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Episode Summary

Most big problems in a manufacturing business started out as small ones that nobody solved. In this episode, Justin sits down with Jamie Flinchbaugh, founder of JFlinch and author of People Solve Problems. They talk about why leaders keep reaching for big levers like AI, reorgs, and acquisitions, when the real momentum usually comes from breaking problems down and understanding cause and effect.

Jamie explains how to connect daily huddles to monthly KPI reviews so leaders can trust that their teams have the ball. He also explains why process metrics invite curiosity while output metrics drive accountability. The two dig into a practical approach to AI for mid-market manufacturers, what breaks first when a company doubles in size, and how to bring skeptical veterans along on standardization. They close on how operations leaders can translate lean gains into the language boards and PE owners care about.

About the Guest

Jamie Flinchbaugh is the founder of JFlinch, where he works as an advisor, coach, and board member to leaders building organizations that hold up. He started on the plant floor at Chrysler and went through MIT’s Leaders for Manufacturing program. He spent 15 years co-founding and building the Lean Learning Center into one of the top lean transformation firms in the country. More recently he served as Corporate Vice President of Qorvo’s Lean Journey.

Jamie has worked with more than 300 companies, including Harley-Davidson, Intel, Mars, Amazon, and Whirlpool. He has helped build close to 20 companies as a co-founder, board member, or investor, and he serves on the boards of Robinson Fans, York Container, S&S Cycle, and Orion Fleet Intelligence. He wrote People Solve Problems: The Power of Every Person, Every Day, Every Problem, co-wrote the lean bestseller The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean, and hosts the People Solve Problems podcast.

Key Takeaways

1. Big levers are often an act of desperation. Buying a company, replacing the CEO, or launching an AI program can feel like progress. Jamie sees more momentum in breaking a big problem into medium-sized pieces you can confidently move, then working out cause and effect on each one.
2. Structure matters more than systems. Every metric should answer three questions: how are we performing, why are we performing there, and what are we doing about it. When a red metric shows up in a monthly review with the “why” and the countermeasure already attached, leaders can trust the team instead of jumping in from the top.
3. Every injury started as a trip hazard. You can’t predict which small problem will become the big one, so solve them while they’re small. Smaller problems also give your people more repetitions, which builds problem-solving capability faster.
4. Process metrics drive curiosity, output metrics drive accountability. Measuring diet and exercise tells you far more about what to change than waiting to measure heart attacks. The same logic applies on the shop floor.
5. Start AI with a nagging problem. Skip the AI strategy. Pick a messy problem that has sat in the back of your mind, run a small experiment, and learn what the tools can do. Treat it like pruning a growing tree, because nobody knows where the tools will be in 18 months.
6. Know which kind of AI fits the job. Machine code and other work that needs consistency calls for deterministic tools. Generative AI is better suited to finding patterns in handwritten quality reports or normalizing customer specs. Jamie ranks efficiency gains last, behind making the team smarter and doing work you never had time for before.
7. AI always sounds confident. Challenge its output the way you would an intern’s work. And ask whether you would have spent three days helping an employee succeed the way you spent three days on the tool.
8. Growth breaks at the connections. Every person you add creates new handoffs, and every handoff is a chance for delay or error. Activities and flows tend to hold up as a company grows. The connections between people and departments change the most and are the hardest to get right.
9. You already had a standard. A great chef doesn’t measure, and they are still remarkably consistent. Small teams have standards embedded in a few experienced people. Scaling means giving that consistency tools that work across the whole enterprise.
10. Standardize to solve a problem. Ask why this standard, why now, and how far to take it. Standardizing scheduling across three acquired plants matters if they share a supply chain. Standardizing their food service probably doesn’t. Writing a process down is what lets you troubleshoot it when it fails.
11. Know your board before you pitch to it. Some PE firms are full of operators who understand cause and effect, while others are purely financial. Family-owned businesses usually care most about sustaining the company for the next generation. Interest rates are unlikely to return to zero, so operations leaders need to learn capital efficiency, return on assets, and free cash flow.
12. Calm can look like a lack of urgency. Boards only see you for 30 minutes a quarter. Operations leaders need to show both how serious a problem is and that they have it under control. That judgment often gets made in the Q&A.

Quotable Moments

“I write selfishly, because writing is how I clarify my thinking.” (Jamie Flinchbaugh)

“Every injury started off as a trip hazard.” (Jamie Flinchbaugh)

“Think about pruning a growing tree rather than building a roadmap.” (Jamie Flinchbaugh)

“Your next step is your next step.” (Jamie Flinchbaugh)

“Every handoff is an opportunity for a delay or an error.” (Jamie Flinchbaugh)

“It’s not do we want consistency or not. We want consistency. You had consistency.” (Jamie Flinchbaugh)

“I can’t tell the difference between lack of urgency and calm if I only get to sit with you for 30 minutes every quarter.” (Jamie Flinchbaugh)

“We’ve got a lot of big problems out there on the shop floor that didn’t start off as big problems.” (Justin, quoting a client COO)

Topics Covered

• Why writing clarifies thinking
• Big levers versus breaking problems down
• Daily leadership routines and KPI trees
• Process metrics versus output metrics
• Thoughtful AI adoption for mid-market manufacturers
• Generative AI versus deterministic machine learning
• Using AI to mine dense ERP reports
• Why hiring is often the wrong reflex during growth
• Activities, connections, and flows
• Standardization without bureaucracy
• Lean as a “pragmatic zealot”
• Translating lean gains for boards and PE owners
• Capital efficiency in a higher-rate environment
• Reading the room in a board meeting

Resources & Links

• Jamie Flinchbaugh: https://jflinch.com
• People Solve Problems: The Power of Every Person, Every Day, Every Problem by Jamie Flinchbaugh (Amazon)
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road by Jamie Flinchbaugh and Andy Carlino (Amazon)
• People Solve Problems podcast

Connect With Allied Advisors

Allied Advisors helps mid-market manufacturers scale operations and improve the bottom line through Lean, value stream design, and fractional continuous improvement leadership.

• Website: alliedadvisors.io
• Email: jgoethe@alliedgroup.io

If you enjoyed this conversation, please like, subscribe, and share the episode with a friend. It helps us get the message out to more operators.

Episode Summary

What happens to a portfolio company when the operating partner's voice carries less weight than the investment thesis? Otis Spencer Jr. has seen that question from both sides of the table, first as an operating partner at GenNx360 Capital Partners and then as the CEO of a PE-backed industrial business. Justin and Otis dig into how unrealistic diligence assumptions end up on the operations team's desk, why the ops and investment sides of a firm need to speak with one voice, and what it takes to build a lean culture on a three-to-five-year hold.

Otis also walks through a turnaround he calls "a dog fight," where the company came out of a restructuring with a clean balance sheet but couldn't get the credit it needed to stock long-lead parts and shorten delivery times. He explains how he worked through lenders and critical suppliers to get the business moving again. The conversation closes with his case for automation as a quality and safety tool, and the lessons from 13 years as an Army logistics officer that he kept and the ones he had to unlearn.

About the Guest

Otis Spencer Jr. is a turnaround CEO, operating partner, and industrial executive with more than 30 years of experience leading PE-backed transformations and complex global operations. Most recently he served as President and CEO of Schramm Inc., where he navigated severe liquidity and supply chain crises, grew revenue from $29 million to $54 million, and guided the business to a successful sale. He quadrupled EBITDA for an aviation MRO platform from $16 million to $60 million, and at TAMKO Building Products he doubled division EBITDA to $80 million while growing revenue to $250 million.

Otis spent 13 years as a US Army logistics officer and earned a Bronze Star for commanding a 1,500-person task force during Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he stood up the first wartime containerized fuel pipeline and terminal distribution system in Iraq and Kuwait. He holds a BS in industrial engineering from the University of Alabama and an MBA from Saint Martin's University.

Key Takeaways

1. Put operations in the diligence room. When ops isn't part of valuation and diligence, the model fills up with assumptions like a new plant reaching peak output in year one or heavy price increases every year. The firm overpays, and the operating team inherits targets it was never going to hit.
2. Operations estimates run optimistic. Teams routinely underestimate project effort by about half, which is why experienced operators need to pressure-test the plan before it becomes the thesis.
3. The firm needs to speak with one voice. If management can go around the operating partner to the deal lead whenever they dislike an answer, the credibility of the CEO and ops team erodes fast. Lockstep alignment between the ops and investment sides keeps that from happening.
4. Lean culture starts with CEO buy-in. On a short hold, buying a new machine is always the more exciting story. Lean takes hold when the CEO treats it as a way of life, and an early Kaizen win builds the confidence to keep going.
5. You can't improve what you haven't measured. Many mid-market plants track little beyond revenue, cost, and on-time delivery. Bringing in help up front to install a few critical KPIs, and sharing what they uncover without playing gotcha, turns early embarrassment into engagement.
6. A clean balance sheet doesn't guarantee working capital. After a restructuring, lenders may not line up and the fund may be low on dry powder. Otis worked the firm's lender relationships, then specialty lenders, and finally key suppliers like Caterpillar, who helped with terms in exchange for future volume.
7. Automation is a quality and safety play. Reducing process variation means less material, less downtime, and less startup scrap, and it keeps hands away from lines running 700 feet per minute. Framing it that way, and sharing the gains with the operators who remain, earns the buy-in a headcount story never will.
8. Keep the military training and let go of the rank. Formal training in planning, decision-making, and staying calm under pressure has paid off at every stop. What Otis had to unlearn was the expectation that people act because you're the boss. In industry, results come from knowing people individually, and sometimes from making the hard call to get the right people on the bus.

Quotable Moments

"All those returns that you finger painted into the model, you probably won't reach." (Otis)

"You want to have solidarity from the firm." (Otis)

"It's a way of life. It's not just a project." (Otis)

"You can't make an improvement without having baseline data." (Otis)

"Lean manufacturing is a religion. You gotta believe in it first, and then you gotta try your best to practice it for a long time before you really start seeing the results." (Justin)

"Us manufacturing guys were kind of the first AI folks." (Otis)

"Everybody hits the door with their own set of problems." (Otis)

"We can all talk theory till we're blue in the face, but the realistic side of this is what's really important." (Otis)

Topics Covered

[00:00] Introduction and Otis's background
[02:00] What it costs a portfolio company when ops isn't on equal footing with the investment team
[06:30] Large-cap long-term thinking versus the PE hold period
[08:30] Why management shouldn't be able to go around the operating partner
[11:00] Aligning on a common philosophy, and why CapEx is an easier story than cutting waste
[15:30] Quick wins, missing KPIs, and building baseline data
[20:30] The "dog fight" turnaround and financing after a restructuring
[28:00] Automation as a quality and safety enabler
[34:30] Army lessons Otis kept and the ones he had to unlearn
[42:00] Making the hard calls on people, and closing thoughts

Resources & Links

Otis Spencer Jr. on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/otis-spencer-jr-0763a563/
Concepts discussed: Lean, Kaizen, Six Sigma, Statistical Process Control (SPC), Deming, OEE

Connect With Allied Advisors

Website: alliedadvisors.io
Email: jgoethe@alliedgroup.io

If you enjoyed this conversation, please like, subscribe, and share the show with a friend. It really does help.

Episode Summary

Most improvement projects die quietly after the consultant leaves. Adam Lawrence built a framework to stop that from happening.

Known across the manufacturing world as the Kaizen Ninja, Adam has facilitated more than 400 Kaizen events, driving over half a billion dollars in business impact. His events average roughly $1.2 million in annual savings apiece, and he runs them in a week or less.

