Connect with Greg:Email: greg.crowley@rmgfelm.com Website: https://www.rmgfelm.com/Lisa Ryan: Hey it's Lisa, Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to today's guest Greg Crowley. Greg is President of Rockford manufacturing. Greg, welcome to the show.Greg Crowley: Thank you for having me. Lisa Ryan: So share with us a little bit about your background. What led you to where you're at now with Rockford.Greg Crowley: So Rockford manufacturing group is a small OEM with 40 to 50 people depending on the business level. I spent most of my career as an aerospace mechanical engineer with an MBA education. Four years ago, I switched to the wire fastener industry and took an opportunity to run a small company. So I'm originally from eastern Canada and have been in the States since 1997.Lisa Ryan: Nice. So what with all of this craziness has been going on for the past year. What is it that's working as far as your people your processes, some of the good things that have that are going on or have happened?Greg Crowley: Yep, it's, it's good to focus on the good things because there's so much downside these days with covid. On the positive side, we won a PPP loan, which helped us over the last maybe six, eight months. Our machinery is expensive, so people only want to buy it if they have to. But with this market what's working well is we had to downsize about 20% and that that was a little painful, but we did it only once. And since then, we've been keeping everybody in the building busy. We did reduce. So we didn't want to reduce more than that because when the market recovers. We did move to a 36-hour workweek, and all the salary people took a 10% pay cut, so that's helping us at least stay out of the red until business picks up. So the fact that we're keeping everybody busy is good. Nobody's looking for work in the building.Lisa Ryan: It's so important when you have good people to be able to keep them right now because who knows who's going to be available when covid is in the rearview mirror, which can't come too soon. Were you finding that your employees could work remotely, or were they coming to the facility every day?Greg Crowley: So most people in the office worked remotely when we're in Illinois, and it pretty conservative-run state. So when it first hit roughly in the March timeframe, that Illinois order came from the governor. We did have most of the office working at home, and we had a software tool called splash.com, which helped because people could use their home computers to tie into their work ones and do pretty much everything they do here.So that helped for maybe four to six weeks, and then eventually everybody came back in the building. So the only time somebody will be off now is if they have positive covid test results or a spouse that now can do the work from home. So right now, everybody is in the building and healthy. So that's good. We did have a wave of covid hit us, no more than a couple of people at a time. But it went through pretty much the office and the shop.Lisa Ryan: And so when that happened, did you reduce production when you had fewer people? How did you handle that?Greg Crowley: Yeah, good question. It did impact production, but luckily, not to the point where we would slow down a customer's order. It would have been rare if it happened, but we had enough buffer in this system with the schedules to keep borders on track. If we lost a complete department, that would have been terrible, but we only lost one person from one department. So it wasn't like it brought us to a halt.We did have an issue in the weld area, and to be safe, we went to outside suppliers to do some work for us. We needed to protect the schedule.Lisa Ryan: It's been interesting having these different conversations as far as how people have dealt with that, and now with my husband's company, they schedule production based on who shows up for the day. So it's interesting because a year ago, you would have thought like, Wow, this is what we're making today and now that whole flexible mindset, which I've found where manufacturers have excelled of just being able to turn and figure it out. And so that's been one of the good things that have come. I think that a lot of companies found that they were much more flexible or could be much more flexible than they ever thought they could beGreg Crowley: Yeah, our customers are understanding. Sometimes we get hung up with a supplier issue, and of course, we'll work with that supplier and try and do the best we can, but occasionally we will be hit by delays outside our control, but they haven't been significant.Lisa Ryan: Right. So what are some of the main things that are keeping you up at night?Greg Crowley: While we're small in terms of employees, we're not big enough to have a full-time HR person, so that that role falls onto a few of us in the building. That tends to be a time sink at times. And it's not so much only being profitable, but trying to get through each month without losing money. Those are probably the two most stressful parts at the moment. We're an infrastructure set up for roughly 50 to 60 people, so we normally have a lot more. We normally have 30% more business on average than we have today. So, we need to keep business flowing into the building. We wouldn't be able to jump back to normal overnight, but it'd be nice to see the vaccine giving people confidence in their businesses to start ordering capital equipment. I think that's coming. The forecast experts are saying that will happen this year, mostly in the second half. But so the ramp-up will be gradual.Lisa Ryan: So, are your salespeople still going into the customer shops? How has that your method of sales changed in the last year?Greg Crowley: So we have representatives all over the world. They're all reporting into the building. And I know a lot of them have been working from home telephone video calls. The only time customers want to see us is when there's a new machine installed. We had one recently go to Belarus which is between Poland and Russia. And it took a while. But we finally got somebody over there. When or if there are technical support issues, then customers are willing to have people from the company and visit. But in general, our customers don't want to see salespeople. We had a couple of customers come into the building recently, but we've only had maybe two or three in the last six months. Typically it's once a week. Travel is way down. Run the industry, the trade shows we support, and the industry groups. They're pretty much on hold. Our big show was postponed until this last December, and then they finally cancel that. So our next big trade shows in in the fall. It's been pushed out to the fallLisa Ryan: I've seen a lot of the bigger events have just outright canceled. Some of them have gone online. Thankfully, the technology is getting a lot easier to use as far as being virtual events. However, there's still the education process as far as letting people know that we can do virtual. It allows you to bring more people to the event than you may have been able to do if it was live. There's give and take, but there's still certainly a lot of education going on in those lines. So from a networking standpoint, if there was any support or connection that you would like to learn from other manufacturing colleagues, what, what would that be?Greg Crowley: I'm a fan of networking in general. I network with a few presidents of companies in this area for not in the industry, mostly workforce related. We help each other out. And then I'm part of the IFI group, which you've spoken to a couple of times. And that's great for networking within a fastener industry. And then the third one is a group called Vistage it's a group of companies that I network with and listen to speakers like yourself. It's good to share with them and be able to find out lessons learned on nearside so anything from leadership to HR issues to coaching senior staff. Lisa Ryan: Well, that's the nice thing about Vistage and some of these other groups when you're looking outside the industry. Instead of always focusing in house, we sometimes have those blinders on that. I'm sure that from your Vistage peers, you've probably learned a lot from industries that are completely different from yours can work equally well.Greg Crowley: Yeah, and then a lot of it is transferable. It's one thing I realized up front was our strategy was developing a strategy. I hit multiple cultures in the building. When I first got here, I knew I better work on the culture first, so I ended up selecting a program that worked well for us with networking help. We're still using it, and it takes time to change cultures, so we're on the right track there. And so that's just one. One example of finding a suitable tool for us.Lisa Ryan: If people wanted to reach out and connect with you and maybe gain some of your insight, what areas can be supportive of other manufacturing and industry colleagues?Greg Crowley: On the technical side, I'd say we're on the wire equipment, wire processing. Our machines either straighten and cut wire for dishwasher racks, concrete industry, automotive, the dog cages - there's all kinds of different needs for the wire. On the fastener side is the people that make nuts and bolts are drying machines. They're used in front of headers, a lot of headers in the Cleveland area. So anything technical like we've got a strong engineering team. I could answer questions that help out that way. Anything general, I'd be happy to help anybody who's got a company with roughly 50 employees who have a question. I'd be happy to share my view, and I'd love to be able to ask other companies questions too.Lisa Ryan: Awesome. Well, what's the best way for people to get ahold of you.Greg Crowley: And I'd say, email.Lisa Ryan: Well, Greg. It's been an absolute pleasure having a conversation with you today. Thank you so much for joining me today.Greg Crowley: Yes, thank you for letting me take part. I look forward to seeing others.Lisa Ryan: This is Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network. See you next time.

Connect with Allison Giddens:Email: akrache@win-tech.netLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisongiddens/Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network podcast. Our guest today is Allison Giddens. Allison is president and co-owner of Win-Tech, a precision machine shop based just outside Atlanta, Georgia. She has an undergraduate degree in psychology and criminal justice, graduate degrees in conflict management and manufacturing leadership, and certificates in cybersecurity risk management and finance. And she still doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up. Welcome to the show. Allison.Allison Giddens: Hey, thanks for having me.Lisa Ryan: Now, share with us a little bit about your background about your journey, what led you to president and co-owner of Win-Tech.Allison Giddens: So it was a stumble, to be honest with you. I left college and worked in sales and marketing for a large media conglomerate outside of Atlanta. I can let you guess who that is. As much as I was learning, it just wasn't for me. The corporate world just wasn't for me. I happened to be pet sitting for some neighbors, and I knew that he was a business owner. I said to him; I want to come work for you. And he said you don't even know what I do. I said I don't care. I know it's a small business, I think I want to get involved in that. So he said, You can come in for an interview.I laughed and said, Well, I'm already working for you, shouldn't I get a job? (because I was young and stupid, and I thought, that's how things worked.) But I came in for an interview and got to know that group. He hired me on as an admin assistant of sorts. And I grew to learn a little bit about everything, and he threw me to the wolves on a couple of projects, which was good. I quickly realized that this whole manufacturing overlapped with a small business thing that was for me that was cool.Lisa Ryan: Right. Awesome. So please share with us a little bit about your culture over at Win-Tech. What are some of the things you're doing right now that are working?Allison Giddens: So a few years ago, we asked the employees what they felt the company's values were. This question was something that in the 30 years that Win-Tech had been around, we never purposely gone out of our way to figuring it out. It felt like culture was driving us rather than us driving the culture. We found that through some conversations and some Survey Monkey results, there were three words that the employees found that set Win-Tech apart and held the biggest value. And those were accuracy, respect, and accountability. Those three things speak to our group. It is manufacturing, and it's essential to be accurate. The respect level and accountability ultimately speak to the importance of integrity that employees find are important. Those types of things have worked well to highlight. That's led to better communication within the team. So, for example, the accountability aspect. You can talk all day about how it's essential to be accountable for something. Still, unless certain expectations are communicated, you can't hold somebody responsible for something. Some things that we found worked for us was that we initiated five-minute stand-up meetings every Tuesday afternoon.Granted, when covid came around, it was a little more challenging to get 30 people together six feet apart, but we made it happen. By doing that, we were able to communicate the same thing to everybody at the same time. So everyone heard the same information, and that was helpful.Lisa Ryan: So when it comes to those three words that your employees came up with, what was it about the culture that made them feel respected that made it feel like that was one of your values of being accountable?Allison Giddens: I think that the respect, accountability, and accuracy ultimately came from the founder and owner of Win-Tech. Dennis Winslow was always very fair. I mean, he's a just guy, so he would be the first person to pick up the broom and go sweep. He's not going to ask anybody on any management level to not clean or not do something that maybe somebody else would look down on. That even playing field and that respect level speaks volumes. No one feels like they're better than somebody else.Lisa Ryan: That says a lot because we know that all of those values come from upper leadership. And the nice part about it is taking that step back and asking your employees what they believed those words; because too often, companies will bring in some high priced consultant to create a vision and mission statement for you. Then you post it up on the wall, and employers are like, What company are you talking about? When you first posed the question to them to do that research, what was the reaction?Allison Giddens: So the question was posed because a large customer invited us to be part of an ethics program. We didn't have a formal ethics program here at Win-Tech. One of those steps was having values and creating a value statement. We have a mission statement, but we don't have a value statement, or we didn't at the time. And so to come up with the values, we had to seek information from the employees because, as you said, it would have been very awkward to have some third party come in and say, oh yeah, give us your favorite words. What are the hot button, things of the day, and sit down with the company's owner? It was challenging at first because it was effortless. We could have just said, okay, Dennis water, what do you see Win-Tech as let's just put that to paper. Instead, we said, all right, Dennis, give us 50 adjectives that mean something to you - pieces of bits of values you feel are important. We sat down, and we came up with 50 and Dennis, a man of few words. And so that was tough to pull out, but it was a productive conversation. And once we got 50 adjectives. Then we went back to the employees, and we said, okay, here are 50 adjectives. But what are we missing? What do you think we're missing from Win-Tech's essential values? And from there, we were able to narrow them down. Initially, I thought, okay, this is going to be too much information. Employees are going to be inundated with words; their eyes are going to cross. They're not going to be interested in this. But it was funny right off the bat. Two of the three values stuck out overwhelmingly for people to choose, and then it wasn't until we narrowed things down one more time to get that third.Lisa Ryan: So share a little bit about the foundation of the company. It sounds like Dennis knew a lot about them and like you are bringing that culture forward. So what was it like for Dennis when he was running the company? And now, what have not only you adapted and kept, and what have you added for your own personality. Allison Giddens: Dennis had a true ethic. He again would never ask somebody to do something he wasn't willing to do himself. He had the bar set very high. You knew where you stood with him. There was never a question about whether or not what he expected that remains now that Dennis has retired and thankfully stays in touch with everybody and comes back now and then. We're going to have lunch with him on Thursday. Not too much has changed. A few things that have been enhanced are some leans towards technology that Dennis wasn't too familiar or excited about and, admittedly, so. His favorite joke was, what do you get when you cross a fill in the blank with a computer, and then the punch line to the joke was a computer. He was not thrilled with how things were going in technology, just because his take was we want to make parts. I'm excited to see some of the technology us embrace some of that a little more but knowing that we always need to stay true hold to the original values. And that's what's important.Lisa Ryan: That's terrific. What are some of the things that are keeping you up at night?Allison Giddens: Some of the things that keep me up at night include supply chain risk management. So much is happening for our suppliers, vendors, and customers; those moving pieces from the pandemic fallout with supplies and shortages to work for shortages because of sick people. There are cybersecurity concerns related to those supply chain concerns. So it's all the things on the peripheral that I feel that as a type-A personality cannot control, necessarily. So it's those things that even if I can't directly control it, I can at least be aware of it. One of Dennis's favorite sayings was if you know that there's a snake in the weeds. It won't bite you. Lisa Ryan: When it came to running production and running your business through covid, were you able to do any remote work, or did you have to reschedule production based on who showed up?Allison Giddens: It's been challenging. We did a great job from the get-go. When the pandemic hit, we had a person in charge of making sure that all the common area surfaces were clean at all times. On the hour, he was walking around