More than half of all revenue from goods produced in the US come from factories with 500 people or less. But so many small factories operate without a digital backbone to manage all of their data. In this conversation, Co-Founder and CEO of Pico MES, Ryan Kuhlenbeck, talks about the impact of creating a digital through line of data – from suppliers and manufacturers along the supply chain, all the way up to the OEMs.
Oct 10, 2023•31 min•Season 1Ep. 174
Over the past few decades, we've seen two of the five human senses digitized: With sound, we've witnessed music go from analog to digital, and technologies like Siri and Alexa infiltrate our personal and professional lives. With vision, we've watched facial recognition software emerge on our phones, video surveillance and super advanced vision inspection systems on manufacturing production lines. Youssef Benmokhtar, CEO of GelSight and the guest on this episode, is leading the company that's pio...
Oct 03, 2023•24 min•Season 1Ep. 173
Change. How. American. Manufacturing's. Perceived. In. Our. Nation. Put the first letters of those eight words together and you have the word "CHAMPION". Terry Iverson is the founder of the nonprofit organization CHAMPION Now. And he's on a mission to change the image of manufacturing from the stereotypical “dark and dirty” industry to one filled with advanced technology and innovation, and promising careers for the next generation. In this episode, he's here to tell you why this mission is so i...
Sep 26, 2023•32 min•Season 1Ep. 172
Advancing sustainability. Reducing downtime risk. Creating a more profitable future through energy efficiency. These are positive side effects of implementing a modernized energy system. And in the manufacturing sector, where incredible amounts of energy are consumed every minute from a century-old power grid, it's time to start looking toward to the future. In this episode, Gareth Evans, CEO and Founder of energy transition platform VECKTA, shares his wealth of knowledge on the subject. Veckta'...
Sep 19, 2023•26 min•Season 1Ep. 171
There are a number of talent pools – from veterans to disabled to ex-felon that not only present opportunities for finding talent, but can also come along with meaningful incentives and tax credits. These incentives can also extend into investments in buildings, machinery, equipment and upskilling your employees. Leslie Boyd, CPA and Managing Principal – Manufacturing at CLA, has spent her career building deep expertise inside of the manufacturing sector. And she's here to unpack all of this for...
Sep 12, 2023•24 min•Season 1Ep. 170
Imagine an engineering design environment where AI does 60 to 70% of the work, and humans finish the rest. Tasks get automated. Things happen faster. Productivity increases. As Milan Kocic, Founder and Head of Sixth Sense at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence will tell you, in some places, we're already there. But looking into the future, Milan doesn't see an environment void of humans. Instead, he pictures one where humans are effectively... superhuman.
Sep 05, 2023•28 min•Season 1Ep. 169
How does a small mechanical contractor grow into one the top industrial oven manufacturers in the country – all while maintaining a partnership over nearly four decades and continuing to innovate all along the way? There's no simple recipe. From putting their customers at the center of every project through custom-engineered solutions.... To keeping their manufacturing operations in house to build supply chain resilience and maintain exceptional quality standards... To creating a work environmen...
Aug 29, 2023•40 min•Season 1Ep. 168
Whether you're thinking about bringing a brand new product to market or your feeling the pressure to modernize your existing product line to remain competitive, this era of industry 4.0 is forcing manufacturing leaders to ask themselves lots of questions. What options do we have? What risks are we taking? What will it cost? How can we do it without excessive capital investment? How will we validate the viability of the product? How and from where will we source components? How should we think ab...
Aug 22, 2023•25 min•Season 1Ep. 167
Here we are in a decade when technology is advancing at a faster rate than ever before. The pressure to innovate is all around us. But from an innovation standpoint, what's essential and what's not? Where do we make investments? How far ahead of the technology adoption curve do we need to be? And how do we innovate without overwhelming our respective teams? These are the types of questions today's manufacturing leaders are being forced to answer all the time. In this conversation, Jeff Winter, S...