In this conversation, Adam walks Justin through how he actually runs a Kaizen week: two hours of level setting, then straight to the Gemba with the people doing the work as his guides. Post-its and Sharpies instead of technical jargon. Rapid experiments instead of perfect plans. He calls the standard "butt ugly by Friday," and the point is speed of learning, not polish.

The heart of the episode is sustainability. Adam breaks down the nine elements of his Wheel of Sustainability, the framework behind his book, and then explains why he recently blew up his own assessment and rebuilt it around five observable leadership behaviors instead. His marketing team told him the wheel was too hard to see in the field. He agreed.

The two also dig into safety as a lean principle, not a compliance program. Adam shares how Armstrong World Industries drove its global OSHA recordable rate from 4.5 to 0.28, and why he now requires every team member in a Kaizen event to make two personal safety improvements before Friday.

If you have ever watched a good improvement quietly disappear six months later, this one is for you.

About the Guest

Adam Lawrence is the founder of Process Improvement Partners and the author of The Wheel of Sustainability. An industrial engineer by training, he spent nearly 30 years at Armstrong World Industries, starting on the floor at Thomasville Furniture and working across multiple continents to become Global Lean Champion for the Building Products Technology Group.

He struck out on his own in 2018 and has since facilitated more than 400 Kaizen events worldwide. His work has been featured in Industry Week, Aerospace America, and Artisan Spirit. He operates out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

His core belief is simple. The real solutions to business problems do not come from conference rooms. They come from the people doing the work.

Key Takeaways

Go see, do not debate. Adam describes a plant manager and his team arguing over the location of a post on an AutoCAD drawing. Five minutes at the Gemba answered it, and revealed the post would have blocked their entire concept. Going to see cuts the time by a factor of ten and shows your people you take them seriously.

Butt ugly by Friday beats perfect by never. The goal of a Kaizen week is many rapid learning cycles, not one polished solution. Teams try, fail, learn, and try again. By Friday they have something safer and easier that they own, even if it is not pretty.

The team is the people doing the work. Adam uses only two Japanese terms all week, Kaizen and Gemba. Everything else stays plain. Post-its and Sharpies mean anyone can contribute without feeling unqualified.

Sustainability is a system, not a follow-up meeting. The Wheel of Sustainability has nine elements: leadership commitment, notification, training and review, visible evidence, all tools available, clear benefits, daily layered audits, accountability, and recognition. All nine get applied to the change during the week itself.

Notification is about why, not what. Anyone can see a workstation looks different. What matters is whether the operator can tell you why it changed and what it does for them.

Build visible evidence you can read from 30 feet. Outlines, labels, Andon lights, flags. If you cannot tell from a distance whether someone is working to standard, you cannot coach them back to it.

Audit with people, not at them. A good layered audit takes three to five minutes, checks three things together, and often surfaces the next improvement. Accountability runs both directions. Coach people back to standard, and thank the people already there.

Charter means blanket approval, not marching orders. Leaders define the problem and why solving it matters. They do not hand the team a solution. That distinction is what makes ownership possible.

Adam replaced his own framework with observable behaviors. After his marketing team told him the wheel was too abstract, he rebuilt his assessment around five things you can go watch: people become part of the change, leadership at the Gemba, owning the change, earning trust, and growing the improvement culture. Fifteen questions, and each score comes with something you can act on without calling him.

Earning trust means nothing waits. Adam needed a label printer mid-event. The maintenance manager dropped what he was doing, found one in another building, and carried it over himself. That is what leadership having your back looks like in practice.

Safety is the inarguable principle. Every Kaizen event includes a personal objective: two safety improvements per team member, demonstrated by Friday. It applies to roughly 95 percent of Adam's events regardless of scope or industry.

Safety is also the sustainability argument. Ask a sponsor whether they are willing to go back to a less safe way of working. Nobody says yes. That answer is the leverage that keeps the rest of the improvement in place.

Lean is not a toolkit. The goal is not 5S or a plan for every part. The goal is an organization that keeps learning, because the environment never stops changing. Batches shift, machines wear, people turn over. Entropy wins if you stop adding energy.

Quotable Moments

"The real solutions to business problems don't come from conference rooms. They come from the people doing the work."

"Butt ugly by Friday. Don't wait for perfection. Try something, see what you learn."

"My Gemba tolerance is about five minutes."

"I am an acquired taste."

"You can't get better if you aren't willing to learn how to get better."

"If you can't get safety right, you can't get anything right."

"Are you willing to go back to a less safe way of working? Well, what are you going to say? Sure, let's hurt more people."

"They said this really needs to be based on observable leadership behaviors. Crap. That actually makes sense."

"Stop letting perfect be the enemy of better." (Justin)

Topics Covered

How Adam structures a Kaizen week, from level setting to Friday implementation
Why he limits himself to two Japanese terms and keeps everything else plain
The AutoCAD post story and what it teaches about analysis paralysis
Virtual Gemba and finding waste in administrative and IT processes
The nine elements of the Wheel of Sustainability
Why he threw out his original sustainability assessment and rebuilt it
The five observable leadership behaviors that predict whether a change sticks
Preparing leaders for their role before, during, and after an event
Improv sessions on day three as a teaching tool
Safety as a lean principle and the Armstrong journey from 4.5 to 0.28
Biggest results: bottleneck eliminations that doubled output, a $1.4 million quality check improvement
Why some organizations never get there

Resources & Links

The Wheel of Sustainability by Adam Lawrence - Click Here
Process Improvement Partners: http://www.pi-partners.com
Click Here for Adam's sustainability assessment: 15 questions built on observable leadership behaviors
Connect with Adam Lawrence on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-t-lawrence/

Connect With Allied Advisors

The Allied Advisors Podcast is the podcast for mid-market manufacturers looking to scale operations and improve that ever important bottom line.

Website: alliedadvisors.io Email: jgoethe@alliedgroup.io

If you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe, and share it with a friend. It helps us reach more people and support others on their manufacturing journeys.

Eighty-five percent of companies are investing in AI. Fewer than six percent see a return in year one. In this episode, Justin sits down with Lisa Moses and Priya Ponmudi, partners at Veritas Growth Consulting, to unpack why the gap is that wide and what mid-market manufacturers should do about it.

Between them they have run supply chain and operations at Kids2, HelloFresh, Amazon, Tech Data, and across European manufacturers. Their answer starts with a question most leaders skip: what are you actually trying to solve? Cost, service, or people. If the honest answer is a broken process, dirty data, or a discipline problem, AI will not fix it. It will just make it look pretty.

They cover where AI already pays for itself in supply chain, where it is flatly the wrong tool, how to build a financial model that survives contact with a CFO, and the cost curve nobody is pricing in yet. If you are an owner or ops leader feeling the pressure to "do something about AI," this is the conversation to hear first.

Lisa Moses has spent 25 years on the side of the loading dock most manufacturers only think about when something goes wrong. She is Managing Director of Veritas Growth Consulting, the global supply chain practice she launched this January with Priya, following 14 years at SIBA Logistics, where she grew an account portfolio from $3 million to $24 million. Most recently she was VP of Warehousing and Logistics at Kids2, running seven 3PL operations across six countries on a distribution spend north of $25 million a year. She holds an MBA in international business from the University of Miami and is based in Tampa. Her argument is simple: your logistics network is not a call center you inherited. It is a design decision you are either making on purpose or making by accident.

Priya Ponmudi is an industrial engineer who has spent 30 years making distribution networks move faster, and she got there by way of the floor. She spent 16 years at Tech Data running the North America Engineering Division across six logistics centers on a $65 million budget, then moved to Amazon as a senior manager, where her team optimized truck utilization across 75 sortation centers against a $1.4 billion spend and booked $136 million in projected savings. As a director at HelloFresh she led a network-wide labor initiative that delivered $11 million a year. She holds a master's in industrial engineering from Florida International University and is based in Atlanta. Her current focus is where AI and machine learning meet the warehouse floor.

Lisa and Priya have known each other for roughly 20 years. Priya was Lisa's client long before they were partners.

"We look at AI as a technological investment versus an operating model." Priya Ponmudi

"They can plug AI into all that all they want, but it's not going to fix the core problem. AI is just going to make it look pretty, but it's still going to be bad data with bad processes." Lisa Moses

"It stops you from using a $2 million investment to solve a $200,000 problem." Priya Ponmudi

"Where they could get the most benefit is the non-sexy stuff, the stuff in the back office." Lisa Moses

"If you don't do that, you're just kind of lighting money on fire in a ditch." Justin Goethe

"We might all be sent back to tech school to learn to weld instead of learn to code." Justin Goethe

• (03:00) The first question to ask back when a CEO says "we need AI"
• (04:32) The automotive manufacturer that generated hundreds of AI ideas and no business case
• (05:27) AI as an operating model, the cost / service / people framework, and computer vision on the trailer queue when safety outranks ROI
• (07:33) Why fewer than six percent see a first-year return
• (08:15) Process, data, and discipline problems that AI cannot solve
• (08:56) Broken processes, data quality, executive ownership, and the full cost of implementation
• (11:50) Justin on learning to vet the business case before writing the software
• (13:16) DMAIC as the template for an AI business case
• (14:32) Where AI is the wrong tool, and how to tell a client so
• (15:29) Demand planning, load optimization, and container visibility: the fast wins
• (18:30) Automating demand planners out of existence, and what that does to the consumer
• (20:11) Tariffs at Kids2: from zero to five percent to fifty percent in a week
• (22:04) The K-shaped economy and the shrinking purchasing market
• (24:04) Priya on the COVID parallel and where policy may have to step in
• (26:46) Data centers, the grid, the water, and separating fact from narrative
• (30:12) Pricing in a 20 to 50 percent increase in AI costs over five years
• (31:38) How Veritas runs an assessment before AI ever enters the conversation

• Veritas Growth Consulting: global supply chain practice founded January 2026 by Lisa Moses and Priya Ponmudi
• Nitro Supply Chain Solutions: Priya Ponmudi, partner
  • https://www.nitrosupplychain.com/
• LinkedIn: Lisa Moses: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-moses-385aba8/
• LinkedIn: Priya Ponmudi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priya-ponmudi-8831b47/
• Mentioned: prior Allied Advisors episode with Winfred Rocksteiner on the automation of demand planning
  • https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-allied-advisors-podcast/id1833287030?i=1000732961761

Have a question or want to talk about scaling your operation? Justin would love to hear from you.

• Email: jgoethe@alliedgroup.io
• Web: alliedadvisors.io
• Subscribe: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube

Episode: Building Operations That Run Without You — with Dr. Huri Mendoza

Guest: Dr. Huri Mendoza — Global Operations Executive & Project Manager

Episode Summary

Dr. Huri Mendoza has spent more than two decades turning around and scaling manufacturing organizations across the automotive and nutrition sectors — on the ground in Germany, the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, Romania, China, India, and Lithuania. In this episode, he sits down with Justin to unpack the operational playbook behind worldwide programs that saved more than $500 million and drove double-digit annual productivity gains.

The conversation is a masterclass in fundamentals: why turnarounds start with hours of silent observation on the shop floor, where mid-market manufacturers should actually deploy AI (and where they shouldn't), how to build a continuous-improvement culture that survives after the champion leaves, and why the most important question in operations isn't what or why — it's how do we make this happen?

