to improve our production floors' efficiencies, the employees are directly involved. 

       So that helps us involve them in the entire process, but they get to know management. The employees see me walk around. They see our CEO walk around in our various division vice presidents, and you get that one on one relationship with employees. We're one of them. We're coming to them for help to make us more efficient. That has helped us over the years to mitigate our manufacturing costs increase every year. When we budget, we target zero budgeting for our operations. With our business growth, we strive to, year to year, keep our costs reasonably flat as much as possible.

       Lisa Ryan: So it sounds like you've created a safe environment for employees to get to know you, to feel valued to be, to feel heard, to feel that their input is also appreciated. Do you have specific examples of an idea that maybe came from the floor that you were able to implement that made a significant difference in the company recently?

       John Hrdlick: Yes. There are so many. Some of them have minor impacts, but they all add up. Others can go well into six figures in savings, but they're all related to the process itself. We recently had a significant improvement in our freight costs in 2020. Simply by our logistics team taking a harder look at the areas in our freight costs that we weren't managing well, putting out monthly metrics, and then working with the plants on how they could improve those metrics. We worked with our freight vendors on how we could improve with them as well. That was a significant cost saving in 2020. At some point, that team has to present their project to management, giving them recognition. It involves management asking them questions and giving them the proper pat on the back for what they've done. Whether it's small savings or considerable savings, they're putting their effort into helping us be better, and we show them a lot of gratitude for that.

       Lisa Ryan: And for the people who are listening to this, who may be afraid to ask employees what they want because they think they're going to come up with some off the wall: I want $20 more an hour and six months vacation. So when you take the time to ask your employees sincerely, what have you found in the real world that happens?

       John Hrdlick: Well,  when we're walking around the plants. We call it the Gemba. We talk to the employees and ask them how they're doing and what would make their job easier - things of that nature. It's a casual conversation. And generally, when I'm part of that, you can get 1, 2, 3 ideas that will take back to the local management team, and they have to act on them within a certain amount of time and either accept them as valid projects or reveal that is could be rejected. 

       Sure, as there's a little bit more to the story. But no matter if we accept or reject an idea, the employee is talked to about it. And if we reject an idea, their manager explains instead of not saying anything, so that helps. And of course, we have suggestion boxes, and we try to get a certain number of suggestions every month from every facility. There's always encouragement for our employees to put something in the box. So when you do something like that, you can get some off the wall ideas. But again, we address every one of them. None of them had been too terrible, but some that aren't realistic, and we explained that to the employees.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. So what are some of the things that are keeping you up at night?

       John Hrdlick: Well, go back to covid, we've been running. We're essential, and we've been successful, but we still have cases we've had cases. Luckily, we haven't had to shut down our facilities in any way. Still, I get worried about that; now and then, you get a phone call in the middle of the night. We run 24/7, 24/5, so those phone calls can come, and sometimes it involves me being called, So anytime I hear the phone ring in the middle of the night, it's a problem at a facility or Japan, but that worries me. But again, our employees have been very resilient and cooperative. Other things that wake me up at night or keep me up. I would say the last few years. There have been significant problems with freight carriers, the service level, and that service's cost. They're short drivers. The tanker trucks are in short supply with qualified drivers. So everybody in manufacturing is probably dealing with this problem in one way, shape, or form. But when we can't get our product to a customer or can't get our raw materials to our plan because of transportation problems, we can quickly create a massive problem with our supply chain. 

       The other thing that can keep me up at night is we're very focused on safety had our company, and from time to time, there might be an accident in a plant and some of our plants. The nature of the product they produce can be more dangerous than others, but I never liked to get the phone call that there was an employee accident or a product spill somewhere. We're concerned about the welfare of our employees. And then, when you go beyond that, it can have a broader impact. So those things cause me to either be woken up in the night or sometimes stay on my mind.

       Lisa Ryan: So, from a networking standpoint, if you were to connect with other manufacturing colleagues. What are some of the things you would like to learn from them, and in turn, what is some of the expertise or strategies that you would be willing to share with other manufacturers?

       John Hrdlick: Well, we can always use help, and we always look for help dealing with the job openings we have in manufacturing, and I think everyone's been dealing with this trying to entice younger people to get into our industry and work in manufacturing. We've tried many different things, and we could probably share some of those with other people, but we're always looking for new ways to draw people to or would be very beneficial to me and the rest of us. That's very important to us, and also the area of freight again. We're doing something different with our freight management system. Still, I would like to hear what other companies are doing to deal with the challenges out there because it impacts manufacturing, like filling open positions. So those two areas are areas where we could get help from other manufacturers. 

       We could also share what we've done; maybe that could go both ways. Areas were where I think we could help if anyone is still trying to get their arms around managing through covid, I think what we've done as a company wasn't rocket science, but it's been very successful. Our TPM program would help other manufacturers, even if they only use a portion of it. As I said before, it involves the employees, and anything you can do to include employees will eventually improve your operating efficiencies. So I think that those areas we could help, but other people could help us.

       Lisa Ryan: Terrific. Well, John, if you were to wrap it up in a nice little bow with your best tip for somebody listening today to improve their workplace culture like you've done so well over things. What would that be?

       John Hrdlick: Keep it simple. It's not all about the numbers. The numbers are significant. But if you take care of your people and take care of your customers, treat them as human beings, and the result is the numbers will take care of themselves.

       Lisa Ryan: John, I want to thank you so much for being on the show today. It's been an absolute pleasure having a conversation with you.

       John Hrdlick: Oh, thank you very much. 

       Lisa Ryan: I am Lisa Ryan, and this is the manufacturer's network. See you next time.

       ]]>1400fef1-04a8-4c5e-ac20-1cb35cb3ff13Mon, 15 Mar 2021 07:00:00 -040022:22falsefull118181White Collar, Blue Collar, NEW Collar: Designing Your Digital Marketing Strategy with Suzanne O'ConnellConnect 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 and the reporting capabilities and things that come

       with that. Whether they're taking roles in purchasing and doing online

       sourcing, taking roles in marketing departments where they're able to do

       digital initiatives, or working out on the shop floor, they're using the latest

       and greatest technology on that equipment.

       Lisa Ryan: We've talked for the past

       year about how it has impacted how manufacturers are marketing their products.

       So what do you see that's different this year regarding industrial marketing

       efforts.

       Suzanne O'Connell: Well, there's an

       acceleration. There's a need to have a digital presence more than ever. Some of

       the other methods of reaching customers, like trade shows, fell by the wayside

       because of the pandemic. Adjusting from word of mouth, “they'll call me if they

       need me” mentality to develop basic strategies to lead and nurture prospective

       customers, providing a buyer's journey through content and their own digital

       presence.

       Lisa Ryan: And so what would be when

       you don't have access to historical things like trade shows? Share a little bit

       more about what that agile strategy would be something that somebody listening

       today might consider implementing.

       Suzanne O'Connell: So you have to have kind

       of a comprehensive and cohesive strategy. It's a long, complicated buying

       process now, and multiple stages take place. And different types of content

       support visibility throughout that buyer's journey. 

       We're finding that not only is it long and complicated, but it's

       also primarily self-guided so the need to reach somebody at an earlier entry

       point in the conversation has become a marketing necessity. We're seeing many

       of our customers adopt the educational type of content in ebooks, white papers,

       and case studies.

       People are early on in new product development stages or a new

       project; they have content to support visibility within the research stages. So

       moving from there, you know, you have to have a good foundation in the website.

       That's what all of your digital marketing efforts are intended to drive

       visibility and opportunity to. You need to build quality traffic because it's

       not just about reaching more people; it's about reaching the right people.

       We're finding our clients are developing strategies for their niche focus: who

       are their buyers? What are the capabilities that set them apart from the

       competition? and trying to market specifically to those business objectives,

       rather than just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks.

       Lisa Ryan: And I know that Thomas has

       done a lot of research in that area. So what would be one of the studies you

       were talking about? What are the steps in the industrial sourcing process?

       
       

       Suzanne O'Connell: Yeah, so we did the most

       comprehensive study that's been done into the industrial buying process, and we

       uncovered that there can be up to 139 touches that take place from someone

       establishing a need to making a purchase decision. We found that holds true

       regardless of Industry focus, job function within the organization, or product

       and service being sourced. They're looking for ways to speed that process up.

       They funnel down into six distinct stages. I think I mentioned

       research as being one of those - design & evaluation are other steps that

       we see. But the biggest frustration we hear from buyers and suppliers is the

       time it takes to produce a quote. So our clients are looking for faster, more

       responsive ways for their sales team to follow up on leads. They're looking for

       more qualified leads to come through so that they have to do less to nurture

       those. It's a combination of a lot of things.

       Lisa Ryan: So 139 steps. Holy cow. At

       what are you seeing as far as being able to, you know, speed up the process.

       What are some of the sourcing trends that you're seeing within Thomas, and do

       you expect that to continue into this year?

       Suzanne O'Connell: Yeah, so it just speeds up

       the process; Thomas has done some things on our platform to make it easier to

       get the job done. We've introduced supplier validation filters. The ability to

       filter on quality and diversity. All different things that matter to people

       when they're buying products.

       So we're trying to continue to make improvements to the platform

       to make it easier for them to find the right supplier. For our clients, we're

       making sure that they're accurately represented in the space. So making sure

       that there's a lot of really robust content about what they do and who they do

       it for so that when people are looking for their products or services they have

       good accurate information, and it makes it easier for them to be found. 

       So as far as sourcing trends and just in general, anything that's

       packaging, bottling, private label - that's going through the roof. Obviously,

       things that are related to PPE are through the roof. But we see an...]]>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 and the reporting capabilities and things that come

       with that. Whether they're taking roles in purchasing and doing online

       sourcing, taking roles in marketing departments where they're able to do

       digital initiatives, or working out on the shop floor, they're using the latest

       and greatest technology on that equipment.

       Lisa Ryan: We've talked for the past

       year about how it has impacted how manufacturers are marketing their products.

       So what do you see that's different this year regarding industrial marketing

       efforts.

       Suzanne O'Connell: Well, there's an

       acceleration. There's a need to have a digital presence more than ever. Some of

       the other methods of reaching customers, like trade shows, fell by the wayside

       because of the pandemic. Adjusting from word of mouth, “they'll call me if they

       need me” mentality to develop basic strategies to lead and nurture prospective

       customers, providing a buyer's journey through content and their own digital

       presence.

       Lisa Ryan: And so what would be when

       you don't have access to historical things like trade shows? Share a little bit

       more about what that agile strategy would be something that somebody listening

       today might consider implementing.

       Suzanne O'Connell: So you have to have kind

       of a comprehensive and cohesive strategy. It's a long, complicated buying

       process now, and multiple stages take place. And different types of content

       support visibility throughout that buyer's journey. 

       We're finding that not only is it long and complicated, but it's

       also primarily self-guided so the need to reach somebody at an earlier entry

       point in the conversation has become a marketing necessity. We're seeing many

       of our customers adopt the educational type of content in ebooks, white papers,

       and case studies.

       People are early on in new product development stages or a new

       project; they have content to support visibility within the research stages. So

       moving from there, you know, you have to have a good foundation in the website.

       That's what all of your digital marketing efforts are intended to drive

       visibility and opportunity to. You need to build quality traffic because it's

       not just about reaching more people; it's about reaching the right people.

       We're finding our clients are developing strategies for their niche focus: who

       are their buyers? What are the capabilities that set them apart from the

       competition? and trying to market specifically to those business objectives,

       rather than just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks.

       Lisa Ryan: And I know that Thomas has

       done a lot of research in that area. So what would be one of the studies you

       were talking about? What are the steps in the industrial sourcing process?

       
       

       Suzanne O'Connell: Yeah, so we did the most

       comprehensive study that's been done into the industrial buying process, and we

       uncovered that there can be up to 139 touches that take place from someone

       establishing a need to making a purchase decision. We found that holds true

       regardless of Industry focus, job function within the organization, or product

       and service being sourced. They're looking for ways to speed that process up.

       They funnel down into six distinct stages. I think I mentioned

       research as being one of those - design & evaluation are other steps that

       we see. But the biggest frustration we hear from buyers and suppliers is the

       time it takes to produce a quote. So our clients are looking for faster, more

       responsive ways for their sales team to follow up on leads. They're looking for

       more qualified leads to come through so that they have to do less to nurture

       those. It's a combination of a lot of things.

       Lisa Ryan: So 139 steps. Holy cow. At

       what are you seeing as far as being able to, you know, speed up the process.

       What are some of the sourcing trends that you're seeing within Thomas, and do

       you expect that to continue into this year?

       Suzanne O'Connell: Yeah, so it just speeds up

       the process; Thomas has done some things on our platform to make it easier to

       get the job done. We've introduced supplier validation filters. The ability to

       filter on quality and diversity. All different things that matter to people

       when they're buying products.

       So we're trying to continue to make improvements to the platform

       to make it easier for them to find the right supplier. For our clients, we're

       making sure that they're accurately represented in the space. So making sure

       that there's a lot of really robust content about what they do and who they do

       it for so that when people are looking for their products or services they have

       good accurate information, and it makes it easier for them to be found. 

       So as far as sourcing trends and just in general, anything that's

       packaging, bottling, private label - that's going through the roof. Obviously,

       things that are related to PPE are through the roof. But we see an uptick in

       sourcing across all products and services, which is fantastic. It shows the

       strength of manufacturing, which we love to see, but there's a lot of reasons

       for that. There's reshoring that's going on. There are hiccups in the supply

       chain that are still taking place from shut down, you know, last spring. So

       there's going to be a continuation of needs and then new products coming out

       due to changes that are taking place in society.

       Lisa Ryan: So let's back it up for a

       couple of minutes here. If somebody is not familiar with Thomas and precisely

       what it is that you do. Can you just share a little bit about what you do?

       
       

       Suzanne O'Connell: Sure. So Thomas has four

       centers of excellence, Thomas net.com is our supplier sourcing platform. At the

       risk of dating myself, we had the Thomas register, which were big green books.

       I sourced out of those in my first job out of college. In 2006, we took

       everything online. We stopped printing the Thomas register. We now have over

       70,000 categories that represent products and services, system Integration;

       anything that's manufacturing related. We have 1.2 million active registered

       users using the platform to find Suppliers for those products and services. So

       that's one area of excellence for us. 

       We have our product data solutions group, so very advanced web

       solutions – everything you need from interactive product catalogs, eCommerce

       solution, we're even doing 3D CAD and BIM on the fly for clients. And so a lot

       of strength with our technology there. And then we're a full-blown digital

       marketing agency. So anything that impacts our clients online: website

       development, search engine optimization, even full comprehensive inbound

       marketing strategies that we implement on their behalf. 

       Our latest segment is our industry data. We used to talk about our

       data within Thomas net.com, but there's been so much interest in it that we've

       pulled it out into its own pillar. So Thomas is sharing sourcing trends and

       index reports. There's a lot of power in first-party data, and we track

       everything that's on the platform, so we're able to identify trends in

       sourcing, and pockets in the US where there's more opportunity for those

       products and services. We even had a roundtable at the White House. 

       Lisa Ryan: I am one of the people who

       used the Thomas register. So I'm very familiar with the big green books.

       
       

       Suzanne O'Connell: See, you still see them on

       the shelf in some clients' offices, which always makes me smile.

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: So what are some of the

       challenges with family-owned manufacturing businesses that they're facing

       regarding such succession. And what does Thomas's data forecast as far as those

       kinds of businesses?

       Suzanne O'Connell: Well, we're seeing many

       businesses consolidating through private equity acquisition, specifically

       custom manufacturing businesses. A lot of those were started after World War

       Two and handed down to the second generation. They're attempting to make their

       way to the third generation. But many of their family members aren't interested

       in continuing that business. So there's not often a family member or a staff

       person to step into that leadership role. 

       Some of these businesses were run as more of a cult of

       personality. At the end of the day, they don't have processes and systems to

       help them survive a transition without outside funding and leadership. And I

       think that's what we're seeing primarily with custom manufacturing.

       Lisa Ryan: Interestingly, you say

       that because that's what has happened with my husband's company. They were on

       the second generation, and there wasn't a third generation to hand it down to

       except for one son, the rest of the kids didn't really have an interest in the

       business, and they were recently sold to private equity. 

       Suzanne O'Connell: Yeah, and you know it's

       interesting to see with these acquisitions what takes place, as some of them are

       holding companies where they're beefing them up to be sold yet again. So I

       think it's pretty fascinating.

       Lisa Ryan: When it comes to a company

       looking at upping their game with digital technology, what would be your best

       tip to help them get started.

       
       

       Suzanne O'Connell: I think starting with

       understanding what their digital footprint looks like currently is first and

       foremost, that foundation is solid. Some of the other initiatives that you can

       take on are a lot like landscaping before the house is built right, so you have

       to see where you are currently. Most companies have a pain point - what is the

       hole in their current marketing that they're trying to fill? 

       You can customize strategy around any marketing budget, right? And

       there are differences. You can be more aggressive if they have the funding to

       do that or be more conservative and tackle what needs to be done first. So,

       often, I'm talking with clients and giving them different engagement levels,

       helping them understand what they need to do now, but where they're likely to

       be two, three years from now, they're planning with that bigger picture in

       mind.

       Lisa Ryan: And how are some of the

       ways you help the clients you work with. And what's the best way for people to

       get in touch with you if they want to learn more.

       
       

       Suzanne O'Connell: I begin by listening to

       their business objectives and aligning digital marketing initiatives with

       those. Whether they partner with Thomas or not, I want them to have a better

       understanding of what today's buying process looks like at the end of the day.

       And what they need from a digital strategy to ensure their success long term. A

       complimentary customized strategy we can look at together to know where I would

       start with anybody that had an interest.

       Lisa Ryan: And what's the best way

       for people to get in touch with you.

       
       

       Suzanne O'Connell: LinkedIn is great. My

       Email address is soconnell@certifiedThomaspartner.com.  

       
       

       Lisa Ryan: Thank you so much for

       being on the show today. It's been great to have a conversation with you.

       
       

       
       

       ]]>2319a572-62fe-47c0-927d-37206641d70eMon, 08 Mar 2021 07:00:00 -040017:08falsefull117171Having Conversations with Your Sales Team Keeps the Pipeline Full with Eric SchwarzenbachConnect 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 those relationships going?

       Eric Schwarzenbach: Of course. The salespeople were working from their home office. Because they didn't travel, they're able to make more phone calls than ever. They kept in touch with video conferencing and email. The phone calls made a big difference and the fact that we had our test grinding process ready for customers to either come in or send the material to me.  

       Lisa Ryan: And was there anything else that any other processes or procedures that also made a difference that maybe you weren't doing before coven and now will be an integral part of your business in the future.

       Eric Schwarzenbach: I hold a weekly sales meeting on a Monday morning. And I have individual pipeline meetings on a Friday every week with each sales manager, which I never did before because I was traveling myself so much that there was just no time. We do keep in touch before, but now we have the structure in place very every Friday. They know they have to report their pipeline, and we discuss it, and we talked about it. Then we see what we can do to encourage that particular customer to come down the pipeline and eventually pulled the trigger on the purchase order. That was not the case before. So our communication improved so much to very beneficial.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, it sounds like it gave you an excellent opportunity to get to know the people who work for you and share feedback. They feel that they're being heard. Having that connection with the company president was probably really big for them as far as their engagement levels, and it sounds like their productivity levels because of this.

       Eric Schwarzenbach: We indeed had three times more new accounts last year, which is tremendous in a lousy year. I mean, sales were terrible. But just in terms of new account from it, it was an incredible year for us. Much is due to our to the changes we made in the company here, and a little bit is also because our customers to we're housebound or company bound and have more time on their hands. Maybe they had fewer business activities, but they had more time to think about what the future could bring and to engage with us and eventually place the purchase order.

       Lisa Ryan: That's that. That sounds excellent news and in the future. I'm sure that those new customers you have are confident that their business will also increase. Once we're through all this craziness that we're going through right now.

       Eric Schwarzenbach: Absolutely.

       Lisa Ryan: So what are some of the things that are still keeping you up at night?

       Eric Schwarzenbach: The order intake for machines is still because it's still up and down. It's still cyclical. And that's not been the case. Before you had ups and downs - maybe the spring was good and fall was not so good, or vice versa, or some month was slow. But now it's one month is high and the other month it's really low. So we don't see that fall into the future as we used to before. That's still a while for me.

       And of course, the other worries political situation with the new government, hoping that they turn out to be at least somewhat business-friendly compared to the previous one and not so much because of how we operate our business how much taxes we pay. That's not really what I'm talking about. Our customers, the managers, and the business owners feel far more confident in the economy when they feel there is some support from the government there. And that is always translated into more orders for us. So whether we pay a few percent more in taxes, that's not a big deal for us, but it's more customers thinking and perceptive their perception of the economy.

       Lisa Ryan: And when it comes to networking with other manufacturing leaders, what would be something that you may want to learn from your other colleagues and manufacturing, and what would be some of the areas of your expertise that you would be willing to share

       Eric Schwarzenbach: Number one is benchmarking. The CNC machine tool industry is different for manufacturing. We pay salaries differently. We have different benefits to what the regular manufacturing company would have and being a foreign company. We often compare with Europe, which is not very good because of the two different economies to different countries. So if I could benchmark with another machine to compare salaries and compare working conditions, that will be wonderful. And in return, I would show our system: what we pay, what we give to our employees for benchmarking. That is the biggest thing that I would love to share. 

       Otherwise, what I, what I would share is our good experience with changing our payroll provider a few years ago, for example. We've switched to ADP. I would love to talk about that and tell them how it helped us tremendously.

       Lisa Ryan: Wonderful. So if there was one tip you could give the people listening to this podcast, what would that be?

       Eric Schwarzenbach: Never lose hope. And dig deep for the opportunities presented to us. And I think one of the most significant opportunities was trying. It's given enough time to sort things out and figure things out in time to look into the future, and as a machine to build, time to find new technologies and improve the machine processes and the way the machines are assembled. Just utilize all the time that is at hand for these opportunities. Number two is to train...]]>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 those relationships going?

       Eric Schwarzenbach: Of course. The salespeople were working from their home office. Because they didn't travel, they're able to make more phone calls than ever. They kept in touch with video conferencing and email. The phone calls made a big difference and the fact that we had our test grinding process ready for customers to either come in or send the material to me.  

       Lisa Ryan: And was there anything else that any other processes or procedures that also made a difference that maybe you weren't doing before coven and now will be an integral part of your business in the future.

       Eric Schwarzenbach: I hold a weekly sales meeting on a Monday morning. And I have individual pipeline meetings on a Friday every week with each sales manager, which I never did before because I was traveling myself so much that there was just no time. We do keep in touch before, but now we have the structure in place very every Friday. They know they have to report their pipeline, and we discuss it, and we talked about it. Then we see what we can do to encourage that particular customer to come down the pipeline and eventually pulled the trigger on the purchase order. That was not the case before. So our communication improved so much to very beneficial.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, it sounds like it gave you an excellent opportunity to get to know the people who work for you and share feedback. They feel that they're being heard. Having that connection with the company president was probably really big for them as far as their engagement levels, and it sounds like their productivity levels because of this.

       Eric Schwarzenbach: We indeed had three times more new accounts last year, which is tremendous in a lousy year. I mean, sales were terrible. But just in terms of new account from it, it was an incredible year for us. Much is due to our to the changes we made in the company here, and a little bit is also because our customers to we're housebound or company bound and have more time on their hands. Maybe they had fewer business activities, but they had more time to think about what the future could bring and to engage with us and eventually place the purchase order.

       Lisa Ryan: That's that. That sounds excellent news and in the future. I'm sure that those new customers you have are confident that their business will also increase. Once we're through all this craziness that we're going through right now.

       Eric Schwarzenbach: Absolutely.

       Lisa Ryan: So what are some of the things that are still keeping you up at night?

       Eric Schwarzenbach: The order intake for machines is still because it's still up and down. It's still cyclical. And that's not been the case. Before you had ups and downs - maybe the spring was good and fall was not so good, or vice versa, or some month was slow. But now it's one month is high and the other month it's really low. So we don't see that fall into the future as we used to before. That's still a while for me.

       And of course, the other worries political situation with the new government, hoping that they turn out to be at least somewhat business-friendly compared to the previous one and not so much because of how we operate our business how much taxes we pay. That's not really what I'm talking about. Our customers, the managers, and the business owners feel far more confident in the economy when they feel there is some support from the government there. And that is always translated into more orders for us. So whether we pay a few percent more in taxes, that's not a big deal for us, but it's more customers thinking and perceptive their perception of the economy.

