Making Chips Podcast for Manufacturing Leaders

What do a freestyle motocross legend, a custom motorcycle painter, and a machine shop owner with 19 spindles have in common? A whole lot more than motorcycles. And at IMTS 2026, Kennametal brought all three together to prove it.

Recorded live from the MakingChips studio at IMTS, we sit down with Carey Hart, the motocross icon who made history with a backflip on a dirt bike; Taylor Schultz, a custom painter whose work turns motorcycles into rolling artwork; and Satya Kraus, founder of Kraus Motor Co.

Together, they built a custom Indian motorcycle right on the show floor, complete with precision-machined components made using Kennametal tooling. It's part manufacturing demonstration, part art project, and one seriously cool giveaway.

But the motorcycle is just the beginning. Satya shares how his obsession with building better bikes turned into a manufacturing business producing roughly 3,000 parts a week. Carey talks about finding his way from professional motocross into fabrication and custom bike building, while Taylor brings an artist's perspective to a world of CNC machines and automation. Their paths couldn't be more different, yet all three found their way into manufacturing because they loved creating something with their own hands.

That leads to a bigger conversation about what the industry might be missing when it comes to attracting young talent. What happens when we show people the creativity behind machining instead of just the machines? Can automation actually make manufacturing careers more rewarding? And what can shop owners learn from people who have turned their passions into thriving businesses?

From building a shop one spindle at a time to the importance of culture, collaboration, and keeping manufacturing in America, this conversation is a reminder that there's a lot more to making chips than making parts. Sometimes, it starts with wanting to build a really incredible motorcycle.

• (0:30) Live from IMTS 2026: Meet the builders behind Kennametal's custom Indian motorcycle
• (2:14) From custom bikes to CNC machining: How Satya Kraus built his manufacturing business
• (4:39) Carey Hart's journey from freestyle motocross to custom motorcycle building
• (6:31) Taylor Schultz's path from body shops and art school to custom painting
• (8:28) Learn how to build a next-level shop with DN Solutions
• (9:40) Machining real motorcycle components with Kennametal tooling
• (12:31) The challenge of keeping consumer product manufacturing in America
• (15:24) First impressions of IMTS and the artistry behind precision machining
• (18:00) Why you need to check out the Hennig WorkFlow Automation System
• (18:51) Attracting the next generation through creativity, hands-on work, and shop classes
• (25:51) From craftsman to business owner: Learning to build systems instead of just parts
• (28:15) Robotics, AI, and the growing value of handmade craftsmanship
• (31:32) How Navu can help you answer your buyer's questions
• (32:45) Growing from one Haas to 19 spindles: Lessons in patience, technology, and investment
• (37:21) Why people, culture, and collaboration matter as much as machines
• (39:15) Building businesses around passion and the people who share it
• (40:24) The finished Indian motorcycle and the Kennametal IMTS giveaway

• Kennametal
• Kennametal's IMTS 2026 Motorcycle Build
• Kraus Motor Co.
• Hart Luck Parts & Gear
• Schultz Designz
• Indian Motorcycle
• Tiger Manufacturing
• A.R.E. Manufacturing

• Satya Kraus's website: https://krausmotorco.com
• Satya's Instagram
• Carey Hart's Website: https://www.hartluck.com
• Instagram
• Taylor Schultz's website: https://www.schultzdesignz.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/schultzdesignz/

A new machine can open the door to different work, greater capacity, and your shop's next stage of growth. But buying it is only part of the equation. Who's going to run it? How many hours will it actually produce? And have you considered what automation could make possible?

Recorded at IMTS 2026, this episode brings Mark Christopher, Product Sales Manager for Automation at DN Solutions, into the conversation about making equipment investments that make sense.

We get into pallet systems, workholding, and the small details that can bring a lights-out plan to a dead stop. There's a story about an overnight run that went sideways, a shop that discovered how little it was using its automation, and a surprisingly tough sell: convincing experienced machinists that slowing down might help them produce more.

We also explore buying machines with future automation in mind, where AI could take machine tools next, and what becomes possible when skilled people have better tools. Mark wraps up with his journey from a $9-an-hour tech-school graduate to applications engineering and automation leadership—including the job interview he nearly talked himself out of.