with cleaning supplies, making sure doorknobs and light fixtures and counter spaces and such. We're all clean, and with 30 people or so out in the shop, have a 20,000 square foot shop at any point in time, we invented social distancing. That part wasn't challenging. But yes, when certain people were a little bit nervous, you know, maybe woke up with a sore throat. Everybody was well aware that they were to stay home if they did not feel 100%. We did have to move some things around because we are a manufacturer, we were not able to do any remote work. A couple of our admin folks perhaps could have, but we found it best that everything would be okay if everyone stayed in their respective spots. To this day, we're still dealing with the occasional unexpected somebody out. Well, we have, you know, we have them scheduled to do XYZ, so it's, it's a matter of just being nimble, being flexible, and again having a backup plan. So it's not it does not necessarily have to be able to control everything. But it's having the game plan in place so that if it did happen. You can pull the trigger.Lisa Ryan: When it comes to creating this network, we want to with the Manufacturers' network; here's a two-part question. What would be some of the things you would like to learn from other manufacturers? By the same token, if somebody wanted to connect with you. What would be your areas of expertise that you'd be willing to share with your colleagues?Allison Giddens: Sure, that's a good question. Good two-parter. So I would be interested to hear from others about training resources that they have for shop floor machinists, operators, and programmers. What's worked for them? I might also be curious to know their best practices in hiring - what they have a good experience, whether it be, whether it be software or websites or just questions to be asked during an interview. Those are always things that we're learning from resources I can share. I've got a great network of CMC affiliates, and that is the cybersecurity maturity model certification that many manufacturers in the defense industry. Within the next couple of years, they'll all have to be certified. So I've been living and breathing that. I'm more than happy to share any resources I've gained over those past couple of years. I've also got an amazing virtual internship that I developed for local high school students. And trying to encourage them to check out manufacturing and see what it's all about. So I'm more than happy to share that curriculum of sorts, especially if there's another manufacturer out there. Who wants to do something similar and offer it to their local high school because that's the next generation. And those. The next people. We need to hire.Lisa Ryan: Wow, that is a terrific resource. Can you give us just a taste of what that internship looks like?Allison Giddens: Sure. So, it lasts about 15 days. But of those days, we broke it up, so this was born out of covid. Initially, it was intended to bring on a couple of high school students on our shop floor; they were going to take part in a project. Then the world got turned upside down, and I was going to have to cancel on those students. Instead of canceling, I created this 15-day internship.Instead of focusing on a Win-Tech project, we brought on 12 students. I had a fantastic group of professionals dial in and gave the students insight into their professions within the industry. So we took manufacturing, and we looked at everything.We looked at the supply chain. We looked at accounting. We looked at marketing. We looked at the shop floor and metallurgy. So we, you name it, we looked at it. We had a subject matter expert speak to the students for about 30 or 40 minutes. At the very end of the program, the students gave us a presentation on something having to do with manufacturing solving a problem in the world. And it was great because not only did they get a wide breadth of manufacturing expertise thrown at them, but they created their own network. They had all these subject matter experts; these professionals dial-in just to talk to these students and stay in touch. It was a great opportunity for not only the students but the professionals involved devoted a lot of time and energy to it, and I'm grateful for that. So happy to share any additional information that we did with that program. It was a blast.Lisa Ryan: But is a terrific way to start to change the conversation and get these kids while they're still in high school and introduce them to manufacturing as a field; so good for you. That's terrific. So if people do would like to get a hold of you. What's the best way for them to do that.Allison Giddens: Best way to do that is either through LinkedIn or through my email address: akrache@win-tech.netLisa Ryan: Alison has been an absolute pleasure having you on the show today. I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the manufacturer's Network. Thanks for coming and we'll see you next time.

Connect with Roger Email: absconsulting58@gmail.com Telephone: 509-366-2953 Show Transcript:Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan from the Manufacturers' Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce you today to Roger Sargent. Roger is a 20-year entrepreneur who has vast experience working in manufacturing. He's found that family-owned manufacturers have a whole set of challenges that go along with that. So I'll let Roger tell you a little bit more about his background but Roger. Welcome to the show.Roger Sargent: Thank you, Lisa. I'm glad to be here.Lisa Ryan: Well, good. Well, share with us a little bit about your journey before and after entrepreneurship took over.Roger Sargent: Well, I tried to be a professional tennis player at one time and realize that there were a whole lot more people out there that were better than I was. So I started teaching the game because I love the game so much and I realized that the pounding on the court every day was going to beat up my body. So I got into management. A few years later, I got the opportunity to become a partner in a health club, which eventually led me into a partnership in a restaurant and hotel.I realized that all of my business knowledge and systems that I had applied work for any business. About 15 years ago, I started my own consulting business, where I helped small business and middle-sized business owners and their teams with their processes and helped them get out of their own way.In the construction and manufacturing industries, you find that many of those owners started with a family-owned practice. They've let these processes and procedures that they have always applied go hand down from generation, generation from one employee to another and after a while, no one knows why they do it this certain way. They keep doing it. And so that's what I help business owners in all types of businesses, but preferably manufacturing and construction help them get out of their own way.Lisa Ryan: So, take us through the process you use when working with your clients.Roger Sargent: Well, it just starts with getting introduced in and asking a lot of questions; most of those questions start with why and then who, and if they can't answer the why, the who doesn't matter. It's finding out why they do some things the same way over and over again. And if they can spell out exactly succinctly why they do it this way, it probably means to me that it's necessary.But so many times, probably eight out of 10 times, I ask a specific question on certain procedures, I always get, "I don't know, we've always done it that way." That's not a good thing to hear when you're in a business that you don't know why you do something a certain way and so from there, once you start realizing that there's a lot of, I don't know, we've always thought that way, all of a sudden, teams start to realize that maybe we need to start rethinking these things. I help them with that process. Okay, this is how you've done it for X number of years, whatever.What is the result we're trying to get in the timeline? And now, let's see if we can work backward and make it happen more efficiently and productively.Lisa Ryan: So what are some of the things you repeatedly see when it comes to these family-owned or smaller manufacturers getting stuck?Roger Sargent: Well, it starts with the first generation to the second generation and so on, that the founding member of the family who started the business had this idea and they want to keep the family involved. They put the family in there, and they let them work at the business, which is great. So they get to know all the frontline issues and procedures and systems. But what they don't learn is the why. Why are we doing it this way? How do we ever come up with that particular method? It just starts to get transcended down, but because it's always been done that way and it's family-owned.No one wants to rock the boat, but they don't take the time to teach the family. They're the foundation of the business not I'm not talking about the procedures in the process as I'm talking about why the business was started in the first place. And what's its overall goal and trying to get connected with their customers and deliver the best service possible.They seem just automatically to think by just being part of the family. That's where it all starts. And that's where I begin with getting my getting the family members together. And the key employees together and just talking that out, but it's just they make too many assumptions that everybody knows why they're doing it a certain way.Lisa Ryan: It sounds like it can come down to a simple conversation about the company's history because one of the things that a lot of manufacturers are looking at that success is that succession planning. Who's going to take over the business when I'm no longer there? And getting to the point of that why I started the business. What was it that was going on at the time? How did I figure out these procedures?Because that way, you're giving a history to the rest of the family, who then, based on that knowledge, can come up with ways that make sense to update the policies to update things and take it forward. Instead of getting stuck. Would that be helpful?Roger Sargent: That that's exactly at least. So that is very well said because it's just people just making too many assumptions, and so those assumptions get passed on from generation to generation. So what you just laid out there is a perfect format to break away from their current assumption base and went forward with maybe not a new business plan, but just new eyes looking at everything going on.Lisa Ryan: What occurs to me is that maybe that first-generation thinks that the rest of the family's going to get bored or they've heard it before, or I told him. Well, how I started this company 20 years ago, so maybe they do not realize how important it is, especially when you start thinking about transition or succession planning to let the next generations know coming in that this is what we. This is why we got started and helped them get a little bit closer to that.Roger Sargent: You're so spot on with that message and it doesn't necessarily mean family-owned business. It's just business in general. 82% of all small to middle-sized businesses fail within their first four years, and it's because they don't take the time to put down in stone, what the primary purpose of this business is and why it got started.What end result is expected and desired end result wants to look like, or should it look like they love their trade most small business owners and middle-sized businesses. They love their trade; they fall in love with their trade, and they think that the business part of things will take care of itself, because they want to be involved with the trade and that's where it stems down because they love it. And that's what makes them so good.When it is on service delivery, it doesn't necessarily translate that it's going to be a good business. We're all in business to hopefully deliver good products good service, but obviously, to make money to be able to send that business on to the next generation and hand it down to generation after generation, You're not gonna do that if it's losing money every month.Lisa Ryan: Exactly. It almost sounds like the original thought with the Field of Dreams mentality behind it; if I build it, they will come. That first generation is so passionate, and they have their way, and they know why they're doing, and then over time, that gets diluted. So it's like, well, mom or dad built the business, but why aren't they coming? Because the next generation doesn't necessarily understand that why or necessarily have the same passion.Lisa Ryan: That the founders, whether it be their parents or the people that they're working for. So after they have that original conversation as far as just discussing the wise kind of painting that picture, where do you take them from there, what would be the next best step?Roger Sargent: Well, you just said a very keyword passion. The original founder and maybe the second generation had that passion to just keep moving on. That doesn't mean that the next generation of people who have a family have that same passion, so you need to take a look at everybody and say, okay. Now that you've described the bigger vision, I love the old saying by Yogi Berra, "If you don't know where you're going, how do you get there?"  Once we realize we know where we're going, we know what it looks like to get there. Does everybody that needs to have that passion. Do they have it. And if they don't, then maybe they shouldn't be considered of handing down this business to have because if they don't have that passion. What's going to mean they're going to keep wanting to improve as we move forward with that business.Lisa Ryan: That sounds like that can be a pretty tough conversation for the owner of a company to have with their family members.Roger Sargent: In, and what I have found is that it's exactly that it's a family conversation that's going to be tough to have in because this business is like another child to that original owner and so you're talking about your child, another sibling. And so what you're trying to establish here is the true commit. I would recommend that. That's where you need to have an outside facilitator make that conversation happen and not just let things kind of get swept under the carpet like it typically can happen with a family-owned and family in general. Sometimes we don't want to deal with that, so we just sweep that topic under the carpet and see if we'd ever get stepped on again to where we need to talk about it again. You need to have some of this to facilitate it from start to finish and not let it get stalled in between.Lisa Ryan: Well, and the other thing, even though there is an investment in bringing in a consultant or a third party to work with a manufacturer. The nice thing about it is that you can be the bad guy. You can tell that person exactly what that person wants to say, but for whatever reason, they can't say it. They don't want to hurt feelings. After all, they want to keep their family ties because they don't want to destroy their relationships.So having the skills and looking at it from that neutral third party coming in, you're not only able to say that, but you are perceived differently by the employees because you're not there on the day today.Roger Sargent: Exactly, yeah.Lisa Ryan: So after those difficult conversations you've explored the why you've had some of these difficult conversations to kind of reignite that passion within the company. Where do they go from there to move forward?Roger Sargent: Well, they make whatever necessary agreements that they're going to move forward with the terms they just agreed upon. Then, what you do is you start taking each one of those agreements, and you start now breaking those down to see if there things that are being done right now that can be changed for the better the company and start seeing how that's going to apply. But it begins with agreements, and then you start breaking down all those agreements into small baby steps making those processes to where everybody's body. And so it's not the father handing down more directives; it's now a team of family members or key personnel that's treated like family.To have their say and how everything looks and sounds moving forward. It would help if you had that buy in. Let them feel like they are contributing, not just what they do to pick up their paycheck, but contributing to the bigger picture and the bigger cause.Lisa Ryan: Share with us a success story that you had with one of your clients, of course, giving the information confidential. But something where you saw a real big difference between what they were doing by implementing the process that we just talked about how they were able to see success after that.Roger Sargent: There are plenty, but the one that comes to my mind is a family-owned company. They have the daughter, the husband of the daughter, and then the husband, a wife who founded the company. They all have their roles, but they were not necessarily meant to be in that role because of their particular skill set. The job came open, and they needed to put someone there. So they put a family member, even though they might not have been fully qualified to do that. And over time, even though you're a family member, you don't enjoy what you're doing because you don't know what you're trying to do. It can weigh on you and take a toll. Once we found this out, we realize that they had much better skill sets necessary in other parts of the business. So what we did was we moved them to where they had that self-injected fire that started underneath them. They were excited to come to work and help out in that particular area instead of just coming in and dreading it every day. Not being productive every day because I didn't like what I do because I didn't know what I was supposed to do. The old saying, "You don't know what you don't know." If no one teaches you, just throw you in that spot because the opening is here and we need to get that stuff done. That's not the recipe for long-term success. Once we've put the family members in the right spot that opened up the opportunity for some long-term employees who have been around with a family business for a long time to step into additional roles they were excited about. So, the company's morale, first and foremost, just springboarded greatly because they felt so good about that. But at the same time, when you come to work and you enjoy what happens that energy and synergy is going to transcend through all the rest of the employees. Without doing a whole lot of other changes to the marketing process or the sales process, all of a sudden, the company became more efficient and more productive, which means they became more profitable because everybody was doing a job that they liked. They were good at it, and before it, just good things happened without changing a lot of the operational procedures.Lisa