Aug 15, 2023•27 min•Season 1Ep. 166
When you hear "Great Depression", what comes to mind? Mobs of frantic people outside of banks? Dried out farmland and dust storms across the Great Plains? Dorothea Lange's famous "Migrant Mother" photo? When you say "Great Depression" to Jackie Greene, VP of Economics at ITR, her thoughts go NOT back in time to the 1930s, but instead forward to the not-so-distant 2030s. This economist's firm has been analyzing economic data and trends for decades. And in this conversation, she'll tell you what t...
Aug 08, 2023•26 min•Season 1Ep. 165
Have you ever worked in a business where everyone seems to be working in their own silos? Product development is doing their thing. Production is doing their thing. Sales and marketing are doing their own things. My first reaction when I see these silos is – what a wasted opportunity. In this conversation, Anthony Rodriguez, Co-Owner & Vice President at KETIV, talks about that wasted opportunity, specifically in the context of engineering data.
Aug 01, 2023•23 min•Season 1Ep. 164
Foundation comes first. This is something our team at Gorilla talks about often in the context of a marketing program. But in today's conversation, Bill Kaewert, CEO and CTO of Stored Energy Systems LLC, extrapolates this "foundation first" principle to a greater business context. Specifically, he'll tell you why sales and marketing are wasted endeavors if they're not standing on a strong foundation that's comprised of product, systems, processes and people.
Jul 25, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 163
I've always been a believer in creating the right seats on the bus, and THEN filling those seats with the right people. But when you're a family owned business, in a lot of ways, the people are already there, and you have to figure out how to fit them into those seats (and fill in the holes around them). In this conversation, Ryan Margolin, CEO of Professional Hair Labs, talks about the dynamics of running a family-owned manufacturing business – a topic of relevance for so much of the manufactur...
Jul 18, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 162
What does the word "brand" mean to you as a manufacturing leader? A logo and a tagline? A color palette and collection of images or graphics you use on your website, in your sales decks and at your trade show booth? Or is brand something more than that? And as a B2B manufacturer, why does all of this matter anyway? Paul Kiesche, President of Aviate Creative, is a seasoned branding professional working inside of the manufacturing sector. And in this episode, these are the types of questions he'll...
Jul 11, 2023•31 min•Season 1Ep. 161
Improved inventory accuracy. Higher productivity in your facility. Less required labor. This is what can happen when you put drones and AI together inside of a warehouse or distribution center. In this conversation, Sean Mitchell, VP of Customer Success at Gather AI, will show you what his organization is doing to lead inventory monitoring into a new era.
Jul 04, 2023•22 min•Season 1Ep. 160
"My goodness, let's let a robot do that". These few words Ale Walker, Director of Business Development at Gray Solutions, summarize the general feeling of excitement she experiences when walking through manufacturing facilities today. And not only because of the opportunity she sees to change the way we manufacturer products in the United States, but also because of the quality of jobs we can create.
Jun 27, 2023•18 min•Season 1Ep. 159
158 weeks and 158 episodes ago we launched this podcast, The Manufacturing Executive, as a resource for CEOs, Presidents and owners. Last year, we introduced a second podcast, The Manufacturing Marketer as a learning resource for those inside of the same organizations with "marketing" in their job titles. And this April, we rounded it out with the launch of our third podcast, The Manufacturing Employer, for the hiring managers, HR pros and culture builders inside of the industrial sector. In thi...
Jun 20, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 158
Any business owner has his or her own unique vision for the trajectory of the company. There are lifestyle businesses, high-growth businesses, and plenty that fall somewhere in between. But moving from a lifestyle business to a growth business in manufacturing requires a mindset shift. It also requires a set of very intentional transformations to accompany that new mindset. In this conversation, Jason Pace, a manufacturing COO who's one year into this journey, will unpack the five key transforma...
Jun 13, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 157
Over the past few years, we've all seen and experienced the effects of rising labor and material costs. But as John Abplanalp, President & Principal Consultant at Tight Lines Advisors, will tell you today, alongside these challenges, productivity in US manufacturing is at it's lowest point in 75 years. Put all of this together, and the recipe for profitability becomes pretty a challenging one to make. This episode is all about productivity, and why it needs to be a core area of focus as we l...