Whether you need a capability you don't have or more production from the equipment you already own, the goal is the same: make the investment match the need—and have a plan to put it to work.

• (0:00) Live from IMTS 2026 with Mark Christopher of DN Solutions
• (1:47) The new PS7 100, a seven pallet system priced under a hundred grand
• (4:13) Why drones took over the conversation at this year's show
• (5:36) Drones machined, printed, and assembled on the IMTS floor
• (7:31) Bigger horizontal pallets, five axis growth, and what customers are actually buying
• (8:57) Prismatic fixtures, more clamping stations, and the morning harvest
• (10:35) How do you know you're ready to automate?
• (11:47) Increase your spindle uptime without adding headcount with Hennig Workflow
• (12:38) The robot cell, the forgotten chip hopper, and a floor covered in chips
• (15:09) OEE without the jargon, and why performance is the most overhyped number
• (20:51) Take your shop to the next level with DN Solutions
• (22:02) Inside the machine giveaway and what's actually in the package
• (24:16) Last year's winner is already on his third machine
• (25:30) Buy it automation ready, because ten grand now beats a hundred grand later
• (27:33) Nobody should be a doorman, pay people to run three or four machines
• (29:30) Gabe from Factur on the go to market steps most shops skip
• (35:38) Nothing is better than the relationships built at IMTS
• (38:01) Dissecting the future of AI in manufacturing
• (44:50) Give buyers real answers on your website with Navu
• (46:02) Mark's path from tech school and a nine dollar an hour job to automation sales

• Hennig Workflow
• Factur
• Navu
• Kennametal
• IMTS

• DN Solutions
• Connect on LinkedIn

• Website
• On Facebook
• On LinkedIn
• On Instagram
• On Twitter
• On YouTube

We spent this year asking young shop owners how they found machining, and one name came up in almost every single conversation. Titan Gilroy. What better way to close out our Generation CNC and workforce development series than a conversation with the man himself?

Most of the conversation lands on the part owners would rather not hear. If your shop is dirty, your walls are beige, and your bathroom is an afterthought, you're telling every visitor and every employee exactly what your standards are. Titan makes the case that precision isn't something you save for the part. It shows up in the crevices nobody sees, in how your team dresses and speaks, and yes, in the bathroom.

He's also blunt about where the talent problem actually sits. People drive past your building every day with no idea a CNC machine exists, let alone that it pays six figures without a degree. Whether they ever find out is a question of what the industry puts in front of them, and what your shop looks like when they finally walk in.

We also dig into what actually moves people. The briefcase of parts that beats a resume, why your best performers are the ones studying machining on a Saturday, how an apprenticeship program can pull your culture out of a hole, and the apprenticeship guide book Titans of CNC is releasing at Boombastic.

The through line is uncomfortable and useful. The next generation is out there, and whether they rise is mostly on the owner.

• (0:00) Why nearly every Generation CNC guest named Titan Gilroy
• (1:54) From homelessness and prison to finding purpose in manufacturing
• (4:17) 3,600 registered schools and more than 800,000 current students
• (5:32) Increase spindle uptime without adding headcount with Hennig Workflow
• (6:29) How does Titan think we can overcome the awareness gap?
• (8:32) The shops that struggle have no vision, no imagination, and no pride
• (10:36) You need to live greatness in everything that you do (yes, even bathrooms)
• (14:05) Bring a briefcase of parts to the interview—not a resume
• (16:45) Take your shop to the next level with DN Solutions
• (17:55) An obsession for perfection, and the crowd it attracts
• (20:40) How the curriculum is evolving toward lights out machining
• (22:53) Out automate anyone, then take the machining to the highest level
• (24:13) We need to continuously upskill our teams to fill the gaps we're seeing
• (26:23) How to promote a culture of continuous improvement
• (28:20) The apprenticeship guide book launching at Boombastic
• (33:48) Why Mike's best guys have never had to ask for a raise
• (37:47) Invest in your own business first with ProShop ERP
• (39:26) How to inspire greatness in the next generation
• (41:57) Cutting the two negative voices and watching the culture rise
• (45:25) What Boombastic looks like November 11 through 13

• Titans of CNC
• Hennig Workflow
• DN Solutions
• ProShop ERP

• Titans of CNC
• Connect on LinkedIn

• Website
• On Facebook
• On LinkedIn
• On Instagram
• On Twitter
• On YouTube

For every five people aging out of the skilled trades, only two are stepping in behind them. Manufacturers have spent years talking about that gap. Danville, Virginia, decided to build its way out of it.