Ryan: That's such an interesting point because our whole conversation up to that was about the owner or the leader of the company themselves sitting down and sharing their passion and their why. But having that level of not the only vulnerability of allowing that employee that family member that person is that isn't quite getting that passion for feeling safe enough to share. Well, I don't understand what I'm doing. Well, I don't like what I'm doing well. That opens up like you found opportunities for them to move into something they are passionate about. So it does go on both sides of the equation; it's up to the owner to the company's leadership to share the reasons why. But it's also coming full circle that they have to listen and be willing to listen to their employees, whatever they say, and look for ways to make it work, even though it's not necessarily the role that they thought that that employee was supposed to be.Roger Sargent: Yeah. Well, well, said what you find is that most owners when they started a business. They were so in love with their trade that they didn't take the time and effort to get to know the other aspects of running that business. So when they hand that roll off to a family member or just an employee, most of the time, they're not very well trained on how to do that because the owner himself doesn't know how to do that. So, hey you applied for a bookkeeping job, you said you have some booking experience go through the book you've been, even though they might only know how to do payroll, they might not know how to do anything else and bookkeeping, but they might have just done payroll only or just done accounts receivable only, and now they're in charge of all the bookkeeping that they have no real skill set to do that entire job. That's the problem with most businesses, primarily in manufacturing, is that we get so involved in our trade in the delivery of service that we forget that those other business components are necessary evils that need to be addressed every day to make sure that the business is going to be profitable and sustainable from you're in and you're out.Lisa Ryan: You have given us so many great tips about just taking a step back and looking at the business. But if you were to wrap it up in a nice little bow with your best tip that somebody listening today could start to implement, what would that be?Roger Sargent: Of stop making assumptions. Number one: start having some in-depth conversations with your key staff and your frontline staff as well. Start building that foundation and that environment where it's safe to say what's on your mind, obviously. You need to do that respectfully, but, you need to find out. Do you have everybody sitting on a seat on the bus right now within that organization? Are they sitting on the bus's right seat and did they knew their why; the big purpose of the business was started in the first place. If they can, if they're seeing say yes, I'm on the right seat. I love this place. I love what I do every day, and I know the why, on the bigger picture. Now start moving into the efficiencies.But first and foremost, stop making assumptions and build that environment where people can freely say what they need to say and not have any repercussions, so that way you know. Have you heard the same two heads are better than one? Well, I think ten heads are better than two. So if you've got a lot of people getting feedback, you just never know what you might find out from that frontline employee that comes in with such a different perspective. Something that might be relevant for your business today that you never thought of before give them that opportunity.Lisa Ryan: Wonderful. Well, Roger. Thank you so much for being on the show today from a networking standpoint if people would like to reach out to you. What's the best way to do that.Roger Sargent: Well, my, my cell phone. I was always on me. So you can call me at 509-366-2953 or you can reach me on my email by ABSconsulting58@gmail.comLisa Ryan: Wonderful. Well, again, Roger. Thank you so much for being on the show today. It's been great to have the conversation.Roger Sargent: Thank you very much I enjoyed it.Lisa Ryan: I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the manufacturers network podcast. See you next time.

Connect with Sue:Emails: sue@hpwpgroup.com Website: https://www.hpwpgroup.comShow Transcript:Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan, host of the Manufacturers Network podcast. I am excited today to bring you my guest, Sue Bingham. For more than 30 years, Sue, a human resources executive, has provided direction to companies in the transportation and logistics, pharmaceutical, aerospace, food bottling, floral, optical, textile, and medical device industries. She's worked closely with company leaders to analyze their organizations and facilitate the implementation of common-sense systems that positively impact the organization's bottom line.Sue is an expert at effectively using culture to form a common language across global operations, leading to greater collaboration, higher team member satisfaction levels, and increased business unit cooperation. Her passion is helping companies embrace and transition to high-performance work environments. Sue, welcome to the show. It's so good to have you today.Sue Bingham: Thank you, Lisa. Lisa Ryan: I know you're a former human resource executive, but kind of share with us a little bit about your journey and really what led you to what you're doing today.Sue Bingham: My journey, as as you could tell, started in manufacturing. I was exposed relatively early on to the pretty traditional management approaches and pretty traditional HR, which is a role where we micromanage attendance records. We tell supervisors how to manage. We have lots of policies that we enforce and so on. And none of that ever felt right to me because when I was younger and the people I talked to were adults. Whether they worked in the plant or whether they worked in an office didn't matter to me. They were still adults. I had trouble taking on some of the traditional human resource responsibilities that a traditionally managed manufacturing company had at that time. So that was my real awakening. I happened to have a mentor who led me in a different direction, who showed me an entirely different role for human resources. It was one that that was genuinely adding value in a business partner through actually having fewer policies, not more. We also recognized that everybody could be all salaried. Getting rid of the two-class system that seems to permeate manufacturing operations in particular, where you're one class of person with even different benefits and different rules if you work in the plant. If you work in the office, that's different. So that two-class citizenship bothered me quite a bit. When I found all these ways to eliminate that by treating people as respected, responsible adults, it made a world of difference. I wanted to take that learning to more and more companies. Lisa Ryan: So when you look at the different companies you're working with; obviously the two-class system is one of the manufacturing challenges. What are some of the biggest challenges they're facing right now?Sue Bingham: Well, across the board and working with some of the manufacturing groups that get together and talk about their biggest problems, clearly it's staffing and retention. In recent research, I heard that there were some four hundred thousand open positions in manufacturing, which as of October and yet from last year, hiring was up. Turnover is down because people need the jobs they have and are looking for jobs. So I think the problem is that we're still doing staffing in the same old way.Manufacturing is not getting creative at recruiting, not having a culture that causes people to be attracted to the job, using a hiring process with a certain turnover. And everybody accepts it as a cost of doing business. Right.Lisa Ryan: Well, and I think that leads very nicely into our next conversation. One of the reasons I wanted to have you on the show was this concept that you shared with me about employees doing the hiring. So as people who are listening and their heads are about to explode right now, "what do you mean? Managers aren't doing the hiring?" I'd love you to go into the details and let people know what it looks like.Sue Bingham: Absolutely. I think you need to start with your middle management, your leaders, in terms of challenging their assumptions about the people they manage. I mean, these are adults, and they're working side by side with every new person. And if a company is is is willing to train, and most are, especially on those entry-level jobs, it's far more essential to hire someone for their character than it is for and their personal attributes than it is for whatever experience they might have.So the steps are that you get management, the supervisors, and managers to say tell us who your top employees are, who are your best people? I mean, you can count on them. They're always there. They go the extra mile. They're trustworthy completely. And they're innovative. They're creative. Who are those people? And they identify the five or six or seven top employees. And then we go through about a six-hour training session, which is more than most supervisors have had in hiring decisions, often more than most managers have had in manufacturing in terms of interviewing.We get them together, and we say, tell us what you're looking for in the person working next to you. If I ask supervisors, they'll usually say some related experience and a good attendance record of getting that information. And and and that's about it. I like them if they seem like they're a good fit, and yet if you ask the people that are going to be working next to them for eight to 10 to 12 hours a day, what are you looking for it? They'll make a list of 30 to 40 attributes, like a sense of humor, has my back, learns quickly, is willing to go the extra mile, creative, funny, fun to work with - they'll have a whole list of those things. We do give them a group of behaviorally based questions that they can use to determine what questions they want to ask. We teach them how to do a team interview, which can seem daunting to a candidate and often does. For the last 20 years, our experience is that people walk out of those interviews wanting the job more than they did when they walked in. This process makes people more comfortable.The more they work together, the stronger they are. And they ask probing questions. And at the very end of that interview, they decide whether or not to hire that employee. And that decision is made with management's counting on them to make that decision and make it a good decision. And everybody has to agree. They have to reach a consensus. They can live with the decision, even if someone's not so sure. There are obstacles with it, but the benefits are so much more significant.Lisa Ryan: Yeah. I was thinking of it. It seems to eliminate that first day, the scary first day for the new employee because they met their boss. Maybe they saw some of the people that they'd be working within the plant. But until they go and show where their workspaces, they have no idea. Am I going to like these people? Who am I going to have lunch with? Where are the cool kids? Who do I sit with? When you have that team effort bringing them on board, not only do they feel more comfortable being around those people, but the people that they're working with have buy-in. They think that this person is because of me. Versus nobody even knows that I've been here for more than six weeks. You get ghosted at lunch because people are like, oh, God, another new or another one, why should I make friends with them? They're just going to be gone in three weeks. Well, what if you did make friends with them? Yes. Friendship caused you to stay.Sue Bingham: Well, that's just it. And the thing is that the team members take personal responsibility for that person's success versus the supervisors who just brought in another person. We're going to have to train. They take responsibility, and we measure their success. I mean, we give them regular reports. They look at turnover numbers and so on, so forth. So there's a lot of side benefit cycle. They'll identify if a supervisor has a significant turnover issue based on style or something like that. They'll recognize it because they're very focused. Their goal is to reduce turnover in combination with hiring the very best people that are there.Lisa Ryan: Every company I've ever worked for there seems to be like the golden child manager that is untouchable from an upper management standpoint, but they're just atrocious as a manager. But nobody has the nerve to tell them. So when you use this philosophy and open it up, create that safe environment to no one; we will listen to you if you have some legitimate gripes about what your boss is doing.And either we're going to send that manager to training, or they're not going to be managers because that you've heard it. I mean, people don't leave their people don't quit their job. They quit their manager. We've listened to it a gazillion times. And it's up to leaders to make sure that their managers measure up to the culture they want to create.Sue Bingham: Team members make sure of that. They will often go a step further and say to the team members, what were your challenges on the first day, and how would you suggest that we structure the first-day orientation and get them involved in that? You're empowering people at that frontline level with a significant decision that contributes to the retention of those high performers.They're getting a much stronger sense of ownership within the company.Yeah. You're entrusting them with a role that they probably never would have aspired to. And they never even thought that they would be instrumental in hiring the next person. You're also giving the opportunity to maybe somebody who hasn't been shining like a superstar to once they get empowered and feel a taste of that, now you're giving them the tools to make them even better job.Well, and another benefit, I mean, we only usually do that training once. And then there's a term limit. After two months or three months, a member will rotate off but will name their successor to the team. And then, the team trains the person on the job as part of the interview process. So it's just a fantastic approach. And I want to describe the results. It reduces turnover by more than 50 percent almost immediately.Lisa Ryan: So what would you describe then as a high performing manufacturing organization?Sue Bingham: Well, it's one in which you can't tell who works in the plant and who works in the office other than maybe the PPE, although if they're on the floor office, people ought to be wearing their personal protective equipment. You can't tell about changing shifts, which is interesting. I've worked in large plants where, when the shift is over, there's a mass exodus converging with a mass exodus coming in. You don't really see that because people stop and talk to each other, and we don't get wrapped up in little things.First of all, a high-performance workplace has no use for timecards. We believe people are salaried, will pay them forty hours. And if they're in a non-exempt job, they get overtime. But we're not sweating a minute here, two minutes here, and neither are they. It's so they'll talk to each other between shifts and let each one know what's what, what they need to pay attention to going through it. They greet people. I can tell when I walk into a high-performance workplace because people will look me in the eye and smile. And often that way, it sounds like little stuff, but I can also tell one that's a very traditionally managed company where you walk in, and people are looking down and nobody looks up, and nobody says anything. And by the way, you're being escorted by a management member, not by one of the team members who know the job the best or the equipment the best.Lisa Ryan: You feel culture. You feel. You can walk into a plant, and when you think about that brand new employee or a candidate for a job coming in, and they're walking around that plant, they're thinking, "How does it feel? Do I want to work here? You know, I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but there's something off? I don't want to be there versus they see the smiles, they see the recognition.Sue Bingham: They feel that energy even between shift change, which is such a good example. And there's not the micromanagement of every second because of the time clock. Sometimes we have to throw out these jaded management philosophies, and they're all used to create those connections. Well, they're all based on a lack of trust. And everybody's had experience with hiring bad employees. I mean, that are just bad. They're not good people. They'll steal from you, they'll lie to you, they'll cheat, they'll do whatever. And if they manage to get themselves in, you want to get them out as soon as possible. But you don't want to create a whole culture around trying to catch them. And in the process of that, dehumanize all those good people that you've hired.And that's the crux of the philosophy that drives so many of these systems, is don't spend time on that five percenter. If you if you've made a bad hire, get them out quickly. And on the ninety-five percenters, focus your attention on them through reward and challenge and knowing that they have so much more to contribute. I often liken a traditional manufacturing organization to someone who buys a really robust computer system, but they only use one tiny part of its capacity.That's what we do with our production employees in many traditionally managed organizations where we bring them in to do the hand, the men where manual work. But we're not using their brain at all. Right. And there's so much that they have to offer. And I'm not trying to be Pollyanna here. There is I have seen in high-performance workplaces the level of creativity and ownership. And for those looking at numbers, every metric is improved when you've got a workforce like that.Lisa Ryan: Well, as we're getting to the end of our time together, how do people get in touch with you if they want to learn more, they want to connect with you?Sue Bingham:  They can go to our group, which is HPWPgroup.com. Go to our website. We're always happy to be in touch. Anybody can reach me and sue@HPWPgroup.com We really are involved in creating communities. And our leadership workshops typically end up forming communities from companies that have engaged in and invested in creating that high-performance workplace. So they share what their successes are, where they've stubbed their toes, and so on, may have some of their community, even though they're different industries the most.Lisa Ryan: So thanks again so much for being my guest today. I'm Lisa Ryan and I want to thank you for tuning in to the Manufacturers Network podcast. See you next time. Thanks, Lisa.

