Swarfcast

On this week’s classic episode of Swarfcast, we’re talking about preventing fires inside of machinery. Our guest is Mike Campo, Midwest Regional Sales Manager with Firetrace International, makers of fire suppression systems and solutions. Fire suppression systems keep businesses, people and equipment safe by automatically detecting and suppressing fires in high-risk equipment, like CNC machines, vehicles and wind turbines. Mike says that machine tools are most at risk for fires when running oil based coolant while unattended. Suppression systems aim to hold back the fire, helping to mitigate the damage and allowing time for emergency personnel to respond. Scroll down to listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts or your favorite app. Main Points Mike shares his background. He has been in the fire protection field for 43 years. He began his career in the engineered fire systems business, protecting data centers and telecommunications centers. He eventually went on to work at Firetrace International, a fire suppression system manufacturer that specializes in protecting critical small environments like CNC machines and wind turbines. (2:50) Mike talks more about the niche market of working with what he calls micro environments. He says that the Firetrace system is designed for small enclosures, not rooms or spaces where there are people, such as a residential structure. (3:40) Mike says that sprinklers are a valuable type of fire suppression for structures and are often mandated by local fire codes. He says Firetrace works heavily with the wind energy business to help protect wind turbines, which have structures that do not lend themselves to using sprinkler systems. He says that though an insurance company or local ordinance may instruct a business to purchase a fire suppression system for specific equipment, there are generally no official laws requiring a machine shop to install fire protection systems on its machines. (4:45) Mike says the biggest risk for fires in machine shops occurs when machine tools are running unattended using oil based coolant rather than water soluble. (8:40) Mike says that machine tools running oil create an oil mist that can ignite. Mist collectors can help evacuate some of the mist, but any kind of activity that would cause a spark in the oil mist such as a broken tool or failure of an oil pump, could lead to a violent fire. (10:50) Mike says fires often occur when machining titanium, stainless steel, and aluminum because a lot of friction can occur, which can lead to broken tools. (12:10) Mike explains that various Firetrace fire suppression systems correspond to different sizes of machine tools. Different volumes of space inside the machines require different amount of chemicals necessary to suppress fires. Larger machines necessitate larger tanks. (13:40) Mike describes how the Firetrace systems work. A man in Great Britain developed a thermoplastic tubing that could hold pressure for a long period of time. Initially this technology was applied to create a fire suppression system for engine compartments of farming equipment. When pressurized, the tubing becomes a linear pneumatic heat sensor, so that if the tube comes into contact with high heat or flame, the tube ruptures, releasing the pressure that is holding down a piston in the fire protection tank. It releases and then dispenses chemicals to control the fire. (16:00) Mike points out that Firetrace’s system “only works when it fails,” meaning that it will only go off only when the tube loses pressure. Thus Firetrace systems should not produce false alarms or go off when they are not supposed to. (18:00) Mike says that Firetrace fire suppression systems target Class B and C fires. Fires are classified into four types, A, B, C, and D. Class A fires occur in materials such as wood and paper. Class B, fires are caused by flammable gasses or liquids, such as oil based coolant. Class C fires are electrical fires, which can occur in the electrical cabinets of machine tools. Class D fires are metal based fires. Those can occur when machining certain metals such as magnesium. Mike says that Firetrace’s system is not designed suppress metal fires, and the most common way to put out those fires is applying sand-like powder. He says if you see a yellow fire extinguisher next to a machine it’s probably meant to put out metal fires. (18:50) Mike talks about the chemicals used by the Firetrace system. He says Firetrace’s goal is to have a clean fire suppression system that leaves no trace after use in the machine. (20:30) Mike says that Firetrace is usually purchased aftermarket, though a few machine tool builders offer it as an option for purchase. (24:35) Mike says the wind turbine business has been very successful for Firetrace. The company sees mostly electrical fire applications in the turbines. (27:25) Mike says that the Firetrace has been very busy lately. Medical and automotive industries make up the majority of the company’s machine shop customers, while the Aerospace sector has fallen off since COVID-19 hit. (28:40) Mike says that the cost of a fire suppression system for most CNC machines is $6,000 to $7,000.. He says that Firetrace’s systems are engineered to be simple, as they have no electrical components. Installation typically takes 2-4 hours. (29:25) Mike says there are several competitor fire suppression systems which emulate Firetrace’s technology, as well as some others that function differently. He says that some systems that come installed on used machines coming from other countries might not be in compliance with US regulations. (30:35) Mike talks about something he recently learned. He says COVID-19 has presented him with challenges that come when working from home. He says he has been honing is patience for working a lot in close quarters with grandchildren (who he says he loves dearly). (34:50) Mike states that Firetrace is a simple technology, but the company is constantly performing R & D. He says although the system rarely fails, pressure leaks can present a challenge, whether it’s a leak in the suppression system or in the machine itself. (38:40) Question: Have you experienced a machine fire in a CNC shop?

