Lean Built: Manufacturing Freedom

Jay and Andrew dive into the secrets of maintaining productivity amidst workplace interruptions, mastering remote collaboration, and leveraging tools like Slack and Signal for seamless communication. They also talk about the surprising benefits of groupthink, and the art of knowing when it's actually beneficial to disappoint customers—and when it's critical not to.

You may or may not like it, but it turns out food and sleep are both an important part of your strategy for succeeding at any type of business. In this episode, Andrew and Jay give their thoughts.

Join Andrew and Jay as they talk companies that couldn't make the cut and uncover why sometimes taking the passenger seat can be the smartest move. Andrew shares his concept of digital office hours—a game changer for remote workers. Plus, learn why meticulous documentation is not just a growth catalyst but also your golden ticket to a successful exit strategy.

Jay begins by talking about taking multiple weeks off...as a highly recommended strategic way to help his business. Then  Andrew and Jay talk about fusion file management, team meetings, onboarding remote workers, and why you can't "delegate your gut."Books mentioned:Poka-Yoke: Improving Product Quality by Preventing Defects.Poka-Yoke: Mistake-Proofing for Zero Defects by Hiroyuki Hirano. 

Jay and Andrew talk building for growth, shop layout, removing unnecessary items, morning meetings, and more.

Jay and Andrew talk about the Remarkable tablet and effective idea dumping. Then they both describe their morning meetings and talk about how you inspire people with your company culture ... without reducing it to a bunch of corporate gobbledegook. Books discussed:Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin.The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman.

"When I lay in bed at night as a young, hungry, naive entrepreneur, I could barely contain my joy at the thought of filing sales tax forms with a dozen states every month."—Andrew on the joy of state taxes, one of a few subjects he and Jay cover in this week's episode. Mostly, they talk about design. Good, intuitive design that takes into account the way real people think and work. And bad, terrible design that sometimes literally leads to death.Book mentioned:The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman.

Andrew and Jay talk about whether they would ever purchase housing for out-of-town workers or clients, why most problems are math problems, how to inculcate company culture in remote workers, why you shouldn't hire too quickly, slips vs mistakes, design that you shouldn't notice, "Swiss cheese problems", and thoughtless outsourcing. In other words, there's plenty to chew on in this episode of Lean Built.Book mentioned:The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman.Article mentioned:"Boeing and the Dark Age of American Manufacturing" by Jerry Useem.

Andrew and Jay continue to explore the challenges they're facing, including website woes, and brainstorming solutions for keeping customers in the loop about new projects and product releases.

Jay and Andrew talk the eclipse, the joys of 3d printing, and the thought process behind what machines they own.