Connect with David Byrley:Website: https://www.leverage30.com. Email: dhybyley@gmail.comShow Transcript:Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan from the Manufacturers' Network. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today David Byerly. David has spent more than 30 years in the startup, new business unit, new product, and new business development for multiple industry leaders of industrial cutting tools contractor tools, food processing capital equipment, dental lab tools nanomaterials, and powder powered medical devices and knives. So, welcome to the show, David. It's good to have you here.DAVID BYRLEY: Thank you for the opportunity.Lisa Ryan: I read a little bit about your background, but share with us what you did, what brought you into manufacturing, and your journey of what got you to where you are today.DAVID BYRLEY: Right out of high school, I went to work in industry as a machinist and that was it goes back to 1978. I immediately began to work on my engineering degree and spent the next 11-12 years going from being a machinist to an engineering technician ultimately completed my engineering degree at Cleveland State. I worked my way into management and found a path in new product development. When you're involved in that process, you're involved in manufacturing, and you're involved in the business side, you're learning product management and marketing and sales. So you get a fully comprehensive view of the business right then. So did that many years and leveraged leading into technical sales, product management, engineering, R&D, and lots of different areas. And so now that's what I do.I bring all that comprehensive knowledge into working with companies starting up new business units or major new product categories or looking to make some acquisitions and really would like to understand what that acquisition might be in the industry or anything that can leverage that comprehensive understanding early-stage startups.Lisa Ryan: When you're working with your manufacturing clients, what are some of the things you see now that they're doing well - this can be a specific customer that sticks out in your mind, but it could be about the employees, the workplace culture, they've developed or just some things that our listeners can learn from as far as what they can do to make the workplace better.DAVID BYRLEY: Industry is getting very efficient and is becoming masters at getting multi-functional teams together to accelerate getting projects done in a much more efficient manner. If I look back 20-25 years ago, there was still a mixture. There are a few people leaving everything and relying on that too to manage the projects. But project management goes much farther down into the organization, narrowing down, but many more people have those skills. Companies are becoming much more comfortable with that. That's one of the things I'm noticing.Lisa Ryan: That's interesting that you say that because one of the things that we see with the two newest generations in the workplace, the millennials and Gen Z, is they want their input to be heard. They want to be a contributing member of the organization, instead of just in days past where it was like well what the managers do it.  That is feeding into exactly how manufacturers need to connect with their new employees is getting them involved. It sounds like what you're seeing is that's really paying off in terms of productivity and just moving the process forward.DAVID BYRLEY: I'm working with a client right now, in two different business units. I'm impressed by their product managers and how they're way ahead of where we would have been 15-20 years ago.  The product manager would have just been in the corner doing his basic research, but now many people understand how to be successful in commercializing products and things like that. So yeah, I think the new generation that's coming in has much more the breadth of contribution with their talents is growingLisa Ryan: So thinking about maybe one or two of clients who are knocking it out of the park, is there one thing that you've seen that they've implemented - besides just the bringing a lot of people into the project's themselves - as far as the way they treat their employees or something in their workplace culture?DAVID BYRLEY: I'm not too close to a lot of that. But you know what I would say is you have been involved in several different companies and their cross-functional teams. There's much more of a level playing field in terms of the meetings. It's more of an exchange of information ideas than it is sending signals down to the to do this. The awareness is starting to take place that this is a much more efficient way to go. Lisa Ryan: I like what you said as far as the people being on the same level. If somebody is brand-spanking new With the company, they just got their degree. They may not have experience in your industry, but they see the world differently. Creating a safe environment for people to share ideas and get those ideas on the table and be listened to and taken seriously. Now, that can make a huge difference for keeping The employees because they feel valued. DAVID BYRLEY: One of the things that are happening is gaining many more examples in industry where out-of-the-box thinking is attributed to success. In the past, it would have been that's blue-sky thinking. Things are changing dramatically and so what some of the younger generations see as possible, is possible. So there's much more of an open mind with that input.Lisa Ryan: There's no more of that, "We've been doing it this way for 40 years. And there's no reason to change," because with technology coming at us the way it is, this whole new world is opening up. In the last year, we're finding all kinds of new ways to do business when dealing with a pandemic; it's not your grandfather's factory anymore. What are some of the things that you're seeing that are keeping your clients up at night? What are the main things that they're struggling withDAVID BYRLEY: Everybody's wondering about how technology is going to change the whole paradigm. For example, in the industrial cutting tool business. 80% of cutting tools are sold through industrial supply distribution. We now have Amazon, and we have the younger generation that's buying tools right off their phone, right right next to their machine. Everybody's saying, "Okay, what's new?" It's going to evolve. The industrial supply distributors are thinking about how they can position their business to provide the most value to the manufacturer. The manufacturer is thinking, Well, I don't want to get left behind, so there's a discussion between those two. Some models that are emerging are working well. One of the new models is that you market directly now to the end-user and sell through distribution and ship direct. A mid-sized distributor or smaller distributor doesn't have the resources to do with the marketing; now we've got this marriage. The mid-size or regional distributor is getting all this good marketing, and they don't feel threatened; that it's an advantage for them. So, there are these new shifts and relationships that are happening. People are less likely to live in denial about what's happening and kind of use influence to keep things as status quo. They now realize that that's a short term play.Lisa Ryan: It brings me back to the days when I was in the welding industry selling all kinds of welding consumables into the maintenance department. I would never think that 20 years later that Joe could go online to Amazon and buy a box of rod. Personal connections are still meaningful. But again, you have a change in philosophy, a change in that immediate gratification of I don't need to wait till that salesperson makes their monthly visit, I can go online, and with the click of a button, I can add to the cart, and it's here in a day or two. That brings up another point for sales reps to figure out new ways of doing business. The personal relationships are there, and it's becoming so much more than just the product - it's reaching out. Tell us about some of the ways that you work with your clients if somebody had some questions or needed some help for you. And then what would be the best way to get ahold of you.DAVID BYRLEY: Yeah. So I do a lot of work also with private equity companies. So I get a pretty comprehensive view of what's going on within several different industries. Simultaneously, I'm getting a solid pulse on what people are thinking about. There's a lot of these new models emerging, so people are leveraging my background and the fact that I understand manufacturing and understand engineering. I know the marketing side as well as the sales and distribution side. I have extensive experience bringing something from concept through commercialization with over 20 plus major new projects. So the way I'm being leveraged is rather than having to commit to a VP level person for a long term or that you can have all that experience and save to a six-month project or one year project or two-year project. Typically it starts as a three-month project and grows so that that's the way you know I've set up leverage 30 to be leveraged to leverage to 30 years of experience just that way.Lisa Ryan: Okay, and what's the best way for people to get in touch with you.DAVID BYRLEY: Well, they can call me at you directly on my phone at 330-715-0562. You can go to my website, www.leverage30.com. There's a portal there to submit a request and get in touch with me but or you can connect with me via email at dhybyley@gmail.com  Lisa Ryan: All right. Well, David was an absolute pleasure having you on the show today. I'm Lisa R, and thanks for tuning in to the Manufacturers' Network podcast. See you next time.

Connect with Chris Luecke:www.manufacturinghappyhour.com/communityShow Transcript:Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan of the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to have as my guest Chris Luecke. Chris is a podcaster marketer and self-proclaimed media Maverick in the manufacturing industry. As the host of the podcast and video series Manufacturing Happy Hour, Chris interviews leaders in the industrial sector to simplify and explore the latest trends and technologies impacting modern manufacturers. Chris recently left his sales job of 11 years with Rockwell Automation to pursue podcasting and marketing full time. He now helps manufacturers and other industrial companies create lead generating digital content and build dedicated customer communities.I had the honor of being on Chris's podcast. A couple of months ago. And when I started looking up top manufacturing podcast gets his layer was right in the top 10. So, Chris, it is an absolute pleasure to have you on the show today.Chris Luecke: It's great to catch up again. Lisa, Thank you for having me. I loved having you on manufacturing happy hour, and I'm excited to be on the other side of the interview table today.Lisa Ryan: Well, good. Well, you talked about leaving your career at Rockwell automation and now going into working with manufacturers full time. Please share with us a little bit about your background about your journey, and really what led you to where you are and what you're doing today.Chris Luecke: Sure, and I appreciate the great intro. You know, I, I'll try to tie some things in, and we've things together. So, I worked as a sales guy for Rockwell automation for the greater part of a decade for just over a decade. For context, I'm sure many of your listeners know, but Rockwell Automation is the largest company globally, dedicated to industrial automation and information solution. So, programmable automation controllers, VF, DS, large automation systems. Rockwell automation does all of that.So, I was working for most of that time in two different markets. I started my career in Houston, Texas. For the latter half of that, I worked as a sales guy out in the San Francisco Bay area. One might imagine, those are two very different markets. In Houston, I served more heavy industry - oil and Gas, Petro Chem, and working with what I would say the more senior generation of individuals; people who had been at their companies for 20-30 something years and hadn't jumped around from company to company. They valued the face-to-face meeting and the handshake that was working in Texas.Now I go out, go out to the Bay Area Silicon Valley. I think everyone has their visions of what the tech world is like out there. You know, 20- and 30-somethings and their hoodies behind computers cranking out the latest code. And to be honest, that the manufacturing industry has some of those elements out there. It's a younger generation of workers making the decisions out there, and they're not typically sticking around a company for their whole career; they're going to jump every two to three years.So with that being kind of the two different markets where my career had been, I started podcasting and doing videos at a necessity. I had to think, okay, I'm also a -something. I'm 33 now. I was in my late 20s when I moved out to San Francisco. I'm like, how do I consume content? And I'm like, well I videos and podcasts. I'm likely customers that are my age aren't that different. So I thought, why not communicate to them the way they're used to being communicated to? I'll create videos. I'll create podcasts. Whether it's someone in that generation or someone older, that's an excellent way for me to be in front of my customers - even when I'm not in front of them. So, it started as a necessity for reaching the type of audience I was serving out in the Bay Area. It evolved into a good sales and marketing practice after that. It not only helped me keep in touch with that generation but others as well.Lisa Ryan: When you look at the technology, which one of the "gifts" of covid has been pushing us into being a lot more comfortable with tech, and maybe in the long run, it will make it easier to attract the younger generation into manufacturing. Because that's part of changing the conversation, we need to get the guidance counselors in high school to suggest manufacturing and industrial careers and the parents. You're looking at these high tech environments that people are going into now. They're a whole lot different from when I was in the welding industry - when it was everything your mom ever warned you about in manufacturing—but conveying that message. What are some of the ways you've seen organizations starting to do that? Maybe it is a comparison and contrast between Texas and San Francisco. But what's working?Chris Luecke: Yeah, so it's a great question because helping companies attracting and retaining talent is similar to what I do to help customers attract and retain customers. You're still marketing to someone; you're trying to get them to buy from you. The other is that you're trying to get them to work for you. When it comes to the younger generation, I think it's essential to take familiar things. Something I referenced a lot was the show "How it's Made." People loved watching that because it's cool to see how a candy bar is made or how a car is made. People like seeing that fast-paced environment inside of a factory. Now you can take that and couple it with all the new technologies that directly impact manufacturing. You're right that referencing the difference between Houston and San Francisco is a great spot to start because when you think of heavy industry, those are some of the more gritty industries out there. When you're out working in the oil field, for example, even those industries are starting to adopt smart digital technologies that allow them to get more information and do their jobs more effectively.So that's the second part of my answer. You take the cool manufacturing process, and you combine that with the technology, the analytics, the dashboards, the robotics, all the sexy stuff that's now part of it. Kudos to guys like Elon Musk have shown that, hey, manufacturing a car is very similar to what we do in the tech industry. Now that we have this convergence of tech and manufacturing. I think it's on the manufacturers to create some content around that. That shows how cool how hot how flashy their businesses and how it is a great spot to take your technical background, whether you're just coming out of college as an engineer or whether you're someone that may have worked more on the software side for a while. There are a lot of opportunities in the manufacturing space. To take advantage of the technology that people are used to seeing. Lisa Ryan: So what are you seeing the recurring themes of the people you've talked to? In your experience, what is keeping manufacturers up at night right now?Chris Luecke: Yeah, I think the end of 2020 is a great time to be having this conversation because, not to belabor the covid point any longer, but back in March, it was a shock. Lots of people saying, "Oh shoot, I can't go meet with my customer anymore. I can't go to have lunch with them." I'm sharing many perspectives from a career sales guy, but the reality was when covid hit. I don't want to say I was waiting for it, but I was prepared for it because I had started doing podcasting and videos back in 2016. I knew I had a mechanism and a vehicle to reach out to customers. Everyone had had tools they could jump on immediately at their disposal social selling through LinkedIn. To many people's credit, I think some people in manufacturing, whether that's companies or individuals, have gotten better at that people have been utilizing that as a tool out of necessity. Going into one of the things that keep people up at night is that nothing happens at midnight on December 31. It's not like the situation goes away. We're not going to a trade show right away. Many of those in-person mechanisms that people were used to putting their marketing budgets towards don't know what to do with that yet. So I think one thing keeping people up at night is, "how do I spend that money so that it goes to bringing in new customers, even if I can't do it in the ways that I was used to and I might have to do it for another year." So that's what's I think bugging people right now.Lisa Ryan: Right. And it's interesting you talk about trade shows because you look at an industry that's been changed by the pandemic. We're used to flying into Vegas, staying in a nice hotel, visiting all the vendors, and now we're doing this online. I spoke at an event as an avatar where my little avatar could like walk through the grounds, go to the show booth, and talk to the little avatars at the trade show booth. And a few years ago, this technology, number