It seems that today’s younger generations of workers, such as millennials, want to understand why they are instructed to do their jobs in a certain way more than their predecessors. Many of today’s employees are not content to just follow orders and take home a check. They want to feel invested in their work, they want it to mean something.  So we are featuring this classic Swarfcast episode. ********** Our guest on the podcast today is Reid Leland, founder and President of LeanWerks, a precision machining job shop in Ogden, Utah. Lean Works operates using open-book management, which means the company shares its financial information with all its employees on a regular basis. Reid says this transparent management style makes its employees aware of how their performance impacts the company’s success. They feel accountable to not only work hard but more intelligently, in a way that benefits the company the most. Reid learned about the open-book management approach at his previous company, Setpoint Engineered Systems. It was popularized by entrepreneur Jack Stack, author of the best selling book The Great Game of Business. Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app. Main Points Employees Must Understand the Company’s Financial Score All employees at LeanWerks are required to complete a rigorous training program in which they learn how to understand income statements, balance sheets, and cashflow.  The object is to teach employees the ultimate financial score of whether the company is winning or losing. Open-book management is intended to illuminate the strategies and practices that make a company profitable and eliminate waste. For instance, at LeanWerks, shop employees might look at how many parts are being scrapped on a job and then study the balance sheet to understand how much the scrap impacts profitability. After analyzing the data, they might adapt some practices—not because they are told to do so from upper management, but because they understand and believe in what they are doing. Flat Organization With No Hierarchy Open-book management is based on the tenet that the intelligence of the group is better than the intelligence of any one individual. It also proposes that if everyone at a company shares information, the company will make better decisions. LeanWerks has weekly huddles in which its people discuss what’s going on at the company, what they need to fix, and what will happen if things don’t change. The company’s 35 employees all have the power to influence its decisions. This is advantageous because people working in various departments can contribute valuable perspectives that an upper management team might overlook.  Reid says he likes that transparency eliminates hierarchy and makes everybody accountable, including him. He is OK with the fact that if he makes mistakes they are out in the open for people to see and call him on. During the interview, I grilled Reid repeatedly about the obstacles open-book management could create. I asked him if he runs into the problem of having too many cooks in the kitchen who have conflicting ideas about how to direct the business. Surprisingly, he says the company does not waste a lot of time bickering over decisions.  Reid Leland, Founder and President of LeanWerks Psychic Ownership Every month, LeanWerks’ employees have the potential to receive monthly bonuses if the company has turned a profit. This gives them extra incentive to make the company succeed, but Reid says the inclusion of employees in the decision making process is a more significant element in making them feel invested in the company’s success. Reid says that LeanWerks’ people feel stress when the company is having a hard time and feel good when the company is doing well. He is proud to say that these emotional swings don’t only fall to him and his wife, who also manages the company. He says that during three financial crises the company faced in 2009, 2015, and 2020, open-book management was instrumental in the company’s survival. All of the company’s people taking ownership and feeling accountable enabled it to endure. They were adept at taking difficult steps when necessary. In the past, some talented employees left LeanWerks because they didn’t want to participate in open-book management. One talented machinist who quit lamented to Reid that his job at LeanWerks was the one job he had in his life where he would go home and worry. Reid says he is ok with missing out on some talented people who are not a good fit for his company. Talented employees are not enough for him, he wants partners. Question: Would open-book management work for you? Why?

In the last year, our used machinery company, Graff-Pinkert, has been successfully growing our business brokering division. This podcast and Today’s Machining World have played a huge part in our marketing. They have established us as thought leaders in the machining industry, and that is bringing in customers. It only took 24 years of writing and six years of podcasting. Today’s podcast discusses this concept–how creating a podcast and media like it are a powerful way for a B2B company to promote itself. *********** Our guest on today’s podcast is Joe Sullivan, founder of Gorilla 76, a successful industrial marketing agency specializing in the manufacturing arena. My goal in this interview is to uncover the secrets behind effective B2B marketing. Today, anyone who owns a smartphone has the tools to tell the world about their company. But how do we use those tools to stand out from the competition and get new customers? Most of clients of Gorilla 76 are medium-sized manufacturers such as OEMS, capital equipment manufacturers, and software companies specializing in the manufacturing field. Generally these companies have marketing budgets ranging from $125,000 to $200,000 per year, but Joe says that smaller companies don’t need to hire an expensive marketing firm if they approach marketing in the right way. He breaks down a B2B marketing strategy into three principles. Scroll down to read more and listen to the podcast. Or listen on your phone with Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.       Interview Highlights Create Focus No matter what size your company is, you need to narrow your marketing focus to a few specific areas. If your shop makes products for 10 different sectors, you should focus your marketing on one of them or a select few.  After you decide which customers you are marketing to, you need to identify which individuals at the companies most influence the buying process. Often this group of people consists of engineers or people in a shop operating equipment. After identifying your target audience, you need to research what they are trying to accomplish and what problems they are trying to solve. Frequently, Joe’s company gathers information by interviewing people at targeted companies, often on video. Create Valuable Content Assets Once you know what your buyers are trying accomplish, then you are ready to create content that appeals to them, often in the form of blogs, videos, and podcasts. Content creators can consult experts at a company about various topics and then communicate their knowledge via a targeted medium. The main purpose of the content should be to help customers solve problems. Video or audio content can be very powerful because the expert’s knowledge comes straight from the mouth of the source, which gives it clarity and authenticity. Video demonstrations have the ability show processes, which makes them an effective teaching tool. Joe says marketers need to remember to show, rather than tell. Don’t tell your audience you’re the best, of which most businesses’ websites are guilty. Instead, tell visitors the things you provide for your niche and demonstrate you’re the expert. Proactively Distribute Valuable Content to the Right People After you produce great content, you have to find a way to reach enough of the right people. You have to proactively push your content in strategic ways so your target audience will find you. To do that, you have to first research where your customers often consume information online. Joe says it’s important to remember that usually less than 5 percent of your customers are in a buy cycle at a specific moment in time. If your prospective customers are not in an active buy cycle and you are constantly shouting at them to buy your product, they will tune you out. Instead, focus on being helpful. Stop worrying about giving away your secret sauce to your competitors or being judged. Just help. Question: Which blogs, videos or podcasts about the machining industry are your favorites? (Besides this one!) You can find Joe Sullivan’s marketing firm at gorilla76.com and listen to his podcast, The Manufacturing Executive, on all the podcast platforms. 

