Jay's guest today is Roger Atkins, President at The National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA). Roger started helping in a family shop when he was ten years old spent and has spent his entire career in metalworking and most recently accepted the role of President of the NTMA early this year. The NTMA supports US small and medium size custom part manufacturers in the quest to not only survive in today’s tough times but to actually thrive!

We interview our first female Job Shop Owner, Kristin Carlson of Peerless Precision out of Western Massachusetts. Kristin shares her experience of being a woman in a male dominated industry as well as how dedicated she is growing her workforce and her commitment to the custom part manufacturing business. Enjoy!

In this very timely episode, Jay chats with Patrick Davidson, VP at Metalmite and Mark Freir, Patrick's executive coach and author of "The Choice to Show Up". They explore the soft skills of running a shop and offer advice on being a leader during these turbulent times.

Jay chats with Jeff Robinson of the newly formed Hybrid Machining. Jeff speaks candidly about his experience selling his previous shop, AllRout, and starting his new shop shortly thereafter.

Steve Lynch, Jay's friend and former Director of Technology at RAPID, joins us for today's episode. Steve and Jay reflect and share stories about their 14 year journey together. Steve opened his own shop - Approved Sheet Metal in early 2020 and has already seen tremendous success! You are sure to enjoy this episode!

ay recently traveled to the NTMA (National Tooling and Machining Association) Chapter Leadership Summit in Orlando, FL. The NTMA connects many of the nation's top custom precision manufacturers through regional chapters and national events. Their goal is to improve members capabilities through the accelerated adoption of tools, technologies and best practices! Jay asks some of the nation's top industry leaders how they are feeling going into 2020 and how being a member of the NTMA has helped their business. Listen and enjoy!

So impressed with Matt Guse, our guest on Episode 20 of The Job Shop Show and owner of MRS Machining. Listen to how he and his father helped get Cardinal Mfg up and running, a for-profit Job Shop in a local high school. Matt reveals in-house software that dramatically reduced material movement times and how open company financials has increased team profit-sharing AND company profits. Dig in!

On this week's episode, Jay speaks with Steve Doody of CSI whom he met through Strategic Coach - a coaching program for entrepreneurs. Steve has built his success and business on his mission to help people that may have had setbacks early in life or made poor decisions in the past. Listen to Steve share his incredible journey!

Today we speak with Eric Nekick of Lang Technovation. Several guests have mentioned Lang so we thought we'd speak with them directly and get to the nitty gritty of workholding and fixturing and understand why so many shops are investing in Lang.

We have a fun episode today! Jay chats with Tom Pursch, the former Chief Operating Officer at RAPID and now co-owner of PGC Wire Cable. Without Tom making Jay's ideas real at RAPID, RAPID would not have reached the levels of growth and success that it did. Today we focus on operations and discuss some of the things that were critical in making their Journey at RAPID so rewarding and successful.

We're going international! In this episode of the Job Shop Show Jay speaks with Dan Kirby, CEO and co-founder of The Tech Dept. The Tech Dept is a technology implementer specializing in working with UK manufacturers. They believe their future – like all businesses – is digital. Jay and Dan speak about adaptability and how making small incremental changes to manufacturing process and technology can yield great results!

Carlos Fernandez of ACP Waterjet joins us on this episode of The Job Shop Show. Carlos came to the U.S from Brazil one month before 9/11 with just $400 in his pocket. After falling in love with the American lifestyle, seeing the opportunity that existed in the U.S. and a lot of hard work he was able to open up his own Job Shop in 2009.

Joining us is Chris Sweeney, of Sweeney Metal Fabricators located just down the road from us in Nashua, NH. Chris explains how he has built flexibility into his schedule in order to offer expedites. He also shares his experience with his new brake that has cut set up times to 90 seconds! Listen and learn on how Chris is adapting technology into his shop to stay competitive!

Arnot Heller and his brother Matt are third generation co-owners of Central Screw Products in Troy, Michigan. Central Screw Products competes in the cutthroat world of vehicle components, heavy trucks, suspension parts, etc. Central screw is a fantastic model of how a small shop can and will thrive against foreign competition. Arnot spent many years in the early two thousands traveling to and doing business in China and now has deliberately positioned his shop as high touch tech.

Our guest is Jordan Amoia of of Aurora Machine - a one stop metal shop - outside Buffalo, NY. Jordan and his brother, Jonathan acquired Aurora in 2013 and quickly grew the shop from 4 to 40 employees. Having no machining experience, the two brothers having applied common sense and practical business philosophies to custom manufacturing and have been extremely successful! Jordan offers his experience and ideas that other Job Shop Owners can apply to to their own businesse

Peter Doyle is the owner and President/CEO of Hirsh Precision Products. Hirsh designs and manufactures precision machined parts and assemblies, and is know for taking on the tough jobs others don’t want or just can’t manufacture. They are a 2018 Modern Machine Shop magazine’s Top Show honors program winner as well a five years running winner of the National Tooling and Machining Association’s 6S award. We will talk about those awards as well as the competitive advantage they have gained through deployed technology as well as some culture attributes that have created a cohesive team environment.

In this week’s episode, Jay interviews Len Morrissey, the former CFO and President at RAPID. Len shares tips and recommendations on how job shops can work successfully with banks, leveraging the 17 years he spent in commercial banking before moving into manufacturing.

Metalmite is a full service machine shop and Tom is a second generation owner as well as a third generation machinist. We will talk about the handing off of a business from one generation to another from the son perspective as well as gears and splines, very tricky parts to machine.

We change things up a bit on this episode and speak with Chris Hopkins of Datron Dynamics, a manufacturer of high speed milling machines. We will talk about some of the things Chris sees that successful shops are implementing as well as the advantages of high speed milling, where it fits in and how best to use it.

On this episode we speak with Justin Quinn, owner of Focused on Machining in Denver, Colorado. Justin bought Focused on Machining eight years after it started. As a former commercial banker Justin offers us a unique perspective on buying a shop through the bank's perspective, including what is underwriting, how banks make money and how to make your shop look attractive to a bank.