one, would have been terrifying and would have been completely unwieldy, and now it's just not only a different way in a cool way of doing business. But it also allows manufacturers to bring a lot more of their people to these events because maybe they can't put everybody on a plane and send them to Vegas. Still, they can sit around the computer and eat some sandwiches and take some classes together.Chris Luecke: Yeah, no, you're right. And actually, I'm glad you bring it up because that's another thing that I think people are still trying to wrap their heads around is, "How do I take advantage of a virtual trade show," because you're right, the training opportunities are there. No longer do you have to handpick the three to five people who will get to go to Vegas, Orlando, or wherever the conferences that year. You can have anyone sign up for those and take advantage of the training. On the flip side, this goes back to what I do with manufacturers and helps them with their marketing and sales. They're tremendous opportunities to access the exact type of customer you're looking for at those events. When you're at a trade show on the show floor, you're hoping the right person walks by your booth. Now, in some of these trade show platforms, you can jump in and search for VP marketing. You can search for the technology director, you can search for automation, and anyone with that title or that word in their title will pop up. It's almost cheating at that point because you're like my ideal customer is at this show, and I can find the perfect persona as well. So I think another big thing. It's like, hey, how do, how do we take advantage of trade shows the right way because, yeah, I'm looking forward to being back in front of people and go into the actual in-person happy hours. Again, but there's a lot of power to these virtual platforms from a training standpoint and a sales and marketing standpoint. I think people are still really trying to get their hands around it.Lisa Ryan: Right. And taking advantage of it not being afraid of the technology. I mean, it's undoubtedly gotten so much easier today than it was just a few years ago, but there's still a lot of people in the workplace - and maybe in your more of the Texas-based type of clientele that well, this is the way we've always done. We don't need those darn computers. We're not going to go on video and being okay with it. The whole video thing has made us all a lot more human, with kids and pets and everything else in the background. But if you want to upgrade how you see in the market, use technology to be seen in the market. The whole point of this podcast is to create that network of manufacturers. Listeners can say, "Hey, I n reach out to Chris to reach out to this person for this. So, and I know that you have your own group on LinkedIn. But share with us a little bit about what kind of support you offer how people can get ahold of you and know if there's anything or people you would like to connect with to the whole circle.Chris Luecke: So I'll give two answers to that. So the first thing is, in terms of what I do to help people out. We talked about figuring out how to take advantage of trade shows; how to repurpose marketing dollars. That's where I help people right now. Whether it's creating that first piece of content or developing a quarterly content strategy—figuring out how to post the right things to social media that don't just generate engagement but drive people wanting to buy from you; those are things I do, along with helping people launch podcasts and stuff like that. This kind of media-centric approach to marketing helps their customers tackle their ideal challenges through their content. So that's, that's what I do.The second thing to that is in terms of you know me helping people helping me. I take the same approach to that; as you mentioned, I run a community as part of Manufacturing Happy Hour. In addition to the podcast and the video series, Manufacturing Happy Hour has an industry community -it's a LinkedIn group. It's a LinkedIn community of 300 plus manufacturing leaders that I always describe as the type of people that it's not always a CEO. There are some executives in that group. Some people lead teams, but I think the controls guy that's on the plant floor. That's not afraid to suggest something to leadership and saying, Hey, if we implement this. I know this will get the result you're looking to achieve.That's what I, that's what I consider a leader. Anyone that's looking to take their career and their business to the next level. So those are the type of people that are in that group. I look for ways to connect people with the right folks. What I offer isn't always what someone's looking for, but the chances are that i's all about creating that community in that ecosystem of people who can help. And you know this better than anyone creating the Manufacturers Network, so, if anyone wants to join that, the link to that is manufacturinghappyhour.com/community.Lisa Ryan: Yeah, and we're at a point right now that it's probably going to be a while before we can get back in person and shake hands and have those sales meetings, but on the other hand, platforms like these allow you to not only connect with people in different industries but take advantage of what's working in a completely different industry than yours. You can take that and implement that in your plan because trade associations are fantastic, and I highly recommend that you join your trade organization. Still, sometimes that leads to this tunnel vision that it's like this is what happens in our industry. Maybe you can learn something from somebody in a completely different industry and still be able to move your business forward.Chris Luecke: Yep. Now we let yeah you nailed it like learning. I always think learning from other industries is the quickest way to figure out what's working. Everything I do with podcasting and videos in the manufacturing space, I have borrowed that from other industries using that for years. It's all about repurposing it for the space you're in. Whether it's in automotive and learning something from someone in food and beverage quickest way to get great ideas that you can implement fast.Lisa Ryan: All right, well, we are getting to the end of our time together. And I know we will have many more conversations on different topics as this podcast grows, but what's the best way for people to get ahold of you, whether they want to share ideas with you or bring in to help them with their digital platforms.Chris Luecke: Sure. So I'll point to one spot, and since I mentioned it before, I'll repeat it, LinkedIn is a great spot. You can find me there. But I would say, request to join the Manufacturing Happy Hour industry community - that's manufacturinghappyhour.com/community. It takes you straight to the group on LinkedIn. I have to approve anyone who comes in; obviously, anyone listening to your show will get a pass because you know I know you're the type of person that would fit the mold of a manufacturing rock star. But yeah, that's the easiest spot to find me. And if you know if you want to talk sales, marketing after that happy to keep those conversations go in there.Lisa Ryan: Alright. Awesome. Well, Chris. Again, thank you so much for being on the show today. I'm your host, Lisa, Ryan. And this is the Manufacturers Network podcast. See you next time.

Connect with Steve Pacilio:Website: https://www.lift-all.com Email: spacilio@lift-all.com Show TranscriptLisa Ryan: Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to our guest today, Steve, Pacilio. Quality customer service and safety are paramount, Steve says. With the current challenging business climate, my focus has been on our company's biggest asset, our employees. Welcome to the show. Steve, it's great to have you here.Steve Pacilio: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.Lisa Ryan: Well, hey, I'd like to start. I know that you've been with lift all for a long time. But if you could share with us a little bit about your journey about what brought you to lift all in the first place and what got you to where you are today.Steve Pacilio: Basically, I went to Northern Illinois University and received an Accountable and operations management degree. I worked for several companies. After that, and I was in the materials management role and the company that I was working for, I felt bored and wanted to challenge myself. And so I said, looked and looked and ended up finding Lift-All, and it's been a great challenge. I'll tell you that much, and as you said, I started as a plant manager. I love manufacturing. I learned about slings, about the whole industry, how to make the products. I also learned about people. My most significant personal journey is learning how to manage people and work with people to achieve our set goals. I worked my way up to the company and was elected president three years ago in 2017.Lisa Ryan: That's one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on the show. It's your commitment to people because everybody's competing for the same people right now. Even in these times of real high unemployment, it's essential to keep the right people you have so they don't go down the street 50 cents or a buck more an hour. What are some of the things that you feel that you're doing well? As far as creating those connections with your employees.Steve Pacilio: This all starts from the top. It has to do with communication and making sure that the employees understand where the company's going, how they're doing, and that sort of thing. There is nothing worse than being on the plant floor and not realizing the focus here and where we are going in the future. I have a staff meeting every month, and I take notes from the staff meeting and then roll them out to the plant managers and discuss certain areas appropriate for information they should know. And I think that's helpful. I also like to walk through the plant and say hello. One thing we do well is that we have an excellent wellness program. We have an unbelievable wellness program that we started could be 12-14 years ago. And at that point, it was many, many people that didn't even have a primary health care provider. People in the plant would go to the emergency room when they got sick. That makes it difficult for traceability and understanding if there isn't a problem or health issue. Also, it's costly for the company. So we work with our HR department to develop a wellness program. We have the majority of our people now on the healthcare program. They can earn up to 1400 dollars in credits for next year by going through and doing the biometric testing and seeing their doctor for a physical once a year. They're now doing the things that are needed - the preventative testing stuff.So that's been good, and it's to show our employees, hey, this is good for you. It's also good for the company, and you're not sick as much. Hopefully, we can prevent a catastrophic illness. Lisa Ryan: For the people who listen to this, they might say, oh, we've tried wellness programs are people don't buy into it. They don't do it. We invest all this money we try health care is health fairs, and nothing happens. I'm sure you probably had some people fighting you at the beginning. Please share a little bit about that process and what it took to finally get people to say, oh, this is what I'm doing to change the habit of going to the emergency room to focus on their wellness.Steve Pacilio: Again, I think there was a lot of communication and by our leadership and our HR department and the plant managers and system plant managers. They had to find who in their plant were the change agents. It could be a group leader or an hourly employee. You get them on board, and you start talking about it, and they have meetings, and they have different meanings. We're talking about wellness and, slowly, but surely you get a few more people. And then you get a few more people on it again. It's been a journey. It's not that it's happened in one year. It's been years. I also think that we have a great response, and because of this, we've been able to keep our health care costs relatively low. During this time, and that's huge. That's, that's money in their pocket, of course, that helps us financially and as a company, but it comes down to leadership and communication with the employees.Lisa Ryan: And so during the meetings with the communication, what exactly are you sharing with your employees. Is it just the production numbers, or are you looking at what they're doing individually? Any of the specifics of that might be helpful.Steve Pacilio: The plant managers will talk about their efficiencies and how they're doing. They talk about safety, safety in the plant, and manufacturing the product that they need. Sometimes you even talked about our products' safety because we want our employees to understand that somebody's life is underneath that product when you're making a lifting product. So we want to make sure that the quality is there, the product is engineered, we've done all the work we've done all the testing.But it's still up to individual hands and equipment to be able to make that product. So they need to be reminded, and we stress that you're making something that somebody who may have families walking underneath that and want to make sure that that doesn't fail, so there's a lot of topics that we talked about.Lisa Ryan: And I think that just letting your employees know how they're contributing to that greater mission of protecting not only themselves in the workplace because obviously that's expected. But seeing the result of this as a product that's going to make sure that you know those workers who are using it on the other end can safely go home to their family. So it sounds like you've done an excellent job building that into your culture over there.Steve Pacilio: Right now, around our safety manager, we're talking about the plants' safety. He started down this last year having an OSHA fair. So, as opposed to people watching the videos and saying, Oh, here's lockout tag out. Or here's how to handle a fire extinguisher; he tries to make it fun and get some games and multiple-choice things. He had teams, and the teams are competing to try to understand and retain the knowledge. Therefore, you'd walk through the plants and ask them some questions just played around to make sure that they wanted to retain it. Certainly, looking at different ways to engage your employees because I gleaned from 20 years ago, the employee mentality 20 years ago is much different from the employee mentality. Now, the millennials and everything. And it's the other management way of managing those types of individuals, I feel.Lisa Ryan: Usually, you do not hear OSHA and fun in the same sentence. You're making it less scary. I like the idea of the Plant managers asking questions to their employees afterward because then they know. Oh, I better pay attention in case Bob decides to ask me something about it. That's awesome.Steve Pacilio: In those types of questions, it's more for the manager to understand if they retained the knowledge. It's not a bad thing if they don't know the answer. We don't reprimand them but put that in the memory bank to see if we need to try a different tactic to make it stick. Lisa Ryan: Sure. Well, and it's reinforcement. So it's good from both sides of that. Exactly. So what are some of the things that are keeping you up at night right now?Steve Pacilio: Just trying to understand what the future is going to look like. We have information coming from so many different sources. It isn't easy to be able to plan the future. I mean, I've got tariffs from China potential tariffs from other countries. How that affects us is because we get a lot of raw materials from overseas. We have freight issues. I mean, right now, containers are in the wrong place around the world. So now, continuous backup. We're trying to satisfy our customers' demand, even when the container comes here, there are no rigs to pull them, no tractor-trailers to pull them. It's just everything's evolving so quickly. It's hard to keep in front of it.If I could have a clear path, we can plan, and we can move forward. My plan for this next year has so many different directions, depending on what will happen. It gets mind-boggling at times.Lisa Ryan: Yeah, this is undoubtedly an interesting place to be in history right now because we don't know. And just when we think we know, it seems to change the next day.Steve Pacilio: And then the information comes from different sources, and it's different information. I mean, with covid, we're trying to keep plants open. We have five plants in the United States. In Pennsylvania, the governor would give us the word to close, open, or shut down. We don't know what's going to happen. Then again in Houston, a district judge in Harris County would decide, not even the governor. So different areas of the country, we're handling those communications differently. So we need ways to track all that information.Lisa Ryan: Well, when it comes to building up this network with other manufacturers, if you could get hints or tips to your manufacturing colleagues, what kind of support or questions would you most like to learn from your manufacturing colleagues?Steve Pacilio: I think it's just what other people are doing. I'm in a CEO peer group, and we have a variety of industries included. One is educational, one is lawn maintenance, and another is in and pest control. When I first joined the group, I wondered what they all would we have in common. But boy, when you have the conversations, we all have the same thing in common. We have to plan our businesses; we have to understand their costs. And we have to be able to communicate with employees and managers. So we all have the same problems. We all have the same issues. It's interesting to hear from others how they're addressing them and taking bits and pieces that you know may be appropriate for my situation and my company.Lisa Ryan: I think that's so important because sometimes we join our industry trade associations, but we sometimes get blinders on and look at our industry. When you have a roofer and pest control and all of these other people in the same room, you'll probably find that there's something that the roofer is doing that you wouldn't have even thought, "Hey, that's something that I can put into my business." So, keeping that open mind, finding out more, and connecting with other manufacturing colleagues, what are some of the things that you feel that you could offer support on?Steve Pacilio: Again, just my experiences. I mean, I've had different experiences than others. And I think it's just a matter of sharing some of those and just starting a conversation like you and I are having. And maybe I'll you'll say something this, "I should think about doing that," or it gives me an idea that I think it's having the communication. It motivates the brain to think of different things in different ways. I like to say if I have an issue or problem, a plan, and I like to turn it around and look at it from different areas and different ways and have communication to contact with others. I think it allows us to do that. Lisa Ryan: Awesome. And if you could give one idea, one strategy for the people listening to us in their manufacturing facilities today as far as creating that culture where people want to stay, what would that be?Steve Pacilio: I would say communicate in multiple ways. During this whole covid thing, I did a couple of short videos that we released to employees to let them know how we're doing and what's going on. If I'm in plants that I haven't traveled to, I have the ability, walk through those plants, and say hello and be there. Let them come up to you and make yourself available to have a conversation. This year I wrote out 250 Christmas cards to every employee. I started in October. It took a long time, but I think that it was appreciated. While I'm not traveling back and forth to work, I wanted to let the employees know I care. I received a lot of positive feedback from that. Just because I'm not going into the office, I'm working from home; I want people to know that it's not that I got my feet up. I'm thinking about them - and I believe that it's important that they know that.Lisa Ryan: Well, Steve, as we're building this network here, people would like to connect with you. What's the best way for them to do that?Steve Pacilio: I think you connect them to our list on website https://www.lift-all.com or you can contact me on my email, which is spacilio@lift-all.com Lisa Ryan: So well, Steve. It's been an absolute pleasure having you on the show today. I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network podcast. See you next time.