In this episode, Jason Wells takes us inside the Accelerated Training in Defense Manufacturing program, where students with little or no industrial experience are prepared for careers in machining, welding, additive manufacturing, quality, and other critical trades—in just 16 weeks.

But this isn't a condensed version of a traditional classroom program. Students train eight hours a day across the same three shifts they may encounter in industry. They clock in, follow travelers, complete shift handoffs, practice 5S, and learn the habits shops expect before they ever reach the floor. They're taught G and M code instead of relying solely on conversational controls, while communication, documentation, and problem-solving are treated as seriously as technical ability.

Alan Pearce of Fasttech explains why this talent pipeline convinced him to build his company in Danville—and what happened after he began hiring its graduates. People who entered with no manufacturing background have become top-performing employees, shift supervisors, and, in some cases, are earning up to $50 an hour on shift.

This isn't just a conversation about filling open positions. It's a look at what workforce development could become when educators, manufacturers, and government stop working in separate silos—and build the talent pipeline together.

• (0:00) Jason's tour of ATDM: Accelerated Training in Defense Manufacturing
• (2:16) How Danville rebuilt itself after tobacco, textiles, and furniture collapsed
• (4:51) A Navy funded prototype program heading into its sixth year
• (6:20) Alan Pearce on why FastTech located in Danville for the talent pool
• (10:35) Grow your top and bottom line with CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA)
• (11:45) Inside FastTech: wire arc and laser printing, then machining a finished part
• (15:24) The Navy's Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence
• (17:48) Reaching an underemployed labor pool with students from 47 states
• (19:53) Why they still teach G and M code instead of conversational programming
• (21:46) Soft skills, clock in and clock out, 5S, and shift handoffs built into the experience
• (24:42) Get buyers real answers on your website with Navu
• (25:54) The Institute as a convener of government, academia, and industry
• (27:27) Graduates who became top scoring employees inside two years
• (31:31) A graduation cycle every eight weeks instead of a semester calendar
• (32:13) Retention through new technology and challenge, not just pay
• (34:46) Why Alan turned down a veteran production manager
• (36:14) The seven habits of highly effective workholding from SMW Autoblok
• (36:58) Three shifts, aluminum Lego blocks, and 600 hours of training in 16 weeks
• (40:58) Hybrid print and machine units now sitting on ships
• (42:05) Split into the Sailors and Marines training and the valve body / twelve-parts-to-one
• (47:28) Housing students locally and the after-hours cohort learning
• (49:33) The down-select: aptitude testing, prerequisites, background check
• (54:25) Word of mouth as their best recruiter
• (59:10) What Alan tells shop owners about ATDM

• Build Submarines
• CLA
• Navu
• SMW Autoblok

• Connect with Jason on LinkedIn
• Connect with Alan on LinkedIn
• ATDM
• Institute for Advanced Learning and Research
• Fastech

• www.MakingChips.com
• On Facebook
• On LinkedIn
• On Instagram
• On Twitter
• On YouTube

Kennametal isn't showing up to IMTS with another wall of cutting tools. They're building a working custom motorcycle shop in the middle of the West Building—and they plan to cut chips, build a bike, and give that bike away before the show ends.

Kim Wilson, Global Director of Marketing Communications, and Matt Jacques, Global Brand and Creative Services Manager at Kennametal, join us for a look behind the curtain at what it takes to build an IMTS experience this ambitious. The concept started taking shape during IMTS 2024 and grew through collaborations with custom motorcycle builder Carey Hart, machinist Satya Krause, artist Taylor Schultz, and several Kennametal customers.