Today’s episode is Part II of our interview with Roger Duffy, owner of F&F Machine Products. In Part I we touched on Roger’s natural entrepreneurial instinct and how he loves to push himself to get out of his comfort zone. In this episode, we’re delving further into Roger’s business adventures and philosophies.  He believes in a theory he calls the “Goldfish Bowl Syndrome,” which he observed in the growth of his own business. He says a business can be like a little goldfish in a small fish bowl that gets transferred to a large aquarium and quadruples in size when it has space to reach its full potential. If you haven’t heard Part I (Episode 210) yet, I suggest you go back and listen to it before you go any further.   Listen on your favorite podcast app using pod.link.     .   View the podcast on our YouTube Channel. Follow us on Social and never miss an update! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swarfcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swarfcast/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/todays-machining-world Twitter: https://twitter.com/tmwswarfblog ************* Link to Graff-Pinkert’s Acquisitions and Sales promotion! ************* Interview Highlights Growing His Business Out of Its Goldfish Bowl When Roger started working at F&F, before he bought out the company’s owner, the shop was in a 5,000-square-foot building with a handful of Brown & Sharpe screw machines. Roger built up the customer base and filled the shop with 32 Brown & Sharpes.  As time went on, the company became more diversified and took on higher precision work. He had to purchase more equipment—modern, high precision machines like CNC slant bed lathes, CNC Swiss, and CNC mills.  More machines necessitated a new larger building. First he considered putting up a 7,500-square-foot building, but he was advised to go larger. In the end, he decided to construct a 20,000-square-foot building. He doubled his number of machines and then doubled again the following year. Roger likened his business to a little goldfish in a small bowl. When he gave himself room to grow in a larger building, his business flourished like a goldfish that becomes a carp after it is placed in an aquarium. Later on, he bought more properties including a 40,000-square-foot building, which he quickly filled as well. Learning to Scale his Business and Delegate Before he became the boss, Roger was on the floor at F&F setting up machines. He says he was really good at the job and liked being on the floor, but he got bored doing one thing too long. Running F&F Machining like a real business was the next challenge he had been itching for. Roger says he was inspired by the business approach of Andrew Carnegie. He says that Carnegie didn’t make his fortune by being an expert on steel. He made his fortune because he was great at finding and organizing other people who were experts on steel. Roger reduced his time on the floor. He hired talented people and took the time to train them. He learned to delegate responsibilities and experimented to find the right roles at the company for employees.  Ironically, he still refers to business ownership as “buying a job” because it requires such immense work and responsibility. He cautions against romanticizing “being your own boss.” I questioned him about the “owning a job” statement. If he had scaled his business and learned to delegate, hadn’t the business matured beyond the stage of “owning a job?”  After a brief pause, Roger agreed that F&F could function without him–at least for a period of time. It’s just that he loves his business. He loves the challenges of growing it. He loves trying new types of work and new types of machines, and nobody is going to care about his business the way he will. He can’t NOT take it home with him. He wouldn’t want it to be any other way. Question: What have you done to grow your company over the years?

