Manufacturing Happy Hour

Kwadwo Som-Pimpong started making furniture in 2015 because he bought a house with no furniture and decided to build his own. A decade later, he runs Crafted Glory, a small-batch luxury furniture brand blending West African artistry with Scandinavian design, while working 10-hour shifts at Eaton as a fabrication supervisor. In this episode, Chris sits down with Kwadwo to trace the journey from those first end tables built in a garage to a full-scale business. The conversation covers how Kwadwo manages the constraints of four to five hours in the shop each day, including three strategies he has put in place, a clipboard for tracking time and tasks, using Claude to reflect and connect the dots on the 40-minute drive home, and a networking story from New York that turned one photo on Instagram into a series of interior design projects. He also walks through the Echoes of the Forest project, two pieces made from trees uprooted by Hurricane Helene, one already installed in Biltmore Forest Town Hall and one headed for Asheville’s historic YMI Cultural Center. In this episode, find out: Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: “Now I see where I’m spending my time, I see how long each piece takes me. If I know the time, that translates into my pricing. If I get my pricing right, that moves me closer to being free from working another job.”“I use AI a lot in helping with organization — Claude specifically. At the end of the day, on my 40-minute drive home, I dictate what happened in the studio, my reflections, the challenges I faced. I love how Claude draws connections and builds on your whole story, your whole journey.”“I aspire to have an operation where I still maintain the craft element of what I’m doing, but it is systematized such that I can step away, bring someone in, train them to the documentation, and they can come in and do the same thing that I do.” Links & mentions: Crafted GloryBiscuit Head Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty. Mentioned in this episode: Mfg Happy Hour's GOLDEN STATE TAKEOVER Tour Don't miss Manufacturing Happy Hour on tour this May 2026 as we head across the state of California. We'll be hitting the Bay Area on 5/19, Modesto on 5/20, and Los Angeles on 5/21. Live podcasts and parties in every city. Get your tickets today. Manufacturing Happy Hour on Tour

Running out of warehouse space doesn’t always mean you need more of it. For Sumitomo Drive Technologies, it meant rethinking the whole operation from the ground up. In this episode of Manufacturing Happy Hour, Chris sits down remotely with Tony Barlett and Shawn Lambert from Sumitomo Drive Technologies for an inside look at a live warehouse automation project underway at their Chesapeake, Virginia headquarters. The project combines AutoStore, an automated storage and retrieval system, with automated guided vehicles to compress 30,000 square feet of high-bay racking into a 7,500 square foot footprint, with robots handling the picking and every transaction flowing through a single digital interface. The conversation runs from the 2021 decision all the way through to where the project stands today. The business case, the technology choices, and what it takes to bring automation into a facility that has run on pen and paper for years. They get into the workforce question too. What this means for the people on the floor, how Sumitomo plans to grow 50 percent over the next five years without scaling headcount at the same rate, and why the digital foundation they're building now is what makes AI integration possible later. In this episode, find out: Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: "If you're not doing this from an automation standpoint, you're missing the boat. It is the wave of the future, the labor force shortages are not going away, and they're only going to get more difficult." - Tony Barlett"You can't start looking into this soon enough. The more prepared you are for a project of this scale, the better off you're going to be, not just plugging in the automation, but how it connects to your ERP, your processes, your AGVs." - Shawn Lambert"AI doesn't do anything for you when you're dealing with pen and paper. Get into a more technological age first, get your software systems in place, and then you can integrate AI to turn static decisions into dynamic ones." - Shawn Lambert Links & mentions: Sumitomo Drive TechnologiesAutoStoreSwisslogNansemond BrewingAllgood Lounge Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty. Mentioned in this episode: Party with Manufacturing Happy Hour! Join Manufacturing Happy Hour on tour, or at one of our famous EXTRA INNINGS conference afterparties (co-hosted with Jake Hall, The Manufacturing Millennial). Join The Party