       Lisa Ryan: And when it comes to networking with other manufacturing leaders, what would be something that you may want to learn from your other colleagues and manufacturing, and what would be some of the areas of your expertise that you would be willing to share

       Eric Schwarzenbach: Number one is benchmarking. The CNC machine tool industry is different for manufacturing. We pay salaries differently. We have different benefits to what the regular manufacturing company would have and being a foreign company. We often compare with Europe, which is not very good because of the two different economies to different countries. So if I could benchmark with another machine to compare salaries and compare working conditions, that will be wonderful. And in return, I would show our system: what we pay, what we give to our employees for benchmarking. That is the biggest thing that I would love to share. 

       Otherwise, what I, what I would share is our good experience with changing our payroll provider a few years ago, for example. We've switched to ADP. I would love to talk about that and tell them how it helped us tremendously.

       Lisa Ryan: Wonderful. So if there was one tip you could give the people listening to this podcast, what would that be?

       Eric Schwarzenbach: Never lose hope. And dig deep for the opportunities presented to us. And I think one of the most significant opportunities was trying. It's given enough time to sort things out and figure things out in time to look into the future, and as a machine to build, time to find new technologies and improve the machine processes and the way the machines are assembled. Just utilize all the time that is at hand for these opportunities. Number two is to train your people. Businesses slow don't lay them off. Don't furlough them. Don't cut their salary but train them and pay the money to do that. Then pay them for the time being trained.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, that is a great way to end our session together, Eric. I appreciate you being on with me and sharing your insight and what is going on at Rollomatic Thanks for being here. I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' network podcast. See you next time.

       ]]>4021ab28-7f5a-41db-b13f-e4ffd4c1a243Mon, 01 Mar 2021 07:00:00 -040014:30falsefull116161Wellness - If You Build It, They Will Stay with Laura TimbrookConnect 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 much those relationships affect our overall well-being. Think about having good relationships with your job and your family, how it makes you feel overall. 

       You're more likely that when you're sick, you're going to go to the doctor, you feel better about yourself. When you're in that happy state, what we want to do is we want to take a broad look at it. So the first thing we want to do is start with the employees. We want to make sure they have the health benefits that they need. We want to make sure they have health care to understand where they sit on their health. 

       What's your blood pressure? What's your weight? Have that understanding of where they need improvement. But then we need to start addressing everything else. Stress is a big one. And mostly we know that our top three stressors work is, number one, finances, and family. Those are our three top stressors. We have to address the workplace stress, you know, and that's been one of my most significant focus is now covid.  

       I can't get in to talk to the employees and help coach them. But what I can do at this point is to work with leadership to create a cohesive environment where our employees are supported. We want to make sure that they're taking time off, whether they're taking time off to relax or rest, or they're taking time off to go to their doctor appointments. Lisa, you made an excellent point. Many of our employees are not going to see their doctors when they're sick regularly; they're in the E.R. They're trudging through it. And we need to make sure that we are proactive in our health. We're seeing our doctors. We're seeing our dentist. We're seeing a cardiologist. Maybe we've been making times that they see a therapist because we know right now, you know, it's we're all feeling a little kind of so we want to make sure that we're taking care of that.  

        Lisa Ryan: When it comes to things like health fairs, because, again, I've heard this, we try to health care one to nobody came. So what is the process? Because, also, you're changing a whole way of people taking a look and maybe a lifetime of bad habits. That's certainly not going to change in one afternoon health fair. But what are some of the steps to get started? Also, are there some virtual options that you're seeing as far as those health care health fairs, too?

       Laura Timbrook: Going back to why health fairs don't work, we often have a meager turnout. There are two main reasons for that. One is management buy-in. I will watch employees walk out of a health fair because who's not sitting in that health fair? So if you want your employees to be in that health fair, your CEOs, your leaders, your C suite executives all need to be in and attending those health fairs. And then the second is consistency.  

       If employees feel like you're checking a box off that says I get we offer health care, they're not going to take it seriously. You have to support your employees in understanding their health matters, not only to them and their family but to you as their employer. And once we feel supported, they're more likely to attend. The other key point of this is a lot of specialty manufacturing; employees are so afraid that if they attend a health fair and that data will be shared with their employer that they will not go to the health care.  

       So you have to make sure that you are communicating to your employees properly that their data is their data. They'reHIPPA rules still hold them we can't share. I can't share your weight or your health with your employer. I can't do it. So we need to understand that it's confidential, it's safe, and we care about you.  

        And going back to your question on the virtual' I'm doing virtual health coaching for employees. If we do a lot of virtual health biometrics where they can go to local doctors, local labs and get stuff done, they can meet with me for their results. One of the big things about the health fair is, not only do you want to give your employees the information on their biometrics, but you want to lead them down the path that they can make improvements.  

        Often at health fairs, they give you your blood pressure, give you all that, and then send you on your way. Whether it's a nurse, you need somebody to come in; it's a board-certified health coach, a nutritionist, a dietician, somebody that can help guide them to make those changes and do it practically. One of the big things I saw with manufacturing is that what worked in corporate didn't work with the manufacturing workforce.  

        The people you bring in have to make sure they understand the unique lifestyles of shiftwork of what they're going to be eating. Because let me tell you, corporate would go out to lunch at Baja Fresh. Manufacturing is packing lunches, and you have to let them know what to pack. That's cost-effective. There are so many different ways; first of all, you address the confidentiality issue, and that's a part of building that trust over time with your employees that can help them do that.  

       Lisa Ryan: But also translating the results. If somebody comes in and they say, and I'm making stuff up because I don't understand hard pressure, but if your heart pressure is one hundred and forty over 70 versus one hundred ninety over twenty-five, that's probably terrible up. But not knowing unless somebody says, oh, that's a little high or that's normal, that person may have no idea. Well, what is normal? What is for somebody that has primarily a sedentary job or they're not doing a whole lot, or they're making...]]>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 much those relationships affect our overall well-being. Think about having good relationships with your job and your family, how it makes you feel overall. 

       You're more likely that when you're sick, you're going to go to the doctor, you feel better about yourself. When you're in that happy state, what we want to do is we want to take a broad look at it. So the first thing we want to do is start with the employees. We want to make sure they have the health benefits that they need. We want to make sure they have health care to understand where they sit on their health. 

       What's your blood pressure? What's your weight? Have that understanding of where they need improvement. But then we need to start addressing everything else. Stress is a big one. And mostly we know that our top three stressors work is, number one, finances, and family. Those are our three top stressors. We have to address the workplace stress, you know, and that's been one of my most significant focus is now covid.  

       I can't get in to talk to the employees and help coach them. But what I can do at this point is to work with leadership to create a cohesive environment where our employees are supported. We want to make sure that they're taking time off, whether they're taking time off to relax or rest, or they're taking time off to go to their doctor appointments. Lisa, you made an excellent point. Many of our employees are not going to see their doctors when they're sick regularly; they're in the E.R. They're trudging through it. And we need to make sure that we are proactive in our health. We're seeing our doctors. We're seeing our dentist. We're seeing a cardiologist. Maybe we've been making times that they see a therapist because we know right now, you know, it's we're all feeling a little kind of so we want to make sure that we're taking care of that.  

        Lisa Ryan: When it comes to things like health fairs, because, again, I've heard this, we try to health care one to nobody came. So what is the process? Because, also, you're changing a whole way of people taking a look and maybe a lifetime of bad habits. That's certainly not going to change in one afternoon health fair. But what are some of the steps to get started? Also, are there some virtual options that you're seeing as far as those health care health fairs, too?

       Laura Timbrook: Going back to why health fairs don't work, we often have a meager turnout. There are two main reasons for that. One is management buy-in. I will watch employees walk out of a health fair because who's not sitting in that health fair? So if you want your employees to be in that health fair, your CEOs, your leaders, your C suite executives all need to be in and attending those health fairs. And then the second is consistency.  

       If employees feel like you're checking a box off that says I get we offer health care, they're not going to take it seriously. You have to support your employees in understanding their health matters, not only to them and their family but to you as their employer. And once we feel supported, they're more likely to attend. The other key point of this is a lot of specialty manufacturing; employees are so afraid that if they attend a health fair and that data will be shared with their employer that they will not go to the health care.  

       So you have to make sure that you are communicating to your employees properly that their data is their data. They'reHIPPA rules still hold them we can't share. I can't share your weight or your health with your employer. I can't do it. So we need to understand that it's confidential, it's safe, and we care about you.  

        And going back to your question on the virtual' I'm doing virtual health coaching for employees. If we do a lot of virtual health biometrics where they can go to local doctors, local labs and get stuff done, they can meet with me for their results. One of the big things about the health fair is, not only do you want to give your employees the information on their biometrics, but you want to lead them down the path that they can make improvements.  

        Often at health fairs, they give you your blood pressure, give you all that, and then send you on your way. Whether it's a nurse, you need somebody to come in; it's a board-certified health coach, a nutritionist, a dietician, somebody that can help guide them to make those changes and do it practically. One of the big things I saw with manufacturing is that what worked in corporate didn't work with the manufacturing workforce.  

        The people you bring in have to make sure they understand the unique lifestyles of shiftwork of what they're going to be eating. Because let me tell you, corporate would go out to lunch at Baja Fresh. Manufacturing is packing lunches, and you have to let them know what to pack. That's cost-effective. There are so many different ways; first of all, you address the confidentiality issue, and that's a part of building that trust over time with your employees that can help them do that.  

       Lisa Ryan: But also translating the results. If somebody comes in and they say, and I'm making stuff up because I don't understand hard pressure, but if your heart pressure is one hundred and forty over 70 versus one hundred ninety over twenty-five, that's probably terrible up. But not knowing unless somebody says, oh, that's a little high or that's normal, that person may have no idea. Well, what is normal? What is for somebody that has primarily a sedentary job or they're not doing a whole lot, or they're making those repetitive motions?

       So taking into effect what they're doing and giving them some strategies they can incorporate through the day. So why don't you share some happy stories, maybe some before and after hours of specific clients?

       Laura Timbrook: One specific example always comes to mind when we talk about what they did. They had health events every single month. I have had the first time I was brought into this, there was this one woman and she drank a lot of Mountain Dew, like several cans of regular Mountain Dew a day. And she didn't work out, and she didn't care to make a single health change. She wanted nothing to do with it.  

       Fast forward, two years later, she is down to one Diet Mountain Dew a day. And this is huge for her. She's kickboxing four days a week. She lost weight. And you know what the most amazing thing out of all of this was? She was set to retire, and she didn't because she felt so good and she enjoyed her job, she said for the first time. And I think she was there for like 30 or 40 years.  

       She felt like her management cared about her. And she's like, what am I going to do? Sit home? I might as well come in here and have fun for her. It was fun. She enjoyed it. So it's such a broad change that we can make that affects everything from a person's single health to our entire organization. Imagine not having your employees wanting to leave. And not only that, but she brought her daughter in to work for the organization. So now you're attracting new generations.

       We're aging out of our workforce. And when we talk about the millennial and Gen Z says they want wellness, family, and purpose are their top three. So if we are focusing on wellness in manufacturing and showing them purpose. We know jobs in manufacturing have a considerable purpose. Hey, we saw it with the whole tour toilet paper shortage, and people realize that there's a huge purpose to manufacturing. So we have the perfect scenario of attracting these younger generations coming in if we set ourselves up correctly.  

       Lisa Ryan: So what about from a cost standpoint? Because I know you can go the gamut when it comes to implementing programs into your facility. So without spending a gazillion dollars to bring in all the high tech equipment and stuff, what can a small or medium-sized manufacturer do that doesn't necessarily break the budget?  

       Laura Timbrook: The first thing you want to do is talk with your employees. What do they want? We can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars bringing in experts and fancy devices. But if your employees don't want that, why waste the money? So, have an understanding of what your employees want or what they feel like they need. The second thing is to talk to your insurance broker, find out about wellness dollars. This is key because there is money available in many of your health benefits that will pay for experts like me to come in, so it's no money out of your pocket.

       Once you understand what your budget is, what your employees want, then that's when we start bringing in the health fairs. We want to bring in the health fairs because we need to understand that baseline. But a lot of times health fairs right off the bat, you're not going to have a large turnout. But we need to be consistent with them, letting them know, and then you can bring in experts like myself that will help coach your employees to make sustainable, healthy changes.  

        Often, we go way off the deep end and don't sustain with those diet plans. So we want something that's sustainable. But it's really about understanding your workforce, what they need and what you have available because especially for small to midsize, starting off with like your employee level gym isn't going to work out. But maybe you can team up with a local gym in the area that can offer benefits for them as well. Now, there you go. 

        

        Lisa Ryan: Let's take it back to Mountain Dew woman. She came in. She came in. She wanted nothing to do with it. She was close to retiring. She was not leading a healthy lifestyle, not working out, drinking all of that pop or soda, depending on what's part of the country you're in. So what was the first step to get her to buy in, to get someone like her to reconsider their view of wellness before that?

       Laura Timbrook: So for her, it was seeing the numbers on a piece of paper and understanding where she was. She had pre diabetic numbers, and she had a family history of diabetes. So that was key when she had those numbers and seeing that in place and knowing that's an issue. But when I was coaching her, I asked her what would happen if you didn't make the health changes? Like, what, in five years, would your health look like? 

        

        And that picture scared her and not right away because she had to think about it a little bit. But then she thought about it. And we started with one simple health change, and maybe it was swapping out one of those waters for flavored seltzer water and making small changes. She often thought of exercising that she had to go into the gym and do all these things where she would be in a yoga class, not going to be in a yoga class. So she tried a bunch of classes and found out kickboxing was her thing.

       You want small, sustainable steps. You don't want to take all her soda right off the table right away because that's not sustainable. She will never last but small changes. And that's what happens when we talk about it from an individual standpoint. But the more significant thing for her was knowing that her employer was supporting her and every month having myself or somebody else come in and, you know, continue that conversation with her. 

        

        Lisa Ryan: Laura, I know that you do lots of services for manufacturers in the wellness area, so you're a little bit about how you work with your clients and what's the best way to get in touch with you.  

       Laura Timbrook:  We work on a couple of different approaches. We can work on the individual approach, which addresses employee health fairs, working with those employees one on one or in a group format. Then we can work with leadership, having leadership understand that work-life, harmony, and how they can integrate wellness as part of a leadership approach. Then, of course, we have the larger organization where everybody is on the same page and start implementing that wellness culture.  

       That's when we're dealing with that holistic thing. You want that wellness spread across your entire organization, but you're not going to start there. You're going to start in baby steps. So the simplest way to get a hold of me is to go to LauraTimbrook.com and my podcast information is on there. You can get in touch with me. We can have a conversation about how to start strategizing your employee wellness approach.  

        Lisa Ryan: Laura, it has been an absolute pleasure to have you on the show, so thanks for being here. I thank you so much for having me. You're very welcome. I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers Network podcast. We'll see you next time.

       ]]>2d2ca181-71cb-4bdc-a1e8-921d4448861dMon, 22 Feb 2021 07:00:00 -040020:28falsefull115151What Can Your Plant Do to Weather a Pandemic with Greg CrowleyConnect 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 it's interesting because a year ago, you would have thought like, Wow, this is what we're making today and now that whole flexible mindset, which I've found where manufacturers have excelled of just being able to turn and figure it out. And so that's been one of the good things that have come. I think that a lot of companies found that they were much more flexible or could be much more flexible than they ever thought they could be

       Greg Crowley: Yeah, our customers are understanding. Sometimes we get hung up with a supplier issue, and of course, we'll work with that supplier and try and do the best we can, but occasionally we will be hit by delays outside our control, but they haven't been significant.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. So what are some of the main things that are keeping you up at night?

       Greg Crowley: While we're small in terms of employees, we're not big enough to have a full-time HR person, so that that role falls onto a few of us in the building. That tends to be a time sink at times. And it's not so much only being profitable, but trying to get through each month without losing money. Those are probably the two most stressful parts at the moment. We're an infrastructure set up for roughly 50 to 60 people, so we normally have a lot more. We normally have 30% more business on average than we have today. So, we need to keep business flowing into the building. We wouldn't be able to jump back to normal overnight, but it'd be nice to see the vaccine giving people confidence in their businesses to start ordering capital equipment. I think that's coming. The forecast experts are saying that will happen this year, mostly in the second half. But so the ramp-up will be gradual.

       Lisa Ryan: So, are your salespeople still going into the customer shops? How has that your method of sales changed in the last year?

       Greg Crowley: So we have representatives all over the world. They're all reporting into the building. And I know a lot of them have been working from home telephone video calls. The only time customers want to see us is when there's a new machine installed. We had one recently go to Belarus which is between Poland and Russia. And it took a while. But we finally got somebody over there. When or if there are technical support issues, then customers are willing to have people from the company and visit. But in general, our customers don't want to see salespeople. We had a couple of customers come into the building recently, but we've only had maybe two or three in the last six months. Typically it's once a week. Travel is way down. Run the industry, the trade shows we support, and the industry groups. They're pretty much on hold. Our big show was postponed until this last December, and then they finally cancel that. So our next big trade shows in in the fall. It's been pushed out to the fall

       Lisa Ryan: I've seen a lot of the bigger events have just outright canceled. Some of them have gone online. Thankfully, the technology is getting a lot easier to use as far as being virtual events. However, there's still the education process as far as letting people know that we can do virtual. It allows you to bring more people to the event than you may have been able to do if it was live. There's give and take, but there's still certainly a lot of education going on in those lines. So from a networking standpoint, if there was any support or connection that you would like to learn from other manufacturing colleagues, what, what would that be?

       Greg Crowley: I'm a fan of networking in general. I network with a few presidents of companies in this area for not in the industry, mostly workforce related. We help each other out. And then I'm part of the IFI group, which you've spoken to a couple of times. And that's great for networking within a fastener industry. And then the third one is a group called Vistage it's a group of companies that I network with and listen to speakers like yourself. It's good to share with them and be able to find out lessons learned on nearside so anything from leadership to HR issues to coaching senior staff. 

       Lisa Ryan: Well, that's the nice thing about Vistage and some of these other groups when you're looking outside the industry. Instead of always focusing in house, we sometimes have those blinders on that. I'm sure that from your Vistage peers, you've probably learned a lot from industries that are completely different from yours can work equally well.

       Greg Crowley: Yeah, and then a lot of it is transferable. It's one thing I realized up front was our strategy was developing a strategy. I hit multiple cultures in the building. When I first got here, I knew I better work on the culture first, so I ended up selecting a program that worked well for us with networking help. We're still using it, and it takes time to change cultures, so we're on the right track there. And so that's just one. One example of finding a suitable tool for us.

       Lisa Ryan: If people wanted to reach out and connect with you and maybe gain some of your insight, what areas can be supportive of other manufacturing and industry colleagues?

       Greg Crowley: On the technical side, I'd say we're on the wire equipment, wire processing. Our machines either straighten and cut wire for dishwasher racks, concrete industry, automotive, the dog cages - there's all kinds of different needs for the wire. On the fastener side is the people that make nuts and bolts are drying machines. They're...]]>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 it's interesting because a year ago, you would have thought like, Wow, this is what we're making today and now that whole flexible mindset, which I've found where manufacturers have excelled of just being able to turn and figure it out. And so that's been one of the good things that have come. I think that a lot of companies found that they were much more flexible or could be much more flexible than they ever thought they could be

       Greg Crowley: Yeah, our customers are understanding. Sometimes we get hung up with a supplier issue, and of course, we'll work with that supplier and try and do the best we can, but occasionally we will be hit by delays outside our control, but they haven't been significant.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. So what are some of the main things that are keeping you up at night?

       Greg Crowley: While we're small in terms of employees, we're not big enough to have a full-time HR person, so that that role falls onto a few of us in the building. That tends to be a time sink at times. And it's not so much only being profitable, but trying to get through each month without losing money. Those are probably the two most stressful parts at the moment. We're an infrastructure set up for roughly 50 to 60 people, so we normally have a lot more. We normally have 30% more business on average than we have today. So, we need to keep business flowing into the building. We wouldn't be able to jump back to normal overnight, but it'd be nice to see the vaccine giving people confidence in their businesses to start ordering capital equipment. I think that's coming. The forecast experts are saying that will happen this year, mostly in the second half. But so the ramp-up will be gradual.

       Lisa Ryan: So, are your salespeople still going into the customer shops? How has that your method of sales changed in the last year?

       Greg Crowley: So we have representatives all over the world. They're all reporting into the building. And I know a lot of them have been working from home telephone video calls. The only time customers want to see us is when there's a new machine installed. We had one recently go to Belarus which is between Poland and Russia. And it took a while. But we finally got somebody over there. When or if there are technical support issues, then customers are willing to have people from the company and visit. But in general, our customers don't want to see salespeople. We had a couple of customers come into the building recently, but we've only had maybe two or three in the last six months. Typically it's once a week. Travel is way down. Run the industry, the trade shows we support, and the industry groups. They're pretty much on hold. Our big show was postponed until this last December, and then they finally cancel that. So our next big trade shows in in the fall. It's been pushed out to the fall

       Lisa Ryan: I've seen a lot of the bigger events have just outright canceled. Some of them have gone online. Thankfully, the technology is getting a lot easier to use as far as being virtual events. However, there's still the education process as far as letting people know that we can do virtual. It allows you to bring more people to the event than you may have been able to do if it was live. There's give and take, but there's still certainly a lot of education going on in those lines. So from a networking standpoint, if there was any support or connection that you would like to learn from other manufacturing colleagues, what, what would that be?

       Greg Crowley: I'm a fan of networking in general. I network with a few presidents of companies in this area for not in the industry, mostly workforce related. We help each other out. And then I'm part of the IFI group, which you've spoken to a couple of times. And that's great for networking within a fastener industry. And then the third one is a group called Vistage it's a group of companies that I network with and listen to speakers like yourself. It's good to share with them and be able to find out lessons learned on nearside so anything from leadership to HR issues to coaching senior staff. 

       Lisa Ryan: Well, that's the nice thing about Vistage and some of these other groups when you're looking outside the industry. Instead of always focusing in house, we sometimes have those blinders on that. I'm sure that from your Vistage peers, you've probably learned a lot from industries that are completely different from yours can work equally well.

       Greg Crowley: Yeah, and then a lot of it is transferable. It's one thing I realized up front was our strategy was developing a strategy. I hit multiple cultures in the building. When I first got here, I knew I better work on the culture first, so I ended up selecting a program that worked well for us with networking help. We're still using it, and it takes time to change cultures, so we're on the right track there. And so that's just one. One example of finding a suitable tool for us.

       Lisa Ryan: If people wanted to reach out and connect with you and maybe gain some of your insight, what areas can be supportive of other manufacturing and industry colleagues?

       Greg Crowley: On the technical side, I'd say we're on the wire equipment, wire processing. Our machines either straighten and cut wire for dishwasher racks, concrete industry, automotive, the dog cages - there's all kinds of different needs for the wire. On the fastener side is the people that make nuts and bolts are drying machines. They're used in front of headers, a lot of headers in the Cleveland area. So anything technical like we've got a strong engineering team. I could answer questions that help out that way.

        Anything general, I'd be happy to help anybody who's got a company with roughly 50 employees who have a question. I'd be happy to share my view, and I'd love to be able to ask other companies questions too.

       Lisa Ryan: Awesome. Well, what's the best way for people to get ahold of you.

       Greg Crowley: And I'd say, email.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, Greg. It's been an absolute pleasure having a conversation with you today. Thank you so much for joining me today.

       Greg Crowley: Yes, thank you for letting me take part. I look forward to seeing others.

       Lisa Ryan: This is Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network. See you next time.

       ]]>d9f5566f-850a-4fda-b176-1d72817fa939Mon, 15 Feb 2021 07:00:00 -040014:38falsefull114141Building a Manufacturing Culture of Accountability, Accuracy, and Respect with Allison GiddensConnect 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 guy, so he would be the first person to pick up the broom and go sweep. He's not going to ask anybody on any management level to not clean or not do something that maybe somebody else would look down on. That even playing field and that respect level speaks volumes. No one feels like they're better than somebody else.

