The Manufacturing Executive

ProShop ERP co-founder Paul Van Metre will tell you that very few manufacturers bring the precision they put into their parts to the rest of their business. In his new book, Precision Manufacturing, Precision Business, he lays out six stages an owner moves through, from doing the work as Operator to setting long-term strategy as Architect. We’ll walk through each stage and what the owner gives up...

PPG's General Manager of Specialty Products, Amy Mercante, will tell you that leadership is not about proving you know more than the people who work for you. A research chemist turned business leader, she's often been the most senior person in the room without being the most knowledgeable. In this episode, we'll unpack what it looks like when a leader lets the experts be the experts. You'll hear w...

Manufacturing marketers are often isolated in their roles, working inside sales-driven organizations and sorting through marketing advice that wasn't written for them. That's why Gorilla 76 and TREW Marketing host the Industrial Marketing Summit, an annual in-person event in Austin, Texas, just for B2B marketers in the industrial sector. In this episode, originally recorded for TREW's Content Mark...

When a private equity firm buys a manufacturing business, closing the deal isn't completion. It's commencement, the start of five to seven years of work to make the company worth more than it was. Eric Wiklendt, Managing Director at Speyside Equity, has done that work from both sides, first as a plant manager and CEO inside manufacturers, now as the buyer. In this episode, he lays out the two-phas...

Manufacturing has spent years asking how to get more women into the industry. Allison Roberts Grealis, founder and president of the Women in Manufacturing Association, says the harder question is what happens after they get there. In this episode, she'll talk about why retention is where companies lose the people they worked hardest to hire, what it actually takes to grow someone into a leadership...

There's a new acronym for it every week: AEO, GEO, LLMO, AI SEO. Grace Wright, VP of Innovation at Gorilla 76, will tell you that regardless of what you call it, the job is the same. Your buyers are searching for what you sell, and ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude are answering with three or four company names. Yours is either on that list or it isn't. In this episode, we trace how 20 years of search en...

Co-founder and CEO of Phaseshift Technologies, Fazal Mahmood, will tell you that much of modern industry still runs on metal alloys introduced half a century ago. Better ones are possible. Proving one works is harder and far more expensive than inventing it, and that's where most new materials die. In this episode, we explore why that's finally changing. You'll hear where additive manufacturing la...

Ask everyone in your company one question: who's responsible for safety? About half will say the safety manager, and Brian Fielkow, consultant and author of Making Safety Happen, will tell you that half has it wrong. In this episode, we'll unpack why safety is a bottom-line business decision that starts with the leader, and why a safety failure really costs about five times what your insurance los...

The headlines say American manufacturing has a workforce crisis. Alex Torrey, co-founder and CEO of AIC, America's Innovation Corporation, will tell you the real constraint is workflow. He sees component shops running at 20 to 50 percent utilization when world class is north of 90, held back by decision-making infrastructure built for a world that doesn't exist anymore. In this episode, we'll expl...

Books are more than 80% bought online. Electronics, more than 50%. Custom manufactured parts? Less than 1%. CEO of Xometry, Sanjeev Sahni, believes that gap makes custom parts the most underpenetrated e-commerce category in the world, and that closing it has less to do with manufacturing capability than with speed and data. In this episode, we'll explore why an engineer can design a part in an aft...

Robots rarely break. Vision systems keep getting smarter. In automation, the technology has gotten so good that it's no longer what separates one company from another. Darragh de Stonndún, CEO of Automated Industrial Robotics, will tell you what does: the people and the culture behind it. In this episode, we unpack how he built AIR across six facilities in the US, UK and Ireland by evaluating ever...

Founder and CEO of Klear, Chris Hale, will tell you that companies rarely fail for lack of demand. They fail when capital falls out of sync with operations. In this episode, we dig into what Chris calls the success trap: the moment a manufacturer finally lands the transformational contract it's been chasing for years and discovers that's where the hard part begins. You'll hear why a career-making...