Inside the Next Level Shop, those customers will machine real components using Kennametal tooling—including parts destined for a customized Indian Sport Chief. Attendees can watch live demonstrations, bring application challenges directly to the Kennametal team, explore its digital machining capabilities, and enter to win the completed motorcycle.

But this episode isn't only about building an unforgettable booth. It's about replacing the traditional trade-show pitch with real conversations. Kim and Matt explain how Kennametal is training its team to begin with a manufacturer's challenges—not a product catalog—and help customers uncover opportunities around productivity, tool life, applications, and digital machining.

Visit Kennametal in Booth #431800 in the West Building, Level 3, to experience the Next Level Shop, see live machining demonstrations, and enter to win the custom Indian Sport Chief.

• (0:00) Nick's fifth baby is due the Tuesday of IMTS, and his attendance is still up for debate
• (2:26) Kim Wilson and Matt Jacques on their roles (and the IMTS that doubled as Matt's first day)
• (5:43) Metal Mania in 2024 and why Kennametal had to come back looking different
• (7:20) How the Next Level Shop theme morphed into a full custom motorcycle build
• (9:08) Taylor Schultz, Satya Krause, and Carey Hart putting their hands on the booth concept
• (10:34) From giving away a machine in 2024 to giving away a bike built in the booth
• (13:15) Win a fully tooled SVM 4100 from MakingChips, DN Solutions, and Kennametal
• (14:02) A 100 by 60 booth, project sheets, and leaning hard on the EWI relationship
• (16:49) An in house design team taking over all the creative for the first time
• (17:47) Why so many IMTS booths run the same branding show after show
• (19:23) Racks of tooling versus something a shop owner can stand and watch
• (20:19) The 2024 lesson: cutting chips at a show takes about a year of prep
• (21:19) Elevate, powered by AMT and Women in Manufacturing, during IMTS 2026
• (22:12) Customer demos from Spire Motorsports, Purdue students, and Tim Drinkwater
• (23:26) Partnership in practice: tooling up the mini tombstones in the Hennig booth
• (26:04) Two huge giveaways happening on Friday the 18th
• (28:45) A Monday announcement and a first to market additive technology launch
• (29:44) Find Kennametal tooling at 14 different booths in the South Hall
• (30:20) First timer advice: comfortable shoes, hydration, and map the show before you go
• (33:04) Who trains the booth team and how the floor gets divided up between them
• (35:35) Ask questions and be human, because nobody wants to be pitched at
• (37:42) Take your shop to the next level with DN Solutions
• (38:54) ProShop's booth staffed with 40 customer ambassadors
• (41:48) Does a booth theme actually stick with a shop owner two years later?
• (44:32) What they're most excited about, and what's keeping them up at night

• Kennametal
• MakingChips Machine Giveaway
• IMTS
• Elevate at IMTS 2026
• DN Solutions
• ProShop ERP
• Superfeet

• Connect with Kim on LinkedIn
• Connect with Matt on LinkedIn
• Kennametal
• Kennametal at IMTS 2026: Booth 431800, West Hall, Level 3

• www.MakingChips.com
• On Facebook
• On LinkedIn
• On Instagram
• On Twitter
• On YouTube

Most machine shops start thinking seriously about workforce development when they already need someone. A machinist quits, capacity jumps, the backlog grows, and suddenly finding skilled people becomes an emergency.

MSP Manufacturing has taken a very different approach. Johnny Goode joins Paul and Brooke to explain how MSP has spent years building relationships with high schools, apprenticeship programs, students, parents, and the broader manufacturing community. Now, as the company experiences more than 50% revenue growth, that investment is starting to pay off.

We dig into ROI Uplands, a regional program connecting high school students with real employers, and what it actually looks like to bring 16- and 17-year-olds into a working machine shop. Can apprentices contribute meaningfully in an environment where quality, safety, and precision matter? How much training does it take? And what happens to your culture when young people become a regular part of the team?