AI-powered predictive maintenance has been on the radar for years, but for most facilities, it still hasn’t fully landed. Chris sits down remotely with Colin Morris, Senior Director of Solution Consulting at MaintainX, the AI-powered maintenance and asset management platform built for the industrial frontline. Colin has spent eight years working in this space, long enough to have watched maintenance shift from an afterthought to a strategic asset across North American manufacturing. They cover the real barriers to AI adoption in maintenance: unstructured data sitting across disconnected systems, outdated assumptions about what predictive tools should deliver, and the foundational steps most facilities skip before they’re ready. Colin walks through what parts data to collect and why, how maintenance has evolved from cost center to cost saver, and where agentic AI is taking the industry next, including what scheduling looks like when an agent does the first pass and a human approves the plan. In this episode, find out: Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: “A lot of customers do have the data. The biggest challenge is it’s super unstructured and in different systems, so getting it into a format AI can actually use is still a huge challenge.”“People expect predictive maintenance to surface issues, but if an asset is running well, nothing’s going to happen. No insights are sometimes good insights. That means things are operating the way they should.”“Historically, about 60% of a technician’s time is admin work. If you can give even 10–20% of that time back, that’s a huge gain in actual wrench time.” Links & mentions: MaintainXNick Haase on Manufacturing Happy HourLeft Field Brewery Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty. Mentioned in this episode: Party with Manufacturing Happy Hour! Join Manufacturing Happy Hour on tour, or at one of our famous EXTRA INNINGS conference afterparties (co-hosted with Jake Hall, The Manufacturing Millennial). Join The Party

Most regions have pockets of manufacturing strength. Very few have a manufacturing ecosystem. Matt Bogoshian has spent 15 years trying to change that. In this episode of Manufacturing Happy Hour, host Chris Luecke sits down remotely with Matt Bogoshian, Executive Director of the American Manufacturing Communities Collaborative (AMCC) – the nation’s only designated National Manufacturing Community of Practice. Matt brings the on-the-ground experience of someone who has spent years helping communities across the US turn good intentions into real, durable systems change. Together they dig into the Big Six elements that every thriving regional manufacturing ecosystem needs, the five steps to creating lasting systems change, and why trust is the one precondition that has to come before everything else. Matt also shares the story of ‘What’s So Cool About Manufacturing’, a program getting middle school students inside real factories and changing how the next generation sees manufacturing careers. In this episode, find out: Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: “The American project is not going to thrive long term unless we have a strong cornerstone of manufacturing priority products.” – Matt Bogoshian“Trust is the coin of the realm. Having trusted relationships is really a precondition to everything else.” – Matt Bogoshian“There’s no ceiling on how high a kid could go in manufacturing.” – Matt Bogoshian Links & mentions: American Manufacturing Communities CollaborativeThe Buena Vista Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

What happens when a multimedia entrepreneur and a concert venue owner sit down for a live podcast? A good conversation – with a couple beers – about creativity, grit, and what it really takes to build something that lasts. In the first live episode of the year, recorded at The Argo in Milwaukee as part of Manufacturing Happy Hour’s 10-year anniversary, host Chris Luecke sits down with two longtime friends: Andrew J. Coate, co-founder of The Argo (a 700-capacity venue his team transformed from a historic 1950s cinema in under seven months), and Michael O’Sullivan, Creative Director at Motivation Media. Together they dig into the creative process, building businesses from the ground up, co-founder dynamics, and the long-term friendships that shape your best work. Later in the episode, manufacturing veterans and friends of the show, Kyle Mahan (Former Vice President and General Manager of the Automation Division at Wauseon Machine) and Bill Berrien (CEO at Pela Global Precision) join the stage to bring it all back to the shop floor. In this episode, find out: Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: "Creativity really often needs constraints to be the maximum of what it can be." - Andrew J. Coate "Networking doesn’t just happen at an event. It’s something that can happen over years and decades." - Chris Luecke "I did not start out to form a video production company. Having those people who believed in me along the way gave me that space to keep practicing, to keep pushing it." - Michael O'Sullivan Links & mentions: The ArgoMotivation MediaWomen in Manufacturing (WiM),Episode 160: Buying a Manufacturing Company and Reimagining Upskilling with Bill Berrien, CEO of Pindel Global PrecisionEpisode 235: How to Find Automation Talent Anywhere with Kyle Mahan, VP & GM of Wauseon Machine Episode 260: Innovations Transforming Automotive Manufacturing featuring STÄUBLI, RAM Solutions, and More Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty. Mentioned in this episode: Mfg Happy Hour's Rust Belt Renaissance Tour Manufacturing Happy Hour is hitting the road this spring, hosting live shows Cleveland on 3/24, Rochester on 3/25, and Pittsburgh on 3/26. Get your tickets today.