Founder and chief strategy officer of LeanDNA, Richard Lebovitz, will tell you that one of the biggest causes of part shortages isn't what you'd expect. It's failing to tell your suppliers what you don't need. In this episode, we dig into why supply chain teams get stuck firefighting shortages while executives chase working capital, and how those two goals drift out of sync. Richard makes the case...

CEO of Mint Innovation, Matt Bedingfield, will tell you there's a gap in America's reshoring push that almost nobody's talking about. We're rebuilding the muscle to make things again, but we skipped the raw materials those plants run on, and the country now faces a million-ton copper shortfall it fills by exporting scrap and re-importing the same metal refined. In this episode, we explore why a so...

Most manufacturers are good at planning a product and good at planning a project. Where launches fall apart is everything in between. Founder and principal of True North PMP Consulting, Richard Broo, will tell you that operations, quality, logistics and finance get left out of the room until it's too late. By the time manufacturing hears about a launch, the line's already booked out for months. In...

Leadership coach Chris Atwell, founder of Mindset Conquest, will tell you that 100 sales calls a month proves your reps are busy. It doesn't prove your business is growing. After two decades selling through and alongside manufacturers rep agencies, he's seen the same trap over and over: activity reports that look productive but never tie back to revenue. In this episode, we dig into how manufactur...

Most manufacturers are bracing for the silver tsunami: the wave of retiring veterans taking decades of know-how out the door. Founder of Marzilli Machine and host of the Raw Material podcast, Jamie Marzilli, will tell you that's only part of the problem. In this episode, we explore the bigger piece most shops overlook: the tribal knowledge that slips away every day in what you don't write down. Yo...

Business transformation expert and author of nine books, George C. Murray, will tell you that most manufacturing turnarounds fail before they even start. And often, it's because leaders ignite fear of change with the wrong language and wrong approach. In this episode, we’ll unpack what it really takes to revive a struggling operation, from assessing cash flow and margins to building genuine trust...

What happens when the experts tell you something can't be done? Today's guest built a company by questioning assumptions that had gone largely unchallenged inside a massive legacy industry for decades. Annie Lu, co-founder and CEO of Laminar, joins me to talk about challenging conventional wisdom, earning credibility as an outsider, and why manufacturers who stay open to new ways of solving old pr...

Chief Industry Strategist, Technologist and Evangelist at Software Equity Group, Paul Lachance, believes the AI revolution we're living in belongs in the same conversation as steam power, electricity and robotics. In this episode, we explore the lessons manufacturers can learn from past eras of disruption, why some companies emerge stronger while others get left behind and how leaders can cut thro...

In today’s conversation, we’re exploring a shift in the plastics industry – from the old “make, use, throw away” model to a future focused on circularity. At the heart of this transformation is the rise of advanced, or chemical, recycling technologies. My guest today, President of America’s Plastic Makers, Ross Eisenberg, will tell you why these innovative processes are key to tackling plastics th...

In today’s conversation, we’re tackling a challenge manufacturing leaders know all too well: wearing too many hats. In particular, we'll be talking about the sales hat, and why taking it off is often harder than it sounds. My guest, author and sales advisor Mike Huey, will share a proven framework to help you transition from founder-led sales to a scalable, repeatable system that doesn’t depend on...

In today’s episode, we’re diving into one of the most critical bottlenecks in the electrification revolution: batteries. With the rapid explosion of AI and the data centers powering it, the strain on our power grid has never been greater. Yet, beneath the surface, few realize just how challenging and intricate battery manufacturing really is – in a world where chemistry is king, precision is every...

In this conversation, Founder and CEO of Vention, Etienne Lacroix, points to two fast-moving trends that are impacting manufacturing: the growth of “physical AI,” which brings autonomy to machines on the factory floor, and the real-world impact of software-defined automation. In this episode, you’ll hear what’s actually working with these technologies, and what still falls short. We’ll get into th...

In today’s conversation, we dive into what it takes for digital adoption to take root in the manufacturing sector. More specifically, Executive Vice President and Chief Operations and Strategy Officer at Conexus Indiana, Bryce Carpenter, will tell you how state-level organizations like Conexus are stepping up to support manufacturers of all sizes, why simply chasing the latest technology rarely wo...