Explore every episode of the podcast Manufacturing Culture Podcast
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roger Bassous | A People Problem Before a Technology Problem | 20 Oct 2026 | 00:49:47 | |
Roger Bassous has spent about a decade doing something most people would find deeply uncomfortable: walking into other people’s buildings and asking permission to watch. His software measures machines, which means it also, inevitably, measures the people running them, and Roger has watched more shops react to being watched than almost anyone alive. He did not start in manufacturing. He and his brother Richard were software guys at CompuWare in Detroit when Android launched, and they built a phone backup app that spent years in the top five of the Play Store. When that market crowded out around 2013, Roger opened a bar and started hanging around the mold shop where his middle brother Ed had spent sixteen years. One day Ed showed him the machine monitoring software the shop was stuck with, and it was so bad, so wrong, so slow, that a light went on. The whole city was buying this. The three brothers, two coders and a toolmaker, decided they could do it better. They went to a big Windsor mold builder, asked if they would buy it before a line of code existed, got a yes, and built RER. Roger learned once the software was running: machine monitoring is a people problem long before it is a technology problem. Roger and Jim get into the fear of Big Brother, the brother who made it personal, a story about eyebolts that shows how data changes a conversation, why your best machinist might be the one who looks like he is slacking, and why the owner who buys the bright shiny object without asking the floor ends up with a hundred-thousand-dollar paperweight under a dust tarp. Key Takeaways Monitoring is a people problem first. The hard part was never the software. It was earning the trust of people who fear being watched, which is why the brother with sixteen years on the floor was the key to the whole company. The utilization gap is hidden capacity. Shops that believe they run at eighty or ninety percent often run at thirty. That gap is not a failure, it is room to take on more work, and it is how reshoring actually happens. Data changes the conversation. A machinist complaining about missing eyebolts gets ignored. A machinist who logs the hours lost looking for them gets every bay restocked in a week. Numbers make the floor’s problems undeniable. The report card cuts both ways. Monitoring lets the real top performers prove it, and it lets owners see that the guy who looks like he’s slacking may be the one whose machines never stop. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and who Roger is Find Roger LinkedIn: Roger Bassous | |||
| Fireball & Challenge Flags | No Tech Bros Profiting Off Manufacturing by 2030 | 06 Oct 2026 | 00:44:44 | |
We agree too much. We nod along at the same conferences, repeat the same narratives, and almost never say the uncomfortable thing out loud. So Jim grabbed a bottle of Fireball, a stack of NFL challenge flags, and the five-man team behind Covari, and borrowed the MakingChips booth to do the one thing manufacturing avoids: argue. This is the first episode of Fireball & Challenge Flags, a new, unfiltered, occasionally profane segment where disagreement is the whole point. The rules are simple. Somebody makes a claim, and if you disagree, you throw your flag and fight it out. Over forty-odd minutes and a shot, Jim and the Covari crew, co-founders Jackson Zartman and Anthony Giampapa, VP of Operations Josh Parker, CDO Arnoldas Kemeklis, and go-to-market engineer Jimmy Miklos, go after the questions most people in this industry are too polite to touch. They do not agree on much, and that is the point. Fair warning: there is cursing, there is Fireball, and there is a Lithuanian describing an AI-agent future so dystopian that Jim accuses him of writing for Black Mirror. The Fights What hollowed out American manufacturing. Jackson blames private equity rolling up and choking small shops. Jim throws the first flag and traces it to 1973 and the end of the gold standard, which turned offshoring into a tax play. We didn't lose manufacturing, we lost the cheap stuff. We stopped making toasters and started making jets. The real question is how much of it we even want back, when we can't buy the steel cheaper than overseas and still pay a living wage. The future of AI, and whether anyone asked for it. Arne paints an agent-run world where your phone and mine clink like Apple Pay and transact business on their own. Jim's response, roughly: this is not the future I want. The table lands on keeping AI away from the customer and pointing it at the repetitive work instead. Is AI-generated art actually art? Jim says prompting a box takes zero skill, so no. Arne asks how that is different from a painter choosing a brush. Nobody wins, but the Packers memes get a shout-out. No tech bros profiting off manufacturing by 2030. The hottest take came from the software company itself: Covari's belief that they should never make more than the people actually making the parts. The hills they'll die on. Josh: you can't automate DFM, so talk to the crusty machinist who marks up your page. Jackson: the tariffs did more harm than good, and only US shops and consumers paid for it. Anthony: AI isn't coming to kill small shops, but they're already years behind and need to start learning now. Jimmy: representation is what moves the needle on women in manufacturing. Jim: we created the skills gap, and the powers that be don't actually want to solve it. Chapters 00:00 Cracking the bottle: the premise and the rules Recorded live at the MakingChips booth. Find Covari Covari on LinkedIn, and connect with the whole team there | |||
| Melinda Keway | Do You Ever Wonder If What You Do Matters? | 29 Sep 2026 | 00:43:55 | |
Nick Popa learned his trade at the Henry Ford Trade School under Henry Ford, then ran a shop called Epic Machine. A teenager swept its floors, worked his way onto the machines, survived a motorcycle accident that put him in traction weeks before his daughter was born, and eventually bought the company on a twenty-year handshake buyout. That daughter is Melinda Keway, and today she owns the place. Melinda never planned any of it. She studied journalism, wanted to be Barbara Walters, and was chasing a career on the police beat when her father called and said he needed a quality person right now, and did she know what ISO was. She did not. He told her not to worry about it. She got scammed, in her words, into manufacturing, earned her lead auditor certification, and was a few months into fixing the paperwork when her dad had a stroke and she became the glue that held the shop together. That was more than twenty years ago. Two years ago, she took it all over and told him she was taking Epic from five million to ten. Epic makes precision tooling for the foundry industry and ships it to twenty-nine states and twelve countries, but the reason to listen is what Melinda built when the skilled people stopped showing up. Tired of waiting, the shop opened its own school inside the building, an intense eight-week course where a student picks mill or lathe and learns to program, set up, and run it for real, smells and fork trucks and broken taps included. She trains for the whole industry, not just her floor, and tells her people to go find the work that means something to them. She runs an open book where everybody has to know everything, and she credits it all to the team on the floor, because she has never machined a thing in her life. On the shop screen is a question she wants everyone to sit with. Do you ever wonder if what you do matters? Key Takeaways Interview where people are comfortable. Melinda runs every interview out on the shop floor, not across a desk, because machinists open up around the machines and tooling they know, and both sides learn fast whether it is a fit. When the talent won't come, build it. Rather than wait for skilled people, Epic opened its own eight-week school that trains one thing well, mill or lathe, and sends graduates into the whole industry. Train for the industry, not just your shop. She tells people to go find meaningful work wherever it is, because the industry's need for skilled people is bigger than any one company. Open book beats top dog. Everybody at Epic learns to program, set up, and operate, and nobody hoards knowledge to stay indispensable. Independence makes the whole shop stronger. Lead from your gaps. Melinda has never machined a part, and she treats that as an advantage, depending on and empowering the experts on her floor instead of overriding them. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and who Melinda is Find Melinda LinkedIn: Melinda Keway | |||
| Anna Falcon | Nobody Gives You the Blueprint | 23 Sep 2026 | 00:47:06 | |
