Rapid Fire Manufacturing

What does it really take to build a machine shop from the ground up? In this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing, I sat down with Ryan Bankel, CEO of Imago Manufacturing, to hear how he went from working in a family machine shop to starting his own business with a single CNC lathe in his garage. Ryan shares the reality of working 80 to 100 hours a week, balancing family life, taking financial risk...

What happens when experienced manufacturing professionals retire and decades of knowledge leave with them? In this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing, David Turner sits down with Scott Jeffrey, Training and Maintenance Supervisor at ADVICS, alongside cohost Harold Schoch, to discuss workforce development, skilled trades, and the future of American manufacturing. With nearly 29 years at ADVICS, Sc...

What does it take to go from shipping and receiving to leading one of the industry’s established machine tool manufacturers? In this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing, David Turner sits down with Michael Huggett, President and CEO of INDEX Corporation, at the company’s facility in Noblesville, Indiana. Michael shares how his manufacturing career began with a simple curiosity about the machines o...

What does it take to build a career in modern manufacturing? David Turner sits down with Jeff Starzec of Mazak North America for a conversation about CNC machining, mechanical engineering, machine tools, multitasking technology, workforce development, and the people behind American manufacturing. Jeff shares his journey from technical drafting and hands-on machine shop experience to automotive eng...

What does it take for a machine tool builder to thrive across four generations and ninety years in business? In this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing, Dave sits down with Yuto Matsuura of Matsuura Machinery Corporation to explore how family leadership, genuine hospitality, and bold engineering decisions shaped a global brand. Yuto shares the real stories behind Matsuura's major milestones,...

How do you advance your career when the management ladder looks completely blocked? In this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing, host Dave Turner sits down with Markus Stolmar, CEO and President of United Grinding North America, at their headquarters in Miamisburg, Ohio. Markus shares his 26 year journey from starting as a technical draftsman and product manager to leading the organization. He bre...

When Craig Coyle ran programs at an aerospace composites facility, he discovered a brutal truth: he wasn’t losing skilled technicians to rival manufacturing shops. He was losing them to Amazon and McDonald’s over fifty cents an hour. When people leave a technical trade for a retail job, it is never just about the money. It means the leadership failed to give them a reason to stay. In this episode...

From building custom violins to running a high-tech, 14,000 square foot 5-axis machine shop, Andrew Henry has never taken the conventional path. On this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing, we visit Henry Holsters in Spencer, Indiana. Andrew breaks down how he transitioned from classical instrument crafting to manufacturing tactical gear, starting with a small desktop router in 2014 and scaling to...

What happens when your business plan collides with a massive, unexpected opportunity? You throw the script out the window and get to work. In this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing, host David Turner sits down with Gavin Giguere, founder and owner of REIGN Manufacturing in Springfield, Massachusetts. Gavin's journey into manufacturing started in his mom's driveway restoring trucks at 13,...

Is the American industrial sector cooling down, or are the mainstream headlines masking a massive capital investment super-cycle? In this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing, David Turner sits down with Kevin Bowers, the Vice President of Research at AMT (The Association For Manufacturing Technology), to deconstruct the real economic, operational, and structural forces shaping the modern shop floo...

Everything you touch in your daily life started in a machine shop. If it was not made on a CNC machine, it was likely made in a mold that was. We build the tractors that break the ground for our homes and the gear that keeps first responders safe. Yet, the people powering this engine often act like the best kept secret in the trades. I recently sat down with Matt Dvoracek, the Machine Tool Maniac,...

In 2008, the wheels came off the global economy. Every shop was hurting. Yet, Harold Schoch’s machine tool rebuild business didn’t just survive; they had their best years. How? By refusing to treat customers like transactions. In this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing, Dave Turner sits down with Harold Schoch (Board of Directors for Fives North America, former CEO of Cincinnati) at the Schoch Mu...

