Manufacturing Talks

Send us Fan Mail Are US automakers headed back to the bad old days of the 1970s? Journalist Eric Starkman joins us for a special episode of our show to drill into that question. Eric worked in Detroit (among other places) years ago, and he still regularly covers the big stories from the Great Lakes State. Nowadays he exposes the warts that ought to be exposed at his own outlet, Starkman Approved (...

Send us Fan Mail Paul Van Metre had his own machine shop, and learned along the way what he really needed when it came to business software. That's why he shifted hears and helped found ProShop, the ERP solution for machine shops. His software is focused on giving machine shop owners, managers, and workers exactly what they need to maximize the efficiency of their operations. Tune in and list...

Send us Fan Mail The #1 middle- to long-term risk to American manufacturers is our increasingly unreliable energy supply. So this episode diving into the reasons things are headed the way they are, and what we can do about it, is our most important one so far. David Blackmon has been warning us about this for years. It was incredibly educational to hear him talk about how really awful policy decis...

Send us Fan Mail Montana may not be a state that, when you first think about it, has manufacturing come to mind for you. But there are plenty of reasons it should be. So it was great fun to chat with Scott Sehnert about his adopted home state. Scott is a VP at First Security Bank Montana in Bozeman, and he also serves as President of the Montana Manufacturing Association. Tune in and hear him chat...

Send us Fan Mail Gabe Draper is a self-proclaimed failed machine shop owner. Now he's in another business to help manufacturers avoid the mistakes he made. He's co-founder of Factur, his company that hunts customers... for their customers. They're all about lead generation, using their specialized tech and tools to generate high-quality sales. Tune in and hear Gabe talk about how yo...

Send us Fan Mail Melissa Martin has a whole lot to tell you about what we all need to be doing to rebuild our nation's pipeline of skilled workers. She has not just one, but TWO jobs where she does her part for all that. She's Director of Marketing at LAB Midwest, a distributor for the whole upper Midwest of training curricula and equipment for the workplace and for STEM materials for sc...

Send us Fan Mail It was such a lot of fun hearing from Kerrie about everything Epicor has going on. Epicor is a software development company specializing in its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) suite that's designed specifically for manufacturers. As I mentioned in our chat, I know a lot of you out there get a bad taste in your mouth anytime you hear "ERP." But if you haven't...

Send us Fan Mail It's all too common in manufacturing circles to hear about the operations improvement projects that didn't pan out, the Lean transformation that sputtered, or the cultural reset that never got off the ground. Making sure those kinds of failures don't happen is Dan Burgos's stock in trade. It was lots of fun chatting with him and hearing his thoughts on what bot...

Send us Fan Mail Neil Friedman has done a lot of cool things in his time, but maybe the coolest yet is his company's still fairly new product, the circul+ fitness ring. It's got so much going for it: it's unobtrusive, it works for general condition monitoring, exercise, sleep monitoring and improvement, and even help with treating Long Covid. Plus it doesn't have the skin pigme...

Send us Fan Mail One thing it's pretty common for manufacturers to miss the mark on is marketing. Especially today, when just about everything marketing-related is changing so fast, though, it's a critically important topic. So it was a treat to host Aaron Marks, who founded Aspire Marketing Group because of the opportunities he saw in this particular vein. Aaron has nearly two decades o...

Send us Fan Mail Jake heads up one of the business units for The Manthei Group, which is one of the most inspiring family business stories I've ever come across. Five generations ago, a couple of German immigrants came over, settled in what's now a popular resort area in northern Lower Michigan, and began farming. After many fits and starts, and lots of amazing business decisions, their...

Send us Fan Mail Mark O'Brien and I have known each other for a few years, and I've always admired his writing. But when I read his piece entitled, "Give It a Shot," (https://www.bizcatalyst360.com/give-it-a-shot/) I knew I had to have him on here to chat about it. "I don’t think we’re quitters. I think we don’t try." That's one of the many memorable lines. The a...