Connect with Jesika Young:Email: jesika@cimtechmachine.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesikayoung/Show Transcript:Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to this episode of the Manufacturers Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to today's guest Jesika Young. Jesika is President, CEO, and co-owner of three manufacturing companies Cimtech, Axis, and Action. Most importantly, Jesika is a team member first. Jesika believes strongly in putting the team above all else. She was named "woman to watch" by Business First as she made a move to watch and then acquiring a 43-year-old manufacturing company in the heart of southern Indiana.Cimtech Incorporated was named a top 10 precision manufacturer. In her short two years of manufacturing, Jesika has been named among the most influential women in manufacturing by Influential Women in Manufacturing. Jesika, welcome to the show. It's great to have you here.Jesika Young: Thank you so much, Lisa. It's good to be with you again. Yeah.Lisa Ryan: So you have such a fascinating background and kind of your journey regarding how you got and ended up in manufacturing. So why don't you share with us just a little bit about what brought you here?Jesika Young: So it's quite a peculiar roadmap that brought me into manufacturing, but I grew up in manufacturing. My father was an administrator for the sheet metal and construction trade, so I love being around fabricators and watching things being built. But I became an accidental banker and am now retired or, as they say, recovering commercial banker for ten years.In July of 2018, my partner and I made the leap into entrepreneurship and ownership in purchasing a 43-year-old manufacturing company. So a lot of my clients were manufacturers, and so it was a good fit.Lisa Ryan: And so walking into the plant for the first time, a 43-year-old company, as not only the new owner but a younger woman walking in without a whole lot of manufacturing background. How was that, and then how did you learn and start to transform the culture over there?Jesika Young: Certainly, the question was, who is this, who's this chick, and what is she doing in here. I had to take a step back and realize that our average tenure of teammates was 20 years. Certainly, I knew my value wasn't how to operate a CNC machine or how to weld. I didn't have that business experience. And so to take a step back and not come in in an old hierarchy type of manner, but as a teammate. We've had this philosophy that no one person is above or below the team. I was helping in assembly and trained on the fork trucks - and so truly just learning from each team member.Secondly, we want to make sure that they knew the importance of communication and collaboration. Communication is one of the easiest things that you can do, so communicating our goals and objectives, communicating our why or intent with why we purchased the company. Communicating that we wanted to grow and it was they are a vital part of the team to help us grow and then that collaboration piece which is again. They've got a lot of experience. So when there are ideas or problems, bring team members to the table to collaborate and then communicate the findings.Lisa Ryan: And it's funny because you and I have had several conversations. And every time I said "employees," you corrected me and said "team members." On the one hand, it's such an easy change for people to make in their perspective of how they're looking at the people who work for them and with them. But share a little bit about why the whole concept of team members and being a part of a team is essential to you and how it's worked for you.Jesika Young: My partner and I grew up in sports. If you asked my 19-year-old self or even my 21-year-old self, I wanted to be a sports broadcaster, but there was always a love for sports, and being a teammate truly meant that you were with people. You had a common goal that we're trying to accomplish. That nobody was working for one another. And we believe that the word employee means that you work for someone, or there's a particular hierarchy that it's a chain of command and, it's very rigid so we, we found that very important that we're in this together where failure is not an option. There's a lot of shit happening outside of our four walls like, let's be a team. Let's be a family and so team member first within any of our titles within the company. It's team member above all else, so then any question or problem arises, you ask yourself, what impact is it going to have on the team as a whole. So when you make the team, the center, we believe that everything else will fall into place. So you're right. When you asked the first question, "How many employees do you have?" and I said, "Zero," and you were like, we don't have any, we have team members.Lisa Ryan: So when you first came into the plant and started making that transition from people feeling like employees to people feeling like team members - What were some of the things you did to let people know that this just wasn't a thing, this was from the heart. Something that you wanted to change within the culture and make them feel a part of the team.Jesika Young: Well, we certainly didn't say that out loud. It wasn't that we communicated, "Hey, nobody's an employee anymore; we're team members." We felt that we needed to lead by example and that actions spoke louder than words. So we made a few changes.Lisa Ryan: The first change was very simple.Jesika Young: Anyone with an email address - we changed their title on their business cards and their email signature line to team members first, ourselves included. And I remember very distinctly many vendors wanting to come in and meet with us, and they'd say, Oh, you're the new owner. So we said no, we're team members. We're, we're a family-owned and team-ran or team-operated company.And a lot of the vendors are like, What do you mean, and we're like, no, we're, we're in this together. We're team members. I think those small actions certainly helped showcase to the team. And then we made additional changes like there was the employee handbook. We completely revamped it, and the word "employee" was marked out of the handbook. If we onboard new team members, it truly says team member first and then machinist team member welder.Team members, CFO, and so that truly has resonated and trickled out. We changed the name of uniforms to logo wear. That's not a mandate, but something as simple as that. Every team member wears our logo wear, and they're proud of it. And they're wearing it out and about, and they're part of the team. Each year, we also do a celebratory team member and families, and our extended team, our vendors, and suppliers come to a party. Of course, with covid this year, we've had to postpone our team member outing.But we send the tickets to their houses, and it says, "team member" in their family name. So it's the actions, I believe that that showcases that.Lisa Ryan: Well, and there are so many cool things you do to help your employees and get them involved and create those connections with the different ideas you've brought in over the last couple of years. So what are some of your favorites that you've done? Share a little bit about them because I know you didn't spend a lot of money. It's just this creativity that you have that you bring with you and get people involved.Jesika Young: One of my favorite traditions that resonate with us is our "caught you being awesome" cards. So we have sets of stationery that are just blank, and each team member has access to at any time a team member goes above and beyond. They will sign a card a contribution awesome card and explain what they've done that caught them being awesome and thank them for being a great team member. Then they sign it from the team. And so it's really neat from a constant morale boost to feel appreciated - not just from an owner or a supervisor, but from your teammates. We have once a month, our team member lunches. That's another favorite tradition of ours whether they're smoking meat or we're doing grilling hamburgers and hot dogs. We've got one coming up next Monday. And so it's just, it's fun too Everybody's communicating and, oh, this will go well with this or Oh I like these kinds of fixes with my chili. Those are a few of my absolute favorites. Still, I would be remiss not to share another one that, as you mentioned, truly wasn't a cost but provides such culture and it was brought on by collaboration with every one of our teammates. That's our flex schedule. It's a very odd concept to comprehend or think of as a manufacturer, but from a flexible scheduling standpoint, because life happens, things happen. You might oversleep, you might be a few minutes late. And so, being on a points program is not something that we wanted to implement here. There's no balance anymore. It's a work-life blend and so flex time, each team member can choose their start time and, again within some parameters, select their lunch schedule. Maybe they got a doctor's appointment that they need to take during a lunch break - so it's going to be two hours—but then allowing them to also make up that time on the backside of it. So again, all we asked for is communication. And so it's really neat to walk around and see somebody is running out to a doctor's appointment or they're going to take their significant other out to lunch and then they'll yell out "yay, flextime!" or if they want to sleep in, they can also make up that time on the backside. It was magical to watch when the concept of flex time rolled out. We, of course, had some objections. What if so and so doesn't want to start at this time or wants to start earlier than this. I'm the programmer, and they're running the production and so on and so forth. I said, "Well, let's lay out everything that could go wrong. And then let's work back solutions to see how it could go right. When we rolled it out to the rest of the team, that was the final product that the parameters that we set in place with it. We've been doing that for a little over a year and a half now and it's been fantastic. The productivity has gone up and our teammates love it. Certainly, it's been a great attraction to other people wanting to join the team too.Lisa Ryan: Absolutely. So as the people are listening to this podcast and their heads are exploding. Great. Now because they're saying, What do you mean flex time in manufacturing. What are the parameters? What's the communication? How do you cover from shift to shift to ensure that there's somebody there to run the machine that needs to be run?Jesika Young: Well, so that the parameters that we laid out more specific to we do run two shifts, we have two plants and two different locations. So within each plant and within each shift, there were parameters. So, for example, we've got a start time from anywhere, beginning at 5:30 am to 8 am on a first shift at our headquarter location, and then the requirement from a lunch perspective is that we felt that in by law that they need at least a 30 minutes to reset their mind. Now that's not to cap them at 30 minutes because some people like a 45-minute lunch, some people like an hour lunch. So laying out those parameters and then we imposed some of that crossover to the second shift and then very similarly on second shift. But as opposed to having a start time of 5:30 am or second shift had eight o'clock hard close time. So what that ended up creating was the crossover and blending of the two shifts. So no longer the team divide of, oh, well, your first shift and your second shift or this is when the second shift comes in. It was nice to see our team on both first and second working together to communicate what was going on, what projects needed to move forward, and so on and so forth.Lisa Ryan: Yeah, it sounds like you've done well as far as the communication within the plant, and the employees have benefited from that. And it sounds like they're doing pretty well communicating.Jesika Young: Absolutely. And like I said before, we're a team, above all else, and so if somebody may accidentally sleep in and not call and their teammates are worried like, Oh, well, usually in by now, let's make sure that they're okay. And so that's been nice to see amongst the team also.Lisa Ryan: So, what are some of the things that are keeping you up at night now?Jesika Young: Supply chain. Say, that's probably the biggest one. But in all seriousness, the supply chain certainly has been disrupted during a pandemic, and that makes it extremely difficult to plan. The mindset that we've taken, and again, I tried to remain very positive versus focusing on the negative, is that we've now plan for the worst-case scenario. Then we over-communicate that to our customers. So we are always now in communication with our supply chain, our vendors, our suppliers. As a customer, I'm sure from our customers' perspective it found out something happened at the 11th hour. So we are always in this constant state of, "this is what we're seeing . This is what we've been told." This is the worst-case scenario and then working back from there.Lisa Ryan: When it comes to networking with other manufacturers and creating that network, what would you would information or insights helpful to you from your manufacturing and related industries colleagues?Jesika Young: Yes, so networking with manufacturers is undoubtedly something that I find great value in women, and I'm part of the metro manufacturing alliance. A lot of the value add that I see, they're not just for myself, but for our teammates is having peer roundtables or peer connections and now that we're in this virtual platform. It does make it a lot nicer because our operations manager may have certain obstacles would be able to talk those through or there may be ways to avoid making some of the mistakes they had made. We also celebrate successes because, let's face it, after coming out of 2020, we certainly spend a lot of time celebrating even the smallest of victories. But you asked what keeps me up at night and the supply chain, and that was certainly something within our networking group that we've worked to address. As manufacturers, we said, Okay, these are what we see from materials down to your outside services. What are ways that we can work together to overcome these? It's been magical to see larger corporations providing some insight, or even the smaller industries are the smaller businesses being able to pull together and exercise their strength to joining us.Lisa Ryan: What if somebody wanted to reach out and learn from you to get some of your insights? Where do you excel, or where would you most be able to help others?Jesika Young: I would say my strengths lie in the connections are connectivity so if I don't know someone that could help. Then I'm going to ask my network to see who we could connect them to. So I think connectivity would undoubtedly be a strength. So if there are certain obstacles that you're encountering or facing or want to, that an idea through if it's not something that I've seen or done before, you're reaching out to my connections, making those available to the network.Lisa Ryan: What is your best tip if somebody's listening to this podcast today and want to do some of the interesting things you've done with your culture over there. What would be a good start?Jesika Young: A good start is very simple, and that's to appreciate your teammates. I think showing appreciation, telling your teammates that you appreciate them, showing the appreciation. Whether that's in a "caught you being awesome" card or understanding your teammates' favorites and surprising them with their favorite Coke or drink and just little acts of kindness and appreciation go certainly a long way. One effortless step that we took here and how they made it tradition is sending cards to the teammates home from the team here so Thanksgiving Day cards. Appreciate showing the appreciation at Thanksgiving. Also, Mother's Day and Father's Day sending the family of the team member. Thank you for sharing your father and mother with us. So those certainly have gone a long way too.Lisa Ryan: Well, Jesika, as always. It's such a pleasure to catch up with you again. Thank you so much for being on the show today.Jesika Young: Thank you so much for having me.Lisa Ryan: So I'm Lisa Ryan, and this is the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. See you next time.