Johnny Goode did not take the easy path into leadership at MSP. He spent over a decade as a patrol officer, narcotics detective, and SWAT operator before stepping onto the shop floor. He arrived at the family business during a global pandemic when orders were stalling and the team was facing furloughs. As the son of the owner, he knew he had to earn his seat. In this episode, we dive into how John...

In this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing, I sit down with Eric Nekich, Business Development Director at Advanced Machine and Engineering. Eric shares his unique story of entering the industry in 2010 after selling building materials at Menards and how he applied that sales grit to the world of modular workholding. We get into the hard truth that you cannot automate an unreliable process. Eric e...

What does it take for a manufacturing company to thrive for over 130 years? In this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing, we head to Tylok in Cleveland to sit down with Ryan Bavineau of Davenport Machine, along with Scott Hahl and Julia Wasielewski, to discuss the intersection of industrial history and modern production. Ryan shares the incredible story of Davenport’s roots, from its founding in 18...

In this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing, I sit down with Aaron Morrill, the CNC Repairman, to discuss the reality of machine tool service in today’s industry. Aaron grew up in the shop and finished nearly 100 machine installs before he was even 16 years old. We dive into why a failed service call is often a symptom of a larger training problem rather than a technician issue. As I said during t...

Medical manufacturing is about more than machines. It’s about people, trust, and outcomes that change lives. In this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing, we sit down with Bradley Emerick at MicroPulse and RMP to talk about growing up in manufacturing, building vertically integrated medical operations, and creating products that restore mobility and improve quality of life. Bradley shares his uniqu...

Medical prototyping is where ideas either stall out or move forward fast. In this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing, we sit down with Michael Bowland, owner of B&H Precision Machining, to talk about building a medical focused machine shop centered on prototyping, collaboration, and execution. Michael shares his journey starting in manufacturing at 15, learning the trade from the ground up, a...

Filmed on a real shop floor in the middle of winter, this episode features a raw conversation about manufacturing with machines screaming in the background. The audio has been cleaned up, but the setting is real and unfiltered. You’ll hear a story about growing up in manufacturing, not fully understanding its importance, and later realizing how critical it is to the industrial capacity of the coun...

Starting a machine shop is not freedom. It is sacrifice, responsibility, and learning how to survive before you thrive. In this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing, I sit down in Chattanooga, Tennessee with Garrett Wolford , owner and president of Elemental Design and Machinery . Garrett shares what it really takes to start a shop from scratch: Why NDAs force you to build a brand without showing p...

In this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing , I sit down with Mark Hillenburg, co-founder of Collective Manufacturing Group. Mark’s manufacturing journey started the hard way. A garage. Manual machines. A Bridgeport mill. Learning firsthand how difficult machining really is. Since then, he’s been a machinist, a CEO, and now a long-term owner focused on building manufacturing businesses meant to la...

In this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing, I sit down with Lyndsey Vickers from MTDCNC. We talk about how she went from chasing a media career to learning machine tools up close through cold calling, applications teams, and real shop life. Lyndsey breaks down why the best shop stories always come from people, how to get someone comfortable on camera, and why you cannot overthink content if you w...

In this episode of Rapid Fire Manufacturing, David Turner sits down with Travis Christman , a United States Army veteran who built a remarkable career in the orthopedic manufacturing world. Travis shares how he went from growing up on a small farm to studying secondary education, to serving as an infantryman, to stepping into his first manufacturing role at Sony D A D C working on high speed holog...

In this Rapid Fire Manufacturing episode, Matt Sissom shares the raw and honest story behind Mayhem Machine. He walked away from alcohol in January 2021, stepped into the unknown, and turned a single water jet into one of the most trusted small shops in the Southeast. We talk about: his sobriety journey starting a business during a shutdown surviving eighteen hour days why most machinists avoid wa...

Matt Schron joins Rapid Fire Manufacturing for a powerful conversation on leadership, legacy, and the next chapter of American manufacturing. Jergens began in 1942 with rationed steel and a mission to support the war effort. Today they are shaping the future of workholding, machine tending, and lights out machining. Matt shares his journey as a fourth generation leader, the pressure that comes wit...