What You'll Learn

• Where to start when you walk into an underperforming operation — and how to tell a quick win from a six-month project
• Why "expensive chaos" is what you get when you automate a process that isn't standardized first
• What AI realistically costs a $50–200M manufacturer, and why execution — not the tool — creates the value
• How to build a lean academy and CI culture that sustains itself (10,000+ people trained, 2,000 projects a year)
• The "rolling 100 days" — a simple cadence for deciding not just what to do, but what not to do
• How to de-risk a big CapEx line launch by front-loading the questions a simulation would force you to answer
• Why relationships and the "how do we make this happen?" mindset separate leaders who execute from those who stall

Episode Highlights & Timestamps

• [00:02] Welcome & guest introduction — Huri's background across automotive, nutrition, and global operations
• [02:30] Walking into a turnaround — silent observation, going to the Gemba, and finding your own information instead of accepting "this is the problem"
• [04:00] One-piece flow & Chaku Chaku — cutting inventory, overproduction, and space by forcing flow; overcoming the "we've always done it this way" resistance
• [08:00] The discipline of watching — the TPS-for-executives lesson: four hours of observation before a single suggestion
• [11:00] AI & digital tools for the mid-market — what's realistic on a modest budget, why big companies already have the data, and where AI genuinely helps smaller manufacturers
• [16:00] "Automate chaos and you get expensive chaos" — why you need a standard baseline before layering on technology
• [18:00] Building a lean academy that lasts — training standards, defined roles (who owns the pull system?), the "is vs. should" gap, and creating a learning ladder
• [24:00] Reactive vs. proactive projects — controlling the firefighting so your people have time for improvement; how thousands of small measures added up to millions in savings
• [29:00] The hardest decision — deciding what you're not going to do, and the "rolling 100 days" cadence
• [31:00] De-risking a big CapEx launch — high/mid/best-cost country strategies, regional supplier frameworks, and using FlexSim simulation
• [34:00] The real value of simulation — it's the front-loaded questions (packaging, cycle times, operator travel), not the software; turning the "perfect" solution into a future-state value stream map
• [39:00] "What do I have to do to get us in business?" — the mentor question that reshaped how Huri thinks about relationships, and why how is the question that connects people
• [43:00] Include everyone — from CEO to operator, everyone has eyes and ideas; problem-finders vs. solution-finders
• [45:00] Wrap-up & how to reach Huri

Key Takeaways

1. Shut up and watch. The first move in any turnaround is hours of silent observation on the shop floor — not ideas from the desk. The information is already there; go find it.
2. Standardize before you automate. AI and Industry 4.0 amplify whatever you already have. Without a standard workflow, you just get more chaos, faster.
3. AI gives you data and ideas — not execution. For mid-market manufacturers, the opportunity is real (often low-five-figures to start), but only if you know what you'll do with the information and who will execute.
4. Culture is a system, not a person. Define roles, standardize training, pair novices with experts, and build a learning ladder — so the results stick long after the champion moves on.
5. Deciding what not to do is the hard part. There are always more problems than people. Run improvement on a quarterly cadence — a "rolling 100 days."
6. The value of simulation is the questions. Front-loading the details (packaging, takt time, operator travel) before the steel is cut is what de-risks a launch — with or without the software.
7. Lead with "how." Ask how do we make this happen? in the right room, with the right people, and you turn execution into a team sport.

Memorable Quote

About the Guest

Dr. Huri Mendoza is a global operations executive and project manager with a doctorate in Business Management from Swiss International University (Zürich). His career spans senior global roles at FORVIA (Faurecia–Hella) and Balchem, and most recently Director of Operations with the private equity firm Aequita, where he led a Tier-1 automotive turnaround — reducing manufacturing footprint by 50% and eliminating 20% of non-value-added activities. A Six Sigma Black Belt and lifelong champion of continuous improvement, he has trained more than 10,000 people, run thousands of improvement projects a year, and delivered worldwide programs saving $500M+ with double-digit annual productivity gains. He is also a board advisor to an AI software startup and speaks five languages.

Connect with Dr. Huri Mendoza

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-huri-mendoza-1017823/
• Email: huri.mendoza@acquicoreco.com

Here you go — plain text you can copy straight into your podcast host, YouTube, or Substack:

THE ALLIED ADVISORS PODCAST
Playing Like a Battleship at Speedboat Scale: PE Value Creation with Rick Brawn

Guest: Rick Brawn, Operating Partner, MiddleGround Capital
Host: Justin Goethe

EPISODE OVERVIEW

Rick Brawn has a manufacturing dream resume: he came up through the most disciplined corners of aerospace at Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce, then carried that operational rigor into private equity — first at LFM Capital, and today as an operating partner at MiddleGround Capital. In this conversation, Rick and Justin dig into what actually transfers from large-cap OEMs down to the mid-market, how value-creation plans get built and bought into after a deal closes, and why the biggest wins often live across a portfolio rather than inside any single plant.

Along the way: a $130M portfolio-wide freight play, a masterclass in change management that boils down to "people are people," and a candid look at how MiddleGround is putting Claude and AI to work — while double-checking every answer.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

• Which aerospace best practices copy-and-paste into the mid-market — and where they break down
• Why founders skip process documentation (hint: it's a values gap, not a cost gap)
• How MiddleGround builds a Value Creation Plan (VCP) and earns management buy-in from day one
• The portfolio-scale freight play: finding $26M in savings no single plant could reach
• How to run league tables, Kaizen boot camps, and cross-selling to force best-practice adoption
• A practical, no-hype way for a standalone manufacturer to use AI for spend and cost visibility

TOPICS & TIMESTAMPS

00:00 — Introduction: Rick's path from Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce to LFM and MiddleGround Capital
02:00 — Aerospace to the mid-market: what copies down from large-cap OEMs, and where resources and documentation break down
03:30 — Cost vs. values: why small and mid-market firms under-invest in process creation
05:30 — The PE stigma: why the "they just bring money" perception is unearned in industrials
08:00 — The Value Creation Plan (VCP): sharing the plan post-close and opening the canvas to build buy-in
10:30 — Culture integration: PE-owned vs. first-time founder companies; the Lindsay Precast success story
13:30 — People are people: change management from the shop floor to the boardroom, and the red hose lesson
17:00 — Portfolio-wide value creation: the $130M freight spend across 200+ factories and a 20% / $26M target
20:00 — Hidden leaks beyond freight: insurance, tax, tariff recovery, and consolidating renewal dates
24:00 — AI & Claude in the real world: plugging into ERP/AP data for spend visibility — and double-checking the work
29:00 — Capturing tribal knowledge: the 30-year toolmaker's drawings fed into an LLM for the next generation
31:00 — League tables & conferences: OpEx, Sales & Purchasing, and CEO/CFO conferences that drive healthy competition
35:00 — Kaizen boot camps & cross-selling: quarterly week-long events with tracked takeaways; keeping business "in the family"
38:00 — Strategy deployment: portfolio- and fund-level planning, three-to-five years out
42:00 — Closing thoughts: "MiddleGround is Bosch" — delivering value at scale

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Operations boils down to the basics. Continuous improvement, pricing methodology, and margin analysis transfer to any manufacturer, regardless of what they make.
• Process documentation is a values gap, not a cost gap. Founders often don't see the value in writing down processes — the unlock large-cap OEMs and PE both understand is that documentation is what makes a business scalable.
• Buy-in beats mandates. Sharing the VCP and inviting the management team to add to it produces a more complete plan and far more ownership.
• Scale creates value single plants can't see. Aggregating spend across 200+ factories — freight, insurance, tax, benefits — surfaces savings no individual company could find alone.
• AI lowers the barrier to that same analysis. A standalone manufacturer can feed AP and PO data to an LLM and get spend-vs-market insight that used to require a corporate team — as long as the output is verified.
• Competition drives adoption. League tables, awards, and tracked Kaizen takeaways turn best practices into implemented change — a discipline any multi-site manufacturer can copy across its own plants.

NOTABLE QUOTES

"Operations really does boil down to some of the basics when you look at it, no matter what you manufacture."

"We're basically coaches on the sideline. We're not the players on the field — and to coach effectively, you've got to understand what they're looking for."

"Nobody was looking at it in aggregate. Just shipping product out the door from our 200-plus factories is about $130 million in spend."

"You don't need me to teach you how to use AI. AI will teach you how to use AI — just start using it. The challenge is you've got to double-check its work."

"If MiddleGround companies knew what MiddleGround companies know, you would be unstoppable."

RESOURCES & MENTIONS

• MiddleGround Capital — operationally focused PE firm founded in 2018; ~15 portfolio companies, 200+ factories
• Rick Brawn on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/operatingpartner/
• Lindsay Precast (Gainesville, FL) — precast concrete manufacturer and MiddleGround exit; founder Ron Lindsay
• Prior episode — Bill Maroney, Freight Think (freight cost and logistics)
• Prior episode — Steve Cook, LFM Capital
• Referenced concepts: United Technologies / Raytheon "ACE" (Achieving Competitive Excellence); Toyota Production System; league tables; Kaizen boot camps

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Format: Solocast with host Justin Goethe Best experienced on: YouTube (this episode references on-screen slides)

Episode Summary

Episode 25 marks a milestone, and to celebrate it Justin comes back to the heart of what Allied Advisors does: the Systemic Improvement Cycle (System CIP) — the framework for turning strategy into structured, sustainable improvement that outlasts any one person.

Most continuous improvement efforts quietly drift. Companies launch a lean initiative or a Six Sigma rollout, see early wins, and then watch the gains evaporate within a year or two. As Justin lays out, that's not a people problem or a culture problem — it's a systems problem. Drawing on frameworks used inside world-class manufacturers, he walks through the four must-haves every CI program needs, the 90-day cadence that keeps teams accountable, and the practical tools that make improvement real on the shop floor: value stream mapping, the KPI tree, the project A3, and the plan-do-check-act discipline that ties it all together.

Whether you're just starting your lean journey or fighting to make hard-won gains stick, this episode gives you a clear, repeatable path forward.

In This Episode

• (00:00) Welcome and the 25th-episode milestone
• (01:30) PDCA at the core — running improvement cycles at ever-tightening frequencies, from the 30,000-foot view down to the shift level
• (02:30) Why everything runs on 90-day cycles (and why a one-year deadline gets you nothing)
• (03:30) Setting the vision: the three focus topics — business requirements, market requirements, and vision
• (05:00) Choosing your timeline and designing a future-state value stream (aim for a 12-month look)
• (05:45) Current-state value stream mapping — and why you walk it backwards, from shipping to receiving
• (08:00) The weekly roadmap cadence: where real accountability is built
• (09:30) Process validation — proving the new standard actually holds
• (10:30) Daily management — monitoring, reacting, and feeding learnings into the next cycle
• (11:00) Why CI programs fail: the four must-haves of any CI system
• (13:00) Where the cycle fits — the tactical bridge between strategy and execution
• (14:30) The three workshop deliverables: value stream map, project roadmap, and project A3
• (15:30) KPRs, department KPIs, and process KPIs explained
• (16:30) Building the current-state map — and why it gets you into the gemba
• (18:00) Value stream design: push vs. pull, supermarkets, and production leveling
• (19:45) Anatomy of a project roadmap — one owner per project, always
• (22:00) The KPI tree: arguably the most important tool in your lean toolbox
• (25:00) Hallmarks of a strong project A3 (and why charts beat paragraphs)
• (29:00) Common pitfalls that knock programs off course
• (32:30) The Allied Advisors Fractional CI Manager (FCIM) program

Key Takeaways

• Break work into 90-day cycles. A project due a year out gets no attention today. Ninety-day increments keep the tension on and force week-over-week progress.
• Go to the gemba. The current-state map matters because it pulls you out of the conference room and onto the shop floor — where the problems are and where the solutions live.
• Every CI system needs four things: a way to derive the right projects, a way to manage execution, a way to validate results, and a way to sustain standards. Miss the last two and you're left with a wish list.
• The weekly roadmap meeting is where the rubber meets the road. It's the accountability engine most improvement programs are missing.
• Every project gets one owner — one name, not a department. What's everyone's responsibility is no one's responsibility.
• The project A3 forces clarity. A one-page document that aligns the team on scope, drives weekly follow-up, and doubles as a marketing tool at review time.
• A KPI tree tells you which lever to pull. It maps the hierarchy from profit down to the shop-floor behaviors that drive it, so you know you're working on the right things.