Connect with Karen Norheim:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karennorheim/Email: knorheim@americancrane.com Show Transcript:Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers' Network Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to today's guest Karen Norheim. Karen is passionate about all things manufacturing as a second-generation coming into the leadership role for her family's company American Crane and Equipment Corporation. Karen has sought to solidify the founder's legacy while putting her stamp on the company culture.There's so much more in your background. Please share a bit about your journey and how you got to where you're at. So, welcome to the show, Karen.Karen Norheim: Hey, thanks for having at least I'm excited to be here. Yeah, so my introduction to manufacturing came through my father. I work for our family's business. And so I have. I am the second generation coming in. What's interesting is I wanted nothing to do with it. I did not think any factoring was all that interesting or cool, and he recruited me to come work for him. And I very reluctantly said okay, Dad. I'll get I'll give it a shot. Well, thank goodness. I did because it has been one of the best decisions I've ever made. Manufacturing is now my passion. I've been with our company for 18 years: amazing people, amazing products, and a wonderful experience to work with my father.Lisa Ryan: I know that you are doing many things well when it came to your culture and keeping things going. So what did you see that worked best for you during these uncertain timesKaren Norheim: Well, about, I think we're going on two years ago, maybe two and a half years ago, 2020 has warped my mind as far as, you know, I feel like I'm in time travel and I lost a year. But we put a lot of groundwork in as I took over leadership from my dad; I saw that we needed to lock-in that founder's legacy, that culture that he created for us.So we did a reboot, and we call our culture "Grit Matters." Perseverance, heart, and integrity. We did a lot of work on building our culture, cultivating our people, and nurturing our environment. Thank goodness we did because I think that is one of the key elements that we could pivot when we got to March of last year and figure it out.There was a ton of pain, but we persevered in 2020 and survived the storm due to our people's cultural reboot and development. They have been amazing. I can't tell you how proud I am of how they have risen and stepped up in the crisis to keep us going and keep our business thriving.Lisa Ryan: So take us back two years ago, before you decided to put this in process. What did it look like? What were some of the specific steps you did kind of build that culture you created?Karen Norheim: Well, we had already had a good culture. It wasn't like we had a bad culture; it just wasn't written down on paper. We didn't have those ritual things that kind of keep it top of mind, and we were starting to shift into a can't do versus a can-do attitude. And so we saw that, and people needed to know that I was in it for the long run. I didn't realize that, which is what my father and I learned from him.Through this mistake too is that we didn't. People don't know what you're thinking. Just because you know what's going on in your business, doesn't mean that the rest of your employees know what you're thinking. And we needed to communicate this. We needed to share what was is important. Employees wanted to know if I planned to stick around. We let them know that my family is committed to the business for the next 40 years. We need to put those things in place. It started with defining those behaviors. I think it's important to define what behaviors make us great and are important for us to do well as a company. So we revised our vision, mission, and core values statements, and then we did a rollout, which involves a ton of communication. Communication, communication, communication - to the point that you get tired as the leader hearing yourself talk. But it's so important. We had meetings. We have regular grit meetings monthly with different departments. We have grit contests. We have grit bucks to highlight good grit behavior. We've got postcards, we've got logos. We do a sticker contest - all kinds of stuff that we put in the works. And then when we got to the end of March, as we realized covid was here. We were sending a third of our workforce remote while we have a third in our plant manufacturing and another third doing service. We realized we now need even to communicate more. For the last year, we've done a Monday video. We started with two videos per week. We've shifted down to doing a video every Monday. There's a Friday email that goes out and a text message with blog information of just what's going on, new orders, what's happening, and just general thoughts. We also have other members of our leadership team communicating. There are communication notices hung throughout the building. I am living those values, and whenever I'm with my people I'm emulating what we believe in. But then also, highlighting how they're doing that, it's always this constant. I like to call it gardening. You're planting seeds. You're nurturing a little bit, you're growing, you're harvesting, and then you go back, and you plant again, and you grow in your harvest. It's a never-ending thing, but I feel like our team has bought into it and gets it, and it feels good. We all want to work in a place right that we're appreciated. We say the most important thing in American Crane is the people. We all want to work at a fun site that cares about us and provides us with meaningful work.So as our team has realized, that's who we are, whereas we evolve and revisit that. That's who we are, you know, there's a flywheel effect. And I feel like we are benefiting from kind of that flywheel of coming together. We're not perfect by any means, right. There's always room for improvement, but I'm impressed with how everyone has embraced this. I think it's going to serve as well as we go into the future. We've built upon it to deal with the disruptive change that's been happening.You know this covid was a disruption, and there are other disruptions out there. I feel like it has allowed us to add another competitive advantage. We say we're gritty; we get things done. We exceed our customers' expectations. We go that extra mile. We can also handle challenging situations and handle when things don't go the way you want them to go, which I think is a useful skill for a business to have in general.Lisa Ryan: Right. What do you feel would be the tipping point when you first decided to implement this grit strategy. You said, "communicate, communicate, communicate." When did you see the turn from, "Oh goodness, here's one more program that's not going to last," to, "Wow, this is something that they're committed to"? When did the employees buy into it and believe it?Karen Norheim: We had that coming into the end of 2019, I think in December of that year. We had been explaining and teaching it and living and starting to almost even go to that next phase two of integrating it even more into the fabric of who we are. And we have fantastic people. I mean, that's always really important that those that work for you are part of the culture and everything matches. And so we have amazing people, which makes it easy.But December was the tipping point. Last year I felt that we still got work to do, but we're doing good. And then I will say the second tipping point; we were already over the edge, and then here's a massive shift with covid. It just rocked everything. Everybody stepped up. They realized how important that was for us to be able to keep it up. We sent 40 some engineers home with their workstations to go home, go and do a home setup on a Friday and they were all up and running and working and had not skipped a beat by the following Wednesday. I mean, it was just kind of remarkable the flexibility and the willingness to work together, pull together that teamwork that problem-solving. It was the difference between mediocrity and excellence.Lisa Ryan: Right. And to give that idea that this does take time. You were already starting with a good team, and it still took almost two years to get to that tipping point. But then you saw how it benefited you when you needed it the most. And you didn't have to worry about employees and also to take care of them. And it sounds like you also empowered them to do what they needed to do. Here's your workstation; go set it up, and by Wednesday, they're good to go because you trusted and empowered them to do that.Karen Norheim: Yep. And I think that's part of what the covid situation gave us. We had no choice but to empower our people, and here was an opportunity where we just kind of threw everybody in this moment of change. This idea of one time has to be the first time. Well, guess what: we're all going to go to that moment; we're all going to have to use Microsoft Teams. We've never used it before, but we're all going to have to figure out how to do electronic signatures on it, so it threw us into that uncomfortable space, which has led to amazing growth and evolution of our people. Lisa Ryan: So what are still some of the things that are keeping you up at night?Karen Norheim: Well, something that I was already in tune to before we had the crisis of 2020 was this idea of digital transformation that was coming. I knew that for us as a company and as an industry. There was a lot of disruptive change, and it was something I would already be thinking about; we had talked about our digital roadmap. We had put some foundational blocks into that, but then covid also threw us into it even further for things we had to do. And I think it's imperative to number one: realize that there's a lot of disruption out there right now because John Chambers says that of the fortune 500 in the next ten years, 50% will be gone because of disruptive technology digital change. I wanted to make sure we were on that cutting edge. And so we had put the groundwork in on that in January of 2020. We started an innovation lab; we already had some foundational technology blocks in place. And during covid, we've been able to expedite some of those by three x times advancement from where I expected us to be. But I still am nervous that they need to be able to do technology. We need to embrace it, and I want to stay ahead of that wave because I want to be around in 10 years. It keeps evolving because I think, unfortunately, change is the only constant. How do we keep being able to leverage the change and turn it into opportunities to grow and evolve?Lisa Ryan: Right. And again, I think it comes down to communicating with your team because they see all this technology coming in and maybe worried. Is this going to affect my job? Am I still going to have a job? And keeping them involved in the process to say no, you're still going to have a job. It just may be different because now we can do it better, stronger, faster than we've ever done before because of the technology that we're now implementing.Karen Norheim: Yep, exactly. And also, I'm a big believer in the concept that it's really about the human. Whether you're using augmented reality or Remote Assistance is a big thing we've been looking into and utilizing for training purposes. So we're looking at what they call augmented reality, some VR. And also, you know, traditional things too. But as we're going through those things, it's really to amplify our current employees - taking them to the next level and taking the core group that I have now and doing more, doing it better or doing it more efficiently and then locking them in there. I think that technology and digital transformation can be about marrying together where you're making superhumans who can do all these things because they've got the AI power. They've got technology tools for collaboration, and it's pulling it all together seamlessly so that we can then that brainpower that human resource can excel and advance, and I think it's if you go in with that kind of mindset. I think that's helpful.We're also not running to the shiny object while we have, we are doing some big strategic things, you know, we're very focused on it, and we play with things determine if there's something viable and then we'll go to the next step. It's like here, and we have to figure out how to handle that and handle change in general - not just digital transformation. There are other industry changes in the world and stuff that can affect us as with covid.Lisa Ryan: Exactly. Completely unexpected and out of the blue. Who would have thunk it? Yes. So as we're getting to the last couple minutes of our time together. What would be if you were thinking about people you'd like to network or learn from? What would be some of the ways you would like the kind of support you would like to get from other manufacturing colleagues.Karen Norheim: Well, I'm very obsessed recently with this idea of storytelling and sharing my story with you, and I think it's essential for all of us to share our stories because that's how we learn. It's so much easier to learn from watching someone else who's had a struggle and figuring out you know how they've done it. They share their best practices or what worked for them. There's always some piece that can help and integrate into your business. So I feel that knowledge sharing that storytelling.I love to hear the different stories of what's going on in our industry. And I think that that's an excellent way for us to learn and elevate each other.Lisa Ryan: What would be some of the things you could offer to support other manufacturing colleagues who may want to reach out to you?Karen Norheim: I'm happy to share my story - my evolution as both a leader, as President and CEO of our company, but also the transition as the boss's daughter. It's been 18 years, and there are some learning and things that I could share with someone else in the family business. So I always like to talk about those experiences of cultural transformation, which is ever-evolving. Everybody's a role model. Someone's always looking up to you. I think it's essential to put yourself out there and share what's going on. The good, the bad, and the opportunities to learn and grow. So I'm open to any of those types of conversations.Lisa Ryan: What's the best way for somebody to connect with youKaren Norheim: Probably LinkedIn or you can do certainly can share my email: knorheim@americancrane.com. I'm always open to new ideas, and you know I think as a leader. It's important that a portion of what you do we get stuck in. The financials of our business, our people's development, but some small amount of time I put it into like my 10 to 15% about of the time that I do is around scouting and seeking new ideas and looking out beyond the horizon. I've set the course. I've set the strategy. I've set a roadmap out, but I still am the captain of the ship, and I need to have that looking glass out saying , "what do I see around the corner, what's out there. What do I need to make sure we're aware of any filtering that in." So I think that's a great way to hear from others about what they're doing as part of that ability to scout and seek new ideas, which is fun too.Lisa Ryan: If you have one of your top tips, somebody listening to today could start moving forward, what would you suggest that they do to get started.Karen Norheim: Be focused on your goal but flexible in your methods. It would be best if you didn't get so locked in that it has to be done your exact way. Maybe there's another avenue to get you to what you want at the end goal. And I think that also comes down to giving your people the pleasure of solving the problems and empowering them. When real success happens, it feels like magic. As a leader, you get to watch your people come to that point where they get to bring something to fruition and see a project come together. It's all them, and it's all their own, and there's a lot of pride that goes along. Even the failures are opportunities for learning moments. You've got to give people the pleasure of solving problems.Lisa Ryan:  Karen, thank you so much for being on the show and sharing your insight and wisdom with us today. 

