December 31, 2024 • 30 mins
In this special year-end episode of Manufacturing Mavericks, we reflect on the fantastic guests we’ve had on the show in 2024 and recap some of their best moments. This episode recaps insightful discussions with shop leaders and industry pioneers who have shared their experiences, challenges, and wisdom with Greg McHale.
Join Greg as he revisits conversations featuring some of the most influential and inspiring voices in precision manufacturing. They discuss navigating manufacturing automation and technology, building a thriving workplace culture, and becoming CMMC 2.0 compliant.
And don’t forget to check out the full episodes at www.mfgmavericks.com to learn valuable lessons from those shaping the future of manufacturing!
SHOW NOTES
- (1:38) Rob Caron, Founder of Caron Engineering
- (5:05) Kylan Hastreiter, Vice President of Hastreiter Industries
- (7:00) Mike Payne, Owner, Hill Manufacturing
- (9:04) Paul Van Metre, Co-Founder, Proshop ERP
- (11:05) Eric Van Orden, Paramount Machine Swiss Leads
- (14:56) Gustavo Gutierrez, Owner of GC Machining Solutions
- (18:29) Tony Gunn, America’s Manufacturing MC
- (20:14) Adam Gordon. Vice President of Operations, Tendon Manufacturing
- (22:43) Randal Leach, Operations Manager at Ricaurte Precision
FULL EPISODES:
- It Always Starts with a Broom and a Bridgeport with Randal Leach
- Evolving With Your Customers Across Multiple Generations with Adam Gordon
- Twisted Roads Make Better Stories with Tony Gunn
- What It Takes to Build a Business with Your Name on the Door with Rob Caron
- Humility, Curiosity, and Impatience - The Key Ingredients of Entrepreneurship with Gus Guttierez
- Making Things Happen with Eric Van Orden
- If It Wasn’t For A Car Magazine…with Paul Van Metre
- Don’t Tell Me No - Tell Me How with Mike Payne
- From Hog Shed to Top Shop—The Evolution of a Family Business with Kylan Hastreiter
The Datanomix Difference: What Makes It Work?
It’s not just what you see. It’s how fast you see it, how clearly it shows up, and how easily your team acts on it.
- Simple machine and data connectivity, handled by us
- Data that makes sense on day one
- No Operator Input™ means zero burden on your team for data entry
- Product Tracks built for actual shop floor behavior
- Stay connected to your shop floor with the Datanomix Mobile App
- Kick-Ass Coaching that walks the shop floor with your team and keeps you winning
- Best-in-class partnerships and integrations
- The Datanomix Community built on real relationships and real wins
- Mountains of success stories with manufacturers just like you
- Every customer starts with our Pilot Program
Learn more at www.datanomix.io
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:25):
It’s hard to believe it’s been another full year of the Manufacturing
Mavericks podcast, and as we wrap up 2024, I want to take a moment to thank the
fantastic guests that we’ve had on the show and recap some of our best moments.
I mean, we had great shop leaders like Kylan Hastreiter, Mike
Payne, Eric Van Orden, Gus Guttierez, Adam Gordon, Randal
(00:48):
Leach, folks who are not just trying to stay ahead of the
technology curve, but define it in their respective businesses.
And then we had industry leaders and luminaries like Rob Caron and
Paul Van Metre, whose stories of starting their companies and the
success they’ve had in manufacturing are just incredible to listen to.
(01:10):
And last but not least, how could I forget my great friend Tony Gunn.
And you talk about stories, I mean, the name of the episode is
“Twisted Roads Make Better Stories.” There’s nobody who’s more
entertaining to have, and it was great to flip the microphones on Tony.
Enjoy these best moments from 2024.
I hope everybody has a great end of the year.
(01:38):
I’m honored to introduce today’s Manufacturing
Maverick, Rob Caron with Caron Engineering.
Welcome to the show, Rob.
How are you doing today?
Thank you, Greg.
I’m doing great.
It’s an honor to have you, Rob.
I think you have an incredible story.
I was just fascinated by CNC controls in general, and how they worked, how they
communicated to the metal part of the machine, and servo systems, and PLCs,
(02:00):
and all the things that go along with the integral part of a CNC machine was
just, you know, real exciting, and looked like fun things to understand more.
So, I started to dive into it on my own, and really understand sort of
the exact workings of the inside of the CNC control, not just how you
program a machine to cut apart, but really what happened behind the
(02:21):
scenes, from the CNC program to the tool changer to all the functions that
go on in a CNC machine, it was just really cool and fascinating stuff.
So, I started to spend a lot of time on
my own, really learning all those pieces.
And as I did, I started getting more ideas
of how can we make these things better?
Some of the technologies like AutoComp, where we automatically feed
(02:44):
back data to the control, I started doing that in the mid-’80s—
Wow.
—just to show the technology.
It was a lot harder back then, but I found ways to do it.
And that was probably the first thing I actually did from that aspect.
And then motivated me to say there’s other areas that must
be able to be improved on, so I kept going from there.
What do you see the next five to ten years
(03:06):
looking like here for precision manufacturers?
Well, I think the number one piece right now is certainly the automation.
Everybody is moving in that direction.
And if they’re not moving in it, they’re thinking about what to do because
they know that there’s—they’re not going to be able to get around that.
It’s just a necessity.
And with that, I also see a lot of companies struggling to move to automation.
(03:29):
Because there’s a lot more to it than just saying, “Let’s throw a robot on the
side of this machine, and we’ll be all set.” I think the whole infrastructure
that’s building and being created that ways is definitely where everything’s
going, but it’s also presenting challenges to the manufacturing world.