We also get into the bigger problem facing manufacturing: many students and their parents still have no idea what these careers actually look like. Johnny, Paul, and Brooke talk about the earning potential hiding inside modern manufacturing, why exposure needs to start long before graduation, and what shops can do to help create the next generation of machinists instead of waiting for someone else to do it.

• (0:00) Why these apprentices hold themselves to a higher standard than anyone sets for them
• (2:17) Reintroducing Johnny Goode and getting a snapshot of MSP Manufacturing
• (4:11) 30 employees, six apprentices, and 50% revenue growth without adding bodies
• (5:30) How ROI Uplands links nine counties of Indiana high schools to local employers
• (7:51) Take your shop to the next level with DN Solutions
• (9:05) Eagle Manufacturing and the student-run businesses taking real jobs from industry
• (10:35) Interview day, the draft, and the state reimbursing half of apprentice wages
• (11:55) A three-to-two tuition deal that sends students into the workforce with zero debt
• (13:04) Brooke on steamfitting, welding, and the year of college she'd take back
• (14:47) 500 applicants, 100 placements, and why Indiana is ahead of the curve
• (16:14) What happens to culture when apprentices are the children of your employees
• (17:57) Win a fully tooled SVM 4100 from MakingChips, DN Solutions, and Kennametal
• (18:44) Why people apply to MSP when there are no job postings anywhere
• (20:38) What MSP does to support their community
• (21:40) The Band-Aid analogy: keep patching the wound or repair it
• (23:42) What a day actually looks like for an apprentice on the floor
• (26:09) What success looks like: Hiring for culture fit over subject matter expertise
• (29:10) Why students are choosing manufacturing internships
• (31:05) Countering the stigma that the trades are the fallback option
• (33:42) The $180,000 setup programmer nobody talks about
• (36:00) Reality-based AI for the factory floor at the IMTS Industrial AI Conference
• (35:19) AI as a force multiplier, not a people replacer
• (37:26) Why schools turn down free software, and what ProShop does instead
• (42:12) Advisory boards, wait lists, and the tech school near Tulsa with no students
• (45:33) Reaching third graders before anyone tells them what a machinist is
• (50:07) What gives Johnny the most hope for the next generation

• ROI Uplands
• Eagle Manufacturing (Brown County High School)
• ProShop ERP
• DN Solutions
• Kennametal
• Conexus Indiana
• MakingChips Machine Giveaway
• IMTS
• IMTS Industrial AI Conference
• Titans of CNC

• Johnny Goode on LinkedIn
• MSP Manufacturing

• www.MakingChips.com
• On Facebook
• On LinkedIn
• On Instagram
• On Twitter
• On YouTube

A lot has changed since the last time we pulled up chairs around the Boring Bar. For our fourth edition, eight manufacturing leaders joined us in the MakingChips studio ahead of the IMTS pre-party to talk about where the industry is headed and, after a couple pours, where they think it should be headed.

AI takes over the conversation early. How fast is it really moving into manufacturing? What happens when it can quote jobs, write code, capture tribal knowledge, or help program a part? Where does the human still matter? And are we actually prepared for the power, infrastructure, workforce, and even educational questions that come with all of it?

Then we turn the question back on ourselves.

If you were starting a machine shop in 2026, knowing everything we know now, would you build it the same way? What would you invest in first? What kind of equipment would you buy? How would you think about automation, people, capacity, specialization, cash flow, and the growing list of incentives available to manufacturers?

Along the way, we get into what's driving demand right now, why data centers suddenly matter to machine shops, what manufacturers should be watching at IMTS, and whether the next generation of shops will look anything like the ones we grew up around.

As usual at the Boring Bar, there are strong opinions, questionable jokes, bourbon, gin, and a few detours we definitely didn't plan.

Pull up a chair.