How many times has something happened to you that really sucked but then eventually turned out to be a good thing or even a great thing that happened for you?  Today, I’m going to tell you a story about when a big machinery deal went to hell and then how its failure led to an amazing turn of events—a way better result than if things had gone the way they were supposed to go. You know. Serendipity. We’re going to explore how good things can come out of bad things, so the next time when something seemingly bad happens to you, or me for that matter, we’ll be mentally prepared to turn the bad into something really good, or even life-changing. Listen to the podcast on all podcast apps. Listen on your favorite podcast app using pod.link.     .   View the podcast on our YouTube Channel. Follow us on Social and never miss an update! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swarfcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swarfcast/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/todays-machining-world Twitter: https://twitter.com/tmwswarfblog ************* Link to Graff-Pinkert’s Acquisitions and Sales promotion! ************* Interview Highlights Spring of 2017, I met up in Stuttgart Germany, with Rogerio, a Brazilian customer, to hopefully broker him an INDEX MS42C mfd. 1999. For those who don’t know, INDEXs are the Mercedes Benz of CNC multi-spindle screw machines. New ones cost millions of dollars, old ones can cost hundreds of thousands.  As soon as I landed, my Brazilian customer and I drove three hours to go inspect the machine. After checking the machine, Rogerio told me he wanted to buy it, but he asked me to reserve the machine for a few days so he could talk it over with his boss. I warned him that it really wasn’t possible to reserve a machine, no matter what anybody says. But he just couldn’t buy the machine that day, so I asked the seller to reserve it and he agreed. I stayed the night in Stuttgart, and I when I woke up, I called the seller to touch base again about the machine. Then he told me that he had just sold it. At first, I was sort of baffled when I heard it. It was the kind of thing where the letdown doesn’t register right away. Then I hung up, and yelled some four letter words as the disappointment set in. I laid in my hotel room bed thinking about what to do next. I had planned the trip to have some extra time available in Europe, something I always used to do when I traveled internationally, just in case various serendipitous occurrences pop up. It’s something you do during the period in your life when you travel to cool places and don’t have any children waiting for you back home. I had flown across the Atlantic to close a very nice deal that disappeared less than 24 hours after I had arrived, but still I wanted the trip to count for something.  Lying in bed, I thought about who I knew in Europe who might have machines for sale. I called one my best customers in Barcelona, Spain. I figured I might as well first try calling a destination where I loved to go. I asked him if his company had any machines for sale. He told me they had three INDEX MS42Cs that were around the same vintage as the one in Germany that had gotten away from me. That morning I got on a plane to Barcelona to check them out.  The machines were in good working condition, and my Brazilian customer was interested, but he couldn’t fly back to inspect the machines for several weeks, so I went back to Chicago in the meantime.  Three weeks later, my customer was ready to meet me in Spain. As “luck” would have it, my girlfriend at the time and future wife, Stephanie, had lost her job just a few days before. She disliked the job, but she still felt rotten about being let go and didn’t have any new options lined up. The bright side was that now she had free time, so I asked her to come with me on my trip. We would make the trip half business and half vacation.  Stephanie and I met up with Rogerio in Barcelona. We all went out to dinner and had a great time. He’s a great guy. A few years later I interviewed him for this podcast! Back to the deal.  Instead of selling Rogerio one INDEX MS42C, I sold him two MS42C machines! We made a much better deal than I would have if the original deal had gone right. Rogerio got two machines rather than just one, and he received a day of free training from the company selling the machines. Stephanie and I enjoyed several wonderful days in Barcelona. Then we drove through Basque Country visiting machining companies, ending our roadtrip in San Sebastian, which may be the most romantic place we’ve ever seen. While we traveled around Spain, a guy from the Netherlands called Graff-Pinkert, looking for a very rare model of multi-spindle screw machine. He wanted two Schutte SF20 chuckers. I quickly remembered that I had a dealer friend in Milan, Italy, who owned two of those exact machines because I had visited him several times. There are just a few Schuttes configured like this in the world, so they stuck in my brain. Those machines had probably been sitting in my friend’s warehouse for 20 years. Stephanie and I caught a plane to Milan. I sold those machines to the Dutchman on the spot. It was really satisfying to connect the dots around the world that I had created from years of treasure hunting. Graff-Pinkert has done many deals over the years with this Italian dealer, but there were several times I had been to his warehouse and never bought anything. Now those visits had paid off. Everybody asked me when we got back why I hadn’t asked Stephanie to marry me on the trip. It truly would have been a perfect conclusion to the serendipitous fairytale, but I just wasn’t ready to do it yet. However, we later referred to this trip as our “first honeymoon.” I can imagine what many folks are probably thinking now. Great story, Noah, but nothing that bad had happened to you. Big whoop, your customer didn’t buy a machine and you wasted some time and money, and your wife didn’t like her job anyway. This is true, but the same concepts that I used to bring about the serendipity in this story can be applied to bigger “problems.” To make those problems turn out to be a good thing in the end. So let’s analyze what happened in my story. I’m giving you a caveat before I go any further. These concepts I’m going to talk about apply to having the right mindset. They are a struggle to execute, and I’m not claiming to have mastered them—sometimes I think I’m OK at them. Often I feel stuck like most people out there. And, I admit that I don’t know what hardships you’re going through, and I’m sure many of you out there