       Lisa Ryan: That says a lot because we know that all of those values come from upper leadership. And the nice part about it is taking that step back and asking your employees what they believed those words; because too often, companies will bring in some high priced consultant to create a vision and mission statement for you. Then you post it up on the wall, and employers are like, What company are you talking about? When you first posed the question to them to do that research, what was the reaction?

       Allison Giddens: So the question was posed because a large customer invited us to be part of an ethics program. We didn't have a formal ethics program here at Win-Tech. One of those steps was having values and creating a value statement. We have a mission statement, but we don't have a value statement, or we didn't at the time. And so to come up with the values, we had to seek information from the employees because, as you said, it would have been very awkward to have some third party come in and say, oh yeah, give us your favorite words. What are the hot button, things of the day, and sit down with the company's owner? It was challenging at first because it was effortless. 

       We could have just said, okay, Dennis water, what do you see Win-Tech as let's just put that to paper. Instead, we said, all right, Dennis, give us 50 adjectives that mean something to you - pieces of bits of values you feel are important. We sat down, and we came up with 50 and Dennis, a man of few words. And so that was tough to pull out, but it was a productive conversation. And once we got 50 adjectives. Then we went back to the employees, and we said, okay, here are 50 adjectives. But what are we missing? What do you think we're missing from Win-Tech's essential values? And from there, we were able to narrow them down. Initially, I thought, okay, this is going to be too much information. Employees are going to be inundated with words; their eyes are going to cross. They're not going to be interested in this. But it was funny right off the bat. Two of the three values stuck out overwhelmingly for people to choose, and then it wasn't until we narrowed things down one more time to get that third.

       Lisa Ryan: So share a little bit about the foundation of the company. It sounds like Dennis knew a lot about them and like you are bringing that culture forward. So what was it like for Dennis when he was running the company? And now, what have not only you adapted and kept, and what have you added for your own personality. 

       Allison Giddens: Dennis had a true ethic. He again would never ask somebody to do something he wasn't willing to do himself. He had the bar set very high. You knew where you stood with him. There was never a question about whether or not what he expected that remains now that Dennis has retired and thankfully stays in touch with everybody and comes back now and then. We're going to have lunch with him on Thursday. 

       Not too much has changed. A few things that have been enhanced are some leans towards technology that Dennis wasn't too familiar or excited about and, admittedly, so. His favorite joke was, what do you get when you cross a fill in the blank with a computer, and then the punch line to the joke was a computer. He was not thrilled with how things were going in technology, just because his take was we want to make parts. I'm excited to see some of the technology us embrace some of that a little more but knowing that we always need to stay true hold to the original values. And that's what's important.

       Lisa Ryan: That's terrific. What are some of the things that are keeping you up at night?

       Allison Giddens: Some of the things that keep me up at night include supply chain risk management. So much is happening for our suppliers, vendors, and customers; those moving pieces from the pandemic fallout with supplies and shortages to work for shortages because of sick people. There are cybersecurity concerns related to those supply chain concerns. So it's all the things on the peripheral that I feel that as a type-A personality cannot control, necessarily. So it's those things that even if I can't directly control it, I can at least be aware of it. One of Dennis's favorite sayings was if you know that there's a snake in the weeds. It won't bite you. 

       Lisa Ryan: When it came to running production and running your business through covid, were you able to do any remote work, or did you have to reschedule production based on who showed up?

       Allison Giddens: It's been challenging. We did a great job from the get-go. When the pandemic hit, we had a person in charge of making sure that all the common area surfaces were clean at all times. On the hour, he was walking around with cleaning supplies, making sure doorknobs and light fixtures and counter spaces and such. We're all clean, and with 30 people or so out in the shop, have a 20,000 square foot shop at any point in time, we invented social distancing. That part wasn't challenging. But yes, when certain people were a little bit nervous, you know, maybe woke up with a sore throat. Everybody was well aware that they were to stay home if they did not feel 100%. We did have to move some things around because we...]]>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 guy, so he would be the first person to pick up the broom and go sweep. He's not going to ask anybody on any management level to not clean or not do something that maybe somebody else would look down on. That even playing field and that respect level speaks volumes. No one feels like they're better than somebody else.

       Lisa Ryan: That says a lot because we know that all of those values come from upper leadership. And the nice part about it is taking that step back and asking your employees what they believed those words; because too often, companies will bring in some high priced consultant to create a vision and mission statement for you. Then you post it up on the wall, and employers are like, What company are you talking about? When you first posed the question to them to do that research, what was the reaction?

       Allison Giddens: So the question was posed because a large customer invited us to be part of an ethics program. We didn't have a formal ethics program here at Win-Tech. One of those steps was having values and creating a value statement. We have a mission statement, but we don't have a value statement, or we didn't at the time. And so to come up with the values, we had to seek information from the employees because, as you said, it would have been very awkward to have some third party come in and say, oh yeah, give us your favorite words. What are the hot button, things of the day, and sit down with the company's owner? It was challenging at first because it was effortless. 

       We could have just said, okay, Dennis water, what do you see Win-Tech as let's just put that to paper. Instead, we said, all right, Dennis, give us 50 adjectives that mean something to you - pieces of bits of values you feel are important. We sat down, and we came up with 50 and Dennis, a man of few words. And so that was tough to pull out, but it was a productive conversation. And once we got 50 adjectives. Then we went back to the employees, and we said, okay, here are 50 adjectives. But what are we missing? What do you think we're missing from Win-Tech's essential values? And from there, we were able to narrow them down. Initially, I thought, okay, this is going to be too much information. Employees are going to be inundated with words; their eyes are going to cross. They're not going to be interested in this. But it was funny right off the bat. Two of the three values stuck out overwhelmingly for people to choose, and then it wasn't until we narrowed things down one more time to get that third.

       Lisa Ryan: So share a little bit about the foundation of the company. It sounds like Dennis knew a lot about them and like you are bringing that culture forward. So what was it like for Dennis when he was running the company? And now, what have not only you adapted and kept, and what have you added for your own personality. 

       Allison Giddens: Dennis had a true ethic. He again would never ask somebody to do something he wasn't willing to do himself. He had the bar set very high. You knew where you stood with him. There was never a question about whether or not what he expected that remains now that Dennis has retired and thankfully stays in touch with everybody and comes back now and then. We're going to have lunch with him on Thursday. 

       Not too much has changed. A few things that have been enhanced are some leans towards technology that Dennis wasn't too familiar or excited about and, admittedly, so. His favorite joke was, what do you get when you cross a fill in the blank with a computer, and then the punch line to the joke was a computer. He was not thrilled with how things were going in technology, just because his take was we want to make parts. I'm excited to see some of the technology us embrace some of that a little more but knowing that we always need to stay true hold to the original values. And that's what's important.

       Lisa Ryan: That's terrific. What are some of the things that are keeping you up at night?

       Allison Giddens: Some of the things that keep me up at night include supply chain risk management. So much is happening for our suppliers, vendors, and customers; those moving pieces from the pandemic fallout with supplies and shortages to work for shortages because of sick people. There are cybersecurity concerns related to those supply chain concerns. So it's all the things on the peripheral that I feel that as a type-A personality cannot control, necessarily. So it's those things that even if I can't directly control it, I can at least be aware of it. One of Dennis's favorite sayings was if you know that there's a snake in the weeds. It won't bite you. 

       Lisa Ryan: When it came to running production and running your business through covid, were you able to do any remote work, or did you have to reschedule production based on who showed up?

       Allison Giddens: It's been challenging. We did a great job from the get-go. When the pandemic hit, we had a person in charge of making sure that all the common area surfaces were clean at all times. On the hour, he was walking around with cleaning supplies, making sure doorknobs and light fixtures and counter spaces and such. We're all clean, and with 30 people or so out in the shop, have a 20,000 square foot shop at any point in time, we invented social distancing. That part wasn't challenging. But yes, when certain people were a little bit nervous, you know, maybe woke up with a sore throat. Everybody was well aware that they were to stay home if they did not feel 100%. We did have to move some things around because we are a manufacturer, we were not able to do any remote work. A couple of our admin folks perhaps could have, but we found it best that everything would be okay if everyone stayed in their respective spots.

       To this day, we're still dealing with the occasional unexpected somebody out. Well, we have, you know, we have them scheduled to do XYZ, so it's, it's a matter of just being nimble, being flexible, and again having a backup plan. So it's not it does not necessarily have to be able to control everything. But it's having the game plan in place so that if it did happen. You can pull the trigger.

       Lisa Ryan: When it comes to creating this network, we want to with the Manufacturers' network; here's a two-part question. What would be some of the things you would like to learn from other manufacturers? By the same token, if somebody wanted to connect with you. What would be your areas of expertise that you'd be willing to share with your colleagues?

       Allison Giddens: Sure, that's a good question. Good two-parter. So I would be interested to hear from others about training resources that they have for shop floor machinists, operators, and programmers. What's worked for them? I might also be curious to know their best practices in hiring - what they have a good experience, whether it be, whether it be software or websites or just questions to be asked during an interview. Those are always things that we're learning from resources I can share. I've got a great network of CMC affiliates, and that is the cybersecurity maturity model certification that many manufacturers in the defense industry. Within the next couple of years, they'll all have to be certified. So I've been living and breathing that. I'm more than happy to share any resources I've gained over those past couple of years. 

       I've also got an amazing virtual internship that I developed for local high school students. And trying to encourage them to check out manufacturing and see what it's all about. So I'm more than happy to share that curriculum of sorts, especially if there's another manufacturer out there. Who wants to do something similar and offer it to their local high school because that's the next generation. And those. The next people. We need to hire.

       Lisa Ryan: Wow, that is a terrific resource. Can you give us just a taste of what that internship looks like?

       Allison Giddens: Sure. So, it lasts about 15 days. But of those days, we broke it up, so this was born out of covid. Initially, it was intended to bring on a couple of high school students on our shop floor; they were going to take part in a project. Then the world got turned upside down, and I was going to have to cancel on those students. Instead of canceling, I created this 15-day internship.

       Instead of focusing on a Win-Tech project, we brought on 12 students. I had a fantastic group of professionals dial in and gave the students insight into their professions within the industry. So we took manufacturing, and we looked at everything.

       We looked at the supply chain. We looked at accounting. We looked at marketing. We looked at the shop floor and metallurgy. So we, you name it, we looked at it. We had a subject matter expert speak to the students for about 30 or 40 minutes. At the very end of the program, the students gave us a presentation on something having to do with manufacturing solving a problem in the world. And it was great because not only did they get a wide breadth of manufacturing expertise thrown at them, but they created their own network. They had all these subject matter experts; these professionals dial-in just to talk to these students and stay in touch. It was a great opportunity for not only the students but the professionals involved devoted a lot of time and energy to it, and I'm grateful for that. So happy to share any additional information that we did with that program. It was a blast.

       Lisa Ryan: But is a terrific way to start to change the conversation and get these kids while they're still in high school and introduce them to manufacturing as a field; so good for you. That's terrific. So if people do would like to get a hold of you. What's the best way for them to do that.

       Allison Giddens: Best way to do that is either through LinkedIn or through my email address: akrache@win-tech.net

       Lisa Ryan: Alison has been an absolute pleasure having you on the show today. I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the manufacturer's Network. Thanks for coming and we'll see you next time.

       ]]>b87d2533-00d9-42e7-b84d-f9a5f4c778cfMon, 08 Feb 2021 07:00:00 -040017:58falsefull113131Family Matters: Secrets of a Running a Successful Family Business with Roger SargentConnect 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 boat, but they don't take the time to teach the family. They're the foundation of the business not I'm not talking about the procedures in the process as I'm talking about why the business was started in the first place. And what's its overall goal and trying to get connected with their customers and deliver the best service possible.

       They seem just automatically to think by just being part of the family. 

       That's where it all starts. And that's where I begin with getting my getting the family members together. And the key employees together and just talking that out, but it's just they make too many assumptions that everybody knows why they're doing it a certain way.

       Lisa Ryan: It sounds like it can come down to a simple conversation about the company's history because one of the things that a lot of manufacturers are looking at that success is that succession planning. Who's going to take over the business when I'm no longer there? And getting to the point of that why I started the business. What was it that was going on at the time? How did I figure out these procedures?

       Because that way, you're giving a history to the rest of the family, who then, based on that knowledge, can come up with ways that make sense to update the policies to update things and take it forward. Instead of getting stuck. Would that be helpful?

       Roger Sargent: That that's exactly at least. So that is very well said because it's just people just making too many assumptions, and so those assumptions get passed on from generation to generation. So what you just laid out there is a perfect format to break away from their current assumption base and went forward with maybe not a new business plan, but just new eyes looking at everything going on.

       Lisa Ryan: What occurs to me is that maybe that first-generation thinks that the rest of the family's going to get bored or they've heard it before, or I told him. Well, how I started this company 20 years ago, so maybe they do not realize how important it is, especially when you start thinking about transition or succession planning to let the next generations know coming in that this is what we. This is why we got started and helped them get a little bit closer to that.

       Roger Sargent: You're so spot on with that message and it doesn't necessarily mean family-owned business. It's just business in general. 82% of all small to middle-sized businesses fail within their first four years, and it's because they don't take the time to put down in stone, what the primary purpose of this business is and why it got started.

       What end result is expected and desired end result wants to look like, or should it look like they love their trade most small business owners and middle-sized businesses. They love their trade; they fall in love with their trade, and they think that the business part of things will take care of itself, because they want to be involved with the trade and that's where it stems down because they love it. And that's what makes them so good.

       When it is on service delivery, it doesn't necessarily translate that it's going to be a good business. We're all in business to hopefully deliver good products good service, but obviously, to make money to be able to send that business on to the next generation and hand it down to generation after generation, You're not gonna do that if it's losing money every month.

       Lisa Ryan: Exactly. It almost sounds like the original thought with the Field of Dreams mentality behind it; if I build it, they will come. That first generation is so passionate, and they have their way, and they know why they're doing, and then over time, that gets diluted. So it's like, well, mom or dad built the business, but why aren't they coming? Because the next generation doesn't necessarily understand that why or necessarily have the same passion.

       Lisa Ryan: That the founders, whether it be their parents or the people that they're working for. So after they have that original conversation as far as just discussing the wise kind of painting that picture, where do you take them from there, what would be the next best step?

       Roger Sargent: Well, you just said a very keyword passion. The original founder and maybe the second generation had that passion to just keep moving on. That doesn't mean that the next generation of people who have a family have that same passion, so you need to take a look at everybody and say, okay. Now that you've described the bigger vision, I love the old saying by Yogi Berra, "If you don't know where you're going, how do you get there?"  

       Once we realize we know where we're going, we know what it looks like to get there. Does everybody that needs to have that passion. Do they have it. And if they don't, then maybe they shouldn't be considered of handing down this business to have because if they don't have that passion. What's going to mean they're going to keep wanting to improve as we move forward with that business.

       Lisa Ryan: That sounds like that can be a pretty tough conversation for the owner of a company to have with their family members.

       Roger Sargent: In, and what I have found is that it's exactly that it's a family conversation that's going to be tough to have in because this business is like another child to that original owner and...]]>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 boat, but they don't take the time to teach the family. They're the foundation of the business not I'm not talking about the procedures in the process as I'm talking about why the business was started in the first place. And what's its overall goal and trying to get connected with their customers and deliver the best service possible.

       They seem just automatically to think by just being part of the family. 

       That's where it all starts. And that's where I begin with getting my getting the family members together. And the key employees together and just talking that out, but it's just they make too many assumptions that everybody knows why they're doing it a certain way.

       Lisa Ryan: It sounds like it can come down to a simple conversation about the company's history because one of the things that a lot of manufacturers are looking at that success is that succession planning. Who's going to take over the business when I'm no longer there? And getting to the point of that why I started the business. What was it that was going on at the time? How did I figure out these procedures?

       Because that way, you're giving a history to the rest of the family, who then, based on that knowledge, can come up with ways that make sense to update the policies to update things and take it forward. Instead of getting stuck. Would that be helpful?

       Roger Sargent: That that's exactly at least. So that is very well said because it's just people just making too many assumptions, and so those assumptions get passed on from generation to generation. So what you just laid out there is a perfect format to break away from their current assumption base and went forward with maybe not a new business plan, but just new eyes looking at everything going on.

       Lisa Ryan: What occurs to me is that maybe that first-generation thinks that the rest of the family's going to get bored or they've heard it before, or I told him. Well, how I started this company 20 years ago, so maybe they do not realize how important it is, especially when you start thinking about transition or succession planning to let the next generations know coming in that this is what we. This is why we got started and helped them get a little bit closer to that.

       Roger Sargent: You're so spot on with that message and it doesn't necessarily mean family-owned business. It's just business in general. 82% of all small to middle-sized businesses fail within their first four years, and it's because they don't take the time to put down in stone, what the primary purpose of this business is and why it got started.

       What end result is expected and desired end result wants to look like, or should it look like they love their trade most small business owners and middle-sized businesses. They love their trade; they fall in love with their trade, and they think that the business part of things will take care of itself, because they want to be involved with the trade and that's where it stems down because they love it. And that's what makes them so good.

       When it is on service delivery, it doesn't necessarily translate that it's going to be a good business. We're all in business to hopefully deliver good products good service, but obviously, to make money to be able to send that business on to the next generation and hand it down to generation after generation, You're not gonna do that if it's losing money every month.

       Lisa Ryan: Exactly. It almost sounds like the original thought with the Field of Dreams mentality behind it; if I build it, they will come. That first generation is so passionate, and they have their way, and they know why they're doing, and then over time, that gets diluted. So it's like, well, mom or dad built the business, but why aren't they coming? Because the next generation doesn't necessarily understand that why or necessarily have the same passion.

       Lisa Ryan: That the founders, whether it be their parents or the people that they're working for. So after they have that original conversation as far as just discussing the wise kind of painting that picture, where do you take them from there, what would be the next best step?

       Roger Sargent: Well, you just said a very keyword passion. The original founder and maybe the second generation had that passion to just keep moving on. That doesn't mean that the next generation of people who have a family have that same passion, so you need to take a look at everybody and say, okay. Now that you've described the bigger vision, I love the old saying by Yogi Berra, "If you don't know where you're going, how do you get there?"  

       Once we realize we know where we're going, we know what it looks like to get there. Does everybody that needs to have that passion. Do they have it. And if they don't, then maybe they shouldn't be considered of handing down this business to have because if they don't have that passion. What's going to mean they're going to keep wanting to improve as we move forward with that business.

       Lisa Ryan: That sounds like that can be a pretty tough conversation for the owner of a company to have with their family members.

       Roger Sargent: In, and what I have found is that it's exactly that it's a family conversation that's going to be tough to have in because this business is like another child to that original owner and so you're talking about your child, another sibling. And so what you're trying to establish here is the true commit. 

       I would recommend that. That's where you need to have an outside facilitator make that conversation happen and not just let things kind of get swept under the carpet like it typically can happen with a family-owned and family in general. Sometimes we don't want to deal with that, so we just sweep that topic under the carpet and see if we'd ever get stepped on again to where we need to talk about it again. You need to have some of this to facilitate it from start to finish and not let it get stalled in between.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and the other thing, even though there is an investment in bringing in a consultant or a third party to work with a manufacturer. The nice thing about it is that you can be the bad guy. You can tell that person exactly what that person wants to say, but for whatever reason, they can't say it. They don't want to hurt feelings. After all, they want to keep their family ties because they don't want to destroy their relationships.

       So having the skills and looking at it from that neutral third party coming in, you're not only able to say that, but you are perceived differently by the employees because you're not there on the day today.

       Roger Sargent: Exactly, yeah.

       Lisa Ryan: So after those difficult conversations you've explored the why you've had some of these difficult conversations to kind of reignite that passion within the company. Where do they go from there to move forward?

       Roger Sargent: Well, they make whatever necessary agreements that they're going to move forward with the terms they just agreed upon. Then, what you do is you start taking each one of those agreements, and you start now breaking those down to see if there things that are being done right now that can be changed for the better the company and start seeing how that's going to apply. But it begins with agreements, and then you start breaking down all those agreements into small baby steps making those processes to where everybody's body. And so it's not the father handing down more directives; it's now a team of family members or key personnel that's treated like family.

       To have their say and how everything looks and sounds moving forward. It would help if you had that buy in. Let them feel like they are contributing, not just what they do to pick up their paycheck, but contributing to the bigger picture and the bigger cause.

       Lisa Ryan: Share with us a success story that you had with one of your clients, of course, giving the information confidential. But something where you saw a real big difference between what they were doing by implementing the process that we just talked about how they were able to see success after that.

       Roger Sargent: There are plenty, but the one that comes to my mind is a family-owned company. They have the daughter, the husband of the daughter, and then the husband, a wife who founded the company. They all have their roles, but they were not necessarily meant to be in that role because of their particular skill set. The job came open, and they needed to put someone there. So they put a family member, even though they might not have been fully qualified to do that. And over time, even though you're a family member, you don't enjoy what you're doing because you don't know what you're trying to do. It can weigh on you and take a toll. Once we found this out, we realize that they had much better skill sets necessary in other parts of the business. So what we did was we moved them to where they had that self-injected fire that started underneath them. They were excited to come to work and help out in that particular area instead of just coming in and dreading it every day. Not being productive every day because I didn't like what I do because I didn't know what I was supposed to do. 

       The old saying, "You don't know what you don't know." If no one teaches you, just throw you in that spot because the opening is here and we need to get that stuff done. That's not the recipe for long-term success. Once we've put the family members in the right spot that opened up the opportunity for some long-term employees who have been around with a family business for a long time to step into additional roles they were excited about. So, the company's morale, first and foremost, just springboarded greatly because they felt so good about that. But at the same time, when you come to work and you enjoy what happens that energy and synergy is going to transcend through all the rest of the employees. Without doing a whole lot of other changes to the marketing process or the sales process, all of a sudden, the company became more efficient and more productive, which means they became more profitable because everybody was doing a job that they liked. They were good at it, and before it, just good things happened without changing a lot of the operational procedures.

       Lisa Ryan: That's such an interesting point because our whole conversation up to that was about the owner or the leader of the company themselves sitting down and sharing their passion and their why. But having that level of not the only vulnerability of allowing that employee that family member that person is that isn't quite getting that passion for feeling safe enough to share. Well, I don't understand what I'm doing. Well, I don't like what I'm doing well. That opens up like you found opportunities for them to move into something they are passionate about. So it does go on both sides of the equation; it's up to the owner to the company's leadership to share the reasons why. But it's also coming full circle that they have to listen and be willing to listen to their employees, whatever they say, and look for ways to make it work, even though it's not necessarily the role that they thought that that employee was supposed to be.

       Roger Sargent: Yeah. Well, well, said what you find is that most owners when they started a business. They were so in love with their trade that they didn't take the time and effort to get to know the other aspects of running that business. So when they hand that roll off to a family member or just an employee, most of the time, they're not very well trained on how to do that because the owner himself doesn't know how to do that. So, hey you applied for a bookkeeping job, you said you have some booking experience go through the book you've been, even though they might only know how to do payroll, they might not know how to do anything else and bookkeeping, but they might have just done payroll only or just done accounts receivable only, and now they're in charge of all the bookkeeping that they have no real skill set to do that entire job. 

       That's the problem with most businesses, primarily in manufacturing, is that we get so involved in our trade in the delivery of service that we forget that those other business components are necessary evils that need to be addressed every day to make sure that the business is going to be profitable and sustainable from you're in and you're out.

       Lisa Ryan: You have given us so many great tips about just taking a step back and looking at the business. But if you were to wrap it up in a nice little bow with your best tip that somebody listening today could start to implement, what would that be?

       Roger Sargent: Of stop making assumptions. Number one: start having some in-depth conversations with your key staff and your frontline staff as well. Start building that foundation and that environment where it's safe to say what's on your mind, obviously. You need to do that respectfully, but, you need to find out. Do you have everybody sitting on a seat on the bus right now within that organization? Are they sitting on the bus's right seat and did they knew their why; the big purpose of the business was started in the first place. If they can, if they're seeing say yes, I'm on the right seat. I love this place. I love what I do every day, and I know the why, on the bigger picture. Now start moving into the efficiencies.

       But first and foremost, stop making assumptions and build that environment where people can freely say what they need to say and not have any repercussions, so that way you know. Have you heard the same two heads are better than one? Well, I think ten heads are better than two. So if you've got a lot of people getting feedback, you just never know what you might find out from that frontline employee that comes in with such a different perspective. Something that might be relevant for your business today that you never thought of before give them that opportunity.