And I think there’s a huge amount of work that needs to be done
from all people that provide technology to help manufacturing
(03:53):
companies get into this space in a better and easier way.
So, if you could go back in time, and you could speak to the young Rob Caron
about three weeks before he walked up to the door with chains on it [laugh]
— [laugh]
. —what would you go back in time, and what advice would you give him?
I think the most important thing is, from even your young days into
(04:16):
the industry, you just meet so many smart people that know a lot.
And I just think it’s important to just glean everything you can
from anybody that you think knows what they’re talking about.
Just be the biggest sponge you can think of to absorb that
information, but don’t be afraid to ask questions, either.
(04:36):
And just try to understand as much as possible from as many different
people as possible so that your knowledge base is as broad as possible.
Also, I think, just retain your ethics, and how you want to be in life.
And be honest, be ethical, and you’ll always
be respected by everybody that you work with.
(05:05):
I’m honored to introduce today’s manufacturing Maverick, Kylan Hastreiter.
Welcome to the show, Kylan.
How are you doing today?
Good.
Thank you for having me today, Greg.
You’re not bringing in technology to make their life harder.
At least you shouldn’t be, right?
If it’s done right, it’s going to make their life better from some perspective.
And so, when it’s communicated in a way that makes sense to them, and
(05:25):
they have buy-in, and you ask their opinion, or you let them know that
this is what they’re looking at, so they have the opportunity to speak
up and throw in ideas, you have the buy-in, and eventually that builds.
You know, so because we have that, I don’t know if you
just want to call it repertoire, you know, they just,
they expect that change to be positive in some way.
With Datanomix, one of its values for us has just been getting more
(05:49):
spindle utilization out of our machines, right, increasing production.
Instead of having to buy another machine last year, we looked at the
data, said, “Oh, I just need to upskill somebody to get another person on
these machines, increase our output, and then, you know, basically upskill
everybody else, you know, kind of across the shop,” because the Matsuuras are
[unintelligible] machines, and you don’t just, you know, hop on those machines.
You take some of the more experienced people and train them onto those machines.
(06:13):
So, then it wasn’t until a year later, then I did finally
buy another Matsuura because, you know, we just looked at
the data and said, “Hey, this is when we actually need to buy
another machine,” even though our capacity was maxed, right?
Because people will come to you and say,
“Hey, we need to do this or that,” right?
You know, if you’re an owner you’ll get managers that’ll say,
“Hey, we need to buy another machine.” “Well, why do we need to
(06:33):
buy another machine?” “Well, our capacity is maxed out.” “Well, why
is our capacity maxed out?” They think it’s purely machine, right?
But, you know, the more data you have, the more
you’re able to get some additional perspective to be
able to look into making the best decision possible.
And we’ve experienced that by having, you
know, the data available through Datanomix.
(06:55):
I
am honored to introduce today’s Manufacturing
Maverick, Mike Payne of Hill Manufacturing.
Welcome to the show, Mike.
How are you doing today?
I’m awesome, Greg.
Thanks for having me.
But I think the industry in general already acts
this way is, “Don’t tell me no; tell me how.” Right?
It’s a can-do attitude.
Like, yeah, we can do it, it may or may not be the most
(07:18):
economical or smartest decision, but we can do anything.
And I think that’s part of what I love about this industry is people,
if they’re veterans of the industry, that’s just how they approach life.
The entrepreneurial spirit in manufacturing, definitely
one of the things that drove me to the industry as well.
I mean, I look at it, as a software startup guy, every part is a startup.
(07:39):
You look at it, and it’s a journey from what’s the concept?
Can we make it?
Should we make it?
How do we do it better?
You know, if I get 10 right, can I get 100 right?
If I get 100 right, can I get 1000 right?
Do I have all the things I need to take the
sales of that component to the next level?
(07:59):
Can I get more business from that person I just did that component for?
I mean, every part has baked into it unlimited upside
that is tethered specifically to the creativity and
the capability of the people trying to get it done.
There’s just there’s no better thing.
The technology allows me to be competitive, whether—so again,
whether that’s software, whether that’s the correct tooling,
(08:20):
workholding, so forth, or automation, you know, robotics, bar
feeders, parts catchers, those types of things, to me, that’s all
technology, and if I utilize them correctly, they make me better.
They make me bigger, stronger, and faster.
This is the only industry I’ve been in
that, like, we’re all here for each other.
The community is amazing.
(08:41):
Locally, nationally, regionally, it doesn’t matter.
I mean, everybody’s here to help.
I mean, just look at the vast number of people that are in
this industry that are doing what you’re doing with this
podcast, or other podcasts, or like Tony Gunn with all he does.
(09:05):
I’m honored to introduce today’s Manufacturing Maverick, Paul Van Metre.
Welcome to the show, Paul.
How are you doing today?
I am great, Greg, and I’m so honored to be here.
Thanks to you so much.
I’m looking forward to our talk.
The heart and soul of a manufacturing company is the shop floor.
Like, you can’t make a profit without executing well on the shop floor.
And that, you know, and as you know, as I, you know, have said so many times
(09:27):
because, you know, a precision manufacturing business is the hardest business
in the world, there are a million—not literally—thousands of details, literally
thousands of details that you have to get right for that part to turn out well.
Every human-made product, every single thing is either directly
machined, or is a mold, or is made by a machine that was made of machine
(09:49):
parts, whether it’s agriculture, whether it’s aerospace, whether it’s
electronics, or fabrics or food, anything, it all starts with machining.
Little did we realize that the machining business is the hardest business
in the world, it is the most complicated, the most cash intensive,
the most slim margins, with a million things that can go wrong,
(10:09):
and everything has to go right to make your quoted margin on a job.