• (0:00) The fourth edition of the Boring Bar, back in the MakingChips studio + introductions
• (5:43) IMTS 2026 registration is running ahead of 2018, the largest show on record
• (6:36) The IMTS pre-party, the rally car, and what the night is really for
• (7:44) What's changed for everyone since the last Boring Bar
• (9:27) Data centers: Are they the engine behind this year's growth?
• (12:43) The 37 minute AI prompt that produced a consultant grade report
• (13:30) Hallucinations, beach reads that did not exist, and why you verify
• (18:39) Training on AI, where it's going, and why everyone needs to embrace it
• (25:33) The stage zero most shops skip: Security, then application
• (26:48) How quoting has been compressed from days to minutes
• (28:19) The IMTS Industrial AI Conference and the Industrial AI Arena
• (29:28) The IMTS Job Shops Workshop and the AI for the job shop session
• (30:36) ProShop goes AI first, plus native machine monitoring, AI quoting, and Chip
• (33:21) Programming a part with AI after 30 years away from it
• (37:00) Capturing tribal knowledge so each job teaches the next
• (42:21) The machine tool giveaway with DN Solutions + Kennametal
• (42:38) The big question: how would you start a machine shop today
• (47:49) Invest in infrastructure first (digital and physical)
• (55:25) What will be your guiding metrics? Availability, performance, and quality
• (57:34) Run the shop lights out yourself, then replicate yourself with each hire
• (1:04:05) Three business skills for a new shop: cash, capacity, and credits
• (1:06:15) $3,500 per apprentice, plus the tax tools that arrived in July of 2025
• (1:09:20) The Lights Out guest with a fab shop, a water plant, and a coal mine
• (1:15:32) The comp sci grad who chose trade school over a job AI could take
• (1:22:12) Generation CNC: teenagers buying their first machines
• (1:23:34) Math as a barrier, and why we should not exclude kids
• (1:26:48) The importance of Oscar Mike and Manufacturing Pathways
• (1:28:45) Machine giveaway: DN Solutions, Kennametal, SMW Autblok, and Martin Trunnion Tables

• IMTS 2026
• IMTS Industrial AI Conference
• IMTS Student Summit
• DN Solutions
• Kennametal
• ProShop ERP
• SMW Autoblok
• Hennig
• CLA
• AMT
• The $3,500 Apprenticeship Incentive
• Oscar Mike Foundation
• Manufacturing Pathways Consortium

• Connect with Larry on LinkedIn
• Connect with Bonnie and MC
• Connect with Jennifer
• Connect with Mike

• www.MakingChips.com
• On Facebook
• On LinkedIn
• On Instagram
• On Twitter
• On YouTube

Website traffic is falling across the board, and it's tempting to read that as a marketing problem. It usually isn't. AI summaries now answer the generic top of funnel questions people used to click into your site to answer, so the casual browsers never arrive. The visitors who do show up are the ones already deciding whether you're a fit.

That changes what a manufacturing website is for. A list of machines, materials, and certifications was fine when buyers were willing to dig. Now they want a specific answer to a specific question, and if your site makes them hunt for it, they'll go back to Google or ChatGPT and get an answer from a source you don't control.

We talk with John Greeley of Navu about what shops should actually do about it, and a lot of it isn't what you'd expect. Old content that used to sit harmlessly on your site is now working against you, because LLMs read your whole site at once and stop citing you when they find pages that disagree with each other. Less content with more depth beats the old habit of publishing a page for every possible search term.

The other half of this is labor. The questions landing in your info inbox are usually answered somewhere on your site already, and they're pulling SMEs and owners off the work that actually moves the business. John walks through a real buyer journey where the ninth question was a technical spec buried on page 193 of a PDF, and the tenth was how to talk to sales. Nobody on that team spent a minute on it until the lead was qualified.

Brooke also joins us in the host seat for the first time and gives the Gen Z read on all of it, which mostly comes down to letting people find what they need before anyone tries to sell them something.

