The Manufacturing Executive

Dave Hataj, a veteran in manufacturing, discusses engaging the next generation. He emphasizes character development, mentorship in schools, and changing perceptions of the industry. His program Craftsman with Character focuses on skills and integrity, transforming lives and creating new talent pipelines.

Warehouse management systems. What exactly are they? What's different from the features in your ERP? Or your MES? Who truly needs a warehouse management system? When do you know you'll be ready for one? And how do you choose the right one for you? CEO of Fullstride, Casey Winans, is here to answer all of these questions and more.

In most companies, experts are hired to do a specific job. Engineering does engineering. Marketing does marketing. Sales does sales. And so on. But what happens when each of those departments does their respective jobs in silos, without a common mission, and in the absence of collaboration? In today's conversation, Jeffrey Abell (engineer) and Adam Beck (industrial marketer) of Cadenas PARTsolutions talk about how to bring together the engineering and marketing functions of a manufacturing organization to drive growth. Because when the silos come down, opportunities emerge.

If you were out at a nice dinner with your significant other and you had the choice to be served by whichever waitress or waiter usually services your table OR the owner of the restaurant, who would you choose? In today's conversation, CEO and President of Sentry Equipment Brian Baker talks about the benefits of an employee-ownership culture. As a 28-year leader of an employee-owned manufacturing organization, he's witnessed first hand what's different when those doing the work ALSO have skin in the game. And while employee-owned companies may represent a only a sliver of the manufacturing sector, the lessons he'll share from his experiences are universally applicable.

In this conversation, Vice President of Product Management and co-founder of Configit, Henrik Hulgaard, talks about moving from a custom-engineered to configuration-based product offering. Specifically, he unpacks the benefits both to the customer AND the manufacturer of making this shift.

Following a few decades of sending manufacturing across seas to drive down costs, big reshoring movements are in full force throughout the American manufacturing sector. But meanwhile in Germany, much of that manufacturing never left in the first place. Through strategies that have included embracing automation, localizing manufacturing operations and focusing on quality, German manufacturing has remained competitive throughout. So what can we learn from the German manufacturing model? Jon DeSouza, the CEO and President of HARTING Americas, a German-based global manufacturer, is here to unpack this topic.

We all know that we need to find ways to engage the next generation so we can build the manufacturing workforce of the future. And it's no secret to anyone listening that this next generation uses technology differently, interacts with people differently and collects information differently. But they also have different core values and care about different things. In today's conversation, Meaghan Ziemba of Mavens of Manufacturing, talks about how we need to put in the work to truly understand what's going on inside the minds of those who will become our future manufacturing workforce. We can't simply brush aside the nuances of how they think and feel. Because if we do, we're putting the futures of our businesses at risk.

For many B2B manufacturing organizations, what got them where they are today won’t get them where they want to go in the years ahead. In this concise solo episode, The Manufacturing Executive's host Joe Sullivan draws on over a decade of experience advising manufacturing leaders to share his own perspective about how the buying landscape has changed, and what actions need to be taken from a marketing perspective to remain competitive.

For years, product development has meant designing a few things, and then manufacturing them in the thousands or millions. But CEO of Nullpace, Dr. Masha Petrova, will tell you, we're quickly moving in a direction where we can design thousands of things and then manufacture just a few of them. She'll dive into the ways design engineering technology is enabling manufacturers to replace time and money spent buying parts, assembling, testing and measuring with digital simulations.

Quite a few manufacturing leaders that I talk to – whether through interviews on this show or in marketing consultations that I conduct – are leading second or third-generation family-owned businesses. They've built successful companies, but have struggled to let go of responsibilities, to delegate and to empower their people to play a role in shaping the company's future success. As lean manufacturing consultant Matthew Rassi will remind us, what got you here won't necessarily get you there. In this conversation, Matthew talks about the intersection of servant leadership and lean manufacturing practices, and how together, they can help you build a loyal, engaged and self-directed workforce.