have had to deal with a lot bigger problems than I’ve ever had. On the flip side, when you’re not dealing with horrible problems—just moderate problems—you can think about them rationally. Problems can become puzzles. Puzzles, NOT Problems My first principle is that I don’t have problems, I have puzzles. I stole that beautiful saying from the great music producer Quincy Jones. I read it to myself in the morning before I write out my schedule in an effort to put my head in a rational place. If you learn to look at all problems as puzzles, like you would in lower stakes situations, then when you are in a truly bad situation you hopefully can take the same rational approach. Just telling myself, “I don’t have problems, I have puzzles” calms me down when a situation is stressing me out. Then it puts me in a mindset to analyze things and figure out a creative solution. Have Gratitude My second principle for creating serendipity when I have problems is having gratitude. If you’re down on yourself, you’re not going to have the energy, the creativity, and the optimism to try stuff that might change your crappy situation.  Gratitude is scientifically proven to make you feel happier. I know I sound like a zillion other podcasters and authors preaching this, but honestly it works for me. I dictate a gratitude list into my phone in the morning almost daily. If you’re feeling really down, try writing or recording a gratitude list. Just saying it into the air doesn’t seem to have the same power for me.  When you start thinking about the good things in your life and the things you like about yourself, you get shot of dopamine, and you’ll get some sound perspective about the situation. Then you can get back to thinking about problems like puzzles. Having perspective on your situation is really important to stay positive. The great negotiation expert Jim Camp once said that the only things you really NEED in life are food, air, and your loved ones. Everything else is just stuff you want. It’s another thing I like to tell myself when I’m frustrated with my circumstances. But you might be asking now, what do you do when you have real problems? Like lack of food, air, and your loved ones. What do you do when things seem desperate. Use Desperation as an Advantage My last principle for creating serendipity is to use desperation as an advantage. Desperate circumstances can be an advantage to turn a problem into something good. We hear stories all the time about how being in a desperate place brings people to accomplish things they never thought possible. People undergo pain, and then afterward they have the ability to withstand more pain, which helps them reach big goals and overcome obstacles.  Also, desperate circumstances can lead you to the point where you’re forced to make changes. You have no choice but to act, to make a tough decision that you may have put off for a long time because you were too afraid to do something. All of a sudden you’re liberated. For instance, my brother got divorced from his wife, which released him from a miserable relationship and then led him to a new career as a life coach for men. He had struggled to hold onto his marriage for a long time—until finally that was no longer possible. Then he was free. And if you ask him now about how he feels about his failed marriage, he says he’s grateful because he wouldn’t be in such a good place today had it not ended. I know I haven’t talked about truly horrible things that can happen to you, like the death of loved ones or mental and physical torture.  But still, I try to believe that all events in the end can be seen as negative or positive. It may take a long time to see the positive effects that come out of tragedies, but they do happen. Ultimately that result is decided by our mindset. So remember, the next time things don’t go right for you, having the right mindset has the power to turn something bad into something great. See your problems into puzzles, stay grateful, and use difficult circumstances to your advantage. This is seeking serendipity.

Recently, we have seen a growing number of mergers and acquisitions in the manufacturing space. After these deals are finalized there’s a lot of uncertainty for the employees caught in the middle of reorganization. Our guest on the podcast today is Jennifer Fondrevay. Jennifer is a best selling author and the Founder of Day1 Ready, a consultancy that advises companies on how to prepare for challenges that result from changes in the workplace. This interview will be helpful for anybody dealing uncertainty in their work environment. You can also view the podcast in video form on our YouTube Channel.     Follow us on Social and never miss an update! Facebook: https://lnkd.in/dB_nzFzt Instagram: https://lnkd.in/dcxjzVyw Twitter: https://lnkd.in/dDyT-c9h Main Points Noah Graff: Explain your company, Day1 Ready. What is the significance of the name? Jennifer Fondrevay: I felt that too often in mergers and acquisitions, buyers sellers on both sides, thought day one was the moment they announced the deal. My philosophy was, nope, that is not day one. Your day one is from the moment you as leaders or business owners or CEOs, start thinking about a merger or an acquisition. Even if you don’t share with anyone that you’re thinking about doing a merger and acquisition, people start to pick up on your decision making, the fact that you’re traveling a lot, that you’re not in the office. My focus is helping you be day one ready, so that the moment you make that announcement, you are ready for all the questions you’ll get. This is how people react. Here are all the ways that you need to be prepared as a leader to help your people navigate the change that’s going to happen. Graff: Tell me about your book, NOW WHAT?: A Survivor’s Guide for Thriving Through Mergers & Acquisitions? Fondrevay: I interviewed 60-plus CEOs and CFOs from Fortune 500 as well as small and middle sized businesses. Consistently they shared the same challenges that they had with people. How people react to change. I was a chief marketing officer at several multi-billion dollar [companies], and I went through three separate multi-billion dollar deals. The first [deal] that I talk about in my book is really what motivated me to write the book. I had the privilege of working at Navteq, heading up the B2B marketing. We were acquired by Nokia in 2008 for roughly $9 billion. Graff: What advice do you have for executives coming into an M&A deal? Fondrevay: Consistently come to the deal with respect for the other side. You have to treat this like a marriage. I have never seen a deal go