• (0:00) Brooke steps into the host seat, and John introduces Navu
• (6:38) Take your shop to the next level with DN Solutions
• (7:50) What a single line of JavaScript can tell you about visitor behavior
• (10:35) About 37% of users who eventually convert used the chat along the way
• (11:42) Why traffic is down but conversions aren't
• (13:26) How LLMs read your entire site at once and punish conflicting answers
• (16:17) Less content, more depth, and a ruthless pruning habit
• (17:35) Your site's unanswered questions as a canary in the coal mine
• (20:14) What buyers actually asked Mike when Hill rebuilt its site
• (22:15) Why the old pop up chatbots earned their bad reputation
• (24:42) More than 60% of buyers now start their research in a chat interface
• (26:16) Turning AI buzzwords into outcomes at the IMTS Industrial AI Conference
• (27:04) Labor savings is how most customers justify the spend internally
• (28:50) The landing page listings and a conversation about instant gratification
• (32:12) Quote response time as the number one factor in winning or losing work
• (35:13) The real user journey and the questions that you see
• (38:30) Brooke on why her generation would rather research than call
• (42:27) Salespeople querying the site mid call instead of chasing down an SME
• (44:31) Kennametal's Next Level Shop at IMTS 2026
• (45:34) Get started and build a custom demo at navu.co/makingchips

• DN Solutions
• IMTS Industrial AI Conference, Wednesday September 16, South Building
• Check out the Kennametal booth at IMTS 2026, the Next Level Shop, booth 431800 in the West Building, level 3

• Email John Greeley: [email protected]
• Navu

• MakingChips.com
• On Facebook
• On LinkedIn
• On Instagram
• On Twitter
• On YouTube

Six jobs waiting on a first article means six spindles sitting still. That is the math Mike lives with at Hill, running around 58 jobs a day where nearly every one needs an internal or external first article before parts can ship. When inspection becomes the constraint, good parts pile up behind paperwork, and paperwork does not make chips.

This week we sat down with Mehul Shah, co-founder of Ground Control, a company building what he calls mission critical software for highly regulated manufacturing. His thesis is simple. Aerospace, defense, medical, and semiconductor shops are drowning in Excel and pen-and-paper workflows, not because the people are behind the times, but because software was never really built for the shop floor or for the weight of ITAR, DFARS, and CMMC.

Ground Control started with one hairy, everyday problem: first article inspection reports. We get into how their software reads decades-old, hand-drawn prints that trip up ordinary OCR, balloons the drawing, fills out the AS9102, and pushes clean data straight into ProShop with a single click. It is the kind of automation that turns a shop's worst bottleneck into a task almost anyone on the team can run.

We also talk about why now is the moment for this, from reshoring and record defense budgets to the labor math that says we cannot hire our way through the coming surge. Mehul shares how a 15-person team just earned FedRAMP certification, why AI lets them do the work of a company twice their size, and what their new contract review product does to catch a buyer's price change buried in a six-figure PO before it becomes a costly mistake.

If your inspectors are your constraint and your smartest people are stuck on manual data entry, this one is for you.

• (1:02) Meet Mehul Shah, co-founder of Ground Control: Why Mehul chose manufacturing
• (5:20) Why manufacturing runs on Excel, and the real reason software never fit the shop floor
• (6:04) ITAR, DFARS, CMMC, CUI, and the infrastructure tax on regulated software
• (9:07) Mission critical software and the three tests Ground Control uses to pick a workflow
• (10:43) Invest in yourself first with ProShop ERP
• (12:19) Finding the wedge, and why first article inspection was the obvious first product
• (13:49) How first article really works at Hill, and why it becomes the daily bottleneck
• (15:53) Why the FAI is critical, process verification before you can ship and collect
• (16:35) Why now, defense budgets, the SpaceX IPO, the space race, and reshoring
• (18:29) LLMs let manufacturers build in-house, and when it still makes sense to buy
• (19:30) Build on standards and a solid data heartbeat, then augment with AI
• (21:07) A rocket ship, 200-plus customers in two years, including five public companies
• (22:18) Growing into demand and the hard part of turning down the wrong work
• (23:39) The seven habits of highly effective work holding with SMW Autoblok
• (24:22) Avoiding the solution looking for a problem, and how the idea took shape
• (25:53) Building GroundControl from the ground up and becoming compliant
• (28:07) The importance of trade shows and building in-person relationships
• (31:55) The story behind the name Ground Control (and a nod to Major Tom)
• (35:20) Turn AI buzzwords into outcomes at the IMTS Industrial AI Conference
• (36:06) Developing out the GroundControl software and finding their MVP
• (39:32) The ProShop integration: One click from ballooning to master process control
• (42:39) AI will not replace you, but the person using AI might
• (46:30) Introducing contract review and catching PO errors
• (49:37) The visitor check-in system (ITAR sign-in without the 20-year-old paper pad)
• (52:16) What Mehul is most excited about, FedRAMP, and the road to IMTS