And even just learning how to quote was, you know, was an exercise.
You cannot have a strong economy without a strong manufacturing base.
And we, you know, our country lost its way for quite a long
time in that regard, and I think it’s getting it back slowly.
But yeah, those shops are the absolute bedrock of everything this country
(10:33):
makes, and because you combine that with it being the hardest business in the
world, it’s so essential to support them, it’s so essential to help them thrive.
You know, your software does the exact same thing.
You’re helping them maximize their spindle hours and get
more throughput, and there’s nothing that I can imagine that
is more rewarding than helping these heroes of our economy.
(10:54):
And that creates jobs, and that helps support communities.
I’m honored to introduce today’s Manufacturing Maverick, Eric Van Orden.
Welcome to the show, Eric.
How are you doing today?
I’m doing great.
Excited to be here and have this opportunity.
(11:15):
I want to say thank you, and very humbling that, you know, you want my opinion.
I felt like I’m just a guy.
[laugh]
. Humbling experience, but excited.
That’s great, Eric.
I knew the second I met you, I knew you were a Manufacturing Maverick.
The guys that we have, they really are like family.
There’s guys I call here my uncle.
(11:35):
You know, that’s my Uncle Jim.
No relationship, but he’s my uncle.
And we have a really good group, and everyone’s committed to success.
And this is the part where it’s like, I’m just a guy.
Like, part of my story is, my dad.
He’s a huge influence.
I haven’t had the opportunity to work in other machine shops, but
a lot of other people have, and they all talk to me, and they all
(11:55):
tell me the same thing, that Steve’s the best boss we’ve ever had.
He cares about his employees.
And when Paramount succeeds, everyone succeeds.
Winston Churchill said, “I like for things to happen.
And when they don’t happen, I like to make them happen.”
And that goes back to taking ownership of something.
(12:16):
We all want great things to happen, but some of us just sit
there and say, “Oh, it didn’t happen this time.” And then there’s
the other group that says, “It didn’t happen, but I’m going to
make it happen.” And you take ownership of it, and you fail.
You find the tool path, you find the tool, you find the
technology, you persevere, and you’re able to go forward.
If you’re stagnant—you’ve seen it.
(12:36):
How many shops are going out of business because they’re stagnant?
Oh, yeah.
I mean, more than should be, that’s for sure.
Definitely.
And, you know, you have to survive, you have to be on the
forefront, and you have to participate, and you have to be engaged.
I’ll be honest with you, sometimes I don’t know if I
always clocked in to the job for the right amount of time—
(12:58):
[laugh] . You and millions of other people.
—but you know what Datanomix knows?
It knows exactly what the machine did because it only reads what the
machine did, and the machine does what the machine does every single time.
You have to figure out how to get new people into
manufacturing because manufacturing is at a crossroads.
(13:20):
There’s a lot of guys in the industry that are 50, 60, even 70 years old.
If no one fills that void, then it’s just going to stop, which can’t happen.
Local cities, it can’t happen for states, the country.
Like, we need manufacturing.
So, how do you get people, the newer generation that likes to play
(13:44):
video games, likes to spend time online, how do you get them involved?
Well, we can say we can get them involved because
everyone has access to being able to program.
And they see that, and they come in, and they see, “Oh, this is cool.
Like everyone’s using the computer, and everything’s nice in here.”
Like, it’s—nothing’s—you know, some shops are like a dungeon right?
(14:07):
Poor lighting, floor is covered in chips—
[laugh] Definitely.
There’s a—I’m a NASCAR fan and is like,
Roger Penske keeps one of the cleanest shops.
They call it ‘Penske Clean,’ and he has a high expectation of that.
And the first thing we did when we bought the building,
we sanded all the floors and painted and sealed them.
And when they get scuffed up, we repaint them and reseal them.
(14:30):
We painted the entire, all the walls.
We painted the ceiling.
Everything’s bright.
We have hundreds and hundreds of lights in the facility.
Like it’s a nice, clean area to come and work,
so that’s inviting to the newer generation.
They don’t want to go work in a dungeon, they don’t
want to be covered in oil at the end of the day.
(14:56):
I am honored to introduce today’s guest on Manufacturing Mavericks.
Welcome to the show, Gus, how are you doing today?
I’m doing well.
How are you, Greg?
“Oh, he’s a weirdo.
He’s leaning on his machine all day.
He’s got his hand on his machine.” Actually, no.
He’s being a perfectionist.
Correct.
But didn’t waste time explaining it to anybody unless you actually
(15:17):
approached them and asked them, “What are you doing?” Right?
Right.
Right, and you started with the assumption that he must know what he’s doing.
There must be a good reason.
What is there that I can learn from that?
Correct.
Having that humility to know that, hey, I can learn from anybody, and I
don’t know anything in comparison to these guys, carrying that same level
(15:40):
of humility throughout my career has helped me to learn new things, a
lot of new things, things that I might not have been privileged to learn.
I spent some time doing a lot of oddball jobs.
I did some roofing, I did some construction, a lot of little different
things, but in the back of my mind, I always was—manufacturing is what I like.
(16:00):
I enjoy doing other stuff, and I want to continue to expand.
Every day I want to learn something new.
So, I’ve been curious my entire life.
And I explored all these oddball jobs, and
manufacturing just kept calling my name.
We want to have a place where the culture
is better than a lot of other places, right?
And not to compare myself, but we want people to want to come to work.
(16:22):
In my mind, there’s a difference between
a good employee and an engaged employee.
And I believe—truly believe—that culture makes an employee engaged.
You can have a very good employee (16:32):
punches in and out, does what he has
to do, but a happy, engaged employee is going to do that much more, right?