Summary Anna Falcon's parents left the Philippines with two little girls and started over in the United States. That is the opening scene of the movie she would cast, and she will tell you everything else is built on it. The persistence, the resilience, the hard work she watched up close became the base for a career she has spent noticing the dynamics between people in every room she has ever walked into. She studied industrial engineering at Georgia Tech and took her first job on the shop floor of a Lockheed Martin plant, working operations and special projects on the P-3 and C-5 programs and helping carry a multi-year, enterprise-wide ERP conversion. It was there, early, that culture struck her, when leadership answered a program's performance problems not just with process and technology but with the biggest culture of accountability initiative the company had ever run, and she watched the trust and the motivation shift in real time. She has spent the twenty years since in enterprise transformation, a decade at Ernst & Young, a run as a principal, and now vice president of CX Transformation at MCA Connect, recently acquired by Grant Thornton. This is a conversation about the thing under all of it. Anna and Jim get into why culture is core to how a business operates and not the soft stuff around the edges, why trust and accountability have to travel together, and why most digital transformations fail on change management rather than technology. She talks about leading without a blueprint, about being a data point for the women coming up behind her who did not have many, and about raising four daughters who watch her do hard things and love it. She closes on the line that is her whole operating system: humans at the center, culture first. Key Takeaways Culture is core, not soft. Anna argues culture is not the perks and team bonding around the edges. It is how an organization operates, delivers, and shows up, and it drives quality and output on a shop floor as much as anywhere. Trust and accountability travel together. Accountability without trust breeds fear. The fun stuff without accountability breeds complacency. High performance needs both. Nobody hands you a blueprint. A mentor told her there is no leadership blueprint, and it freed her to forge her own way and to leave more data points for the people coming up behind her. Transformations fail on change, not tech. Roughly seventy percent of digital transformations fail, almost always on change management. Anna's teams treat change as end to end and business led from day one, not training bolted on at the end. Acquisitions live or die on alignment. Her company's acquisition avoided the usual attrition because both sides shared a vision, and MCA's homegrown, high-trust culture believed in the leaders making the call. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and who Anna is Find Anna LinkedIn: Anna Falcon | |||
| Alex Gruebele | Aluminum Cans Are Cathedrals We Walk Past | 15 Sep 2026 | 00:46:25 | |
Alex Gruebele sees cathedrals where the rest of us see trash. Hand him an aluminum can and he will tell you it is one of the most engineered objects on the planet, made by a company whose other, less profitable line is building satellites. That is the whole man: relentlessly curious, a little obsessive, and unable to walk past anything manufactured without wanting to know how it was made. He grew up in Champaign-Urbana, studied mechanical engineering at Illinois, and earned a Stanford PhD building soft actuators and sensory skins for robots that work alongside humans. Then, almost by accident, a classmate's wild idea and a pandemic made him co-founder and CTO of Mesli, a fully autonomous restaurant he and two friends built and dropped onto a lot in San Francisco. It served about ten thousand grain bowls at better than ninety-nine percent uptime, with customers asking for a monthly meal plan. It also could not raise the money a hardware company needs in a software investor's world, and it closed while it was still winning. That failure is the hinge of the conversation, and Alex is refreshingly honest about it. Today he is president and co-founder of Tau9 Labs, a semi-bootstrapped Bay Area company that builds custom, AI-accelerated software for manufacturers of every size. He and Jim get into why every factory is a snowflake, why he took the leap into a business he could control after swearing off investors, and the parallel he draws between mountaineering and building a company: calculated risk, exposure a little at a time, and a willingness to be in over your head because that is where you grow. He is also the guy painting Halo miniatures at his desk and bartering for rocks with strangers in Morocco, and he will tell you the hobbies are the point, not a distraction from it. Key Takeaways Curiosity is the throughline. From soft robotics to mineral collecting to the engineering of a soda can, Alex treats the whole made world as something worth understanding, and it fuels the work. Being right isn't enough to survive. Mesli won on food, uptime, and repeat customers, but hardware economics and a software-hungry investor climate closed it anyway. Technical success and fundability are different games. Every factory is a snowflake. Rather than force a one-size product, Tau9 builds custom software per shop, because AI-accelerated development finally makes bespoke work profitable for both sides. Ask people about their hobbies. Alex screens for the person, not just the role. Someone who goes deep on things tends to do the same at work, and a shared hobby builds real trust with a customer. Risk is a muscle, like heights. He beat a fear of heights by exposure, one climb at a time, and he runs a company the same way: calculated risk, a little more each time, comfortable being in over his head. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and the ask Find Alex LinkedIn: Alex Gruebele | |||
| Charlotte Allen | The Judgment Gap | 08 Sep 2026 | 00:42:57 | |
Charlotte Allen did not set out to make the food in your kitchen. She trained as a respiratory therapist, watched healthcare turn toward managed care, and decided she wanted to affect people's lives in a more direct way. Food was the answer she did not see coming. Kraft recruited her out of school, and she spent sixteen years there leading innovation and technology strategy across more than ten brands you almost certainly have in your house right now. What kept her at Kraft was the culture, a diverse group of people from all over the world who made each other better, the kind of team every other company tried to poach from. What eventually pushed her out was watching that culture change after the company was bought and merged. So she left, and after a stretch of consulting work that landed in her lap, she built Rebel Success for Leaders, the change leadership firm she has now run for a decade. The reason to listen is the framework she has been sharpening ever since. Charlotte calls it the judgment gap, the widening distance between an organization's capabilities and its people's capacity to know when something is wrong. Experienced judgment is disappearing as companies retire, thin, and flatten their ranks, and AI is filling the space with polished, confident answers that carry no judgment at all. She and Jim get into why the machine is built to stroke your ego, why the friction of a colleague telling you your work is junk is the thing that builds judgment in the first place, and what a leader actually does about it: name it, track the behavior you want, and reward the friction instead of shutting it down. Her definition of culture doubles as the whole point. It is the reason a person shows up and gives their best work. Key Takeaways Culture is why people give their best. Charlotte's definition skips the metrics: culture is the reason you show up, give up time with family, and bring your best. It is also why people stay, or run for the hills. The judgment gap is widening. As organizations retire, thin, and flatten, experienced judgment disappears, and with it the capacity to sense when something is quietly going wrong. AI answers without judgment. Generative AI is built to please you and is only as good as what you feed it. If you never prompt it to challenge you or find the failure modes, it just polishes your blind spots. Friction builds judgment. The colleague who says your work is junk is doing something AI will not. Leaders should reward that friction, not silence it. People love change they can author. Explain the why so it means something to the individual, involve the front line early, and you stop having to push. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and the ask Find Charlotte LinkedIn: Charlotte Allen, Ph.D. | |||
| Sunny Han | It's Not Science Fiction, It's Manufacturing Fiction | 01 Sep 2026 | 00:48:55 | |
Ask most people to picture the future of manufacturing and they will describe a slightly better factory. Ask Sunny Han and he will describe a self-replicating machine you launch into an asteroid belt, go to sleep for a thousand years, and wake up to find has built a communication network across the galaxy. That is the altitude this conversation runs at. Sunny is the founder and CEO of Fulcrum, a manufacturing technology company that connects more than 700 manufacturers with the digital infrastructure they need to compete. He did not grow up on a shop floor. He was a kid writing code at seven, certain he would spend his life playing StarCraft, who drifted into building software for manufacturers and got quietly hooked on the depth of it. The more facilities he toured, the more intoxicating it got: the operator who can feel a microscopic burr with a fingertip, the single crystal of metal grown to survive supersonic speeds. He kept coming back to the well. But the reason to listen is what Sunny has worked out about AI and trust. He is one of the clearest voices on where artificial intelligence fits on a shop floor and where it does not. He explains why classical computers are deterministic and the real world is not, why these new probabilistic machines are a gift and a hazard at once, and why the answer is deterministic guardrails and a human who stays in the loop, because in a medical device shop that last one percent is the entire world. Along the way he reframes change management, argues that people love change they get to author, and lands on the line that named this episode. The future isn't science fiction. It's manufacturing fiction, and his whole job is turning it into reality faster. Key Takeaways The real world is probabilistic. Classical computers give the same answer every time. CNC machines and AI models do not, and understanding that difference is the key to using AI safely on a shop floor. Deterministic guardrails make AI trustworthy. Let the model generate options, but when the answer has to be exactly right, it looks up the feed and speed chart or the tool database. Creativity where you want it, certainty where you need it. Keep a human in the loop. Even at ninety-nine percent, the last one percent can be a twenty thousand dollar mistake or worse, so Fulcrum builds evaluation and judgment frameworks that flag what still needs human eyes. Infrastructure was the missing layer. Fulcrum set out to do cool things with compute and found the orchestration infrastructure under manufacturing barely existed. Build a good one and people plug everything into it. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and the ask Find Sunny LinkedIn: Sunny Han (Fulcrum) | |||
