Jay sits down with Jesse Casto: owner of BetterCNC in Plano, TX. Spinning out of a legacy of machining, Jesse founded BetterCNC in 2021 on a mission to operate a new kind of machine shop; one that strives for continual improvement and never settles (hence the name "Better" CNC, and not "Best" CNC).

Mark Barglof is the President and owner of Kinetic Technologies, LLC: a design and fabrication shop just north of Algona, IA. After serving in the military and earning the U.S. Army Ranger Tab, Mark shifted career paths and dove into the world of manufacturing (he grew up the son of a job shop owner, so it wasn't his first rodeo).

Rafal Gliwiak, owner at Pro Fabricating Machining and Welding, joins us on this episode. Rafal’s journey embodies the entrepreneurial spirit in America. He shares how he got started, obstacles to growth and how he's learning and improving every day.

Lance Thrailkill is the third-generation owner and CEO of All Metals Fabricating located outside Dallas, Texas. All Metals vision statement is serving people with excellence and a goal of becoming the most automated shop in the world. Lance dives into all that they do for their employees and how the employees reciprocate.

In this episode, Jeff and Jay revisit the theme of seasonality in custom manufacturing. As manufacturing tends to trend busier this time of year Jeff and Jay explore strategies to use pricing to manage demand.

Jeff and Jay sit down with Nick Mosey of Moseys Production Machinist in Anaheim, California. Nick and Jay had a conversation a few weeks back about how to reduce accounts receivables, and after some great discussion, we agreed to have Nick come on the podcast so that some of his other questions could be captured for you. We touch upon a wide variety of topics, including how to prioritize payables, why you should always have a line of credit at a bank, even if you don't use it, and if you do, how to use it. How pricing algorithms can be designed to automatically adjust pricing for new prospects, why profits are essential for growth, and lots more.

James Fitch is the Vice President of Engineering at Nu-Way Industries, Inc., a leader in designing and fabricating precision metal products serving many industries worldwide. With a manufacturing career spanning five decades, James oversees Estimating, the Product Development Group, the Manufacturing Engineering Group, and the Prototype Shop from Nu-Way’s headquarters in Des Plaines, Illinois.  In this episode Jay and Jim sit down to dive deeper into his article "Six Tips for Facilitating Digital Transformation in Manufacturing" published in Paperless Parts Blog: In the Shop. Here we get a chance to riff and go deep on what is truly a passionate subject for Jim and one that he's thought about over his decades in manufacturing.

Jeff and Jay sit down and chat about how a shop might plan for 2023. Jeff shares what he has heard shops say about the previous year and how they can use this reflection to set goals and aspirations for the new year!

In this episode we dive in to how we see shops handling the dramatic fluctuations in material pricing. What are their strategies and how does automated quoting make them easier to implement.

We are speaking with Kevin Heins of KLH Industries located in Germantown, Wisconsin. KLH Industries was recently recognized as a Modern Machine Shop Top Shop in the business strategies and performance category. This is a follow up to a great article that was written about them and their implemenation of a company operating system.

Ashleigh Wehrle of Area Tool & Manufacturing joins us to speak openly about her experience of taking over the shop after losing her father unexpectedly in 2011. Ashleigh's family did not not have a succession plan in place and she shares her experience and lessons learned.

Scott Duncan of F&M Tool and Die joins us to ask Jay and Jeff some questions on growing his business. Jeff and Jay met several years ago through the Entreprenuers Organization. Jay, Jeff and Scott chat strategy about raising EBITDA, why you would want a high profit margin and how to achieve it.

One of the repercussions of US manufacturing moving offshore, particularly to China, is that we've weakened our industrial base, or in other words, we have lessened our ability to manufacture the equipment we need to defend ourselves. We explore this topic in more depth with Alex Gray, author of the Wall Street Journal Article America’s Industrial Base Isn’t Ready for War With China.

Today's guest is Zack Fennell of Ameritex Fabrication & Machining outside of Houston, Texas. Ameritex is an industry leader in advanced metal fabrication. We get into detail about how Ameritex made the strategic decision to change equipment suppliers and how they approached doing so from both an organizational and financial angle. We also touch on other areas of technology that have made a positive impact on their business.

Jeff and Jay get into what information can be interrogated from a 3D CAD model. How to input it automatically into quoting software and then how it can be used for design for manufacturability feedback during the quoting process based upon the parameters of manufacturability. Jay built a company around using 3D data to quote and manufacture parts, and this episode will give you a glimpse of how 3D CAD model geometry speeds quoting, and dramatically reduces errors.

Jay and Jeff take a deep dive into Analytics; data derived primarily from quoting activities. For those quoting in excel or an ERP system it may be difficult to extract information such as win rate. One of the advantages of estimating software is that all this data comes for free and very little effort is neccessary to generate reports. Jeff and Jay get into some of the ways reports can be sliced and diced both out of the box and how you can customize for your shop.

eff shares his experience at his first trip to IMTS (International Manufacturing Technology Show). It was also Paperless Parts first time exhibiting at the show. Jeff shares with us many common questions he received at the booth as well as some of the cool products and companies he saw while walking the show. Jeff shares his experience at his first trip to IMTS (International Manufacturing Technology Show). It was also Paperless Parts first time exhibiting at the show. Jeff shares with us many common questions he recieved at the booth as well as some of the cool products and companies he saw while walking the show.

Brian and Jason Korbelik of Precision Parts Fast join us on this episode. Precision Parts Fast has implemented many concepts and recommendations we've discussed on prior episodes. They are winning more work than ever and have lots of questions on how to automate estimating even more through the use of Paperless Parts. We captured it all for you. We get into pricing levers, part type categorization, and shop rates. Why complex parts can be the devil; throwing away your calculator; managing expectations and even chat about credit cards. These guys are smart, hungry, and growing fast.

In this episode we focus on pricing strategies for repeat parts and how to think of them in terms of rising costs; particularly materials, blanket orders, multiple shipments, and long term agreements. We also dive into AB testing to determine whether new customers will pay more and also how to use AB testing to test out different pricing strategies.

We explore a wide range of pricing strategies today. How to handle customers who cherry pick your quotes, stinging you with the line items you price too low and awarding the juicy parts to someone else. How to handle no quotes; when to no quote, putting a policy in place and what to say to the customer. What to do when an unknown new customer sends in a giant quoting package for the first opportunity. Enjoy!