       Lisa Ryan: Wonderful. Well, Roger. Thank you so much for being on the show today from a networking standpoint if people would like to reach out to you. What's the best way to do that.

       Roger Sargent: Well, my, my cell phone. I was always on me. So you can call me at 509-366-2953 or you can reach me on my email by ABSconsulting58@gmail.com

       Lisa Ryan: Wonderful. Well, again, Roger. Thank you so much for being on the show today. It's been great to have the conversation.

       Roger Sargent: Thank you very much I enjoyed it.

       Lisa Ryan: I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the manufacturers network podcast. See you next time.

       ]]>6de11f68-b22c-497a-a867-f6e9d063c307Mon, 01 Feb 2021 07:00:00 -040021:10falsefull112121Why Not Let Your Employees Do the Hiring with Sue BinghamConnect 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 are listening and their heads are about to explode right now, "what do you mean? Managers aren't doing the hiring?" I'd love you to go into the details and let people know what it looks like.

       Sue Bingham: Absolutely. I think you need to start with your middle management, your leaders, in terms of challenging their assumptions about the people they manage. I mean, these are adults, and they're working side by side with every new person. And if a company is is is willing to train, and most are, especially on those entry-level jobs, it's far more essential to hire someone for their character than it is for and their personal attributes than it is for whatever experience they might have.

       So the steps are that you get management, the supervisors, and managers to say tell us who your top employees are, who are your best people? I mean, you can count on them. They're always there. They go the extra mile. They're trustworthy completely. And they're innovative. They're creative. Who are those people? And they identify the five or six or seven top employees. And then we go through about a six-hour training session, which is more than most supervisors have had in hiring decisions, often more than most managers have had in manufacturing in terms of interviewing.

       We get them together, and we say, tell us what you're looking for in the person working next to you. If I ask supervisors, they'll usually say some related experience and a good attendance record of getting that information. And and and that's about it. I like them if they seem like they're a good fit, and yet if you ask the people that are going to be working next to them for eight to 10 to 12 hours a day, what are you looking for it? They'll make a list of 30 to 40 attributes, like a sense of humor, has my back, learns quickly, is willing to go the extra mile, creative, funny, fun to work with - they'll have a whole list of those things. We do give them a group of behaviorally based questions that they can use to determine what questions they want to ask. We teach them how to do a team interview, which can seem daunting to a candidate and often does. For the last 20 years, our experience is that people walk out of those interviews wanting the job more than they did when they walked in. This process makes people more comfortable.

       The more they work together, the stronger they are. And they ask probing questions. And at the very end of that interview, they decide whether or not to hire that employee. And that decision is made with management's counting on them to make that decision and make it a good decision. And everybody has to agree. They have to reach a consensus. They can live with the decision, even if someone's not so sure. There are obstacles with it, but the benefits are so much more significant.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. I was thinking of it. It seems to eliminate that first day, the scary first day for the new employee because they met their boss. Maybe they saw some of the people that they'd be working within the plant. But until they go and show where their workspaces, they have no idea. Am I going to like these people? Who am I going to have lunch with? Where are the cool kids? Who do I sit with? When you have that team effort bringing them on board, not only do they feel more comfortable being around those people, but the people that they're working with have buy-in. They think that this person is because of me. Versus nobody even knows that I've been here for more than six weeks. You get ghosted at lunch because people are like, oh, God, another new or another one, why should I make friends with them? They're just going to be gone in three weeks. Well, what if you did make friends with them? Yes. Friendship caused you to stay.

       Sue Bingham: Well, that's just it. And the thing is that the team members take personal responsibility for that person's success versus the supervisors who just brought in another person. We're going to have to train. They take responsibility, and we measure their success. I mean, we give them regular reports. They look at turnover numbers and so on, so forth. So there's a lot of side benefit cycle. They'll identify if a supervisor has a significant turnover issue based on style or something like that. They'll recognize it because they're very focused. Their goal is to reduce turnover in combination with hiring the very best people that are there.

       Lisa Ryan: Every company I've ever worked for there seems to be like the golden child manager that is untouchable from an upper management standpoint, but they're just atrocious as a manager. But nobody has the nerve to tell them. So when you use this philosophy and open it up, create that safe environment to no one; we will listen to you if you have some legitimate gripes about what your boss is doing.

       And either we're going to send that manager to training, or they're not going to be managers because that you've heard it. I mean, people don't leave their people don't quit their job. They quit their manager. We've listened to it a gazillion times. And it's up to leaders to make sure that their managers measure up to the culture they want to create.

       Sue Bingham: Team members make sure of that. They will often go a step further and say to the team members, what were your challenges on the first day, and how would you suggest that we structure the first-day orientation and get them involved in that? You're empowering people at that frontline level with a significant decision that contributes to the retention of those high performers.

       They're getting a much stronger sense]]>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 are listening and their heads are about to explode right now, "what do you mean? Managers aren't doing the hiring?" I'd love you to go into the details and let people know what it looks like.

       Sue Bingham: Absolutely. I think you need to start with your middle management, your leaders, in terms of challenging their assumptions about the people they manage. I mean, these are adults, and they're working side by side with every new person. And if a company is is is willing to train, and most are, especially on those entry-level jobs, it's far more essential to hire someone for their character than it is for and their personal attributes than it is for whatever experience they might have.

       So the steps are that you get management, the supervisors, and managers to say tell us who your top employees are, who are your best people? I mean, you can count on them. They're always there. They go the extra mile. They're trustworthy completely. And they're innovative. They're creative. Who are those people? And they identify the five or six or seven top employees. And then we go through about a six-hour training session, which is more than most supervisors have had in hiring decisions, often more than most managers have had in manufacturing in terms of interviewing.

       We get them together, and we say, tell us what you're looking for in the person working next to you. If I ask supervisors, they'll usually say some related experience and a good attendance record of getting that information. And and and that's about it. I like them if they seem like they're a good fit, and yet if you ask the people that are going to be working next to them for eight to 10 to 12 hours a day, what are you looking for it? They'll make a list of 30 to 40 attributes, like a sense of humor, has my back, learns quickly, is willing to go the extra mile, creative, funny, fun to work with - they'll have a whole list of those things. We do give them a group of behaviorally based questions that they can use to determine what questions they want to ask. We teach them how to do a team interview, which can seem daunting to a candidate and often does. For the last 20 years, our experience is that people walk out of those interviews wanting the job more than they did when they walked in. This process makes people more comfortable.

       The more they work together, the stronger they are. And they ask probing questions. And at the very end of that interview, they decide whether or not to hire that employee. And that decision is made with management's counting on them to make that decision and make it a good decision. And everybody has to agree. They have to reach a consensus. They can live with the decision, even if someone's not so sure. There are obstacles with it, but the benefits are so much more significant.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. I was thinking of it. It seems to eliminate that first day, the scary first day for the new employee because they met their boss. Maybe they saw some of the people that they'd be working within the plant. But until they go and show where their workspaces, they have no idea. Am I going to like these people? Who am I going to have lunch with? Where are the cool kids? Who do I sit with? When you have that team effort bringing them on board, not only do they feel more comfortable being around those people, but the people that they're working with have buy-in. They think that this person is because of me. Versus nobody even knows that I've been here for more than six weeks. You get ghosted at lunch because people are like, oh, God, another new or another one, why should I make friends with them? They're just going to be gone in three weeks. Well, what if you did make friends with them? Yes. Friendship caused you to stay.

       Sue Bingham: Well, that's just it. And the thing is that the team members take personal responsibility for that person's success versus the supervisors who just brought in another person. We're going to have to train. They take responsibility, and we measure their success. I mean, we give them regular reports. They look at turnover numbers and so on, so forth. So there's a lot of side benefit cycle. They'll identify if a supervisor has a significant turnover issue based on style or something like that. They'll recognize it because they're very focused. Their goal is to reduce turnover in combination with hiring the very best people that are there.

       Lisa Ryan: Every company I've ever worked for there seems to be like the golden child manager that is untouchable from an upper management standpoint, but they're just atrocious as a manager. But nobody has the nerve to tell them. So when you use this philosophy and open it up, create that safe environment to no one; we will listen to you if you have some legitimate gripes about what your boss is doing.

       And either we're going to send that manager to training, or they're not going to be managers because that you've heard it. I mean, people don't leave their people don't quit their job. They quit their manager. We've listened to it a gazillion times. And it's up to leaders to make sure that their managers measure up to the culture they want to create.

       Sue Bingham: Team members make sure of that. They will often go a step further and say to the team members, what were your challenges on the first day, and how would you suggest that we structure the first-day orientation and get them involved in that? You're empowering people at that frontline level with a significant decision that contributes to the retention of those high performers.

       They're getting a much stronger sense of ownership within the company.

       Yeah. You're entrusting them with a role that they probably never would have aspired to. And they never even thought that they would be instrumental in hiring the next person. You're also giving the opportunity to maybe somebody who hasn't been shining like a superstar to once they get empowered and feel a taste of that, now you're giving them the tools to make them even better job.

       Well, and another benefit, I mean, we only usually do that training once. And then there's a term limit. After two months or three months, a member will rotate off but will name their successor to the team. And then, the team trains the person on the job as part of the interview process. So it's just a fantastic approach. And I want to describe the results. It reduces turnover by more than 50 percent almost immediately.

       Lisa Ryan: So what would you describe then as a high performing manufacturing organization?

       Sue Bingham: Well, it's one in which you can't tell who works in the plant and who works in the office other than maybe the PPE, although if they're on the floor office, people ought to be wearing their personal protective equipment. You can't tell about changing shifts, which is interesting. I've worked in large plants where, when the shift is over, there's a mass exodus converging with a mass exodus coming in. You don't really see that because people stop and talk to each other, and we don't get wrapped up in little things.

       First of all, a high-performance workplace has no use for timecards. We believe people are salaried, will pay them forty hours. And if they're in a non-exempt job, they get overtime. But we're not sweating a minute here, two minutes here, and neither are they. It's so they'll talk to each other between shifts and let each one know what's what, what they need to pay attention to going through it. They greet people. I can tell when I walk into a high-performance workplace because people will look me in the eye and smile. And often that way, it sounds like little stuff, but I can also tell one that's a very traditionally managed company where you walk in, and people are looking down and nobody looks up, and nobody says anything. And by the way, you're being escorted by a management member, not by one of the team members who know the job the best or the equipment the best.

       Lisa Ryan: You feel culture. You feel. You can walk into a plant, and when you think about that brand new employee or a candidate for a job coming in, and they're walking around that plant, they're thinking, "How does it feel? Do I want to work here? You know, I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but there's something off? I don't want to be there versus they see the smiles, they see the recognition.

       Sue Bingham: They feel that energy even between shift change, which is such a good example. And there's not the micromanagement of every second because of the time clock. Sometimes we have to throw out these jaded management philosophies, and they're all used to create those connections. Well, they're all based on a lack of trust. And everybody's had experience with hiring bad employees. I mean, that are just bad. They're not good people. They'll steal from you, they'll lie to you, they'll cheat, they'll do whatever. And if they manage to get themselves in, you want to get them out as soon as possible. But you don't want to create a whole culture around trying to catch them. And in the process of that, dehumanize all those good people that you've hired.

       And that's the crux of the philosophy that drives so many of these systems, is don't spend time on that five percenter. If you if you've made a bad hire, get them out quickly. And on the ninety-five percenters, focus your attention on them through reward and challenge and knowing that they have so much more to contribute. I often liken a traditional manufacturing organization to someone who buys a really robust computer system, but they only use one tiny part of its capacity.

       That's what we do with our production employees in many traditionally managed organizations where we bring them in to do the hand, the men where manual work. But we're not using their brain at all. Right. And there's so much that they have to offer. And I'm not trying to be Pollyanna here. There is I have seen in high-performance workplaces the level of creativity and ownership. And for those looking at numbers, every metric is improved when you've got a workforce like that.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, as we're getting to the end of our time together, how do people get in touch with you if they want to learn more, they want to connect with you?

       Sue Bingham:  They can go to our group, which is HPWPgroup.com. Go to our website. We're always happy to be in touch. Anybody can reach me and sue@HPWPgroup.com We really are involved in creating communities. And our leadership workshops typically end up forming communities from companies that have engaged in and invested in creating that high-performance workplace. So they share what their successes are, where they've stubbed their toes, and so on, may have some of their community, even though they're different industries the most.

       Lisa Ryan: So thanks again so much for being my guest today. I'm Lisa Ryan and I want to thank you for tuning in to the Manufacturers Network podcast. See you next time. Thanks, Lisa.

       ]]>f545335b-556b-4841-b014-a3282eec40e4Sat, 23 Jan 2021 07:20:00 -040019:31falsefull110101Facing Today's Supply Chain Challenges with David ByrleyConnect 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 breadth of contribution with their talents is growing

       Lisa Ryan: So thinking about maybe one or two of clients who are knocking it out of the park, is there one thing that you've seen that they've implemented - besides just the bringing a lot of people into the project's themselves - as far as the way they treat their employees or something in their workplace culture?

       DAVID BYRLEY: I'm not too close to a lot of that. But you know what I would say is you have been involved in several different companies and their cross-functional teams. There's much more of a level playing field in terms of the meetings. It's more of an exchange of information ideas than it is sending signals down to the to do this. The awareness is starting to take place that this is a much more efficient way to go. 

       Lisa Ryan: I like what you said as far as the people being on the same level. If somebody is brand-spanking new With the company, they just got their degree. They may not have experience in your industry, but they see the world differently. Creating a safe environment for people to share ideas and get those ideas on the table and be listened to and taken seriously. Now, that can make a huge difference for keeping The employees because they feel valued. 

       DAVID BYRLEY: One of the things that are happening is gaining many more examples in industry where out-of-the-box thinking is attributed to success. In the past, it would have been that's blue-sky thinking. Things are changing dramatically and so what some of the younger generations see as possible, is possible. So there's much more of an open mind with that input.

       Lisa Ryan: There's no more of that, "We've been doing it this way for 40 years. And there's no reason to change," because with technology coming at us the way it is, this whole new world is opening up. In the last year, we're finding all kinds of new ways to do business when dealing with a pandemic; it's not your grandfather's factory anymore. What are some of the things that you're seeing that are keeping your clients up at night? What are the main things that they're struggling with

       DAVID BYRLEY: Everybody's wondering about how technology is going to change the whole paradigm. For example, in the industrial cutting tool business. 80% of cutting tools are sold through industrial supply distribution. We now have Amazon, and we have the younger generation that's buying tools right off their phone, right right next to their machine. Everybody's saying, "Okay, what's new?" It's going to evolve. The industrial supply distributors are thinking about how they can position their business to provide the most value to the manufacturer. The manufacturer is thinking, Well, I don't want to get left behind, so there's a discussion between those two. 

       Some models that are emerging are working well. One of the new models is that you market directly now to the end-user and sell through distribution and ship direct. A mid-sized distributor or smaller distributor doesn't have the resources to do with the marketing; now we've got this marriage. The mid-size or regional distributor is getting all this good marketing, and they don't feel threatened; that it's an advantage for them. So, there are these new shifts and relationships that are happening. People are less likely to live in denial about what's happening and kind of use influence to keep things as status quo. They now realize that that's a short term play.

       Lisa Ryan: It brings me back to the days when I was in the welding industry selling all kinds of welding consumables into the maintenance department. I would never think that 20 years later that Joe could go online to Amazon and buy a box of rod. Personal connections are still meaningful. But again, you have a change in philosophy, a change in that immediate gratification of I don't need to wait till that salesperson makes their monthly visit, I can go online, and with the click of a button, I can add to the cart, and it's here in a day or two. 

       That brings up another point for sales reps to figure out new ways of doing business. The personal relationships are there, and it's becoming so much more than just the product - it's reaching out. 

       Tell us about some of the ways that you work with your clients if somebody had some questions or needed some help for you. And then what would be the best way to get ahold of you.

       DAVID BYRLEY: Yeah. So I do a lot of work also with private equity companies. So I get a pretty comprehensive view of what's going on within several different industries. Simultaneously, I'm getting a solid pulse on what people are thinking about. There's a lot of these new models emerging, so people are leveraging my background and the fact that I understand manufacturing and understand engineering. I know the marketing side as well as the sales and distribution side. I have extensive experience bringing something from concept through commercialization with over 20 plus major new projects. So the way I'm being leveraged is rather than having to commit to a VP level person for a long term or that you can have all that experience and save to a six-month project or one year project or two-year project. Typically it starts as a three-month project and grows so that that's the way you know I've set up leverage 30 to be leveraged to leverage to 30 years of experience just that way.

       Lisa Ryan: Okay, and what's the best way for people to get in touch with you.

       DAVID...]]>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 breadth of contribution with their talents is growing

       Lisa Ryan: So thinking about maybe one or two of clients who are knocking it out of the park, is there one thing that you've seen that they've implemented - besides just the bringing a lot of people into the project's themselves - as far as the way they treat their employees or something in their workplace culture?

       DAVID BYRLEY: I'm not too close to a lot of that. But you know what I would say is you have been involved in several different companies and their cross-functional teams. There's much more of a level playing field in terms of the meetings. It's more of an exchange of information ideas than it is sending signals down to the to do this. The awareness is starting to take place that this is a much more efficient way to go. 

       Lisa Ryan: I like what you said as far as the people being on the same level. If somebody is brand-spanking new With the company, they just got their degree. They may not have experience in your industry, but they see the world differently. Creating a safe environment for people to share ideas and get those ideas on the table and be listened to and taken seriously. Now, that can make a huge difference for keeping The employees because they feel valued. 

       DAVID BYRLEY: One of the things that are happening is gaining many more examples in industry where out-of-the-box thinking is attributed to success. In the past, it would have been that's blue-sky thinking. Things are changing dramatically and so what some of the younger generations see as possible, is possible. So there's much more of an open mind with that input.

       Lisa Ryan: There's no more of that, "We've been doing it this way for 40 years. And there's no reason to change," because with technology coming at us the way it is, this whole new world is opening up. In the last year, we're finding all kinds of new ways to do business when dealing with a pandemic; it's not your grandfather's factory anymore. What are some of the things that you're seeing that are keeping your clients up at night? What are the main things that they're struggling with

       DAVID BYRLEY: Everybody's wondering about how technology is going to change the whole paradigm. For example, in the industrial cutting tool business. 80% of cutting tools are sold through industrial supply distribution. We now have Amazon, and we have the younger generation that's buying tools right off their phone, right right next to their machine. Everybody's saying, "Okay, what's new?" It's going to evolve. The industrial supply distributors are thinking about how they can position their business to provide the most value to the manufacturer. The manufacturer is thinking, Well, I don't want to get left behind, so there's a discussion between those two. 

       Some models that are emerging are working well. One of the new models is that you market directly now to the end-user and sell through distribution and ship direct. A mid-sized distributor or smaller distributor doesn't have the resources to do with the marketing; now we've got this marriage. The mid-size or regional distributor is getting all this good marketing, and they don't feel threatened; that it's an advantage for them. So, there are these new shifts and relationships that are happening. People are less likely to live in denial about what's happening and kind of use influence to keep things as status quo. They now realize that that's a short term play.

       Lisa Ryan: It brings me back to the days when I was in the welding industry selling all kinds of welding consumables into the maintenance department. I would never think that 20 years later that Joe could go online to Amazon and buy a box of rod. Personal connections are still meaningful. But again, you have a change in philosophy, a change in that immediate gratification of I don't need to wait till that salesperson makes their monthly visit, I can go online, and with the click of a button, I can add to the cart, and it's here in a day or two. 

       That brings up another point for sales reps to figure out new ways of doing business. The personal relationships are there, and it's becoming so much more than just the product - it's reaching out. 

       Tell us about some of the ways that you work with your clients if somebody had some questions or needed some help for you. And then what would be the best way to get ahold of you.

       DAVID BYRLEY: Yeah. So I do a lot of work also with private equity companies. So I get a pretty comprehensive view of what's going on within several different industries. Simultaneously, I'm getting a solid pulse on what people are thinking about. There's a lot of these new models emerging, so people are leveraging my background and the fact that I understand manufacturing and understand engineering. I know the marketing side as well as the sales and distribution side. I have extensive experience bringing something from concept through commercialization with over 20 plus major new projects. So the way I'm being leveraged is rather than having to commit to a VP level person for a long term or that you can have all that experience and save to a six-month project or one year project or two-year project. Typically it starts as a three-month project and grows so that that's the way you know I've set up leverage 30 to be leveraged to leverage to 30 years of experience just that way.

       Lisa Ryan: Okay, and what's the best way for people to get in touch with you.

       DAVID BYRLEY: Well, they can call me at you directly on my phone at 330-715-0562. You can go to my website, www.leverage30.com. There's a portal there to submit a request and get in touch with me but or you can connect with me via email at dhybyley@gmail.com 

        Lisa Ryan: All right. Well, David was an absolute pleasure having you on the show today. I'm Lisa R, and thanks for tuning in to the Manufacturers' Network podcast. See you next time.

       ]]>d16a6aae-3509-473d-a39f-f124d9f8f819Sat, 23 Jan 2021 07:15:00 -040014:28falsefull1991Dealing with Different Generations in Manufacturing with Chris LueckeConnect 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 touch with that generation but others as well.

       Lisa Ryan: When you look at the technology, which one of the "gifts" of covid has been pushing us into being a lot more comfortable with tech, and maybe in the long run, it will make it easier to attract the younger generation into manufacturing. Because that's part of changing the conversation, we need to get the guidance counselors in high school to suggest manufacturing and industrial careers and the parents. You're looking at these high tech environments that people are going into now. They're a whole lot different from when I was in the welding industry - when it was everything your mom ever warned you about in manufacturing—but conveying that message. What are some of the ways you've seen organizations starting to do that? Maybe it is a comparison and contrast between Texas and San Francisco. But what's working?

       Chris Luecke: Yeah, so it's a great question because helping companies attracting and retaining talent is similar to what I do to help customers attract and retain customers. You're still marketing to someone; you're trying to get them to buy from you. 

       The other is that you're trying to get them to work for you. When it comes to the younger generation, I think it's essential to take familiar things. Something I referenced a lot was the show "How it's Made." People loved watching that because it's cool to see how a candy bar is made or how a car is made. People like seeing that fast-paced environment inside of a factory. 

       Now you can take that and couple it with all the new technologies that directly impact manufacturing. You're right that referencing the difference between Houston and San Francisco is a great spot to start because when you think of heavy industry, those are some of the more gritty industries out there. When you're out working in the oil field, for example, even those industries are starting to adopt smart digital technologies that allow them to get more information and do their jobs more effectively.

       So that's the second part of my answer. You take the cool manufacturing process, and you combine that with the technology, the analytics, the dashboards, the robotics, all the sexy stuff that's now part of it. Kudos to guys like Elon Musk have shown that, hey, manufacturing a car is very similar to what we do in the tech industry. Now that we have this convergence of tech and manufacturing. I think it's on the manufacturers to create some content around that. That shows how cool how hot how flashy their businesses and how it is a great spot to take your technical background, whether you're just coming out of college as an engineer or whether you're someone that may have worked more on the software side for a while. There are a lot of opportunities in the manufacturing space. To take advantage of the technology that people are used to seeing. 

       Lisa Ryan: So what are you seeing the recurring themes of the people you've talked to? In your experience, what is keeping manufacturers up at night right now?

       Chris Luecke: Yeah, I think the end of 2020 is a great time to be having this conversation because, not to belabor the covid point any longer, but back in March, it was a shock. Lots of people saying, "Oh shoot, I can't go meet with my customer anymore. I can't go to have lunch with them." I'm sharing many perspectives from a career sales guy, but the reality was when covid hit. I don't want to say I was waiting for it, but I was prepared for it because I had started doing podcasting and videos back in 2016. I knew I had a mechanism and a vehicle to reach out to customers. Everyone had had tools they could jump on immediately at their disposal social selling through LinkedIn. To many people's credit, I think some people in manufacturing, whether that's companies or individuals, have gotten better at that people have been utilizing that as a tool out of necessity. Going into one of the things that keep people up at night is that nothing happens at midnight on December 31. It's not like the situation goes away. We're not going to a trade show right away. Many of those in-person mechanisms that people were used to putting their marketing budgets towards don't know what to do with that yet.