• Ground Control
• ProShop ERP
• SMW Autoblok
• IMTS Industrial AI Conference

• Connect with Mehul on LinkedIn
• GroundControl

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Most shops treat lean like a poster on the break room wall. Andrew Henry runs it like a competitive weapon. He built Henry Holsters into a company that ships around 55,000 orders a year, most of them the same day they come in, without stacks of work in process piling up on every bench.

We caught up with Andrew at the Summit on the Summit, and the conversation kept circling back to one idea: The waste hiding in your shop usually is not the machine, but everything happening around the machine. He walks us through the custom vacuum former he eventually scrapped for parts, the moment "Two Second Lean" flipped a switch in his head, and the shift to one-piece flow that changed how his team works.

We also dig into how he is putting AI to work right now, not someday. Re-pricing a newly acquired customer's parts in an afternoon instead of weeks. Scanning thousands of lines of inventory to surface dead stock and ERP errors. Using it as a sparring partner to keep high-stakes customer emails firm but professional. And yes, spending an afternoon fighting with a coding tool just to understand what it can actually do.

There is a bigger theme running underneath all of it. Ten years after a lot of us met at our first IMTS, the shops that keep showing up, keep learning, and keep trying things are the ones still standing. The ones who decided they were too busy to leave the shop are a different story.

If you have ever told yourself you do not have time for a morning meeting, a trade show, or an afternoon with a new tool, this episode is a friendly shove in the other direction.

• (1:26) Meet Andrew Henry of Henry Holsters, a lean guru and Workflow automation fan
• (2:40) Why Andrew bought a Matsuura MX-420 PC10 and what sold him on Hennig's Workflow
• (3:46) Ten years since our first IMTS: who grew, who is gone, and why
• (5:25) The pace of change, when 5-axis, automation, and AI all hit at once
• (8:06) A gondola conversation on why he cannot afford to skip summits and trade shows
• (9:53) IMTS Industrial AI Conference: reality-based AI for the factory floor
• (10:40) "I do not have time…"and why that thinking is backwards
• (12:47) Using AI to re-price a newly acquired customer's parts in an afternoon
• (16:31) Turning AI loose on inventory data to find dead stock and ERP errors
• (18:22) Making people show their work with AI as a required thinking partner
• (20:25) AI as a diplomat for high-stakes, antagonistic customer emails
• (24:08) Take your shop to the next level with DN Solutions
• (25:20) Andrew Henry's accidental path to a CNC shop
• (27:37) Buying a Matsuura for injection mold work and foundational problems to tackle
• (29:26) The dream of closed-loop, self-correcting machining
• (33:03) People should not wait on machines, the chaku-chaku principle
• (33:55) Twin Table Brother cells, vacuum fixtures, and the case against batching
• (38:58) Find manufacturing leaders who actually fit with Hire MFG Leaders
• (39:27) Make-to-stock, make-to-order, and any color as long as it is black
• (40:20) What FastCap taught us and going all in on one-piece flow
• (44:23) Ownership and pride when one person makes the whole part
• (45:47) Triag Swiss Modular and machinists who own their machines
• (46:48) Why you cannot get everyone bought in (and why it's okay)
• (48:25) How the morning meeting really works, the cobra effect, and why bad incentives break your culture
• (52:41) The eight wastes, and why seeing the problem beats memorizing the acronym
• (54:05) "I can't" versus "how could we," closing the gap without hearing no
• (55:53) Andrew's Lean Built Podcast and the LinkedIn AI slop problem

• Henry Holsters
• Lean Built Podcast
• IMTS Industrial AI Conference
• DN Solutions
• Hire MFG Leaders
• Book: Two Second Lean
• Triag Swiss Modular

• Henry Holsters
• Connect on LinkedIn

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