They’re going to do the right thing, even when you’re not around.
I always tell my kids, you don’t have to dream
like I dream, but you should have a dream, right?
This is my dream, this is what I want to do.
(16:53):
I’m just giving you options.
Here’s some potential.
If you want to pursue it, that’s great.
If not, let’s go figure out what you want to
dream about, and let’s help you get there.
What a great piece of advice.
And no better way than to have a front row seat to your dream,
but also without the pressure of, exactly as you said it.
This is my dream.
(17:13):
It doesn’t have to be yours, but you got to have one.
Right.
So, great dive-in on the people aspect there.
How about technology, Gus?
How do you see technology as part of the culture?
It’s important to give people the right equipment, the right tools for success.
I can’t expect an employee to—but they often surprise me—I
can’t expect them to make miracles with older equipment.
So, we’ve invested in a lot of new equipment.
(17:36):
We have also invested in training my core team members in some of the
preventative maintenance, helping them understand, let’s fix it, or
let’s repair it, or let’s look at it before it’s actually an issue.
My servicing background allows me to have those
conversations, that allows me to train them in some of that.
And now I go out to the floor, and a guy will be like, “Hey,
(17:59):
I’m changing the amplifier on the machine.” Which, great.
I believe in sharing everything I know with anybody
out there so we all have the same information.
And that’s also a cultural thing, right?
Being able to share information, nobody’s going to take anybody’s
position away, but the more we all know, essentially, the less we all do.
(18:29):
I am honored to introduce today’s Manufacturing Maverick, Tony Gunn from
MTDCNC, an episode I’ve been looking forward to for a really long time.
Welcome to the show, Tony.
How you doing today?
Living a dream, brother.
Something I’ve been looking forward to for a while as well.
Thanks for having me.
I got into manufacturing completely on accident.
I say this often.
I thought for sure I was going to be a pro athlete.
(18:52):
Like, I didn’t care about school.
I was a dummy in high school.
I got kicked out of three colleges because all I cared about was soccer,
and some of the other [explicitives] that might go into college life.
But I mean, that was, I was at that level, right?
I was, you know, I was the MVP of my team as a freshman, I was
the sixth leading scorer in the nation for JUCO as a freshman.
(19:12):
My sophomore year in college, I was on the,
like, all Big East team or something like that.
I mean, my path was paved.
And I was even on, like, practice squads for
the professional teams before I stopped playing.
And manufacturing was an accident.
I sat down in front of a machine and I could code with the best of them.
I was doing line-by-line programming—G-code,
(19:32):
M-code—I could almost, like—like watching The Matrix.
You could see the formation of a product by
looking at the way the code was being written.
And I really enjoyed just making things.
You know, that day-to-day activity of hauling a pipe into a machine,
plowing through it, can I beat my old time from yesterday, my new time?
Or when I’m making something that people really just—when it’s
(19:54):
completed, when that kitchen is complete, or that bathroom, or that
entertainment center, and they just have all the gratitude in the
world, sometimes even tears of gratitude because that was exactly
what they had dreamed of for their lifelong house, for their family.
(20:14):
I am pleased to introduce a new friend of mine I’ve just
been getting to know, Adam Gordon with Tendon Manufacturing.
Welcome to the program, Adam.
Thanks for having me, Greg.
It’s good to be here.
The cool things we do for employee buy-in is we have these fix-it
forms, we call them, and it’s really just a process improvement
(20:35):
thing, that we want employees to look for ways to improve their day,
improve, you know, our operations, and you’ll come to find that the
employees that fill out the most fix-it forms are the ones that kind
of climb the ladder quicker because they’re seeing things that we’re
not, and they’re just advancing us so much more than we could imagine.
(21:00):
And along with that, we do quarterly bonuses.
That’s part of our profit sharing, so whatever employee wages are, they factor
in these—this last year, it’s factored to be an additional $3.25 an hour.
It’s one of those things that you know,
your biggest asset is your group of people.
And the Ohio State legend said it best—you know, Woody Hayes—“You
(21:21):
win with people,” so that’s kind of what we strive for here.
So it sounds like you’re getting stuff out of your ERP.
You figured out, “Hey, that’s not enough.” So, you see some gap.
You know, what’s more in that gap, and what
has you more interested in data acquisition?
We have this utilization number that we use, and it definitely helps dictate
(21:43):
where we’re going wrong, and how we’re quoting, and different things like that.
One of our issues—especially with the laser—is, you have
employees—your laser operators—leaving to get material,
whether it be the building next door, or unracking it.
So, we’re looking into that.
(22:03):
And we’re also considering, down the road, getting a feeder system for at
least the Mitsubishi laser that will do some of the [de-parting] . Because
you’re like, that is kind of our mission, you know, the whole ‘automate to
accommodate’ sort of thing that keeps the laser operator doing their thing.
(22:24):
And then it also just increases production.
So, different things like that.
So, it really does just come down on, just keeping our hands on parts.
We are joined by a great friend of mine, Randal Leach from Ricaurte Precision.
(22:48):
Great to have you on, Randal.
How are you doing today?
Good man.
Thanks for the intro, and likewise, totally appreciate you guys.
The industry needs to catch up to all this technology because it’s
going forward, and it’s made life a lot easier, and us capable
to do what we’re doing with our growth, and being aggressive,
and not trying to slow down or be slowed down by the lack of.
(23:11):
For sure, and I think you just hit on one
of the hottest topics right now, right?
We can say we just came back from IMTS a couple weeks ago, and one of
the big concerns that I think is finally really being felt across the
industry is, what the hell does it mean to be CMMC 2.0 compliant, and
(23:34):
you know, all the different things there are to think about to get there.