        So I think one thing keeping people up at night is, "how do I spend that money so that it goes to bringing in new customers, even if I can't do it in the ways that I was used to and I might have to do it for another year." So that's what's I think bugging people right now.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. And it's interesting you talk about trade shows because you look at an industry that's been changed by the pandemic. We're used to flying into Vegas, staying in a nice hotel, visiting all the vendors, and now we're doing this online. 

       I spoke at an event as an avatar where my little avatar could like walk through the grounds, go to the show booth, and talk to the little avatars at the trade show booth. And a few years ago, this technology, number one, would have been terrifying and would have been completely unwieldy, and now it's just not only a different way in a cool way of doing business. But it also allows manufacturers to bring a lot more of their people to these events because maybe they can't put everybody on a plane and send them to Vegas. Still, they can sit around the computer and eat some sandwiches and take some classes together.

       Chris Luecke: Yeah, no, you're right. And actually, I'm glad you bring it up because that's another thing that I think people are still trying to wrap their heads around is, "How do I take advantage of a virtual trade show," because you're right, the...]]>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 touch with that generation but others as well.

       Lisa Ryan: When you look at the technology, which one of the "gifts" of covid has been pushing us into being a lot more comfortable with tech, and maybe in the long run, it will make it easier to attract the younger generation into manufacturing. Because that's part of changing the conversation, we need to get the guidance counselors in high school to suggest manufacturing and industrial careers and the parents. You're looking at these high tech environments that people are going into now. They're a whole lot different from when I was in the welding industry - when it was everything your mom ever warned you about in manufacturing—but conveying that message. What are some of the ways you've seen organizations starting to do that? Maybe it is a comparison and contrast between Texas and San Francisco. But what's working?

       Chris Luecke: Yeah, so it's a great question because helping companies attracting and retaining talent is similar to what I do to help customers attract and retain customers. You're still marketing to someone; you're trying to get them to buy from you. 

       The other is that you're trying to get them to work for you. When it comes to the younger generation, I think it's essential to take familiar things. Something I referenced a lot was the show "How it's Made." People loved watching that because it's cool to see how a candy bar is made or how a car is made. People like seeing that fast-paced environment inside of a factory. 

       Now you can take that and couple it with all the new technologies that directly impact manufacturing. You're right that referencing the difference between Houston and San Francisco is a great spot to start because when you think of heavy industry, those are some of the more gritty industries out there. When you're out working in the oil field, for example, even those industries are starting to adopt smart digital technologies that allow them to get more information and do their jobs more effectively.

       So that's the second part of my answer. You take the cool manufacturing process, and you combine that with the technology, the analytics, the dashboards, the robotics, all the sexy stuff that's now part of it. Kudos to guys like Elon Musk have shown that, hey, manufacturing a car is very similar to what we do in the tech industry. Now that we have this convergence of tech and manufacturing. I think it's on the manufacturers to create some content around that. That shows how cool how hot how flashy their businesses and how it is a great spot to take your technical background, whether you're just coming out of college as an engineer or whether you're someone that may have worked more on the software side for a while. There are a lot of opportunities in the manufacturing space. To take advantage of the technology that people are used to seeing. 

       Lisa Ryan: So what are you seeing the recurring themes of the people you've talked to? In your experience, what is keeping manufacturers up at night right now?

       Chris Luecke: Yeah, I think the end of 2020 is a great time to be having this conversation because, not to belabor the covid point any longer, but back in March, it was a shock. Lots of people saying, "Oh shoot, I can't go meet with my customer anymore. I can't go to have lunch with them." I'm sharing many perspectives from a career sales guy, but the reality was when covid hit. I don't want to say I was waiting for it, but I was prepared for it because I had started doing podcasting and videos back in 2016. I knew I had a mechanism and a vehicle to reach out to customers. Everyone had had tools they could jump on immediately at their disposal social selling through LinkedIn. To many people's credit, I think some people in manufacturing, whether that's companies or individuals, have gotten better at that people have been utilizing that as a tool out of necessity. Going into one of the things that keep people up at night is that nothing happens at midnight on December 31. It's not like the situation goes away. We're not going to a trade show right away. Many of those in-person mechanisms that people were used to putting their marketing budgets towards don't know what to do with that yet.

        So I think one thing keeping people up at night is, "how do I spend that money so that it goes to bringing in new customers, even if I can't do it in the ways that I was used to and I might have to do it for another year." So that's what's I think bugging people right now.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. And it's interesting you talk about trade shows because you look at an industry that's been changed by the pandemic. We're used to flying into Vegas, staying in a nice hotel, visiting all the vendors, and now we're doing this online. 

       I spoke at an event as an avatar where my little avatar could like walk through the grounds, go to the show booth, and talk to the little avatars at the trade show booth. And a few years ago, this technology, number one, would have been terrifying and would have been completely unwieldy, and now it's just not only a different way in a cool way of doing business. But it also allows manufacturers to bring a lot more of their people to these events because maybe they can't put everybody on a plane and send them to Vegas. Still, they can sit around the computer and eat some sandwiches and take some classes together.

       Chris Luecke: Yeah, no, you're right. And actually, I'm glad you bring it up because that's another thing that I think people are still trying to wrap their heads around is, "How do I take advantage of a virtual trade show," because you're right, the training opportunities are there. No longer do you have to handpick the three to five people who will get to go to Vegas, Orlando, or wherever the conferences that year. You can have anyone sign up for those and take advantage of the training. On the flip side, this goes back to what I do with manufacturers and helps them with their marketing and sales.

        They're tremendous opportunities to access the exact type of customer you're looking for at those events. When you're at a trade show on the show floor, you're hoping the right person walks by your booth. Now, in some of these trade show platforms, you can jump in and search for VP marketing. You can search for the technology director, you can search for automation, and anyone with that title or that word in their title will pop up. It's almost cheating at that point because you're like my ideal customer is at this show, and I can find the perfect persona as well. 

       So I think another big thing. It's like, hey, how do, how do we take advantage of trade shows the right way because, yeah, I'm looking forward to being back in front of people and go into the actual in-person happy hours. Again, but there's a lot of power to these virtual platforms from a training standpoint and a sales and marketing standpoint. I think people are still really trying to get their hands around it.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. And taking advantage of it not being afraid of the technology. I mean, it's undoubtedly gotten so much easier today than it was just a few years ago, but there's still a lot of people in the workplace - and maybe in your more of the Texas-based type of clientele that well, this is the way we've always done. We don't need those darn computers. We're not going to go on video and being okay with it. 

       The whole video thing has made us all a lot more human, with kids and pets and everything else in the background. But if you want to upgrade how you see in the market, use technology to be seen in the market. The whole point of this podcast is to create that network of manufacturers. Listeners can say, "Hey, I n reach out to Chris to reach out to this person for this. So, and I know that you have your own group on LinkedIn. But share with us a little bit about what kind of support you offer how people can get ahold of you and know if there's anything or people you would like to connect with to the whole circle.

       Chris Luecke: So I'll give two answers to that. So the first thing is, in terms of what I do to help people out. We talked about figuring out how to take advantage of trade shows; how to repurpose marketing dollars. That's where I help people right now. Whether it's creating that first piece of content or developing a quarterly content strategy—figuring out how to post the right things to social media that don't just generate engagement but drive people wanting to buy from you; those are things I do, along with helping people launch podcasts and stuff like that. This kind of media-centric approach to marketing helps their customers tackle their ideal challenges through their content. So that's, that's what I do.

       The second thing to that is in terms of you know me helping people helping me. I take the same approach to that; as you mentioned, I run a community as part of Manufacturing Happy Hour. In addition to the podcast and the video series, Manufacturing Happy Hour has an industry community -it's a LinkedIn group. It's a LinkedIn community of 300 plus manufacturing leaders that I always describe as the type of people that it's not always a CEO. There are some executives in that group. Some people lead teams, but I think the controls guy that's on the plant floor. That's not afraid to suggest something to leadership and saying, Hey, if we implement this. I know this will get the result you're looking to achieve.

       That's what I, that's what I consider a leader. Anyone that's looking to take their career and their business to the next level. So those are the type of people that are in that group. I look for ways to connect people with the right folks. What I offer isn't always what someone's looking for, but the chances are that i's all about creating that community in that ecosystem of people who can help. And you know this better than anyone creating the Manufacturers Network, so, if anyone wants to join that, the link to that is manufacturinghappyhour.com/community.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, and we're at a point right now that it's probably going to be a while before we can get back in person and shake hands and have those sales meetings, but on the other hand, platforms like these allow you to not only connect with people in different industries but take advantage of what's working in a completely different industry than yours. You can take that and implement that in your plan because trade associations are fantastic, and I highly recommend that you join your trade organization. Still, sometimes that leads to this tunnel vision that it's like this is what happens in our industry. Maybe you can learn something from somebody in a completely different industry and still be able to move your business forward.

       Chris Luecke: Yep. Now we let yeah you nailed it like learning. I always think learning from other industries is the quickest way to figure out what's working. Everything I do with podcasting and videos in the manufacturing space, I have borrowed that from other industries using that for years. It's all about repurposing it for the space you're in. Whether it's in automotive and learning something from someone in food and beverage quickest way to get great ideas that you can implement fast.

       Lisa Ryan: All right, well, we are getting to the end of our time together. And I know we will have many more conversations on different topics as this podcast grows, but what's the best way for people to get ahold of you, whether they want to share ideas with you or bring in to help them with their digital platforms.

       Chris Luecke: Sure. So I'll point to one spot, and since I mentioned it before, I'll repeat it, LinkedIn is a great spot. You can find me there. But I would say, request to join the Manufacturing Happy Hour industry community - that's manufacturinghappyhour.com/community. It takes you straight to the group on LinkedIn. 

       I have to approve anyone who comes in; obviously, anyone listening to your show will get a pass because you know I know you're the type of person that would fit the mold of a manufacturing rock star. But yeah, that's the easiest spot to find me. And if you know if you want to talk sales, marketing after that happy to keep those conversations go in there.

       Lisa Ryan: Alright. Awesome. Well, Chris. Again, thank you so much for being on the show today. I'm your host, Lisa, Ryan. And this is the Manufacturers Network podcast. See you next time.

       ]]>8e3b973c-81ce-4cbf-86d9-236327aa0299Sat, 23 Jan 2021 07:10:00 -040018:09falsefull1881How Employee Wellness translates to Company Wellness in Manufacturing with Steve PacilioConnect 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 about that process and what it took to finally get people to say, oh, this is what I'm doing to change the habit of going to the emergency room to focus on their wellness.

       Steve Pacilio: Again, I think there was a lot of communication and by our leadership and our HR department and the plant managers and system plant managers. They had to find who in their plant were the change agents. It could be a group leader or an hourly employee. You get them on board, and you start talking about it, and they have meetings, and they have different meanings. 

       We're talking about wellness and, slowly, but surely you get a few more people. And then you get a few more people on it again. It's been a journey. It's not that it's happened in one year. It's been years. I also think that we have a great response, and because of this, we've been able to keep our health care costs relatively low. During this time, and that's huge. That's, that's money in their pocket, of course, that helps us financially and as a company, but it comes down to leadership and communication with the employees.

       Lisa Ryan: And so during the meetings with the communication, what exactly are you sharing with your employees. Is it just the production numbers, or are you looking at what they're doing individually? Any of the specifics of that might be helpful.

       Steve Pacilio: The plant managers will talk about their efficiencies and how they're doing. They talk about safety, safety in the plant, and manufacturing the product that they need. Sometimes you even talked about our products' safety because we want our employees to understand that somebody's life is underneath that product when you're making a lifting product. So we want to make sure that the quality is there, the product is engineered, we've done all the work we've done all the testing.

       But it's still up to individual hands and equipment to be able to make that product. So they need to be reminded, and we stress that you're making something that somebody who may have families walking underneath that and want to make sure that that doesn't fail, so there's a lot of topics that we talked about.

       Lisa Ryan: And I think that just letting your employees know how they're contributing to that greater mission of protecting not only themselves in the workplace because obviously that's expected. But seeing the result of this as a product that's going to make sure that you know those workers who are using it on the other end can safely go home to their family. So it sounds like you've done an excellent job building that into your culture over there.

       Steve Pacilio: Right now, around our safety manager, we're talking about the plants' safety. He started down this last year having an OSHA fair. So, as opposed to people watching the videos and saying, Oh, here's lockout tag out. Or here's how to handle a fire extinguisher; he tries to make it fun and get some games and multiple-choice things. He had teams, and the teams are competing to try to understand and retain the knowledge. Therefore, you'd walk through the plants and ask them some questions just played around to make sure that they wanted to retain it. Certainly, looking at different ways to engage your employees because I gleaned from 20 years ago, the employee mentality 20 years ago is much different from the employee mentality. Now, the millennials and everything. And it's the other management way of managing those types of individuals, I feel.

       Lisa Ryan: Usually, you do not hear OSHA and fun in the same sentence. You're making it less scary. I like the idea of the Plant managers asking questions to their employees afterward because then they know. Oh, I better pay attention in case Bob decides to ask me something about it. That's awesome.

       Steve Pacilio: In those types of questions, it's more for the manager to understand if they retained the knowledge. It's not a bad thing if they don't know the answer. We don't reprimand them but put that in the memory bank to see if we need to try a different tactic to make it stick. 

       Lisa Ryan: Sure. Well, and it's reinforcement. So it's good from both sides of that. Exactly. So what are some of the things that are keeping you up at night right now?

       Steve Pacilio: Just trying to understand what the future is going to look like. We have information coming from so many different sources. It isn't easy to be able to plan the future. I mean, I've got tariffs from China potential tariffs from other countries. How that affects us is because we get a lot of raw materials from overseas. We have freight issues. I mean, right now, containers are in the wrong place around the world. So now, continuous backup. We're trying to satisfy our customers' demand, even when the container comes here, there are no rigs to pull them, no tractor-trailers to pull them. It's just everything's evolving so quickly. It's hard to keep in front of it.

       If I could have a clear path, we can plan, and we can move forward. My plan for this next year has so many different directions, depending on what will happen. It gets mind-boggling at times.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, this is undoubtedly an interesting place to be in history right now because we don't know. And just when we think we know, it seems to change the next day.

       Steve Pacilio: And then the information comes from different sources, and it's different information. I mean, with covid, we're trying to keep plants open. We have five plants in the United States. In Pennsylvania, the governor would give us the]]>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 about that process and what it took to finally get people to say, oh, this is what I'm doing to change the habit of going to the emergency room to focus on their wellness.

       Steve Pacilio: Again, I think there was a lot of communication and by our leadership and our HR department and the plant managers and system plant managers. They had to find who in their plant were the change agents. It could be a group leader or an hourly employee. You get them on board, and you start talking about it, and they have meetings, and they have different meanings. 

       We're talking about wellness and, slowly, but surely you get a few more people. And then you get a few more people on it again. It's been a journey. It's not that it's happened in one year. It's been years. I also think that we have a great response, and because of this, we've been able to keep our health care costs relatively low. During this time, and that's huge. That's, that's money in their pocket, of course, that helps us financially and as a company, but it comes down to leadership and communication with the employees.

       Lisa Ryan: And so during the meetings with the communication, what exactly are you sharing with your employees. Is it just the production numbers, or are you looking at what they're doing individually? Any of the specifics of that might be helpful.

       Steve Pacilio: The plant managers will talk about their efficiencies and how they're doing. They talk about safety, safety in the plant, and manufacturing the product that they need. Sometimes you even talked about our products' safety because we want our employees to understand that somebody's life is underneath that product when you're making a lifting product. So we want to make sure that the quality is there, the product is engineered, we've done all the work we've done all the testing.

       But it's still up to individual hands and equipment to be able to make that product. So they need to be reminded, and we stress that you're making something that somebody who may have families walking underneath that and want to make sure that that doesn't fail, so there's a lot of topics that we talked about.

       Lisa Ryan: And I think that just letting your employees know how they're contributing to that greater mission of protecting not only themselves in the workplace because obviously that's expected. But seeing the result of this as a product that's going to make sure that you know those workers who are using it on the other end can safely go home to their family. So it sounds like you've done an excellent job building that into your culture over there.

       Steve Pacilio: Right now, around our safety manager, we're talking about the plants' safety. He started down this last year having an OSHA fair. So, as opposed to people watching the videos and saying, Oh, here's lockout tag out. Or here's how to handle a fire extinguisher; he tries to make it fun and get some games and multiple-choice things. He had teams, and the teams are competing to try to understand and retain the knowledge. Therefore, you'd walk through the plants and ask them some questions just played around to make sure that they wanted to retain it. Certainly, looking at different ways to engage your employees because I gleaned from 20 years ago, the employee mentality 20 years ago is much different from the employee mentality. Now, the millennials and everything. And it's the other management way of managing those types of individuals, I feel.

       Lisa Ryan: Usually, you do not hear OSHA and fun in the same sentence. You're making it less scary. I like the idea of the Plant managers asking questions to their employees afterward because then they know. Oh, I better pay attention in case Bob decides to ask me something about it. That's awesome.

       Steve Pacilio: In those types of questions, it's more for the manager to understand if they retained the knowledge. It's not a bad thing if they don't know the answer. We don't reprimand them but put that in the memory bank to see if we need to try a different tactic to make it stick. 

       Lisa Ryan: Sure. Well, and it's reinforcement. So it's good from both sides of that. Exactly. So what are some of the things that are keeping you up at night right now?

       Steve Pacilio: Just trying to understand what the future is going to look like. We have information coming from so many different sources. It isn't easy to be able to plan the future. I mean, I've got tariffs from China potential tariffs from other countries. How that affects us is because we get a lot of raw materials from overseas. We have freight issues. I mean, right now, containers are in the wrong place around the world. So now, continuous backup. We're trying to satisfy our customers' demand, even when the container comes here, there are no rigs to pull them, no tractor-trailers to pull them. It's just everything's evolving so quickly. It's hard to keep in front of it.

       If I could have a clear path, we can plan, and we can move forward. My plan for this next year has so many different directions, depending on what will happen. It gets mind-boggling at times.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, this is undoubtedly an interesting place to be in history right now because we don't know. And just when we think we know, it seems to change the next day.

       Steve Pacilio: And then the information comes from different sources, and it's different information. I mean, with covid, we're trying to keep plants open. We have five plants in the United States. In Pennsylvania, the governor would give us the word to close, open, or shut down. We don't know what's going to happen. Then again in Houston, a district judge in Harris County would decide, not even the governor. So different areas of the country, we're handling those communications differently. So we need ways to track all that information.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, when it comes to building up this network with other manufacturers, if you could get hints or tips to your manufacturing colleagues, what kind of support or questions would you most like to learn from your manufacturing colleagues?

       Steve Pacilio: I think it's just what other people are doing. I'm in a CEO peer group, and we have a variety of industries included. One is educational, one is lawn maintenance, and another is in and pest control. When I first joined the group, I wondered what they all would we have in common. But boy, when you have the conversations, we all have the same thing in common. We have to plan our businesses; we have to understand their costs. And we have to be able to communicate with employees and managers. So we all have the same problems. We all have the same issues. 

       It's interesting to hear from others how they're addressing them and taking bits and pieces that you know may be appropriate for my situation and my company.

       Lisa Ryan: I think that's so important because sometimes we join our industry trade associations, but we sometimes get blinders on and look at our industry. When you have a roofer and pest control and all of these other people in the same room, you'll probably find that there's something that the roofer is doing that you wouldn't have even thought, "Hey, that's something that I can put into my business." So, keeping that open mind, finding out more, and connecting with other manufacturing colleagues, what are some of the things that you feel that you could offer support on?

       Steve Pacilio: Again, just my experiences. I mean, I've had different experiences than others. And I think it's just a matter of sharing some of those and just starting a conversation like you and I are having. And maybe I'll you'll say something this, "I should think about doing that," or it gives me an idea that I think it's having the communication. It motivates the brain to think of different things in different ways. I like to say if I have an issue or problem, a plan, and I like to turn it around and look at it from different areas and different ways and have communication to contact with others. I think it allows us to do that. 

       Lisa Ryan: Awesome. And if you could give one idea, one strategy for the people listening to us in their manufacturing facilities today as far as creating that culture where people want to stay, what would that be?

       Steve Pacilio: I would say communicate in multiple ways. During this whole covid thing, I did a couple of short videos that we released to employees to let them know how we're doing and what's going on. If I'm in plants that I haven't traveled to, I have the ability, walk through those plants, and say hello and be there. Let them come up to you and make yourself available to have a conversation. 

       This year I wrote out 250 Christmas cards to every employee. I started in October. It took a long time, but I think that it was appreciated. While I'm not traveling back and forth to work, I wanted to let the employees know I care. I received a lot of positive feedback from that. Just because I'm not going into the office, I'm working from home; I want people to know that it's not that I got my feet up. I'm thinking about them - and I believe that it's important that they know that.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, Steve, as we're building this network here, people would like to connect with you. What's the best way for them to do that?

       Steve Pacilio: I think you connect them to our list on website https://www.lift-all.com or you can contact me on my email, which is spacilio@lift-all.com 

       Lisa Ryan: So well, Steve. It's been an absolute pleasure having you on the show today. I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network podcast. See you next time.

       ]]>2d996f53-1238-4793-85a4-39b7090625ddSat, 23 Jan 2021 07:05:00 -040019:44falsefull1771Exploring the Flexible Scheduling Option for Employees in Manufacturing with Jesika YoungConnect 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 accomplish. That nobody was working for one another. 

       And we believe that the word employee means that you work for someone, or there's a particular hierarchy that it's a chain of command and, it's very rigid so we, we found that very important that we're in this together where failure is not an option. There's a lot of shit happening outside of our four walls like, let's be a team. Let's be a family and so team member first within any of our titles within the company. 

       It's team member above all else, so then any question or problem arises, you ask yourself, what impact is it going to have on the team as a whole. So when you make the team, the center, we believe that everything else will fall into place. 

       So you're right. When you asked the first question, "How many employees do you have?" and I said, "Zero," and you were like, we don't have any, we have team members.

       Lisa Ryan: So when you first came into the plant and started making that transition from people feeling like employees to people feeling like team members - What were some of the things you did to let people know that this just wasn't a thing, this was from the heart. Something that you wanted to change within the culture and make them feel a part of the team.

       Jesika Young: Well, we certainly didn't say that out loud. It wasn't that we communicated, "Hey, nobody's an employee anymore; we're team members." We felt that we needed to lead by example and that actions spoke louder than words. So we made a few changes.

       Lisa Ryan: The first change was very simple.

       Jesika Young: Anyone with an email address - we changed their title on their business cards and their email signature line to team members first, ourselves included. And I remember very distinctly many vendors wanting to come in and meet with us, and they'd say, Oh, you're the new owner. So we said no, we're team members. We're, we're a family-owned and team-ran or team-operated company.

       And a lot of the vendors are like, What do you mean, and we're like, no, we're, we're in this together. We're team members. I think those small actions certainly helped showcase to the team. And then we made additional changes like there was the employee handbook. We completely revamped it, and the word "employee" was marked out of the handbook. If we onboard new team members, it truly says team member first and then machinist team member welder.

       Team members, CFO, and so that truly has resonated and trickled out. We changed the name of uniforms to logo wear. That's not a mandate, but something as simple as that. Every team member wears our logo wear, and they're proud of it. And they're wearing it out and about, and they're part of the team. 

       Each year, we also do a celebratory team member and families, and our extended team, our vendors, and suppliers come to a party. Of course, with covid this year, we've had to postpone our team member outing.

       But we send the tickets to their houses, and it says, "team member" in their family name. So it's the actions, I believe that that showcases that.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and there are so many cool things you do to help your employees and get them involved and create those connections with the different ideas you've brought in over the last couple of years. So what are some of your favorites that you've done? Share a little bit about them because I know you didn't spend a lot of money. It's just this creativity that you have that you bring with you and get people involved.

       Jesika Young: One of my favorite traditions that resonate with us is our "caught you being awesome" cards. So we have sets of stationery that are just blank, and each team member has access to at any time a team member goes above and beyond. They will sign a card a contribution awesome card and explain what they've done that caught them being awesome and thank them for being a great team member. Then they sign it from the team. And so it's really neat from a constant morale boost to feel appreciated - not just from an owner or a supervisor, but from your teammates. We have once a month, our team member lunches. That's another favorite tradition of ours whether they're smoking meat or we're doing grilling hamburgers and hot dogs. We've got one coming up next Monday. 

       And so it's just, it's fun too Everybody's communicating and, oh, this will go well with this or Oh I like these kinds of fixes with my chili. Those are a few of my absolute favorites. 