Tools & Frameworks Mentioned

• PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) — the discipline underneath the entire cycle
• Value Stream Mapping — current state and future-state design
• Project Roadmap — the prioritized list of 90-day projects
• Project A3 — one-page project management tool (background/business case, current state, future state, approach, metrics)
• KPI Tree — hierarchy of key performance results, department KPIs, and process KPIs
• Production leveling, supermarkets, takt time, changeover (SMED) — value stream design concepts

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

• Skipping the value stream map and jumping straight to initiatives — you end up solving problems that don't exist
• Taking on too many priorities for the resources you have
• Launching projects without a single named owner
• Filling out A3s as wallpaper instead of using them to manage the work
• Skipping the weekly roadmap meeting — almost a guarantee of failure

About the Fractional CI Manager Program

Allied Advisors' FCIM program helps mid-market manufacturers build a culture of continuous improvement inside the teams they already have — rather than renting expensive consultants who run projects and leave. Over a 12-month engagement, Allied comes on site four times a year to facilitate System CIP workshops, coaches teams through weekly roadmap reviews and project A3s, and mentors your people so the capability becomes self-sustaining. The goal isn't to give you a fish; it's to teach you to fish.

Connect With Justin

Have a question about anything in this episode, or want to talk through where to start? Justin would love to hear from you.

• Email: jgoethe@alliedgroup.io
• Web: https://alliedadvisors.io/podcast
• Referenced episode: The Daily Leadership Routine (for more on process validation and daily management)

If you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe, and share it with a colleague — it genuinely helps the show reach more manufacturers.

From the shop floor to the boardroom — Kathy Miller has spent 30+ years leading operations at Rolls-Royce, GM, Delphi Delco, and Parker Hannifin, where she ran a $3B+ business with full P&L responsibility and toured 200+ plants across 24 countries. A 2021 Women in Manufacturing Hall of Fame inductee and co-author of Steel Toes and Stilettos, she went back to school at Penn for a master's in Applied Positive Psychology to put language and science behind what she'd witnessed on the plant floor.

In this episode, Kathy unpacks her MORE framework — Meaning, Optimism, Relationships, and Excellence — and makes the case that so-called "soft skills" are actually hard-metric performance enhancers. We talk about why frontline supervisors get "thrown to the wolves," how to connect repetitive work to real purpose, and why investing in people is the single biggest opportunity for mid-market manufacturers.

What We Cover

• The note from "Jimmy" that changed how Kathy leads: "Before you came, the little people would have remained the little people."
• Why resistance to lean and continuous improvement is really fear in disguise — and how psychological safety unlocks it
• Meaning as the starting point: connecting airbag electronics, rubber parts, and hydration packs to the lives they touch
• The colleague-to-boss transition no one trains for — and how to bridge it
• Leading "on concrete, not carpet," and treating workforce development as an investment, not a cost
• MORE Mentor: a "Coach Kathy in your pocket" AI tool grounded in her research

Memorable Quotes
"Those things people call soft skills are really not soft at all — they're performance enhancers to get hard metrics."
"I'm writing books for people who lead on concrete, not just carpet."
"Resistance is just really fear in disguise."
"There's literally a place for everybody in operations — from a high school diploma to a PhD."

Timestamps
00:00 — Intro & Kathy's background
01:30 — The plant-floor moment behind the MORE model
04:30 — Why "soft skills" drive hard metrics
07:30 — Having a shared language for leadership
10:30 — The MORE framework explained
10:45 — Supervisors thrown to the wolves: the colleague-to-boss gap
13:00 — Starting with Meaning: connecting work to purpose
17:00 — Lean transformation, BHAGs & overcoming resistance
21:30 — More Is Better: an overview of the new book
23:30 — Under-investing in frontline leaders
24:15 — MORE Mentor: Coach Kathy in your pocket
27:30 — The biggest people opportunity for mid-market manufacturers
31:00 — Respect for people & securing the future

About the Guest
Kathy Miller is President and Founder of MORE for Leaders, a keynote speaker, certified leadership coach, and business transformation advisor. Former VP of Lean Enterprise and Quality at Parker Hannifin. Author of More Is Better and co-author of Steel Toes and Stilettos.

Links

• MORE for Leaders & the MORE Mentor tool: more4leaders.com
• Book: More Is Better — Leading Operations with Meaning, Optimism, and Relationships for Excellence
• Book: Steel Toes and Stilettos
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-miller-mapp-mba-acc/

The Allied Advisors Podcast — for mid-market manufacturers looking to scale operations and improve the bottom line.

In this episode, host Justin sits down with Keith Gammill, Director of Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions (AMS), the state's affiliate of the National MEP Network. Drawing on nearly 30 years in operations, quality, HR, and continuous improvement, Keith makes the case that the MEP is one of the rare government programs that "got it right" — and walks through how mid-market manufacturers can actually put it to work. The conversation ranges from the origins of lean and where it still gets misapplied, to the central role of vision in leadership, the real impact of AI on the office (not just the shop floor), and what a first engagement with your state's MEP center looks like.

About the guest

Keith Gammill leads transformational support for manufacturers across Arkansas as Director of AMS, part of Arkansas Workforce Connections and the National MEP Network. Before joining AMS in 2014, he spent over a decade at Anchor Packaging — most recently as Director of Quality and Product Safety, leading 20 quality professionals across nine manufacturing units, and earlier driving an AutoPack division turnaround from last to first place in the company. A Gestalt Professional Certified Coach and DDI Certified Facilitator, Keith holds dual BS degrees from Arkansas State University in Industrial Technology and Leadership Management. By his own description: "an old manufacturing puke."

What you'll learn (with timestamps)

• [00:03:00] — What the MEP Network is: a public-private partnership funded continuously since 1988, modeled on the Cooperative Extension Service — "the county agents for manufacturing," with a center in every state plus Puerto Rico.
• [00:06:00] — The bread and butter: traditional lean services, including the Lean 101 workshop (Principles of Lean Manufacturing), run thousands of times in Arkansas.
• [00:08:00] — How the network shares best practices through regional nodes and national gatherings — giving any center access to ~1,250 professionals system-wide.
• [00:10:00] — How MEP services have evolved: reshoring/nearshoring post-COVID, plus technology transfer, automation, and AI.
• [00:11:00] — Why AI's biggest manufacturing impact will be in the office, not the shop floor — sitting on top of disparate systems to flag issues and distill the critical few priorities.
• [00:13:00] — South Carolina's OPEX (Operational Exchange) program, benchmarking trips, and why "all we know is what we know."
• [00:15:00] — The Arkansas Manufacturing Showcase: an event "by manufacturers, for manufacturers" creating matchmaking and serendipitous connections across the state's ecosystem.
• [00:16:00] — Good vs. great management: great managers have "seen great" — and why mistaking lean's tools for its goals leads people to throw the whole thing out.
• [00:18:00] — Vision as the "beyond-the-horizon compass heading," and why involving stakeholders down to the shop floor is where commitment lives.
• [00:22:00] — Keith's accessible take on vision: "If you've ever been on vacation, you've got vision."
• [00:23:00] — What a real MEP engagement looks like: it starts with a listening session — pull, not push — tailored to industry, size, culture, and maturity.
• [00:27:00] — Developing frontline leaders: AMS's Transformational Leadership Improvement suite, built for the operators promoted into leadership without ever being taught how to lead.
• [00:29:00] — AI and legacy equipment: a phased approach starting with sensors and data, always within a bigger vision via value stream mapping.
• [00:33:00] — Why planning's real value is the experiential journey the team takes together — and how that drives accountability without having to enforce it.
• [00:35:00] — A friendly point of "violent agreement": why change efforts need a dedicated resource, not a shop-floor supervisor getting called 50 times a day.
• [00:37:00] — How to get connected and what to expect from a first plant visit.

Quotable moments

• "You either mine it, make it, or grow it."
• "All we know is what we know."
• "The difference in good management and great management is great management has seen great at some point in their career."
• "Vision is the beyond-the-horizon compass heading that draws us forward."
• "If you've ever been on vacation, you've got vision."
• "The game is won and lost in the corner office, not on the shop floor."
• "You don't really need to enforce accountability when people have been a part of the journey."
• "The expert is anybody more than 50 miles from the plant."
• "If you're not engaged with them, you're foolish not to take advantage of it."

Key takeaways for mid-market manufacturers

There's an MEP center in every state offering deeply discounted, locally delivered support — most manufacturers just don't know it exists. Lean is as relevant as ever, but it spans the whole business; most waste hides in administrative functions, not on the floor. AI's near-term payoff is largely in the office, connecting siloed systems and surfacing the critical few priorities. Any technology or improvement effort should sit inside a bigger plan — start with a value stream map. And lasting change requires two things: a clear, shared vision and a dedicated resource to drive it.

How to get connected

Visit nist.gov/mep and click "Connect with an MEP Center," or simply search "MEP center [your state]." In Arkansas, reach out to Keith directly. The best first step: invite a center representative in for a plant visit or discovery conversation, and come ready to talk about your pain points — including the "magic wand" question: if you could change one thing in the business, what would it be?

Connect with Keith

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-gammill-gpcc-6b7b661/

Email: kgammill@astate.edu

Mentioned in this episode

Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions (AMS) · National MEP Network · Lean 101 / Principles of Lean Manufacturing · Bill Kraus (AMS) · SCMEP OPEX (Operational Exchange) program & Mike Demos · Arkansas Manufacturing Showcase · Transformational Leadership Improvement · Chris Mennona (past guest, most-downloaded episode) · Pat Erdley, Shift HR (past guest) · Quality Digest · Taiichi Ohno / Toyota Production System

Enjoyed this episode? Like, subscribe, and share it with a fellow manufacturer. Help us reach more mid-market manufacturers looking to scale operations, improve the bottom line, and keep manufacturing strong in the USA.

Episode Summary

Most operators run the shop floor as a disciplined, measurable system and treat the sales pipeline as a black box. Bill Bell spent his career proving they are the same thing. A million dollar deal dies at month nine and the only explanation anyone offers is "the customer went a different direction." That answer is not a diagnosis. It is nothing.

In this episode, Bill walks through how he took stage-gate thinking off the production line and applied it to complex industrial sales, why a stalled deal is a diagnosis rather than a dead end, and how mid-market manufacturers can stop pouring engineering capacity into custom orders that quietly lose money. If you came up through operations and the commercial side feels like guesswork, this one is for you.

About the Guest

Bill Bell is a partner and fractional Chief Revenue Officer at Chief Outsiders, with more than 20 years of CEO and senior executive experience across the automotive, industrial engineering, and technology sectors. His career includes leadership roles at Durr Group, Leadec Corporation, and Dunes Point Capital, plus executive education at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. As president and CEO of Leadec, he grew the top line by more than 80% in 24 months while substantially improving the bottom line. Today he partners with mid-market manufacturers and industrial companies to build the commercial infrastructure they need to drive consistent double-digit growth.

What We Cover

• (02:00) The origin story: how watching a welding station failure on the shop floor reframed a lost million dollar deal
• (05:00) Why the right question is not "what's wrong with the deal" but "where in our process did the deal get stuck"
• (07:00) Start on a whiteboard, not in a CRM. Run a 90 day Monday morning review before you automate anything
• (09:00) Sales as a manufacturing process: you do not get a perfect widget on the first run
• (10:00) Going to the gemba in sales means windshield time with your reps, not solving it from the conference room
• (12:30) The qualification problem, and the 80% top-line growth that came mostly from tightening the front end
• (14:00) The four criteria that separate a real project from sales scrap
• (19:00) The CEO learning curve: getting your ego out of the room when you are not the smartest person in it
• (22:00) Why accountability for execution is what separates great CEOs from the rest
• (23:00) Customization as an absence of commercial discipline, and the three questions that fix it

Key Takeaways

A stalled deal is diagnostic. One stuck deal is noise. A hundred deals stuck in the same stage is a pattern. Consistent deaths at the budgetary quote point to an estimating problem. Deaths at technical validation point to a sales enablement gap.