Yeah, I think again, we talked about it personally—you
and I and your team—a lot while we were there.
It’s a hot topic for Ricaurte, obviously.
We want to be prepared when this thing hits and not be on the back foot.
(23:55):
It is nice that it’s being taken seriously.
I think, again, other people could take it more seriously.
And I say that just because the ball is in our court with it
right now in terms of we’re not being audited just yet, and
it has been pushed back a few times and whatever else, but
that gives us a little bit of time because we’re ready for it.
(24:17):
We’re taking it deadly serious, but we’re in that early age of we’re allowed to
make a slight mistake and then cause and corrective action, how do we fix that?
Okay, now that gap’s bridged, and we know we’re learning from
it; we don’t have to just rely on this is what we think, right?
(24:38):
So, we can develop this thing as we go, and then be ready
for the large primes that are going to be requiring this.
Because if you’re not taking this seriously and looking forward, it’s death.
Right.
I mean [laugh] , you’re not going to be able to do business.
It doesn’t get more life or death than that.
Exactly.
(24:58):
I mean, I can’t imagine knowing that this exists, not doing anything about it.
Thank you for listening to Manufacturing Mavericks.
If you’d like to learn more, listen to past episodes, or nominate
a future Maverick to be on our show, visit mfgmavericks.com,
(25:19):
and don’t forget to subscribe to and rate this podcast on
iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app.
It’s hard to believe it’s been another full year of the Manufacturing
Mavericks podcast, and as we wrap up 2024, I want to take a moment to thank the
fantastic guests that we’ve had on the show and recap some of our best moments.
I mean, we had great shop leaders like Kylan Hastreiter, Mike
Payne, Eric Van Orden, Gus Guttierez, Adam Gordon, Randal
(00:48):
Leach, folks who are not just trying to stay ahead of the
technology curve, but define it in their respective businesses.
And then we had industry leaders and luminaries like Rob Caron and
Paul Van Metre, whose stories of starting their companies and the
success they’ve had in manufacturing are just incredible to listen to.
(01:10):
And last but not least, how could I forget my great friend Tony Gunn.
And you talk about stories, I mean, the name of the episode is
“Twisted Roads Make Better Stories.” There’s nobody who’s more
entertaining to have, and it was great to flip the microphones on Tony.
Enjoy these best moments from 2024.
I hope everybody has a great end of the year.
(01:38):
I’m honored to introduce today’s Manufacturing
Maverick, Rob Caron with Caron Engineering.
Welcome to the show, Rob.
How are you doing today?
Thank you, Greg.
I’m doing great.
It’s an honor to have you, Rob.
I think you have an incredible story.
I was just fascinated by CNC controls in general, and how they worked, how they
communicated to the metal part of the machine, and servo systems, and PLCs,
(02:00):
and all the things that go along with the integral part of a CNC machine was
just, you know, real exciting, and looked like fun things to understand more.
So, I started to dive into it on my own, and really understand sort of
the exact workings of the inside of the CNC control, not just how you
program a machine to cut apart, but really what happened behind the
(02:21):
scenes, from the CNC program to the tool changer to all the functions that
go on in a CNC machine, it was just really cool and fascinating stuff.
So, I started to spend a lot of time on
my own, really learning all those pieces.
And as I did, I started getting more ideas
of how can we make these things better?
Some of the technologies like AutoComp, where we automatically feed
(02:44):
back data to the control, I started doing that in the mid-’80s—
Wow.
—just to show the technology.
It was a lot harder back then, but I found ways to do it.
And that was probably the first thing I actually did from that aspect.
And then motivated me to say there’s other areas that must
be able to be improved on, so I kept going from there.
What do you see the next five to ten years
(03:06):
looking like here for precision manufacturers?
Well, I think the number one piece right now is certainly the automation.
Everybody is moving in that direction.
And if they’re not moving in it, they’re thinking about what to do because
they know that there’s—they’re not going to be able to get around that.
It’s just a necessity.
And with that, I also see a lot of companies struggling to move to automation.
(03:29):
Because there’s a lot more to it than just saying, “Let’s throw a robot on the
side of this machine, and we’ll be all set.” I think the whole infrastructure
that’s building and being created that ways is definitely where everything’s
going, but it’s also presenting challenges to the manufacturing world.
And I think there’s a huge amount of work that needs to be done
from all people that provide technology to help manufacturing
(03:53):
companies get into this space in a better and easier way.
So, if you could go back in time, and you could speak to the young Rob Caron
about three weeks before he walked up to the door with chains on it [laugh]
— [laugh]
. —what would you go back in time, and what advice would you give him?
I think the most important thing is, from even your young days into
(04:16):
the industry, you just meet so many smart people that know a lot.
And I just think it’s important to just glean everything you can
from anybody that you think knows what they’re talking about.
Just be the biggest sponge you can think of to absorb that
information, but don’t be afraid to ask questions, either.
(04:36):
And just try to understand as much as possible from as many different
people as possible so that your knowledge base is as broad as possible.
Also, I think, just retain your ethics, and how you want to be in life.
And be honest, be ethical, and you’ll always
be respected by everybody that you work with.
(05:05):
I’m honored to introduce today’s manufacturing Maverick, Kylan Hastreiter.
Welcome to the show, Kylan.
How are you doing today?
Good.
Thank you for having me today, Greg.
You’re not bringing in technology to make their life harder.
At least you shouldn’t be, right?
If it’s done right, it’s going to make their life better from some perspective.
And so, when it’s communicated in a way that makes sense to them, and
(05:25):
they have buy-in, and you ask their opinion, or you let them know that
this is what they’re looking at, so they have the opportunity to speak
up and throw in ideas, you have the buy-in, and eventually that builds.