       Still, I would be remiss not to share another one that, as you mentioned, truly wasn't a cost but provides such culture and it was brought on by collaboration with every one of our teammates. That's our flex schedule. It's a very odd concept to comprehend or think of as a manufacturer, but from a flexible scheduling standpoint, because life happens, things happen. You might oversleep, you might be a few minutes late. 

       And so, being on a points program is not something that we wanted to implement here. There's no balance anymore. It's a work-life blend and so flex time, each team member can choose their start time and, again within some parameters, select their lunch schedule. 

       Maybe they got a doctor's appointment that they need to take during a lunch break - so it's going to be two hours—but then allowing them to also make up that time on the backside of it. 

       So again, all we asked for is communication. And so it's really neat to walk around and see somebody is running out to a doctor's appointment or they're going to take their...]]>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 accomplish. That nobody was working for one another. 

       And we believe that the word employee means that you work for someone, or there's a particular hierarchy that it's a chain of command and, it's very rigid so we, we found that very important that we're in this together where failure is not an option. There's a lot of shit happening outside of our four walls like, let's be a team. Let's be a family and so team member first within any of our titles within the company. 

       It's team member above all else, so then any question or problem arises, you ask yourself, what impact is it going to have on the team as a whole. So when you make the team, the center, we believe that everything else will fall into place. 

       So you're right. When you asked the first question, "How many employees do you have?" and I said, "Zero," and you were like, we don't have any, we have team members.

       Lisa Ryan: So when you first came into the plant and started making that transition from people feeling like employees to people feeling like team members - What were some of the things you did to let people know that this just wasn't a thing, this was from the heart. Something that you wanted to change within the culture and make them feel a part of the team.

       Jesika Young: Well, we certainly didn't say that out loud. It wasn't that we communicated, "Hey, nobody's an employee anymore; we're team members." We felt that we needed to lead by example and that actions spoke louder than words. So we made a few changes.

       Lisa Ryan: The first change was very simple.

       Jesika Young: Anyone with an email address - we changed their title on their business cards and their email signature line to team members first, ourselves included. And I remember very distinctly many vendors wanting to come in and meet with us, and they'd say, Oh, you're the new owner. So we said no, we're team members. We're, we're a family-owned and team-ran or team-operated company.

       And a lot of the vendors are like, What do you mean, and we're like, no, we're, we're in this together. We're team members. I think those small actions certainly helped showcase to the team. And then we made additional changes like there was the employee handbook. We completely revamped it, and the word "employee" was marked out of the handbook. If we onboard new team members, it truly says team member first and then machinist team member welder.

       Team members, CFO, and so that truly has resonated and trickled out. We changed the name of uniforms to logo wear. That's not a mandate, but something as simple as that. Every team member wears our logo wear, and they're proud of it. And they're wearing it out and about, and they're part of the team. 

       Each year, we also do a celebratory team member and families, and our extended team, our vendors, and suppliers come to a party. Of course, with covid this year, we've had to postpone our team member outing.

       But we send the tickets to their houses, and it says, "team member" in their family name. So it's the actions, I believe that that showcases that.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and there are so many cool things you do to help your employees and get them involved and create those connections with the different ideas you've brought in over the last couple of years. So what are some of your favorites that you've done? Share a little bit about them because I know you didn't spend a lot of money. It's just this creativity that you have that you bring with you and get people involved.

       Jesika Young: One of my favorite traditions that resonate with us is our "caught you being awesome" cards. So we have sets of stationery that are just blank, and each team member has access to at any time a team member goes above and beyond. They will sign a card a contribution awesome card and explain what they've done that caught them being awesome and thank them for being a great team member. Then they sign it from the team. And so it's really neat from a constant morale boost to feel appreciated - not just from an owner or a supervisor, but from your teammates. We have once a month, our team member lunches. That's another favorite tradition of ours whether they're smoking meat or we're doing grilling hamburgers and hot dogs. We've got one coming up next Monday. 

       And so it's just, it's fun too Everybody's communicating and, oh, this will go well with this or Oh I like these kinds of fixes with my chili. Those are a few of my absolute favorites. 

       Still, I would be remiss not to share another one that, as you mentioned, truly wasn't a cost but provides such culture and it was brought on by collaboration with every one of our teammates. That's our flex schedule. It's a very odd concept to comprehend or think of as a manufacturer, but from a flexible scheduling standpoint, because life happens, things happen. You might oversleep, you might be a few minutes late. 

       And so, being on a points program is not something that we wanted to implement here. There's no balance anymore. It's a work-life blend and so flex time, each team member can choose their start time and, again within some parameters, select their lunch schedule. 

       Maybe they got a doctor's appointment that they need to take during a lunch break - so it's going to be two hours—but then allowing them to also make up that time on the backside of it. 

       So again, all we asked for is communication. And so it's really neat to walk around and see somebody is running out to a doctor's appointment or they're going to take their significant other out to lunch and then they'll yell out "yay, flextime!" or if they want to sleep in, they can also make up that time on the backside. It was magical to watch when the concept of flex time rolled out. We, of course, had some objections. What if so and so doesn't want to start at this time or wants to start earlier than this. I'm the programmer, and they're running the production and so on and so forth. I said, "Well, let's lay out everything that could go wrong. And then let's work back solutions to see how it could go right. When we rolled it out to the rest of the team, that was the final product that the parameters that we set in place with it. We've been doing that for a little over a year and a half now and it's been fantastic. The productivity has gone up and our teammates love it. Certainly, it's been a great attraction to other people wanting to join the team too.

       Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. So as the people are listening to this podcast and their heads are exploding. Great. Now because they're saying, What do you mean flex time in manufacturing. What are the parameters? What's the communication? How do you cover from shift to shift to ensure that there's somebody there to run the machine that needs to be run?

       Jesika Young: Well, so that the parameters that we laid out more specific to we do run two shifts, we have two plants and two different locations. So within each plant and within each shift, there were parameters. So, for example, we've got a start time from anywhere, beginning at 5:30 am to 8 am on a first shift at our headquarter location, and then the requirement from a lunch perspective is that we felt that in by law that they need at least a 30 minutes to reset their mind. Now that's not to cap them at 30 minutes because some people like a 45-minute lunch, some people like an hour lunch. So laying out those parameters and then we imposed some of that crossover to the second shift and then very similarly on second shift. But as opposed to having a start time of 5:30 am or second shift had eight o'clock hard close time. So what that ended up creating was the crossover and blending of the two shifts. 

       So no longer the team divide of, oh, well, your first shift and your second shift or this is when the second shift comes in. It was nice to see our team on both first and second working together to communicate what was going on, what projects needed to move forward, and so on and so forth.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, it sounds like you've done well as far as the communication within the plant, and the employees have benefited from that. And it sounds like they're doing pretty well communicating.

       Jesika Young: Absolutely. And like I said before, we're a team, above all else, and so if somebody may accidentally sleep in and not call and their teammates are worried like, Oh, well, usually in by now, let's make sure that they're okay. And so that's been nice to see amongst the team also.

       Lisa Ryan: So, what are some of the things that are keeping you up at night now?

       Jesika Young: Supply chain. Say, that's probably the biggest one. But in all seriousness, the supply chain certainly has been disrupted during a pandemic, and that makes it extremely difficult to plan. The mindset that we've taken, and again, I tried to remain very positive versus focusing on the negative, is that we've now plan for the worst-case scenario. Then we over-communicate that to our customers. So we are always now in communication with our supply chain, our vendors, our suppliers. As a customer, I'm sure from our customers' perspective it found out something happened at the 11th hour. So we are always in this constant state of, "this is what we're seeing . This is what we've been told." This is the worst-case scenario and then working back from there.

       Lisa Ryan: When it comes to networking with other manufacturers and creating that network, what would you would information or insights helpful to you from your manufacturing and related industries colleagues?

       Jesika Young: Yes, so networking with manufacturers is undoubtedly something that I find great value in women, and I'm part of the metro manufacturing alliance. A lot of the value add that I see, they're not just for myself, but for our teammates is having peer roundtables or peer connections and now that we're in this virtual platform. It does make it a lot nicer because our operations manager may have certain obstacles would be able to talk those through or there may be ways to avoid making some of the mistakes they had made. We also celebrate successes because, let's face it, after coming out of 2020, we certainly spend a lot of time celebrating even the smallest of victories. 

       But you asked what keeps me up at night and the supply chain, and that was certainly something within our networking group that we've worked to address. As manufacturers, we said, Okay, these are what we see from materials down to your outside services. What are ways that we can work together to overcome these? It's been magical to see larger corporations providing some insight, or even the smaller industries are the smaller businesses being able to pull together and exercise their strength to joining us.

       Lisa Ryan: What if somebody wanted to reach out and learn from you to get some of your insights? Where do you excel, or where would you most be able to help others?

       Jesika Young: I would say my strengths lie in the connections are connectivity so if I don't know someone that could help. Then I'm going to ask my network to see who we could connect them to. So I think connectivity would undoubtedly be a strength. So if there are certain obstacles that you're encountering or facing or want to, that an idea through if it's not something that I've seen or done before, you're reaching out to my connections, making those available to the network.

       Lisa Ryan: What is your best tip if somebody's listening to this podcast today and want to do some of the interesting things you've done with your culture over there. What would be a good start?

       Jesika Young: A good start is very simple, and that's to appreciate your teammates. I think showing appreciation, telling your teammates that you appreciate them, showing the appreciation. Whether that's in a "caught you being awesome" card or understanding your teammates' favorites and surprising them with their favorite Coke or drink and just little acts of kindness and appreciation go certainly a long way. One effortless step that we took here and how they made it tradition is sending cards to the teammates home from the team here so Thanksgiving Day cards. Appreciate showing the appreciation at Thanksgiving. Also, Mother's Day and Father's Day sending the family of the team member. Thank you for sharing your father and mother with us. So those certainly have gone a long way too.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, Jesika, as always. It's such a pleasure to catch up with you again. Thank you so much for being on the show today.

       Jesika Young: Thank you so much for having me.

       Lisa Ryan: So I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. See you next time.

       ]]>19c1dcc2-3192-4358-ab27-c5f3d606cb52Sat, 23 Jan 2021 07:00:00 -040021:17falsefull1661Giving Employees the "Pleasure of Solving Problems" in Manufacturing with Karen NorheimConnect 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, communication - to the point that you get tired as the leader hearing yourself talk. But it's so important. We had meetings. We have regular grit meetings monthly with different departments. We have grit contests. We have grit bucks to highlight good grit behavior. We've got postcards, we've got logos. We do a sticker contest - all kinds of stuff that we put in the works. 

       And then when we got to the end of March, as we realized covid was here. We were sending a third of our workforce remote while we have a third in our plant manufacturing and another third doing service. We realized we now need even to communicate more. 

       For the last year, we've done a Monday video. We started with two videos per week. We've shifted down to doing a video every Monday. There's a Friday email that goes out and a text message with blog information of just what's going on, new orders, what's happening, and just general thoughts. We also have other members of our leadership team communicating. There are communication notices hung throughout the building. I am living those values, and whenever I'm with my people I'm emulating what we believe in. But then also, highlighting how they're doing that, it's always this constant. 

       I like to call it gardening. You're planting seeds. You're nurturing a little bit, you're growing, you're harvesting, and then you go back, and you plant again, and you grow in your harvest. It's a never-ending thing, but I feel like our team has bought into it and gets it, and it feels good. We all want to work in a place right that we're appreciated. We say the most important thing in American Crane is the people. We all want to work at a fun site that cares about us and provides us with meaningful work.

       So as our team has realized, that's who we are, whereas we evolve and revisit that. That's who we are, you know, there's a flywheel effect. And I feel like we are benefiting from kind of that flywheel of coming together. We're not perfect by any means, right. There's always room for improvement, but I'm impressed with how everyone has embraced this. I think it's going to serve as well as we go into the future. We've built upon it to deal with the disruptive change that's been happening.

       You know this covid was a disruption, and there are other disruptions out there. I feel like it has allowed us to add another competitive advantage. We say we're gritty; we get things done. We exceed our customers' expectations. We go that extra mile. We can also handle challenging situations and handle when things don't go the way you want them to go, which I think is a useful skill for a business to have in general.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. What do you feel would be the tipping point when you first decided to implement this grit strategy. You said, "communicate, communicate, communicate." When did you see the turn from, "Oh goodness, here's one more program that's not going to last," to, "Wow, this is something that they're committed to"? When did the employees buy into it and believe it?

       Karen Norheim: We had that coming into the end of 2019, I think in December of that year. We had been explaining and teaching it and living and starting to almost even go to that next phase two of integrating it even more into the fabric of who we are. And we have fantastic people. I mean, that's always really important that those that work for you are part of the culture and everything matches. And so we have amazing people, which makes it easy.

       But December was the tipping point. Last year I felt that we still got work to do, but we're doing good. And then I will say the second tipping point; we were already over the edge, and then here's a massive shift with covid. It just rocked everything. Everybody stepped up. They realized how important that was for us to be able to keep it up. We sent 40 some engineers home with their workstations to go home, go and do a home setup on a Friday and they were all up and running and working and had not skipped a beat by the following Wednesday. I mean, it was just kind of remarkable the flexibility and the willingness to work together, pull together that teamwork that problem-solving. It was the difference between mediocrity and excellence.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. And to give that idea that this does take time. You were already starting with a good team, and it still took almost two years to get to that tipping point. But then you saw how it benefited you when you needed it the most. And you didn't have to worry about employees and also to take care of them. And it sounds like you also empowered them to do what they needed to do. Here's your workstation; go set it up, and by Wednesday, they're good to go because you trusted and empowered them to do that.

       Karen Norheim: Yep. And I think that's part of what the covid situation gave us. We had no choice but to empower our people, and here was an opportunity where we just kind of threw everybody in this moment of change. This idea of one time has to be the first time. Well, guess what: we're all going to go to that moment; we're all going to have to use Microsoft Teams. We've never used it before, but we're all going to have to figure out how to do electronic signatures on it, so it threw us into that uncomfortable space, which has led to amazing growth and evolution of our people. 

       Lisa Ryan: So what are still some of the things that are keeping you up at night?

       Karen Norheim: Well, something that I was already in tune to before we had the crisis of 2020 was this idea of digital...]]>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, communication - to the point that you get tired as the leader hearing yourself talk. But it's so important. We had meetings. We have regular grit meetings monthly with different departments. We have grit contests. We have grit bucks to highlight good grit behavior. We've got postcards, we've got logos. We do a sticker contest - all kinds of stuff that we put in the works. 

       And then when we got to the end of March, as we realized covid was here. We were sending a third of our workforce remote while we have a third in our plant manufacturing and another third doing service. We realized we now need even to communicate more. 

       For the last year, we've done a Monday video. We started with two videos per week. We've shifted down to doing a video every Monday. There's a Friday email that goes out and a text message with blog information of just what's going on, new orders, what's happening, and just general thoughts. We also have other members of our leadership team communicating. There are communication notices hung throughout the building. I am living those values, and whenever I'm with my people I'm emulating what we believe in. But then also, highlighting how they're doing that, it's always this constant. 

       I like to call it gardening. You're planting seeds. You're nurturing a little bit, you're growing, you're harvesting, and then you go back, and you plant again, and you grow in your harvest. It's a never-ending thing, but I feel like our team has bought into it and gets it, and it feels good. We all want to work in a place right that we're appreciated. We say the most important thing in American Crane is the people. We all want to work at a fun site that cares about us and provides us with meaningful work.

       So as our team has realized, that's who we are, whereas we evolve and revisit that. That's who we are, you know, there's a flywheel effect. And I feel like we are benefiting from kind of that flywheel of coming together. We're not perfect by any means, right. There's always room for improvement, but I'm impressed with how everyone has embraced this. I think it's going to serve as well as we go into the future. We've built upon it to deal with the disruptive change that's been happening.

       You know this covid was a disruption, and there are other disruptions out there. I feel like it has allowed us to add another competitive advantage. We say we're gritty; we get things done. We exceed our customers' expectations. We go that extra mile. We can also handle challenging situations and handle when things don't go the way you want them to go, which I think is a useful skill for a business to have in general.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. What do you feel would be the tipping point when you first decided to implement this grit strategy. You said, "communicate, communicate, communicate." When did you see the turn from, "Oh goodness, here's one more program that's not going to last," to, "Wow, this is something that they're committed to"? When did the employees buy into it and believe it?

       Karen Norheim: We had that coming into the end of 2019, I think in December of that year. We had been explaining and teaching it and living and starting to almost even go to that next phase two of integrating it even more into the fabric of who we are. And we have fantastic people. I mean, that's always really important that those that work for you are part of the culture and everything matches. And so we have amazing people, which makes it easy.

       But December was the tipping point. Last year I felt that we still got work to do, but we're doing good. And then I will say the second tipping point; we were already over the edge, and then here's a massive shift with covid. It just rocked everything. Everybody stepped up. They realized how important that was for us to be able to keep it up. We sent 40 some engineers home with their workstations to go home, go and do a home setup on a Friday and they were all up and running and working and had not skipped a beat by the following Wednesday. I mean, it was just kind of remarkable the flexibility and the willingness to work together, pull together that teamwork that problem-solving. It was the difference between mediocrity and excellence.

       Lisa Ryan: Right. And to give that idea that this does take time. You were already starting with a good team, and it still took almost two years to get to that tipping point. But then you saw how it benefited you when you needed it the most. And you didn't have to worry about employees and also to take care of them. And it sounds like you also empowered them to do what they needed to do. Here's your workstation; go set it up, and by Wednesday, they're good to go because you trusted and empowered them to do that.

       Karen Norheim: Yep. And I think that's part of what the covid situation gave us. We had no choice but to empower our people, and here was an opportunity where we just kind of threw everybody in this moment of change. This idea of one time has to be the first time. Well, guess what: we're all going to go to that moment; we're all going to have to use Microsoft Teams. We've never used it before, but we're all going to have to figure out how to do electronic signatures on it, so it threw us into that uncomfortable space, which has led to amazing growth and evolution of our people. 

       Lisa Ryan: So what are still some of the things that are keeping you up at night?

       Karen Norheim: Well, something that I was already in tune to before we had the crisis of 2020 was this idea of digital transformation that was coming. I knew that for us as a company and as an industry. There was a lot of disruptive change, and it was something I would already be thinking about; we had talked about our digital roadmap. We had put some foundational blocks into that, but then covid also threw us into it even further for things we had to do. And I think it's imperative to number one: realize that there's a lot of disruption out there right now because John Chambers says that of the fortune 500 in the next ten years, 50% will be gone because of disruptive technology digital change. 

       I wanted to make sure we were on that cutting edge. And so we had put the groundwork in on that in January of 2020. We started an innovation lab; we already had some foundational technology blocks in place. And during covid, we've been able to expedite some of those by three x times advancement from where I expected us to be. 

       But I still am nervous that they need to be able to do technology. We need to embrace it, and I want to stay ahead of that wave because I want to be around in 10 years. It keeps evolving because I think, unfortunately, change is the only constant. How do we keep being able to leverage the change and turn it into opportunities to grow and evolve?

       Lisa Ryan: Right. And again, I think it comes down to communicating with your team because they see all this technology coming in and maybe worried. Is this going to affect my job? Am I still going to have a job? And keeping them involved in the process to say no, you're still going to have a job. It just may be different because now we can do it better, stronger, faster than we've ever done before because of the technology that we're now implementing.

       Karen Norheim: Yep, exactly. And also, I'm a big believer in the concept that it's really about the human. Whether you're using augmented reality or Remote Assistance is a big thing we've been looking into and utilizing for training purposes. So we're looking at what they call augmented reality, some VR. And also, you know, traditional things too. But as we're going through those things, it's really to amplify our current employees - taking them to the next level and taking the core group that I have now and doing more, doing it better or doing it more efficiently and then locking them in there. 

       I think that technology and digital transformation can be about marrying together where you're making superhumans who can do all these things because they've got the AI power. They've got technology tools for collaboration, and it's pulling it all together seamlessly so that we can then that brainpower that human resource can excel and advance, and I think it's if you go in with that kind of mindset. I think that's helpful.

       We're also not running to the shiny object while we have, we are doing some big strategic things, you know, we're very focused on it, and we play with things determine if there's something viable and then we'll go to the next step. It's like here, and we have to figure out how to handle that and handle change in general - not just digital transformation. There are other industry changes in the world and stuff that can affect us as with covid.

       Lisa Ryan: Exactly. Completely unexpected and out of the blue. Who would have thunk it? Yes. So as we're getting to the last couple minutes of our time together. What would be if you were thinking about people you'd like to network or learn from? What would be some of the ways you would like the kind of support you would like to get from other manufacturing colleagues.

       Karen Norheim: Well, I'm very obsessed recently with this idea of storytelling and sharing my story with you, and I think it's essential for all of us to share our stories because that's how we learn. It's so much easier to learn from watching someone else who's had a struggle and figuring out you know how they've done it. They share their best practices or what worked for them. There's always some piece that can help and integrate into your business. So I feel that knowledge sharing that storytelling.

       I love to hear the different stories of what's going on in our industry. And I think that that's an excellent way for us to learn and elevate each other.

       Lisa Ryan: What would be some of the things you could offer to support other manufacturing colleagues who may want to reach out to you?

       Karen Norheim: I'm happy to share my story - my evolution as both a leader, as President and CEO of our company, but also the transition as the boss's daughter. It's been 18 years, and there are some learning and things that I could share with someone else in the family business. So I always like to talk about those experiences of cultural transformation, which is ever-evolving. Everybody's a role model. Someone's always looking up to you. I think it's essential to put yourself out there and share what's going on. The good, the bad, and the opportunities to learn and grow. So I'm open to any of those types of conversations.

       Lisa Ryan: What's the best way for somebody to connect with you

       Karen Norheim: Probably LinkedIn or you can do certainly can share my email: knorheim@americancrane.com. I'm always open to new ideas, and you know I think as a leader. It's important that a portion of what you do we get stuck in. 

       The financials of our business, our people's development, but some small amount of time I put it into like my 10 to 15% about of the time that I do is around scouting and seeking new ideas and looking out beyond the horizon. I've set the course. I've set the strategy. I've set a roadmap out, but I still am the captain of the ship, and I need to have that looking glass out saying , "what do I see around the corner, what's out there. What do I need to make sure we're aware of any filtering that in." So I think that's a great way to hear from others about what they're doing as part of that ability to scout and seek new ideas, which is fun too.

       Lisa Ryan: If you have one of your top tips, somebody listening to today could start moving forward, what would you suggest that they do to get started.

       Karen Norheim: Be focused on your goal but flexible in your methods. It would be best if you didn't get so locked in that it has to be done your exact way. Maybe there's another avenue to get you to what you want at the end goal. And I think that also comes down to giving your people the pleasure of solving the problems and empowering them. When real success happens, it feels like magic. As a leader, you get to watch your people come to that point where they get to bring something to fruition and see a project come together. It's all them, and it's all their own, and there's a lot of pride that goes along. Even the failures are opportunities for learning moments. You've got to give people the pleasure of solving problems.

       Lisa Ryan:  Karen, thank you so much for being on the show and sharing your insight and wisdom with us today. 

       ]]>c35762f7-6540-4fda-8ca5-893a11927e47Wed, 13 Jan 2021 01:30:00 -040020:07falsefull1551How Pay for Performance Leads to Manufacturing Profits with Kevin JohnsonConnect 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 Ryan: Awesome. So when you were talking about the pay for performance and lowering their base, tell us the process of how that worked, and because I'm sure you had some haters right off the bat saying the man's trying to take advantage of us. 

       Kevin Johnson: That's the scary part of these things, is the implementation when you can see the long vision, but everybody else is saying, I'm not seeing it because I do not see that immediate gratification. 

       So, to share a little bit about your process. You hit that one on the head. When you tell a guy that his base rate from what he was making a guaranteed number and say, hey, that drops 30 percent or 40 percent, he's going to say, hey, what's going on here? And there's going to naturally always be a little bit of apprehension. They're going to be there's a concern. I'm taking care of my family. So, you know, we understand that. 

       We took what you made on that plan that we said will, based on your production and what you were making before. And for about four or five months, we let the guy know this is what you would have made off the production bonus plan, and this is what you're actually making. So he had a clear reference to say, hey, I'm saying that I would have been better off on the new plan every week than just this hourly rate I was on. 

