In this episode, we delve into the global manufacturing landscape with Alfonso Aramburo, a seasoned leader at ESL Power Systems. Drawing from his extensive experience in Mexico, Germany, and the United States, Alfonso offers a comparative analysis of each region's manufacturing strengths. He highlights Germany's unwavering commitment to quality, the U.S.'s emphasis on timely delivery, and Mexico's competitive edge in assembly and continuous improvement. Alfonso also shares invaluable advice for shop owners, emphasizing the importance of embracing technology, cultivating skilled teams, and building trust for sustained success.

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.

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.

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.

Have you ever wondered whether having a robot in your shop makes sense? Are you worried about the cost of buying one, getting it up and running and then maintaing it? Saman Farid founded Formic Technologies with the goal to make robot implementation much easier for Manufacturers. Formic owns, installs, and then leases robots to manufacturers at an hourly rate, much less than the human team member. Listen and learn how you can get robot automation implemented in your shop with minimal risk!

In this Bonus episode, Jeremy Dustin of Metalcraft Technologies picks Jay's brain on how he can efficiently offer expedites in his shop. Jay shares his experiences and ideas for managing and pricing expedites. If you're contemplating adding expedites to your shop or already offer them, this episode is not to be missed!

Today we speak with the owner and CEO of Boston Centerless, Steve Tamasi. Boston centerless supplies precision ground bar materials and grinding services specializing in extremely close tolerances. A classy shop doing things right in a very tight margin business. Steve has made constant incremental steps of continuous improvement and re-invests in all aspects of his company.

This episode is APPROVED! Steve and Jay first spoke in early 2020 after Steve and his partner had just purchased their own sheet metal shop, now Approved Sheet Metal. Steve is back to fill us in on his first year as an owner, improvements he has made and his outlook for the future!

Today's guest is Courtney Silver of Ketchie Precision Machining Solutions; a third generation precision machine shop in Concord, North Carolina. As many shop owners can relate, 2020 produced challenges and forced changes. Courtney, however, describes 2020 as a "reset" and talks candidly about decisions and changes she has recently made, including one that was the hardest of her manufacturing career. Still in the "messy middle" of her shop’s reset she shares first hand experience and what she is learning.

Craig Cegielski is one of the countries top manufacturing educators. Craig heads up the Tech Ed Department at Eleva-Strum High School in Strum, Wisconsin and created and runs Cardinal Manufacturing, a student run machine shop within the department. Not only do his students learn technical and machining skills, but playability skills like dressing well and showing up on time. Craig shares all about the program and what it takes to get a program like this up and running.

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!

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.

Jay speaks with Jeff Trevorrow, owner of Columbus Advanced Manufacturing Systems (CAMS). While CAMS can print and machine parts, they are unique in that they also offer solutions for software, training, printers and systems.

Jay speaks with Damian Forsythe, owner of Impact Manufacturing in Loomis, California. A natural self-starter Damian speaks about his successes as well as his failures and how it's led him to his own success. He also offers us a fresh perspective on CAM software and why he prefers NX.