well when both sides are either arrogant or one side is arrogant, thinking they’re saving another business. Humans don’t like change, they abhor uncertainty. There’s a lot of things that are going to play out. Variables you cannot control, but focus on what you can control. Prepare your people, have answers to questions. Graff: You break employees down into several types in your keynote. Explain some of them. Fondrevay: The “former rockstar” is the person who consistently in the original company had the Midas touch. They could have been head of sales, head of product, head of marketing. The person who had the CEO’s ear. The struggle that will turn them into a former rockstar is that once the deal is done, the metrics for success change. Graff: How do you help them? Fondrevay: Acknowledge the really important role that they played in helping get the business to where it is. But with the rockstar, the number one piece of advice I highlight to CEOs is you can’t coddle them. Because then he or she tends to keep things as the old way of doing things. After a certain point, if you let that person stay on and they continue to say, “this isn’t gonna work,” he or she can become toxic. Graff: What is another type of employee you discuss in your work? Fondrevay: “The missing in action.” The people who hold back. They really don’t contribute much. They don’t volunteer and lead anything. They put in the bare minimum because they’re trying to see how things are going to play. The reason why in our discussion I referenced quiet quitting is it’s a lot of the same symptoms. They actively disengage. But you may not necessarily pick up on it right away. They’re physically present, but you aren’t even sure what they do. So you need to prepare for how that [organization] chart is going to look? What will be the titles, the departments? Are people going to maintain the same compensation? Will they have their vacation days? These sound like very basic questions, but the more you don’t have answers to basic questions, the more people worry and hold back to see what’s going to happen. Graff: Give me one more type of employee? Fondrevay: The dominatrix. That person who is laser focused on the objectives and getting the job done. They’re not there to make friends. They aren’t there to build consensus. That personality can be enormously seductive and very beneficial early on. When we talk about Elon Musk, that is absolutely his leadership style. He doesn’t hide how he leads. He’s said upfront. “I’m hardcore. If you can’t take it, then go.” But what can happen is you lose key talent because people say, “I can’t put up with this. This is not the kind of boss I wanna be with. My values don’t align with this person.” Who knows how this will play out. Question: When have you felt the most uncertainty in your work environment? To get in touch with Jennifer Fondrevay, you can go to her website, https://jenniferjfondrevay.com or contact her on LinkedIn.  

At Graff-Pinkert, I’ve sold a lot of machine tools to successful entrepreneurs, including my guest on today’s show, Roger Duffy, owner of F&F Machine Products. But, just a few people like him really have stood out for their outward ballsiness in business. Roger says he loves being an entrepreneur because it allows him to take risks, to dive into the unknown, whether that means trying entirely new equipment or even starting new types of manufacturing businesses of which he has no previous experience. Today’s episode is the first of a two part interview in which we will talk about how you can succeed in business when you’re not afraid to make chaos and clean it up afterward.   Interview Highlights Roger Duffy started his career as a welder in a fab shop but didn’t like the job. At age 19, he bought a house on a land contract and had to get it surveyed. The surveyors saw his interest and hired him as an apprentice land surveyor. He quickly learned the job and was soon running his own crew. After two years, the owner wanted to sell Roger the business, but at 22 years old the idea of owning a business was something his mind could not comprehend. Looking for a change, Roger got a job at F&F Machine, a Brown & Sharpe screw machine shop in Elkhart, Indiana. His first job was manually placing parts into a pan for a second operation, a brainless task that almost made him to quit. But as he worked, he learned to fix Brown & Sharpes by watching the company’s owner, Blake. Eventually Roger started working on the machines when the ones nearby his workspace broke down. Blake saw what Roger was doing and was shocked at his natural mechanical talent. Blake took on Roger as a protege, teaching him to set up and work on machines. Roger liked to stay late at the shop moving and organizing the chaotic factory layout even though his boss told him not to change it. He jokes it was easier to get forgiveness than permission. Within a year and a half, Roger was setting up jobs himself and making layouts. Blake sold Roger 10% of the company over five years and helped him pay for it with bonuses. Eventually Roger bought the whole business. Over the years, when customers had issues with parts, Roger would visit and then offer to quote new jobs, which kept bringing new business. The shop grew from 13 to 32 Brown & Sharpes with around 25 people. Roger still has many Brown and Sharpes in his shop today, most of them retrofitted with CNC ServoCams, a technology he loves but that never caught on. Over the years, his shop has diversified its equipment, running Tsugami Swiss, Haas 4-axis and 5-axis CNC Mills, wire EDMs and slant bed lathes. Roger says he likes taking risks. He wants challenges, to jump into the unknown with a plan to organize later. For instance, he bought his first CNC mill for a job which he only had a handshake agreement. The machine was an Amera-Seiki that he taught himself to run. Interestingly, Roger advises that it is important to focus on your core competencies when expanding. He says he tries to avoid drifting too far into areas like welding that don’t align with his current equipment.  I got the feeling that Roger has a constant inner debate. One side of his brain tells him focus on just a few core businesses that he already does well. The other side of his brain pushes an ongoing desire to try doing new types of businesses—to get out of his comfort zone. That is the side that often wins out. Tune in to the second half of the interview in two weeks, in which Roger discusses buying his 40,000-square-foot building and going into the patio furniture business. Question: What is one of the biggest risks your company has taken?