       And it happens over time. Now, the employees might have a bad week. And if you just did it over a week, of course, he's going to have a sour taste in his mouth. But after three or four months, you can clearly see that you're going to be 20 percent, maybe twenty-five percent better from that. Most guys that I really care about making money and all that stuff, they got the opportunity, and it's worked out pretty well. 

       I mean, at times, we have guys say, hey, I can watch his machine while he goes and eat lunch. And so I will try to run what I can. You can't do that all the time, but you probably can for 15 or 20 minutes. It depends on where you have set up. So they've got creative in themselves, finding ways to stay on top of things and be productive. The other thing you'll find is that bonuses to make should be a better manager. 

       And you say how if I don't give them those tools and resources that they need, they will definitely come into my office or their boss's office and say, hey, you can have your tools here. We need to have these tools. And you know what? I need one spare of this because I want to make sure that I'm running all the time. And this is the feedback that you wouldn't usually get. But when you align, everyone that makes you a better manager makes them a better employee. 

       Lisa Ryan: There are so many good things that you just said in there. Number one, the amount of time that it wasn't just a, hey, we're changing the comp plan overnight. Here it is. And you are dealing with people who are just fighting that. But you took that time that three or four months to prove to them that this system was going to work. You're also empowering them to get creative instead of micromanaging everything. Sometimes, as leaders, you want to make sure that everything's doing well, and you don't necessarily trust your employees. 

       And it sounds like not only are you trusting them to figure out how to do their job because you're seeing the production levels going up. But now it's OK because maybe before you would have said, what do you mean you're going to watch that guy's machine while he's off eating lunch? Who do you think you are? And now you're seeing that employees are trusting you, and they're buying into the process. But this is certainly not something that happens overnight. So I'm just such a good reminder to people who are looking for that immediate gratification. 

       Kevin Johnson: They won't be. I'll tell you one more thing. After a year of doing it, we compared their W2s. I sat down with each person. Even though there's a manager and a supervisor there, I sat down with each one of those guys individually; H.R. put together how many hours they work, how much they made, overtime hours, and the bonus, versus what they were the year before. And I was able to sit down and show all of them these are the differences and work this many fewer hours. 

       You make this much more money, more time with your family. More time to do what you want to do instead of here, and it was pretty rewarding. Now, always recommend that step because I did have one guy say, oh, man, I didn't realize I made this much more. Some guys don't look at their numbers may be the way that they should, but it's worth investing that time. 

       Lisa Ryan: And how many employees do you have working there that you sat down with? 

       Kevin Johnson: Approximately twenty-five. 

       Lisa Ryan: OK, so again, you're investing the time and being in management there, being the V.P., employees see you as a different level of person. So the fact that you're sitting down with your employees and talking to them and getting to know them and showing them the benefits also gives them a lot more confidence in the leadership. So that's just that that's great work that you're doing over there. 

       Sure. The last thing to get is that a machine only makes money when it's run. OK, changeovers, all the stuff they hurt you. Right. Or if it's down, if our guys actually stay with maintenance, not go and get a Snickers or a Pepsi. When the machine goes down, we pay him his production bonus based on his average. If he's in there fixing the machine with maintenance, that gives...]]>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 Ryan: Awesome. So when you were talking about the pay for performance and lowering their base, tell us the process of how that worked, and because I'm sure you had some haters right off the bat saying the man's trying to take advantage of us. 

       Kevin Johnson: That's the scary part of these things, is the implementation when you can see the long vision, but everybody else is saying, I'm not seeing it because I do not see that immediate gratification. 

       So, to share a little bit about your process. You hit that one on the head. When you tell a guy that his base rate from what he was making a guaranteed number and say, hey, that drops 30 percent or 40 percent, he's going to say, hey, what's going on here? And there's going to naturally always be a little bit of apprehension. They're going to be there's a concern. I'm taking care of my family. So, you know, we understand that. 

       We took what you made on that plan that we said will, based on your production and what you were making before. And for about four or five months, we let the guy know this is what you would have made off the production bonus plan, and this is what you're actually making. So he had a clear reference to say, hey, I'm saying that I would have been better off on the new plan every week than just this hourly rate I was on. 

       And it happens over time. Now, the employees might have a bad week. And if you just did it over a week, of course, he's going to have a sour taste in his mouth. But after three or four months, you can clearly see that you're going to be 20 percent, maybe twenty-five percent better from that. Most guys that I really care about making money and all that stuff, they got the opportunity, and it's worked out pretty well. 

       I mean, at times, we have guys say, hey, I can watch his machine while he goes and eat lunch. And so I will try to run what I can. You can't do that all the time, but you probably can for 15 or 20 minutes. It depends on where you have set up. So they've got creative in themselves, finding ways to stay on top of things and be productive. The other thing you'll find is that bonuses to make should be a better manager. 

       And you say how if I don't give them those tools and resources that they need, they will definitely come into my office or their boss's office and say, hey, you can have your tools here. We need to have these tools. And you know what? I need one spare of this because I want to make sure that I'm running all the time. And this is the feedback that you wouldn't usually get. But when you align, everyone that makes you a better manager makes them a better employee. 

       Lisa Ryan: There are so many good things that you just said in there. Number one, the amount of time that it wasn't just a, hey, we're changing the comp plan overnight. Here it is. And you are dealing with people who are just fighting that. But you took that time that three or four months to prove to them that this system was going to work. You're also empowering them to get creative instead of micromanaging everything. Sometimes, as leaders, you want to make sure that everything's doing well, and you don't necessarily trust your employees. 

       And it sounds like not only are you trusting them to figure out how to do their job because you're seeing the production levels going up. But now it's OK because maybe before you would have said, what do you mean you're going to watch that guy's machine while he's off eating lunch? Who do you think you are? And now you're seeing that employees are trusting you, and they're buying into the process. But this is certainly not something that happens overnight. So I'm just such a good reminder to people who are looking for that immediate gratification. 

       Kevin Johnson: They won't be. I'll tell you one more thing. After a year of doing it, we compared their W2s. I sat down with each person. Even though there's a manager and a supervisor there, I sat down with each one of those guys individually; H.R. put together how many hours they work, how much they made, overtime hours, and the bonus, versus what they were the year before. And I was able to sit down and show all of them these are the differences and work this many fewer hours. 

       You make this much more money, more time with your family. More time to do what you want to do instead of here, and it was pretty rewarding. Now, always recommend that step because I did have one guy say, oh, man, I didn't realize I made this much more. Some guys don't look at their numbers may be the way that they should, but it's worth investing that time. 

       Lisa Ryan: And how many employees do you have working there that you sat down with? 

       Kevin Johnson: Approximately twenty-five. 

       Lisa Ryan: OK, so again, you're investing the time and being in management there, being the V.P., employees see you as a different level of person. So the fact that you're sitting down with your employees and talking to them and getting to know them and showing them the benefits also gives them a lot more confidence in the leadership. So that's just that that's great work that you're doing over there. 

       Sure. The last thing to get is that a machine only makes money when it's run. OK, changeovers, all the stuff they hurt you. Right. Or if it's down, if our guys actually stay with maintenance, not go and get a Snickers or a Pepsi. When the machine goes down, we pay him his production bonus based on his average. If he's in there fixing the machine with maintenance, that gives me two things. One, he gets a little bit more confidence. Two, he can start fixing that machine himself, and we'll be less reliant on maintenance. So that's just another key point that we put in there. Our guys, to actually learn how to fix their machines. 

       Lisa Ryan: Wow, that's awesome. So what are what's one thing that's keeping you up at night right now? 

       Kevin Johnson: I'll tell you right now, the thing that worries me is how we have maybe some would call a changing of the guard. You have a potentially new president-elect. And the tariff situation is one that that worries me a lot. It was an advantage to the steel guys, but then the steel products guys didn't get all of the help to balance things out with China. 

       So from that, we finally adjusted. We pushed through price increases, trying to keep our margins. We don't look at making more. We want to make the same. And that's what we focus on. And we got those through. So now what happens after you make all these changes to survive? If that all pulls away, then we're going to be back in another situation that will take another couple of years to adjust back. 

       So that's the main concern for me because the tariffs are now staying up a lot. So. Another thing that worries me is just finding quality people. That's been a very tough thing. The skills gap, the people that are actually interested in manufacturing, the kids that actually want to work and get their hands a little bit dirty and have that that rugged satisfaction, that grit, a lot of them say, hey, I'll rather work at the local electronics store, or I want to work in the video game. 

       So, I mean, it's slightly different. And that's been tough pulling talent and. 

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, especially since everybody's competing for the same talent. And that's why I talk about so much in my programs of just retention. Now, if you have good employees and there are so many things that we talked about, you are doing to keep employees as far as sitting down with them, allowing them to make more money, empowering them, and showing them their work results. That's how you keep them. 

       But you're absolutely right. We're looking at the skills gap of just being able to have to change the conversation about manufacturing, to get more young people to look at it seriously as a career, and even more importantly, to get the guidance counselors at their schools and their parents to buy into the ideas as well. 

       So if you were to think about creating a network of manufacturers and think about something that either question you have or support that you would like to get from other manufacturers, what would be something of that? 

       Kevin Johnson: Well, I think many things right now with the current PPP situation. One of the people dealing with laws should discuss how this was originally going to come out and the questions. Now, the question is if that's are actually put out there, two totally different things, and especially with larger companies that might have had more than two million dollars and they're subject to an audit. 

       And another thing so that, as you mentioned, employee retention is always going to be at the forefront. Working with people, doing job fairs, whether it's virtual, whether it's just joining forces and working on that, those type of things with different types of H.R. issues and situations. Then you have an administration possibly coming. 

       So what can we expect? Are we going to handle reporting these things that we need to stick together? Because you could actually give a company name recordable injuries based on exposure, you can't prove they even happened at the workplace. So we need to make sure that we're all working together and have a unified voice. And that would be great to have manufacturers get together and share on these things. 

       Lisa Ryan: And so from your experience, not only at Birmingham but in the rest of your illustrious career in the metals industries, where do you feel that you would best be able to support other manufacturers or help them out with some of their situations? 

       Kevin Johnson: Well, I have worked with a lot of folks before. In areas, you know, somebody needs help with trying to implement an incentive program. Like I mentioned earlier, I have a lot of feedback on it. Government affairs and I also have experience with the SBA side of it. Those are just a few. But there are so many topics that you manufactured. Yes, margin safety. That's even very important, even though the industry can be somewhat fearful. 

       There are a lot of things you might say, hey, you know, I realize that this last year, this one does great in this environment we've been using for the previous five years. We compete on many things, but I'm not going to compete with anybody on say anything that I do directly. I'm going to share with you on the safety. 

       Lisa Ryan: Awesome. I know that you're involved with the Industrial Fasteners Institute and now the National Association of Manufacturers. So really encouraging people to join your local trade association, get involved with that, because learning on things like this podcast is going to give you a general overview of manufacturing and things that you can use in your plant that may not be in a completely different industry, but it can still work for you. But when you are in your trade association, you get to learn from your peers. 

       And like you said, there are things that, of course, you want to keep secret from a competitive point of view. But for the most part, there's enough work out there for everybody, and it's just really doing the job well and creating those connections. Well, Kevin, we're getting to the end of our time together. And I know that we are connected on LinkedIn, but if somebody wanted to reach out to you and connect with you, what's the best way for them to do that? 

       Kevin Johnson: You can email me.

       ]]>2c60126d-fe51-4d3c-98b8-dd0fc78432adTue, 12 Jan 2021 17:15:00 -040019:28falsefull1441Sales Strategies to Build Your Business in a Pandemic with Hector Diaz-StringelConnect 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 customers nervous, and we saw some of those opportunities coming our way. We generated a lot of new business opportunities that are in play. In 2021, we will see a full year effect because we were ready to take on that new business. Many things had to come together, but we didn't put them together in 2020; they were already there. We just needed to be mindful of where our priorities needed to be.

       Lisa Ryan: So in a market where you're talking about your competition and from a sales standpoint, it's hard because you weren't allowed in the plants. You know it wasn't easy to maintain those customer relationships that you had. So what were some of the things that you did or your sales team did your service team did to take care of the customers you had and put in those processes to attract new customers to you.

       Hector Diaz-Stringel: Yeah, I think it started back in 2016-2017 after I joined the business. A new Director of Sales came on board, about a year later, and we spend those first couple of years putting a sales team together. We have salespeople dispersed throughout the US and Mexico. But then we have a network of manufacturer representatives as well as an extensive distribution network. So we spent a couple of years, putting all of that in place, making sure that we have the right people in the right places. And we're aligned with the right external partners. It all came to fruition. As you point out, even though our salespeople haven't been able to travel and see customers, other than those that they can go and drive to see if those customers are seeing vendors.

       They had such good relationships that technology helps: zoom and cell phones help us stay close to those customers. So we were ready to start doing many webinars that we were already going to do in 2020, but this accelerated the effort for us. 

       So we were able to reach many people that our salespeople had a hard time getting in touch with in the past. But, but now nobody could go anywhere. Everybody was staying home and doing these types of interactions over zoom or the same kind of technologies, so we found that we could reach many more people than we would likely have been able to get have we've been traveling all over the US. So we generated a lot of business. The highlights for ATA, especially for the US business for 2020, were the number of new opportunities we could identify. Still, we were able to close business while being remote. I kept telling this to the Salesforce throughout the year, "I don't know how you're doing it. Keep doing it."

       Lisa Ryan: Many positive things came out of this whole thing. It's not only the amount of money saved in time, in not getting on airplanes and traveling over the country and all over the world. But you now had the opportunity to connect with new customers that maybe it wouldn't have been worth your time to get on a plane and see and make that effort. So it sounds like you and your salespeople were buying into that and weren't afraid of the technology. So what a positive that was for you.

       Hector Diaz-Stringel: Yeah, and I give them a lot of credit because they are salespeople. They want to be out there. They want to be talking to customers, and they want to see how the product works and troubleshoot issues that a potential new customer may be having. They can physically do any of these things, but they found a way to do it remotely and succeed. So that was one of the highlights of our business last year.

       Lisa Ryan: Now, you mentioned that when you assembled the sales team five years ago when you came on board, you were looking for the right people. That's so important when it comes to culture. But what helped you determine who was the right person and getting that right fit for your company. So you do have those long term dedicated salespeople.

       Hector Diaz-Stringel: Yeah, we had a Salesforce, and some of them were good individuals, but they were thinking more about retirement than what the next step in their career was going to be. So when you were going to have openings, regardless. But I was new to the business. I have to learn what type of business we had and what the opportunities were. But it was clear that we needed dynamic people - people who were hunting for new opportunities. We looked for motivated and incentivized people by finding a new opportunity and closing the business while maintaining the current business. We already had relationships with those customers and found opportunities for those customers as well. So it was more about driven individuals, not individuals that could be good at maintaining a sales territory.

       We needed somebody that can maintain our territory. But more importantly, that was dynamic enough to learn whatever new products we keep introducing. We added a lot of new products to our portfolio. They needed to learn those products and become experts at them, but then go out and find opportunities where we can close sales, and it was a unique set of skills that we're looking for. 

       It took us a few tries to find the right individuals, and we found them by going out and hiring people external people. We also took flyers on internal individuals. For example, we have a marketing coordinator that wasn't in the commercial area, but a man sales at all. But we saw potential in here, and we will do the challenge of her, and she was very reluctant at the beginning because, again, sales can be scary. She's been very successful over the last three years, so it took a lot of experimenting and taking calculated risks. So far, it's worked out.

       Lisa...]]>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 customers nervous, and we saw some of those opportunities coming our way. We generated a lot of new business opportunities that are in play. In 2021, we will see a full year effect because we were ready to take on that new business. Many things had to come together, but we didn't put them together in 2020; they were already there. We just needed to be mindful of where our priorities needed to be.

       Lisa Ryan: So in a market where you're talking about your competition and from a sales standpoint, it's hard because you weren't allowed in the plants. You know it wasn't easy to maintain those customer relationships that you had. So what were some of the things that you did or your sales team did your service team did to take care of the customers you had and put in those processes to attract new customers to you.

       Hector Diaz-Stringel: Yeah, I think it started back in 2016-2017 after I joined the business. A new Director of Sales came on board, about a year later, and we spend those first couple of years putting a sales team together. We have salespeople dispersed throughout the US and Mexico. But then we have a network of manufacturer representatives as well as an extensive distribution network. So we spent a couple of years, putting all of that in place, making sure that we have the right people in the right places. And we're aligned with the right external partners. It all came to fruition. As you point out, even though our salespeople haven't been able to travel and see customers, other than those that they can go and drive to see if those customers are seeing vendors.

       They had such good relationships that technology helps: zoom and cell phones help us stay close to those customers. So we were ready to start doing many webinars that we were already going to do in 2020, but this accelerated the effort for us. 

       So we were able to reach many people that our salespeople had a hard time getting in touch with in the past. But, but now nobody could go anywhere. Everybody was staying home and doing these types of interactions over zoom or the same kind of technologies, so we found that we could reach many more people than we would likely have been able to get have we've been traveling all over the US. So we generated a lot of business. The highlights for ATA, especially for the US business for 2020, were the number of new opportunities we could identify. Still, we were able to close business while being remote. I kept telling this to the Salesforce throughout the year, "I don't know how you're doing it. Keep doing it."

       Lisa Ryan: Many positive things came out of this whole thing. It's not only the amount of money saved in time, in not getting on airplanes and traveling over the country and all over the world. But you now had the opportunity to connect with new customers that maybe it wouldn't have been worth your time to get on a plane and see and make that effort. So it sounds like you and your salespeople were buying into that and weren't afraid of the technology. So what a positive that was for you.

       Hector Diaz-Stringel: Yeah, and I give them a lot of credit because they are salespeople. They want to be out there. They want to be talking to customers, and they want to see how the product works and troubleshoot issues that a potential new customer may be having. They can physically do any of these things, but they found a way to do it remotely and succeed. So that was one of the highlights of our business last year.

       Lisa Ryan: Now, you mentioned that when you assembled the sales team five years ago when you came on board, you were looking for the right people. That's so important when it comes to culture. But what helped you determine who was the right person and getting that right fit for your company. So you do have those long term dedicated salespeople.

       Hector Diaz-Stringel: Yeah, we had a Salesforce, and some of them were good individuals, but they were thinking more about retirement than what the next step in their career was going to be. So when you were going to have openings, regardless. But I was new to the business. I have to learn what type of business we had and what the opportunities were. But it was clear that we needed dynamic people - people who were hunting for new opportunities. We looked for motivated and incentivized people by finding a new opportunity and closing the business while maintaining the current business. We already had relationships with those customers and found opportunities for those customers as well. So it was more about driven individuals, not individuals that could be good at maintaining a sales territory.

       We needed somebody that can maintain our territory. But more importantly, that was dynamic enough to learn whatever new products we keep introducing. We added a lot of new products to our portfolio. They needed to learn those products and become experts at them, but then go out and find opportunities where we can close sales, and it was a unique set of skills that we're looking for. 

       It took us a few tries to find the right individuals, and we found them by going out and hiring people external people. We also took flyers on internal individuals. For example, we have a marketing coordinator that wasn't in the commercial area, but a man sales at all. But we saw potential in here, and we will do the challenge of her, and she was very reluctant at the beginning because, again, sales can be scary. She's been very successful over the last three years, so it took a lot of experimenting and taking calculated risks. So far, it's worked out.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, it sounds like it was something that has still kind of there that's keeping you up at night, what are, what are some of the things may be struggling with?

       Hector Diaz-Stringel: Well, it definitely that the pandemic. I mean, we're struggling with it. We've been able to manage it successfully so far. And we're going to continue to be very vigilant about it, but it's all around us. And if that were to come into the facility. Of course, I'm going to be concerned about our employees and making sure that they can get through it without any significant issues, but their families and what that effect is going to have in our business and how we serve as a business. We have to manage and potential outbreak. So that has kept me up at night for the last ten months or so.

       And the economy that the resulting economic issues that have come because of the pandemic. We are much more optimistic now than we have been over the last few months. We believe that in 2021 especially with the vaccines being available and the vaccination rates, things will start opening up, and the business will get back to normal levels. The new administration coming in, hopefully, will have some infrastructure, a plan put in place that will help our business. So there's a lot of things that we're hopeful are going to happen. These things do keep me up at night because the US economy needs these things.

       Lisa Ryan: Right, exactly. And when we look at this podcast from a networking standpoint of just connecting manufacturers, what would be something that maybe you would either like support or ideas from your manufacturing colleagues to share with you.

       Hector Diaz-Stringel:  One of the things that we learned as we went through the pandemic was how our network helped us. Hopefully, we also help other companies figure out how to deal with something that nobody has seen since 1918. Nobody in the world was ready for something like this. So are we doing the right things? Are we overdoing it, or we're not doing enough? All we had was ourselves, and we're an Irish based company. So we have, I have counterparts in Ireland, Germany, and the UK. We have the facilities that we could bounce ideas off each other. But again, it's all within the ATA world.

       But we reached out to our network and just tried to have a call. We can have a beer with the President of our company. What are you doing here, and what have you done that generated more connections with other companies? 

       I probably have met somebody in the company, but never had any interactions, but found out that they were open because they were also trying to figure it out. So, those, those type of it. They were quasi-informal networks that became more formal out of necessity but had those interactions in place. I like what you're doing with this podcast in connecting companies. The next time any of us has any challenge that we have never seen before, having that network to reach out to and being comfortable doing that is another thing that I thought to tell somebody that we don't know what to do. 

       Well, sometimes, you have to be vulnerable. It was very valuable to talk to our companies and, in some cases, validate that we're on the right track. In all cases, we get new ideas that we can think of and, in other cases, provide them with ideas. I think it made for a better situation for all.

       Lisa Ryan: Awesome. When it comes to your areas of expertise or insight regarding sharing with your manufacturing colleagues, what would be a good tip or a good reason to connect with you?

       Hector Diaz-Stringel: I have been in chemicals and plastics and cutting tools now. I like going into manufacturing facilities, even if it's something that I have never seen before, because you never know what kind of ideas you're going to extract from that that could apply to your own business or your own life. You don't know what you're going to find out.

       Anyone who wants to connect is more than welcome to bring them over to see what we're doing. And, you know, maybe we'll give those people an idea that they didn't think of before that that I find valuable.

       Lisa Ryan: Because sometimes we get so focused on just our industry where you could learn something from somebody in a completely different industry that's like, ooh, that's transferable, and that's the whole point of making those connections. If somebody wants to reach out and connect with you, what's the best way to do that?

       Hector Diaz-Stringel: hector.diazstringel@gmail.com 

       Lisa Ryan: Alright. Awesome. Well, Hector. It was an absolute pleasure having you on the show today. Thank you for being here. I'm Lisa Ryan from the Manufacturers' Network podcast, and we'll see you next time. Thank you.

       ]]>055085c3-107a-4d58-9c98-201837496567Tue, 12 Jan 2021 09:30:00 -040018:00falsefull1331Northeast Ohio - A Great Choice for Manufacturers with Jay ForanContact 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 got expansion plans, we can assist that way, tying them into jobs, Ohio, and the state as well as local incentive programs. But we can also provide services in talent development technology adoption, helping them find a site that sort of thing. We don't just restrict ourselves to companies in the region.

       We're interested in bringing greater business investment into the region as well. So we work to attract companies, so we travel around the world and tell the Northeast Ohio story. It's a very compelling story of why they want to have an operation here and how that will best serve their business and help their company succeed.

       Lisa Ryan: So, and as you're doing that and trying to help companies relocate to Northeast Ohio? What are these companies looking for when they're determining where to relocate their business?

       Jay Foran: Well, they all have different requirements. They all have different things, to some degree, that they're looking for, but they can boil down into what I call three areas. One is, "Can I make money?" And that's what companies are supposed to do, right, is to make money. And so what are the things that are assisting them here. Is this a good location for that from a logistics standpoint? Is there access to customers or access to a supply chain - all things that contribute to money?

       And then there's risk. Is there a lot of risk with this site versus another site in another state or another part of the country?

       And finally - time. How long is it going to take? How much capacity is required of their organization? So again, I think it kind of boils down to money, can I make money. Is there an opportunity there? Or can I save money by operating there, how much time will it take, can I do it faster there or with less capacity?

       What's the risk involved - downward or upward risk - that I had to consider as I think about my location. So usually, that's where companies start to weigh these regions of the country against each other and start to score them against their more individual requirements, but they all tend to fall into time, money, or risk.