Most of the time, applications from candidates with a felony record end up in the garbage can. The problem is, by overlooking people from what are seen as ‘problematic’ talent pools, you could be denying yourself access to untapped talent. Second-chance hiring means giving people the chance to showcase their talent, hone their skills, and start again. When you do that, great things can happen for them, you, and your local region. Here, Chris catches up with Marcus Sheanshang, President of JBM Packaging, to discuss the thriving manufacturer’s Fair Chance Hiring Program. JBM Packaging is a family-oriented business that specializes in eco-friendly paper packing products and solutions. Since Marcus bought the business in 2008, it has gone from strength to strength. Its Fair Chance Program has played a part in JBM’s ongoing success. The conversation dives into the mission behind this game-changing program and how it’s grown from an ambitious idea to an initiative now responsible for 43% of JBM’s dedicated team members. Marcus also discusses how second-chance hiring can transform lives for the better and play a key role in the future of the manufacturing industry. In this episode, find out: Tweetable Quotes: "Can they live our core values, and can they help make this place better? Those are some of the criteria that we need.""They need to lead it. This is on them, but we can certainly walk with them as they're walking down their path.""It would frighten me right now if we didn't have the Fair Chance Program, 'cause I think we have 67 Fair Chance team members. If we didn't have that, I don't know where we would be." Links & mentions: Fair Chance ProgramJBM PackagingSecond Chance MonthCriminal Records and Reentry ToolkitSecond-chance hiring continues to gain traction among major manufacturers Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, stay Thirsty. Mentioned in this episode: Industrial Marketing Summit 2026 The Industrial Marketing Summit is the go-to gathering for marketers working in the manufacturing, engineering and industrial sectors. Built by Gorilla 76 and TREW Marketing, IMS delivers strategic insight, hands-on learning and true community. Whether you’re a team of one, or leading a scaled marketing department, you’ll walk away ready to market smarter, lead stronger and impact your business. Make sure to use the code "happy hour" at checkout for $100 off registration. Industrial Marketing Summit 2026

AI is reshaping what it means to be a modern manufacturing professional. When a 30-year veteran retires, decades of expertise used to leave as well. How they ran a machine, which feeds and speeds worked, and all the practical knowledge that separated good from great. Now, Mastercam’s AI co-pilots can capture that information and make it instantly accessible. The learning curve that used to take years can now be compressed into months, making manufacturing careers more accessible to the next generation. Chris sits down with Russ Bukowski, President of Mastercam, to explore how CAM technology has evolved from manual G-code programming to AI-powered systems that are fundamentally changing manufacturing accessibility. The conversation covers the business side of manufacturing transformation, why mid-size machine shops and tier-two suppliers are no longer at the mercy of large OEMs, the leadership lessons Russ learned from Walt Disney and why manufacturing salaries are starting at $80K+ for CNC programmers. In this episode, find out: Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: “AI's not a silver bullet. It's not going to replace a program or replace an operator, but it is going to enable them to do more and to move more quickly in the business.”“CAM is really that enabler. Without it, the digital design to physical machine process is slow and error-prone. It removes the cognitive burden and makes complex manufacturing possible. It's that 10x multiplier for somebody in manufacturing, making somebody a 10x manufacturing expert because they're able to deliver results so much faster by using computing power.”“I always like to ask myself this as a leader, if nobody was looking, if there were no repercussions, would I still make the right decision? From a sustainability standpoint, from an ethical standpoint, that's how I hold myself accountable.” Links & mentions: MastercamTree House Brewing Company Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty. Mentioned in this episode: Industrial Marketing Summit 2026 The Industrial Marketing Summit is the go-to gathering for marketers working in the manufacturing, engineering and industrial sectors. Built by Gorilla 76 and TREW Marketing, IMS delivers strategic insight, hands-on learning and true community. Whether you’re a team of one, or leading a scaled marketing department, you’ll walk away ready to market smarter, lead stronger and impact your business. Make sure to use the code "happy hour" at checkout for $100 off registration. Industrial Marketing Summit 2026