| Tiffany Bryson | I Want to Be Known for Seeing People | 25 Aug 2026 | 00:46:55 | |
Tiffany Bryson is one of Jim's oldest and closest friends in this industry, and she is also, as this episode reveals, the reason the Manufacturing Culture Podcast exists at all. Twenty drinks deep on a curb in Atlanta in 2022, she listened to Jim describe the handful of shops with great cultures who had written back to him, and told him he had to start telling those stories. Then she kept texting until he actually did it. But this conversation is Tiffany's story, and it is a good one. A recently divorced single mom selling houses, she took a job with the creative title director of first impressions, which was really the receptionist, at a manufacturing association. The first time she walked onto a shop floor, she saw behind the curtain, realized none of it just appears at Target and Walmart, and caught a passion she has never shaken. From there she grew the NTMA national associate program into a real revenue stream, took a leap into selling five-axis machines at GROB with no technical background, and found her footing by leaning on the one thing she always did well: connecting people. Today she runs industrial partnerships across the Americas for Blaser Swisslube, the Swiss family company that has made metalworking fluid, the liquid tool, not just coolant, since 1936, and she says it is the first place she can imagine hanging her hat until retirement. The heart of this one is what Tiffany does with the network she built. She mentors, especially women who were, like she once was, the only one in the room. She opens doors for people who do not yet know which door to knock on. And when Jim asks what she wants to be remembered for, she does not hesitate: she wants to be known for seeing people. This is a conversation about relationships as a career, about paying it forward, and about the friend who saw something in Jim before he saw it in himself. Key Takeaways Relationships are a career, not a tactic. Tiffany built every stage of her path on networking done with real intention, and it carried her from receptionist to program owner. You can learn anything. She jumped into selling five-axis machines with no technical background, and beat the fear by realizing nobody knows as much as you assume, and that you can learn what you need to. Ask for the tour. The easiest way into a shop relationship is to ask an owner to show you their shop. Nobody says no, and thirty minutes becomes two hours of history, pride, and pain points. Mentorship is this phase of her life. Tiffany lifts up young people and women in the industry, opening doors so they climb faster than she did, and she says it costs her nothing. Be known for seeing people. Life beats everyone up. Being the person who genuinely sees someone, personal or professional, is what she wants to be remembered for. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and why this guest is special Find Tiffany LinkedIn: Tiffany Bryson | |||
| Steve Feamster | The Weld No One Will Ever See | 18 Aug 2026 | 00:37:04 | |
Every glass of water you pour, every jar of baby food, every energy drink you crack open ran through stainless steel pipe that somebody welded. And if that person did their job right, you will never once think about it. That is Steve Feamster's whole craft: being invisible in the best possible way. The weld that matters most is the one no one will ever see, on the inside of a pipe, so clean that nothing can hide. Steve is the founder and owner of Sanitary Welding LLC in Novi, Michigan, where for more than sixteen years he has built the ultra-clean stainless steel systems that food, beverage, and pharmaceutical plants depend on. He came up the way he hopes the next kid will. He was an entrepreneur before he was a welder, hustling odd jobs as a teenager, and he tripped into welding under a teacher who told him something that stuck: with wood, cut it too short and it's scrap, but with metal, you can always weld it back together. You can always make it right. This is a conversation about the pride in unseen work, about carrying the weight of knowing a single bad weld could mean contamination, and about a man from the middle who can talk to the shop floor and the boardroom in the same breath. Steve is honest about the hard parts, the apprenticeship red tape, the grind of scaling with too few hands, and the fine line between automation and craft. But the through-line is a message he wants the nineteen-year-old with a torch to hear: the door is open. Steve did it, and so can you. Key Takeaways The best weld is the one no one sees. Sanitary welding is judged on the inside of the pipe, purged clean and finished to food grade, so nothing can hide and nothing can contaminate. You can always make it right. The lesson that pulled Steve into the trade is also his philosophy on mistakes: be proud of them, pass your inspection, and keep going. The door from welder to owner is open. Steve bought his domain while still working under the hood and built his own shop. He wants the next kid to know the same path is there. Culture is treating a welder like a thinker. His twenty-first century weld shop pays people to think and treats the place like a second home, which is how he competes for scarce, high-care talent. Red tape is part of the skills gap. Steve is trying to hire and train through apprenticeships and keeps hitting bureaucratic roadblocks, a piece of the workforce problem that gets too little attention. Chapters 00:02 The invisible weld, and what sanitary welding protects Find Steve LinkedIn: Steve Feamster | |||
| Jim Goerges | He Never Laid Off a Worker Because of Automation | 11 Aug 2026 | 00:47:43 | |
Jim Goerges is an accountant who fell in love with a machine shop, and then fell in love with the one job in that shop nobody else wanted: keeping the coolant right. He was so obsessed with it that when he could not buy the tool he wanted, he built it himself, and that turned into a whole second company. His shop in Brainerd, Minnesota started with four products in 1993 and now has around six thousand, and odds are good it had a hand in the glasses on somebody's face right now. The heart of this one is a simple idea Jim has spent thirty years proving out: the best robot you can buy is the machine that makes the part. Precision Tool Technologies runs lights-out, nearly around the clock on a single labor shift, because Jim chased unattended manufacturing back when the industry still thought a mill was a mill and a lathe was a lathe. When coolant became the weak link that stood between him and a true 168 hours, he invented a full-shop coolant sensing and top-off system, now running in shops around the country. But the number that tells you who Jim is has nothing to do with spindles. He has never laid off a single person to a technology improvement, not once. He took hand deburring off his people because it hurt to do, not to cut heads. And for a crew of 23, the company 401k will clear five million this year. This is a conversation about automation done with a conscience, about a dad who came from Germany with nothing and instilled a work ethic in ten kids, and about why the unglamorous work, done with pride, is the work that builds something noble. Key Takeaways The best robot is the machine that makes the part. Jim's whole approach is to buy equipment that runs unattended rather than bolting automation onto old habits. Automation without layoffs. In thirty years he never cut a person for a technology gain. He removed the jobs people dreaded, like hand deburring, not the people. Necessity invented a product. Coolant was the weak link in running 168 hours, so he built a full-shop coolant sensing and top-off system that now sells nationwide. Culture is telling people the truth. Good news or bad, Jim tells the whole group, so his people are part of the solution instead of blindsided by it. Do more to get more. The accountant's logic underneath it all: every incremental part spreads your fixed costs thinner, and affordable automation is how you get there. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and meet Jim Goerges Find Jim LinkedIn: Jim Goerges | |||
| Ronak Gandhi | Make American Manufacturing Badass | 04 Aug 2026 | 00:49:10 | |
This episode was recorded as part of a paid partnership with Structify. Ronak Gandhi grew up in Fort Worth, where Memorial Day means fifty people in the backyard, dinner cooked by friends who brought their own coolers, and a clock that somehow reads midnight before anyone notices. He explains the difference between that and a New York Memorial Day, all brunch reservations and itineraries, and in doing so tells you most of what you need to know about why he built Structify the way he did. His grandfather came to this country in the 1960s, took his first job at a fish processing plant, stayed thirty years, and retired there. That story, and the values under it, loyalty, integrity, and showing up in person, shaped Ronak's decision to leave an isolating skyscraper job and build a company for the people he calls the backbone of the country. Structify helps manufacturers find real ROI for AI, lays the foundation to implement it, and captures the institutional knowledge that walks out the door when a key person retires. The promise is blunt: a path to ROI in sixty days or your money back. Recorded in person with Jim at ATD in Phoenix, Ronak and Jim get into why Silicon Valley gets manufacturing wrong, why you cannot serve this industry from a desk on the coast, why 65% of digital transformations fail, and why the problems on a shop floor are the most exciting part of the work, not the thing to hide. It closes on the line that could be Structify's whole reason for existing: he does not want the industries that built this country to get left behind in the next technological leap. Key Takeaways AI fails without a foundation. Most digital transformations fail because people rush to the solution. Structify maps the business first, then finds where AI actually drives ROI. Capturing institutional knowledge is the real win. The workforce crisis bites hardest when a key person retires, and their knowledge leaves with them. Day one is about capturing it. You cannot serve manufacturing from the coast. Ronak lives on the road, and he argues every shop is different, so no off-the-shelf solution works for everyone. Change is not the enemy. People do not resist change; they choose it every day. Give operators the tools to build their own solutions and adoption follows. Relationships beat transactions. The values he learned in Fort Worth, loyalty and integrity, are what he says the coast gets wrong and what manufacturing gets right. Chapters 00:00 Meet Ronak: two Memorial Days, Fort Worth vs New York Find Ronak LinkedIn: Ronak Gandhi | |||