“I can’t hire a cam multi-spindle operator who knows what they’re doing! I’m throwing out my multi-spindles and going all CNC.” “These old Acmes, Wickmans, or New Britains pay for themselves every three months. They’ve left a wide open field for me!” Selling screw machines for our used machine tool business, Graff-Pinkert, we hear both stories every week. It is the story of change and fear. Today I will focus on the quandary and opportunity. Listen on your favorite podcast app using pod.link.         View the podcast our YouTube Channel. Follow us on Social and never miss an update! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swarfcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swarfcast/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/todays-machining-world Twitter: https://twitter.com/tmwswarfblog ************* Link to Graff-Pinkert’s Acquisitions and Sales promotion!   Cam screw machine operator is not the job kids aspire to do. The shop noise is brain-rattling. Headphones quiet the cacophony but shut out the cues that maximize output. Your clothes will stink of oil, your fingers will have the shop on them as you hug your loved ones. The money is chasing inflation, but trails a plumber or a school teacher with tenure. And it’s so “old school.” But metal components put the planes in the air, the cars on the street, and the ammo in the Howitzers. The exodus of industry to China has ended. It isn’t all coming back, but the massive folding up shop for the Far East is over for now. Trump’s and now Biden’s tariffs have also helped. The niche is there for the entrepreneurs who can figure out the business riddle of our day. Where are the people who want to work in our shops? Many have solved the problem in the simplest of ways. Throw out the antiques that nobody knows how to set up. Bring in CNC machines. The federal government will give us a fortune in depreciation money.  Best of all, we can find operators who enjoy pushing the buttons. Programmers are out there if you come up with the right money. Life will be simpler. What are we waiting for? We’ll epoxy the floors and have a party. In a nutshell, this is what we hear every day as we attempt to get past the electronic gatekeepers who pass for efficiency in offices.  Yet occasionally, we sidestep the soulless gatekeeper and talk to a person, usually somebody we know from the past, who tells us another side of the story. They still like cam multi-spindles. CNC machines are woefully slow compared to multi-spindles and Hydromats. The key to winning the game is making your company appealing enough that good operators will stay and others in the field will be attracted.  Training takes patience, effort, and money, but it is possible with apprenticeship programs. I even know a veteran in the screw machining business who talks to children as young as fifth graders to inform them of the benefits of producing metal parts. And, if you make an effort to crack the screw machine puzzle, the rewards can be huge. A customer told us the other day that their new twin turret, twin spindle, CNC lathe takes 12 seconds longer per part than the 6-spindle Wickman they used to use. Customers tell us their competitors buy $500,000 CNC lathes, and then they slaughter them using legacy Hydromats with robots to load and unload parts. But it takes the non-conformist and the stubborn entrepreneur to take this rocky road.  While big companies often send in the “smart young folk” who think they know it all. They are the “throw-it-outers.”  Neither path is “right.” There is plenty of money out there either way as automotive wakes up, oil and gas need hardware, and if Boeing and Lockheed can find the right managers. Our company will cater to both teams and sell the businesses of those who tire of the battle.  Opportunities abound. Go out and find them. Question: Which machines make the most money for your shop?

As the housing market has slowed recently in our current economy, alternative types of construction such as 3D printing with concrete have become more and more relevant. It brought me back to a classic podcast episode we did a while back. The technology has advanced since we recorded this episode in 2019, but still you will be wowed. ******** Our guest on today’s Swarfcast is Jonathan Ladouceur, head of engineering at Twente Additive Manufacturing, a company specializing in architectural 3D printing. We met Jonathan last week when his company bought an ABB IRB 6700 track mounted robot from Graff-Pinkert. Rather than 3D printing with plastic or metal, Twente 3D prints with concrete, creating huge structures. Jonathan told us that in the next few months Twente will be embarking on a project to produce the frame of a house in 40 hours of machine run time over a six week period. Scroll down to listen to the podcast. Main points from the interview: (3:35) Jonathan talks about the emergence of 3D printing with concrete. (5:20) Jonathan talks about the origins of 3D printing. He characterized the very first versions of 3D printing as “2.5D printing,”  as compared to the processes his company is currently using, printing with concrete. (9:45) Jonathan discusses Twente’s upcoming project to build a code compliant house frame using 3D printing in British Columbia, Canada. This would be the first of its kind in the country. (16:07) Jonathan discusses the way 3D printing houses may change the building industry. He says, “One of the biggest benefits to 3D printing is the complexity not costing extra.” (20:35) Jonathan discusses the material composition of the concrete Twente is using for 3D printing. The concrete’s composition and a precise control of temperature enables it to harden 30 seconds after it is released from the nozzle. (23:15) Jonathan talks about the design software, Rhino, with an add-on called Grass Hopper that does parametric design. The software also enables the user to map out where the nozzle needs to run. (27:30) Jonathan discusses his predictions for who will be using 3D printing to produce houses in the near future. He says that it will be important in areas where transport is difficult. The shipping costs to ship traditional building components to remote areas can be astronomical. To build a house with 3D printing all one would need to transport to the location is a robot and some chemical additives if materials can be sourced at a local quarry. Question: Have any of your clients switched a product from machining to 3D printing?