Fear is expensive. In 2025, manufacturers delayed billions in capital projects because anxiety, not data, drove business decisions. But 2026 is different. Tax incentives expire mid-year, borrowing costs are down, and the hard data shows CapEx accelerating at 3-4%. The companies acting on facts while others remain frozen are the ones positioned to gain market share, capture expiring tax benefits, and pull ahead. This episode comes to you live from the A3 Forum 2026, where the message is clear: 2026 isn't about waiting for certainty. It's about preparing for complexity with multiple strategies, acting on hard economic data, and recognizing that technology will solve the labor shortage. You'll hear why geopolitics can no longer be ignored and why every manufacturing company needs dedicated monitoring and scenario-based planning to navigate constant disruption. We dig into why America's $1+ trillion manufacturing investment boom is creating career opportunities that rival the tech industry and why the outdated narrative around manufacturing jobs is costing the industry the next generation of talent. Plus, we explore how automation and robotics are becoming the central solution for critical challenges and how theme park robotics taught the industry the power of asking “how” instead of “no”. In this episode, find out: Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: “We are in a manufacturing revolution, but most people don’t realize it yet. More importantly, America is starting to learn how to rebuild and manufacture its own goods. We are starting the process to build and AI is a tool that will help close that chasm.” – Bob Little“If 2025 was marked as a year of uncertainty, I think we are now far enough into the process to recognize that it's transitioning to a year of complexity in 2026. You have to be prepared for a variety of different scenarios. You have to treat it almost like war gaming, if you think about it.” – Alex Chausovsky, “92% of manufacturing CEOs interviewed by Deloitte said smart automation or smart manufacturing...

There’s a commonly held belief in manufacturing: big ideas need big money, fast growth, and outside control to survive. But that playbook doesn’t work for every business or every industry. Andrew Johnson, co-founder of HeavyTech and CEO of ShelfAware, joins the show from Everywhere Beer Co. in Anaheim, California, to talk through how he and his partners built HeavyTech, a hybrid and electric big machinery manufacturer, on their own terms. He shares the long road behind developing technology for hybrid and electric heavy machinery, and why, when it came time to scale, they made a deliberate decision to crowdfund and not follow the traditional VC path. Along the way, we also get into why diversification within a single industry creates leverage most business owners miss, what it means to be fearless in business, and the struggles of connecting with other entrepreneurs at the same stage of growth. If you’ve ever questioned whether the “standard” approach to funding actually fits your business, this conversation will make you rethink the rules. In this episode, find out: Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: “I think the inclination today is that you need to go raise a bunch of money with private equity venture capital. I believe that’s wrong. Crowdfunding allowed us to raise a bunch of money from individuals. Normal people who believed in the future vision of our company and would eventually become our customers.”“I think that’s the beauty of diversification. Each business is in the same industrial space. The products are different, but they complement each other. Sometimes I go into a meeting trying to sell ShelfAware, and I end up selling O-rings or end up talking about HeavyTech and leave with a new investor.”“Timing is everything in business. You have to be at the right place at the right time. You can have a great idea, but if the market is not ready, it won’t work.” Links & mentions: HeavyTechShelfAware, Everywhere Beer Co Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty. Mentioned in this episode: Industrial Marketing Summit 2026 The Industrial Marketing Summit is the go-to gathering for marketers working in the manufacturing,...