| Bob Teska | Dream Big, Success Is the Only Option | 28 Jul 2026 | 01:00:23 | |
Bob Teska describes his life as an underdog movie, Rocky by way of 8 Mile, opening on a kid getting picked on, a dad who disappeared, and a mother who told him he would not make it through his first semester of college. He turned wrenches for ten years, went to school at 26 with a newborn at home and three jobs to pay for it, and walked out with a near-perfect GPA and a path to becoming a CPA. He spent fourteen years as an audit partner advising family businesses, and then did the thing most advisors only talk about. He took the operator's chair himself. The company he chose is Dalen Products, a third-generation, 100% family-owned lawn and garden manufacturer in Knoxville that just crossed 51 years. It started when Neil Caldwell raided his kids' college funds and took a small business loan to build inflatable snakes and, later, the plastic great horned owl you have probably seen in a garden. Dalen has sold 9.3 million of them, and in 1995 NASA bought eighteen to guard a space shuttle from woodpeckers. Bob's real work is the culture. He walked into a place that felt frozen in 1982, time cards written out by hand, morale low, a wall between the office and the floor. His answer was to learn every name, take a lap on the floor every single day, and lead by one rule he states plainly: he worked for a lot of assholes, and he tries hard not to be one. He hires out of halfway houses, has kept six of the seven people he has brought in that way, and is bringing production back from China, now 85% made in Knoxville. He calls the whole project Dalen 2.0, building the next fifty years without breaking the first fifty, and he frames it not as ownership but as stewardship. He did not build this. His job is to hand it back stronger. Key Takeaways
Chapters 00:00 Welcome and Bob's unconventional road Find Bob LinkedIn: Bob Teska | |||
| Alex Huckstepp | The Paperwork Tax | 21 Jul 2026 | 00:44:33 | |
Alex Huckstepp has spent his career where new technology meets the people who make things. A mechanical engineer out of USC who graduated into the wreckage of 2010, he spent the next decade running commercial strategy at four hardware startups in a row: 3D printing, metal additive, robotic forming, composites. All of them fundamentally new ways of making physical things. Then he and his co-founder Benny got tired of begging investors for money to build complex hardware, and went looking for a problem they could solve with software. They found it inside the tens of thousands of small high-mix shops across the country. Before writing a line of code, they spent three months inside twenty to thirty machine shops, trying to be flies on the wall and failing, because curiosity got the better of them. What they learned shapes the best part of this conversation. Shops don't dislike software because they're behind. They dislike it because software has never served them. And work doesn't leave the country over the labor rate anymore. It's energy and materials, it's tariffed machine tools, it's the two or three people in a nine-person shop tied to a desk doing paperwork, and it's the friction of getting a quote out of your local shop when someone overseas will answer the phone. Alex and Jim don't agree on everything, and the episode is better for it. It ends where Alex's work lives: a barbecue and a cooler of beer in a square mile north of the San Jose airport that holds more than a hundred machine shops, most of which have never met each other. Key Takeaways
Chapters 00:00 Welcome and who Alex is Find Alex LinkedIn: Alex Huckstepp | |||
| Todd Drouillard | Buildings as Machines | 14 Jul 2026 | 00:37:38 | |
Most manufacturing conversations are about the machines. This one is about the building around them. In this episode of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast, host Jim Mayer sits down with Todd Drouillard, licensed architect and principal at HED, one of the country's top science and technology design firms. For twenty-five years, Todd has designed the places where manufacturing actually happens: clean rooms, hydrogen test cells, semiconductor plants, robotics labs. A Detroit native whose father and grandfather worked the steel mills, he explains why lighting and daylight change a shop floor, why a warehouse is usually the wrong home for a production line, how architecture becomes a retention strategy, and why the best factories are buildings that work like machines themselves. Key Takeaways
Chapters
Find Todd LinkedIn: Todd Drouillard, AIA | |||
| Anoosheh Oskouian | Challenging, Difficult, Never Impossible | 07 Jul 2026 | 00:47:06 | |
Anoosheh Oskouian came to the United States alone at fourteen years old. She had convinced her father to let her leave Iran before she finished high school, the same way she had once convinced her parents to change her birth certificate so she could start school early. She landed in Denver, finished high school at George Washington High, and then the revolution back home turned Iranians into targets overnight. So she did what she has done at every hard moment since: she set her own rules, kept her focus, and moved forward. Decades later, that same resolve is the foundation of Ship & Shore Environmental, the Long Beach company she has built and grown organically for more than twenty-five years. Today, the firm designs and fabricates custom air pollution control systems for manufacturers across the country and around the world, and Anoosheh sits on the South Coast Air Quality Management District committee that helps write the very rules her machines are built to meet. This is a conversation about grit, reinvention, and what it costs to be the only woman CEO in a room full of men. Anoosheh talks about the people who underestimated her, the young engineers she now mentors, the planet she is trying to leave cleaner than she found it, and why, after everything, she still believes the American dream is real. Challenging, of course. Difficult, of course. Impossible, never. Key Takeaways
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Find Anoosheh LinkedIn: Anoosheh Oskouian | |||
| Hexagon's Shop Floor Social Dallas | The Shiny Object vs. the People Who Make It Work | 03 Jul 2026 | 00:51:34 | |
The Shop Floor Social came to Dallas, and the room was full of people who run the floors. Hosted by Jim Mayer and brought to the community by Hexagon, this live session of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast put three local leaders on the panel: Chase Auker, a quality metrologist at Firefly Aerospace who measures everything from rocket engines to lunar landers; Andy Mears, who leads intelligent factory integration at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie; and Fernando Castaneda, the quality leader at SPM Oil & Gas. The night started where every honest manufacturing conversation starts: what keeps you up at night. The answers came back fast. People. Speed and scale. Schedule. From there, the room worked through the question on everyone's mind: what AI really does on a shop floor today, and the panel was refreshingly grounded in it. AI is a sharp assistant and a strong learning tool, but it's only as good as the data and the people behind it. Garbage in, garbage out. The real skill, they agreed, is knowing how to ask. What makes this session worth the listen is where it lands. Under all the pressure of cost, supply chain, cybersecurity, and a shrinking talent pipeline, every panelist circled back to the same answer. You cannot buy your way out with the bright shiny object. You invest in your people, you fix your process, and you let the technology amplify both. Then the conversation turns to the pipeline itself: why the fix starts in high school rather than the want ads, and why the best recruiter you have is already standing on your floor. This is session one, recorded live in Dallas. Key Takeaways
Chapters 00:00 Welcome to the Shop Floor Social The Panel Chase Auker, Quality Metrologist, Firefly Aerospace | |||
| Becca Wolfinger | Saving People Headaches and Heartaches | 30 Jun 2026 | 00:35:30 | |
Becca Wolfinger did not set out to run a machine shop. She figured she would cheer her husband on from the sidelines after he left the military, went to school to become a machinist, and got tired of working for people whose only answer was "we've done it this way for twenty years." Then the website needed building, and the LLC, and the logo, and one by one, Becca did all of it herself. Before long, she was scooping chips, breaking down setups, and learning to make parts on the floor of a renovated 1970s garage in North Carolina. What makes Becca different is not that she built Mill Spec Manufacturing. It's that she refuses to hide any part of how she did it. In a trade built on protecting what you know, she writes and films the mistakes, the crashed sensors, the four o'clock mornings, and the fear of signing a first industrial lease, because she believes the only way to rebuild American manufacturing is to stop gatekeeping and hand the next person a map. This is the North Carolina stop in the fifty-state shop series, and it's a conversation about culture in the truest sense: an environment where people feel free to be themselves without judgment. Becca and Jim get into why she started, why she shares, the community she's building shop by shop and meeting by meeting, what it felt like to be trusted with work that matters, and the one thing she wants to be remembered for. Key Takeaways