Happy New Year everybody! On today’s podcast, Lloyd Graff and I reflect on the ups and downs of machining world in 2023 and give our thoughts about what we might see 2024. As you would expect, we discuss a number of topics in addition to precision machining, such as the US’s unpredictable economy, anti-semitism, and my intention to bite off more than I think I can chew and then figure out how to it chew later. Listen on your favorite podcast app using pod.link, or:                                                                                                  View the podcast our YouTube Channel. Follow us on Social and never miss an update! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swarfcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swarfcast/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/todays-machining-world Twitter: https://twitter.com/tmwswarfblog ************* Link to Graff-Pinkert’s Acquisitions and Sales promotion! ************* Highlights Right before we recorded this podcast on Dec. 17, 2023, Lloyd and I prepared by listening to our end-of-year podcast for 2022. A year ago, we didn’t really go out on a limb with bold predictions for 2023. We talked about our successful strategies in 2021 and 2022 for Graff-Pinkert’s used machinery business and how we planned to continue the same game plan going into 2023. After all, why change what was making a lot of money for two years? So that’s what we did in 2023. We continued to stock more cheap, sexy/ugly cam screw machines to hopefully resell them to endusers who had the right talent and simple jobs to utilize them. We also bought more CNC Swiss Machines, which had been such a hot commodity in 2022. Finally, we continued our efforts to broker the sale of machining companies. How did our plans for 2022 turn out? Stocking cam screw machines and Swiss machines was a bad gamble for the most part in 2023. We made some deals with that equipment, but most of them had small margins. The used CNC Swiss business flattened out because the supply of new Swiss machines caught up with the backlog of the OEMs. Also, the firearms business tailed off which stopped many people from buying Swiss machines. The demand for older cam screw machines plummeted partly because of slowed homebuilding that had resulted from rising interest rates. We continued to get the excuse from customers that “if only they had operators to run cam multi-spindles, they would buy one.”  While we understand that the inability to find good workers is a legitimate issue, it’s an excuse that we are tired of. We ask ourselves why it is that some machining companies manage to have many people who want to run multi-spindles while others can’t find anyone? Why is it that some companies have workers who want to learn to operate several types or brands of machines, while other companies only have employees who are willing to run one specific model of machine? Why do some shops pay their employees significantly more money than others? Graff-Pinkert’s Best Machinery Deals in 2022 Graff-Pinkert found success selling modern CNC multi-spindles such as ZPS TMZ machines and INDEX MS machines. We sold them to automotive companies producing high precision value-added parts as well as companies who simply wanted to modernize their technology, whether or not they needed new CNC capability. Graff-Pinkert’s Growing M&A Business One prediction we made that I’m happy to say we got right was the growth of Graff-Pinkert’s M&A business. In 2023, we saw a lot of machining companies trying to gain new customers through acquisition. We brokered several deals in the precision machining sector and we collected many leads of future buyers and sellers. As you might have gathered from the title of this blog, 2023 was a rocky year for Graff-Pinkert’s used machinery  Our Overall Impressions of the Machining World of 2023 business. The first quarter was pretty good. The second and third quarters were painful. The fourth quarter salvaged the year when some good deals finally came through. Many customers ask us our impressions of the current climate of the machining world. Logically, the companies we pole give us a variety assessments about their businesses. For the most part, machining companies told us they did well in 2023, particularly the ones who were running a diverse group of parts and had solid workforces. Some companies told us they had record years, while others said they were off quite a bit. Also many people referred to their business as “steady.” They were making parts, but their business was not growing enough to justify big machinery purchases. Graff-Pinkert has some good momentum going into 2024, but that’s what we said in 2023. Right now we have some leads on some fancier CNC multi-spindles that could convert to some good deals. The old iron we have stored in our warehouse, hopefully will move soon, and some of the less desirable stuff will be scrapped. Our Goals for 2024 In 2024 my plan is to aggressively try new things both in the machinery business and the podcast. I’ve taken on a few new philosophies recently that I tell myself every morning. The first is to “bite off more than I think I can chew and then figure out how to chew later.” When I’m intrigued by a new idea that seems like a great opportunity I’m going to try to go for it, even if the game plan is a little fuzzy or maybe it just seems hard to pull off. The other philosophy both Lloyd and I have been saying lately is that “we don’t have problems, we have puzzles.” (I stole that from Quincy Jones). Most problems are solvable, so we should not let them scare us or keep us down. We’re taking a step back and considering different approaches, and we’re constantly looking out for serendipity. Our Gratitude Finally, we ended the podcast by saying how grateful we are for the blessings in our lives. We’re grateful for our close family, and we’re grateful for our prosperity. We’re also grateful we get to make a difference in the world by connecting people in the machining world through blogs and podcasts. One other thing Lloyd and I are grateful for is that we get to work with each other. We try to be constantly mindful that a father and son regularly working together well is a precious and rare thing that doesn’t come along very often.  Now that I’m a father (for almost two years), I have an extra appreciation for how cool that is. You never know, maybe one day it will happen for Abe and I. It think it would feel incredible. I’m excited today. Let’s all take a big bite in 2024, I think it will be a juicy year. Questions: What are your favorite memories of 2023? What surprised you in 2023?