The Manufacturing Executive

Whether you're thinking about bringing a brand new product to market or your feeling the pressure to modernize your existing product line to remain competitive, this era of industry 4.0 is forcing manufacturing leaders to ask themselves lots of questions. What options do we have? What risks are we taking? What will it cost? How can we do it without excessive capital investment? How will we validat...

Here we are in a decade when technology is advancing at a faster rate than ever before. The pressure to innovate is all around us. But from an innovation standpoint, what's essential and what's not? Where do we make investments? How far ahead of the technology adoption curve do we need to be? And how do we innovate without overwhelming our respective teams? These are the types of questions today's...

When you hear "Great Depression", what comes to mind? Mobs of frantic people outside of banks? Dried out farmland and dust storms across the Great Plains? Dorothea Lange's famous "Migrant Mother" photo? When you say "Great Depression" to Jackie Greene, VP of Economics at ITR, her thoughts go NOT back in time to the 1930s, but instead forward to the not-so-distant 2030s. This economist's firm has b...

Have you ever worked in a business where everyone seems to be working in their own silos? Product development is doing their thing. Production is doing their thing. Sales and marketing are doing their own things. My first reaction when I see these silos is – what a wasted opportunity. In this conversation, Anthony Rodriguez, Co-Owner & Vice President at KETIV, talks about that wasted opportunity,...

Foundation comes first. This is something our team at Gorilla talks about often in the context of a marketing program. But in today's conversation, Bill Kaewert, CEO and CTO of Stored Energy Systems LLC, extrapolates this "foundation first" principle to a greater business context. Specifically, he'll tell you why sales and marketing are wasted endeavors if they're not standing on a strong foundati...

I've always been a believer in creating the right seats on the bus, and THEN filling those seats with the right people. But when you're a family owned business, in a lot of ways, the people are already there, and you have to figure out how to fit them into those seats (and fill in the holes around them). In this conversation, Ryan Margolin, CEO of Professional Hair Labs, talks about the dynamics o...

What does the word "brand" mean to you as a manufacturing leader? A logo and a tagline? A color palette and collection of images or graphics you use on your website, in your sales decks and at your trade show booth? Or is brand something more than that? And as a B2B manufacturer, why does all of this matter anyway? Paul Kiesche, President of Aviate Creative, is a seasoned branding professional wor...

Improved inventory accuracy. Higher productivity in your facility. Less required labor. This is what can happen when you put drones and AI together inside of a warehouse or distribution center. In this conversation, Sean Mitchell, VP of Customer Success at Gather AI, will show you what his organization is doing to lead inventory monitoring into a new era.

"My goodness, let's let a robot do that". These few words Ale Walker, Director of Business Development at Gray Solutions, summarize the general feeling of excitement she experiences when walking through manufacturing facilities today. And not only because of the opportunity she sees to change the way we manufacturer products in the United States, but also because of the quality of jobs we can crea...

158 weeks and 158 episodes ago we launched this podcast, The Manufacturing Executive, as a resource for CEOs, Presidents and owners. Last year, we introduced a second podcast, The Manufacturing Marketer as a learning resource for those inside of the same organizations with "marketing" in their job titles. And this April, we rounded it out with the launch of our third podcast, The Manufacturing Emp...

Any business owner has his or her own unique vision for the trajectory of the company. There are lifestyle businesses, high-growth businesses, and plenty that fall somewhere in between. But moving from a lifestyle business to a growth business in manufacturing requires a mindset shift. It also requires a set of very intentional transformations to accompany that new mindset. In this conversation, J...

Over the past few years, we've all seen and experienced the effects of rising labor and material costs. But as John Abplanalp, President & Principal Consultant at Tight Lines Advisors, will tell you today, alongside these challenges, productivity in US manufacturing is at it's lowest point in 75 years. Put all of this together, and the recipe for profitability becomes pretty a challenging one to m...

The motivation for today's manufacturing workforce goes much deeper than salary and benefits alone. Individuals want to know that they matter, that their work is making an impact, that they have a voice and that it's being heard. Michael Sullivan, Senior Recruiter at Miller Resource Group, spends as much time with employers as he does with job candidates. And in this conversation, he'll talk about...

Lack of trust. Lack of goals. Lack of skill. Lack of risk tolerance. In this episode, industrial marketing consultant Julian Schaaf explains why these are the four biggest problems that plague slow-moving marketing teams in the manufacturing sector. He also explains how to overcome these barriers so you can blow your competition away.

More than ever before, it's not just a stable job plus a paycheck that motivate people, but also the opportunity for growth and career advancement. In this conversation, Patrick Curry, President of Fullerton Tool Company, talks about designing intentional career paths for your people.

If you're looking into the manufacturing sector from the outside, the numbers will show you how underrepresented women are in this sector. And if you already work in manufacturing, you know this just from looking around. But Alicia Gilpin is working to change all of this. A business owner, non-profit founder and podcast host, Ali G is a source of inspiration for women currently in manufacturing wh...

What options do I have for transitioning the ownership of my business? How has the market for selling my business changed over a wild few years of pandemic and supply chain disruption? Is transitioning to an employee-owned model an option? And how do buyers evaluate the value of the company I've built and grown? These are all questions that any manufacturing business owner who may be looking to ex...

On the surface, there are many forces driving the sustainable manufacturing movement in our world today – from government initiatives to consumers to corporations. But as Mark Remmert, CEO of Green Dot Bioplastics, will tell you, at the core the sustainable manufacturing movement is simply the human need for survival. In this conversation, Mark offers his perspective on why sustainability matters,...

Every day we use a wide range of digital technology in our personal lives. But in our work lives here in the manufacturing sector, there tends to be more resistance to technology adoption. In this conversation, Matthew Wright, Founder of Specright, will make the argument for digitization through the lens of product and packaging specification management. Matthew will discuss the role of technology...

Cyber security is a very real problem. Unfortunately, it's a very real problem that's not understood or properly addressed by many manufacturing organizations. It poses threats to our businesses. And for those who are manufacturing parts for the defense industry, threats to our national security. Jason Ray, Co-Founder & CEO at Paperless Parts, is here to educate about this topic of cyber security....

A very small percentage of manufacturing organizations ever get to the point where they're consistently publishing truly exceptional resources for the people they need to influence from the companies they want to do business with. And for the few that DO get it right, that content will often just sit in a resource center on their website collecting dust until it's eventually buried and never seen...

Christopher Nguyen, CEO & Co-Founder of Aitomatic, explains why we need both the IIoT data coming off the assembly line and the knowledge of our front line workers to build an effective AI model.

Ashleigh Walters tells her story of transformation inside of the manufacturing organization she recently led – as they went from a command-and-conquer operation to an employee-focused operation, all the way to an employee-OWNED operation.

This ex-Navy Seal, turned manufacturing CEO believes the future of workforce development and training falls not only on the shoulders of the trade schools, but also the employers themselves.

Imagine the power of standing next to a piece of machinery and answering a prospect's questions on a sales call. Or leading a product training session for a new customer, right there inside of your manufacturing facility, on camera. Our guest today has figured all of this out. And it's changed his business forever.