You know, so because we have that, I don’t know if you
just want to call it repertoire, you know, they just,
they expect that change to be positive in some way.
With Datanomix, one of its values for us has just been getting more
(05:49):
spindle utilization out of our machines, right, increasing production.
Instead of having to buy another machine last year, we looked at the
data, said, “Oh, I just need to upskill somebody to get another person on
these machines, increase our output, and then, you know, basically upskill
everybody else, you know, kind of across the shop,” because the Matsuuras are
[unintelligible] machines, and you don’t just, you know, hop on those machines.
You take some of the more experienced people and train them onto those machines.
(06:13):
So, then it wasn’t until a year later, then I did finally
buy another Matsuura because, you know, we just looked at
the data and said, “Hey, this is when we actually need to buy
another machine,” even though our capacity was maxed, right?
Because people will come to you and say,
“Hey, we need to do this or that,” right?
You know, if you’re an owner you’ll get managers that’ll say,
“Hey, we need to buy another machine.” “Well, why do we need to
(06:33):
buy another machine?” “Well, our capacity is maxed out.” “Well, why
is our capacity maxed out?” They think it’s purely machine, right?
But, you know, the more data you have, the more
you’re able to get some additional perspective to be
able to look into making the best decision possible.
And we’ve experienced that by having, you
know, the data available through Datanomix.
(06:55):
I
am honored to introduce today’s Manufacturing
Maverick, Mike Payne of Hill Manufacturing.
Welcome to the show, Mike.
How are you doing today?
I’m awesome, Greg.
Thanks for having me.
But I think the industry in general already acts
this way is, “Don’t tell me no; tell me how.” Right?
It’s a can-do attitude.
Like, yeah, we can do it, it may or may not be the most
(07:18):
economical or smartest decision, but we can do anything.
And I think that’s part of what I love about this industry is people,
if they’re veterans of the industry, that’s just how they approach life.
The entrepreneurial spirit in manufacturing, definitely
one of the things that drove me to the industry as well.
I mean, I look at it, as a software startup guy, every part is a startup.
(07:39):
You look at it, and it’s a journey from what’s the concept?
Can we make it?
Should we make it?
How do we do it better?
You know, if I get 10 right, can I get 100 right?
If I get 100 right, can I get 1000 right?
Do I have all the things I need to take the
sales of that component to the next level?
(07:59):
Can I get more business from that person I just did that component for?
I mean, every part has baked into it unlimited upside
that is tethered specifically to the creativity and
the capability of the people trying to get it done.
There’s just there’s no better thing.
The technology allows me to be competitive, whether—so again,
whether that’s software, whether that’s the correct tooling,
(08:20):
workholding, so forth, or automation, you know, robotics, bar
feeders, parts catchers, those types of things, to me, that’s all
technology, and if I utilize them correctly, they make me better.
They make me bigger, stronger, and faster.
This is the only industry I’ve been in
that, like, we’re all here for each other.
The community is amazing.
(08:41):
Locally, nationally, regionally, it doesn’t matter.
I mean, everybody’s here to help.
I mean, just look at the vast number of people that are in
this industry that are doing what you’re doing with this
podcast, or other podcasts, or like Tony Gunn with all he does.
(09:05):
I’m honored to introduce today’s Manufacturing Maverick, Paul Van Metre.
Welcome to the show, Paul.
How are you doing today?
I am great, Greg, and I’m so honored to be here.
Thanks to you so much.
I’m looking forward to our talk.
The heart and soul of a manufacturing company is the shop floor.
Like, you can’t make a profit without executing well on the shop floor.
And that, you know, and as you know, as I, you know, have said so many times
(09:27):
because, you know, a precision manufacturing business is the hardest business
in the world, there are a million—not literally—thousands of details, literally
thousands of details that you have to get right for that part to turn out well.
Every human-made product, every single thing is either directly
machined, or is a mold, or is made by a machine that was made of machine
(09:49):
parts, whether it’s agriculture, whether it’s aerospace, whether it’s
electronics, or fabrics or food, anything, it all starts with machining.
Little did we realize that the machining business is the hardest business
in the world, it is the most complicated, the most cash intensive,
the most slim margins, with a million things that can go wrong,
(10:09):
and everything has to go right to make your quoted margin on a job.
And even just learning how to quote was, you know, was an exercise.
You cannot have a strong economy without a strong manufacturing base.
And we, you know, our country lost its way for quite a long
time in that regard, and I think it’s getting it back slowly.
But yeah, those shops are the absolute bedrock of everything this country
(10:33):
makes, and because you combine that with it being the hardest business in the
world, it’s so essential to support them, it’s so essential to help them thrive.
You know, your software does the exact same thing.
You’re helping them maximize their spindle hours and get
more throughput, and there’s nothing that I can imagine that
is more rewarding than helping these heroes of our economy.
(10:54):
And that creates jobs, and that helps support communities.
I’m honored to introduce today’s Manufacturing Maverick, Eric Van Orden.
Welcome to the show, Eric.
How are you doing today?
I’m doing great.
Excited to be here and have this opportunity.
(11:15):
I want to say thank you, and very humbling that, you know, you want my opinion.
I felt like I’m just a guy.
[laugh]
. Humbling experience, but excited.
That’s great, Eric.
I knew the second I met you, I knew you were a Manufacturing Maverick.
The guys that we have, they really are like family.
There’s guys I call here my uncle.
(11:35):
You know, that’s my Uncle Jim.
No relationship, but he’s my uncle.
And we have a really good group, and everyone’s committed to success.
And this is the part where it’s like, I’m just a guy.
Like, part of my story is, my dad.