Chapters 00:00 Welcome and what this show is about Find Becca LinkedIn: Rebecca Wolfinger | |||
| Erich Baur | I'm the Guy Who Comes In With a Shovel | 09 Jun 2026 | 00:55:28 | |
Erich Baur could have gone a hundred different directions. Engineering degree from UC Davis. Peace Corps in Guatemala. Fluent in Spanish. Music minor. Instead he swept floors at a Fortune 100 aerospace shop, fell in love with precision machining, and spent the next several years going deeper into every corner of the industry: process engineering, sales, programming, supervision, consulting. Six months ago he opened Nordstrand Precision in Colorado Springs, named after the Norwegian cabinet makers in his family lineage who built the ship they sailed on. In this conversation, Erich and Jim cover what the Peace Corps taught him about manufacturing leadership, why good culture looks boring from the outside, and why he'd rather unclog a river than compete for the same jobs as everybody else. Key Takeaways
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| Chris Hutson | You Can't Buy Your Way Out of a Culture Gap | 05 Jun 2026 | 00:34:01 | |
Chris Hutson spent 30 years in manufacturing as an industrial engineer, maintenance manager, field service leader, and now VP at MaintainX. He's seen the inside of Fortune 500 operations and developed over 25 people who are now directors or above. In this conversation, Chris and Jim go deep on what drives reliability in manufacturing. It's not the technology. It's the people side: coaching, development, knowledge transfer, and the culture gap that no software can close for you. Key Takeaways
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| Johnny Goode | I Look Forward to Mondays | 02 Jun 2026 | 00:42:52 | |
Johnny Goode spent a decade as a patrol officer, narcotics detective, and SWAT team member in Bloomington, Indiana. When his dad offered him a seat at the family machine shop six years ago, it made zero sense on paper. Today, MSP is having its best quarter in 83 years. In this conversation, Johnny and Jim cover what law enforcement actually teaches you about leadership, how to dismantle a toxic culture from the inside, why bonus structures aren't the answer, and what it means to build a shop where people look forward to Mondays. Key Takeaways
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| Adam Crandall | How Are the People Actually Doing | 26 May 2026 | 00:47:31 | |
Adam Crandall almost became a pediatrician. One afternoon in an OR changed everything. Twenty years later, he's the CRO of Addtronics, a private equity-backed automation platform that's doing something the industry rarely sees: actually protecting the culture of the companies it acquires. In this conversation, Adam's second time on the show, Jim and Adam go deeper than their first episode. They talk about the non-linear path into manufacturing, what it means to lead with people first inside a PE firm, and why Adam got emotional talking about the thank-you messages that still find their way to him years after he's moved on. Key Takeaways
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| Steven Gao | I Still Feel Like It's Magic | 19 May 2026 | 00:36:05 | |
Steven Gao grew up in a small town in China, taught himself computers, then made a snap decision at 18 to study mechanical engineering instead — a choice that took him from a Chinese university to Germany, to a GM joint venture, and eventually to Tesla's first gigafactory outside the US. Now he's building what he calls an AI manufacturing engineer: software that can do everything from reading customer requirements to troubleshooting a production line. In this conversation, Steven and Jim dig into what transformation actually looks like across three countries, why manufacturing is facing an engineering capacity crisis, and why Steven still feels like the technology he's building is magic. Key Takeaways
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| Dustin Bowe | You Could Be Right All Day and It Won't Mean Anything | 12 May 2026 | 00:54:58 | |
Dustin Bowe grew up in the Bahamas dreaming of becoming a pilot, stumbled into a P&G plant tour in college, and never looked back. Now a manufacturing software founder, Dustin brings a rare combination of electrical engineering, cybersecurity, and frontline leadership experience to one of the industry's oldest problems: we ask people to run faster without giving them the tools to actually do it. In this conversation, Jim and Dustin go deep on what culture actually means, why trust has to come before credibility, and why the human on your shop floor is still the most important variable in any equation — AI, automation, or otherwise. Key Takeaways
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| Sam Fritz | I Don't Think You Could Take It From Me | 05 May 2026 | 00:53:05 | |
Sam Fritz didn't plan on ending up in manufacturing. He studied mechanical engineering at Texas A&M, took a sales job at Keyence to get out from behind a desk, and started walking into factories across Illinois. Something in those buildings got him. Four years and hundreds of facilities later, he's Area Sales Manager at Banner Engineering, still walking in doors, still paying attention to what he finds inside. In this conversation, Sam discusses why he entered the industry, what kept him there, and what he thinks manufacturing gets wrong about attracting the next generation. His answer to Jim's question about what it would take to leave: I don't think you could take it from me. Key Takeaways
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Connect with Sam LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sfritz27/ | |||
| Kerry Burns | I Just Have a Lot of Damn Ideas | 28 Apr 2026 | 00:39:50 | |
Jim Mayer interviews Kerry Burns, founder of Mason Road Manufacturing, about his diverse career in manufacturing, the importance of hands-on creation, and the future of manufacturing skills. They explore the value of local manufacturing, DIY innovation, and fostering a culture of safety and creativity. Key Topics
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| Aron Kolosik | Dude, You're Miserable | 21 Apr 2026 | 00:40:24 | |
In this episode, Aaron Kolosic shares his 25-year journey through manufacturing, leadership, and mentorship. He discusses the importance of culture, resilience, and personal growth in the manufacturing industry, offering valuable insights for leaders and aspiring professionals. Key Topics
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Resources Aron Kolosic's Website | |||
| Todd Smith | There's Private Equity and There's Private Equity | 14 Apr 2026 | 00:44:59 | |
In this episode, Jim Mayer interviews Todd Smith, CFO of AMFT, who shares his unconventional journey from banking and law to manufacturing leadership. They discuss company culture, private equity, industry misconceptions, and the future of manufacturing, emphasizing the importance of trust, technology, and investment in people. Key Topics
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Resources Todd Smith's LinkedIn - Todd Smith | LinkedIn AMFT Official Website - https://amft.com | |||
| Hexagon's Shop Floor Social Nashville | Nobody Notices Quality Until It Fails | 13 Apr 2026 | 00:46:31 | |
This bonus episode was recorded live at Hexagon's Shop Floor Social in Nashville — and it did not go the way a typical panel discussion goes. Jim sat down with Kieth Bieger, Global Metrology Specialist and CMM Programmer at Destaco; Todd Prettyman, Director of Global Quality at Gibson; and Michelle Bangert, Managing Editor of Quality Magazine. The room was full of quality professionals, and that shaped everything. What started as a conversation about the challenges manufacturers face turned into something more honest than most panels allow. The group covered why quality always takes the blame, why the skills pipeline for quality engineering is broken, why standardization and craftsmanship are not opposites, and what it actually costs to hold the line when nobody's watching. By the end, the conversation moved into territory that doesn't usually make it onto a stage — psychological safety, the experience of women in manufacturing quality roles, and what the next generation is asking for that the industry hasn't figured out how to give them yet. This is Part 1 of a two-part live recording. Part 2 — the solutions conversation — releases on The MFG Connector Show. KEY TOPICS
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| Kyle Ellis | Machining Found Me | 07 Apr 2026 | 00:26:17 | |
In this episode of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast, Jim Mayer interviews Kyle Ellis, the leader of Torque Manufacturing. They discuss the transformation of a machining business into a brand that emphasizes craftsmanship, clarity, and strategic thinking. Kyle shares his journey into machining, the importance of culture in the workplace, and how he rebranded his company to reflect authenticity. The conversation also touches on the significance of building relationships with customers, hiring for fit, and the legacy Kyle hopes to leave behind in the manufacturing industry. Takeaways
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| Steve Shebuski | The Box Doesn't Move Itself | 31 Mar 2026 | 00:50:25 | |
In this episode of the Manufacturing Culture podcast, host Jim Mayer speaks with Steve Shebuski, a seasoned professional in the supply chain and warehousing industry. They discuss the complexities of supply chain management, the importance of workplace culture, and the role of innovation and technology in improving processes. Steve shares his unique journey into the field, the challenges he has faced, and the misconceptions people have about warehousing. The conversation also touches on the impact of robotics and AI in the industry and the importance of enabling teams to learn and grow. Takeaways
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| Kevin Tamanini | Stop Promoting the Best Machinist | 24 Mar 2026 | 00:54:50 | |