       Lisa Ryan: I also think you've probably seen this a lot more than me when it comes to people being surprised when they come to Cleveland. We see this when other sports fans come in to watch games in Cleveland. They are much more surprised than they originally thought they would be about what a great location, it is. I'm sure that that also plays a part in willing people to come here.

       Jay Foran: Right. It's incredibly valuable and is actually a requirement to be successful. We have to find a way to get leaders of organizations to come to the market to be here, to see what's available, and to see how easy it is to drive across the region, from a transportation standpoint. The options that are available, the sites that are available, etc. - I think once we get them on the ground, our success rate grows, you know, threefold, fourfold, and this is just as true when it comes to talent.

       Many companies here will tell you, "Our biggest challenge is getting people to think about relocating here. But once we get them to relocate here, we asked him, maybe five years later to relocate somewhere else. They don't want to leave." Yes, they're enjoying that not only are they enjoying a rich career, but their families are also enjoying a great quality of life. So that combination is what we're all looking for a good career, great opportunities, and enrichment, but at the same time, we want our families, the people we love, to be successful, too. And so that's where it all works for Northeast Ohio.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. And as somebody who is a native Clevelander, I've actually never lived outside Cuyahoga County - completely by choice. I like to joke about the fact that my husband has lived in both Cuyahoga AND Summit Counties.

       Jay Foran: So he's a man of the world.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, my whole family has flown the coop and lives across the country. But, for my husband, Scott and me, it's such a pleasure to see the expansion of people discovering the secret gem that we have here in Cleveland.

       Jay Foran: Some of our best, most loyal residents have lived in New York or Boston, San Francisco, Atlanta, all these exciting places they're exciting. I love San Francisco. How could you not, right. Right, like I was traveling the west coast in great cities, but at the same time, I thought about what is offered here. It called me home. I think about how much house I can get from my money, how far my dollar goes, how many things my family can enjoy due to being here are just greater than any of the other places that I played.

       Lisa Ryan: So what do you think about what you've seen the economic development future looks like for Northeast Ohio?

       Jay Foran: I think it's incredibly bright. I'm very encouraged. I am in the latter stages of my career; I won't be doing this for that many more years but in many ways. I wish I could be part of it 10 years from now. Because I've been at it for almost 15 years, when I first went out to talk to companies in Silicon Valley or Japan or other parts of the world. I spoke about Northeast Ohio or Cleveland Akron and there was a little concern because of what they had heard about the area. Well, I have seen over those 15 years that change dramatically.

       I'm not saying that the world knows everything they need to know about Northeast Ohio; there's still a huge opportunity there. And that's where a lot of our emphasis going to be is helping people...]]>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 got expansion plans, we can assist that way, tying them into jobs, Ohio, and the state as well as local incentive programs. But we can also provide services in talent development technology adoption, helping them find a site that sort of thing. We don't just restrict ourselves to companies in the region.

       We're interested in bringing greater business investment into the region as well. So we work to attract companies, so we travel around the world and tell the Northeast Ohio story. It's a very compelling story of why they want to have an operation here and how that will best serve their business and help their company succeed.

       Lisa Ryan: So, and as you're doing that and trying to help companies relocate to Northeast Ohio? What are these companies looking for when they're determining where to relocate their business?

       Jay Foran: Well, they all have different requirements. They all have different things, to some degree, that they're looking for, but they can boil down into what I call three areas. One is, "Can I make money?" And that's what companies are supposed to do, right, is to make money. And so what are the things that are assisting them here. Is this a good location for that from a logistics standpoint? Is there access to customers or access to a supply chain - all things that contribute to money?

       And then there's risk. Is there a lot of risk with this site versus another site in another state or another part of the country?

       And finally - time. How long is it going to take? How much capacity is required of their organization? So again, I think it kind of boils down to money, can I make money. Is there an opportunity there? Or can I save money by operating there, how much time will it take, can I do it faster there or with less capacity?

       What's the risk involved - downward or upward risk - that I had to consider as I think about my location. So usually, that's where companies start to weigh these regions of the country against each other and start to score them against their more individual requirements, but they all tend to fall into time, money, or risk.

       Lisa Ryan: I also think you've probably seen this a lot more than me when it comes to people being surprised when they come to Cleveland. We see this when other sports fans come in to watch games in Cleveland. They are much more surprised than they originally thought they would be about what a great location, it is. I'm sure that that also plays a part in willing people to come here.

       Jay Foran: Right. It's incredibly valuable and is actually a requirement to be successful. We have to find a way to get leaders of organizations to come to the market to be here, to see what's available, and to see how easy it is to drive across the region, from a transportation standpoint. The options that are available, the sites that are available, etc. - I think once we get them on the ground, our success rate grows, you know, threefold, fourfold, and this is just as true when it comes to talent.

       Many companies here will tell you, "Our biggest challenge is getting people to think about relocating here. But once we get them to relocate here, we asked him, maybe five years later to relocate somewhere else. They don't want to leave." Yes, they're enjoying that not only are they enjoying a rich career, but their families are also enjoying a great quality of life. So that combination is what we're all looking for a good career, great opportunities, and enrichment, but at the same time, we want our families, the people we love, to be successful, too. And so that's where it all works for Northeast Ohio.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah. And as somebody who is a native Clevelander, I've actually never lived outside Cuyahoga County - completely by choice. I like to joke about the fact that my husband has lived in both Cuyahoga AND Summit Counties.

       Jay Foran: So he's a man of the world.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, my whole family has flown the coop and lives across the country. But, for my husband, Scott and me, it's such a pleasure to see the expansion of people discovering the secret gem that we have here in Cleveland.

       Jay Foran: Some of our best, most loyal residents have lived in New York or Boston, San Francisco, Atlanta, all these exciting places they're exciting. I love San Francisco. How could you not, right. Right, like I was traveling the west coast in great cities, but at the same time, I thought about what is offered here. It called me home. I think about how much house I can get from my money, how far my dollar goes, how many things my family can enjoy due to being here are just greater than any of the other places that I played.

       Lisa Ryan: So what do you think about what you've seen the economic development future looks like for Northeast Ohio?

       Jay Foran: I think it's incredibly bright. I'm very encouraged. I am in the latter stages of my career; I won't be doing this for that many more years but in many ways. I wish I could be part of it 10 years from now. Because I've been at it for almost 15 years, when I first went out to talk to companies in Silicon Valley or Japan or other parts of the world. I spoke about Northeast Ohio or Cleveland Akron and there was a little concern because of what they had heard about the area. Well, I have seen over those 15 years that change dramatically.

       I'm not saying that the world knows everything they need to know about Northeast Ohio; there's still a huge opportunity there. And that's where a lot of our emphasis going to be is helping people understand the narrative. But I can tell you that the shade is much further up than it needs to be to bring Cleveland Northeast Ohio.

       And again, I think there's a lot of things going on on the ground. Whether it's University Circle or what's happening in Akron Canton and Youngstown, there's a lot of activity. Companies are succeeding.

       We're just in a great location that's always going to serve as well. And some of the movement towards remote workforce as a result of the pandemic, I think we're going to serve this region. Well, when it comes to attracting and retaining talent, which is usually for most companies' minds.

       Lisa Ryan: So when it comes aside the fact of picking up your business and moving to northeast Ohio to increase business or have a more successful business. What are some of the things that you're seeing with the manufacturers you're working with that they're doing really well?

       Jay Foran: Well, there are many manufacturers in Northeast Ohio - 7700 to be exact - 97% of them would be what we consider a small or medium-sized enterprise. I see them doing exceptionally well in providing a workplace that allows for additional responsibility and personal growth. Training. Most of these organizations have strong, very solid processes in place. A strong example is just how Northeast Ohio responded to the pandemic's onset back in March of 2020. It was determined that manufacturing was essential. And you saw leadership from these companies that were so impressive and the response of the workforce. The employees were providing our society at a critical time.

       I think in many ways, it was somewhat of a renaissance for manufacturing. It really brought to the surface just how critical, how valuable manufacturing is, and just how strong our region is. 

       Again, in this region, we're about 20 25% of the geography and about 35 40% of the economy. Well, that's because of in factoring. That's because of the multiplier effect and the supply chains and the fact that we're feeding the region's supply chains and worldwide. I think because of the pandemic, we answered the call and continue to answer the call. That's a strong endorsement for the manufacturing community.

       Lisa Ryan: In the pandemic, employees had the opportunity to contribute to that mission. One day they're making beer, the next day, they're making hand sanitizers. One day they're making plastics. The next day, they're making shields. I shouldn't have been surprised, but it was really cool to see the changes that just flipped overnight, and we're able to be that flexible, which we offer here.

       Jay Foran: Right. No doubt about it. The company, the employees, the personal investment in the solution was so obvious. There are so many success stories. We could go on and on and on about these companies. 

       Lisa Ryan: So if it was to come down to your best tip or hint that you would like to share with other manufacturers, or the best reason for them to come to northeast Ohio, what would that be?

       Jay Foran: Okay, well, for manufacturers in particular, I think there's still opportunity, lots of opportunity in the area of what it called technology adoption, you know, Internet of Things. Some of these new applications of advanced AI, artificial intelligence, other technologies, etc. The global marketplace is very competitive, and it's going to be imperative for our companies to begin to bring on these technologies to automate to a greater degree to remain connected. We want to be a leading-edge community. 

       The good news is on two fronts: one is that there's strong movement afoot, and the region much of which Team NEO is involved. And if anybody wants to learn more. I'm happy to chat with them. But there's a big movement in the region to begin to take on these technologies to adapt them to incorporate them to integrate them to be successful in them.

       And the good news, relative to technology adoption is that you don't have to take on this monstrous project. You can begin small, and as you are successful, you can add on to it, reinvest some of those savings and then continue ratcheting up your organization to be more technically proficient.

       Going forward, there's an opportunity. I also think there's a reasonable pathway for companies to employ without disrupting their business or, you know, bringing a lot of risk to their business by incorporating these technologies.

       Lisa Ryan: Awesome. Well, Jay. It has been an absolute pleasure having you on the show today. What's the best way for people to get ahold of you if they'd like to continue the conversation?

       Jay Foran: Best way is through my email, jforan@teamneo.org 

       Lisa Ryan: All right. Well, again, Jay. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and insight and really giving props to our wonderful city of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. So thank you for being here. I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network podcast. See you next time.

       ]]>7984640f-bc05-483c-9d87-0943624d25efMon, 11 Jan 2021 18:30:00 -040020:36falsefull1221Collaboration in the Age of Digital Transformation with Scott MacKenzieConnect 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. What do I how it's it's been decimated? I was in Asia, and I was putting in and bolts and now that's all messed up. How do I reach or near-shore onshore what it, what are my strategies around that? And then once again what does the market look like? How do I manufacturer to those that the demands of the market?

       It was just absolutely all new and it just demonstrated a tremendous amount of leadership on the part of manufacturers.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and just being able to see manufacturers that yeah one day they're brewing beer and the next day they're making hand sanitizer. Or one day they're making clothing and the next day they're making masks. So, not only to be able to turn on a dime like that but also to let their employees know that hey you're contributing to something that’s part of the solution in this pandemic that we're all facing. For lots of people, not only in my industry, but lots of other people I talked to this was going to be the best year ever. Everything was going so well and then March came and the bottom fell out. So it's been definitely an interesting year.

       Scott MacKenzie: I think one of the positives and I'm always gonna try to gravitate to the positive is that I think pre-pandemic. We were lazy. We were just, sort of, just going through the motion and economy and all of that stuff during the pandemic. I think that there were meaningful conversations, the realization that people - it's a people conversation. And so many of these manufacturers sat down with their team and said, “I need your help.” And there was a level of vulnerability that exists.

       You didn't have the answers you know why? Because you've never been through it and you needed that ability to collaborate, not just internally. Which is a good thing where you're creating that dialogue and you're valuable, but also externally and saying, “I don't have the answers, either.” So I need to collaborate with other individuals outside and there was this need to help everybody tried to survive. And that was a beautiful thing. And I hope going forward, that that is not lost. And that we continue to collaborate in a way that helps everybody succeed.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, also, it really helped us speed up technology because when we look at who runs a lot of the manufacturing companies, it’s like, “We've been doing it this way for 40 years, man. We don't need those apps. We don't need that video, and we're not going to do the zoom thing, whatever that is.” But you were forced into it. So from a technology standpoint, it seems that we just blasted five or 10 years into the future. Further than if we had just stayed put.

       And that level of communicating, especially with your millennial and Gen Z employees who are used to communicating this way. It's like, now we just really expanded our options as far as doing that which is super cool.

       Scott MacKenzie: So this is an interesting point that you bring up Lisa one there's that digital transformation and pre-virus. There were companies saying, “I hear this industry 4.0, I hear IoT, edge, cloud, jet - all of the things that are associated with industry 4.0  and they put it on their plan two to five years. We’re gonna start to deploy it right. Then there were companies that said, hey, this is important to us and so we're going to begin to deploy our digital transformation strategy, whatever that might look like.  The ones that did it right beforehand or in a better position today than the ones that right just sort of planned it out. That's one.

        The other challenge that exists because of the pandemic, because of the challenges and the focus on digital transformation is the education gap that exists now so what used to be something that, “hey we're planning, we're going to have a grand time and we're going to learn a little bit this and little edge of this and really just sort of meander on into digital transformation.”

       Now we've realized that there is a necessity and in any of your young listeners out there anything that deals with IoT digital transformation AI. Edge robots get into it because now there's this major gap and the speed of technology is demanding that there's an educated workforce that can respond to that.

       You’re not going to go down the world of digital transformation if you don't have the resources, the people, the human element in doing that. It just, you're not so that education components massive especially now mess.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and that also helps us to change the conversation because, for a lot of parents, a lot of guidance school counselors think of manufacturing the way it was back in the day when it was loud and dirty and greasy grimy and the technology that's taken over. I mean, you walk into some of these plants and it's clean. They're bright. It's exciting. You're seeing all these robots and just cool stuff around and a lot of people don't know that. So it's just really, how are you getting the word out. How are you showing off what you're doing? How are you, attracting people to your industry who may have never considered manufacturing before?

       Scott MacKenzie: Isn't that an interesting challenge because that is more of marketing into an attention type of strategy outside of the fact that you gotta educate - that's sophisticated stuff. It's cool stuff. And if you're in the game. If you're doing it. And if that's your profession, you're writing because technology is moving so fast. Version one is yesterday's news now is wearing version two. I'm already hearing about 6G and it's just so fast. But if you're in the game....]]>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. What do I how it's it's been decimated? I was in Asia, and I was putting in and bolts and now that's all messed up. How do I reach or near-shore onshore what it, what are my strategies around that? And then once again what does the market look like? How do I manufacturer to those that the demands of the market?

       It was just absolutely all new and it just demonstrated a tremendous amount of leadership on the part of manufacturers.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and just being able to see manufacturers that yeah one day they're brewing beer and the next day they're making hand sanitizer. Or one day they're making clothing and the next day they're making masks. So, not only to be able to turn on a dime like that but also to let their employees know that hey you're contributing to something that’s part of the solution in this pandemic that we're all facing. For lots of people, not only in my industry, but lots of other people I talked to this was going to be the best year ever. Everything was going so well and then March came and the bottom fell out. So it's been definitely an interesting year.

       Scott MacKenzie: I think one of the positives and I'm always gonna try to gravitate to the positive is that I think pre-pandemic. We were lazy. We were just, sort of, just going through the motion and economy and all of that stuff during the pandemic. I think that there were meaningful conversations, the realization that people - it's a people conversation. And so many of these manufacturers sat down with their team and said, “I need your help.” And there was a level of vulnerability that exists.

       You didn't have the answers you know why? Because you've never been through it and you needed that ability to collaborate, not just internally. Which is a good thing where you're creating that dialogue and you're valuable, but also externally and saying, “I don't have the answers, either.” So I need to collaborate with other individuals outside and there was this need to help everybody tried to survive. And that was a beautiful thing. And I hope going forward, that that is not lost. And that we continue to collaborate in a way that helps everybody succeed.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, also, it really helped us speed up technology because when we look at who runs a lot of the manufacturing companies, it’s like, “We've been doing it this way for 40 years, man. We don't need those apps. We don't need that video, and we're not going to do the zoom thing, whatever that is.” But you were forced into it. So from a technology standpoint, it seems that we just blasted five or 10 years into the future. Further than if we had just stayed put.

       And that level of communicating, especially with your millennial and Gen Z employees who are used to communicating this way. It's like, now we just really expanded our options as far as doing that which is super cool.

       Scott MacKenzie: So this is an interesting point that you bring up Lisa one there's that digital transformation and pre-virus. There were companies saying, “I hear this industry 4.0, I hear IoT, edge, cloud, jet - all of the things that are associated with industry 4.0  and they put it on their plan two to five years. We’re gonna start to deploy it right. Then there were companies that said, hey, this is important to us and so we're going to begin to deploy our digital transformation strategy, whatever that might look like.  The ones that did it right beforehand or in a better position today than the ones that right just sort of planned it out. That's one.

        The other challenge that exists because of the pandemic, because of the challenges and the focus on digital transformation is the education gap that exists now so what used to be something that, “hey we're planning, we're going to have a grand time and we're going to learn a little bit this and little edge of this and really just sort of meander on into digital transformation.”

       Now we've realized that there is a necessity and in any of your young listeners out there anything that deals with IoT digital transformation AI. Edge robots get into it because now there's this major gap and the speed of technology is demanding that there's an educated workforce that can respond to that.

       You’re not going to go down the world of digital transformation if you don't have the resources, the people, the human element in doing that. It just, you're not so that education components massive especially now mess.

       Lisa Ryan: Well, and that also helps us to change the conversation because, for a lot of parents, a lot of guidance school counselors think of manufacturing the way it was back in the day when it was loud and dirty and greasy grimy and the technology that's taken over. I mean, you walk into some of these plants and it's clean. They're bright. It's exciting. You're seeing all these robots and just cool stuff around and a lot of people don't know that. So it's just really, how are you getting the word out. How are you showing off what you're doing? How are you, attracting people to your industry who may have never considered manufacturing before?

       Scott MacKenzie: Isn't that an interesting challenge because that is more of marketing into an attention type of strategy outside of the fact that you gotta educate - that's sophisticated stuff. It's cool stuff. And if you're in the game. If you're doing it. And if that's your profession, you're writing because technology is moving so fast. Version one is yesterday's news now is wearing version two. I'm already hearing about 6G and it's just so fast. But if you're in the game. You're in it, you get to hear it, you get in your learning curve is not a steep get in the game.

       And then secondly, you're right. You know, there's this preconceived notion that manufacturing is dirty, filthy, whatever. Now it's a sophisticated profession that is only getting more demanding when it comes to technology sophistication data analytics because there's gold in that skill set. Big time.

       Lisa Ryan: Yeah, and I think that COVID has also helped us to look at business and look at production differently. My husband just went back to work after being furloughed for eight months and they are actually basing their production on who shows up that day because they don't know if one of their workers has been exposed to COVID. They don't know if they have to be in quarantine because a family member was exposed.

       So, a year ago, you would have never thought, no, this is the production schedule this or what they're running but like you said to have that flexibility of being able to turn and say, okay, well, instead of making 100 units today. Maybe we can only make 75 because that's who we have- and it’s being okay with that because nobody knows what's what,  where we're going, and how these things are when we're going to get back to whatever that next normal is.

       Scott MacKenzie: Yeah it. See you bring up another good point. It's when we first started the conversation. One of the things that I was very fascinated with is the ability of manufacturers to be nimble. Because my understanding, prior to the pandemic is that manufacturers, they just they're into doing things in and honing that process over and over and over again. That's what they do. Right.

       And now you throw in a pandemic you throw in that. And then all of a sudden, they realize they need to be nimble. Here's the benefit - they're able to say, okay, “Been there, it’s been a pain.” This is how we've adjusted it only benefits them going forward. Now we have 100 people in today, tomorrow, we have 75. This is what we can do and we're still staying alive and moving forward and turning the wheels. That's a great thing. And going forward, people talk about the ability to be able to take a lot of things for granted in the manufacturing process.

       I about died when I went to the store and there was nothing on the shelves like toilet paper. And then I realized the importance of manufacturing, I realized the importance of the Supply Chain. I always knew it was, but I'm living it and everybody else is living it.

       But what's great about it is that there's this cafeteria type of mindset. If I can modify my manufacturing process to manipulate it and satisfy my customer even better. Instead of a red car, I want that green car. I want it now, you know, and it's just being able to do that real-time.

       Manipulation of your manufacturing process that's the data analytics, that is a Iot. That is a technology solution, but that's where we're going. And it only benefits us from a manual from a consumer perspective, it's, it's cool.

       Lisa Ryan: So what are you seeing as far as some of the main things that are keeping manufacturers up at night.

       Scott MacKenzie: I just think that the market. It's too squiffy right now. I don't know what the answer is. You know, you see the news out there is the demand up, have we seen the impact on business, the economy. It's just before the pandemic, you're really honing in on that data and how you're manufacturing, it's like, you get it. Your idea you're looking at it, you're seeing it. The pandemic hits and all things are just off the table.

       One of the biggest challenges is, “how do I make my capital investment when I don't know what the market looks like. I don't even know where I'm going. I'm having a hard time sourcing this. I'm not getting paid because they're having a problem and that's where that collaboration. It's a human solution. You're just going to have to collaborate with people, you're going to have to innovate and you're going to have to educate all the time.

       And you're going to have to make that commitment. So the biggest challenges. I don't know what the future looks like I don't know what that means when everybody gets the vaccine does business. Go back to usual, I don't know. If you come across somebody that does know, well question them because I just don't know. But you can have a conversation about what do you do here. Well, we had that problem and we did it this way. Thank you very much. That's helpful and being about each other.

       We've got to be we're all in this boat together. You've got to be about the other and helping them succeed if they succeed, you succeed. Bottom line, that's all about industrial talk that's all about what you do you want people to succeed. And if they succeed you succeed.

       We can sit there and piss and moan about the pandemic, but it really has opened up the opportunity to have meaningful conversations and people have to take that vulnerable position to say, “Yeah, I don't have all the answers. I used to, but I have now and that's a good thing to be.” I like that.

       Lisa Ryan: And I know from just from knowing you, one of your superpowers, is the fact that you are a connector. So as far as, you know, just really helping manufacturers to network to get together with each other.

       What are some of the ways that you have found to do that? If somebody struggling with a question and looking for that right person – how do you make those introductions and how have you been so successful connecting people?

       Scott MacKenzie: Oh, that's a great question. Outside of the fact that I've been doing this for about two and a half, three years, right, and I've had a really fortunate opportunity to be able to interview. I think the class of 2020 industrial top class of 2020 was far greater than, let's say 200 plus industry professionals industry heroes. Right. And so for me, I get the opportunity to interview and I do it intentionally to figure out what the challenges are and then I think there was like, oh, I know who it is you need to talk to Lisa. I do this quite frequently.

       I'll just say, stay on the line. So, and then I'll call the individual and say you need to do this right now, here, and I'll pull up my cell phone and I'll stick it on the mic and say you need to connect and then I'll do it. And then I'll create it and then I back away because, again, if we're not about the necessity to collaborate.

       We can't just hold our cards close to our chest. We just can't. We've got to be open. It's got to be an open kimono type of interaction. And so I do that real-time, because I'll get distracted. I'll contact that person and I will get them on the phone and I say that you got to contact them and that's how it works. I can't help facilitate the next step, but I will be a pain in the ass and I will always be it's like hey did you contact them. Did you contact them? Yes. You got to be that way. You got to follow up, you gotta do it.

       Lisa Ryan: That and that human connection. Yeah, that's the one thing that we really kind of took for granted and we're getting back to realizing how important that is.

       Scott MacKenzie: It, it, it is. And I agree with you, 100% it is at the top of that heap. It's that collaboration and being vulnerable and then always learning and educating. I think education is always up there too. That's leadership, you know, and you're big into leadership, you're big into the gratitude stuff, which is pretty damn cool.

       Lisa Ryan: So what is the best way for people to connect with you.

       Scott MacKenzie: Go to IndustrialTalk.com and you can see all of the podcast episodes there.

       Lisa Ryan: Thanks for being on the show, Scott!

       ]]>62fadbb3-7ef2-4856-a64e-f09a455fe095Mon, 11 Jan 2021 17:00:00 -040020:35falsefull1111