Understand the process before you buy software. Build the stage gates by hand, review every deal for 90 days, and find the patterns first. Then buy a CRM to automate a process you actually understand.

Sales time is money, and unqualified deals are scrap. Selling without generating volume is the commercial equivalent of producing scrap on the line.

Qualify against four criteria. A real project needs all four:

1. A compelling event forcing a decision (capacity constraint, regulatory deadline, platform launch)
2. Access to the economic buyer who owns the problem, not just a technical evaluator
3. A solution that genuinely solves the problem (if you cannot, say so and refer them, building credibility for next time)
4. A champion with a personal reason to want the win

The CEO's job is to build more leaders. Stop trying to be the smartest person in every room. Ask better questions, demand clarity, let your functional experts own the decisions, then hold them accountable for executing what was agreed.

Customization is not a value prop, it is often missing discipline. Push every custom request through a technical qualification gate with three questions:

1. Can this be built from our standard platform, or does it require genuine custom engineering?
2. If custom, what is the realistic hour and lead time impact, and is the customer being told that truthfully upfront?
3. Is the margin acceptable once real engineering hours land, or are we about to take an order that loses money?

"Leaving revenue on the table" is a myth when you say no. Every custom order that eats disproportionate engineering capacity is an order you cannot take from a better-fit customer. You are already leaving revenue on the table. You just cannot see it.

Quotable Moments

Connect

Reach out to Bill Bell at Chief Outsiders to talk through what is stalling growth in your own manufacturing business.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williambellsr/

Subscribe to The Allied Advisors Podcast for more conversations built for mid-market manufacturers looking to scale operations and improve the bottom line.

Connect with Justin Goethe and Allied Advisors to learn how the FCIM methodology drives measurable operational results.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-goethe-35b85a16/

What if the single biggest lever for unlocking capacity on your shop floor isn't a new piece of equipment, a new ERP system, or a costly consultant — it's a discipline most mid-market manufacturers have never even considered hiring for?

In this episode of the Allied Advisors Podcast, Justin sits down with Dr. Thorsten Wuest, full professor of mechanical engineering and founding program director of the brand-new Industrial Engineering program at the University of South Carolina's Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing. Dr. Wuest arrived in Columbia in August 2024 with a mandate that would make most academics sweat: build a world-class IE program from scratch in a single semester. In one year, the program grew from 19 students to 66 — with another 30–40% growth projected — because, as it turns out, industrial engineering is the single most requested major from South Carolina employers that USC wasn't offering.

Dr. Wuest is also the founding director of USC's new Center for Industry Solutions, designed to close the gap between academic research and real-world manufacturing — with a particular focus on giving mid-market companies access to the kind of engineering talent that only the Fortune 500 could previously afford. His advisory board already includes the CTO of Scout Motors, the head of engineering from Mercedes-Benz, and representation from Siemens. He has been named one of SME's 20 Most Influential Professors in Smart Manufacturing and has authored over 180 peer-reviewed articles.

This is a conversation Justin has been wanting to have for a long time, and it delivers.

What We Cover in This Episode

The IE talent gap hiding in plain sight. Industrial engineering is the most-requested major from South Carolina employers — yet most high school students have never heard of it. Dr. Wuest breaks down why IE remains a "hidden major" and what USC is doing to change that, including a strategic partnership with Glimpse to better educate school advisors across the state.

The ROI of a single industrial engineer. Justin shares a story you'll want to write down: one client increased production output by 80% using nothing more than a Process FMEA (PFEP) and some combines — a strictly industrial engineering project that drove millions in additional monthly revenue. Dr. Wuest echoes this with his own firsthand example: just one hour walking a mid-sized manufacturer's shop floor surfaced improvement opportunities that would pay back in weeks, not years. The savings don't stop at throughput — better routing and layout also reduce forklift crossings, lower accident risk, and can even reduce insurance premiums over time.

Why your operations team will never solve this problem. You don't ask your shift supervisors how the process standards are coming along — you ask them how many parts came off the line. Justin and Dr. Wuest dig into why improvement work will always fall to the bottom of the pile unless you dedicate a resource to it, and why that resource pays for itself fast when given the right support and direction.

Change management is the real barrier. Mid-market hesitancy around hiring industrial engineers often isn't really about the salary — it's about what an IE's recommendations actually require: organizational change. Dr. Wuest and Justin discuss why proactive change (on your timeline, with your resources) is almost always cheaper and less painful than reactive change forced by a crisis.

How to start small: co-ops, capstones, and student consulting. Not ready for a full-time IE hire? Dr. Wuest makes the case for starting with a co-op or a structured student consulting project through the Center for Industry Solutions. These aren't ordinary class projects — they're interdisciplinary teams of competitively selected, paid students from IE, supply chain, and finance, supervised by professional staff and faculty, executing semester-long engagements run like real consulting engagements. Manufacturers get consulting-grade deliverables at a fraction of the cost. Students get real shop floor experience — and employers get an extended job interview with their best future candidates. The onboarding cost savings alone may justify the engagement.

USC's Center for Industry Solutions: a new front door for manufacturers. Dr. Wuest walks through the three pillars of the Center — workforce readiness, talent retention, and industry-university connectivity — and explains how it functions as a matchmaking service for the whole breadth of what the Molinaroli College has to offer, from student consulting projects to full-scale applied research partnerships. He also details how the Center is working to dramatically reduce the legal friction that typically slows university-industry collaboration to a crawl.

AI in engineering education: use it wisely, or pay for it later. Dr. Wuest has spent the last 10–15 years in machine learning research, so this isn't a surface-level conversation. He and Justin explore USC's proactive, transparency-first AI policy, the risk of students outsourcing their critical thinking before they've ever developed it, and why the analogy holds: if you never work as a junior coder, you can never become a senior one. The best use of AI — as Justin puts it — is as an "efficiency multiplier" for professionals who already have the foundational knowledge to evaluate and direct its output. You can't get there without doing the hard work first.

Retaining talent in the Palmetto State. South Carolina's $3,000 internship incentive is a start, but the real retention play is giving students meaningful, challenging work with employers who treat them as intellectual contributors — not just cheap labor. Dr. Wuest lays out the chicken-and-egg dynamic driving engineering talent out of the Southeast, why that is beginning to reverse, and what Scout Motors' move toward Charlotte signals about the region's trajectory.

Key Takeaways

• Industrial engineering is the most-requested major from South Carolina employers — and one of the highest-ROI hires a mid-market manufacturer can make.
• A dedicated IE resource is the only way to ensure process improvement actually becomes someone's first priority.
• One hour of structured shop floor observation can surface savings that pay back in weeks.
• Co-ops and student consulting through USC's Center for Industry Solutions offer a low-risk, high-value on-ramp for manufacturers who aren't ready for a full-time hire.
• AI is a powerful efficiency multiplier — but only for professionals who have already done the hard work of developing foundational expertise.
• The Southeast's talent retention problem is solvable, but it requires proactive investment from both universities and employers.

About Our Guest

Dr. Thorsten Wuest is a full professor of mechanical engineering and the founding program director of the Industrial Engineering program at the University of South Carolina's Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing. He is also the founding director of USC's Center for Industry Solutions. Dr. Wuest is one of SME's 20 Most Influential Professors in Smart Manufacturing and the author of over 180 peer-reviewed articles. His research sits at the intersection of smart manufacturing, machine learning, and industrial AI.

📧 Contact Dr. Wuest: twuest@sc.edu 🌐 Center for Industry Solutions: [sc.edu — search "Center for Industry Solutions"]

Connect with the Allied Advisors Podcast

If you're a mid-market manufacturer looking to scale operations and improve your bottom line, this show was built for you. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and if this episode resonated, share it with an operations leader who's been putting off that first industrial engineering hire.

Episode Summary

Most mid-market manufacturers don't have a quality problem — they have an acceptance problem. Justin sits down with George Pesansky, a 30-year continuous improvement veteran who has trained 10,000+ professionals across six continents, to unpack the formula behind sustained performance: Success = Quality × Acceptance. George shares why airline kiosks won and self-checkout lost, how to spot the hidden "leaks" draining your operation, and why your shop floor superhero may be your biggest liability.

About the Guest

George Pesansky is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt and the author of Super Performance (Fast Company Press, 2025). He's the creator of the Deliberate Improvement Framework, a Forbes Coaches Council member, and founder of MyBlendedLearning.com. Over three decades, he has trained 10,000+ professionals in Lean Six Sigma and World Class Manufacturing across six continents.

Key Takeaways

Success = Quality × Acceptance Companies drown in quality and crater on acceptance. The Excel spreadsheet that worked yesterday and the veteran who's run things for 20 years are exactly what blocks buy-in for change.

Stop Filling the Cup. Fix the Leaks. Every mid-market manufacturer has superheroes who swoop in at 3 a.m. to patch problems. That's filling the cup. Growth comes from following those superheroes, identifying every leak, and asking what system would have prevented it.

Speedboats Beat Battleships Big organizations can't admit failure — careers are staked on it. Small and mid-size companies can pivot, learn from mistakes, and run circles around battleships. Failure isn't the enemy. Failing to learn from failure is.

Flip Training: Why → What → How Most compliance training is 80% how and almost no why. George's Learning Marketing System inverts it: lead with why it matters, define the benefit, then teach the how.

• Book: Super Performance by George Pesansky (Fast Company Press, 2025)
  • https://www.amazon.com/Superperformance-Strategies-Potential-Yourself-Organization/dp/1639081356/ref=sr_1_1?crid=34ROZ53EW043Y&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.3VrjOBXXPCVi2Ru3ptNufQ.yLC6BIUJrsX4rDIOS0yVuNo2clhBiNZUlnXWcFGfZTo&dib_tag=se&keywords=Super+Performance+George+Pesansky&qid=1777574631&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sprefix=super+performance+george+pesansky%2Caps%2C212&sr=8-1
• Featured article: https://www.fastcompany.com/91521452/the-ai-success-equation-we-are-getting-wrong
• Training: MyBlendedLearning.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deliberateimprovement/
• Mentioned: Light Forge Works (Braydon McCormick episode), prior episode with Winfred Rocksteiner

Have a question or want to talk about scaling your operation? Justin would love to hear from you.

• Email: jgoethe@alliedgroup.io
• Web: alliedadvisors.io
• Subscribe: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube

Most manufacturers are great at building things. Far fewer are great at understanding whether those things are actually making them money — and that gap is costing them more than they realize.

In this episode, Justin sits down with Allen Engstrom, Managing Director of CFO Network, to break down the financial realities that every mid-market manufacturer needs to understand. With over two decades of experience — including a stint at Intel, where he helped oversee a 60-person team managing a $60 billion data storage market strategy — Allen has seen firsthand what separates manufacturers who thrive from those quietly taking on water.