In this episode of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast, host Jim Mayer speaks with Kevin Tamanini, an expert in industrial and organizational psychology, about the critical role of leadership in manufacturing. They discuss the importance of culture, values, and succession planning, as well as the evolving landscape of leadership development in the face of technological advancements like AI. Kevin shares insights on how effective leadership can impact not only organizational success but also personal growth and development. The conversation emphasizes the need for intentionality in building a strong leadership pipeline and the significance of understanding the human element in manufacturing. Takeaways
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| Hexagon's Shop Floor Social Tempe | Honest Problems, Uncomfortable Solutions | 23 Mar 2026 | 00:59:13 | |
Live from Tempe, this Shop Floor Social brings together manufacturing leaders for a straight conversation about what actually changes after technology hits the shop floor. This isn’t about hype or digital buzzwords. It’s about reality. Better data doesn’t fix broken systems. It exposes them. It changes how people make decisions, how teams communicate, and how work actually gets done. The panel digs into real issues shops deal with every day. Incomplete RFQs, shifting demand, inspection headaches, and the constant pull between production and process improvement. Then they get into what it really takes to solve them. Not more tools. Not more software. Better leadership, clearer systems, and people who are aligned and accountable. They also break down what modernization actually looks like inside a shop, how data reshapes how employees are evaluated, and why automation isn’t replacing people. It’s changing their role. This is a conversation about the gap between knowing the problem and actually doing something about it. Key Topics
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| Justin Keskel | Do It Right, Then Do It Fast | 17 Mar 2026 | 00:32:01 | |
In this episode of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast, host Jim Mayer speaks with Justin Keskel, a multifaceted expert in CNC machining and modern manufacturing. They explore Justin's journey into the trades, the importance of mentorship, and the evolving culture within manufacturing. The conversation delves into the daily challenges faced by machinists, the significance of processes and attention to detail, and the current trends impacting the industry. Justin shares insights on the future of manufacturing, the need for greater awareness of skilled trades, and his aspirations for legacy and mentorship in the field. Takeaways
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| John Albers | Built to Serve, Built to Last | 11 Mar 2026 | 00:55:17 | |
In this episode, Jim Mayer interviews John Albers, a retired Marine Colonel and founder of Albers Aerospace, about the critical importance of rebuilding America's manufacturing base as a national security strategy. John shares his insights on the fragility of the current industrial base, the significance of culture in manufacturing, and the balance between digital engineering and skilled trades. He emphasizes the need for a cultural shift that values trades and skilled labor, and discusses the future of manufacturing in the context of national resilience and purpose. Takeaways
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| Jared Reining | Be Weird, Go First | 03 Mar 2026 | 00:46:58 | |
In this episode of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast, host Jim Mayer welcomes Jared Reining, a skilled machinist and entrepreneur, who shares his journey into the world of manufacturing. Jared discusses his early experiences in the trade, starting from a casual job in his uncle's machine shop to becoming a proficient machinist at PharmaMed Automation. He emphasizes the importance of hands-on experience and the value of networking within the industry, highlighting how his career path has been shaped by various roles and responsibilities over the years. Jared also reflects on the pride that comes from creating tangible products and the therapeutic aspects of machining, which he finds deeply fulfilling. The conversation delves into the culture of manufacturing, the significance of mentorship, and the need for skilled tradespeople to embrace their roles in a rapidly evolving industry. Jared shares insights on the future of manufacturing, advocating for smaller, high-performance shops that can maintain quality while keeping costs low. He also touches on the mental health challenges faced by tradespeople and expresses a desire to support his peers through potential future endeavors in therapy. This episode is a heartfelt exploration of the machinist's life, the pride in craftsmanship, and the importance of community in the manufacturing sector. Chapters
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| Daniel Stanphill | When Work Stops Feeling Like Work | 24 Feb 2026 | 00:51:36 | |
In this episode of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast, host Jim Mayer welcomes Daniel Stanphill, a passionate figure in the electronics manufacturing industry. Daniel shares his journey from stumbling into manufacturing to becoming a business owner and eventually finding his niche at Aurora Boardworks. He discusses the transformative moment when work became more than just a job for him, fueled by curiosity and a supportive team. The conversation delves into the importance of workplace culture, the challenges of the electronics manufacturing landscape, and the misconceptions surrounding the industry. Daniel emphasizes the need for authenticity and vulnerability in sharing personal stories, especially in a world dominated by social media and curated success narratives. The episode also highlights the significance of networking through platforms like LinkedIn, which has allowed Daniel to connect with industry veterans and expand his knowledge. He discusses the intricate processes involved in circuit board manufacturing, the challenges the industry faces, and the importance of fostering a supportive culture within manufacturing companies. Daniel's insights provide a refreshing perspective on the realities of the industry, encouraging listeners to embrace their unique journeys and redefine their personal definitions of success. Takeaways
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| Chuck Coxhead | Different Beats Better | 17 Feb 2026 | 00:49:32 | |
In this episode of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast, host Jim Mayer speaks with Chuck Coxhead about the importance of evolving manufacturing practices and company culture. They discuss the need for leaders to abandon outdated thinking, the significance of differentiation in a commoditized market, and the transformative changes in business practices post-2020. Chuck shares his journey in the RF cable assembly industry, emphasizing the importance of customer experience and the buyer's journey. The conversation also touches on empowering frontline workers, achieving alignment across departments, and the future of differentiation in the industry. Takeaways
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| George Pesansky | Excellence Without Burning People Out | 10 Feb 2026 | 00:50:16 | |
In this episode of the Manufacturing Culture podcast, host Jim Mayer speaks with George Pesansky, a global authority on operational excellence. They discuss the importance of workplace culture, the need for systems over people in problem-solving, and the leadership gaps in manufacturing. George shares insights from his extensive experience in various work cultures and his transition to nonprofit work, emphasizing the value of donating talent. The conversation also touches on performance improvement, preventing employee burnout, and the future of work, highlighting the significance of respect and trust in the workplace. Takeaways
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| Andrew Johnson | Changing Systems Without Losing People | 03 Feb 2026 | 00:56:32 | |
In this episode of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast, Jim Mayer speaks with Andrew Johnson about the intricacies of manufacturing culture, the importance of authenticity in leadership, and lessons learned from early-career failures. They discuss the dynamics of family businesses, the challenges of innovation, and the evolution of ShelfAware as a digital inventory management platform. The conversation also touches on change management in the manufacturing sector and the future of American manufacturing, highlighting the need for innovation and a return to the trades. Takeaways
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| My Digital Twin: Mark Vanderwarf | 20 Jan 2026 | 00:55:53 | |
In this episode of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast, host Jim Mayer speaks with Mark Vanderwarf, a business growth strategist and sustainability advocate. They discuss the importance of sustainability in manufacturing, the role of culture in business, and the need for a skilled workforce. Mark shares his early experiences that shaped his views on growth and sustainability, emphasizing the need for a mindset shift towards investing in people. The conversation also touches on the impact of technology and AI on the industry, the intersection of sustainability and the middle class, and the importance of balancing technological advancements with environmental considerations. Mark concludes with a call to action for individuals to take personal responsibility and contribute positively to their communities. Takeaways
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| The Shift to Root Cause Medicine: Dr. Erica Armstrong's Journey | 15 Jan 2026 | 00:39:11 | |
Summary In this conversation, Dr. Erica Armstrong discusses her journey from traditional healthcare to founding Root Functional Medicine, a virtual clinic focused on treating root causes of chronic diseases. She emphasizes the importance of nutrition, the role of dietitians, and the need for a new approach to healthcare that prioritizes employee wellness and addresses the underlying issues affecting the American workforce. Dr. Armstrong also shares insights on the future of healthcare in America and the potential for functional medicine to become mainstream. Takeaways