He’s a huge influence.
I haven’t had the opportunity to work in other machine shops, but
a lot of other people have, and they all talk to me, and they all
(11:55):
tell me the same thing, that Steve’s the best boss we’ve ever had.
He cares about his employees.
And when Paramount succeeds, everyone succeeds.
Winston Churchill said, “I like for things to happen.
And when they don’t happen, I like to make them happen.”
And that goes back to taking ownership of something.
(12:16):
We all want great things to happen, but some of us just sit
there and say, “Oh, it didn’t happen this time.” And then there’s
the other group that says, “It didn’t happen, but I’m going to
make it happen.” And you take ownership of it, and you fail.
You find the tool path, you find the tool, you find the
technology, you persevere, and you’re able to go forward.
If you’re stagnant—you’ve seen it.
(12:36):
How many shops are going out of business because they’re stagnant?
Oh, yeah.
I mean, more than should be, that’s for sure.
Definitely.
And, you know, you have to survive, you have to be on the
forefront, and you have to participate, and you have to be engaged.
I’ll be honest with you, sometimes I don’t know if I
always clocked in to the job for the right amount of time—
(12:58):
[laugh] . You and millions of other people.
—but you know what Datanomix knows?
It knows exactly what the machine did because it only reads what the
machine did, and the machine does what the machine does every single time.
You have to figure out how to get new people into
manufacturing because manufacturing is at a crossroads.
(13:20):
There’s a lot of guys in the industry that are 50, 60, even 70 years old.
If no one fills that void, then it’s just going to stop, which can’t happen.
Local cities, it can’t happen for states, the country.
Like, we need manufacturing.
So, how do you get people, the newer generation that likes to play
(13:44):
video games, likes to spend time online, how do you get them involved?
Well, we can say we can get them involved because
everyone has access to being able to program.
And they see that, and they come in, and they see, “Oh, this is cool.
Like everyone’s using the computer, and everything’s nice in here.”
Like, it’s—nothing’s—you know, some shops are like a dungeon right?
(14:07):
Poor lighting, floor is covered in chips—
[laugh] Definitely.
There’s a—I’m a NASCAR fan and is like,
Roger Penske keeps one of the cleanest shops.
They call it ‘Penske Clean,’ and he has a high expectation of that.
And the first thing we did when we bought the building,
we sanded all the floors and painted and sealed them.
And when they get scuffed up, we repaint them and reseal them.
(14:30):
We painted the entire, all the walls.
We painted the ceiling.
Everything’s bright.
We have hundreds and hundreds of lights in the facility.
Like it’s a nice, clean area to come and work,
so that’s inviting to the newer generation.
They don’t want to go work in a dungeon, they don’t
want to be covered in oil at the end of the day.
(14:56):
I am honored to introduce today’s guest on Manufacturing Mavericks.
Welcome to the show, Gus, how are you doing today?
I’m doing well.
How are you, Greg?
“Oh, he’s a weirdo.
He’s leaning on his machine all day.
He’s got his hand on his machine.” Actually, no.
He’s being a perfectionist.
Correct.
But didn’t waste time explaining it to anybody unless you actually
(15:17):
approached them and asked them, “What are you doing?” Right?
Right.
Right, and you started with the assumption that he must know what he’s doing.
There must be a good reason.
What is there that I can learn from that?
Correct.
Having that humility to know that, hey, I can learn from anybody, and I
don’t know anything in comparison to these guys, carrying that same level
(15:40):
of humility throughout my career has helped me to learn new things, a
lot of new things, things that I might not have been privileged to learn.
I spent some time doing a lot of oddball jobs.
I did some roofing, I did some construction, a lot of little different
things, but in the back of my mind, I always was—manufacturing is what I like.
(16:00):
I enjoy doing other stuff, and I want to continue to expand.
Every day I want to learn something new.
So, I’ve been curious my entire life.
And I explored all these oddball jobs, and
manufacturing just kept calling my name.
We want to have a place where the culture
is better than a lot of other places, right?
And not to compare myself, but we want people to want to come to work.
(16:22):
In my mind, there’s a difference between
a good employee and an engaged employee.
And I believe—truly believe—that culture makes an employee engaged.
You can have a very good employee (16:32):
punches in and out, does what he has
to do, but a happy, engaged employee is going to do that much more, right?
They’re going to do the right thing, even when you’re not around.
I always tell my kids, you don’t have to dream
like I dream, but you should have a dream, right?
This is my dream, this is what I want to do.
(16:53):
I’m just giving you options.
Here’s some potential.
If you want to pursue it, that’s great.
If not, let’s go figure out what you want to
dream about, and let’s help you get there.
What a great piece of advice.
And no better way than to have a front row seat to your dream,
but also without the pressure of, exactly as you said it.
This is my dream.
(17:13):
It doesn’t have to be yours, but you got to have one.
Right.
So, great dive-in on the people aspect there.
How about technology, Gus?
How do you see technology as part of the culture?
It’s important to give people the right equipment, the right tools for success.
I can’t expect an employee to—but they often surprise me—I
can’t expect them to make miracles with older equipment.
So, we’ve invested in a lot of new equipment.
(17:36):
We have also invested in training my core team members in some of the
preventative maintenance, helping them understand, let’s fix it, or
let’s repair it, or let’s look at it before it’s actually an issue.
My servicing background allows me to have those
conversations, that allows me to train them in some of that.
And now I go out to the floor, and a guy will be like, “Hey,
(17:59):
I’m changing the amplifier on the machine.” Which, great.
I believe in sharing everything I know with anybody
out there so we all have the same information.
And that’s also a cultural thing, right?