They get into the cash flow mismatch that makes manufacturing uniquely brutal, the single metric Allen looks at first when he walks into a business, and why "we'll make it back next quarter" is a mindset that can sink a company. If you've ever wondered whether your financials are telling you the full story, this one's for you.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why manufacturing cash flow is so uniquely challenging — and what Allen saw firsthand at Intel committing a billion dollars to build a factory for products that didn't exist yet
• The difference between gross margin and Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) — and why ROIC is the number Allen looks at first
• How to benchmark your business against industry peers to spot whether your margins are competitive or dangerously thin
• The "leaky boat" framework: how to identify where money is quietly escaping your operation through poor labor utilization, equipment underperformance, and pricing gaps
• Why a 1% improvement in the right place can literally double your cash flow
• What private equity firms are really looking for when they evaluate a manufacturing business — and how to prepare for that culture shift
• The fractional CFO value proposition: why bringing in financial expertise may be the highest-ROI investment you can make in your business
• Why sunk costs are water under the bridge — and how forward-looking financial discipline separates growing companies from struggling ones

About Allen Engstrom: Allen Engstrom is the Managing Director of CFO Network, where he leverages over two decades of experience to provide world-class outsourced finance and accounting solutions for businesses of all sizes. Holding an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin with a specialization in IT entrepreneurship and finance, Allen blends deep technical knowledge with sharp business acumen. His career includes a significant tenure at Intel Corp, where he served as a program manager overseeing a 60-person team for a $60 billion data storage market strategy and managed M&A transactions totaling over $4 billion. Today, based in North Little Rock, Arkansas, he is known for transforming complex financial data into actionable growth strategies.

Connect with Allen: 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/allen-engstrom-4a436/

Enjoyed this episode? If this conversation added value, please take a moment to like, subscribe, and share the show. The more mid-market manufacturers we can reach, the more we can help move the needle on the bottom line — which is what The Allied Advisors Podcast is all about.

Episode Description

Most manufacturers have experienced the same gut punch: a major improvement project goes beautifully, everyone celebrates, and then six months later you walk back out on the shop floor and it's like it never happened. The problem isn't your people. It isn't your culture. It's the absence of a daily discipline to sustain what you built.

In this first-ever solocast, Justin Goethe goes deep on the Daily Leadership Routine (DLR) — the system he has seen transform some of the world's best manufacturing operations and the one he believes is the single biggest difference between companies that sustain gains and those that don't.

McKinsey research shows only 30% of organizational transformations fully succeed. VA & Company found that 70–80% of improvement projects fail within 24 months — not because the solutions were wrong, but because there was no system to hold the gains. The Daily Leadership Routine is that system.

What You'll Learn

• Why lean projects, Six Sigma rollouts, and improvement initiatives fail to stick — and the one thing that changes that
• The 5 pillars of Daily Management and how each one plays a specific role in keeping operations stable
• How to structure a 15-minute daily meeting that actually drives decisions (not just status updates)
• The communication cascade model — from shop floor to executive level — and how to scale it for your organization
• Why process confirmation is a coaching exercise, not an audit (and how to make sure your team feels the difference)
• The 4 maturity levels of Daily Management and why starting at Level 1 is the right move
• The 6 most common reasons Daily Management fails — and how to avoid every one of them
• A practical, step-by-step guide to launching DLR at your facility starting this week

Key Takeaways

Daily management is not a meeting — it's a leadership system. It connects leaders to the reality of operations every single day through a structured routine of monitoring, reacting, and improving.

Allied's Fractional CI Manager Program

Justin's Fractional CI Manager (FCIM) program is a 12-month embedded partnership designed to help mid-market manufacturers build the internal capabilities to run continuous improvement on their own. It's not traditional consulting — it's a teach-to-fish model.

The program includes:

• Quarterly on-site value stream mapping workshops (System CIP Cycle)
• Project A3 development and coaching
• Weekly roadmap review meetings
• Daily management implementation and coaching
• Problem-solving skill development at all levels

Clients have achieved up to 80% increases in output with zero capital expenditure — no new equipment, no major investment. Just better management of existing processes.

Resources & Links

• Watch the video version (with KPI board visuals) on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4OF-0InH_9o
• Email Justin directly with questions: jgoethe@alliedgroup.io
• Learn more about the Fractional CI Manager Program: https://allied-log.com/fractional-continuous-improvement-manager/

Connect with Justin

• Email: jgoethe@alliedgroup.io
• Company: Allied Group

In this episode of the Allied Advisors Podcast, host Justin Goethe sits down with Christian Smith, a results-driven operations executive, former US Army captain, and Lean Six Sigma black belt. Christian has transformed operations and increased EBITDA for major organizations like Danaher, Target, and Nestlé.

Today, we dive deep into the "front door" signals of a struggling manufacturer, the critical difference between person vs. process, and why the "superstar problem solver" might actually be your biggest bottleneck.

Key Takeaways

• The First Signal of Trouble: When walking into a new facility, Christian looks for visual waste—people waiting, over-processing to "look busy," or visual management tools (like floor markings) that are completely ignored by the team.
• Person vs. Process: While leadership often blames "bad people" for poor performance, Christian argues that 99% of the time, the issue is the process. If you give people the right tools, training, and processes, they will succeed.
• The Danger of Tribal Knowledge: We discuss "Bob"—the superstar machinist who is the only one who knows how to run a critical piece of equipment. Christian explains how this "tribal knowledge" creates massive business risk and why standardizing that knowledge is non-negotiable for scaling.
• Grace Under Pressure: Christian shares how his military background taught him to maintain calm in high-stress manufacturing environments, reminding us that "nobody is going to die" if a product is 15 minutes late, allowing for more rational, process-driven decisions.
• The Power of Gemba: Successful leaders don't solve problems in conference rooms. Christian emphasizes the "go-to-gemba" mentality—being on the floor, sitting in the lunchroom, and truly understanding the daily frustrations of the frontline team to drive real change.

Featured Guest: Christian Smith

Christian is a veteran operations leader specializing in building high-performing teams and driving sustainable growth. Trained through Danaher Business University, he excels at connecting operational discipline with commercial strategy to unlock new growth opportunities.

• Connect with Christian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianesmith/

About Allied Advisors

We embed senior operators into mid-market manufacturing and supply chain organizations to unlock throughput, free up cash, and drive EBITDA growth. We focus on Installation over Advice through our Fractional Continuous Improvement Manager (FCIM) program.

Are you an "Exhausted COO" tired of firefighting? * Stop the Capital Leakage: Learn about our Proprietary AI Framework for managing procurement exceptions.

• Synchronize Your Supply Chain: Book a 2-Day Strategic Workshop to optimize your MRP strategy and reduce inventory bloat.

Visit us at: www.alliedadvisors.io

Email us at: info@allied-log.com

Guest: Jay Carney, Co-Founder and President of My Solution Designs

Host: The Allied Advisors Podcast 

Episode Summary

In this episode, we dive deep into the concept of "Product Wellness" with Jay Carney. While most manufacturers focus on immediate crises, Jay argues that products often suffer from a "slow fade" caused by normalized inefficiencies and hidden operational friction. We explore how traditional "green" metrics—like high aftermarket sales—can actually mask a product that is "getting sick" and how leadership can use AI and direct observation to diagnose these issues before they lead to a "heart attack" for the business.

Key Discussion Points

1. What is Product Wellness?

• The Living Organism Analogy: Products should be viewed as living organisms that don't just "die" suddenly but get sick and fade away over time.
• The Steve Jobs Influence: Most companies fail because they lose focus on the product, treating it as a static entity that will always perform well.
• The "Blind Spot" Check: Much like a diagnostic blood test for a human, product wellness requires looking at what is missing or misaligned in the "blood work" of the organization.

2. The Danger of "Normalized Inefficiency"

• The Schematic Trap: Jay shares a story from his early career where a technical error in a schematic was "rejected" by engineering, forcing technicians to create permanent, unrecorded workarounds.
• Institutionalized Tribal Knowledge: When "Joe and Mike" are the only ones who know the workarounds, the product appears healthy until that knowledge walks out the door.
• The Conformity Study: Over time, teams begin "standing up when the bell rings" (performing workarounds) without knowing why, which adds unseen costs and sucks the life out of the margin.

3. How Good Metrics Mask Bad Products

• The Aftermarket Illusion: High revenue in aftermarket parts can be a red flag. If a specific part is a "repeat offender" for failure, the customer is paying for your design inefficiency.
• The Warranty Ratio: Public standards (like Caterpillar's 3.5% for heavy equipment) are vital benchmarks. If a company aggressively lowers its warranty ratio to save money, it may actually be destroying customer confidence and future sales.

4. Future-Proofing with AI

• Capturing Tribal Knowledge: Organizations can use local AI models to record conversations with senior staff and convert decades of "unwritten" expertise into searchable documentation.
• RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation): Jay explains how AI can "listen" to new knowledge and adapt it into a learning mechanism that is unbiased and lacks ego.

Takeaways for Leadership

• Go Beyond the Dashboard: Don't just accept a "green" light on a KPI; ask why it's green and what it might be hiding.
• Watch the "Ballet": Go to the shop floor and observe the flow. Look for hesitations or "stumbles" in the process that indicate a workaround is in place.
• The Maintenance Connection: If quality slips but materials haven't changed, look at the equipment tolerances. No machine is perfect, and poor maintenance is a leading indicator of product sickness.

Episode Summary

In this episode, Justin  sits down with Pat Eardley, a seasoned HR expert with over 25 years of experience. They dive into the common "people issues" that prevent mid-market manufacturing firms from scaling, focusing on the gap between creating policy and actually holding teams accountable. Pat shares her perspective on why "being clear is kind," how to handle the transition from the shop floor to management, and why the "family culture" model often backfires.

Key Takeaways

• Accountability is Key: Many firms have a "library of policy" sitting on a credenza but fail to hold people accountable to those standards.
• The Kindness of Clarity: Managers often avoid conflict because they want to be "the cool manager," but Pat argues that providing clear expectations is the kindest thing a leader can do.
• Supporting New Supervisors: Moving from coworker to boss is a difficult transition. Companies must provide specific training on how to have hard conversations and manage former peers.
• Tools Over Blame: Leadership often blames "bad operators" when the real issue is a lack of clear processes, training, or the physical tools needed to do the job effectively.
• The "Family" Trap: Pat notes that "family" cultures at work often struggle because they blur the lines between professional and personal boundaries.
• The Discovery Phase: To become an "employer of choice," firms should start by interviewing their own leadership team to find out what is and isn’t working on the floor.

Memorable Quotes

Featured Guest: Pat Eardley

Pat is the founder of Shift HR (founded in 2009). She specializes in streamlining HR strategies and fostering inclusive workplace cultures for small and mid-sized businesses. She is an alumna of Ashford University and a former Director of HR for Benchmark Hospitality.

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/pateardley/

In this episode of the Allied Advisors Podcast, Justin Goethe sits down with Braydon McCormick, C-suite operator, serial entrepreneur, and Co-Founder & Managing Director of Light Forge Works, to cut through the noise surrounding artificial intelligence in manufacturing.

Rather than dashboards, chatbots, and “AI for AI’s sake,” Braydon brings an operator-first perspective on how AI should actually be deployed inside mid-market and PE-backed organizations — focusing on real bottlenecks, measurable ROI, and execution on the shop floor.

This is a grounded, tactical conversation for leaders who want AI to drive margin, throughput, and enterprise value, not just check a buzzword box.

🔑 Key Topics Covered

• Why most AI initiatives fail to deliver ROI
• The danger of “AI in search of a problem”
• How AI can connect siloed systems without massive IT projects
• Real examples of communication breakdowns in manufacturing operations
• Using AI to shorten RFP cycles and prevent dropped opportunities
• Why single-purpose AI applications beat large enterprise rollouts
• How AI augments people instead of replacing them
• The economics of modern AI-first software development
• CapEx vs. OpEx thinking for custom AI tools
• What mid-market manufacturers need to know about AI security and data privacy
• Where companies get burned by chatbots and poor AI implementations

🚨 Common AI Mistakes Braydon Sees in Manufacturing

• Deploying chatbots that don’t improve revenue, margin, or service
• Trying to “boil the ocean” instead of solving one clear problem
• Ignoring broken communication flows between sales, engineering, vendors, and the shop floor
• Treating AI as a replacement for people instead of an accelerant
• Rolling out tools without validation, guardrails, or human oversight

💡 Big Takeaway

AI delivers value only when it’s tied to a specific business problem. The real power of AI isn’t flashy interfaces — it’s quietly eliminating friction between systems, people, and processes. When done right, AI dramatically compresses cycle times, reduces errors, and allows teams to operate at a higher level without adding headcount.