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| Speed, Precision, and Culture in Manufacturing | 06 Jan 2026 | 00:52:33 | |
In this live panel discussion on the Manufacturing Culture Podcast, host Jim Mayer engages with four industry experts from diverse backgrounds in manufacturing, robotics, and semiconductors. The conversation explores their personal journeys, definitions of culture in manufacturing, the importance of speed and precision, and how to engage the next generation in the industry. The panelists share insights on current roles, challenges in the semiconductor industry, and the need for a cultural shift to attract young talent. The session concludes with audience questions addressing misconceptions in the industry and the importance of education and hands-on experience. Takeaways The importance of culture in manufacturing is about infusing values into the workforce. Personal journeys in manufacturing often involve unique paths and experiences. Speed and precision are critical in the semiconductor industry, impacting production and quality. Engaging the next generation requires innovative approaches and hands-on experiences. The semiconductor industry is facing a talent shortage that needs to be addressed. AI and technology are reshaping the manufacturing landscape, leading to new opportunities. Trade programs in schools are essential for fostering interest in manufacturing careers. Misconceptions about the industry can hinder recruitment and understanding of roles. Collaboration and teamwork are vital for success in manufacturing environments. The future of manufacturing will rely on a diverse range of skills and backgrounds. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to the Panel and Icebreaker 06:43 Defining Culture in Manufacturing 10:09 Personal Journeys in Manufacturing 16:15 Current Roles and Responsibilities 24:59 Speed and Precision in Manufacturing 33:36 Engaging the Next Generation in Manufacturing 44:31 Audience Q&A and Misconceptions in the Industry | |||
| Craftsmanship and Family: The Country Craft Journey | 23 Dec 2025 | 00:18:47 | |
In this episode of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast, Jim Mayer interviews Elvin Hurst, the founder of Country Craft, who shares his journey from a farmer to a successful entrepreneur in the cabinetry industry. Elvin discusses the challenges of maintaining craftsmanship in a changing workforce, the importance of family values in business, and the evolution of Country Craft over the years. He reflects on the support he received from his family and community, the impact of technology on craftsmanship, and his hopes for the future of the business as it transitions to the next generation. Takeaways
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| We Undersell What We Do w/ Danny Gonzales | 16 Dec 2025 | 00:47:12 | |
In this episode of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast, host Jim Mayer speaks with Danny Gonzales, a media expert in the manufacturing sector. They discuss the importance of storytelling and digital marketing in changing perceptions of manufacturing, the impact of AI on content creation, and the need for a strong organizational culture. Danny shares his journey into the industry, the challenges manufacturers face in marketing, and the significance of vulnerability in leadership. The conversation highlights the evolving landscape of manufacturing and the opportunities for growth through effective communication and engagement. Takeaways
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| Apprenticeships, Paychecks and the Next Generation of Makers | 09 Dec 2025 | 01:00:54 | |
Scott Peters on Trades, Talent and the Culture Shift Manufacturing Can’t Avoid Scott Peters is one of those guests who reminds you why the industry still matters. He came up in the late seventies, learned the trade before CNC was common, built model-kit molds that ended up on Kmart shelves, moved into medical devices where your mistakes affect real lives, and eventually ran a 300-person plant in Guangzhou where “yes-boss culture” smashed into his belief that people should think for themselves. This conversation isn’t polished. It’s real. Offshoring. Apprenticeships. Pay. Responsibility. Pride. And the uncomfortable truth that young people won’t line up for jobs that pay less than McDonald’s. Scott argues that culture isn’t a slogan. It’s whether people feel safe enough to tell you you’re wrong and proud enough to stand beside the work they produce. If you care about the future of plastics, the trades or the next generation coming up behind us, this one is worth the time. What you’ll hear Scott’s jump from the Marines to an apprentice mold maker after his mother spotted a classifieds ad and pushed him toward it. What mold shops looked like in the late seventies and early eighties when CAD wasn’t an option and everything ran on skill, graphite smudges and problem solving. Why seeing his designs turn into products on store shelves changed how he viewed responsibility and pride in the trade. How managing a Chinese plant forced him to break top-down culture and build a team willing to challenge him instead of nodding along. Why he thinks shops are losing young talent to Amazon warehouses and fast food, and how transparent pay ladders used to keep apprentices motivated for years. The generational damage caused by offshoring and why communities still don’t trust manufacturing jobs even as the work returns. How to build culture that works on the floor instead of in HR decks: respect, honesty, disagreement and shared ownership of deadlines. Where to listen Available on all platforms. Search “Manufacturing Culture Podcast.” #manufacturingculture #manufacturing #trades #skilledtrades #plastics #injectionmolding #moldmaking #manufacturingjobs #engineering #operations #leadership | |||
| Why Marketing Still Feels “New” In Manufacturing (And What Emily Ting Is Doing About It) | 02 Dec 2025 | 00:59:17 | |
Emily Ting from CCS America joins Jim to talk about what culture actually feels like at work, how it shapes the day to day, and why marketing in industrial manufacturing is still years behind other B2B sectors. She walks through her journey from Japanese speaking intern to “do everything” marketer, three years working inside a Japanese headquarters, and the reality of being the bridge between leadership, engineers, sales and the outside world. Emily shares how she translates deeply technical machine vision concepts into something humans can understand, why AI has not killed the need for good lighting, and how a short book about penguins on a melting iceberg helped CCS rethink its culture and distributor program. What you’ll hear How Emily defines culture as “what you feel in the air” when you walk into work, and why it can either energize you or quietly drain you. The story of how Japanese fluency opened the door at CCS, sent her to headquarters in Japan, and what she learned from that office culture. Practical tips for doing business and filming content in Japan, from privacy expectations to simple etiquette that changes how you show up. What it is really like to be the person who turns hardcore machine vision physics and jargon into useful stories and content. Why leadership asking for ROI without clear goals is such a common pattern, and how she tries to navigate that tension. How CCS Americas had to reset expectations after the Covid boom and get sales, marketing and engineering genuinely aligned again. Why industrial marketing is still behind B2B SaaS, and what manufacturers can borrow without repeating old mistakes. How the book “Our Iceberg Is Melting” turned into required reading and gave everyone a way to see themselves in the change story. Topics covered Culture as lived experience versus official “values” Working in Japan, unspoken rules and privacy around filming Translating technical machine vision and lighting concepts AI hype in inspection and why fundamentals still matter Getting leadership, engineers and marketing on the same page Remote and hybrid culture in a small, spread out team Designing a distributor program as a culture project, not just a sales program The messy reality of modern industrial marketing Key quotes “Culture is what you feel in the air when you walk into work. Do you feel ready to do what you set out to do, or like there’s a pressure sitting on your mind all day” “Marketing is much messier than people want. You rarely get a perfect straight line between what you did and the deal that closed.” “Sometimes the decision is no decision. Staying in the status quo feels safer than making a move that might go wrong.” “AI did not make lighting irrelevant. If bad lighting did not matter, those AI companies would not keep coming back to us for help.” “You do not always get the insight you want by asking the question directly. Sometimes you have to go the long way round to reach the part of the customer that actually decides.” | |||
| Every Day Is Tax Day: – Culture, Capitalism, And The Middle Class With Nik Agharkar | 18 Nov 2025 | 00:43:03 | |