What do smartphones, batteries, defense systems, and solar panels all have in common? They all depend on critical minerals like lithium, graphite, gallium, and polysilicon. Access to these resources affects how people, businesses, and governments communicate, generate power, and operate. In this episode, Chris sits down with Representative Haley Stevens from Michigan’s 11th district to discuss her plans for lessening U.S. dependence on the production and refining of these resources from other countries. The conversation digs into the current state of the U.S. supply chain. We look at how innovation shaped the auto rescue during the 2008 recession and how it will continue to influence the success of the American auto industry over the next 25 years. We also unpack why Representative Stevens is passionate about the manufacturing industry, how it continues to shape her career, and the type of legislation changes you can expect from her 100-page proposal. In this episode, find out: Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: ”Somewhere between 85 and 95% of critical minerals are processed and refined in China. It’s a supply chain vulnerability.”“We need to lessen our dependence on China, invest in loan guarantees and tax credits that will grow this industry here in the United States of America.” “Who will continue to lead the free world in the next 25 years? Well, it's going to be American industry through free market principles that allow for equal opportunity and people to thrive.” Links & mentions: Kennedy’s Irish PubRepresentative Haley Stevens Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty. Mentioned in this episode: Industrial Marketing Summit 2026 The Industrial Marketing Summit is the go-to gathering for marketers working in the manufacturing, engineering and industrial sectors. Built by Gorilla 76 and TREW Marketing, IMS delivers strategic insight, hands-on learning and true community. Whether you’re a team of one, or leading a scaled marketing department, you’ll walk away ready to market smarter, lead stronger and impact your...

Loud, dusty and far removed from innovation. We often think of mining as separate from modern manufacturing, but our visit to Imerys West Hub in this episode challenges that idea. The conversation was recorded on site at the largest diatomaceous earth mine in the world, in Lompoc, California. During the recording, a sonic boom from a nearby SpaceX launch cuts across the background, a reminder of how closely materials, regulation, and advanced manufacturing often overlap. Chris is joined by Ken Rasmussen, Operations Director at the site, who shares a practical perspective on what modern mining looks like when it’s done right. Ken walks us through how diatomaceous earth is mined, processed, and shipped as a finished product from a single site, and why that matters. The material is used in industries most people don’t associate with mining, including water filtration, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, and vaccines. In this episode, we look at how mining fits directly into modern manufacturing, and what it takes to run an end-to-end operation on a global scale. In this episode, find out: Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: “If you can’t grow it, you have to mine it. It’s not magic. Everything we use has to come from somewhere.” “Mining absolutely has to be part of communities, or else everything would need to be imported. There’s no other way around it.”“The safety of our employees is first and foremost in everything we do. Every single person here has the authority to stop work if something doesn’t feel right.” Links & mentions: ImerysSpaceX

A lot of manufacturing companies can build insanely complex and intricate things, but far fewer are set up to handle what happens once customers start buying. So, what happens when those products start selling at scale, contracts get longer, and customers get bigger? In this episode, we’re joined by Chris Hale, CEO and Founder at Klear, to uncover a side of manufacturing that often gets overlooked: how money moves through industrial businesses. The conversation explores how money flows when deal cycles are long, customers are global, and planning starts to feel less like spreadsheets and more like a 3D chessboard. Trade finance sits underneath a lot of this activity, shaping how physical infrastructure gets built and how manufacturers grow. We also hear about Chris' experience touring in a band, and how this shaped the way he thinks about coordination, timing, and handoffs, ideas that show up repeatedly in how he approaches financial systems for manufacturers today. In this episode, find out: Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: “Trade finance as an asset class is fascinating because it’s how the world gets built through money. If you see a boat full of shipping containers, that boat is trade finance. If you see a data center being built, everything going into it is trade finance.”“The board keeps moving. You’ve got government customers, supply chain disruptions, strikes, geopolitics, and it becomes incredibly difficult to plan with confidence.”“Manufacturer are doing all this precision work, but when it comes to their money, they’re doing dead reckoning. They’re looking at the sun and guessing, and that’s where things fall apart.” Links & mentions: Klear Inc.,

