Lean Built: Manufacturing Freedom

Jay and Andrew kick things off with a spirited disagreement over Jay’s decision to take a palm sander to his 1977 Fender Precision Bass. From there, the conversation turns to Andrew’s latest adventures cutting 4140 steel on the Matsuura, Jay’s big announcement about his new Haas UMC 500 with a 27-pallet pool, and the importance of choosing equipment that actually makes sense for your business.

They then dig into gross profit margins, knowing when to discontinue a product, why some of the most valuable things a company does can’t be measured on a spreadsheet, the surprising power of customer experience, the difference between a beautiful shop and a truly lean one, and why even your lean processes need to be lean.

What do flying tiny homes, CNC machines, electric guitars, and the Tesla Roadster have in common? More than you might think.

In this episode, Jay and Andrew cover a lot of ground, beginning with the challenges of moving a 19,000-pound tiny home over a house with a massive crane. That experience sparks a conversation about professionalism, customer service, and why manufacturers should pay more attention to the customer experience.

From there, the discussion turns to shop improvements, machine rigging, the advantages of anchoring CNC machines, and the difficult decisions involved in buying, selling, and upgrading equipment. Andrew shares his experiments with bandsaw blades, while Jay reflects on saying goodbye to a machine that helped build his business.

Things get especially nerdy as the conversation moves into the physics of vibration and resonance. Drawing connections between machining, musical instruments, baseball bats, and even the infamous Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse, Jay and Andrew explore how seemingly minor changes can dramatically affect performance.

This week, Jay and Andrew talk about finding the right balance between speed, efficiency, and quality in the machine shop. After catching up on Jay’s experiment with working remotely during a family vacation, the conversation turns to used tool holders, the hidden costs of excessive tool changes, and some unforgettable machine crashes.

They share stories of broken pull studs, destroyed spindles, and a terrifying incident involving a 45-pound piece of aluminum spinning on a ShearHog. Along the way, they explore why running machines too conservatively can be just as problematic as pushing them too hard, and how machinists can systematically find the sweet spot between performance and reliability.

Jay and Andrew talk through the shop decisions that look wrong on paper but make sense once you consider the whole system. That means knowing when excess inventory is costing you more than it is worth, why cheap equipment can sometimes be exactly the right equipment, and when spending money now saves far more expensive time later.

They also dig into 3D printing, toolholding, material choices, and the hidden value of simply trying something instead of deciding in advance that it will not work.

Check out all the awesome videos on the Pierson Workholding YouTube Channel and Pierson Plus, and be sure to comment that Lean Built sent ya!

What happens when your business grows to the point where you no longer know everything happening inside it?

Jay and Andrew talk about the strange transition from doing everything yourself to building a team that can make good decisions without you. They get into delegation, giving employees room to improve processes, knowing when production needs to take priority, and why good employees eventually need to move from waiting for instructions to simply proceeding unless told otherwise.

They also discuss the tradeoff between time and cash, why hiring competent people can accelerate a company, how to think about employee reviews and frequent feedback, and why business owners should deliberately hire people who know more than they do.

Plus, there is plenty of shop talk along the way, including coolant changes, lessons from IMTS, and an upcoming Matsuura reinstall.

Jay and Andrew are back from IMTS 2026 with sore feet, too much espresso, and a lot to think about.

They compare notes on what actually stood out at the show, from higher-density workholding and spindle-gripper automation to pallet pools, CMMs, in-process probing, and the surprising lack of AI hype on the machining floor. But the bigger question is what any of it is actually worth to a working shop.

When does automation create real capacity, and when are you buying an expensive solution because it looks like what a modern shop is supposed to have? Jay wrestles with the ROI on a quarter-million-dollar pallet system, while Andrew makes the case for simpler automation that keeps machines running while people do something else. They also dig into inspection, why quality should happen as close to the process as possible, and when the machine you already own may be the best inspection tool available.

Along the way, they talk IMTS survival strategies, trade show networking, bandsaw blades, the changing generation of machinists, why manufacturing knowledge is becoming less guarded, and what younger shops can learn from the last decade of other people’s expensive mistakes.

Andrew and Jay are getting ready for IMTS and talking through what they actually want to find when they get there. The conversation starts with high-density workholding and the tradeoffs between flexibility, access, and optimization, then moves into 3D printing, shop organization, prototyping, and the difference between looking organized and actually improving flow.

They also talk automation and AI in manufacturing. Where should automation make decisions for you, and where should it simply give a skilled operator better information? Andrew and Jay consider what aviation safety can teach manufacturers about systems, human judgment, and failing safely, then look ahead to how AI might help machines recognize problems nobody explicitly programmed them to expect.

Plus, Andrew introduces his kids to Fusion, Jay automates more of his shop shutdown process, and the guys make time for the important questions, including hot sauce, fresh salsa, and whether sushi gets progressively more dangerous the farther you travel from the Pacific Ocean.

AI is starting to change the shop in ways that go far beyond ChatGPT.

Andrew and Jay compare notes on the AI tools they are actually using, from automating invoices and administrative work to the possibility of simply describing a part and having AI build a 3D-printable model. They talk about where Autodesk Fusion’s AI tools are today, why learning CAD may look very different in a few years, and why good systems still matter when software keeps changing.

Then it’s back to machines. Andrew is officially lathe-free, which leaves some valuable open floor space and raises the obvious question of what, if anything, should replace it. That leads into CMMs, five-axis machining, the ongoing Matsuura saga, and the constant tension between speed, quality, consistency, and automation. Remember, there is no point in making bad parts faster.

Plus, IMTS is almost here. Andrew and Jay look back at the Instamachinist class of 2016, talk about what they are hoping to see at the show, and reveal how to get your hands on one of Andrew’s limited IMTS shirts.

Andrew recently sold an underutilized CNC lathe, which raises a bigger question: when an investment does not work out as planned, was the money wasted? How do you gauge what value you got out of it, even in learning?

Andrew and Jay discuss knowing when to experiment, when to hire expertise instead of learning everything yourself, and why good business owners need to understand what they should and should not personally master.

Then the conversation turns to KPIs, benchmarking, revenue per employee, and the danger of comparing your company against businesses operating under completely different constraints. They also dig into the levers a business owner can actually control, why discounts may simply pull future sales into the present, and the relative value of Pierson's traditional IMTS sale.

What happens when the systems meant to make your shop more efficient start creating more complexity? Can automation be dangerous? When a system works reliably, how do you keep human checks from becoming mindless? When should something live on a checklist, and when should it simply be automated? And what happens when you keep stacking new solutions on top of problems that have already been solved?

Jay and Andrew cover all this plus Matsuura leveling issues, Brother’s U500 100-tool five-axis machine, pallet automation, mist filtration, shop air conditioning, and the constant challenge of improving a manufacturing operation without exhausting the people who work in it.