Jim sits down with tax strategist Nik Agharkar, for a conversation that starts with tax day anxiety and spirals into culture, capitalism, immigration, vo-tech, wealth inequality, and what it really means to build a healthy organization. Nik shares why he believes the tax code is an incentive system instead of a punishment, how leadership shapes culture, why Gen Z is choosing trades over college, and how America can rebuild its middle class by fixing the incentives we’ve quietly broken over the last 40 years. This episode is raw, political, personal, and surprisingly hopeful. Why this conversation matters If you lead a manufacturing team or run a business, your world is shaped by taxes whether you notice it or not. Nik lays out how incentives in the tax code ripple through hiring, layoffs, wages, infrastructure, and the decline of the American middle class. He explains why trades are rising again, why offshoring hollowed out capacity, and how culture starts with servant leadership rather than command-and-control. This is a rare conversation that connects factory floors, tax strategy, political history, and the lived experience of an immigrant family into one cohesive picture of where we are and what needs to change. What you’ll hear • Why “every day is tax day” if you touch money • Jim’s tax-induced heart palpitations versus Nik’s calm love of paperwork • Nik’s life-as-a-movie: middle school bullying, Jonah Hill, and learning to laugh at everything • His definition of culture built around ownership, servant leadership, and leading by example • Why rules for thee but not for me destroys culture — and what his HR-leader wife taught him about consistency • Growing up between America and India, and why the contrast taught him gratitude, discipline, and risk calculation • How scarcity abroad reframed what “risk” really means in America • Why going to college can be a bigger gamble than going into the trades • The surge of Gen Z and Gen Alpha entering the trades and rejecting the old college playbook • Offshoring, the collapse of vo-tech, and how we quietly kneecapped our own middle class • How tax cuts incentivized bad business, short-term hiring cycles, and underinvestment in people • The 1950s wealth distribution Americans still prefer — and how far we’ve drifted • Why wealth concentration is dangerous, not just unfair • The forgotten history of charitable foundations exploding when tax rates were high • How small businesses pay the price because they don’t have tax departments • Why a kid would be better off buying a Haas machine and starting a job shop than taking on six-figure student debt • The infrastructure crisis — and why we’re not ready to bring manufacturing back onshore • Politics, social media, and how outrage culture destroyed our ability to talk to one another • Why Americans should be critical of every administration, not cheerleaders for a team • The simple fixes: higher corporate taxes, better incentives for small business, and fully funded vo-tech • Nik’s parting message about being better to each other and limiting social media for your own sanity Nik’s take We’ve got to stop dividing ourselves and start thinking clearly again. Limit your social media. Be better to your neighbor. And stop cheering for politicians — they work for you. Jim’s take There aren’t many people who can connect tax code, culture, and the collapse of the middle class and make it interesting, but Nik does it. This one goes way off the rails in the best way. | |||
| Ian Wilson on real culture, no nonsense branding, and the future of manufacturing | 11 Nov 2025 | 00:58:18 | |
Ian Wilson is a creative turned industrial brand strategist who believes real culture is the level of authenticity people can bring to work. In this episode, he and Jim talk about why manufacturing feels more grounded than other industries, why specs and machines are only half the story, and how authenticity—not polish—is what builds trust online and on the shop floor. What You’ll Hear How Ian went from writing music to building brands in manufacturing Why he believes “you can’t hype up a spring” and what that says about honesty in marketing What culture really means inside an industrial business How family-owned manufacturers can turn values and pride into their strongest brand asset Why too many manufacturers are still “allergic to marketing” The difference between performative culture and real culture How to pull real company values from leadership to the shop floor Why brand voice matters even when buyers only care about specs How to make digital feel authentic without fluff The future of manufacturing culture, community, and education Topics Covered Authenticity and culture in manufacturing Industrial marketing and branding AI’s role in marketing and creativity Bridging creative and engineering mindsets Defining company values with honesty Community and workforce development in the trades Key Quotes “Culture is the level of authenticity people can bring with them to work.” “You can’t hype up a spring. It either works or it doesn’t.” “Some manufacturers are allergic to marketing—but that’s exactly where the opportunity is.” “Pretty is easy. Authentic is hard.” “The future of manufacturing is stronger communities and better futures for our kids.” Jim’s Take Ian brings a mix of humor, depth, and hard truth that’s rare in branding conversations. He reminds us that the best marketing doesn’t try to make manufacturing look cool—it shows the real pride and people behind the work. Connect with the Manufacturing Culture Podcast Follow for weekly conversations with the people shaping culture across the industrial world. | |||
| Building Confidence, Not Just Machines: Julie Runez on Culture, Labs, and Learning Out Loud | 04 Nov 2025 | 00:51:19 | |
Julie Runez leads marketing for a custom automation firm that designs and builds one-off manufacturing machinery. She came back to work after years at home with her kids, brought a journalist’s curiosity, and learned industrial marketing from the ground up during the early months of 2020. Without case studies she could publicly share and with very long, high-stakes sales cycles, Julie shifted the strategy away from chasing clicks to creating in-person proof. The result is a zero-cost lab inside their facility where vendors and manufacturers test ideas together, train teams, and de-risk projects before anyone signs. We talk culture, kindness in leadership, learning fast, and why most problems are system problems, not people problems. Why this conversation matters If you sell complex, capital equipment under NDA, the usual playbook won’t carry you. Julie shows how to earn trust when buyers need confidence more than content, and how to build culture around the people you want to attract. What you’ll hear How journalism skills, parenting, and resourcefulness translated into an effective solo marketing role. Why kindness from the founder set the tone for culture and risk-taking. The limits of digital in NDA-heavy environments and how in-person proof fills the gap. Inside the lab concept and how cross-vendor collaboration builds end-to-end confidence. Using ClickUp and simple SOPs to turn tribal knowledge into systems. Handling the “I’m in over my head” moments by finding the skill, the person, or the room that solves it. Topics covered Culture as the environment you create for the people you want. Experimenting, failing forward, and deciding what actually works for your business. Sales cycles that run from a year to many years, and how to stay relevant in the meantime. Bringing vendors, engineers, and customers together to test and train before purchase. Storytelling that focuses on outcomes, not features. Letting the next generation toss the box aside rather than just think outside it. Quotes to pull “When you buy a drill, you’re buying holes. Our buyers need confidence their problem will be solved.” “In tough moments it’s usually a system problem, not a human problem.” “The lab is our proof. People can see parts move, get training, and leave with answers.” “Kindness from leadership makes everything else solvable.” Guest Julie Runez is the marketing lead for a custom automation and machine-building company serving life sciences and other regulated industries. She built an in-house lab program that lets manufacturers and vendor partners test concepts, train operators, and de-risk projects at zero cost. Sponsor Med Device Boston at the BCEC, September 30 to October 1. A sourcing and education expo with suppliers, workshops, and expert-led sessions for the next generation of med-tech. | |||
| Quality, failure, and fixing the shop floor with Sydney Mrowczynski | 28 Oct 2025 | 00:38:15 | |
Sydney Mrowczynski didn’t plan to end up under a welding hood. As a teenager she dreamed of fashion design — until a boyfriend told her she couldn’t weld. Challenge accepted. A few years later, she’s worked across multiple shops, learned how things really get built, and is now studying industrial management and applied engineering at Southern Illinois University to bridge the gap between the floor and the front office. This episode of the Manufacturing Culture Podcast is a crash course in what real culture looks like from someone living it. Sydney’s take is simple: great culture means communication, teamwork, and quality. Most shops have one or two of those — rarely all three. She shares what it’s like being the only woman on the floor, the extra proof she’s had to carry into every new job, and why too many people get comfortable doing things “almost right” for 20 years. We get into failure as a teacher — how welding forces you to face mistakes and learn faster than any classroom. Sydney talks about integrity, leadership, and the shops that cover bad welds instead of fixing them. She lays out the difference between a leader who checks in, listens, and teaches versus one who just points and barks orders. If you run a team, hire apprentices, or manage training programs, you’ll want to hear her take on trade schools too — how they teach to plate instead of teaching to reality. She argues that students should weld on rusted, greasy, and painted metal, not perfect coupons, if they’re expected to survive their first week on the job. Sydney is now balancing school with work at Tenco Hydro in Sugar Grove, Illinois, helping bring metal fabrication in house and ship their first stainless wastewater tank. She’s seen the gaps firsthand — and she’s building the bridge from within. It’s an honest, sharp conversation about what manufacturing culture really needs: leaders who communicate clearly, care about quality, and build environments where new talent wants to stay. Sponsor Med Device Boston is your go-to Med Tech sourcing and education expo, September 30 through October 1 at Boston’s BCEC. With 200+ suppliers, 1,500+ attending professionals, and expert-led workshops on 3D printing, AI, materials, regulatory tech, and contract manufacturing, it’s built to advance the next generation of medical device innovation. Visit meddeviceboston.com to register. Connect Find Sydney Mrowczynski on LinkedIn Subscribe to the Manufacturing Culture Podcast on YouTube and your favorite platform. | |||