Chips are the new oil. And that's not just a catchy line, it's the lens through which national security, supply chain strategy, and trillion-dollar investments are being made right now. With a hundred-plus fabs going up globally and the industry sprinting toward a trillion dollars by 2032, the semiconductor boom isn't coming. It's here. This episode comes to you from SEMICON West 2025 in Phoenix, with guests joining from HARTING Technology Group and Rockwell Automation. Jeffrey Miller and Danielle Collins kick things off with a semiconductor primer for folks who aren't living and breathing this space every day. Danielle's been in the industry since her first SEMICON in 1999, seen the shift from 200 to 300-millimeter wafers, and watched manufacturing go local while R&D went global. Anuj Mahendru joins Chris on the show floor to dig into the challenges facing legacy and digital fabs, from worker productivity and material movement challenges to why copy exact is finally loosening its grip on this industry. This is part one of a two-part semiconductor series, so stay tuned for the bonus episode dropping right after this one. In this episode, find out: Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: “Manufacturing is being localized, while R&D is being globalized. R&D has moved from being concentrated in Northern California and the Boston area to regions like India, Asia and Japan.” - Danielle Collins“The semiconductor industry is defined by data economics, and it’s the currency of conversations. Successful partners that will lead the way will be companies who can speak the language of operational data.” - Jeffrey Miller“Before semiconductor and chips, it was oil. Now chips have become the new oil. After and during COVID, the world came to the realization that there needs to be resiliency of the supply chain. From a geopolitical standpoint people see semiconductors at the front end of national security and self-sufficiency.” - Anuj Mahendru Links & mentions: HARTING Technology GroupRockwell AutomationSEMICON West

In this episode, Chris sits down with Troy Ellison of Cloacina to talk about what it takes to build infrastructure that works in the real world, not just on paper. Troy explains what membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are in a way that you and I can understand, then pulls back the curtain on why so many systems fail the people who have to run them. A big theme here is end-user experience. Troy makes the case that operators have been ignored for too long, and that designing systems around spreadsheets instead of humans is why so many projects struggle. We also get into scaling a manufacturing business, what it’s really like growing from a handful of people to well over a hundred, and the highs and lows of being in business with your family. If you’re building something meant to last, whether that’s equipment, a team, or a company, there’s a lot in here worth sitting with. In this episode, find out: Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: “The Cloacina difference is the end user experience. We're hyper focused on that. It's all we care about at the end of the day.”“We were essentially building the airplane as it was on fire and falling out of the sky for many, many years.”“We are on a relentless pursuit for the perfect MBR. But the reason it's relentless is we will never get there; we will never achieve perfection. Perfection is the process, it's not a destination.” Links & mentions: CloacinaCloacina RentalsJocko’s Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty. Mentioned in this episode: Industrial Marketing Summit 2026

Industrial robots on a factory floor can be difficult, to say the least. Industrial robots on a concert stage, in front of 20,000 people, on a two-minute setup clock are a whole different challenge. In this episode, we talk with Andy Flesser - computer animator turned “robot animator,” whose work has helped bring robotics into live entertainment and film - about what that kind of pressure does to how you think about automation. Why preparation starts way earlier than most teams realize. And why some of the best lessons for manufacturing come from places that don’t look like factories at all. We also get into where Andy thinks robotics actually makes sense, where it probably doesn’t, and why the future of robots might be less about machines walking around and more about environments doing work around us. If you’ve ever operated an automated system and felt that knot in your stomach when something didn’t behave the way you expected, you’ll recognize a lot of what he’s talking about here. In this episode, find out: Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: “Every single show, every inch, every second of time is so expensive. When something goes wrong, it’s happening right in front of everybody.” “All the research and development in the world doesn’t exist unless you actually have sales.” “I think the future isn’t robots walking around your house. I think the house will be the robot and you’ll be inside of it.” Links & mentions: andyRobotRobot Animator

In true Manufacturing Happy Hour style, we head back to Pittsburgh, PA to drink the region's most iconic beer - Iron City - in an iconic Pittsburgh manufacturing facility. We sit down with Alex Gonzalez, Plant Manager at Pittsburgh Brewing Company. Part of our Made Here Series with the Industrial Solutions Network. Mentioned in this episode: Industrial Marketing Summit 2026 The Industrial Marketing Summit is the go-to gathering for marketers working in the manufacturing, engineering and industrial sectors. Built by Gorilla 76 and TREW Marketing, IMS delivers strategic insight, hands-on learning and true community. Whether you’re a team of one, or leading a scaled marketing department, you’ll walk away ready to market smarter, lead stronger and impact your business. Make sure to use the code "happy hour" at checkout for $100 off registration. Industrial Marketing Summit 2026

