Manufacturing AI That Actually Works: 7 Tools to Save Hours (w/ Adam Marsh)

Send us a text

How do you take a solid ISO shop and make it faster, smarter, and easier to run—without ripping out your ERP? Adam Marsh (President, Ledge Inc.; founder, 80/20 Quality) joins Brandon to share a no-hype playbook for practical AI in manufacturing: secure models, simple automation, and quality workflows that actually ship more good parts. 

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Where the real waste hides: why the floor is fine—and the back-end admin is bleeding cash (POs, certs, contracts, first-article packages). 
• 7 AI tools that already work in a job shop:
  1. Weld-photo check that flags defects and explains confidence scores,
  2. RCA assistant (brain-dump ➜ fishbone ➜ 5 Whys ➜ corrective actions),
  3. Material-cert auto-review against spec,
  4. Contract/flow-down checker mapped to your QMS,
  5. PO-to-PO diff to catch line-item changes instantly,
  6. Proposal builder for same-call quotes,
  7. “What-if” scheduling & 13-week cash-flow sensitivities. 
• Secure by design: SOC-2, no model training on your data, and picking the right model (not just one chatbot) per use case. 
• Team-based incentives > heroics: how a “craftsman bonus” crushed rework and boosted throughput. 
• Data before ‘AI’: simple standards, clean inputs, and crawl-walk-run rollouts that earn trust on the floor. 
• CMMC, PPAP, FAI, AS/ISO—without the chaos: get deliverables right upfront so you pass first time and get paid sooner. 

If you’re a CNC, fab, or industrial shop juggling certs, submittals, and schedules, this conversation gives you a field-tested starting list you can deploy next week—no rip-and-replace required. 

📣 Episode Spotlight — Ledge Inc. & 80/20 Quality

Want AI that’s actually usable on the shop floor? Ledge Inc. implements quality systems (ISO/AS), fractional quality leadership, and a secure, multi-model AI workspace for cert checks, contract reviews, PO diffs, scheduling scenarios and more. Pair it with 80/20 Quality to capture error data at the source and fix the 20% that causes 80% of pain.

🎙️ Like what you heard?
This podcast is just one part of the Just Some BS universe.

Follow host Brandon Stanchock for weekly BS-free takes on leadership, personal growth, company culture, AI, gaming, and more.

👊 Subscribe to the podcast
🧠 Level up with Growth-ish Mentorship
🎮 Check out the book: Gamers: The Unexpected Overachievers
🧢 Grab some weird merch that actually means something

📱 Connect on LinkedIn: Brandon Stanchock
🔗 All links: linktr.ee/BrandonStanchock