As Braydon puts it: Don’t ask what AI can do. Ask what problem you’re trying to solve — then apply AI surgically.

🧠 AI on the Shop Floor (What Actually Works)

The conversation dives deep into how AI can:

• Read drawings and historical data to support faster engineering decisions
• Assist with RFP triage and prioritization
• Reduce handoffs, rework, and miscommunication
• Act as a “gatekeeper” that ensures critical steps aren’t missed
• Enable faster, cleaner execution without massive ERP replacements

Rather than enterprise-wide transformations, Braydon advocates for small, high-impact AI applications that deliver fast wins and compound over time.

👤 About Today’s Guest

Braydon McCormick is a seasoned C-suite operator and serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience helping mid-market and PE-backed companies turn advanced technology into real operating results. As Co-Founder & Managing Director of Light Forge Works, Braydon has led companies from zero to exit-ready, built high-margin services businesses, secured FDA approvals, and developed defensible IP through patented innovation.

He specializes in AI-first software development, digital transformation, and operational scaling in complex, regulated environments.

📬 Connect with Braydon & Light Forge Works

• Light Forge Works: https://www.lightforgeworks.com
  
  
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dbmcco/

In this episode of the Allied Advisors Podcast, Justin Goethe is joined by Reid Klosowsky and Bill Moroney, co-founders of Freight Think LLC and former senior leaders at Bed Bath & Beyond. Together, they unpack why freight and transportation spend is one of the most misunderstood — and most powerful — levers for improving profitability in today’s supply chains.

With decades of experience spanning transportation, vendor management, and retail supply chain operations, Reid and Bill share practical insights on how companies can move beyond averages, silos, and “default decisions” to truly understand the real cost of moving products.

🔑 Key Topics Covered

• Why freight data is notoriously messy — and why most companies stop too early
• The hidden cost of “average-based” freight assumptions
• How product decisions and transportation decisions quietly work against each other
• The danger of premium freight becoming the default instead of the exception
• Why e-commerce magnifies freight mistakes (and losses) at scale
• The difference between shipping a truck vs. shipping a SKU
• How incentive structures drive freight behavior — for better or worse
• Where AI is already helping (and where human judgment still matters)
• Early thoughts on blockchain, visibility, and what actually creates value
• Why companies with thin margins feel freight pain the fastest

🚨 Common Freight Mistakes Reid & Bill See All the Time

• Paying for faster service levels that provide zero real benefit
• Treating freight as “someone else’s problem” instead of a total landed cost issue
• Making sourcing decisions that lower unit cost but raise total supply chain cost
• Letting fear of stockouts justify permanent premium freight behavior
• Celebrating sales spikes without realizing they’re losing money per unit

💡 Big Takeaway

Freight isn’t just a logistics problem — it’s a profitability problem. When companies connect freight data to products, forecasts, service levels, and incentives, they unlock opportunities that directly improve the bottom line. As Bill puts it: a dollar is a dollar — whether it’s freight, inventory, or markdowns.

🤖 Freight, AI, and the Road Ahead

Reid and Bill also share a grounded, experience-based perspective on AI in freight and supply chain analytics. While AI can dramatically speed up analysis and surface insights, they emphasize the importance of clean data, context, and human oversight — especially when decisions impact margins at scale.

👥 About Today’s Guests

Reid Klosowsky is Co-Founder of Freight Think LLC and former VP of Global Transportation & Supply Chain Flow at Bed Bath & Beyond, where he led a $10B transportation network through massive disruption and transformation.

Bill Moroney is Co-Founder of Freight Think LLC and former VP of Vendor Management at Bed Bath & Beyond and buybuy BABY, with deep expertise in supplier performance, cost-to-serve models, and profitability optimization.

📬 Connect with Freight Think

• Website: https://www.freightthink.com
  
  
• LinkedIn: Bill Maroney - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-maroney-07b5a61a1/
• LinkedIn: Reid Klosowsky - https://www.linkedin.com/in/reid-klosowsky-8909831/

Guest:

Steve Cook, Executive Managing Director, LFM Capital
MIT LGO (MBA/MSEE) | Former Dell Plant Manager | Private Equity Operator & Educator

🎙️ Episode Overview

In this powerhouse conversation, Justin sits down with Steve Cook, Executive Managing Director at LFM Capital, a private equity firm uniquely built and led by operators and engineers. Steve shares rare, behind-the-scenes insights on how LFM identifies, acquires, and transforms mid-market manufacturing companies—not through financial engineering, but through people-centric leadership, hands-on operational excellence, and a relentless commitment to long-term value creation.

With decades of experience leading industrial businesses, teaching at Harvard Business School, and mentoring future leaders at MIT, Steve brings a refreshing blend of humility, clarity, and practicality to the world of PE-backed manufacturing.

If you're a manufacturing leader, business owner, aspiring CEO, or private equity stakeholder, this is a must-listen.

1. Why LFM Capital Breaks the Traditional PE Mold

• LFM is one of the only U.S. private equity firms where an operating partner also runs the firm.
• True parity between deal partners and operating partners leads to better diligence, alignment, and execution.
• How LFM avoids the “painted-on operating partner” problem common in the industry.

2. What PE Really Looks for in Mid-Market Manufacturing Deals

• Why LFM invests in companies with $3–$15M EBITDA and fewer than ~250 employees.
• How leadership quality, culture, and values matter more than perfect metrics.
• Why buyers should not pursue “perfect companies”—real value is created where opportunity exists.

3. Leadership: The Make-or-Break Factor in Value Creation

• Arrogance is the enemy of leadership—humility is essential.
• Why effective CEOs must be able to “play the full keyboard”:
  • Shop floor → Board room → Customer meetings.
• LFM’s CEO Development Program: a 5–7 year rotational system creating cross-functional, hands-on, next-generation executives.

4. The First 100 Days After Acquisition

• LFM’s collaborative approach: no “one-size-fits-all” playbook.
• How they co-create an Operational Agenda before closing a deal.
• Why focusing on just three priorities at a time is essential for smaller companies.

5. Implementing Lean in Resource-Constrained Environments

• Why Lean is easier to implement in small companies than large ones.
• The cultural importance of leadership buy-in—especially from the CEO.
• Steve’s take on fractional CI leadership, external facilitation, and when companies should backfill with full-time CI talent.

6. How LFM Navigates Tough Deals & Upholds Values

• The Apollo 13 story: how LFM refused to abandon a distressed deal, preserving jobs, paying back lenders, and honoring the seller’s legacy.
• Why LFM optimizes for a 50-year time horizon, not a 5-year fund cycle.

• Mid-market manufacturing owners considering an exit
• CEOs and plant leaders navigating growth or operational challenges
• Private equity operating partne

In this episode of The Allied Advisors Podcast, Justin sits down with Rob Tykal—former President, COO, and VP of Global Operations at organizations like Danaher, GM, Daimler, and Superior Industries—for a deep, practical conversation on supply chain, materials management, and leadership.

While the video recording unfortunately cuts out around the 29-minute mark (lesson learned on DSLR limits), the insights captured are pure gold. Rob breaks down why forecast-driven systems consistently fail manufacturers, how consumption-based replenishment actually works in practice, and why great operational leaders must live at the gemba—not just in spreadsheets.

From Kanban design levels and safety stock logic to humility in executive leadership, this episode is a masterclass for mid-market manufacturers looking to improve flow, reduce inventory risk, and build sustainable operational cultures.

🎧 Full audio is intact, and Rob will be back for a follow-up episode.

⏱️ Episode Highlights

• Why all forecasts are wrong—and why companies still rely on them
• The grocery store analogy that perfectly explains pull-based replenishment
• How Kanban design levels eliminate the “cut inventory” debate
• Why excess inventory and stockouts usually coexist
• The real cost of expiration dates, obsolete material, and long lead times
• What executives must learn to see on the shop floor
• Why humility is the most underrated leadership trait
• How smaller manufacturers can outperform large enterprises operationally
• The difference between tools, systems, and culture—and why culture wins

🧠 Key Takeaways

• Forecasts are necessary but unreliable—consumption should drive replenishment
• Properly designed pull systems self-regulate inventory levels
• Leaders must understand materials deeply; intelligence cannot be delegated
• Inventory problems are rarely downstream issues—they’re leadership issues
• Smaller companies have agility advantages if they execute correctly

👤 About the Guest

Rob Tykal is a seasoned operational executive with decades of experience leading global manufacturing organizations. He has held senior leadership roles across automotive, industrial, and life sciences sectors and is widely respected for his ability to pair rigorous lean systems with people-centered leadership. Rob is known not just for improving processes—but for building cultures that sustain them.

📌 About the Podcast

The Allied Advisors Podcast is for mid-market manufacturers focused on scaling operations, improving material flow, and driving measurable bottom-line results. Hosted by Justin Goethe, each episode features operators, executives, and investors who’ve been in the trenches—and know what actually works.

🔔 Call to Action

If this episode resonated with you:

• Follow The Allied Advisors Podcast on your favorite platform
• Share this episode with a fellow operator or supply-chain leader
• Reach out to Allied Advisors if you’re ready to rethink inventory, flow, and execution

Guests:

• Kyle Henson, Co-Founder & CEO, ARDA
• Uriel Eisen, President & Co-Founder, ARDA (Forbes 30 Under 30)

Hosted by: Justin Goethe, Allied Advisors

Episode Overview

In this episode, Justin sits down with two of manufacturing's fastest-rising innovators, Kyle Henson and Uriel Eisen, the founders of ARDA—the software platform redefining Kanban, replenishment, and material flow for modern factories.

ARDA recently won Best New Product of the Year at The Assembly Show, and after this conversation, it’s easy to understand why. Kyle and Uriel break down how broken information flow—not labor, not layout, not even equipment—is the root cause behind most operational issues. Their solution: a remarkably simple but powerful way to automate Kanban, eliminate stockouts, and boost throughput using physical cards, dynamic sizing, and AI-driven replenishment.

If you’ve ever battled material shortages, overstuffed supermarkets, lost Kanban cards, or ERP systems that promise clarity but deliver chaos—this is the episode for you.

What We Cover

1. The “Broken Information Flow” Crisis in Manufacturing

Kyle explains why traditional ERPs and MRP forecasting models consistently fail on the shop floor—and how ARDA tackles the root problem by marrying physical cards with digital intelligence.

2. How ARDA Automates the Entire Kanban Lifecycle

Uriel walks through ARDA’s full stack of capabilities:

• Automated Kanban sizing
• AI-driven minimum quantity adjustments as throughput changes
• Digital ordering and scan-triggered replenishment
• Lost-card detection
• Full historical usage tracking
• Integration with ERP systems (SAP, NetSuite… AS/400 if you dare)

Justin notes the pain of doing this manually with Excel, BarTender, Label Matrix, and disconnected scan systems—and how ARDA replaces all of it in one platform.

3. Making Kanban “So Easy, You Want to Do It”

A guiding principle in ARDA’s development:

By attaching useful actions to the scan itself (ordering, printing, triggering the next step), ARDA increases scan compliance without administrative policing. Incentives create behavior.