Reindustrialization isn’t going to be driven by a single mega factory or a headline-grabbing announcement on the coasts. It’s going to be built region by region, by places that already know how to make things and are willing to evolve how they do it. This episode was recorded live at +Venture North in Milwaukee, bringing together investors, founders, and operators to talk candidly about what it really takes to scale manufacturing in the heartland. The conversations cut through the buzzwords and focus on fundamentals: affordable power, experienced talent, corporate customers, and ecosystems that actually support manufacturers beyond the pitch deck. You’ll hear why innovation may start anywhere, but scale almost always moves to regions with space, infrastructure, and people who know how to run plants. We also dig into how legacy industries adopt new technology without putting uptime at risk, and why reindustrialization won’t happen if workforce strategies stop at new graduates instead of upskilling the people already on the floor. In this episode, find out: Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: “Once you start needing manufacturing facilities for making hundreds, thousands of products, that’s when companies really start looking elsewhere.” - Rosa Hathaway“If we only look at giving new manufacturing skills to 18- to 22-year-olds, we will never meet the workforce needs fast enough to reindustrialize the country.” - Bill Berrien“Fifty percent of all end energy use is for thermal management, heating things up or cooling things down, and we do it in very inefficient ways.” - David Tse Links & mentions: NVNG Investment Advisors

Manufacturing leadership is more than just charts, tools, and process maps. It requires people who understand the routines, pressures and drivers within a factory, and how to bring out the best in the people behind it. In this episode, keynote speaker, certified leadership coach and business transformation advisor, Kathy Miller returns to the show to share some ideas from her latest book, MORE is Better, a framework built from years of leading operations and studying what drives excellence in manufacturing. Rather than starting with strategy or systems, Kathy begins with the human elements: helping people find meaning in the work they do, creating a culture where problems feel solvable, and building the relationships that make teams stronger and more resilient. Her stories come straight from plant floors navigating Lean initiatives, new technology, talent turnover, and the day-to-day realities of production. For leaders trying to build long-term capability in their teams, Kathy reminds us that the factories that thrive are the ones that invest in both performance and people. In this episode, find out: Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: “A key aspect of lean manufacturing is eliminating waste. We don’t want people creating scrap. Who wants to work on something that’s going to end up being waste? Don’t you want to work on the product itself?”“Small choices really build our culture, our performance, and our leadership legacy, and that happens one little shift at a time.”“Optimism is really about that ability to look at when things go wrong and know that you can solve the problem. It's temporary, it's specific, and it's not going to be the end of the world.” Links & mentions: MORE is Better: Leading Operations with Meaning, Optimism, and Relationships for ExcellenceMore 4 LeadersEpisode 97 featuring Kathy Miller

A century ago, two cookware companies were born 12 miles apart in Wisconsin. One was bought right after World War II by a door-to-door salesman who converted it back to cookware after it had been repurposed for munitions. Today, those two companies have merged into SynergyOps, a 115-year-old legacy manufacturer with first through fourth generation employees still walking the factory floor. David Duecker, President of SynergyOps, joins the show from the factory floor in West Bend to discuss the company's evolution, their approach to automation, and what reshoring can look like for manufacturers. He explains how West Bend evolved with consumer demand over the decades, expanding into appliances like coffee makers and popcorn poppers, but when appliances started moving overseas in the 80s, they made a critical decision: divest and double down on their core strength, high-quality cookware. David's vision for the factory of the future isn't lights-out automation, it's highly automated with the people they have today, just doing different jobs. He also shares why manufacturing sustainability isn't just about solar panels and water recycling; it's about corrugated boxes coming from five miles down the road instead of across an ocean. In this episode, find out: Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It’s feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: “As organizations, we’re always looking to expand or go to our adjacencies to try and grow our market. Sometimes it’s important to focus on your core and what you’re really good at. Go all in on that and penetrate the market that way.”“The factory of the future for us is highly automated with the people we have today, who are able to solve problems and make an impact every day, but they may just be doing a different job.” “We never talk about the sustainability of manufacturing in the US. People often think about it in terms of water, air and gas, but sustainability can also mean cutting down on air, freight or ocean travel time too.” Links & mentions: SynergyOpsMoxa Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and

1 more event in 2025. Dozens of events ahead in 2026. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.