Being able to share information, nobody’s going to take anybody’s
position away, but the more we all know, essentially, the less we all do.
(18:29):
I am honored to introduce today’s Manufacturing Maverick, Tony Gunn from
MTDCNC, an episode I’ve been looking forward to for a really long time.
Welcome to the show, Tony.
How you doing today?
Living a dream, brother.
Something I’ve been looking forward to for a while as well.
Thanks for having me.
I got into manufacturing completely on accident.
I say this often.
I thought for sure I was going to be a pro athlete.
(18:52):
Like, I didn’t care about school.
I was a dummy in high school.
I got kicked out of three colleges because all I cared about was soccer,
and some of the other [explicitives] that might go into college life.
But I mean, that was, I was at that level, right?
I was, you know, I was the MVP of my team as a freshman, I was
the sixth leading scorer in the nation for JUCO as a freshman.
(19:12):
My sophomore year in college, I was on the,
like, all Big East team or something like that.
I mean, my path was paved.
And I was even on, like, practice squads for
the professional teams before I stopped playing.
And manufacturing was an accident.
I sat down in front of a machine and I could code with the best of them.
I was doing line-by-line programming—G-code,
(19:32):
M-code—I could almost, like—like watching The Matrix.
You could see the formation of a product by
looking at the way the code was being written.
And I really enjoyed just making things.
You know, that day-to-day activity of hauling a pipe into a machine,
plowing through it, can I beat my old time from yesterday, my new time?
Or when I’m making something that people really just—when it’s
(19:54):
completed, when that kitchen is complete, or that bathroom, or that
entertainment center, and they just have all the gratitude in the
world, sometimes even tears of gratitude because that was exactly
what they had dreamed of for their lifelong house, for their family.
(20:14):
I am pleased to introduce a new friend of mine I’ve just
been getting to know, Adam Gordon with Tendon Manufacturing.
Welcome to the program, Adam.
Thanks for having me, Greg.
It’s good to be here.
The cool things we do for employee buy-in is we have these fix-it
forms, we call them, and it’s really just a process improvement
(20:35):
thing, that we want employees to look for ways to improve their day,
improve, you know, our operations, and you’ll come to find that the
employees that fill out the most fix-it forms are the ones that kind
of climb the ladder quicker because they’re seeing things that we’re
not, and they’re just advancing us so much more than we could imagine.
(21:00):
And along with that, we do quarterly bonuses.
That’s part of our profit sharing, so whatever employee wages are, they factor
in these—this last year, it’s factored to be an additional $3.25 an hour.
It’s one of those things that you know,
your biggest asset is your group of people.
And the Ohio State legend said it best—you know, Woody Hayes—“You
(21:21):
win with people,” so that’s kind of what we strive for here.
So it sounds like you’re getting stuff out of your ERP.
You figured out, “Hey, that’s not enough.” So, you see some gap.
You know, what’s more in that gap, and what
has you more interested in data acquisition?
We have this utilization number that we use, and it definitely helps dictate
(21:43):
where we’re going wrong, and how we’re quoting, and different things like that.
One of our issues—especially with the laser—is, you have
employees—your laser operators—leaving to get material,
whether it be the building next door, or unracking it.
So, we’re looking into that.
(22:03):
And we’re also considering, down the road, getting a feeder system for at
least the Mitsubishi laser that will do some of the [de-parting] . Because
you’re like, that is kind of our mission, you know, the whole ‘automate to
accommodate’ sort of thing that keeps the laser operator doing their thing.
(22:24):
And then it also just increases production.
So, different things like that.
So, it really does just come down on, just keeping our hands on parts.
We are joined by a great friend of mine, Randal Leach from Ricaurte Precision.
(22:48):
Great to have you on, Randal.
How are you doing today?
Good man.
Thanks for the intro, and likewise, totally appreciate you guys.
The industry needs to catch up to all this technology because it’s
going forward, and it’s made life a lot easier, and us capable
to do what we’re doing with our growth, and being aggressive,
and not trying to slow down or be slowed down by the lack of.
(23:11):
For sure, and I think you just hit on one
of the hottest topics right now, right?
We can say we just came back from IMTS a couple weeks ago, and one of
the big concerns that I think is finally really being felt across the
industry is, what the hell does it mean to be CMMC 2.0 compliant, and
(23:34):
you know, all the different things there are to think about to get there.
Yeah, I think again, we talked about it personally—you
and I and your team—a lot while we were there.
It’s a hot topic for Ricaurte, obviously.
We want to be prepared when this thing hits and not be on the back foot.
(23:55):
It is nice that it’s being taken seriously.
I think, again, other people could take it more seriously.
And I say that just because the ball is in our court with it
right now in terms of we’re not being audited just yet, and
it has been pushed back a few times and whatever else, but
that gives us a little bit of time because we’re ready for it.
(24:17):
We’re taking it deadly serious, but we’re in that early age of we’re allowed to
make a slight mistake and then cause and corrective action, how do we fix that?
Okay, now that gap’s bridged, and we know we’re learning from
it; we don’t have to just rely on this is what we think, right?
(24:38):
So, we can develop this thing as we go, and then be ready
for the large primes that are going to be requiring this.
Because if you’re not taking this seriously and looking forward, it’s death.
Right.
I mean [laugh] , you’re not going to be able to do business.
It doesn’t get more life or death than that.
Exactly.
(24:58):
I mean, I can’t imagine knowing that this exists, not doing anything about it.
Thank you for listening to Manufacturing Mavericks.
If you’d like to learn more, listen to past episodes, or nominate
a future Maverick to be on our show, visit mfgmavericks.com,
(25:19):
and don’t forget to subscribe to and rate this podcast on
iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app.
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