Jun 06, 2023•28 min•Season 1Ep. 156
The motivation for today's manufacturing workforce goes much deeper than salary and benefits alone. Individuals want to know that they matter, that their work is making an impact, that they have a voice and that it's being heard. Michael Sullivan, Senior Recruiter at Miller Resource Group, spends as much time with employers as he does with job candidates. And in this conversation, he'll talk about what today's manufacturing workforce actually wants.
May 30, 2023•27 min•Season 1Ep. 155
Lack of trust. Lack of goals. Lack of skill. Lack of risk tolerance. In this episode, industrial marketing consultant Julian Schaaf explains why these are the four biggest problems that plague slow-moving marketing teams in the manufacturing sector. He also explains how to overcome these barriers so you can blow your competition away.
May 23, 2023•44 min•Season 1Ep. 154
More than ever before, it's not just a stable job plus a paycheck that motivate people, but also the opportunity for growth and career advancement. In this conversation, Patrick Curry, President of Fullerton Tool Company, talks about designing intentional career paths for your people.
May 16, 2023•40 min•Season 1Ep. 153
If you're looking into the manufacturing sector from the outside, the numbers will show you how underrepresented women are in this sector. And if you already work in manufacturing, you know this just from looking around. But Alicia Gilpin is working to change all of this. A business owner, non-profit founder and podcast host, Ali G is a source of inspiration for women currently in manufacturing who are struggling to find their voice, as well as for young women whose careers lie on the horizon....
May 09, 2023•21 min•Season 1Ep. 152
What options do I have for transitioning the ownership of my business? How has the market for selling my business changed over a wild few years of pandemic and supply chain disruption? Is transitioning to an employee-owned model an option? And how do buyers evaluate the value of the company I've built and grown? These are all questions that any manufacturing business owner who may be looking to exit in the years ahead might be asking. Keith Butcher, Managing Partner at ButcherJoseph & Co., i...
May 02, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 151
On the surface, there are many forces driving the sustainable manufacturing movement in our world today – from government initiatives to consumers to corporations. But as Mark Remmert, CEO of Green Dot Bioplastics, will tell you, at the core the sustainable manufacturing movement is simply the human need for survival. In this conversation, Mark offers his perspective on why sustainability matters, where bioplastics fit into the picture and what the future may hold for sustainable manufacturing.
Apr 25, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 150
Every day we use a wide range of digital technology in our personal lives. But in our work lives here in the manufacturing sector, there tends to be more resistance to technology adoption. In this conversation, Matthew Wright, Founder of Specright, will make the argument for digitization through the lens of product and packaging specification management. Matthew will discuss the role of technology in creating efficiencies that drive profitability, improving communication among team members, reta...
Apr 18, 2023•24 min•Season 1Ep. 149
Cyber security is a very real problem. Unfortunately, it's a very real problem that's not understood or properly addressed by many manufacturing organizations. It poses threats to our businesses. And for those who are manufacturing parts for the defense industry, threats to our national security. Jason Ray, Co-Founder & CEO at Paperless Parts, is here to educate about this topic of cyber security. He'll tell you why it matters, why you should care and where to start.
Apr 11, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 148
A very small percentage of manufacturing organizations ever get to the point where they're consistently publishing truly exceptional resources for the people they need to influence from the companies they want to do business with. And for the few that DO get it right, that content will often just sit in a resource center on their website collecting dust until it's eventually buried and never seen again. In this conversation, we tackle two critical subtopics of content marketing that so many comp...
Apr 04, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 147
Christopher Nguyen, CEO & Co-Founder of Aitomatic, explains why we need both the IIoT data coming off the assembly line and the knowledge of our front line workers to build an effective AI model.
Mar 28, 2023•25 min•Season 1Ep. 146
Ashleigh Walters tells her story of transformation inside of the manufacturing organization she recently led – as they went from a command-and-conquer operation to an employee-focused operation, all the way to an employee-OWNED operation.
Mar 21, 2023•26 min•Season 1Ep. 145