Connect with Kevin: kevin.johnson@bhamfast.com Show Transcript:Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan of the Manufacturers Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to Kevin Johnson. Kevin is V.P. of manufacturing at Birmingham Fastener. He has 25 years of experience in steel and steel products. He has worked for Nucor, Fontana Grupo in increasing responsibilities. And his current role is responsible for sales, manufacturing, engineering, maintenance, shipping, and quality. He studied metallurgical engineering at Purdue University and is the chairman of the Industrial Fastener Institute chairman and is also on the A.G. Gaston Boys and Girls Club board. Kevin enjoys spending time with his wife Cindy and their two children, Amani and Jada. Kevin, welcome to the show. It's good to have you here. Kevin Johnson: Thanks, Lisa. Glad to be here. Lisa Ryan: Well, you and I had the opportunity to meet at the Industrial Fasters Institute, and now you are in charge of that. So not only dealing with manufacturing at your plant but also I'm sure that you hear many things from your members. So when it comes to your background, please share with us a little bit about what brought you to manufacturing and how you got where you're at. Kevin Johnson: OK, well, you know, I come from a manufacturing family. I'm the third generation. My grandfather was in aluminum. My dad was in steel, and I ended up in steel as well. That kindled my interest in metallurgical engineering. So I received a scholarship for that. I attended Purdue. It was in-state. And from that, I went to my first job, which is an Otakupu, and started in their lab. They moved me up to the lab supervisor, then over quality control. I went over to Nucor, hired in as a metallurgist, and again had a similar thing. I went over quality and then went over all manufacturing and had a wonderful career with those guys. I went to Fontana Gruppo, where I was director of operations and plant manager and had a great relationship with the team here at Birmingham fastener, so I took a vice president of manufacturing job with them. And it's been great. Getting to see all of the sides of it helped me project through various roles of increased responsibility. Lisa Ryan: What are some of the things that you're doing right now at Birmingham fastener that are working well for you? What are the retention efforts you're doing? What's going well? Kevin Johnson:  Well, I'll tell you, we've focused on incentivizing people to try to keep some more walking the talk. I mean, at the end of the day, we want to give people the best job experience we can. We also know what goes in your pocket has a little bit to do with your happiness. In one particular area where we do our performing, we instituted a pay for performance plan. And this plan has just been great. Production is up about 30 percent. And for the people that are into numbers, to be candid, the payroll has roughly stayed the same, even though those guys are making more money themselves. And you say, well, how can you do that? Well, overtime has just totally disappeared in the area and the productivity there. So we look at what's the speed of a machine and what's the best output that it can get. Can somebody do that through the day now? So we take an arbitrary number of, say, 80 percent of that goal, and that 80 percent will pay you X amount they hit. That amount will virtually double what you're currently making. So, of course, we drop their base rate when we interviewed them in this program. But it does probably pay them twenty-five percent more than what they made in prior years. And they're working fewer hours. So you have to find that win-win. That's what we looked at. We've also looked at attendance, and we say, hey if you're going to have perfect attendance, we get pretty handsome rewards for those who achieve that. Lisa Ryan: Awesome. So when you were talking about the pay for performance and lowering their base, tell us the process of how that worked, and because I'm sure you had some haters right off the bat saying the man's trying to take advantage of us. Kevin Johnson: That's the scary part of these things, is the implementation when you can see the long vision, but everybody else is saying, I'm not seeing it because I do not see that immediate gratification. So, to share a little bit about your process. You hit that one on the head. When you tell a guy that his base rate from what he was making a guaranteed number and say, hey, that drops 30 percent or 40 percent, he's going to say, hey, what's going on here? And there's going to naturally always be a little bit of apprehension. They're going to be there's a concern. I'm taking care of my family. So, you know, we understand that. We took what you made on that plan that we said will, based on your production and what you were making before. And for about four or five months, we let the guy know this is what you would have made off the production bonus plan, and this is what you're actually making. So he had a clear reference to say, hey, I'm saying that I would have been better off on the new plan every week than just this hourly rate I was on. And it happens over time. Now, the employees might have a bad week. And if you just did it over a week, of course, he's going to have a sour taste in his mouth. But after three or four months, you can clearly see that you're going to be 20 percent, maybe twenty-five percent better from that. Most guys that I really care about making money and all that stuff, they got the opportunity, and it's worked out pretty well. I mean, at times, we have guys say, hey, I can watch his machine while he goes and eat lunch. And so I will try to run what I can. You can't do that all the time, but you probably can for 15 or 20 minutes. It depends on where you have set up. So they've got creative in themselves, finding ways to stay on top of things and be productive. The other thing you'll find is that bonuses to make should be a better manager. And you say how if I don't give them those tools and resources that they need, they will definitely come into my office or their boss's office and say, hey, you can have your tools here. We need to have these tools. And you know what? I need one spare of this because I want to make sure that I'm running all the time. And this is the feedback that you wouldn't usually get. But when you align, everyone that makes you a better manager makes them a better employee. Lisa Ryan: There are so many good things that you just said in there. Number one, the amount of time that it wasn't just a, hey, we're changing the comp plan overnight. Here it is. And you are dealing with people who are just fighting that. But you took that time that three or four months to prove to them that this system was going to work. You're also empowering them to get creative instead of micromanaging everything. Sometimes, as leaders, you want to make sure that everything's doing well, and you don't necessarily trust your employees. And it sounds like not only are you trusting them to figure out how to do their job because you're seeing the production levels going up. But now it's OK because maybe before you would have said, what do you mean you're going to watch that guy's machine while he's off eating lunch? Who do you think you are? And now you're seeing that employees are trusting you, and they're buying into the process. But this is certainly not something that happens overnight. So I'm just such a good reminder to people who are looking for that immediate gratification. Kevin Johnson: They won't be. I'll tell you one more thing. After a year of doing it, we compared their W2s. I sat down with each person. Even though there's a manager and a supervisor there, I sat down with each one of those guys individually; H.R. put together how many hours they work, how much they made, overtime hours, and the bonus, versus what they were the year before. And I was able to sit down and show all of them these are the differences and work this many fewer hours. You make this much more money, more time with your family. More time to do what you want to do instead of here, and it was pretty rewarding. Now, always recommend that step because I did have one guy say, oh, man, I didn't realize I made this much more. Some guys don't look at their numbers may be the way that they should, but it's worth investing that time. Lisa Ryan: And how many employees do you have working there that you sat down with? Kevin Johnson: Approximately twenty-five. Lisa Ryan: OK, so again, you're investing the time and being in management there, being the V.P., employees see you as a different level of person. So the fact that you're sitting down with your employees and talking to them and getting to know them and showing them the benefits also gives them a lot more confidence in the leadership. So that's just that that's great work that you're doing over there. Sure. The last thing to get is that a machine only makes money when it's run. OK, changeovers, all the stuff they hurt you. Right. Or if it's down, if our guys actually stay with maintenance, not go and get a Snickers or a Pepsi. When the machine goes down, we pay him his production bonus based on his average. If he's in there fixing the machine with maintenance, that gives me two things. One, he gets a little bit more confidence. Two, he can start fixing that machine himself, and we'll be less reliant on maintenance. So that's just another key point that we put in there. Our guys, to actually learn how to fix their machines. Lisa Ryan: Wow, that's awesome. So what are what's one thing that's keeping you up at night right now? Kevin Johnson: I'll tell you right now, the thing that worries me is how we have maybe some would call a changing of the guard. You have a potentially new president-elect. And the tariff situation is one that that worries me a lot. It was an advantage to the steel guys, but then the steel products guys didn't get all of the help to balance things out with China. So from that, we finally adjusted. We pushed through price increases, trying to keep our margins. We don't look at making more. We want to make the same. And that's what we focus on. And we got those through. So now what happens after you make all these changes to survive? If that all pulls away, then we're going to be back in another situation that will take another couple of years to adjust back. So that's the main concern for me because the tariffs are now staying up a lot. So. Another thing that worries me is just finding quality people. That's been a very tough thing. The skills gap, the people that are actually interested in manufacturing, the kids that actually want to work and get their hands a little bit dirty and have that that rugged satisfaction, that grit, a lot of them say, hey, I'll rather work at the local electronics store, or I want to work in the video game. So, I mean, it's slightly different. And that's been tough pulling talent and. Lisa Ryan: Yeah, especially since everybody's competing for the same talent. And that's why I talk about so much in my programs of just retention. Now, if you have good employees and there are so many things that we talked about, you are doing to keep employees as far as sitting down with them, allowing them to make more money, empowering them, and showing them their work results. That's how you keep them. But you're absolutely right. We're looking at the skills gap of just being able to have to change the conversation about manufacturing, to get more young people to look at it seriously as a career, and even more importantly, to get the guidance counselors at their schools and their parents to buy into the ideas as well. So if you were to think about creating a network of manufacturers and think about something that either question you have or support that you would like to get from other manufacturers, what would be something of that? Kevin Johnson: Well, I think many things right now with the current PPP situation. One of the people dealing with laws should discuss how this was originally going to come out and the questions. Now, the question is if that's are actually put out there, two totally different things, and especially with larger companies that might have had more than two million dollars and they're subject to an audit. And another thing so that, as you mentioned, employee retention is always going to be at the forefront. Working with people, doing job fairs, whether it's virtual, whether it's just joining forces and working on that, those type of things with different types of H.R. issues and situations. Then you have an administration possibly coming. So what can we expect? Are we going to handle reporting these things that we need to stick together? Because you could actually give a company name recordable injuries based on exposure, you can't prove they even happened at the workplace. So we need to make sure that we're all working together and have a unified voice. And that would be great to have manufacturers get together and share on these things. Lisa Ryan: And so from your experience, not only at Birmingham but in the rest of your illustrious career in the metals industries, where do you feel that you would best be able to support other manufacturers or help them out with some of their situations? Kevin Johnson: Well, I have worked with a lot of folks before. In areas, you know, somebody needs help with trying to implement an incentive program. Like I mentioned earlier, I have a lot of feedback on it. Government affairs and I also have experience with the SBA side of it. Those are just a few. But there are so many topics that you manufactured. Yes, margin safety. That's even very important, even though the industry can be somewhat fearful. There are a lot of things you might say, hey, you know, I realize that this last year, this one does great in this environment we've been using for the previous five years. We compete on many things, but I'm not going to compete with anybody on say anything that I do directly. I'm going to share with you on the safety. Lisa Ryan: Awesome. I know that you're involved with the Industrial Fasteners Institute and now the National Association of Manufacturers. So really encouraging people to join your local trade association, get involved with that, because learning on things like this podcast is going to give you a general overview of manufacturing and things that you can use in your plant that may not be in a completely different industry, but it can still work for you. But when you are in your trade association, you get to learn from your peers. And like you said, there are things that, of course, you want to keep secret from a competitive point of view. But for the most part, there's enough work out there for everybody, and it's just really doing the job well and creating those connections. Well, Kevin, we're getting to the end of our time together. And I know that we are connected on LinkedIn, but if somebody wanted to reach out to you and connect with you, what's the best way for them to do that? Kevin Johnson: You can email me.