Send us Fan Mail Tech Ed teacher Craig Cegielski of the Eleva-Strum School District in Wisconsin wasn't satisfied just doing the usual stuff when it came to teaching his students the craft and the business of machining. So he came up with an idea: make an actual business out of his upper-level students' work! That's where Cardinal Manufacturing got its start, and now it's a fun...

Send us Fan Mail Manufacturers in particular, but really any business in general, can learn a lot from Dave Yonkman! He's the President of his own PR firm, DYS Media, LLC, and he's got a wealth of experience on what works to attract and keep great customers, and how to grow your business. Here's a preview of our superb chat: make your customers, not you, the heroes in their "st...

Send us Fan Mail Jason Ray saw an opportunity with the antiquated processes machine shops used to quote their jobs. So he and a friend founded Paperless Parts to help shop owners bring how they do things into the 21st century. In addition to being a guru on that, Jason is also a wealth of knowledge on the general topic of how to win in today's competitive manufacturing environment. And he sho...

Send us Fan Mail There was a whole collection of characteristics Nikke Gonzales has that made me want to interview her here on Manufacturing Talks: to highlight just a few, she's an expert in automation for industry and supply chain; she takes on seemingly way too much in her life, just like I do; she brings fresh new perspectives to the sometimes stodgy old "make it" and "move...

Send us Fan Mail I always love it here on Manufacturing Talks when I get to explore a business that's tied to one of my personal interests. As a lifelong bicyclist, then, it was an absolute pleasure getting to chat with Shane Cooper, President and Chief Sockologist of DeFeet International, producer high-quality American-made cycling socks and other apparel. Shane had so much to share - about...

Send us Fan Mail Where do I even start when it comes to Ashleigh Walters? Some years ago she had left her engineering career in corporate America to be a stay-at-home mom. But then her father-in-law came calling; he needed her to sort out the finances at his company, Onex, Inc., in Erie, Pennsylvania which is both a product and service outfit for refractory materials and systems for the steel indu...

Send us Fan Mail Titan Abrasive Systems started nearly 70 years ago, originally based in the founder's backyard shed, focused on equipment for sandblasting, surface preparation, and surface finishing. For our 20th episode, their President, Brandon Acker, joined me to tell how the company, based just north of Philadelphia, continues today to make high-quality blast room equipment, blast cabine...

Send us Fan Mail When the American flag they'd received as a wedding present quickly became worn and tattered, Katie and Wes Lyon went looking for something much better, and preferably made in the USA. They couldn't find it, though, so instead they teamed up with their friend Max Berry and founded Allegiance Flag Supply to make their own. After some fits and starts, they found the busine...

Send us Fan Mail My pals all over the manufacturing world do amazing things. But let's face it: a lot of us were never educated in running a business. So I took advantage of the opportunity to have my friend Chris Panagiotu on the show to give us all some education. Chris is the owner of CAPitalize Your Finances, LLC. He's a wealth adviser and a certified financial planner. He hosts his...

Send us Fan Mail Way up in Houghton, Michigan, there's a little company that's making nearby Michigan Tech University a new destination for space technology. Brad King, who helped found Orbion Space Technologies, picked the location because of the exceptional technical talent the school generates. (And the staggering natural beauty of Michigan's Upper Peninsula doesn't hurt eit...

Send us Fan Mail A lot of you probably know about KA-BAR because of their iconic US Marine Corps fighting knife. But the company's history goes a lot farther back than WWII. It's a fascinating story, and today KA-BAR is making some outstanding products (do check out the tactical spork!) CEO John Stitt and Director of Sales and Marketing Joe Bradley joined me to tell me all about it. They...

Send us Fan Mail Dianna Huff is one of my favorite industrial advocates out there, since we share a passion for American manufacturing (though I will say she beats me big time on actually buying American!) She's had some great experiences in writing about manufacturing and helping producers market their goods in today's digital world. And along the way she's found ways to buy almost...

Send us Fan Mail Eric Girouard grew up doing blue-collar work, went to college and learned about business, then worked in the fashion world. But his hometown friends who went into the trades begged him to launch a workwear company to get them the gear they needed. So he did. His friends were right about there being a big market for that. It's been going gangbusters ever since with BRUNT'...