4. One-Way Kanbans, RFID, and Real-World Chaos

Justin shares war stories implementing RFID replenishment:

• Route runners scanning eight cards at once
• Lines waiting for RFID lights
• Infinite reprinting
• Inventory corruption

The conclusion: incentives beat instructions. ARDA’s system is built entirely around this idea.

5. AI-Driven Dynamic Resizing & Value-Stream Connectivity

Perhaps the most groundbreaking part of ARDA:

• The system learns which Kanbans relate to each other by analyzing velocity patterns
• ARDA automatically resizes supermarkets when mix or volumes change
• If upstream suppliers also use ARDA, Kanban signals can flow between companies

The result: true consumption-based pull across the entire supply chain, not just inside one plant.

6. Why Sequencing Fails (and Lean Pull Wins)

Justin and the ARDA team break down why sequencing—still widely used in automotive—is a ticking time bomb:

• Scheduling is inherently unstable
• Upstream disruptions break downstream kits
• Chaos forces rework, relabeling, and waste

Mature lean organizations attack the root causes (leveling attainment, schedule adherence), not the symptoms.

7. The Power of Starting Small

The team emphasizes that most manufacturers freez

Guest: Drew Lawlor, Managing Partner at Global Chain Consulting
Host: Justin Goethe, Founder & President of Allied Advisors
Audience: Mid-market manufacturers, supply chain leaders, PE operators, CEOs, COOs
Episode Theme: Practical, strategic ways manufacturers can navigate today’s tariff volatility, supply chain complexity, and global risk.

⭐ Episode Overview

In this episode, Justin sits down with longtime friend and supply chain expert Drew Lawlor — a manufacturing transformation leader with deep experience across Glowforge, BorgWarner, Bosch, and dozens of mid-market manufacturing clients through Global Chain Consulting.

With tariff volatility, geopolitical tension, and shifting production landscapes, U.S. manufacturers are facing unprecedented pressure. Drew breaks down what he’s seeing in the market, the common mistakes companies make, and the strategic moves strong operators are making today to stay ahead.

From dual sourcing to regional diversification, from poor-performing suppliers to the limits of overreacting to every tariff headline — this conversation brings clarity to one of the most chaotic policy environments manufacturers have seen in years.

🧭 What You’ll Learn

1. How tariff volatility is reshaping manufacturing strategy

Drew explains why reacting emotionally or tactically to every tariff announcement is a costly mistake — and why a blended, de-risked approach is emerging as best practice.

2. Why supplier strength often outweighs cost

Not all “expensive” suppliers are bad. Not all low-cost regions are stable. Expertise and consistency still matter more than ever.

3. The three types of companies reacting to tariff changes

• Wait-and-see operators
• Aggressive over-reactors
• Strategic planners
  …and which category consistently wins.

4. Why diversification and dual sourcing are returning

Not as a panic move — but as a structured way to buffer risk and build long-term stability.

5. What 50+ conversations with manufacturers reveal

Drew shares patterns emerging across cost-reduction programs, supply chain transfers, and re-shoring decisions.

🔍 Key Quotes

🏭 Who This Episode Is For

• Mid-market manufacturing CEOs & COOs
• PE operating partners
• Supply chain & procurement leaders
• Operations executives navigating production transfers
• Anyone evaluating China-plus-one or diversification strategy

💡 Justin’s Takeaway

Tariff environments may be chaotic — but your strategy doesn’t have to be. The companies winning right now are the ones who pause, assess, and build balanced, flexible supply chains rather than chasing headlines.

🔗 Call to Action

If your manufacturing operation is evaluating:

• supplier diversification
• nearshoring or reshoring
• cost-reduction programs
• production transfers
• supply chain risk strategy

…reach out to Allied Advisors. Our Fractional Continuous Improvement Manager (FCIM) program is built to help mid-market manufacturers scale, stabilize, and execute with confidence.

Connect with Drew

LInkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-lawlor-a23bbb159/

Email: drew@globalchainconsulting.com

In this episode of The Allied Advisors Podcast, Justin Goethe sits down with Dan Krouse — founder and principal of a leading supply chain analytics consulting firm — to unpack one of the most complex issues facing manufacturers today: tariffs and trade policy.

With over 30 years of global supply chain leadership at Hallmark, including time spent in Asia during the early days of China’s industrial rise, Dan brings a rare, seasoned perspective to the table. Together, he and Justin explore:

• How shifting tariff policies and geopolitical tensions are reshaping global trade
• Why mid-market manufacturers must treat tariff strategy as an operational issue, not just a financial one
• Practical ways to build supply chain resilience — from diversification and scenario planning to dual-sourcing and design-for-tariff thinking
• The hidden importance of keeping tariff strategy a C-suite conversation

Dan also breaks down how leaders can assess their organization’s maturity level when managing tariff risk and what steps they can take in the next 30–90 days to strengthen their competitive position.

Whether you’re a CEO, supply chain executive, or manufacturing leader, this episode will help you navigate the uncertainty of global trade — and uncover opportunities hidden within it.

Follow Dan

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-krouse/

Website - http://www.supplychainalytics.ai/

Book an Appointment - https://api.connectionconverter.com/widget/bookings/dan-krouse

Email - daniel.krouse35@gmail.com

Episode Summary

In this episode of The Allied Advisors Podcast, I sit down with Chad Bareither, Founder and Principal of Bareither Consulting Group and author of The Improve Less Improvement System. Chad and I dive deep into what it really takes for mid-market manufacturers to transform their operations — not through tools or slogans, but by leading with principles, discipline, and culture.

Chad shares how his background in the U.S. Army introduced him to process improvement and how that foundation shaped his approach to helping mid-market manufacturers scale sustainably. We talk about the realities of driving change in 300–500-person organizations, why leadership commitment is the single biggest differentiator in successful transformations, and how principles like standardization, accountability, and Kaizen remain the bedrock of continuous improvement.

Memorable Quotes 

About Chad Breather

Chad Bareither is the Founder and Principal of Bareither Group Consulting, where he helps mid-market manufacturers optimize operations, recover lost margins, and build healthier, more sustainable businesses. A certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and U.S. Army veteran, Chad brings decades of hands-on experience in process improvement, leadership development, and operational transformation. He’s also the author of The Improve Less Improvement System, a practical guide to making continuous improvement simple, actionable, and effective.

Connect with Chad:

• Website: https://www.bareithergroup.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadbareither/

Episode Overview

In this episode, I sit down with Mr. Winfried Rockensteiner, Global Vice President of Logistics for Bosch Powertrain Solutions, to discuss what it takes to lead large-scale transformations in manufacturing. With more than three decades of experience at Bosch, Mr. Rockensteiner shares valuable lessons from guiding global logistics and supply chain operations through digitalization, electrification, and organizational change.

While Bosch operates on a global scale, the principles he outlines are directly relevant to mid-market manufacturersthat are striving to modernize operations, strengthen leadership cultures, and prepare their teams for the realities of an AI-driven future.

Key Discussion Points

• Leading from the Shop Floor: Why real change begins on the shop floor, not in the conference room, and how leaders can build credibility by staying visible and engaged.
• Making Change Stick: The importance of defining a clear purpose for transformation, communicating it clearly, and sustaining engagement over time.
• Culture Over Systems: Why successful transformation is less about IT systems and more about cultural evolution and employee enthusiasm.
• AI and the Future of Work: Mr. Rockensteiner’s perspective on how AI will reshape supply chain roles, leadership, and organizational competencies in the coming years.
• Lessons for Mid-Market Manufacturers: How smaller firms can use agility, collaboration, and peer benchmarking to accelerate transformation without large-scale resources.

Memorable Quotes

Why You Should Listen

If you’re an operations leader, plant manager, or executive in a mid-market manufacturing company, this episode will resonate deeply. Mr. Rockensteiner offers actionable insight into how to sustain momentum, engage teams, and navigate technological transformation without losing sight of what matters most: people and culture.

Connect with Mr. Rockensteiner

You can connect with Mr. Rockensteiner on LinkedIn to follow his insights on logistics, leadership, and manufacturing transformation.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/winfried-rockensteiner-11329043/
Email: winfried@pnrsolutions.ch

AI isn’t here to replace your team—it’s here to amplify them. In this episode, Justin Goethe sits down with Larry Collett, founder of Larry Collett Consulting Group and Automation Captain, to cut through the hype and show how mid-market manufacturers can get real value from AI right now.

Larry shares how to start small by automating repetitive, rules-based workflows—like order admin or reporting—while keeping a human in the loop for oversight. He explains why process clarity is more important than tools (“never skip paper”), how to use prompts effectively, and why AI should augment your expertise rather than replace it.

The conversation highlights where AI delivers immediate wins (debugging, data analysis, forecasting) and where it risks slowing you down if used outside your domain knowledge. Most importantly, Larry emphasizes that the goal isn’t headcount reduction—it’s about giving people better tools so they can shift energy to higher-value work.

**Connect with Larry:**

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lcollett/
Website: http://www.LarryCollett.com

**Resource:** 

Download Larry’s **Automation Impact Matrix** here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xsTTy-Duqap9Bxj46ttLWVolAlxIhb0ZUlS5mNplN4w/edit?gid=0#gid=0

**Memorable Quotes**

"Garbage in, garbage out. What you put into a GPT is what you’ll get out of it."
"Never skip paper. If you miss a step on paper, you’ll miss it in your automation."
"Use AI to remove the 80% repetitive work so your team can focus on the 20% high-impact priorities."
"Always keep a human in the loop—AI is powerful, but oversight makes it trustworthy."

In this episode of The Allied Advisors Podcast, Justin Goethe sits down with Meg Lanza, Head of Technology at BSH, to explore what it really takes to lead teams through continuous improvement. Drawing from her 20+ years at Bosch and now in home appliances, Meg shares practical insights on:

• How leaders can align projects with customer needs and strategy
• Why accountability and follow-up are non-negotiable for sustaining progress
• Balancing day-to-day operations with improvement work without burning teams out
• The importance of hiring for mindset and passion over technical expertise
• Building effective daily leadership routines and using KPI trees to drive clarity
• Swarming problems with urgency and standardizing problem-solving approaches

Whether you’re a mid-market manufacturer or a leader looking to strengthen your lean journey, Meg’s perspective offers both hard-earned lessons and actionable advice to help you drive sustainable results.

Check out Meg on LInkedIn @

https://www.linkedin.com/in/meglanza/

In this episode of The Allied Advisors Podcast, I sit down with Blair Dorneanu to explore the challenges mid-market manufacturers face when trying to build a culture rooted in standards and continuous improvement. Blair shares her approach to lean conversion training, why cultural buy-in is just as important as process tools, and the key actions leaders must take to make their lean initiatives truly stick.

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/blair-dorneanu-35b58943/

Email

Blair.Dorneanu@scra.org

In this episode of The Allied Advisors Podcast, I sit down with Vincent Nelson, Sales Executive at UNEX Manufacturing, to explore how smart storage solutions transform the way manufacturers handle material. Vincent shares how UNEX products not only maximize storage efficiency but also present materials in ways that improve ergonomics, reduce strain, and enhance overall associate productivity. If you’re looking for practical strategies to streamline your warehouse operations while supporting the health and performance of your workforce, this conversation is packed with insights you won’t want to miss.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincent-nelson1/

Website - www.unex.com

Email - VNelson@UNEX.com

In this episode of The Allied Advisors Podcast, Chris Mennona, Global Supply Chain Manager for AESC, shares how he applies lean principles to optimize supply chain planning on a global scale. Chris also offers his perspective on the current tariff landscape and how manufacturers can adapt to stay competitive. Whether you’re managing a complex supply chain or looking for ways to reduce risk and waste, this conversation is packed with practical insights you can put to work right away.

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophermennona?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app